all right well good evening everyone welcome to this regularly scheduled meeting of the holland city council our first meeting in the month of march even though it feels like it's our first meeting in the month of january but they say good things are coming it just may take us till september to see them  event let's call the roll tonight to make sure we've got a quorum so that we can conduct business de boer here peter is here neighboring city to the east requested and will probably more than requested require his attendance at that and he will be joining us in short order we begin tonight meeting as we begin all meetings with two items first will have a prayer which this evening will be led by our city attorney and mediately thereafter we will say the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states if you would be so kind as to join us in these items i'd invite the people in chambers to join and to rise and join us in these items let us pray tonight before a meeting we have a chance to reflect on our world and the city of holland the night is cold and winter continues to grip us however although there were main stark beauty as we continue to be blanketed with snow we look forward to spring to the end of snow and the rejuvenating rejuvenating effect on our world of spring tonight we also thank you for the diversity of our city the exchange of ideas the blending of cultures and the home of an institution like hope college which earned in riches our lives and we thank you for these opportunities tonight we also ask guidance the council and their deliberation and decision making tonight our goal is what is best for the citizens of our thank you indeed we do have paper copies of tonight's agenda located in the rack in the rear of the room if you're in chambers tonight and would like to follow along with the specific agenda additionally if you're watching this broadcast either on television or on a mobile device computer of some sort or if you have such a device with you tonight in chambers we do have both the what the agenda as well as all of the supporting materials that council has reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting  located on the city's website which is found at city of holland dot com and if you go there you'll be able to go to a calendar page go to today's date in the find all that sort of background material when you look at the agenda you'll note that there are a variety of items on it that are marked with these are items that are currently marked as being on our consent agenda which means that we believe them to be relatively routine and that our intention would be to handle them with one motion one vote and act on all of those items in total now you may not however think that these items are so routine fact you might have showed up here tonight to speak to one of these items so what we will do as a way of process is i will ask  clerk to read for us the items that are presently on the consent agenda and then what she does that i will give instruction for anyone who would care to remove an item from consent so at this time and i would you read the consent items please item five to approve the minutes of the february twelfth amended study session february nineteenth regular meeting and february twenty six two thousand and fourteen study and special meetings item eleven aid to accept and file executed oaths of office item fourteen a one to approve a contract with trust thermal to perform removal of existing this past us and lead paint at the water filtration plant for a total cost of one hundred forty two thousand five hundred forty dollars which includes a ten percent base and number three at the water filtration plant in the total amount of forty eight thousand two hundred ninety dollars which includes a ten percent contingency pending approval as to permit from the city attorney item fourteen and three to adopt a resolution to allow the sale of renewable energy credits for more renewable energy resources and authorize the board how a board of public works general manager to execute the sales up to five hundred thousand dollars per transaction and one million five hundred thousand dollars in your early to better streamline the process in satisfy counterparty timing requirements are an important one to approve parents and thora birch engagement letter for representation of the city to deal with labor in employment matters subject to approval s to form by the city attorney item fourteen d'ivoire to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration item fourteen d two to adopt a resolution authorizing the deputy city clerk to issue a public lodging license for economy and at four o nine us thirty one as violations were satisfied with the community neighborhood services department and to abide with the stablish conditions as indicated by the community and neighborhood services department report item fortini one point two to adopt a resolution for a transfer of lease in restated lease agreement for parking spaces in the seven street parking deck in connection with the proposed new construction of a hotel restaurant to be located on east eighth street i get him fourteen eat two point one to approve the submittal of agreement sorry in the amount of forty thousand dollars to the community foundation of the howland scene area for a portion of the funds to purchase the home and property located at five ninety eight graphic approach for the digraph nature center item fourteen eight two point two to approve the  island gardens business plan as recommended and reported by the wind island gardens trustee jack planning committee and the parks and recreation commission item fourteen eat three point one to approve the bidding the amount of twelve thousand nine hundred ninety two dollars for the exhaust system from ross rosman enterprises for waverley and cowen park for your stations and that the budget be amended accordingly item fourteen eat three point two to approve a three year contract extension with the third bank for banking services in credit card processing item fourteen point two two approve the professional services contract between the city and how important public works and the how and community hospital center for good health for the performance of employee health risk appraisals add a total cost