Transcript

Event transcript
Sharon, we ready? 00:00:00
All right. Welcome everybody, to the May Watkinsville City Council meetings. Great to have a packed house here tonight. We're 00:00:05
grateful for that and also grateful to have a quorum here. Tonight. We have everybody here, everybody here from City Council. The 00:00:12
microphone is on. 00:00:19
OK. 00:00:27
Can you hear me now? There we go. OK. 00:00:30
So we will start as we normally do with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. 00:00:37
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:43
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:49
All right. Couple things before we get going in earnest tonight. I'm not sure what's brought such a big crowd in here tonight, but 00:01:02
I do want to point out, I do anticipate several items being tabled tonight, including the pipe plant project. It doesn't mean if 00:01:08
you came for that, that you can't speak, but you will need to wait until the public comment period of the meeting to speak to 00:01:14
that. We won't have a unless council sees otherwise. I anticipate us tabling that until August. 00:01:20
The gentleman involved with that project are here tonight and I'm sure if you've got thoughts or want to have a conversation with 00:01:27
them too, they're happy to engage in that and at at the appropriate point I'll encourage Mr. Keller to introduce himself, but we 00:01:32
will not be having that as a formal item on the agenda tonight unless council chooses to do so, but the developer has requested 00:01:37
that that be tabled tonight. 00:01:42
For those of you who haven't been here before, we're pretty, I won't say, loose with the rules. We do allow public comment at 00:01:49
council's discretion at moments where where some other governments may not. That said, we do have standards and expectations in 00:01:54
terms of how we do communicate. 00:02:00
Your comments will always need to be addressed to the council, not to the crowd. They will need to be respectful. They will need 00:02:06
to be focused on the matter at hand, unless it's during public comment. During public comment, you can comment on matters that are 00:02:12
wide-ranging, but you cannot insult or attack anyone in this room, or you will be asked to leave and shut down, OK? 00:02:19
So that'll be the way that that works that I'll provide some more clarity as we move through the agenda tonight. 00:02:27
I am your mayor, Brian Broderick. The other council members names are up here in front of you tonight. So we will start off with a 00:02:32
proclamation tonight. And that proclamation is for Municipal Court Corps Week and we have a very good Municipal Court clerk and 00:02:38
that's Miss Lee Black and we're grateful to her. 00:02:44
And all Municipal Court clerks for the vital services they perform in their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent 00:03:54
and serve. Lee, thank you. 00:03:58
Our finance director. 00:04:18
All right. I'm going to move to the microphone for our next. 00:04:38
Love it. We have. 00:04:43
Amelia Anderson. 00:04:48
And Cindy Pritchard, if you could come up here with me. 00:04:52
Amelia, how are you? This is your third council meeting in a row. Isn't that crazy that you're here? 00:04:58
A few months ago Amelia wrote me a letter and that was prompted by a project at her school and asked suggested that we have a 00:05:03
litter cleanup contest in Watkinsville. And we love that idea so much that we. 00:05:09
Had that contest and we are Amelia has been our leader and we're grateful to her. And then Cindy, right Oconee County clean and 00:05:16
beautiful and we're grateful for Cindy for her support. So we've had people all during the month of April during Earth month 00:05:21
cleaning up the streets around Watkinsville and the streets look great. So Amelia thank you for your work there. And so we had a 00:05:27
contest to see who could pick up the most trash during that month and I'm really pleased to announce the winners of that contest 00:05:33
tonight so. 00:05:39
In first place with $100.00 gift certificate to Athens running company we have. 00:05:45
Rosalind. Romano. Rosalind, come on up here. 00:05:53
$25 the cost that Allegra as well. 00:06:06
OK, there you go. How many bags of trash did you pick up? 00:06:09
Tell these people. 00:06:12
You don't remember? 00:06:15
Let's see. It looks like you picked up 5 to 9 bags of trash. 00:06:20
So Roslyn picked up 5 to 9 bags. So congratulations, Stay up here with me, all right? And then our next winner, our second place 00:06:24
winner is. 00:06:29
Alexander Emerson, do you know this guy? OK, Alexander, come on up here. Alexander is going to get. 00:06:35
70 He's going to get a $75.00 gift certificate to Mama Ning. So that could pay for the whole family, I think. So congratulations, 00:06:44
Alexander. 00:06:48
That's exciting. And then I understand, is today your birthday too? Is that right? Well, happy birthday. 00:06:53
All right. 00:06:59
Our third place winner is Dan Matthews, who picked up it looks like Dan did. You pick up 8 bags, 8 bags of trash. So Dan is going 00:07:03
to get fattened up at scoops. 00:07:10
Got a $50.00 gift stick? Get the scoops. 00:07:19
Dan also found our weirdest object, Which was which? Yeah, which I think was. 00:07:22
A. A piece of the library? Something from the library. 00:07:33
The door to the little Free Library Dan found. OK, so, so Dan, thank you for that. And then the last person I want to recognize is 00:07:38
Amelia. Amelia, thank you for thank you for what you've done and and your leadership. 00:07:45
So we're going to also going to give you a $25.00 gift card to Costa Allegra as well, so that's for you. 00:07:52
So thank you, Amelia. 00:07:57
Yeah, oops. Hang on a. 00:08:25
Yeah, yeah. 00:08:33
All right, we've had a lot of young leaders stepping up in Watkinsville lately, and Amelia Emerson is a great one. I know some 00:08:47
people were having trouble finding seats. If you're out in the hall, we do have seats available in here now as some people have 00:08:51
departed. Sophie. 00:08:55
Feel free to come on in. 00:09:00
A couple other quick announcements. May is April is Mental Health Month, and one in five at US adults experience mental illness 00:09:02
each year and only half of them receive treatment. So we'll remind people, if you have a mental health issue, Please remember to 00:09:09
call 988 if you need a help with. Need help with that. 00:09:16
So for a live meeting, the user must click the CC icon in the lower right corner of the video window. 00:09:54
When the video from tonight's meeting is posted online, closed captioning will automatically appear. Interested parties can also 00:09:59
view a transcript of the meeting under the tab titled Transcript As A Reminder. A notice of the council meeting, along with the 00:10:04
current month's agenda, is posted one full week before the meeting to allow the public sufficient time to provide comments and 00:10:08
writing to the clerk if they choose to do so. 00:10:13
I'll move on to the meeting minutes from the April 17th, 2024 Meeting Council. I'll entertain a motion to amend or approve the 00:10:18
minutes as necessary. 00:10:23
I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second we have a motion, we have a second. We have Any comments? 00:10:29
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Any opposed motion carries 50. 00:10:38
We'll now move to the approval of the agenda. We are going to make the following amendments to the agenda. 00:10:43
We're going to table items 10 and 11. The applicant I'm requesting that we table items 10 and 11. The applicant has requested that 00:10:48
for the variance for 56 Dooley St. to the June 19th meeting. I'm also requesting that we table items 12 and 13, the rezone of 1180 00:10:54
Greensboro Highway to August 21st meeting. 00:11:00
As I said earlier, if you're here to talk about that tonight, you can certainly mention, give us your thoughts during the public 00:11:07
comments portion of the meeting. And I do anticipate the meeting being relatively brief tonight other than the budget. So if you 00:11:12
want to hang around and comment, that's fine. 00:11:17
We also want to table item 16 per staff, request the contractor for trail work at the Thomas Farm Preserve to June 19th and then 00:11:22
I'd like to request that we add under old businesses item 14 a revision to approve the selection of the contractor related to our 00:11:28
work on School St. and Simonton Way. 00:11:34
So if anybody could make a motion to that effect I would appreciate it. So moved. 00:11:40
Sorry, we have a motion. We have a second. Any comments? 00:11:45
Hearing none, all in favor, say aye, aye. 00:11:49
The motion, the agenda is amended. 00:11:53
And that will be our agenda tonight. 00:11:55
Right. We'll move through administration. Well, that'll be our financial reports, economic development, Police Department reports. 00:11:57
Miss Dickerson, if you want to kick us off with administration, please. Thank you, Mayor. Everybody should have received and these 00:12:03
are available online as well, a balance sheet, the general fund revenues and expenses, right now we are at 98% revenues when we 00:12:08
should be closer to 83. So that's good news. On our expense side, we should be close to 83 and we're actually at 76%. So that's 00:12:14
even better news. 00:12:19
Any questions in general about those? 00:12:26
OK. Talk about a little bit about our SPLOST. 00:12:29
So Splice 3 this these projects include the improvements at Hair Shoals Park, including the recent paving down there as well as 00:12:32
the bathroom renovation. We have some work on a boardwalk that we're currently working on with a consultant. We also have some 00:12:40
work in this in this budget that covers Thomas Farm Preserve that has been encumbered and some work that's currently underway. 00:12:47
It also included some work on Jackson Street with some drainage improvements, downtown streetscape, some sidewalks, work at Rocket 00:12:55
Field and our entryway signs. And we still have a fair amount of money left in the budget that has that has not been spent, that 00:13:01
will be spent on some of these projects. The average monthly revenue is around 81,000. 00:13:08
And we budgeted around 60, I think 68,000. This floss is collected at 8.63% under agreement with Oconee County and it will sunset 00:13:16
on September 30th of 2027. We have a little bit more than $1,000,000 in this account. 00:13:23
On T's bosses, our transportation special purpose local option sales tax that began in April of last year. It ends in March of 00:13:32
2028. It is calculated 7.77% with the county. Right now our average revenues are right around 71 and some change projects under 00:13:38
this I. 00:13:44
Program or sidewalks and paving of roads, those are ones that are currently under. In fact, one of the items on your agenda 00:13:51
tonight that we're going to be talking about deals with some money is out of this, out of this program. 00:13:56
And we have a little bit more than $655,000 in that account. 00:14:03
Seen a growth of about 6%. 00:14:07
Any questions on any of that? 00:14:45
OK, whoops. 00:14:48
Hang on a second. 00:14:49
Economic development. So business licenses were probably about 92% complete. We've got some that are waiting on some fire 00:14:52
inspections and some others that we're trying to clarify if they're still in business or not. 00:14:57
So that that's a good number to be at just a month after the deadline on excise tax collections. We have alcohol excise tax and 00:15:03
our short term vacation rental or hotel motel tax. Those are tracking as we anticipated. 00:15:09
And on building permits, we have 24 permits for 20 projects. Our biggest one on here dollar wise is the Waters Walk project that 00:15:17
has been outstanding that is a low income housing tax credit funded. 00:15:24
Project that will provide for its age restricted, so 55 plus or older people will live in that in that complex. It'll be located 00:15:31
behind a county State Bank off of water and Durham St. So they've paid this fees and they're working to demo those buildings which 00:15:37
all that all that has been approved. They're just finally at the point where they can start triggering that work. So any questions 00:15:43
on those? 00:15:49
All right. I have one more thing that I normally don't only do this once a year. This is our annual review with Civic Plus. They 00:15:56
maintain our website. 00:16:00
We've been working with them since 2018 and just some interesting stats that I wanted to share I. 00:16:05
So our website, if nobody knows, it's cityofwatkinsville.com. 00:16:12
So we had 30. Over the past year we've had 33,000 plus users, a total of 77,716 page views and an average time of two minutes and 00:16:17
20 seconds. Our population is a little bit more than 2800 according to the census, the top listed pages. I'm not surprised by this 00:16:24
Christmas festivities that always gets a big push. Hair Shoals, Park Police Department and then Thomas Farm City Council meeting, 00:16:30
which was good to see and just general information about the city. 00:16:37
And then our top search items, paying a ticket or paying miscellaneous items. So we do also don't want everybody thinking that's 00:16:46
just tickets. That also includes anybody want to rent the parks or whatnot, they can use that as well. 00:16:51
And then, of course, Christmas festivities and building permits. 00:16:57
And then these are the top downloaded documents, our occupational tax application affidavits which are required for contractors, 00:17:00
information about garbage and recycling and other items. So it's always interesting to see what we get each year, what the 00:17:05
analytics are. So any questions about any of that? 00:17:11
OK. 00:17:17
All right. So I I don't know how many of y'all participated in our first ever annual burger week that the DA put on with some of 00:17:21
our local restaurants. 00:17:28
And also partnered with the Georgia Beef Board. But it was an exciting week. I personally ate way more hamburgers than I normally 00:17:35
would, probably in a month, and they were excellent. 00:17:41
We sold over 1000 total burgers, approximately 414 lbs of beef, 423 total votes and $55 was raised for O arc. 7 restaurants in 00:17:49
downtown participated. 00:17:57
And the winners were Best Burger, Blind Pig Tavern. 00:18:05
The most creative burger. And it was, and it was delightful. And I've heard that even though it's not officially on the menu, you 00:18:13
can actually request it if you go to Kiki's Kitchen. 00:18:18
And then the last one, best collaboration with some great. 00:18:23
Great businesses and people here was Wing House Grill. So that was a lot of fun and today and our DDA meeting we talked through 00:18:30
some tweaks and some improvements. Anytime you do something there's always you know room for changes and improvements and we do 00:18:37
think that is the that this was the first annual and so something to be looking forward to in the future. It also just in general 00:18:44
that obviously the point of doing these things is to help bring more business to downtown into our restaurants and. 00:18:52
They really did see increased sales overall and increased business and I heard a lot of people try places that they hadn't tried 00:18:59
before. So again, that's the the reason we do these things and it really was a success. The next big thing that DDA has coming up 00:19:07
is right, it's going to be a kickoff right before school starts. August 3rd is a BBQ competition and Bake Off and we are still 00:19:16
taking entries. We are still looking for sponsors. We actually have a fair amount of sponsorship, which is excellent. 00:19:24
This is all a fundraiser. It's appropriate for me to talk about it right now as this is Mental Health Awareness Month and this is 00:19:32
going to be going to help support Bethel Haven, which is a local nonprofit that has mental health services available to 00:19:40
individuals and families. So mark your calendar. I know August 3rd sounds like it's forever away, but we are all going to blink 00:19:47
and it's going to be there and it is Kathleen's birthday, so we will all go and set. 00:19:55
Which birthday? Seven. OK, so we're going to have a big party. 00:20:03
At Rocket Field. So all exciting things to look forward to. 00:20:08
All right. With that, we'll turn it over to Chief GAIL for the Police Department report. 00:20:17
Thank you. 00:20:27
Got to bring it down from my short self. That's OK. The police department's been very busy over the past month with lots of good 00:20:29
things. I I take no credit for this. These officers have been working their tails off and as citizens, you all should be very 00:20:37
proud. They're doing the property checks. They're they're, you know, they're citing people for violations on vehicles that are 00:20:44
safety issues. And that's the thing we try to emphasize. Yes, it might be equipment, but there's also usually some. 00:20:52
Safety event going on. That catches our attention. So I just want to keep that in mind. But they're getting out there checking 00:21:00
property checks. That's a big #675 property checks. So they're getting out of their cars, they're walking around, they're driving 00:21:06
it around the property. So very meaningful activities. We're also amping up our training and so several officers have gone to 00:21:12
different classes. 00:21:19
We've had an officer complete family violence and those laws are always changing, so it's a constant need. 00:21:26
We went, we had another officer go to criminal procedure. So that goes with your legal foundation and our city attorney can 00:21:33
appreciate that. I I appreciate it. I'll tell you that for sure. And there we have several classes still lined up at our state 00:21:40
training facility. So there is minimal cost to the department or the city. But we're, you know, I'm trying to reach out to 00:21:47
agencies close to us so that we are perpetually training our officers to be confident at what they're doing. 00:21:55
And safety is always an emphasis. So we're we're doing training on our tactics and such. 00:22:03
We are still dealing and will be dealing with the police vehicle recall issues. They're only doing one car at a time. So it's a 00:22:10
slow process and it's a multiple multi pronged process because we can take a car for one issue and then we'll have to take it back 00:22:16
for a separate recall. And that's just the story of our life and moving on to the next slide. We've been busy with community 00:22:23
events and that is, that's what drives us. You all drive us and it's been thrilling. It's been wonderful. I sent a ton of 00:22:29
pictures. 00:22:35
To manager Dickerson and you know it's it's just. 00:22:43
That's how we get to know you and that's how you all our community get to know us, so we will continue to do this. 00:22:46
And and so with that I'm going to ask two officers to and they they really don't want to do this, but we need to recognize the 00:22:54
time and effort that these officers put in to you, to our community and our children. So we've had two, we've had multiple events, 00:23:02
but two of them were done really. The officers take the lead on planning this and they do it in their off time, so. 00:23:11
Doing a majority of this work when they're not here, so it takes a lot of effort and then when they're on midnight shift it it's 00:23:20
painful to see them get up or stay over to continue to get everything planned and organized for our incredible event. So we did 00:23:28
cops and bobbers. We've done an event at a adult elderly facility, residential facility for Valentine's Day. We've hard agree 00:23:36
Fishing sanctuary allowed us to use it. We partnered with them. 00:23:44
And we had an incredible event with our kids and that's where our kids, you all get to know us as humans not wearing the uniforms 00:23:52
and we're out there. So I'd like to recognize two of our officers that really took the lead on these events. So I'd ask for 00:24:00
