##VIDEO ID:ZPg8XX4qDEU## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e planning a yeah all right we will begin the December 5th city council meeting for City of Newport with the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all R please council member suar here council member Taylor here council member Ingman here acting mayor chapalain here and mayor Elliot is absent today thank you we have a quorum we will continue next item on the agenda is to adopt their agenda I'll move are there any changes tonight it's not a consent agenda yeah we'll get to that maybe at number six then right I'll move the agenda second thank you Motion in the second to adopt the agenda all those in favor please sign by sign of I I I post same sign next up is public comments visitors May sure their concerns with City Council on any issue which is not already on the agenda under public comments please give your name name address and your concerns or comments each person will have three minutes to speak your comments must be addressed exclusively to the mayor and city council not to any individual counsel or staff member mayor reserves the right to limited individuals presentation becomes redundant repetitive irrelevant or overly argumentative all comments will be taken under advisement by the council no action will be taken at this time after all that there's no public in the room so we're going to move forward so but I haven't read that in a long time so I just wanted to next is consent agenda any items listed on our consent agenda tonight to be pulled uh item Echo e Echo e has been asked to pull I will second that all right anything else I'll take a motion to move the rest of the consent agenda move is adjusted yep okay motion second to uh move the adjusted consent agenda all those in favor please signify by a sign of I I I post same sign item e is resolution 20248 Joe is this something you're going to speak to I am going to speak to and actually uh I'd like to get in front of the council in front of the Das all right and Deb if you come up here um mayor members of the council uh we have a longterm member of the staff de sches uh who is retiring um and we prepared a resolution and had it uh signed by the acting mayor and uh and it really is just recognizing that the service that Deb is provided and Deb is extremely detail oriented uh Deb cares passionately about doing the right thing for the community and providing Public Service Deb's been serving the Newport Community for 12 years and she's really been um focused on getting our our tax rate down uh I think it was as high as 72% and unfortunately tonight it did go up but it will be recommended to go up a little bit but it's gone down significantly uh we are in a very strong financial position because of her work so thank you so much Deb uh tonight the council will be approving this resolution so it will go in the new Bo record forever I wanted to present you a copy of the resolution um and then also we have a little that you can put uh put up and it just really thanks you for your commitment to public service in the community here so thank you so much can you read the the Monument of course um presented to Deb scholes in appreciation of 12 Years of loyal and dedicated service your contributions have had a lasting impact on the Newport Community thank you de [Applause] with that I'd like to make the motion that we accept resolution 202 24-85 as just described by uh administrator second it okay we have a motion in a second any last comment or questions thank you very much Deb all those in favor please signify by the sign of I I I oppose same sign all right sheriff's report Sergeant bill Bill and Company yes good evening council members um Sergeant Bill Herold I just want to let you know that I'm going to be introducing Sergeant Joel leot who's going to take over for me at the first of the year here shortly um this will be my last council meeting on the 19th I have the honor to go up to Still Water to we got three deputies from Newport that are going to be receiving life saving Awards so I'm going to be attending that in Li of the council meeting so this will be my last meeting and it's been a pleasure working with all of you but I'd like to introduce Sergeant Joel leot he's going to be a great uh asset to the City of Newport he's got a lot of great attributes and a lot of great things to bring um as you all know I take pride in the work we do here and I know Joel will do the same so without further Ado I'll just give him a time to introduce himself awesome uh well uh council members everybody here I appreciate seeing you guys again I've had the opportunity to meet most of you which I has been an honor everybody has been extremely welcoming here so I it's I appreciate apprciate that very much um to Bill's credit though he's been here for a long time and I know you know that and everything that's in place and the honestly great partnership that we have with this city this city council and the sheriff's office is in large part because of the work he's done uh so I clearly understand these are very big shoes to fill I'm going to do my very best with that um but do know I'm excited to come down here and work with all of you I've had come down here a handful of times certainly to meet with the administrator ha and then certainly some of the council members and obviously with public works with Matten so I'm looking forward to that uh just so you have a little background I'm sure you've read a little bit about me maybe with what was passed on but uh if not I have worked with the sheriff's office for 21 