everyone welcome to this regularly scheduled meeting of the whole city council we actually went into session upstairs as the end of the pre cancer meeting because we had a few closed session items to handle me handled those before this open session item they were a joint meeting with the board of public works as well as the city council related to three items for the board of public works which though they were noticed on the agenda let's just go over them again here they were a property acquisition piece review of pending litigation and i believe that's out there were two items of pending their motivation all right so two items pending litigation and a review of property acquisition issues we did nothing else you know open session upstairs and now we come down with our two items that we begin every meeting with and that is an opening prayer this evening led by our colleague council member nancy de boer and immediately thereafter we will have the pledge of allegiance to the flag so if you kindly rise and join us in both of these items enjoy in this past week i am thankful to for the amazing preparation of playgrounds for children when millan gardens and maternity reformed church in partnership with the rescue mission for children a summer camp for donations that have come for children to swim at both pool without anything all that is good about how it is so heartwarming we thank you for the generous spirit that you have given this area for those that have gone before us to model that kind of behavior that kind of heart i pray lord that in this day that we will honor you with our thoughts and their word that we when all is said and done may be characterized as a community of love because we know that when all is said and done you will only be loved that remain we pray that you will help us to be that kind of community we thank you so much for the wonderful things and the wonderful people and coordinated efforts that we can enjoy in this area to pray also that you will last  new initiative working with schools and businesses to encourage students mentoring them and giving them a taste of what industry is all about giving them a vision for their lives and people that will come around them and support them we know this program has huge potential for our area and for our future we pray that you will lay your hand on it and that we will all have a understanding of what we can do to make the future even brighter for the children the students in this area we thank you lord for all that you have given us when pray that you will help us to be grateful people that continue to give and love each other in your name we pray in m to the flag of the united states of america and the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all are paper copies of this evening's agenda located in the rack in the rear of the room additionally if you are following along at home or on the internet somewhere or if you have an electronic device here in chambers you can grab a copy not only of the agenda for this evening's meeting but also all the background material that council has reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting the easiest way to do so is to go to city of holland dot com go to the calendar page find today's date and then you'll be able to download all of that information you will note as you review that agenda that there are certain items on the agenda that have an asterix next to them these are the consent agenda items we believe that these are relatively routine items we reviewed them as council before in our intention unless  someone from either the audience or here on council changes that is to handle all of these items regardless of where the show up in the agenda with one motion and one vote now we think their routine you however may not so what we will do is have our clerk read for us the current list of consent agenda items and then i will allow anyone from the audience to remove an item from consent or members of council can remove one or more item from consent as well so you know let's turn to you first of all to see what is presently on our consent agenda for the evening to approve the minutes of the study special and close oceans held on april twenty four and regular session held may one two thousand and thirteen item eleven and item eleven c to accept as information  letter requesting that council hear the appeal of the denial of public lodging license for the wooden shoe motel and a petition requesting to establish a southside dog park at the intersection of west thirty second and looters road item fourteen a one to approve an agreement with the township and central wesley in church to allow central wesley and to connect a proposed storage building on their property in fillmore township to their existing private water and sewer services lines in the city of howland fourteen b one and item one nine hundred eighty two exceptions place on first reading proposed ordinance amendments to section thirty nine dash two and thirty nine dash one eighty five corner lot is only tex amendments in our t r and district with a final reading to be held on june five two thousand and thirteen council regular meeting in fourteen do you want to refer a claim filed to to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration i didn't fourteen  to prove in annual city license per section seventeen deaths seven of the ordinance item fourteen d three to approve the answer broadcasting corporation fireworks permit application and that's a conditions established by the fire and police department to be in force subject to the approval of the city attorney item fourteen one point one and item nineteen b to accept a place on first reading ordinance amendments to section twenty seven city finance staff to build delinquent garbage collection fees on tax bills asserts a lien a certain lean on the property service served and collection fees in same manner as real property taxes except where there is a notice of tenant responsibility on file with final reading of the regular council meeting june five two thousand and thirteen fourteen one point two two approved the statement two thousand and eleven through two thousand and