Transcript

Event transcript
All right, welcome to the January Watkinsville City Council meeting. It's great to see everybody. Happy New Year. We have a 00:00:05
quorum. We are missing Councilman Thomas, who had to travel and is out of town tonight. So we miss you, Brett, but we will move on 00:00:11
through the agenda. We do have a brief, relatively brief agenda tonight, but as always, we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:16
Chief Barwood, if you believe us. 00:00:21
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:30
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:36
Thank you, Chief. 00:00:47
As I. 00:00:50
During the meeting. 00:01:21
If you need help. 00:01:23
Do we have a 2nd, 2nd? 00:02:26
Any discussion, hearing none, all in favor say aye. 00:02:28
We'll move on to the approval of the agenda Council. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? 00:02:32
I make a motion to approve the agenda. 00:02:36
We have a second, second. All in favor say aye aye. Motion carries. We'll move to administration of oath of office for the newly 00:02:38
elected council members. 00:02:42
Attorney Reitman, I'll hand that to you. Thank you, and I'll take the podium. We can either stand in place or they can come up in 00:02:47
front of the Dyess, whatever you all prefer. 00:02:51
Why don't y'all come to the front of the diocese? Are you just going to do it at one or do you have to do 2 separate? OK, all 00:02:56
right. 00:02:59
Make sure the mic is on Connie. I don't know that we have. Do all of us come up there just to just the new ones? So y'all are 00:03:05
missing Brett? 00:03:08
Thank you. Appreciate it, Sergeant. 00:03:14
All right, let's first do the. 00:03:18
Reelected officials, Then we'll do the Public Facilities Authority if you all will raise your right hand. Please do each of you 00:03:21
solemnly swear or affirm that you will faithfully execute the office of Council Person of the City of Watkinsville and to the best 00:03:29
of your ability support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of Georgia, and the charter, ordinances 00:03:36
and regulations of Watkinsville, and that you are not the holder of any unaccounted for public money due this state or any. 00:03:44
Political subdivision or authority thereof. And that you are not the holder of any office of trust under the Government of the 00:03:51
United States. Any other State or any foreign state which you by the law is the State of Georgia would be prohibited from holding. 00:03:57
And that you are otherwise qualified to hold said office according to the Constitution and laws of Georgia, And that you have a 00:04:03
resident of your district, Watkinsville, for the time required by the Constitution and laws of this State, and that you will 00:04:09
perform the duties. 00:04:15
Your office and the best interest of the City of Watkinsville. The best of your ability without fear, favor, affection, reward, or 00:04:21
expectation thereof. If you agree and say I do, I do, so help me God. 00:04:27
All right. Thank you. Congratulations again. 00:04:34
And I will administer the oath tomorrow to Council Member Thomas. He and I have coordinated today, so we will address that 00:04:39
tomorrow. Do it via FaceTime. He will probably be up here at City Hall. Mayor, do you want me also to address the Public 00:04:45
Facilities Authority oath of office at this time? I don't think so. I think we will do that when we get to it on the agenda. We've 00:04:50
got a couple more. 00:04:56
OK, very good. Thank you. So we will have you rinse and repeat in a minute. Jeff and Christine, congratulations. I know you were 00:05:02
elected a few months ago, but I'm grateful to have both of you on council and for all the work that you guys. 00:05:08
Do and. 00:05:14
And the insights you bring to the city. So thank you both. Congratulations. Thank you. We will move on to election of Mayor Pro 00:05:16
Tem. Do we have a motion for? 00:05:22
A number or a nomination? Excuse me for a candidate for mayor Pro Tem. 00:05:28
I'll make a motion for. 00:05:34
Protein Tucker. 00:05:37
We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:05:39
2nd. 00:05:41
Any discussion? Any other nominations? 00:05:42
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:05:46
Any opposed? 00:05:49
Motion carries. 00:05:50
Attorney-client, or personnel matters. 00:06:22
On regardless of what type of public comment that is, Sharon, we'll move on to financial reports and we'll let you take that. OK. 00:06:25
So everyone should receive the balance sheet and the revenues and expenditure report, nothing really concerning there. If you have 00:06:32
any specific questions, just let me know. On the Splice 3 report, just remind everybody that these funds are being used for the 00:06:39
Thomas Farm Preserve project on the improvements at Harris Shoals Park and Assignment Bridge Rd. Connector. 00:06:46
Project as well. We are averaging about $83,000. 00:06:54
A month in revenues, that is the one, this one, we received 8.63% of the sales tax that's collected by the county. And on this 00:06:59
you'll see that we've seen about a 7 1/2 percent increase over last year the same time and overall for the year about a 6% 00:07:05
increase. So that's always good news. 00:07:12
On T sploss, this is our transportation special purpose local option sales tax. So transportation projects only on this. So paving 00:07:19
projects, we've had the the current paving projects that were going on at the cemetery at the entrance is Thomas Farm and Mulberry 00:07:25
Street, which will go on in the next week or two. Our sidewalk projects, we've got some connection connections that are segments 00:07:32
that are being worked on right now. And then also the Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:07:38
Project As a reminder, this one we collect at 7.77% of all those. 00:07:45
County sales tax and again up about not just a little under 10% have a little bit more than $780,000 in the bank. Sharon, can you 00:07:50
click back for a second? I just want to note that the traffic efficiency improvements are something that we haven't really thought 00:07:56
too much about or planned on and wanted to just make sure that Chief that you're aware of that as you engage and get our new here 00:08:03
that we do have some funds allocated to to be thoughtful with. 00:08:10
Whether it's downtown or whether it's other places, so. 00:08:16
There may be some thinking that Sharon, that you and the Chief may want to do or maybe want to involve Jan and that around what we 00:08:19
can do in terms of traffic improvements in the city. So we'll actually have a police committee meeting at the end of the month. So 00:08:23
we'll probably. 00:08:28
We'll probably expect you to understand that we have a conversation with the police committee about that too, since that's that's 00:08:34
related. And so we'll work on that for sure. 00:08:38
So T's lost and then the American Rescue Plan, I know everybody's getting tired of seeing this, but hopefully we'll put it to bed. 00:08:44
We did. We have spent all those funds that just haven't cleared. Perhaps this month we'll we'll get all those clear. But we, you 00:08:50
all approved. I believe it was in November 10th spending $10,000 that had been appropriated for police officers for retention that 00:08:56
we're continuing to struggle with filling those positions. But to use that for public safety services. I'm happy to report that 00:09:01
the chief. 00:09:07
For you to show us around back there. All right, great. Yeah, We'll add that to the list. On the economic development side, we 00:09:43
have business licenses are coming in, they're due by March 15th, quite a few there. We also had the alcohol applications, I think 00:09:50
8 of maybe 10 that have them. So those are coming in as expected. And then our excise taxes, both alcohol and then hotel, motel, 00:09:57
and that's tracking about what we expected so. 00:10:04
And then on the economic development building permit side? 00:10:11
Have several houses out at troves that are that they've the NSFR basically just means all the permits have been issue or all the 00:10:15
applications for their permits trades and stuff have been issued. So a lot of work there and then you'll see not surprisingly a 00:10:22
lot of H vacs, H vacs that are being replaced in a couple of projects there at at wire park. Any questions? 00:10:29
OK. 00:10:38
All right, so an exciting day today I get to announce our new downtown development. 00:10:42
Director. 00:10:51
Dan, do you want to come up? Is it sorry? 00:10:54
So yeah, I don't know where I want you. I'm going to want you to say something. So is the mic on Kyle? OK, great. So we have we 00:10:59
have a a. 00:11:03
A small but mighty crowd. 00:11:08
So there's hundreds watching, I'm sure hundreds and hundreds. I feel like this is such an auspicious occasion that we should have. 00:11:11
I don't know why I'm standing to you. It's very excited. 00:11:16
That we have Jan here. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and then I'll say a few more things? 00:11:22
A lot of people in the room know that I did live here in Watkinsville for about 6 years, moved to Athens and was in Athens for the 00:11:33
last six years. 00:11:37
Very active with Athens Clark County, a lake commissioner there, worked with the Arts Council there, and for the last two years 00:11:42
have run two programs out of the Athens Community Council on Aging. 00:11:49
Very excited to be a part of the Downtown Development Authority. Feel like there's so much potential here and looking forward to 00:11:57
really driving some innovation and some potential new business in downtown Watkinsville. 00:12:05
And we, we took our time of finding, waiting and interviewing and looking for the right candidate. And we were really excited to 00:12:15
finally get to meet you, interview you. Jan definitely has the energy that we're looking for, the ideas, the ability to 00:12:22
collaborate, which I think is key for this position. So our last director played a fantastic foundation and Jan's going to bring 00:12:29
it to the next level. So we are thrilled that you are here. 00:12:37
Thank you, Kristen. Thank you. 00:12:44
OK, so the next event is going to be February 8th, a Saturday, 11:00 to 3:00 and this is the Cookie Crawl, which is a fundraiser 00:12:52
for, oh, I forget their name. 00:12:59
Ref Sorry, Refuge, Athens. 00:13:07
And it is a lot of fun and it's a great way to, not only does it help a nonprofit, but it helps our businesses get people walking 00:13:11
through the doors. 00:13:17
And you know, just after we lost our holiday weight, it'll be time to to add the cookie weights. You pass them on to your 00:13:23
children. So mark your calendar. It's $35 a box pre-order. 00:13:29
They're about 20 businesses I think that are participating in it and it really is just a fun way, I guess you you're burning the 00:13:37
calories as you walk from business to business and get to really explore downtown. So mark your calendar for that. 00:13:43
That is a great question. So there's information we'll make sure we get out in the newsletter this week, but there's a website you 00:13:51
can go to and and click and order all that. So and they'll have a update on the map. They're we're working through the permit 00:13:55
right now, but we'll have all that. We don't have all the data, quite all the data. But I will say as someone who made that 00:14:00
mistake last year, you can't like just walk up and get a box of cookie and get a box. So you do need to pre-order if you want to 00:14:04
do that. 00:14:09
So they said they will have a few day of but they will be $50 a box as opposed to 35 S Pre-order your box. 00:14:14
And if you are a business, if you're listening your business in downtown Watkinsville and want to participate, I think they're 00:14:22
still open to that. So we're still in that process. This kind of came late to the table to the DDA. So just I'm seeming a little 00:14:28
unorganized. The e-mail came today, so. 00:14:34
And then also we are having the Downtown Development Authority is having their annual retreat. 00:14:42
In on February 10th from 9:00 to 1:00 at the Golden Pantry headquarters. 00:14:49
In the conference room and then we are actually going to have our DDA board meeting directly after that at 1:30. We will not be 00:14:56
having it on the same day as council. We're just being efficient with our time. So that is open to the public. 00:15:02
So yeah, excited about all of the places we're going. 00:15:11
Chief. 00:15:18
Do you got something else? 00:15:20
How many are on the DDA board? 00:15:24
Christine. 00:15:26
Yes. So it is Robert Griffith who with Golden Pantry, Dan Elder, who is a Coney Well and then also has various properties downtown 00:15:29
that he manages for his family. 00:15:35
Melanie Atkins, who owner of Chops Erica. 00:15:43
Who is the owner of Bird and Brass downtown? Paul Lancaster, who? Farmhouse law myself and then also. 00:15:50
Yeah, Brock tool, which needs no introduction, so yes. 00:16:04
All right, Chief. All right. Thank you all for having me and I hope everyone's having a blessed 2025 so far, but. 00:16:11
So on the training schedule, we we have the same Sergeant Wade and Officer Walker scheduled this month to go to their designated 00:16:17
training. I'm currently working on a training calendar for in service training for all the officers that they'll be required to 00:16:23
take throughout the year. Once we get this training room done, that should be finalized probably within the next two weeks. We 00:16:29
have the storage building coming in and then we will start moving everything out of that room and doing some painting and touch up 00:16:35
and all the the. 00:16:41
I'm working on a a it's, I'm calling it connect and create program. It's it's basically free, but it's very effective. I've seen 00:16:51