years uh but although I started there as a kid at the age of 14 so I've been I've been at the Sheriff's Office quite a while those years don't count towards retirement though um but that's okay I'm Still Loving the job I've been able to do quite a bit of things I worked the street I was a school resource officer for a school district for five years and I enjoyed that working with the kids I also have been uh a k9 Handler and I did that for about five years with my K9 partner Zeke had a wonderful time apprehending and also finding a lot of drugs that were out there in our streets in our County I've also had the opportunity with work work with water Patrol as well as water recovery um we've also been active in teaching dare and Community engagement Outreach so on and so forth so that's been fun uh mobile fuel force was also a Division I was in charge of and currently I am still uh the SWAT Commander for a multi-jurisdictional SWAT team uh which is also something I have a passion for as well as honor guard honoring those officers who have been killed which unfortunately as you see we have a black band on our badges for the Red Lake officer that was passway so I will be going to that funeral this Saturday um so that's a real brief little bit about me but I look forward to getting to know everybody more and uh having fun down here and addressing the concerns the Council has as well as City administrator and uh and we're going to have fun we're going to rock it out so I appreciate it really stand here for any questions yeah both of us if you have any questions for either of us any questions comments bill go ahead did you say that you're going to be honoring three um Newport officers for life saving Awards can you tell us a little bit more about that for the last year we've had we keep track we hold these meetings every whenever their the sheriff deems appropriate but we had a life saving award for several deputies for CPR calls okay one for the recent fire at the 8th Avenue Town Homes the deputy went into the Smoky structure and assisted getting a mail out of there which I thought was very heroic without having any breathing apparatus on um she just did that because it was needed to be done so um yeah it's good stuff and I'm very proud of the work they did can you tell us who those were or is that going to be announced at the uh it's the award ceremony no Deputy Dylan Jong Deputy Becca doiki and Deputy Daniel Durand are going to be recipients that okay extend their newport's thanks or at least mine I'm sure everybody on the on the council will also extend their thanks to will extraordinary work they do yep I will do you have any other questions for no Sergeant Le or myself yeah okay have a good night thank you thank you Bill for your service here absolutely next up is fire chief's report good evening council members uh couple quick things here tonight so November was uh much quieter from a call perspective then um October we had a dozen calls um three of those were full arrests you know of which you know we were closely with our um Washington County deputies on those um the rest were you know typical calls for service um we did um respond to the Water emergency if anybody's asking you you know we responded to the Water emergency in Woodburry earlier this week uh we had two Crews up there one um prepared for ice rescue and then our airboat um had a crew as well and they ended up going out on the lake and acted as a platform for the dive team you guys made the news actually I saw the Airboat I was wondering if it was yours but yeah there were two airbats up there one was still water and one was ours okay so both Boats were out there um basically acting as dive platforms was it in a lake or well one of the Lakes up there or was it on marcraft Lake okay and was there recovery then with the there were two um children pulled out of the lake we lost them both uh I'm not sure on the the condition so oh yeah the other ones yeah they're both they were both transported to Regions I don't have an official follow up on them way to say what their condition is okay as always many thanks for those experienced members of the dive teams absolutely and I do want to just do a quick shout out for the airbolt pilots so as you know earlier this year we nationally certified two of our firefighters as National airbolt Pilots it was over a 40-hour course that we hosted here and was um supported by the Washington County Sheriff's Office so you know fortunately we had those two gentlemen were running the Airboat that night and um couldn't be more proud of them so excellent and then the last thing I have is we had our food and toy drive on Sunday I like to thank everybody that came out and supported that as usual it was a a huge success uh we filled a pickup truck absolutely briming full of toys and food and we collected over $2,300 in cash donations um all of those go to benefit the F friends that need food shelf in St Paul Park and we still have two barrels accepting donations um in the community we'll have those out until December 18th and one is at the North Pole restaurant and the other is at Clover Leaf and that's all I had but I will stand for questions thank you Chief questions comments to the chief Thank you very much all right thank you next up appears to be Engineers report John good evening mayor members of the council uh two items for formal consideration this evening uh the first is the uh sanitary sewer manhole and lateral replacement project uh we have partial payment uh number five for consideration uh all the work on the on the project is done uh