City of Ferndale - City Council Meeting 08-11-2025

I call this meeting to order at 07:00. If you're able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the pledge 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. Roll call, please.

Johnson. Here. Kelly. Here. Mikulski.

Here.

Polica. Here. Leaksmae. Here.

Approval of the agenda.

Mayor, I would like to approve the agenda with the removal of seven f? Support.

All in favor? Aye. May oppose? K. Thank you.

Alright. We will first start off with the presentation. The presentation is a cert recognizing the well, actually, recognizing the service of deputy chief David Spellman's career and retirement. Chief, take it away.

Well, good evening, mayor and council. It's a little bittersweet, coming to you today, recognizing a career, that spans, oh, jeez, twenty nine years. Before I read the resolution, I wanna take a minute and speak from the heart and, say it's a hard day. Work side by side, with Dave for that entire period, not to mention playing high school baseball together at Frinda High School. So knowing somebody that long and being so close for so long, it's hard to say goodbye, but it's I'm I couldn't be happier for Dave and his family, and I'm excited for the next step that they're taking in their life.

So with that, on 08/12/2025, deputy chief David Spellman will retire from the Ferndale Police Department after twenty nine years dedicated service to the community and the city of Ferndale. David Spellman grew up in Oak Park and attended Ferndale schools, graduating from Ferndale High School in 1993. After graduation, Dave enlisted the United States Marine Corps Reserves and served as combat engineer. In March 1996, Dave joined the Ferndale Police Department as a service aid. He was hired as a police officer in August 1997 and attended the Macomb Police Academy.

Dave would go on to earn an associate's degree from Oakland Community College, a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Ferris State University, and a master's degree in technology studies from Eastern Michigan University. Dave was a highly decorated police officer receiving the police officer of the year award in 02/2009. Recognized as one of the finest officers in the department. He served as an undercover narcotics detective, a field training officer, and an evidence technician for many years. Dave was also a founding member of the Ferndale Police Honor Guard, serving as a team commander for the past six years.

In 02/2015, Dave was promoted to sergeant. Over the next nine years, David held the positions of sergeant, patrol lieutenant, detective lieutenant, captain, and deputy chief. Well respected as a leader throughout the law enforcement community, Dave also served as an active shooter instructor and mobile field force commander for Oak Tech. Always thorough and detail oriented, he had a reputation for being tough but fair. However, he understood the importance of recognizing effort and praising a job well done.

Therefore, be it resolved that mayor Raylan Leaksmay, on behalf of the Ferndale City Council, extends the city's congratulations to deputy chief David Spellman on the occasion of his retirement. David Spellman is a credit to this community, the police department, and the city government, and is it and it is with this heartfelt appreciation that we celebrate his achievement. Congratulations, David.

She someone else will give you this.

Thank you, chief. I'm gonna try and make it through this without crying. I just wanna thank the city of Ferndale for giving me such an amazing career, that's provided a wonderful life for my family and me. I also wanna thank my coworkers, all of them that I've had throughout the years, throughout the various departments of the city. I've made some great friends, and we've made some great memories together.

And I'll always share those stories for the rest of my life. And then I wanna I wanna thank chief Emmy for his leadership and his friendship. It's been an honor to serve our hometown together. We met in high school when, at the end of a baseball practice, it was raining, and he drove me home in his Buick Skylark with the red interior. I still remember that.

And I feel like we've been riding shotgun together ever since. So thank you for everything you've done for me. And then, finally, I wanna thank my family, my beautiful wife, my three daughters, my brother and my sister, and my nieces and nephews, for all their love and support. I couldn't have done this job for this long without them, and we are truly grateful to the city of Ferndale for everything you've done for us, everything you've given us, and, we wish all of you the best. Thank you.

I'll go. Well, all of us.

How much you like taking your

screen?

Thank you, mayor council. I didn't know if I was gonna get through that, but with your help, we made it. Thank you.

Alright. It came quick, but we are at call to call to audience. Recall to audience, open up the podium for individuals to come to the podium to speak, with you have three minutes to state your name and your address if you wish for for your address. Otherwise, you can just sign up for your address on the back of that on the back of that table back there. But, three minutes to speak on anything on or off the agenda, and I'm opening up call to audience at 07:11.

Thank you. Hello. I'm Jill Griffin. I'm calling about the vacant house ordinance sheet that I received.

And Yeah. Can you pull the photo of the I can Just talk. Okay. There you go.

I I'm Jill Griffin at 394 Pearson Street, and I'm calling about the vacant house ordinance letter that I received. And Kathy is speaking for me if that's okay.

Jill received a letter stating that her home was listed as vacant and will incur various penalties. She's owned that house for the last twelve years, and it's been a family home for eighty years. And she's lived there for seventy one years. At this time, the property is used as a secondary residence where Jill maintains personal belongings, furnishings, and stays on a recurring basis. She's there at least three times a week, receives mail and packages there.