eighteen residential solid waste agreement between the city and ship container i'll see to provide billion in customer service functions and then the addition of employee theft by an insurance in the amount of fifty thousand be added subject to approval as to form by the city attorney's office fourteen one point three two approve the installation of one four by twenty five foot temporary sign at four thirty west seventeenth street to promote the south shore village mural project from may twenty fourth until june seventh two thousand and thirteen subject to the community and neighborhood services department approving the exact location and installation fourteen two point one to approve a total budget of seventy five thousand dollars for the piney avenue signal improvement project and from that budgeted amount award strain electric company the contract in the amount of forty five thousand four hundred twelve dollars for construction the mayor and the deputy clerk be authorized to execute a contract on behalf of the city subject to approval asked a form by the city attorney item fourteen point two to table the recommendation regarding thirty first street no parking to the june five two thousand and thirteen council meeting in order to allow adjacent property owners to be notified of the proposed changes to the traffic schedule and approve an amendment to the traffic schedule to place load posting signs for the papad dry dry bridge in accordance with federal highway administration and requirements imported two point three to approve the memorandum of understanding with the clean energy coalition to enable the city to be a fleet partner in michigan fuel forward project and authorized the mayor and deputy clerk to execute the document on behalf of the city in fourteen two point four to approve the list of candidates for the city's two thousand and thirteen correct sailing project extend the current agreement with school dollar at an unit price of one dollar and thirty seven per pound and establish budget for the project in the amount of twenty three thousand for construction and two thousand dollars available for contingency and staff time to oversee the project and item fourteen each three point one to declare a surplus the damaged two hundred two thousand and twelve crown victoria police cruiser and authorize staff to dispose of said vehicle all right excellent thank you and would anybody in the audience care to remove an item from the consent item seven eight tonight we have a presentation to make to our technology services department regarding the graphic information system or g i s of the more commonly known statewide award for implementing city sourced application and i would certainly invite match van dyken our director of technology services to the podium good evening matt good evening this is kind of awkward because you're there i'm here i'm going to move over to make my way toward you to  just as a side note this is a word that we were nominated for you know the imagine conference which is a michigan state wide g i s conference reluctantly agreed to the nomination and we won so it's it's good to have a little technology services it is it's fantastic to see the work that you all do and the apps for the city is really excellent top notch and one of the few in the area that has such an application for cell phone smartphone usage so congratulations and thank you you now you're not done you know why don't you matt is going to give us a little bit of information about some of the things they did for the first time with the two time parade and they will give you great thank you if we can  advance a couple of the slides believe it or not it's only been ten months since ten or eleven months now since i stood before you and brief you on how we were going to begin broadcasting public television within city of holland  i'm happy to say we've done that one of the biggest hurdles was the going live of the two of time parades we've accomplished that so i've got a quick list of things that we've done just so you're aware of what's going on the first is we no longer use the live comcast drops we broadcast across the b b b fiber network all the equipment is brand new and full h d we record not to tape but a hard disk and we change location to holland public safety department office right outside with the time office frame in the background we also demonstrated what's called a live view we budgeted in the next fiscal years budget to purchase one of these backpacks it uses what's called a bonded cell your signal so that we can be live from anywhere we are able to use that for all three parades and go live from collin park from down by the post office wherever with interview so it's really a great tool and we were able to acquire some aerial footage with our quad copter very very carefully  was it was a nerve wracking experience to fly the copter around when time traffic and we did it both at the civic center doing the flash mob and also on top of the police station so our goal for the streets being dirty we were able to live with that also this is just a snippet of the aerial footage that we got from the quad copter from on top of the public safety building on the street during the parades and the last one i think we have one more video so the almost all of the footage all of the parades and all of the interviews during the parade to be cut all the interviews out into little pieces and those are posted the video sites so that's available for the public they can go in see the grandkids in the parade it's after the last one this is the last visual this one is what the viewers at home saw we ran a small graphic in the lower right hand and this is about the quality that you saw broadcast television the recording was full ten eighty when we send it out to comcast it's standard definition so one more slide we want to be very short careful that we thank the people that did this  rory who's in the back room right now put a lot of work in figuring out the technology to get us to go live we had a bunch of different volunteers that were down there nancy sees her name on the list that was wonderful and we had some great interns also