Transcript

Event transcript
All right. 00:00:06
All right. Welcome to the February 2026 Watkinsville City Council meeting. We have a quorum. Glad everybody's here tonight. We'll 00:00:09
start with the pledge. Let's all rise. 00:00:13
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:20
Of the United States of America. 00:00:22
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:00:24
One Nation. 00:00:26
Under God. 00:00:28
Indivisible. 00:00:29
With liberty and justice for all. 00:00:30
All right, it's Arbor Week in Georgia, and Arbor Day is Friday. 00:00:39
Celebrating trees and their benefits is worth celebrating every day. We have saplings here at City Hall for anyone who wants some. 00:00:43
We have bald Cypress and red oak available while supplies last. 00:00:48
Thank you to the Keep. 00:00:53
Georgia Beautiful foundation in the Georgia Forestry Commission for making. 00:00:54
This tree giveaway possible. We do have an official proclamation. I'll let the court add that to the record. 00:00:58
Rather than reading it aloud tonight. 00:01:03
It's part of our Tree City USA program. Julie, I can't remember how many years in a row now have we been a Tree City 19. 00:01:05
So we've been a tree city. I remember when we first started that program. 00:01:11
Mark, you're nodding your head, Julie. I know you probably remember that, Connie. It might have been just a smidge before you got 00:01:15
here. 00:01:18
But people freaked out because we had to put a tree ordinance in place, believe it or not, to be a tree city. But that was 19 00:01:20
years ago. And I'm really proud that for 19 years we've continued to plant and invest in trees. So. 00:01:27
Happy Arbor Day, everybody. 00:01:34
We'll move on to the approval of the minutes from the January 21st meeting. 00:01:36
Council, you've had the opportunity to review the minutes, are there any questions about those? 00:01:40
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes. 00:01:46
Make a motion to approve the January. 00:01:49
Meeting minutes. All right. Do we have a second? 00:01:51
I'll second. All right. We have a motion and a second. 00:01:53
Any discussion? 00:01:56
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:01:57
And Christine was not here, so she's abstaining. 00:02:00
We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. 00:02:03
You have the agenda here. Before you there is there are several items on consent. 00:02:08
Um, but if everybody's comfortable. 00:02:14
We can approve the agenda if we want to pull anything off consent. If you have questions, feel free. I know there's several 00:02:16
policies on there. I do want to. 00:02:19
Make note that everybody should have read those policies. 00:02:23
All right, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda then. 00:02:28
Make a motion to approve the agenda. 00:02:32
I'll second. We have a motion, we have a second. All in favor say aye, aye. 00:02:35
Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to administration. I'll remind everybody we've got professionals here. 00:02:40
Who have been to many of these meetings before, but typically at Watkinsville we do allow public input at different points during 00:02:46
the meeting at the council's discretion. 00:02:49
So you can do so when noted on the agenda or if we determine it's appropriate. 00:02:53
Comments should be only relating to the agenda items that we'd want you to come to the podium. 00:02:57
Limit your comments to 4. 00:03:02
Minutes Refrain from debate. Personal attacks. 00:03:03
Or irrelevant discussion. 00:03:06
Council won't speak to potential litigation personnel matters or attorney-client matters. 00:03:08
So with that, we'll move to administration and we'll start with Financial reports manager Dickerson. 00:03:13
Thank you, Mayor. 00:03:17
We caught up. 00:03:18
Thankfully and I we appreciate your old patience. December and January reports, financial reports for general fund are included in 00:03:19
your packet. I'll point out that we are doing very well. We have. 00:03:24
As a into January or revenues or at 62%? 00:03:30
I think. 00:03:34
Should be like 58 or something like that and then and the expense report were only at fit and where it. 00:03:34
On the expense side, we're only at 52% and we should be obviously higher than that, so. 00:03:39
At the end of January, after seven months, so. 00:03:43
That's good news. 00:03:45
Also point out. 00:03:47
That we did not. 00:03:49
This month, for whatever reason, we were off a day getting our SPLOST revenues, both SPLOST, NT SPLOST, so. 00:03:50
You that's going to look a little different. 00:03:55
We'll show that. 00:03:57
Came in like on February 2nd instead of. 00:03:59
January 30th or whatever so. 00:04:01
Probably just the end of the year and how or end of the month and how they do things. But so spliced we have averaged about 86,000 00:04:03
a month. Again, this doesn't account for what happened in January that was not reported yet. 00:04:09
We have this is This shows you the report that shows that we are not showing. 00:04:17
December so January. I'm sorry so I. 00:04:22
Make sure, sorry, I'm looking at this report so end of December reports in January, so we're always a month behind. 00:04:24
We have a little bit more than $1,000,000 in the bank and as I said, our average has been about $86,000 a month. 00:04:30
Reminder on SPLOST and I know the mayor probably speak about this a little bit. We there will be a spouse referendum on May 19th. 00:04:36
Just a reminder, some of the things that we do with the money here and that really helps our government. 00:04:42
Public safety facilities and equipment, Recreation, recreation, parks and green space. 00:04:47
Lots of roads and that's a really expensive thing for our little city to do. And then government facilities, signage and equipment 00:04:52
and. 00:04:55
A lot of those things you can see on the ground that we're doing now, we actually just posted some new signs up around town. 00:04:59
Both SPLOST and T splost to try to draw attention to the projects that the money is going towards. 00:05:04
On T. 00:05:10
We're averaging around 75,000, again not showing the the revenue from December. 00:05:12
Umm, we have. Let's see, I did. So the December distribution I did write this down for tea spots was 99,393. 00:05:18
Dollars. So that would be a little bit less than what we had last December because we had 96,000 last year. 00:05:27
And I don't know that I wrote down, I did write down on SPLOST on SPLOST 3. Let me go back just for next. I think it's worth 00:05:34
saying I meant to say this. So on SPLOST 3, we had. 00:05:38
116,000. 00:05:42
Reported on February 2nd, so again it'll be reported. 00:05:44
Next month's meeting. 00:05:47
So it went up but on the T Spa side we had a bit lower and I always have to go back and remember. 00:05:48
Why that is? There's some difference in that, but it's ever so slight. 00:05:54