The home is actively maintained, including all utilities. The grass is being cut every two weeks, and the snow was shoveled and salted as needed. She is supporting documents to verify use and presence at the home, such as driver's license, voter, and car registration, homeowners, and car insurance, bank statements, tax documents. These were taken to the city offices, but were refused to be looked at by the clerk. Jill's understanding was that this stock units would be what would be needed to unclassify the house as vacant.

The clerk said they would leave a message for the director to call Jill and that she was only to correspond with him. We they also picked up a copy of the ordinance. Director Crusoe called her on July 14 and said there was three reasons her home was listed as vacant. Not her primary house, low water usage, and the neighbor reported not seeing her. This is untrue as she goes there regularly, and I've been there and saw her there.

On July 17, Jill went to the city offices to talk to director Caruso and to show him the documents, and he refused to look at them as well. Jill showed him that she signed with a realty company, and it might be spring or summer to get everything ready in order to sell it. He said he would give her thirty days and maybe address it again then. Joe asked if it would make a difference if it was her primary home, and he said if it was changed, she would have to call him every night, and he would come by and check and see if she was there. Twenty four seven, she had to be there.

Then after six months, he would let it go. Joe felt very uneasy, and I can't believe that the director would even say something like that. She was very uncomfortable, and she would be very uncomfortable as a woman with a man coming to her house every night. And she feels like it's intimidation, stalking, and a little bit of a harassment. I asked doc or they asked doctor Caruso if there was anywhere in the ordinance that said how much water you had to use or how long you had to be in the house, and he said no.

Nothing in any of them. The director said the neighbor reported not seeing Jill. He asked who, and they said there was no record. It must have been a random call. They asked if there was a report made.

Did someone come check it out? And he said no. No records. If there's no record of a call or response, did it even happen? They can't provide any documentation.

If not, then why is this even an issue? The property is not vacant. Jill maintains regular use and care of it as a secondary residence, and therefore, she would like her home taken off the vacant list and go back to being her secondary residence that she visits on a frequent regular basis. And all her documents say she lives there. So thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Roseanne Fried. I live at 250 Allen. I wanted to speak tonight about a federal program called two eight seven g. Two eight seven g, and I'm drawing this information from a group called Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Two eight seven g is a program under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency that lets state and local agencies act as immigration enforcement agents. Under two eight seven g, ICE forms an agreement with state or local law enforcement, which delegates specific immigration enforcement authority to officers within the local agency. Those videos we often see online or the news where local police officers are there alongside ICE, grabbing people off the street, Well, that's often the result of two eight seven g contracts. Two eight seven g is designed to extend the reach of the Trump deportation machine by getting localities to do ICE's work at their own expense. That's right.

Local municipalities, not the federal government, pays for the time its employees and officers are engaged in ICE's business. Well, funding is the least of eight two seven g's problems. Eight two seven g agreements lead to racial profiling, civil rights violations, isolation of immigrant communities, and family separations. When local officials are working with ICE, police stop and harass residents at increased rates while immigrants withdraw from their communities, avoid businesses that require them to give their personal information, and decline to participate in public events where law enforcement may be present. In Southeast Michigan, here, the Taylor Police Department, the Monroe County Sheriff's Department, Jackson, and Genesee County Sheriffs have all signed on to two eight seven g agreements.

In two eight seven g jurisdictions such as those, ending these contracts is an essential first step to disentangling local law enforcement from ICE. And here in Ferndale, we should never consider signing an agreement with ICE that violates our city's vision, which embraces the richness of diversity where residents flourish in a safe and welcoming environment. Thank you.

Christopher Hall. 1845 Syme Street. I wanna talk about an incident that happened this past weekend. First, I would like to thank, DPW director James Jamieson and his team who spent a considerable amount of time at Martin Park cleaning up the aftermath of a recent event. I also want to thank Parks and Rec, director Lorena Reeler, as well as the rental program specialist Taylor Firda, who reached out to me, yesterday to discuss this matter.

Their responsiveness and commitment to our parks are is definitely greatly appreciated. On the morning of August 10, I arrived at Martin Royal Park and found the picnic area near a playground, severely littered. Following an event, held the previous day, plates of strawberries, seven eleven drink cups, and abandoned karaoke machine, balloons, and other party materials were scattered across the picnic tables and surrounding grounds. Decorations were made tied to trees. Trash was sworn in well beyond the immediate, picnic area.