it work and it's, it's a program where the officers will make contact with citizens in the public and talk to them about 00:16:58
specifically about the Police Department. And if they have any comments or feedback that they would like to get back to me, then 00:17:05
the officer will log. I'm going to ask them to do 5 people a month right now to get. 00:17:13
Didn't see how we like it and if they the citizen would like for me to contact them then I'll give them a call and see what we can 00:17:20
do better or what we're doing good and it'll make a lot of. 00:17:26
Community or interactions basically, so between all of us. 00:17:32
Previously there was a program called Park and Walk that I kind of stole it from and that we used to use and, and I wanted to 00:17:38
brand it to be Watkinsville Zone. And once we get this started, I think it will it will take off and give the officer some 00:17:45
interaction with citizens too. The police vehicles are currently working on to surplus a spare. We're getting the records and 00:17:53
numbers and the cost and see which one needs to go that's ready to to get off that may be. 00:18:00
Effective working on that currently. And then as far as events we had the, the weather this weekend, it worked out really well. 00:18:08
The officers did a great job, kept the streets clear and the, the, the parks and stuff from being tore up from, from 4 Wheelers 00:18:15
and things. And fortunately we didn't have any of that. But I'm excited about the training room. Hopefully we'll get that done and 00:18:23
it will definitely be done by the time of the retreat and we'll we'll get. 00:18:30
Done. And let everybody check out the improvements over there, the numbers. 00:18:38
Total calls of service we had a 281, we had 11170 property checks, security checks, 19 generated reports, 58 citations and there's 00:18:44
there's a few addition from that date 58 and actually 100 warnings. 00:18:52
11 incident reports and four accident reports for the month. 00:19:02
Zero rest during this time period which was good for the holidays. Never liked to have to arrest anybody over Christmas. Right so. 00:19:08
But any questions from y'all? 00:19:13
All right, perfect. Thank you very much. 00:19:20
I will say. 00:19:23
Things that just kind of happened that we take for granted. But Chief Sharon and I assume there are others on staff too, who were 00:19:25
involved with the county's emergency planning efforts. The snow didn't turn out to be as icy or bad as we thought it could have 00:19:31
been. But really grateful for the extra work that y'all put in. And the chief was very present on the snow day and and all about 00:19:36
town and I'm grateful for that too. Thank you. So thank you. 00:19:42
All right. Next we have our consent agenda. Nothing was removed from the consent agenda, so I'll entertain a motion to approve. 00:19:50
And make a motion to approve. OK, Do we have a second? 00:19:59
Second, all right, all in favor, say aye. All right, Joe, at this point we have activated the authority and I think it's a time 00:20:04
for you to appoint the members or for you to do the oath for the member. 00:20:10
Perhaps stand behind eyes unless you want to come around from, but I think where you stand is fine. Just stand up y'all. 00:20:21
Yep. 00:20:28
Do each of you, citizens of Oconee County, Georgia, solemnly swear that you will, to the best of your ability, without favor or 00:20:31
affection to any person and without any unauthorized financial gain or compensation to yourself, faithfully and fairly discharge 00:20:37
all the duties and responsibilities? 00:20:44
On you as a member of the Watkinsville Public Facilities Authority during the term of your service as such member and that you 00:20:52
will support the Constitution of the United States. 00:20:57
And the Constitution of Georgia, and you are not a member of the Communist Party. And that you are not the holder of any 00:21:02
unaccounted for public money due this state or any political subdivision or authority thereof. That you are not the holder of any 00:21:08
office of trust under the government of the United States and the other state, or any foreign state which you by the law is the 00:21:14
State of Georgia would be prohibited from holding. 00:21:20
And that you are otherwise qualified to hold said office according to the constitution of the laws. 00:21:27
Laws of the state of Georgia. If you agree with that, you can say I do or do so help me God. I do so help me God. All right, 00:21:33
congratulations. 00:21:36
And we'll circulate this for signatures later, perhaps near the end of. 00:21:44
And just as a reminder, the public facilities authority is authority that was created for us by the authorized by the legislature 00:21:51
that gives us some flexibility in terms of how we may want to fund future capital investments or different facilities we have not 00:21:57
activate utilize that authority today. Correct Sharon, for anything. OK. Yep. 00:22:04
All right. We will move on to public hearings. We have none appearances. We have none old businesses. We have none new business. 00:22:12
We have a resolution around practicing and promoting civility. Manager Dickerson, if you could give us a report there. 00:22:18
So two years ago on February the 15th of 23, council approved the initial resolution. This is a renewal every two years. They want 00:22:26
to remind, you know, their councils that have approved these resolutions of, of their pledge. And you all may recall several years 00:22:33
back there was a lot of incivility or uncivility and a lot of public meetings. And so GMA, Georgia Municipal Association partnered 00:22:41
with Georgia City Solutions and they created this program and this resolution that basically. 00:22:48
Is a pledge for people to commit to healthy public exchange of ideas, diverse viewpoints, etcetera, and just being polite and 00:22:56
civil. So again, council approved. I don't know how many, I should have looked it up before I came in here tonight, but I don't 00:23:02
know how many cities did it. But there were a large number that did it in 23. And like I said, every two years they asked that you 00:23:08
renew your pledge. So that's what tonight is about. 00:23:14
And if anyone needs to see the resolution, I have a copy of it here. But you know, in brief, you know that the idea is that Sharon 00:23:22
said that we're. 00:23:26
Showing our continued support for the broader initiative in the state and confirming we are a community that embraces the 00:23:30
principles surrounding civility, how we treat one another. We've seen that throughout the year here. You know, our most 00:23:35
contentious item was probably the pipe plant. And I was really proud of how we, how we treated each other as we disagreed. And I 00:23:40
think the public was frankly inspired by that in terms of how their tone, you know, sort of match stars in a very measured way 00:23:45
compared to the online. 00:23:50
Conversations that were going on around that. So I was really proud not just of our council but of our communities, we had that 00:23:56
conversation. 00:23:59
As we have all of those so unless anyone wants me to read. 00:24:02
This resolution I'm happy to do. 00:24:06
But I won't. I'll entertain a motion to. 00:24:11
Practice and promote some civility and approve that resolution. I make a motion that we passed the resolution of to continue to 00:24:16
practice and promote civility. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a 2nd, 2nd. 00:24:22
Any discussion hearing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed motion carries unanimously. 00:24:29
All right. 00:24:37
Sharon, what am I? 00:24:45
Missing on mine. OK. We have the awarding contract for construction of Giordani Green at Harris Shoals Park. Manager Dickerson, if 00:24:47
you could give us a report on that, please? 00:24:52
So tonight we're going to their request. 00:24:59
Treated this, but sort of the highlights obviously 2021 FLOSS referendum approve was over overwhelmingly approved by Oconee County 00:25:32
voters that provided the funding for this project. In February of 21, the council approved the master plan report which was had 00:25:38
been presented in 2020 to the council. There was a number of meetings. I don't even remember there were a lot of meetings under 00:25:44
Mayor Dave and then under Mayor Smith. 00:25:50
And then of course, well under Mayor Smith through March, I guess of that year, but and then October of that year. 00:25:57
We've been collecting the revenues for the for this project. 00:26:04
In March of 22, again after a number of meetings and and some delays because we were hoping to get some federally, either federal 00:26:09
matches or state matches to do some of these work, some of this work and and that just didn't pan out. We started doing some work. 00:26:15
We did some of what they call short term, what we call we're calling short term or mid term projects and actions that we could 00:26:21
take on our own with our own staff. So we looked at. 00:26:28
Some of this these master plan improvements on March 7th of last year we released an RFP to replace the pedestrian boardwalk, 00:27:05
which actually had not been initially a project of the Hair Shoals Park Project master plan, but had to be because of some damage 00:27:11
some. 00:27:16
Damage that was done by by some, I guess some people running through the park. So that work actually just completed last week. 00:27:24
We've done an inspection of that. We'll probably sign off on everything this week and do the final payment. 00:27:31
These just a reminder these both these projects are part of the master plan. They weren't fully. 00:28:08
Designed out. We had that design done after the fact that once, once we got the funding and whatnot new, we were moving forward 00:28:14
with it. Had SPG helped us with the master plan pro bono and then they helped us with a little bit of work on the boardwalk. And 00:28:20
then obviously the the plan for the Girardini green, the plant, the Girardini Green will include removing what's left of the ball 00:28:26
field. There's still some concrete. 00:28:32
Post or or places where the posts were concreted into the ground. Those will be removed. We still have the. 00:28:40
Guys can't. So I'm just a little bit cheaper way to to do it, but get the same outcome. This is sort of a, this is one of many 00:29:16
sheets, but one I think sort of shows you the landscaping as well as the path that's going to be connected to both the bridges 00:29:22
that cross the Creek there on both ends. 00:29:27
A lot of input on that. The mayor had a lot of really good input about the design of the landscaping. It'll be a really nice area 00:29:35
I believe and and certainly follow what the master plan had had anticipated. 00:29:41
For this area. 00:29:47
On December 20th, we received the following price proposals. You'll see a lot of different prices up there. I'll walk through some 00:29:49
of this. 00:29:52
We had set aside about 200,000 for this project. We dug into the proposals. Me and Mark Novak are our parks manager. Wanted to 00:29:57
point out again, we did receive detailed line item, detailed quotes from all of these vendors at the opening of the price 00:30:04
proposals. However, those vendors did not. None of the vendors here or none of them afterwards received detail. They only got the 00:30:11
final, the summit summation or the. 00:30:18
The total price so that we could, you know, go through and start comparing and looking at it in detail. So what I want to point 00:30:25
out is Gantt Construction who originally came in at a proposal of 142 had not factored in the cost to remove trees which is part 00:30:33
of the project. They did provide that price and they did say that it was not included in their proposal, but if we wanted it, they 00:30:40
would add, you know that we would need to add it back. So that's what we did and that we came up with their price of one 53169. 00:30:48
Especially LMA Landscapes originally proposed submitting the proposal submitted included GAB, which had been removed in one of the 00:30:55
addendums and they did not pick up on that. We got that back and they did not include the, the cost of tree removal. So we had 00:31:01
them revise the proposal. They gave back again. Everybody saw the final. They did. I mean, we, they all knew the final price. They 00:31:07
didn't know the, the detail on each like who had so much for trees, who had so much for landscaping, all that. So that sort of 00:31:13
kept it fair. 00:31:19
In sew, he did work at Thomas Farm. They had given a really low proposal. We dug into that a little bit. They had not included 00:31:25
erosion control, sod, landscaping materials, hydro, cedar mulch. I asked them to provide all of that. When they did, I think it's 00:31:32
important to know they already knew the total cost. And so they, you know, they gave me a price of 125. When we looked into the 00:31:38
details of their proposal, you know, and we compared it with, let's say landscaping, they were. 00:31:45
Completely off they off base with the other two that have provided pricing and we just felt like that wasn't, you know, that 00:31:52
wasn't a fairway to to evaluate it. And they did a great job at Thomas Farm, but this is a landscaping project. 00:31:58
And again, that that's part of the reason that my recommendation is going to be going with a landscaping company. We'll walk 00:32:04
through this a little bit, though a little bit further. So the gear, Danny Green is a repurposing of the ball field. 00:32:10
In honor of the former mayor of Watkinsville. 00:32:18
They're supposed to be, you know, Meadow plantings and lawn features that will add to the use and the enjoyment of that space. The 00:32:21
pergola is going to be another shelter opportunity. We do. We already move the playground that used to be up here on the top that 00:32:26
moved down across the. 00:32:31
Park probably almost two years ago now and so that's sort of visually if you can visualize that didn't, but I don't think I put 00:32:37
