well good evening everyone and welcome to this evening's regularly scheduled meeting of the holland city council it is good to have you with us whether you're in chambers tonight or watching at home or otherwise on an electronic device somewhere at some place and some point today is april fifteenth which a brain knows is tax day oh i'll be back in those getting i've got taxes filed and tomorrow or as their accounting friends would say it is  sixteen fiscal year budget discussion and we when this meeting is over we'll go back to that we're scheduled to have another such meeting tomorrow evening and potentially this coming monday as well those meetings are always open to the public either here in city hall and we certainly invite people to come and and hear what we're talking about we think about the upcoming budget which starts it goes into effect on july one the budget proposed by city management is available on the city's web site so you can see it it's a very large file but i think you'd be fairly impressed with the comprehensive nature of the budget document you will see where the money is coming from you will see where the money is being proposed to be spent so it's clearly the most important thing council does over the course of a year and we want to make sure that the public is as well aware of what's going on on that and has up to weigh in on it but before we can conduct any business this this evening aside bad from making accountant jokes i wanted to make sure we have a quorum so and i would ask that you please community to be subsisting ors of the soil and error and down to resources and to be a people who are kind and gentle and thoughtful to others and as we move into the season of city budgets h ss council to discern the difference between wants and needs and guide our thinking and purpose and reminding us with the reality that many in this community have and are facing financial hardships and have been doing so for many years help this council to clarify and see clearly the issues at hand and not to be afraid to ask the tough questions and to ponder to share our thoughts less the city that we love and call home lets all who live here work here or come to visit and in your name we pray for him and pledge allegiance to the why of united states of america and  wayne i should know before all the accountants come at me with their calculators and that of course i'm a lawyer by training and politics as well as now in banking so trust me bring on the jokes will have a fair fight there are copies of this evening's agenda located in the rack of in the rear of the room if you're in chambers tonight would like to see what will be deciding this evening if you do have a electronic device either at home or with you tonight you can also find a copy of the agenda  as all of the background material that council has reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting that information gets put on the city's website days before these meetings happen so if you ever want to see what's upcoming for a council meeting or what council has looked at in preparation for making decisions all of it is available to it to the public anywhere around the world on the city's website city of holland dot com and the easiest way to see it is to go to the calendar page you go to today's date and find all the information you possibly i would like to know about this evening's meeting as you look at the agenda you'll note there are a variety of items on it that have an asterisk next to them these are items that are what on what we call the consent agenda which means that in general we have already reviewed these items previously or they're relatively routine in the whole scheme of things so our intention is to handle them in one collective action so we're never the show up on the agenda we're going to handle them all together with one motion one vote before we go any further on that however i'm going to ask the deputy city clerk to read for us the specific items that are on the consent agenda and then i'll offer opportunity for anyone to take something off the consent if you'd like but we'll get to that in a second after anna reads for us what is presently scheduled to be on the consent agenda item five to approve the minutes of the march twenty five study session and april one two thousand and fifteen regular meeting i am a loving aide to accept and file of the office from various boards and commissions i am fourteen a to declare surpass a list of items from the wastewater treatment plant utility services and materials department as described in the report for the how important public works item fourteen need to to approve a contract with sunrays signing in the total amount of sixty three thousand nine hundred ninety dollars for the purchase of a set of facilities signage pending approval as to form by the city attorney i know fourteen eighty three to approve a contract with our morris and sons construction company in the total amount of thirty four thousand seven hundred four dollars to conduct an integrity assessment verification of natural gas pipeline pending approval as to form by the city attorney i don't fortini for two except a grant of utility easement for underground utilities to eighty one east st hill tax fabric centers inc in the amount of ten thousand dollars item fourteen a five to approve a transfer from contingency in the amount of four hundred eighty thousand dollars for the purchase of one thousand sucks six hundred eighty streetlights item fourteen e six to approve a second amendment to the grow america agreement for temporary mixing pumping and removing of bio style solids at point zero zero eight nine per gallon subject to approval as to form by the city attorney fourteen a seven to approve the west michigan international purchase order for two vehicles a boom truck in the amount of one hundred sixty three thousand eight hundred forty dollars and eighty four cents and a dump truck in the amount of one hundred thousand one hundred thirty six dollars and eighty eight cents and to approve a budget transfer in the amount of sixteen thousand nine hundred twenty dollars and forty two cents from the water contingency fund with the same amount also out of the sewer contingency fund to cover the purchase of the blue truck item fourteen do you want to refer a claim filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration i had him fourteen d two to approve application submitted for the two thousand and fifteen tulip time entertainment license item fourteen d three to approve the renewable of areas in your obis business licenses as required by section seventeen dash seven of the charter and adopt a resolution for the middle of pool billiards license effect of may one two thousand and fifteen through april thirtieth two thousand and sixteen i don't fourteen year one point one to approve increases in the residential solid waste and recycle recycling rates as indicated in the city managers report effective july one two thousand and fifteen item fourteen b one point two to approve the building plan permit fee schedule to reflect third party building plan review companies effective immediately i don't fourteen eat two point one to approve the two thousand and fifteen when my island catering agreements with