of five thousand seven hundred sixty dollars item fourteen eat five point three two approve the proposal submitted by facility dude for twelve months of energy tracking and city facilities in the amount of five thousand eight hundred  seventy nine dollars and item fourteen eve five point four to approve a lease agreement with sprint for the use of a temporary cell tower located at three forty five collin park drive for additional wireless system capacity during the two thousand and fourteen tulip time festival all right thank you very much so that is what we intend to handle with one motion and one vote to approve all of those items now if you would like to take one of those items and remove it from this consent agenda and take it up it's ordinary spot on the agenda all i ask you to do is to step forward to the microphone and identify which one you'd like removed members of council may also remove one or more right i'm from the consent agenda at it's for their pleasure anyone from the audience care to remove an item from the consent agenda any members of council could remove items member hoekstra odd requests that fourteen two point two perks recreation be removed it all right thank you very much pictures then down two of the record should reflect that the mayor pro tem is in chambers and has here added to the meeting here here and we're like any good hockey team we are back at full strength  good to have you back so then let's go down to item number ten which is adoption of ordinances that's a rezoning of metaphor interchange drive from the planned residential development district to the c two highway commercial district we will have a report from staff then a public hearing on this item before council takes actions so i believe mark bender flew from our community neighborhood services department will give us a brief introduction of this item good evening mark turn that on which you have in front of you tonight is the proposed second reading of a rezoning request for the actually would be the east six acres of nine zero four interchange  procedure for the development of a trucking facility so helen intends to they have their current facility a little further down the road about a mile or so down m forty in fillmore township and they would like to relocate that up here in the city hall into of this location so february eleventh the planning commission held the required public hearing for this rezoning request there were there was one resident who spoke up during that hearing and in actually owns the property right right in this area here and other property is is also zone c too but the property owner just had here is is own see to it and there's industrial to the north of the property and so forth so the master plan here is planning for much more intensive urban uses the than residential planning commission then noted that the proposed owning is compatible with the city master plan for this area and is compatible with the development trends  syrias we're seeing more and more requests for for trucking facilities and other logistical type of businesses planning commission subsequently voted to recommend eight to  o that city council rezone the subject six acres to the sea to district all right thank you mark are there questions that anyone has for staff saying none of this is the time of the place for a public hearing on this particular item if you would care to address counsel on this matter here's your chance to do so all we ask is that you step forward to the podium of the microphone so that everyone both at home and here in chambers can hear what you have to say you have up to five minutes to address counsel and there's nifty little system of lights that is between the podium and myself a green light means you're free to go when you get to the yellow light that means you've got a minute left and when it hits red your time has expired so at this point i would declare the public hearing to be open for anyone who cares to address fillmore township but we would like to grow at a warehouse as well to our trucking business so this would be a perfect opportunity for us for that expansion and do you have any questions for me are there any questions for the for the applicant or a business owner saying none thank you very much and thanks for being here tonight and for your interest in this property and really relocating into the city  microphone the public hearing is still open if anyone would care to address this  l let me just briefly add very pleased that your main interest in this property very pleased that you have an interest in moving just a wee bit north was headed toward the eastern parts of our of our fair state to the recently and going slightly over the posted speed limit passed by a specific vehicle with teddy's transport of the side made me smile knowing that the bit of holland was taking a bit of goods from service or goods from around here spreading it around the state beyond so regulations passes all right thank you that takes us then down to communications for the audience item twelve this is the opportunity for the public to address council on any matters that do not otherwise show up on the agenda so if you're here for something that is otherwise on the agenda  we'll handle those comments at that that agenda item but if you want to bring to council attention something it should know about or have any other communication to the council here's your chance to do so this difficult rules apply which again come to the podium so everyone can hear what you have to say state your name and residential address for the record and council rules permit up to five minutes to address the microphone is open and welcome i thank you and he was daniela garcia my address is twenty two east twenty ninth street the holland fourteen forty three i just wanted to come tonight to listen and learn and i know it's my candidacy for the ninetieth district which includes microphone remains open twelve writes seeing it that no one else cares to address council of that point we will then move down all the way to page two of the agenda and go to fourteen feet two point one which is the part of the recreation department report from the graf nature center and andy kenyon the director of the parks i'm sure the parks and recreation department who are you again to kenyon