Do you take the role on that?
Please don't do that.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
He's over there.
The motion to reconvene.
Yay or nay?
Sellers?
Aye.
Klemm, Monroe is absent, Simmons, Parker, and Stacy.
Will that suffice as a roll call for who's present as well, or do you want me to take roll after a roll call vote?
OK, now this is officially roll whether you are here or not.
Klemm, Monroe is absent, Simmons, Parker.
Stacy, Shadle, Sanders, Sellers, and we have a quorum.
OK, we're going to resume where we left off.
Actually, it's West Avenue TIF, Curt, 227.
Have you got a page on that, Rob, or you got that?
Yeah, I got different pages.
227?
Yeah, it's about 3 quarters to the rear.
Fund number 227.
There you go.
OK, got you, got you, got you.
OK.
OK, and we're starting off here with the West Avenue TIF.
Nothing's really been changed with that.
Got no change there.
OK, Burchard Hills TIF, that is Fund 228.
Also, no changes there.
Meadows TIF 229, no changes there.
The Drug Forfeiture Fund, no changes on the Drug Forfeiture Fund.
Why is there no changes?
Because when we first presented it, it did not change from the first time we presented it.
But is there something that you have a question on?
No, I just wondered.
Tourism Fund, no changes.
Why shouldn't that have gone up since let Greater Freeport Partnership tell it that it's been so greater this year?
Well, Michelle, do you want to answer that as far as revenue or as far as expenses?
Both.
When Rob said no changes, it just so the last time we presented it in September or October, where we have not changed the budget amount.
It did go up, the budget from 2024 was 240,000 for revenue in the hotel motel tax.
And we're budgeting 280 for the new year.
280,000, We just haven't made any changes since we initially presented it a few months ago.
Okay.
The highlighted items so we went through anything that was changed since the first time that we presented the budget.
This is quite the process.
I mean it we've been working on this since the beginning of August and so tweaks do happen.
Things do change.
I recalculate.
I get memos from the state saying certain revenues are up that kind of thing so anything highlighted was something that we changed and in this one there in the hotel motel fund We didn't make any changes.
Okay, if there are no other questions, we'll go to 318 Street Improvement Fund.
This is where we're going to have the, this is where the funds for the 1% tax will reside and these funds have been budgeted for road reconstructions next year.
There have been no changes since we presented it in the capital improvement plan.
Capital Equipment Fund.
We have had a few changes and some moving around.
The transfer in, we had a little change on that from $726,000 to $196,000.
We had initially budgeted for, let's see here, some other vehicles that we are no longer going to purchase.
Some of those vehicles are for the street department.
So we are gonna be purchasing an F-550 truck next year instead of several bits of equipment that we had already put in there.
And then also the enterprise leases are paid out of this, as well as police vehicles.
So we're purchasing three police vehicles.
Any questions on capital equipment fund?
Okay.
Fire improvement fund, a few minor bookkeeping things, We put that in.
We have a better idea now of what that should be.
And so that's been added.
And then that's essentially the only change that we've seen there.
Moving on to debt service fund.
No changes there.
Police pension fund.
No changes there.
Fire pension fund.
No changes.
And foreign fire fund.
No changes there.
We're moving the landfill closure fee during the budgetary process.
So we got gigged on the last auditor.
Basically the landfill closure fund is essentially we're building that up at the request of the auditors to get that squared away.
So we're budgeting $362,155 to add to the road closure or the landfill closure Miller.
And then under Contracted Infrastructure Repair and Maintenance, we reduced that from 150 to 300.
That had to do with pumps, and all the pumps right now are working pretty well.
So we reduced that to 30,000.
So if anything was to pop up, we have some money on hand, but right now there's really nothing that needs to be done out there.
One second.
Yes.
Alderman Sellers.
Yes.
I have a question on the landfill closure.
Yes.
Where are there other are there any other places that people can take their Their waste besides paying that fee that they would have to pay to feel whoever the people are comes down So the so our landfill is closed Completely.
The only thing that's there is Gills runs the transfer station So if you're talking about normal garbage and that type of stuff that it goes there if you're talking about yard waste That's a different thing.
Are you which one are you thinking of?
Yeah, I'm doing the yard waste.
I had calls on what do they do with their yard waste?
Why isn't there somewhere for them?
There is.
I mean the the woody yard waste either goes down to the city yards There's an impound there or out to the the wood lot On Walnut Road, so it's right next door to landfill four Now grass clippings we don't take although we are working on a composting permit so we can kind of generate our own topsoil Hill, and in that case we might we might start accepting grass clippings there because it allows the nitrogen you need to mix in with the decomposing leaves to create the proper balance there to create potting soil.
So they can take their leaves and debris to the to the wood lot.
To the okay yeah okay right there across from Walnut or at the city yard.
Yeah okay thank you.