above and beyond including catering creative dining services beechwood in rows and gilmore collection subject to approval asked a form by the city attorney engineering services i had in fourteen easy three point one to declare a surplus period various recovered bicycles for donation to the seventy times seven in property room dot com item fourteen five point two to schedule a public hearing for the special meeting on may thirteenth two thousand and fifteen to prompt to provide an opportunity for public comment on the fiscal year two thousand and sixteen proposed budget and adopt a resolution in accordance with local and state requirements and item fourteen eat five point three to approve a creation of a new full time certified permit technician for the community neighborhood services department effective immediately or i will thank you so they have all those items we're go handle with one motion and one vote now perhaps just because we think that they're relatively routine you might have actually come into chambers tonight to speak to one of those items if that's the case were given the opportunity to remove it from the consent agenda and have it show up in its normal place on the agenda if you'd like to do that please just step forward to the microphone have the podium let us know what item it is and we'll just take it off the consent right now seeing no one members of council have the option under the yes most impasses thank you very much that then takes us down to item seven that's a and b this evening we've got a couple of presentations in recognition tonight more presentations than anything else though you might recognize a few people as well the first is if we want to invite michelle gibbs from the city of holland hope college sustainability institute come up and talk with us a bit about what she's been up to as well as introduce a noose source or a new spot for finding information about all things welcome thank you for having me and i want to thank you for the special prayer it really lead to our lead of well into the preparation for the sustainability institute website you'll see out here so this is our mainly ending page the site is hosted by hope college they generously gave that as an in kind match as opposed to us having to use our grant dollars so we can use that toward something else in the future and so we're actually hosting this on a wordpress site now hope is undergoing a larger revamp of their website so this may change its looks over time but overall it should have the same general feel and i wanted to give you all the website address just so you have it for the future it's not exactly the same way it is up the way it's listed up here there's an easier way to get to it and so that would be w w w hope d d edu backslash sustainability  dash institute so you can use that website and you can go there fairly easily just look us up that way the website is one of the deliverables from our grant through the funders network and through the community foundation of the and so the purpose of this website is to be kind of the go to spot for all people in the community to learn about sustainability and what's going on in the area and so we think we've done a good job with putting this together so far  so you'll see here on the landing page i've created a way of highlighting some of the major initiatives activities going on in the very near future and so for example with this better house better holland you can actually click right onto it and then it will take you to the georgetown the hollands energy prize website and it will take you directly there so i've tried to include a lot of really quick and easy links trying to make a lot of visuals so it's easy for everyone to follow and understand but you'll be learning more about the georgetown prize as we go through and so this will just have a continuous scrolling through one of the other dollar rolls through the grant is to have a newsletter developed and so i have created this as just kind of like an interim until we have the ability to create that and so i'm looking at creating this page by sustainability as it occurs in each season and so this i just have a nice little quote by rachel carson from silent spring and then a list of top ten things that people can do right now in spring it talks about spring cleaning getting out doors invasive species green week commute that will be coming up all kinds of fun activities for people to get involved with and then you'll see that there's an invented tab right up here and so that will either take you to the community kale and her or the living sustainably along the lake shore series i can follow up on that as well as if anyone has more questions about that series but i really think this calendar will be a nice tool for the community members to be able to use it's created in google docs and so it's really easy for people to just click on the activities like for example the drug take back that home board public works is going to be sponsoring coming up on april twenty fifth and so they can click on here and get more details and then they can actually export it to their google google calendar know him embed it right there so it's just like follow and then they have ways of different groups being able to get involved i have a broken down by students and teachers which is k through twelve or college students businesses and community members so i am going to continue to add more resources to this as as they become available or i become more aware of them some key partnerships these are some of our main partners in the granted self and then i also have listed here the sustainability institute board members that come to monthly meetings and talk to me about my deliverables and activities going on and then this in the news tab you can actually find i'm following things in the holland sentinel that things hope us putting out the city is putting out all things that are sustainability related so i just kind of like that go to spot to be able to find all of those and then resources i have them broken down as local regional and national resources as well and then a very easy contact us form where people can either say that they want to contact me directly these will all go directly to my web or to my email address and so they can click if they have a question they have an event that they want to share that or they have an idea that they want the institute to explore or something else and it's an easy way for them to include email phone number etc and we also have included down here at the very bottom eight easy way for people to get engaged this is like you said something that we're going to continue to adopt as we go through but right here after a list of the top ten things for people to get involved with i threw out the question of we want to hear from you in the comment box below tell us what is your favorite part about spring and how do you connect with the environment in the spring and so i think that will give people a really fun way to kind of interact with the sustainability institute they can come back and see what other people are doing just something that we're going to try so if you guys have any questions i'm happy to answer those at this time d i think it's a phenomenal opportunity for people to