The incident was highly visible. It has already been widely discussed on local community forums, underscoring the concern shared by me and the residents and, yeah, it was me who posted it. This is not an isolated, issue. There has been several incidents, involving someone leaving diabetic needles on the sidewalk, creating a serious safety hazard. I had someone knock on my door in regards to seeing someone pouring

hot coal,

out of the barbecue and right next to the splash pad. And as you all know, children, dogs, and people are just walking around. They could easily get burned and hurt. Additionally, there has, an electrical grill was used on the park bench and actually caught fire. And, again, someone sitting on one of the benches snapped it in half because of, you know, them not, you know, being mindful of our parks.

Clothing items have been left behind, on a basketball court, security. With a visual blight and a potential tripping hazard, it is important to note that Martin Royal Park has benefited for substantial grant funding and community investment to make it an outstanding destination for our residents and visitors. These funds have supported upgrades, amenities, and program that enhances the park's value to the city, allowing repeated incidents of neglect and damage and unsafe behavior risk, undermining the investment and diminishing the park's reputation. I also had someone before I came here come knocking on my door in regards to the parking situation as well. It looks like no one's actually using the parking lot, and they're literally parking on their Orchard Street, which is causing a little bit of traffic concerns.

It's now becoming a one way, and bicyclists cannot, bike in the street as well. And some residents can't even back out of their driveways, unfortunately. So I told them I'll bring it up here to discuss it, and I'm out of time. So I'll be respectful of that. But yeah.

Thank you.

Yep. No more.

Good evening, council. Just wanna remind everybody that this weekend is the thirtieth year of the Woodward Dream Proofs presented by Ford Motor Company here in Ferndale. This is a family fun automotive event featuring Mustang Alley, Bronco Corral, Ferndale Emergency Vehicle Show, the Lights and Sirens Cruise Parade, the Walkin' Live entertainment stage, and the official Woodward Dream Cruise ribbon cutting ceremony. Exciting, guests for this year's ribbon cutting ceremony that which takes place at 5PM sharp on on Friday, August 15, will be the mayor, of course, Three Lawn Leaks May, Carolyn Clifford from w x y z TV channel seven, Michael Burchard, Oakland County sheriff, secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, Haley Stevens, US representative, Joanne, Ben, and Jason, WMC one zero four point three FM morning show. Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas.

Alyssa Slotkin, US senator for the state of Michigan. And immediately after that will be the the, lights and sirens per parade, which starts here at East 9 Mile in Woodward, goes up to 11 Mile and back. And then once they return, Martha Reeves will be doing a meet and greet right there at East 9 Mile in Woodward. And I just wanna also share that, during this, all these other fun things, we will also have kids play zone. We will also have merchandise for the official merchant, dream cruise available for sale, and then we'll have a food court and merchant vendor tents.

So come out and have fun and, make sure you put tanning lotion on, and we're a baseball camp. Make sure you don't get burned, And, just remember to be nice and courteous to each and every one of of, all those who are around you because it's gonna be a lot of people. So most important thing is just to have a good time and celebrate the all things automotive. Thank you.

Any more for call to audience? Closing call to audience at 07:22, and, we're going to move on to the consent agenda as we have no public hearing tonight. Item seven a, approval of the July 28 meeting minutes. Seven b, approval of the resolution recognizing chief deputy chief David Spellman's career and retirement. Seven c, approval of the resolution honoring the life of Tom Staton.

Seven d, approval of the list listed appointments and reappointments to the city boards and commissions. Seven e, adoption of the resolution to schedule a public hearing to consider action to vacate the alley between Breckenridge Street and Rosewood Street, adjacent to Lots 29 And 30, Block 8, flat of East Urban Rest Subdivision for the 09/08/2025 council meeting. Seven f, approval of the land and water conservation fund development project agreement with Department of Natural Resources for the Harding Park inline skating rink replacement project. Seven g, approval to backfill the CED at community and economic development director position. Seven h, approval for the Ferndale Police Department to auction and dispose of lost and abandoned property via property room in accordance with local ordinance listed and state law listed.

Seven g, approval to repair two light duty trucks for the it DPW from Les Stanford Ford in the amount of $12,750. Make sure I got this right. That was 7I, wasn't it?

Yes.

Okay. 7J, approval of purchase for AeroBoard from Brown Equipment Company in the amount of $6,514.29. Seven k, approval of the additional service request from Newman Smith Architecture for Martin Road Park outdoor recreation support facility projects in the amounts amount of $15,000. Seven l, approval to repair pump pumper truck from the R and R Fire Truck Repair Inc, and the amount not to exceed $12,500. Seven m, approval of bills and payrolls as submitted by the finance director and subject to review by the council finance committee.

Madam Mayor, I move we approve the consent agenda as presented and as amended.

Support. Okay.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize and read the resolution honoring the life of Tom Staton.

