City Manager Scott Brunka

City Manager's Office

The City of Lebanon offers a quality of life and charm that is unique as is evident by being selected Ohio’s Best Hometown.  Great people, businesses, schools, parks and recreational facilities, community events, and an amazing downtown district all come together to create a place that you can call home.  Our vision is to be a thriving and sustainable community that embraces opportunity, innovation, and authenticity.  We accomplish this through outstanding citizen service, collaboration, integrity, quality, stewardship, and innovation.  There are so many opportunities here in Lebanon for families, businesses, and visitors that I hope you take the time to explore our City.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact my office at 513-228-3102.

Responsibilities
The City Manager’s Office is responsible for the efficient and effective implementation of the City Council’s policies, goals, and objectives.

City Manager

The City Manager is appointed by the City Council to serve as the chief executive officer of the City and to manage the daily operations of the City’s staff.  The City operates under the Council-Manager form of government, which combines the strong political leadership of elected officials with the managerial experience of an appointed local – government manager.

Council-Manager Government
The City of Lebanon operates under the council-manager form of government. The council-manager form is the system of local government that combines the strong political leadership of elected officials with the strong managerial experience of an appointed local government manager. Learn more about the council-manager form of government in the Council-Manager Government FAQs.

Mission, Vision & Values
Our Mission
To enhance the quality of life in our community by providing high-quality and cost-effective services, while maintaining the public trust through sound stewardship of our resources.

Our Vision
To be a leader among cities in delivering outstanding quality services through citizen involvement, innovation, and efficient use of resources.

Our Values

• Customer / Citizen Service
• Honesty and Integrity
• Innovation
• Quality
• Stewardship
• Teamwork

Employment Opportunities

Part-Time Firefighters/EMTs

Posting Date: 09-24-2020    End Date: Open until filled

• Police Officer

Posting Date: Sep 24, 2020 10:31 AM    End Date: Oct 30, 2020 10:31 AM


https://www.lebanonohio.gov/

Transcript

Michael Myers : 0:04

This podcast is brought to you by hometown hang out and home manager, both located right here at 537 East Main Street come by experience El Rancho new wave as food. It is incredible. And if you are looking for a venue, this is the best place to be in Lebanon. Give us a call 513853570 for more information or find us on Facebook at hometown ham.

Unknown Speaker : 0:30

All right, today on the podcast, we have the city manager, Scott brunker. In the studio, give it up for Scott.

Unknown Speaker : 0:38

All right, Scott, welcome to the show. Thank you very much excited to be here. Oh, man, it's great to have you. I've heard a lot about you finally get you in the studio. We want to talk about obviously things that are going on in the city, but we just kind of want to get to know you first. So who is Scott Bronco? That is a good question. So I can tell you, I've got a wife and three kids. And we have been fortunate enough to live in Lebanon for going on 20 years now. So

Scott Brunka : 1:07

at the time, we were living in Cincinnati, we had just had our first child and we were looking for kind of a community to call home. And we visited Lebanon, we had friends up here and we're like, oh, wouldn't it be great if you know a job or the opportunity came to move up to Lebanon and my background civil engineering. So I'm an engineer by trade. And the city engineer position became available in Lebanon back in 2001. I applied for it, I was fortunate enough to get the job. And right away, we're like, okay, we're moving up to Lebanon. So, you know, we've we've raised our three kids in this family or in this community, raised a family and just, you know, feel very blessed with that. I enjoy things that I enjoy, I enjoy getting outdoors. So if I can get out there and do some hiking, you know, kind of get out there a little bit. That's, that's one of the areas that I you know, definitely enjoy and try to work out. Do CrossFit kind of keep myself mentally and physically fit. And you know, that kind of is it in a nutshell. So yeah. How long did you stay remain? We've been married 25 years, 25 years. And your wife has four kids? We have three kids?

Unknown Speaker : 2:22

You got it? Yeah. four boys.