have in one single source shopping for this kind of information and it is part of the energy education that reach task force initiative spawn by the committee energy plan i do want to ask michelle if you would just let council know about upcoming attractions in terms of deliverables what other ones are you well yes so i am actually also working with hope college on creating a dash orde this is a larger project that they're working on with overland  college and the city of oberlin they have a very similar town and gown relationship as you guys have developed here with the sustainability institute and so we're looking at modeling something like what they have there and so  different buildings so people can get real time data to see what kind of energy waste or usage for using waste streams water usage all kinds of things like that so that will be something that will be coming up in the future as well another deliverable is also working with k through twelve schools and so actually tomorrow if any of you are available at one o'clock at the knickerbocker we have them and sell yours from home part of public works and i have been working with hamilton stream schools and so they  put together a really neat little project highlighting some of the activities going on in the city as well as businesses that are involved in sustainability as well and then we are as the sustainability institute i'm also working with the sustainability committee and furthering the framework and i'm getting some of those initiatives passed as well but i will be discussing some more of my goal setting tomorrow with you at their budget meeting thank you some fun stuff to do in the midst of budget discussions and other business before the council to see evening as i hope everyone recognizes the city of holland as a participant a competitor if you will in the georgetown university energy prize and we are down to the semi finals  we have made it through some rounds were competing against towns big and small from across the country and the goal is to reduce our energy usage as a community and to beat the reduction in other communities and the old the ultimate goal is to develop strategies across the country that can be replicated in other places so we can really move the needle as a country on energy conservation because regardless if you're a tree hugger or don't care a lick about that sort of thing there's good reason to conserve energy either you're saving the planet or you're saving your pocketbook or you're doing both so it's a win win situation and it's it's the cheapest way to to generate new energy is to not use the stuff in the first place so we had a very significant and very robust a very strong interest in conservation efforts as a city as we've had this discussion with the board of public works about how we're going to provide power into the future and it's been a lot of fun speaking of fun we have tried to have some fun with this georgetown university energy prize competition both to demonstrate that you know we sort of utility land and government land can attempt to be humorous we'll see if we pull it off or not but and also to demonstrate that hopefully we can jet drum up some interest in  competition so that people can take action to help us win the prize which by the way is a mere five million dollars so it's a it's a significant prize that we're going for and would be put to very very good use in our community as part of that whole team has been assembled to put together some public service kinds of things and some whole kind of campaign to get this this thing underway and for that our colleague brian birch comes member third ward has really taken the laboring or from a council and city standpoint and work with a number of our excellent staff of the board of public works excellent staff brian that we turn to you at this time thank you mr mayor i first want to begin with there are people doing this work that first need recognition and they're actually some of sitting very simple tips that we've kind of come together to do to really help people understand what energy reduction means and quantifying how this can be simple they can be easy things like changing in converting to l phone cord and leaving it plugged in overnight it sucks energy while it's just plugged in there unplugging things can save ten percent now we can do all of that by putting out really neat flyers or try folds  what about but this is america in the millennium the new millennium and we have social networks on the internets that we can leverage and so we have created or they have created what i would call a very set of which the videos the first three have gone up online and are being released right now and they're covering these five topics  under the super acronym asks which to l e d s you unplug electronics p prepare your furnace eliminate a little appliances and our reduce water temperatures so we're going to show the first three today the first one actually introduces the whole thing with our good mayor doing his best walter cronkite possible and lord lord help us all yes please and a budget film and well funny you would say that but they're intended to appear as that fifty's b movie low budget style and i think that the team did an exceptional job with this the acting outstanding i have to breaking news the city of holland is a semifinalist for the five million dollar energy prices and we need your help filling five million she first tell me more there they're telling me that it is a national competition aimed to dramatically reduce our energy standing over the next few thought gosh what can i do to how you can start by going to holland energy prize dot com to take back and make small changes that will make a big consumers enjoy having reliable and affordable electricity nationally is no exception she recently replaced her old independent lights with new people her friends are taking notice to more energy efficient she will see the results on her energy bill if you want to save money by cash visit holland energy prize dot com for rebates and energy saving plug when you're not using or use a smart power that turns off automatically these are just some of the simple steps that could save you up to ten percent on your energy bill and more importantly save our plan with the money you're saving you can buy a that is the first three videos that will be in the same theme following this energy saving tips series the other thing that we have going on is a competition between the wards and this was introduced at our our big rally in february no november thank god was that long ago so we had a competition it was getting your furnished checked  and we ran through that whole thing and it was fantastic and what got my mind was gone you got yours done i did that's fantastic congratulations you didn't win we have a winner ok and we we sent out the prize patrol and that was fantastic so and of course we sent cameras along could you please roll that footage man there was intense the lows intense the whole thing was intense and i have to say that i can be proud of our fellow council members this is the north ward and brian as lives on he's twentieth street and he had furnace checked shortly after he bought that house which automatically put him into the