Before I read the resolution, I would like to just read off some acknowledgments that were sent to me regarding, this individual. And, of course, his family is in the audience also here. Born 05/21/1957 at Florence Crittendon Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, fourth son of reverend Chester Mac Stat Staton and Odessa Staton, came from a legacy of ministers and a deeply rooted spiritual family, helped physically build the church of God alongside his father, hammering nails, raising walls, and laying the foundation for generations of worshipers, baptized and accepted Christ at a young age, setting the stage for a lifelong walk of faith. Known for his effervescent smile and ability to light up every room he entered, described as a renaissance man, courageous, athletic, intelligent, and deeply compassionate. Graduated from Ferndale High School in 1975.

Recipient of the John f Kennedy award bestowed annually to one graduating senior, now two, by the way, I have seniors, who excels in academics, athletics, and service, played a key role in negotiating peace between black and white students during the high school racial tensions, fostering unity during a time of unrest. Allstate nineteen seventy three, seventy four, seventy five in basketball received an athletic scholarship to the University of Michigan, four year letterman, captain of the men's basketball team, an academic all American, member of the Michigan? Michigama. Michigama. Thank you.

A prestigious senior honor society at the University of Michigan. Served twenty five years at DTE before launching a successful consulting career. Advised major utilities, the big three automotive companies, health care systems, and even government of Bermuda, reached over 35,000 youth motive through motivational speaking, focusing on vision, purpose, and action. Coach of the year in his first year of coaching high school basketball, Tom served as treasurer of the township from '88 1988 to 1990, coached basketball at Ferndale High School, AAU, and Pal, instilling values of discipline, teamwork, and self belief. Known as a dynamic motivational speaker and minister with the ability to move and uplift any audience.

Actively involved in the paint the town and the NAACP, demonstrating civic and community leadership. A pillar in the community mentoring, guiding, and advocating for countless individuals and family. Married his high school sweetheart and soulmate Wanda in a bond defined by love, faith, and shared purposes, father to Thomas Amari Staten, with whom he shared a deep loving relationship as both dad and coach of bat of basketball and baseball, made every member of his extended family feel seen, valued, and supported. Lifetime member of NAACP, a featured speaker from the for the Detroit's Pistons speaking to over three 35,000 kids motivating and encouraging them. And now I'll read the resolution before I present it to the family.

On behalf of the Ferndale City Council, mayor Raylan Leekseme extends the city Of Ferndale's condolences to the family of Tom Staton. Tom's Thomas Staten, known to many as a renaissance man for his courage, athleticism, intelligence, and compassion, and advocacy was a pillar in the Ferndale community. He graduated from Ferndale High School in 1975 and received the John f Kennedy award bestowed annually to one graduating senior who excels in academics, athletics, and service. Following the award, he received an athletic scholarship to the University of Michigan. He later returned to coach basketball at Ferndale High School where he guided the Eagles to a conference title.

He served at DTE for twenty five years before launching a successful consulting and advisory career. His vision, purpose, and action motivated thousands of people. He lit up every room he entered and is loved by so many. Tom is survived by his wife, Wanda Staton, and his son, Thomas Amari Staton. We give our condolences and to the family, and I'd like to present you with this resolution.

So mayor Raylan and council members, I just wanna say on behalf of my family, the Satan family, myself, my son, and extended members of our family. We truly appreciate, this honor. Tom growing up in Royal Oak Township and going to Ferndale High School, we were very proud to be Eagles. We love Ferndale, the Ferndale community. Tom went on to coach later after, you know, graduating and doing many different things.

He went on to coach at Ferndale. And we were true Eagles and we loved being a part of the Ferndale community and just helping and, you know, helping the young people at Ferndale, to be the best they could in athletics and, as well as academics. And, we just really appreciate this opportunity and this recognition and, feel very honored and blessed that you guys took the time to present it. So thank you very much on behalf of our my family and, on behalf of the Scott family, the State family, because I actually am a Ferndale graduate myself. So thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you. We're moving on to our regular agenda. Item eight a, approval of the storm drainage facility maintenance easement agreement for 141 Vester. I believe our community and economic director, Roger Crusoe, is presenting.

Evening, madam mayor and council.

Good evening.

As the

mayor stated, this is, the request for approval of a storm drainage facility maintenance easement agreement for 141 Vester. To accommodate this development, the property owner must complete a storm drainage facility maintenance agreement. This agreement requires the property owner to construct and connect to the city storm drainage system. The agreement also requires them to preserve, maintain, and repair their facilities and establishes a regular and systematic program of maintenance. So this is simply just, completing the loop from their land use application since they recently received a building permit.

That's the request.

Alright. Went through that so quickly. I didn't even It's very quick, I guess. Alright. Alright.

Alright. I'll open it up to counsel for discussion at 07:33 if there's any. And if there's no discussion, I'll open it up for a motion. We'll make

a motion to approve the storm drainage facility maintenance easement agreement as part of the 141 Vester project as submitted by the community and economic development department.