the rendering in this you all seen it before the as I point out SPLOST budget we have $200,000 for this area to construct the 00:32:44
green. This is a request for proposal, not a bid. So therefore, you know we are able to look at the value of the services that we 00:32:52
want the type of the type of company that we want to come in and do this work and and. 00:32:59
And we don't have to go with the lowest price. As I mentioned earlier, we had removed from the addendum the irrigation system. We 00:33:07
had gotten a price from a landscaper who did not propose on this project just to sort of get an idea of what would be reasonable 00:33:15
for this irrigation system. Both the vendors who did provide that as an add alternate, both Clint Gant or Gantt Construction and 00:33:22
LMA were really close to the price that we got from the local landscaping company. So we felt like that was competitive. 00:33:29
Probably purchasing some sort of a kit, it won't be a very large pergola and then hiring someone to put together if our guys 00:34:07
cannot do that. I am still waiting on a county water resources we will need to connect to water. I've spoken to Adam Layfield 00:34:13
about getting water off of the the well that's on the what used to be one of the entrances to the park and and still waiting to 00:34:19
get some information back from him. But we're recommending about 4000 to cover the cost of getting the line down there and 00:34:25
connecting whoever gets the the the. 00:34:31
To connect up to that. And then again, my main focus is this is a landscape project, it's not a grading project. And again, Clint 00:34:37
Gant and his group are doing a lot of work for us right now in the Simonton Bridge Rd. So I mean, he certainly is qualified, but I 00:34:44
think, you know, probably for the value we would do better get it going with a landscaping company. And when we go back and look 00:34:52
at the original prices, you'll see that the there's only $100 difference in LMA actually came in less. So again, not how. 00:34:59
Specifically, I mean, it could have been 100 dollars, $200 more. I would have probably still recommended LMA for the work that 00:35:07
we're going to get for this project. So options are to approve what I've requested, deny it or come up with a defined option. 00:35:13
Obviously, I'm recommending option one. I'm happy to take questions. 00:35:18
Questions for the manager. 00:35:28
I will just, you know. 00:35:33
Contextualize a little bit on this, you know we that this plan done. 00:35:35
By Smith Planning group about four, four years ago and most of the improvements we've made in the park have been. 00:35:40
Either hard to, you know, haven't been very visible and we've had a lot of citizens inquire about when is when his hair Shoals 00:35:49
going to get some attention. 00:35:53
I really think this is an inspiring space. What we've shown in Watkinsville is that when we create inspiring spaces, people 00:35:57
gravitate towards those spaces, whether it's the playground, whether it's Thomas Farm, whether it's Watkinsville Woods. And I 00:36:05
really like what we've done. I also heard last week from a local manufacturer who wants to IMI who's interested in giving us some 00:36:12
of the public art, some of the large public art they have off of Hwy. 15, and I think that could be. 00:36:19
Really cool integrated down into the space too and just kind of create a little bit of a visual focal point and things like that 00:36:26
too. So I'm happy to talk more about it, but I'm excited to see this potentially coming, coming forward for approval tonight. 00:36:33
You're welcome to Yeah, why don't, why don't we keep it behind the rail First Council, if you have questions for the manager will 00:36:43
do that, then we'll do some public input. Kathleen, that probably makes sense. So. 00:36:47
Yep. So Yep, I don't have questions I I'm. 00:36:53
I'm just concerned with. 00:36:58
I guess Thomas Farm Park coming online. 00:37:01
To me has maybe changed things, I'd say. 00:37:04
As far as priorities, I think the plan is great. I think the whole master plan for Harris Shoals is impressive and I know it's a 00:37:09
lot of work I personally think. 00:37:15
Something else in this space where we hold off on doing anything on that space. 00:37:22
For a while to see what we what might suit best and I've I've been torn since we started talking about this, I guess about a month 00:37:28
ago. I went down to Harris Shoals Park today at 4:30 and was down there for about 45 minutes walking on the baseball field. 00:37:36
Signify what? What struck me, and one thing was I was surprised when I drove in, the parking lot was full. So this is a good sign. 00:37:44
And I went in there and for 45 minutes I saw one person and two dogs in Harris Shoals Park. 00:37:53
So that's kind of concerning that the parking lots full. 00:38:00
No one's in the park other than two dogs and a man. 00:38:04
So parking I think is an issue if we want more traffic to go there. 00:38:09
There's there's not much available parking during I would presume the weekday because you know, people going to ESP and whatnot. 00:38:14
Understandable. And that's great. 00:38:19
I think instead of a landscape space that we have to take care of, I think we should explore other options, whether it could be a 00:38:26
wildflower Meadow that would cost us very little to do or. 00:38:33
Just table this and let's think about it some more and think, do we want this to be an active space like it has been in the past 00:38:41
where there were basketball courts, there was a baseball field, and now we've got Thomas Von Park, as I mentioned, now that's 00:38:48
online. That's such a beautiful and wonderful passive recreation space. Do we want to look at putting? 00:38:55
A basketball court or pickleball courts on that open field. Because as I stood there, you've already got the road noise from 441, 00:39:02
you've got the road noise from the street out here, you've got, you know, the the wonderful sounds of children playing at the 00:39:08
playground possibilities up here. So you've got all these noises around. So I think having a recreational space is worth exploring 00:39:14
in my mind. 00:39:21
So that's kind of my concerns and so I would. 00:39:27
We have the opinion of. 00:39:32
Let's hold off and making this decision right now to do this. 00:39:34
I lean more toward. 00:39:46
Sticking with the master plan because that's been brought out to me by several of our citizens, that we stray from it. 00:39:47
Or at times we stray from it so. 00:39:58
I think when we come up with these plans, we need to complete them like we said was going to do from the start. 00:40:01
Yeah, and I will. I will echo that as someone who was. 00:40:10
Part of this from the beginning and the literal years of public input and thoughtfulness. 00:40:13
I totally hear what you're saying, that Thomas Farm Preserve, like if that was there when we were doing all that, would that have 00:40:23
made a difference in what people? 00:40:27
Wanted or didn't want maybe, but the reality is this. This had. 00:40:32
This was some of the most robust planning and public input that I think a public space could have and. 00:40:38
There was not a call for for any kind of active recreation like programmed recreational space and. 00:40:46
And yes, we all agree, I think that Thomas Farm Preserve is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes that can be but. 00:40:58
Also, this park is in vicinity to different people. Different people can walk to this park, then they're going to walk to Thomas 00:41:06
Farm Preserve. 00:41:10
Umm and so, and also right now the space isn't that compelling. I mean, this plan was, it's kind of been kicked down the road for 00:41:14
various reasons. The big thing was waiting on grants that then didn't materialize. And it makes sense why we did that. But now 00:41:20
it's time to stop kicking the can down the road and to actually start implementing this plan. And I think when Pete, when it gets 00:41:27
done, people will come. 00:41:33
It is not a compelling space right now. It will be a compelling space. 00:41:39
So that those are my thoughts and I have. 00:41:44
Have the big beautiful book if anyone would like to look at. 00:41:47
My rewards for years going through this process and I do echo is a beautiful plan. I absolutely nothing against the plan. 00:41:52
I'm just I'm concerned about spending that much money on something. 00:42:01
When people are going to be going somewhere else, I'd almost like to see all the repairs and everything else we've done at Harris 00:42:06
Shoals Park. Give it some time. 00:42:10
And then then come back to it, if I still don't think that's the right use of the money, I, I, I'd see another, you know, I guess 00:42:15
as I said, another project in that space that would bring more people there, I think could be better. Anyway, after seeing the 00:42:22
price, I just thought, you know, maybe we should talk about this a little bit more in my opinion. So that's, that's kind of where 00:42:28
I am. I know it's a beautiful plan. 00:42:34
I I know there's so much work that has gone into it and I realize. 00:42:41
You know a lot of work on this plan and it was done, as you said, before Thomas Farm Park came along. 00:42:45
Have you done the master plan in Thomas Park was here? He said. Well, maybe we would have done something different. Well, that 00:42:52
maybe gives me pause to say maybe we should at least look at it. 00:42:57
Yes. 00:43:03
My last comment would be. 00:43:07
The price didn't. 00:43:10
If anybody's had any landscaping work done, you can spend 25,000 around the house before you flip your finger. 00:43:11
So I mean the. 00:43:18
For for what it is and what it's going to be done with the irrigation and all that stuff seems to be pretty much in line to me. 00:43:21
Yeah. And remember, we've got, you know, concrete landscaping, some grading, tree removal. It's a pretty, you know, I was, I was 00:43:31
actually pleased that the prices came in at what they did. 00:43:35
So I this is the outside, I would be interested. There are several people here who were part of the public. 00:43:42
Input process. I do want to hear from them if they're interested. 00:43:48
About this Brett just texted me and I. 00:43:55
I guess that Thomas just texted me. 00:44:02
Well, Brett's not here, though I don't know if I can. I can say that I did speak to him today and he did not. He was not in favor 00:44:06
of the project. 00:44:10
I think he's very happy about Thomas Warren Park. 00:44:19
Yeah, right. Is there any public input on this matter? 00:44:23
If you want to step forward, Lawrence, and offer any feedback. 00:44:31
How many large stoop? 00:44:39
And I'm watching Go. 00:44:41
And I I've been thinking a lot about. 00:44:43
Older kids, I'm sorry. Just make sure the mic's on is the light on. 00:44:48
Yeah, the lightning could be gone. Just make sure people that are listening. We do have people listening. 00:44:56
Thank you. All right, start again for those hundreds of people out there. Yeah. Yeah. So as you know, I've worked on the 00:45:01
playground a long time. 00:45:04
It was really sad when I went down, but I understand why. 00:45:09
And so ever since that, I've been thinking about something for the bigger kids once they kind of outgrow. 00:45:12
The ESP playground. 00:45:21
And I think it's, I think you've made a good point that we do have a lot of passive recreation areas now that we didn't have. 00:45:23
And. 00:45:30
I enjoy all of them, but I do think at some point we should have something for. 00:45:32
The active set say 8:00 to. 00:45:37
14 year old kids that are here. 00:45:40
That played basketball or whatever. 00:45:45
So I, you know, I really appreciate now we have some for older people because we have a baton court soon to be lit. 00:45:48
Maybe the only one in Georgia, but I do. I mean, I've had some ideas of things we could put in that area for the older kids, so. 00:45:54
I just want to put that out there down the road because I'm still kind of working on those, but I think it is important to have 00:46:06
something for those other kids in the parks. 00:46:10
Besides that, don't have a mountain bike. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Lawrence. 00:46:14
Anyone else? 00:46:21
All right. 00:46:25
Well, at this point, I'll entertain a motion. 00:46:27
To either. 00:46:31
Award the bid. 00:46:33
Do we need A&B? Yeah. ABC either award the bid or. 00:46:38
Deny the request. 00:46:43
Or of course, someone can define an option. 00:46:46
Why make a motion to? 00:46:54
Go with option A. 00:46:58
And one with all the things, yes. 00:47:00
All right. We have a motion for option one. Do we have a second? 00:47:04
2nd. 00:47:07
All right, all in favor of option one, say aye, aye. 00:47:08
Any opposed? 00:47:13
Jeff, OK. So motion carries 31, we'll move forward with. 00:47:15
The plan as it was in the master plan again, I think that's a great example you all of where we. 00:47:19
Demonstrate civility and how we deal with these things, and I think everybody made great points. 00:47:25
And I'm grateful, grateful there so. 00:47:31
Public comments, do we have any same rules as before? Obviously you don't have to address something on the agenda. You can come up 00:47:34
and discuss anything you want. So. 00:47:39
Kathleen. 00:47:45
Good evening, my name is Kathleen Mcquiston and I live at 13 S Barnett Shoals Rd. 00:47:48
I've been over to Thomas Farm Preserve and spoken to a lot of people and they're very excited about it. They love it. I was out 00:47:55
there the other day. There was lots of dogs out there. 00:48:01
There were a lot of little kids riding on their little bicycles around the Loop and I think it's a great success and a lot of 00:48:08
people from out of town are coming. 00:48:13
The second thing I wanted to bring up was that the Oak half thrift sales on if you've got any junk in your house. 00:48:19