coming forward to bring forth this report for us good evening and good good evening thanks for having us here tonight i brought rob venner with me as well as he's the director of the nature center for questions if you have any so we are  seeking authorization to apply for a grant hopefully toll in the amount of forty thousand dollars for the purchase of an acquisition of a home at five ninety eight road owned by them in our family  currently they are desiring to move out of the home and if given the city first right of refusal and we are seeking the approval to apply for this grant the home is located  the home is right here outlined in red and the aerial view this is the problem that we have been having at the nature center for many years you can see the school bus in the road we have thousands of students that get  unloaded to partake in programming at the nature center and at the right now they either have to unload on grass strip road or pull into the nature center of their forward or backwards and it's very cumbersome getting a bus in and out as well as it's a big safety concern for us in terms of the children safety coming in going this photo shows van of this van right here is parked actually in the van ark home property that happens quite frequently as well and nature center staff have to go out and ask or find people that belong to the vehicles to move them and here's a group getting unloaded on graphic approach some more photos our main concern is is safety we want to have a safe place for students to unload a secondary thing is to have the nature center be more visible for rascal brode coming and going currently it's quite hidden behind the home in the garage we would hope to hope to demo the home and make the drive bigger teardrop shape design of some sorts to allow buses to pull in and out as well as create more a playground potentially into the future here's a view of the home looking straight to the west the nature center is hidden back there in the back in the background just some views of of the of the property this is a picture that we took the whole out of the home out of the picture and this is what it could potentially look like from that same view previously so there's with the home and there's without a home but there are questions at this point any questions for mr  approve support supported by de boer would anyone from the audience care to address council on this item good evening and welcome if you state your name and address for the record in the given i am going to david krieger i live at six forty eight hours we've been there for almost twenty six years and location location location is usually what people that means seeing at the front desk could rob in the rest of the staff are involved with student groups or other programs and we've we've had people that stop in there not only from out of town but from out of state who have found a graph on the internet and so we act as an basters for the city of holland in the stated michigan just as much as other facilities here in holland and on several occasions people have told us that  boy we almost missed your driveway or we drove past a couple of times because we could see it self opening up the fan the nature center by the demolition of the van our cops would be i think a vast improvement to the visibility of the front edge of the nature center as wallace as we mentioned and really addressing safety issues around getting children across the street and avoiding that by having a better access for school buses as well so  was my comments thank you so much for the opportunity to address the boy thank you for being here tonight anyone else care to address  right close the comments then and we have a motion that has been supported to approve any discussion among council comes from conference well we discussed this last week and we had a great discussion on it we had to two of the council members were able to be there and we discussed the pre conference i would like to add an amendment to the us that the city of holland would authorize up to thirty thousand dollars from its legacy fund to support the purchase the demolition of the removal of the stated property known as the  area community foundation funding was approved this would give us a total of pretty close to the required amount of money of roughly one hundred forty some thought some dollars to make this project connection i just asked for a big clear point of order sure go ahead i want to make sure i fully understand this and i guess what i would ask is how does this deviate from what's in front of us in terms of  what are the subtle difference well i think the deviation is and let's assume that we would vote for the forty thousand dollars which would then give us roughly seventy three thousand plus forty which does not give us the in the out amount of money that we need to make the purchase so how do we go about acquiring additional revenues to make this a reality if that's what we want to do otherwise but it's not so it's either we need to either do it or not do it or find another way to fund it but i think that as i understand it that the what is before us right now it's just simply the authorization to submit the grant application one last time a support for the amendment to discuss that all right procedurally that fails for lack of support so we're back to the original motion which is the grant authorization to the community foundation form this should take in all of our discussion i think i really heard anyone say that this is a bad idea altogether when we think of you know future exposure viability exposure way things are offering him just to make of a more well functioning park i think it's a good move or think where we have differences of opinion is how we achieve  this to me the unacceptable option is not achieving this but i have every confidence that somehow we can find a solution that will address everyone's concerns them or at least most concerns assuage most of the fears involved brother mike's talked about having funds available for  i think that's a very legitimate concern the mayor has talked about or front of the idea of perhaps a payback there are others who have talked about fund raising i think that in that whole mix there is a final solution so i i think are giving the these folks a go ahead