Village Council - October 13, 2026

0:00 Good evening. Welcome to the October 13th, 2026 council meeting for the village of Holly clerk. Please call the role. Wine burner here. Wendell here. Brian here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. We have a quorum. Did you have to think about that? Madam president if you are willing and able please stand for the pledge of allegiance. This brings us to the approval of our consent agenda. All items listed under consent

0:48 agenda are considered to be routine. And non controversial by the village council, and will be approved by 1 motion. There will be no separate discussion. If discussion is desired, the item will be removed from the consent agenda and discussed separately a new business. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda? I would make the motion to approve the consent agenda motion by Cole support by wine runner on a guess. I don't know. Um. Any further discussion on the consent agenda, Madam President, I would recommend based on attorney guidance that item F, when we're going to

1:34 close session, we change the wording. I gave versions of it in front of you just to make sure we hit all of the requirements to have it say consideration of village council to enter into closed session pursuant to section 818 of the open meetings act. Mcl, 1526818 to consider material exempt from discussion or disclose by state statute. specifically a written confidential legal memorandum exempt under section 13 of the Freedom of Information Act as information or records subject to the attorney-client privilege and to review closed session minutes from September 8th to 2026 pursuant to the Open Meetings Act 276 of 1976. Okay, we need to accept the. I'll make a motion to accept the, hold on. We're in the middle of emotion and that motion was made by Cole. So I

2:24 would need cold to a mentor motion. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. And the consent agenda because because we're changing the agenda. Okay. Yep. So, I will amend my motion for the consent agenda for under new business item F consideration of the village council to enter into closed session pursuant to section 818 of the open meetings act. Mcl15.268. 8 1, H, to consider material exempt from discussion or disclosure by state statutes specifically a written confidential legal memorandum exempt under section 113 1 G of the freedom of information act as information or records subject to the attorney client privilege and to review closed session minutes from September 8th, 2026 pursuant

3:11 to open meetings act 276 in 1976. can we give it one more time? Thank you for volunteering as tribute. And then, uh, wine Brenner, do you amend your support? No, and then my support clerk, please call the role. Brian yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carried. This evening there are no appointments. There are no. Re, appointments. You do have several presentations. The

3:57 first this evening, I have two Eagle Scout presentations. One is for a project and one is for the group. I'd like to start off by asking Troop Leader Jeffrey Blasko to come up to the podium. Hi Jeff. This is a presidential recognition for Troop 43. Dear Troop 43, with heartfelt appreciation for the many ways you serve the village of holly your generosity leadership and care for our community means so much we are proud to have troop 43 as part

4:43 of holly and grateful for all that you do please accept this it's currently a piece of paper my plaque maker is in scotland your plaque will be here in a couple of weeks i'll make sure to get it to you but please accept this plaque on behalf of the village of holly And now Otis, if you and your parents, if your parents can come if you like, and if you don't want them to, they can stay right there. This young man is currently working on his Eagle Scout project. Dear Otis, with heartfelt appreciation for

5:29 your contribution to the Village of Holly's fire hydrant restoration project. Your generosity, hard work, and care for our community have made a lasting difference. Holly is better because of young people like you. Will you please accept this clap? Would you be willing to tell us a little bit about your project just briefly? We painted about 65 fire hydrants in downtown Holly. It took roughly a week, about three days of work. I had a few fellow

6:16 scouts and some co-workers and friends come out and help. And I'm very grateful. I'm all done now. So do you understand the importance of why we had to paint them in different colors and things like that? Yeah, like the pressure of the pipes. Yeah. So when our firefighters go up there, they can visually identify what the pressure is of it. So this was done through our utilities director, who is an Eagle Scout himself. I don't know if you know that. Way to go, Danny! And our fire

7:01 team. All right. Thank you so much Otis and Otis' parents. Our next presentation will be by William Terry from Henry Ford Genesis of Grand Blanc. Good evening Madam President and members of Council. Tonight I have the distinct honor of recognizing three members of the Village of Holly Fire Department for their exceptional patient care, professionalism, dedication to the community we serve. On July 30th, 2026, these three firefighters responded to a cardiac emergency where their training,

7:47 teamwork, and commitment to providing the highest level of patient care made a meaningful difference in the life of an individual experiencing a medical crisis. As fire chief, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing our personnel recognized for the extraordinary work they do every day. While our firefighters and paramedics rarely seek recognition, their actions often have a lasting impact on the lives of our patients and their families. Tonight, we're especially honored to welcome William Bill Terry from Henry Ford Health, along with Director of Cardiology, Angela Woodfield. Please come up. who has joined us to formally recognize these three individuals with a certificate of excellence for their outstanding care they provided during this emergency. Recognition

8:34 from our healthcare partners is particularly meaningful because it reflects the importance of the relationship between pre-hospital emergency and the hospital teams who continue that life-saving treatment. I want to personally thank Henry Ford Health for taking the time to recognize our personnel and for its continued partnership with the Village of Holly Park Department. To our three firefighters being honored, this evening thank you for your professionalism, compassion, and commitment to excellence. You represent the very best of our department and I could not be more proud of the work you do for our community. At this time it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. William "Bill" Terry from Henry Ford Health who will present the certificates of excellence to our three deserving members of the Village of Holly Fire Department. Bill, thank you for

9:19 joining us this evening. The floor is yours. Thank you City Council and thank you Chief Watson for having me here tonight. I really, really appreciate it. Everyone in this room should be really, really proud of these three firefighters. From the time they were dispatched at 4 o'clock in the morning until the time they arrived in our emergency department was only 36 minutes. So in that time, they packaged the patient, they drove to the ER, they started an IV, gave aspirin, nitroglycerin, it did numerous EKGs all in 36 minutes. While they were driving in, they alerted our hospital of a heart attack, a STEMI, and sent a 12 lead EKG to our ER. Because of that early recognition and sending the 12 lead, Dr.