Please bring it over. It's on March 15th. I think we're going to start accepting donations next week. So get your boxes out and 00:48:28
clear out your closets. 00:48:33
The third thing I'm going to float is going to be very controversial, but I noticed that when the kids are back in school, there's 00:48:39
a lot of lot more traffic. I see miles of cars all over town with parents picking up their kids. Our taxes go to pay for buses. 00:48:47
Why are those kids not on the buses? Why are the parents picking up these little kids? 00:48:55
I won't use the word entitled, but I think that the. 00:49:05
There's got to be a solution to encourage parents to put their kids on the bus. And I know this isn't your job, but it is part of 00:49:10
the policing and the traffic management here and that should be brought up with the school board. How can we get more kids on the 00:49:18
bus, less cars polluting the air and tying up traffic at the local schools? 00:49:27
So I haven't heard anybody talk about this, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling. Thank you. 00:49:36
I think that's a cool. I think that's a cool thought. You know, we've talked about it before, but I've never thought about it in 00:49:44
the context of Watkinsville specifically because you think about Column Ferry Road and. 00:49:48
Carpool there and bus schedules. It would probably take some collaboration with the school board, but I wonder if anybody 00:49:54
nationally has ever done something like a. 00:49:57
How to convince? There's any research on how to convince parents to put their kids on the bus? You know, well, they're taking 00:50:01
their cell phones away. Let's take away their personal rides. 00:50:05
There is the what? The National Walk to School day. I don't remember when. We know we're both a big fan of that one for sure. 00:50:11
Yeah, I remember years ago I got I got in trouble by the principal for walking my daughter to school. It's a principal that's no 00:50:15
longer in the. 00:50:20
School system. But I was, I just told her yeah. 00:50:25
Yeah, I'm going to walk my daughter to school and I'd like to see what you want to do about it. 00:50:30
And that that you know, I think that's helpful long term at column Fairy as we extend that sidewalk, we're still waiting for G dot 00:50:37
approval just so everybody knows for the sidewalk stretch along South Main and then we can connect to that. But. 00:50:42
That you know, Chief, that would be something interesting to talk to the school board about. Is there a way we could either work 00:50:48
on schedules or work on something that would build camera safety? What builds confidence for parents for having their kids on the 00:50:54
bus? I mean, my Rd. mine Rd. all the way to high school, maybe not middle school, I can't remember, but certainly elementary. 00:51:00
Anything we could do to reduce that would be a win. So a couple of thoughts on that. 00:51:06
My husband and I were actually talking about this today because he got behind a school bus. 00:51:13
And it literally stops at every house and let's every child off. And, and while we're talking about this, he's like when I was a 00:51:19
kid, waiting at the bus stop was like, some of the best parts of your day is when you're planning what you're going to do together 00:51:26
after school. And and so I think some of why we, my kids rode the bus, but we also were literally the last stop before they got to 00:51:34
the school and the first drop off stop. So it was a no brainer for us. And I know. 00:51:41
But a lot of families you have to get on the bus at 6:45 like super early. But I wonder if instead of every now, obviously in the 00:51:49
country where you know, there's but in neighborhoods instead of every little house dropping off, it would compress the amount of 00:51:56
time kids were on the bus if they got back to more, you know, parents waiting there and the bus stop, bus stop. I have more bus 00:52:04
stops instead of every little house. So that's I mean, I think in the city of. 00:52:11
Especially when you get the rest of that sidewalk gone. Jackson St. to New High Shoals as a city with the Police Department push 00:52:19
for Walt, the school days for Coleman Ferry. You know, we, you know, as I always say, you got to you got to work on your little 00:52:26
corner of the world and try to improve your little corner. If we can make our little corner of Watkinsville walk, maybe it spreads 00:52:33
to other communities or other parts of the county, but I think that's something to look at once we get that sidewalk after. 00:52:40
I love it. OK, yeah, we're we're. 00:52:47
To Kathleen's point, yeah, it's not our not our problem, but I love the idea, Jeff, to your point of let's take care of our 00:52:52
little, our little patch 1st and control what we can. So thank you, Kathleen. Any other public comment? 00:52:58
So just point out, I have a Councilman Thomas's wife is actually listening at home sort of helping me make sure that she can hear 00:53:05
things. And she pointed out at the mic earlier. So that was awesome. But she did send me, she asked if she could comment and 00:53:11
there's no way to do it online because we don't do the interactive. But she did say I was going to share. She said because they 00:53:16
changed the bus and there are bus stops this year. It's not every stop this year. People were very unhappy about it. So for 00:53:22
whatever, that's that's where she did. 00:53:27
Share that so. 00:53:34
Anyway, yeah. 00:53:35
God bless people who run schools. 00:53:40
Yeah. And government said yeah, yeah. 00:53:45
All right, I guess we can move on to the Mayor's report. I. 00:53:48
Before I did anything else. I think we'd be in remiss if we didn't. 00:53:52
Note that, you know, the past couple months have just been brutal in terms of natural disasters. 00:53:58
I've been really sad when I've seen people kind of compare and say, oh, that's all, you know, have you forgotten about North 00:54:04
Carolina because you shared something about California, right? I mean, they're both terrible, terrible, terrible things. And I 00:54:09
would just ask that it's. 00:54:14
We feel closer to North Carolina here because we kind of all know people or Augusta are places, we all know people. But you know, 00:54:20
my, our kids, we were talking at dinner the other night, like which of which of those? 00:54:24
Worse, I mean, they're both awful, terrible incidents that are just life changing, life altering. I don't know what we can do from 00:54:29
little Watkinsville to help. I don't know if we other than pray for the folks out West, but keep them in your prayers. Just 00:54:35
because somebody's famous or because somebody got a bunch of money doesn't mean they're at the end of the day that they they're 00:54:42
any less affected than than others, you know, and and of course the people in North Carolina who are still absolutely. 00:54:49
Affected in dealing with that, They all need our prayers. They don't need our prayers more in Western North Carolina. 00:54:56
Than they do in Southern California. So I hope we'll keep that in mind as we have those conversations and at our home and with our 00:55:01
friends in the days ahead and online and practice civility there. 00:55:06
What a day, January 10th was. I posted this on Facebook and I mean it. Having Chris Greer in Watkinsville is an absolute gift 00:55:14
because we've got photos I think that we'll be able to to enjoy for years to come that are just absolutely beautiful. I don't 00:55:19
think Main Street's been that empty since COVID. 00:55:25
This, this, this. I call the Narnia shot. This just looks like something out of something out of the line. The witch in the 00:55:32
wardrobe. 00:55:35
Yeah, I mean, snow is so rare, but but that is just a just a gorgeous shot. Sharon, I don't know how many more you have there. 00:55:40
These are these are more less professional but great citizen shots. But it was it was really a great day. I'm sure everybody got 00:55:45
out and walked around. 00:55:50
That was that was, that was just beautiful there. Thomas Farm was, it was hilarious. I mean, there were people just sledding down 00:55:57
the dam. There were people in the back. There were that snowman on the last picture was built up there. I think it lasted for 00:56:04
three or four days. That was Leslie, Bobby Sabaton, Ellie's kids who built that. 00:56:10
It was, it was really a special day and I'm thankful that there weren't any accidents that were awful, some branches down and some 00:56:18
other things. But the snow days ago, I thought it turned out about as well as it could have been. Chief, thank you to you and your 00:56:24
team. And Sharon, thanks to everything you and your team did to get us ready for that and make sure it went smoothly. 00:56:30
For when we had to fix those peers, when we had to sister them up, it's really great. It's a beautiful space and ready just in 00:57:36
time for spring. So thank you. I'm really proud that that's done. 00:57:41
The asphalt is done at Thomas Farm and the cemetery. 00:57:49
The cemetery was done yesterday. It looks really great. Thomas Farm entrance was done today and that'll reopen tomorrow morning. 00:57:54
As you can see here. We paved all the way from the entrance up to the Oval. We'll put the we'll put the planter that was 00:58:00
generously donated by Farm 441 or donated alone, Jeff, I'm not sure which one, but back in the back in there. So people don't get 00:58:06
the idea that they can just drive straight up to the Oval. 00:58:12
Might forget that, we don't. Yeah. So anyway, we're grateful for that. So we'll put that back out there so somebody doesn't get 00:58:18
the idea that they can just drive straight in. But it's really nice to have that there and it'll make it easier for people who 00:58:23
need handicap accessibility coming up. We do. 00:58:28
Some striping parking. 00:58:34
Myself and Martin Obeck, our plant, our parts manager, are going to get together and talk a little bit about. 00:58:36
How the parking area is. So in the next few days, I'm sure it'll be a free for all, but hopefully within the next week or two we 00:58:41
can get that finalized so that there will be some order to help people come in and get out of there. And Kathleen alluded to it. I 00:58:45
think it's worth an update just while we talked that. 00:58:50
The the park has gotten an overwhelming amount of use, especially during the holidays, and I think we've got to let the new wear 00:58:57
off and kind of see how it lands. 00:59:01
But I'll be surprised if we don't have to add more parking, you know, and probably need to be proactive and get that done ahead of 00:59:06
spring, so. 00:59:10
But the reviews are are in and they're almost unanimously people are people are blown away with it. I kind of thought it'd be the 00:59:15
sort of thing where people would visit and then it would sort of tail off. But it seems like it's just still building a head of 00:59:21
steam. People are talking about it and they're visiting. It's really a wonderful space. And if I haven't said it enough, I'll say 00:59:28
it again. I'm just really grateful to Holly all for supporting supporting that idea and and the Councilman Thomas for. 00:59:34
You know, bringing it to our attention that it was even a possibility. 00:59:41
So. 00:59:44
Purchasing a land parcel there at our last council meeting, we closed on that shortly after. And so we have, we have the property 01:00:18
we need to do this project and we're in the process of finalizing the final easement document to move forward with all that. 01:00:24
Mayor and Council retreat coming up February 25th, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. You all should have gotten a meeting invitation for that. 01:00:34
That will be broadcast simultaneously for anyone who wants to join from home, and the public is also welcome to join us in 01:00:38
chambers that day as well. 01:00:43
Wow. 01:00:49
How did we get that, Connie? 01:00:52
I thought they needed to do something a little bit different and get some smiles out of everybody. That is so great. 01:00:57
Wow, OK Connie Massey had to have gotten the cutest kid in elementary school award. That is just great. 01:01:06
Happy birthday, Connie. What's the What's the day? 01:01:14
Next Tuesday, Happy birthday, Connie. What a great picture that I think that did get the biggest smile of the night. There we go. 01:01:17
OK. 01:01:21
And that's it. 01:01:25
We'll move on to council, reports Councilman Garrett Post one. Councilwoman Massey Brett Thomas. We miss you, Mayor Pro Tem 01:01:27
Tucker. 01:01:32
And Councilman Campbell. 01:01:39
I just like to say, I know it's probably going to be minority on the Harris Shoals project, but I also felt that if I didn't give 01:01:42
what I felt. 01:01:46
I believed in and didn't say anything. 01:01:52
And then I want to be doing my job. 01:01:54
OK, I have no problem with someone. Doesn't everyone disagree with me is perfectly fine. No, you're so close for just help. But 01:01:57
anyway, maybe, maybe next project, but no, anyway, I just wanted to say that and I think it's going to look great and be a 01:02:03
wonderful asset for the city. 01:02:09
I hope we'll all do that seriously. I mean, there's there's we. 01:02:15
I don't ever want to be an elected body that votes the same on everything. Like I just, I think that that implies that, you know, 01:02:19
everything's cooked, precooked and that shouldn't be that way. We're, we're going to have different opinions on things and we need 01:02:24
to be very comfortable voicing those and, and, and doing that. Jeff, thank you for that. 01:02:29
All right. I don't think we have a need for an executive session unless anybody wants to. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to 01:02:35
adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? 01:02:40
Second, all in favor say aye aye goodnight. 01:02:46
Go dogs. 01:02:50