Unknown Speaker : 2:25

Well, that's Let's go, what's the age range? So our oldest, he's a senior at Ohio State now. Crazy, cuz he was two years old when we moved up here. And then our middle son just started over in Miami University. So he's a freshman over there. We got got to move him. And last week after about a month delay, so he's super excited. And then our daughter is a junior at Lebanon High School and Wow. Amazing how our kids get older. And we never do. I know. I know. Yeah. Wish that was the case. Yeah, well, welcome. Obviously, it's been a long time

Michael Myers : 3:01

that you've been here, but Welcome to the studio. And every year takes on a different turn. I would imagine as you're developing the city, new challenges come up and different things kind of present themselves such as COVID. And we'll talk about that later. But as a city manager, prior to that, when you were an engineer for the city, who was a city manager back then I was the city manager when I was hired was Jim Patrick. And then kind of shortly after that, Pat Clements was a city manager and I work for Pat for a number of years. So you worked on them. And that helped prepare you for what would soon become your job. Absolutely. So you saw a little bit of a different side of the Lebanon than just being hired in off the street, so to speak, you got to kind of come up through the ranks. Right. Right. So what experience besides the engineering part, did you bring to that job? Yeah, so I had been, I was only the city engineer in Lebanon for about a year. And then there was some turnover with the city manager and pack limb has kind of moved into that position. And, and with that, he promoted me to the deputy city manager. So I think one of the things that's been so beneficial to me is to be able to, you know, kind of be in that operational role in Lebanon, for Geez, probably 17 plus years as kind of the assistant city manager, I was probably more like 15 years, just really learning, you know, all aspects of governmental services, but also really got gave me the opportunity to get involved in community. I mean, that's one of the things that I just love about, you know, my job is it provides me the opportunity to just really get involved in community meet some great folks be part of some great organizations here in town. So I think that definitely prepared me for the city manager position. I've been in the city manager position now for three years, and certainly enjoy it, but I think that continuity, you know, within