10:08 Osmond, who's our cardiologist, was already in the ER when they arrived that early in the morning. And the patient needed that cardiologist in the ER at that time. Dr. Osmond agreed with the fire department that the patient was having an inferior lateral STEMI. So you guys did completely perfect on that. They took the patient to the cath lab and the patient had an occlusion of the mid to distal RCA and Dr. Osmond placed two stents into the patient. That door to balloon time was 59 minutes. The gold standard's 90 minutes. So we were like 30 minutes under a gold standard because of your guys' help with this patient. Dr. Osmond couldn't be here today, but he really wanted me to tell you guys this, that he's very grateful for you guys. Your quick actions and skills saved this patient's life. He's not joking around with

10:58 that. He's not trying to make a deed or anything because she was a really sick patient. She was a very high level case. They also did a thrombectomy on her, which is they took the clot out of the heart as well and put two stents in. So she was a really sick patient and she made a wonderful recovery because of your early recognition. So thank you very much. Please accept our... So at this time, Firefighter EMT Grant Berger, Firefighter Paramedic Christian Pickney, and finally, Sergeant Steven Steele, Paramedic. Thank you, Counsel. If you wouldn't

11:46 mind, can we get a couple pictures real quick? Can we do that after our presentations? Yeah, we're going to do a few more presentations. But Chief Watson, stay at the podium, please. You can still come on through and shake our hands. Yes, please. Thank you. You guys are always good guys anyway, so... We have one more presentation

12:33 and then after this next presentation, we'll take a small break, do some pictures, shake some hands, kiss some babies. Our next presentation will be Do we have a recognition from you, Tim? Am I reading that right? Yep. A recognition from Tim Price. So, uh. Chief Watson didn't know I was going to do this. He doesn't know why he's at the podium. He doesn't know why Jenny, his wife is here. So, but, uh, and the reason the reason is because. Jeremy loves

13:21 recognizing his people, but he also hates when we put any attention on the work he's doing as many of, you know, on September 11th, we came together as community to remember the lives lost. Honor the sacrifices made to recognize the courage of the 1st responders who answered the call on that darkest day. It's a reminder of the tremendous responsibility that comes with public service and the courage and commitment of those that dedicate their lives to this. I'm sorry, chief Watson, your leadership and dedication to the village. Holly reflects those same values of service duty and commitment to our community tonight on behalf of village of Holly. I'd like to present you with the American flag that was flown over the 25th anniversary ceremony at

14:11 the fire department. I'm so proud of you buddy. At least actually just read the certificate. Please. This flag is presented to Chief Jeremy Watson in recognition of your leadership, dedication and commitment in coordinating the Village of Holly September 11th Day of Remembrance held September 11th, 2026. Through your efforts, our community came together to honor the 343 FDNY firefighters and all those who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001, ensuring that their courage, sacrifice and memory continue to be honored by future generations. The accompanying American flag was flown at the Holly

14:58 fire department during the September 11th, 2026 day of remembrance and is presented to Jeremy Watson and grateful recognition of his service in organizing this meaningful tribute. Never forget forever honored. Thank you so much speech. Yeah, well, I take after my village manager and I am emotional

15:45 person. All my staff knows that too. I wear my heart in my sleeve. So, um. You know, I don't do this for this, so, um, I want to thank all of you on council for making my job easier. Uh, when I come up here and present this and giving me the time, so. Um, I'm humbled, I appreciate you all more than, you know, I love this community. I'm going on my 15th year here, so thank you. I'm lost for words. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. I think we have to write that down. Okay, 1 more presentation. Our next presentation will be

16:34 an introduction to 1 of our new police officers. Chief. Now, if we ever get chief lost for words, then we know we've done that. We're done. But never a loss of emotion. Love every minute of this and, you know, I've said before, I'll say it again. Anytime you can open a meeting with this, this is awesome. Incredible. I am honored, Madam President and Council members and community to introduce a new officer. It's the best part of what I do. I know I have said before I read the introduction of bringing forward, I've said it many times that it's difficult to bring good people into law enforcement today, especially the challenges we face.

17:24 But God continually makes a fool out of me every time I say that. And he brings me amazing people. In fact, I'll kind of joke. Not only is our new officer doing an amazing job with our department, but I also shoplifted his brother early on. And you'll remember that. And mom and dad is here today. And I asked him in the car on the way in, I said, are there any kids left? Just go arrest him right now, right? So there's none, so I got them all, and we have them all, and we're blessed for it. So I'd like to call up Officer Evan Foster. So his brother Owen is here,

18:10 and it's also Holly Officer Owen Foster. And... And mom and dad are here. So Cindy and David, and I'm sorry to step into this role, but I refer to them as my foster children. And another thing, and I have to say this because I was humbled by this. Mr. Foster, when Owen came aboard a few years back, back in 24, we have to do an exhaustive background investigation on every police officer that comes before our community. And it's a lot. It's a lot of work and a lot of detail. And during that time, I was talking to Mr. Foster, and he mentioned to

18:58 me, he said, while you're backgrounding him, we're backgrounding you. He said, that's my son. And I was very impressed with that. And I love that, that he actually... looked into our department and he said, I would be honored to have my son work for the Holly Police Department and he did his due diligence looking into us. So I'm excited to welcome Evan with us today. He has successfully completed his field training program and is serving as a full time patrol officer filling a recent full time vacancy on the midnight shift. Evan grew up in Independence Township, graduating from Clarkston High School in 2019, and after graduation, he attended Northwood University for two years before changing direction during the COVID lockdowns. He entered the Oakland Police Academy in

19:46 2022. After the academy, his first assignment was with the Livingston County Sheriff's Office, and he later worked for police departments in the Davidson area. He is the brother of current part-time officer Owen Foster and outside of work, Evan has a long-standing passion for cars. And I don't know if you noticed this really cool red, what year is it? '62. It's out here in the parking lot. It was at the car show. '62 Chevy? Chevy Impala. And especially classic and race cars. And he actually started racing Quarter midgets at age 10 with his brother and traveled to tracks across the Midwest. For the past 10 years, he has raced his