Now the leaves don't go to the the city yards they go to the they go to the wood lot brush yes Yes, the brush.
If you have brush, you can take it to City Yards or the woodlot, but leaves specifically go to the woodlot.
Woodlot.
Yes.
It's only open 8 to noon.
Yep.
Okay.
Or any other special garbage or waste that requires not your normal typical household garbage.
How does that become stored or disposed of if the landfill is only going to take specifics?
Davis, what happens to anything else that's not garbage from your household?
Well, you would take it to the transfer station and there would be a tipping fee or some nominal fee per day.
Well, you can take it out to the landfill.
You could take it to the transfer station, yes.
Transfer station.
Yeah, that's right there where the landfill is.
And so if I wanted to take a chair, per se, and just take it there.
Yes, you can take that out.
They'll have to charge you for it, but you can take it there.
They will charge you.
Yes.
And just in the interest of time I'm happy to talk about those in much more detail I would however like to kind of keep on going with the budget any questions on the landfill closure fund okay health and environmental Health and Environmental Fund, nothing changed there.
Water Fund, we had a few changes.
Revenue, we included some of the grant revenue that increased that from five million to nine million.
In addition, we were we're expected to see some of the settlement law, the perfluoronate compound lawsuits this year, so we included that.
We basically were estimating about 800,000 total.
We put 400 in water and 400 in sewer.
That's item 4661, other revenue.
Then under interest income, after reviewing everything looks like we will end up receiving more interest income than we had initially thought.
Under expenses, we just cleaned up all the payroll and all the withholdings and and made everything as close as we possibly could get there.
Under contracted equipment, repair and maintenance, we went from 120 down to 50, and that's basically going to pay for our pressure tank over at Burchard Hill this year when we paint the Burchard tank.
Contracted infrastructure, repair and maintenance, you'll see there.
It was at $3.4 million.
It's $1.9.
That's lead services program.
I believe that's three.
So that is budgeted for the lead service line program.
Could we bump back up to water fund?
Sure.
You've got highlighted the.
400,000.000.
Yes.
Yeah, the 400,000 that's.
So that we're putting in as a placeholder what we think we're going to get for in 25 We're just trying to account for it a little bit.
We think we'll get something this year, earned 25.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Okay.
If you will, skip down to 6315.
We took engineering from 500 to 383,000, and then we also adjusted fee in lieu of property tax from, I'm sorry, equipment building and plant outside from 35 to 30,000.
We've got supplies, mains and manholes.
We had a real look at this.
Generally speaking, supplies, mains, manholes are going to be materials that we purchase that would go into the water system, valve boxes, valves, that type of thing.
So we had a look at that.
We made some changes there.
So we took mains and manholes down from 135 to 85.
And then meter equipment we took from 60 to 50.
So moving down, plant maintenance, we took that down about 5,000.
And then vehicles, we took 2,000 off of that.
We made a necessary adjustments where we needed to software.
We were reviewing some of the software that we needed and we were able to make some changes there.
So we went from 112 to 56,000.
And the land and property acquisition, you got $100,000, but we moved that from the water budget over to the mixed assets category, so that's not actually zero, that just got moved to another place in the budget.
Any questions on water?
Okay.
With that, let's move on to the wastewater.
So again, just scooting down here, not a whole lot changed here, but we've got 4661, For the revenue, again, you'll see another $400,000 there, as we're anticipating about $800,000 coming in from the Forever Chemical settlement.
Again, also, the payroll was adjusted appropriately and withholdings were adjusted appropriately.
Skipping down to $6170, contracted infrastructure, repair, and maintenance.
This is our sewer lining, and this was reduced, I believe we're pursuing some sewer lining grants through the EPA.
D. A. Is that correct?
And it's moved to capital instead of being in the expense items.
So it's a way of looking at, so it's fixed infrastructure, the lining, the life of the lining is 20, 30 years, so it really doesn't belong in the expense item, it belongs in the in the asset side.
Let's see here.
Depreciation expense, we made an adjustment there.
And yeah, lab testing vendors, we're gonna to do what we can to take a little reduce that somewhat.
We're hoping that we'll get to a point with the lead services that our lead service line testing will be getting less expensive over time because we've replaced so many of them.
And we'll be on the home stretch probably at the end of next year.
So we're excited about that.
A few other adjustments, construction and equipment Supplies, Lift Station Supplies, Main's Manhole Supplies, and then plant maintenance supplies.
So the idea there is we should have a pretty significantly new plant pretty soon, hoping.
So hoping we spend a little less on our plant maintenance because we'll have a new plant.
And computer software, again, reflected a similar change to what you saw on the water side.
And that's it for wastewater.
Any questions on wastewater?
The changes are very similar to the water side, so.
Alderman Sanders.
Yeah, just a question.