competition and so this was very much a surprise to him so he was thrilled and this is a north ward which is my ward j s ward daves ward and then also is your number the home energy use calculator is how you wear your house or your home stands on a year's worth of energy use use or adding in putting all your numbers in to this calculator you can get there an energy price dot com i put it on my i pad right here and it takes you to the board of public works site it looks like this and you can put in all of your electric usage in your gas usage for the entire year and it will rate your energy usage by square foot or by kill kilowatt hour per square foot that's correct right i read that accurate equation right  and then you compare it compare to the rest of holland the average in holland the average in the midwest and then the average in denmark because denmark denmark's very energy efficient it's like the standard  home is what we mean a year's supply of the last twenty five times longer than a you'll never have to replace a bulb again in your entire house but that way pretty absurd substantial so this is how we're kicking things off or keeping things moving and we really want you all to participate and look out for more videos on facebook share the videos keep this going we're doing great so far and we hope to see more participation the future  thank tell you how helpful it is not just for these kinds of things but really for a lot of communication efforts to have really dedicated and professional people helping us out with these things and this is just a great  that so we really appreciate it thanks a lot and up at tell the other guy shapers and golly all right wonderful anything else on that particular item for us tonight otherwise we move on to a couple of public hearings down to the real business of the meeting the first is the community development block grant allocation we have to have a public hearing on this and it is item eight a and for that we welcome joel di the interim director of community neighborhood services to the podium to introduce this for us good evening joel thank you mayor and city council this evening is your required public hearing under the federal u s department of housing and urban development as it relates to our fiscal year two thousand and sixteen community development block grant funds you will not be voting on this budget this evening it is just an opportunity for residents to come forth and give their thoughts comments and opinions on this budget we're also in a thirty day public com period that expires on may ninth and then i will be back in front of you on may thirteenth i believe it is when you will be making a formal adoption of this plan in this budget before we open the public hearing i'd like to go over again what the budget is what programs are being funded and what those programs are aiming to accomplish with these funds so for fiscal year two thousand and sixteen the community development block grant the city of harlem is going to receive two hundred ninety one thousand six hundred thirty four dollars we are going to roll over twenty five thousand dollars from the current year for a total budget of three hundred sixteen thousand six hundred thirty four dollars with that money we intend to do the following things under our planning in the ministration activities we're going to allocate fifty one thousand three hundred twenty six dollars and eighty cents to grant administration and plenty functions in the neighborhoods we're going to utilize two thousand dollars for a public public notice publishing and we're going to allocate five thousand dollars to the fair housing center of west michigan to provide fair housing services and the city of holland has fair housing services include education testing and if needed enforcement our public services application we're going to allocate twenty thousand dollars to good samaritan ministries for the neighborhood connections program of that twenty thousand dollars five thousand would be going to good samaritan ministries for administering that program five thousand dollars then go to west coordinators washington school neighbors and heights of hope each will receive five thousand dollars those three are part of the good samaritan ministries neighborhood connections they really focus on asset based neighborhood development working with neighbors identifying issues in the neighborhood and then developing programs to address those issues we are also going to be giving five thousand dollars to three six the nonprofit neighborhood development association to houses that they house and turns in that you communicate on that work and they're there about halfway through the development of a two lane library so this work is going to you know crews help fund an organization that's really committed to that neighborhood and improving the physical attractiveness of that neighborhood and then as usual the program that receives the most money will be our city of harlem home repair program where we will be allocating two hundred thirty three thousand three hundred seven dollars and twenty cents of that money one hundred eighty two thousand three hundred forty one will be going and direct assistance to homeowners low to moderate income homeowners to make minor repairs to their houses we're talking of roofs furnace as electrical and salacious stories window siding we hope to help about sixty six different property owners with that homey per program next year again this is a public hearing tonight if council has any questions for me right now i'm more than willing to take it but the purpose is to receive comments from the residents and the comments that  you know that we received tonight or during that thirty day public comment period will have to be addressed by the city council and the plan that you're to be adopted at your may ninth meeting very good thank you joe any questions for joel before we open up this public hearing republican it all right this is the time to make comments on the proposed plan it's been published notices been sent that if anyone would care to address council on a tight invite you to the podium please state your name and residential address for the record and i will declare the public hearing open this time action on that correct it was just a public hearing all right we'll move on then to the other public hearing which tonight is a public hearing the sesame dealing with a street in columbia avenue snow melt improvements we welcome the transportation services director brian white to the podium this evening good evening brian yes good evening mayor and good evening council members tonight before you is the culmination of a three step process for determining necessity for s of them prove its eighth street as well as columbia avenue the before you night is the resolution of necessity for that i believe there's been visuals that have been placed in the packet i'm not sure if we have those available tonight but what i can do is just go ahead describe those limits and those limits are based on previous council meetings  so is this the slide you'd like yes so that is in fact the district where the the snowball improvements are shown in blue in the district basically surrounds those proposed improvements it does include road