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Transcript

Event transcript
All right, welcome to the January Watkinsville City Council meeting. It's great to see everybody. Happy New Year. We have a 00:00:05
quorum. We are missing Councilman Thomas, who had to travel and is out of town tonight. So we miss you, Brett, but we will move on 00:00:11
through the agenda. We do have a brief, relatively brief agenda tonight, but as always, we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:16
Chief Barwood, if you believe us. 00:00:21
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:30
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:36
Thank you, Chief. 00:00:47
As I. 00:00:50
During the meeting. 00:01:21
If you need help. 00:01:23
Do we have a 2nd, 2nd? 00:02:26
Any discussion, hearing none, all in favor say aye. 00:02:28
We'll move on to the approval of the agenda Council. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? 00:02:32
I make a motion to approve the agenda. 00:02:36
We have a second, second. All in favor say aye aye. Motion carries. We'll move to administration of oath of office for the newly 00:02:38
elected council members. 00:02:42
Attorney Reitman, I'll hand that to you. Thank you, and I'll take the podium. We can either stand in place or they can come up in 00:02:47
front of the Dyess, whatever you all prefer. 00:02:51
Why don't y'all come to the front of the diocese? Are you just going to do it at one or do you have to do 2 separate? OK, all 00:02:56
right. 00:02:59
Make sure the mic is on Connie. I don't know that we have. Do all of us come up there just to just the new ones? So y'all are 00:03:05
missing Brett? 00:03:08
Thank you. Appreciate it, Sergeant. 00:03:14
All right, let's first do the. 00:03:18
Reelected officials, Then we'll do the Public Facilities Authority if you all will raise your right hand. Please do each of you 00:03:21
solemnly swear or affirm that you will faithfully execute the office of Council Person of the City of Watkinsville and to the best 00:03:29
of your ability support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of Georgia, and the charter, ordinances 00:03:36
and regulations of Watkinsville, and that you are not the holder of any unaccounted for public money due this state or any. 00:03:44
Political subdivision or authority thereof. And that you are not the holder of any office of trust under the Government of the 00:03:51
United States. Any other State or any foreign state which you by the law is the State of Georgia would be prohibited from holding. 00:03:57
And that you are otherwise qualified to hold said office according to the Constitution and laws of Georgia, And that you have a 00:04:03
resident of your district, Watkinsville, for the time required by the Constitution and laws of this State, and that you will 00:04:09
perform the duties. 00:04:15
Your office and the best interest of the City of Watkinsville. The best of your ability without fear, favor, affection, reward, or 00:04:21
expectation thereof. If you agree and say I do, I do, so help me God. 00:04:27
All right. Thank you. Congratulations again. 00:04:34
And I will administer the oath tomorrow to Council Member Thomas. He and I have coordinated today, so we will address that 00:04:39
tomorrow. Do it via FaceTime. He will probably be up here at City Hall. Mayor, do you want me also to address the Public 00:04:45
Facilities Authority oath of office at this time? I don't think so. I think we will do that when we get to it on the agenda. We've 00:04:50
got a couple more. 00:04:56
OK, very good. Thank you. So we will have you rinse and repeat in a minute. Jeff and Christine, congratulations. I know you were 00:05:02
elected a few months ago, but I'm grateful to have both of you on council and for all the work that you guys. 00:05:08
Do and. 00:05:14
And the insights you bring to the city. So thank you both. Congratulations. Thank you. We will move on to election of Mayor Pro 00:05:16
Tem. Do we have a motion for? 00:05:22
A number or a nomination? Excuse me for a candidate for mayor Pro Tem. 00:05:28
I'll make a motion for. 00:05:34
Protein Tucker. 00:05:37
We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:05:39
2nd. 00:05:41
Any discussion? Any other nominations? 00:05:42
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:05:46
Any opposed? 00:05:49
Motion carries. 00:05:50
Attorney-client, or personnel matters. 00:06:22
On regardless of what type of public comment that is, Sharon, we'll move on to financial reports and we'll let you take that. OK. 00:06:25
So everyone should receive the balance sheet and the revenues and expenditure report, nothing really concerning there. If you have 00:06:32
any specific questions, just let me know. On the Splice 3 report, just remind everybody that these funds are being used for the 00:06:39
Thomas Farm Preserve project on the improvements at Harris Shoals Park and Assignment Bridge Rd. Connector. 00:06:46
Project as well. We are averaging about $83,000. 00:06:54
A month in revenues, that is the one, this one, we received 8.63% of the sales tax that's collected by the county. And on this 00:06:59
you'll see that we've seen about a 7 1/2 percent increase over last year the same time and overall for the year about a 6% 00:07:05
increase. So that's always good news. 00:07:12
On T sploss, this is our transportation special purpose local option sales tax. So transportation projects only on this. So paving 00:07:19
projects, we've had the the current paving projects that were going on at the cemetery at the entrance is Thomas Farm and Mulberry 00:07:25
Street, which will go on in the next week or two. Our sidewalk projects, we've got some connection connections that are segments 00:07:32
that are being worked on right now. And then also the Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:07:38
Project As a reminder, this one we collect at 7.77% of all those. 00:07:45
County sales tax and again up about not just a little under 10% have a little bit more than $780,000 in the bank. Sharon, can you 00:07:50
click back for a second? I just want to note that the traffic efficiency improvements are something that we haven't really thought 00:07:56
too much about or planned on and wanted to just make sure that Chief that you're aware of that as you engage and get our new here 00:08:03
that we do have some funds allocated to to be thoughtful with. 00:08:10
Whether it's downtown or whether it's other places, so. 00:08:16
There may be some thinking that Sharon, that you and the Chief may want to do or maybe want to involve Jan and that around what we 00:08:19
can do in terms of traffic improvements in the city. So we'll actually have a police committee meeting at the end of the month. So 00:08:23
we'll probably. 00:08:28
We'll probably expect you to understand that we have a conversation with the police committee about that too, since that's that's 00:08:34
related. And so we'll work on that for sure. 00:08:38
So T's lost and then the American Rescue Plan, I know everybody's getting tired of seeing this, but hopefully we'll put it to bed. 00:08:44
We did. We have spent all those funds that just haven't cleared. Perhaps this month we'll we'll get all those clear. But we, you 00:08:50
all approved. I believe it was in November 10th spending $10,000 that had been appropriated for police officers for retention that 00:08:56
we're continuing to struggle with filling those positions. But to use that for public safety services. I'm happy to report that 00:09:01
the chief. 00:09:07
For you to show us around back there. All right, great. Yeah, We'll add that to the list. On the economic development side, we 00:09:43
have business licenses are coming in, they're due by March 15th, quite a few there. We also had the alcohol applications, I think 00:09:50
8 of maybe 10 that have them. So those are coming in as expected. And then our excise taxes, both alcohol and then hotel, motel, 00:09:57
and that's tracking about what we expected so. 00:10:04
And then on the economic development building permit side? 00:10:11
Have several houses out at troves that are that they've the NSFR basically just means all the permits have been issue or all the 00:10:15
applications for their permits trades and stuff have been issued. So a lot of work there and then you'll see not surprisingly a 00:10:22
lot of H vacs, H vacs that are being replaced in a couple of projects there at at wire park. Any questions? 00:10:29
OK. 00:10:38
All right, so an exciting day today I get to announce our new downtown development. 00:10:42
Director. 00:10:51
Dan, do you want to come up? Is it sorry? 00:10:54
So yeah, I don't know where I want you. I'm going to want you to say something. So is the mic on Kyle? OK, great. So we have we 00:10:59
have a a. 00:11:03
A small but mighty crowd. 00:11:08
So there's hundreds watching, I'm sure hundreds and hundreds. I feel like this is such an auspicious occasion that we should have. 00:11:11
I don't know why I'm standing to you. It's very excited. 00:11:16
That we have Jan here. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and then I'll say a few more things? 00:11:22
A lot of people in the room know that I did live here in Watkinsville for about 6 years, moved to Athens and was in Athens for the 00:11:33
last six years. 00:11:37
Very active with Athens Clark County, a lake commissioner there, worked with the Arts Council there, and for the last two years 00:11:42
have run two programs out of the Athens Community Council on Aging. 00:11:49
Very excited to be a part of the Downtown Development Authority. Feel like there's so much potential here and looking forward to 00:11:57
really driving some innovation and some potential new business in downtown Watkinsville. 00:12:05
And we, we took our time of finding, waiting and interviewing and looking for the right candidate. And we were really excited to 00:12:15
finally get to meet you, interview you. Jan definitely has the energy that we're looking for, the ideas, the ability to 00:12:22
collaborate, which I think is key for this position. So our last director played a fantastic foundation and Jan's going to bring 00:12:29
it to the next level. So we are thrilled that you are here. 00:12:37
Thank you, Kristen. Thank you. 00:12:44
OK, so the next event is going to be February 8th, a Saturday, 11:00 to 3:00 and this is the Cookie Crawl, which is a fundraiser 00:12:52
for, oh, I forget their name. 00:12:59
Ref Sorry, Refuge, Athens. 00:13:07
And it is a lot of fun and it's a great way to, not only does it help a nonprofit, but it helps our businesses get people walking 00:13:11
through the doors. 00:13:17
And you know, just after we lost our holiday weight, it'll be time to to add the cookie weights. You pass them on to your 00:13:23
children. So mark your calendar. It's $35 a box pre-order. 00:13:29
They're about 20 businesses I think that are participating in it and it really is just a fun way, I guess you you're burning the 00:13:37
calories as you walk from business to business and get to really explore downtown. So mark your calendar for that. 00:13:43
That is a great question. So there's information we'll make sure we get out in the newsletter this week, but there's a website you 00:13:51
can go to and and click and order all that. So and they'll have a update on the map. They're we're working through the permit 00:13:55
right now, but we'll have all that. We don't have all the data, quite all the data. But I will say as someone who made that 00:14:00
mistake last year, you can't like just walk up and get a box of cookie and get a box. So you do need to pre-order if you want to 00:14:04
do that. 00:14:09
So they said they will have a few day of but they will be $50 a box as opposed to 35 S Pre-order your box. 00:14:14
And if you are a business, if you're listening your business in downtown Watkinsville and want to participate, I think they're 00:14:22
still open to that. So we're still in that process. This kind of came late to the table to the DDA. So just I'm seeming a little 00:14:28
unorganized. The e-mail came today, so. 00:14:34
And then also we are having the Downtown Development Authority is having their annual retreat. 00:14:42
In on February 10th from 9:00 to 1:00 at the Golden Pantry headquarters. 00:14:49
In the conference room and then we are actually going to have our DDA board meeting directly after that at 1:30. We will not be 00:14:56
having it on the same day as council. We're just being efficient with our time. So that is open to the public. 00:15:02
So yeah, excited about all of the places we're going. 00:15:11
Chief. 00:15:18
Do you got something else? 00:15:20
How many are on the DDA board? 00:15:24
Christine. 00:15:26
Yes. So it is Robert Griffith who with Golden Pantry, Dan Elder, who is a Coney Well and then also has various properties downtown 00:15:29
that he manages for his family. 00:15:35
Melanie Atkins, who owner of Chops Erica. 00:15:43
Who is the owner of Bird and Brass downtown? Paul Lancaster, who? Farmhouse law myself and then also. 00:15:50
Yeah, Brock tool, which needs no introduction, so yes. 00:16:04
All right, Chief. All right. Thank you all for having me and I hope everyone's having a blessed 2025 so far, but. 00:16:11
So on the training schedule, we we have the same Sergeant Wade and Officer Walker scheduled this month to go to their designated 00:16:17
training. I'm currently working on a training calendar for in service training for all the officers that they'll be required to 00:16:23
take throughout the year. Once we get this training room done, that should be finalized probably within the next two weeks. We 00:16:29
have the storage building coming in and then we will start moving everything out of that room and doing some painting and touch up 00:16:35
and all the the. 00:16:41
I'm working on a a it's, I'm calling it connect and create program. It's it's basically free, but it's very effective. I've seen 00:16:51