I saw the new water plant structure, utility area, chemical area, is that what we're upgrading?
Some some similar with new machines and things like that to work with our waste treatment water.
Right, so we're installing a chemically enhanced primary treatment to handle the inflow and infiltration problem.
We're installing new headworks with new pumps, screens, grid screens, and handling equipment there replacing the lab and the UV treatment.
We're getting rid of the chlorine Disinfection and putting in UV treatment at the wastewater treatment plant that lagoon that's that's not in there anymore is it we're not utilizing that I'm sorry I don't know I may be saying it wrong aeration tank or no the the I call it the lagoon I don't know why my call well let's talk after the meeting well Let's finish this last bit, and then I'll stay over.
OK, with that being said, we'll just finish up here with stormwater.
Again, you see the same changes in the payroll and the withholdings as you did the other two.
Depreciation expense, and I'll have to leave that to Michelle to give me a little bit of background on that one.
So on the 6215, could you add on that?
I think it was incorrect.
If you noticed the year before, it was probably a key punch error.
There we go.
So we fixed it.
Okay, and then engineering, we originally had 150,000 in there for stormwater and we took that to 50.
So that completes the 2025 budget.
And I was hoping to have you guys out of here by 7.30.
I am available now or after the meeting or anytime this week, please feel free to call me if you have any questions on it or whatever.
But thank you for your patience, it can get a little dry, but we've been able to provide you with a balanced budget.
Thank you.
Is there any other discussion on revisions?
Nothing about the budget, it's just a comment to make.
To Bundy, I was able to make it to two veterans programs, one at Carl Sandberg School, one at the high school and they put on an excellent program and made the veterans feel real proud so I just wanted to make the comment that was Monday at the schools.
Item 11 is public comments, agenda, or non-agenda.
Wendy?
Good evening.
I just want to basically make a comment in regards to issues that are at hand in regards to one's ability to speak.
As an elected official your jobs Jobs is to the citizens of Freeport.
It is to ask questions and it is to get answers.
Limiting the ability to speak doesn't get anything done when people allow their feelings to play a part in the decisions regarding the well-being of this entire city.
My understanding and Yazoo.
My understanding is this is being based on an ordinance that is as old as dirt and has never been used before We have too many of those ordinances still sitting on the books and they need to be wiped off Including the one if you spit on the ground you get a fine that's still sitting on the books I don't believe that anybody here is At a position where they can make every determination for what goes on in our lives We're not living our lives.
You're not living our lives and most of you don't have a conversation with us to even know what's going on in this community with individuals because you don't walk the streets, you don't knock on doors, you don't talk to people when you expect them to come to you.
Your job is to come to us.
And I'm really sick of this.
You know, I've been in city council meetings that have lasted longer than three hours.
Oath of Office to serve us, no matter how long it takes for that to come about.
And we want that to happen.
I'm probably as calm as I've ever been standing at this microphone, but I'm going to let you guys know that this doesn't work.
It's not working.
And it isn't going to work.
And those ordinance needs to be removed.
We need to stop looking for something that's not there based around somebody saying that something was there 20 years ago.
We haven't found that information for Open Bible as of yet.
We need to start looking at the people in this community.
Each and every last one of you aldermen need to start reaching out to your constituents and finding out what they think about what is happening in here, because they're not coming in here.
They're sick of you guys.
We got an election coming up next year.
And I would say to each and every last one of you, if you want to serve as a city council older person, if you wanna serve as the person that is ultimately at large then take the responsibility to go and talk to the people that have voted you in.
Because that's the only way you're gonna find out what our needs are and how your decisions are affecting us physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially.
That's what your job is.
And I shouldn't have to remind anybody of that.
Some of you have sat here for years.
I ask that you work with the new city council members to help them to understand what the process is without them having to go back and forth all the time with somebody who doesn't agree with what they don't understand.
Their understanding will bring about an understanding to the community.
You guys fighting and not helping them isn't helping us to become a better city, citizen, city.
When we have things that are more important that are pertinent in this community, including what happened on Halloween, where we have racism open to everybody, for our kids to see, for people in nursing homes to see, for people going to the park to see.
Two schools, a nursing home, and a park that is very well known.
That should never be there, even though we know that we can't stop them from putting things on their personal property.
But we can put enough pressure on them so that it doesn't happen and it never happens again.
And I would submit that you guys pull together and put an ordinance out that talks about discriminatory practices on lawns and any place else in this city that is offensive to the people of this city.
And it didn't just offend my culture of people, it offended a lot of people.
And if you wanna know the truth, there was 7,000 hits on that live stream, which doesn't make us look real good in Freeport.
7,000 People looked at that and were disgusted.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, item 12 is adjournment.
We've got nothing further.
I have a motion by Sellers, second by Parker.
All in favor?
Aye.
Thank you.