good morning staff thank you very much  for joining us in the chambers instead   of the boardroom this will now be a change for  Workshop so that uh it is much more convenient   for everyone um to do it here rather  than in the boardroom so I will call   this meeting to order and and I would like to  please ask everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you all Madame clerk can you  please call the first item approve the minutes of   the regular meeting dated October 15 2024 excuse  me excuse me mayor you may want to acknowledge   that council member Tuttle is participating  remotely thank you city manager Bob council   member Becky Tuttle is joining us virtually today  and we acknowledge her Presence at this meeting   thank you I'm I'm sorry I can't be there I'm  at the National Aviation the national business   AV Aviation association with staff and other  Community Partners representing the city thank   you very much for representing us council member  Tuttle Madame clerk can you please call the first item approve the minutes of the regular meeting  October 15 2024 are there any changes or corrections I see none I move to approve the  minutes of the regular meeting of October   15th 2024 second motion and a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the role motion passes can we ask council member  tutle yay sorry thought I was off mute motion   passes 70 Madame clerk please call the  next item consent agenda items 1 through 14 are there any items to be pulled council member  Johnson thanks mayor I like to pull item number 11 are there any other items to be pulled I will pull items number 4B 7 and 13 mayor i' like to pull item number 14 please thank you was it 4 B7 4B 7 14 11 13 and 14 I motion to approve the consent agenda  without 4B 7 13 sorry 11 13 and 14 second   Motion in a second any further discussion  I see none Madame clerk please open the rooll council thank you very much motion passes 70   we'll start with 4B in numerical  order this is the delayo pathway good morning Gary Jansen Public Works director  yes uh first question is regarding the delayo   pathway can you please talk about how much is  the total uh amount for this project and how is   it being funded and when will construction end  for this project uh sure mayor council members   total project cost is around $2.8 million as  funded by General obligation bonds from the   CIP construction is substantially complete  at this time we're installing a pedestrian   signal at senut that's expected to be installed  hopefully by the end of the month there some   Landscaping is currently on hold uh as a result  of the drought some of the public art component   uh as part of the project is expected to be  installed by mid November uh so maybe except   for some of the Landscaping portions we would  expect everything to be complete by the end of   November and this is also the pathway that will  have a dog park can you explain uh the changes in   this work order so uh within this change order  itself The Mink uh change is the natural grass   area within the dog park will be converted to  artificial turf uh due to some drainage issues   we're also changing the burm height would be be  reduced for ease of future uh care and maintenance   this is the only Dog Park area on this project  do you foresee any further change orders for   this project not at this time I think with where  we're at on on construction I you never know what   happens on projects but right now I don't think  we'd expect any additional costs council member Johnson thank you very much Gary that's all I had   for for item number 4B the next one is  item number seven this is child care licensing Gary again yes ma'am uh can you talk  about this change uh how this complies with kdhe   and what type of um I guess staff coordination  this requires for this to now become a change   in our or our own ordinance uh this item is  for straightforward to align with a change   that kdhe made um as far as licensing of child  care providers so we're moving everything into   one category we currently have uh two categories  including licensed daycare Home Group licensed   daycare home all of that is moving into uh what is  now called a family child care home classification   which will align with and match what kdhe has so I  think it'll probably clean things up what it does   too is it allows um all Prov ERS then that they  could go up to including 12 U from what they had   as 10 as far as their license capacity so uh what  this does and part of the item today is is an $1 a   year increase for approximately 246 uh facilities  that had previously been the licensed daycare home   so uh the fees for all of these will be the same  as what had been the group license daycare again   I know that starts to create a little bit of  confusion all rolled into family childcare home   classification I don't think from a a staffing  perspective necessarily that this changes a lot   for us um because we're still following the same  guidelines through kdh working closely with them   so I do have staff here if you've got any other  questions that that they can help answer just   wanted to make sure that the uh providers who are  currently the licensed um daycare homes will be   notified of the $1 increase correct they will be  vice mayor Ballard thank you mayor I just wanted   to say um council member Tuttle if you can hear  me um I appreciate um all of her work on this and   Gary for yours as well along with um staff um I  had no idea before I was on Council how big of a   deal um and lack of child uh care we have within  the city and so I appreciate um all the work that   you guys have all done on this I appreciate that  too uh I would tell you Adrien lad and her staff   do a tremendous job with this I just stand up here  and say what they tell me to say so thank you for that and thank you vice mayor  thank you Gary item number 11   thanks mayor due to a personal conflict  of interest I'll be abstaining from this item item number 13 regarding housing vouchers good morning mayor city council good morning  Sally um my questions really are about this family   self-sufficiency program um these are positions  that currently exist but need to reapply can you   explain that process and what this program does  sure the family self-sufficiency program is a   program within the Housing section 8 housing  Choice voucher program and since 1992 HUD has   had this family self-sufficiency program as an  option for participants um who want uh to have   a case worker assist with Workforce Development  education uh financial literacy all in the effort   to try and improve people's Financial condition  and make them self-sufficient uh up until 2022   we had to apply annually for the funding from  HUD for those coordinator positions the funding   can only be used to pay their salaries benefits  and training um but and starting in in 2022 it   is a biannual application so this is just the  request to continue the funding so we can keep   those three coordinators working with the program  Sally this program is voluntary um can you talk   about some of the success rates sure um it is  voluntary uh the program uh requires interested   participants to sign a five-year contract um and  work indiv ually to determine their individual   goals and while uh under that contract if there's  increases in their earned income they can actually   earn escrow uh because of that earned in income  the we've had uh we currently have 93 households   that are participating HUD says we cannot um  Force any household to participate so it is   entirely voluntary we have to run the program  though in order to be considered for additional   voucher allocations in the future and um we've  had a total of 360 households graduate from   the program and 69 of them becoming homeowners  because of it and currently how many folks are   in housing Choice Voucher Program sure we have  3,100 the number off the top of my head 3,44 I   believe is the number currently and over 99,900  on the waiting list for the program do you know   from that 3,144 households how many are part  of this program 93 currently 93 of the 3,144 yes and this is simply to uh reapply for the three  individuals who are part of that program correct   they are the case workers who work day in with  the clients participating I just wanted to let   you highlight this really great program I know  that this is voluntary for the 93 individuals   um as part of the 3,000 who get this voucher um  and I just wanted to say that I really appreciate   this program um what it says in our handout  uh really um motivated me to pull this item   so that you could share the good work um it says  to help increase earned income enhance financial   literacy reduce or eliminate the need for public  assistance and move toward economic independence   and self-sufficiency so I just want to uh  really say thank you to the three coordinators   and I will very gladly uh support this item  so that you can get further funding thank you thank you Sally item number 14 good morning mayor and Council assistant  director Jean zman Jesse Roma is also at NBAA   okay I I have a question I did I did email Jesse  uh he did respond um the concern I have is it rate   escalation is not at at inflation rate it's only  1 and half% actually slightly below 1 and a half%   a year for for 10 years he did point out that the  uh rate there was a market analysis done by Martin   company indicate the rate for this would building  would be 950 a square foot we're starting out at   1073 a square foot so kind of above that that's  why the reason for the Lesser rate increase less   percentage increase um which is fine then you you  have basically you have a 27% increase over over   10 years um which is slightly less than 3% but  with the time value of money you're probably right   there um I would like to request that staff if you  could please if something like this comes up that   is less than rate of inflation for increases on  rent if you could please give us a documentation   a justification for that in this case it would be  the appraisal from the Martins company I want to   make one clarification the appraisal from the  Martins company was done on a facility at 1935   Midfield Road and so that was a single tenant  facility and they gave us a range based on the   length of the lease um with the escalation in  one and a half since this particular facility   is actually three Suites separated by chain link  as opposed to individual facilities that's why we   felt like it it married with the recommendation  from that so that's the same building you started   out at 950 a square foot no the the appraisal  done by Martins was on 1935 Midfield which is   a different facility than this facility this  is part of the multi-use uh cargo building   where several of the cargo tenants operate out of  the same building and then this particular Suite   is shared among the tenants in that Suite just  separated by chain link okay is a similar building   or not no really no never was an appraisal done  on this building no or any any opinion or anything   no I think it'd be wise to get that good okay  especially when we're seeing 1 half% increase   rate increases a year 10 years right and and  like I said we we felt that the market for this   probably doesn't go with the rest of the market  just because it is that it's like having a shared   room with others where you don't have your own  walls or anything so we felt like that justified   having a little lower escalation since we were  able to establish a rate higher than the other   other facilities in that building is a triple  net lease I'm sorry is it a triple net lease um   because it's a multi-tenant building the landlord  does have responsibility for structural roof hva   that type of thing electricity uh no they would  pay their own electricity how do you pay your   own electricity with a chain link between the  walls um that Suite has its own meter and then   the square footage in each of the chain link areas  is allocated based on square foot okay okay okay   all right but thank you I would I would appreciate  understand more information do that than what we   got there because it just didn't make sense yeah  so okay thank you you're welcome I will I I will   know airport leases are a little more complex  because we have FAA requirements regarding   Equity or uh among tenants and uh and our lease  rates have to be consistent with schedules that   are adopted so much easier for of our other  real estate transactions but it gets a little   more complex when we start looking at other  tenants at the airport and what we're charging   and that's small tenants as well as uh textr Ron  and others that are out there so but we'll we'll   provide more information okay thank you thank you  we will um I will move to approve consent agenda   item 4B second motion and a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the RO yay motion passes 70 I move to approve  consent agenda item number seven second   motion and a second any further discussion I  see none Madame clerk please open the rooll yay motion passes 70 I move to approve  consent agenda item number 11 second   motion and a second any further discussion  I see none Madame clerk please open the rooll yay motion passes 60 with one exstension  I move to approved consent agenda item number 13 second motion and second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please   open the rooll yay motion passes 70  I move to approve consent agenda item   number 14 second motion and a second any  further discussion I see none Madame clerk   please open the rooll Y motion passes 70  Madame clerk please call the next item Board of bids and contracts dated October 21st 2024 I wasn't sure if I was in the right  order for a second good morning Josh laber   Department of Finance the board of bids  and contracts convened October 21st for   the following items we have for engineering the  downtown streets two-way conversion pavement   markings and signage for traffic control  services incorporated in the amount of 1,483 subject to approval of a new engineers's  estimate and budget authorization we have the   water distribution system sanitary  sewer to serve cranor addition for   mola excavation Incorporated for  an aggregate bid total of 1,485 $164 we have the storm water  sewer project number 801 one CIP   storm water sewer repair for instaform  Technologies USA LLC in the amount of 71,7 we have the storm water sewer number 786   project storm water sewer repair for  Apex Excavating LLC in the amount of 9,855 and for purchasing we have the valves  angle ball valves and brass curb ball valves   for the tap of Kansas Incorporated for  an estimated annual usage of $90,100 for   a contract term of one year with two oneyear  options we have the roof replacement for the   sludge dryer facility at plant 2 for farha Roofing  LLC in the amount of 95,5 78 we have the furnish   and install of new furniture for Westlink  library for contract Furnishing rents LLC   DBA pure workplace solutions for an aggregate bid  total of $412,400 we have two remote surveillance   trailers for our uh realtime information center  for WPD for vision detection systems for 77,4 666 we have the employee learning management  system software renewal for our human   resources for skill soft LLC DBA skill soft for an  aggregate three-year total of $67,500 and we have   transcription Services recommending awarding the  city clerk's office the ability to use existing   vendor contract 242 0022 with our witw Police  Department this is how to become a vendor with the   city these are open public opportunities out on  the street today and I'd be happy to try to answer   your questions and I recommend your approval I  have one question on slide 8 you had the roofing   yeah are there certain there there's not very  many roofers that bid on that are there certain   requirements that roofing companies have to meet  to be able to bid or yeah that's a great question   um councilman Johnston um it really depends on  each project uh departments will provide us the   specifications on this one specifically um I don't  know of anything uniquely um but I can get you the   information of who was notified um we actually  have our vendor registration who can complete   the goods and services that we solicit and we'll  notify them and based upon that it's just hard   telling what what the market will do okay thank  you I was just surprised there are so many roofing   companies that why wouldn't more of them bid on  it so I think part of it is a policy discussion or   strategic discussion we know um Within purchasing  that it can be difficult for vendors to go through   a procurement process sometimes they may not want  to engage in a formal procurement process versus   informal I think there's different considerations  but I do I appreciate your question it's a great   question okay thank you Josh I have a follow-up  question to just your very topic um the very last   slide shows all the open bids uh that the city  currently has um I know you guys moved to a new   system how has that worked out so far thank you  fantastic um we're actually at the very end stages   of migration to our new bonfire system um we're  really excited about it because it offers more um   edbe opportunities for small Contra subcontractors  um it facilitates opportunities to allow a small   subcontractor for example um contract manager at  risk chy Dam repairs if if a subcontractor did   a very specific finite piece and they said said I  can do concrete and I'm a registered dbe they can   actually put on the bonfire public procurement  portal um I am a dbe registered uh that can do   concrete and anyone in the public that is viewing  that opportunity can see those and engage with   those independently of the city so really excited  about that um the bonfire network is actually   larger um because if you have other agencies like  Kansas City Missouri um I think trying to remember   Kansas City Missouri and the top of my head uses  bonfire anyone who registers within the city's   bonfire portal is also um given the opportunity  to use uh procurement opportunities from other   agencies so it's kind of a compounding effect  of amplifying that opportunity um we are seeing   larger amounts of interest and larger amounts of  vendors being notified through the bonfire system   we're really excited about but overall our staff  are are just very um grateful for the support and   the ability to use this software now and it's  much more easier for our vendors to interact   with our systems thank you for that Outreach I  know that I was um approached by some U minority   business owners and small uh business owners  that were interested in bidding but they didn't   really understand the process um so can you just  again one more time I think it's the slide right   before uh remind people how they can become sure  great question so anytime um I have to put it out   that if anyone wants to meet or if anyone wants  to learn our systems please contact us um at   our phone number and email um we're happy to sit  down we have a gentleman who oversees our small   business program our edbe program um and he's  routinely meeting with vendors um I think one   of our assistant city managers saw him at a coffee  shop with a vendor he is proactively outreaching   and having those conversations with vendors if  you're interested in doing business with this city   go to our website wi.gov purchasing um you'll see  our homepage and you'll see our procurement portal   embedded in that where you can submit and uh view  opportunities with the city um we just recently   upgraded our website to have what's called an RSS  feed so if you go to wi.gov purchasing you'll see   at the bottom embedded from our portal without  having to click all these public opportunities   that we're really excited about so we're  trying to be efficient and effective in how   we're demonstrating that marketing opportunity um  but again please contact the purchasing Division   if you want help if you want someone to sit down  with you if it's something where we just explain   how to do business we're more than happy to  do that thank you very much Josh I see no   further questions so I will move to approve  the board of bids and contracts for October   21st 2024 second motion and a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the role yay motion passes 70 Madame clerk please  call the next item petitions for public improvements good morning mayor City Council  Members Paul gunsman Public Works and utilities   for the record I have a few revised petitions  for your consideration this morning the the   signatures on the petitions represent 100% of  the improvement district and the petitions are   valid per Kansas statute Brookfield South  Edition located in District 2 on October   11th 2022 the city council approved water  Improvement required for a new residential   development the developer has submitted  revised petitions with revised budgets   to reflect current market conditions and to  cover the cost of the private bid and I had   a typo on this slide both of these should be  water improvements one for phase six and one   for phase seven Brookfield addition located in  District 2 on October 6th 2020 the city council   approved water and Paving improvements required  for a new residential development the developer   has submitted revised petitions and revised  budgets to reflect current market conditions   and Pineway addition located in District 5  on June 4th 2024 the city council approved   sewer improvements required for a new  residential development the developer   has submitted a revised petition with a revised  budget to reflect the current market conditions and with that it is recommended that city council  approve the revised petitions and budgets adopt   the amending resolutions and authorize the  necessary signatures and I will stand for   questions thank you Paul first question comes  from vice mayor Ballard thank you mayor um Paul   could you go back one slide oh two y this one  um I don't think I've noticed that the adjusted   budget so much before or do you do you know why  I had that same question and I had reached out um   the uh I mean I'm okay with it that's just right  no it is a lot um the uh agent for the developer   as well as the developer had increased uh had  elected to increase the petition because they   thought dewatering um in order to install the  sanitary sewer was uh going to cost much more   than they originally thought so that's why they  increased the petition amount okay thank you   council member hoisel thank you mayor  um just checking Paul these are all   paid with specials right yes okay just Che thank you I see no further questions  for staff thank you Paul I will   move to approve the petitions for  public Improvement second motion   and a second any further discussion I  see none Madame clerk please open the role yeah a motion passes 70  Madame clerk please call the next item approval to exceed the gift limit  established by the ethics ordinance for   mayor woo to accept travel and expenses  to attend the Rodell Fellowship seminar in   Santa Monica November 21st through 24th for the  purpose of representing the city the fellowship   is hosted by the nonprofit Rodell Institute  for the purpose of Education collaboration   and professional development the estimated  gift amount for travel hotel and meals is $3,249 I will add uh that there will be no  taxpayer dollars spent on this uh this was   an honor uh to be selected to be part of the  class of 2025 Rodell fellows again uh this   is a sponsored event by a nonprofit that is  a nonpartisan and Center for leadership and   intellectual growth Rodell helps America's most  promising leaders reach their full potential as   public servants deepen their commitment  to democracy and the rule of law and work   together to address some of our nation's  most important domestic and international   challenges and again I am honored to represent  Witchita and Kansas through the Rodell Fellowship make a motion to approve uh mayor's  L's travel as presented second motion   and a second any further discussion I  see none Madame clerk please open the role yay motion passes 60 with  one abstention Madame clerk   please call the next item council  member appointments and comments   are there any appointments by council members  I have one I would like to appoint Floyd Ray   Bess also known as Bubba to the police  and fire Retirement Board he's a retired fireman second okay Motion in a second any further   discussion I see none Madam  clerk please open the role yay motion passes 70 council member comments council member Johnson thanks mayor  um I would like to have a council discussion   about moving workshops to the chambers uh  historically we've done that in the boardroom   and many in the public feel it's less formal  and a little more inviting than coming into   the formal Chambers uh for a workshop and while  I respect one person's view I think that's more   of a council decision during covid we chose as a  council to move workshops to the chambers because   it was safer but it was a council decision it  wasn't just one of us or city staff so I'd be   I'd love to have that conversation as a body I'm  in favor of keeping workshops in the uh boardroom personally council member Glascock I support the  move moving Council workshops of the chamber I   feel being in here elevates the work that we  do to the public I feel that we take the work   more seriously when it's this room opposed to  the boardroom um I also believe that uh from   the voting perspective it's more transparent  to the public to have it on a screen I think   the presentations are more comprehensive and I  just feel there's a weight and gravitas of being   in this room opposed to something else especially  when we talk about cinogen items and if we believe   that Consin items carry the full weight of any  other items in the agenda and we pull them off   I believe voting in this room matters more um  also has more space for individuals if people   want to join but I'm supportive and I also believe  that the mayor is um she runs the meetings I think   it's her directive of how the meetings are run  as well and so I'm supportive of it being in the chambers I'm easy I can go either way I'll just chime in I think I would like to have  more of a discussion if that's possible I mean   I think there's pros and cons of either way I  appreciate the comments from all of the council   members council member Johnson and council member  Glascock but um I I do think that it warrants a   discussion and input from the body thank you  we can continue discussing it right here from   the bench council member hoisel thank you mayor  um council member Johnson could you elaborate a   little a little more on the decisions to bring  it into the boardroom what was the thinking of   council at that time into the chambers at from Co  because we were in The Boardroom prior to that the   um workshop's always been in the boardroom that I  know of even back in like the early 201s whatever   when I used to come to meetings it was always  in the boardroom um it was also pretty cool   being a member of the public because you were much  closer to the city council they were all sitting   in front of you can sit in those chairs and you  really felt more engaged with the conversation   rather than Council meetings being out there in  the chambers now during covid