improvements on a street that is the actual snow melt to being within the roadway from the mid lock of a street between college and columbia all the way east to columbia  and then there is sidewalk improvements proposed along the south side of that same half block as well as along columbia avenue on both sides of columbia avenue between seven ninth and then we do have a small piece that is going to be east of columbia just in front of that first parcel there on the south side of the road so that basically rounds out the assessment district the total assessment  from the public and also i should point out we did receive one letter correspondence from i believe it's one eighty one columbia and the would be the southeast base with all the other property owners and believe we've got you know some favorable favorable input from the rest of the folks and by all right thank you brian questions for mr white before we have the public hearing seeing on th time the place for the public hearing on this item if you're here to address this item again we invite you to the microphone just a second and ask you to state your name and residential address for the record council rules permit up to five minutes to address the council and any one item we have a nice little system public hearing open and invite any public comment on this item good evening and welcome drew durham thirty eight west twenty eighth street just curious if any consideration have been given to snow melting the crosswalks is because it's kind of a natural barrier for people are  coming eastbound on the street and then they hit columbia avenue and there's snow there and then that street part of this is not snow melted it's kind of a natural barrier then to cross columbia to continue on you know towards the post office  the west leg of the intersection so that will be snow melted within the roadway and within that crosswalk however the crosswalk crossing columbia avenue on the south side of that intersection which i think is what you referred to that currently we're not proposing to do that and what it really amounts to is there's not really a critical mass there so our paul trucks are going to go right through there and obviously live when rows and things like that when we can  connect it you know continue contiguously to that other piece of road that's going to be snow melted then i think we have a little better luck of voiding any kind of icing situations that may get that may occur with just a finite piece see it on on columbia and the street and kathy and i are both sick of shoveling so we're happy to hear it it's proposed for for sidewalk columbia and we were actually pleased th item all right seeing no one else i will close the public hearing we have the recommendation before us any questions before we get a motion on the floor for staff seeing no questions how about a motion to get some discussion pl  it's it's a great opportunity for us to expand the snow melt system which of course has become a really neat part of the holland landscape and it's really made the downtown area much more of a four season destination  trick is trying to find ways to finance the capital costs initially and making sure that we get funds to do that as well as to be cognizant of the property owners who also pay a significant amount of the capital cost and we're trying to strike a balance between connecting systems  in a way that makes sense for pedestrian traffic now but also trying to encourage additional development pedestrian traffic into the future so i think this is a good connecting piece and will be a really nice addition to our downtown area and with that i passes all right thank you we then go down to item twelve communications from the audience this is the opportunity for members of the public to address council on any topic that doesn't show up any other place on the agenda so if you came here tonight to talk with us about something that you think we should know about here's a chance to do so we simply ask that you follow the rules of council i mentioned earlier i came up to five minutes to address council and we would ask that you state your name and residential address for the record commissioner story is with us tonight welcome sir even mr mayor members of the council jim stewart three forty four west forty fifth street pounds sunny south side just wanted to give you a little update on some of the recent events or activities  not have been following this since this announcement in december it's an opportunity it's not a building most many say that where people think of a building where people start their businesses and and they grow and this is kind of a virtual incubator in that  a group of individuals who have expertise in helping develop products bring him to market finance them and the whole idea is to build since howland sits right in the middle of the greatest agricultural region and michigan  way to bring those farm yard inventions if you will to market and hopefully provide future employment with some home grown industries each of the counties have pledged to finance at least one project a year  writing are deemed to be marketable that's a cost of about twenty eight thousand dollars project allen county we've chosen to split that as a public private partnership half with taxpayer funds and the other half with private funds that that we intend to race through our economic development commission another item that we've been working on is i will admit a bit of arcane business and that is in  and turns and we've been working to develop a process so that we kind of smooth addressing those claims and believe me it's a rather complicated thing we're talking about a variety of breeds of of livestock and poultry as a matter of fact the state veterinarian told me that about twenty years ago the legislature and the state department of agriculture tried to rewrite the law and they kind of gave up because there were too many competing interests to do it but we've managed to  together a policy so that people who have claims from running dogs sort of speak can have those addressed quickly the other item that we're working on kind of more to some of us in this room is trying to improve the reporting of election results in november of last year we were the last county in the state not a great distinction to report our election results and it has to do with kind of the next subject i'm going to talk about and that is the fiber or lack of fiber in our county conducts its next statewide election and we hope that we will join other counties and being more timely with our results finally the other project that we're working on really is a township government initiative and that is to survey our county to find out where we have the gaps in fiber or broadband coverage there are significant in a rural county but the idea is that when we find those gaps that will develop hopefully a plan to a county more strongly it's not just a market position for example one of our many hog producers told me that if we had a stronger fiber network he would be able to from his desk really control all the ventilation feeding watering and maintenance of all of his barns without having to have people staff it as heavily as he does now so it has a lot of positive economic benefits but