good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to this meeting of the holland city council first business meeting for the month of august off its summer flying b to our flag i would invite those in the audience who are able to do so to join us in standing in those to  dear lord thank you for letting this community of unique individuals continue to inspire counsel and citizens and they're working together for the common good of all and yet respecting and caring for the rights of individuals of this council to have a vision for the future but also building on the past the sions of others we ask for wisdom to do right to think clearly to challenge ourselves always to improve in your name we pray  the next thing that we typically do you know our meeting is the consent agenda and on the consent agenda we deal with a single motion and vote with a number of items that are considered to be routine that have been discussed at prior study sessions and will without objection be decided on with a single motion and a single vote we will hear a summary of that in just a minute and if during that summer you hear something that is listed on the consent agenda of that you came to specifically discuss with counsel tonight you may when i give the opportunity request that an item be removed from the consent agenda so let's hear the summary of the to approve the minutes of the study sessions held june twenty fourth july eighth and twenty second and the regular session held july fifteenth two thousand and fifteen item eleven eight to accept in files of office from various boards and commissions item fourteen the one to re for a claim filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration item fourteen d two to adapt the revised guideline procedures in summary as required by public act by sixty three in regards to freedom of information act and adopt a resolution appointing the administrative assistant of the city clerk's office as a designee in the absence of the foyer corden the i don't fourteen d three to approve a business license application submitted by close call vision l l c to operate a secondhand junk business in the city of pound pain apartment approval and dependent pending department review and approval i am fortini one point one two adopt a resolution approving an amendment without accounting for the solid waste plan i don't fourteen eve two point one to approve the request for greater ottawa united way for the placement of signs to be located it been brought anson tenniel parks beginning october two thousand and fifteen through april two thousand sixteen i had in fourteen the two point two to approve the edgewater resources proposal in the amount of six thousand eight hundred dollars for the installation of permanent marker monuments and thirteen public road ends along the merely mecca tower waterfront item fourteen eat two point three two adopt a resolution a proven and that contract number fifteen dash fifty three fourteen and adopt a budget for the m forty at interchange drive in the amount of twenty two thousand eight hundred dollars from the streets capital project item fourteen each two point four to approve the bid submitted by brown or estimating inc in the amount of sixty eight thousand four hundred forty five dollars and fifty cents for the twenty fourth street retaining wall repair with the funds to be allocated from the street improvement from pending approval as to form by the city attorney i know fortini two point five to approve the bid of david cole contra decorator's inc in the amount of thirty thousand for the two thousand and fifteen pedestrian light pole preparation and painting with funds to be allocated from the downtown development authority buildings and grounds me i am fourteen eat two point six two adopt a resolution approving the mbak contract number fifteen fifty four fifteen for sixteenth street improvement project i have fourteen easy two point seven two award the bids submitted by research reilly construction in the amount to sixty five thousand and sixty four dollars for the lincoln avenue resurfacing project extend the million and skip paving project at waverley and pop hard drive with black gold transport in the amount of thirty five thousand adopt the budget not to exceed fifty thousand for resurfacing and whitening and grass between forty yet in the city limits to be completed with the proceeds from the allegan county road commission from the one hundred forty six to sixty is resurfacing project with the extension of said contract or through a purchase order be made with michigan paving and materials and adopt a proposed overall budget with funding through the street improvement reserve fund and the allegan county road tax fun and fourteen easy three point one to schedule a public hearing for requested tax abatement for a new  s at ten twenty one east forty you street to the august one thousand cars a leading and to instruct the deputy clerk to publish and mail said notices i don't fourteen three point two to declare a surplus various lawn equipment and to dispose of all items in the most advantageous to the city fortini three point three to approve of it submitted by hooks and lying in the amount of twenty one thousand three hundred thirty two for the replacement of two gator utility vehicles for use in the parks and recreation department and to declare surplus to two thousand and two gator realty vehicles item fourteen e three point four to approve the bids emitted by their rural men garden products in the amount of in the amount of sixty seven thousand three hundred forty eight dollars and twenty eight cents for the purchases of the two thousand and sixteen two and flowers as indicated in the report with the cost to be allocated between when violent gardens parks and tulip time festival item fortini three point five to approve a five year proposal fiscal year two thousand and fifteen through fiscal year two thousand and nineteen submitted by rieman robson in the amount of four hundred forty five thousand for financial audits services item fortini five point two to approval requests for qualification process for the selection of a mob type disciplinary team for the design professional selection team for the civic center and to establish a target deadline of september seventeenth two thousand and fifteen and recommend design team consisting of facilitators architects engineers landscape architects recreation planners outdoor market experts public place professionals council members community at large members and city staff fortini five