because we had to   have those barriers up and we wanted to make  sure we were not only being good examples to   the public but also being safe we were in here  because we had those dividers and we chose to   come in here and we didn't have every member up  here we had two members down there as well um   for safety but right after Co we all wanted  to get back to the boardroom because of um   workshops were just different it's still formal  but not as suit and tie formal it's not as uh I   guess formal was being in the chambers and the  workshop is always Council discussion anyway and   even these items that we're going to talk about  today we receive updates from staff we talk about   direction we may want to give staff and again  public just felt closer in that sense so for me um   I appreciate that tradition I think there's a lot  of benefit to being in the boardroom as as opposed   to the chambers there's a difference between our  meetings and our workshops we're not voting during   a workshop um the consent meeting right before  that uh historically had only been like 5 to 10   minutes so workshops in there made sense um I'm  consent meetings now are a little bit longer but   I still think that the workshop is better off  in the boardroom but again personal preference   appreciate that uh Bob um have have they always  been in the board board room since you've been here okay yeah um sitting in the boardroom  people have a easier sight on my bald spot   back here so that's one drawback of the  boardroom anyways thank you guys as I'll   try to summarize a bit of what I'm hearing  um I've been going around uh this community   trying to be much more transparent and inviting  to people to come to Council meetings and one um   consideration is people don't really know um  when Council meetings were so we made Council   Workshops the exact same time as Council  meetings on the first second and third uh   Tuesdays of the month so that was one change  that happened this year so now you know that   every Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. there's either either  a regular council meeting or a workshop meeting   in addition the second point is we do vote we  vote on a consent agenda not only on the consent   agenda but a board of bids we also uh talk about  um the improvements so we do vote um so there is a   formality to it and it is back to transparency uh  community members should know that we do vote on   these matters and we now are much more intentional  about pulling items so that Community knows that   we're not just uh voting on one packet of consent  agenda items but each one has its own weight and   as you saw today um there were multiple items  that were pulled um that would not have gotten   that attention uh had we not pulled it uh  so in summary from my perspective is this is   also taking into consideration staff and I've had  conversations with staff asking um is this easier   um and much more conducive to communicating with  the rest of the public uh in this forum or in the   boardroom and I was told um from Communications  that this was easier um and again back to being   conducive to helping uh communicate better uh  so I made that change yesterday asking staff um   but I will gladly continue this conversation um  as you know because we have a open meetings act   we have open conversations in these forums so that  everyone can understand um our thought process and   so I will gladly continue this conversation vice  mayor Ballard thank you mayor I think just out   of consideration for the other council members  it would have been nice if we just had a heads   up maybe in some of our weekly meetings that  this is something that um was of interest to   you just so we didn't get an email saying what  the change was prior to us having any type of Engagement council member Johnson thanks mayor um  I think two points i' I've known for a while from   Co that it is easier for comms to run the meeting  on here because it is the chambers it's set up all   the cameras are up there the boardroom has it as  well and the difference is that there just has to   be an additional setup by the building crew um  aside from that I don't think this room is more   transparent than the boardroom because we still  talk about what's in the packet transparency is   the same the difference is there's just those two  screens instead of the one um and then the vote   total comes up on the consent meeting but each of  us have pulled consent items from the boardroom   we've discussed them staff has presented on those  uh and if you watch the Youtube feed people still   get to see who's speaking they still get to hear  the questions and information so I don't think   this uh hurts nor improves transparency um but  I do believe the boardroom is more welcoming to   people um who want to hear our discussion and  can sit closer to us um and engage with us in   that way this is Becky and I just want to chime  in I'm sorry again for being remote and it's   probably a little echoey but um council member  Johnson I was making some notes and you took a   lot of my thoughts so I don't know how you can  get my notes even when I'm in Vegas but I do not   think that formality or transpar transparency is  compromised in the boardroom and I've actually had   community members say they appreciate it being in  the boardroom um as a community member I presented   one time on workshop and I would have been not as  comfortable in Chambers as I was in the boardroom   so I I appreciate the discussion I'd like the  opportunity for more discussion thank you council   member Glock thank you I'm glad we're having  more discussion From the Bench about this as   well I pulled up the duties of the mayor as well  section 20430 duties of the officers of the mayor   and Council um it says that the mayor um Authority  is restricted to that of a council member except   while serving as the chairman of the council  meetings but the mayor should have the ability   to make this decision though I am am supportive  of it regardless and in in addition I would like   to see workshops consent agenda items have um  opportunity for public comment there are very few   opportunities that we all meet as a body and that  the public can address us all seven at one time   and I believe that we should add to the workshop  and consent agenda items on the fourth Tuesday   of every month an opportunity for the public to  speak in public comment like we do at every other council member Johnson thanks mayor um I'll pull  that ordinance up but I believe the mayor is only   the chair of the meeting during an official  meeting and this decision was made outside of   an official meeting I also would uh I disagree  with having public comment during the workshop   the workshop is often for Council to discuss uh  an item that is coming before us where we would   like to see it go and when it comes to public  interaction it is the workshop that we tend to   say let's go out for more public comment and asked  staff to uh work on setting up presentations at   the various District advisory boards or call for  public meetings in that space uh at the workshop   I think that should continue to be Council  discussion amongst us uh and our team and   then also to go back out to the public we can give  that direction there sometimes we receive things   in workshops that are not um completely done  fully thought out ideas directions and then staff   will go do a lot of work to get some of those  thoughts complete and then those will go out for   presentation to the public I think that process  should continue as it has been council member   Glascock thank you mayor thank you councilman  Johnson I should have probably clarified public   comment at the beginning as we do with the 25  minutes not about specific agenda items but   public comments at the beginning as we do with any  other meeting um I had three board appointments   reach out to me about this meeting in particular  I wanted to come speak about Animal Control issues   because that's been in the news and because this  meeting doesn't have the ability for public Comon   to say something from the start we don't have a  meeting on the fth Tuesday the next time that they   can speak before this body is November 5th and I  feel that is a long period for the public not to   address this body given the opportunity that we  are all still meeting here I don't think adding   30 minutes at the addition to hear public comment  is overburdensome for this body in particular I   think our past two meetings we've had zero public  comment or maybe one uh person that had signed up   in advance people had me prior so I was talking  about prior not about agenda or Workshop items   council member Johnson thanks mayor I don't have  a problem with that I do think that ultimately   would be another Council vote though to add public  agenda to the workshop meeting I'm not opposed to   that I mean I would agree that that would require  an ordinance change to the order of business because it's an ordinance change can we  do it from public uh from council member   comment items right now or does this need to  come before uh November 5th it would need to   be directed to pursue and draft a change as  you um direct um could be brought back at a   council meeting discussion on new business  council member Glascock thank you mayor um   I actually don't see the individuals that  had reached out to me in this meeting um   though I thought they were going to attend  however because we can change the agenda as   presented because we haven't adjourn could  I make the motion that we open up to public   comment before we adjourn to see if there's  anybody public that wants to address the B am I allowed to do that procedurally  well it's not provided for by ordinance   um it's your meeting and you can um  make make that decision um I don't   believe it's prohibited so I make the  motion to add to the agenda a period of   public comment not to exceed 30 minutes as  a reflection of what we do normally during meetings we have a motion can we do that  motion and a second I'll second it uh but   there's discussion now council member Johnson my  comments are not the motion vice mayor Ballard   so is this just for today or just for today and  then we can vote on an ordinance later yeah sure   okay great we have a motion and a second uh any  further discussion I see none I'm sorry could   council member Dalton council member Glascock I'm  I'm sorry could you please repeat the motion I'm   also good with councilman Dalton that's fine  uh the motion is to add a period of public   comment to today's agenda not to exceed the 30  minutes as we typically do on normal meeting days Motion in a second any further discussion  I see none Madame clerk please open the role yay motion passes 70 before we close out  council member comment and begin a public comment   are there any further items from the council  council member Johnson thanks mayor I just wanted   to read something that was posted online about  the move this person says it's weird to see the   workshop in the chambers this is separate business  than General Council meetings also they said this   feels Weir weirdly authoritarian the boardroom  makes it an equal playing ground and allows the   public to see local government in action council  member Glascock thank you mayor I'm very glad for   this discussion I think we should do more of this  from the body so I'm thankful for that um just to   counter I think th those arguments are we pulled  consent agendum items off today and so that is the   work of this body and so if we have the intention  to continue to hear consent agenda items at   Workshop then we should have uh the opportunity to  engage from this bench because it's the official   work body if not let's just do a workshop and vote  on consent agenda items and postpone that would be   my my change if we have a workshop let's have  a workshop separately but let's not add a cons   items because that should be and is the work of  this body in official government capacity From   the Bench council member Johnson thanks mayor  um that's difficult because sometimes there   are things that require action uh on that  week and that was kind of what the consent   agenda piece was for um going forward because  we're just having discussion and I don't know   procedurally what that would look like I think  because there's disagreement on where we are I   would love to see a future item for the council  to vote where to go whether it's in the chambers   or in the boardroom then we can be on the record  and the majority of the council can say either   way I'm in favor of that um I will direct staff  to create a new business item for the November   5th meeting so that we can vote on whether  to have workshops in the chamber or in the boardroom I think it's just a Direction St is  that right so I see no further discussion I   will add one uh item that is not um related to  this I just want uh for the record um Public   Works director Gary Jansen sent me an email um a  followup to a question I asked last week regarding   air quality and any opportunity that I have to  highlight what staff has uh sent to us I will   um because again that is back to transparency  we ask questions and staff does respond and so I   want it to be on record uh the question was asked  regarding um a violation to the air quality uh and   what type of penalties the city could face if uh  we violated that and uh in this response uh which   came from the senior environmental specialist  for the city of Witchita um it says um a few   years ago a very loose estimation of the cost  of nonattainment was done according to Dawn this   estimation showed about a cost of $10 million per  year over the 20 to 30e period in accordance with   the plan the EPA would put on us to get back  into attainment more recently Oklahoma City   has done an estimation of what this would cost  their region since the okas Oklahoma City metro   is facing non-attainment quote a recent study  shows that a violation of federal air quality   standards and ensuing Federal regulatory  requirements could cost the Oklahoma City   Shaunie combined statistical area as much as 9.6  million to 15.2 billion over a 20 to 30e period   so again this was a response to a question we as  a body asked if we did not reach attainment and   again this was a consent agenda item from  last week and I appreciate that staff uh   responded and provided that feedback any further  comments from Council Members I see none I will   now uh ask for public comment uh would anyone  from the public like to address the council good morning Twilight Purity I live in District  One Polo Club I've attended both City Council   meetings and workshops um the vibe in the  boardroom is a little less formal you guys   seem to chat more or it's a little lighter but  as an attend the I'll tell you the boardroom   can be crowded um the chairs aren't comfortable  at all I attended um there was a workshop and I   think you were talking about pickle ball it was  quite crowded and you were when you're backs to   everybody you C you couldn't see the enthusiasm  for people in the audience so there's something   I think to be said you guys are very um you're  observant and you see facial comments or facial   expressions and can interpret those so you're  missing that and I I don't agree when somebody   says that to see local government in action  it's better in the boardroom because we just   see the backs of your heads we don't see your  Expressions it just doesn't feel welcoming or   engaging I understand that this is the exception  I'm not able to um usually comment at workshops   but you you just can't see what's going on or  what people are thinking so I I just wanted to   share that as somebody who attends both the other  thing too like in here and I don't know because   it's a workshop but we're not able to see the  votes um today and usually you know we can see   that you know the time well I can understand I  guess why there's no timer I won't take advantage   because there's not a timer but as somebody  who attends both I just want to let you know thanks anyone else from the  public who would like to comment uh Matthew brck uh I just am happy  that you guys uh found this opportunity to   have public comment uh for today I'm here with  the Arts Council uh I came to support uh public   art and uh I saw that there was some notes in  the minutes about the last 10 years of public   art funding and I saw on the list just so many  incredibly cool so incredibly fun just the kind   of things that enrich our community uh things  that are vital for the future of our community   to continue to keep young folks coming here  and wanting to work and live here um I hope   that you guys uh get all of the information  that you need from today's uh world shop with   the public art overview I I'll point out that um  I noticed on the consent agenda the item for uh   Lily's funding for the trip to California I think  it's great that uh she'll have the opportunity to   go there um I just I guess would have liked to  seen more digging into that item as far as like   well where did this gift come from and how did  she get these funds and all of those types of   things I I think as we're talking transparency  and we're going to make an exception to a gift   thing um I think some of the citizens might  want to know like where did this gift come   from if it was just the Institute and they give  it to all of the public people that they invite   I think that would have been great but otherwise  I love the fact that you're going to allow public   comment if you do continue to allow public  comment in uh these meetings because I think   Dal made a great point that there could be an  event that's important that you might not then   get those for three weeks and uh it's a great  to have the opportunity to speak to this body   and support the things that we're passionate  about and for me that's the Arts thanks for your time would anyone else from  the public like to address the council I just want to piggyback on what twiler  said I can I can hear way better in here than I   can in there I like the intimacy of the room  but the sound is much better in here and I'm   a little challenged in that department so as I  hear you all excuse me I hear all of you really   well in here sometimes the speaker is too far  away from the and I it's a I also like seeing   the head shakes and the eye rolls and stuff like  that so it adds to the meeting so anyway thank you anyone else from the public would  like to address the council I see none   I appreciate the three individuals who  spoke before us um it looks like there   is some favor for um the public comment piece  so I don't know if it's a direction for staff   also I think there needs to be a motion  to direct staff to prepare an ordinance   to change as you wish and if you'd like  mayor we can roll that in with the discuss   question that you've already directed us to  bring back I would like that do I have any F in favor I see a motion by council member glas do we  need the motion or probably would be safe give us   Direction so we'd bring something back so I make  the motion and I guess this this would be the   question for Jennifer too so when we meet today  it's still a regular council meeting and until we   break for Workshop correct well yes and no there  is a special um ordinance that talks about the   order business for Workshop meeting so okay so  I would uh motion that in the special Workshop   ordinance we add public comment uh to the  beginning to reflect what we do during regular   business meetings second motion and a second any  further discussion yeah this is cember tutle um   I I just we're we're if I'm understanding this  right we are adding one or two more ordinances   to the city is that correct my motion is a  to amend the current ordinance not add a new ordinance okay I just wanted to clarify correct  thank you Jennifer did I say everything that   needed to in that motion yes you did I mean I it's  to direct staff to bring back the ordinance and   and I think the record also reflects the  intent to bring to have staff bring back   a change to the location I would also like to  amend that motion um I think you just saw this   is the first time ever the council member agenda  shows greater transparency regarding travel by   council members and mayor and I want that to  also be reflected in an ordinance or reflected   in a I guess on the record um that this shows  number one greater transparency uh showing who   is paying for the travel and if taxpayers  will be paying for the travel I think it   should also be mentioned um I am not getting  a check for $3,249 this is the organization   the nonprofit paying for my travel my hotel  and the meals while I'm there I'm not getting   a check for this um in addition to I think  this is moving forward all travel will have   this type of verbage so that it is clear for  community on whom is paying for the travel   and again for my travel regarding um the Rodell  Institute seminar there are no taxpayer dollars   so can there be an amendment to also  how council member agenda travel is noted mayor we can draft an ordinance if that's  the direction you'd like this codified in an   ordinance um that motions should be reflective  of that information that's direction we can draft it Council vice mayor Balor thank you mayor  Jennifer so how is that different than what   we're doing right now cuz I asked you know a  couple weeks ago when we were started discussing   this that I thought it would be great if we could  include this I think the majority or if everybody   um agreed so do we need an ordinance or is this  just the direction that we would like for staff   to include this or the public I don't want it to  make it too complicated I think what is what was   presented today is great um and if any you  know whoever's traveling if they wanted to   add additional information that's great  I just don't want to make too much more   work for staff because I think it addresses  what my concerns were yeah vice mayor I think   that's a good question we are able to do this  under staff Direction um I think the mayor's   motion would codify it so it's just a question of  policy when it just directed by staff or what it cified I would like to codify it by ordinance  but I will gladly take any other comments from   Council Members council member Johnson thanks  mayor um just a procedure piece here there was   a motion in a second for one item and then  you brought up a potential amendment I did   not hear friendly Amendment and I did not  hear that accepted so are we voting on the   initial amendment by council member glasscock  and then yours or is that a friendly Amendment   and council member Glascock accepts I would not  accept not because I don't support the motion   but I think it's very different um in terms of  travel versus public agenda and so probably I   would like two separate okay so we are back on  council member glasscock's motion correct we'll   start with that motion and did it get a second we  have a motion and a second regarding adding public   comment to workshops any further discussion  I see none Madame clerk please open the role I motion passes 70 I motion to ask staff to codify  the language regarding travel by council members   and mayor second Motion in a second any further  discussion I see none Madame clerk please open the role I motion passes 70 thank you for the robust conversations and now  I will motion to adjourn officially this meeting   second Motion in a second any further discussion  I see none Madame clerk please open the rooll I   motion passes 70 we will now turn it over to city  manager Bob Leighton for the workshop which will   have no official binding action thank you mayor  um we've got uh three items for you today uh   two of them are related uh at and they discuss um  future plans for our uh water uh delivery system   or treatment and delivery system the first one  is a discussion about the future of the existing   water plant and so I'd like staff to present  um the work that has been done to this point   assessing the condition and the uh options  for that plant and recommendations from not   just staff but a working Advisory Board as  well so with that I'll turn it over to Gary Janson good morning mayor council members I'm  just gonna be very brief here and and introduce   this and manager gave you a head start so you  know as we move towards uh bringing our new   water treatment plan online sometime next spring  there's going to be a period of time where we'll   be operating both plans but it's likely by  early 2026 we'll be uh bringing our current   water treatment plant offline um and so we spent  the last 12 months or more evaluating options   for for what to do next with that facility um  Laura quick our utilities optimization manager   and expert in a lot of other areas has led this  effort for us and so I'm going to turn it over   to her and let her walk you through um the the  options that we've looked at we focused on uh   it really started to to move towards wanting to  use this facility uh in an emergency situation so   you'll see that most of the options she's going  to discuss with you and we discussed with the   steering committee uh kind of looked to that but  we also looked at other options too uh what future   growth might look like in some of those needs  so I'm going to turn it over to Laura thank you all right thank you I'm Laura quick with the   city of wiah uh Public Works and  utilities utilities optimization program um so just a brief agenda for today  um going to be going over each of these things   with you a purpose a history um brief summary  of our current water demands um some example   condition assessment findings that we have  found um Alternatives that we've looked at   and um highle cost estimat associated  with those I have a steering committee   and staff recommendation to go over with  you and then we'll talk about some next steps um so to give you some context for why  we're here today um as Gary mentioned the new   Wich to Waterworks project is nearing completion  and should be coming online in April of 2025 um   from that point both plants are expected  to operate simultaneously for about 8 to   12 months we don't want to take the current plant  offline until we've put the new plant through it P   giving it a chance to operate in All Seasons  high demand low demand things like that um so   we do need to start talking about what are we  going to do with the current water treatment   plant or you'll often heard it refer to as main  water treatment plan mwtp we're going to have to   stop calling it that at some point but um these  are the questions that we are trying to answer   what function will it serve um what budget do  we need for it to serve that function and what   staff resources are we going to need um so really  today this falls into the category of things that   you guys mentioned earlier where we don't have a  specific item we're ready to bring you yet we're   not ready for a decision um this today is about  are we on the right path or is there a different   path that you'd like us to explore um so earlier  this year we contracted with Burns and McDonald to   develop options and high level cost estimates  and this presentation today is the result of   that work a brief history of the current water  treatment plant um the initial part of the plant   was constructed in 1939 so