also has some social benefits in a rural county such as ours we have some people who live on and some acreage if we can bring the area to them and brings them into the broader world so with that those are kind of the for those projects and then mr mayor i just want to  e one of many to say thank you for your service with your announcement yesterday that you won't be seeking reelection if i may say so you've led the city with a great pin ash style if i may say so with class and  preparation you thought about it but just tonight one of the things we touched on in her early budget discussions he's taking some of our unfunded pension liabilities for closed groups and issuing bonds to pay that off to both smooth out the payment process and really become a much more manageable system i know allegheny county has done that was it was a pretty i want to see an easy decision but did that the benefits clearly outweigh the potential costs and liabilities in your mind  it was it was kind of once the numbers were put in front of us it was really like the discussion we're we're going to it estimate is over the twenty years of the balance if we don't pay it off earlier it's going to save our county taxpayers about seven million dollars you know one for that liability was in the eighteen million dollars range and we floated about thirteen million dollars in bonds and we had about the balance about five million savings that we could address the merce liability  will the public for the microphone public comment i do twelve is still available still open if anyone else would like to address co good evening american union members of council speaking of bonds i guess just a little bit of announcement here bonds were sold today as part of the waste water plant project as well their twenty year bonds and the pricing as a competitive bid non responses the winning bid came in the true interest cost of two point seven four percent so we're talking about refunding our funding for pension obligations or whatever there is in the recent example of gio bond that that just was sold  yeah i guess if there's a publisher's clearinghouse kind of thing to bring around and i it's also for the city that through this this effort here we're looking at the city being the winner really of the new l e d streetlights and  an assessment that we did for the high pressure sodium lights that are currently in place one hundred fifty watt actually there are labeled one hundred fifty watt the reality is they draw a lot more than that and so when we assessed our current rate structure for those realized that there was a lot of energy that we were not you know we were incurring but not getting compensated for in our rate as it currently existed and as such we look at this is an opportunity really not only for the city up front there will be a year won or a day one savings in terms of the rate apply camilla here in the report you see it's about a dollar nine per month per fixture that the city will save but also for the beep  unrealized revenue associated with that extra usage that these fixers actually have and therefore we're incurring a cost to produce that energy that will result in a less than six year pay back for that so we did a pilot project that pilot was done a long thirty second street and also working with the city manager city has been gauging feedback throughout the community on  some areas that these a been deployed and i think receive favorable results from that and so the green light has been given to move forward at least from that perspective and given the economics associated with it certainly the energy savings an other important part of this as you've noted earlier tonight we are in the georgetown price competition these this is an element of the competition and so having a strategy where we're going to be implementing these lower using lower energy using streetlights you know will be benefited in the results of that prize as well as it being of positive economic solutions so you know we're very excited about being able to move forward on this we do have proposed budget money for next year that bonnie for next year would be to handle streetlights that we have in the township or as we get the discussion with them to see if they're willing and interested in doing that there is well we expect they will be given that the savings that are involved but  nevertheless we're looking at moving earlier than later on these and so we're looking at a budget transfer and again there is a positive return on investment for this a very strong return on investment so we're looking at moving that into is not as effective from an economic situation today we've done some obviously some of the decorative things you look at centennial park as a pilot project you will continue to watch that technology in terms of the return for those the not quite there one hundred fifty s have gotten to a price point where it's track of to do that and there are more you are your correct there are more lights out there in the community and i think you know it's something that we'll continue to monitor here over the next few years and hopefully we'll get to a we've been trying to save energy and in water et cetera for a number of months now and ever since i think the you know forty year plan began we've been really conscious of do you see with numbers promising kind of what's your gut level on that oh my god is there is there is savings is taking place now does that mean it's being offset somewhat i mean we have sales growth over last year but a lot of that is economic activity i mean our industries you  the last few years had seen a decline and they are coming back and they're coming back well so it's not that we don't want to see growth we want to see smart growth we want to see that growth in a way that is using the energy wisely and i think we're seeing that the other way i would say that it's not just a gut level reaction mandate under public act to ninety five over the last four or five years we are one hundred eight percent of that goal so we've been putting measures in place both in the residential levels well as commercial and industrial that have exceeded the state requirements which is up to one percent year over year saving so and that's just a year one savings the life expectancy of a lot of those investments that are being made by businesses and by homes you know as we talked about tonight these bulbs for example that would go in your home  longer life so over the life of these investments it's a considerable amount of savings that's taken place thanks mayor pro tem please yeah i just wanted to kind of piggyback on mike's comment  that is as he well remembers we we did a pilot to a few years ago up in the in the heights in a couple of other areas and we found that at that point based on cost and quality of light  we weren't there with our with our one fifty s and the soon as we got there the b b p w has been jumping on it so i'm sure that as david said tonight once we get to that same point with our power for hundreds and some of the others we won't have to prompt them to come to us they will be coming to us and thank dave for that fits and for his summary of  the program here tonight that's exactly why i asked for it to be taken off of the consent agenda