20:32 family owned car number 35 open wheel modified at circle tracks around the country, including Bristol Speedway in Tennessee. Do not outrun or try to outrun Officer Foster. I'll just kind of put that out there right now. With less time to race now, he is most often found at Owasso and the Birch Run Speedways. He also owns a red '62 Impala that he saved from the scrapyard, rebuilt from the drive train through the interior. The car has been a regular at the Wednesday Holley Car Shows this year. Officer Foster is excited to be a part of the Holley Police Department team, and we look forward to using his skills, his training, his background to further the ability of the Holley Police Department in developing

21:22 positive community relationships and deterring and preventing crime. So I introduce to you proudly, my second of the foster children. So does that mean he's going to teach defensive driving for the rest of the time? Because he's a race car driver now? Have you seen Buster? Buster, you better defend yourself. All right, after our break, we'll come back and we'll do

22:10 some resolutions on breast cancer. Domestic violence awareness and family court, family court awareness. There are metal ribbons in the little white basket on the table that the agendas are on purple for domestic violence and family court and pink for breast cancer. Help yourselves and let's take a 10 minute break. We will resume at 632. Madam president, they can take any council photos with. We can do whatever we want. I'm just I just wanted to make sure someone voted out.

32:56 So, I've never been to all right. And we will resume with item key. Tim will be reading our resolution for breast cancer awareness month. No, no. All right resolution 2026 dash 046 breast cancer awareness month. We're at breast cancer affects individuals and families and communities across turn on my mic. Across the nation, including the village of Holly, and whereas education, early detection and access to timely quality care are essential to reducing the impact of breast cancer. And whereas breast cancer awareness month provides an opportunity to encourage individuals to discuss their personal risk and appropriate screening with

33:43 their health care providers. And whereas the village of honey honors those who lives have been lost. To breast cancer, recognize survivors and those living with the disease and extends its support to their families and caregivers. And whereas healthcare professionals, researchers, advocates and volunteers work tirelessly to improve treatment, expand access to care and provide hope and compassionate support. And whereas no person should have to face breast cancer without dignity understanding and the support of their community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the village of Holly Council hereby recognizes October 2026 as breast cancer awareness month in the village of Holly. Be it further further resolved that the Council encourages residents to support breast cancer awareness, promote access to screening and care and offer

34:31 compassion and practical assistance to those affected by this disease. Thank you, Tim. The next one is the resolution for domestic violence. Whereas every person deserves to live in safety and dignity free from abuse, intimidation and coercion. And whereas domestic violence affects people across all backgrounds and can include physical violence, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial control, and other behaviors used to establish power and control over another person. And whereas the effects of domestic violence extend to children, families, workplace, and the broader community, making prevention and support a shared responsibility. And whereas survivors may face

35:17 significant barriers to safety, including fear, isolation, financial dependence, and limited access to housing, legal assistance, and other resources. And whereas survivors deserve to be heard, treated with compassion, and supported without blame or judgment, with respect for their autonomy and individual circumstances. And whereas advocates, service providers, First responders, healthcare professionals and community organizations play vital roles in helping survivors access safety support and opportunities to rebuild their lives. And whereas domestic violence awareness month provides an opportunity to remember those whose lives have been lost on our survivors and strengthen our community's commitment to preventing abuse. Now, therefore, be it resolved.

36:04 That the Holly village council hereby recognizes October 2026 as domestic violence awareness month in the village of Holly and be it further resolved that the council encourages residents to recognize the signs of abuse. Support survivor services from healthy and respectful relationships. And help build a community for those experiencing domestic violence can seek assistance without shame or fear of judgment. And our last 1 is family court awareness month to be read by councilman Wendell village, Holly resolution 2026 dash 047 family court awareness month. Whereas the mission of family court awareness month is to highlight the need to prioritize prioritize child safety and family court. As one in three

36:51 families in Michigan are exposed to domestic violence and abuse, and whereas an estimated 58,000 children in the US are ordered into unsupervised contact with an abusive parent each year. resulting in almost 1,000 children in the United States murdered during that visitation with an abusive parent since 2008. In Michigan, 39 children have been murdered by a parent since 2008 during divorce or custody disputes. And whereas the mission of Family Court Awareness Month is to promote judicial education, what would include training on domestic violence, child abuse, childhood trauma, course of control and post

37:37 separation abuse for all professionals involved in family court cases. And whereas Family Court Awareness Month recognizes the need to incorporate evidence based research in the court's decisions. This includes adverse childhood experiences or called ACEs. The research highlights long term effects and exposure to abuse in childhood, emphasizes the need for research informed and impractical decision-making to protect a child's well-being. Whereas, Family Court Awareness Month aims to encourage a collaboration among legislators, advocates, professionals, and the community to improve family court practices, ensuring they're guided by evidence-based researches

38:23 and prioritize the safety and best interests of children. Now, therefore, the Village of Holly hereby declares the month of November 2026 to be family court awareness month thank you daniel yep this brings us to public comment members of the audience may address counsel on any item not on the agenda Those adjusting council will be listed to 3 minutes of speaking time after each agenda item. There will be an additional 2 minute public comment period to speak to that item before council votes. Council will hear all

39:09 comments for future consideration, but will not have a response at this time prior to adjusting council members of the public shall state their name and address for the record. Public comment hearing none seeing on old business. Consideration of approval of resolution 2026-041 amending the water supply and sewer disposal rates. Do I have a first to consider item a of old business? I'll make the motion to consider item a of old business consideration approval of resolution 2026-041 amending the water supply and sewer disposal rates. I'll second that motion. We have a motion by