point three to appoint finance director tim bakley to the holland smart zone local to development finance authority board  representative said term to expire december two thousand and fifteen play all right you've heard the summary of the consent agenda there's anyone in the audience who would like to request any of those items to be removed this is your opportunity to do any council members have anything any items that they would like remo all right that we have the consent agenda before us with one item are low what does the pleasure of coun good evening mayor and city council for those in the audience and those who may be at home watching on t v let me introduce myself my name is droll di on the interim director of community and neighborhood services also in the audience tonight is linda jacobs executive director of good samaritan ministries this evening city council is being asked to a doctor in a resolution which will approve a residential clean energy program that's going to result in the development of a landlord energy efficiency upgrade revolving loan program look at this program is going to be operated out of a community neighborhood services and it's going to be done in partnership with good samaritan ministries what this program is is a private nonprofit public part between the city of holland and good samaritan ministries gets married to ministries and he has received funds from fifth third bank and they have decided to deposit those funds at the city of holland and then the city of holland is going to utilize those funds to improve the energy efficiency of rentals in our central neighborhoods that are part that are specifically rented out to low income households landlords are to receive assistance in improving their properties tenets are going to receive lower itogi bills and better comfort and then the city will get an introduction into managing a revolving loan program that is going to help landlords the process to get this accomplished is going to follow pretty much a four step process the energy audits are going to be organized and set up by good samaritan ministries they're also going to identify which landlords qualify for the program the city will come in then and work with the landlords on signing the grand agreements liens and contracts to get the work done we're going to provide a twenty five percent grant to the landlord and then a seventy five percent then a seventy five percent will be given to the landlord in the form of a two percent loan that will be paid back to the city over a five year period that money that is paid back to the city will be reintroduced into the program and that's how we that's how we will create this revolving loan process  that will be paid to the contractors immediately when the work is done and then the landlord pays the city back on the monthly basis this is a first program or first of a kind program for the city of as it relates to this revolving loan idea our community neighborhood services currently operates homi per program that's funded with federal funds so we're very confident in identifying home improvement projects lining up contractors and getting work done this is going to be a learning period for us as we work through that revolving loan program that's why we're turning this as a pilot program the agreement that we have with good samaritan ministries as after the monies deposited into our account after this program gets up and running after a year one year to year three as the city is in a lysine and you know reviewing the success of this program we can make changes at that time at the this is a program that can be easily folded in to some larger initiatives that city council is considering so again we think that's also another kind of benefit to city council as we start wading into these you know energy upgrades this energy efficiency idea that you know we're all kind of excited here at city hall i know councils discussed this a great detail over the past month and a half i am here the answer questions linda jacobs a good samaritan ministries is present if there are questions of her this does require a public hearing tonight cell with that mayor in council are there any immediate questions you have for me regarding this program and the questions for  nancy so these are already with landlords and working with as a city and as good samaritan ministries right correct so they are already housing people in the lower income bracket yes so this is not just a money maker maker for people coming into town that would like twenty five percent off improvements to their property as a landlord correct of what we have done with good sam in designing this program as we want to make it as successful as possible so in our enough we call it the low hanging fruit so we're trying to get the low hanging fruit first which as you know the innards have already worked at the city or already in partnership with a good samaritan ministries ones we know a first name basis and yeah we have a good track record with them and their rent will stay low even though the property has improved in its energy consumption yeah that's part of the agreement with good samaritan ministries is they have to stay within the good samaritan ministries transitional housing program so it's improvements that probably wouldn't have happened correct and didn't have this program and this grant correct that's great all right we do need to have a public hearing at this point there's anyone who wishes to address council on this particular item but i would clear the public hearing to be is your opportunity please step forward to the microphone state your name and residential address for the record limit your comments to five minutes please see none i will declare the public hearing to be close  to help us with this too to blend expertise hopefully to realize the best outcome is heartening to be when these sort of situations arise where we have public and private cooperation and we have partnerships to accomplish these sorts of things so thanks very much to good sam for their their portion and yeah i would i concur with david this is a very creative structure for things and it and this came up at the neighborhood advisory committee hearing from a committee i think there was a little bit of skepticism but i think putting this with the right partners in place really provides an opportunity to achieve a lot of goals get housing stock into a position of efficiency that otherwise would not have been and get the whole city aligned with some of the other activities that we're doing with