good evening we're here on march second for our next council meeting the first one in march and we are getting closer to spring that's good we'd like to have a roll call and a police bird  many years with an opening prayer from our council colleague quincy byrd and that we will follow with the pledge of allegiance we ask you to stand with us if you are able their lord we thank you for this day that you've given to us we thank you for the opportunity to be voices for the city and to do the city's work with wisdom and understanding and lord we bring to you the situation that happened in kalamazoo praying for those families who have been tragically their lives have been changed and we thank you for the for the police department for all the forces that we have here for protection and as we go forward just continue to ask for wisdom in doing the work of the city and jesus  now we are going to have anna read the consented genda and these are all the items that will be handled with one motion after she reads them if we don't have anybody who would like to take one of those items off of the consent  agenda if you would like to have something taken off and have it handled in its sequence in the meeting will give you an opportunity to do so right after anna reads the consent agenda could you do that please and item four b to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held feb seventeenth two thousand and sixteen item twelve a one to approve a materials purchasing contract with supply in the total amount of three hundred seventy thousand one hundred forty three dollars and eighty eight cents thirty eight k v interconnect line in support of a how and energy park item twelve the one to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier in city attorney for consideration item twelve d two to adopt a resolution to approve a microbrew license for big late marine for a production facility located at one sixty four in one sixty six east nineteenth street item twelve four point one to approve the bid submitted by advance cleaning service at a total cost of forty thousand eight hundred forty thousand eight hundred for the cleaning of the downtown restrooms and authorized the mayor in deputy city clerk to sign the contract for services pending approval asked a form by the city attorney item twelve easy for two to approve the landscape design services bid at a cost of one thousand eight hundred per year for a total cost of one thousand four thousand six hundred to install bark mulch at various downtown locations on seventh eighth ninth and river streets for the years of two thousand and sixteen and two thousand seven hundred twelve east six point two to reject the offer of forty thousand dollars for the purchase of the  property and authorized staff to submit a counteroffer in the amount of the appraised value of seventy thousand twelve east six point three to reschedule the march twenty third study session in the april six regular city council meeting to wednesday march thirty and wednesday april thirteenth two thousand and sixteen respectively and to cancel the may eleventh study session great thank you perhaps you came here to address one of those issues if that's the case you're welcome to come up to the podium and tell us which item you would like remove from the consent agenda seeing man i turned to my coll is anyone here have an issue they would like to take off the consent agenda i guess we don't have any and could you we need a motion to accept the consent agenda  extra yes clown parents madam mayor yes we have a you know proved yes thank you and now we are going all the way down to number nine which is the public comment section of the agenda and we're hoping that again to the audience if anyone is here to address council about whatever you have on your mind we invite you to come to the podium give us your name and your address and then you are given five minutes to address us with whatever the concern you have the see evening graduate early i work three jobs so high school gave us an opportunity to come to a mayor's roundtable last week monday it's where students from different high schools come together and discuss a situation in holland and i came in an event and got invited to the mayor's your program so we discussed about a situation for each group we had and our situation and problem was why are people living leaving holland and what can we do to make it better so we first listed out why there are the reasons why they're leaving holland and we came out of maybe because they're not interested maybe because it's not a lifestyle for them a career choice they want to be over here or  maybe a family members are outside maybe they're something else in a different place that they do that isn't even in here in holland and what we listed of making it better is we broken down our categories into three subjects transportation arts and recreate so first transportation we were thinking of having more providers a services for transportation because we're not really we only have if you notice we only have like two popular buses that patrol around holland the  i'll taxis blueberry and another one that we have which is a really commonly news but we need more transportation to provide people to go to places and we need sidewalks maybe on the by the beaches maybe having a bike trail going down because maybe there's injuries that could happen and really really busy at their summers if you guys haven't know this and ok and the second category we had was parts we do have some parts around in holland downtown well maybe we could have more or maybe on the north side and again evenly even even balance of arts north and south side because i guess the river is a barrier and  arts such as something creative and something meaningful for someone to make them stay here like we know that the art of monalisa that's really popular and we know many arts that bend through people's lives and touch people touch