we're now 85 years old  for the oldest parts of the plant was expanded in   1953 U 1992 we had a partial rehab um and then  skip forward to 2011 through 2016 the plants   now around at that time was around 75 years old  age was starting to become a parent we um it was   clear that trying to maintain it was becoming  more costly so we started looking at options   um for rehabilitating the current plant or  replacing it with a new one uh back in 2016   is when we ultimately decided to construct the  new Wich to Waterworks plant after determining   that rehab wouldn't be enough to reduce the  overall risk associated with continuing to   rely on the old water plant as our water  source for around half a million people um   so 2017 to present has taken us through design  um construction expected now to complete April   of 2025 and as Gary mentioned should be taking  the um current plant offline probably around 2026 so we wanted to know how much water do we  need and how long will the capacity at our new   plant be enough um so we looked at some historical  Trends uh we looked at Trends in both the daily   average water use as well as the highest single  day for any given year um what you see on this   chart um I know it's kind of hard to read but  the break in the middle is 2024 so that's present   so everything to the left of that would be our  historical actual usage um everything to the right   would be our future projections um the bottom  line reflects our our um average consumption the   top line reflects our uh single highest day for  any given year so then to project that out into   the next 20 years this chart goes all the way out  to 2045 um we've made some trend lines based on   past data um the trend lines show on this chart  are based on our most recent year so 2023 is a   starting point um using 2023 as a starting point  the highest we would expect to see in 2045 for a   single highest day would be 86 MGD million gallons  per day um we also looked at this another way uh   and used the 20e rolling average as a starting  point that's not shown on this chart but that   would get us up to a 96 MGD expectation  in 45 so the takeaway from this um current   and projected demands do not indicate a need for  more than 120 MGD which is what the new plant can provide and I have some examples to show you  um some condition assessments that we did um   and keep in mind a lot of um our assets at the  current water treatment plant can't be seen um   they're underground or submerged at least  they're difficult to show in a picture so   the pictures I have here for you um the first one  on the far left is a floculation basin uh you can   see a Paddle Wheel showing signs of corrosion  and there's a concrete walkway showing some   concrete deterioration picture in the middle  is a secondary sedimentation Basin showing a   chain scraper system that's corroding and then the  picture on the right is a lime residual transfer   pump showing delaminated paint and corrosion  so just some examples of the kinds of things   you'll see at the current water treatment  plant um conclusions from our condition   assessment the plant is functional thanks to  the routine maintenance that our staff does   on a daily basis but there's also quite a bit  of deferred maintenance that would need to be   addressed um examples there concrete condition  valves piping and the roof um another point   I didn't have a picture to show of this but  our disinfections chemical storage facilities   don't meet current regulations um we're not  curently ly in violation for that because   they were constructed according to code at the  time but they wouldn't meet construction codes   for safety today um they're aging they pose a  risk to our employees and so the responsible   thing to do once we take the plant offline  is to rectify that um third conclusion uh   different parts of the plant will be will need to  be rehabilitated to be and maintained depending on   which raw water source we use if we are going  to continue to use the plant some function so in other words it's not a complete  throwaway at this point there's still   um some beneficial use we could get from  it but we would need to put some um effort   into that Laura may I please ask you to speak  closer to the microphone for online audience sure all right so um we looked at uh this says  we looked at seven options we actually looked at   a total of eight but we rejected did one pretty  early on I'll come back to that in a minute uh   but the things that we looked at between all  of the different options we were specifically   paying attention to how or if the plant would  be used for each option uh most of our options   focus on using it only as an emergency backup  um we have some variation in what source water   we're using uh the treatment capacity uh startup  time is a very important consideration for us so   if we are going to use this for an emergency  use how long would it take to bring it back on online um and then we also vary in uh the options  vary in finished water quality and of course they   vary in cost so the costs that we're looking at  include construction and ongoing maintenance um   for those emergency use options it's going to  include a cost to keep it in standby mode but   it's not necessarily going to include  the cost of operating the plant in the   event of an emergency um the nature of the  emergency is going to determine the cost of   actually operating it in the situations  is it a one week a one month a one year   kind of a thing um and the the differences  in operational costs is not going to vary   too much from one option to the other with  one exception that I'll get into on a future slide so this is a summary of all of our options  um I did bring this slide printed out I wasn't   sure if you guys would have it in front of you  or not but I'm going to go ahead and pass it so what you are passing around is the exact same  thing that the public can see on the screen right   now and I'm also going to come back to this a  little bit later uh but I do have a slide for   all but one of these options and so I'm  going to um move forward with those the   slide that I don't have a um or the option  that I don't have a slide for is actually   option number eight um adding capacity and  that's because we stopped uh digging into   that one pretty early on after realizing there  wasn't a driving need to add capacity at this   point uh and I'll give you a little bit of  a spoiler alert as well um the committee   and staff recommendations are uh in order  of preference number five and number four   so when we get to those options I'll dig  in just a little bit more deeply on those the first thing we looked at was a complete  site demolition um How much would it cost to   remove everything on site um and this is a 15  Acre Site keep in mind a lot of the assets are   buried or submerged um most of what's there  you can't actually see there's quite a bit   underground um so could we prepare the site to  be used for some other purpose uh analysis on   that um would take about a year to complete that  at a capital cost between 50 and $75 million uh   the graphic here I realize it's kind of  difficult to see but everything shown   in red those are pipeline assets that would  need to be preserved for um we're we're going   to continue using those so the um onsite there  are still some assets that would need to be in place if we can go back there real quick  what are the chall that's quite a steeve   uh cost right there 50 to 75 million what are  the extenuating circumstances does that drive   up that cost I don't have the specifics on how  that cost was arrived at um but like I mentioned   it's it's because so much of what's there is  underground um there's just that much to remove   and and when we're talking about demolishing  scraping the site getting everything out of   there deconstructing everything that's there  um it added up quickly but I I don't have more   details than that I can get that for you okay  and we have to remove everything underground um   I would assume so if we're going to use it  for some other purpose uh the idea with this   particular option was does it hold any value  for us to uh remove everything that's there and   potentially use it for something completely  unrelated or for a a private developer or   something like that um so the uh idea with this  one was to remove everything yeah thank you did   did a contractor come up with that price or that  was our consultant Burns McDonald consult I know   when they they built the biom med Center they  found some uh underground had to go down quite   a ways to remove it and infill it with sand  I doubt if it was 50 to 75 million okay I'd   like more information on that sure and this  is my least favorite option out ofie options   prior but even just the land not even so you  have a 50 to 7 million capital investment to   be able to remove it there's zero chance  we get any return on that even selling yes we can do a little bit more um work on that area all right so the second option  we looked at was mothballing it and   making it safe and basically we would be um  taking it offline indefinitely and including   dismantling the chemical storage equipment that  I mentioned earlier that's the make safe parts   um we would not do any Rehabilitation unless  there's a future demand to bring it back   online um startup time if we were to decide to  bring it back online would be a year uh plus um   we'd be looking at making the design and usage  decisions at that point so essentially this is   deferring any of those decisions until sometime  in the future um there would be no Provisions   made at this time for disinfection or corrosion  control um we'd just be leaving everything as   is we would have an ongoing need to M do some  minimal maintenance just to preserve what we   have there so it could continue to be used in  the future if needed um the estimate there was   that would take two full-time employees um  and that's doing some basic maintenance such   as filter backwashing operating the feed systems  um exercising the gates valves pumps and blowers   at least month monthly and keeping the electronic  control systems up to date so there's no Capital   cost associating with mothballing the plant  until it is returned to service um the 20-year   life cycle cost and this accounts for witch to  Waterworks is not functioning we're going to   redirect water to the main water treatment plant  these are not options that could add capacity this   is using the same Source water going to one plant  or the other um triggers for these emergency use   options could be a catastrophic compromise at the  new plant such as a tornado fire or flood um or it   could be some sort of planned outage that takes  out um multiple uh treatment trains for example   so we have a high degree of redundancy at our  new water treatment plant but if we did need to   take multiple assets out of surface at the same  time this could potentially be um a measure to   mitigate that can I ask real quick have we do we  have any examples of something like that happen   some catastrophe at a water treatment plant that  just picks it offline for a prolonged period of   time um yeah actually uh our city manager would  be familiar with the flood 19 1993 in De Moine um   that was one that that did take their water plant  offline um the community there lost their running   water for 11 days uh you can maybe imagine the  fire danger the disruption to schools hospitals   the entire Community um so besides not having  water for 11 days it was actually another eight   days before the water plant was producing safe  water so almost three weeks um from a flood which   is probably one of the more possible scenarios  for our community when was the last time witw flooded I cannot answer that it's a long long long  time that's just one issue that that plant was   subject it was close to the river subject to that  kind of Hazard I think it's other opportunities   for wiping out the plant a tornado or some other  significant disaster I don't think you would say   flooding would necessarily you know jeopardize  our plant because of the big ditch and and   work that's gone into it in that regard um as a  result of their plant going down they have now   they have two plants they have built a second  plant for redundancy well there's the human   tragedy of you know 11 days without water longer  than that so there's a human tragedy I imagine   there's the financial cost of the city as well  did they you may not have that information now   and I can look that up myself later but was there  a capital cost as well that cost the city in terms   of loss you might know more I don't remember the  capital cost de is very similar to witchta in that   it's the regional provider of water so most of  the Suburban communities were also dry I what   would be interesting is the cost to the economy  yes because again De Moine is not as reliant on   manufacturing as Witchita and loss of water would  basically shut down manufacturing operations for   an extended period of time here which has a as we  know has a very significant cost to the private   into our economy I would just be and I don't want  it to be a heavy lift because I think we need the   redundancy too but if there's the economic cost  of what you know one day without a plant would   look like or 10 days without a plant would look  like in case of a tragedy or in case of something   I think that would offer more justification for  an emergency use aspect to be able to bring out   too obviously there's the human part but there's  also the economic question of what does water not   look like in a community 11 days sure I actually  would like a follow-up question to that I want   to know what the new water treatment plant and  all the redundancies that are already in place   for this new water treatment plant so that  we don't have to have another redundancy to   the redundancy Laura can maybe talk about that the  redundancies are system redundancies so if a piece   of the plant goes down you have a backup system  for that we spent a lot of time talking about   that in the design and final approval of the plant  but we never represented that a cat catastrophic   catastrophic event that would take down the plant  that that could be covered under the redundancy   so it's really two different scenarios that we're  talking about um and we could obviously give you   more information regarding how the redundancies  are built into the existing system but as the   as lores listed they're going there's always  that potential for a for a tornado I guess or   something to that effect and since we have a  plant now the question was how to go forward   it's this is a I think it's a very legitimate  policy discussion to have because there's it's   how much risk are you willing to tolerate um  going forward and we had this I think I may have   mentioned when we were doing initial planning  for the plant we had um some private sector   Representatives that helped us think through all  of this they were a little more tolerant in terms   of risk than our elected officials at the time and  I think that was re enforced when we lost a main   transmission line and we had we lost water supply  here and our the way our residents responded and   concerns they had about losing their source of  water for well how many days were we down on um do   you remember three days yeah yeah so I'm you know  you have to judge what the public would tolerate   and what our economy would tolerate in terms of  the amount amount of risk you're willing to take   and that's so that's judging demo ition all the  way through these other options we have and so   it's a cost benefit uh review and some of that  is more at a policy level than it is a business   have we evaluated the effect of it F3 Tornado F4  tornado because those walls are yes huge right   obviously the administration building would be  gone right but huge tanks it'd be tough for a   tornado to move sorry I might jump in real quick  you know I don't know that we've we've so there's   there's two buildings on site of the new water  treatment plant that are are generally tornado   proof that's a generator building the operations  building but uh there's nothing out there just   like any other building in this town that's  going to be completely tornado proof there's so   many scenarios of where it happens when it happens  regardless of the size of it I think it's prudent   to consider that that it could take out any part  of the facility even with the Redundant systems   in place that would take down all operations  of the plant so uh from from our opinion the   the risk is real uh I think the the manager said  it really well it's this is probably going to be   really a challenge to look at this as a cost  benefit from the economic standpoint there's   just so many different scenarios uh but I I don't  think anything is is foolproof or tornado proof   even even with those two buildings that were  built that way uh you see Across America what   happens at different times and entire communities  are wiped out that's what we're trying to plan for so you have a sense now of how difficult  this um decision-making process is and we've   been asking a lot of these questions ourselves  too and it there are two different ways to look   at it I mean we've we've never experienced  an emergency of this magnitude for a water   treatment system that lasted for uh weeks or or  months but that doesn't necessarily mean it never   will so it's really a question of how much risk  do you want to take on um we have an opportunity   to mitigate some of that risk of a catastrophe  with this current water treatment plant um it   doesn't have to be used in that way uh but it it  does hold some value for mitigating a potential risk um so onto our option three which is our  first um emergency use scenario um and this   this would have been the cheapest thing to  do if we just said let's just keep keep the   plant there but not worry about treating  any water um we just use it to be able to   put uh introduce raw untreated water into the  distribution system if we had a catastrophe at   least we could fight fires um at least we could  provide running water even if it wasn't pable   at that point um this would potentially give  us up to 50 million gallons per day it would   take a day or two to start up um but ultimately  that concept was rejected by kdhe um because of   the risk associated with putting untreated water  into the distribution system does that mean we   we're not allowed to by kdh pursue this option  or um basically although we did not push back   hard at this point um after hearing their  concerns about it we moved on to something   we thought would be more palatable but they did  not say we absolutely could not they didn't like   the idea they so this one would be going back  and forth with them if we pursue this option   that's we could do that we could push back and and  try to pursue this I might add one more comment   sorry to butt end so just to provide a little  bit more levity to this we're talking about   the idea of putting contaminated water if you  will into this we're going to contaminate the   entire system and so there's no way of knowing  the length of time it would take to disinfect   the entire system to bring it back online we  we could be out of a water system for months   and months if not longer if we introduce water  like this into our system I don't think we want   to push back um you'll see again when we look at  the options from a cost perspective it's not all   bad I think it makes sense that they said no to  this and I think we should agree with it myself   so this is a still emergency situation here  still an emergency situation but it creates   such a longer lasting effect on our overall  system and what it does for moving forward   I think Flint Michigan showed us the impact of  changing the type of water that you put into a   system and the unintended consequences um because  there are certain things we do to minimize the   leeching of the of lead and other chemicals into  the water and you lose all of that by putting   untreated water in as well there's just a lot of  consequences this is not a good option okay well   I appreciate the uh the information any thank you  all right so option number four um this is again   for emergency use only um under this scenario we  would be treating groundwater only uh we would   be disinfecting it so it would not go through  a um water softening process um one positive to   this scenario we would only need to preserve the  portions of the current plant that are required   for groundwater disinfection uh we would no  longer treat surface water at this plant so   that takes care of a lot of the assets um Capital  costs associated with the include constructing   two new cross connect pipelines rehabilitating  a 66in flow control valve demolishing the East   primary settling Basin and that is to make  room for construction of a new disinfection building um under this scenario we'd have a  capacity of uh 45 MGD um and I I probably should   have mentioned a little bit more detail about  where that comes from so 45 MGD is what we use   is what we felt was an acceptable minimum  capacity for an emergency use situation um   and so all of these options are you're going  to see 45 MGD for the capacity um startup time   after construction for this option would be  one to two days uh the construction itself   would take a couple of years but then after  it's finished it would be maintained in a   standby mode and could be brought back online  in a day or two um the water quality from this   option would be compliant meaning it's safe it is  disinfected but it's hard water it's not the soft   water we're used to today um so we're trying to  minimize costs with um water quality outcomes um   ongoing labor needs this is going to require one  full-time employee to maintain Those portions of   the plant that have to be maintained in a standby  mode so the plant could be brought back online um   total Capital cost in the range of 24 to $29  million uh 20e life cyle will cost 28 to $33 million and again so option four is the uh second  choice recommendation of the committee option five   is the uh staff and um steering committee's First  Choice on what we think would be the best use to   funds in this U situation it's exactly the same  as option four um in that we are using groundwater   only the source water is disinfected like like  option four it's still producing hard water the   difference here is that we are not constructing a  new disinfection building um and the idea here is   that we don't know if we're ever going to put this  plant back into service we don't necessarily have   to spend money constructing a new disinfection  building we could wait for an emergency to arise   and then bring in tanker trucks of chlorine and  ammonia for disinfection um so we'd be setting up   a temporary disinfection system we would still  get Safe Water we would save about $13 million   from the construction cost of the disinfection  building however um the flip side of that is   that those cost savings are negated if this is  a long-term emergency so using the temporary   chemical feed system is a higher cost if it  drags out longer than 6 to 12 months so now   we're adding in another variable about what  kind of emergency is it and How likely is it   that it would be something that would last longer  than six to 12 months I do have a quick question   yeah regarding so the capital cost obviously  the initial investment the 20-year life cycle   is working at 15 to 20 million so we're talking  about a million dollars a year to maintain that   um 3 to four million uh yeah going from the the  lower end to the upper end of those ranges it's   3 to four million to maintain and that's based on  the one full-time employee Labor uh chemicals and   electricity costs added together over a 20-year  life cycle maybe reading this wrong so 20y year   life cycle says it's 15 to 20 million to maintain  so it's the operate it no I'm sorry that includes   the capital cost oh that's inclusive of the  capital the 20-year life cycle is inclusive   of the capital cost for all of them yes sir  I'm sorry so Capital cost is included in that   20-year life cycle cost um so we'd be looking at  11 to 16 million um for The Upfront Capital cost   and then an additional 3 to four million for the  maintenance needs and to maintain over the course   of 20 years to keep it in a standby mode thank you  yes and the life cycle costs those are paid for by   our water rates yes and I have a a slide later on  the budget we currently have available um but we   already have an item set aside in our CIP and in  our proforma for this purpose so this would not   be depending on the option that we go with um it  may not be a new ad if we want one of those higher   cost options we would have to find funds to put  with what we have now um so this is on a future   slide but just so you know looking at the table  we have $27 million budgeted in the CIP for the   future of the main water treatment plant and um  ongoing life cycle costs we have $300,000 per year   right now which would be enough for this option  okay yep I'll be looking out for that slide thank you all right option six this would be using the  current plant um much like we use it today we   would be treating a a blend of uh Source Waters  just like we do today groundwater and surface   water both um that's a different treatment process  uh we still get a capacity of 45 MGD because again   we're rerouting water redirecting water away from  the new plant to this plant in this scenario um   startup time would be about one week uh again this  is after Construction Construction Tes longer but   the startup time for this would be about 1 week  and that's because the treatment process takes   time to establish the right conditions for  this particular water treatment method um the   treatment process requires a polymer and some  other chemicals to build up in concentration   before the treatment process will work uh so the  finished water quality on this option is compliant   safe it's been disinfected and it's also soft  like what we have today so this would produce   a water very similar to what we're used to having  today um labor needs for this option uh two full   employees per year and that is because we  are maintaining more assets than the previous   option we're maintaining what we need for both  groundwater and service treatment Capital cost for   this one $14 to19 million 20year life cycle cost  including that Capital cost would be 22 to $28 million um with this option we are constructing  a new disinfection building again so putting that   back on the table option seven uh same thing as  option six but now we're taking that disinfection   building away and going back to using a temporary  disinfection system bringing in tanker trucks on a   temporary basis uh startup for this one is again  about a week um and while this is the cheapest   option staff and the steering committee felt  that the longer startup time makes this on both   F six and seven uh much less desirable because  at this point if we are an emergency situation   where we find ourselves with no running  water at all a week is a long time to wait um Capital cost for this item is very minimal  we could actually we think absorb that within   our operating budget um 20-year life cycle  cost is