home improvement green buildings green housing this is a really a step in the right direction so th well i would echo our thanks to good sam for their efforts in this and for all the reasons that have been stated but i would also point out that this is perfectly in line with our efforts throughout the city in the involvement with the georgetown university energy prices to reduce energy consumption and also has the benefit of for these tenets to reducing their overall energy costs so that  disposition of the city's green house the revealing marriage and essay members a city council this is a combination of a number of months of work that began with a group called the heart of holland who thought through the benefits and possibilities of extending snow melt down central and that evolved into a number of other considerations including acquisition of and sale of in the case of the city the city's greenhouse and  other opportunities for improved services for all so what you have it for you is the memorandum of understanding that sets out in writing all of these all those terms its of course the  underway central project is already underway yet this member of understanding makes it clear how the five hundred thousand dollar donation will be received by the city that is going towards so many elements of this project including purchase  greenhouse so in the document in front of you there is a fifty thousand dollar amount that is will become to you on august nineteenth thereabouts if this is approved and the remaining forty fifty thousand dollars on december sixteenth two thousand and fifteen and that's to cover elements of the snow melt as approved by council on june seventeenth at your regular meeting also of that was amounts forty thousand dollars under this memorandum  towards the purchase price of the of the green house by evergreen commons which is also known as holland senior citizen cetera ank there is further an understanding that the city would be in a position to continue to use this green house until june thirtieth two thousand and seventeen while plans progressed to build a what we call a grow house which isn't needed for some time a larger facility to produce more plants and  en larger sizes and we need time to budget for that locations already been one key locations been determined other locations are being reviewed and that will be likely constructed by that time we need that extra time th however to do so there is also the understanding in paragraph seven that there would be fifty thousand square feet of snow mobile capacity reserved for a green commons in the greenhouse sufficient to serve them as needed possibly and also that there be a connection made available from the transmission pipe for potential district heating of the greenhouse which would need to be part of renovations at a later expense by evergreen commons there's an understanding that when state street is reconstructed that there will be a good faith attempts to passage crosswalk if you will well designed to be determined  opportunity for dignitaries and schoolchildren others to visit and the greenhouse in recognition of the history of that facility as well as the community sort of cultural activities in the past and that that house will produce plants and that now finding as well as other joint understanding's that i just outlined and that the mayor and deputy city clerk be authorized to execute the memorandum of understanding thank you so of for this item as well we need a full hearing that's correct so if there's anyone in the audience who wishes to address this item i will declare the public hearing to be open and this is your opportunity to let us know what you're thinking we want to a lot of audience wish to address this peter's force but to do it in a discussion way just a really quick one here this is a bit of a landmark it's a unique structure of glass and metal it's a story but it's time to move on and i think this is a unique opportunity for the city hall to move in a different direction that's going to make it more efficient i'm just really pleased that ever it is a sweet little structure a victorian greenhouse where do you find one of the well over a hundred years all that and i guess the emotional price of it would be more than forty thousand but we did have it appraised and it is not  like really good glass or anything and it's been there for over a hundred years and we haven't done much to refurbish it therefore the emotional value doesn't matter and forty thousand is is a reasonable price to be reimbursed for for that structure in case anybody wonders but i do look forward to being able to go through that structure when it's alive with people doing plants and teaching classes and maybe painting art in there i just think if it's such a visible location you know all of us can enjoy its rebirth for the community any pre shared the kinds of evergreen and their partnership and power and using district heat possibly to heat it to isn't awesome story for the world it's going to be great well i would echo those thoughts we are looking forward to it being no renovated and restored we're pretty sure to to evergreen for undertaking the project and look forward to it maybe joe and in order to get this in front of us it's currently on the table we need a potion to remove it from the table and place it on the floor so that we can pick an action s about a month and a half ago the city council received a report from the clerk's office with support from my department not to renew the business license at seven twenty one the can ave there are two licenses that are held at this location one is a second hand dealer license and the other one i'm going to paraphrase is a rubbish hollar license over the past of the several years we've had a series of issues with this property owner this business owner as it relates to the storage of materials both outside and outside in front of his property which you're seeing right now as rows to the rear of his property which i'll show you later in a few slides at your previous city council chose the table that action to not renew his license to give the property owner time to address the condition of the property and clean it up to the best of his ability on july twenty ninth we sent out two inspectors from our office to inspect the property to see what how the condition of the property is that time what progress was being made as it related to the business owner cleaning up the rear of the property as you can see by the images on the screen in front of you not much progress has