Officer creation, Officer Anglin to go ahead and stand up here. And these are commendations. 00:24:09
So these are accommodation bars and I guess. 00:24:30
Do the circle for their uniforms. 00:24:33
But these are community service. 00:24:36
Hands and arms, work hours that are included in these things. And so again you know, I applaud them. I applaud their dedication to 00:24:39
our community and to our kids, our youth and our adults, everybody. And so I think, you know we then need to get them around and 00:24:47
and officers that are here, they're supporting their teammates because they care and and this is how you all get to know us and 00:24:55
know that we are engaged with our community and we want to hear from you. We want to see what you all want us to do. 00:25:03
So thank you. 00:25:12
If the rest of the officers, if all of y'all could come in since we've got such a crowd here tonight, I think it'd be great for 00:25:19
the I think it looks like we've got a couple out in the hallway if y'all could all come in. 00:25:23
Come on in. 00:25:28
We've got such a group here tonight, that's umm, I think it's important for us to. 00:25:29
In law enforcement in Watkinsville and continue to invest there. And you guys are a core part of making this community what it is 00:26:11
and making it one of the safest communities in Georgia and America. And we're grateful to you guys. So thankful. 00:26:17
So that pretty much sums up what the police departments been up to. We're busy. We enjoy being busy and we will continue to be 00:26:31
busy, but in a good way. So do are there any questions? 00:26:37
All right. Thank you. 00:26:44
All right. 00:26:48
All right, under consent agenda, we've got a resolution to approve a grant application from the Georgia Recreational Trail program 00:26:52
and authorize the city's financial commitment. You know, we typically don't discuss consent agenda items, so I'll entertain a 00:26:57
motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:27:02
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. All right, do we have a second? Second. 00:27:09
Any discussion? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Any opposed like sign motion carries 5 O. 00:27:14
All right. We will now move into our public hearing, our public hearing tonight. I think the only one that we have will be on the 00:27:23
budget I. 00:27:27
We'll let folks who need to slide out of here, slide out of here. While they do that, I'll remind remind you about our budget 00:27:37
public hearing procedures. 00:27:41
For for public hearing, for public hearing, we have Joe's at. 00:27:49
To make any public comments or suggestions or thoughts on what you want to see in the budget for the City of Watkinsville for 00:29:00
Fiscal year 25, a couple notes that I'll make as we get started. 00:29:05
The net tax digest has increased more than 13 million. 00:29:11
Between the past two years to Net Tax Digest in Watkinsville is just over $230 million in 2023. Now it's 243,000,000. And I'm 00:29:17
sorry this is a bit of an eye chart up here, but this is on on the website. So even though the property digest did increase, the 00:29:23
city manager and I are recommending that we roll back the mileage rate, meaning that there will not be a property tax increase 00:29:29
from the City of Watkinsville this year. 00:29:36
You'll see the top three revenues, our property taxes, local option sales tax and the insurance premium tax. 00:30:50
On our expense side, we have a lot of services that the city provides. We have 21 staff member, full-time staff members and one 00:31:00
part time employee that's in our Police Department. We do a lot of the same municipal services that a lot of communities around us 00:31:06
provide, but we end up doing a lot of contracting for services such as our garbage and leaf and limb, our city engineer, our 00:31:13
attorney, our building permits and inspections. That keeps the cost of personnel and benefits and whatnot at a lower price, plus 00:31:19
we get the benefit of having. 00:31:26
Have gotten much older and they don't use that technology anymore. They're actually using like tablets, which we're not, we're not 00:32:40
interested in moving towards. And so we put in in the budget for that and we also have to replace our City Hall server. We should 00:32:45
have replaced it a couple years ago, but we've been pushing it out as long as we could and we've got we're at the point where we 00:32:50
need to replace it now. 00:32:56
And that is it. I can answer questions if there any, but I think we'll let you turn over the public hearing. 00:33:02
All right, Council, any questions or comments you want to make before we start the public hearing? 00:33:09
All right. Hearing none, I'm going to open the public hearing. As a reminder, you have 4 minutes to step forward and make your 00:33:16
comments about the budget. 00:33:19
I'm Bob Smith. 00:33:29
Excuse me just a second, I hope this isn't kept my time I've got. 00:33:32
Turn this off. 00:33:36
I'm Bob Smith, former mayor of Watkinsville, for one year and three months before I resigned for a number of reasons I wanted to 00:33:39
point point out. 00:33:43
That there are three lawsuits pending against this city. One in the United States District Court, Middle District Court of 00:33:47
Georgia. I have a copy that I think you need to see. And one of the reasons there's a microphone is never close to your mouth. 00:33:53
That's one of the one of the reasons that I could not hear. 00:33:58
Before, during mayor and after mayor. I'm gonna pass this out when I when I get through. All right, We're here to talk about the 00:34:04
budget. Are you gonna talk about the budget? Sure. 00:34:08
The cost of the 100 acre park that Y'all just purchased for $1 million more than the appraisal, I'd like to see in that budget how 00:34:13
that's going to be maintained 100 acres #2. How you going to maintain hairstyles park that's right behind us here that's loaded up 00:34:21
with Kudzu, can't even maintain the park that we have, but you're buying 100 acre park. 00:34:28
Open records clerk. Perhaps you need to get an open records clerk to handle the records of people that want to know. Open and 00:34:37
transparent, Honest government. 00:34:41
And it's not funny, Mr. Mayor. It's not funny when when I have to do an open records for secret emails, 2147 pages are in the 00:34:46
response for a secret e-mail to this city and you read it. 00:34:56
$100,000 in budget. 00:35:08
For building permits, it looks like the pipe plant property is already a done deal. Is that correct? Is it not? Then? I know 00:35:11
smiles are wrong along the table here, but this is a serious matter that that you've already foregone. Looked like you put 100,000 00:35:18
according to some people I've talked with already in next year's budget for building permits. 00:35:25
But then. 00:35:34
I'd like to know in the budget that 100% of all the taxpayer money that used to be 6,000,000 when I was a Mayor Nash about 00:35:35
4,000,000 is all in the Mayor Broderick's bank. I want to know how much interest is getting paid for last year and this year's 00:35:41
budget. 00:35:46
And then last thing would be. 00:35:53
When I was mayor the budget was $1.7 million and I think I've just heard, I think I just heard 3.2 million. I'm going to double in 00:35:57
three years and all and the top five people that get paid in this city, right here, the top five people. 00:36:06
Don't even live in Oak County County. 00:36:16
There's some talented people in Watkinsville and Oconee County, but they don't even live in Oconee County. 00:36:19
And. 00:36:26
I just want some answers on on how you're going to pay for all these things to park. 00:36:27
How you got paid for the three lawsuits, 2IN Superior Court and one in a federal court for Americans with Disabilities Act, that 00:36:33
those are the things I did not see in the budget. So I'm going to leave now and pass out the the suit that was filed. 00:36:40
All right. Would anyone else like to step forward and make a comment on the budget? 00:36:50
All right, hearing none. I will close the public hearing. 00:37:01
Seeing none, but I will respond to what Mr. Smith had to say. I think it's important that the guests here hear the truth. We have 00:37:05
increased our parks budget. We're going to add an additional employee for our parks. The addition of the lawn mower that we've 00:37:11
anticipated is going to help us out a second crew to take care of the mowing. So we're pretty confident we can take care of 00:37:17
things. 00:37:23
In the way that we're doing on the parks, your second question was open records. Mr. Smith, as you probably know, the vast 00:37:29
majority of those come from you. We probably have gotten maybe 20 in the past two weeks. That takes a tremendous amount of time. 00:37:37
The lawsuits also come from you. Our estimated expense on those is an excessive 20 to $25,000 This year alone outside of our 00:37:44
insurer, our insurer has dealt with 22, two $100,000 plus of legal fees, again due to your lawsuit. 00:37:51
We anticipate an amount of building permits that we get every year and those building permits, if we get a fee from a developer 00:38:34
then a portion of that I think 75% what's that Sharon, 67% of that goes to Bureau Veritas, 33% of that comes back to the city to 00:38:40
bear our cost for those If we do, if those building permits don't come through, we simply lose the revenue and we lose the 00:38:46
expense. So they offset, but we do make an estimate of what we anticipate in terms of building permits each year when they come 00:38:51
through. 00:38:57
The interest rates, I'll let Manager Dickerson respond to. I think she's got those. I think they flex up and down every month per 00:39:03
our agreement with the bank. But again, I won't comment on banking matters. Yeah, and I don't have the exact number, but I know 00:39:08
we're somewhere between 4 and 5% on our money right now. We are way over on our revenues of what we thought we were going to 00:39:13
receive this year because we didn't anticipate that high of an interest rate. 00:39:17
Yeah. So we have a formal agreement with the bank that Manager Dickerson negotiated, that I recused myself from and that council 00:39:23
approved, I think approved when actually the previous mayor may have been here for the first time. 00:39:29
We're all ears and we want to answer those. So we want you to know what's going on with your local government. 00:40:09
All right. Moving on from that, The next item is appearances. We have none. The next item is old business. Do we need to discuss 00:40:15
the? 00:40:20
The consent agreement with Green River Builders and Construction for the green space, no update on that. So we will not take any 00:40:27
action on that. That means we move to 14 a under old business which is a contract amendment related to ELMIG and Paving which 00:40:34
impact school St. Simonton Way. 00:40:42
Niagara Drive and Jackson St. 00:40:50
And so the decision was made, recommendation is being made that that road be demoed that we define a culvert on the Northside to 00:41:26
help with the flow of water to install a curb. The better direct the flow of water from the roadway into our catch basins and 00:41:32
construct the road based if needed. We're not 100% sure that road is so old. We're not sure if it has a road base, but if it 00:41:38
doesn't that will have to be constructed. So there is a difference of $25,000 an estimate but not to exceed $25,000 to do that 00:41:44
work. 00:41:50
The difference the 25,000 will come out of the TS blast which is a requirement. There's 30% of the T spots referendum is supposed 00:41:57
to be used on roads resurfacing and rehabilitation. I just use the exact same report you had last month and just added Redline 00:42:04
where we needed to have it. So the update on that is again Engineer Campbell met on the May 9th. I believe that was a Thursday 00:42:11
with the contractor to discuss our desire to address to change the scope of work as I explained to you. 00:42:18
And Tony Smith, the owner of Tony Smith and kind of, sorry, Cut Smith and Company said that he estimates the additional work at 00:42:26
cost not to exceed $25,000. So that's what we're asking. I don't know if the city engineer wants to offer any additional. 00:42:32
Input or feedback on that, Yeah, thank you. I'm happy to answer questions. The original scope on School St. if you'll remember we 00:42:39
worked on Water St. to really address some drainage issues there. That seems to be working very well on School St. The the 00:42:46
original plan was to middle School St. I don't have any documentation of the last time School St. was milled. If you go out there, 00:42:52
you can see that that paving has been added on top over and over over a period of time. So the original plan was to Middle School 00:42:59
St. before new pavement was added. 00:43:05
Upon further examination specifically during rain events, I think the better course of action is going to be the salt cut and 00:43:13
remove to go back to start from a firm foundation. We can patch it and we can certainly save money in the short term to patch it. 00:43:19
I think that the better opportunity would be to fix it. And so that was the discussion that took place. That's the new number you 00:43:25
see there. 00:43:32
All right. Questions from council to staff. 00:43:41
Hearing none. 00:43:47
All right, Council, I'll entertain a motion. 00:43:52
I make a motion to approve. 00:43:55
We have second. 00:43:57
All right, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. 00:43:59
All in favor, say aye aye. Any opposed All right. The motion carries to adjust the paving scope on. 00:44:02
School St. the portion near the courthouse, not east of Main Street but West of Main Street. All right under New Business. We have 00:44:10
three items under new business and we'll be at public comments. 00:44:16
The Approve a contractor for the bathroom renovation at Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:44:22
Invasive removal and such. On April 18th we released it a request for proposal for the renovation of the bathroom. On May 6th we 00:45:02
received one proposal from Smith and Co for $39,877 in addition to a post on the city's website. It was advertised in Oconee 00:45:09
Enterprise and provided directly to three companies, Martin Pell, Free Handyman, Smith and Co, and Triple J Construction. Based on 00:45:17
the council's approved budget for the Thomas Farm Preserve, we have $50,000 available for that renovation. 00:45:25
All sorts of things we have to do to make sure that it is accessible. And so we are negotiating with the contractor to bring it 00:46:08
down. But we are asking you go ahead and approve the contractor for an amount not to exceed 40,000. We anticipate it will be much 00:46:13
lower than that. 00:46:17
All right, Council, you've heard the recommendation from staff. Any questions? 00:46:23
Hearing none, do we have a motion. 00:46:29
Make a motion that we approve the bid and the project. 00:46:33
All right. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Any further discussion? 00:46:39
All in favor, say aye, aye. All right. As we discussed that was previously budgeted and it's coming out of SPLOST funds. 00:46:43
We'll move on to item 17. Item 16 was tabled and this is the Watkinsville Warehouse District LLC, Wastewater capacity allocation 00:46:50
request and all that staff introduced that and Mr. Bishop, you can come on up and stand while staff does the introduction. 00:46:57
Thank you, Mayor. So this applicant has a project that has been approved by the City Council. We were under the impression, I 00:47:09
believe he was as well, that he would be able to use an existing guaranteed sewer capacity from the county when we do. Further 00:47:15
that agreement realized that the agreement was only for guarantee and reserve for sewer collection and pumping and not for 00:47:22
capacity. So he is requesting for the capacity for that front building, which is 290 gallons a day. 00:47:28
That has been confirmed. That amount has been confirmed by Oconee County and he is here to request that. 00:47:35
Good evening, everybody. 00:47:41
Just requesting the 290, I think it's the minimum amount. Yeah, 290. So just for the project at 1260 Greensboro Highway. 00:47:42
All right. Mr. Bishop, will you give an overview of the project just for our guests here so they understand what's going. So the 00:47:51
building is 7100 square feet, is located directly in front of what everybody knows is the Core Blend building. 00:47:56
Corbin is actually going to move out of their current location into the new location. So they'll just use minimal amount of sewer 00:48:02
for just four bathrooms, single hole bathrooms. And so that's pretty much just the scope of the projects, basically office, 00:48:08
warehouse space, OK. 00:48:14
Council, any questions? 00:48:21
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the wastewater capacity allocation request. 00:48:24
I make a motion to approve the wastewater allocation request. 00:48:29
Do we have a second? 00:48:33
2nd. 00:48:36
Mr. Thomas, you'll get in at some point. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further comments or questions? 00:48:37
Hearing none all in favor say aye Any opposed like sign. 00:48:43
Motion carries 50. Mr. Bishop, are you staying for the next one, too? That's not me. OK, all right. Address is similar. 00:48:47
Oh, yeah, that's right. OK, now, now it's all clear. All right. So we have a wastewater capacity allocation request for 12:40 00:48:56
Greensboro Highway. Welcome back, Dax and Life. If you could introduce yourselves and maybe remind everybody what you have going 00:49:02
on. Well, before we do that, why don't we let staff talk and then I'll let y'all talk. 00:49:08
That remind you that the property owner was recently approved for seven hundred 780 gallons per day for three buildings at that 00:49:14
location. They're requesting an additional capacity for building 200 which they're preparing for an event space, restaurant and 00:49:21
Oconee Water Resources has indicated they would need an additional 28165 gallons a day. 00:49:28
All right. So if you want to walk us through what y'all have planned and and then council will take a look at this. Sharon, was 00:49:37
there anything else you needed to offer that? It looks like you've got the chart up there in terms of our capacity, is that 00:49:41
correct? 00:49:44
OK. So we keep up for the benefits of those who aren't here. We keep up with our sewer capacity there in certain parts of the 00:49:49
city. We have an allocation of 100,000 gallons per day, but we have another 100,000 gallons coming when the county expands its 00:49:56
sewer plant in the next few years. This is this is approved, not actually you know in use sewer capacity at this point. So it 00:50:03
includes future development projects. So if y'all want to introduce yourselves and give us a quick overview, that'd be great. 00:50:10
Right. I'm life Hansford and. 00:50:17
Right. OK. So we're rebuilding the property that burned on our property, the building that burned building 200 and we started with 00:50:20
minimum capacity. But as we've gone along and we've had interest, we've had a restaurant reach out to us and an event space that 00:50:26
we'd like to put up there. And those require I think 50 seats per and there's allocation of gallons per use per day. That's what 00:50:31
we got to this number to be able to do those things in that building. OK. 00:50:37
All right, Council. Questions for Dachshund Life. 00:50:45
All right, I'll entertain a motion to. 00:50:51
Entertain a motion. 00:50:54
I'll make a motion that we approve the wastewater capacity. 00:50:57
All right. We have a motion to approve. We have a second from Councilman Garrett. All right. Good. The left side speaks up. All 00:51:00
right. Any questions or comments from council hearing none. All in favor. Say aye. Aye. Any opposed like sign motion carries 5 O. 00:51:07
