LHPS 2026 08 10

[music] So current I can hear you through this. [laughter] I'm going to Okay, perfect. And then did you want us to use this or this one? >> Handheld. >> Okay. Can you hear me now? Okay. I've never done this with a handheld mic, so this will be fun. All right. Ready? Okay. So, again, thank you for having us tonight. Um, we're just giving an update for the design development progress of the uh public safety projects. So, um, what we'll be reviewing tonight is the project to date, the design development package. uh just looking at all the buildings that we're talking about and then talking about the next steps of design. So essentially we came to you in the spring and we were done with our 20% set and now we uh we had asked permission to move into the design development phase which got us to our uh point tonight which is our 60% design package and now we're asking to go into permission or asking permission to go into the construction document phase of design. So essentially in the design development phase we really start working on the details of the facilities. So we walk through each facility finalizing the floor plans, finalizing the interior and the exterior elevations. Uh we started looking at the interior and exterior materials that will be used on the projects. Um we brought in our mechanical, electrical, um and plumbing engineers to make sure that the systems are designed the way that we would like them to design. Working through things like where outlets will be placed and how it's going to be heated and all those items. uh we started working extensively with our civil and site engineers to make sure that we are meeting all of the town and um city ordinances on the site side of things and then we continue to work through our specialty design for the live fire training tower and then also the firing range. So in the design development package um the five buildings on the complex remain the same. So building A is indicating uh station 3. Building B are the support bays. Building C is the live fire training tower. Building D is the firing range. And then building E is the addition to the police department. So again uh located on the 23rd Street. Uh essentially you can kind of see how this is laid out. We have additional spaces in the back for um additional training opportunities. We have designated parking for visitors. Uh we have designated parking for staff. We have designated or uh ample parking for folks that are coming to use the the firing range. And then we also have some sidewalks connecting to the police department to make this truly one big camp uh complex. So essentially station 3 overview. So these are the preliminary renderings that we're starting to work through with chief. There are a couple things that we're still tweaking, but this is uh the direction that we're generally headed on the facility. So, this is a two-story facility and there is a mezzanine space out in the large apparatus space and it's just under 39,000 square ft. So, essentially the floor plan it remained the same for all intents and purposes. We just worked through details. So, when you're looking at it in this, the yellow is indicating administration spaces. The purple is indicating training areas. Uh the blue is indicating uh personal decontamination. The red is our watchroom. The green is our exercise space. And then the white areas are different garage spaces for our different types of vehicles. The second story is dedicated primarily to our living quarters. It's not the entire facility. As you can see, it's just a smaller chunk kind of in the center of uh the northern part of the building. And then we have a mezzanine space that opens up to our large apparatus space and then to our mechanical space. So, we're still working through the interior finishes, but this is the direction that we're starting to head. It hits a very calming uh warm package with some accents of some reds and then some other uh teal type colors to make sure that it feels nice and homey and not too institutional, but just try and make it nice. And we're working through making sure that the uh materials are durable and finishes, too. So, as we start to work through our spaces in the facility, this is our lobby. It's actually looking back out the front door. So, the training room would be behind you and the front desk is off to the left hand side. Um this is our training room that we're proposing. So we have a large training room that can be divided down the center that that's that center sophet that cuts through there. Uh large displays on the front wall and then there's also displays on the side wall. So that way we can break out and train in a bunch of different manners. And then if we are using this space as an EOC or an emergency operations center, we have a lot of different breakout areas to make sure that we can cover all bases that we need to cover. Uh this is our administration break room. So, we wanted to make sure that our admin staff still had a spot that they can take a break for take a break, walk away from the computer, um eat their lunch, and then also, you know, have a informal uh touchdown point throughout their administration spaces. Upstairs in our living quarters, uh this is our kitchen area for our department. And then we have this is looking the other direction. So, you can kind of see the kitchen's there on the left. Uh the day room or sort of like your living room is in the back on the right. And then your dining room table is up in the front and center foreground. So the support apparatus bays are located behind station 3. Uh it's about 6600 square ft. It's a singlestory facility with six backin bays. This