City of Midway City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Brenda Ford The Invocation was given Councilman Marc Nelson with Mayor Ford leading the Pledge. Those in attendance included Mayor Brenda Ford, City Secretary Debra Newkirk, Council members John Whitmire, Rex Newkirk, Gus Kangos, Brandee Curtis and Marc Nelson. Wes Savage was also in attendance. Operator Janet Boone was unable to attend. Guests for the meeting included Ty. Jordan and Chandra Adams, both of Prairie View A&M University; and Frank Frey and Mike Staffileno, both of GHD. Mr. Jordan and Ms. Adams spoke first. Mr. Jordan the Ag Extension Agent for Madison and Leon Counties through PVAMU. He spoke of working within the county to help everyone in both counties with all oft their agriculture needs including exemptions. He informed the Council that he is the agent for the Midway 4-H Chapter. Ms. Adams spoke next; she told the story of how a 5 minute stop turned into a three and a halfhour conversation that led to the programs that were offered in the Summer Reading Program this year. She told the Council that anything the City would like to do, Prairie View is there to help and all service to the City is free! At this time, they were able to leave the meeting. Everyone was very glad to have met them and look forward to working with them. Mike Staffileno and Frank Frey spoke next. They were present, representing GHD. GHD is the engineering firm at submitted RFQ's for both oft the upcoming grants TDA's CDBG 23/24 and GLO's CDBG-MIT, MOD. Mr. Staffileno had come in from Dallas and Mr. Frey had travelled from the Houston area; both were very excited to have been given an opportunity to submit and be selected to work with the City. GHD is currently working with the City on the AMPSS program through TWDB. The RFQ's for both grants had been received and scored on the 18th of September. GHD was one of four firms that had submitted. With the scoring committee's recommendation, two resolutions were presented to the Council at this meeting: Resolution 2023-19R, for TDA's CDBG 23/24 and Resolution 2023-20R, for GLO's CDBG-MIT, MOD. Brandee Curtis made the motion to approve GHD on both resolutions, Rex Newkirk made the second and with all voting in favor the motion passed. Mr. Staffileno asked that both signed resolutions be submitted to Mr. Chris Benjamin. At this time they were able to leave the meeting. Everyone was very glad to have had them at the meeting and look forward to working with GHD on these upcoming grants. With no other guests present or presentations to be made, the Council went into the Budget Workshop. At the August Council meeting, the proposed Budget for 23/24 had been presented and at that time there were no requests or recommendations for changes. At a prior Council meeting, the issue of raises/cost ofl living adjustments had been raised and Debra Newkirk presented the Council with information on how cost of living adjustments/inereases are determined-it's based on the inflation rate and what the Social Security Administration is projecting. Currently the rate ofi inflation is 8.7% and the Social Security Administration is making a 3% to 4% cost of living adjustment. There are other recommendations for a standard 59 increasei to apply due to the rate of inflation. This information was presented in a way that Council could see what the COL-I would like for each employee and each department's Salary line item at 3%, 4% and 5%. The question was raised ofv when the last time raises had actually been given. Debra stated that she would have the information available at the next Council meeting. There was no further discussion and no requests or recommendations made. At 7:40 p.m. the Mayor opened the Budget Public Hearing. With no one in attendance the Budget Public Hearing was closed at 7:41 p.m. Gus Kangos made the motion to accept the Consent Agenda, Brandee Curtis made the second and with all voting in agreement the motion carried. There were no public comments regarding items on the agenda. The following items were on the Statutory Agenda: Ordinance No. 2024-01, adopting the Budget for FY 2023-2024, was presented. Rex Newkirk made the motion to approve, Gus Kangos made the second and with all voting in agreement the motion passed. A: sponsorship request had been received from the NAACP of Madison County and the City of Madisonville Office of Tourism for the upcoming "Tour de Madison". There were different levels of sponsorship and the line item had been taken up with requests from the Son-Shine Center and the Midway Volunteer Fire Department. A suggestion was made to take $50.00 from each of the previous requests to make up the $100 for the sponsorship level. Gus Kangos made the motion, Marc Nelson made the second and with all voting in agreement: $50.00 will be taken from the Son-Shine Center's and the Midway Volunteer Fire Department's donations to make the $100 needed. A request to hire Duplichain Contractors to handle a leak on Hwy 21 was brought to the Council. This leak involves working on the shoulder of the road and there are a lot of other utilities in the ground in the same area, (i.e., two fiber optic lines, gas lines) and just the complexity ofworking with TX DoT. John Whitmire made the motion, Rex Newkirk made the second and with all voting in favor the motion carried. At this time reports were given: Janet Boone was not in attendance. Wes Savage gave the reports: Sewer-nothing has changed since the last meeting; still waiting for Entergy. Water-Keyhasl been up and he sent a crew to put in two chemical mixing chambers, one leaked and the other held. Key will still try to get one made out of stainless Debra Newkirk reminded Council that: The City Wide clean-up is scheduled for October 7th and 8th. The dumpsters will be delivered on the 6th and picked up on the gth. City Hall will be closed on Monday, September 4th for Labor Day Quotes had been presented for Council's consideration in repairing School Road/Loop Ken Starr, County Commissioner Precinct 1, had submitted a quote for $613.00/load. There was a question oft that being the final price. It will be necessary to contact Mr. Starr on the 26th to verify pricing and the actual amount of rock needed. Roundtree had submitted a quote for $700/load Collard Construction submitted a quote for $725 At this time, Gus Kangos made the motion to adjourn, John Whitmire made the 2nd and with all being in agreement the meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m. Dunde fd bb Brenda Ford, Mayor Debra Newkirk, City Secretary