to pursue this funding request is a good thing to do and in the meantime while that's morally around and waiting followed germination we should be doing some talking about options of how to if in fact that does come to pass or maybe even if it doesn't  what kind of options we can come up with to secure this property that's in the long term going to be good for the nature center and also keep the city to get a good please i'm just echoing what has been said and try to think the city needs to be involved in the funding for this but this is not the time to discuss that part i don't think and we really want to get this request into the community foundation and ask for their support to defy and how much more will need in order to accomplish this vision for the digraph nature center and it is just so important in holland to have a reasonable entrance to a city facility and we don't have that right now and it is not safe to try to load children out of a bus handicapped children and have that bus pull in straight and have to pull back out again straight in the grass cup road going around and all kinds of activity of teenage drivers coming in and out of that garage is time goes by it is even worse part of the reason that we haven't had anything tragic i think is because we had a sweet little little lady there for many years who hasn't been driving around or walking around outside so i just really think it's an important part of being responsible in a community facility to allow people to come to it in a safe manner and also to be able to find it from the day i moved here i was like what that's the digraph nature center and that that little skinny thin of a driveway goes to some kind of a nature center and we drove by it many times when we first moved here trying to find it and that's not a welcoming way to encourage nature education in the community it is such a great center it's just all my kids took little classes there and to learn to appreciate nature whenever we would want a time away you can go to the nature center and take a walk there and you think you are in another world it settles your heart and mind it is just nestled in the center of a neighborhood it is the quintessential nature kind of place for a community like highland it's something to value and to keep because it's so worth it my husband i went snowshoe walking there a couple weeks ago i had never done that before never had snow shoes on and you know it was delightful to have so much snow when you can walk on top of it in that sink into it and looking at the little bushes with all the white snow on top and the red berries underneath  and thinking about the animals and it was just such a relaxing refreshing time for us and i think that is an important part of the quality of life in holland and i really think it is worthy of having a reasonable answer and so i'm thrilled that this property is available and ever since i've moved to hal and i have hope that this property would be available and property values are probably at their lowest for many years it is an opportunity that comes once in a generation and i think it's really need to take advantage of and right now i am more than willing to vote to agree to the application for help from the community foundation we come up with that number is that just something that we've been discussing with you know we we had it we had appraised earlier this fall and that's the number that came back ok thank you  of the grant and then we can figure out assuming the grant is well i guess one way or the other some of the grant is granted or not will come back to figure out where the rest of it comes from in the future so i'm with you david dear dexter yes motion passes all right thank you jesus well he went up here i think all the sudden going all right takes us then down to fourteen e to point to another parks and rec report mr kenyon is not going to handle this one mr cotton is going to have us in our city manager this is related to the approval of the business plan for when bill allen gardens mr city manager thank you mr mayor members of the city council i feel kind of responsible through e mail and garden since the window broke in my first  be useful for many decades at least fifty years we hope in relation to the work that's been done and a follow up to that is the business plan and that's why we're here tonight to operationalize the details associated with meeting the vision of the present or high was one hundred twenty thousand around one thousand nine hundred three and we had an uptick this year and we think it's because of some of the efforts have been done recently related to the playground the billboard advertising the weather didn't hurt yet we think we can we can go further and that's what we're here for tonight before i go further tonight i want to recognize that this we're going to see is not a product of my own actions it's a product of a team and that team in reverse alphabetical order nick works in her office keeps everything going in when order with the time so we have a multi disciplinary effort here that produced a number of outcomes which i'm going to share with you now these outcomes are also part of the five year master plan for the recreation department that you approved last week so the intent of the vision of the future plan is to have a physically strong connected culturally strong educational and natural authentic place to serve the center of the city of holland and the region so if the vision is to be a place of natural resources the center of the urban area a park of parks if you will and and expand on our dutch heritage heritage and its natural resources to do that we need to provide your ground access to an across the natural areas of the island we also have to find a way to pay for all of the cultural and historical benefits that so received when you're on the island so it's kind of a conundrum we need to have a lot of access yet we also need to find a way for people to make their contributions user fees or other means so first safe access  north this shows one reason why that's needed there's a conflict between gesture ins stroller people beings kids been strolled in wheelchairs etc bicyclists there are three options to place the bridges there's two grants pending  sidney bridge where that bridge might go and however