everyone welcome to this our final business meeting of twenty twelve which is sort of hard to both believe and say quite frankly but we welcome you to council chambers tonight i feel a little bit like a scene from when the camera doesn't necessarily show up but it feels a little bit like a scene from miracle on thirty fourth street when that when the judges clearing the letters out we get points that is kind of directly in front of us here but anyway we're glad that you're in council chambers tonight or watching at home on television or on some electronic device at some point somewhere around the world let us have a roll call first to make sure we've got a quorum to conduct business tonight all of our meetings with two items first a prayer and second that will be immediately followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag tonight's prayer council member mike truth who is in charge of this evening's prayer so mike we will turn to you at this time for an introduction please please you are good even if it doesn't please you because that always stopped you before and never has before i would like to asked the reverend dan carter through leaders in peru tonight considering the events that happened this past friday and the season i just thought it would be great if dan could come he and his wife had just been installed at calvary reform church up in the heights we welcome you back to holland actually h welcome back to holland yeah thank you so much it's it was an honor to be asked by mike to be here so i appreciate the opportunity to prey on what we all right yeah i think you are right on the one hand with the season and the events that happen i think it makes what we do here what you all do here tonight maybe seemed a little less important in some ways in the big scheme and yet i think it makes it seem a lot more important and so i think it's appropriate at this time to go to god in prayer to seek greater strength and guidance so to let us pray most holy and mighty god you created the world and you sustain it still to sustain us and we pray we do not come tonight just asking for your blessing or just your guidance on what we do here tonight although we do desire those things lord but savior it is rescue that we need so please rescue us from our fears we are to fear only you and yet we worry and despair about so many things so we lift those things to you know rescue us god rescue us from the violence our own violence and hatred rescue us from the things that threaten and break us rescue us from the brokenness in our own lives us heal those we love pour out your mercy rescue us god rescue us from disunity from discord rescue us from our some chanson our prejudice give us wisdom in harmony in what we do here tonight rescue us god from ourselves our sin separates us from you we are deep in sinking in it and threatens to drown even the whole world so forgive us and come and save us may what we do here tonight honor you were an incredible thing it would be to say that because of our decisions justice rolled down the poor both up and holland flourished with life abundant may be so in your powerful mountain moving death defeating name i pray thank you again from carter we both appreciate and needed those words this evening there are copies of this evening's agenda located in the rack in the rear of the room for those who have a computer or some other electronic device with them we have wireless in chambers and you can also get a copy of the agenda as well as all the background material that councils reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting if you need the password i'm sure you can poke around and somebody would happily give it to you but we do always have that information on the city's website so you can always follow along and see what it is we're going to be talking about in the materials we've looked at to have those discussions you will note as you look at that agenda that there are a variety of items marked on that agenda that have an asterisk next to them and these are what we call our consent agenda items we think they're relatively routine we think we've discussed them before and our intention is to handle them all at one time with one motion and one vote regardless of where they show up on the agenda now just because we think their routine you may not think so in fact you might have attended tonight's meeting for the purpose of discussing one of those items so our process will be this will have and of the clerk read for us the items that are currently listed on the consent agenda all that ask if anyone in the audience would care to remove an item from the consent agenda if you do please step forward to the microphone and tell us what number it is well then take that item minutes in order ordinary spot on the agenda and then we'll vote on the remaining item on consent and of course members of council can remove one or more items from consent as well so and if you would tell us what is presently on the consent agenda will begin that process thank you item five to approve the minutes of the meetings held on november twenty eighth december five am december twelfth two thousand and twelve item eleven to accept and file executed oath of office item fourteen a one to approve a two percent employee pension contribution for defined benefit plan division eleven for the home board of public works union and a two percent reduction in employer matching contribution for the hauen board of public works union defy contribution plan effective january two thousand and thirteen item fourteen c one to approve the non disturbance and  agreement for west michigan airport authority and john tax corporation and to authorize the mayor and deputy clerk to sign such agreements i don't fourteen do you want to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration fourteen one point two two award the bid for the purchase and installation of a boiler for city hall to allied mechanical services in the amount of seventy five thousand two hundred fifty dollars of which seventy two thousand dollars currently budgeted in the capital improvement in the additional three thousand two hundred fifty dollars to be taken from the same fund item fourteen point two to approve a twenty five year use of school facilities agreement with how in public schools for recreation except the fiscal year two thousand and twelve independent audit by rieman robson as presented items fortini three point two to approve a resolution adjusting the principal shopping district two thousand and twelve assessment role for property at twenty one was  with the cost to be paid by the technology services fund item fortini three point four to approve a two year agreement agreement with pic time a tree international court at a cost of thirty four thousand five hundred one thousand dollars subject to the provision that starter township agrees to pay eighteen thousand four hundred nine dollars of the cost with the city's share to be funded by the technology services item fourteen four point one two adopt a resolution and forward to  county emergency management office the ottawa and kent county pretty hazard mitigation plan as submitted item fourteen four point two two accept the burn just described in the amount of sixty four thousand seven hundred fifty five dollars to support the cost of three city public safety officers assignment to we met and to authorize