Unknown Speaker : 5:00

You know, within our organization within the community is important. Now, the City Council actually puts a stamp of approval on it. So how was that process? When you were up for it? Was it kind of like, oh, my goodness, I hope they picked me. Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, I definitely, you know, had kind of worked, you know, with counsel in my role for a number of years. So the transition honestly, was, was really smooth, I was just very grateful to have that opportunity, that counsel had the confidence in me to, you know, support me going into that position. So, it really, you know, Pat, the, the old city manager was retiring and moving out of town. And it really was kind of a smooth transition, at least from my perspective, and, again, grateful for the opportunity, because you never know, you know, you never know you have a goal of being a city manager, you want to be in that position. And, you know, that's how I ended up in Lebanon, I had a goal of being a city engineer, I was working for the city, Hamilton. And I wanted to be a city engineer, some somewhere. And that's kind of what led me here. And I'm just thankful I was able to stay in this community as a city manager. Now city manager, by definition, you're the CEO, basically, of the community. Correct. So obviously, just being financially in charge of everything, but it goes much deeper than that, correct? Yeah. I mean, it really is, you know, the operational aspects of the city and the services we provide. So we have kind of a city auditor, and he handles a lot of the, you know, tax collection, kind of finance side of things. But all of the operational services that we provide, whether it's police fire, all of our utilities, you know, engineering parks, that would kind of fall under my direct management responsibility. And that's one of the great things about Levin, as we are a full service community. I mean, we're, you know, our operating budgets over $80 million a year. So we have a lot of responsibilities. And we take a lot of pride in providing good services to our residents and businesses. But yeah, pretty much kind of the operational management, and then I'm kind of that link between our staff and our departments and city council, city council being the ones who kind of set policy and set the goals for the community. Now, how many employees does the city have currently, or just a general number? Yeah, we have 145 full time employees. And then on top of that, probably, depending on the season, another 50 or so kind of seasonal a part time position. employees, our fire department, we're still kind of 50% full time 50% part time. So our fire department has the most part time employees, but most other areas, like in the parks in the summer, we bring in seasonal employees. But yeah, we're steadily at 145 full time employees right now. Wow, what is your day to day? I mean, what do you do every day, I'll tell you what it varies. That's one of the great things about, you know, being in this position. And, you know, we'll do a lot of work with the high school in terms of job shadows, and I'll talk to students about this type of career. And one of the things I tell them is, you're you're always going to have different challenges, and you're always going to get to experience different aspects of the job if you're in local government and city management. So, you know, it's a lot of, you know, managing operations, managing personnel. So, you know, I'm kind of the chief personnel officer, but then making sure the services are being delivered effectively, efficiently, meeting with the community. So one of the things I tried to do is be involved in that community. So I'm involved with the Chamber of Commerce, countryside, YMCA. And then, you know, various civic groups like the Main Street, Lebanon. So it really varies. You know, I definitely try to make myself available and have an open door policy. So whether it's a staff member that needs to come in and talk about something, or if there's a resident or business that has an issue that they, you know, that they want to be heard, I make sure that I find time to, you know, provide that and listen and try to solve any issues that are out there. Now, I was in the Marine Corps. So I know what open door policies sound like on paper. Yeah, but then when you do wind up going to somebody that's not necessarily in your chain of command, there's retroversion kind of thing. So I know, it probably be difficult to approach you, if you're, you know, on the front line, so to speak and talk to you. But is there a way for employees just to communicate to make sure that their voice is being heard, not just from the direct boss, who might be filtering some of the things but kind of like a workaround to where this is the real nuts and bolts of what's going on in our community? How do you provide? I mean, that would be difficult for anybody to figure that out. Because we're humans, and we get it wrong sometimes. But, I mean, is there a way for you that you put into place some system to where every voice is really truly kind of heard? Yeah, I mean, I think we we encourage that, you know, through our regular communication with staff and, you know, if there's an employee

Unknown Speaker : 10:00

That has an issue within a department, you know, I always encourage them to try to get that addressed or communicate that with their direct supervisor, I kind of take that approach. But if there's an issue where it's just not getting resolved, I would rather know about it than not know about it. So, you know, I encourage folks to either, you know, call stop in email, any of that any of those forms.