been made and cleaning up this area considering that the current condition of the you know the real property still looks the way it looks on the screen you're seeing right now this was on july twenty ninth my department along with the clerk's office is asking city council to uphold the clerk's decision not to read the business licenses that are you know located at this  any questions from counsel any questions for a draw all of this time anybody in the audience who wishes to address the situation actually to come to the podium state your name and residential address for the record and you have up to five minutes to tell us what you want agree very concerning unfortunately they don't they don't tell the whole the whole truth or at least as i've learned it from knowing joe for the past month and a half i don't i really don't have a formal relationship except that we were in the city council room when he came up and we we meaning my wife and myself offered to help him with this stop project because he's a veteran and because we've dealt with him before his customers and he served us very well and we believe that he serves the community in a very special and you know unique way by providing this refuge dump service and a secondhand store but anyway he did have over we estimate two thousand times tense about twenty thousand pounds of refuge on his property both behind and in front of the store approximately twelve thousand pounds of that has been removed since the last  meeting the reason it doesn't look like much has been done is because you know a lot of garbage has had settled and we've you know i actually ruffled it up a little bit as we were removing it at the time that my wife and i volunteered to help joe we propose to approach our church for resources not only manpower but money but i've learned that you really shouldn't tear their services until you spoken to the organization in the problem the reason it's not all done yet is very simple it's economical joe basically operates from job to job so he gets a job to use the money for what he needs including reinvesting into his business  and then when that's exhausted he waits for another job so at least on four different occasions the work we were doing on his property was the late but lack of funds and again unfortunately  i've mentioned before the city council he is a veteran and i think that deserves some consideration and he is overly but most important he is he is self sufficient right now in spite of the fact that he is suffering some financial problems he is managing to continue to not only support himself but as the wife he's keeping this business going and fortunately again the resources are limited which limits his ability to address this problem in a more speedy fashion so given more time he can finish this project and my wife and i are determined to continue to help them as his funds to remove the refuge come in it's seventy dollars  tonne to take things to the dump and then he also has to hire a few other people some of the things on the property are very heavy and so we do need additional help in terms of the fence he's got to pulls up he's got the money for  the rest of the material and we just need a little more time to get that up so i guess my argument is he is self sufficient he can get the job done unfortunately the funds are limited and manpower it will declare the public hearing to be closed so the motion to duck the recommendation is to hold the clerk's rescission of licenses so my question is if the process bears out forward as as described in you know th t joe is able to in essence get get things cleaned up you know get the property back into an orderly fashion it's acceptable for the health safety and welfare of the community application for licenses available to him  reengage in the business that he's doing today and if so what's that process look like the the process would be that once he gets it cleaned up he can apply to the court for a new license and that can be processed then in the same way any other new license would be processed i believe that license for his business would come back here for counsel review on his agenda but in the meantime i wouldn't be able to be doing any work is covered by that license right can't go pick to just following up one more question on that which license are we talking about that would come back to us resale  this is not what is real fun set up here it's a lot more fun to build buildings and clean streets or grow tulips joe i'm listening to your story and i understand you have a business and i do believe you do beyond but i think in this case we also have a list of about twelve or fourteen property orders in and around here ia in which you are operating your business and  their concern and i think they have a right to be concerned and as much as i don't like i bow firm believer in second chances and from what i understand of our staff they don't take these actions lightly when wondering if by supporting this tonight it might damage straight to the good work that you're doing in the way you're going about it is mitigated by the negative consequences that are a result of how you do it so this might be almost a good thing to maybe help you step back look at this operation and try and shore up some areas that you can be back here real soon and reapply for this license and get back to what you're doing only on little firmer ground again i have i have no pleasure in voting yes on this today but i think based on everything i've heard and the recommendation of staff why no do not make these recommendations what i would be inclined to do that and hopefully manwell and others friends of yours can help you get to a point where we can clean it up get are going make it maybe ollie's even better a different approach to to get back to what you're doing because i believe you probably are doing something good for the community so unfortunately i think where we are tonight i'd be inclined to support the recommendation we do appreciate how hard you've been working and it's sad so inspiring to have done well and his wife just come to a meeting and see any and care that much to get involved to make a difference to change an overwhelming situation and as jay said this is not with pleasure that we perform some of these things we have to do but i do think that this is your next step in asking for help that man well and his wife her helping and perhaps more people will be willing to help when they see the city taking one step after another and they will step forward to make a difference on a