and mayor and finance director to sign grant documents subject to approval asked a form by the city attorney item fourteen five point three to accept a sidewalk variance application for ninety two country club road per section thirty two dash seventeen point one b of the city code permitting the city manager to authorize this request and that city council have thirty days to reverse such administrate of action item fortini five point four to approve the cancellation of the of the study session scheduled december twenty sixth two thousand and twelve and fourteen six point one two adopt a resolution supporting out of a county telephone study and that five thousand be approved as a city share of the cost with that amount to be allocated from the technology services fund equity for i thank you and i would anybody care to remove an item from the consent agenda audit at the city received and we reviewed last week in our study session it's thick and heavy and all the things you expect a lot of to be but the important thing is that yet again this year as we've had for many years the audit report came back the auditor report came back and said it was an extremely clean on it and the shorthand i will give on this is that you might not always agree with what the city council does or how it spends the resources in the tax dollars given to it but at least you know that when you look at numbers presented by the city of holland those numbers represent reality and our budgeting are ordering process demonstrates that the taxpayer has a pretty good idea very clear idea of where the tax dollar goes  so for that we are very appreciative for tim wagner and his staff and i don't think tim is tim lister pre council meeting but not down here we said good things about them last week but let's just publicly say again that they do a fine job handling our  finances and have good processes in place in for that we are thankful and the taxpayer knows where his and her money is going to have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve have some distinguished gentlemen in chambers and they are here to present to our city attorney the michigan association of municipal turn attorneys honor to our city attorney and the boulder mr phil balcombe a former city attorney of grand rapids we welcome you as as well as your gang thank you mayor and thank you councilman and ladies ladies and gentlemen it's it's my pleasure to be here my name is phil ball come on with me this evening is peter  of our association we are here representing the michigan association of municipal attorneys which is a charter section of the michigan minnesota league in the spring of two thousand and ten the michigan association a miniscule attorneys  stablish the academy miniscule attorneys to encourage the advancement in and the enhancement of the practice of minnesota law the the academy recognizes those m attorneys who have five or more years of experience representing minnesota all in it at these any significant capacity and have distinguished themselves through attendance at and participation and educational institutes and seminars and by writing and publishing scholarly articles on matters of municipal interest not only has your city attorney andy mulder met and surpassed all of those requirements but has done so in dramatic fashion probably no surprise to you just as an example one of the requirements is that the applicant shall have completed at least thirty five hours of continuing legal education in areas of than a simple law and he has two hundred two and in many cases he actually wrote the material that was presented at the seminars that he attended finally through its membership the academy seeks to encourage opportunities for dialogue friendship and fellowship in the practice of i can think of no one more qualified or suited for induction into the inaugural class of the academy i'm in a civil attorneys than our friend and your city attorney and he mulder and he would you come forward to receive your certificate word or two well i think it's telling that i had to do seven times the academic achievement in order to attain this award but i feel very grateful that phil and peter who has probably had the distinction of being the dean of municipal attorneys in the state of michigan with his education and the efforts that he's given toward the miss you mean his bully to be here tonight and of course lois always seems to know how to get some family members here you know she she knows how to fill up a crowd and of course that's kept me working for thirty seven years so i want to thank peter and phil and the council for having this opportunity thank you thank you peter and phil we certainly appreciate you being in chambers tonight we appreciate you being here for andy and his family and for frankly all of us in holland it's a pleasure to welcome to you here this evening so thank you andy gratulations again communications from the audience which is item twelve anyone in the audience we care to address anything not otherwise on the agenda here is the opportunity to do so and we open up the microphone at this point and welcome the sworn in but not yet sworn  allegheny county commission commissioner jim story welcome thank you mayor dexter officially because of the procedures of the council i am jim story three forty four west thirty fifth street in the allegheny county portion of the city  life it real life but about sixty or seventy percent of the people still have holland as a postal address so it will be a challenge last week  last last month i had the opportunity to tour the under construction new county jail as you know alex county has debated for about ten years about how to replace  penal system and they did so by acquiring a closed heyworth factory that is located on twenty two acres of land in the north side of the city of allegan the jail itself is  costing eighteen million dollars to construct but that's about twelve million dollars less than if they had to construct it from scratch so acquisition of this empty factory of three hundred thousand square feet was a boom not only to the city of it was an interesting tour took two hours three hundred thousand square feet inside this facility they're using about seventy percent of it at this point so there's room for other things hopefully not expansions of jail cells of which there will be three hundred cells all steel sided and double stacked in various accommodations for singles all the way to up to accommodating four and in some cases six many modern  provisions have it put into the jail new jail such as segregated women and having a medical wing so you don't have to transport prisoners from the jail to the alex county general hospital and therefore but the main thing is you can operate it with the same number of sheriff's deputies and corrections officers and they will be able to see all parts of the jail from a central control so pod operate all the doors some room to actually do some work and they have good interview rooms and all the things that we've all i think sometimes living in the city take for granted is as being part of law enforcement today the other thing that happened last week that i wanted to report on is the committee appointments are made this year the combination of the idea of the chairman of the county board or the board itself electing members and they have chosen to put me on the mactel area