Unknown Speaker : 10:25

And I think, for me, the important part of it is to respond. So if I get the, if I get this, you know, you know, coming to me that to provide some sort of response, and we'll work on it together. So it doesn't, you know, it doesn't happen a lot, because I think we've got outstanding department heads in the city. But it does happen. Yeah. And I'm not really thinking about the disciplinary side of like, I'm upset with my manager. So you know about it, I'm thinking more like, I could save the city so much money, if we do it this way. And my boss has not listened to it. Because we're so traditional that we keep doing it the same way kind of thing. So like, maybe a suggestion box or something. Yeah, we do that innovation is is a core value of ours. So we talk a lot about, you know, wanting to be innovative, wanting to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. So yeah, we've got kind of a suggestion box type approach. And then we, you know, recognize employees at the end of the year for their innovation. So it's kind of a system where if you have an employee who's done something innovative, we kind of have an award at the end of the year along with a staff member of the year where we try to recognize that and make sure they understand that we value that thinking, we don't want to be in a situation where we're just kind of doing the same thing over and over again, because that's what we've always done. We want to look at new ways to do business, you always think about the power of referrals, like you know, people I don't know, and you know, how they would fit in my life. So I'm not really selling you on what I'm doing. It's almost like I'm trusting you in our relationship to where you know enough about me to where you would feel comfortable selling for me, right. So the city, I mean, we do that all the time, come to my city, because it's a great city to live in, or don't come to my city, because it's not that great. So we have those outlets that we, you know, throw out there, and it can make or break a city. So in that I was just thinking of, if we need a certain business, like to throw it out there like, hey, if you have these contacts with this business, there's a referral, yes. Right, you know, send them my way, I would love to have a chance to talk to him. And that's where, you know, we've established good working relationships with our Chamber of Commerce with our downtown merchant groups, with our industrial and our manufacturing business base, where, you know, we rely on them to kind of help market and help get the word out about what Lebanon has to offer. So it's definitely not just the city going out there, the city, trying to do this on our own, we're trying to take advantage of networks and the great organizations that we have here, to really help us continue to kind of build up our business environment here. Hmm. What's the greatest challenge that you face since being in office this year is probably honestly been the biggest challenge on a couple levels. You know, in terms of, you know, my role as city manager, you know, the COVID, and the economic impact that it's had, and then just trying to help support these businesses who certainly earlier in the year, were just trying to stay afloat and trying to keep their doors open. So I think, you know, the city's responded and in a number of ways to try to try to support that. We did a small business relief grant program earlier in the year. And then we've just actually launched two new programs, where we're going to provide some additional grants for small businesses, who have been impacted by COVID. But then we've also expanded that to provide some additional grants to nonprofit organizations, who have also been impacted, because we feel like they've kind of slipped through the cracks a little bit. And these nonprofit organizations do so much for our community. So city council felt very strongly that we wanted to also try to provide something for them. So just managing, you know, the, the, you know, the personnel side of COVID. Unfortunately, our terms of our staff members, we haven't had that much direct impact from it. But certainly a lot of uncertainty, we did have to transition to some work at home for a period of time. And just kind of managing that and, you know, just encouraging our staff to stay focused on the services we provide. The police departments are encouraged to work from home, right. Yeah. Well, the department knows I have to go out yeah, that's, that's where it's been, you know, challenging because, you know, you've seen a lot of businesses who can just transition very easily to working from home. We as we cannot I mean, I can't or electric linemen can't do their jobs from home or police or fire they, you know, they have to be on site, our wastewater treatment plant. So, you know, we didn't really have that opportunity to do a whole lot of things.

Unknown Speaker : 15:00

Transitioning during that, you know, during the, you know, spring and summer months, we were Okay guys, we're going to have to get through that. And we're going to have to, you know, have a staffing model that works, and continue to provide the services that everybody relies on. And I feel like we did we accomplish that I feel like we did a good job with that.

Unknown Speaker : 15:20

Financially, you know, anything that impacts our businesses is going to ultimately impact the city's finances, because we rely very heavily on income tax revenue. So you know, we're down about 4%, year to date on our income tax revenue, which, you know, is manageable. So I think that's one of the things that Lebanon takes pride in is really being fiscally conservative budgeting very conservatively, so that when things like this happen, we can weather the storm. I think that's what we've done. And we'll continue to do so without a monitor, you have big government, little government mind, guy, how do you how do you view that we I mean, we try to stay as kind of streamline and as efficient as we can. So we don't have