will be uh architectural pre-cast tipup panels instead of the masonry uh brick construction, but the materials will match what's on station 3. The fire training tower then is just to the north of that. Um it is going to be used by the fire department, the police department and can also be used by the department of public works. And we also have again additional space there in the light green behind the apparatus support base for additional uh on-site training opportunities. The red arrows are indicating the different ways that the fire department will come at the facility to use it for training. Uh this is an example of what this will look like. Uh all of these towers are customized and yours will be slightly different uh because of the needs of your city. But this is an example of what we're looking at here. But it will be five stories. It is for live fire training like I mentioned. And then all three departments can use this facility. Um when we go up to the firing range, um again, just like there was the last time, I'm going to go to this part here. We still have our dirty classroom on plan left and then we have our firing range on the right. It can be used again by all three departments. Um, we call it a dirty classroom because it's a classroom that we can go in when we're doing our live fire training tower, uh, live fire training. We don't have to clean off before we go into this facility. It'll be very, um, industrial in that sense. We can just go in, do our training, and head back out. It'll also have entrances for both the police department and the fire department. And then just make sure that everyone kind of uses it um, what in the manner that makes most sense to them. The police department expansion then is located on the far east side of the existing police facility. Um this will also be architectural pre-cast panels that will be tipped up. Um we will have the materials matching to the best we can the existing facility. So they'll be kind of a gray block on the bottom and then the horizontal um blue or gray on the top to match what's there. Although it is a different material so it won't match absolutely perfectly. And again, we're still working through some of these design um finished materials, but this remains a single story facility, slab on grade, just over 14,000 square ft. Um this is showing you the basic floor plan. So we have fleet storage uh throughout the most of the facility. We have a me um maintenance storage in the red, evidence storage, and then um you can see where the existing facility goes through. And above the maintenance and evidence storage, there's additional storage space in a small mezzanine space. So, station two, um I think the biggest change of station two is that we worked with the department um hearing the concerns of the community. So, instead of having them primarily um egress out onto me, we're going to have them primarily egress out onto 18th Street. So, I think that that's the largest change. In terms of the floor plan, though, it really did not change. It remains a two-story facility um about 15,500 square feet. And again, this is the architectural direction that we're heading at this point. Um we're still working through details, but that's where the direction we're taking. So um as I mentioned, the floor plan did not really change. So we still have our exercise room up in the upper um upper quad quadrant in that green. Uh little training entrance space at the top. Uh some administration spaces which are really limited to one office and a conference room in this facility. Our watch room and then our personal decontamination with our two drive-thru and one back in bay on this lower level. And then when we go up to the upper level, it's living quarters for our uh departments. We have our dorms and then our kitchen, dining, day room. And just like with station three, we're going to keep the same materials, just bring them over. So this is our lobby space. Now you're looking from the front entrance in. So that door there is to our conference room, and then the door on the right hand side, the smaller door is uh to our living or to our um exercise room and administration spaces. Uh this is our dining room that we're working through right now. our well it was our kitchen. This is our dining room kind of turning the other direction. One of the things that was important to the part department is trying to get as much natural light into these spaces as we could. So what you're seeing here these windows that kind of wrap um on that north wall uh so they can get some natural light into that space. And then the two windows on the right hand side, those look down into the apparatus bay. And then this is our uh living room space or our day room. And then now we're into what's next. So, uh, like I said before, we just wrapped up our 60% document set. So, we're hoping to continue the design process and move into construction documents. So, construction documents is where we've just finalized the bidding documents that would go out for bids. So, we still have to work through the door hardware. That's a big thing that we have to work through yet. And our interior finishes, as I mentioned, we were still tweaking some of those. Um, the next things that we'll start working through too are our owner purchased items such as vehicle exhaust, uh, the security system, which includes the door hardware, and then station alerting. And then last but not least, we'll have our 90% page turn with the owner where they look through the whole set of documents to make sure that everything that they've told us for the past two years has been implemented in these drawings. So overall schedule, um, what