I'll brush up on my on the details of that, but there are some differences and why we don't, you know why we don't see the same 00:05:57
amount on each of those. What do you mean the same amount on? 00:06:01
T sponsors, the difference is 7. The difference is 8 point. Yeah, the difference is the percentage 8.63 on splice 3 and 7.77 on T 00:06:06
splost. So that's why you have less. 00:06:11
We're only getting a, We're getting a. 00:06:16
One point. 00:06:19
What less the almonds to point difference? 00:06:20
One percentage. 00:06:23
Difference based on population now, right? Yeah, it's based on population. 00:06:24
I guess my computer and this is probably a neat problem and how math and my brain works. 00:06:28
But why would the pers. 00:06:33
I understand that the amount would be different because it's a different. 00:06:36
Like we're getting different percentages. 00:06:40
But why would the? 00:06:43
Why would it be a different? 00:06:45
Percent of change year to year. 00:06:47
Even if. 00:06:49
The. 00:06:51
This is not important that we talk about. I will ask someone offline. 00:06:54
Between year to year I guess I'm wondering like if. 00:06:59
If the certain amount, I understand that with the higher revenue one. 00:07:03
We're going to get more money, obviously, because it's a higher percentage. 00:07:07
But the the year to year percentage change wouldn't the percent speed? 00:07:11
The same. I don't think so. I think just because the numbers increased slightly, the numbers are a little bit bigger, so it throws 00:07:17
it off a little bit. You know, I'm not, I'm not that Matthew too. But yeah, 'cause it's 3.29 and 3.83. 00:07:22
That's the difference if you look year over year. 00:07:28
Yeah, yeah. So, so I think it's probably just a function of one number being larger than the other, creating a different effect 00:07:30
there. And always have to remember splost threes that are higher than than T splost and lost is the same as T splost, so. 00:07:35
Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway on the. 00:07:41
Let's see on the tea spots that we have. 00:07:45
We only have about 634,000 teaspoons. Some of that is we're waiting on a reimbursement from. 00:07:47
G tab for the Suntan Bridge Rd. project. So some of that is that and then? 00:07:53
The other is the fact that we didn't get the. 00:07:57
100,000 or so in there for that. 00:07:59
For the month so. 00:08:01
Again, projects for T SPLA sidewalk construction big biggest one right now is Simonton Bridge. 00:08:03
Some traffic efficiency improvements we're going to talk about during the retreat. 00:08:08
And the road resurfacing, which we shifted all our resurfacing to that so we could free up some more money in SPLA since this was 00:08:12
passed after that. 00:08:16
Oh any questions on? 00:08:21
Those sorry about that, All right, economic development. 00:08:22
Business alcohol licenses are coming in, probably they most people wait till March 15th. So we'll see a huge deluge of those 00:08:25
coming in, but they're coming in steadily. 00:08:30
On the excise collection tax, alcohol and the hotel motel are on target. 00:08:36
We estimate around 31,000 for hotel alcohol, I think it was close to 80 and those come you know and you'll see we've got some 00:08:41
reported in January but not the full amount so. 00:08:46
I think we're we're pretty, pretty tight on that. I think that's good. 00:08:50
And then on the economic development, we had 6 permits for five projects. 00:08:54
Nothing really significant other than obviously the school St. with the classic cities Classic. 00:08:59
City golf swing. 00:09:04
Classic golf swing. 00:09:06
Classic swing golf. I'll get it right in a minute. Anyway, they had a couple of permits on there, so any questions? 00:09:08
OK. 00:09:15
All right, Mayor Pro Tem. 00:09:18
DDA update All right, so we had our annual retreat today and it was. 00:09:20
I would say a really great success. We have an impressive group of board members who all have a. 00:09:27
Lot of areas of expertise. 00:09:32
And everybody was tasked with a certain area. 00:09:34
To report on and it. 00:09:37
Just showed the insight that the board has but also the ideas that came for it. 00:09:41
Came from those insights as a group. 00:09:45
To help. 00:09:48
Propel and support the businesses that we have in downtown, so very successful. I'm excited to see. 00:09:49
The action items that will be coming out of the retreat. 00:09:56
Obviously, everything ties into our strategic planning process too. 00:10:01
So it's super helpful to have that. 00:10:05
New Business news Although I do feel like we have been talking about Classic City Golf Swing for months now. It is Ribbon cutting 00:10:08
is the 19th and the grand opening is the 20th. 00:10:12
A great addition to our community. 00:10:18
Viewfinders Season 4, that is sold out, so I hope you have tickets to that. That is going to be a wonderful event. We are so 00:10:20
fortunate. 00:10:25
To have Chris Greer in our community and committed to our community, he is such an incredible asset. 00:10:30
So talented. So that's going to be a great event. 00:10:36
And also just a reminder that we do have an EV charging station. 00:10:39
Over by the comfort station and. 00:10:44
That is a. 00:10:48
Great resource for people who hopefully will stop and charge up and then enjoy our restaurants and shopping establishments. 00:10:49
And there it is. 00:10:58
And I did notice that went out in the newsletter. 00:11:01
And multiple board members mentioned that they had seen it. So I do think people read those and that's very good. So hopefully the 00:11:03
word is getting out. 00:11:07
So that's it. 00:11:12
OK, perfect. 00:11:14
I'm going to take it back to Manager Dickerson for a second. We have a special guest here tonight that we we. 00:11:15
Skip mentioning. 00:11:21
Yeah, my apologies. So. 00:11:21
On Monday, I guess it was the 9th. 00:11:24
We entered it. We brought in a new employer, Municipal Court Clerk Bailey Price. Bailey if you want to go up and make sure the 00:11:27
mics on if she wants to. 00:11:31
Introduce yourself a little bit more. 00:11:35
Hello. 00:11:40
Hello. Is it on? Yeah, OK. I couldn't hear myself. Hi, I'm Bailey Price. I'm the new Municipal Court clerk. I've been here a 00:11:40
little less than two weeks. 00:11:45
I have absolutely loved working here so far. 00:11:50
All of the employees at the city have been. 00:11:53
Nothing but. 00:11:55
Happy, helpful and energetic in their jobs and. 00:11:56
If you have any questions for me, I'm an open book. 00:12:01
Awesome. 00:12:04
Bailey, tell us a little bit about what you. 00:12:05
What your career has been so far and where you're from? 00:12:07
I'm originally from a small town up north Georgia called Chickamauga, GA. 00:12:10
I graduated from the University of Georgia in 2024. 00:12:16
I started my. 00:12:21
Career working for the City of Winder as their deputy clerk for a year and I decided that. 00:12:22
I was ready for something more. 00:12:28
And uh. 00:12:30
This opportunity has been amazing. 00:12:31