people's feelings maybe we want them in holland maybe you people that can travel auto over here just for holland instead of us traveling auto over there just for that piece of artwork that would bring people in here and else my second category is current recreate i think we need an upgrade of holland so that it could be a better and better so city yeah better city and maybe a very creation of a rush months when we know that we have fast food a lot of fast food here and maybe a couple of just maybe a couple of the the restaurants of like begin or high class rush runs maybe we want more that that would be great something that will bring people here to holland is a great way to thank you thank you thanks to their nutrition thanks for coming in tonight and i was i was in the group with you and one of the things that was a surprise to people was that holland city doesn't go to the beach and yeah yeah why is that right yeah yeah kind of a regional conversation of how we should all work together to have the same kind of offerings wherever you are in the region yes yeah i know they appreciate you being a part of that whole process and thank you for coming in tonight thank you the mayor's roundtable was organized around the questions at lakeshore advantage is asking these days because they're looking for talent in many of the businesses so how do we develop attract and retain talent what kind of activities and amenities do we have around here that are great and that what else should we have in order to encourage more talent to tuesday and come and you were part of that conversation as well i was yes and good evening everyone on my and coming to the mare's roundtable really brought in my ways of thinking of how i think of how and our ideas were like marriage divorce said lakes your advantage of how we can bring more jobs into holland and keep more of the younger demo younger demographic here in more of the trades jobs engineering auto mechanics in jobs such like such as that home my group decided of how why people are moving away from holland and why they boomerang back to holland and how we can make our own more attractive to the younger demographic and we came up with some ideas of making the events more so people more people can see them out of harlem to be a think you know why do people go to grand rapids instead of coming to holland and we came up with the ideas of grand rapids has more shopping malls and they have a lot of big features everyone thinks of oh that's go to van and over you know and that's go to different shows down there in different boat shows and everything that the divorce place has so we're thinking of different ways of bringing people back to holland like that they want to go to grand rapids and it was a very nice learning different things about all kinds of people and i've been lived in home since i was born and raised in holland and i just thought it was very cool learning about new things and vents in holland that i didn't even know about like that lu lao festival and how everyone thinks so too of times only event but holland has many more events many more events like that and it was very cool meeting a lot of new friends there own a lot of new friends i had the same interest as interest as me and learning about learning about the different types of events at home and it was just hope in the holland community embrace a rich dutch heritage and this concert will be a unique opportunity to celebrate our heritage through his music hope is also setting goals for the future of global vision as recently approved by its board of trustees and use music is ideal so that in written in a modern style influenced by american jazz edge and time tango chinese music southeast european dance and many other global musics this year we are also celebrating the opening of a new concert hall and a jack h miller center for music and arts since this concert is the first opportunity for the public to hear many of our music faculty perform at the new hall we expect a large audience the concert this promoted and advertised locally regionally and in a national public radio the primary organizers myself and i will also be performing some of the live in these works nationally and internationally in the next few years  with the hot cup of detroit and he recently opened a new music serious at the ninety two y concerts in new york city so that's all i have to say that that was a lot of work getting us those people together and it took a whole year i've been working this project so hopefully we'll come to a wonderful thing you're all invited the concert is free and it's open to public because we secured some major grants for it and i thank you very much me hi i'm sure the public is excited to be able to see that auditorium and experience classic music at that level and you're going to have that touch composer on the screen in amsterdam right ok yes he will be projected on the screen and he'll talk about his music and introduce it from amsterdam in the auditorium sell us everything all the everything new and celebrating that heritage with the global vision for the future a that it's wonderful thank you so much we have for coming in for letting the community know about that grady vet only once every hundred fifty years get a show up that's great thank you anyone else from the audience have something to talk about ok seeing nine we will go on to community and neighborhood services the approval of a contract manufacturing side installing gateway to get away finding signs i'm going to find my way to saying it joel will help us with that joel die from community and neighborhood services thank you thank you mayor members of city council this evening council is being asked to award a contract to valley city signs for the siding manufacturing and installation of four gateway signs in the city of holland on the screens in front of you are what we call our city of holland signed family last year the city