the cost of the two uh full-time   employees chemicals and energy to maintain  so8 to9 million life cycle cost for this one um budget considerations so there are a few  unknowns that we haven't accounted for in this   that could may or may not uh impact the final  number down the road um pending lead and copper   rule changes by the EPA is one of those they  actually published a new rule um within the   last week or two but we don't yet know how kdhe  is going to apply that to our situation so in   the lead and copper rule there's a requirement  for corrosion control Ortho phosphate feeds um   our new water plant already already meets that  we knew what this requirement was going to be   our new water treatment is plant is fine the main  water treatment plant the current water treatment   plant meets the Legacy regulations we don't  know if kdhe would require us to upgrade it if   we were going to keep it in service so um that  could potentially add a cost for an additional   chemical feed system that we would need um also  keep in mind again that the life cycle costs that   I've presented you with do not include emergency  operation so this includes construction to prepair   the plant and then um ongoing maintenance to hold  it in a standby mode does not include the cost of   an actual emergency do we have any any belief or  any information that the EPA could be making these   changes anytime soon like is there a certain date  that they would um make this buy we should know   fairly soon like I say they've already published  the rule now we need to find out how kdhe is going   to interpret it for us so um that's a question  we're going to be asking them before we move into   our next phase okay thank you um as I mentioned  we have $27 million currently budgeted in our   CIP for this purpose um we also have programmed  $300,000 per year into our reforma for ongoing upkeep and this is the same same table I handed  out same table I put up earlier um just to recap   uh and have the summary all in one place uh  remember we don't have a slide for option 8   because uh we did not dig into that one after  deciding there was not enough drivers to add   capacity at this point um so our staff and our  committee recommendations again are options five   and option four and I'll explain why uh here in  a minute uh some additional points to consider a   lot of the components at the main water treatment  plan are at the end of their service life but they   could be rehabil itated to serve some beneficial  purpose uh the new water plant provides a high   degree of redundancy but is still a single point  of failure in the event of a catastrophe uh adding   capacity does not appear to be warranted at this  time and like we talked about earlier we are   trying to balance the cost and benefit of how to  use this plant against an unknown risk and what's   a reasonable startup time so putting all of those  ideas together is exactly what we are trying to do   um and that brings me to our recommendations so  both staff and the steering committee um came up   with our first recommendation being option five  um and that is to use the plant for emergency   use only we would be treating ground water  only no longer capable of treating surface   water at that point um option five had the  temporary disinfection setup option to save   upfront Capital costs um that option is the lowest  cost cost with the shortest startup time was the   primary driver for selecting that one first um  alternate recommendation that came out of the   steering committee was option four um again using  it for emergency use only groundwater treatment   only uh with the new disinfection building  that would make it more readily available um   for a long-term emergency this option had the  second lowest cost with a short startup time um and it was the most economical option  for emergencies lasting longer than 6 to 12 months so today we're presenting these options  to you um like we've covered earlier we're not   asking for a formal decision today but for your  feedback um if you think we are moving in the   right direction our next steps are going to be to  start talking about what's the optimal design and   construction delivery model for option five unless  we get feedback from you to move in a different   direction um after we figure out um construction  and delivery model uh we would be coming back to   council for approval of a formal concept and  project delivery method um after that point   we'd be issuing an RFP for design and Engineers  cost estimates um and then construction would   begin after the main waterer treatment plant comes  offline probably in 2026 so um we're not in any   rush to make a decision we can take our time with  this if we need to um looking for any feedback you   guys have any additional questions you would like  us to answer um before we start moving into our   next steps as staff can I ask a question regarding  option number seven which is a blend required so   that is how our current treatment plant is working  can you talk about the blend that is currently   used between surface and groundwater versus the  new water treatment surface and groundwater um a   little bit and I'll have Gary probably in the  parts that I can't um historically we've used   approximately a 50/50 blend at the current water  treatment plant um and the the current treatment   plant the old plant requires a blend it is not  capable of a treatment that that treats complete   uh groundwater or full surface water so we have  to have a blend there um at the current water   treatment plant the new water treatment plant will  be capable of operating on all surface water all   groundw or a blend um there are pros and cons to  more groundwater more surface water it does take   a different mix of chemicals and and treatment  methods as far as the current blend I don't know   if anybody is able to speak to that I Laura you  did good with that we probably are actually more   somewhere on either side of well on the higher  side usually 60% from cheny 40% from The Equis   speds for the same reason she explained sometimes  we in this drought we have tried to push closer   to 50/50 uh so what happens during higher demand  times of the year we still need both sources we   we've got only have certain amount of water R  we've got all the water rights at cheni we all   know that cheni is struggling we've got a certain  amount of appropriated water rights within the   wellfield during our higher demand times of the  Season we've it's still necessary to use a pretty   close blend of both but as Laura said and we'll  be doing this during our performance testing is   running through the different blends we'll be  running 100% surface water through the plant   100% groundw and a blend right in between but we  have so much more flexibility with this new plant   which helps us be more um U drought resistant and  be able to respond to the drought conditions and I   think that you know that last item that you asked  about was probably looking more to the Future and   being able to provide capacity one thing I might  mention is if we end up at a spot where this plant   stays there right which is our recommendation we  do have the ability in the future if growth takes   off uh if our community really expands and we have  a need based on industry whatever it might be uh   Laura showed those uh estimated capacity demands  up front we ever started pushing up against that   we can take a look at bringing this facility back  online as a water treatment plan and increasing   overall capacity that's not out of the question  it's one of the values of keeping it there while   I'm here I'll give you one more uh something real  quick and and we'll and we'll get more information   together for you when we bring this to council  back on that very first one with the estimated   cost it's going to be very time consuming and very  meticulous taking this plant apart because of what   it's been used for we expect that there's going  to be some regulatory requirements and permitting   requirements of what can be done with disposal of  certain equipment for those of you that have been   through that plant and seen the close proximity  and the tight quarters of what it takes it'll   take specially ized equipment to take some of  this apart uh there's going to be some requ uh   requirements for sanitation of certain parts of it  there is a lot underground that most people don't   see and that work would be done in close proximity  close proximity to very critical infrastructure as   you know has Pump Station stays in operation we've  got large piping that continues to surround the   perimeter some of Laura's uh diagrams showed that  so we can't just go in here with a wrecking ball   and an excavator and take this out it's going  to take time that's where that cost starts to   jump really quick and then to be able to make  it a buildable site it's going to take some   engineering fill you don't just shove sand  back in the Hole uh that's where we start   to add up those costs really fast uh to get to  that 50 to 75 million number oh Gary you just   let the Scrappers go in they'll get it taken  care of in two weeks we could try that too um   what are the pitfalls to number seven why is  that not a little further up the list as far   as recommendations uh the main reason that one  was not higher up on the list is because of the   startup time um so six and seven would both  take about a week to start up not counting   the construction but even after construction  is completed uh due to the water treatment   process six and seven both take about a week  to actually come back online to De develop the   uh concentration of chemicals that are needed  to treat the water with this method can you   uh further add because there's a difference  between six and seven with soft water which   is what we currently have versus hard water in  the options that staff recommends which is four   and five the difference and in how a customer  uh would feel the difference um they would be   getting hard water with options four and five  as opposed to soft water that we're getting   today um if anybody's familiar with your typical  well water in the area that's going to you know   have the potential to leave behind a a residue it  could be different um it could have an impact on   uh Industries in the area that use a particular  hardness or softness of their water so it could   have an impact to change the um the water quality  that we would be producing but again we're only   talking about this in terms of an emergency  use so if we have a catastrophe at the plant   um this is providing um running water water  safe running water to customers um it's not   ideal and we'd obviously like to get it back to  the the water quality that we're used to as soon   as possible um so this is uh this is a really  an emergency use only situation designed to be temporary and just to be clear if we ever do  get our economy takes off we need more than   120 there's plenty of room with the new water  treatment plant to expand that water treatment   plant that's what we were told when we when  there was a uh gave a tour of it there's   there's plenty of space we have set the plant  up that it would be uh ready for expansion but   it's not cheap uh and so I think at that  time we'd still have the option to weigh   uh expansion of that plant versus what we  could do with a current plant and and see   where we end up best economically I have  a question this kind of goes back a lot   of slides too just for historical context  um when we go back to slide I think it was 30 just because I think it goes with councilman  Johnston's question what happened in 2005 that   we had that high of water as far as I know  it's not something that specifically happened   but water usage across the country um has been  declining since 2005 as um water conservation   and and more water saving devices have become more  prevalent um so I don't think it was necessarily   A a specific thing that happened um but it's  been trending downward across the country uh   for for um just water usage Trends in general  okay it just seemed like an outlier compared   to everything else um now going back to the  other slides um I think staff's in the right   direction I'm very interested in emergency use and  bringing it up as quick as possible a day would   be incredible there's not that many communities  uh in the country that would be able to do that   now when we look at slide I think it's 28 well I  don't know what it is actually on yours it's um   the last Slide the budget considerations and  comments yeah so it's the currently budgeted   is the capital overlay of uh 27 million  that's in this is that budget in the CIP   currently yes budget in the CIP was that part  of the original budget allocation of the the   water treatment facility as a whole or was  this added subsequently or was this part of   the original budget when we were uh doing  the design of the water treatment facility   I believe has always been a separate line item in  our CIP it but it's been a separate line item for   a while it's not added later on okay and then  so because it's budgeted because the ongoing   maintenance is budgeted this in particular would  not be an increase to water rates because we're   not adding anything this is already budgeted  this will not increase rates based on any of   the proposals with maybe the exception of one  and four parts of six correct correct um but I   will say these are high level cost estimates we  would still need to go through our our diligence   of getting a more refined Engineers cost estimate  so these numbers could change um but we expect it   to be enough for most of the emergency use options  so you know when the public hears about this when   the media reports about this adding redundancy to  our system with the exception of or most of the   options will not increase water rates correct  for the redundancy aspect correct we've known   this is coming we've had it accounted for for some  time so thank you I think the question has to be   asked too what else could could we do with that 27  million well you if I mayor if I can that that's   going to be discussed next because there are a  lot of pressures on our water rates right now   that go to refined cost estimates for operation of  the new plant was inflation has done to us since   our original estimates as well as our Capital  needs for the plant and so we're going to talk   about all that next so if you have savings if you  spend less than what we had budgeted that's going   to help us in terms of our overall proforma so  which is why I would like to see number seven have   a little bit more research uh given that that one  is the one that provides the greatest cost savings   but it also doesn't take into account the next  conversation which is water rates and Sewer rates   right so if I could jump been on that I served on  the committee we actually talked about that quite   a bit and number seven was the first thing I asked  about the question that the council has to decide   is do you want half a million people to wait one  week to be able to access water or one or two days   and it really comes down to that the soft water  um I think is probably the preference for everyone   but if something catastrophic were to happen our  decision would be either allowing water access in   24 hours or 7 Days that's really the Crux of what  we have to decide I also have one quick question   we talked about uh tornadoes we've talked about  earthquakes we've talked about floods one thing   that's not in this proposal regarding is acts of  terrorism cyber attacks any acts of terrorism well   both of these um plants be on separate systems so  if one was attacked um in terms of a Cyber attack   other one isn't mitigated is there a possible way  to mitigate those on two different systems or is   that even possible I don't know the technology for  that that's the discussion for another time okay okay all right well that is all that I had  so there any other questions we can come   back with a little bit more information  about the questions you asked today um I   would just say thank you I can only imagine  how much work that was and I appreciate you   bringing forth so many different options  um this is in my district and it's such   a cool building and has so much to offer so  hopefully we can um find the best option thank you mayor transition into the rate discussion  now um and as I mentioned this there are a lot   of moving pieces on this one so Gary's gonna  summarize where we are today and by the way   we wanted to bring it to you early um many times  we wait until November or early December and we   thought the council would want some time to think  through this before we actually bring an action item uh thank you Bob uh mayor and council members  again Gary Jansen Public Works and utilities I   want to thank Laura she did a really good job  with that appreciate all your questions so that   we'll we've got some more work we need to do when  we bring that forward but we certainly appreciate   your input so want to talk about uh where we're  at on annual Water and Sewer rates discussion   uh what our projections are particularly in  compared to what we've looked at over some   years now since 2019 what kind of projected rates  were at that time uh the manager mentioned we've   seen some considerable pressures especially with  inflationary impacts uh and some other issues that   I'll talk about as we we go through here that lead  to what our our current recommendation is going   to be uh so we'll talk about rate drivers in a  10-year expenditure history I mentioned the record   inflation I'll show you some specific examples  of where that's impacting us uh CIP uh and onm   factors um obviously the CIP is a big part of this  and what we do with utility and I'll I'll talk in   more detail about that uh efforts to maintain rate  predictability over a longer period of time again   start back in 2019 in particular we we wanted  to to provide as much predictability as we could   looking at over a 10-year forecast we still want  to do that we still want to keep these rates as   flat as we can and avoid spikes anywhere but uh  because of certain economic drivers we need the   ability to start being a little bit more flexible  from from one year to the next and so I'll talk   about how those things wrap together we've got  a recommended base adjustment with the resulting   debt coverages which is very important to our  performer and how we look at how this all rolls   together uh what the impacts would be on customers  our rates versus pure cities uh and then the   affordability and assistance programs which we  think are very important annually to discuss   with the council we've got some routine user fee  updates that happened every two years and then   some other options including where we're at with  late fee percentages the conservation tiers which   is something we talked about before we uh going  into mandatory water restrictions want to kind   of hit on that again uh to see if that's something  we want to discuss for the future future and then   the summary and next steps so the same I mentioned  the same rate plan has been shared with the city   council since December of 2019 this line that  you see on here probably looks fairly familiar   uh despite many significant changes uh since  that time the rate plan has not changed and   and some of that has to do again with our Our  Hope and priority to keep uh rate adjustments   predictable over that period of time still want  to do that but we need to look at at at going   in a little bit different direction than where  we had been with that 2019 plan because of all   of these things that we're currently looking at  that plan is no longer sustainable due to record   inflation operational changes and other challenges  additionally onm costs related to our new water   treatment facility that were previously estimated  are now known I mentioned before and I want to   mention again our goal is still to keep uh the  rates level and avoid raid spikes anytime that we   can and I think we're still doing a good job with  that even with the recommendation that you'll see   today and moving forward so looking at uh really  big factor here in our discussion today we could   probably focus on inflationary impacts and what's  that what that's done across the size of our   operations uh and the maintenance of our utility  more than anything so look at a 10year history the   Blue Line being water expenses green being sewer  um the our rate model assumption ions going back   to that 2019 rate model that we looked at were  3% o andm inflation that included estimated debt   based on the CIP and additional expenses Beyond  inflation that are factored in individually and   what those are anything that's new changes in  commodity costs Staffing anything that wouldn't   be considered part of just an inflationary impact  to O andm those average onm cost increases in the   past three years have been 10% in water and  7% in sewer so you can see that alone is a   significant difference from our uh projection  of what happened uh our projection of what we   thought might happened back when that 2019 model  was developed um our consultant our Financial   Consultant for developing the cost of service  analysis in 2022 new J they had recommended at   that time in 2022 increasing inflationary  assumptions they also recommended higher   rate increases than were ultimately put into the  2019 plan we made a decision at that time to go   ahead and move forward uh with those lower rate  increases uh to see what would happen uh not not   look to raise things right then we are now at that  point that we have seen the impact since 2019 what   has happened is what was predicted at that time  and so we need to be able to address that going forward these are some specific examples  of what's happened with uh inflationary   impact to our operations and maintenance on  the left is chemical costs uh the blue being   for water green being for sewer after holding  steady for years chemical price has shot up two   Mill $2 million in just the past three years uh  we're not sure yet where that's headed keeping a   close eye on it uh but keep in mind we've got two  plant two water plants to run for some period of   time uh adding to those Commodities costs uh  which inflation will impact the if you look   to the graph on the right shows what the impact  to Contract Services versus the savings from um   Staffing vacancy so the red line is salaries  and benefits of our staff while you do see   some Savings in that uh it's not offsetting the  increases that we've seen in contractual costs   due to inflationary impacts we're still doing what  we can to get people hired but we are struggling   in certain areas uh especially on the water  side and water distribution some of the things   that we've talked about before uh related to  salary impacts in the market but right now   being able to make things work this way that Gap  is really starting to close uh but we're not able   to offset those contractual savings with savings  from Personnel again due to inflation um Gary   since last week's um this is specific to last  week actually contracts and water um operators   have you seen any uh increased interest since last  last week just knowing that media covered it uh   we talked about it and then we really raised  awareness that we need more water operators   experience we did get a lead on one operator uh  almost immediately afterwards I don't know what   that can be led to so we're working on that still  working with HR uh through some of the things we   talked about as far as providing additional  incentives we want to get our own staff an   opportunity to consider that but we hope to be out  on the street really getting after that soon so   we're hopeful keep our fingers crossed we got  off to a good start we'll see if that one pans out um some other things uh not all increases are  as drastic as chemicals and Contract Services but   still add up to a sign significant impact and  these are just some small examples but things   that we look at across the entire utility some of  those examples are Bank fees being up 156% energy   and other utilities up 12% technology charges  20% and insurance premiums on our facilities   up 47% collectively it really starts to add  up compared to what we had projected within   our model for inflationary impact so I want  to talk about changes related to witto Water   Works this is on the operations and maintenance  side I'll talk about the capital side in just a   moment so if we if we start at the left and look  at 2019 assumptions um the chemicals for a new   water treatment plant were assumed to be $269,000  increase starting in 2025 at the current rates   again impacted by inflation that would be $721,000  starting next year that's a big increase just by   itself energy for the new plant was estimated  to be $600,000 with that increase starting in   2025 that is now estimated to be $900,000 those  unit price inflations again since the time of   original estimation five years ago almost six  years ago Staffing uh at the time keep in mind   in 2019 we were just starting to develop design  of what this plant how it would operate what it   would take for Staffing of the facility we had  assumed in 2019 that temporary Contract Services   costing just under $600,000 in 20124 $1.2 million  in 2025 would be utilized for the transition   period and no on additional ongoing expenses  more so than more o over than just our staff   to keep the new plant going since that time uh as  we've figured out the complexities of this plant   so I would tell you that this question's been  asked a lot so this plant was built designed   and built to save on capital costs in particular  if you keep in mind what we've talked about uh   the funding sources that we utilize with whiffy  and srf save the right paays over $180 million   on this project we did everything we could because  of the size of this project to keep Capital Pro uh   keep Capital costs down well this is a new plant  there's new innovation there's new technology that   doesn't mean that it takes less people we have  come to find out over time that we're going to   need more staff than we've got now to make  sure that we keep this plant moving forward   especially during the first couple years like  anything new and especially something of this   size and complexity we're going to need more staff  we got to make sure we get this right during the   transition period and going forward so the current  assumption then is and5 million in 2024 just over   $2 million in 2025 and that would be ongoing  what happens at that point once the old plant   comes offline uh we may have we'll we'll start  to have a better idea of just how many staff we   do need and I think we start to balance that out  through a couple ways we balance that out through   attrition and something I'm going to talk about  on the next slide is we're going to be moving   towards uh finishing up our BNR improvements in  26 and 27 some of that staff we think probably   will move uh in that direction because we are  going to need additional resources there also   just like we need now so um the again the original  plan was to contract temporary surface providers   for the transition period the decision was made in  conjunction with city council and discussions we   had to hire our own staff