it work and it's, it's a program where the officers will make contact with citizens in the public and talk to them about 00:16:58
specifically about the Police Department. And if they have any comments or feedback that they would like to get back to me, then 00:17:05
the officer will log. I'm going to ask them to do 5 people a month right now to get. 00:17:13
Didn't see how we like it and if they the citizen would like for me to contact them then I'll give them a call and see what we can 00:17:20
do better or what we're doing good and it'll make a lot of. 00:17:26
Community or interactions basically, so between all of us. 00:17:32
Previously there was a program called Park and Walk that I kind of stole it from and that we used to use and, and I wanted to 00:17:38
brand it to be Watkinsville Zone. And once we get this started, I think it will it will take off and give the officer some 00:17:45
interaction with citizens too. The police vehicles are currently working on to surplus a spare. We're getting the records and 00:17:53
numbers and the cost and see which one needs to go that's ready to to get off that may be. 00:18:00
Effective working on that currently. And then as far as events we had the, the weather this weekend, it worked out really well. 00:18:08
The officers did a great job, kept the streets clear and the, the, the parks and stuff from being tore up from, from 4 Wheelers 00:18:15
and things. And fortunately we didn't have any of that. But I'm excited about the training room. Hopefully we'll get that done and 00:18:23
it will definitely be done by the time of the retreat and we'll we'll get. 00:18:30
Done. And let everybody check out the improvements over there, the numbers. 00:18:38
Total calls of service we had a 281, we had 11170 property checks, security checks, 19 generated reports, 58 citations and there's 00:18:44
there's a few addition from that date 58 and actually 100 warnings. 00:18:52
11 incident reports and four accident reports for the month. 00:19:02
Zero rest during this time period which was good for the holidays. Never liked to have to arrest anybody over Christmas. Right so. 00:19:08
But any questions from y'all? 00:19:13
All right, perfect. Thank you very much. 00:19:20
I will say. 00:19:23
Things that just kind of happened that we take for granted. But Chief Sharon and I assume there are others on staff too, who were 00:19:25
involved with the county's emergency planning efforts. The snow didn't turn out to be as icy or bad as we thought it could have 00:19:31
been. But really grateful for the extra work that y'all put in. And the chief was very present on the snow day and and all about 00:19:36
town and I'm grateful for that too. Thank you. So thank you. 00:19:42
All right. Next we have our consent agenda. Nothing was removed from the consent agenda, so I'll entertain a motion to approve. 00:19:50
And make a motion to approve. OK, Do we have a second? 00:19:59
Second, all right, all in favor, say aye. All right, Joe, at this point we have activated the authority and I think it's a time 00:20:04
for you to appoint the members or for you to do the oath for the member. 00:20:10
Perhaps stand behind eyes unless you want to come around from, but I think where you stand is fine. Just stand up y'all. 00:20:21
Yep. 00:20:28
Do each of you, citizens of Oconee County, Georgia, solemnly swear that you will, to the best of your ability, without favor or 00:20:31
affection to any person and without any unauthorized financial gain or compensation to yourself, faithfully and fairly discharge 00:20:37
all the duties and responsibilities? 00:20:44
On you as a member of the Watkinsville Public Facilities Authority during the term of your service as such member and that you 00:20:52
will support the Constitution of the United States. 00:20:57
And the Constitution of Georgia, and you are not a member of the Communist Party. And that you are not the holder of any 00:21:02
unaccounted for public money due this state or any political subdivision or authority thereof. That you are not the holder of any 00:21:08
office of trust under the government of the United States and the other state, or any foreign state which you by the law is the 00:21:14
State of Georgia would be prohibited from holding. 00:21:20
And that you are otherwise qualified to hold said office according to the constitution of the laws. 00:21:27
Laws of the state of Georgia. If you agree with that, you can say I do or do so help me God. I do so help me God. All right, 00:21:33
congratulations. 00:21:36
And we'll circulate this for signatures later, perhaps near the end of. 00:21:44
And just as a reminder, the public facilities authority is authority that was created for us by the authorized by the legislature 00:21:51
that gives us some flexibility in terms of how we may want to fund future capital investments or different facilities we have not 00:21:57
activate utilize that authority today. Correct Sharon, for anything. OK. Yep. 00:22:04
All right. We will move on to public hearings. We have none appearances. We have none old businesses. We have none new business. 00:22:12
We have a resolution around practicing and promoting civility. Manager Dickerson, if you could give us a report there. 00:22:18
So two years ago on February the 15th of 23, council approved the initial resolution. This is a renewal every two years. They want 00:22:26
to remind, you know, their councils that have approved these resolutions of, of their pledge. And you all may recall several years 00:22:33
back there was a lot of incivility or uncivility and a lot of public meetings. And so GMA, Georgia Municipal Association partnered 00:22:41
with Georgia City Solutions and they created this program and this resolution that basically. 00:22:48
Is a pledge for people to commit to healthy public exchange of ideas, diverse viewpoints, etcetera, and just being polite and 00:22:56
civil. So again, council approved. I don't know how many, I should have looked it up before I came in here tonight, but I don't 00:23:02
know how many cities did it. But there were a large number that did it in 23. And like I said, every two years they asked that you 00:23:08
renew your pledge. So that's what tonight is about. 00:23:14
And if anyone needs to see the resolution, I have a copy of it here. But you know, in brief, you know that the idea is that Sharon 00:23:22
said that we're. 00:23:26
Showing our continued support for the broader initiative in the state and confirming we are a community that embraces the 00:23:30
principles surrounding civility, how we treat one another. We've seen that throughout the year here. You know, our most 00:23:35
contentious item was probably the pipe plant. And I was really proud of how we, how we treated each other as we disagreed. And I 00:23:40
think the public was frankly inspired by that in terms of how their tone, you know, sort of match stars in a very measured way 00:23:45
compared to the online. 00:23:50
Conversations that were going on around that. So I was really proud not just of our council but of our communities, we had that 00:23:56
conversation. 00:23:59
As we have all of those so unless anyone wants me to read. 00:24:02
This resolution I'm happy to do. 00:24:06
But I won't. I'll entertain a motion to. 00:24:11
Practice and promote some civility and approve that resolution. I make a motion that we passed the resolution of to continue to 00:24:16
practice and promote civility. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a 2nd, 2nd. 00:24:22
Any discussion hearing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed motion carries unanimously. 00:24:29
All right. 00:24:37
Sharon, what am I? 00:24:45
Missing on mine. OK. We have the awarding contract for construction of Giordani Green at Harris Shoals Park. Manager Dickerson, if 00:24:47
you could give us a report on that, please? 00:24:52
So tonight we're going to their request. 00:24:59
Treated this, but sort of the highlights obviously 2021 FLOSS referendum approve was over overwhelmingly approved by Oconee County 00:25:32
voters that provided the funding for this project. In February of 21, the council approved the master plan report which was had 00:25:38
been presented in 2020 to the council. There was a number of meetings. I don't even remember there were a lot of meetings under 00:25:44
Mayor Dave and then under Mayor Smith. 00:25:50
And then of course, well under Mayor Smith through March, I guess of that year, but and then October of that year. 00:25:57
We've been collecting the revenues for the for this project. 00:26:04
In March of 22, again after a number of meetings and and some delays because we were hoping to get some federally, either federal 00:26:09
matches or state matches to do some of these work, some of this work and and that just didn't pan out. We started doing some work. 00:26:15
We did some of what they call short term, what we call we're calling short term or mid term projects and actions that we could 00:26:21
take on our own with our own staff. So we looked at. 00:26:28
Some of this these master plan improvements on March 7th of last year we released an RFP to replace the pedestrian boardwalk, 00:27:05
which actually had not been initially a project of the Hair Shoals Park Project master plan, but had to be because of some damage 00:27:11
some. 00:27:16
Damage that was done by by some, I guess some people running through the park. So that work actually just completed last week. 00:27:24
We've done an inspection of that. We'll probably sign off on everything this week and do the final payment. 00:27:31
These just a reminder these both these projects are part of the master plan. They weren't fully. 00:28:08
Designed out. We had that design done after the fact that once, once we got the funding and whatnot new, we were moving forward 00:28:14
with it. Had SPG helped us with the master plan pro bono and then they helped us with a little bit of work on the boardwalk. And 00:28:20
then obviously the the plan for the Girardini green, the plant, the Girardini Green will include removing what's left of the ball 00:28:26
field. There's still some concrete. 00:28:32
Post or or places where the posts were concreted into the ground. Those will be removed. We still have the. 00:28:40
Guys can't. So I'm just a little bit cheaper way to to do it, but get the same outcome. This is sort of a, this is one of many 00:29:16
sheets, but one I think sort of shows you the landscaping as well as the path that's going to be connected to both the bridges 00:29:22
that cross the Creek there on both ends. 00:29:27
A lot of input on that. The mayor had a lot of really good input about the design of the landscaping. It'll be a really nice area 00:29:35
I believe and and certainly follow what the master plan had had anticipated. 00:29:41
For this area. 00:29:47
On December 20th, we received the following price proposals. You'll see a lot of different prices up there. I'll walk through some 00:29:49
of this. 00:29:52
We had set aside about 200,000 for this project. We dug into the proposals. Me and Mark Novak are our parks manager. Wanted to 00:29:57
point out again, we did receive detailed line item, detailed quotes from all of these vendors at the opening of the price 00:30:04
proposals. However, those vendors did not. None of the vendors here or none of them afterwards received detail. They only got the 00:30:11
final, the summit summation or the. 00:30:18
The total price so that we could, you know, go through and start comparing and looking at it in detail. So what I want to point 00:30:25
out is Gantt Construction who originally came in at a proposal of 142 had not factored in the cost to remove trees which is part 00:30:33
of the project. They did provide that price and they did say that it was not included in their proposal, but if we wanted it, they 00:30:40
would add, you know that we would need to add it back. So that's what we did and that we came up with their price of one 53169. 00:30:48
Especially LMA Landscapes originally proposed submitting the proposal submitted included GAB, which had been removed in one of the 00:30:55
addendums and they did not pick up on that. We got that back and they did not include the, the cost of tree removal. So we had 00:31:01
them revise the proposal. They gave back again. Everybody saw the final. They did. I mean, we, they all knew the final price. They 00:31:07
didn't know the, the detail on each like who had so much for trees, who had so much for landscaping, all that. So that sort of 00:31:13
kept it fair. 00:31:19
In sew, he did work at Thomas Farm. They had given a really low proposal. We dug into that a little bit. They had not included 00:31:25
erosion control, sod, landscaping materials, hydro, cedar mulch. I asked them to provide all of that. When they did, I think it's 00:31:32
important to know they already knew the total cost. And so they, you know, they gave me a price of 125. When we looked into the 00:31:38
details of their proposal, you know, and we compared it with, let's say landscaping, they were. 00:31:45
Completely off they off base with the other two that have provided pricing and we just felt like that wasn't, you know, that 00:31:52
wasn't a fairway to to evaluate it. And they did a great job at Thomas Farm, but this is a landscaping project. 00:31:58
And again, that that's part of the reason that my recommendation is going to be going with a landscaping company. We'll walk 00:32:04
through this a little bit, though a little bit further. So the gear, Danny Green is a repurposing of the ball field. 00:32:10
In honor of the former mayor of Watkinsville. 00:32:18
They're supposed to be, you know, Meadow plantings and lawn features that will add to the use and the enjoyment of that space. The 00:32:21
pergola is going to be another shelter opportunity. We do. We already move the playground that used to be up here on the top that 00:32:26
moved down across the. 00:32:31