Unknown Speaker : 16:06

you know, a lot of, you know, maybe programs outside of kind of what our core services are. And I'll take, you know, maybe our parks department as an example, we don't have our own recreation center, we don't offer a lot of, quote, programming, we provide the facilities, we provide the fields, we provide the park space, and then we have partners in the community who kind of run the programs and and provide that support. And I think it's a model that works well. You know, because I think, you know, we are definitely I would consider it fiscally conservative. And it's in times like these that you really, really appreciate it. Because, you know, we don't have to get into significant budget cuts, you know, we're definitely, you know, cutting in some areas, but it's manageable. So we've always tried to a provide outstanding service. So when you're talking about police and fire, and public safety, that's a no fail area. And, you know, we have to ensure that we're providing outstanding service there. So you didn't have to lay anybody off? We have not No, I mean, we we there were some positions that we had programmed, that were vacant that we didn't fill. Throughout that we cut back on some of our seasonal part time positions. But we'd never we didn't have to actually lay off a full time employee. And, you know, that's something that, you know, I'm proud of, because I think we have great, great staff, and you want to support them as much as we can. And, and again, the fact that we budgeted conservatively gives us some flexibility during these down downturns to not have to make massive changes and in our operations and be able to weather the storm, which we've done. So we made cuts in the budget this year, we made adjustments, but we were able to accomplish it without, you know, layoffs. Why, when you're talking about the parks, or others just reminded me we have 17 parks here in Lebanon 17. How many acres is that total? Oh, it's over over 500 acres, over 500 over 500 acres. We have a great park system. I mean, it's something that, you know, I I'm very strongly connected to and enjoy. My family enjoys it on a personal level. And I think, you know, it's definitely one of those things that speaks to the quality of life in a community. It's interesting, we've got a new residential development there that is just being launched. And you look at and it's very nice housing, you know, high quality housing and where's it's on West Street. So Jacinto homes, just purchased some acreage on West Street, kind of back behind that vacant manufacturing facility at the corner of Cincinnati and West. And in their marketing material. They are really promoting the quality of life that Lebanon has, when they're trying to, you know, recruit folks to buy lots and it's downtown. It's the bike trail. It's the park system, it's the countryside YMCA. Those are the type of amenities that people are looking for in a community.

Unknown Speaker : 19:04

That closeness, you know, you feel connected. Yes, you know, the small, intimate community. And that's that, I guess that's a struggle, because a lot of citizens are like, I love our size. I don't want it to get any bigger. You know, I don't want to be New York, we just kind of want us for no more. And that has a good side and a bad side. So how do you balance the two, especially with businesses wanting to come in and we're looking at like, futuristically maybe this is not a good fit. As a city manager? How do you kind of? Yeah, I think that is a challenge. Because you do have to grow to some point and expand your tax base to be able to continue to provide those services. So our police officers are funded by income tax revenue from businesses so it's not the tickets if they right now it's not believe it or not, it's not. So it that's that's a challenge, and I mean, people love the fact that you come to Lebanon, and it's still you still have

Unknown Speaker : 20:00

have that sense of community that our downtown still provides that source of an identity for a community and kind of a gathering space. So I think the approach that we've we've taken is kind of protect and invest in our downtown because that is

Unknown Speaker : 20:16

when people think of Lebanon, that's what a lot of people identify with. We have great community festivals downtown quite a bit. So we never want to take that for granted. I've seen a lot of communities that have tried to build a downtown up from the ground up. And it's very hard to do, it's much easier to maintain, you know, something outstanding that you have. So we do try to kind of protect that and best continue to invest in that core downtown.