another staff member kevin lee who's new did really well so we had a great time saturday was interesting in the wind and cold and rain as most of you know but all in all i went off very well we had one small problem with a little  in your department the past few weeks and you know these guys were very much excited about the opportunity to really do something different with the parade this year and not just the parade but also thinking ahead to how can we utilize ever gave matt and his department around of applause and the beauty is they can then take this and edit it in to the right spot over and over all right excellent thank you matt takes us to unfinished business which is item nine a vacating of laurel and right of way in the h item first of all we had tabled this before so the first thing we need to do is to get it off the table back onto the floor is there a motion to do so please move but for three weeks apart supported by de boer all in favor of removing this from the table and placing it back on the floor please say i  posed the same ok this item is back on the floor and available for discussion we turn to phil meyer who is the director of community neighborhood services to give us a brief introduction on a good evening phil all right thank you mayor as as you noted this  of their homes the request was to vacate the right of way the sixty six foot wide right of way the neighborhood enjoyed the condition the property is in which is landscaped and maintained they were not interested in seeing a potential roadway coming through that right of way that might serve a future development on that then undeveloped piece of property there the application came to council went on to the planning commission the planning commission looked at this request and at the same time received an application for the development of that property to the south all of that has has sort of delayed moving forward on this request to vacate but that development is now underway the first foundation is in for the property there and one of the reasons for tabling the project was the owner of that property the developer of the property was concerned that if his project did not move forward that he might want to return to city the city and and request that access be given through this street right of way so the planning commission a number of times table this item council tabled this item and now we've heard from mr arnold inc who is the owner of that property he is comfortable with the progress that's been made on his development and is no longer requesting a delay or or requesting counsel not to bake it this the second piece of this the city council has a policy that attaches that may attach value to these properties that are vacated and  the staff has been working with the two adjoining property owners when a street like this is vacated the property is split down the middle and half of it goes to the abutting property owners in this case that would be thirty three feet of that right dollars a front foot for that property and that property if you act tonight as recommended from the planning commission that property would be encumbered by a b p w utility easement given encumbrance the discussion with the property owner was that they came to a conclusion that they would offer half of the market value for that property as compensation for the property that is what's in your report  there was discussion prior to this in your precession the discussion and i've mentioned it to the one of the property owners the idea of moving forward with this fifty percent reduction but  such time as the property may come back and it may or may not come back but at such time it may come back with a request for the b p w to vacate their easement rights that it would then that would be an action that would require city council action and at that time city council could revisit the the value of the property and and require compensation for the remainder of the valid value so this is a recommendation from the planning commission to vacate that property with the easement and with the market value we talked about thank you felt any questions for that yes mike please go would your recommendation and also include just for the minutes what you just stated is that part of your recommendation or must we have a separate discussion on that what i would recommend is that if counsel determines to adopt the resolution that you add to that motion a provision that in the event the property owner or a subsequent purchaser would request that the utilities might be vacated that council would revisit the valuation of their property so that we have that added to the motion that adopting the resolution tonight so we have that formally in the minutes and it does not bind a former or a future council but yet puts it out there for discussion  chance to do so all we ask is you step forward to the podium state your name and residential address for the record and we would invite those comments at this time ok all right we will then close that public hearing and i would the payment of two thousand nine hundred seventy dollars from each abutting property owner and our office would recommend that the council add to that the qualification that in the event a request is made to vacate reserved utility easement that the valuation to be paid by the property owners be revisited so we need an amendment to our existing motion if anyone would care to offer it or we can simply act on the initial motion i will offer on the amendment piece and i seek ultimate whiteman place i just have a maybe a little bit of concern in and you might be able to clear it up with some comment but recently at board we had a particular property come before the zoning board that had a little bit of cluttered activity by a previous zoning determination and it it really slowed down the process if you will  transferring that property it crunched construction timelines it put risk quite frankly a donation of the property to a not for profit in the community have concerns here that if we put something similar in the record or in in place that how many ever years down the road there is what we might be creating a hurdle that is