Thank you all for coming. I'd like to say just real quick that this is the third meeting that Lake and I've been at and we really. 00:51:14
I do appreciate everything that you guys do. I don't think you guys think get thanked enough. So just from he and I would just 00:51:21
like to say thank you for everything. Well, thanks for your investment in Watkinsville. We appreciate it. Yeah. 00:51:26
Mr. Lay, welcome back. 00:52:02
Thank you. Always good to have a former Council member back with us. 00:52:04
My name, Johnny Wright. I've been living The Walking business in 1964. 00:52:08
I've always been very concerned about Walking Field Hub. 00:52:14
I got the admit that was in the last. 00:52:19
I got mixed emotions by right now so. 00:52:21
You know, we got too much development going on, We got too much bending going on. 00:52:25
I I have this impression to develop the company to town, take it over and just do what you want. I know it sounds ugly, but I 00:52:32
don't even feel it that way. 00:52:35
By the same token. 00:52:40
The three developments that we already had, you know who three I'm talking about? 00:52:41
I got me there first. They look like a first class development to me. I'd use it with just read. That's why I didn't call from my 00:52:47
house. 00:52:52
Oh, it's nice, neat. I couldn't say nothing negative about it. So when I say I think we got too much building going on, they nice 00:52:57
building, they nice development. 00:53:02
So. 00:53:08
I'm going to lead up to the, one of Y'all said. It's been postponed and not the concrete pipe place. 00:53:09
By the same token, I say something about the development. 00:53:16
Building UH? 00:53:19
I'll go ahead and throw this in. And this wasn't in my speech. I've been practicing for three weeks and since newspaper come out. 00:53:21
At the same time, the stuff y'all doing, I may not agree with a lot of it. I'm going to take rocket for you all the paving down 00:53:28
here at the park. 00:53:32
Everything you're doing so far looks nice. I call it quality work. Down the road it going to be worse. 00:53:37
I'm just, I'm telling old fashioned, don't like to spend money. 00:53:44
But but it's looking good. 00:53:47
What I'm concerned about the concrete pipe development is. 00:53:52
The fact that. 00:53:57
I think at the time. 00:53:59
I think you're too larger to development. 00:54:02
If you really look at the way I looked at it, I have been in the paper and. 00:54:05
All the way from the railroad down to Marshall St. that's a lot of development. 00:54:09
That's a lot of traffic. 00:54:15
There's a lot of footwork, a lot of protesting congestion. 00:54:17
So to me, I'm saying that particular project need to be put on hold. There's simply that. 00:54:22
I narrowed all that. Then in one word, that's traffic. 00:54:29
Traffic Rockin Field who hasn't ever been in? 00:54:32
And not gonna get no darling better. 00:54:36
I don't see nothing changing, Nick. 1015 years. 00:54:38
We don't need to meet you that loaded from Greensboro Road to the bypass where you can bypass Wardenville Hill Bypass ain't moved 00:54:43
in 20 years. 00:54:47
He's still around life we've been getting going to Bishop yet. 00:54:51
So I don't see any help in traffic in downtown Walking field. 00:54:55
And nobody don't get our heads haven't told me this past week and I'm not going to get into it, not just because y'all talking 00:55:01
about it. 00:55:05
Sure, I said something, that guy said. You know why so much building going on in the city, don't you? Not really. 00:55:11
He said it cost developer his first priority to sewing water. 00:55:20
I don't want a true or none. I'm not a new asset I won't try to find out for. 00:55:25
But if that's right. 00:55:31
It seemed like me this whole development bad concrete pipe place. It don't seem like a little Shorty there. You talking about 400 00:55:33
toilet 4500 faucets people? 00:55:38
So what's the big deal to sewer connection? 00:55:45
When we developed them coming in here, no problem with it. 00:55:49
That's another story. 00:55:52
I don't want to get my tooth in about the concrete pipe place where I don't have to come back next month. I'm against it. 00:55:54
Thank you, Mr. Way. Appreciate you being here. 00:56:01
And Julie, we have Mr. Lays address on file, is that correct? OK, remember to please state your address and your name when you 00:56:08
come up. 00:56:11
Mr. Smith, Mayor, I didn't intend to come before, right, but. 00:56:15
Because you tabled this, this project are great for Hwy. There are a number of people that wanted to talk about. 00:56:21
Traffic, traffic and traffic and more traffic. 00:56:29
And that's an issue. 00:56:34
We're continuing to do this until we have a plan for truck bypass that was in the works at one time. Where's the truck bath 00:56:36
bypass? 00:56:40
But most importantly, what I will understand here and talk about is no laughing matter about this federal lawsuit that's filed for 00:56:44
the American Disabilities Act. It's not laughing. 00:56:50
Are coming here again and I have to look around to see who's making the motion and the microphone is about a 14, three feet away 00:56:56
from your mouth. 00:57:01
And if I can't hear it? 00:57:07
And this has been going on since before I was mayor, while I was mayor, and after I was mayor. Otherwise I would never have filed 00:57:09
a federal lawsuit against his body. 00:57:14
But you continue to do it even tonight. Now why am I doing this? 00:57:20
It's because almost 60 million people in America have a hearing issue. That's about 18 to 20%. And if we keep people out of this 00:57:26
body from running for office or participating in the process, that the the political process, the smart people that can't hear. 00:57:36
We need to pay attention to those smart people that can't hear and include them in the process, but otherwise you're precluding 00:57:47
them. 00:57:50
What? Excluding him? Whatever you want to say. But this is a not a laughing matter like I have seen here. 00:57:55
That the microphone is 234 feet away from your face and you're making motions, and I couldn't hear who made the motion. 00:58:03
This is a serious, serious matter, you know. 00:58:13
That hearing impaired people I walked through here. 00:58:16
I'm not handicapped. 00:58:20
But I'm 80% hearing loss. I've lived with this since the 4th grade. You have to work hard to live with it. 00:58:22
And when I was in the legislature, we passed and I offered this a Commission on the here impaired. We went to the Georgia Lines 00:58:30
Lighthouse because I care about the hearing impaired. I can find the money to help myself. But there are people that don't have 00:58:36
the money, they don't have the resources, they don't have the knowledge to find out how to hear and participate in the American 00:58:42
experiment. 00:58:47
We went to the Georgia Lions White House with a public private partnership. 00:58:54
And a year ago, I called them. How many people in Georgia have been affected by this legislation? 25,000 Georgians. That's not 00:58:59
enough, but it's a good start. 00:59:05
But this is a serious matter and I passed out. 00:59:12
That federal lawsuit to you, because I don't know if you've ever gotten it. I don't know if, if, if the legal counsel has even 00:59:16
given you that, but you now have it. 00:59:21
And you'll see in there why without it. 00:59:26
And statute of limitations kept me from going further back when one member of this body, when I was outside this body, not as a 00:59:30
mayor, mocked me for my hearing. 00:59:35
On this council. It's unacceptable. But thank you for listening. It's a very, very serious matter. And I hope that you'll look 00:59:42
forward to what's happening in this, this, this lawsuit. It's very serious. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. 00:59:49
As a reminder, for anyone who's hearing impaired, there is a hearing loop installed in City Council in the City Council chambers. 01:00:01
So if you do have a hearing impairment, I would encourage you to use that. We also have headphones. 01:00:07
Over here that we make available and that's why we stress that our meetings are captioned and closed, captioned and available and 01:00:13
easily accessible for anybody who chooses to use those. But again, thank you Mr. Smith for your comments, Mr. Prescott, please 01:00:17
come forward. 01:00:21
Anyone to hear when you're not. 01:00:27
Can you hear me right now? Can, can you hear, can you hear me, Julie, can you hear me? 01:00:30
I didn't. I haven't. I haven't changed where I'm sitting. Can you hear me? 01:00:36
I live at 1090 Simonton Drive. I've lived in Oconee County for almost 50 years and in Watkinsville for approaching 25 years. Mr. 01:01:09
Mayor and members of the Council, I thank you for the opportunity to address you, address you on the rezone request for 1180 01:01:15
Greensboro Highway. If approved without major changes, this project would certainly shape the future of Watkinsville in a 01:01:22
detrimental way, in my opinion. In the opinion of many others who I believe are here to comment on that project tonight, as well 01:01:28
as others I have seen commenting. 01:01:34
Robustly. 01:01:42
On various social media platforms about the project. 01:01:43
In thinking about this project, I was reminded of a news story from July 2019 authored by Lee Becker in Oconee County 01:01:47
Observations, where he described this council's past efforts to seek citizen input, both city and county voters, on possible 01:01:55
upgrades to hair Shoals. Park surveys were created and reviewed to prioritize the wishes of park users on its future. 01:02:03
While much could be said about the state of Harris Shoals Park almost five years later. 01:02:11
My real point is that the Council has shown a willingness to hear from citizens in the planning stages of past projects, at least 01:02:17
projects the Council believes may have a great deal of support. 01:02:22
I first heard of the 1180 Greensboro Highway proposed rezone in the Oconee Enterprise. When I last drove by the site, there was no 01:02:29
signage posted to notify the citizens of the pending project. 01:02:34
I believe the council knows that this project has very little support among the citizens of Watkinsville in Oconee County and for 01:02:40
some reason has decided to quietly pursue it knowing the ire that it will raise. Anyone who travels through Watkinsville daily is 01:02:46
aware of the traffic issues in need of abatement, not increase. We don't need a near 300 page traffic study of downtown traffic to 01:02:53
tell us what we already know through daily experience. Further, the project will have serious consequences, in my opinion, related 01:02:59
to our schools. 01:03:06
Public safety, infrastructure and ever increasing taxes. 01:03:12
This council seems intent on paving the way for apartments and other rental units at the gateway of every entry point to our city. 01:03:17
We now have apartments at the North End of Main Street, Barnett Shoals and this proposed project on Hwy. 15 at 1180 Greensboro 01:03:25
Highway. My question is, what's next? Raising something on Experiment Station or the South end of Main Street to usher in more and 01:03:32
more rental units for our small community? I implore you to listen to the voters. 01:03:39
And open this up for discussion and major changes to what is appropriate for our small town. I thank you for the opportunity to 01:03:47
speak with you tonight. 01:03:51
Thank you, Mr. Prescott. 01:04:02
Next up. 01:04:05
Yes, Sir. Come on. 01:04:09
I just want. 01:04:13
Back up what he just said. My family's been here since 1870. I've lived it in my got my grandfather's, my great grandfather's 01:04:15
property. 01:04:19
Back in 1990. 01:04:24
And I lived in Lawrenceville. 01:04:27
I actually bought a house there, me my wife back in 1982 I guess and it was a one acre house and a small rural area and I wanted 01:04:29
to be out in the country, but anyway. 01:04:35
This property found my lap. 01:04:41
And I'm seeing and you remember the signs were don't turn Oconee into Gwinnett, I believe it was about a year ago. 01:04:44
The traffic we're losing our small town charisma. 01:04:53
And I hope to God that you all will listen to what he just said, the people, and it's all over on. I guess I don't get on 01:04:58
Facebook, but I've heard it's consumed with a lot of people complaining about this 1180. 01:05:04
So please reconsider. 01:05:11
And listen to the people for that. We don't need that. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. 01:05:13
Hi, I'm Susanna Heiml. 01:05:28
I'll give my address afterwards if you need it. Just go ahead and do it now, please. I live in Watkinsville. I don't want to say 01:05:31
it in front of everybody. I'll be glad to write it down and give it to you. 01:05:36
I've got questions about this project. I'm not necessarily against it, but I do have questions about how many people will bring 01:05:43
in. I do see that it lists 203 apartments, studios, 123 bedrooms, but it doesn't specifically say how many of each there are, as 01:05:49
well as 24 townhomes. What's the makeup of those? 01:05:55
6 detached cottages So I'm kind of curious as to how many, how many people this will bring and I think we already have traffic 01:06:01
congestion on 15 on Main Street. I do love off Barnett Shoals and I've seen a considerable increase in traffic turning left from 01:06:08
Main Street to Barnett Shoals since Wire Park is opened. So that would be my my first concern. Second concern is. 01:06:15
What these apartments rent for, what are the townhomes and cottages sell for? Because I feel like the things that are opening 01:06:23
around her that the rents, the rents on the prices like on townhomes at Wire Park are so high. I just feel like our our jobs 01:06:29
around here are not supporting those kind of rents and those kind of property prices. So I feel like we we need to figure out a 01:06:34
way to keep. 01:06:40
Prices for the townhomes, I'm sure they must have been established when this project was presented. So I'd love to hear those 01:07:21
numbers and I'm sure that everybody else would too. I haven't seen the paper. I don't know where they where to find them, so. 01:07:27
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yep. 01:07:33
All right. 01:07:41
Hi, my name is David Phillips. 01:07:45
My wife and I lived at 1321 Beechnut Lane. That's off of Elder Mill Rd. which is off of Hwy. 15. 01:07:47
So we've been out there for 45 years. 01:07:55
And we moved to Oconee. 01:07:59
Because it was rural. 01:08:02
And I'm one of those people that sort of believes that. 01:08:04
The Gwinnett thing is happening. I've seen it. That's not like I just heard it or read it in the paper. 01:08:08
And I'm really concerned about the Highway 15 development. 01:08:15
The. 01:08:20
I think everything on 15 S of the railroad track is commercial. 01:08:22
I don't see. 01:08:27
Moving that many people into it, getting through Watkinsville now is a chore. 01:08:28
Linda and I we. 01:08:35
We support Watkinsville businesses. 01:08:37
We shop in Watkinsville Butlers Crossing Epps Bridge. She's not going to stop at a strippers to do her shopping offense to 01:08:41
strippers. 01:08:46
But she shops at Publix Earth Fair, Trader Joe's. 01:08:52
We bank at two banks in Watkinsville. 01:08:59
We we go to Walgreens. I mean that's that's our business. I I remember the Athens I. 01:09:02
Health and fitness gym which is at managers crossing. 01:09:13
I'm there every day. 01:09:16
So we're going through the traffic every day. 01:09:19
And we're retired, but we're still going through every day because we live here and this is where we want to do our business. 01:09:22
So we came to to support voting no, to rezone that there's a residential area. I guess that's what you're thinking about doing. 01:09:30
Thank you. 01:09:41
Say I'm Dana Blair. I live on School St. in Watkinsville and we're here tonight for a. 01:09:50
The pipe plant. 01:10:00
Discussion and I just think it's a horrible idea to have any more high density housing within the city. 01:10:03
It's my opinion, but traffic and the impact on schools, I just think we need to slow down a little bit and. 01:10:11
And think. 01:10:20
What do we want? What quality of life? 01:10:21
What atmosphere? 01:10:23
Anyway, thanks. 01:10:25
Thank you, Mr. 01:10:27
Right. 01:10:32
Mr. Blair, I just see things that that come to the top of my mind when we're talking about. 01:10:35
More traffic. 01:10:44
Traffic down Main Street and 15 is horrible. 01:10:46
But we're not talking about everybody who doesn't go down 15, but they cut through our neighborhoods that are line Main Street and 01:10:50
15. We live on School St. and 2nd St. 01:10:56
Is constant traffic all day long. 01:11:03
I'm sure that it's the same thing on the other side of the street. And the second thing is that the apartments and whatever 01:11:07
housing at Wire Park isn't even open yet. 01:11:12
So we're not even seeing the the height of the traffic. 01:11:18
Until that happens. So once that gets open, it's going to, you know, I don't know who knows how bad it's going to be, but in 01:11:21
talking about adding 200 apartments, I can't help but think that they're saying 200 apartments so they can settle for 100 01:11:28
apartments or whatever. But is tends to be the type of way that people approach that when they're trying to get rezoned. So 01:11:34
anyway, that's all I have to say. I just wanted to add these guys did a great job. 01:11:41
Thank you, Charlie. 01:11:49
Mr. Popov. 01:11:52
Good evening everyone. Thank you for your service and being here. 01:12:00
I'm not going to talk about 1180 since it's taken off the official for tonight. I didn't want to discuss why our park in the 01:12:04
condominiums going in front of it. When it was initially presented to us, the people of Watkinsville, it was supposed to be, quote 01:12:11
UN quote small, a few condos or something for people that worked here that couldn't afford to live here. And it said it was 01:12:18
nonprofit. I think we all know that's BS. They are for profit, OK? They're really nice. I have a friend of mine who's extremely 01:12:25
wealthy and he's got one on the list. 01:12:32
So I'm seeing here on our part, 56 condos, 60 flats, 21 townhomes, how many single family I can't read, moon riding, 54, I think. 01:12:40
I mean, how many people are y'all trying to cram in there and what is the purpose? I mean, who benefits? It's not us. You guys are 01:12:47
for us, OK? You're supposed to be for the people of Watkinsville. In other words, represent our interest, what we wanted, a life, 01:12:54
what we want our city to be like. Not a person here wants our city to be inundated with a whole bunch of more people to deal with 01:13:01
traffic. 01:13:08
No answer for it. So you're making it worse. You lied about the condos to begin with. A major in business geography at UGA. 01:13:15
Location principles of business. Water park needs to be seen from the road for people drive by to go, man, that's gold. Let me 01:13:23
stop in there. Condos in front of it. I mean, come on. Do you ever see that anywhere, Anywhere. I've been all over America. I've 01:13:31
never seen them all condos blocking it or, you know, any retail place with condos blocking it. 01:13:39
I can't fathom the logic or decision behind that, not even mention 1180. And the bottom line is from everyone, we don't want the 01:13:48
growth. 01:13:53
We want proper growth. We want calculated, rational, logical growth that we can handle. Our infrastructure can handle our streets 01:13:58
and traffic can handle. We're overloaded already, traffic's bad. So with this in mind, do you guys understand we don't want growth 01:14:05
and there's a better way to spend our money and govern our city than to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow with these businesses and in 01:14:12
my opinion, our park putting the condos in front of us, a huge mistake. 01:14:20