coordinating council which i'm glad of because resident and also serve in the brownfield development redevelopment commission which i looking forward to in terms of economic development activities to put both lanes to use and finally the lake shore coordinating council where i will serve with by the state and i guess i would just like to close by say one other report that we received that i think is important was the annual report from the agricultural or i should say the county extension agent from michigan state university and it does primarily focus on agriculture though you know we don't have much farmland left in the city we do still have some but there's an interesting statistics that elegant has something like six hundred fires with five two hundred seventy five five thousand acres and our market value of crap and livestock is nearly four hundred million dollars making it the number three state county in the value of craps the number one ranking in the value of life stock sold and when you put both of those totals together allen county is the number one agricultural cody in the state of michigan and why that's important at this particular time by the way  little thing that includes a one hundred ninety six thousand hogs and we are the number one county for hawk production the state of michigan which is good so maybe when you're having your christmas sausage you can remember that but why that's important and i don't mean to go ahead but i think in the last couple of weeks we've talked in various economic development circles about the importance of agricultural and related industries to the growth of job production to the state of michigan and we're blessed as we are in many ways but we're blessed that we have two counties allocated out of where they are number one to it agriculture and i know even our own economic development team headed by randy thiel and also their colleagues at the right place i really focusing a lot building on that agricultural base to provide the japs the future so that's  my first report i just want to take a second to graduate to the city attorney mr molder whom i've had a great really working relationship on a number of projects and i have always if i appreciated his sage wise patient i know you all think you would be glad to take any questions although i don't have many at this point we're used to that yet so that's why we have all the time or any questions for the commissioner not at this time but we certainly invite you back to we're thankful that you showed up today even though you're not officially on on the job yet nonetheless we appreciate your report and i'm trying to think of a joke something about bringing home the bacon and we don't go anywhere down to fourteen c one report from the city attorney if him back the microphone to show his stuff dealing with west michigan airport authority gentex land lease and the agenda item from the city attorney's office tonight is what we call a non disturbance a turn man agreement and as council scratching its head wondering what i'm going to be talking about and maybe i can explain this rather simply gentex is acquiring the hangar facility of wingspan which was the spinoff from prince corp when prince was sold to j c i as a part of that acquisition gentex is taking over the prince lease the prince lease was negotiated back in one nine hundred eighty six and was a companion part of the sale of the airport to the city of holland at that time prince corporation as part of the sale wanted a fifty year lease with a fifty year renewal so they technically have a lease that goes out to twenty eighty six this is a lease that is being taken over by gentex and i think the council realizes that gentex corporation may be the new prince corporation in this area in terms of product development and job creation in this area one of the things that they're asking tonight because the city of holland has leased under ground lease the west michigan airport over to the authority is they're asking the city to approve what they call a disturbance and turn men agreement what this is basically is that if the authority would at some point discontinue to operate the airport in the  airport would come back to the city the city is essentially a green at this time that they would honor the gentex lease is a part of the airport operations so this is really the first ground lease that we've had since the city has turned over the authority to the airport authority but it's a very common document on a commercial transaction today  gentex has certainly touched all the bases in terms of acquiring the wingspan hangar they are intending at some point in time to build a new hangar facility at this  enhanced hangar basis so we look forward certainly to their entry as a solid participant in the airport and the city is really just assuring them at some point in time if under the ground or supported by peters is there discussion i just brought it up because i'm just really excited about this and i think that you know the media and the people out there ought to know that the airport is doing a great job and we have wonderful world class organizations here and last week we had code blue was expanding in gyms giving us information about the agricultural thing and just all the great companies that are here and we just need to applaud them and appropriate we end the year final meeting of the year dealing with the stadium that seems to be one of the things that came to us many many times over the course of two thousand and twelve all in a good context but as andy said upstairs a fairly complex transaction for a variety of reasons but ultimately one that will be good both for the college for the public school system as well as for the residents of the city so andy will you handle this or greg would you like to introduce me this right  if he has anything to add to it which i'm sure he may have a thing or two but you're right mayor this is been we've been talking about this for i think quite quite almost all the months of this year it seems to me we've gone through quite a bit in terms  parties really just sole purpose was to pry provide the best stadium that best facility that we could for this community and what was the best organizational structure funding sustainability and so forth in order to do that and back in august you approved this arrangement where a purchase agreement for hope college to purchase a stadium holland public has a twenty five year agreement for the stadium  as part of this sale the city of holland walsall have a use agreement with the stadium will be in a third position behind hope of course in holland public schools but also as part of these final documents that will clo all of the things that you need to prove in order for the sale to close we have a sewer water electric easements you know when a city owns property it's especially a piece of property like this it's amazing just  many utilities get installed over and under over the years so we you have easements in your package to reflect that you also have a parking lot easement you have a facility use agreement you have to road access agreements and i'll just point those out on a screen here one is access to the stadium from fairbanks ave that's a public right away right now so that will provide an easement to hope for that access and there's other the other point of access is off sixteenth street through the