Support.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Thank

you. Motion is approved. Right. Item eight b, consideration of bid award for pavement marking program for PK Contracting LLC in the amount of $152,496.25. EPW director, Jim Jamieson.

Evening, mayor and council. Mine should be quick too, maybe not that quick.

Okay.

K. So payment marking program bid. If I can get rid of this, why are you doing this? Okay. So general info, the replacement, it's just replacing pavement markings on streets, pretty self explanatory.

We do this every other year. We do it as needed. So, we do PACER ratings, which look at pavement. While we're doing that, we look at pavement markings, and pick areas and places that need to be replaced. Longitudinal lines, stop bars, bike symbols, and turning arrows, on streets are tagged inspected, and those are sent to a proposal process.

This year's program is a little different in that it includes some work for Hazel Park. They had a stretch on John R that they were looking to get done. They didn't have enough to benefit from unit pricing as a really small job. So we bundled it together with our work. I'll talk about it for a second.

There's really only one contractor in the area that does it. So they benefited and we benefited from economy of scale as well. So the next thing we're gonna look at is just an example. 9 Mile Livernois is one of those sections where we have an intersection where we need to refresh paint lines. So you can just see the crosswalk is faded.

Stop bars are faded. Longitudinal lines, yellow and white are faded, and there's some special markings, turn arrows and bike arrows, all of which need to be refreshed. And we kinda jump around because this is as needed. We look at all the streets, different locations, and then, I should have included this, but we bounce around. We have Allen, Flowerdale, Gardendale, John R.

Road for Hazel Park, Kensington, Livernois, Pinecrest Pinecrest, Plano Von Marshall, Nine Mile Oak Ridge, Troy, Withington, Lindsay Lane, East Camborne, East Drayton, and then there's seven or eight more streets. So we really just look at everything and the worst sections get added to the, program. I didn't include it in here, because we typically, again, only receive one bid from PK contracting. That is standard and it's typical for the industry, whether it's an MDOT project, local project, county project, they're usually the people that do it. They're doing the pavement striping for a water main project.

They're doing it for our local paving project, and they're doing it for this. So we have one bid, again typical for the industry, Ferndale's price is $152,496.25 Hazel Park's is $53,000 That's approximately $10,000 less than the engineers estimate and they provided service for us twenty nineteen, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty three all between $140,000 and $150,000 of work. So the timeline, timing can vary, but typically based on the way we got our proposal out, they'll be beginning in late September. It takes about two to three days total of work that usually occurs over two to three weeks with these smaller projects. They kind of pepper it into the regular schedule They're in the area in Metro Detroit, so they just kinda work as in when they can.

Lane closures with flagging, so there won't be any actual, road closures even when they're doing intersections like at 9 and Livernois. Use polyurea, that is ready for traffic in minutes, and as long as the work is completed prior to cold weather, we're doing good. If not, it'll be spring when they come back and finish and work on punch list. And that is it for pavement marking.

Any questions from counsel? Comments?

I just wanna note that, oh, go ahead.

I thought we're supposed to make the motion and then do all of that. We're not doing that anymore.

Sorry.

Hey. I'm learning just like you. Right? Okay. Okay.

Yes. You can make make the

motion this week. We'll make the motion first and then discussion. That's right.

I move to approve the bid award for the pavement marking program to PK Contracting LLC in the amount of $152,496.25 and authorize the director of public works to sign contract documents following approval by the city attorney.

Support. Now we're opening up for discussion.

I just wanted to state that I'm extremely happy to see that we are doing some interjurisdictional, cost sharing, and, you know, leveraging better unit prices by working with neighboring jurisdictions. And I really hope that this is a sign of more things to

We're still learning. And for this one, I am going to ask for a roll call.

Oh, okay.

Switch it up.

Yes. Johnson. Yes. Kelly.

Yes.

Mikulski. Yes. Leaksmay.

Yes. Motion motion carries to approve the bid award for the pavement marking program to PayPK Contracting LLC in the amount of $152,496.25 and authorize the director of public works to sign contract documents following approval by the city attorney.

Through through the chair, if I could just make one comment. I apologize. I I missed this that I wanted to to mention this. Just for the record, this is coming out of act $51 and not out of the general fund, property tax dollars. So just so people are aware.

We are moving on to item eight c, approval to purchase four replacement light duty trucks from Gorno Ford in the amount not to exceed 225,000.

Fancy. So I was supposed to have a graphic. I apologize. We do have an old truck, and I have a great picture of it. It would have looked amazing.

It's filled with rust. So we're replacing four older light duty trucks. That is what this is. They are all roughly eight years old. These are mainline trucks, and what that means is these are trucks that see service every day.