Park probably almost two years ago now and so that's sort of visually if you can visualize that didn't, but I don't think I put 00:32:37
the rendering in this you all seen it before the as I point out SPLOST budget we have $200,000 for this area to construct the 00:32:44
green. This is a request for proposal, not a bid. So therefore, you know we are able to look at the value of the services that we 00:32:52
want the type of the type of company that we want to come in and do this work and and. 00:32:59
And we don't have to go with the lowest price. As I mentioned earlier, we had removed from the addendum the irrigation system. We 00:33:07
had gotten a price from a landscaper who did not propose on this project just to sort of get an idea of what would be reasonable 00:33:15
for this irrigation system. Both the vendors who did provide that as an add alternate, both Clint Gant or Gantt Construction and 00:33:22
LMA were really close to the price that we got from the local landscaping company. So we felt like that was competitive. 00:33:29
Probably purchasing some sort of a kit, it won't be a very large pergola and then hiring someone to put together if our guys 00:34:07
cannot do that. I am still waiting on a county water resources we will need to connect to water. I've spoken to Adam Layfield 00:34:13
about getting water off of the the well that's on the what used to be one of the entrances to the park and and still waiting to 00:34:19
get some information back from him. But we're recommending about 4000 to cover the cost of getting the line down there and 00:34:25
connecting whoever gets the the the. 00:34:31
To connect up to that. And then again, my main focus is this is a landscape project, it's not a grading project. And again, Clint 00:34:37
Gant and his group are doing a lot of work for us right now in the Simonton Bridge Rd. So I mean, he certainly is qualified, but I 00:34:44
think, you know, probably for the value we would do better get it going with a landscaping company. And when we go back and look 00:34:52
at the original prices, you'll see that the there's only $100 difference in LMA actually came in less. So again, not how. 00:34:59
Specifically, I mean, it could have been 100 dollars, $200 more. I would have probably still recommended LMA for the work that 00:35:07
we're going to get for this project. So options are to approve what I've requested, deny it or come up with a defined option. 00:35:13
Obviously, I'm recommending option one. I'm happy to take questions. 00:35:18
Questions for the manager. 00:35:28
I will just, you know. 00:35:33
Contextualize a little bit on this, you know we that this plan done. 00:35:35
By Smith Planning group about four, four years ago and most of the improvements we've made in the park have been. 00:35:40
Either hard to, you know, haven't been very visible and we've had a lot of citizens inquire about when is when his hair Shoals 00:35:49
going to get some attention. 00:35:53
I really think this is an inspiring space. What we've shown in Watkinsville is that when we create inspiring spaces, people 00:35:57
gravitate towards those spaces, whether it's the playground, whether it's Thomas Farm, whether it's Watkinsville Woods. And I 00:36:05
really like what we've done. I also heard last week from a local manufacturer who wants to IMI who's interested in giving us some 00:36:12
of the public art, some of the large public art they have off of Hwy. 15, and I think that could be. 00:36:19
Really cool integrated down into the space too and just kind of create a little bit of a visual focal point and things like that 00:36:26
too. So I'm happy to talk more about it, but I'm excited to see this potentially coming, coming forward for approval tonight. 00:36:33
You're welcome to Yeah, why don't, why don't we keep it behind the rail First Council, if you have questions for the manager will 00:36:43
do that, then we'll do some public input. Kathleen, that probably makes sense. So. 00:36:47
Yep. So Yep, I don't have questions I I'm. 00:36:53
I'm just concerned with. 00:36:58
I guess Thomas Farm Park coming online. 00:37:01
To me has maybe changed things, I'd say. 00:37:04
As far as priorities, I think the plan is great. I think the whole master plan for Harris Shoals is impressive and I know it's a 00:37:09
lot of work I personally think. 00:37:15
Something else in this space where we hold off on doing anything on that space. 00:37:22
For a while to see what we what might suit best and I've I've been torn since we started talking about this, I guess about a month 00:37:28
ago. I went down to Harris Shoals Park today at 4:30 and was down there for about 45 minutes walking on the baseball field. 00:37:36
Signify what? What struck me, and one thing was I was surprised when I drove in, the parking lot was full. So this is a good sign. 00:37:44
And I went in there and for 45 minutes I saw one person and two dogs in Harris Shoals Park. 00:37:53
So that's kind of concerning that the parking lots full. 00:38:00
No one's in the park other than two dogs and a man. 00:38:04
So parking I think is an issue if we want more traffic to go there. 00:38:09
There's there's not much available parking during I would presume the weekday because you know, people going to ESP and whatnot. 00:38:14
Understandable. And that's great. 00:38:19
I think instead of a landscape space that we have to take care of, I think we should explore other options, whether it could be a 00:38:26
wildflower Meadow that would cost us very little to do or. 00:38:33
Just table this and let's think about it some more and think, do we want this to be an active space like it has been in the past 00:38:41
where there were basketball courts, there was a baseball field, and now we've got Thomas Von Park, as I mentioned, now that's 00:38:48
online. That's such a beautiful and wonderful passive recreation space. Do we want to look at putting? 00:38:55
A basketball court or pickleball courts on that open field. Because as I stood there, you've already got the road noise from 441, 00:39:02
you've got the road noise from the street out here, you've got, you know, the the wonderful sounds of children playing at the 00:39:08
playground possibilities up here. So you've got all these noises around. So I think having a recreational space is worth exploring 00:39:14
in my mind. 00:39:21
So that's kind of my concerns and so I would. 00:39:27
We have the opinion of. 00:39:32
Let's hold off and making this decision right now to do this. 00:39:34
I lean more toward. 00:39:46
Sticking with the master plan because that's been brought out to me by several of our citizens, that we stray from it. 00:39:47
Or at times we stray from it so. 00:39:58
I think when we come up with these plans, we need to complete them like we said was going to do from the start. 00:40:01
Yeah, and I will. I will echo that as someone who was. 00:40:10
Part of this from the beginning and the literal years of public input and thoughtfulness. 00:40:13
I totally hear what you're saying, that Thomas Farm Preserve, like if that was there when we were doing all that, would that have 00:40:23
made a difference in what people? 00:40:27
Wanted or didn't want maybe, but the reality is this. This had. 00:40:32
This was some of the most robust planning and public input that I think a public space could have and. 00:40:38
There was not a call for for any kind of active recreation like programmed recreational space and. 00:40:46
And yes, we all agree, I think that Thomas Farm Preserve is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes that can be but. 00:40:58
Also, this park is in vicinity to different people. Different people can walk to this park, then they're going to walk to Thomas 00:41:06
Farm Preserve. 00:41:10
Umm and so, and also right now the space isn't that compelling. I mean, this plan was, it's kind of been kicked down the road for 00:41:14
various reasons. The big thing was waiting on grants that then didn't materialize. And it makes sense why we did that. But now 00:41:20
it's time to stop kicking the can down the road and to actually start implementing this plan. And I think when Pete, when it gets 00:41:27
done, people will come. 00:41:33
It is not a compelling space right now. It will be a compelling space. 00:41:39
So that those are my thoughts and I have. 00:41:44
Have the big beautiful book if anyone would like to look at. 00:41:47
My rewards for years going through this process and I do echo is a beautiful plan. I absolutely nothing against the plan. 00:41:52
I'm just I'm concerned about spending that much money on something. 00:42:01
When people are going to be going somewhere else, I'd almost like to see all the repairs and everything else we've done at Harris 00:42:06
Shoals Park. Give it some time. 00:42:10
And then then come back to it, if I still don't think that's the right use of the money, I, I, I'd see another, you know, I guess 00:42:15
as I said, another project in that space that would bring more people there, I think could be better. Anyway, after seeing the 00:42:22
price, I just thought, you know, maybe we should talk about this a little bit more in my opinion. So that's, that's kind of where 00:42:28
I am. I know it's a beautiful plan. 00:42:34
I I know there's so much work that has gone into it and I realize. 00:42:41
You know a lot of work on this plan and it was done, as you said, before Thomas Farm Park came along. 00:42:45
Have you done the master plan in Thomas Park was here? He said. Well, maybe we would have done something different. Well, that 00:42:52
maybe gives me pause to say maybe we should at least look at it. 00:42:57
Yes. 00:43:03
My last comment would be. 00:43:07
The price didn't. 00:43:10
If anybody's had any landscaping work done, you can spend 25,000 around the house before you flip your finger. 00:43:11
So I mean the. 00:43:18
For for what it is and what it's going to be done with the irrigation and all that stuff seems to be pretty much in line to me. 00:43:21
Yeah. And remember, we've got, you know, concrete landscaping, some grading, tree removal. It's a pretty, you know, I was, I was 00:43:31
actually pleased that the prices came in at what they did. 00:43:35
So I this is the outside, I would be interested. There are several people here who were part of the public. 00:43:42
Input process. I do want to hear from them if they're interested. 00:43:48
About this Brett just texted me and I. 00:43:55
I guess that Thomas just texted me. 00:44:02
Well, Brett's not here, though I don't know if I can. I can say that I did speak to him today and he did not. He was not in favor 00:44:06
of the project. 00:44:10
I think he's very happy about Thomas Warren Park. 00:44:19
Yeah, right. Is there any public input on this matter? 00:44:23
If you want to step forward, Lawrence, and offer any feedback. 00:44:31
How many large stoop? 00:44:39
And I'm watching Go. 00:44:41
And I I've been thinking a lot about. 00:44:43
Older kids, I'm sorry. Just make sure the mic's on is the light on. 00:44:48
Yeah, the lightning could be gone. Just make sure people that are listening. We do have people listening. 00:44:56
Thank you. All right, start again for those hundreds of people out there. Yeah. Yeah. So as you know, I've worked on the 00:45:01
playground a long time. 00:45:04
It was really sad when I went down, but I understand why. 00:45:09
And so ever since that, I've been thinking about something for the bigger kids once they kind of outgrow. 00:45:12
The ESP playground. 00:45:21
And I think it's, I think you've made a good point that we do have a lot of passive recreation areas now that we didn't have. 00:45:23
And. 00:45:30
I enjoy all of them, but I do think at some point we should have something for. 00:45:32
The active set say 8:00 to. 00:45:37
14 year old kids that are here. 00:45:40
That played basketball or whatever. 00:45:45
So I, you know, I really appreciate now we have some for older people because we have a baton court soon to be lit. 00:45:48
Maybe the only one in Georgia, but I do. I mean, I've had some ideas of things we could put in that area for the older kids, so. 00:45:54
I just want to put that out there down the road because I'm still kind of working on those, but I think it is important to have 00:46:06
something for those other kids in the parks. 00:46:10
Besides that, don't have a mountain bike. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Lawrence. 00:46:14
Anyone else? 00:46:21
All right. 00:46:25
Well, at this point, I'll entertain a motion. 00:46:27
To either. 00:46:31
Award the bid. 00:46:33
Do we need A&B? Yeah. ABC either award the bid or. 00:46:38
Deny the request. 00:46:43
Or of course, someone can define an option. 00:46:46
Why make a motion to? 00:46:54
Go with option A. 00:46:58
And one with all the things, yes. 00:47:00
All right. We have a motion for option one. Do we have a second? 00:47:04
2nd. 00:47:07
All right, all in favor of option one, say aye, aye. 00:47:08
Any opposed? 00:47:13
Jeff, OK. So motion carries 31, we'll move forward with. 00:47:15
The plan as it was in the master plan again, I think that's a great example you all of where we. 00:47:19
Demonstrate civility and how we deal with these things, and I think everybody made great points. 00:47:25
And I'm grateful, grateful there so. 00:47:31
Public comments, do we have any same rules as before? Obviously you don't have to address something on the agenda. You can come up 00:47:34
and discuss anything you want. So. 00:47:39
Kathleen. 00:47:45
Good evening, my name is Kathleen Mcquiston and I live at 13 S Barnett Shoals Rd. 00:47:48
I've been over to Thomas Farm Preserve and spoken to a lot of people and they're very excited about it. They love it. I was out 00:47:55
there the other day. There was lots of dogs out there. 00:48:01
There were a lot of little kids riding on their little bicycles around the Loop and I think it's a great success and a lot of 00:48:08
people from out of town are coming. 00:48:13
The second thing I wanted to bring up was that the Oak half thrift sales on if you've got any junk in your house. 00:48:19