hired a consultant known as studio graphic to work with staff and a citizens committee to develop a master way finding sign play and what this plan does is it a they created it created a design for a variety of signs that are going to be installed in the city of holland over the next several years the total number assigned will total one hundred twenty five new signs these will replace our existing signs that have been you know going on thirty years an age that exists right now in our community the signs were talking about this evening our gateway signs there will be four of them that will be constructed and installed mostly at the major entry point in the city of holland on your screen is a schematic of that sign that's going to go in to give you some scale here this is the height of an average person so we're looking at about a twelve foot high sign that's go installed they're going to be located at what we consider the four major gateways into the city the four major intern's points these points were identified utilizing our consultant studio graphic you put the plan together what they did is they go through this elongated study looking at different routes as if you're coming from kalamazoo detroit chicago indianapolis etc etc and these are the points that are highlight as you know the primary entrance points and then staff and members of the community also talked about when you're coming back to the fine city of holland when you know you're at home when you feel i'm back in college and these are the points that come up the most as now i feel like i'm at home for help you get your bearings one location is thirty us thirty one in south washington so if you're coming home on us thirty one north and you peel off on the washington avenue starting to take shape and form you coming up on the train station you feel i'm in holland now coming in on sixteenth street off i won ninety six and you get to sixteenth street and country club the corner of  where sixteenth street now turns into a bowl of art we have sidewalks on both sides you feel i'm in holland now and then down here if you're coming from the south east and you're coming up in forty and you go over us thirty one where in forty turns and what we know you can ave you feel you're in holland now so these are the four of the cations we're looking at last year city council set aside you know seventy five thousand dollars to start this process these four signs as stated in your report is going to cost us a total of twenty nine thousand six hundred eighty dollars so we're excited about moving this project forward and tonight's recommendation is that city council authorized you know award the contracta valley city signs authorized the mayor and the clerk to  necessary documents and we can start this process of manufacturing and installing these signs the goal is they will be installed late may and hopefully will be done by early june sell any questions from council tonight on this program material basis could you give us just a little peek into why they designed it that way sure when we were going through the design phase last year studio graphic there are two things they kind of wanted to do that the community wanted to do and we had three or four focus groups with a variety of members you know variety of community members we also had a steering committee that was comprised of city residents members a city council and city staff we wanted to celebrate our heritage i mean we wanted to celebrate the dutch heritage that we have here but at the same time we're looking for a more modern this tech and a more holistic approach to how we celebrate this so the signs that you see here the color orange which is reflected in our most recent branding process we've gone through you know prior to this the house of orange juice that's very dutch the gateway sign that we're to talk about for a second here the lines the lattices are you know represented of tulip fields the tool pros that we all see in may when we walk either a window on the waterfront or a free venture outside the city limits and go to one of the larger tulip farms that are you know out of the hinterlands a little bit you see those as well this is also represented of window blades that we see on our own does one as well as various smaller scale windmills throughout the city so that was kind of the direction that we were going with this design so there's no kissing dutch people are things that twirl around in the wind through this design process we have strayed away from kissing dutch people or the word welcome use the word k etc but it's great it's it's got great energy it has a real urban feel to it and that's what we wanted to communicate right yes any discussion from coun right i set the design view of this and like a lot of our kind of public share reading we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what what can we interpret how can we interpret holland in a way that creates a very modern contemporary feel and this design i think unanimously was really kind of brought out that  that idea that we can be traditional in some way with the typeface being it's you know strong sirup with this idea of a very modern linear or rectilinear evoke evoking the the movement of the the wind blades so contemporary colors that align with our brand standards that we set in motion about two years ago so this all very much aligns with the direction the visual direction of the city which i completely agree with so thank you of guiding this through the process we appreciate your service brian on that committee and the other comments tulip time guess with the signs but right afterwards right awesome they'll probably keep popping up around town as time goes by over the next couple years so that's that's an exciting development so am i we're on to the kids that we have been given could you tell us close the city managers office is a place to report the following gifts we received three separate