cemetary so so they will have to access points and a third easement is for use of the parking lot so of course we have small and park  we will still need parking to serve that park and even the hope college will own the parking lot we do have an agreement where the city is able to use that lot when it is not being  special events and practically that's the way it operates today because when there are special events like oh put ball games holland high football games the public has very limited ability to access that parking lot anyway so hopefully it's going to operate very much the same as what it has there's a right of first refusal agreement here where if hope decided to some point to sell the stadium for whatever reason the city would be given first right of refusal to buy it back and then we also have a series of closing documents that you have in your in your packet so a lot of work by a number of people including jodi's review jodi science review of a number of these documents and he's office of course and the attorneys office  college preparing a number of these documents and of course president bolton and his team reviewing them as well so the recommendation tonight is that you've got two resolutions really approving the closing documents and then there was a detail where you approved amending the master plan to take out the stadium but that needs to be done by resolution so that's also in here and in authorizing the mayor and deputy city clerk to execute the documents on behalf of the city and we're hoping for an early january two thousand and thirteen actual closing thank you greg any questions for greg on that report andy would you care to add anything to it or i mean good shape well i think it was appropriate that greg summary tonight because if the truth be known he certainly was involved from the inception of this project after sorensen retirement in really present bohlmann and other representatives of hope college gregg has done a good job in terms of summarizing the extensive documentation that we've had here because we've had to create access into the site we've had to reserve substantial utilities months that were put in over the years by the b p w that affect more than just the stadium property there are common use areas such as the parking lot for the continued use by the city at small number parking bouse pool and of course hope is certainly made a financial contribution in putting in a new state of the art field that began in earnest this spring and was completed for their season this year so it's it's really been a very fun project to work on so we're asking counsel tonight t the adoption of the two resolutions to approve the documents that we have for the closing and authorized the mayor and clerk to sign those documents very good any questions for andy why don't we then have a motion please support supported by burch i see that president bolton is in the audience and no requirement but if you'd like to make any comments we'd certainly welcome them otherwise we'll have comments and i suspect  pretty quick vote on this but your call bolton president hope college as you know we have been involved in discussions with personnel from the city of holland holland public schools for a brief time personnel from holland christian and of course hope college and these discussions the dialogues have really intensified over the last year especially when we were trying to decide what to do with a deteriorating i mean a simple stadium and these conversations were always constructive they were always cordial and finally let us i think to the joint conclusion that everyone would be best served if hope purchased the stadium from the city of holland and so we're deeply grateful that that is occurring and i want to just express a word of thanks to all those people from the city who have been involved in this from the beginning  obviously and wolf was involved in this before he left ryan cotton has been involved since he came and he mulder attended several of our meetings as did jodi signs and several people the commendation for all of this coming to fruition should go to great robinson who has my most respect as an administrator for the city of holland and it was his really commitment keeping our dialogues moving his tremendous organizational skills that i think brought this to fruition and so greg my deep thanks to you especially and then i think you know you're aware that hope has invested some considerable money already a tangible amount of money to improve the stadium and you have our commitment that we will continue to do this so that the stadium i maintained at the high standards that the city expects and that the college expects and as a tangible expression of our commitment to the city and to holland public schools  allowing the use of this without any rental costs to either holland public schools or to the city of holland and we do this not grudgingly but enthusiastically as an expression of the way things work in holland and that is when we all work together things work out the best for all of us and so my deep gratitude to the city council and to all members of the city for making this possible thank you thank you president but when on the screen if we would maybe put it broadcast that we were showing on the screens in chambers is an aerial of what the facility looks like now it's almost too bad we didn't have a similar photo taken about a year ago or maybe two years ago it is a remarkable complex and when dr bowman said it was i think tired was his word that was a pretty charitable charitable description of the condition of the stadium i think  has served the city well but basically it had gone largely untouched aside from routine maintenance kinds of things since its inception in the early eighty's so it is truly a wonderful complex and one that we know that frankly the city was not able to do and that hope had the capacity to do and did it for the benefit of the entire community so it is we like to use the phrase win win around here in this clearly falls into that category in my opinion there was also a picture of the two of us talking at the at a dedication event and i jokingly said upstairs that when you spoke the all the people there was full behind us and then they gave the microphone to me and they started filing out so many events and the other comments on this item nancy pla i just really appreciate the way that leaders can come together around here and come up with a solution that serves everyone well that nobody's there for their own big ego trip nobody's there to run over anybody else or take over from anybody else  we had a need in our community it was impossible for us to put the kind of investment into that facility that all of its amenities were valued at zero according to the a saucer so it really needed help and we did not have the financing to do it the city sponsored five events there a year i think so for us to put a lot of money into keeping it up for those five events didn't seem reasonable with everything else that we need to pay for it these days and for hope to step up in its benevolent way to do the best that it can to honor the quality of the whole campus as well as as the city  really heartwarming and then to allow public and public schools to host its events there that public doesn't have to invest in a stadium also and that they can enjoy that level facility at that reasonable  