mayor the point you just  brought up we're continuing to work on that uh and   hopefully we have luck of finishing up hiring The  Operators because we've got pretty much the rest   of those 20 positions filled at this time but one  thing I want to mention while I'm on this SL is   it's a question that comes up often including  when I've been here uh and just in the last   few days about this discussion the capital costs  for this project are all part of the current rate   structure anything that we've done and brought to  you on the capital side we're currently at $569   million overall Capital cost that's all part of  the current rate structure in March uh when the   city council approved an additional $16 million  that was part of the current rate structure we   had that build in as a contingency knowing that  there were some things were going to have happen   offsite in particular but not knowing those  costs up front so anything we're talking about   today and when we talk about where we're going  with a recommended rate increase none of it   has to do with the capital cost that nearly $600  million cost of the facility but it does include   uh the need for some additional Operational  Support and Staffing as we're discussing here talk about changes related to our B&R project  I just mentioned but I'll hit on this again so   for salaries and benefits for Staffing in 2019  Inception was just over $500,000 starting in   2026 that's an increase in a $1 million in 2027 uh  continuing indefinitely with annual inflation we   don't have any changes yet uh we will be working  on a market analysis over the next probably 12   to 18 months just like we've done with the water  treatment plant uh to be able to uh determine the   impact of this assumption so I think we've got  the ability to come back to that probably this   time next year and see where we're at uh based on  the rate projections at that time chemicals and   energy uh in 2019 we assumed no changes based  on information available at that time in 2019   we weren't near as far along with development  of a B&R plan as we were for wit Waterworks uh   right now the current assumption is an additional  $864,000 in 2025 1.7 million in 2026 for chemicals   energy is just under $150,000 in 26 and double  that starting in 2027 and I know I've belabored it   already but just to remind you that's inflationary  impact so you know we'll hope hopefully only hope   we only get us so far but we'll hope that we'll  start to see some leveling out of the inflation   are impact steadying that out that goes back  to my point of the value in us being able to   evaluate this with you on an annual basis uh and  hopefully being able to regardless of what our   projections may have been in the past further out  that we can balance those out come back find ways   to create savings or at least deal with this on  a year-by-year basis more so than we had in the   past one thing I mention on that too is the Odor  Control technology selection and treatment process   better defined the concept and the final design  of BNR Odor Control is a huge component of BNR   something we've talked about a lot we wanted to  make sure we got that right once that process was   better defined it helped us to kind of dial in on  what these numbers look like so talking about our   CIP and and what this does uh for dictating  what the rates are so utilities is a capital   intensive business we maintain you've heard me  talk about these numbers before but I'll just   run through a couple with you real quick because  I'm always impressed when I when I look back and   see just how large our system is and what it  takes why we have this R structure in place for   um improvements infrastructure operation and  maintenance everything that we do to run the   system we maintain over 4,500 miles of water and  sewer pipes 60 sewer lift stations eight treatment   plants of various types 160,000 water meters  uh of 56,000 sanitary sewer man holes 53,000   water valves a lot of stuff going on stuff that we  need to continue maintaining on a regular basis to   make sure we can provide Clean safe water for our  community all of this is needed to serve as Lura   mentioned 177% of the population of the state so  the pie chart on the left shows that most of the   revenue increases that we derive from the rates  uh are needed for infrastructure and you can see   the orange being CIP the green or yellow being o o  and m so we utilize the CIP though for renewal and   replacement primarily so it's also helping us with  operations and maintenance it's helping us replace   old assets old facilities I work really close with  our staff uh and encourage them to really stay on   track of keeping capital projects moving because  the value that it brings to our daily operations   staff to keep our facilities upgraded so that  we can limit hopefully and reduce the amount of   deferred maintenance that's where the CIP becomes  so critical if you look at the top uh chart on   the right it shows a 10e sewer CIP by function  and I'll talk about some more details in just a   moment the blue being renewal and replacement the  orange being expansion and I'll show you what some   of those look like 10year water CIP is on the  bottom looks very similar uh blue being renewal   and replacement is the majority orange being  expansion there's some other that's in there for   a new treatment plant that we didn't categorize  just yet but just so you know what that's for but   we really gained so much value uh out of what's  in our CIP here but there's some additional slides   to this packet uh that if we get to I kind of  wanted to have for backup if we don't if you have   a chance to look at that shows what we've done  to rep prioritize capital projects in an effort   to stay within the current rate structure for  this year and to minimize the rate impact going   forward but it's so valuable to still be able to  have those projects in there continuing to talk   about the CIP the 2025 to 2034 approv improv CIP  includes almost $800 million in water and sewer   improvements that 10or CIP does not include some  of the things you see below it so all in or Debt   Service uh within the current rate structure is  almost $2 billion so you can start to see how all   of this adds up when you look at the inflationary  impacts and operations and maintenance what is   needed on the capital side uh to keep our system  in the condition that we need it to be in and keep   it moving forward I'll talk about some of the pro  on the right um so that you know so distribution   Mains replacement for water uh that is replacing  existing uh neighborhood water mains that's where   we've uh gained a lot of ground over the years  when we talk about lead and copper and removal   of lead service lines that's where most of that's  been taken care of it provides uh uh a lot of good   things and improvements for neighborhoods I'm not  going to hit on all of these phase water supply   plan which is shown as expansion that is actually  focused uh for looking at long-term water supply   that's uh recharge basins and the Eis beds so that  we can keep the aquafer in great shape that is   improvements to the local wellfield where we have  water rights around the current water treatment   plant so that we can maximize those water rights  especially now in times of drought um there's   other things that's going on with has pump  station within the sewers there's an expansion   project right in the middle called sewer Mains  for future development that has been a critical uh   key to furthering development in our community  uh providing a a the ability to fund projects up   front sewer is the most expensive aspect of  being able to expand and to develop whether   it's residential or commercial so that's been the  commit City's commitment for some time that's all   part of what we're looking at I mentioned the 60  some lift stations that we have so we have annual   funds in there for uh rehab and replacement of  those lift stations to be able to keep those C IAL   uh infrastructure going Gary can you go back to  that slide um I think this is a nice segue I think   um we get asked a lot of questions especially  during this drought about getting water from   eloro Lake and I want just to give perspective to  the capital Improvement projects already underway   regarding water what would something like elero  Lake if we even had the water rights can you talk   about just approximate dollars so we had projected  and you'll see it if you look in the back slides   looking at the idea we have a single pipeline  from cheni right now approximately 20 miles we   had projected uh in the future if we were going  to add a redundant line replace that line starting   to approach a $100 million so it kind of depends  on size may not need to be as big but it's going   to be probably somewhere in that magnitude to  be added to this if we were ever you mention   mentioned and and I won't get stuck on that part  that it's just really not feasible even from a   cost perspective to get that water but it it would  be expensive to bring a pipeline all the way from ELO we we also did a study uh working with city  of eldoro uh who was more than happy to uh to work   with us um and what we found our consultant  found is that at the time that we got into   significant drought that would be the period of  time that El elero would had the least capacity be   able to help us so if we needed a constant source  of water during to meet our regular demand that's   a very different scenario than simply needing  help during a drought period And I I Gary I   don't know if you want to talk any more about  that but we we did do do diligence and again   appreciated the opportunity to work through  that with elero I'm glad to hear us continue   to tell the same story so I got that from you  before so we're on the same page that's great   good on that uh continuing to look at rate drivers  um um and I might just kind of remind I just want   to make sure we have a good understanding and  I think it's good sometimes when I talk to the   public too they don't quite understand what all  goes into when they pay their water bill and so   we wanted to be as comprehensive as we could so  if you look at uh part of our debt service and the   debt Pavements and the principal and interest  so this chart reflects principal and interest   payments on revenue bonds withy loan loans and  srf Loans already in place uh you can see if   you kind of start from the left the principal and  entrance interest had been holding steady but is   getting ready to shoot up and and that's a result  of market conditions you never know what happens   going forward we'll keep a close eye on this um  but some of these don't necessarily change the   terms of the loan dome but I just wanted to show  this as the impact also uh to our overall perform   and rate structure so talk a little bit more  about some efforts to stabilize rate adjustments   uh in addition to same some of the things we've  already hit on so in one of the backs slides to   and I didn't mean to Short Change yet but I wanted  to make sure we could get to the things we wanted   to but there's some additional slides behind the  what would be the ins slide here that I can hit   on too it shows what we've done with our utilities  optimization program I want to mention real quick   Laura has led this effort for some time and  done a tremendous job working across all of   our facilities to find ways to optimize savings  and and I can show you that on that other slide   and what that means but it I think it's going to  work even on our new plant as soon as we get going   we're going to start looking at ways to optimize  Energy savings uh what we're doing with Staffing I   talked about all these things that Energy savings  chemical savings um but that's our goal uh with   what she has done and with her group from an  asset management standpoint I think is really   helped so that's already included in here some  other things that we've done for for example the   call center saved just over $111,000 by adding  five full-time staff and and eliminating the use   of temporary services which resulted in wait times  and other metrics being improved in the process so   always looking for those opportunities $100,000  in the grand scheme of things is not a lot by   itself but multiple items like that really start  to add up the eil campaign increased the number   of customers built electronically cutting Printing  and postage costs by about $5,000 the first year   again not a big number these are opportunities  we're always looking for for savings got great   staff that's looking at these uh what we can do  I hear it from them constantly so operational   savings are not enough to overcome inflation and  other challenges continuously reviewing the CIP   for opportunities to defer revise or eliminate  projects I talked about uh what I said when I   encourage staff I spend time with them to we've  got a pretty good structure in place where we   continue to review the CIP especially looking at  any time in during the year where we're starting   to see stresses and pressures on the proforma on  the current rates where we need to start moving   some things out we do the best that we can to  balance that this year we're kind of getting to   a point that there's not much else to balance out  or to mve out we've reduced contingency levels in   the financial model over time which is not always  ideal we need to have some level of flexibility   and resiliency to be able to respond uh to unknown  things that might happen and I'll I'll talk about   this a little bit more in just a minute when  we talk about the impact of the drought which   really we don't know yet and it's not impacting  this discussion today but it could going F it   could be going forward uh We've pursued favorable  financing opportunities which we've talked about   before with whiffy and srf so this chart will  look familiar to some of you uh back when we   started talking about the recommended rates in  2019 showed the difference in rate projections   with and without wifia and srf so the red line was  a Combined Utilities rates without wifia the blue   line was combined with wifia and srf the you can  see those double digit rates projections in the   early years was not desired by the council and I'm  certain it was not desired by the community that   eventually came down uh to the rates that we've  looked at from that 2019 model to stabilize and   level out over a longer period of time um there  was a discussion about generational Equity with   the council at that time it probably makes sense  so that as many people as possible are paying for   these major project improvements right so those  boxes up to the top right at the time when it uh   projected the 2028 customer bill you'll see on the  right with wiffy and srf the projection was $16.32 with the uh recommended rate increase that we'll  be talking to you about yet today and then coming   back to the council later our uh the majority  of our users the mid-level user let me say this   first because that was based on mid-level use  the mid-level user would be at 10929 so we've   still even come down from that um $7 a month the  majority of our users uh which is a less use their   bill would be $73 54 Cent so it's not necessarily  fair comparison because this was midlevel but I   just want to kind of give you some perspective on  on what those numbers look like so getting to the   point of rate adjustments what our recommended  base rate adjustment is going to be compared   to as it was in 2019 so the orange line it's  2019 rate plan looking out to 2025 recommended   a rate increase of 5.03% here in December is a  recommended combined rate increase of 6.14% all   of the things that we've talked about play into  this we think it's important uh to be able to move   forward with the projects that we've that we need  to do I talked about on the CIP side the impact   that has on onm I'll show you what that means for  bills in just a minute but I want to talk about   what this includes and what it doesn't include  so this would include the full adopted CIP and   reductions or revisions propos proposed by staff  so we have uh split some things out move some   things out that's on some later slides to help  accommodate this so this number is not higher the   adopted budget all existing debt two remaining BNR  uh srf loans for BNR not issued yet future revenue   bonds what we talked about for witto Waterworks  transition staff and Contract Services and that   this mentions the $300,000 annual onm for the main  water treatment plant Laura talked about that is   already in I just want to be clear that is already  in the current rate structure this recommended   rate increase is not needed to accommodate that  but I just want everybody to know that's one of   the things that's included what's not included  is funding for changes and lead and copper or   emerging contaminants P regulations Laura talked  about that we should know more soon if you had the   opportunity I sent some information to Mayor and  council members recently about where we're at on   that uh there's not an immediate timeline on what  that's going to happen but there's some unknowns   of particularly of what happens on the private  side I think we've got time though uh once we   figure out what that looks like to start looking  at Future rate structures and how that might play   in revenue losses uh are not included from two  wholesale customers who are building their own   treatment plants Derby is working on building a  water treatment plant they don't have enough water   rights to take themselves completely off of of  being a Wholesale customer of ours but what they   would like to do is be able to take care of the  peak demand times on their end which is good for   conservation for us but it has to be factored into  our Revenue projections city of Valley Center is   looking at building a water treatment plant that  would take them fully off of our system timing   isn't sure yet but we'll be looking ahead at what  the impacts those would have I mentioned before   this does not include revenue losses or operating  cost increases due to prolonged drought conditions   so I don't know what the number looks like we know  during September compared to our projections we   did have a loss in revenue of where we thought we  would be had we been under normal conditions with   precipitation uh I talked about building capacity  into our rate structure that's something that   helps because of those types of unknowns we'll  see what happens this spring if we come around   to being in the same place hopefully not but if  we're still under water restrictions we'll have   to evaluate where we're at um and see what impact  that might have on our Revenue the the I get asked   about this lot in the public because there's  concern that we're telling people to use less   water and then we're going to are we going to are  we going to raise rates that's the question that's   asked one of the reasons why I want to illustrate  just the size of our system and what it takes to   um operate and maintain a utility of our size this  is built on a long time of of building this system   to accommodate uh 500,000 people within our region  to be a regional water provider that's based on   uh projected Revenue over a certain period of  time and anywhere that that changes whether we   lose customers whether we lose Revenue because  of the drought we have to make that up somewhere   else to be able to operate and maintain that  system the same way and make those Capital   Improvement so we'll see where that goes uh we  don't think we need anything else within this   current recommendation to accommodate that we've  got some other things that are going on to help   respond to the drought that we hope will make a  difference including new water treatment plant   uh and then so that includes the discussion of  additional contingencies to provide resiliency   which are not included in here Gary can you go  back to that slide um the wholesale customers can   you uh again want of talk about how many wholesale  customers we currently have and that they do pay a   premium for this water um but can you talk about  our relationship with other Regional partners   because we provide 177% of water for canons is  that right we do our our population is basically   177% of the entire state so our population that  we serve including the wholesale customers we   have 11 wholesale customers that includes eight  neighboring communities and three Rural Water   districts um the majority of those wholesale  customers play a uniform wholesale rate that   is more than our rate pairs in Witchita pay um  effectively we looked at because the question   came up about our tiered structure which I'll talk  about in just a moment moment how that compares   to wiar Residents paying an intered structure  wholesale that wholesale uniform rate ends up   paying out more than even if they were in our own  tiered structure so it costs more to produce that   water it costs more to get that water there uh  there's been a lot of analysis done over time   with our cost of service analysis um looking at  being able to for cost recovery and so I think   we're in a pretty good place with that and because  of the discussions we've had with the drought   uh concerns from some in the community about how  these contracts were set up we are re-evaluating   where we're at uh on those customers but I think  right now we're in a pretty good place uh for that   reason I guess it's U more of a consideration  just making sure that cost recovery is top of   mine while still being a good partner um I think  when we talk about whether it's parking downtown   um cost recovery has to be part of the convers  ation um so that folks understand that there is   a cost to maintain a lot of this infrastructure  there is thank you so resulting debt coverage is   something that we keep a really close eye  on uh staff watches this closely our bond   Council watches this very closely to maintain  the utili doublea minus credit rating a debt   coverage level of 100 120% or above is required  and that's what's required by the credit rating   agency I'll show you another slide on this in  just a moment of what this looks like if we if   we maintain what the 29 recommended rates would be  but the Revis the revised rate plan provides only   enough coverage to meet the minimum requirement it  does not provide a safety net for unseen negative   circumstances so again talking about we're still  trying to be prudent here and take care of what   we need to take care of but we're still not  really adding in any contingency for now um   if we move forward with the recommended rate  increase that's something we'd certainly want   to consider maybe then as we come into future  years seeing how things balance out this year   with all of the things that we've added in but you  can see that that combined minimum required is the   red line that black line touches that for several  years there uh as we've got a lot of things that   are feeding into this so customer impacts is  something that we always want to look at with   the council and make sure customers understand so  2020 for bill is the second column from the left   we a lot of times look at the mid volume user I  will tell you the majority of our users in this   community so 135,000 customers are residential  customers they use 50% of the water but they're   obviously it's 90% of our customers or residential  customers they would fall in that low volume area   generally under 6,000 uh gallons per month so the  rate increase the recommended rate increase at   the 6.14% you can see that dollar change for the  2025 plan would be an additional $321 per month   for a low user $44.79 for a mid user keep going  further to the right uh that shows a comparison   to what the 2019 recommended rate plan was so if  you look at that low volume user the 2019 plan   would have been an increase of $250 53 cents over  the 2024 Bill and sorry I know I'm kind of going   backwards on this if you look at the difference  between the 2019 plan and the recommended 2025   is roughly 70 cents more than where we would  have been on that 2019 projected path um our   recommendation today and going forward would be  additional 70 cents per month for a low user on   top of that Pier cities comparisons we always like  to look at the I35 corridor I don't need to spend   a lot of time on this but Kansas City Omaha de Mo  Tulsa Oklahoma City and Fort Worth we are still   uh at what I think in a good place uh as far as  being affordability for rates this does look at   the midlevel user I'm not sure what this compares  to lower users but our total Allin Bill comparison   of $92 is 17% less than the next closest with  Fort Worth do have a quick question thank you   for showing pure cities are there any pure cities  that are less too you show us as the least of all   these Pier cities where there I think in the last  year or two we might have looked at we considered   some other cities of comparable size that weren't  along the I35 Corridor and if I remember there   was maybe one or two that were about the same or  lower but we were certainly in the bottom 10% of   affordability thank you yeah we try to use these  cities consistently for you so you've got um you   know comparable cities in the region there's we  used to do out liers and folks on either coast   and it just didn't seem to to give you the right  kind we're not just excluding any peer City just   because it's lower these are that's no and you'll  notice for a lot of purposes we try to zero in on   these cities even when it's not favorable when  we've done comparisons perfect thank you C can   we go back to the last slide real quick yeah  uh the one right um are these consistent as   far as percent increases are we increasing at  a certain percentage across the board or we are   we are same percentage across the board okay so  for Industrial and Commercial as well for for all   users not is that not true Jonny very last slide  all right well I'll get to that at the very last   slide okay uh good question and sorry I gave you  the wrong answer so we look at EPA affordability   M metric every year the EPA considers rates  affordable if the annual cost is at or below 4.5%   of the area's median household income so there's  a lot of information here uh the median household   income from Census Bureau site for Cedric County  is just over $66,000 which stalls just over   $70,000 that percentage for a mid ususer is 1.7%  with the 2025 recommended Bill currently 1.6% for   the 2024 Bill still considerably lower uh than  the 4.5% threshold that the EPA establishes for affordability assistance programs is something  we like to always talk about um the and I'll   show you what's here and you see the spike in  2023 we talked about last year for assistance   programs customer assist customer assistance  funds used federal funds uh from 2021 to 2023   helped Americans with utility expenses in the wake  of covid-19 assistance funds typically come from   customer customer donations and on10th of 1% of  water and sewer rate revenues as earmarked by the   city council in 2016 in 2024 that on10th of 1% is  approximately $190,000 in 2025 it would be $22,000   customer donations to the H2O program more than  doubled after introducing online giving options   this year so private donations in 2023 were  