uh save the uh some of the final restoration work and the touch-up work in the spring uh but we're we've been pretty happy with uh all of the work that pembers provided and then we have also worked with them here over the last few weeks to get all the uh project quantities and documentation in order uh so we are uh currently estimating the project to come in at 1, 332,000 uh $372 that's about $30,000 under budget um we're recommending that we reduce the retainage for this project down to 1% that will hold about $133,000 uh for the uh contractor to come back next spring get all the uh Boulevard areas touched up so with the uh previously paid amount and the uh less the retainage the uh partial payment number five is requested at $2,585 I'll make that motion I can second that I have a motion in a second to uh go ahead with partial payment application number five is described uh any comments or questions hearing none all those in favor please signify by a sign of I I oose same sign and the second item is related to our uh American Rescue plan act funds our uh remaining arpa funds uh the the city received their uh allotment of arpa funds a couple years ago and we have about $95,000 remaining uh which uh needs to be obligated or under contract by the end of this year uh staff had uh identified doing some manhole lining uh with the remainder of the uh arpa funds these would be some of the manholes that were not replaced under the uh current project in 2024 but did have those end seals uh installed as part of our 2023 project so we we'd love to do them all we had about uh what did I have 41 manholes uh that were part of that project that weren't replaced um budget constraints won't let us do each one but we did review all of the manholes uh by condition and identified about 15 that we we thought were in the in the worst condition mainly the ones that are deeper and closer to the river but there are some others that uh uh throughout town that we were we're going to be looking at lining uh IT staff did solicit uh quotes from two contractors uh for similar products uh hyperline uh puts in a three-part uh Clos cell polyurethane liner they have a a an interior coat that goes directly on the manhole surface then they have about an inch and a half of clothed cell foam and then another hard epoxy coat on the outside it's a it's a product that uh uh we haven't used in town before uh MSA has used this product for for different communities found it uh to to work very well as it as it seals the inside of the manhole and does not allow that water to seep in uh either through the joints in the manhole or the uh or the casting uh and rings at the at the surface one reason why we like this product is it's a flexible product that can withstand some of the uh or can withstand the freeze thaw cycles and the kind of the abuse that some of these manholes get particularly in the upper elevations uh there are other lining systems that are you know maybe a little less expensive but they're based on more of a a rigid um a a rigid Co a cementitious coating that can crack and then you're kind of in the same same position you're in uh now uh the alternative uh quote that we received was from uh minger construction they do a a man or a fiberglass insert so they actually uh they'll they'll fabricate a an insert that is the uh about 2 in short of the diameter of the manhole and then they'll uh they'll have to take the top section off off so they actually have to do some excavation work put that um fiberglass liner inside the manhole and then they fill that um that anular space between the the fiberglass liner and the manhole with a uh a waterproofing material now that is what we would feel would be comp or uh um a reasonable alternative to that that Spectra Shield lining that hyperline puts in but that comes at a pretty significant cost we uh for we did not we weren't able to get that uh quote in the in the packet but they actually came in at about $340,000 to do those for manholes that's about $2,200 a foot whereas that Spectra Shield liner the three-part um clothe sell um polyurethane is uh their quote was $1,088 or $885 about $660 per foot so uh we we do you know part of our procurement from the city we do want to solicit multiple quotes for work and that's we we feel we've done that but you know there's just aren't a lot of contractors that install that same product so we had to kind of look for um reasonable Alternatives uh so I'm I'm happy to answer questions as to what we uh you know kind of that process but would like consideration to have Council direct us to uh accept a quote from uh hyperline to install their Spectre Shield uh lining system for uh $1,885 uh knowing that we only have about $95,000 left uh we'll work with public works and the contractor to if we can't if we can't do all the manholes we'll we'll remove the uh the one in the best condition or maybe work with the contractor to see if there's you know flexibility on some of the pricing so we can get them all done but uh we would like to council consider uh directing us to um accept that quote and then to get that under contract here before the end of the year thank you John questions bill I'll make the motion in order to get the discussion started okay A second we have a motion and a second to authorize the uh um quote from hyperline and to use remaining arpa funds for the process I just want to make sure we're all on that page yeah now I do have questions how many manholes are we going to be able to line and is that all of them I I thought I heard a big difference between how many we need and how