benevolent price for twenty five years is an amazing amazing gesture and i just think the whole community is well served when high position leaders work with other high position leaders in a way that serves the community and i think iron sharpens iron and all of them come up even stronger in their positions i think many times being in a leadership position is a lonely place and many communities just have silos of leaders but when we as leaders can come together and develop solutions to problems that seem bigger than any particular one organization i think the whole community it is so well served and to have fathers in our community that have this protective kind of expertise and heart to make this type of gesture a reality i think is something that the community really needs to be grateful for and we really thank president baldwin in taking this on and of course craig robinson who so often serves  every time we enjoy downtown miami attack we clap for the airport authority there are so many successes in our community that greg has been the point person for and he never talks about it i never tells anyone and so it's really refreshing when we can have an opportunity to thank him publicly for his work in making sure everything for this was covered from a to z and we know everything is handled in a legal correct manner and we're thankful that greg had the keys to that too so it's a very exciting thing for the whole community and i think it tells us all of the depth that we enjoy so freely on a daily basis in holland some repair we hope in the next six months so that the windmill will be turning again year from now that repair will take substantial cranes those cranes are very heavy to get them to the windmill takes some work in relation to the bridge on your screen you'll see to the right the original branch from one thousand nine hundred sixty four and it has deteriorated bit since that time so it was reviewed for its capacity and  opportunities to improve its integrity to make sure there was no no problem getting the crane to the island that report was done by h and h engineering and it has indicated that there's a number of options the option that is both least expensive and meet your budget is to basically shore up the bridge in the center with a center column structure and in that way make it useable and feasible and also reasonably priced so that is the recommendation tonight for council to approve to retain an engineer to do all the detail design associated with that result and bedding and those bits will then come back to you for eventual approval but we anticipate that they will meet your budget right understanding is that there will be some troll supporting structure which will go down into the waterway it's not a ditch really it's a waterway of some sort to provide that additional yeah that's the basic premise behind the design so we have essentially the need to spread the load throughout the bridge and that can be accomplished by adding that center support system so the the piles on either end will remain there's one or two of them that need to be repaired but the sun the center structure will then enable us to accommodate the additional weight that we need ok this is being described as temporary but i'm wondering what exactly temporary means is it possible that that can stay there for a fair amount of time we believe that that that structure will certainly be sufficient to support any other activities that we have going on there so i think that we would anticipate it being there until we have the capability to look at perhaps a more permanent structure in the future but yeah it's not temporary in the sense that it's only going to last for this one construction project and then it won't be any good anymore it will certainly be usable ok for good thank you other questions for staff for the comments yes mike please jody while you're still up there i guess granted the the more permanent option with the used beans is maybe fifty percent higher than than the original but i'm also wondering how quickly we're going to have to go back and try to make that permanent you know that bridge is there not only for this specific purpose but if as you set up stairs or something were to happen there we have to get fire and rescue apparatus across that i'd hate to see us lose a two hundred plus year old windmill because the guy couldn't get across the bridge you know it and in it we're playing kind of russian roulette or dutch roulette in this case that this thing is going to last in the first time we have to bring you know i understand we do the annual specs and so on and so forth but would we not have better money spent right now do it now permanently done you know choke a little harder trying to find the extra money as opposed to coming five years ten years down the road and saying well gosh we should have done it now it's going to cost us one hundred thousand dollars to do the same thing we could have done for fifty thousand dollars back you know five ten years ago well we were we were looking pretty strongly at that option because we knew that there were some good is being out there and we were under the impression that they were in relatively good  shape our engineer went out to look at them after he had put this report together and found that there really were not any that were suitable so our ability to get used to beings would just solely be dependent on what's out there when we're bidding otherwise we're probably looking at a project that's more like one hundred and twenty thirty thousand dollars for the new superstructure replacement and the loads that will go over this bridge once the project is done are considerably less than what's required for the projects so we we feel pretty good about its ability to be service for quite a period of time you know i think it was a matter of balancing priorities knowing that we're embarking on a pretty ambitious and costly endeavor here and trying to decide where we would like to see that money spent and you know in the end we just really didn't want to see dollars diverted from the windmill to go into a bridge that we didn't how we want to do that but we have a carousel we have a musical organ that is in need of repair we're talking about potentially doing a bridge to the north side plus obviously we have the wind mill we want to get back in shape etc and i know there's a number of people working on that committee and doing a great job and i support you know support this but perhaps they may want to be thinking about as people donate money to these causes that we if somebody wants to give to the w be part of it or if it's the carousel so they will know exactly where their dollars go in the bigger issue i guess with the windmill is and i gave the analogy of the boat ever open window you have to fix the glass you  repair person there you have to have somebody do the the glazing and you know making sure the windows and properly and what point are those ancillary costs going to be covered are they going to cover part of this bridge which was part of the  reason for repairing it as well and like brings up a good point however with the fire thing and i maybe some have thought about so i think there's a lot of issues there and perhaps in the future we can clarify that a little bit more f can better understand it and perhaps other people of other questions as well but i think this is