just over $4,000 this year we received 9 $9,000   as of July 31st so uh people can donate to that  through their water bill and so they've stepped   up and doubled it from 2023 we are expecting uh  for 2024 to provide $55,000 in assistance uh so   you can that's considerably less than what was  available we continue to do everything we can   through messaging on our water bills working with  the comm's team at different times when we start   talking about our rebate programs too to make sure  that folks who qualify know about these programs   because they can provide valuable assistance user  fees I don't want to spend a lot of time on this   is something that we do every two years just to  give some quick examples of account this is for   cost recovery only we analyze everything that we  do uh um to make these things happen including   driving time that was something that we didn't  have included before I can tell you uh when we   in our city Engineers office with what they do  for RightWay permitting that's critical that   takes a lot of the time so it's got to be part  of that consideration just as an example but for   setting up new accounts uh the fee would increase  almost $20 shut off for non payment shut off for   non-payment is an increase of $12 remember this is  done every two years standard grease maintenance   fee which for routining Clear manholes Downstream  of Grease producing businesses without a trap   outside of the building that increases $20 a year  again for full cost recovery backflow testing   increases $4 per year just some quick examples  this is all part of what we'll be bringing to   you later with a full schedule of increased fees  so who who pays all of these fees for example the   grease maintenance is that restaurants only that  would be those that are required to have that by   code yeah that'd be restaurants okay and the rest  of them just depending on yeah so we've got uh   licensed backflow testers there are companies  that have to be we've got 25 th000 backflower   venters across the city have to be tested annually  have to be rebuilt every five years so that's   contractors that get those fees uh the first  two or direct fees cost for um our staff to to   to be able to to maintain these monitor these  keep track of these everything that goes with   administrating these fees so the first two would  would come back to our staff for cost recovery one other thing we thought we might look at  really don't know what this would do uh for   revenues because it might end up just being an  incentive to for more payment on time but our   late payment fee is equal to 1.5% of the unpaid  balance that's been in place for many many years   if you look at these same piure cities um Fort  Worth is at 10% wi to tulson Oklahoma City are   all the same we are recommending an increase to 5%  again we'll come back to this when we talk to you   formally at the council meeting from 2021 to 2023  the city averaged over 10,000 payment arrangements   annually so we try to work with people anytime  that we can on payment arrangements approximately   8% of those were kept so we we had we had to start  10,000 payment arrangements not a lot of them   stay in place 8% were kept 5% were cancelled  87% were broken and less than 1/10th of 1%   are still active that doesn't mean we're not  going to keep moving forward and still doing   that um the utility is authorized to wave fees  when warranted we waved about just under $100,000   during that same period of time costs associated  with late payments are administrative time to   update accounts reach out to customers with  calls and notices and eventually send accounts   to collection so something we want to think about  again I this isn't necessarily being offered up   as a revenue generator it's really hard to tell  where this would end up it could be that this   provides more incentive to get more payments on  time which is a value to us also do some of the   actions that are on the previous slide as well as  this right now what's happening are for instance   those who are not doing appropriately what they  should on the grease maintenance or if they're   not making payments or if you go to the next slide  those who are not paying on time those costs are   being shifted to the our to our good customers  right to the those who are making payments on a   regular basis so the cost we have for collection  we're not able to recover all of that from those   who are not paying us especially those that we  have to go into collections because we'll only   recover a percentage of that through our final  collection so this is an I you know I like this   idea of a late fee percentage increase so that  we can discourage that and not have that burden   fall on our regular rate payer what what are some  of the exemptions that we can use the wayers on   for people who are late paying their fees good  question we we I I would tell you especially   since my time being involved with them but we we  try to really work with people any way that we   can any type of hardships that there might be I  mean there's Financial thresholds qualifications   first and foremost on the assistance program  that qualify but we try to work with people   whether it's changing ownership whatever it might  be I'll I'll just tell you with as many customers   as many customers as we have we see people quite  often try and just get out of paying a bill but   there are legitimate issues that come up I think  our staff has done a wonderful job of of being   empathetic and trying to work with them every we  can I there's I can get you some better examples   we hear quite a few different things that maybe  we wouldn't expect but we try to be as tolerant   as we can give people a chance and we make  a determination of how far we need to take   that well I appreciate that I know we got a lot  of good-hearted people that work for the city I   would be more comfortable if we have a policy that  can outline that or maybe some sort of dictation   to staff as far as when it's appropriate to weigh  fees you know especially for people who you get   a little behind in your bills and it take costs  money to pull yourself out of it we usually don't   wave fees but we will give a payment plan allowing  someone to make payment over an extended period of   time I don't think there's many times we we'll  weigh fees if we know there's a problem with a   meter or if someone's had a leak U that they did  not know about and I think in those cases we have   waved def I'll give you a good example and thank  you for that manager we don't ever write off water   consumption if somebody has a leak what'll happen  usually is they'll move into another tier we will   look at the last couple years during that same  period of time and we'll bring their their rate   back to that tier one fear over that same period  of time sub stantial cost savings we don't write   off the water consumption just like the manager  said we're not going to generally wave fees or   anything else it's working out payment plans it's  working out other accommodations so thank you for   that clarification well it's not the fees overall  it's the late fees being able to work through some   of the late fees with somebody a grandma who maybe  their social security check went on the wrong day   for the month or that's where those payment plans  come into play and those types of agreements so   that those can be avoided yes all right one other  thing I can you sorry I'd like a followup to that   I I just want instead of anecdotal actual um  situations where late fees are being um levied   on someone I think the concept here is that the  water is consumed or water is used you can't put   the water back into the system so it was consumed  in some way so there is a cost to an individual   whether late or not late so I'd like I guess more  of that information so that we can help Community   understand that we the city of Witchita tries its  very best to accommodate uh individuals who may   have just forgotten but they but we are trying  to encourage people to whether it's uh do auto   payment so that there won't be a late fee because  it will automatically be taken out of your um your   account so can you give us more of those numbers  instead of just anecdotally well we can I can give   you some good examples there's a lot going on you  heard me talk about that 10,000 number because we   also get folks just quite frankly that try to take  advantage of it too so we have to a lot of things   to sort through staff does a great job but I think  what I could certainly put together is some really   good examples of where we have done this no and  there's not a lot of typical days we see some   of the same types of requests but I I that's a  great question we can certainly show you what   it is that we do would you be able to show repeat  sure customers that keep doing it over and over   again or are there customers that do that over and  over again it varies it varies we continue to work   with people depending on the circumstances so I I  I know what you're asking for and we can get you   that information okay next thing I wanted to talk  about I don't want to spend a lot of time on this   but this will look a little bit familiar something  that we talked about before moving into water   mandatory water restrictions in August was talking  about our tiered rate structure so I'll focus on   The Bold numbers on that residential inside City  so increase we have a tier one which is 110% of   average winter consumption winter consumption  average winter consumption is determined from   December to March throughout the rest of the year  your usage uh and determines which tiers you pay   in a lot of folks obvious viously get into  the warmer months and irrigation pushes them   into tiers two and three not quite as much as we  had we're still seeing some of that not quite as   much as we had of the last year but so what this  shows now is the fees associated with tiers one   two and three this applies the residential  and Commercial customers both I mentioned   we have 135,000 residential customers we have  almost 17,000 commercial customers um that use   a considerable amount of water these increasing  ing block rates like we have are recognized by   the water industry including American Waterworks  Association as an effective and efficient way   to promote conservation this is done across the  country in many communities uh I talked about new   Jen earlier we engage them in April of this year  to analyze our existing rate tiers and see if it   made some sense to try to impact conservation  which I'll show you some other numbers in   just a moment the goal was to achieve maximum  conservation while remaining Revenue neutral so   you heard me talk earlier about potential Revenue  loss because people are using less water the using   less water is great we've got a balance what  that Revenue loss looks like this was set out to   try and kind of balance both we see almost 20% of  our annual water consumption is during the hotter   months during the summer months and most of that  is from discretionary water use for IR irrigation I don't have anything more to add to this today  there's a next slide I want to look at with you   too but if desired we could revisit this uh to  further incentivized water conservation one of   the biggest issues we ran into was those  177,000 commercial customers quite a few   of those commercial customers necessarily move  into especially tier 2 during the hotter months   with dis non-discretionary water use what they  have to have for cooling processes production   ction whatever it is that they're doing um we  talked about Spirit I'll just give that as an   example again when we were considering this we  looked at their usage numbers and talked to them   about where that water goes to it would be an  increased uh cost of $3 million a year to them   if we were to consider uh raising these tier 2 and  three fees has nothing to do without sort outside   watering so there's other businesses I'm sure  that impacts too trying to figure out how that   impact 17,000 commercial customers is going  to be a real challenge are there tiers even   for commercial customers these these tiers are  the same if you look over to those far to right   columns you'll see the commercial inside City  commercial outside City on this it all applies   that's where the challenges if you get I'm certain  there's smaller manufacturers that support the   aircraft industry that need cooling water during  the hotter months that probably move into tier   two would be impacted by a rate increase that has  nothing to do with outdoor watering so that's our   challenge I think if we want to look further into  this we're going to have to investigate that more   and maybe look at a different way to do this you  know there can you say that one more time about   the water with the manufacturing whatever you  just said so there's uh and the spirit was a good   example Spirit during the summer that months they  need cooling water right for their manufacturing   processes uh they already pay tier 2 and three  rates it's part of their business model if we   were to raise the rates that I'm going to show you  in just a minute that we talked about previously   we had considered a possible rate increase it was  going to add $3 million to their annual cost while   using non-discretionary water for running their  business has nothing to do with watering outdoor   irrigation my other comment was I'm sure there's  smaller uh machine shops around that support the   aircraft industry that the same thing would happen  to not on the scale of $3 million but they would   see they probably pay tier 2 rates now part of  their business model part of their financing plan   anything we would add to it though we don't have a  way to separate that right now so give you a quick   idea of some options we could look at this would  be a lot to undertake uh ideally if you could   figure out a way to get all commercial businesses  to be on a separate lawn meter right how you go   about doing that considerable cost that's another  base rate fee that's 177,000 more meters not they   probably not all of them are irrigating but that's  a bunch more meters that we've got to maintain   that's more counts we've got to track something  we could look at maybe commercial customers could   go to more of a uniform rate uh that would be  more focused on tier one base rate because most   of their water is focused on what they do as  a business and even if they water outside it's   not going to add a lot to it I think those are the  types of things we could look into further but we   would need some time to do that I don't think this  is something that we can consider now but I wanted   to bring this up again this is the numbers we  looked at previously this is not a recommendation   today this is what we talked about prior to the  mandatory water restrictions and so with our   goal if you look at that right column uh basically  tier two and three rates more than doubled um but   this is what's needed to incentivize continuing  to incentivize conservation New Gen advice that   other communities have done the same thing because  most of this water use on the residential side is   discretionary water use outdoor if you look at  the revenues we tried to remain Revenue neutral   considering our numbers that was pretty close and  that saved an estimated 1.4 billion gallons a year   I can't I tried to look and see it's really hard  to tell how that compares to what happened with   water restrictions so far I'm sure our mandatory  water restrictions to one day week saved more   water than that did for what it's worth so that's  all part of that puzzle we would have to examine   I just wanted to show you this again I don't have  a recommendation today but I think it's something   that we could look at going forward especially as  we continue to navigate the drought and give you   an idea of what options could be um you could have  a requirement that all commercial and Industrial   businesses have irrigation meters and then we  could apply these tiered rates new tiered rates   to their irrigation uses which would put them on  the same footing is residential that that's just   one I mean there's going to be a lot of options  that we're going to ask the consultant to take a   look at okay goad go ahead I'm interested in more  about the conservation tier grades as well if we   want encourage conservation and we're trying  to address the water water rates I think that   probably makes the most comprehensiv I know that  there might be a lot more going into that you know   when we talk about spe and particular they use a  lot of gray water do we delineate between that in   terms of pricing right we do there's a different  rate for the ReUse correct so there is a different   so their reuse is already probably a lower rate  than it it's already it's at a separate rate yes   it's it's a different rate so I'd be interested  in exploring this more because I think it it   solves two issues and not just one facing the  community and a long-term issue too I think it   probably makes sense for us to move forward with  further investigation with our consultant to see   uh you know right now yesterday it rained for  the first time in 27 days right so uh looking   at the forecast of a dry winter it's not likely  that we're going to be in much different place in   the rat now come next spring um let's hope that  we are but either way we really need to start   looking forward to the future even if we come out  of this drought at some point in time like we did   in 2013 we need to do everything we can to protect  ourselves going forward which I know you know so I   think this is prudent that we move forward with  this evaluation it's not going to be something   that we'll have a part as part of a recommendation  in December but I I would like to move forward and   look at this more and what our options might be um  could we look at possibly breaking it up into for   commercial only for five tiers I I think we can  uh and in discussions I had with new Jen in April   they've got a really good handle on this and they  have a really good idea of what's worked in other   communities and what will be impactful so we'll  rely on their expertise but sure we can I think   we can look at just about anything okay taking  that into consideration you just mentioned there's   17,000 commercial customers and if adding 177,000  meters irrigation meters um what would the cost be   on uh staff time I think those are also things to  take into consideration We'll add that too and you   know not all of them are going to have it there's  a lot of businesses in this community that don't   irrigate uh but those who want to if you looked at  that scenario would be required to do that we will   absolutely include that is part of the analysis  because there does again every single one of   those meters that is added we own and maintain  so it adds to our burd also which has to be part   of that rate structure to recover those costs  okay uh this is the last regular slide I have   I'm going to mention this real quick and then go  to the other few that way I can be done with this   because I know you've got a whole another item to  go so our next steps is to refine recommendations   for 2025 based on the feedback we've gotten today  it's been great feedback there's some additional   information we want to provide and then sometime  in December we'll be requesting approval for the   2025 rate fee adjustments um I wanted to show  you this one in particular this again is the   combined all-in debt coverage the red line being  the minimum required to 120% black line being uh   based on our recommendation of 6.14% rate increase  green is if we stay on track with the uh projected   or suggested rate increases from 2019 so you  can see we dip well below that red line for   a considerable number of years I don't want to  spend a lot of time on this if you want to look at   this later uh this is what I talked about for CIP  changes to stabilize rate adjustments you can see   on the right column where we delayed projects we  reduced projects we respread funding to different   years doing everything that we can to help the  cause here this is just a second one of the   same thing that second line down is that line I  mentioned is almost $100 million to run a parallel   pipeline from cheni when you asked about elero  utilities optimization uh this was the $7 million   we talked about I won't spend a lot of time here  some of the savings came from large water mean   water water meter Replacements over the time as  water meters start to fail they're not accurate   readings so we're losing a lot of water revenue  from from inaccurate readings renewable renewable   energy program LED replacements uh things that  we were doing with our sewer treatment PL to   take some loading off of that working with the  Southwest power pool and then we've got modeled   savings which I talked about we'll do with the new  plant on preventative maintenance over corrective   this gets to your question council member H Heisel  that I'm glad Joanie was here to correct me uh   this shows what the rate impacts would be across  the classes so if you look at 2025 in particular   top left water um just water sewer combined  to 6.14 at the bottom but a residential Comm   customers is different commercial is actually more  this is all part of our cost of service analysis   over years for Equity to balance the equity based  on what it cost to get water to each of the types   to maintain the facilities and so that came to  me after you asked that question of why these   are not the same but this gives you an idea of  what these looks like this does show a projection   for 10 years I mentioned before and I'll mention  one more time we want to do everything we can to   keep this level to keep this predictable to limit  spikes but we really need this conversation every   year especially with the economic climate we're in  to make sure that we're still on the right track   so that's the last thing I had thank you for  bearing with me and I I'm happy if you got any   more questions is the the residential or the sewer  rates higher than the commercial because of usage um that's a good question Janie on the sewer just in balancing the cost recovery and and  so every time we do this cost of service analysis   every five years these can change uh but looking  at our overall cost to operate and maintain the   system some years this will be different than  others as far as that balance yeah it looks like   they're all above the commercial up until council  member but not by a lot if you remember the last   uh cost of ser service study it indicated that  we were undercharging commercial and water and   overcharging residential and that's why you see  the spread the way that you do they found that we   were pretty close with residential commercial  shading commercial residential a little more   favorably under the old plan and so this is meant  to try to equalize that but the numbers are still   very close on the sewer side it's water where we  had the biggest differential yeah yeah still you   know I'm going to speak up for the residents you  know how I am um the the cheny East Dam repair   um from two slides ago is that's different than  what we that's different than what we're working   okay so the east of the main dam is is basically  just an norn Dam and we did another analysis and   determine we could put that off for now okay um  are we still are we doing anything to reach out   to especially uh commercial businesses right now  about um altering some of their watering habits   come spring because we all know we've all gotten  the emails from people you know this business had   their their you know watering three times a week  or in the middle of rain or anything like that so   are we reaching out and kind of relaying like this  is the time to change your your meters your timers   to make sure that you're within our drought plan  we are we're working with the com teams comm's   team on that you know our concern is as we go  through the fall and winter months here with   better temperatures right and the water demands  are down already that as we start to come around   the spring folks kind of might forget where we  were at so so we're doing several things I would   tell you on November 8th after the agenda review  I'm going to be talking to the council uh about   updating on where we're at on drought response  plan and some of those issues that we're doing   we're trying to keep the out there as much as  we can I'll tell you one thing we're doing is   meeting with Wabba and the development community  in November to start talking about development   and building standards going forward in water use  that doesn't necessarily apply to commercial well   I'll give you a quick example uh we one of  the best things that we could do is go away   from building new developments that's all fesad  right it's going to be a hard sell it's a quality   of life issue people like that but rescue yards  take more more water than just about anything um   and no matter where you're at but we're going  to start having those discussions so we can   get input from the industry get input from the  public but but I think you hit on a tremendous   point and our goal um comms is working to  have some billboard messaging through the   winter to talk about the fact that we're still in  a drought continue to conserve don't come around   to February and March and Reed your yard and and  plant a lot of stuff that's going to need water   we've got to keep that message going forward  just as we have to this point but Gary you also   where you have received complaints and we have  a specific address we are investigating those   we have issued warnings we go back and look at  their accounts and their water use um to determine   whether there's validity to the complaint as  well yes thank you we we've really stepped   that enforcement up especially on Commercial  businesses when you get multiple locations uh   we have met specifically with them staff has  talked to them about the need we've had them   provide proof that they've changed their timers  and done those things so we're going to continue   to find all those ways that we can to make  improvements I appreciate that um and and in   the discussion that you'd have with wava I've  heard a lot of people talking about setting   developments and houses up that that are new  builds for uh using recycled water as well so   two cents on that one same part of that discussion  thank you yes the last last thing I have um do we   have any alternate sources for um the fund to  help out people with their water bills is it or   is it just the the donations only essentially  it's the I and sorry if I went over that too   quick we we utilize 0 one% of the annual rates  which for 2025 is around $200,000 that's where   we start with because the donations to the fund  even though they've doubled we're only about 9,000   so far this year so the core of that comes  from the commitment from the rates okay yeah   yeah I didn't know if there were any additional  services or additional pots of Revenue to help   so far like I said for what it's worth uh in 2024  we're projecting a usage of $55,000 So based on   what we've seen the last couple of years I think  we're in a pretty good place balancing what the   the requests and the needs are