unduly burdensome on that transfer or transaction of property is this something that you can forsee or know well i don't see that this administratively would hold things up i think at your last council  had a request by the reindeers to vacate a portion of the utilities month that was before the board of public works i mean that that took a process of getting approval by the b p board and city council i think that the only addition that is being added here tonight is that we valued this property and they in cumbered state because of the reservation of the utilities meant i think if that easement is requested to be removed at some time if it gives us a way of tracking back to these minutes and you know establishes the lease in two thousand and thirteen what that what the council's belief on the i and please call that roll yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes  yes ok the original motion has been amended are there any final discussion points on the now amended motion before us saying none please call the roll peters yes you takes us down then to item twelve communications in the audience this is the opportunity for members of the audience to address council on any items that are not otherwise showing up on the agenda the rules of council are relatively simple all we ask is you step forward to the podium in the microphone so folks in chambers and at home can hear what you have to say council rules allow up to five minutes to address council once you begin speaking you'll notice a little green light kind of beneath me that will be on for four minutes at the four minute mark it will turn yellow and at the expiration of five minutes it will be read so with that public comment period is open and we invite anyone to the microphone to address coun good evening and welcome nicky carson tonight i am here as a member of the holland historic lighthouse commission that was going to come and tell you as part of our regional effort to tell everyone about the changes in access to the white house but in light of the media blitz in the last few days it's may seem a little redundant but i will confirm for you the changes to pedestrian access to big red and i'll be happy to answer any questions if you have it you know that big red is open to pedestrians nine months of the year and during the summer months from the morial day weekend through labor day weekend there is a gate house that is staffed and  park is a private community and access then is limited to residents this year lighthouse access via the pedestrian walkway will be limited to tuesdays and thursdays from probably eleven o'clock in the morning through sunset and it's just it was an agreement among four entities there the holland historic lighthouse commission the vandal enterprises pointless one and the mecca teller park cottages association we might all winter and this is the kind of agreement we all came up with and  that is about that's that those are the changes the other items that are haven't changed and people think they are different  strains during the summer months when the gate house is staffed you know there are no dogs there are no bicycles there are no beach towels there are no coolers coming in and those things have remained the same but we welcome  everyone to come on those days and we just wanted the public to be educated and so there won't be any surprises thank you any questions  i think i knew about this is what i read in the newspaper like probably most people and i read it on line and that's i scroll down i always like to look at the comments of some of the things that are made and the fact that you're and offering another piece of explanation i don't think we can do enough of that with this issue i mean that is the beach i rode my bike to all the time growing up you just rode your butt out we always went to to the north side and i understand after redoing a little homework it's always been this way there's nothing really new about this except there's some maybe some construction going on there and it's driving a little bit of little more  traffic than normal but you've always had to cross private property to get to that to get at your destination but you know when you read things in the way but just human nature when you read it in the newspaper like well you can only go out there on tuesdays and thursdays and you can't bring a beach telling you can only stay for an hour and you know it just i think it's going to ruffle some people just a little bit so i applaud you for coming out and explaining that but i also is it safe to say that  is this a permanent thing or could this just be a one year and let the dust settle so to speak and maybe with time and good behavior and everything in a life will go on like i used it could this is a new thing now yes it could  change all for entities are in communication with one another and we'll see it doesn't have to be that way forever and people always seem to get through you grew up here yes it's always been through private property one thing that the newspapers did not say and that we found is our house manager who has been there year for the first time took records we now have data to back up you know our decisions and one of the things that came through was people came through and of course the magic word people like to visit it how it doesn't have to be a lie house but people came through in the magic word with lighthouse it's come through seal a house and most of the time were at sunset so it's not just big red that they are visiting it's the whole area here we live in this beautiful area natural resources water beach who doesn't love it and  bonus so it is not just big red it is the sunset and it is unfortunate that this lighthouse is crossing private land the holland historic lighthouse commission started kind of in the seventy's as the coast guard started to want to decommission this lighthouse it could have been sold and lost so there there's been a lot of work through you know whether a natural resource conservation general services administration coast guard army corps of engineers over years and years and you can imagine going through all the governmental hoops so this is one