gifts for holland in bloom for the parks and recreation in the amount of five hundred dollars from central park law l l c five hundred dollars from west coast chamber of commerce and five hundred dollars from g d k construction parks and recreation for the digraph nature center land improvement projects receive three separate gifts recreation recreation division also received a donation in the amount of one thousand two hundred dollars from dick's sporting goods it is recommended that these donations be accepted with appreciation and an expression of gratitude be write those same sign that passes thank you we have communications from city manager mr ryan thank you madam mayor two items one the civic center place project is the design process anyway is wrapping up and that's coming forward tomorrow there will be a special steering committee meeting up stairs in the training room here at seven o'clock that will be followed on monday because i hasten to say that because nothing is final until the city council has had your deliberations and those deliberations are scheduled to be again on march sixteenth then will continue as long as as you feel is important in the course of those that's a public meeting as well so tomorrow seven p m upstairs monday seven p m in this room and then march sixteenth seven p m in this room the second item i want to mention is just like everyone plans on to a time many of us in city hall are planning on another summer of holland youth connections jobs for at risk youth we have reported to have about half of the organizations that hosted jobs last year on board for this summer so far if anyone is listening and would like to be part of that they can contact my office we also are visiting with the chamber of commerce and two hundred fifty some job professionals this coming tuesday and will announce that opportunity to them and lastly some of the provisions of these jobs are possible by donations so donations are being accepted as well great thank you ryan  communications from the mayor our thankful to have students show up tonight that were part of the sixty five or so that came last monday night it was a great discussion very exciting and business owners are wanting to know what those students had to say and we were we are sending that out to the lecture advantage organizations and i'm sure it will get to the businesses i just spoke with a couple owner business owners this week and they were very anxious to hear that and that is one of their main concerns is the finding and developing and retaining of talent in this area so it's a great problem to have and we want to work hard to address it and tell the world about the quality of life we have here and work to make it an even better place to live so that's exciting and speaking of quality the usa today has been taking in nominations for the best flower festival in the country and highlands tulip time is one of the ten that have been nominated we would love it if you would help by voting we go to ten the number ten best dot com and vote there you can i think vote every day for highland and i think it ends the twenty eighth of march so please keep voting every morning have a vote for ten best that come for usa today also in the american way back magazine hollins the lighthouse was featured in it and a large picture on the page and it talked about how that lighthouse was built a few years after the seven years them selves dug by hand the channel to get boats in and out and that it was painted red i believe hundred fifty six by the coast guard so that people could see it and for a while there it looked like big pink but now it is back as big red and we celebrate that landmark in the region also there was a facebook post that came out this past week we had it on one of those we're on our way to spring but oh no we still can have snow storms in holland and a facebook post came up that really is kind of indicative of many of our staff in the transportation department and one guy clearly male and i think his name might be pronounced during our last dose storm he got stuck in a snow bank and the man driving the snowplow actually got out with a shovel and a bag of salt and helped me who does that a great worker with concern for other people hat's off to the men behind the plow which is awesome gesture and i'm sure that has happened to other people not everybody takes the time to appreciate and we're grateful for this this person to reflect back on the great group we have in the transportation department how hard they work i know a couple years ago we had two am zaveri morning for those people with all the snow that kept coming and coming and they do so with a smile on their face and they drive so carefully we appreciate them all i had another woman stop me i think there was a you know this morning saying you know i came to city hall for something and every single person i talked to was so courteous and kind she said we really live in a very special place as so grateful for the way people treat each other here and that was just really really great to hear and it's something for us to notice value and continue to emulate as we work with each other that we can be a city on a hill when you come here you have a sense of civility and kindness and compassion for each other so that's an important thing for for all of us to remember and there's a day next tuesday next week tuesday that everyone is asked to vote so please show up and do that the polls will open at seven am and they will close at eight pm and matt and i can pound this for me on the website you can go there and if you don't know where you vote it will tell you so please we love to have a strong voting percentage here in the city of holland so that's it for the mayor's comments any other comments from council members th seating not seeing any motions and resolutions we don't have either by council members i guess we have one more motion that we need then there's a