bigger faster basis for you because i don't think it's possible for one man at your stage in life with all that you have gone through in serving our country to handle this amount of backlog so i think as j said it's not an easy decision but i think it's one we have to make it has been years that the community and neighborhood services have been working to try to resolve this and at some point higher word has to mean something and last time we met we we gave a table that for a forty five day window with added pressure and you know you have done a lot i mean it is going the right direction but in order to ensure that it gets up to the standards that the neighborhood requires i think we need to make this stick this time and hopefully this will be what catapults other people to step forward balance i think you'll be ok right now you're you're in inundated with too much on your plate as sources and you need some time to get rid of that and then you can come i don't think there's any business person or entity that we've encountered that we didn't want to see succeed at least not any that i can recall and there are certain things with being a business person or being in business that you one needs to consider and i'm going to say i hope won't be miscued construed as derogatory or judgmental but i think it's truth that the truth that every business has to face i know it's a truth that i've had to face as a self employed person and that is that there are certain things that have to happen and they have to exist in order for you to be there is that you need to be able to coexist with others in proximity to it to your location and so there are points in that business journey where every business person has to stop and get him to evaluate whether the conditions are such that you can continue doing that haven't and i hope that when you ask yourself those questions that you'll be able to find a way to say yes i can continue it sounds as though from what mr here and as it is explaining that cash flow is a bit of a problem of this  to believe me i understand that very well so these are things you have to evaluate the it's very possible that this is not something that you're able to continue doing but i guess all you can answer we're not trying to put you out of business or make life unnecessarily it difficult for you and we have a job to do too so hopefully you understand that  so i guess basically that's my message and hope to see you back here at some point applying for new licenses to start again joe first of all thank you very much for your service second of all i've worked for the government i've been part of the government for a long time and i always get upset and how slow the wheels of government work  particular case i think it's a celebration because we are giving you an extension even though this would go through the wheels of government move a little bit on the slow side you still have time before the final judgment comes down to rectify the situation and i sure hope that you do it is extremely difficult to be in this situation right now for all of us you us the city the neighbors everybody as was said before thank heavens some people are stepping up  hopefully some other people will see this and help but also i understand that the help moving the stuff is is the least of the problems it's once it's loaded up getting it out and getting rid of it that's probably your big biggest insurmountable problem right now a little cash donations probably wouldn't hurt anything at all we don't come to these situations very often thank heaven but there are points where we have to weigh everything that comes in you've got some neighbors there that are concerned for various reasons your heart and your intent have always been at the top unfortunately got away from it so you do have some time before the slow grinding wheels of government catch up and i hope you make the best of that time and as everybody else here i hope that we see you here very quickly very soon coming to reapply for these because you are doing a valuable benefit to the community and we wish you the ultimate best when else we can't really disagree with anything that's been said and there's not much so that i can add to them and help you get back on your feet that brings us down to item twelve communications from the audience there's anybody that's here tonight to address council on a topic that is not on the agenda this is your opportunity commissioner story thank you for your attendance good evening mr mayor and members of the council appreciate the opportunity to give you a short update on some of the recent actions in elegant county and tap to a new dog licensing ordinance that will make it easier for residents of allegheny county to comply with dog licensing law we have some thirty veterinarians including two really good wouldn't i washington street here in the city that we're not where we adapt that ordinance will be able to issue licenses in conjunction with any  services if they're providing to dogs so up till now you've had to be either male or the county treasurer or go to the county building analogous to get a license and i really commend the treasure and her staff for working to get this process in place and so that essentially we're streamlining and bringing the surfaces closer to the people of of our county  also in the next few weeks we will begin the demolition of the old jail so you may know and remember we moved into our new corrections center in sheriff's office last october and the old jail will be removed by the end of october and be replaced with an added parking space for our county building particularly when we have what we have trials either at the district or circuit court and in the wintertime where you know you have to pass no one spaces we've been short of parking and and it has been an inconvenience to people who have very routine and small time business at the at the county building this will add something in the area of about seventy five spaces will also have a small green space border so it won't be to help the city of elegance plans for  bricks and we're certainly going to work with the contractor to make some of that available to those who so desire that's kind of souvenirs we also will be again at the request of some of the overnight maybe putting our website to some of the cameras to show the demolition process and hopefully this will be the last step than this whole process of replacing the old county jail which is consumes so much time and staff attention over the last ten years in terms of other