township is a partner in this effort both and helping to fund as well as helping to write some of the grants there are connections to the various regional trails this  planning through an island then across the top river course it would be separated from the roadway and in a manner such as this various overlooks and benches and we have some support from a social service club that's looking at making it their fundraiser to assist in this and that's the easy part building pathways the harder part is finding a way to provide the funding so the first thing we did was complete a competitive matrix we went to eight different destination venues and looked at their structure of the daily fees memberships how they collected the donor support directional signage programming in marketing and we learned a lot probably the greatest thing we learned was to market to the moms  which is something is easy to remember yet there's many details associated with all these that the team looked at and you're going to see some of the results of their decisions and recommendations after that we consulted two experts well known in their fields associated with destination locations that are educational in nature one is the audubon society director of and missouri i believe in the other individual maintains a similar facility and kalamazoo and there are some other key points are there to make our strategic stations as soon as possible so we've been working on this since august and bringing it to your tension before the next season find or create a nonprofit partner and that's you're going to see that one of the options we looked at and relates to our recommendation invest in a well thought out site master plan it's also called an interpretive plan way to operationalize that is called a landscape plan and i'll speak to that in a minute evaluate the pricing thoughtfully ahead of making any changes make capital investments and to spay future ones in other words have a five year capital plan and let's broader financial support from other local governments there's many people in our region who benefit from the island and enable that give them an opportunity to be participants and partners have specialist do jobs that they do best and that relates to how we split duties between the milling and the wedding consulting and sometimes that they conflict so business spangles we need new operating revenue or an expenditure reduction to make all things fit for the for all times in the future about turning sixty five thousand dollars is the goal that's about a thirty three percent increase in revenue or major reduction  expenditures there are quite a few quite a few revenues now achieved through the island fiscal year two thousand and thirteen the bottom line was five hundred twenty three thousand nine thousand of which was due to the pavilion rental which was some of the one of the more recent changes and had a not as weather dependent and even making the island more useful so some of the alternatives that were considered by this group was regional governmental ownership of the artifacts and land and shared rights and therefore there be regional governmental financial support it would still be a governmentally run facility another office option was to simply increase all the revenues as much as possible as well as reduce expenditures such as the private sector might and of course there is there are some other private sector venues there's at least one of the region and there's two excuse me and that's something that we considered and a fourth has to have some sort of and down manner benefactor group and some of the non profits we look at are run in this way there is a given that we assumed so when i make sure you know it's assumed that the city general fund contribution ranges between one hundred fifty thousand and three hundred thousand a year with the average that we spend on a park is thirty five hundred dollars that that acreage would amount would continue for the island regardless of what option was considered since the city unless the city no longer owned it the city would continue to private buildings and grounds maintenance so the next thing we looked at was ok those are the fiscal options what about some of the management options and we ruled out the private sector because there are other venues like that public ownership for ever and be preserved in maintaining forever yet there's the city need to operate it perhaps there's a new management model that we looked at maybe on a contract basis with a nonprofit and that was the option that was most favored and it would start in january of sixteen we believe that in that way we could more consistently achieve financial goals which are related to the program and goals and the nonprofit is most desirable for that this is a chart this too small to read where you are probably viewing this yet it does show how this would work in the city and on the buildings and grounds the nonprofit handling the programming and events the fees would be substantially from the fees donations sponsorships etc and yet the city would contribute basically one third through those other means i mentioned the buildings and grounds maintenance when it comes to major capital changes that's what these boxes represent there would be an agreed upon mutual partnership that would reach out and involve the region and then the city would construct it as we do very well so with this change with a non profit what if the weather was not conducive and what kind of financial impact might that might create you saw one hundred thousand dollars swing so it suggested that with this change there be a sinking fund set up not sure that's the exact right term but a basic one hundred thousand one year seventy five thousand the next fifty thousand the planning amount and then that be available to be applied for should there be adverse conditions like that for nonprofit so would not it would hold hold them harmless as far as weather goes so it's a safety net it's suggestion that there be an interpretive plan done as well as a landscape plan and at that be it would involve the nonprofit at that time because they would th need a transitional staff member for at least for a year that would be hired by the city but actually work for whatever nonprofit you selected that would then help