and it's as a member of the layoffs commission it's our charge we want people to come and this is the the tension the locals who can come nine months of the year no problem and the people from texas or indiana who are who have like houses on their life list and they want to come in that happens to be on a friday so you know there are you know there will be some you know our our staff is not they're not mean so you know we'll see how this all works out but yes if people behave themselves and you know i mean we have the north side there was the quincy street like access issue with neighbors and it's the same thing everywhere you have private property you have people with public access and people want to use it most people do well by it give a comment or a couple things and he just to echo what jay said about thanking you for coming in and bringing this information to us but you sort of touched on something that i wanted to bring up and that  there are a lot of folks that come from outside of the area that might be a good idea if you would send this information to a couple of organizations  so that they can make it now and i'm thinking particularly of the great lakes lighthouse keeper association up in mackinaw city they have a wonderful website and talks all about access to lights and how you can get there and when you can get there so that people who are trying to get there would be able to see that you might also want to sun something else to lighthouse digest magazine which is published on a main somewhere and i believe our president john groundbreaking is part of all those organizations and so th the you're doing a great job i'm wondering too i'm from chicago originally so i don't have a childhood stories but has it what has been the policy in the past that anybody could come any day and now it's all these were open to believe it would be the east big brother do you recall and is that part of the army corps of engineers property yeah there was a can you give us a little history has to you know how many square footage your acreage  chunk ourselves that goes down to the beach then its army corps of engineers their record of engineers is that you know it's ours i know yes it can we would allow people it's just a little hunk and people do come and use it and it's you know there's also in forstmann issues i don't think anyone's going to run down and people were just asking people respect private property isn't i mean unfortunate as much as you would want people to come and enjoy the beach it's a big beach it is private property and some people do and some people don't  brian i think in terms of public and private property along the water's edge if my understanding is right up to where the water laps the sand is public throughout the entire perimeter of lake michigan yes ten feet from the water but you have to keep moving you can't plop down your tile so that's part but there but that area near the lighthouse you can you know increase your boat come and hang around there the rest of the  beach no because it is private but walking saugatuck the the issue of course is that most people try to access the lighthouse from the land side not the water side correct and again my understanding is that all that land to get from let's say the end of south shore drive to the white house itself it's all private it is good at least you know a good chunk of it is so you can't get over it unless someone gets remission to do so and that's been the story that has kind of hit the the media over the past forty eight hours or so yes correct and it is you know like you do you grew up my husband grew up here and you go out to the beach and when i was dating we went out to the beach and there was just you just knew you away and now there 's a gate with code numbers to get in as we say everybody holland has a code one way or another so you know there are just there are ways to do it and if this is closed off people go down a different way and come and so yes it is you  know you think of respect privacy but the enforcement is an issue and there will be enforcement but not so it's one of those things everybody just enjoy the white house in those days there are also people the public is welcome during the fireworks the historic the mission you know has fireworks through donations and everybody was welcome in those days there are also days during the summer and we haven't set those date yet where we know how an historic commission actually opens up the white house and you can tour and this is something else people understand what the white house it was never lived in and there are no facilities so you can wait in line in the heat for two hours and there  facilities it's just a you know metal structure and with unsafe stairs and you know you just hold your breath as people are dragging their babies up those stairs so it is it's the stork it's wonderful to see  extent that you can the commission can keep the c v be in the chamber of commerce well versed on the particulars that probably will go a long ways because when visitors come to town that's where they  probably a good idea but thanks for your work and i should let you know that today i got an e mail from a michigan state student who apparently started a petition online petition to open up access and invite certain she like most people didn't understand all the nuances but under thought for the moment that the white house was in the city so i responded to her and also copied mr hines berger and mr felix yeah on that e mail because of course it's in part township portion of the city hall i want to provide all updated some of the events that we've been dealing with at the board of commissioners but first of all i want to extend my appreciation that they probably were cleaner anyway so i but seriously there are a couple of things that we've been dealing with one is the last last week we received a request from sheriff sudafed a prescription drug rather than its current status as an over the counter drug and the reason for that is that the potent element in sudafed is also the key ingredient for making methamphetamine and as many know allegan county has had a problem with methamphetamine