projects on june twenty ninth we completed a four hundred thousand dollar improvement to westside is a ramp that will allow wheelchair bound residents to go down the bluff and viewed lake michigan from a platform overlooking the park for those of you who aren't familiar with the location of westside park i is south of douglas in ganges township a long way short drive i've gone to a couple times during the construction process and it really is a very white caught the gem of elegant county's park system it's really a beautiful sight to clerk and members of the council manager attorney's office so you may find it useful thank you very much think i may have been the recipient of the trouble of the last published one thank you thank you the other members of the audience that are your to address the members of the city council this is the an annual event for having for many years what's new again this year is the second time is requests for permission to serve alcohol there essentially a special civil war recipe in a small tent that is available to the presenters of the civic civil war muster as you know this is a reenactment and the reactors wear costumes and and the the the tent is set up in a manner that is reminiscent of those years as well as the interior tables and chairs the same so this request is a for you the event is coming up and mid september i think september nineteenth and twentieth and there have been some changes however in the way that so in their quest for you tonight is to authorize this event to serve beer only subject to the customary restrictions with the insurance and also an in addition to the report before you is that it be subject to the regular prove alls of the various departments involved the public safety department which is typically done and advance but given the the need to be organized this nonprofit could hear you in advance and this time however if you make the motion subject to that those protections will also be included in this recommendation all right we have a resolution before us i believe we need to remember correctly we need to amend the resolution to reflect the change in  a motion to amend the resolution in that form so moved moved by divorce court supported b me yeah thank you correct name of the nonprofit organization that is sponsoring the event and we have heard that to include in the amendment are the customary requirements for the approval of the various city departments involved and ultimately once those are obtained in there in the proper assurance returns to the city manager to be issue that that brings us to t and fifteen canine golf fundraising campaign donations totaling in the net profit of sixteen thousand five hundred forty one dollars and fifty five cents bow school for the rex parks and recreation and an donation from for youth admission was received in the amount of five hundred dollars and for the parks and recreation digraph magic nature center land improvements and brick donation the total amount of six hundred eighty dollars was distance this this picture is an opportunity to is to see the connection that renovation of the civic center and the area surrounding it which i call civic center place could have to the rest of the community and as with this is the opportunity to recognize forty years of plans and relation to connection of the downtown to the waterfront as well as more recent years of recreation planning downtown planning and other plans so tonight is the request before you to authorize staff to issue or quest for qualifications which is a two step process to hire a professional team to make possible the renovations to the civic center and the associated grounds in a way that realizes these plans this is made possible by a anonymous two million dollar pledge to support the civic center that would take a conversation starter concept and make it something that involves the public have public hearings public input so that we actually have a conceptual plan by february in a way that would  what you see here is the remainder of the process as it goes forward with stakeholder and public review and hopefully of conceptual plans in january council design approval in february of two thousand and sixteen review group in sydney visser from the farmer's market to sit in on the design professor q said as the design professional selection team as well as staff and for the purpose of making recommendation to city council hopefully on september seventeenth i asked her to come up a consent just to make sure that what we had in the presentation and in the package was put on the video was not here for the study session where this was discussed but i just want to make sure that it is basically the record that we are having a very deliberate discussion on the renovation of this part of downtown and that this says intended to be a participatory process that brings in a lot of voices to achieve what what i believe is a transformation of an area of downtown that can truly be representative of a place for civic engagement a place for people someplace that is urban that also supports and expands the farmers market which is the the primary activity that takes place in this block we can see more of this happening we can see more people more activity and we can really engage in changing and in our going to behavior of people who already go down there and expanding our downtown which you know if you're if you have been down town you know that we are at ninety eight percent retail capacity we need to be able to grow that and the best way to do that is to create places where people want to go to build traffic in between to help blocks become developed this small investment can help us achieve so many things and are excited that we're creating a process to really make this connections are us and when we have a one hundred level of downtown it and water that close together it's really important that we connect it all and that we have a civic area where everybody can be there and enjoy being outside or enjoy being in an enclosed space and really make it dynamic and beautiful this is not anywhere usa we don't want just a plain old building that's been there for over sixty years with very little attention we really want to grow that area in a special signature way so that when people talk about how they say have you seen that civic black whatever we're going to college we need to have a millennial park feel to our area there and it should be creative and planned appropriately for what it has to accommodate and also be beautiful so it's not not an easy