Unknown Speaker : 20:44

A lot of people probably don't realize all of the industrial and manufacturing operations that we have on the south side of Lebanon, before you get into that. I didn't realize how big our footprint Yeah, as you start driving out and my son, he's a junior as well and some of his friends. I'm like it takes forever to get there. Where are you sure they live in Lebanon school district? Right, right. So it's a little deceptive because you just think it's just a small footprint. And then you realize, wait, the industrial park? Yeah, forgot about? Yeah, talking about Yeah, Levin is 12 square miles. And so we we essentially our industrial park area, which is everything really kind of south of Turtle Creek union road. So it extends, I mean, we touched the city of Mason, we touch South Lebanon, if you look at, you know, the area, kind of on the southern side of when are we taking over South Lebanon, but when we are not? We are not? We're not gonna fully independent, though. But yeah, so I mean, that's where our major employers are, if you talk about adverse manufacturing, they provide 1000 jobs in our community. And we're fortunate that we have quite a bit there's man, and man is it man, his top three employer, huge employer. So those businesses really, you know, are kind of the economic engine for a lot of what we do here in Lebanon. And, and we want to continue to attract businesses down there. And I think the way Lebanon's kind of set up, it lends itself to, you know, the industrial development there doesn't really it's there, it's very important, but it doesn't, it's not necessarily what you see or feel when you think of Lebanon coming into our downtown. So it's not so much our identity, which is good, you know, because I think, you know, while it provides an outstanding, you know, source of kind of revenue and business activity, you know, people like that gateway feel when you come into community more like what our downtown has to offer. So I think I think the biggest challenge, just in terms of growth is what type of residential growth you want to see. Because you don't I hear it all the time. You know, we, we don't want to become too big. Right? Yeah. And I get that a lot. And I and I understand it, you know, you got you want to have some residential growth, but you don't want to just let it go unchecked. And so that's part we're updating our comprehensive plan right now. Actually, it's a process that we encourage the public to get involved with, there's going to be public workshops and meetings, but a lot of that is land use, how do you want to see Lebanon grow? So it's a great opportunity for the community to voice their opinion and, and let us know how they would like to see Lebanon grow, to kind of help guide future decisions. And ultimately, it's a decision of who ultimately, you know, city council. So if you're taught you elect Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So any sort of annexation decision, that is a decision that city council makes. And then our planning commission, they review all of the site plans, and they're appointed by city council. So certainly your Yeah, absolutely. The the elected officials are central and kind of defining how this community grows and develops. So let me ask you if you know or don't know, or if you can tell me next to fishes on the left that corner lot, it's sold. Who's going in there? Next. Okay. So that is there was a restaurant that had been planned to go in there. Originally, it was a shooter's. And then they kind of changed course into I think it was more like a, I'll say like a Boston Market type. But that's been put on hold. So at this point, yeah. But it is that is general commercial. So I think the interest that we've seen in that property has been for kind of a restaurant use, but there's nothing at this point in active. Sure. We don't need another Speedway. I mean, we have I don't know. Yeah. I hear people will tell me that. We need a gas station on the South side of town. Right. So I don't know about a Speedway. I do hear that. No restaurants would be here. Obviously, when you said shooters, my wife really likes Yeah, yeah. We were excited about that. And it's just something that my understanding is that's not moving forward at this point. But hopefully, we'll see.

Unknown Speaker : 25:00

Something there? Well, the property that sell somebody owns or they're just trying to figure out what to put in. Exactly. That's good. Yeah. How was the conversation with you or the city leaders and Vance, why did they decide Lebanon? You know, that's that's a good question. They, they came to us. So that's an example where we, as a city didn't necessarily go out and try to recruit them. They viewed this market very favorably in terms of the products that they that they sell. So they identified Lebanon as a place they wanted to grow. We've been meeting with them for over a year, you know, and we kind of actually

Unknown Speaker : 25:41

gave them a couple different location options to consider. And they ended up settling on the space next to the peddlers antique mall. And I know, they're, they're doing a VIP opening tonight. So they're getting close the moving full blown, opening, but um, you know, I think they just kind of looked at this market as it fit, kind of their business strategy, and it kind of fit their corporate philosophy. We were very excited to see a vacant retail space get filled in a time we can direct a business into a vacant space. First, we always try to do that, because we would love to see some of these other vacant retail spaces get filled up. So anything in the works with the old Kroger's building, no, not at this point. There's nothing that's that's beyond is kind of some very, you know, generic inquiry. So there's nothing at this point in the works on that space. You know, there's the the new Cronin dodge dealership is under construction. So they're moving dirt. And we're, we're excited about about that project. And then what will they do with their old are they gonna keep it? We've asked them that, and we don't know. No, at this point. They really haven't, I think made that decision or told us they actually own not only the property where they're building their new dealership, but they also own that property with the buildings kind of next to the Kelly's meeting deli retail area. So they they own a couple properties and in Lebanon, that they'll have to determine kind of what's over the old lumberyard. Exactly, and that's for sale right now. So there's a lot of interest on kind of that West Main Street corridor. If you look at where Lebanon can grow, certainly growing West kind of out towards 741. In the union village development is a strong growth corridor for us. And we're seeing a lot of interest in that corridor.