You don't do that, man. People need to see that. I'd like to see it succeed. Honestly, I really would. Putting condos in front of 01:14:27
it cuts out the attraction. People driving by and seeing this beautiful, nice new place, all they're going to see is condos and 01:14:33
oh, well, I guess that's just condos and it's not going to draw the people in. So, you know, I I guess do we need to have some 01:14:39
kind of a serious citizen meeting to discuss growth, proper growth and what we want here in Watkinsville? Because I think we're 01:14:45
getting it. 01:14:51
I don't think a person here can say we really feel that you guys represent our best interest. Because I don't. I don't think you 01:14:57
do. I really don't. 01:15:01
Bids I'd like to know you know, are you getting a professional engineer to write specs for a job before it's released for billet? 01:15:07
Are y'all letting you know this guy quote this. That guy quote this. 01:15:12
Like the sidewalk back on Hardin Hill, this should have been one engineer that designed the whole thing. He got paid for the 01:15:18
design, and guess what? If there's any problems to design, he pays for it out of his pocket. 01:15:23
We paid for that huge mistake. I mean, why wasn't it done by an engineer that stamped it and said, OK, boom, I dare you to find 01:15:29
something wrong with it. Well, double the cost of it, I guess. There's a few little things, but my God, doubling the cost of that 01:15:35
project, that's inexcusable. Whoever engineered that project should be responsible for that mistake and that overrun of the 01:15:41
budget. 01:15:47
So, I mean, I'd really like to know how does this process work when you all have big projects that want to be done other than just 01:15:54
putting them in the county enterprise, which admittedly a ton of contractors in the state of Georgia don't use. I used to go to 01:15:59
the bedroom in Atlanta and there was everything under the sun. Thank you, Mr. Papa. Yep. 01:16:05
Just for the record, before the next person comes up, there was no promise of a nonprofit, condominium or homes ever made at Wire 01:16:19
Park and the Harden Hill thing we've discussed. 01:16:24
For months and months of the scope of the project changed. It was not a cost overrun. All right, next person please. 01:16:29
Kathleen Kristen, 13 S Corner. 01:16:42
I thought it was a beautiful project. 01:16:46
The fellow had a nice designs for the buildings. It was kind of him to consider the low income for some of the back cottages. 01:16:49
However, it's his job to pencil out his project to the Max. 01:17:01
It's our job to push back and I think hearing from the citizens tonight that we're pushing back against. 01:17:07
This developer maxing out his profits. 01:17:15
To develop this piece of property, I think that a better use of it would be something that would not have as much impact on the 01:17:20
traffic. I go to core gym and some days that traffic is backed up to that to that entry to that gym. 01:17:28
And if there no matter what project goes in there, I don't think it should be approved until the dot. 01:17:39
Agrees to put a light there. 01:17:46
To keep the traffic moving, I don't think a roundabout would work because something about the trucks coming in there at 4550 miles 01:17:49
an hour, sometimes faster and going around and roundabout isn't really going to work. So I really recommend that you go back to 01:17:57
the developer, back off the project. He can still make a profit. It doesn't have to be as much as it looks like he's going to make 01:18:05
and listen to the citizens about what we want in our city. 01:18:12
Water park scares the hell out of all of us because the people who are going to live there haven't even moved in yet and we I 01:18:20
can't get out of my street sometimes in the morning. The traffic on 2nd and 3rd St. 01:18:28
As cut throughs has increased exponentially. At 5:00 you can barely get out of your driveway. 01:18:37
All right. Thank you. Thanks, Kathleen. 01:18:46
Next up. 01:18:54
Jason Smith, 32, Thrasher Drive. 01:19:08
Forgive me, I've caught off guard a little bit. I thought was going to be tabled and I would get a few months to work my comments 01:19:13
out and but now I am well, I know it is table, but I'm going to, I'm going to join in tonight and I'll be back in August. 01:19:19
I have grave concerns about the development of the pipe yard. 01:19:28
I have spoke to somebody on the phone. Some of you have reached out to you haven't got a chance to get to and I appreciate you. 01:19:32
Some return my calls. We just can't get the same schedule yet. Thank you. I understand this is a tough job for $200 a month. 01:19:38
OK. 01:19:44
Bless you and thank you. OK. 01:19:46
It's a hell of a thing to get up here once a month. Take beat. 01:19:51
All right. That being said, you guys are the guys that are elected to represent us and you guys are the guys that are in control 01:19:54
right now, OK? And it seems to me there's a lot of people greatly concerned where we're going. 01:20:00
I'm not asking to stop. I'm not asking to pause it. I understand that this is a big ship and it will always move forward, OK? As 01:20:07
much as I would love to pause time. 01:20:12
And live and walk until as it is now. I'd much rather live in Walksville 15 years ago. 01:20:17
20 years ago, maybe even more. 01:20:23
I certainly didn't have as many bills and taxes pay back then, so it's a health lot nicer place, but we can't do that. 01:20:25
But we can slow down. 01:20:32
Assess where we're at and assess where we're going. 01:20:35
And how we get there? 01:20:39
Water Park is not built out yet completely. It will be and I'm sure. 01:20:42
Whatever decisions they made in the management of their their enterprise, whether they want to put stuff in front of it, behind it 01:20:47
or around it, that's their deal. 01:20:50
Passes it fails if it succeeds, if it doesn't, that's their business. But it does affect us and the traffics, the tax values, the 01:20:54
revenues, things of that nature trove is not done yet. The forgive me, I don't know the name. The 55 and N community is not even 01:21:00
started yet. There are serious things that are going on right now that we need to take a step back and evaluate and see where 01:21:06
we're at. 01:21:12
As I understand it, I reached up to a member of the Board of Commissioners. 01:21:19
Once we're done with the allotted sewer capacity, again, as I understand it. 01:21:24
We have to apply again for another 100,000 gallon block. 01:21:29
And then? 01:21:33
And forgive me if you want to correct this after I speak sorry. 01:21:35
If that is approved. 01:21:39
That'll be the last guaranteed block that we get. 01:21:41
After that. 01:21:45
There are no guarantees with getting more sewer capacity. 01:21:46
At the earliest, and under the best of circumstances as I understand it. Admittedly, I was on the back foot trying to figure this 01:21:49
out. That's it. Very fastest. Best case scenario. 01:21:54
Late next year. 01:22:00
I don't believe that's probably going to hit it. It'll probably be longer than that. 01:22:02
So even even if this project is approved. 01:22:06
200 apartments you can't flush the toilet in aren't going to go a whole lot of places, you know. 01:22:10
I I have heard the the calls for affordable housing and I understand that. 01:22:16
By happenstance and the grace of God, I managed to ****** hold of a letter that was getting pulled up really fast and I am hanging 01:22:21
on for dear life, believe me. 01:22:24
That is not our problem to solve. 01:22:30
I I, I understand that. And there's people that work here that live here, or people that work here that can't afford to live here, 01:22:33
but that happens everywhere. 01:22:36
I know a lot of EMTs, firefighters, people of that nature. They all drive to Fulton County, Atlanta, places like that. A lot of 01:22:39
contractors work out of town, Gwinnett County, Johns Creek, places like that. 01:22:44
And and they're quite happy to do it because they don't want to live here. They want to live here or they want to live there. 01:22:49
Excuse me, they want to live here. 01:22:52
And why wouldn't they? 01:22:56
Is that wonderful place? It's a great place. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with the late Dave Sharon and he told me if we 01:22:58
are not careful. 01:23:02
Watkins will no longer be a great place to live. It'll just be a place to live. 01:23:07
And I urge you to exercise caution. 01:23:12
Please. 01:23:15
Thank you. 01:23:16
If a guy wanted time to practice, you did pretty good. All right? Anyone else? 01:23:23
Kathleen, you're coming back for more? 01:23:32
Well, I think he got about 90 seconds left. 01:23:35
I'm not going to talk about the project. I wanted to talk about the dog park, which we're still waiting for. My little dog still 01:23:38
waiting for the dog park. That's one thing. The second thing is I thought Brent Thomas brought up a really good point about the 01:23:46
design corridors and the wording in the design corridor regulations, and he pointed out a lot of issues with a lot of places where 01:23:54
the word is should and in technical writing it should be shall. So I would hope that you would. 01:24:02
Have a conversation with Mr. Brett and talk about changing the shoulds to shells. Thank you. Thank you, Kathleen. 01:24:10
He didn't pay me to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure if everybody knew what they were clapping for there, Kathleen. But. But. But 01:24:21
good. Good on it. Yeah. Yeah. 01:24:26
All right, Who else? 01:24:32
Good evening. 01:24:37
My name is Jack Keller. I live at 1271 W Fitzgerald Lane in Watkinsville, Georgia. So not inside the city limits of Georgia or in 01:24:39
Watkinsville, but I am in the county so I grew up here my whole life and I currently live here with a 5 year old and seven-year 01:24:47
old. So just wanted to make it public record that the council insisted that we bring this to the public eye a month before we 01:24:54
decided to to bring this for a vote. We we did that so we could reach out to the community. 01:25:02
That's got some skin in the game and it's going to raise his kids in this county and come to this project. He's got more of a 01:25:45
vested interest than anyone else from Atlanta or anybody else. So I encourage anyone that's that's opposed this. I would love to 01:25:52
meet with you. 101. We have a website upitsinfo@15s.com. My e-mail address is on there. My cell phone number is on there. So I am 01:25:59
willing and would meet with anybody and just wanted to make sure that was probably known and and put out there that I would love 01:26:06
to discuss this. 01:26:13
And see if there's anything we could do to make it a win. Win for everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Chan. 01:26:20
All right. Any other comments tonight? 01:26:26
All right. You've probably gotten maybe 30 seconds. Mr. Phillips, you used a lot of time when you were up before. Go ahead. 01:26:30
I'm beginning to regret that the that the library is in Wire Park because I couldn't even get in the parking lot a week ago on a 01:26:39
Thursday night. 01:26:43
And the library was open. There was no parking places. There was some kind of middle school. 01:26:49
Performance or something? 01:26:53
And I guess I'm saying is too late, but again, it should have been a probably. 01:26:55
Freestanding building with its own parking lot so everybody could access it because once they're built out over there, I don't 01:27:01
know if we'll have access to it. They'll add parking for everything else. And I think it's, you know, look there's, you know. 01:27:07
First of all, I want to thank all of you. You know, this is, this is what local government should be about, right? We're not all 01:27:15
going to agree or disagree every time, but I'm always really proud when folks come in and and speak with a lot of dignity and 01:27:20
respect. 01:27:24
About projects and I heard a lot of that tonight and I'm grateful to those of you who did that and and conducted yourselves that 01:27:30
way. We value that. 01:27:35
Was to make sure the public was aware of this project and they had an opportunity to get engaged and give us feedback on it and 01:28:14
y'all did and and and it's clearly impacted what's happening here and what will happen with the site eventually for good or ill So 01:28:20
we're we're we're grateful for that that's how the process is supposed to work. 01:28:26
And that's what you're going to find here with us tonight. So I'm appreciative of that. 01:28:33
And in their homes. But we want y'all to meet your neighbors and to get to know each other and to create those opportunities for 01:29:14
that consistently around this town. Whether that's a sidewalk, whether that's a playground, whether it's Rocket Field, whether 01:29:20
it's Thomas Farm Preserve, whether it's water Park, there's going to be different ways that it happens. 01:29:25
This is not a council that's in favor of unbridled growth, but this is a council that loves Watkinsville and that wants to build a 01:29:31
community that people choose to come back to and choose to reside in and choose to stay in. 01:29:38
I want all of you to know that your voices were heard tonight. It means a lot to me that Y'all chose to give up an hour. And are 01:29:46
we at an hour and a half of your time on a Wednesday night? 01:29:51
That you were right, that you're willing to come in here and do that. So I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful to hear from all 01:29:56
of you. 01:29:59
We have been named as a finalist for the All American City Award. We are taking a delegation to Denver June 7th and 9th to compete 01:30:34
with 20 other communities Watkinsville as a baby in that we're competing with cities, places like Louisville, places like New 01:30:40
Orleans and others for that. 01:30:46
But we're excited about that opportunity. So we're taking a delegation out there. We have several private sector sponsors who have 01:30:52
stepped up and helped us cover a significant portion of those costs to do that. And we're grateful for all of them as well to help 01:30:57
us take a group of folks from Watkinsville. We're going to have the opportunity to learn and the opportunity to compete and 01:31:02
hopefully bring home a nice honor for our city. 01:31:07
Laura Claire Jackson, You know, y'all were talking about what you like about a small town. This is a great example of a small town 01:31:42
and of a young leader. We had an old well house on Hardin Hill that we had just painted in La Clare. She's a fifth grader at 01:31:48
Column Ferry Elementary School and she decided just had an idea that we needed to do something with it. And so she took it upon 01:31:54
herself to design the drawings and do this painting she did this last weekend. It looks really great. 01:32:00
On Hardin Hill Rd. So check that out the next time you drive down Hardin Hill Rd. But that's a great example of a young, energized 01:32:07
young citizen doing something great, along with Amelia Emerson, who you all saw tonight who started our inaugural Watkinsville 01:32:11
litter pickup program. 01:32:16
We're going to begin. We have some trail work already underway out there on mountain bike trails. This summer. We'll begin working 01:32:52
on other trails in earnest. Damn fixing the dam. The fences are starting to come out. We hope to have that open in November to the 01:32:58
public, and that's going to be a tremendous, tremendous asset. 01:33:03
The Oconee County Schools. If you've gone down N Main St. lately, you've seen their building wrapping up and the landscape going 01:33:11
in. It's looking good. They're having a grand opening on June 10th. 01:33:15
And the public is welcome to join and attend that event. 01:33:20
This is my son. I don't know why he's up here, but I'm grateful if we had the Oconee County High School track team had a great 01:33:25
performance and finished third in the state at the at the class Class AAA state meet and Councilwoman Tucker Mayor Pro Tem Tuckers 01:33:32
daughter Faith was there and competing in two events. Congratulations to Faith. 01:33:39
And we have some exciting graduates who are members of city the children of city staff Jackson and Faith Tucker. That's Mayor Pro 01:33:48
Tem's Tucker's twins. Faith is your valedictorian at Oconee County High School this year. I was at honors night last night and her 01:33:55
legs had to have been sore. She was getting up and down so much. Jackson Tucker and Ellen Patterson were also recognized. Ellen is 01:34:03
the daughter of Kate Patterson, who leads our DDA and and then William Dickerson, manager Dickerson's son. 01:34:10
Has graduated. 01:34:18
From the University of Alabama. And sometimes we like to say, well, it's not rocket science with this guy. It is rocket science. 01:34:19
He is going to go work. He's got a degree in engineer and he's going to be working for SpaceX in Texas. So Sharon, I know you're 01:34:24
proud and congratulations to William and to all of you who've got graduates or children who are graduating in the next few days, 01:34:29
congratulations. I know it's a big milestone. 01:34:34
And then this guy has a birthday. So happy birthday, Joe. We're 49. 01:34:40
Joe, thank you for your service to Watkinsville. I think that's all I have. And we'll move to council reports. We'll go to 01:34:49
Councilman Garrett for the post. One report, nothing to share. Councilwoman Massey. 01:34:55
I just wanted to say I went to the cops and bobbers and that is such a fun event. I'm glad the Police Department is doing that. 01:35:02
The expression on those kids face when they pull. 01:35:06
A fish, doesn't matter how big it is out of that water, It's just amazing. It's it's it's great. Thank you for going. 01:35:11
Councilman Thomas, I just want to thank all the citizens for being here. I hope you come back next month. It's a lot more fun when 01:35:19
you all are here and they are engaged. When you're not here and you're not engaged, we tend to make decisions on our own. So we 01:35:25
encourage you to please come back every month for hopefully an hour and a half long meeting. 01:35:32
Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 01:35:39
Nothing more this month. 01:35:42
All right, Councilman Campbell. 01:35:44
I'd just like to say we lost a lifelong resident of Watkinsville the Elder a week and a half ago. He was 99 years old, possibly 01:35:46
the oldest resident in Watkinsville. I don't know that for sure, but. 01:35:53
That's my guess. He was a self-made man. I was very fond of him. 01:36:01
For those that don't know that you drive on Morrison St. at the 90° elbow, he always had the vegetable garden. 01:36:07
You would have tomatoes for sale. Best tomatoes in the county. My mom always asked me please bring some of those tomatoes. My mom 01:36:15
lives in Marietta, so. 01:36:20
He also he moved the two houses that he has. They are on Wilson St. 01:36:27
Can leave them from Atlanta. When they built Hartsville Airport, he didn't have someone move him, he moved them. 01:36:32
Wonderful person. I've learned a lot from him and he will be missed. 01:36:41
Yeah, yeah, that's great, Jeff. I should have mentioned that Mister Elder was was absolutely a legend in Watkinsville and I know 01:36:48
you were close with him and he will be missed. 01:36:53
All right. Apparently we have an executive session, but what I'm going to suggest is we take a 10 minute break and that way if 01:36:59
people do want to talk a little bit before that executive session, we'll have that opportunity and then council will reconvene and 01:37:04
we'll start that executive session. Thank you all for coming tonight. 01:37:08
I have no idea. Motion, somebody? 01:37:16
Christine, I make a motion moved executive session. 01:37:25
Litigation. 01:37:30
Consultation with legal counsel. 01:37:32
All in favor. 01:37:37
And I dropped put mine down. But the irony is we had to have a all right, I make a motion to adjourn second, all in favor. 01:37:42