bridge the  transition as i said any new capital dollars that are needed for major changes or major maintenance like we just experienced would be secured from area governments we hope through some mutually agreed upon understanding and that will take some time to grow and build but it certainly speaks to the fact that this is a regional and actually a state wide asset certainly of the region benefits the most so here's a detail timetable and i didn't go through every step that is in your packet ready for the changes doing r f q in july with hopefully an agreement in september of this year and selection by tobar and that would lead to other budgetary changes in a way that would set that we look the long term ticket booth location in relation to how the visitor would experience that as well as allowing for the pass through the access i mentioned look at the long term visitor flow all the way from parking lot to the window and back and through the gift shop looking at all the exhibits the interpretation messages the relevancy the connection to other things to experience the hands on the interactive the passive authenticity and overall quality dutch experience in a way that will be remarkable so with that we could turn over the operations to the nonprofit in general two thousand and sixteen which would run through december two thousand and twenty these various  other activities would happen and it would the contract should be reviewed when your in advance of its germination in january two thousand and twenty for your continuation or change course there would be an opportunity should things not go well at all for either p day so i'll be happy and take questions are the questions for the city manager we did have some good discussion about this a couple of weeks ago so that probably helps explain why we're not i have a lot of questions all right thank you thank you ryan for that and for all the many people participated in that committee a lot of hard work went into it and the approval was a natural progression of all that hard work so good work down to fourteen eve five point one some gifts for the city the city manager's office is pleased to report found a gift when mil island is one repaired fund received a donation in the amount of two thousand one hundred eighty six dollars as in three cents from the how and area convention and visitors bureau it is recommended that the set donation be accepted with appreciation and expression of gratitude be forwarded to the donor what is the pleasure of counsel ocean to  no seriously it's sixteen i'm not nearly as efficient as the city manager is so i have a slight report of the only of thing of which really is to know that as usual you can reach out to us contact us at city hall and dot com email addresses telephone numbers those sorts of things as well as all sorts of information about things happening in the city information about building permits and tax information and property records and almost anything we possibly can put onto the website we try to do so so that way you can access those services even if you can't make it or don't want to make it into city hall i would certainly love to see you if you come into city facilities but we know that sometimes it's easier to do things in off hours or when you're not available to actually leave home business for office so city of holland dot com is the place to find that information we have a couple of resignations let's start there tonight we need to accept the resignation burge from the sustainability committee and don and warren have been not only the first among the founding members of the s y committee they've been among the founding drivers of the sustainability committee and their decisions to hand over the reins to others certainly is understandable but i think we can't let the moment pass by simply just saying you we accept the resignation out noting that these gentlemen have put a long and countless hours and i'm sure a bit of frustration into their efforts and in large measure the reason we have a sustainability committee and the reason we're able to do what we do and the reason that we have accomplished much with our sustainability committee is due in large measure to the leadership of don and warren so if we might get a motion on that to accept their resignation with and what was it going to accomplish and how we didn't know so it was really walking into a kind of a minefield of who knows what kind of at the time we had all kinds of controversy going about  our plant and what we were going to do next and how that was all going to be resolved so it was not a simple clean committee that's been established for one hundred years and you just kind of go through how it's always made things work it was it was brand new it was under find and it was their initiative that brought in peter gar forth and a whole internationally level international level plan for a community is as small as holland and so  yeah they had a vision and perseverance and willingness to compromise and and work come together and i think business acumen that really helped all of this get us to the point that we are now and gentlemen for a fair amount of time and these guys are just monsters in the best sense of the word giving direction and leadership to the sustainability commission and we definitely wouldn't be where we are today without their contributions so huge appreciation for the time thank you david and i if as you're preparing the minutes might you create a separate page on this particular item that can be excerpted from the bench so that perhaps we all might sign that and for each of them and send a copy of it to them as a small token of our appreciation with that all in favor of the motion please say post the same that passes unanimously then we also have an appointment car according to the planning commission for a three year term which will expire january thirty one of twenty seventeen place that for you for your consideration seeing now on much as we might like to call it an evening the city attorney has other plans for us and that is that we have been requested to go into a closed door session for the purposes of reviewing some pending litigation that is correct anything else we should know chambers and watching via television good evening and thanks for being part of the