a reasonable way to go at this particular point see where it goes from there fellows are making here and is part of the reason why i brought the question up at all there will come a time when there is going to have to be an additional bridge built because there will be a point at which there will be additional construction on windmill island and that this bridge is not going to be adequate for what will happen there i know this because of my awesome visionary process but  think is is well made and that there's a judiciousness that needs to be applied here we have a lot of cost connected with just the renovation and the repair of the windmill itself and i think anyone in fundraising circles these days know is that more often than not requests are going to number the same people and so we have to be sensitive to that and and cautious and wise in how we approach this and how we try to take care of the needs that are very obvious and necessary on this island but  sitting there stagnant stagnant so we have to get the money out there and get that thing fixed as fixed as fast as we can so that doesn't get damaged worse and so yeah we have to have a bridge to get the crane over to fix the windmill and it's there are a lot of steps but still i think you've made a good decision on how much to put into the bridge on the way to the windmill and hopefully people understand that we really need to get this done and yes it's not going to be cheap but it is so important as an icon to our community this is a good point of reminder that not that the repaired of the windmill in the hole will allen processes is turning into a rube goldberg machine but on the one hand there is you know a beam broke and it's been on site for fifty years in the windmill dates back much longer than that but it's been in holland now for going on fifty years so beam breaks but in order to fix the be miffed take the cap off which means that in order to take the cap off in a crane which means that in order to get a crane there you build a bridge and as long as you get the cap off you might as well fix the shingles that are basically at the end of their life span so it's better to fix that while the cap is on the ground as opposed to doing it while it's two hundred feet in the air so you can see how one thing leads to another and the costs escalate on this and then as long as we're having this sort of discussion on the on the windmill that we got to look at the other artifacts that exist on one mile island so there's discussion about the carousel in the street or going from the city of amsterdam and then when mile island coming up on its fiftieth anniversary and it served a purpose it had its its time and maybe now it's time to re invision what it could be for the next fifty years or so out of this simple beam breaking piece of wood snapping we have said and into into motion a whole series of events and what has been happening not well i would say quietly but not not not out of the public eye because the meetings have all been public as there have been a group of very committed very passionate very thoughtful community members meeting on almost a weekly basis for a while to think about what might the future of windmill island look like when will island gardens and at the same time looking at what is it going to cost to get the artifacts back into a usable condition to preserve the artifacts that we've been entrusted with so while they've been going on these two track things we haven't done a whole lot very publicly with fund raising yet because we want to sort of have in hand the strategic plan for what the island would look like for the next fifty years or what it might look like for the next fifty years so we've been receiving some moneys some gifts and we certainly will welcome those and they get put into a separate account and will be used only for for the island and for the windmill repair but look in the early and thirteen for a very comprehensive and well thought out report of what windmill island might look like and then in earnest efforts to get underway with with the first stage of that which in all likelihood will be the repair of the windmill itself the other complicating factors nancy touched on is that we really don't want the windmill under repair in the middle of the summertime the island is full every weekend with people who are doing corporate events or parties or or weddings and part of the attraction of the space is having that iconic symbol in the background it's not quite as a comic when it's scaffold and all the blades are off in the cap sitting on there on the ground next to it so we want to avoid the summertime as much as possible we want to avoid tulip time as much as possible so that really narrows our construction window to do this and when you look at the construction window and begin working backwards order the materials from the netherlands and so it there will be a sense of urgency come january and this also means that we're going to front some of the money for example for the for the bridge that and for the bridge work so that we can be sure to meet that construction window but you know that this hasn't sat idle planning hasn't sat idle there's been a lot of people talking about it and  we will be in a much better position to unveil something come in the early part of twenty thirteen but in the meantime we both ask for your patience and for your support for for this iconic symbol of the holland area please call  fourteen a five point one some guess the city managers office is pleased to report the following gifts parks and recreation parks recreation and transportation department received a donation in the amount of one thousand one hundred dollars from the louvers family foundation to support the pond zip it signage lighting and scene upgrades for the digraph nature center and a total of four hundred seven dollars has been received in support of the repairs to the windmill island from priscilla's boutique and anonymous donors also for the city hall an electric presto grill valued at twenty three dollars and forty nights and has been received from anonymous donor it is their desire that this group will be placed in the employee break  recommended that said donations and generosity be accepted with appreciation and an expression of gratitude be forwarded to the donors what's the pleasure of coun and i know that and i make a mean pancake so i would experience that some time all of it ever please say i suppose the same that passes that takes us down then to fourteen point two the community energy strategies approval of a postal for the home energy retrofit program ryan we turn to you please an just adding just a bit to the background that rand just offered you know our sights in the home energy retrofit task force looking out i really and ways to encourage over the next twenty years one hundred million dollars of investment in the city of holland housing stock the majority of which would come from the homeowners themselves  you approved in october moving in that direction step by step by allocating money to hire a planner this fiscal year and pending some establishment of a good plan beginning audits of ninety homes as a pilot project was ninety homes then of all goes well could be actually retrofit their next fiscal  we put out an ira q in search of an appropriate planner for this task sent to twenty five or thirty different possible