many we're going to get pardon me I I apologize for interrupting so there were 41 manholes uh that were not replaced as part of our project this year and that was because of well we uh we had two different um practices for the manhole so in 2023 when we did our lateral lining yeah we put in N seals where the main lines come into the manhole correct we put those in in 41 manholes okay and then we had identified um uh what was that 26 manholes that were fully replaced this year those were our manholes that were in the worst condition or had access challenges or you know ones that we thought that we could replace for a more reasonable cost than to put the end seals in or to line those manholes okay so it was a complete replacement rather compl replace repair okay and so of the remaining 41 manholes we can line 15 of those with our with our remaining arpa funds so it's a financial limit on how many we can do so we're looking for the worst of the the remaining ones correct fund limited yep and then the manholes you know some of the manholes that uh that we're not doing are you know they're actually not terrible shape and we we had uh inspected all those in the spring when the water would naturally be at its worse and you know many of those were in in dry condition now if we could line all of them and and you know uh the the budget wasn't an issue we'd certainly line all of them but in this case we're I think we're making the best choice as to the manholes that we have will we follow up on those over the next couple years and see if in fact that they do do hold up uh the the product that we're going to install well the ones that we didn't didn't replace or repair yeah we'll we'll always be you know keeping an eye on our bholes we try to you know we try to get in there I I can't say that we're cracking manhole Lids every year um but certainly you know within a couple years couple three years we usually into manhole or into the manholes uh and be able to kind of document their condition yeah because we're going to want to know how well we're doing with limiting the inflow that goes down and and we have to pay for the cleaning process and some of that can be done with the the the the management software the flow management software is that correct so we don't necessarily have to go in there we can manage how much water's going down to the pig Eye correct we can record how much water's going to Pig ey right yeah we know roughly what we're what we're pumping but that doesn't tell you what manhole or correct you know it's just what's going through a lift station yeah so if we don't see a significant reduction then I would imagine it would require us to go in and identify which manholes are contributing are continuing to contribute even though we thought we had them the worst ones identified correct well what we can do and and this will be a kind of a a process where if we look at back in 2022 we knew how much our pumps ran every every day yes and now in 23 we can look at certain lift stations where we've concentrated our work and so our our first project our lateral lining project we can tangibly see what our reduction in ini is okay now after this year when we've done some manhole replacement and now we can see the next incremental step of what we've uh reduced what we've reduced okay cuz we can start uh we can start comparing these to years past at the same time or when the river was at the same stage or after the a similar rain event and again like like Matt said we we can't pinpoint the exact location but we've already seen those those numbers coming down and we'll uh that's something that's on my list uh to to to provide a little feedback from Council and see those incremental steps and it's going to be a you know a couple year process until we can get all the the numbers back but I think it's important to to reflect on that to where see where all the the the time and resources has been spent and how that's been impacting yeah I would certainly like to see the impact we've had with these projects a lot of money has gone into these a lot of time a lot of effort so okay those are the the questions I had thank you for anybody else questions comments um and we do have a motion and the second already on the table for this so if there is nothing else all those in favor of uh moving this forward signify with sign of I I I post same sign thank you John what else that's all I had mayor but happy to stand for questions any questions for engineering no thank you very much public work uh good evening mayor and council members I have nothing formal for you this evening but I think uh probably three updates that that you'd be interested in um we have started flooding uh the skating rink um we have some ice there it's not ready for skating yet but making good progress for uh the time of year um the fire hall demo is nearly complete uh the one thing that we are not um finished with is the uh Hydro mulching or Hydro Seating and we chose to hold off on that because the ground froze up and it's kind of chunky and so in order to get a a better finished final product I'd rather wait till spring give it a touchup kind of you know let the clump settle in and then seed it so it's uh a better finished product and easier to mle um and then the third one is is the foundation is in for the sign for the dog park um but we don't have a date for the the installation of it yet so that would be the final final step for fully open on that so uh with that I'd be happy to stand for any questions thank you Matt questions for Matt no comments more of a comment the dog park