we're proposing is that if we move into construction documents, it says July, but it's really truly August now. um that we would be continuing this throughout uh the rest of the year and be ready to bid right after the first of the year. So this is our proposed schedule and again this is proposed um we would be back again for permission. But our uh what we're proposing is that we would give the documents to the owner the first part of January 2027 and then we would come to a council meeting in early to mid January to ask permission to go out to bid. Once we are able to release the plans for bidding, we typically have about a one-month uh period for a project of this size for that bidding. And then once we open the bids, we would vet them, make sure everything makes sense, nothing was missed, uh make sure the uh contractors are qualified to do the work. And then we would come back and ask for permission to approve the bids and eventually award the contracts. So, if all goes to plan, we would be groundbreaking about April of 2027 and then finishing in the summer of 2028. So, in terms of the estimate, our estimating team has been working through diligently. Um, you'll see a couple variants there in the numbers. So, um, what we ended up doing because we wanted to do the station security, alerting, and vehicle exhaust for the entire department, not just these facilities, we pulled those numbers from the soft costs in the five facilities that we have listed above and put them down below. That's that 1.5 million that's that covers that cost. So essentially um the additional cost has been because we just added the additional security alerting and vehicle exhausts to the additional stations. Um when they finished up the DD estimate, it was still a range and we were right on track with the 54 and a half million for the whole project. And that brings us to the end. So questions Yeah. >> Yeah. So, uh after our meet, previous meeting, um after things were brought up, we did re-evaluate and it wouldn't change really anything with the station other than the direction we're exiting. we exit Alpha 18th. Now, it is wider. We feel that 90% of the time as we exit there, it's safer for the community. Um, there will be times that we will exit off of me, for example, when we have polling, we'll close, we'll turn our rigs around and face the other way. Uh, but those are three, four times a year max. Uh, so our understanding is it really won't impact. The only other time we would be exiting on me is if our um if we couldn't exit through the north side bay doors are being worked on the uh concrete anything. So we would have to turn around and go off of me but those situations should be aware but uh rare but it it is due to uh feedback from the community. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So truly it was a change in scope. So when we first met and so we have a design partner that helped us with the um dirty classroom and firing range. And so when we first met and started designing it, the facility that they were that they were helping us design for that dirty classroom was much more elaborate. So now you have something that in my opinion is right sized for your community. So when you walk in, you have the classroom space, you have a mezzanine space where we can do um certain tactile training methods, and then you have the firing range. And it's a nice size firing range. It's totally appropriate for your department. What was originally being thought of was that we were going to have a much more elaborate facility that it was much bigger and that you could actually drive a full fire apparatus inside of it instead of just a small vehicle inside of it. So, in the firing range, we can still drive like let's say uh like a Chevy uh Suburban, you can still drive a vehicle of that size into the range, but we can't drive a full-on engine in. So, the actual firing range itself was just right sized. And then there was additional training props that were already included in there such as uh confined uh trench drain like collapse trench drain training out in the back. There was a couple other training props that we determined that you might not need right away and so they could just be have space for it in the future if we wanted to have it. So it was just kind of understanding like where we should be as a community and right sizing it to make sure it meets your needs. So we actually didn't even come to you all before that the department took a lot of that out. Yep. >> Thank you. And then um we are working on uh getting into the school programs as well, which is a fall program. So we'll be hitting all the K through uh fifth grade uh students for that. So you'll see some uh stats in that. Uh glad to answer any questions if you have any. Thank you, Chief. Questions? Alder Pereella? >> Just if you can speak to that decreased number for about the inspections. I assume that inspections generally speaking also have a mission focus educating and so on. So, can you speak to that? >> Yeah, so we're 75% complete. So, we're still in the inspection season. So, as we roll into the next quarter as well, you'll have more updated numbers on that. But we are still uh that's why it's less. It's just a matter of getting into the businesses. We we schedule inspections with the owners or property managers. So, it's all based on timing and scheduling. But, uh if you recall, we have roughly uh uh 2100 uh roughly businesses or inspections that we do annually. So, we should be on track to hit that mark hopefully. So you don't expect to I mean you expect this to be comparable to other years and it is not an issue related to staff. >> It it is somewhat