Unknown Speaker : 27:38

And yeah, there's the new tradition, Senior Living development, often Neil Armstrong way, which is something that I think this community really needs is some additional options for senior living. We hear that a lot. And we're excited to work with them on both kind of an independent living units, but also an assisted living facility as well. We have Miss Lindsay in here from optimized Sr. Yes, they do a great job. They finished up the building over there. We helped them with that a little bit. And then they have plans, I think for two more buildings in the back. So yep, they they just kicked off the their new building, and then they've got room to grow as well. So that's definitely a trend that we're seeing his interest and senior living options, first floor housing products. And we're obviously looking for ways to support that. Now, do you see it looking into your magic ball?

Unknown Speaker : 28:33

Do you see anything that's on the horizon that you're excited about for the city? and development wise business? Are you in conversations with anybody? You don't necessarily have to disclose that right now. But is there something that's coming that you're really pumped about? So 511 North Broadway development, and we've been working on this for a number of years and the developers indicated they're ready to move forward with construction in October. But that's the the mixed use development. That's kind of just north of Oakwood Avenue, on North Broadway, and we definitely are looking forward to seeing that move into the construction phase. One of the things we did a downtown Master Plan A few years ago, and one of the couple of the key recommendations coming from that plan was that you need to provide some new housing options. In and around your downtown. People want to live in downtown Lebanon, they want to be able to walk downtown, you don't have anything besides an older housing stock. And for some people that just doesn't appeal to them. They want something more maintenance free. So you know, the 511 North Broadway includes both townhomes and market rate apartments, but then also to kind of commercial restaurant spaces in front. So we're very excited to see that project. kind of move forward. You see a lot of activity on North

Unknown Speaker : 30:00

Broadway, a lot of things going on, there's the new berry Plaza Park that's under construction, which again, was a recommendation of the plan to really create a little bit of a gathering space there, but also kind of a gateway feature as you come into our downtown, and this park number 18. That would be parked near Park number 18. Yeah, a lot of our parks are smaller, but we have. And that's kind of one of our more downtown kind of Park pocket parks. But yeah, that is definitely, you know, our newest Park and a good collaboration with the school district. So they still own the property. But they've allowed us to enter into an agreement where we obviously construct this park and the city will operate it. Now I talked to miss Brewer, the mayor, in reference to taking a two lane down to one lane, all the aggravation that that calls because everybody's so used to just flying in the town, the reason behind it, the heart behind it. And that's usually what you got to get to like there's a reason for the madness. And this is the reason, if you have a lot of people that you're encouraging to walk downtown, you need to provide a safe environment to do so. So the crosswalks, extra curbing all that stuff was in that and then also reducing that lane causes people to kind of slow down as they're coming into the city. Is that correct? That's absolutely correct. In addition to that, it allows us to accommodate on street parking, kind of in that area, which was important for the development to be able to move forward. And then as you move from the new fire station site, north, it allows us to incorporate bike lane into North Broadway, which next year that will be extended all the way up to millat Road. So when we look at when we do Park surveys, and we talk to our residents about what type of amenity they want to see, trails is always the number one request, people love trails, whether it's you know, walking, running, biking. So the city has secured a grant from odnr to essentially extend our bike trail from where it terminates right now at the corner of South and Cherry Street, it'll go kind of through downtown. And then back behind Barre school on the ALA cook trail, it's going to come out to Broadway through the new fire station property. And then from there, there'll be a dedicated bike lane that goes all the way up to Miller road, really with the intent of connecting our as many neighborhoods as we can to a trail system. So that it's not just kind of that southern half of Lebanon that has access to the bike trail. So that's that's an exciting project. Again, this was kind of the striping that's tied to the 511 North Broadway project. And some of those other recommendations is phase one. Phase Two, will start early next year where we actually get into the construction to connect the downtown all the way up to Miller road with a trail system. Now the new fire station is exciting. And all that area is pretty, you know, obviously exciting as it's being developed. But the

Unknown Speaker : 32:54

biggest question for me and for others is how in the world are we going to handle the traffic when it comes to like Apple fest inside that because it is so congested with the four lanes of traffic now you're going down to a limited space? What was the thought process? You know, I think we're gonna find out here pretty soon, this weekend.