39:55 Wendell. We have support from Weinbrenner. This is an item that was postponed from our last meeting. It is a recommendation from the finance committee. Would anyone from the finance committee like to introduce this item? Well, I can speak to it a little bit, I guess. If not, I can also. Okay. Whichever you prefer. So the finance committee has been working. How about this? I'll say these things and then you can cover anything I miss. Sound good? I'll take notes. Yeah. This is something that I personally wanted to see worked on for a long time. So, um. For background for doing watching this is this is a project that was, uh. Started with plant Moran a while

40:43 ago, and then, um. We terminated plant Moran's contract, or they terminate our, so we want to say, and we now have municipal analytics who has done. A number of communities around here, not just around here in the state of Michigan. Um, and the main individual we've been dealing with, uh, Mr case, or I said, right? Mr case or John. Very knowledgeable guy willing to share all the information he has available and he's willing to take the time to explain it. Why we're doing something and why he proposes to do something. So I think what we have in front of us here is a good. I think there still could be some things that could be better. I think this is really good. What we have in a ton better than

41:31 we previously had. So the 2 things that I think are most important to highlight previously. No matter this type of premise you had, the type of building you had, everyone paid the exact same fee. We used to call it the bond debt. Now we call it the readiness to serve charge. So, for instance, if you are, I'll just use an example. If you're a restaurant and you're blowing through thousands and thousands of gallons a month of water, and you have the potential to put a ton of demand onto our system, you are still paying, you were still paying the same amount of money Each month in a static fee that a single family resident is paying. So. What John would say is that's not an equitable approach. So,

42:16 because someone has a higher demand. to put more demand on the system they are going to potentially put more demand on the system so our system has to be built to that standard we can't just say oh you have a six inch meter which is huge and i think like two people two users in the bill chat so it's a huge meter and a ton of water can go through we can't just say well sometimes you might get your full flow we always have to say our system is designed to give you 6 inches of water always. So what the new system does, and I don't think this is in there, but it will the suggestion that's being made is to progressively increase the readiness to serve charge over a period of, I believe, 4 years. And I don't

43:04 think that's in the actual motion. We say that the whereas the village council will continue to evaluate and adjust rates because we're working towards the American waterworks association standards. So so right now we're not at the standard of. Of charging. Everyone what they should be charged with what they should be charged based off an equitable approach. But it was John's opinion that if you just say your water bill is going from 30 dollars a month to 300 dollars a month, which some of those big businesses would. That would not be a very fair thing to do for for customers. So, for planning purposes and stuff like that. So, over the next 4 years, if you are not a single family home. The proposal was to increase the rate now that's not in this motion, which. Which future councils can can address that. So does that

43:51 make sense how the meter size works and everything else? So, right now our current billing, it's unequitable. For single family homes, if you have a single family home, you are paying proportionally more. Then the business that uses, or the facility or whatever it is that can use a ton of water. The 2nd thing is the 1 of the bigger changes is the 1.5 multiplier for, um. Non village residents, so going back Mr price or Lisa, I'm not sure who was able to find it. Someone someone found it on staff. So they're able to find the prior contracts that dealt with. When the outer township, when the township residents were 1st,

44:37 building their homes, we entered into some agreements to supply them water water and sewer. And the original agreement was. they would pay the users would pay the same rate for five years that village residents pay and then after that five years it would be the 200 percent our rates and the reason for that is and i've talked to uh john john will say at our at our meeting here the presentation the village bears village residents bear more risk than outer township than township residents so for instance there are bonds that The municipal water supply can get, and I think we have a general obligation bond now, if I'm not mistaken, that it's backed by the full faith and credit of a general fund. So, if there's a catastrophic

45:26 failure and someone has to pay for it, we're paying for it. And the township may not have that same same responsibility. Another thing is, we've got all this property in town. Like the wastewater treatment plant, we're not collecting taxes on that. And I brought it up. That with John, and I said, hey, is that is that something we can look at? He's like, well, it's hard to quantify that. Um, but you can sort of get that with the outside, uh, outside, um. Users at different rate. So what I mean by that is we have wastewater treatment plan that we don't collect taxes on some municipalities say, because we're not collecting taxes on that. The municipal, the wastewater treatment plan or water towers, whatever they are percentage of pays a percentage

46:15 of their taxes each year to the municipality. So, by having so by having the wastewater treatment plant in our community. Our residents are now subsidizing subsidizing that. Um, anything else. I think you've covered most of it. I just want to say that, um, you know, this has not been something that was come to lightly again. We've talked about this for a year and a half in meetings since I got here and it's been something the finance committee has been very adamant that we need to be thoughtful on it. We don't like, in fact, there's been many versions of it that have been shot down because it's like, this isn't enough. This needs to be completely thought out because we didn't want to have to roll it back again. Like we said, we're going to have to further refine these numbers over the next few years. Um, as we're figuring everything out, um, But, but this is, um, as John said, this is probably 1 of the most comprehensive approaches in the state as far as,

47:01 like, how much work was put into it and, like, and how we've, like, planned it out. I will say that another thing that we should probably add is that this would not take effect until January the January bill billing cycle. And the idea behind that is, we did not want to when we 1st talk about this, it was in the summer. We're like, we don't want to hit people when it is the peak season. Uh, we wanted to it. For them to be able to get some normalcy in the winter months when the water usage is less than the other thing I would add is what the immediate result would be is essentially the usage rates would be, I think. Yeah. So, for village residents, it would be a reduction for the commodity rate about 60 cents for both water and sewer each. And it

47:46 looks like for your ready to serve rates. It's all dependent on your meter size. Majority of our residents have either 5, 8 or 3 quarters meters and that would be a reduction on ready to serve for water of 3 dollars and 5 dollars almost and for sewer. Obviously the. Commerce of that is that the, um, the out anyone outside the village would be going up on water. Quote about 3 dollars and, uh, the outside village sewer would be going up about the same. Now, I did have some other notes. I can pull them up. Um, I thought I printed them and I did not. Oh,