job but i am sure that creative professionals are out there and this is not only about a building design it's also about landscape architecture outdoor markets public spaces parking management all of those dimensions have to be a part of this plan and we need everyone to come together to share your voice and share in the shred process and help us really make this kind of area that we will all be proud of in the future and whenever you want to come to holland you want to be on that walk saw this is going to be exciting and i'm really glad we're at this point and i love the dimensions of this plan simply add for emphasis that what we are doing now is putting into place to select the professionals who will guide us through this process and we are committed to getting the best possible advice in this and those professionals will provide opportunities for lots of public input along the way so this is not the end of the opportunity for public input is the beginning all right that brings us down to fifteen communications from the city manager thank you it's my a pleasure to indicate that the first quarter results o the georgetown university energy prize are in the city was accepted as one of fifty applicants for this apprehension of five million dollar prize that represents possibly the community that has the lowest per capita energy use in the nation first quarter results first quarter out of eight erin and the city is at the eleventh place at a fifty and that's a tribute to all of the activities contender and with that announcement i want to signify a number of things that have helped make some of these results possible and will help future results be possible the city and many of you listening many of you here participated in the energy blitz on june sixth where a group of people came together to go door to door and inform cumi human community members of easy ways to save energy and reduce their costs so we targeted a thousand homes to visit and the actual numbers was one thousand three hundred thirty the number of volunteers we hope to have fifty the actual number was ninety the number of door to door visits in terms of face to face conversations on the on the porch and up in three hundred eighty we would hope for more should we do this in the future by varying the  vouchers reuse of that or process so there's a process to ensure that there are installed others fight it forty five have been installed to date and more will follow as it's called a weather comes we also offer an opportunity for street trees and there are one hundred fifteen there were requests there are thirteen there are already planned for the fall and more being planned as we go there were ninety one requests for free energy audit assessment and the final numbers are to be determined but so far twenty one have been completed have been requested and twelve actually can been completed and four resulted in energy retrofits which is part of our what we've been doing with our pilot it's twenty five pilots homes and there's four more now that's a transposition it's not even one thousand private sector money into these it's eighteen thousand of of energy retrofits so far so there is more that i hope to do and along these lines simming council is supportive katrina haynes of my office is a project minister this summer and she is working on a grant request to the c s not foundation who we have reason to believe might be interested in funding more of this activity all of this was done through you know volunteer time but in the future if we want to reach seven thousand homes six times as would be important to have some paid systems and ideally that assistance of the grant you're going to hear about next week from katrina it will involve of some of our at risk youth continue some of their employment through the fall so i wanted to give those numbers to you in that thought for you to consider and then next week during study session katrina will be present and give you a  report upstairs for your review for the review that's item number one zero on that to that point for people who are now even more energized to save energy it's important to know that you can get more than half of the cost for bob's off from the b b w i decided to receipts and got my check in fairly short order so that's possible for everyone and that saves enormous quantities of electrical energy as well as remembering to you know do simple things like turn the water heater temperature down a notch open up the windows in the night clothes and during the day use your blinds during the data reduce the cooling needs and otherwise be energy smart next and your next agenda in two weeks there is going to be a recommendation to study making to the downtown streets two way you previously heard about one street being made two way from pine avenue west conversation that night led to our city engineer to review  additions to that and so what you'll see is whether you want to engineer proposal should you want to move forward to study one street west of central as well as seventh street west of central all the way to verity in both cases this would has a number of obvious potential advantages circulation be improved however it may have some disadvantages such as the need for additional  width of lane when on one street especially between river and pine as well as the ultimate you know ideally there's there's no confusion but whenever there's a change there is confusion so this needs to be studied thought through destination and origin counts these types of things we need to take place so i wanted to give you and the community especially heads up that that will be under study and if you want to consider that you're in approve it at your next council meeting so heads up for everyone to call our office or call the transportation department or whatnot if you have questions and and be part of that public process speaking of being part of a public process  those individuals who lived near st ann's on lake mack a tower tonight the council approved the survey so i want everyone to know that the surveyors will be in the field here within a matter of days and weeks and that that will be happening so there's no surprises the last thing in relation to no surprises the where experimenting with a change in services here in city hall combining some services from staff here maintenance wise with the parks department and that began today and i don't think that the casual user city hall or anyone else will see a difference we will see more services in our parks department it is an experiment i want