turned out very nice I mean it's I don't know how much use it's getting yet but it's it's kind of tough when it's opening this time of year but it's it's a neat very unique Park I appreciate the work that went into yeah a lot of work I know drastic change from what it was and I didn't uh I didn't Envision it looking or you know ending up looking the way it is but I I'm very impressed as well use more of that mulch just keep dumping that mulch in there is that kind of the plan right yeah we'll just kind of keep that outside Trail going with you know with our winter uh winter trimming we'll we can just drop it there and spread it you know spread it as we go so yeah getting the mulch in there help keep some of the undergrowth from coming up and keep it open and and I think as soon as the dogs are in there using it hard that's going to disappear too so probably right yeah yeah we've uh enjoyed it more than a few times also so great great to hear appreciate that all right um administrators report we are by my clock five minutes before 6 which at that point we're required to uh stop what we're doing and do a truth and Taxation hearing but Joe if you would like we can uh have a chitchat about some of the other stuff in your agenda first yeah um we could uh maybe go to the resolution 2024 90 okay talk about that sure uh you know mayor members of the council uh each year we do our best to try to align the union and non-union salaries um I do have a presentation but I'm gonna have to run over to John quick um run John over run John over yeah uh newort does have one uh Union um and we did negotiate a three-year contract um this would be for the years 2024 2025 and 2026 and in 2025 we did negotiate a cola of uh 3.5% um we did Du a lot of comparisons and look at some Market data and we do feel like that was within um the market and uh we go should be pulling up there and staff uh did prepare a resolution authorizing um a cola for non-union pay the recommendation would be that Council approve resolution 20249 setting the non-union salary increase consistent with the Union rate thank you Joe any questions or comments for anybody no that's make a motion I'll second that motion okay we have a motion in a second um I think we can get that done before six o'clock yeah quick question though and we'll we'll get it done before 6 but um kind of a clarification for the public at large this hasn't always been this even no me answer to the question before I ask it yeah uh that's correct mayor members of the council um uh the year I came in uh got a little what's the correct term uh kittywampus I think maybe or uh it already had been Kitty disjointed um whichever term you like to use and it it caused a some concern and and for me I think it's very important uh when you're looking at culture you know we're a small City we're a small staff and I think it's really important that we try to be as Fair as we can for folks so you know thankfully you know the mayor and and a council member chapelain uh negotiated a a I think a very fair agreement with the Union last year and and we're kind of you know we're rounding the corner on the first year on that and we're getting hopefully everything kind of lined up uh so folks feel like you know there's there's some fairness there and I think uh I I'm feeling very comfortable about this uh and just uh you know I think it's all also falling within the market with the data that we looked at so so very very happy with this and and you're absolutely right mayor acting mayor Chine yeah know I I just wanted to make a quick mention that there was a lot of work that went into this and and the hopefully all the various red noses and foreheads that were wrinkled are are coming around but uh having s all that if there's nothing else all those just one real quick question then does that allow us to have a base which going forward we should be able to get the similar Cola for both groups salaried and non-salary is that what our hope I would hope so there was a year or two predating president Administration where I think things got out of whack a little bit yes and uh now they're whacked back into place once again we're trying to yeah to similar fairness issues get them similar okay so if there's nothing else um we already have a motion in second on 24-9 all those in favor please signify by sign of I I I poose same sign thanks Joe we're going to call at 6:00 and open the truth and Taxation public hearing well we'll let the uh citizens of Newport run down here in the next minute or two otherwise Joe you gonna run us through something here yes sir I do have a presentation um so of course this is our 20 24 uh truth and Taxation hearing um regarding the proposed 25 property tax levy uh Newport continues to provide for essential service Services the current general fund budget is about 37% police and fire Public Safety almost 177% for streets slightly over 14 for Parks and Recreation uh about 31% for General government and a small half a percent for contingencies um this has been a whipsaw the last couple years and I think it really has to do with evaluations and what we're seeing in the market but our fiscal disparities did decrease about $50,000 between 24 and and 2025 so that's that's fairly significant um our local government Aid did increase by about a, bucks um so that that's uh was nice and we are maintaining uh our our credit rating uh our bond rating at this point uh with ablea stable um you can see you know revenues and expenditures they are increasing in um but they're they're relatively if you look at the projection and the line on