48:33 so, um, I know there was some discussion of how the rates were actually figured out. Um. And what we're shooting for, so essentially, it should be right here. So his model is going to assume we're spending money on something. There's going to be projects. We have to spend. We've got some previous, um. Uh, data from plant Moran that indicates we have to spend X number of millions of dollars. So, uh, while we don't know the specifics project in some instances. He is anticipating there will

49:19 be large expenditures. So just to say, we don't know what we're spending. We're not, we're not 100% sure what we're spending on right now. It's just kicking the can down the road further because all the maintenance, the deferred maintenance is, I think what he, what he called it. It's like something like 2Million dollars of deferred maintenance is. Is not going to stop. For example, we have, we're going to talk about it during my reports, the Apollo street lift station that is being worked on right now. It's been replaced about a 1Million dollars. We have 13 of those over time. Also, we're also working with during the get the lead out inventory right now and we're determining what that's going to cost the village in, um, in replacing those lines. Well, those, we are, we are paying for them up front, but we have to recover those costs based on the cost of the village. Based based on usage and all

50:07 those things, and that number, depending on how many you have. And so right now, because of the inventory, we don't know if it's going to be a 1Million dollars in replacements or. 6Million dollars in replacements of those led service lines. And so that's we're trying to refine those numbers right now. Again. I'll talk more about that when I get to reports, but that might look like. So I asked him for a quote, I said. John, can I have a quote talking about why we need to absolutely do these with our rates or why we need to why we can't just lower rates and the quote he said anybody that suggests water rates should go down doesn't understand the complexities of deferred capital requirements and the cost associated. So I got permission to quote him on that precisely. What can I quote you on? So I think there's a lot of, I mean, he said there's a lot of stuff we

50:55 have to spend money on. We could kick the can down the road, but I don't think that's The best for our village and beyond just talking to John too. We reached out to other communities. I personally talked to Fenton and grand blank about how they handle things. We are closest to Genesee county. So Genesee county was kind of the example of what we were looking at. They also do the same like meter charges and we used a lot of their information into his model. So it is not that we just pulled these things out of the air. This was collaborating with multiple municipalities over a long time. Also, to help information campaign, I've already drafted a council scene, a 1st draft of a web page

51:40 that kind of explains all of this as. As in much detail as people want to go into in regards to it, like, frequently asked questions and all that, and just do on our village page. But I still need to update it with the most recent version of this and all this information. And the other caveat that I would ask on this is that if you do approve it that we just put it in the money that it so. Uh, attorney governor's office did review the previous draft that we did at the last meeting. But since we made some more changes, I would like 1 final review from the attorney just to make sure that it's in compliance with everything. Which I don't feel like we change anything too drastically, but I would like to ask them to do that before we implement this. Now, Tim, it was Jim did say about it wasn't on the. Agenda or the consideration, but

52:28 of having them over 4 years, a 4 year course of term on the size of their water main or their water meter, their rates would go and at the end of the 4th year, that's what they'd be paying. Should we have that in the approval of the. Or the consideration, so the way that are in Mike, you can step in if I'm saying anything wrong the way that our, our, our, our charter ordinance was written is that council will periodically review rates and change them by resolution. And so I didn't want to write anything in there that would lock future councils into anything. So it just, it says that we, the council will evaluate. So, next year, when we're setting rates, council will evaluate and decide in the year after in the next 4 years. We will always be trying to work towards the American

53:16 waterworks association standards. And so that's why I didn't put specific timelines on it because we're not going to be doing it for 4 years. We should be doing it for 50 years as far as every year we're evaluating and making improvements. I just, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jim. I think the difference though for 50 years. Yeah, we're just trying to get to that. The a w w. A w w I was just trying to make sure that anybody like business owners, anybody I'll just use the car wash for example. You know, they don't got to be threat threatened, not threatened, but threatening, threatening. However, whatever I want to say, but the fact that in January, they're going to be all of a sudden having this. Astronomical water bill, you know, so that's why it's like, if because if we instantly increase. All right 1, the

54:01 end of December, this is what you pay. Now you pay this. Your new rate is now this, and that's the full rate you'd have to pay. But if you look at the numbers to that point, I mean, it's we're talking to you that, like. If they have a 3 inch meter is going up by 60 dollars a month. I just want to keep them from anybody from getting like sticker shock or, you know, and that's what I think that this will do is because. According to guidelines, it should be like, 4 times that or 3 times, whatever, whatever the math works out to be. It should go up. And I think a lot of the places that we have the larger meters, they have the increased usage. So we're not talking about people that have a 100 dollar bill. We're talking about people that have

54:47 a 10,000 dollar water bill already. And so it's like, you know, it's very high usage facilities that we're talking about. Just because on the same subject being talked about, have we tested the formula against actual water bills? Like, for the village township and businesses. Yes, we did in our finance committee meetings. I don't know if we use these exact rates, but as we were going through, we did say, hey, this was your water use. This would be like, if you use 4000 gallons, this is what would be what your average bill would be. And we kind of ran through those things, depending on the different sizes. I don't know if we have examples with it here. I think on the web page, I didn't put. some of those. If you could pull the webpage up and give us an example of doing average home in the village. I can, I can try, but it's also, uh, it's a locked thing.