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Unable to preview the file. Make sure you have Adobe Reader installed

Transcript

Event transcript
Sharon, we ready? 00:00:00
All right. Welcome everybody, to the May Watkinsville City Council meetings. Great to have a packed house here tonight. We're 00:00:05
grateful for that and also grateful to have a quorum here. Tonight. We have everybody here, everybody here from City Council. The 00:00:12
microphone is on. 00:00:19
OK. 00:00:27
Can you hear me now? There we go. OK. 00:00:30
So we will start as we normally do with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. 00:00:37
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:43
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:49
All right. Couple things before we get going in earnest tonight. I'm not sure what's brought such a big crowd in here tonight, but 00:01:02
I do want to point out, I do anticipate several items being tabled tonight, including the pipe plant project. It doesn't mean if 00:01:08
you came for that, that you can't speak, but you will need to wait until the public comment period of the meeting to speak to 00:01:14
that. We won't have a unless council sees otherwise. I anticipate us tabling that until August. 00:01:20
The gentleman involved with that project are here tonight and I'm sure if you've got thoughts or want to have a conversation with 00:01:27
them too, they're happy to engage in that and at at the appropriate point I'll encourage Mr. Keller to introduce himself, but we 00:01:32
will not be having that as a formal item on the agenda tonight unless council chooses to do so, but the developer has requested 00:01:37
that that be tabled tonight. 00:01:42
For those of you who haven't been here before, we're pretty, I won't say, loose with the rules. We do allow public comment at 00:01:49
council's discretion at moments where where some other governments may not. That said, we do have standards and expectations in 00:01:54
terms of how we do communicate. 00:02:00
Your comments will always need to be addressed to the council, not to the crowd. They will need to be respectful. They will need 00:02:06
to be focused on the matter at hand, unless it's during public comment. During public comment, you can comment on matters that are 00:02:12
wide-ranging, but you cannot insult or attack anyone in this room, or you will be asked to leave and shut down, OK? 00:02:19
So that'll be the way that that works that I'll provide some more clarity as we move through the agenda tonight. 00:02:27
I am your mayor, Brian Broderick. The other council members names are up here in front of you tonight. So we will start off with a 00:02:32
proclamation tonight. And that proclamation is for Municipal Court Corps Week and we have a very good Municipal Court clerk and 00:02:38
that's Miss Lee Black and we're grateful to her. 00:02:44
And all Municipal Court clerks for the vital services they perform in their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent 00:03:54
and serve. Lee, thank you. 00:03:58
Our finance director. 00:04:18
All right. I'm going to move to the microphone for our next. 00:04:38
Love it. We have. 00:04:43
Amelia Anderson. 00:04:48
And Cindy Pritchard, if you could come up here with me. 00:04:52
Amelia, how are you? This is your third council meeting in a row. Isn't that crazy that you're here? 00:04:58
A few months ago Amelia wrote me a letter and that was prompted by a project at her school and asked suggested that we have a 00:05:03
litter cleanup contest in Watkinsville. And we love that idea so much that we. 00:05:09
Had that contest and we are Amelia has been our leader and we're grateful to her. And then Cindy, right Oconee County clean and 00:05:16
beautiful and we're grateful for Cindy for her support. So we've had people all during the month of April during Earth month 00:05:21
cleaning up the streets around Watkinsville and the streets look great. So Amelia thank you for your work there. And so we had a 00:05:27
contest to see who could pick up the most trash during that month and I'm really pleased to announce the winners of that contest 00:05:33
tonight so. 00:05:39
In first place with $100.00 gift certificate to Athens running company we have. 00:05:45
Rosalind. Romano. Rosalind, come on up here. 00:05:53
$25 the cost that Allegra as well. 00:06:06
OK, there you go. How many bags of trash did you pick up? 00:06:09
Tell these people. 00:06:12
You don't remember? 00:06:15
Let's see. It looks like you picked up 5 to 9 bags of trash. 00:06:20
So Roslyn picked up 5 to 9 bags. So congratulations, Stay up here with me, all right? And then our next winner, our second place 00:06:24
winner is. 00:06:29
Alexander Emerson, do you know this guy? OK, Alexander, come on up here. Alexander is going to get. 00:06:35
70 He's going to get a $75.00 gift certificate to Mama Ning. So that could pay for the whole family, I think. So congratulations, 00:06:44
Alexander. 00:06:48
That's exciting. And then I understand, is today your birthday too? Is that right? Well, happy birthday. 00:06:53
All right. 00:06:59
Our third place winner is Dan Matthews, who picked up it looks like Dan did. You pick up 8 bags, 8 bags of trash. So Dan is going 00:07:03
to get fattened up at scoops. 00:07:10
Got a $50.00 gift stick? Get the scoops. 00:07:19
Dan also found our weirdest object, Which was which? Yeah, which I think was. 00:07:22
A. A piece of the library? Something from the library. 00:07:33
The door to the little Free Library Dan found. OK, so, so Dan, thank you for that. And then the last person I want to recognize is 00:07:38
Amelia. Amelia, thank you for thank you for what you've done and and your leadership. 00:07:45
So we're going to also going to give you a $25.00 gift card to Costa Allegra as well, so that's for you. 00:07:52
So thank you, Amelia. 00:07:57
Yeah, oops. Hang on a. 00:08:25
Yeah, yeah. 00:08:33
All right, we've had a lot of young leaders stepping up in Watkinsville lately, and Amelia Emerson is a great one. I know some 00:08:47
people were having trouble finding seats. If you're out in the hall, we do have seats available in here now as some people have 00:08:51
departed. Sophie. 00:08:55
Feel free to come on in. 00:09:00
A couple other quick announcements. May is April is Mental Health Month, and one in five at US adults experience mental illness 00:09:02
each year and only half of them receive treatment. So we'll remind people, if you have a mental health issue, Please remember to 00:09:09
call 988 if you need a help with. Need help with that. 00:09:16
So for a live meeting, the user must click the CC icon in the lower right corner of the video window. 00:09:54
When the video from tonight's meeting is posted online, closed captioning will automatically appear. Interested parties can also 00:09:59
view a transcript of the meeting under the tab titled Transcript As A Reminder. A notice of the council meeting, along with the 00:10:04
current month's agenda, is posted one full week before the meeting to allow the public sufficient time to provide comments and 00:10:08
writing to the clerk if they choose to do so. 00:10:13
I'll move on to the meeting minutes from the April 17th, 2024 Meeting Council. I'll entertain a motion to amend or approve the 00:10:18
minutes as necessary. 00:10:23
I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second we have a motion, we have a second. We have Any comments? 00:10:29
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Any opposed motion carries 50. 00:10:38
We'll now move to the approval of the agenda. We are going to make the following amendments to the agenda. 00:10:43
We're going to table items 10 and 11. The applicant I'm requesting that we table items 10 and 11. The applicant has requested that 00:10:48
for the variance for 56 Dooley St. to the June 19th meeting. I'm also requesting that we table items 12 and 13, the rezone of 1180 00:10:54
Greensboro Highway to August 21st meeting. 00:11:00
As I said earlier, if you're here to talk about that tonight, you can certainly mention, give us your thoughts during the public 00:11:07
comments portion of the meeting. And I do anticipate the meeting being relatively brief tonight other than the budget. So if you 00:11:12
want to hang around and comment, that's fine. 00:11:17
We also want to table item 16 per staff, request the contractor for trail work at the Thomas Farm Preserve to June 19th and then 00:11:22
I'd like to request that we add under old businesses item 14 a revision to approve the selection of the contractor related to our 00:11:28
work on School St. and Simonton Way. 00:11:34
So if anybody could make a motion to that effect I would appreciate it. So moved. 00:11:40
Sorry, we have a motion. We have a second. Any comments? 00:11:45
Hearing none, all in favor, say aye, aye. 00:11:49
The motion, the agenda is amended. 00:11:53
And that will be our agenda tonight. 00:11:55
Right. We'll move through administration. Well, that'll be our financial reports, economic development, Police Department reports. 00:11:57
Miss Dickerson, if you want to kick us off with administration, please. Thank you, Mayor. Everybody should have received and these 00:12:03
are available online as well, a balance sheet, the general fund revenues and expenses, right now we are at 98% revenues when we 00:12:08
should be closer to 83. So that's good news. On our expense side, we should be close to 83 and we're actually at 76%. So that's 00:12:14
even better news. 00:12:19
Any questions in general about those? 00:12:26
OK. Talk about a little bit about our SPLOST. 00:12:29
So Splice 3 this these projects include the improvements at Hair Shoals Park, including the recent paving down there as well as 00:12:32
the bathroom renovation. We have some work on a boardwalk that we're currently working on with a consultant. We also have some 00:12:40
work in this in this budget that covers Thomas Farm Preserve that has been encumbered and some work that's currently underway. 00:12:47
It also included some work on Jackson Street with some drainage improvements, downtown streetscape, some sidewalks, work at Rocket 00:12:55
Field and our entryway signs. And we still have a fair amount of money left in the budget that has that has not been spent, that 00:13:01
will be spent on some of these projects. The average monthly revenue is around 81,000. 00:13:08
And we budgeted around 60, I think 68,000. This floss is collected at 8.63% under agreement with Oconee County and it will sunset 00:13:16
on September 30th of 2027. We have a little bit more than $1,000,000 in this account. 00:13:23
On T's bosses, our transportation special purpose local option sales tax that began in April of last year. It ends in March of 00:13:32
2028. It is calculated 7.77% with the county. Right now our average revenues are right around 71 and some change projects under 00:13:38
this I. 00:13:44
Program or sidewalks and paving of roads, those are ones that are currently under. In fact, one of the items on your agenda 00:13:51
tonight that we're going to be talking about deals with some money is out of this, out of this program. 00:13:56
And we have a little bit more than $655,000 in that account. 00:14:03
Seen a growth of about 6%. 00:14:07
Any questions on any of that? 00:14:45
OK, whoops. 00:14:48
Hang on a second. 00:14:49
Economic development. So business licenses were probably about 92% complete. We've got some that are waiting on some fire 00:14:52
inspections and some others that we're trying to clarify if they're still in business or not. 00:14:57
So that that's a good number to be at just a month after the deadline on excise tax collections. We have alcohol excise tax and 00:15:03
our short term vacation rental or hotel motel tax. Those are tracking as we anticipated. 00:15:09
And on building permits, we have 24 permits for 20 projects. Our biggest one on here dollar wise is the Waters Walk project that 00:15:17
has been outstanding that is a low income housing tax credit funded. 00:15:24
Project that will provide for its age restricted, so 55 plus or older people will live in that in that complex. It'll be located 00:15:31
behind a county State Bank off of water and Durham St. So they've paid this fees and they're working to demo those buildings which 00:15:37
all that all that has been approved. They're just finally at the point where they can start triggering that work. So any questions 00:15:43
on those? 00:15:49
All right. I have one more thing that I normally don't only do this once a year. This is our annual review with Civic Plus. They 00:15:56
maintain our website. 00:16:00
We've been working with them since 2018 and just some interesting stats that I wanted to share I. 00:16:05
So our website, if nobody knows, it's cityofwatkinsville.com. 00:16:12
So we had 30. Over the past year we've had 33,000 plus users, a total of 77,716 page views and an average time of two minutes and 00:16:17
20 seconds. Our population is a little bit more than 2800 according to the census, the top listed pages. I'm not surprised by this 00:16:24
Christmas festivities that always gets a big push. Hair Shoals, Park Police Department and then Thomas Farm City Council meeting, 00:16:30
which was good to see and just general information about the city. 00:16:37
And then our top search items, paying a ticket or paying miscellaneous items. So we do also don't want everybody thinking that's 00:16:46
just tickets. That also includes anybody want to rent the parks or whatnot, they can use that as well. 00:16:51
And then, of course, Christmas festivities and building permits. 00:16:57
And then these are the top downloaded documents, our occupational tax application affidavits which are required for contractors, 00:17:00
information about garbage and recycling and other items. So it's always interesting to see what we get each year, what the 00:17:05
analytics are. So any questions about any of that? 00:17:11
OK. 00:17:17
All right. So I I don't know how many of y'all participated in our first ever annual burger week that the DA put on with some of 00:17:21
our local restaurants. 00:17:28
And also partnered with the Georgia Beef Board. But it was an exciting week. I personally ate way more hamburgers than I normally 00:17:35
would, probably in a month, and they were excellent. 00:17:41
We sold over 1000 total burgers, approximately 414 lbs of beef, 423 total votes and $55 was raised for O arc. 7 restaurants in 00:17:49
downtown participated. 00:17:57
And the winners were Best Burger, Blind Pig Tavern. 00:18:05
The most creative burger. And it was, and it was delightful. And I've heard that even though it's not officially on the menu, you 00:18:13
can actually request it if you go to Kiki's Kitchen. 00:18:18
And then the last one, best collaboration with some great. 00:18:23
Great businesses and people here was Wing House Grill. So that was a lot of fun and today and our DDA meeting we talked through 00:18:30
some tweaks and some improvements. Anytime you do something there's always you know room for changes and improvements and we do 00:18:37
think that is the that this was the first annual and so something to be looking forward to in the future. It also just in general 00:18:44
that obviously the point of doing these things is to help bring more business to downtown into our restaurants and. 00:18:52
They really did see increased sales overall and increased business and I heard a lot of people try places that they hadn't tried 00:18:59
before. So again, that's the the reason we do these things and it really was a success. The next big thing that DDA has coming up 00:19:07
is right, it's going to be a kickoff right before school starts. August 3rd is a BBQ competition and Bake Off and we are still 00:19:16
taking entries. We are still looking for sponsors. We actually have a fair amount of sponsorship, which is excellent. 00:19:24
This is all a fundraiser. It's appropriate for me to talk about it right now as this is Mental Health Awareness Month and this is 00:19:32
going to be going to help support Bethel Haven, which is a local nonprofit that has mental health services available to 00:19:40
individuals and families. So mark your calendar. I know August 3rd sounds like it's forever away, but we are all going to blink 00:19:47
and it's going to be there and it is Kathleen's birthday, so we will all go and set. 00:19:55
Which birthday? Seven. OK, so we're going to have a big party. 00:20:03
At Rocket Field. So all exciting things to look forward to. 00:20:08
All right. With that, we'll turn it over to Chief GAIL for the Police Department report. 00:20:17
Thank you. 00:20:27
Got to bring it down from my short self. That's OK. The police department's been very busy over the past month with lots of good 00:20:29
things. I I take no credit for this. These officers have been working their tails off and as citizens, you all should be very 00:20:37
proud. They're doing the property checks. They're they're, you know, they're citing people for violations on vehicles that are 00:20:44
safety issues. And that's the thing we try to emphasize. Yes, it might be equipment, but there's also usually some. 00:20:52
Safety event going on. That catches our attention. So I just want to keep that in mind. But they're getting out there checking 00:21:00
property checks. That's a big #675 property checks. So they're getting out of their cars, they're walking around, they're driving 00:21:06
it around the property. So very meaningful activities. We're also amping up our training and so several officers have gone to 00:21:12
different classes. 00:21:19
We've had an officer complete family violence and those laws are always changing, so it's a constant need. 00:21:26
We went, we had another officer go to criminal procedure. So that goes with your legal foundation and our city attorney can 00:21:33
appreciate that. I I appreciate it. I'll tell you that for sure. And there we have several classes still lined up at our state 00:21:40
training facility. So there is minimal cost to the department or the city. But we're, you know, I'm trying to reach out to 00:21:47
agencies close to us so that we are perpetually training our officers to be confident at what they're doing. 00:21:55
And safety is always an emphasis. So we're we're doing training on our tactics and such. 00:22:03
We are still dealing and will be dealing with the police vehicle recall issues. They're only doing one car at a time. So it's a 00:22:10
slow process and it's a multiple multi pronged process because we can take a car for one issue and then we'll have to take it back 00:22:16
for a separate recall. And that's just the story of our life and moving on to the next slide. We've been busy with community 00:22:23
events and that is, that's what drives us. You all drive us and it's been thrilling. It's been wonderful. I sent a ton of 00:22:29
pictures. 00:22:35
To manager Dickerson and you know it's it's just. 00:22:43
That's how we get to know you and that's how you all our community get to know us, so we will continue to do this. 00:22:46
And and so with that I'm going to ask two officers to and they they really don't want to do this, but we need to recognize the 00:22:54
time and effort that these officers put in to you, to our community and our children. So we've had two, we've had multiple events, 00:23:02
but two of them were done really. The officers take the lead on planning this and they do it in their off time, so. 00:23:11
Doing a majority of this work when they're not here, so it takes a lot of effort and then when they're on midnight shift it it's 00:23:20
painful to see them get up or stay over to continue to get everything planned and organized for our incredible event. So we did 00:23:28
cops and bobbers. We've done an event at a adult elderly facility, residential facility for Valentine's Day. We've hard agree 00:23:36
Fishing sanctuary allowed us to use it. We partnered with them. 00:23:44
And we had an incredible event with our kids and that's where our kids, you all get to know us as humans not wearing the uniforms 00:23:52
