001All [Music] right, I'll call this meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance and the invocation following. I pledge allegiance 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. Dear God, please bless our elected officials. Grant them the wisdom to know and the courage to do what is right for all citizens. Amen. Amen. Amen. Roll call, please. Ellen, here. Leor here. Mravich here. Ricks here. Schultz here. Warren here. Yellen here. I see everybody here tonight. We move on to approval of minutes for the city council meeting of March 17th. Is there a motion? Motion. Support. Must been made in support. Any discussion? Being not. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I.
002I. Motion does pass. We move on to audience comments on any non-aggenda items. State your name and address for the record to the clerk, please. My name is Dean Roberts and I'm representing 36901 Down Street. Um, I'm here tonight to just uh tell you about an incident that happened on uh March 18th. I was called by Dana early that morning about a fire at Richmond Manor. Um, and she told me that the fire department was on the scene. So, I immediately went over there and found a police cruiser and a fire engine. And the fire department were doing their job, put the fire out, you know, as smoldered when I walked up and they were using their water cannons. They got it all out, tore out a little bit of drywall, but I told them,
003"Go ahead. That's replaceable." Because I guess they were trying to see if there was any fire going up into the wall. Well, once that was all done and said, I went over into one of the hallways and here are six of my Why they're all over there. Come to find out, there was a police officer by the name of Steve Rupus. Yeah, Rupkus. He was the first one on the scene and he actually put out the flames. So, one of my tenants had called 911, said there was a fire and it was right in the corner where the laundry room is. And I guess he got on scene, put out the fire with his fire extinguisher and then decide and and just jumped right in. And where it's located, there's an apartment behind where the
004fire was, and that was all filled with smoke. So was the apartment, but he was able to get the people out and the rest of the tenant. So, um I guess I guess I I guess I'm really here uh to thank Steve for for what he did before the fire department got there because I have um 56 residents that live there. And when we were tearing it apart, um I most of you know I'm a building inspector. And when we were tearing apart, there was actually flame damage up in the wall cavity. And most of you don't know, but some of you do. Every 10 foot you're supposed to have a fire block. Well, that's that wall went straight up to the attic. Had it been another five minutes. I I I hate to say
005what would have happened, but I know it's really dry up there because I've been up there, but um I I just wanted to let you guys know what your people are doing and that Steve should be thanked somehow some way. So that's that's basically what I wanted to come say. Thanks, Steve. We appreciate that. Thanks, Chief. Thank you, Chief. You noted that. I take it. I have. Good. Very good. Personally spoke with uh Officer Ruckus. Good. Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Well, we move on here. Um adoption of agenda, Mr. City Manager. Any changes? No changes. City Council, any changes? Motion to accept the agenda as presented would be in order. Motion support. Motion been made in support. Any discussion? Being not. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. I. A against. Motion
006does pass. We move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion? I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Support. Motion been made and support according to our rules. There's no discussion on the motion. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. I. Motion does pass. We move on to items for consideration which we have seven this evening. And the first one being consideration of adopting resolution 2025-2, request to conduct Memorial Day parade. Mr. City Manager, council scheduled to consider a request to conduct the annual Memorial Day parade on Monday, May 26, 2025, beginning at 10:00 a.m. This will be the fifth year that uh Tim Ricks has coordinated the parade and ceremony. Uh the parade will line up in BB Park and along uh Bailey Park uh
007leading up to uh is that Washington Street uh up to Maine and then south on Maine to Water Street where uh at the Veterans Park uh there um between Monroe and Water we will have the ceremony uh with the VFW little league and uh elected officials. Thank you, John. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-2, which directs the city clerk to apply to the Michigan Department of Transportation to close M19 on Monday, May 26, 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for the purpose of conducting the annual Memorial Day parade. Support made a support. Is there any discussion on this? Actually, I do this on behalf of the VFW. um once John Nan had passed and uh it was uh they asked if I would do this so on their