bidders we received six bids we interviewed two of those six on monday night and it's the unanimous recommendation of the citizens on the task force that you approve the hiring of schneider electric as the  planner the charge would be to have a plan for your review by the end of february and if that successful to move ahead in the next four months the remaining four months of this fiscal year to do the ninety audits and then in the next fiscal year actually do the retrofits just a quick summary of why the committee felt so strongly in an enum asli in favor of snyder is the contractor three words vision experience and capacity vision well it's not directly related it tells me a lot about a company when i realized that snyder electric donates the circuit breaker box for every habitat for humanity home around the world it also tells me something that they have formed a new division for smart cities and they see a great future in the kind of thing that we're talking about in the city energy plan again around the world they're also alert they noticed our city energy plan they approached i think the mayor maybe a year ago as much so they were right on the ball and pitch in and they  brought a couple of their people up to have probably a good hour and a half meeting without peter our fourth came along and i think dave koster was there and ryan was there i was there so yeah they're very aggressive not in a bad sense very aggressive in a proactive sense so they're in tune with what we're trying to do and they see how it is a very important pilot project for their business plan for the next couple of decades so they have the vision they have the experience some things  learned from reading their proposal and talking to their leader who present of the proposal in the last few years they've done energy retrofits and thirty thousand buildings a cost of about a billion dollars they know what they're doing they expect and in general a range of energy savings from thirty to sixty percent they understand completely that when you're dealing with homeowners a critical ingredient is good marketing and the center of that is treating the customer right and making it extremely easy to participate in the program you know one stop one shop approach they offer guarantees for their results they do follow up evaluations in the years after the retrofits so nobody is left behind they don't pack up and go away they're committed to using local contractors and perhaps and they have the ability to produce the capital to do the projects they have investors who have worked with them in the past and will be more than happy to work with them and this project vision experience and then finally capacity last year their revenues are in a twenty five to thirty billion dollar range worldwide experience what they didn't just speak to this project it's clear that they know the city energy plan ideas backwards and forwards that was really encouraging to see and they have potential for helping us in other projects besides the home energy retrofit and i think what's really important is when you talk about starting in a forty year plan you like to know the company you're starting with will still be there forty years later when all of us will be gone and they certainly will so vision experience capacity they're good company and we recommend them thank you don any questions for god or application is about getting the right players on the boss and in the right seats and as don has solved described the qualifications of this company or seem to be so well suited for moving our community energy plan forward and not in only in this application but as you've said the possibility of their expertise being helpful in some future applications on the planet while it's a great great start i think any other comments yes or the last for sure three years talking about hiring ghar for getting people involved in the community having community meetings to where we are today i don't think anybody's been at the table longer than you have done and i thank you to a thank you to before but while we're sitting here and i think there's just a little bit more bounce in your step because i think things it took a long time to get where we are today and here you sit now talking and i think you're very well placed with looking over just assessing this firm getting us ready to implement what's a very important part of the energy plan and  i think it's where more there's there's a little more meat on the bones here and i think there's some great work in tangible things that will happen more quickly than has happened in the past four years so i'm happy i'm very happy that you're still involved in this thing and i think we're grateful that you are proud number of the second ward with the time and the energy and the capacity to put the time and energy you do into this because i think you're making a difference and i'm very grateful for  thank you thank you part of the reason we have jay and mike next to each other is because they're the ones who pump up their wards more than the rest of us and i mean any other comments please  package but five thousand dollars is the contract here it's for two hundred plus hours of work they're not bidding it out an hourly basis it's it's more because they want to work with the city of holland but that is your fee to be paid to them and are subject to city attorney review of their performance agreement which is substantially in good shape with a few tweaks mike just ever so briefly electrical distribution side of things with the breaker panels but their lighting contacts the companies that they own in the lighting i mean they've got their they're an all in one package and i i believe they're going to bring to the  awful lot of good things so that i think i forget who said it but that this company said that we had the most comprehensive energy plan they have seen and they have done places all over the country is that correct all over the world all over the world that's pretty fun and it's pretty cool and i'm glad you know for all the hard work that has been done and all the volunteer hours and no one knows that more than you don and the angsty in working through this and i'm bringing in as we've said already peter gar forth and to have been as a community recognized by the american in bloom organization for our environmental emphasis and then for a company of this caliber to come in and say w just really like what you're doing and how you're doing it and we think it's good enough that we're willing to make a long term commitment and solicit serving you and that's really exciting for for our community and  said i could see the passion in you coming to fruition with this choice and kind of like this is the company you've been waiting for and it's great to see that and i appreciate the hard work you did in analyzing it and from the grown up going to churches having coffee meetings i don't know how many probably in the hundreds that the group has done to keep this thing going and i just my hope is that i don't know how the application process will go but i'm hoping that you know i'm not ninety but will have many many more people than ninety so i want to be an part of that group and it's a really exciting thanks for all the work that you've done over the last several years and thanks for staying on board with us and if i may just be in their fight you know this is not a