and we're out there. So I'd like to recognize two of our officers that really took the lead on these events. So I'd ask for 00:24:00
Officer creation, Officer Anglin to go ahead and stand up here. And these are commendations. 00:24:09
So these are accommodation bars and I guess. 00:24:30
Do the circle for their uniforms. 00:24:33
But these are community service. 00:24:36
Hands and arms, work hours that are included in these things. And so again you know, I applaud them. I applaud their dedication to 00:24:39
our community and to our kids, our youth and our adults, everybody. And so I think, you know we then need to get them around and 00:24:47
and officers that are here, they're supporting their teammates because they care and and this is how you all get to know us and 00:24:55
know that we are engaged with our community and we want to hear from you. We want to see what you all want us to do. 00:25:03
So thank you. 00:25:12
If the rest of the officers, if all of y'all could come in since we've got such a crowd here tonight, I think it'd be great for 00:25:19
the I think it looks like we've got a couple out in the hallway if y'all could all come in. 00:25:23
Come on in. 00:25:28
We've got such a group here tonight, that's umm, I think it's important for us to. 00:25:29
In law enforcement in Watkinsville and continue to invest there. And you guys are a core part of making this community what it is 00:26:11
and making it one of the safest communities in Georgia and America. And we're grateful to you guys. So thankful. 00:26:17
So that pretty much sums up what the police departments been up to. We're busy. We enjoy being busy and we will continue to be 00:26:31
busy, but in a good way. So do are there any questions? 00:26:37
All right. Thank you. 00:26:44
All right. 00:26:48
All right, under consent agenda, we've got a resolution to approve a grant application from the Georgia Recreational Trail program 00:26:52
and authorize the city's financial commitment. You know, we typically don't discuss consent agenda items, so I'll entertain a 00:26:57
motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:27:02
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. All right, do we have a second? Second. 00:27:09
Any discussion? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Any opposed like sign motion carries 5 O. 00:27:14
All right. We will now move into our public hearing, our public hearing tonight. I think the only one that we have will be on the 00:27:23
budget I. 00:27:27
We'll let folks who need to slide out of here, slide out of here. While they do that, I'll remind remind you about our budget 00:27:37
public hearing procedures. 00:27:41
For for public hearing, for public hearing, we have Joe's at. 00:27:49
To make any public comments or suggestions or thoughts on what you want to see in the budget for the City of Watkinsville for 00:29:00
Fiscal year 25, a couple notes that I'll make as we get started. 00:29:05
The net tax digest has increased more than 13 million. 00:29:11
Between the past two years to Net Tax Digest in Watkinsville is just over $230 million in 2023. Now it's 243,000,000. And I'm 00:29:17
sorry this is a bit of an eye chart up here, but this is on on the website. So even though the property digest did increase, the 00:29:23
city manager and I are recommending that we roll back the mileage rate, meaning that there will not be a property tax increase 00:29:29
from the City of Watkinsville this year. 00:29:36
You'll see the top three revenues, our property taxes, local option sales tax and the insurance premium tax. 00:30:50
On our expense side, we have a lot of services that the city provides. We have 21 staff member, full-time staff members and one 00:31:00
part time employee that's in our Police Department. We do a lot of the same municipal services that a lot of communities around us 00:31:06
provide, but we end up doing a lot of contracting for services such as our garbage and leaf and limb, our city engineer, our 00:31:13
attorney, our building permits and inspections. That keeps the cost of personnel and benefits and whatnot at a lower price, plus 00:31:19
we get the benefit of having. 00:31:26
Have gotten much older and they don't use that technology anymore. They're actually using like tablets, which we're not, we're not 00:32:40
interested in moving towards. And so we put in in the budget for that and we also have to replace our City Hall server. We should 00:32:45
have replaced it a couple years ago, but we've been pushing it out as long as we could and we've got we're at the point where we 00:32:50
need to replace it now. 00:32:56
And that is it. I can answer questions if there any, but I think we'll let you turn over the public hearing. 00:33:02
All right, Council, any questions or comments you want to make before we start the public hearing? 00:33:09
All right. Hearing none, I'm going to open the public hearing. As a reminder, you have 4 minutes to step forward and make your 00:33:16
comments about the budget. 00:33:19
I'm Bob Smith. 00:33:29
Excuse me just a second, I hope this isn't kept my time I've got. 00:33:32
Turn this off. 00:33:36
I'm Bob Smith, former mayor of Watkinsville, for one year and three months before I resigned for a number of reasons I wanted to 00:33:39
point point out. 00:33:43
That there are three lawsuits pending against this city. One in the United States District Court, Middle District Court of 00:33:47
Georgia. I have a copy that I think you need to see. And one of the reasons there's a microphone is never close to your mouth. 00:33:53
That's one of the one of the reasons that I could not hear. 00:33:58
Before, during mayor and after mayor. I'm gonna pass this out when I when I get through. All right, We're here to talk about the 00:34:04
budget. Are you gonna talk about the budget? Sure. 00:34:08
The cost of the 100 acre park that Y'all just purchased for $1 million more than the appraisal, I'd like to see in that budget how 00:34:13
that's going to be maintained 100 acres #2. How you going to maintain hairstyles park that's right behind us here that's loaded up 00:34:21
with Kudzu, can't even maintain the park that we have, but you're buying 100 acre park. 00:34:28
Open records clerk. Perhaps you need to get an open records clerk to handle the records of people that want to know. Open and 00:34:37
transparent, Honest government. 00:34:41
And it's not funny, Mr. Mayor. It's not funny when when I have to do an open records for secret emails, 2147 pages are in the 00:34:46
response for a secret e-mail to this city and you read it. 00:34:56
$100,000 in budget. 00:35:08
For building permits, it looks like the pipe plant property is already a done deal. Is that correct? Is it not? Then? I know 00:35:11
smiles are wrong along the table here, but this is a serious matter that that you've already foregone. Looked like you put 100,000 00:35:18
according to some people I've talked with already in next year's budget for building permits. 00:35:25
But then. 00:35:34
I'd like to know in the budget that 100% of all the taxpayer money that used to be 6,000,000 when I was a Mayor Nash about 00:35:35
4,000,000 is all in the Mayor Broderick's bank. I want to know how much interest is getting paid for last year and this year's 00:35:41
budget. 00:35:46
And then last thing would be. 00:35:53
When I was mayor the budget was $1.7 million and I think I've just heard, I think I just heard 3.2 million. I'm going to double in 00:35:57
three years and all and the top five people that get paid in this city, right here, the top five people. 00:36:06
Don't even live in Oak County County. 00:36:16
There's some talented people in Watkinsville and Oconee County, but they don't even live in Oconee County. 00:36:19
And. 00:36:26
I just want some answers on on how you're going to pay for all these things to park. 00:36:27
How you got paid for the three lawsuits, 2IN Superior Court and one in a federal court for Americans with Disabilities Act, that 00:36:33
those are the things I did not see in the budget. So I'm going to leave now and pass out the the suit that was filed. 00:36:40
All right. Would anyone else like to step forward and make a comment on the budget? 00:36:50
All right, hearing none. I will close the public hearing. 00:37:01
Seeing none, but I will respond to what Mr. Smith had to say. I think it's important that the guests here hear the truth. We have 00:37:05
increased our parks budget. We're going to add an additional employee for our parks. The addition of the lawn mower that we've 00:37:11
anticipated is going to help us out a second crew to take care of the mowing. So we're pretty confident we can take care of 00:37:17
things. 00:37:23
In the way that we're doing on the parks, your second question was open records. Mr. Smith, as you probably know, the vast 00:37:29
majority of those come from you. We probably have gotten maybe 20 in the past two weeks. That takes a tremendous amount of time. 00:37:37
The lawsuits also come from you. Our estimated expense on those is an excessive 20 to $25,000 This year alone outside of our 00:37:44
insurer, our insurer has dealt with 22, two $100,000 plus of legal fees, again due to your lawsuit. 00:37:51
We anticipate an amount of building permits that we get every year and those building permits, if we get a fee from a developer 00:38:34
then a portion of that I think 75% what's that Sharon, 67% of that goes to Bureau Veritas, 33% of that comes back to the city to 00:38:40
bear our cost for those If we do, if those building permits don't come through, we simply lose the revenue and we lose the 00:38:46
expense. So they offset, but we do make an estimate of what we anticipate in terms of building permits each year when they come 00:38:51
through. 00:38:57
The interest rates, I'll let Manager Dickerson respond to. I think she's got those. I think they flex up and down every month per 00:39:03
our agreement with the bank. But again, I won't comment on banking matters. Yeah, and I don't have the exact number, but I know 00:39:08
we're somewhere between 4 and 5% on our money right now. We are way over on our revenues of what we thought we were going to 00:39:13
receive this year because we didn't anticipate that high of an interest rate. 00:39:17
Yeah. So we have a formal agreement with the bank that Manager Dickerson negotiated, that I recused myself from and that council 00:39:23
approved, I think approved when actually the previous mayor may have been here for the first time. 00:39:29
We're all ears and we want to answer those. So we want you to know what's going on with your local government. 00:40:09
All right. Moving on from that, The next item is appearances. We have none. The next item is old business. Do we need to discuss 00:40:15
the? 00:40:20
The consent agreement with Green River Builders and Construction for the green space, no update on that. So we will not take any 00:40:27
action on that. That means we move to 14 a under old business which is a contract amendment related to ELMIG and Paving which 00:40:34
impact school St. Simonton Way. 00:40:42
Niagara Drive and Jackson St. 00:40:50
And so the decision was made, recommendation is being made that that road be demoed that we define a culvert on the Northside to 00:41:26
help with the flow of water to install a curb. The better direct the flow of water from the roadway into our catch basins and 00:41:32
construct the road based if needed. We're not 100% sure that road is so old. We're not sure if it has a road base, but if it 00:41:38
doesn't that will have to be constructed. So there is a difference of $25,000 an estimate but not to exceed $25,000 to do that 00:41:44
work. 00:41:50
The difference the 25,000 will come out of the TS blast which is a requirement. There's 30% of the T spots referendum is supposed 00:41:57
to be used on roads resurfacing and rehabilitation. I just use the exact same report you had last month and just added Redline 00:42:04
where we needed to have it. So the update on that is again Engineer Campbell met on the May 9th. I believe that was a Thursday 00:42:11
with the contractor to discuss our desire to address to change the scope of work as I explained to you. 00:42:18
And Tony Smith, the owner of Tony Smith and kind of, sorry, Cut Smith and Company said that he estimates the additional work at 00:42:26
cost not to exceed $25,000. So that's what we're asking. I don't know if the city engineer wants to offer any additional. 00:42:32
Input or feedback on that, Yeah, thank you. I'm happy to answer questions. The original scope on School St. if you'll remember we 00:42:39
worked on Water St. to really address some drainage issues there. That seems to be working very well on School St. The the 00:42:46
original plan was to middle School St. I don't have any documentation of the last time School St. was milled. If you go out there, 00:42:52
you can see that that paving has been added on top over and over over a period of time. So the original plan was to Middle School 00:42:59
St. before new pavement was added. 00:43:05
Upon further examination specifically during rain events, I think the better course of action is going to be the salt cut and 00:43:13
remove to go back to start from a firm foundation. We can patch it and we can certainly save money in the short term to patch it. 00:43:19
I think that the better opportunity would be to fix it. And so that was the discussion that took place. That's the new number you 00:43:25
see there. 00:43:32
All right. Questions from council to staff. 00:43:41
Hearing none. 00:43:47
All right, Council, I'll entertain a motion. 00:43:52
I make a motion to approve. 00:43:55
We have second. 00:43:57
All right, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. 00:43:59
All in favor, say aye aye. Any opposed All right. The motion carries to adjust the paving scope on. 00:44:02
School St. the portion near the courthouse, not east of Main Street but West of Main Street. All right under New Business. We have 00:44:10
three items under new business and we'll be at public comments. 00:44:16
The Approve a contractor for the bathroom renovation at Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:44:22
Invasive removal and such. On April 18th we released it a request for proposal for the renovation of the bathroom. On May 6th we 00:45:02
received one proposal from Smith and Co for $39,877 in addition to a post on the city's website. It was advertised in Oconee 00:45:09
Enterprise and provided directly to three companies, Martin Pell, Free Handyman, Smith and Co, and Triple J Construction. Based on 00:45:17
the council's approved budget for the Thomas Farm Preserve, we have $50,000 available for that renovation. 00:45:25
All sorts of things we have to do to make sure that it is accessible. And so we are negotiating with the contractor to bring it 00:46:08
down. But we are asking you go ahead and approve the contractor for an amount not to exceed 40,000. We anticipate it will be much 00:46:13
lower than that. 00:46:17
All right, Council, you've heard the recommendation from staff. Any questions? 00:46:23
Hearing none, do we have a motion. 00:46:29
Make a motion that we approve the bid and the project. 00:46:33
All right. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Any further discussion? 00:46:39
All in favor, say aye, aye. All right. As we discussed that was previously budgeted and it's coming out of SPLOST funds. 00:46:43
We'll move on to item 17. Item 16 was tabled and this is the Watkinsville Warehouse District LLC, Wastewater capacity allocation 00:46:50
request and all that staff introduced that and Mr. Bishop, you can come on up and stand while staff does the introduction. 00:46:57
Thank you, Mayor. So this applicant has a project that has been approved by the City Council. We were under the impression, I 00:47:09
believe he was as well, that he would be able to use an existing guaranteed sewer capacity from the county when we do. Further 00:47:15
that agreement realized that the agreement was only for guarantee and reserve for sewer collection and pumping and not for 00:47:22
capacity. So he is requesting for the capacity for that front building, which is 290 gallons a day. 00:47:28
That has been confirmed. That amount has been confirmed by Oconee County and he is here to request that. 00:47:35
Good evening, everybody. 00:47:41
Just requesting the 290, I think it's the minimum amount. Yeah, 290. So just for the project at 1260 Greensboro Highway. 00:47:42
All right. Mr. Bishop, will you give an overview of the project just for our guests here so they understand what's going. So the 00:47:51
building is 7100 square feet, is located directly in front of what everybody knows is the Core Blend building. 00:47:56
Corbin is actually going to move out of their current location into the new location. So they'll just use minimal amount of sewer 00:48:02
for just four bathrooms, single hole bathrooms. And so that's pretty much just the scope of the projects, basically office, 00:48:08
warehouse space, OK. 00:48:14
Council, any questions? 00:48:21
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the wastewater capacity allocation request. 00:48:24
I make a motion to approve the wastewater allocation request. 00:48:29
Do we have a second? 00:48:33
2nd. 00:48:36
Mr. Thomas, you'll get in at some point. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further comments or questions? 00:48:37
Hearing none all in favor say aye Any opposed like sign. 00:48:43
Motion carries 50. Mr. Bishop, are you staying for the next one, too? That's not me. OK, all right. Address is similar. 00:48:47
Oh, yeah, that's right. OK, now, now it's all clear. All right. So we have a wastewater capacity allocation request for 12:40 00:48:56
Greensboro Highway. Welcome back, Dax and Life. If you could introduce yourselves and maybe remind everybody what you have going 00:49:02
on. Well, before we do that, why don't we let staff talk and then I'll let y'all talk. 00:49:08
That remind you that the property owner was recently approved for seven hundred 780 gallons per day for three buildings at that 00:49:14
location. They're requesting an additional capacity for building 200 which they're preparing for an event space, restaurant and 00:49:21
Oconee Water Resources has indicated they would need an additional 28165 gallons a day. 00:49:28
All right. So if you want to walk us through what y'all have planned and and then council will take a look at this. Sharon, was 00:49:37
there anything else you needed to offer that? It looks like you've got the chart up there in terms of our capacity, is that 00:49:41
correct? 00:49:44
OK. So we keep up for the benefits of those who aren't here. We keep up with our sewer capacity there in certain parts of the 00:49:49
city. We have an allocation of 100,000 gallons per day, but we have another 100,000 gallons coming when the county expands its 00:49:56
sewer plant in the next few years. This is this is approved, not actually you know in use sewer capacity at this point. So it 00:50:03
includes future development projects. So if y'all want to introduce yourselves and give us a quick overview, that'd be great. 00:50:10
Right. I'm life Hansford and. 00:50:17
Right. OK. So we're rebuilding the property that burned on our property, the building that burned building 200 and we started with 00:50:20
minimum capacity. But as we've gone along and we've had interest, we've had a restaurant reach out to us and an event space that 00:50:26
we'd like to put up there. And those require I think 50 seats per and there's allocation of gallons per use per day. That's what 00:50:31
we got to this number to be able to do those things in that building. OK. 00:50:37
All right, Council. Questions for Dachshund Life. 00:50:45
All right, I'll entertain a motion to. 00:50:51
Entertain a motion. 00:50:54
I'll make a motion that we approve the wastewater capacity. 00:50:57
All right. We have a motion to approve. We have a second from Councilman Garrett. All right. Good. The left side speaks up. All 00:51:00