Well, OK. 00:12:33
Welcome to Watkinsville. 00:12:35
Thank you. Yeah. 00:12:36
All right, OK. 00:12:38
We'll move on to Chief Arwood with the Police Department report. 00:12:40
All right. Thank you all for having me. 00:12:44
So start off with the training schedule, training that we had and I'm going to keep an eye on this instead of my. 00:12:46
Piper down here so I can stay on track, but Officer Claire has completed all his significant training, completed his FTO. He 00:12:51
started night shift this past Monday. 00:12:56
So we have all shifts covered again. We. 00:13:01
Also had assisted helping him. 00:13:04
This week and we'll continue probably through the weekend and then that'll give them about 14 weeks of training. 00:13:06
Is Taser with? 00:13:12
Done with Taser certification this year. He actually took voluntary exposure. I think we talked about that last time so. 00:13:14
Yeah, we were looking for one more, just one more so. 00:13:21
Detective Softman went back and freshened up on his DUI field sobriety training. 00:13:26
Hopefully we have planned to get out there. 00:13:31
Some weekends and and maybe do some. 00:13:33
Not necessarily checkpoints, but just some more DUI enforcement. 00:13:36
And Sergeant Anglin, he has taken his first level of leadership. 00:13:40
And supervision training through. 00:13:45
The Georgia Post Council. 00:13:47
That's exciting. It's a 8th day. The first one is the 8th day course so. 00:13:49
We'll definitely miss them and we'll have to make some arrangements on on getting some. 00:13:53
Coverage form so. 00:13:57
February 11th went to the Capitol. That was exciting. 00:14:00
Not the traffic, but the the moment was very exciting. A lot of chiefs. 00:14:04
A lot of familiar faces and it's the first time I went. I didn't go last year because it's in February and I got hired in 00:14:09
December. I felt like I needed to be here, not there, so. 00:14:13
I got to go this year and really enjoyed it. 00:14:18
It's. 00:14:20
Kind of amazing to see what all goes on there, so. 00:14:22
Then on February 12th, we went, oh, connecting crates. See, I went ahead of my. 00:14:26
Connecting create still going strong I just wanted to you know, touch put in some of the phrases that we're getting when I'm 00:14:33
rereading these things and making some phone calls but. 00:14:36
We have a lot of support. 00:14:41
You know, in Watkinsville, the citizens, they're really. 00:14:43
It's amazing to see. 00:14:46
Just all the positive. 00:14:47
Reinforcement that we have, so I just wanted to. 00:14:49
Like a couple notes about that because it's it's. 00:14:52
Watkinsville is a special place. 00:14:55
My cruise light kick off. 00:14:57
I caught this picture but actually all the lights are wrong but the camera when it caught us, some of them are showing off so 00:15:01
they're not flashing. But what we did was change it from a flicker and high intensity to a 5%. 00:15:07
Intensity is a real low. 00:15:13
What a cruise light. I think what a cruise light should be. 00:15:16
And we're going to start off a project with that and just see if we have. 00:15:18
More presence and slowing. Slow down some traffic and some speeders and patrol around with these on and see if we get some. 00:15:23
Some positive results out of it. 00:15:30
I don't guess we really picked a time frame, maybe a month or two and see. 00:15:32
See what the stats are. 00:15:37
I do feel like if we are running around or patrolling around with the cruise lights on and we do see us, Peter. 00:15:39
They're probably not going to get a warning. 00:15:44
We're doing everything we possibly can to slow you down so. 00:15:46
We'll just spread the word. We'll educate folks. 00:15:50
Talked about the police vehicles. 00:15:55
February 12th we went to Legacy Village of Athens. 00:15:58
Very special day. Kind of heartfelt, I actually. 00:16:02
For me personally. 00:16:05
Met a lady that worked with my mother in the 80s that is that is living there now. Resident there so. 00:16:06
Pretty special, Miss Janice. 00:16:12
She is in one of the pictures but. 00:16:14
We we give them some coffee cups filled with some goodies and candies and chocolates and. 00:16:17
I'm spent, I don't know, hour and a half or so out there with them and. 00:16:22
It was, it was just, it's wonderful. Like they really. 00:16:26
Just putting a smile on her face really makes your day, you know? Really makes you think about things. 00:16:29
Our Easter egg hunt is March 28. 00:16:34
We don't have a helicopter unfortunately, but we do have 10,000 eggs in. 00:16:37
We're going to have fun. We'll have some. 00:16:42
Some prizes and some snacks. Kona ice is coming. They're. 00:16:44
Give away some ices and. 00:16:48
I think we'll have a good time. 00:16:50
On the new greens down there, hopefully we won't. 00:16:52
Mess them up too bad. 00:16:54
So spread the word. 00:16:57
Hopefully we get a good crowd and then. 00:16:59
They have the rest of the day so it starts at 9. The egg hunt actually starts at 9:00. 00:17:04
Started off with the stats and I tried to. 00:17:08
Go from December just so we can see the. 00:17:10
The flow again. 00:17:13
But 249 calls. 00:17:15
For 497 security checks and again. 00:17:17
I just want to remind you I think. 00:17:19
The numbers are great with. 00:17:21
Six officers compared to. 00:17:23
The full house so. 00:17:25
That does make a difference. The guys are. 00:17:26
Working tremendously hard and doing extra and. 00:17:28
I really appreciate their hard work. 00:17:32
34 citations, 94 warnings, 15 accidents, which was a lot for that period of time. 00:17:34
One arrest and 0 use of force. So that's that's good. 00:17:41
And. 00:17:46
Thank you. Any questions? 00:17:48
Thank you. 00:17:50
All right, Chief. Thank you. 00:17:54
Thank you. 00:17:55
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. I don't think there's any. We didn't want to take anything off. So I'll entertain 00:17:58
a motion to approve this. 00:18:01
I make a motion to approve. 00:18:07
All right, do we have a second? 00:18:10
2nd. 00:18:11
All right. All in favor, aye. 00:18:12
OK. Motion carries unanimously. 00:18:14
We will move on to. 00:18:18
Public hearing. We've got to do a couple public hearings tonight. 00:18:22
For the benefit of the crowd, meaning Lawrence and whoever is watching. 00:18:27
This the first one is kind of an administrative item that. 00:18:30
Wisteria Ridge is governed by development agreement and we have a development agreement that means any changes. 00:18:34
To those plans require us to update the development agreement, which means it's technically a rezone. Is that right Mr. Attorney? 00:18:39
So that's why we're going to go through this process for Wisteria Ridge. 00:18:44
And with that, I'll ask Engineer Campbell for a report. 00:18:50
Thank you, Mayor. 00:18:53
So hopefully you're familiar with the Wisteria Ridge and its location there along N Main St. So this request is a rezoning that's 00:18:54