008behalf. That's why uh we're requesting this today. Any audience comments on this back to the table. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against. Motion does pass. We have a second motion needed. I'll make a motion to authorize the purchase of three wreaths to be placed at the Richmond Cemetery, St. Michael Cemetery, and Veterans Memorial. Support motion been made and support. Any discussion on this? Being not, is there any audience comments? All in favor of the motion signify by saying I against. Does pass. We move on to item number two is consideration of contract award splash pad fence. Mr. City manager council scheduled to consider awarding the quote for the installation of a splash pad fence. Uh administration solicited quotes from several companies and received three quotes. Uh the summary of
009those quotes are below. Uh Kimberly fence and supply company was the low bidder. Um in an effort to get our splash pad open uh weather permitting by uh Memorial Day, uh we're requesting the council approve the low bid. Thank you. Is there a motion before discussion? I'll make a motion to approve the splash pad fence quote from Kimberly Fence and Supply Company in amount of $9,414. Motion made and support. Any discussion? Are we aware of this company? I have I don't know that we've ever dealt with them before. They have they have bid projects for the city of Rich Richmond. They have not been low, at least in the time I've been here. Okay. Okay. in um in John in the body of your uh background brief is the water and storm sewer electric is
010that in already? Oh yeah, all the underground utilities are everything's in. Yeah, pretty much the fencing and the grading are what's remaining and I believe the company's coming out. They they came out in the fall to work with our DPW on startup shutdown, but I believe they're coming back this spring to They said they're more than happy to come out uh to assist us with the f first time through opening, but that's easier than the winterizing even. So, it's So, is that you and John running through it to make sure it sprinkles properly? Oh, yeah. The clerk, I would imagine, would probably want to be there also. Yes. Yes. I hope Jason catches that. Yeah, there will be no cameras allowed to park, man. Okay. All right. Is there any other uh questions or comments
011on this item? Any comments back to the table? All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against. Motion does pass. I know the community is looking forward to that splash pad. Item number three, consideration of 2025 pavement marking award. Mr. City Manager, the city's responsible for all pavement markings on city streets, uh, including, uh, stop bars, crosswalks, uh, and many of those markings are repainted every year. Uh, Jim also and city staff also uh, review um the, uh, parking lots. Uh so this year uh we are looking to uh restripe the city hall parking lot and the uh BB parking lot. Thank you. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to wave purchasing ordinance requirements due to section 64-53D and to authorize the award of the 2025 special pavement marking contract
012to zebra striping in the amount of $5,645 with expenses charged to appropriate line items in the major street local street general and parks and recck funds. Support made and supported. Any discussion on this item that this company uh for a number of years correct? Any comment back to the table? Roll call, please. Schultz, yes. Yellen, yes. Mravich, yes. Warren, yes. Allen, yes. Leaf, yes. Ricks, yes. Motion does pass. Item number four is consideration of wastewater treatment plant raw sewage pump replacement. Mr. City Manager, council scheduled to approve the purchase of two submersible pumps at the wastewater plant. Uh the 2425 budget did include the funding for the replacement of the pumps. Uh council previously authorized Tetratech to perform design engineering to allow the three screw pumps to be replaced with submersible pumps. Uh the Michigan
013Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy uh has approved the project. So, uh we're requesting the purchase of the two flight submersible pumps from Kennedy Industry, who are the sole source supplier. Thank you. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to wave purchasing ordinance requirements due to section 64-53A and to authorize the expense of $53,846 for the purchase of two flight submersible pumps from Kennedy Industries with expense charged to the appropriate line item in the wastewater treatment plant equipment replacement fund. It's been made and supported. Any discussion on this item? Jim, did you have anything you wanted to add to this? Uh, no. Just a reminder that council previously approved the purchase of one pump. At that time, it was an emergency. There are three pumps for in incoming uh waste and this is