Unknown Speaker : 33:12

Extra overtime for the police. Right? Exactly. I think you know, one thing that I do tell people is this is this is paint on pavement. So if we have to make some adjustments in terms of, you know, do coning off and, and providing some additional lanes during, you know, one weekend of the year or whether it's just, you know, fair week or Apple Fest, we can make those adjustments. When we did the the road dyed in the striping, we preserved a dedicated right turn lane going into the fairgrounds, just knowing that there's some key events where traffic volumes are high. But you know, we we, you know, we had a traffic engineering study done before we kind of took this step and we had a traffic engineer looking at the traffic volumes and making recommendations and they felt like it was, you know, that it could be accommodated with the road diet and still handle those events. But yeah, I mean, there's going to be you know, for those events, you have a police officer out there helping you to direct direct traffic and helping things flow. So I think you know, I think it's going to go,

Unknown Speaker : 34:18

go fine, but if there are issues, I think there's opportunities to make some relatively easy adjustments to to address that if we have to. Alright, Scott, let's talk about some of the events that are coming up. We have a full slate of events coming up this fall starting this weekend with Apple fest and feast and folly which is kind of a downtown festival. Apple fest is out at the at the fairgrounds. But then October fest so October 10 October fest along with the pooch parade, which is put on by Mainstreet Levin, and if you never watched that it's quite entertaining, I will say is Heather Sexton part of that. Yeah, she's one of the key organizers of that event and

Unknown Speaker : 35:00

really a fun event. So October fest and pooch parade is October 10. And then the pleased to announce the annual carriage parade for Saturday in December is going to happen this year. It's gonna be a little bit different format. But I think still, it's going to be a great experience. And that important that event is so important for Lebanon and for our downtown merchants. So we worked very hard to put together a plan that allows that event to move forward. So someone who's concerned about the the new crosswalk the middle

Unknown Speaker : 35:32

Island and how it would impact the horse drawn. Yeah, I we I don't see a problem though. We are fine. And we made sure we ran that through Joe Wilson, who is all things carriage parade, right to make sure there's adequate width, so it's not going to destroy. Honestly, I'd be a great place for another camera. Right there soon to come. And it'd be neat to capture both sizes. Yeah, yeah. And that's what I mean, loving him loves, loves their events, I mean, and it really does kind of generate that sense of community. So it's gonna be a lot of activity, this fall, and and you know, our cares period as well. So it's gonna be great. Awesome. Is there anything else you want to leave the listeners with? You know, I just want to, I want to thank you for what you've done for this building. So this is my first first opportunity to come in to hometown hang out here and what an amazing job that you've done. I encourage folks to come down and check it out. You've got a food truck out there. So you can come in some food and just just wow. I mean, I was blown away with what a great job you've done here. And we have so many just innovative and outstanding businesses here. That's why it gets special. Yeah, that's why I like when I walk around and see the different, you know, just the thought processes of how you put together your space. And you know what your intent is, is pretty neat to see people's Yeah, innovative ideas. Yeah, yeah, it's great. So thank you for what you've done with your investment community and making this happen. You're welcome for that. Thanks for coming to the show. Folks. If you want more information, obviously, you can click the link below. You can find out some more information. Please share this podcast with anybody that you know, you have been listening to let's talk with Michael Myers here in the studio 537 East Main Street, Scott again, thanks for coming in. Hey, thank you very much.