production indeed about forty percent of our jail population has some connection with methamphetamine offenses either as legislature to make this a prescription drug read over counterdrug is that there are two state mississippi in oregon interestingly enough who have done that and have seen a dramatic reduction in the sixty percent range of their methamphetamine problems so this was the start of an effort that i think will come before us some point this this year to urge the legislature to make it a prescription drug so that you need a doctor's  authorization or a physician's assistant authorization to to use the active ingredient in sudafed as it effects congestion can be replaced by one of i guess three hundred other substances so hopefully that will also is very expensive the sheriff advice that for each inmate that they have that has an essence i mean connection it's about by the time they arrest them lige and go to trial cetera it's about a two hundred  twenty five thousand dollars cost lifetime cost for each case so this is something we hope moves us in the right direction also each year the commission under state law has the responsibility for determining what the subtle dispatch fee is and telephones and we have acted to put that fee at two dollars ninety cents starting july the first and the reason is is that looking towards the end of the decade we are going to have to replace all of our radio systems and telephone systems it's estimated to be about a forty five million dollars capital expense we're going to use this increased fee to help us up build up that  capital fund different counties address it different ways to what has a nine one one milledge we choose to do it through the assessment on cell phones landlines and fax machines  basically also in the sheriff's report just a couple of highlights i wanted to pass on to you from two thousand and eleven to two thousand and twelve we saw an increase of three hundred a handgun permits issued  hundred concealed weapons permits and this trend upward is not abating because the clerk advice is that she processes about two hundred requests a month now for for handgun permits in the  county and finally on the good friend news the equalisation director presented a report saying that the value of the county has risen two point seven percent property values from compared two thousand and eleven to two thousand to well first of all the red light and you're fine thanks for being here tonight i will have you know that we had to laboriously have a negotiation between the corporation counsel for allegheny county and the corporation counsel for out of the county are to get the board chair to be able to scrub  out of the county now i'm sure they took the free labor great you really didn't have so many questions for the commissioner jim thanks for being here tonight we thank you very much microphone remains open all right then we jump all the way down to item fourteen easy five point one some gifts the city managers office is pleased to report gives parks recreation and transportation koop eight thousand dollars donation has been received from going to national bank in support of the city of hounds recreation division and huntington summer bank summer concert series donations totally and thirty nine dollars was received in support of the sell press dollars with in kind donations totaling five thousand eight hundred nine dollars from the farm made mills natures market salt and pepper  chocolates here mint don hillary crazy horse lake effect gallery summer repertory theatre college great performance series and every studio also in kind donations were human relations department for the international relations commission received donations totaling three hundred dollars for the support of the upcoming international relations commission festival from orange leaf frozen yogurt johnson controls and  support supported by divorce or any discussion in favor please say aye i'm opposed to same that passes thank you we got an item fifteen then communications from the city manager this evening energy strategy and i think all of you have a copy and if you haven't it's in your box a document that illustrates some of the efforts that city fallen has been undergoing and what we intend to continue to work on and  especially thank you for representing those thoughts and your recent trip to washington d c and you were there for other reasons and i think double perhaps triple duty and a half of the citizens while they're so  thursday there will be a fiftieth anniversary of the michigan civil rights commission founding and that is something that they are celebrating in a multitude of communities around the state and everyone is welcome we receive calls in our office and i come to that yes it's an open public event well college is catering it there is donations from the chamber from hope college the city is making a small contribution since it doubles as a human relations commission meeting and all are welcome have been our police chief will be a panelist as will the school superintendent as well as some members of the state civil rights commission the individual simply read the paper we do not met the individual but she indicated she was impressed i'm pleased to learn that city officials were taking steps to be proactive on behalf of the at risk youth of the city and she goes on to offer support i will be meeting with this individual and gratefully working with that support we are underway in our recruitment and more to follow when we actually kick off the summer projects and every week that goes by i see more opportunities for assistance that will make our community only better and stronger and build good strong citizens fourth item somewhat sanch of you have in your packet a letter from  patel representing the wooden shoe motel because of this letter there was expected to be action tonight on the public lodging license which we postponed and instead will be having a separate additional site visit there next week on wednesday that may produce the need next week wednesday in your study session to seek a special meeting to set a public hearing to hear mr patel and his concerns in relation to