specific to the sign and the type of sign that that they're proposing there. So if you can go to the next page showing the 00:18:59
location. 00:19:04
Again, generally of the entire parcel there along the. 00:19:09
N Main St. Specifically, we're looking at the front edge. 00:19:13
So just to give some general ideas, right the the ordinance would stipulate a single sided sign. 00:19:16
This proposed double sided sign which is. 00:19:22
Perpendicular roadways are people that are. 00:19:25
Coming into town or people leaving in town can see it similar to that leasing sign which is. 00:19:27
Not a permanent. 00:19:32
Sign there has two sides. The proposed sign would that's a view kind of from across the street as well. 00:19:34
That will be approximately the same location, so we'll meet the other elements of the code. It's just a matter of. 00:19:40
Instead of being parallel to the road where you only see. 00:19:44
The front of the sign it's perpendicular, so that is a double sided sign. 00:19:47
So that gives you an idea of, you know the. 00:19:51
The uh. 00:19:54
A portion of the code where specifically would talk about that, but it is under a development agreement so there's some 00:19:55
flexibility to do this. 00:19:58
All other code things would still apply, so the minimum set back. 00:20:01
There is a turn lane there, so it's not as much of A. 00:20:05
Concern about site visibility or any of those other things. And again, there is a. 00:20:08
Temporary sign that's in approximately the same location now. 00:20:12
Just from a relative standpoint, from the pictures, but. 00:20:14
The applicant provided. 00:20:18
Some some markups of what those proposed signs would look like, which you should have in your packet as well, but if you've got 00:20:19
any other questions just let me know. 00:20:23
All right. You've heard the report from the engineer. I don't think the applicant is here, so. 00:20:29
Not seeing the applicant? I'll open a public hearing. The rules are similar to what I outlined at the start. 4 minutes. 00:20:35
You're welcome to come up and. 00:20:41
Give us a pro or con on. 00:20:43
The sign. 00:20:45
All right, the hearing is open. The hearing is now closed. We will move to the vote. 00:20:48
I'll entertain a motion or discussion about the double sided monument sign and updating the. 00:20:53
Development agreement to allow that. 00:20:59
I make a motion to approve. 00:21:04
We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? 00:21:06
2nd, we have a motion, we have a second. Any discussion? 00:21:08
All right, hearing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? 00:21:12
Motion carries. 00:21:15
Right now, we will move on to. 00:21:17
An administrative public hearing. This is just again, for context. 00:21:20
We've talked about this before, this is kind of flown under the radar, but I think is actually really cool. This is a. 00:21:24
6.15 acres that were. 00:21:30
Contributed to the city as part of the Waters Walk project. It's essentially functions kind of what you traditionally would have 00:21:33
called a density bonus. 00:21:36
They moved their density up onto the hill they built. 00:21:39
Project that just recently opened and is actually lovely. If you haven't been in there, it is. It is gorgeous. 00:21:42
And starting to fill up. 00:21:47
And what they donated to us were was 6 and a 6.15 acres below the project and along the Creek. 00:21:49
We think this is actually where the original springs for Watkinsville. 00:21:55
Were where Watkinsville's first name came from Big Spring, so it actually had some history to it. 00:21:59
That we didn't appreciate. So long term I think we'll be able to, you know, create a pretty unique experience down there. But for 00:22:03
now we just want to rezone that to. 00:22:06
Parks, recreation and conservation. 00:22:10
Engineer Campbell, if I didn't totally blow up your report, I'll let you offer. 00:22:11
What you want to and then we'll do a public hearing on that. You covered it very well. I'm not sure I have much to add, but again, 00:22:15
you can just see maybe graphically from. 00:22:19
It's currently owned by the city because that was part of the development agreement for Waters Walk. 00:22:24
But because it's the remnant of the previous owning. 00:22:28
It's zoned attached residential. Since the city now owns it, it would be in the city's interest to. 00:22:31
Rezoned to parks. 00:22:35
Recreation and conservation, which was the intent. 00:22:37
You can see the boundaries there along Durham and actually backs up to the courthouse property as well. 00:22:40
And then is bounded also on the what I'll call the western side. 00:22:45
By, you know, tributary to calls Creek there so. 00:22:48
There is a little bit just for clarification, a little bit of encumbrance by some sewer easements that are in that area as well. 00:22:53
So it's not. 00:23:01
To say that there's nothing on that property. 00:23:02
But this will kind of help to continue to. 00:23:04
Conserve, conserve, and preserve it. 00:23:07
So it has that PR zoning. 00:23:09
All right. Thank you, Engineer Campbell. 00:23:13
And that's six acres, just for reference, that's similar in size to Watkinsville Woods, so. 00:23:16
You know, if we actually go down there and walk around, it's a. 00:23:20
It's a It's a pretty cool space. 00:23:23
Very lot, a lot of Springs Creek, stuff like that, so. 00:23:26
So I'm glad we have it. 00:23:30
I'll now entertain a public hearing for anyone who wants to comment on. 00:23:32
The rezone of this space so the public hearing is open. 00:23:37
All right, seeing no one, the public hearing is closed and at this point, we'll move back behind the rail and will entertain. 00:23:41
A vote on tax parcel W 05040 being rezoned to from attached residential to PRC. 00:23:48
Council. 00:23:55
Will entertain any discussion or motion. 00:23:57
I make a motion to approve. 00:23:59
All right, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. 00:24:01
All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? 00:24:04
Hearing none all in favor say aye. 00:24:07
All right. 00:24:09
Motion carries unanimously. We now have six more acres of green space officially in Watkinsville. 00:24:11
Appearances, we have none or business we have none. New business we do have. 00:24:18
Some items here y'all. 00:24:22
So. 00:24:24
This is. 00:24:27
I won't say this is complicated, but. 00:24:28
I'm going to let the engineer go 1st and the attorney go 1st and I'll fill in any blanks that they don't get. 00:24:30
So. 00:24:36
All right. So hopefully I I can speak in some broad strokes there, but this? 00:24:38
Hopefully this color drawing is. I apologize if the yellow is not yellowy enough. 00:24:43
But the the blue and the red on your screen should show up. 00:24:48
So in very general terms, if you're familiar. 00:24:52
With the latest and greatest covered bridge in the state of Georgia. 00:24:55
That is currently under construction. 00:24:59