They have a primary, staff member assigned to them. They use them a lot. Two will replace even older backups. Actually, there's three. So we have a 18 year old vehicle f one fifty, a 19 year old f two fifty, and parking is using a 16 year old f one fifty.

So the way we do this, what we try to do is we reassign. So the oldest mainline vehicles may not be our oldest backup or secondary usage vehicles. So those will actually go down, and then these 20 year old trucks will get off the road. They'll get surplused. And then we'll surplus 12 o one, which I'll get into.

That's a project manager, for the lead service replacement programs vehicle, and it's a two wheel drive, so that has less use for us. So, again, these are older vehicles. We discussed fleet a few months ago, but older vehicles equal higher maintenance costs. Two Ford Lightning are included, and we're excited about that, because we are trying to adhere to the 15% electrification of our fleet, modeled in the I'm looking at Logan by 2030 in our climate action plan. So thank you.

I'll probably need another backup on that. So we also took 01/02/1950 down to January. One of the things that we did is we looked at our fleet. We make sure that, the actual usage lines up to the type of vehicle. And if we can use a smaller truck, without being affected operationally, we do so.

DPW light duty trucks right now are all universally forward. Our mechanics have experience working on them. They prefer them. It makes sense to stock all the same model parts, because they can be used universally in newer trucks. So the next thing we'll look at, I put together to, kind of explain the cost the total cost of ownership difference between a traditional f one fifty with a five point o, engine versus a Ford Lightning.

We did we are replacing two Lightnings. The other one is for our sanitation enforcement position. These are both two positions that we kind of designated for EV, upon replacement. We've marked six of those of our light duty trucks. You'll see that, there's a lot of numbers here, but basically, we just take the cost, we look at repair, we look at maintenance.

These are all kind of industry standard percentages applied to the total cost of vehicles. So these are approximations, but roughly $1,500 a year per Lightning is how much more we would expect. And, again, it gets a little foggy towards the end of these terms because I'm not sure, and there's not more accurate data on how to estimate repair maintenance for lightnings yet because it's relatively new. But I'll also say that, the difference in c o two, three point seven metric tons of gas for the traditional gas f one fifty versus 1.9 for the EV. So for fuel and energy, that's eight point 1.8 metric tons saved.

That'll put the social cost of greenhouse gases saved at $342 per lightning per year, and those are based on twenty twenty numbers. So needless to say, we're using, less greenhouse gas. It's better for the environment. So that is a picture of Ford Lightning. I did have that picture up.

So great. Ford Fleet provides the lowest pricing to governmental orgs. So we have started to work again with Ford Fleet. They offer, obviously, lower prices as the manufacturer of the vehicles than we would see through enterprise or any other purchasing agreement. DPW lights are included, so outfitting these vehicles is included in these prices.

Our price for the Ford f one fifty is 48,295. The Ford Lightning is 58,875. So the total for two of each is 214,340. I don't have it in front of me, but I did include some money for contingency in case the cost of outfitting, exceeds the quoted price. And that's it for this one.

Make a motion to approve the purchase of four replacement light duty trucks from Gorner Ford and amount not to exceed $22,225,000 as submitted by the DPW director.

Support.

All in favor? Oh, sorry.

Did you

want one? Discussion. Discussion. Alright. Alright.

Discussion.

For the chair, real quick question. So are we are we planning on selling the old vehicles? And if so, what do we think we can get back?

We are, and I could probably pull comparables because we have auctioned some surplus vehicles, a little bit newer SUVs. I think we've actually sold a 2004 f one fifty recently, so I can put that together. But, the ones that we would be selling is a 18 year old f one fifty, a 19 year old two fifty, a 16 year old f one fifty, and then 2016 is 19 years old. But I could put that number together, off the top of my head. It would be helpful to have thousand maybe.

Yeah.

It would be helpful to have the net cost.

Surplus sales estimate. No problem.

Through the chair. I just wanna make, the comment that, this, the funds used to to cover these four vehicles will be coming out of the major streets, local streets, sanitation, and water and sewer funds. None of it coming out of the general fund.

Any other comments or questions? We have a motion and we have a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Alright. The motion passes to approve the purchase of four replacement light duty trucks from Gorno Ford in the amount not to exceed $225,000 as submitted by the DPW director. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor and council.

No. We're not called to con called to council. And I will turn it over to the city manager or department head updates. Let's

see. CED.

The only update from well, I can give two updates. We have updated, the mayor and counselor Kelly regarding the Olsen grant. We did select two contractors to do the work for about eighteen seniors. So that's awarded. The work should start very soon.

We have an improved process for round two. On this one, we're gonna create an intake form, and the building official Scott Worthington will visit each senior's home, talk with them about what needs to be done, and create an intake form. So when the contractors go out next time, they know exactly what to bid. There was confusion this time and some miscommunication. So, we're learning.