right. Any questions or comments from council hearing none. All in favor. Say aye. Aye. Any opposed like sign motion carries 5 O. 00:51:07
Thank you all for coming. I'd like to say just real quick that this is the third meeting that Lake and I've been at and we really. 00:51:14
I do appreciate everything that you guys do. I don't think you guys think get thanked enough. So just from he and I would just 00:51:21
like to say thank you for everything. Well, thanks for your investment in Watkinsville. We appreciate it. Yeah. 00:51:26
Mr. Lay, welcome back. 00:52:02
Thank you. Always good to have a former Council member back with us. 00:52:04
My name, Johnny Wright. I've been living The Walking business in 1964. 00:52:08
I've always been very concerned about Walking Field Hub. 00:52:14
I got the admit that was in the last. 00:52:19
I got mixed emotions by right now so. 00:52:21
You know, we got too much development going on, We got too much bending going on. 00:52:25
I I have this impression to develop the company to town, take it over and just do what you want. I know it sounds ugly, but I 00:52:32
don't even feel it that way. 00:52:35
By the same token. 00:52:40
The three developments that we already had, you know who three I'm talking about? 00:52:41
I got me there first. They look like a first class development to me. I'd use it with just read. That's why I didn't call from my 00:52:47
house. 00:52:52
Oh, it's nice, neat. I couldn't say nothing negative about it. So when I say I think we got too much building going on, they nice 00:52:57
building, they nice development. 00:53:02
So. 00:53:08
I'm going to lead up to the, one of Y'all said. It's been postponed and not the concrete pipe place. 00:53:09
By the same token, I say something about the development. 00:53:16
Building UH? 00:53:19
I'll go ahead and throw this in. And this wasn't in my speech. I've been practicing for three weeks and since newspaper come out. 00:53:21
At the same time, the stuff y'all doing, I may not agree with a lot of it. I'm going to take rocket for you all the paving down 00:53:28
here at the park. 00:53:32
Everything you're doing so far looks nice. I call it quality work. Down the road it going to be worse. 00:53:37
I'm just, I'm telling old fashioned, don't like to spend money. 00:53:44
But but it's looking good. 00:53:47
What I'm concerned about the concrete pipe development is. 00:53:52
The fact that. 00:53:57
I think at the time. 00:53:59
I think you're too larger to development. 00:54:02
If you really look at the way I looked at it, I have been in the paper and. 00:54:05
All the way from the railroad down to Marshall St. that's a lot of development. 00:54:09
That's a lot of traffic. 00:54:15
There's a lot of footwork, a lot of protesting congestion. 00:54:17
So to me, I'm saying that particular project need to be put on hold. There's simply that. 00:54:22
I narrowed all that. Then in one word, that's traffic. 00:54:29
Traffic Rockin Field who hasn't ever been in? 00:54:32
And not gonna get no darling better. 00:54:36
I don't see nothing changing, Nick. 1015 years. 00:54:38
We don't need to meet you that loaded from Greensboro Road to the bypass where you can bypass Wardenville Hill Bypass ain't moved 00:54:43
in 20 years. 00:54:47
He's still around life we've been getting going to Bishop yet. 00:54:51
So I don't see any help in traffic in downtown Walking field. 00:54:55
And nobody don't get our heads haven't told me this past week and I'm not going to get into it, not just because y'all talking 00:55:01
about it. 00:55:05
Sure, I said something, that guy said. You know why so much building going on in the city, don't you? Not really. 00:55:11
He said it cost developer his first priority to sewing water. 00:55:20
I don't want a true or none. I'm not a new asset I won't try to find out for. 00:55:25
But if that's right. 00:55:31
It seemed like me this whole development bad concrete pipe place. It don't seem like a little Shorty there. You talking about 400 00:55:33
toilet 4500 faucets people? 00:55:38
So what's the big deal to sewer connection? 00:55:45
When we developed them coming in here, no problem with it. 00:55:49
That's another story. 00:55:52
I don't want to get my tooth in about the concrete pipe place where I don't have to come back next month. I'm against it. 00:55:54
Thank you, Mr. Way. Appreciate you being here. 00:56:01
And Julie, we have Mr. Lays address on file, is that correct? OK, remember to please state your address and your name when you 00:56:08
come up. 00:56:11
Mr. Smith, Mayor, I didn't intend to come before, right, but. 00:56:15
Because you tabled this, this project are great for Hwy. There are a number of people that wanted to talk about. 00:56:21
Traffic, traffic and traffic and more traffic. 00:56:29
And that's an issue. 00:56:34
We're continuing to do this until we have a plan for truck bypass that was in the works at one time. Where's the truck bath 00:56:36
bypass? 00:56:40
But most importantly, what I will understand here and talk about is no laughing matter about this federal lawsuit that's filed for 00:56:44
the American Disabilities Act. It's not laughing. 00:56:50
Are coming here again and I have to look around to see who's making the motion and the microphone is about a 14, three feet away 00:56:56
from your mouth. 00:57:01
And if I can't hear it? 00:57:07
And this has been going on since before I was mayor, while I was mayor, and after I was mayor. Otherwise I would never have filed 00:57:09
a federal lawsuit against his body. 00:57:14
But you continue to do it even tonight. Now why am I doing this? 00:57:20
It's because almost 60 million people in America have a hearing issue. That's about 18 to 20%. And if we keep people out of this 00:57:26
body from running for office or participating in the process, that the the political process, the smart people that can't hear. 00:57:36
We need to pay attention to those smart people that can't hear and include them in the process, but otherwise you're precluding 00:57:47
them. 00:57:50
What? Excluding him? Whatever you want to say. But this is a not a laughing matter like I have seen here. 00:57:55
That the microphone is 234 feet away from your face and you're making motions, and I couldn't hear who made the motion. 00:58:03
This is a serious, serious matter, you know. 00:58:13
That hearing impaired people I walked through here. 00:58:16
I'm not handicapped. 00:58:20
But I'm 80% hearing loss. I've lived with this since the 4th grade. You have to work hard to live with it. 00:58:22
And when I was in the legislature, we passed and I offered this a Commission on the here impaired. We went to the Georgia Lines 00:58:30
Lighthouse because I care about the hearing impaired. I can find the money to help myself. But there are people that don't have 00:58:36
the money, they don't have the resources, they don't have the knowledge to find out how to hear and participate in the American 00:58:42
experiment. 00:58:47
We went to the Georgia Lions White House with a public private partnership. 00:58:54
And a year ago, I called them. How many people in Georgia have been affected by this legislation? 25,000 Georgians. That's not 00:58:59
enough, but it's a good start. 00:59:05
But this is a serious matter and I passed out. 00:59:12
That federal lawsuit to you, because I don't know if you've ever gotten it. I don't know if, if, if the legal counsel has even 00:59:16
given you that, but you now have it. 00:59:21
And you'll see in there why without it. 00:59:26
And statute of limitations kept me from going further back when one member of this body, when I was outside this body, not as a 00:59:30
mayor, mocked me for my hearing. 00:59:35
On this council. It's unacceptable. But thank you for listening. It's a very, very serious matter. And I hope that you'll look 00:59:42
forward to what's happening in this, this, this lawsuit. It's very serious. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. 00:59:49
As a reminder, for anyone who's hearing impaired, there is a hearing loop installed in City Council in the City Council chambers. 01:00:01
So if you do have a hearing impairment, I would encourage you to use that. We also have headphones. 01:00:07
Over here that we make available and that's why we stress that our meetings are captioned and closed, captioned and available and 01:00:13
easily accessible for anybody who chooses to use those. But again, thank you Mr. Smith for your comments, Mr. Prescott, please 01:00:17
come forward. 01:00:21
Anyone to hear when you're not. 01:00:27
Can you hear me right now? Can, can you hear, can you hear me, Julie, can you hear me? 01:00:30
I didn't. I haven't. I haven't changed where I'm sitting. Can you hear me? 01:00:36
I live at 1090 Simonton Drive. I've lived in Oconee County for almost 50 years and in Watkinsville for approaching 25 years. Mr. 01:01:09
Mayor and members of the Council, I thank you for the opportunity to address you, address you on the rezone request for 1180 01:01:15
Greensboro Highway. If approved without major changes, this project would certainly shape the future of Watkinsville in a 01:01:22
detrimental way, in my opinion. In the opinion of many others who I believe are here to comment on that project tonight, as well 01:01:28
as others I have seen commenting. 01:01:34
Robustly. 01:01:42
On various social media platforms about the project. 01:01:43
In thinking about this project, I was reminded of a news story from July 2019 authored by Lee Becker in Oconee County 01:01:47
Observations, where he described this council's past efforts to seek citizen input, both city and county voters, on possible 01:01:55
upgrades to hair Shoals. Park surveys were created and reviewed to prioritize the wishes of park users on its future. 01:02:03
While much could be said about the state of Harris Shoals Park almost five years later. 01:02:11
My real point is that the Council has shown a willingness to hear from citizens in the planning stages of past projects, at least 01:02:17
projects the Council believes may have a great deal of support. 01:02:22
I first heard of the 1180 Greensboro Highway proposed rezone in the Oconee Enterprise. When I last drove by the site, there was no 01:02:29
signage posted to notify the citizens of the pending project. 01:02:34
I believe the council knows that this project has very little support among the citizens of Watkinsville in Oconee County and for 01:02:40
some reason has decided to quietly pursue it knowing the ire that it will raise. Anyone who travels through Watkinsville daily is 01:02:46
aware of the traffic issues in need of abatement, not increase. We don't need a near 300 page traffic study of downtown traffic to 01:02:53
tell us what we already know through daily experience. Further, the project will have serious consequences, in my opinion, related 01:02:59
to our schools. 01:03:06
Public safety, infrastructure and ever increasing taxes. 01:03:12
This council seems intent on paving the way for apartments and other rental units at the gateway of every entry point to our city. 01:03:17
We now have apartments at the North End of Main Street, Barnett Shoals and this proposed project on Hwy. 15 at 1180 Greensboro 01:03:25
Highway. My question is, what's next? Raising something on Experiment Station or the South end of Main Street to usher in more and 01:03:32
more rental units for our small community? I implore you to listen to the voters. 01:03:39
And open this up for discussion and major changes to what is appropriate for our small town. I thank you for the opportunity to 01:03:47
speak with you tonight. 01:03:51
Thank you, Mr. Prescott. 01:04:02
Next up. 01:04:05
Yes, Sir. Come on. 01:04:09
I just want. 01:04:13
Back up what he just said. My family's been here since 1870. I've lived it in my got my grandfather's, my great grandfather's 01:04:15
property. 01:04:19
Back in 1990. 01:04:24
And I lived in Lawrenceville. 01:04:27
I actually bought a house there, me my wife back in 1982 I guess and it was a one acre house and a small rural area and I wanted 01:04:29
to be out in the country, but anyway. 01:04:35
This property found my lap. 01:04:41
And I'm seeing and you remember the signs were don't turn Oconee into Gwinnett, I believe it was about a year ago. 01:04:44
The traffic we're losing our small town charisma. 01:04:53
And I hope to God that you all will listen to what he just said, the people, and it's all over on. I guess I don't get on 01:04:58
Facebook, but I've heard it's consumed with a lot of people complaining about this 1180. 01:05:04
So please reconsider. 01:05:11
And listen to the people for that. We don't need that. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. 01:05:13
Hi, I'm Susanna Heiml. 01:05:28
I'll give my address afterwards if you need it. Just go ahead and do it now, please. I live in Watkinsville. I don't want to say 01:05:31
it in front of everybody. I'll be glad to write it down and give it to you. 01:05:36
I've got questions about this project. I'm not necessarily against it, but I do have questions about how many people will bring 01:05:43
in. I do see that it lists 203 apartments, studios, 123 bedrooms, but it doesn't specifically say how many of each there are, as 01:05:49
well as 24 townhomes. What's the makeup of those? 01:05:55
6 detached cottages So I'm kind of curious as to how many, how many people this will bring and I think we already have traffic 01:06:01
congestion on 15 on Main Street. I do love off Barnett Shoals and I've seen a considerable increase in traffic turning left from 01:06:08
Main Street to Barnett Shoals since Wire Park is opened. So that would be my my first concern. Second concern is. 01:06:15
What these apartments rent for, what are the townhomes and cottages sell for? Because I feel like the things that are opening 01:06:23
around her that the rents, the rents on the prices like on townhomes at Wire Park are so high. I just feel like our our jobs 01:06:29
around here are not supporting those kind of rents and those kind of property prices. So I feel like we we need to figure out a 01:06:34
way to keep. 01:06:40
Prices for the townhomes, I'm sure they must have been established when this project was presented. So I'd love to hear those 01:07:21
numbers and I'm sure that everybody else would too. I haven't seen the paper. I don't know where they where to find them, so. 01:07:27
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yep. 01:07:33
All right. 01:07:41
Hi, my name is David Phillips. 01:07:45
My wife and I lived at 1321 Beechnut Lane. That's off of Elder Mill Rd. which is off of Hwy. 15. 01:07:47
So we've been out there for 45 years. 01:07:55
And we moved to Oconee. 01:07:59
Because it was rural. 01:08:02
And I'm one of those people that sort of believes that. 01:08:04
The Gwinnett thing is happening. I've seen it. That's not like I just heard it or read it in the paper. 01:08:08
And I'm really concerned about the Highway 15 development. 01:08:15
The. 01:08:20
I think everything on 15 S of the railroad track is commercial. 01:08:22
I don't see. 01:08:27
Moving that many people into it, getting through Watkinsville now is a chore. 01:08:28
Linda and I we. 01:08:35
We support Watkinsville businesses. 01:08:37
We shop in Watkinsville Butlers Crossing Epps Bridge. She's not going to stop at a strippers to do her shopping offense to 01:08:41
strippers. 01:08:46
But she shops at Publix Earth Fair, Trader Joe's. 01:08:52
We bank at two banks in Watkinsville. 01:08:59
We we go to Walgreens. I mean that's that's our business. I I remember the Athens I. 01:09:02
Health and fitness gym which is at managers crossing. 01:09:13
I'm there every day. 01:09:16
So we're going through the traffic every day. 01:09:19
And we're retired, but we're still going through every day because we live here and this is where we want to do our business. 01:09:22
So we came to to support voting no, to rezone that there's a residential area. I guess that's what you're thinking about doing. 01:09:30
Thank you. 01:09:41
Say I'm Dana Blair. I live on School St. in Watkinsville and we're here tonight for a. 01:09:50
The pipe plant. 01:10:00
Discussion and I just think it's a horrible idea to have any more high density housing within the city. 01:10:03
It's my opinion, but traffic and the impact on schools, I just think we need to slow down a little bit and. 01:10:11
And think. 01:10:20
What do we want? What quality of life? 01:10:21
What atmosphere? 01:10:23
Anyway, thanks. 01:10:25
Thank you, Mr. 01:10:27
Right. 01:10:32
Mr. Blair, I just see things that that come to the top of my mind when we're talking about. 01:10:35
More traffic. 01:10:44
Traffic down Main Street and 15 is horrible. 01:10:46
But we're not talking about everybody who doesn't go down 15, but they cut through our neighborhoods that are line Main Street and 01:10:50
15. We live on School St. and 2nd St. 01:10:56
Is constant traffic all day long. 01:11:03
I'm sure that it's the same thing on the other side of the street. And the second thing is that the apartments and whatever 01:11:07
housing at Wire Park isn't even open yet. 01:11:12
So we're not even seeing the the height of the traffic. 01:11:18
Until that happens. So once that gets open, it's going to, you know, I don't know who knows how bad it's going to be, but in 01:11:21
talking about adding 200 apartments, I can't help but think that they're saying 200 apartments so they can settle for 100 01:11:28
apartments or whatever. But is tends to be the type of way that people approach that when they're trying to get rezoned. So 01:11:34
anyway, that's all I have to say. I just wanted to add these guys did a great job. 01:11:41
Thank you, Charlie. 01:11:49
Mr. Popov. 01:11:52
Good evening everyone. Thank you for your service and being here. 01:12:00
I'm not going to talk about 1180 since it's taken off the official for tonight. I didn't want to discuss why our park in the 01:12:04
condominiums going in front of it. When it was initially presented to us, the people of Watkinsville, it was supposed to be, quote 01:12:11
UN quote small, a few condos or something for people that worked here that couldn't afford to live here. And it said it was 01:12:18
nonprofit. I think we all know that's BS. They are for profit, OK? They're really nice. I have a friend of mine who's extremely 01:12:25
wealthy and he's got one on the list. 01:12:32
So I'm seeing here on our part, 56 condos, 60 flats, 21 townhomes, how many single family I can't read, moon riding, 54, I think. 01:12:40
I mean, how many people are y'all trying to cram in there and what is the purpose? I mean, who benefits? It's not us. You guys are 01:12:47
for us, OK? You're supposed to be for the people of Watkinsville. In other words, represent our interest, what we wanted, a life, 01:12:54
what we want our city to be like. Not a person here wants our city to be inundated with a whole bunch of more people to deal with 01:13:01
traffic. 01:13:08
No answer for it. So you're making it worse. You lied about the condos to begin with. A major in business geography at UGA. 01:13:15
Location principles of business. Water park needs to be seen from the road for people drive by to go, man, that's gold. Let me 01:13:23
stop in there. Condos in front of it. I mean, come on. Do you ever see that anywhere, Anywhere. I've been all over America. I've 01:13:31
never seen them all condos blocking it or, you know, any retail place with condos blocking it. 01:13:39
I can't fathom the logic or decision behind that, not even mention 1180. And the bottom line is from everyone, we don't want the 01:13:48
growth. 01:13:53
We want proper growth. We want calculated, rational, logical growth that we can handle. Our infrastructure can handle our streets 01:13:58
and traffic can handle. We're overloaded already, traffic's bad. So with this in mind, do you guys understand we don't want growth 01:14:05
and there's a better way to spend our money and govern our city than to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow with these businesses and in 01:14:12
my opinion, our park putting the condos in front of us, a huge mistake. 01:14:20