okay appreciate it  how much is in that fund right now um I can get   you that I don't know that I know exactly what  it's in right now we had 192,000 for 20124 and   we're projecting using 55,000 so my guess is by  year end will'll be 140,000 left something like that just keeps accumulating here after  you you don't use up all these funds it   will continue it does not necessarily continue  accumulating next year we'll start again with   that point .01% it's all factored in for  next year all in of what needs to be done   how much was utilized last year uh I don't  know if I have that number from last year   but I can get you that number so far I mean I  don't we've had this discussion in the past so   far we just haven't seen that many requests  we're continuing to do everything we can to   get word out there on how this works uh and who  qualifies but so far we haven't even needed the   of 1% to cover what the requests have been is  it something we can include in the water bill   we have okay we have and that's where uh folks  are notified that they can also contribute to the fund thank you I know there's a lot of  information but I really appreciate your time all right thanks for hanging in there and for this  opportunity uh Lindsay Baka director of Arts and   Cultural services with the city manager's office  um this is a an overview at the request of Council   of a 10e kind of um checkup on on our public  art program and since we started the percent   bar ordinance a few years ago kind of where were  we before where are we now um one thing I do want   to point out just right away is that we've been  in the public our industry uh really since the   beginning our collection uh spans 132 years uh  dating back to 1892 with the gargoyle series on   the original City Hall that's now the the witto  CED County Historical Museum um I think this just   is really Testament to the city's uh commitment  to our cultural legacy and our the history and   our community and something that uh throughout  the last 132 years we've uh continued to grow   the collection in unique and different ways and  thinking about the the city of witch's Mission   and how it connects with public art I thought  it would be a great kind of preface to showcase   where public art falls into the city's Mission  overall um our mission is to keep witto safe   grow our economy build Dependable infrastructure  and provide conditions for living well and public   art hits all of these points in unique and  different ways um I do want to just highlight   uh number three because I think that this is  an area that maybe not everyone thinks about   when they think about public art but it's really  a great uh Source or for an alternative solution   to project challenges so I want to highlight  the two uh images we see here I think we're   probably most familiar with the the the troll our  beloved troll uh along the river uh that project   was a really unique opportunity for the community  there was a former storm water um retention Basin   as I understand it that was no longer operable  uh instead of a huge environmentally impactful   project that could have been very expensive uh  the project designer in the city at the time   decided this could be an opportunity for art so  a really affordable Solution that's really kind   of uh been a fun opportunity for the community  to wrap their head around and it's now a beloved   part of our our Rich uh public art tapestry  so um it was a very affordable solution and   one that has really transformed the way we view  that space and then the the image on the top is   uh artwork that the more I dive into our public  art collection the more I learn about it uh and   these wind organs there's a series of them  along the river trail um just north of deleno   and this is a really unique opportunity for these  windpipe organs to block or to kind of be a visual   barrier between some infrastructure that would  otherwise not be super aesthetically pleasing   if you're on the River Trail itself so these wind  organs were an opportunity to keep people from   climbing on those infrastructure opportunities  that instead of doing a densing we utilize public   art as an Al alternative to both enhance the the  visitor experience as you're on the river Corridor   and to provide more safety to that infrastructure  that we want to prevent the public from climbing on moving into our budget goals uh for the next  year we've heard loud and clear that there's   some some key areas that Council would like us to  focus on and public art plays right into them when   thinking about crime prevention there's a lot  of studies about how public art in particular   um has uh an opportunity to prevent crime um it's  kind of goes towards the Broken Window Theory and   we have uh pride of place and a sense of belonging  when we have aesthetically elevated spaces they're   much less likely to receive property damage um  that's not always the case it's not to say we   never see graffiti or damages to public art but  it really uh has has seen a national Trend trend   on preventing uh crime uh wherever there is public  art integrated in terms of Economic Development I   think this this is where our our beloved Keeper  of the Plains comes into play um it's a great   example of every night hundreds of visitors  are coming to our community uh to view this   work of public art um and the economic uh that  are are is spurred because of that tourism and   just that Civic engagement uh can be seen over  and over again um and improving roads this is   an area that maybe we don't always think about  where public art comes into play I've got some   examples later on in the presentation but public  art is a really unique opportunity to really um   calm traffic in areas where there might be some  confusing Lanes or confusing turns um public art   is an opportunity to slow down traffic and help  guide them through through an area we see it now   as a National Standard with roundabouts being a  great opportunity for public art to slow traffic   and really guide them in different areas when  we think about public art uh it's not always   just a sculpture in front of a building not to  say it's not that but it's also a whole bunch   of other stuff uh so it can be an integrated  site specific installation um it could include   Bridges and roadways and for that I'd really  like to challenge us to think about gateways   um and entryways into the community whether  that's along um a major Interstate or off of   Main Street we have a great Gateway sculpture um  right right off of Kellogg um environmental and   educational we have educational panels throughout  our uh Urban environment especially on our green   belts and on our um on the river Trails a lot of  educational p pels even at keeper Plaza we have   educational panels that talk about the history  of our community that's part of what we consider   uh Art and Design projects um we have memorials  and monuments a Veterans Memorial Park that whole   series of memorials is actually part of our public  art collection an unexpected counter encounters uh   witchta has so many unexpected encounters within  our public art collection that we should really be   uh prideful of and really challenge ourselves to  take a um a scavenger hunt amongst our collection   I think the troll is a great example uh you don't  often see pictures of it and that's at the request   of of the artists it's not on maps it's supposed  to be an Easter egg that you stumble up and it's   got some lore attached to it but we have a whole  bunch of them throughout our pools um the the   Gerber bronzes across Douglas there's I challenge  everyone to look up at at one of the stop lights   and there's a hawk on top of one of our stop  lights we have these unexpected encounters that   really just help braid in our cultural tapestry  into our community and make witch interesting   place Lindsay you mentioned educational panels  I had the opportunity to be with council member   hoisel at cow toown um where they have three um  educational panels that they would love to see   somewhere along deleno along the river it talks  about wit's history and so I was just curious how   that gets Incorporated how how does that they  already bought the panel so it's not anything   that anyone needs to buy so I'm not exactly  familiar with that project in particular uh but in   the cow Town's artifact collection belongs to the  board so it's not city property but if it's about   putting educational panels along the river  uh that's something that we can definitely   explore later in the presentation I talk about  all the gifts the community receives we have a   lot of art that's been gifted to the community  that that could be included within well knowing   that there's improvements along the west side  of the river I was just curious how that could   come into um fruition yeah it well we're willing  to explore any opportunity as it presents itself   um and just lastly I think it's very  intuitive but public art celebrates our   Rich cultural diversity and our cultural and  Heritage preservation and then just if it's   not clear most public art that we have in our  collection hits multiple ones of these bullet   points it's not just this is an educational  component it could also be cultural it could   also be environmental it's hard to talk about  public art without looking at some so I've got   a lot of pictures ridle throughout our  slides um I think all of these examples   are ones that we've had throughout the history  of our collection but maybe elements that aren't   always considered public art um but really tell  the story of our community so the clock tower in   deleno I think we're all very familiar with it  um that's part of our public art collection uh   we have a very beautiful airport um that features  art throughout it including the educational panels   um that was part of our art element or art budget  for that project but the Ed Carpenter it's called   a loft and I challenge you next time you're in the  airport uh these series of uh of panels that that   span the entire entry of the terminal are just  quite stunning as you're going up the escalator   look up it's a really stunning piece of our our of  our collection that anyone who's coming in or out   of our community has the opportunity to enjoy uh  on on the top right you see a bus stop uh that's   artwork by El nick bachas uh and that's kind  of integrated design uh the art is part of the   overall bus stop itself when we think about how we  mainten how we maintain and service the collection   it's really a collaborative approach from across  many departments uh the Limestone walls along the   museums on the river complex that's actually part  of our public art collection those are are uh site   specific works of art throughout uh that museums  on the river and I again I'm going to make a lot   of challenges today because I really think the  community uh should celebrate this collection   that we have but along the those Museum signs uh  there's the elements of the river woven between   it so part of those kind of what could be seen  as cracks or really the river that's uh going   through those Limestone walls and then one of  my personal favorites in the collection is the   Lindberg panel in the Kansas Aviation Museum that  dates to 1935 by LW clap again challenge you next   time you're at the museum look up at the facade  of the building it's a really stunning gorgeous   piece of our collection moving right along into  our Arts and Cultural strategic plan that was   passed earlier this year it's all woven together  and and in in partnership with the city's overall   mission but I do want to just point out uh part  of our surveying process and the planning process   uh was we asked the community where should the  city be playing in the Arts and Cultural sector   and public art was the number one uh respondent  of the survey of uh with the most people saying   that we should be in the public art industry  the other top uh top four are listed there as well now looking at the design Council um  just kind of a general overview our records   indicate that we've had some sort of public  art Advisory Board uh of some sort it's changed   names maybe a couple times but uh in Earnest since  1989 we've had some sort of uh governing body over   over our public art and aesthetic design uh as  it stands today our design council is a 11 member   appointed board um that's appointed by the mayor  uh and it has a series of professions that are   required so we have to have two architects two  Landscape Architects two Engineers two artists   one graphic artist and two atlarge seats um  and I do just want to shout out that we are   currently looking for a landscape architect so  if anyone's watching or uh knows of a landscape   architect that would be interested in serving on  this uh commission we currently have a vacancy   in that area um those do follow our general  boards and commissions guidelines um and they   ultimately make recommendations to city council  we meet once a month um every first Monday of   the month at 10 A.M uh these are volunteer  positions they're robust meetings because   we really uh look at a lot of different areas of  of the city CIP projects that are coming up the   purpose of the design Council by the ordinance is  to make recommendations to city council of the or   incorporation of Art and aesthetic design into  public projects uh to make recommendations to   develop and Define design criteria for public  improvements uh to make recommendations for   the appropriateness of inclusion of public Art  and Design into a public into a project and to   serve as an advisory capacity uh to the city  and to City staff and really act as a liaison   Bridging the Gap between public private entities  and artists and arts groups we have a lot of   uh interested parties in the private sector  who are curious like how do I put a mural in   my building or I'm interested in having some sort  of art incorporated into my my new business and   we advise on that as well and we steer them into  the design Council when it's appropriate however   we don't necessarily have um overview of that  but we provide consulting services along those   elements since you just mentioned the murals would  you be able to um also share how community members   can see city of witcha public art murals versus uh  community members and business owners who decide   to invest and put art sure that's a great question  I've got a slide here coming up about our public   art art public art archive.org which is where  the city's public art collection is listed in   full just had a meeting last week with someone  from the uh public who's really interested in   now that we've got the city's collection the old  Rich's collection is also listed there's all this   other art how do we get that listed as well so  there's kind of a a crowdsourcing campaign that   we're hoping to entertain as cap capacity permits  uh coming up but as it stands anyone can submit um   known artwork into the public art archive um that  we can hopefully build that map out even further   but public art archive.org is where you can  see the city's collection in full including our murals so the design Council does oversee uh  the public art itself but they're really over   overseeing all the different design elements  that go into a different uh Capital project   so this slide is just to Showcase some of the  elements that they look at um it can include   flooring um the left image here is the the new  carpeting that's going into the Westlink Library   development uh as along with like the different  color swatches and uh types of wall coverings and   floor coverings uh on the right so they're really  looking at the overview of the project and all the   different Design Elements it's not just public  art that they're looking at overseeing and I do   want to just illustrate that every project has  some sort of wall covering some s sort of Floor   Covering so they all go through the design council  at some point regardless of if they have public   art or not they're all hitting it to make sure  that we have continuity and design so then the   percent for our ordinance uh which is a really  exciting thing that the city should be really   proud of uh we adopted it in Earnest in December  of 2019 uh to establish formally establish the   public art program by ordinance um to really  uh set aside the funding program into the CIP I   want to reiterate that we've been doing this for  many many decades the ordinance just changed how   how we do it so it just sets the funding  aside versus it being absorbed into the   project budget uh but we've been doing this for  many many decades uh the ordinance provides um   the guidance for the funding the selection CR uh  creation and the maintenance it sets aside could   set aside maintenance funding for public art of  which our design Council has approved these last   few years and establishes the responsibilities  relating to the administration of the public   art program uh and I think that last part is  really exciting and in my three years that I've   with the city we've been able to hire public  art manager so now we have a dedicated staff   member who's helping make sense of this  all so shout out to Jana uh who's in the   room who's really just helped make sense of our  132 year old collection because we haven't had   that dedicated person really tracking what we  have where it is how did we get it uh so this   assignment for today was really exciting to  look at the tenure overview I have a question   that might be applicable in this part um so  what art do we have um that is uh in store   now so I know we have the Lotus sleeves I know we  have one of the Jone arcs I know what are some of   the other pieces that we have um we have a statue  by Jean salaro I might have butchered his name um I'm trying to think of any others we have a  couple that are within offices that are more 2D   like paintings that haven't had a site  identified but they're not necessarily   in storage but aren't on public gaze my  guesstimate would be less than 10 people   pieces but I'd be happy to kind of put together  a listing and provide it to council okay thank   you but it's not as many as I think the public  might think that we have a large storage room   or large collection database that's offline we  do have several pieces that are but we're uh   couple weeks ago I think what prompted  this presentation was the presentation   for public art maintenance where we're  trying to get those works out of out of storage and then maybe one other moment to to talk  about here that we haven't done a full analysis of   comp cities or Pier CI I uh but in our brief  analysis we are a little bit behind the game   Tulsa's uh percent for art program is dates to  the late 60s um De Moine I think is the early 90s   even though we've been in this work our ordinance  is uh pretty far behind of where most of our Pure   cities are but that's part of today's assignment  that we didn't quite get fully to but we're still   working on the analysis to see what what the  National Standard is um across the board are are   most of them 2% or is that that's a a an a tough  question to answer because our 2% is different   the the total or the impact might be a different  Mark U but I would say an average there between 1   and 3% as a as a national average average in  our larger cities you might see something a   little bit different um their funding mechanisms  can can vary greatly I mean and and where where   it's located within a city can vary in the city  of Austin it's part of their Economic Development   Department um in other communities they put  it to the nonprofit sector where they have   the dedicated funding um I believe that's how De  Moine works and then they have a foundation that's   Distributing or managing those projects um so it  really can vary greatly interesting that it's in   uh the economic development department in some  places yeah well I mean when it's part of new new   builds or Capital overlays it it makes sense to a  certain degree especially for a city like Austin   that's doing these massive development projects  um I think where it's poised within our city is   very exciting too because we work across all the  different departments between Park Rec Library   Public Works where the projects are happening  and who the project managers are so while it's   healthy to look at our peer cities we still  want our program to work for witcha appreciate it and looking at the funding itself um the  ordinance uh states that an amount budgeted   for Capital Improvement projects financed by uh  go at large funding uh LSD or transient guest   taxes projects that are identified as iconic  projects are defined find uh in the ordinance   can be independ can independently have an amount  not to exceed 2% of the Project's budget added to   the project cost or art aesthetic improvements  so that one's a little clunky um in my tenure   since the ordinance was approved in December  of 2019 we have not identified a project as   such so although that's within the ordinance we  haven't put it to work just yet um I think we've   had a couple projects come up that maybe could  have been identified as such but weren't uh for   whatever the reason but we have not utilized  that part of the ordinance just yet which ones   were those um I I think like Chester Lewis is  a good example it predates the ordinance when   it when the project started so it wouldn't have  been identified at the time uh the project was   initiated uh but I think we can I I would say  it's an iconic project of of public art for   the community and then perent for art funds  are to be used for selection installation   Administration and maintenance of artworks  moving forward into the funding allocation   itself uh Department directors and staff present  annually to the design Council what uh New Capital   improve Improvement projects are coming up or  if the CIP has changed year to year uh we see   some projects go on the agenda or on on on the  project list and for whatever the reason they   might be pushed back they might be moved up uh  so we work with the design Council to to Showcase   where we think projects are going to fall uh in  the lineup and what might be uh a good project   for uh art funding consideration and and as such  what the appropriate level for funding would be   uh the design Council then designates the art  budget for the capital Improvement projects   again they have 2% of the overall CIP to use  um and the criteria that they look like is   really twofold the community impact and public  interest and the significance of the location   those aren't the only determining factors  but there those are two main criteria that   we look at um when determining if um a project  would be eligible or should be considered for funding okay okay um how public art is  commissioned uh we have done some changes   in this area over the last couple years uh really  we've taken the the selection of artists outside   of the project Prime team if you will uh and we've  done a separate call for artists to make sure that   there's Equitable access to the opportunities  uh that's something that was very clear when I   started with the community that they knew we were  spending money on Art but didn't have access to   the opportunities or weren't sure how to get  involved so we've now pulled that part of the   project out um and kind of separated so uh we now  do a open calls anytime we are going to hire an   artist or art consultant for a project you see a  graphic here for uh a call that we currently have   open for the Aransas River uh Corridor project um  so so we do that separately the the Project prime   or the lead architect or construction manager is  part of that selection process because ultimately   the artist or art consultant will be a sub  under them but we've pulled that out just to   make sure that there's Equitable opportunity uh to  participate um and we issue them through cafe or   callfor entry.org this is the National Standard  uh for for posting calls to Art uh since we've   done this we've seen a huge response from National  artists interested in participating which has been   really exciting and we've also seen our local  artists Elevate uh to to further understand how   they can be uh successful in bidding on projects  and it's also helped our local artists understand   and learn about opportunities outside of the  community so we're furthering uh the development   of the professionalism of our local artists uh  we have a selection committee for each project   that's comprised of City staff the project design  team itself different stakeholders and community   members really each project has its own unique  identity so the selection committee for the art   um can really vary project to project we've also  started including local artists on that selection   committee uh who are interested in participating  but maybe haven't successfully gone through the   project yet or gone through a call uh so that  they learn uh how how our process works I like   to use example of uh the first time I wrote  a grant I didn't get it and then I served on   a grant Review Committee and that's like oh  that's how you write a grant uh that's kind   of our philosophy here is to make sure that local  artists kind of understand how it works and once   they see everyone's submissions on a national  level that they're elevating their experience   as well in terms of project management uh art  consultants and artists work collaboratively   with the prime consultant the design team in  the city uh through the the concept design   itself through design development fabrication and  installation we like to say that the art is baked   into a project it's not just art that's put on the  project project at at the end um sometimes we're   really successful in this sometimes uh we're not  um but but we are working to make sure that the   art is really baked into the project from from  day one um Art and Design projects are brought   to the design Council for approval uh prior to  the RFQ being issued so when the project knows   it's going to have art they bring that call to  the design Council to say here's where we think   we're going to have the art we're looking for a  sculpture we're looking for this type of artist   we're looking for this type of media to be used  um where we think this is a local call or this   is an international call the design Council then  approves the RFQ process itself and the issuance   of that RFQ and then the art comes back at least  twice at 30% design and 90% design often it comes   back for a final final design uh so that the  design council is part of it every step of way   in the development of the project and I might just  point out at this point that I not every project   has an art consultant actually very few do um it's  really projects that have multiple artists working   on them or or more sizable budgets or a project  that might have more uh cultural sensitivity   or site specificness that requires uh just some  additional um additional support okay now here's   where um I have some updates um on on this slide  uh from when this presentation was submitted uh   so I handed out earlier at the beginning of this  meeting and hopefully council member tle if you're   still listening you receive this via email um the  the list of Public Funding by District District   or public art