the graph they're heading in the same direction uh our fund balance has been decreasing since a high of you know around that 2021 with that said with this budget we're still well above 50% with that fund balance and and well with uh you know well within our policy and uh within the best practices according to our financial advisors um looking over the general fund over the last four years I think you know couple things you you can look at is that fund balance has been steadily declining I think we had a very large amount once that uh bayy Meadows came online and we've been spending down that fund balance it's been supporting some of the general fund over the last few years uh and now we're we're basically through that money um and with this budget I feel like we'll be in a very good position in the next few years there's been a lot of hard work to put us in a good spot uh where we're not uh you know where we can do some balancing of the priorities for the council and we're really trying to look longterm uh over the next 3 to 5 years we are looking at you know what folks are paying for taxes we're looking at what our tax rate is we're looking at the capacity and services we're providing uh and making sure that we're going to be financially stable uh into the future and I think that's that's what this budget's going to do um some of the other financing sources that you have uh within our budget we have HPC which we will continue to have in 25 it's proposed at 9,000 our Parks funding is consistent with 20124 at 150,000 we do see an increase an increase with our equipment fund uh we do have some very large purchases coming in a number of years and we want to keep this fund uh uh well funded uh and of course our building fund and the biggest investment there is is the building we're in now uh so we want to continue to maintain that and our costs have gone up because we do have such a nice uh uh building we we need to maintain uh again with our proposed Levy certification for 2025 uh the general fund is uh slightly over 3 million and then we do have about 900,000 uh onto our our debt um with uh 2014 uh General obligation Bond of about 152 2016 General obligation Bond very small and will'll be paying P that off soon here about 20,000 2018 General obligation Bond about 267 uh and uh our large one which is uh City Hall and I think a street project um at 553,000 our historical Levy increases and I I can say I'm I'm happy to say this Levy proposed Levy increase is less than our average over the years and you can see what that uh impact would be to um uh the median valued home and you know that is about $25 so it's you know we we've had these swings and I think um you know my goal going forward and in conversations that I've had with the council is that we'll start to see this hopefully leveling off and if anything decreasing uh I think that's all our goal and and and I think we've we've done the hard work and the heavy lifting over the last few years to put us in that uh in that position going forward impacts to residential homes I wanted to you know spend a minute here we did pass a preliminary Levy in September at 6.8% and the proposed Levy tonight is at 5.5 and if you look at your home valuation here you know for a $250,000 home in SE September we were looking at a $23 per year increase tonight we're looking at a $7 per year increase for a $300,000 home it was about $43 and it's almost been cut in half to $23 um with this final Levy for the $35,000 which is our median valued home we've been able to do that work and get it from $45 down to $25 again this is per year almost in half at for that $350,000 home went from 63 64 bucks to about 39 and for $400,000 home uh to from $92 to $64 for the 2025 tax impact on a median valued home uh you know I presented it in the last screen but it is about $25 a year or about $210 a month we did have a a strange thing it hasn't happened in a number of years but the market value did decrease from 24 to 25 at 7 a half% and you know we'll see what happens I don't anticipate that H uh continuing for for a long term but um you know maybe it was a a market correction in there although not a direct reflection of the tax impact our local tax rate did go up uh and uh you know we did see that go from 46.2% to 52.9% and it's really you know it's a tricky thing when your values go down um that makes it very challenging to keep that tax rate in line I do think um you know unless there's a significant drop in values again I do think we'll be able to continue to monitor that and decrease that over time with that said if folks have questions they can contact City Administration office uh or their uh County tax department and with that uh presentation's done stand for questions thank you Joe would you go back a couple to the relationship between the two different proposals there you go this is probably the most important screen that's come up on this evening's presentation so for the mailing that everybody received a few weeks ago that set your tax rates um that's the column on the left in the center of this at the 6.8% but what we're most likely going to do tonight in a few minutes here is accept the 5.5% increase so what'll really happen when you get your bills in what is that usually around March I think um will be the column on the right hand side so whatever numbers you saw in the Washington County mailing a few weeks ago they will be positively adjusted to these newer numbers on the right hand side I just hopefully every body can kind of understand what I'm trying to say there so well you say positively adjusted you