55:33 It's not like, it's not on the web page right now. It's not a public thing. So, until I publish it, it won't be available to. But, yeah, we, we definitely ran the numbers and again, like Shannon said, you know. We did, we researched what neighboring communities did as well. Factored in what kind of infrastructure needs that we know that we're going to have going forward. Like, we have the 2023 study that was done by row engineering that recommended 20Million dollars worth of. Infrastructure we, and what John has recommended is, like, we want to bulk up that savings. But then also use bonds to to get to where we need to go to, but this is a way for us to have, like, a sustainable. Future for infrastructure and for our

56:22 financial plan. So, why are we not starting with the bond? For what we need to build doesn't this doesn't preclude us from going for bombs. Right? I know. I'm saying, like, start with the bond and then. Like, show, because they get the bond stuff we have to show, like, what we need to find out. So, have, like, the improvement plan ready for all that stuff to show. Hey, this is what we're using it for. and that's how it's justifying these rate increases to support that in the future. Well that's what I'm saying. But also having like those examples ready for the public to see like if this is how your water bill is going to be affected or for our business to see that as well. You said rate increases but in certain instances we're going to see rate decreases. So go into that a

57:09 little bit further. Who can expect to see their rates decrease come January? A single family home. A single family home in the village. Yes. Yes, is going to see a decrease in their water bill. Yes. Cool approximately how much though depends on usage. So it's going to be, like I said, for the ready to serve charge, it will be reduced by about. So, I'll just give you the exact number. So, the ready to serve charge, I believe right now is for water is 1325. it's going to reduce for a village resident to 10 dollars and 86 cents. Um, for the sewer readiness to serve right now, it's 23 dollars and 80 cents. It will now go down to 18 dollars and 41 cents and for your usage, which is how much do you actually use for village residents? Uh, currently it's 8 dollars and 50

57:58 cents for water and it'll go down to 7 dollars and 91 cents and sewer. Uh, right now it's 14 dollars and 17 cents and it will go down to 13 dollars and 60 cents. So approximately 10 dollars less per month for user charges in 2 dollars less per month for user. Um, so, yeah. The more you use, the more you're, I mean. I'm not saying to go out there and use more, but the more you use more you say that that is a logical. No, that's. Family homes are going to save money on their water though. Yes. And in the village, the rates that are going to be going up, those are the individuals that have been that consultant believes and I do too for that matter. They've been getting a very good deal thus far. So, Mr price mentioned a customer spends 10,000 dollars.

58:45 A month right now on water, they are still paying the same 30 or 27 dollars that we all pay. But their bill is 10,000 dollars right now. We spend 120 dollars a month in a bill and we still pay that same 27 dollars and that that doesn't seem fair because that big business has all that usage. They're putting a huge demand on our system when. So those systems potential demand. Yeah, Tim, you shot a number out there earlier and I don't know if you were just being familiar, but you said if if they have a 10,000 dollar bill, they might see it go up by 60 dollars. I think I said that. Oh, sorry, Jim. I didn't say 10,000 dollars. I was basically using the so if you look at the on page 2 of 7 of the motion, you can get a feeling of

59:31 how much someone's water will go up. So just imagine everyone right now is paying to combine 27 dollars essentially. Right? Is that right? I'd have to I think it's 27. you're talking for the current readiness to serve charges. So it's 37. 37. Okay. 37. Excuse me. Yeah. 3705. So, everyone right now is paying 3705 total combined. So if they have a 1 and a half inch meter, we're going to add 2913 plus order order. We're having a difficult time hearing and this is pretty important stuff. Thank you. Go ahead. So, if someone has a 1 and a half inch meter, let's just say. You will add the 2 numbers together. You'll add 17 dollars and 18 cents. Plus 29 dollars and 13 cents and that's what they would be. Okay.

1:00:21 Okay. Then let's go to public comment public comment on this. Yes, sir. Please come to the podium and say your name and address for us if you don't mind. And then you'll have, is it 2 minutes? 3, 3, and I believe you do not have to see your address anymore. Just have to say if you are a resident or not. Oh, okay. So just your name and if you're a resident or not Thomas Clark and I'm a resident, I think. 20 years ago, everybody knew who I was. Nice to meet you. I retired. I thought that our water bill and our sewer bill was all predicated on how many gallons were used. Where does

1:01:07 the problem come in for a high user? I mean, if you've got a business that takes 20,000 gallons a day, and I have a resident that takes 100 a day, it's only right that I pay the same amount per gallon as the other guy. Well, the other guy has to pay the same as I pay, I'd say. You've completely lost me on that. And I was here when the whole thing was designed. When the comments are over and it comes back to council, they might flesh that out for you. Okay. If you guys are

1:01:53 willing. Of course. Thank you. Any further public comment? Okay. Council, uh, does someone want, you know, I can do that. That would be great. I'd love to. So, yes, all of the public would enjoy that. Usually we don't, but we don't respond public comment, but I think, you know, I can address it. I can inform the other council members that are gonna be voting for this matter. So, if you guys are curious why that's the case. Um, this is something that we did talk about, um, John and I, um, so. Fixed costs need to be paid for. So imagine we have a very rainy summer and no one's watering their grass. The water usage is going to plummet and all the stuff that still has to be paid for fixed costs still have to be paid. And it's his opinion that in a

1:02:39 municipality like ours, when we're a smaller system, the fixed costs are huge. And if I was interpreting some information correctly. Actually not going to interpret it, won't do that. So, his model is try to recover as much of the fixed costs from fixed charges. So, if it's a fixed cost, he wants it to be in a fixed charge. So that way it doesn't you don't have to say, but we didn't use our users didn't use much water last year. Now we have to put the rates way up. So, it's a more it's a more sustainable model then. So more predictable. So there'd be less fluctuation after everything's. That's figured out and assuming it meets the, the rising costs of goods and labor and all of those things. Tom Ryan, how

1:03:26 is that interpreted where ordinance for all of our charges have to be based off of usage? So, are we allowed to have fixed costs that James calling them for? I mean, we already we already are doing ready to serve charges. And yes, those are legal. Yeah. And that's yes, but per ordinance beforehand, we start to raise their terms back in May that we asked for a review from the attorney on and we never got that back from it. Because we postponed technology, I don't I don't think that I think that was a, I can look at the response on that, but I don't think that was a correct interpretation of the, uh, I don't think that let me look, let me look at my response to that. It just doesn't. As a counter to that, we've been charging the same everybody the same users. The same fee. No matter what for the past 20 years, or how 15 years how long we've been having this bond debt charge that has not been used at all.