That is directly adjacent to the blue area that you see there. 00:25:01
So there's area that's owned by the city of Watkinsville. 00:25:06
In the area where the bridge is. 00:25:09
Once you start to move past that. 00:25:11
There's areas for which. 00:25:14
The city has easements. 00:25:16
To do construction of the project, but to allow for some further beautification, there's an opportunity here. 00:25:17
To umm, uh. 00:25:24
You know, gain some additional property from that property owner who's amenable to that in exchange for some clarification on some 00:25:25
boundary line and encumbrance issues. 00:25:30
So, umm. 00:25:35
What the city would be gaining is the area that is in blue again that is mostly encumbered by some easements and all. Now that 00:25:36
exists, it would just be fee simple you would own. 00:25:40
Own the property, not just have. 00:25:45
Easement on somebody else's property. 00:25:46
And then what would? 00:25:48
Would clearly happen. Is the area that is in red. 00:25:50
Would be part of the Christopher property. 00:25:53
He owns both sides of. 00:25:56
Mowbray St. and the roadway there and then the property in yellow would be clearly part of the what I'll call the. 00:25:58
Verner Thurman Property. 00:26:04
So again, there's. 00:26:06
Some old plots. If you've said with Mr. Chris for too long, you get a history lesson. 00:26:08
And that's great for the city of Rockinsville, but this helps to provide some clarification. 00:26:13
Along with those old plats. So hopefully I've I've given a little bit of description. Maybe the color helps somewhat. 00:26:17
But happy to answer any questions. 00:26:24
And I'll, I'll just add in and then I'll let attorney Reitman finish this up. But essentially what we're the city. 00:26:26
Had years ago contemplated a Rd. 00:26:31
Where that red and yellow is and that road would have connected Mulberry Drive to Thrasher. 00:26:34
And at that point, the Vernors and whoever owned that land before Mr. Christopher would have been able to develop their land off 00:26:39
of that red. 00:26:42
Obviously, that road was never built. 00:26:46
There's a, you know, the right. 00:26:48
The the rights revert back to the property owners. 00:26:50
But the property owners want to ensure that there couldn't be a claim made against them for that property ever from the city. So 00:26:53
we didn't own that, but we asserted that we had. 00:26:57
An easement or right away or the property owners felt like we. 00:27:01
Could assert that. 00:27:03
And in exchange for us giving up. 00:27:05
That Joe will give you the right language, but in exchange for us sort of giving up any claim we might make to that old right 00:27:07
away. 00:27:10
They're going to give us fees. Simple. 00:27:13
The acreage we need. 00:27:15
Close to the famous triangle. 00:27:16
Gap that we spent so much time getting. 00:27:18
Which will allow us to install a restroom. 00:27:20
And do some additional beautification right at the western edge of the covered bridge. 00:27:23
So right. 00:27:27
Yep. And just to recap, back in the 1960s, there was this theoretical roadway contemplated. 00:27:28
The city? Never. 00:27:35
Based on our due diligence, did any quote deed of acceptance, it never received it and never utilized it, had never claimed it, It 00:27:37
never developed or improved in any way. 00:27:42
So all we're going to do here is very simple quick claim deeds, 1/2 side of Christopher, 1/2 side to Thurmond in exchange for 00:27:47
which Mr. Christopher and or Miss Christopher, whoever owns the hash mark blue down below next to that triangle area. 00:27:54
Will deed that property for the reasons stated just a moment ago and so this will be done basically by quick claim deeds for which 00:28:02
you see above the narrow strips and then probably get a warranty deed because we do want to have. 00:28:08
Clear fee simple. 00:28:15
Marketable, uh. 00:28:17
Title ownership to which you see below in blue. 00:28:18
So this is where what I'm going to ask for tonight is approval contingent upon the legal documentation being finalized. We think 00:28:23
that will happen in the next two to three weeks. So I don't want to wait. 00:28:28
Till the next council meeting and have to hold up construction and the other stuff that needs to happen down there. 00:28:33
So what I'd ask for you guys is approval contingent upon the legal documentation being finalized and signed for me to be able to 00:28:37
sign and accept that property and release the narrow potential narrow easement strips to. 00:28:43
Mr. Christopher and Mrs. Thurmond. 00:28:49
There's somebody just want to say so move. That would suffice. 00:28:51
So moved. 00:28:54
Let's so move. We got it in one at a time though, so I need somebody to to just read release of the narrow easement strips. 00:28:55
You know of the quick claim date. Christine make a motion that we release the potential narrow easement strips by quick claim 00:29:01
deed. 00:29:06
OK. Contingent upon the legal, contingent upon the legal documentation. Perfect. Thank you. 00:29:10
We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:29:15
2nd. 00:29:16
All right, we have two seconds any. 00:29:18
Any further discussion necessary? 00:29:20
OK. All right. All in favor, say aye, OK. 00:29:23
All right, we have released. 00:29:28
The easement Now I'll entertain a motion to. 00:29:30
Acquire the .44 acres contingent upon. 00:29:33
Finalization of the legal documents. I make a motion that we acquire the .44 acres. 00:29:38
Upon completion of the correct legal documents, all right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:29:45
2nd. 00:29:50
We have a second from Councilman Thomas. Any further discussion questions? 00:29:51
Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Motion carries unanimously. 00:29:55
Thank you all. 00:29:59
This has been a It's been an interesting project trying to get all this sewn up but. 00:30:01
We're grateful to the Christopher family and to. 00:30:05
Mrs. Ellen Verner Thurman for working with us on this as well, and we'll hopefully get all this buttoned up in the next couple 00:30:08
weeks and get it finalized. 00:30:12
We'll move on to item 17. SPLOST 3 funds for streetscape improvements on Business Blvd. Manager Dickerson. 00:30:16
Thank you, Mayor. 00:30:22
So we're going to ask tonight is approval for the appropriation of up to $40,000 to do a streetscape improvement project on 00:30:23
Business Blvd. 00:30:27
The history is really just about SPLOST and the fact that. 00:30:32
There are funds that can be used for that purpose you all set aside. 00:30:35
Money in those four categories, public safety, rec and parks, roads and streets and multi government facilities. 00:30:39
Streetscape. 00:30:46
Is really to enhance the the appeal of that corridor. We're now that we've got more people going down there because of the road 00:30:47
development and more businesses that are moving in and. 00:30:51
The business that the business park that's going in. 00:30:56
They're in the. 00:30:59