complete pass off to this night or that once you approve this everything happens you know they just get a whole lot smarter person and me coming back to saying what needs to be done and what further steps need to be taken and what further contributions need to be made but at least you'll have someone who knows what they're talking about self deprecation will get you everywhere dykstra yes motion passes thank you takes us down i don't fifteen communications from the city manager subject to the mike these two individuals chief messer announced this and rewarded them ordered them at a recent reception we have the firefighter of the year this year is an individual who was nominated by her peers and based on her character and positive attitude that ward went to heidi camfield this year and there is a press release that it's been issued in tell me if you did not receive it or if you still need it and i'll be happy oh ok excellent and now the second award went to a police officer who is has indicated his also nominated by his peers based on his high level of character and competence as well as commitment and that individuals responsible for the departmental training and his name is sergeant keith mulder so we're proud to announce these words on behalf of the fallen public safety department secondly i'd just like to wish you a merry christmas and happy holidays thank you ryan  for me this evening a few things first at this my past monday's mac meeting how area coordinating council meeting which was held here in council chambers the mac policy committee was privileged to have peasley from hope college come and give us a report on some of the research that he has been doing on the watershed area for like markets how and in particular the like maggots how well water quality and it was a fascinating report and there's actually a physical document that has been prepared what we are going to be doing is we will both put a p d f of that document on the cities web page and we have excerpted dr peace leads presentation to the mac policy committee and we will be both putting a link to that on the video site as well as running that on public access television so you have to sift through the whole policy meeting to to get to the good stuff tongue in cheek to get the good stuff of dr peter report i would tell you that the they have identified not runoff from animal waste from farm fields that's causing the e coli it's actually the drain tile that runs underneath fields creating a non animal based form of  causing the eco light beach closing issues so we have great information now the question is what do we do with it and what's it going to cost but one other interesting tidbit and this probably sounds counterintuitive but as everyone knows this summer lake macca towel was green and everybody thought conventional wisdom was that this was a sign that you know lake mack is dirtier and worse off than ever before and dr peacefully says contraire just the opposite in  fact what it demonstrated because we didn't have much rain which meant there wasn't a lot of sedimentation that came into the into lake mack the water was actually quite clear which allowed the sunlight to go through hit the phosphorous on the bottom causing the algae blooms to occur so rather than having the algae be seen as a problem of lake mack as a sign of its of its poor condition it actually was a sign that given reduced amounts of runoff reduced amounts of other things getting into it lake mack has the capacity to heal itself on a much shorter timeframe than even he thought was possible prior to this summer's lack of rain event happening so an interesting interesting report from him an interesting written report and look for those to appear in the city's website  also kudos and congratulations to our own holiday representative joe haldeman or as we would call him an alumnus of the home city council who's now used the training he got here and is serving in lansing in the house of representatives was announced today that representative harman will be the chairperson of the house appropriations committee tough to think of a more powerful and important committee in the house of representatives in the house appropriations committee and joe will be the chairperson of it so congratulations to him to all of us of course and also frankly for the state of michigan because we know joe will do a very very good job i will also add my wish for everyone to have a happy holidays merry christmas this is the final meeting of the year  indicated in the consent agenda we will not meet the day after christmas because we'll all be excitedly cell celebrating boxing day here on the city council so not really but we will not be meeting here in any event i do have some appointments and s appointments and the appointments are rock to the police police community relations commission for a one year term to the police community relations commission for a one year term and a clawson to the police community relations commission for a one year term melissa perino to the police community relations commission for a one year term john jobson to the police community relations commission for a one year term and theme to yarbrough to the police community relations commission for a one year term and then re appointments frank cr relations for a one year term and linda loggins to the police community relations commission for a one year term and finally then we have one resignation bush has tendered his resignation to the historic district commission effective immediately and i would ask that these appointments and re appointments be approved for your consideration and also that the resignation be accepted with regret move or peter's supported by truth that we any discussion on that all in favor please  say i oppose the same those past communications or motions and resolutions from members of council resolutions from members of council then before we adjourn i will just very briefly say because so much has been said and written and felt that we as mike indicated at the beginning of tonight's meeting we really while the same time celebrating christmas and the end of the year and all the things that ordinarily are joyful associated with this time of the year we cannot help but be mindful of those in our national family who are going through unbelievable agony we're talking of course about our brothers and sisters in our american friends and family in newtown connecticut who suffered what one can only think of as about the worst possible situation anyone could could think of i don't want to use the word tragedy just because tragedy to me sounds like tsunamis and tornadoes and hurricanes this this is not a tragedy this is something much much worse than that so  again much has been said and written about it and i certainly am not eloquent enough to add anything worth improving upon those communications just know that we all of us up here on this diocese all of us in this community for anyone from that part of the world who is potentially watching or reading anything about this meeting please know that we hold you in our thoughts in our prayers and you are on our minds daily and more than daily we cannot imagine the kind of experience that you are having at this time and know that that pain will not go away and know that it will not diminish any time in the near future unless there's anything else i would entertain a motion