what may be an adverse recommendation by city staff so i wanted you to know that you're invited on that or be that we would keep you advised and if there is a special meeting on next wednesday night it would be for that the courts have determined that you have a due process rights so mr patel and his facility have been and i had a renewal of that license and the ordinance code under seventeen twenty indicate that city manager that you're going to be doing a tour of that facility and have an opportunity to see the conditions if problems are not resolved you would set that public hearing so that you site visit is next wednesday when say at four fifteen and i would suggest that a subset of counsel come perhaps it's my only others that are the majority  quorum my only concern there is if we need a special meeting to set up a public hearing we probably don't have the eighteen hour requirement for a special meeting notice there will be that document any other questions for ryan relating to his report or anything else for that matter right thank you then item sixteen communications for me tonight typical stuff you can get ahold of a city of holland dot com email phone numbers all those sorts of things as well as we try to push as much as possible as much information as possible out of the city's website and that is a good spot to look for anything related to everything from tax information to packets for council meetings or forms and applications of all sorts so check there and if you can't find what you're looking for let us know and there's ways to get a hold of us there second let me note that we had a spectacular tulip time this past year the flowers were of course in full bloom saturday's parade was a bit chilly wet windy but the crowds were still quite good all things considered and of course wednesday's parade was spectacular as was the thursday parade so our hats go off to tulip time many people i think don't understand that tulip time is run the festival is run by a separate organization not by the city though the city certainly provides a bunch of assistance and i see the trying to hide in the back of the room  scions head of almost every department in the city early what transportation streets and parks and recreation and that's just in the morning she was the city representative on time board and so since you are the only one from the board who is here jody we extend appreciation to tulip time through you and great work for a great festival one of the things last week wednesday that we did at the  if you are curious and interested in donating to the windmill island fund if this is the city's web page as you probably can see in your screen right here very easy to find right there is the spot that you can go to donate you can find out information about the overall campaign what it goes for what the project is trying to do at the bottom here there's information about some of the documentation that really tells in great detail  what the project is for and then right at the top you'll note that there is a link that says somewhere donate to the one mile island gardens future fund here if you click on that link a new page will open up which will take you directly to the community foundation of the holland zealand area where the opportunity exists to donate online so we would certainly encourage donations we've received a fair number of them already from people who have done so without any direct appeal or course thankful grateful for those but more is needed so we can get the spending again and also improve that park and better connect that park to the entirety of the holland community and not just a roadway access to the city of holland so kudos and congratulations to tulip time also i would say that coming up this saturday is the multicultural festival at collin park from taxing my memory here from three until eight at night in collin park i'm sure the weather's going to be fantastic so be a great way to spend a weekend evening and with that i'll introduce one more thing which i believe the mayor pro tem is going to  perhaps place before us in the form of a motion shortly before the meeting tonight before we came down here tonight i forwarded to you a in agreement for john nordstrom to be hired as a consultant for the city to assist us in the windmill island gardens fund raising effort his contract all the funds paid to him would come out of whatever his race so it specifically excludes money from the general city it would just be a bit of the money that is raised to really shepherd that project make sure it's successful make sure it happens without a hitch so that agreement is before you and if there is agreement to act on it we certainly would encourage it at this time so that's communications for me other communications from members of council m fifth annual international relations commission multicultural festival that will be from three o'clock to eight o'clock in the afternoon so you can cut your grass you know weed the flowers or whatever you go to farmer's market do all that stuff first and then come to the festival because you will want to miss so there will be all kinds of entertainment from music to dance to things i'm not familiar with but you will enjoy it all kinds of food from barbecue dogs to chinese mexican food anything while not anything you could imagine but a lot that you could imagine it's going to be good stuff and prices there will be prices and i saw some of those up stairs earlier that's some pretty cool stuff so we want to encourage everyone who can to come down to college park this coming saturday the weather well there's going to be great maybe twenty thirteenth human relations commission met with three city staffers plus three applicants for the part time position of human relations court nater and just so you have that information coming great thank you other communications members of council will go down to council member to board place i was just excited listening to the discussion about the lighthouse that we have a big read this you can tell how much everybody loves that we do want to take care of it even if the paint isn't working very well and also struck with the businesses