mean a negative it well reducing is a positive thing yeah I you're right that yes exactly they'll reflect a decrease in in tax rate I've sat through a few of these over the years and this is always hard to make easy and you know my house one of the few I guess for some reason went up a lot of money in value this year so um it kind of ran counter to what's going on out there so you know my increases are significantly higher than the average um but that over the course of 32 years that all average is out so you get use of that after a while but good job Joe any other questions or comments from Council go ahead Bill once again this is reflecting the city's portion of your tax statement and there's also the County taxes and the the school taxes which could be much larger increas Ines but please when you're looking at these reflect and concentrate on the on the Newport tax which we have a uh uh an impact on absolutely anybody else if not I'm open the Motions on 20248 mayor members of the council I I would uh recommend we open the public hearing and then close it although there's nobody here okay all right I I thought I did that at the beginning but technically I guess it's after your presentation I don't know that's the way the other mayor does it the real mayor no I said the other mayor all right well let's assume I opened at the beginning when I woke everyone up with the gavel and seeing nobody in the room and giving everybody an 10 or 12 minute opportunity to run down here and throw rotten eggs at us or something it hasn't happened thank God so with that I will close the truth and Taxation public hearing mayor one more item if I may um we did receive one comment uh that was emailed to the coun and staff and I just wanted to mention that it was um a resident by the name of Pauline shop mu and um there was a suggestion about highlighting two State Property Tax Refund items one is a homestead credit refund which is an m1pr form and the other is a uh a a form a property tax uh uh form that you can apply for if you're had an increase of 12% or more than $100 you can file in m1pr Sr form and I did note that this will be put in the public record uh for as a comment we received so just wanted to make note of that what what's our first newsletter of the year when does it usually come out is it before the April 15th uh actually the property tax refunds all due in August it is yep August so so we should probably put that information we will I I will we we'll put a a link onto our Facebook page and then we will make a mention in a future newsletter but okay perfect all right thank you um anything else from anybody otherwise we do have a resolution I'll be looking for a motion in a second from I'll make that motion I'll second okay we have a motion in a second for resolution 20248 which is setting the uh 25 Levy at the 5.5% discussed and described by staff and unless there is any other comments all those in favor please signify by the sign of I I I post same sign we have a budget for next year anything else Joe just one more item um I did receive news yesterday that the county has approved the mil Pond for acquisition by the city and we do have an item under our Nita uh uh tonight to to pay for that we do have to pay for the the fees and the taxes and things like that and the transfers and all that stuff but just wanted to make note let Council know about that and that's uh exciting news that's all I have I stand for questions do we have a resolution on that or is that just that'll be under Nita yeah okay Nita's going to pay for it so we'll do it there I didn't know why you were bringing it up then now just to let folks know yeah okay transparency okay anything else for Joe admin okay mayor and Council reports I don't have anything specific to add tonight from my seat Bill Tom's got nothing Marv bill I have a couple things I attended the library 135th Year celebration and it was widely attended and and exuberantly attended a two dozen adults and a dozen kids we had children singing and otherwise engaging in entertainment down there and then we had the library board meeting and I also contributed at the Newport Center fire department Gathering now with the library there's quite a bit happening in December so these items are in the most recent Newport News newsletter but the holiday review in artisanal assembly on Saturday December 14th from 1: to 4: there's going to be an annual get together on December 16th through the 21st there's going to be ornament Extravaganza week so kids can come down and make ornaments to put under the Christmas trees and to share with loved ones during the holiday season and then following in December 28th from 1: to 4:00 in the afternoon there's going to be reindeer games imagine if the reindeers were to have an Olympics come and try all the sports there's going to be some indoors and some outdoors so dress accordingly and then as we approach the end of this year and New Year's there's going to be a noise maker craft and international New Year's celebration on Wednesday December 31st from 12: to 5: so the library continues to have quite a bit of activity down there for kids and adults alike please come and attend and enjoy Sarah Marie's wonderful events and the library boards they're all working very hard to put things together for us those are the things that I think are important for Newport all right Bill thank you um if there's there's nothing else I'm open to a motion for adjournment so Mo second I have a motion second to adjourn all those in favor please signify by the sign of I I post same sign prayer journ and e e