related to staff. So we continue to try to meet the inspections and hitting the benchmarks. Uh the hope is that as we do more businesses stay fires safe and meet the codes. However, as the city increases, more businesses come, we add more inspections. So, it's kind of like a a cascading effect, our staff does the best we can, but we also are getting busier. And I truly I have a fire inspection bureau of one, which is division chief Noster. So, he can is is doing the best he can to stay above water, but as we do more reinspections and more of those business plan inspections, uh it's getting tougher. So, it's just like our call volume that you've asked in the past. We will keep an eye on it and we are are doing our best. However, we will have to have a discussion in the future about staffing. But currently, we are meeting the criteria. Um although it's getting tougher and tougher because our call volume is increasing and uh our our inspections are increasing as well. So, >> just one followup. So just to for the sake of educating the public and us um the inspections you're talking about about businesses and um commercial facilities and so on are these um are they due on yearly basis or it's basically you can randomly inspect? >> No, we uh we try to get to every single business in a year. try uh schools again, different criteria for the schools. Uh it but we do the best we can to get in there and some businesses or some schools we go in twice a year like nursing homes and all that. They have different criteria based on the state. So, um we do what we can. We are beholden to the property managers and the business owner or uh business owners. We can't really just pop in and say, "Hey, we're going to do an inspection." City buildings are different because we own them, right? So, we could schedule that with uh Director Cardanius and and do that, but um properties are a little different. >> Thank you so much. >> Mhm. >> Alder Kelly, >> apologies if I missed this, but it looks like the number of fires reported is significantly higher uh compared to the 2025 year to date, and it seems like there's a different code. Um could you go into like what the differences is and why we're seeing so many more fires getting reported? >> Sure. So uh it used to be the feds used the federal government used to have what they called NFERS which is a national fire incident reporting system and they switched this year to nearest and it's uh the na national emergency response system something like that. Anyways, moving on. UH, so that changed the criteria. They changed the federal government changed the criteria what they classify as structure fires or certain. So, we have to follow their guidelines. Our calls, we didn't increase that drastically in calls, uh, but the requirements. So, it makes it look like we have more. It's just the f all fire departments have to do that follow. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yep. No. >> Okay. Any >> I'll know what Ner says next time. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Looking for a motion to uh accept and file. >> Motion to accept and file. >> Okay. >> Motion was made by Alder Heidman, seconded by Alder Kelly. Was close though. Um [laughter] all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. That passes. Moving on to item nine, report number 212627 by police chief pursuant to section 30-50 of the m municipal code submitting the quarterly report showing the benchmark measurement for the police department for the period commencing April 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2026. Do we have chief with us? >> Yeah. Yes, I'm here. Chief, you want to go ahead with your presentation? >> Thanks. Uh, so hopefully you've all had a chance to look over the uh uh the numbers. I would point out that uh things are uh going well this year as well from a crime and safety and uh um traffic safety standpoint for the city. In every we are uh at or near his assaults uh is less. Um >> Chief, we have a bit >> overall violent crime is >> Chief, we have a bit of a delay with your >> video and audio. So assault. >> Okay. >> Would you like to hand off to your sergeant who's here? >> [laughter] [snorts] >> She she she says she says no. Um [laughter] she says no. Um [laughter] let let's let's keep going. Let's see if we can get through with you. >> All right. [clears throat] Yeah. Sorry for the uh sorry for the delays. Um am I back? Am I caught back up? >> I think so. >> All right. Matt is suggesting that I kill my video. So, let's try that. Apparently, there's a lot of activity on the hotel network right now. Um, I meant to mention that Doug and I are both at the state chief's conference uh in Green Bay. Um, and I'm a member of the board. Uh, so that's why we're here uh rather than there in person. Can you hear me okay yet? >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. I'll I'll just start over again. Um, things are going well this year really in in virtually all categories. Um aggravated assaults are down compared to previous years, but um assaults overall uh remain high, which is our main driver of violent crime. Um and and that's high compared to historic averages, but not necessarily uh to other similar similarly sized and situated cities. Uh property crimes continue to uh trend very very well um uh including a pretty large decline in thefts overall. Um, we have seen about a 10% increase in traffic crashes so far this year. Uh, I'm sure you've probably all noticed the um, uh, the construction around town, which of course puts pressure on uh, the streets that are not under construction. And so we believe that that uh, is a contributing fact to our increase