because i think this is a this is an action that's worth celebrating we're we're saving our taxpayers rate  and we're we're using less energy which is all good you city manager please write yes the georgian prize he stated a goal of four percent reduction in energy use and i understand that this it's a large percentage of that one percent sticks in my mind that's about right i think yet has that potential so automatically we're twenty five percent to the goal of course everything we heard tonight and what people are doing is is going to take its over  only two had issues one decided to call him while i was on the radio and say his issues so that was unfortunate but that basically everyone else was extremely short of and marked on it in glowing ways literally and it is a change so i'm glad it was taken off extension as a people know about it but the lights in this room for example were changed daily and it was initially you know viewed as twenty thousand hours  spread the word so we all know i think maybe if i stop talking the lights will go back on the last thing i want to say they're saving the rest of it right now the last thing i'll say in the dark is  these these numbers of lights will save twenty thousand dollars a year to your bottom line in taxes because the utility cost savings and depending on how many don't go back because they're brighter there's a list of eighty nine we're going to talk about it a be you know be great if you would attend april twenty one just next this tuesday should say one thirty in the afternoon we're going to break ground officially at the holland energy park and so it will be quite a celebration there to get that project officially underway and very excited about that so those that are interested in the community in attending that it's at the park which is you know at the east end of town behind the bridge dealership  you can enter off from chicago drive in they'll be assisting getting people to parking you know at that point so at one thirty range you know what's that look for the crane look for the crane yeah that you can't miss it that's right and that of the awesome thank you thank you thanks much for it didn't i was just going to reiterate a point that bob made is that it wasn't that long ago boy five years maybe that you know we did this pilot project on some street lights they granted said your window mike and  they used was substantially higher in the cost savings made some sense at that point but the actual streetlights didn't and here we are not that long and into the future and boy it makes sense now and i have no doubt that will continue to make even more sense in the future  are good lights good good fixtures nancy you have one i think right out close to your home and we have noticed that they're much brighter and very good and one final thing on the bonds for the for the wastewater treatment plant now obviously two point seven four percent is unbelievable it's a great rate but we ought to also ought to take this moment to again express appreciation as a as a council and as a city for the for the county of ottawa to permit us to use their bond rating which helped give us this good rate and it was a cooperative effort between fillmore township and lake town township and city of holland and holland township and park township township to all commit to to basically put our full faith and credit behind these bonds and the county then was able to put itself behind them which means that we've got a better rate than we would have which ends up  saving our taxpayers rate payers three to five hundred thousand dollars over the life of them so it's a it's a very good thing and a good effort and a good example i think of our cooperative spirit and nature thank you you guys lead the charge on it so we appreciate that  i think probably best we handle both either by brian or if you don't know kevin coning kevin is our water and wastewater services superintendent kevin's been with us for a few years most recently last was about now along  for five months in the position of superintendent done a great job for us and been spearheading this effort associated with the street work very closely with brian as well and some of the other work going on namely central and other projects so i'm going to turn it over to project we certainly support what's in the report and in the recommendations the thing that i just wanted to point out one of it's procedural in nature that we want to go ahead and get through that public meeting before we arrived at this point the other thing it was with regard to the assessment district so basically there was a piece if you'll recall in front of the post office that was included in the bed that's not going to be removed from the project but then there was also a piece along columbia avenue between seventh and eighth that was not included in the bid that will now be included in the bed so we're going to go ahead and make that change post award with with the contract modification and i believe just rough numbers that's going to amount to about the thank you the main driver of the project is to connect the hound energy park system to downtown basically the reconfiguring that we had talked about a few months ago and we talk but the engineering moving from the young plant to the new hound energy park so that's the main driver those are thirty six inch and thirty inch diameter transmission lines for the snow melt system there's a variety of other utility work happen at the same time that we have the opportunity to  one so it's an opportunity to go from three to one reduce the number utilities so it will be clean stuff up obviously the road we will get some repair as well you know i think that will be a welcome effort in that part of town if any questions about i think you've seen on the project now there's been an introduction in general when we did the engineering but if anything any other questions i'd be happy to answer questions for either kevin or for brian great thank you  access excellent thanks thanks again guys for appreciate it all right now as i was trying to humor xli state before so i'll be the horse one more time it is warm in here and boy holds a small wine makers license and eight distillers like our brewers license he is in the audience if you have any questions for him but we need to do what it is recommended tonight is that we adopt a resolution for his new distillers license him to be sent into the michigan the control commission but current staff is currently reviewing the request and upon and if everything is in order we will we're asking that you also approve as well and i am i correct that dozens of we approve the resolution tonight it's sort of a recommendation to the make michigan liquor control commission that we are in favor of it but the litter control commission ultimately issues the license correct so it's more of a letter want to hear what you have to say so what we're looking to do is add distillers listens to or current repertoire and be able to offer a little bit more to our clients and gives us the ability to distill some of our beers and make it a little bit more unique we plan to just do a series of small menu cocktails stink more towards like the traditional stuff not doing any shots or anything like that just