014the purchase. The remaining two which will ultimately be installed uh intention is over this summer. So, good. Okay. Public comment. Back to the table. All in f a roll call, please. Thank you. Warren, yes. M yes. Allen, yes. Schultz, yes. Leaf, yes. Yellen, yes. Ricks, yes. Motion does pass. Item number five is consideration of adopting resolution 20253 uh for a grant. Mr. See you manager. City of Richmond is eligible for a transportation grant program through the economic develop de development fund for road improvements in cities and villages with a population of 10,000 or fewer. Uh this is through MDOT. Uh we most recently uh received funding for our Oak Street project. Uh and our public service director is requesting authorization to submit for a $30,000 grant. We currently have 30,000 budgeted in the uh street
015fund to do crack sealing. Um but by applying for the grant uh we would be able to do 60,000. Uh normally what we do is we award the contract and we have them keep going until they hit the $30,000 mark. So now we'd be able to have them keep going until 60,000. Very good. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-03 to request funding for the 2026 overband crack filling program. Support made and supported. Jim, I'm sorry I didn't go to you. You have anything to add to this? Uh, not really, but city manager comment. We are budgeted to to do crack sealing. This would just allow us to increase the scope if awarded. Yeah. Okay. You did say something about um that because we got the 50/50 matching grant that
016uh on the under this preventive maintenance activity um it will have a negative impact. I didn't quite understand that the applications are scored and how recently you've been you've been awarded funds which we did we did receive funds for the Oak Street project. So that essentially gives us a negative like a a deduct on the scoring because we've had it recently. So, is this all in the same fiscal year then? Uh, no, it would actually be a separate fiscal year. That's just how they score it. They still hold it against you. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's Yeah. Just so like if a community hasn't applied in 10 years and you've got money last year, they try to spread it money around a little bit more. Makes sense. Makes sense. Okay. Any other discussion on this council?
017Any comments back to the table? All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. against motion does pass. Item number six is consideration of board appointment to the recreation board. Mr. City Manager, the term for Melissa Matrosac on our rec board expired as of March 31st. Uh she has submitted her application now and uh we have it on your agenda. Thank you. Is there a motion? I make a motion to reappoint Melissa Madressac to the recreation board for a two-year term with an expiration date of March 31st, 2027. Been made and supported. Any discussion on this item? She served quite some time on this board also. So, we appreciate her coming back again with her uh experience and expertise. Appreciate it. Back to the table. All in favor of the motion signify by
018saying I. I. Against. Motion does pass. Item number seven is consideration of board resignation from the EDC. Mr. City Manager. Council scheduled to consider accepting the resignation of Dave Villamy from the EDC. Uh as indicated in his resignation letter, he plans to re relocate his residency outside of town where he would not be eligible for appointment to the EDC. Thank you. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to accept the resignation letter of Dave Valamy from the EDC report. Motion been made and supported. Discussion. Well, he too has been on for a number of years. Yes. And has served as chair for I think ever since Tom Hel got stepped down. So, it's been a number of years that he's been chair. Yeah. We really appreciate all of his time. And uh I I
019I did get a chance to talk to him. uh ran into him in the barber shop and he told me about this. Oh, okay. And told me a story that I and I wish him luck. He's uh he's moving on and um I think he's he's life's going to be very good for Dave and he deserves it. So, um good luck to him. Any other discussion? All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against. Motion does pass. Miss Leas Manners from the city manager. Uh Jim Gatsinger and I did go down and meet with the Mcome County Department of Roads uh regarding the 32-mile project that we're hoping to use utilize our uh small urban funding uh to not only uh the county's repaving 32 from the tracks out to the county
020line by utilizing the uh small urban funds. Uh they'll also be able to uh install some del lanes into the commercial driveways uh uh especially on the north side of the road there. So uh unfortunately getting all that coordinated uh that won't project won't happen till summer 26. Uh we also did touch base with them on the railroad crossing repairs or replacement of the crossing on 32. That still is scheduled for this summer. The tenative date right now is uh that the tracks would be closed July 14th through the 18th uh while they replace the tracks. Can we have a hallelujah? Yeah. How long we've tried to get these things fixed at least if not replaced? And uh I think we're one of only two communities in Mcome County that are getting the the new