in traffic crashes. Uh, and um, uh, just a couple other things to mention. Uh so last year we were reporting about um parking tickets not matching um what we've done historically uh because of the city's technology issues. Um however the uh now that that's been restored this year we are um trending towards what our historical norms are for uh parking enforcement as well. Uh the last thing that's in my um information sheet for everyone is I want you to be aware that on Wednesday of this week we will be holding a largecale um basically emergency preparedness exercise in in conjunction with the fire department, the school district and lots of other agencies uh from around the area. Uh basically to conduct a large-scale uh active shooter uh scenario training. Um there's an outside agency that comes in and does this training for uh significantly low lower cost. That's Mercy Health. And uh they basically are able to prepare the training. Um they're quite detailed in the way that they've approached it with the facility um having um uh training facilitators and safety officers on site um so that really everyone can participate in the scenarios uh rather than having to have our own people be responsible for conducting the training. um that's not something that we've done uh in this area. Uh and so we're we're appreciative for their support um and for the other agencies being involved uh to try to mimic what the response would be like so that we're already and can work out some of the um some of the foreseeable and unforeseeable issues responding to a large scale incident like that. Um I also wanted to mention a couple other things. Um alders may be aware that uh we have had a couple of um ebike related crashes uh and in particular illegal ebikes which the state refers to as emotos. Um and uh I can tell you we've had many conversations both internally at the police department and with other city departments about how to handle enforcement of those um uh violations. We believe that um we essentially we have a plan both uh to communicate the enforcement expectations internally to officers what they can and can't enforce to ensure that uh number one that illegal uh bikes aren't out creating violations. Uh but that uh also the public is aware of where the line is. Um and so uh you should expect to see a lot of um media and uh information being shared with the community over the over the coming months um regarding uh that issue. I know that's something that this committee has been interested in for some time. Uh and uh lastly, I just wanted to mention I know that I've I've um gotten several comments or questions from uh alders about flock cameras. Um, I I I've had individual conversations, but uh um it it seems like this committee would uh probably be interested in a in a broader presentation about it. Um and some regular reporting. Um we're working on that right now. Uh, I can tell you that we've had a policy about automated license plate readers for uh since 2014. Um, that I think addresses a lot of the concerns um regarding how it's used and verifying information that's obtained through uh license plate reader systems. Um, and so I I can certainly prepare to uh go through that with this committee and address any of the concerns. uh uh also in conversations with uh administrator Bradley about what a regular reporting um process would look like and what information it is that that uh we can share so that there's accountability and transparency about it. Uh and with that if there are any questions I'm happy to answer. >> Thank you chief. Um very thorough update. I appreciate all that information. So thank you very much. Um first of all a couple of questions. the training that's coming up at Horus man. Have we done a within our community? Have we done training on this scale before or is this the first sort of um training of this level that we've conducted? >> So, we have regularly done joint training with the fire department uh for what's called what's known as warm zone training uh essentially for response to uh scenarios like this. We have done training with um uh the sheriff's department at times as well. Uh this is really the first time where we're able to put all of those pieces together along with the [snorts] school district, along with other city departments, along with other area law enforcement agencies. >> Okay, thank you for that. Um your comments about ebike um education regulation enforcement. Um I know we all appreciate that. that obviously is a topic that we have discussed before um and you know very unfortunate situations that have happened recently in involving ebikes. So um thank you for bringing up that up as part of your update today. And then lastly regarding your comments about flock obviously you and I have had conversations as you mentioned um we've had conversations with other members of the committee and other members of council. We appreciate your um you know willingness to provide us additional you know insights, transparency, reporting etc. I know it is a very um hot but button topic not just in our community necessarily but um really across the state and beyond that. So um just appreciation for your uh openness to have those discussions and to walk us through um you know that piece of it. So um I'm going to turn it over to other alders. Um Alder Kelly. >> Uh thank you chair. Uh most of uh my comments were touched on by you already. Um so I do want to say thank you for um bringing up the ebike issue and flock. I know those have both been issues that I've been reached out to frequently about. Um so thank you for touching on those and I look forward to more information coming out. Um one question I did have about um the traffic accidents. You had mentioned there were 10% more. It looks like there are more traffic arrests compared to the same time last year. Have you been noticing a pattern in types of violations? Like is it more distracted driving, more drunk driving, things like that that you're able to share? [snorts] >> Nothing that's really stood out as any different than what we typically experience. Um, you know, a lot of our violations are failure to yield rightway violations that lead to crashes. um people not um uh yielding from stop signs or you know uh getting across intersections um without uh colliding across traffic. Um I I don't know that we're seeing an uptick in in attentive driving or anything like that. I think it's just really has to do with um with increased volume. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, >> Alder Fella. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair. Uh can you please tell us what is that the neighborhood food patrol, hotspot crime patrols and field interviews? What is that those num those items actually represent? For example, the neighborhood food patrol 155. What does that number represent in practice? >> Yes. So um so this is something this is a change that was made to this report. Um after we went through the goal setting process for each of the last two years um we um we identified essentially internal benchmarks for us to be able to track proactive work that our officers are doing. Um and so I guess not to get too esoteric with the explanation but um there are different call types in our computerated dispatch system. Um, and so a miscellaneous call type is used for something that doesn't necessarily um result from a call for service or an observed violation. It's something uh that we can do to track proactive uh proactive e efforts that are uh just interaction interactions with the community or addressing something uh a problem that's been identified u but doesn't necessarily lead to like a police report being generated. And so those miscellaneous call types, there are lots of different ones. Um, but what we ask officers to do is to um call into dispatch on the radio and ask to be put into a miscellaneous call type. Um, when they're doing uh when they're out in in their neighborhoods um maybe they're just stopping to interact with some people at the park, they're going to a neighborhood meeting or other neighborhood event or they're uh they're stopping to address um uh just talk to people about how things are going in their neighborhood. Um that's the neighborhood foot patrol um call type. The hotspot crime patrol would be uh for example um uh walking through the downtown area to deal with crime or disorder complaints. Um going to a city park uh because there are people there after hours. Um um maybe watching a particular house where we suspect there's uh drug activity or short-term traffic. Um that's the purpose for the hotspot crime patrol call type. And then field interviews are uh essentially a contact that is documented on um kind of a brief report. So field interview uh they used to be a card that was filled out by hand. Um now they're entered directly into a records management system. And so that's a way for us to uh sort of document and manage intelligence that's gathered. So for example, if we have a a problem with um car entries, which of course we've had uh over the weekend, you might have seen the press about that. um that uh in a particular area of the of the city, we're going into proactively to try to um interdict those types of of violations. If officers are encountering people, first of all, they might put themselves in a hotspot crime patrol call type, but then as they encounter people who are out and about in the neighborhood at night, and they stop and and uh talk to them, um you know, with a consensual encounter, uh they uh then document the information that that person was out in the area at night, uh maybe what they were wearing, uh things like that in a field interview so that that intelligence can be used if there are other um reported crimes in that area. So basically these items were before they were classified they were incorporated in other items >> uh or they they weren't as intentionally used to track proactive efforts. So, it's one of the things that um with our goal setting process, we've really tried to ask our people to do is to be very intentional about documenting what it is that they're doing um so that we know that we're meeting uh our goals with that proactive work. >> Very good. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? Then I'm looking for a motion to accept and file. >> Motion to accept and file. >> Second. Motion was made by Alder Heidman, second by Alder Kelly. All those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. That passes. Okay. Moving on to item 10. Resolution number 712627 by older persons and hideammen approving alcohol, beverage, tobacco licenses. Um, anything to share with us? >> Just that the applications have been reviewed and there's no concerns from city staff. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Any questions on this item? >> Okay, looking for a motion to approve. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion to approve was al made by Alder Gravine, seconded by Alder Pela. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. That passes. Our tenative next meeting date is scheduled for August 24th, 2026. We are looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. Second >> motion was made by Alder Ples, seconded by Alder Graine. All those in favor state I. >> I. >> Chair votes I. We are adjourned. >> Thank you. [music]