Round one was pretty good. I think round two will be great, and then we'll go into round three. And then councilor Pawlick had a question, or a comment earlier this week about the vacation request, that you'll that was on the agenda. If you recall that property, from Rosewood to Breckenridge, we vacated the alley. When we went to record the documents, we found that on the southern portion, there actually was it was 18 feet.

There were some miscommunication between the surveyor, misinterpretation of it. So there's another request to come back with a vacation request for that eight feet so that the full alley gets vacated. Just wanna put that on record. Thank you.

ACM Krzan for Parks and Rec.

Yes. Thank you. On behalf of Parks and Rec, this Thursday will be the final, movie in the park for the summer season. Activities begin at 8PM. The movie starts at 08:45.

It is at Martin Road Park on the hill, and the feature this week is Jurassic World. So that's what I've got for you.

Oh, and, the thriving communities is next?

Oh, here. Yep. Just quick reminder, MML's thriving communities program, they're gonna, facilitate us through a community mapping exercise, and the community equalizer, next Monday night here in City Council chambers. It's a really good program. They they put on they've been doing a lot of trainings lately, and at the MML conference last year, I sat in on that one.

And, it it's really good. I think you guys are gonna like it.

EDA? Good evening, mayor and council. Out tonight. We are in the final stretch of our Main Street survey. We are encouraging all folks to, please, visit bit.ly/ferndale-msa.

It takes about ten minutes. You do not need to be a Ferndale resident to complete this. We do wanna hear from a variety of voices. If you've got friends who come and visit, if you work in Ferndale, if you live in Ferndale or near Ferndale, please give us your feedback on how we can, make the best downtown around. And also a reminder that we are about halfway through our, nine on nine concert series.

We've got some fun collaborations coming up. We had some great dogs at Shiffer Park this past weekend. We've got, the Curling Club who's gonna be partnering with us in the very near future, and we'll have a kids' day, for the closing event. So please check our calendar. There's some great acts, and it's free music every Sunday from four to five at Shiffer Park with some fun after party options, in our nearby businesses.

Thank you.

Police?

Evening, mayor and council. Few Dream Cruise, reminders and updates, public service announcements. On Saturday, a vehicles over 10,000 pounds, combined or alone are prohibited. If you know anybody that's coming and bringing a car haul or on a trailer, it's not permitted on Woodward. If you know somebody coming with an RV, it's not permitted on Woodward.

That's only for Saturday. When it comes to viewing, you're allowed in the median. You are not allowed to, pitch tents, and you are not allowed to grill. So if you see that, track down an officer and we will ask them to stop. It's not permitted on that MDOT property, and obviously, there's safety concerns there.

Outside of that where it's supposed to be hot, if you're coming out, please hydrate. But, we look forward to another great Dream Cruise. Thank you.

Fire. You already knew.

I already

knew. So good evening, mayor and council. So, yes, just remember for hot weather, you know, this summer has kind of been brutal. We've had a lot of high temperatures, high humidity, reminding everybody, hydrate, not just water. Don't forget the electrolytes.

So mix in some Gatorades or other things like, say, replenish some of the salts, some sugars because you do need to put that back in your system too. So watch how long you're outside. If you're doing activities outside, don't forget to hydrate. Don't forget about kids. When they're playing outside, ensure they're hydrated.

You're constantly having them drink. And don't forget our fur babies either. So if they're gonna be outside, we gotta make sure they got water too as he can get us. I know we've been very busy lately with calls, outside of the bad air from the Canadian wildfires, giving a lot of people, you know, difficulty breathing, but a lot of different things. So just try and keep everybody safe.

And then we will be out of Dream Cruise. You know, we will be in the media. We will be one of the only ones allowed to have a tent, but we'll be set there so we're visible. People can find us if there if anybody is having a medical emergency or anything. We post up right at 9 Mile in Woodward, so we're central and easy to get everywhere.

We will have a gator, a vehicle that allows to access patients very quickly also. With possible couple of thunderstorms coming, remind people safety with downed power lines, just stay away. Any doubt of trees come down, branches come down. We've had quite a few come down this year. If you're not sure what's in there, just stay away.

Call us. Let us come out and check us out check it out. Keep everybody safe. And one final reminder is burn permits. Remind people there's an ordinance if you wanna burn in your back yard, have a campfire, you have to apply for a burn permit.

But that does not give you the right to burn leaves, trash, any of those type of things. So get your burn permit, follow the rules, have that fun campfire in your backyard. Okay?

Does a burn permit have to be renewed every year?

Yes. It's $25 that's good for the calendar year. So you can renew it in January. It goes for the calendar. So it'll expire December 31, renew it the next year.