In the bend of Morrison St. just beyond us. 00:31:01
It's become an issue. During the storm we had during the ice storm, we had one of the trees come down. 00:31:04
And so we have been, we've actually been talking about it probably for the better part of two years now. 00:31:10
And, you know, we've had other parties and we finally got to the point where we needed it. 00:31:15
Address it and. 00:31:18
Engineer Campbell went and did the. 00:31:20
Due diligence determine where the right away was. 00:31:22
We've talked to. 00:31:24
One of the properties, one of the property owners, one of the neighboring properties in there and I'd left information for. 00:31:26
I think it's Bell that owns the. 00:31:31
Static, whatever's next door I went by yesterday I can't get hold of, but I did leave a copy of the agenda report. I did hear from 00:31:33
Zaxby's. Is it Harrison that maybe Mr. Harrison or something was Zaxby's that has the building the. 00:31:39
Business back in there and they were very. 00:31:45
Pleased to hear that we're going to do something. 00:31:47
But the improvements are going to include. 00:31:49
May include more than this, but right now, removal of the dead trees, the landscaping with new trees, we're actually going to. 00:31:52
Be moving. 00:31:58
The Jolly Green giants that are sitting across from. 00:31:59
Wire Park on Barnet Shoals where we the city owned some property over there. 00:32:01
We had originally. 00:32:06
Planned on using that as a mulch site. You know, that was early on when I got here, how we were going to handle things, and we 00:32:07
ended up finding another way to handle mulch. So we sort of abandoned that idea, but we put some trees in there for lands for 00:32:11
screening and those trees have now gotten to about 20 feet tall. 00:32:16
But they're very valuable trees and they'll do really well in this area, according to the both the landscapers we talked to. So 00:32:21
we're going to. 00:32:24
Have one of them move them and the other one's going to be working to beautify the area with mulch and sod and whatnot. 00:32:27
We are. We did expose. There's going to be, there's an existing sign there that we're going to try to. 00:32:34
Rehab some, but we're also going to add us on similar to what we have at the Industrial Drive. I'm sorry, Industrial Blvd. 00:32:39
At the entrance on both sides of industrial. 00:32:47
Of the industrial park. 00:32:49
That will just say business Blvd. on it. It'll look very, you know, have the branding everything, but then the other side is more 00:32:51
of a sign that would have placards for the businesses and. 00:32:55
There'll be some, you know, work on that. That's why I asked for a little bit more money. 00:32:59
To make sure we have enough to rehab that sign. 00:33:03
But I will be two sided sign too. I just want to let you all know that. 00:33:07
You can't see either side right now, but. 00:33:12
But this is consistent with a streetscape project. So it is eligible for these funds and that's we're asking, this is sort of a 00:33:15
picture. 00:33:18
I think we're moving. Are we moving? 00:33:21
The Jolly Greens are at the front, so those are the four on either side and then the back, I think there are they lace. 00:33:24
Belt. 00:33:29
Councilman Garrett gave us some suggestions. There was a concern about the big trucks coming out. 00:33:39
Heading oh gosh, what White East all I guess on that road and. 00:33:45
Carving out some of the there's a drainage area there, so our public works guys are going to work to try to. 00:33:49
Pull the rock back and they're going to use some millions to try to reinforce that. 00:33:54
That area for now, we'll keep an eye on that. 00:33:57
So we appreciate his help on that. 00:34:00
Again, it's consistent with SPLOST 3 Spas, 3 funds. 00:34:03
Requesting for up to 40,000 for this project. 00:34:08
And again, it supports, you know, economic vitality, vitality and long term infrastructure investment in the community and that's 00:34:12
where us, so we're we are requesting option one. 00:34:16
Is the recommendation. 00:34:20
And we're hoping it won't cost this much. We just want to. 00:34:24
Put the number out there for what it what it may take to get everything done we. 00:34:27
You know, this is one of those where there's. 00:34:30
This thing just grown up over 20 or 30 years and there's just, it's wild and woolly in there. So hopefully we can. 00:34:32
Clean it up and get the get a nice streetscape going in there and we decided not to do a lot of different shrubs and stuff just so 00:34:38
it's clean. It's going to be basically sodden trees. 00:34:42
Easier to maintain, but. 00:34:46
We all know what a first impression means, and we've got some really nice. 00:34:48
Thriving small businesses back there, but. 00:34:51
They're really embarrassed when folks have to come see him and drive in there and see. 00:34:53
You know the. 00:34:57
The Leland cypresses that were planted, about 2/3 of those died. 00:34:58
You know, a couple years back then they fell over and so we get we have to pay to get rid of all those. 00:35:01
We also tried to pursue a grant for this. That's one of the reasons it's taken so long and. 00:35:06
We didn't win the grant at this point. We decided we just, we just need to take care of this so. 00:35:10
So with that, any questions for the manager? 00:35:15
All right, OK. We'll entertain a motion to approve the appropriation. 00:35:21
I make a motion to approve the appropriation. 00:35:24
Is there a second? 00:35:27
I'll second. 00:35:29
We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? 00:35:30
All in favor say aye. 00:35:33
And gets to accuse myself. Yeah, yeah. 00:35:35
40 We have an adjacent property owner sitting here. So he was he is. 00:35:38
Right front, center, right front and center on the day. 00:35:43
All right. We have the approval of a floating holiday up next. I'll let the manager talk about that. 00:35:48
Thank you, Mayor. 00:35:53
We're requesting the addition of a floating holiday to the city employee holiday schedule to be effective July 1. 00:35:55
We are continuing to try to be as competitive as we can. We still have three open positions. 00:36:03
And so we want to mirror ourselves against our neighbors and in this case, Oconee County. So we currently have 9 paid holidays. 00:36:08
Oconee County has 10. They added a floating holiday. 00:36:15
The idea of a floating holiday is, you know you have veteran's day. 00:36:18
Perhaps Good Friday? 00:36:21
Presidents Day. Some of those days. Juneteenth. 00:36:24
That are celebrated by other governments. I mentioned Winder, Athens, Clarke, Morgan, Monroe, Madison. They do one or more of 00:36:26
these. 00:36:30
Holidays. But a floating holiday gives the opportunity for the individual who, let's say you know, Good Friday. 00:36:35
Very religious, want to have that day. 00:36:40
So they can use it on that day, use their floating holiday whenever, of course, with the approval of their supervisors. 00:36:42