021rubber track. This uh Yeah, they they submitted to MDOT for several railroad crossings and two were funded and we were one of two that got funded. Yeah. So appreciate that. Very good. Okay, we move on. Council comments. Michael. Um, nothing today. Okay. Nothing. Jimmy. Yes. Very glad to see the new street sweeper out and about and picking up six months worth of debris out there. And it looks like it's doing a very a decent job. Uh, but you know, people got to realize it's been 6 months since anything's been done to them streets. So, I'm very happy to see it. Looks good. Thank you, Emily. Nothing tonight. Thank you. Nothing tonight, Nick. All set. Thank you. Okay. Um, we'll go to the calendar here. Today being the 7th, uh, there is no planning or ZBA
022meeting on the 10th here for lack of items. Uh this Saturday, the 12th, uh the Easter egg scramble in BB Park will be held. Uh that's an annual. Uh it's now it says on the calendar it's 10:30. Is that correct? It is. Okay. So 10:30 sharp. Um they will be calling the kids to scramble for those eggs in BB Park. If the weather is bad, it'll still be held. It'll be inside at the community center right there in BB Park. Also, that's this Saturday, the 12th. The library board will meet on the 14th at 5:30 at the library. And that brings us into uh the 18th, which is Good Friday. City Hall, the library, and community center will all be closed. Uh as well as uh community schools uh will be closed. And Saturday the
02319th, uh library would normally be open, but being the uh Easter weekend, they will be closed also. Um, and of course, uh, we we wish everybody a happy Easter on the 20th. The 21st will be the next regular city council meeting. That's two weeks from tonight. And again, Richmond Community Schools are closed on Monday a day after Easter. Um, we might want to note that the Richmond Little League opening day is on Saturday the 26th this month and the city council will be meeting on the 28th for their first uh budget workshop right here at city hall at 5:30. That's on the 28th. That is definitely open to the public. Is there anything else that we need to add to the calendar? Uh, we do have a couple of things here. Uh we have a
024teento teen resell event that's going to be held at the odd. Um bottom left I think is the Yeah. Saturday, May 3rd. Uh it's going to run from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Uh this is again this is at the odd on Main Street. Um this is uh put on I'm sure by our recreation department and you can contact them at 7273064. Yep. There is another number here for the odd. Uh the odd has a number 5864304950. Um so you can get uh with them. That's the teento teen resale event. The Lois Wagner Library uh the friends of the Lois Wagner uh Memorial Library will be putting on the spring book and more sale that is on April 24 through 26. There is an early bird night uh on Thursday uh the 24th. Uh that
025starts at 4 and runs till 6. Then Friday 9 to5 and Saturday is 10 to 2. And they have Saturday what they call the bag sale. Uh it's $3 a bag. As many books as you can fit into a bag, uh you can have. So again, any donations are accepted at the library during regular business hours. That is that. There is one more thing that we have this Saturday. Uh the doors open at 5:30 at the odd. It is being put on by Greentime uh one of our businesses uh North Main. They are doing this for the second year. It is a um wrestling uh I don't have uh the thing in front of me, but uh it's it's been posted quite a bit on Facebook, but it's a wrestling match and um it should
026be quite exciting this year from uh everything I've been told about it. I did get my tickets. Uh uh a friend of mine and I will be going for uh our first uh run at this probably since uh uh Bobo Brazil and uh some of those that used to the chic and those uh back at Coobo Hall back in the day. This is probably my first time I've been back to a wrestling match. But it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun and it's for a good cause. It's for Saving Destiny, which is a um animal rescue. Yeah, animal rescue. Uh I think it's small animal. I think it's dog and cat uh rescue. and uh all proceeds will go to that. So, it's for a very good cause. Again, that's this
027Saturday the 12th. Doors open at 5:30. Wrestling starts at 7 and um you can get your tickets now at green time. Uh or if you go on Facebook, I know there is you can also do it online. You can buy tickets. There also will be a food truck there. Yeah, there's going to be a food truck there also. Yes. Um so, it sounds like a good time. Sounds like fun. And I think it was very successful last year. That's why they brought it back again this year. So, if you're looking for some excitement, the 12th uh this Saturday at the odd uh council comments, we've gone through uh close session. We do have uh close session. We need a motion to go into close session. I'll make a motion to convene into close section in
028accordance with section 8C of the Michigan Open Meetings Act public act 267 of 1976 as amended for strategies neg negotiation sessions connected with the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement as requested by administration support motion made and support any discussion not roll call please yes Warren yes yes Alan Yes. Schultz, yes. Stravich, yes. Ricks, yes. Motion does pass. We will go in close session. We'll take a 5minut break before we go. [Music]