You don't do that, man. People need to see that. I'd like to see it succeed. Honestly, I really would. Putting condos in front of 01:14:27
it cuts out the attraction. People driving by and seeing this beautiful, nice new place, all they're going to see is condos and 01:14:33
oh, well, I guess that's just condos and it's not going to draw the people in. So, you know, I I guess do we need to have some 01:14:39
kind of a serious citizen meeting to discuss growth, proper growth and what we want here in Watkinsville? Because I think we're 01:14:45
getting it. 01:14:51
I don't think a person here can say we really feel that you guys represent our best interest. Because I don't. I don't think you 01:14:57
do. I really don't. 01:15:01
Bids I'd like to know you know, are you getting a professional engineer to write specs for a job before it's released for billet? 01:15:07
Are y'all letting you know this guy quote this. That guy quote this. 01:15:12
Like the sidewalk back on Hardin Hill, this should have been one engineer that designed the whole thing. He got paid for the 01:15:18
design, and guess what? If there's any problems to design, he pays for it out of his pocket. 01:15:23
We paid for that huge mistake. I mean, why wasn't it done by an engineer that stamped it and said, OK, boom, I dare you to find 01:15:29
something wrong with it. Well, double the cost of it, I guess. There's a few little things, but my God, doubling the cost of that 01:15:35
project, that's inexcusable. Whoever engineered that project should be responsible for that mistake and that overrun of the 01:15:41
budget. 01:15:47
So, I mean, I'd really like to know how does this process work when you all have big projects that want to be done other than just 01:15:54
putting them in the county enterprise, which admittedly a ton of contractors in the state of Georgia don't use. I used to go to 01:15:59
the bedroom in Atlanta and there was everything under the sun. Thank you, Mr. Papa. Yep. 01:16:05
Just for the record, before the next person comes up, there was no promise of a nonprofit, condominium or homes ever made at Wire 01:16:19
Park and the Harden Hill thing we've discussed. 01:16:24
For months and months of the scope of the project changed. It was not a cost overrun. All right, next person please. 01:16:29
Kathleen Kristen, 13 S Corner. 01:16:42
I thought it was a beautiful project. 01:16:46
The fellow had a nice designs for the buildings. It was kind of him to consider the low income for some of the back cottages. 01:16:49
However, it's his job to pencil out his project to the Max. 01:17:01
It's our job to push back and I think hearing from the citizens tonight that we're pushing back against. 01:17:07
This developer maxing out his profits. 01:17:15
To develop this piece of property, I think that a better use of it would be something that would not have as much impact on the 01:17:20
traffic. I go to core gym and some days that traffic is backed up to that to that entry to that gym. 01:17:28
And if there no matter what project goes in there, I don't think it should be approved until the dot. 01:17:39
Agrees to put a light there. 01:17:46
To keep the traffic moving, I don't think a roundabout would work because something about the trucks coming in there at 4550 miles 01:17:49
an hour, sometimes faster and going around and roundabout isn't really going to work. So I really recommend that you go back to 01:17:57
the developer, back off the project. He can still make a profit. It doesn't have to be as much as it looks like he's going to make 01:18:05
and listen to the citizens about what we want in our city. 01:18:12
Water park scares the hell out of all of us because the people who are going to live there haven't even moved in yet and we I 01:18:20
can't get out of my street sometimes in the morning. The traffic on 2nd and 3rd St. 01:18:28
As cut throughs has increased exponentially. At 5:00 you can barely get out of your driveway. 01:18:37
All right. Thank you. Thanks, Kathleen. 01:18:46
Next up. 01:18:54
Jason Smith, 32, Thrasher Drive. 01:19:08
Forgive me, I've caught off guard a little bit. I thought was going to be tabled and I would get a few months to work my comments 01:19:13
out and but now I am well, I know it is table, but I'm going to, I'm going to join in tonight and I'll be back in August. 01:19:19
I have grave concerns about the development of the pipe yard. 01:19:28
I have spoke to somebody on the phone. Some of you have reached out to you haven't got a chance to get to and I appreciate you. 01:19:32
Some return my calls. We just can't get the same schedule yet. Thank you. I understand this is a tough job for $200 a month. 01:19:38
OK. 01:19:44
Bless you and thank you. OK. 01:19:46
It's a hell of a thing to get up here once a month. Take beat. 01:19:51
All right. That being said, you guys are the guys that are elected to represent us and you guys are the guys that are in control 01:19:54
right now, OK? And it seems to me there's a lot of people greatly concerned where we're going. 01:20:00
I'm not asking to stop. I'm not asking to pause it. I understand that this is a big ship and it will always move forward, OK? As 01:20:07
much as I would love to pause time. 01:20:12
And live and walk until as it is now. I'd much rather live in Walksville 15 years ago. 01:20:17
20 years ago, maybe even more. 01:20:23
I certainly didn't have as many bills and taxes pay back then, so it's a health lot nicer place, but we can't do that. 01:20:25
But we can slow down. 01:20:32
Assess where we're at and assess where we're going. 01:20:35
And how we get there? 01:20:39
Water Park is not built out yet completely. It will be and I'm sure. 01:20:42
Whatever decisions they made in the management of their their enterprise, whether they want to put stuff in front of it, behind it 01:20:47
or around it, that's their deal. 01:20:50
Passes it fails if it succeeds, if it doesn't, that's their business. But it does affect us and the traffics, the tax values, the 01:20:54
revenues, things of that nature trove is not done yet. The forgive me, I don't know the name. The 55 and N community is not even 01:21:00
started yet. There are serious things that are going on right now that we need to take a step back and evaluate and see where 01:21:06
we're at. 01:21:12
As I understand it, I reached up to a member of the Board of Commissioners. 01:21:19
Once we're done with the allotted sewer capacity, again, as I understand it. 01:21:24
We have to apply again for another 100,000 gallon block. 01:21:29
And then? 01:21:33
And forgive me if you want to correct this after I speak sorry. 01:21:35
If that is approved. 01:21:39
That'll be the last guaranteed block that we get. 01:21:41
After that. 01:21:45
There are no guarantees with getting more sewer capacity. 01:21:46
At the earliest, and under the best of circumstances as I understand it. Admittedly, I was on the back foot trying to figure this 01:21:49
out. That's it. Very fastest. Best case scenario. 01:21:54
Late next year. 01:22:00
I don't believe that's probably going to hit it. It'll probably be longer than that. 01:22:02
So even even if this project is approved. 01:22:06
200 apartments you can't flush the toilet in aren't going to go a whole lot of places, you know. 01:22:10
I I have heard the the calls for affordable housing and I understand that. 01:22:16
By happenstance and the grace of God, I managed to ****** hold of a letter that was getting pulled up really fast and I am hanging 01:22:21
on for dear life, believe me. 01:22:24
That is not our problem to solve. 01:22:30
I I, I understand that. And there's people that work here that live here, or people that work here that can't afford to live here, 01:22:33
but that happens everywhere. 01:22:36
I know a lot of EMTs, firefighters, people of that nature. They all drive to Fulton County, Atlanta, places like that. A lot of 01:22:39
contractors work out of town, Gwinnett County, Johns Creek, places like that. 01:22:44
And and they're quite happy to do it because they don't want to live here. They want to live here or they want to live there. 01:22:49
Excuse me, they want to live here. 01:22:52
And why wouldn't they? 01:22:56
Is that wonderful place? It's a great place. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with the late Dave Sharon and he told me if we 01:22:58
are not careful. 01:23:02
Watkins will no longer be a great place to live. It'll just be a place to live. 01:23:07
And I urge you to exercise caution. 01:23:12
Please. 01:23:15
Thank you. 01:23:16
If a guy wanted time to practice, you did pretty good. All right? Anyone else? 01:23:23
Kathleen, you're coming back for more? 01:23:32
Well, I think he got about 90 seconds left. 01:23:35
I'm not going to talk about the project. I wanted to talk about the dog park, which we're still waiting for. My little dog still 01:23:38
waiting for the dog park. That's one thing. The second thing is I thought Brent Thomas brought up a really good point about the 01:23:46
design corridors and the wording in the design corridor regulations, and he pointed out a lot of issues with a lot of places where 01:23:54
the word is should and in technical writing it should be shall. So I would hope that you would. 01:24:02
Have a conversation with Mr. Brett and talk about changing the shoulds to shells. Thank you. Thank you, Kathleen. 01:24:10
He didn't pay me to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure if everybody knew what they were clapping for there, Kathleen. But. But. But 01:24:21
good. Good on it. Yeah. Yeah. 01:24:26
All right, Who else? 01:24:32
Good evening. 01:24:37
My name is Jack Keller. I live at 1271 W Fitzgerald Lane in Watkinsville, Georgia. So not inside the city limits of Georgia or in 01:24:39
Watkinsville, but I am in the county so I grew up here my whole life and I currently live here with a 5 year old and seven-year 01:24:47
old. So just wanted to make it public record that the council insisted that we bring this to the public eye a month before we 01:24:54
decided to to bring this for a vote. We we did that so we could reach out to the community. 01:25:02
That's got some skin in the game and it's going to raise his kids in this county and come to this project. He's got more of a 01:25:45
vested interest than anyone else from Atlanta or anybody else. So I encourage anyone that's that's opposed this. I would love to 01:25:52
meet with you. 101. We have a website upitsinfo@15s.com. My e-mail address is on there. My cell phone number is on there. So I am 01:25:59
willing and would meet with anybody and just wanted to make sure that was probably known and and put out there that I would love 01:26:06
to discuss this. 01:26:13
And see if there's anything we could do to make it a win. Win for everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Chan. 01:26:20
All right. Any other comments tonight? 01:26:26
All right. You've probably gotten maybe 30 seconds. Mr. Phillips, you used a lot of time when you were up before. Go ahead. 01:26:30
I'm beginning to regret that the that the library is in Wire Park because I couldn't even get in the parking lot a week ago on a 01:26:39
Thursday night. 01:26:43
And the library was open. There was no parking places. There was some kind of middle school. 01:26:49
Performance or something? 01:26:53
And I guess I'm saying is too late, but again, it should have been a probably. 01:26:55
Freestanding building with its own parking lot so everybody could access it because once they're built out over there, I don't 01:27:01
know if we'll have access to it. They'll add parking for everything else. And I think it's, you know, look there's, you know. 01:27:07
First of all, I want to thank all of you. You know, this is, this is what local government should be about, right? We're not all 01:27:15
going to agree or disagree every time, but I'm always really proud when folks come in and and speak with a lot of dignity and 01:27:20
respect. 01:27:24
About projects and I heard a lot of that tonight and I'm grateful to those of you who did that and and conducted yourselves that 01:27:30
way. We value that. 01:27:35
Was to make sure the public was aware of this project and they had an opportunity to get engaged and give us feedback on it and 01:28:14
y'all did and and and it's clearly impacted what's happening here and what will happen with the site eventually for good or ill So 01:28:20
we're we're we're grateful for that that's how the process is supposed to work. 01:28:26
And that's what you're going to find here with us tonight. So I'm appreciative of that. 01:28:33
And in their homes. But we want y'all to meet your neighbors and to get to know each other and to create those opportunities for 01:29:14
that consistently around this town. Whether that's a sidewalk, whether that's a playground, whether it's Rocket Field, whether 01:29:20
it's Thomas Farm Preserve, whether it's water Park, there's going to be different ways that it happens. 01:29:25
This is not a council that's in favor of unbridled growth, but this is a council that loves Watkinsville and that wants to build a 01:29:31
community that people choose to come back to and choose to reside in and choose to stay in. 01:29:38
I want all of you to know that your voices were heard tonight. It means a lot to me that Y'all chose to give up an hour. And are 01:29:46
we at an hour and a half of your time on a Wednesday night? 01:29:51
That you were right, that you're willing to come in here and do that. So I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful to hear from all 01:29:56
of you. 01:29:59
We have been named as a finalist for the All American City Award. We are taking a delegation to Denver June 7th and 9th to compete 01:30:34
with 20 other communities Watkinsville as a baby in that we're competing with cities, places like Louisville, places like New 01:30:40
Orleans and others for that. 01:30:46
But we're excited about that opportunity. So we're taking a delegation out there. We have several private sector sponsors who have 01:30:52
stepped up and helped us cover a significant portion of those costs to do that. And we're grateful for all of them as well to help 01:30:57
us take a group of folks from Watkinsville. We're going to have the opportunity to learn and the opportunity to compete and 01:31:02
hopefully bring home a nice honor for our city. 01:31:07
Laura Claire Jackson, You know, y'all were talking about what you like about a small town. This is a great example of a small town 01:31:42
and of a young leader. We had an old well house on Hardin Hill that we had just painted in La Clare. She's a fifth grader at 01:31:48
Column Ferry Elementary School and she decided just had an idea that we needed to do something with it. And so she took it upon 01:31:54
herself to design the drawings and do this painting she did this last weekend. It looks really great. 01:32:00
On Hardin Hill Rd. So check that out the next time you drive down Hardin Hill Rd. But that's a great example of a young, energized 01:32:07
young citizen doing something great, along with Amelia Emerson, who you all saw tonight who started our inaugural Watkinsville 01:32:11
litter pickup program. 01:32:16
We're going to begin. We have some trail work already underway out there on mountain bike trails. This summer. We'll begin working 01:32:52
on other trails in earnest. Damn fixing the dam. The fences are starting to come out. We hope to have that open in November to the 01:32:58
public, and that's going to be a tremendous, tremendous asset. 01:33:03
The Oconee County Schools. If you've gone down N Main St. lately, you've seen their building wrapping up and the landscape going 01:33:11
in. It's looking good. They're having a grand opening on June 10th. 01:33:15
And the public is welcome to join and attend that event. 01:33:20
This is my son. I don't know why he's up here, but I'm grateful if we had the Oconee County High School track team had a great 01:33:25
performance and finished third in the state at the at the class Class AAA state meet and Councilwoman Tucker Mayor Pro Tem Tuckers 01:33:32
daughter Faith was there and competing in two events. Congratulations to Faith. 01:33:39
And we have some exciting graduates who are members of city the children of city staff Jackson and Faith Tucker. That's Mayor Pro 01:33:48
Tem's Tucker's twins. Faith is your valedictorian at Oconee County High School this year. I was at honors night last night and her 01:33:55
legs had to have been sore. She was getting up and down so much. Jackson Tucker and Ellen Patterson were also recognized. Ellen is 01:34:03
the daughter of Kate Patterson, who leads our DDA and and then William Dickerson, manager Dickerson's son. 01:34:10
Has graduated. 01:34:18
From the University of Alabama. And sometimes we like to say, well, it's not rocket science with this guy. It is rocket science. 01:34:19
He is going to go work. He's got a degree in engineer and he's going to be working for SpaceX in Texas. So Sharon, I know you're 01:34:24
proud and congratulations to William and to all of you who've got graduates or children who are graduating in the next few days, 01:34:29
congratulations. I know it's a big milestone. 01:34:34
And then this guy has a birthday. So happy birthday, Joe. We're 49. 01:34:40
Joe, thank you for your service to Watkinsville. I think that's all I have. And we'll move to council reports. We'll go to 01:34:49
Councilman Garrett for the post. One report, nothing to share. Councilwoman Massey. 01:34:55
I just wanted to say I went to the cops and bobbers and that is such a fun event. I'm glad the Police Department is doing that. 01:35:02
The expression on those kids face when they pull. 01:35:06
A fish, doesn't matter how big it is out of that water, It's just amazing. It's it's it's great. Thank you for going. 01:35:11
Councilman Thomas, I just want to thank all the citizens for being here. I hope you come back next month. It's a lot more fun when 01:35:19
you all are here and they are engaged. When you're not here and you're not engaged, we tend to make decisions on our own. So we 01:35:25
encourage you to please come back every month for hopefully an hour and a half long meeting. 01:35:32
Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 01:35:39
Nothing more this month. 01:35:42
All right, Councilman Campbell. 01:35:44
I'd just like to say we lost a lifelong resident of Watkinsville the Elder a week and a half ago. He was 99 years old, possibly 01:35:46
the oldest resident in Watkinsville. I don't know that for sure, but. 01:35:53
That's my guess. He was a self-made man. I was very fond of him. 01:36:01
For those that don't know that you drive on Morrison St. at the 90° elbow, he always had the vegetable garden. 01:36:07
You would have tomatoes for sale. Best tomatoes in the county. My mom always asked me please bring some of those tomatoes. My mom 01:36:15
lives in Marietta, so. 01:36:20
He also he moved the two houses that he has. They are on Wilson St. 01:36:27
Can leave them from Atlanta. When they built Hartsville Airport, he didn't have someone move him, he moved them. 01:36:32
Wonderful person. I've learned a lot from him and he will be missed. 01:36:41
Yeah, yeah, that's great, Jeff. I should have mentioned that Mister Elder was was absolutely a legend in Watkinsville and I know 01:36:48
you were close with him and he will be missed. 01:36:53
All right. Apparently we have an executive session, but what I'm going to suggest is we take a 10 minute break and that way if 01:36:59
people do want to talk a little bit before that executive session, we'll have that opportunity and then council will reconvene and 01:37:04
we'll start that executive session. Thank you all for coming tonight. 01:37:08
I have no idea. Motion, somebody? 01:37:16
Christine, I make a motion moved executive session. 01:37:25
Litigation. 01:37:30
Consultation with legal counsel. 01:37:32
All in favor. 01:37:37
And I dropped put mine down. But the irony is we had to have a all right, I make a motion to adjourn second, all in favor. 01:37:42