And so we're again just asking that it gives some flexibility. We're just asking. 00:36:48
That that be added it will continue to help. 00:36:53
Keep us competitive and in line with what our. 00:36:55
Other local governments are doing in the area. 00:36:58
There again, minimal. 00:37:01
Fiscal impact. 00:37:03
Just redistributing compensated time rather than. 00:37:05
Increase in total compensation soon. 00:37:08
And if I may take a, just a. 00:37:10
Bit of time the. 00:37:12
My company does something that's really unique as well that I might offer off to the city. It's called VTO, volunteer time off. 00:37:14
So I'm allowed to take. 00:37:21
Up to a week I usually don't take that much time, but up to a week of time a year. 00:37:23
To volunteer doing something beneficial to. 00:37:29
The community that we work in. 00:37:31
So whether you're working in a homeless shelter, feeding, feeding folks or. 00:37:33
Going on storm duty to help people. We're, we're paid. So I mean, it's, it's a really great way to encourage your employees to. 00:37:37
Get out in the community. 00:37:46
Help other people, I mean. 00:37:48
Not that y'all don't help the community as a whole, but it helps. 00:37:50
It helps. 00:37:54
Our our company do. It's just something unique that that my company does. 00:37:55
Yeah. All right. 00:38:01
Any other comments on the floating holiday? 00:38:05
If not, I'll entertain a motion. 00:38:09
I think it's a great idea I. 00:38:11
Make a motion. 00:38:14
All right, we have a motion to approve the addition of the floating holiday. Do we have a second? 00:38:19
I'll second. 00:38:22
All right, any further discussion? 00:38:24
All right, hearing none, all in favor say aye. 00:38:27
Any opposed? 00:38:29
All right, motion carries 5-O. 00:38:31
We'll move on to public comments. 00:38:34
The folks who are here know the rules, so I will dispense with doing that. 00:38:37
Kathleen or Lawrence y'all have anything you want to share this month? 00:38:41
OK. He's doing a great job. Thank you. All right, well, thank you for the kind words. 00:38:44
We're grateful to y'all. 00:38:50
All right, we'll move on to the mayor's report. 00:38:52
We had a cool moment for Watkinsville. I don't know if most of most of y'all. 00:38:57
Have probably heard that Laura Whitaker's published a book, The Joy Exchange. 00:39:02
It's so far I've enjoyed, you know, just kind of pick up and read parts, but. 00:39:07
It's kind of fun to have an inspirational book where Watkinsville is in the middle of the whole doggone thing. You know? Like, 00:39:11
there's a lot of anecdotes in here, but there are a lot of moments. 00:39:14
Where Watkinsville is kind of the star of the show here, and it really made me proud as I read it. 00:39:19
Um, there was there. 00:39:25
There's a quote in here from. 00:39:27
Mayor Dave. 00:39:30
Or about Mayor Dave and Laura writes about the. 00:39:31
Laura writes about the playground and the ball field. I thought it was really interesting. 00:39:35
I'm just going to read an excerpt because I thought it was. I thought it was really great because it speaks to what. 00:39:39
We're, you know, kind of what we've accomplished if you think back, it says. On a hot August afternoon, I laid renderings on Mayor 00:39:44
Davis. Desk research on inclusive play, Miracle league designs, rough budgets, 100 tiny hurdles, council votes. 00:39:50
Public feedback permits city dollars. 00:39:56
We dreamed. 00:39:59
Then reality would creep in. 00:40:00
Construction costs, timelines to rain challenges. I caught myself scaling back. 00:40:02
Dave leaned across the desk, salt and pepper hair following across his forehead. 1 button too casual. 00:40:07
God bless him. 00:40:12
And put his hand over mine. 00:40:15
Nora, he said quietly. 00:40:17
Make no small plans. 00:40:18
We've come a long way in Watkinsville, but. 00:40:24
You know, one of the reasons we came a long way is because the leaders like Laura and leaders like Mayor Dave. 00:40:26
If you think back to where we were back in those days, I mean that was. 00:40:32
That was a huge dream. 00:40:35
You know, that was a huge commitment. 00:40:36
And it's easy to take it for granted now when we we do things like that every year in Watkinsville, but when we. 00:40:39
Did that. I mean that was. 00:40:44
That was huge and that was there was a real tribute to. 00:40:46
Most of you who are sitting here, then to Laura, to Dave, to everybody who came together to do that. 00:40:50
So I read that today and then I walked out there and our parking lots full. 00:40:56
In the playgrounds full and ESP has programs. 00:41:00
And uh. 00:41:04
You know. 00:41:05
All the kids are playing together. 00:41:05
And it was just. 00:41:07
It was amazing. So anyway, sometimes it's good to pause and remember. 00:41:09
How we got to where we are. 00:41:13
Both whether you're Laura and you've built something amazing at ESP or were you just a little old Watkinsville? And that was a 00:41:15
good reminder. So I would encourage y'all. 00:41:18
To pick up a copy of the book or maybe we can even talk about ESP about maybe getting a couple copies for City Council. So. 00:41:22
Make a little time to read it. 00:41:28
Umm, OK. 00:41:31
So y'all we are going to throw. 00:41:32
A party on July 3rd in Watkinsville. 00:41:34
And I am so excited. 00:41:38
To share that, Oconee County is going to have a series of celebrations leading up to July 4th. 00:41:40
But the grand finale will be at Thomas Farm Preserve on July 3rd. 00:41:46
Which is a Friday. 00:41:51
The the Oconee 250 celebration will be at Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:41:53
It's going to be a countrywide event. We'll bring together the entire community and all its cities for a day of celebration. 00:41:57
We're going to have a morning 5K. 00:42:02
Will have historical programming, family friendly activities. We've got a great band. It sounds like coming. 00:42:04
Food and beverage vendors. 00:42:09
A lot of opportunities for community gathering. 00:42:11
And then we're going to conclude with a patriotic drone display. 00:42:13
That's going to offer a memorable and signature moment for attendees. So we are really. 00:42:16
Excited about that. You'll also notice we're starting to use some 250 branding. 00:42:21
As we build towards that date, so you can see the new logos here. 00:42:26
You'll see it on our letterhead. You'll see it in. 00:42:30
Auto signature. 00:42:32
So that's going to be around. 00:42:34
I'm also really excited to share something that I think is unique to Watkinsville. Is that right, Sharon and Jan, the spirit of 76 00:42:36
nominations? 00:42:40
So we are going to honor. 00:42:45
15, yeah. 00:42:47
Watkinsville citizens. They can be alive or they can be deceased. 00:42:48
Who represent the Spirit? 00:42:53
The spirit of service, unity and civic pride in our city. 00:42:56
They can be residents, they can be property owners. 00:42:59
But they they need to be connected to Watkinsville. 00:43:02