1:04:15 Yeah, I'll take it. Don't get me wrong. And I know about like, deferred capital costs and how they save up money for them. I'm just making sure we're doing it according to our, like, our ordinances and making sure. All of our costs were being as fiduciary responsible as we can with all the residents and customers that we have. So, so it would be your opinion that our previous system. How we were charging 3705 for bond service that would be against our ordinance to then if the funds were paid off. Yes. If the bonds were not paid off. No, it's still I'm saying it's still a charge not based off. But it's paying for. The actual building stuff, which if I remember correctly, that was. Like, there was lawsuits and stuff in the past for that, like, years ago. I think probably knows about that more,

1:05:05 but. We won them all. Yeah, we won them. And the commodity rate is the same, whether you use 20 gallons or 200, we're not charging a commodity rate difference. The difference is on your fixed rate, which is your meter size, which is your demand of the system. So my single family home is never going to demand on the system. What a factory does right? But I'm saying currently we pay exactly the same. Right, but the debt service charge is different than a ready to serve charge. And the core cases were based off the debt service charges, not already to search, but we got rid of the debt service charge months ago. See, I disagree that we did. I'm pretty sure during that meeting, there was, it was on the meeting

1:05:55 to acknowledge that administration made that. Which would have been a change to the bills, which had to come from us. So, I don't think that whole process was followed properly. Which also was supposed to be part of the legal review, which never came back. I do remember you bringing your water bill and I remember us changing it to postponing that and actually. Acknowledging and voting that now, so so the act of us changing the name. Not the dollar amount, but the active staff changing the name and not the dollar, but changing the, it's changing the type of charge from a debt service or ready to serve charge, which are 2 different things. Be interested to find out. Any luck over there, Tim? I'm still looking. I don't know if Mike wanted to say anything on this or because we did review this and we discussed it. And the opinion that you say never arrived, I sent a memo. Mike, can

1:06:44 you speak in the microphone please and start over? I sent a memo and that question back to Tim. I don't remember what it said. But I responded to it. I've taken a look at what is included in your packet asked to review it. I did. So find it appropriate in terms of the lawsuits that you reference. I was not directly involved in defending the village with them. But as everyone pointed out, it was dismissed and that dismissal was upheld on appeal. Are our usage rates changing also or just the readiness serve? Meaning like how you

1:07:34 would say? Yeah, the usage would because that's where your commodity rate has gone down by the 80 cents or whatever that is. Per thousand gallons or whatever it is. Yeah, right. Yeah, you're saving on both. About ten dollars a month in user, it was at user charges and then two dollars a month in the other one. The fixed rate. The fixed rate or vice versa that I think. And I do think that this motion that is on there that Daniel made Buster supported. I do think we should add a final legal review to that before it does take effect in January. But. Unless we already have that answer, I would agree. I'm kind of stalling waiting for members. We just take, like, maybe a

1:08:24 510 amendment. Now, let me yeah. What notes see if I can find I'm doing on my phone. I'd rather do it on my big old computer. No, that's the thing because, like you said, we've been doing this for like a year and a half. So there's a lot. There's probably a lot of emails to rifle through. So, uh, let's resume at 720 take 12.

1:14:27 Okay everyone please be seated. We're about to resume. Okay we are live. All right Tim you got an answer for us? So just specifically I wanted to answer on Councilmember Ryan's question. Yeah he had emailed me back in on May 14th and I responded on May 14th as well. Um, he had said that he had, um, I'll just read, I'll just read the emails. All right. I read emails. So, uh, as a member of village council, I'm formally expressing my concerns regarding the continued inclusion of administrative and radio served charges, water and sewer bills, following discussion at the April, uh, regular council meeting during that

1:15:15 meeting, the acknowledgement of the billing changes was referred back to legal for review further review based on concerns regarding compliance with the bill's charter and current ordinances despite the, that referral and lack of. Sorry, it's all coming back to me now. Formal Council actually these charges continue to be applied to resident bills. The current ordinances are clear on this matter and you referenced section 51.04, which states rates for furnishing water supply under sewage disposal shall be based on volume usage charge. Section 5909A further states the rates for water, sewer supply and sewage disposal shall be established from time to time by resolution by Council. 5951.09b also provides volume usage chargers, covers administration, operation, maintenance, debt rate payment, reserves, and future capital needs when the meter registers

1:16:03 water flow. And then we go on and then in my response, I had written that Um, that I had included, uh, the village attorney on this, however, believe that you have an incomplete understanding of this matter in the ordinance. If you hadn't reviewed the section above the 1, you reference it also applies to the bond debts establishments for per for establishing charges. 51.1. Charges for furnishing water supply and sewage disposal services are established to provide the following: pavement of the expenses of operations, maintenance and the water supply and transmission system of the sewage collection and disposal system as may be necessary to preserve those systems in good repair and working order, including the expenses of administration and connection therewith. The payment of the interest on the principle of bonds payable from the revenues of water and supply and sewage disposal systems and the

1:16:51 bonds become doable and payable the creation and maintenance of any reserve for the same and the refunding of bonds payable or any combination of the foregoing or the creation of any reserve or future capital expenses, including expansion and reconstruction of the water supply system and transmission system and or sewage collection and disposal system. And so I believe that covers everything that we are discussing here about readiness to serve. I don't know if you had anything to add on that. Nothing additional, no. Okay, all right. We already did public comment on this item, right? Yes. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, Council? I have one more question actually. What do you got? It's do we know how many of each meter, I mean I'm sure we do, but

1:17:37 what each meter we have out there, like how many give me a second sorry i'm just i just was curious and i figured there was thanks for the thank you for the fago by the way you're welcome councilman wendell one other item while we're uh playing for the surprise um one thing that i think is touched on in here and it's it's it leaves it open to uh fixing in the future is water two and water two are are um Irrigation, so if you have an outdoor, if you want to go on outdoors, we can special second meter. A second meter. Okay. The advantage of using that is there's no sewer. So, if you want your yard, it's very advantageous of you to use