that come to helping with playgrounds the windmill island playground gardens playground that was a whole crew of people that came out there to do that lake michigan credit union right those are all employees out there working hard to build that in a day which was beautiful through  carter's kids and sinclair recreation i would say is a great partnership to help the children and to teach in the story of the heritage of bringing the families out to windmill island gardens and then the playground today at trinity reformed church with two hundred and forty five volunteers that were all organized out there to build this amazing complex it looks like a mini state park at the church in order to host and rescue mission children that come there for summer camp and that is all through a dr pepper an initiative where they are doing three years fifteen million dollars worth of playgrounds around the country and the gentleman in charge of it i said so why do we get one of these and he said it's about the people that you would have all these people that could come together and make this happen he said this doesn't happen everywhere and i thought that is just such a statement  about what what we have here and how people say you know there's these kids that they need they need a playground they need a place to play they need a reason not to sit in front of a video game or whatever and we care about their future and we're going to facilitate a time away in the summer and that they can re discover what it is to run around and just have fun and be kids and i'm just so grateful to the businesses in this area that don't just think about the bottom  line but really want to be community partners in solving the problems of our community and no matter what's happening with money on a government level that we can say you know we have a what we have a windmill we want to keep it we want to do it right and we're coming to you to help us because it's we want to keep it and we can't do it all ourselves and to have that regional cooperation and responsibility in industry is just an amazing gift so and i think tulip time is a festival for fun but it really does a lot for the soft skills of our region when we all come together and enjoy a party and  just be together at one of the most beautiful times in one of most beautiful places in the world it builds good relationships and they have trust relationships that's what makes the difference in whatever we do around here so there are so many things to be grateful you know that's not true usually not a problem we get along there's no secret that i have a deeper appreciation for all city employees you know there's one specific department i think that i probably you know one ashamedly favor that's our public safety public safety department both the place in the fire the reason i bring that up but i'm sure there's probably a lot of people out there that don't know why the flags are flying at half staff today  this is national fire excuse me national police week and today specifically is police memorial plate peace officers memorial day this was something that was started by president kennedy back in sixty two with a proclamation designating may fifteen as peace officers memorial day which envelop into the week surrounding it so just  a guess as you're going through the rest of your day today and the rest of the week just stop for a second appreciate those men and women that excuse me put their life on the line every day to protect us in our and our rights by keeping us safe and the sacrifices that they give both in the police and the fire you see want to shake their hand say thank you and just remember those that have gone on in the line of duty protecting doing their job so just i just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention probably goes without people knowing about it but and at least that not a business meeting so again this year we'll have our annual parade and then service at cemetery one thing that will be different this year however sadly and unexpectedly is the passing of proposed longtime m of the veterans council here in the holland area vietnam vet really played an incredibly active role in organizing year after year after year the parade and also the services at the cemetery so  that's what was shocking and so we'll be doing it again this year this time however without carl so we certainly encourage great participation by people in the area and we know that this year as many years as almost every year there will be a huge crowd that turns out for morial day and it's one of those great days in this community as we come out to honor those who not only have served but also pay the ultimate sacrifice for freedom in this country for their motions and resolutions this evening mr mayor mr mayor pro tem as you indicated in your communications i would move the approval of the consulting services agreement between the city of allen and mr john f nordstrom related to the scope of work described basically refers to the coordination and to put it's put simply help in the process of  getting donations correct there's no specific amount collectible tied to performance or anything like that no john will be basically running the day to day operation of that campaign you know frankly now one brian's plate is plenty full of others and we need somebody out there actually doing the day to day ministry to follow up work setting up the meetings doing those kinds of things that john's great experience in  doing those things as well as his general demeanor and his contacts within this community and making a perfect choice for it but yeah i would agree it's a huge task and we need help with that and i'm assuming not knowing a lot about the world of folks who do that sort of thing for a living i will enjoy it but we don't talk about that very much it's probably not uncommon not to have that sort of a stipulation in the contract i'm guessing i think that's probably accurate yeah i think there's there's kind of a code of ethics in the fund raising world of a licensed professional fundraiser it's usually done by contract because if we were if you hired someone based on a commission in might