the customers will have an option of like five cocktails per per week will change them around so i think any questions for dr are right please sounds delicious thank you looking forward to doing you're making a good product and you're also you also have developed great relationships with your clientele in the community thank you i can see you've been very supportive of community activities getting involved so we appreciate that very much and  downtown that drive the kind of success that's being seen down there and in our community in general so support for this is support for small this small business in particular but just the concept of small business success in general because you're doing it right so congratulations thanks the city managers office is pleased to report the following gifts how a nice connections program received a one thousand dollars donation from the empower two thousand and fifteen multicultural festival received a thousand dollars from hayworth and as various donations that were received in memory of sean hill in the amount of one thousand two hundred forty five dollars and a fifty dollar donation from susan and jamie parks recreation received donations from anonymous donors in the amount of forty five dollars for the south her a scholarship burning man did they be oh it is recommended that these donations  accepted with appreciation an expression of gratitude be sent to the donors excellent what is the pleasure of counsel motion to approve of appreciation moved by true theory support supported by or is there discussion at all i'd like to just trade off by any stretch but at least a bit of good perhaps in memory of him will be planted now at the digraph nature center and hopefully will provide if even just a bit of solace to his parents and to his family and friends please call them all in favor of accepting with appreciation please say i will write a post the same that passes that is then take that then takes us down to communications from the city manager and fifteen manager thank you mr mayor we have a lot to do later on tonight so i'll just say one thing and that is i had occasion given the news in the last day to write down the names of every mayor i've ever served with there are fifteen of them and i can say that although you're the last one you're actually one of a kind and top of the list so congratulations to you and i just wonder recognize all your services to the team the city has here thank you thank you communications for me this evening typical stuff that of course you can get ahold of a city of holland dot com lots of information about the city upcoming meetings permit applications newsletters reports  waiters to contact council senior city staff report potholes not there any of those anywhere your name and all sorts of things we try to push as much information as possible their city of holland dot com please check it out and see what you can find there and hopefully to helpful to you recently redesigned hopefully more user friendly we have some upcoming things close to us sort of hard to believe but to the time is not that far away and we  be doing a bunch of things we have some of the governors coming back again this year we've got some diplomats from the netherlands from japan and mexico and i believe germany and i'm feeling i'm missing a country or two in addition to the michigan attorney general of the house leadership and senate leadership and it's just it's a wonderful festival let alone all the many people who come to our community to enjoy polland in the springtime so it's a great time of year here in holland ri get to show the world a bit about who we are and the kind of hospitality provide in them sure this year will be no different in that only briefly say that as you all know i announced yesterday that i will not be seeking reelection this point i'll information to us and you mentioned specifically potholes and i know that many of us have been hearing groet that we're always played with at this time of the year and just would repeat for the public something that we received in the way of some communication typically the street department wants the snow was cleared their first order of business is spring cleanup and getting rid of all  humiliation of piles and i believe that just wrapped up probably earlier this week i know that the piles and for miles disappeared on monday i believe so once that gets ripped wrapped up they will be out working hard  party on the saturday right the fiftieth anniversary of the windmill coming to highland and that will be awesome they'll be a run and a walk and i think the mayor has some comments at eleven and there's something from six to seven also also check  what's going on saturday to celebrate the coming of the windmill fifty years ago also a little personal comment with the l e d situation hi ken a judge those things when they first came out and they were pretty because and weird and i thought i'm never going to use those things but don't judge an l e d by the way it came out several years ago because they have been revamped and changed and so don't judge them by five years ago and be open minded go to the store and asked somebody to help you through that unbelievable twenty one varieties of every single thing and they are worth the journey they will save you money and they do look reasonable now and they have all different shades of light so it can be more toward the yellow or the blue and you know it'll fit your decor if you just take the time to figure it out and it will help us in our little georgetown university energy price competition the other thing that i wanted to talk about is the book called things we couldn't say which is bad idea eamon and she was a woman that was involved in the dutch resistance movement back during world war two and she was very instrumental in saving the lives of jewish people that they hid out in farms and i just finished reading that book and i did that because the turning point school of dance is producing about the way to honor her and the whole dutch resistance movement and it'll be in the knickerbocker this coming thursday friday and saturday the twenty third to the twenty fifth from seven to nine each of the ballets  human is still alive and lives right in grand rapids she moved here from the netherlands way back when her story is riveting her sacrifice amazing and i thought of it when we talked about the donating bicycles to seventy times seven because back in those days during the dutch resistance they could not have bicycles or if they did have on the german soldiers would take them away at one point she had a garden hose wrapped around one tire to make it work and got a fresh tire and had to hide that and just walk the bike because otherwise the soldiers would take it away there are so many things about freedom that we just take for granted every morning and  something to stop and realize the huge blessings that we have here and indescribable gift of freedom and it's something that we so want to treasure and protect in our country and in our community  if you enjoy that type of entertainment or if you just want to read a book that really helps think about that it's called things we couldn't save idea eamonn the ballet is called it is well  everyone have a good night