1:18:27 this particular type of meter. Um, there was some, uh. The way the system was set up, but prior to this staff. Uh, has some intricacies to it, so let's just say, and all the data is not available to set. And pull out water too. Is that about an accurate assessment? And there will be some difficulties finding it and what I'm. Assuming will happen based off conversation with John, it was his suggestion that there should be a different rate for water to, um, because you're not paying sewer and there's no ready to serve charge. Um, so he has that in his model once we're able to pull all the numbers, they have to do it manually and go through each individual bill or something of that nature. But once that's able to be figured out. Water to may have a higher, uh, might be suggested

1:19:15 to have a higher rate. which then would have the follow-on effect of lowering consumption charges for everyone else. That makes sense. Yes, it does. That was the caveat I was going to put on this list is that some of these may be included in water too when I'm reading off the meters. This, this summary was pulled July 29th, 2025. so it's a little bit older, but we haven't added too many meters to this. I think we have added because I think the total there was 3192. 3189 is what I have here. Okay. So I'll read this list and then we can provide an update list if needed. We have two 6 inches. We have four 4 inches, one that's labeled as 3 quarter inches, one that's 3 inch, 41 that

1:20:00 are 2 inches, 35 that are 1 1⁄2 inch, 73 that are 1 inch, and then we have 3,025 that are either 5 eighths or 3 quarters of an inch, according to this list. Okay. So with them calculations of those size of meters, will that – Help to balance things out and keep that is exactly what was utilized in order to balance it out. That's what I'm saying that. I mean, do the, does administration and the finance. Committee feel that with the amount of meters we have that it's going to benefit and not hurt us by doing any of this. Yeah. So, I'm probably going to screw his analogy on John's analogy that is, but he

1:20:47 will constantly say we have a piece of pizza or a pie and we're trying to get all the different slices together. So he starts with this big piece of pizza, big pie or whatever. Pizza pie. Exactly. Nothing up there. And then he works backwards to try to figure out and set all the rates based off the sizes, based off the number of premises, based on all these different factors to get to that number. Because I think I believe I agree we need to have a cushion in case we blow a main line somewhere and we're looking at a 25,000 or 25Million dollar fix. I mean, there's local municipalities. There's local municipalities that just special assess when you have a busted main and it just gives a special assessment to those

1:21:32 people at that street too. Which is not something that we were looking into doing. So I don't think that would be fair, but that's I just want to make sure that we're making it fair, you know, for across the whole board, even residents that don't or people who residents that don't live inside the village, you know, that they don't feel they're getting railroaded, which I don't think at 1.5 increases that bad compared to what we pay. I mean, we have not had anybody from the township reach out to us as a finance committee. I'm not sure if anybody from the township reached out to staff. I've had no negotiations with the township on this whatsoever. I don't think an amendment's necessary since we had our legal review. All right, clerk, please call the roll. Wine burner yes. Yes. Yes.

1:22:22 Yes. Yes. Ryan no. Call yes. Brandon yes motion carried. Do I have a 1st to consider item a of new business consideration of approval of a contract with row professional services for master plan update services in the not to exceed amount of 18,300 dollars. Chief Watson or Tim would 1 of you like to introduce this item? Yes, I think we can tag team it. Um. So, I will kind of present it and if you have any specific questions about planning commissions discussion on this, either cheap Watson or council member

1:23:11 probably can answer those. So, the Michigan planning, enabling act of a 33 requires municipalities to review their master plan at least once every 5 years and determine whether amendments or a new plan are necessary. So we don't necessarily need to write rewrite it every 5 years, but we need to review and maybe, um. Review or revisit, um, it's my recommendation after we're having read it that we need to rewrite it because I don't think it was, uh, it meets the intention of our, in our community. Um, the village's current master plan was adopted in August 21, making 2026, the 5 year review period. The village planning commission has recommended proceeding with an update to the master plan to ensure it's it continues to reflect the community's current needs development priorities and long term vision. The master plan serves as the village's guiding document for future

1:24:02 land use zoning decisions, infrastructure investments, redevelopment opportunities, housing, transportation, economic development. Updating the plan will allow the village to evaluate progress made since 2021, incorporate current demographic and economic information and establish priorities for the next 5 years and beyond. The pro service as at the recommendation, the planning commission, the village has obtained a proposal from real professional services or engineer of record to complete the 20262027 master plan update. The proposed scope of work includes review of the existing master plan zoning ordinances and accomplishments since 2021 analysis of current demographics, economic development and land use trends, community and stakeholder engagement, uh, engagements to identify priorities and opportunities evaluation of our housing

1:24:48 needs redevelopment opportunities, future land use updates to relevant maps goals, objectives and implementation strategies. Preparation of the updated master plan and assistance with the required public review hearing and adoption process. The update will place particular emphasis on developing realistic and measurable implementation strategies that can guide future village decisions and capital investments row anticipates an approximate 8 month process with completion targeted for June of 2027. the planning commission will be actively involved throughout the process. The recommendation in accordance with the Michigan planning, enabling acts, 5 year review requirement, and the recommendation of the village planning commission staff recommends that the village council approve the proposal from road professional services for the 2027 master plan update and the amount not to exceed 18,300. Update will ensure that

1:25:38 the village maintains a current planning framework to guide responsible growth and infrastructure investments, redevelopment, future land use decisions. And just so when we do a master plan, the master plan should dictate our capital improvement plan or asset and all the things like, where are we going? What do we prioritize? Without a good master plan, it hinders staff and our boards and commissions in order to make informed decisions about this is the direction that we've all agreed we want to go. And I believe our current master plan when I interviewed almost 2 years ago, I read the master plan before and I sat down with the council and I asked a bunch of questions to council.

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