but spending by District over the  last 10 years this was a really um interesting   assignment to trying to figure out where where  things fell into the timeline of things uh but   just for those watching or those listening uh the  updated uh numbers are for district one uh about   $1.8 million mean spent across um six or seven  projects over the last 10 years uh in in District   Two only one project at 225 and also at District  three 225 across one project um then we have some   changes in the following on so in in District 4  uh we estimate about $1.8 million across three   projects that includes the airport Riverfront  stadium and the Aquas Aquatics master plan part   of it so very sizable projects make making up that  $1.8 million um in District Five we we estimate   $280,000 across two projects um including a  pool a harvest pool and pro Wetlands um and   in in Council district 6 we have a whole bunch of  projects that that total about $3 million based on   our estimates of course as soon as I submitted  this even this morning we thought of a couple   other projects um that that we weren't quite sure  where to put so nafer park and Jackie Robinson   Plaza um by all means have uh Creative Design  Elements within them but they weren't necessarily   part of our present our program so we weren't  quite sure where to put them uh but they are   listed at the bottom as well as a a larger list um  on your handout of projects are currently in the   works or are anticipated to start um coming soon  this slide right here shows all districts at 1.2   million for pools was there anything additional  to this um so so that's where uh the handout that   you have breaks the pools down per District we  had five pools that were part of that in uh I   believe four districts District Six has two pools  uh so we we really distributed those between the   pools uh between the districts evenly um and  that's where it's kind of tricky because many   districts um you all differ so much and thinking  of uh which district which district has a library   versus which district has multiple pools we know  there's users of all districts users of all these   facilities coming from different districts uh  but the art spending is really uh related to   what project is happening in the district so  the the project itself drives uh the placement   of art the art isn't selected by District  if that makes sense little It's tricky to explain so moving on I do want to just reiterate  that we have public art throughout the community   and this is uh mayor you you beat me to the  punon publicart archive.org we have over   300 Works um accessioned into our public art  collection um about 205 I believe are listed   on public art archive.org as we're trying to  update that but you can search it by map you   can search it by type of artist uh by media by  the title of work uh and more but we encourage   you to check out publicart archive.org  can I ask a quick question of course on   the one the picture with the highway yes  windal are those weeds covering up the art it's in the eye of the beholder I might  offer it looks like weeds it could be part   of the landscape I would say the art component  that uh uh we were responsible for would be the   relief within in the wall itself someone will  be offended that's native plant planting that   is intended to be there as part of the project  really yes okay you can see the flowering on   the left hand side of the a lot of weeds have  flowers too those are a little better defined   okay okay thank you um moving right never get  that landscape architect on the design Council   now um I do have a breakdown uh of of projects  by district and by budget uh that we can fly   through I'm happy to answer questions as I'm  able to about specific ones um for for this   project in particular this was a new airport  terminal I do have an update it's TBD listed   on the slide but uh our art budget for it  was $875,000 and that's that Ed Carpenter   piece and the informational panels that you see uh  throughout the the main uh entrance to the to the facility we also did a project across  Redbud we had three pause points is what   we call them of installations that  celebrate op our our Rich cultural   identity um and those three pause points  were $222,000 and were acquisition in 2015 I do have a correction here this  is in district one this is the the   Commerce Rail Yard parking there's  a stage and some some wheat stock   elements or light lighting elements  that you see throughout that's from 2017 we have a series of murals um under the   the the train tracks um at first  and second Street those are from 2018 this is another uh project budget that it  took us a minute to to find the number on uh but   this is the the sculptures that are along the  river near the river Vista Apartment Complex um   and we spent $442,000 on on the art installation  on the aesthetic design um of that area uh this is at the advanced learning library I'm sorry if I go back uh this project  was $400,000 the library project was $442,000   uh and we have several works of our integrated  throughout um the advanced learning library uh   we have art uh in the underpass on The Pedestrian  railings um on Douglas under the under the the   train tracks um we call these hobo railing  and it was designed by by Jeff Bess of LK architecture this project is from 2019  and some integrated design elements and   pause points uh there's five  AR installations from I35 to Hillside uh proc Wetlands has seen a couple  different phases of Art and has an upcoming   uh phase as well in 2019 we spent just shy  of $200,000 with RDG art studio uh for this   integrated design the Lotus blind itself  and I this is where we have some interesting   educational panels and the blind itself is  part of our art collection and this project   did receive an excellence and design  award for award um from ASLA Central States it was tough to pick pictures from from the  riverfront Stadium but uh the the stadium is just   covered in art uh we we completed this project  in 21 um and our project budget was $680,000   um we have so many uh murals throughout  the facility I I picked one that's one of   my favorites but in all of the restrooms  actually in the complex uh there's really   fun murals that would be wonderful selfie spots  um but then there's also some integrated design   elements the picture on the right is actually  a bike rack um that a scene at different angles   makes up the witch toop flag we also have um  I would say Specialty Lighting elements um and   and and different integrated design elements  throughout this whole complex Harry Street   Bridge is a recent acquisition in 2021 we spent  $225,000 on this project the aquatics master   plan that's where we had it previously listed  in all districts both and were able to break   it down uh District by District um across  five pools we spent about $1.2 million for   some really significant works of art um here  you have Orchard pool that actually the the   trees themselves that make up the shading elements  over uh over the seating area are part of our art collection this is East Kellogg uh we  spent about $225,000 on the design fees   of this project this is an interesting  project to kind of figure out where the   art is or isn't or kind of what our scope of  surfaces was um this is maybe a good example   where we would have been doing some sort of  um construction or concrete form liners anyway   uh but we had an artist involved to make that  more of an exciting uh welcome Gateway into the community Evergreen community center  and library in 2022 we installed several   wonderful murals uh by uh Heather Bayer  buers Armando and Carlos oh sorry just   a quick comment that was District or  District Six not my apologies thank in district one we have Chester Lewis  Park um I would like to point out that   this budget includes private funding  um that helps support the art in this project one of our more recent acquisitions uh is  on the Amed Bridge the light columns by artist Dan Gan and then one of our projects that's currently  in the work and getting a lot of attention is at   the witw Waterworks I do want to point out that  we still have one sculpture that's anticipating   installation actually found out yesterday  that it might be January of 2025 before it   gets installed we had a have a little bit  of a shipping delay um but we we do have   one more piece coming at the witw Waterworks  have you had any good comments on that at all   absolutely we have have you yeah the artist sure  haven't well I think CA Chen's uh work that's uh   pictured here uh she came out to the community  several times met with school students uh met   with University students about the integrated  design of approach and their design elements   are incorporated into the benches themselves and  that process of community development through the   through ART was such a meaningful opportunity  for those who were involved so those who are   involved absolutely loved it um the bike path  is relatively new um and still in progress so   I think once the bike path is finished um and  that whole project is finished um I think the   community might might change their minds a little  bit about about that project it's only got one way   to go so Lindsay um the the final piece that's  still missing can you talk about that piece what   is that piece um I can get back to you on it  with with specifics but it's quite a large uh   sculptural element that's going to go um along  the bike path uh in the tree line right in front   of the building so here you can kind of see the  water droplet in the in the very far distance um   it'll be to the right of that along the B path  as well but it's um an environmental sculpture   that's inspired by by the Ecology of water  uh and happy to provide some more information   about it I will say it's the largest and most  significant piece that's part of this project itself moving on into gifts we've  received quite a few gifts over the   last 10 years um including Operation  Freedom Memorial at Veterans Memorial Park this is one of my favorite pieces  in our collection uh this black bear   bosen that's on display at the mid America  all Indian museum um the picture really   doesn't do it justice because it's  36 feet long and 8 and 1 half ft tall we also received some murals through the  horizont community project that was funded   by the Knight found Knight Foundation  Humanities Kansas and the Kansas Arts commission some additional  murals through that same project there's another mural on um on the  Evergreen Library building that was gifted   to the community through through a similar  project through the horizont communities mural project the Tyrannosaurus Rex in front of the  uh Museum of World Treasures was a gift uh to   the city and it proudly sits in front of that  museum that's part of our collection we have   a series of 2D works that were have also been  gifted to us over the years this is one of uh   one of Anthony doer a prominent local artists  is gift to the community another painting this   one is on display at the advanced learning  library in one of the boardrooms um this   was a gift of the Arts Council as part  of a community um drawing project as I   understand it the mural in the Maya Angelou  library was a gift to the the community in   2021 very recently uh we had a gift of the  artist John walner of True Colors this is   a a mobile that's on display in the advanced  learning library we recently had a a sculpture   by Roland car of car art glass and Kei donate  a sculpture to the city that's on display in Oldtown and then these are just some examples  of additional projects that might come into   into fruition so uh the work on the left on the  left big red by David stz is uh on view in front   of the advanced learning library this is a piece  that was uh in storage as I understand it for a   long time it was maybe a gift to the community  or how we acquired it is uh still a little bit   unknown to me personally uh but it had been been  in restoration and conservation for many years   and we were really excited to to put this out on  display last year in front of the library uh it's   from 1985 but hasn't the the community hasn't view  it viewed it in in many years so we're excited to   bring this out and then the the mural on the right  is a a restroom uh facility in one of our parks in   Harrison Park on the Southeast side this is part  of a a collection of murals that was gifted To   Us by the artist um and and his cohort um these  were these popped up this past summer we have a   lot of murals throughout our Parks program  uh we recently unveiled a mural at the Great   Plains Nature Center over the weekend that was  donated to the community or part of a larger   granting process uh we had a new series  of murals go up at Lynette wood Woodard   uh Recreation Center we have artistic benches  throughout our Parks we've got art everywhere   that doesn't necessarily mean it's accession into  our public art collection uh but we will Champion   it anywhere we can um and we're so thankful for  the community members the individual artists and   the the projects have uh come to fruition  they uh gifted these opportunities to the community this is a listing of projects in  development it's by no means an exhausted   list um I think the handout that you have  that has the ongoing project list that's   perhaps a little bit more accurate  but these are all projects that are   in some uh sort of uh development phase  at the moment or we're wrapping them up still and then as part of today's assignment we  wanted to talk about destination Parks um these   are the seven parks that we've identifed ified  as destination parks and um uh Reggie was not   able to be here today but he provided me with  some language that destination Park is a large   inclusive park that's designated or designed to  attract people from other communities so it's   not just for local residents though though  it definitely is for them but it is also to   attract uh people from other communities they're  usually multi-generational and feature a variety   of Play Elements and equipment in the area uh  destination parks are also are often customized   designs to highlight locations of history or  culture and incorporate natural elements they   can also be a major attraction for local residents  and visitors um of note I just want to point out   the some developments that we've had at OJ Watson  uh we do have a public art project coming up at   that at that site but I think a great example of  a recent uh investment that we've done there as   a season venue uh that opened up uh in in recent  years would Riverside not count as a destination Park not necessarily I think it it  could be uh this was a list provided by Reggie you know if the city has any of um goino  SOS wooden sculptures like the Rapunzel or the   mermaid or any of that stuff that used to be  I think some of it got damaged but yeah um   do we still have any of that or is that City  the city's we have one that's in storage um   and then I do know that Botanica has several  within their Children's Garden that that by   him so those were funded by Botanica Inc  but in a city facility they become city property and with that that's all I have for  you I'm happy to answer any other questions   that you might have I'm very appreciative  of this presentation and really appreciate   it seeing all the different uh public art  pieces in all the different areas of our   community um my question really is more about  maintenance so I really like that we keep adding   but how are we maintaining and is there a deficit  do we need to put more into maintenance so that's   a great question thank you um definitely as  we grow our collection we want to be mindful   of Maintenance something that we've instituted  in the last couple years especially now that we   do the full RFQ and part of the contract we  have with the artists is that they give us a   detailed maintenance plan so that we know  how to care and protect it um I think one   of the differences between some of the community  projects I mentioned um the restrooms at at Park   facilities one of the reasons they're not in our  public art collection formally is we don't really   have capacity to maintain those so those those  we kind of separate out for the works that are   are developed in design and acquired through  our percent forart program those we want to   definitely maintain in perpetuity or until they no  longer serve the community um with those detailed   maintenance plans and as we are still trying  to wrap our heads around the whole collection   um currently we have $160,000 a year through the  CIP for art maintenance um this year 2024 is our   first year implementing those funds uh if we have  those funds in perpetuity or we have them lined   out in the next 10 years at the CIP uh we believe  that's going to um help get us back on track um   it's hard to say we would need more money although  I'm sure we would find something to do with it um   but but we think that that number is sufficient  to get us out of any sort of backlog that we may have um I've also had community members interested  in providing VES um so how does that work when a   Community member wants to provide art um I would  encourage them to reach out to myself or to Janna   uran our public art manager really depends on if  they have uh a location in mind if it's part of   a park or a memorial that we would might steer  it to the department itself um because we always   want to ask them does it serve a purpose in your  community or or at the site uh we've had someone   reach out about an airport project wanting to  donate a um a bust of Eisenhower to the airport   would that be appropriate how would that work um  so I think it's really Case by case we entertain   them um we reach out to the Departments and their  various advisory boards ultimately any public art   that's accessioned into the city's collection has  to be approved by the design Council lastly I love   seeing all the murals around the community I know  that you highlighted a few of them uh but there's   a very exhaustive list of murals all throughout  Witchita is there one place just for the murals   um in terms of a listing on public  art archive you can search by type   of art so you can select art or mural in  the the criteria that you're looking for   and it will show you all the murals that are  actively listed there and it could be private   individuals that can put that into the system  yes I would say they're not currently there   but the public could Implement them into  the into the software or into the platform Lindsay thank you I I I don't mean to be too  critical on the water treatment PL but I just   don't see $1.2 million wor the art there yet and  I maybe I'll be wooed by the final piece and and   and maybe that water drop is cool but it's so  close to the building the building light kind   of diminishes the the light coming through it um  maybe it could be recited somewhere just an idea   not an art expert at all and I do appreciate  a lot of the art around the city I do really   like it so uh did thank you for doing a great job  we appreciate thank you fair enough I would say   this art uh is for everyone but that doesn't  mean that Everyone likes every single piece   of art I think we want to make sure we have  somethinge for everyone in the collection um   and hopefully you find a favorite piece somewhere  else in the collection uh we do have the capacity   with sculptures that they can be recited as as  needed um we did recite U the work that has not   been installed was supposed to go somewhere  else in the facility but then we realized   you know the sight lines just don't work that the  community is not going to be able to enjoy it so   we've then recited it to its going to be current  location when it is cited so you're not seeing   $1.2 million there because it's not there uh so  so we can reassess when it's out there uh what you   think about it okay thank you see I know we may  do this in some locations I know we actually do   this in some locations as well but in particular  my office I have pieces and collection items from   Aviation Museum or the Kansas Aviation Museum and  Ben's going to yell at me saying which Aviation   Museum Kansas Aviation Museum and um I think it  would be great if we had opportunities in all of   our public buildings to display collection items  that are at our museums that aren't necessarily   or that could be permissible to leave the museum I  know there are some pieces that have to stay there   for security reasons but I mean even if it's the  Public Works building or something else so we're   displaying the artwork from a lot of our Museum  collections maybe that inspires people to go to   the museums if it's collection pieces that can  lead Museum yeah I think that that last part is   where we get a little bit tricky as long as we  can uh maintain the Safety and Security of th   those items that kind of really dictates where it  can go all of our museums have unique collections   management policies not all the collections  Belong To The City so it gets kind of tricky of   what we can and can't uh distribute and what their  loan policies are and what their advisory boards   permit but something definitely we would love to  explore more art for more people everywhere is   always a win for me so happy to explore explore  that further good afternoon Lindsay I appreciate   the thorough report that you've done here that's  uh quite a bit in here um I do appreciate it and   all of the art that we do have around the city  because I know sometimes I think we overestimate   our ability for economic development when report  after report after report that comes out talks   about things like the Arts and um the parks and  whatnot actually driving and bringing businesses   here because they want a higher quality of life  so um I do appreciate all the work that um we've   done I my little Southside thing over here um  I would like to see some more on the Southside   um pretty STK to see if if if you look at the map  just everything north of Kellogg south of Kellogg   I understand downtown's going to be the center  of a lot of it but um we do have some money from   uh some Hyatt funds um for murals in the Third  District I just want to put that out there now now   just that way um if anybody's watching we would  love to have more murals there and we do have   some funding and I'm excited to see as we go along  with uh the plane view project seeing something um   similar to what they've done at some of the other  uh neighborhood Resource Centers and community   centers making sure that um just the diversity of  the community is celebrated the diversity of the   Third District uh hopefully will be celebrated  at the plan View Center as well so aside from   that thank thank you for all your work on this  thank you if I may just thank you for prompting   the economic uh impact opportunity we know what  the the local nonprofit arts and culture sector   uh drives in terms of our economic Prosperity we  don't have really good data on public art itself   but I think if we look at National standards uh  public art that may or may not have been popular   when it was installed we know our huge drivers  of of Tourism and economic development I think   the Bean in Chicago is like a perfect example  of when it went up the community was like what   is this um but now it's a must stop whenever you  go there Statue of Liberty our most iconic work   of art probably in the the our communal history  uh collection in the US a major driver of of a   lot of economic activity so I think we should  be really proud of the collection that we have   our Keeper of the planes is drawing hundreds of  of visitors every single night to our community   um and we should be really proud of it that  this is something that we uh should celebrate   that our collection spans 132 years uh we're not  new to this game uh although we definitely have   is for improvement and would love to see more  we've got a really really wonderful collection   and we'd love to put some more on the South Side  I want to reiterate that uh the CIP project drives   the opportunity for art that's really our only  mechanism to acquire art right now unless there   is a CIP project in that area or in that District  that we can put an art project on or if we get a   project donated to the community those are  really our only two opportunities right now   to acquisition art Lindsay I want to say thank  you for the presentation you and your team uh   for putting this together so quickly um this  was wonderful I know it's not everything but   132 years of seeing how we've continued to  invest in beautifying our community um or in   the words of council member total public design  um I think this is more evidence that we need   to continue doing so and definitely appreciate  it um seeing this the projects that are on the   way the projects that council member H Heisel was  talking about in South witch um for me the just is   more motivation to keep going and adding more  to it I think the maintenance conversation as   I've continued to say is important and I feel  like that should be in the CIP but um I don't   see a reason why we should slow down on the new  pieces and new design and every time we have the   opportunity for new building or new structure in  the city of wiah um having some form of artistic   design to it I think it's key because that's a  that's a piece that will last for decades and   you know always use the fire station at 21st  in Hillside people always talk about how that   was designed um and the artistic elements there  and for me that's just motivation to make sure   that's always a part of what we're doing thank  you I'm just gonna Echo this for the community   um we have a lot of individuals in community that  provide also public art um and I am appreciative   that people make an investment in helping with  public art as well and so I'm going to encourage   encourage people to submit their murals into the  system so that there is a comprehensive list and   when people say where are the murals we can point  them to not just the city of witcha murals but   murals um that again are public art for everyone  to enjoy um even though we may not be paying for it thank you not not to prolong this I do want  to emphasize that public art is about community   building and as we have expanded our collection  especially in the last five years we've provided   more and more opportunities for people to  see themselves in the art that we provide   and I think that inclusion is really important  I think goes back to what council member said   council member H Heisel said for his district  I've talked to one or two of you about this I   just came back from Cincinnati talk about Economic  Development impact they have an immersive art um   festival for four days in downtown Cincinnati  they they estimate over that 4day period they   draw two million people to their downtown and  their low estimate for economic impact in the   community is $125 million I've seen numbers  that are as high as over $200 million so big   business over a 4-day period so it's there are  opportunities here I think for us to to make   a mark not just with our everyday residents  but also for uh visitors and through you know   for to our community so with that mayor that's  all we have for the um Workshop thank you very much e e