The first year you apply, we'll come out, do an inspection, make sure we talk to you so you know the safe place to have it in your backyard so it stays a positive event. The renewal years, you just pay and your permit will come right to your email. So you can just do it all right online. We have it set up very convenient through BSMA.

Sorry. Through the chair. There is restrictions, though, on certain properties. You have to be certain feet away from your structures. So you someone may ask if they could have one and find out that they can.

They can't. Yeah. You have to be 15 feet away from, like, your garage, your house, things that can burn, and you have to be 20 feet away from, like, a fence that goes between you and your neighbor's yard. So if your neighbor has a wood fence, you can't burn right next to it. You have to be 20 feet away from that.

So when we come out for that inspection, we do those measurements and show you where your options are. So if you're gonna actually install one in the ground, you wanna make a more permanent one, I recommend calling us first so we can let you know where you can put it so you don't do all that work, and we potentially ask you to move it. So yeah.

It's it's tough. So, like, my property is 35 feet wide, so there's absolutely no way I can have one because 20 feet from either fence line.

It can be tough. Yeah.

Yep. That's all. Alright. Alright.

Then I'm opening it up to council. I will start to my right with, mayor Pro Temakoski.

I have nothing further tonight.

Mayor council member Kelly? I have nothing tonight either. Council member Polacco.

I have two items. Next Wednesday, August 20 is the planning commission. The meeting is at 06:30, and the only topic on the agenda is, the proposed car wash for the Tim Hortons location. I encourage all residents regardless of where you live to come and express your thoughts and ideas about this proposed use for the property. And, again, that's 06:30 here at, City Hall in in these council chambers.

And the second thing I wanted to say is, I wanna congratulate deputy chief Spellman on an illustrious career. Thank you for your dedication to our community. You, have set an example, an example of exemplary service, and you are a credit to your profession, and I wish you the best. That's all I have, mayor.

Echoing council member Paulika's sentiments, you know, thanking, DC Spellman for his service to the city. It's always been a pleasure to work with him and and the team, and we'll certainly miss him around here. I'm sure he won't be far. We can call him if we need him, but it will be it will be different not having him around. The only thing I can think of is, you know, as we move into the back to school season, you know, thinking about thinking about preparing for that and, you know, wellness and, you know, getting kids prepared, to, have a school year where they're focused on learning and not as distracted by what's going on, in the world.

And so, you know, I'm really hopeful that this school year, we can partner with the Ferndale School District to hopefully put on some more activities and events that'll kind of keep kids a little bit more engaged and civically engaged locally, because we know that this is where everything starts. And I find that when folks are feeling particularly pressed or stressed about what's going on nationally, a great way to channel that into feeling like you really can make a difference is to channel that into civic engagement and involvement here in Ferndale. So I'm hopeful that we can work with the schools, over the course of this next school year and really find some creative and productive ways for our our students to really make a difference in our community, get involved, and do that kind of thing and really look out for their mental health and well-being. I know adults were all stressed, but our kids noticed that too, and they feel that, and they sense that. And so kind of not forgetting them as they go into what's already very stressful.

Right? A new school year, and looking out for their well-being. So I have two young nephews and, you know, that they're feeling very stressed just about what's going on in the world and and thinking through how how I kind of help them as well kind of made me think about what we can do for our kids here in. Holy

cow. So, yes, I also want to congratulate chief deputy chief Spellman on his retirement. He would definitely be missed. I I'm I think that at every event that he's at, all you have to do is walk up to him and he greets you with a smile. He's just, you know, he's going to be missed.

But knowing that, he's friend of alum means that he knows his community, he knows where to find us, and that he'll be back, hopefully, not be a stranger. I also want to, just, comment a little bit about what, council member Johnson spoke about. I do recall last year, the principal of Ferndale High School wanting to offer of students to assist with the seniors or those with disabilities for yard raking services.

So, yes,

so that may be a possibility. I will get that information out to our event planner, Michael Larry. But I know that, she did speak about that. So it's a probably a good way to ease some stress too. Yeah.

And earn some credit hours if they're in certain civic groups. Yeah. So but with that being said, I just wanna thank, not just the DC chief, Spellman, but I wanna thank, you know, all of you. I know that the city, you've had a rough run and answering a lot of calls lately and and a lot of work involved, but, you've done a great job. I'm very proud to, work with you.

I was speaking with someone just the other day, a business owner, and I wanted to make sure that business owner knew that, yes, council, we do we do, build and direct policy, but, the real people that do the work are the people that you see every day. So be kind. Treat the staff here at Ferndale city of Ferndale kind because they do a lot of work. They are the workers and, we we're we're directing, but they're doing all the leg work. So I want you to know we appreciate you, appreciate council as well.

And with that being said, I call this meeting I adjourn this meeting. I adjourn this meeting, not call this meeting at 08:03. Thank you for coming out tonight.