you know that it began today as a way to maximize utilization of personnel reduce and maximize the use of taxpayers dollars reducing the from our taxpayers dollars and in other ways try to appease a as efficient as possible thank website phone numbers email addresses and encourage you to look at the website for a wealth of information the things that are going on in or around town we had a great nigh out last night at college park lots and lots of people that had a good time and then went home and met their neighbors one another annual event that's coming up a week from this saturday is the annual salsa showdown at the farmer's market and i've got to start getting my my mouth in shape because i've been invited to be a judge so looking forward to to that come on down and you get the public gets to taste a lot of good salsa as well  appointments have a whole long list of appointments this evening we're getting into august now which means sorry kids we have start thinking about the new school year coming up and we  getting all of our youth advisory council and youth on board selections made in place so they are ready to hit the ground running when the school year starts the end of this month or beginning of next month  court board from holland high all of those nominations are for terms set to expire on june thirtieth twenty sixteen and then in addition one more nomination to the scuse me first a resignation and a sharp is resigning from the border review and he's served on the board since january of two thousand two thousand and nine and then an appointment to the hair district library board of tim morrow keene and as i make this appointment i have been advis it's appropriate for me to disclose that i am as many of you know an employee of the city as ealing employed as the director of the howard miller public library and that the howard miller public library has a contract for services in place with their district library board so i have asked the city attorney to look into whether or not a conflict of interest exists because of that relationship and mr city attorney what is your ruling that we've looked into this i answer is that we do not find a conflict of interest or incompatibilities between ended two positions as mayor and the director of the library in sealing the library and zealand is a department of the city is healing as i understand it but unlike that situation there are quite rare is a district library that's a separate authority and not the department of the city of holland and so your role as as mayor of holland you would neither supervise nor be subordinate to position as director of the library in zealand and you can carry out the duties in both and  our opinion in both positions without any breach of duty to the city of holland or the city of zealand importantly here the city of holland doesn't vote on the contract that their library would have and does of the contract is in place and then runs for another several years and also and your role as mayor and the city council and its role does not supervisor remove larrie library board  members there's the appointment of board members but and but no supervision or removal powers removal powers rests with the governor under the district library statute so it's so based on that we don't see a conflict of interest that would prevent you and it's really exciting labor day is coming in september seven monday that monday and eight a m please gathered at though west and of heinz at the boardwalk and walk all the way to win the island gardens three point nine miles beautiful watch the wider talk to your friends and family get your whole neighborhood to participate and then you get to win the iowa gardens where we are hosting a blueberry pancakes breakfast the awesome fresh blueberries donated by the farmers back boys blueberry farm and we have all kinds of volunteers helping us so it'll be a beautiful day beautiful morning and then after that you you will come to the truck parade which is on labor day also starting in zealand approximately nine fifteen because of the construction downtown which is very needed we will be having just a slightly different ro zealand come down chicago drivers they always have and once they get into town instead of going down each street at lincoln avenue they will be diverted to seventh street they will follow seventh street west until river avenue where they will make a southbound movement and then back to eighth street and then they will make a nother west and follow the rest the route down there so there's going to be a little different set up there's going to be a little traffic congestion but it's going to be a whole lot of fun we have at this point roughly fifty trucks signed up which is about par for the course and there's going to be a lot of noise a lot of fun and a lot of ice cream so come on down nine fifteen starting in zealand we should hit downtown here probably within the half hour after that so labor day two big events coming up yes and i forgot one really cool thing we're designing the t shirts right now with the walking pancakes to the women island garden site be a limited edition t shirt sell keep watching and we will let you know we can buy some you can buy some ahead of time but we're only going to make many so if you want to have one of those major cool shirts for the labor day board walk with make sure you watch for that news and get in more close to the time right now this coming saturday i would do that either right and i'm an a one point five k walk starting at approximately six o'clock this event gets bigger and bigger every year it's a fundraiser and actually  a learning and training session for some of the youth that are there to live up to the heights they train all summer for this this is the culmination coming out and supporting them all around around the route that will go in and out of the streets up in the heights would  would really help them and show the support the community has for them to do that i will i'll be walking i believe our city manager will be going a little faster than me a lot faster than me he's younger than i am so he can do that but come one come all come out and enjoy we have a little bit of food after ed up at calvary reform church on a street it's just a fantastic event this is a seventy three year that this is going on and like i said it gets bigger every year second modern joy is supposed to be great weather and mountain and enjoy some neighborhood support the kids support the community hope to see their anyone else here into a closed session