Please bring it over. It's on March 15th. I think we're going to start accepting donations next week. So get your boxes out and 00:48:28
clear out your closets. 00:48:33
The third thing I'm going to float is going to be very controversial, but I noticed that when the kids are back in school, there's 00:48:39
a lot of lot more traffic. I see miles of cars all over town with parents picking up their kids. Our taxes go to pay for buses. 00:48:47
Why are those kids not on the buses? Why are the parents picking up these little kids? 00:48:55
I won't use the word entitled, but I think that the. 00:49:05
There's got to be a solution to encourage parents to put their kids on the bus. And I know this isn't your job, but it is part of 00:49:10
the policing and the traffic management here and that should be brought up with the school board. How can we get more kids on the 00:49:18
bus, less cars polluting the air and tying up traffic at the local schools? 00:49:27
So I haven't heard anybody talk about this, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling. Thank you. 00:49:36
I think that's a cool. I think that's a cool thought. You know, we've talked about it before, but I've never thought about it in 00:49:44
the context of Watkinsville specifically because you think about Column Ferry Road and. 00:49:48
Carpool there and bus schedules. It would probably take some collaboration with the school board, but I wonder if anybody 00:49:54
nationally has ever done something like a. 00:49:57
How to convince? There's any research on how to convince parents to put their kids on the bus? You know, well, they're taking 00:50:01
their cell phones away. Let's take away their personal rides. 00:50:05
There is the what? The National Walk to School day. I don't remember when. We know we're both a big fan of that one for sure. 00:50:11
Yeah, I remember years ago I got I got in trouble by the principal for walking my daughter to school. It's a principal that's no 00:50:15
longer in the. 00:50:20
School system. But I was, I just told her yeah. 00:50:25
Yeah, I'm going to walk my daughter to school and I'd like to see what you want to do about it. 00:50:30
And that that you know, I think that's helpful long term at column Fairy as we extend that sidewalk, we're still waiting for G dot 00:50:37
approval just so everybody knows for the sidewalk stretch along South Main and then we can connect to that. But. 00:50:42
That you know, Chief, that would be something interesting to talk to the school board about. Is there a way we could either work 00:50:48
on schedules or work on something that would build camera safety? What builds confidence for parents for having their kids on the 00:50:54
bus? I mean, my Rd. mine Rd. all the way to high school, maybe not middle school, I can't remember, but certainly elementary. 00:51:00
Anything we could do to reduce that would be a win. So a couple of thoughts on that. 00:51:06
My husband and I were actually talking about this today because he got behind a school bus. 00:51:13
And it literally stops at every house and let's every child off. And, and while we're talking about this, he's like when I was a 00:51:19
kid, waiting at the bus stop was like, some of the best parts of your day is when you're planning what you're going to do together 00:51:26
after school. And and so I think some of why we, my kids rode the bus, but we also were literally the last stop before they got to 00:51:34
the school and the first drop off stop. So it was a no brainer for us. And I know. 00:51:41
But a lot of families you have to get on the bus at 6:45 like super early. But I wonder if instead of every now, obviously in the 00:51:49
country where you know, there's but in neighborhoods instead of every little house dropping off, it would compress the amount of 00:51:56
time kids were on the bus if they got back to more, you know, parents waiting there and the bus stop, bus stop. I have more bus 00:52:04
stops instead of every little house. So that's I mean, I think in the city of. 00:52:11
Especially when you get the rest of that sidewalk gone. Jackson St. to New High Shoals as a city with the Police Department push 00:52:19
for Walt, the school days for Coleman Ferry. You know, we, you know, as I always say, you got to you got to work on your little 00:52:26
corner of the world and try to improve your little corner. If we can make our little corner of Watkinsville walk, maybe it spreads 00:52:33
to other communities or other parts of the county, but I think that's something to look at once we get that sidewalk after. 00:52:40
I love it. OK, yeah, we're we're. 00:52:47
To Kathleen's point, yeah, it's not our not our problem, but I love the idea, Jeff, to your point of let's take care of our 00:52:52
little, our little patch 1st and control what we can. So thank you, Kathleen. Any other public comment? 00:52:58
So just point out, I have a Councilman Thomas's wife is actually listening at home sort of helping me make sure that she can hear 00:53:05
things. And she pointed out at the mic earlier. So that was awesome. But she did send me, she asked if she could comment and 00:53:11
there's no way to do it online because we don't do the interactive. But she did say I was going to share. She said because they 00:53:16
changed the bus and there are bus stops this year. It's not every stop this year. People were very unhappy about it. So for 00:53:22
whatever, that's that's where she did. 00:53:27
Share that so. 00:53:34
Anyway, yeah. 00:53:35
God bless people who run schools. 00:53:40
Yeah. And government said yeah, yeah. 00:53:45
All right, I guess we can move on to the Mayor's report. I. 00:53:48
Before I did anything else. I think we'd be in remiss if we didn't. 00:53:52
Note that, you know, the past couple months have just been brutal in terms of natural disasters. 00:53:58
I've been really sad when I've seen people kind of compare and say, oh, that's all, you know, have you forgotten about North 00:54:04
Carolina because you shared something about California, right? I mean, they're both terrible, terrible, terrible things. And I 00:54:09
would just ask that it's. 00:54:14
We feel closer to North Carolina here because we kind of all know people or Augusta are places, we all know people. But you know, 00:54:20
my, our kids, we were talking at dinner the other night, like which of which of those? 00:54:24
Worse, I mean, they're both awful, terrible incidents that are just life changing, life altering. I don't know what we can do from 00:54:29
little Watkinsville to help. I don't know if we other than pray for the folks out West, but keep them in your prayers. Just 00:54:35
because somebody's famous or because somebody got a bunch of money doesn't mean they're at the end of the day that they they're 00:54:42
any less affected than than others, you know, and and of course the people in North Carolina who are still absolutely. 00:54:49
Affected in dealing with that, They all need our prayers. They don't need our prayers more in Western North Carolina. 00:54:56
Than they do in Southern California. So I hope we'll keep that in mind as we have those conversations and at our home and with our 00:55:01
friends in the days ahead and online and practice civility there. 00:55:06
What a day, January 10th was. I posted this on Facebook and I mean it. Having Chris Greer in Watkinsville is an absolute gift 00:55:14
because we've got photos I think that we'll be able to to enjoy for years to come that are just absolutely beautiful. I don't 00:55:19
think Main Street's been that empty since COVID. 00:55:25
This, this, this. I call the Narnia shot. This just looks like something out of something out of the line. The witch in the 00:55:32
wardrobe. 00:55:35
Yeah, I mean, snow is so rare, but but that is just a just a gorgeous shot. Sharon, I don't know how many more you have there. 00:55:40
These are these are more less professional but great citizen shots. But it was it was really a great day. I'm sure everybody got 00:55:45
out and walked around. 00:55:50
That was that was, that was just beautiful there. Thomas Farm was, it was hilarious. I mean, there were people just sledding down 00:55:57
the dam. There were people in the back. There were that snowman on the last picture was built up there. I think it lasted for 00:56:04
three or four days. That was Leslie, Bobby Sabaton, Ellie's kids who built that. 00:56:10
It was, it was really a special day and I'm thankful that there weren't any accidents that were awful, some branches down and some 00:56:18
other things. But the snow days ago, I thought it turned out about as well as it could have been. Chief, thank you to you and your 00:56:24
team. And Sharon, thanks to everything you and your team did to get us ready for that and make sure it went smoothly. 00:56:30
For when we had to fix those peers, when we had to sister them up, it's really great. It's a beautiful space and ready just in 00:57:36
time for spring. So thank you. I'm really proud that that's done. 00:57:41
The asphalt is done at Thomas Farm and the cemetery. 00:57:49
The cemetery was done yesterday. It looks really great. Thomas Farm entrance was done today and that'll reopen tomorrow morning. 00:57:54
As you can see here. We paved all the way from the entrance up to the Oval. We'll put the we'll put the planter that was 00:58:00
generously donated by Farm 441 or donated alone, Jeff, I'm not sure which one, but back in the back in there. So people don't get 00:58:06
the idea that they can just drive straight up to the Oval. 00:58:12
Might forget that, we don't. Yeah. So anyway, we're grateful for that. So we'll put that back out there so somebody doesn't get 00:58:18
the idea that they can just drive straight in. But it's really nice to have that there and it'll make it easier for people who 00:58:23
need handicap accessibility coming up. We do. 00:58:28
Some striping parking. 00:58:34
Myself and Martin Obeck, our plant, our parts manager, are going to get together and talk a little bit about. 00:58:36
How the parking area is. So in the next few days, I'm sure it'll be a free for all, but hopefully within the next week or two we 00:58:41
can get that finalized so that there will be some order to help people come in and get out of there. And Kathleen alluded to it. I 00:58:45
think it's worth an update just while we talked that. 00:58:50
The the park has gotten an overwhelming amount of use, especially during the holidays, and I think we've got to let the new wear 00:58:57
off and kind of see how it lands. 00:59:01
But I'll be surprised if we don't have to add more parking, you know, and probably need to be proactive and get that done ahead of 00:59:06
spring, so. 00:59:10
But the reviews are are in and they're almost unanimously people are people are blown away with it. I kind of thought it'd be the 00:59:15
sort of thing where people would visit and then it would sort of tail off. But it seems like it's just still building a head of 00:59:21
steam. People are talking about it and they're visiting. It's really a wonderful space. And if I haven't said it enough, I'll say 00:59:28
it again. I'm just really grateful to Holly all for supporting supporting that idea and and the Councilman Thomas for. 00:59:34
You know, bringing it to our attention that it was even a possibility. 00:59:41
So. 00:59:44
Purchasing a land parcel there at our last council meeting, we closed on that shortly after. And so we have, we have the property 01:00:18
we need to do this project and we're in the process of finalizing the final easement document to move forward with all that. 01:00:24
Mayor and Council retreat coming up February 25th, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. You all should have gotten a meeting invitation for that. 01:00:34
That will be broadcast simultaneously for anyone who wants to join from home, and the public is also welcome to join us in 01:00:38
chambers that day as well. 01:00:43
Wow. 01:00:49
How did we get that, Connie? 01:00:52
I thought they needed to do something a little bit different and get some smiles out of everybody. That is so great. 01:00:57
Wow, OK Connie Massey had to have gotten the cutest kid in elementary school award. That is just great. 01:01:06
Happy birthday, Connie. What's the What's the day? 01:01:14
Next Tuesday, Happy birthday, Connie. What a great picture that I think that did get the biggest smile of the night. There we go. 01:01:17
OK. 01:01:21
And that's it. 01:01:25
We'll move on to council, reports Councilman Garrett Post one. Councilwoman Massey Brett Thomas. We miss you, Mayor Pro Tem 01:01:27
Tucker. 01:01:32
And Councilman Campbell. 01:01:39
I just like to say, I know it's probably going to be minority on the Harris Shoals project, but I also felt that if I didn't give 01:01:42
what I felt. 01:01:46
I believed in and didn't say anything. 01:01:52
And then I want to be doing my job. 01:01:54
OK, I have no problem with someone. Doesn't everyone disagree with me is perfectly fine. No, you're so close for just help. But 01:01:57
anyway, maybe, maybe next project, but no, anyway, I just wanted to say that and I think it's going to look great and be a 01:02:03
wonderful asset for the city. 01:02:09
I hope we'll all do that seriously. I mean, there's there's we. 01:02:15
I don't ever want to be an elected body that votes the same on everything. Like I just, I think that that implies that, you know, 01:02:19
everything's cooked, precooked and that shouldn't be that way. We're, we're going to have different opinions on things and we need 01:02:24
to be very comfortable voicing those and, and, and doing that. Jeff, thank you for that. 01:02:29
All right. I don't think we have a need for an executive session unless anybody wants to. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to 01:02:35
adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? 01:02:40
Second, all in favor say aye aye goodnight. 01:02:46
Go dogs. 01:02:50