And we're going to recognize those 15 people as we get towards July 3rd and some fun ways. 00:43:06
So they need to be residents, property owners or business owners in Watkinsville. 00:43:12
And these are the characteristics we're going to be looking for. So we're going to take applications. 00:43:16
By April 3rd and we'll choose 15. 00:43:21
And we'll have nomination forms ready this next week after the retreat, right? 00:43:23
So we're excited to share that and to recognize some of our citizens. 00:43:28
Who have made Watkinsville the place that it is? 00:43:32
To pull off our big event, we are we do need some sponsors, so we're looking to raise about 50,000 for that event. 00:43:34
Today, Georgia Power and Oconee State Bank have already stepped up as. 00:43:40
Top tier sponsors, so we were already 1/5 of the way there to raising that total, but we are going to be looking for other. 00:43:44
Sponsors and they can contact City Hall for a sponsorship package. 00:43:50
Sharon, Jan, I know you all been very involved in this. Is there anything else that you want to share about? 00:43:54
The day and. 00:43:59
We you, you all may know that because we have so much going on, we actually have engaged Melanie Adkins, the owner of Chops and 00:44:01
Hops. She helps us with our Christmas spread every year, but she's also really good at organizing things. So she's helping staff 00:44:07
sort of organize this whole event. So she's helped us with this sponsorship package. 00:44:13
With the band, with the stage, there's going to be a stage. There's a lot of other very detailed stuff that we're pulling together 00:44:19
right now. 00:44:22
That she's helping us with There is also I found that very right before this I finally got the website. There is an Oconee 250 00:44:26
website. I will get that out. We'll get that on in our. 00:44:31
On our Facebook page and on the website a link to that and that's where we'll. 00:44:37
Be promoting all the sponsors and the events and the activities and the calendar and all that kind of stuff for what's going to be 00:44:41
happening because it's. 00:44:44
Our event is the final event for July 4th so, but it's happening the day before. 00:44:48
But there's lots of other events and that, you know, Bishop and Bogart and. 00:44:52
North high schools, all of them have different. 00:44:56
Events or activities are going on, so that's that. That will be the website that you'll want to go to to find out more about it. 00:44:59
So we'll get that out. 00:45:02
As well. Uh. 00:45:06
And then so this is one of the reasons, again, you know, everybody is going to ask about parking. So if you hear about that, 00:45:07
that's one of the reasons we're really working so hard to get the sidewalk done. 00:45:10
To First Baptist Church into downtown. 00:45:14
So that we'll have the ability for people to be able to walk in and gather there and then walk out at night because we won't be 00:45:17
able to park everybody there and we don't want. 00:45:20
People parking all over the neighborhoods, but this is going to be a huge lift, we expect. 00:45:24
Thousands of people. 00:45:27
It'll certainly be on the scale of the Christmas parade, except it'll be a much longer event. 00:45:29
But I think it's going to be a wonderful moment for our community to come together for 2:50. 00:45:34
Another logical question you may get is why July 3rd? Why not July 4th? July 3rd allows us to have an awesome celebration. We're 00:45:38
not competing at a financial level with some of these other vendors, you know, for the fireworks and stuff. It also allows our 00:45:43
employees to actually enjoy. 00:45:47
July 4th. 00:45:52
And their weekend as a day off. 00:45:53
So we think it may actually be even more popular because it's on July 3rd. People have their traditions on July 4th. 00:45:56
Things they're going to do. 00:46:01
So I think it's going to be a wonderful way to celebrate. Wonderful way to celebrate. 00:46:03
But we were. 00:46:07
This is a way that we could allow our employees to really enjoy the weekend. 00:46:08
And also save some costs on. 00:46:12
You like the drones and some of the other vendors that were that were going to be harder to procure and more expensive? 00:46:14
So the only other thing to mention is obviously very thankful that Oconee County is covering the cost of the drone show. It's. 00:46:19
50 about $55,000 for that drone show, but that's. 00:46:26
Very comparative with what fireworks would be. But this will be a cleaner. It'll be nice for dogs people to bring their their 00:46:30
young kids. 00:46:33
It won't be as noisy as that or as messy, so we think it's a win win. 00:46:36
Well, in the park we have some rules and regs around the environment, you know, and things with the you know, we. 00:46:40
We we took the government money to help pay for the park and it's one of the reasons it's preserved. But we also have some 00:46:45
environmental commitments we have to honor as part of that. So we really thought the drones would be a. 00:46:50
Probably be more in line with those expectations there. 00:46:55
So anyway, exciting more to come will will be announcing additional details I think over over weeks and weeks as we build up to 00:46:57
this. So really excited about it. 00:47:02
Storm drain decals. You got yours? OK. You got one in front of your house or? Yeah. 00:47:07
So this is part of public works crews did this. This is part of our municipal separate stores, municipal separate storm water, 00:47:13
storm sewer systems, National pollutant discharge elimination system. 00:47:18
NPDES Mark Campbell educates us on that every year, but we have to do that to keep our permit with the EPD. 00:47:24
So we put those stickers on there so people know what's going into the water. This regulates pollutants and helps people know, 00:47:30
hey, don't pour your motor oil down the drain, right? Because that's going. 00:47:34
Going into going into our water supply or water and we don't want that. 00:47:39
We're going to have an invasion. We had an invasive removal day. 00:47:43
At Harris Shoals Park on February 16th. 00:47:46
Um, and it looks like we had a good crowd. I wasn't able to make it. What did we? 00:47:51
Get into autumn olive, is that right? 00:47:54
Yeah, cemetery clean up. This is the this is. 00:47:56
The uh, uh. 00:48:03
Like are we focused on the entire cemetery or just the area? 00:48:04
So the historically black area at the cemetery is. 00:48:08
Needs some work, right? And so we're going to do a cemetery cleanup in partnership. 00:48:12
With some of the local churches. 00:48:15
And we're going to work in the work in the that part of the cemetery. 00:48:18
Cleaning it up, helping with some of those grave sites parked next to the dog park. 00:48:22
You can register in advance. There's a QR code there. We'll get that information out, or people can just show up and we can. 00:48:27
Will certainly accommodate them. 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. 00:48:33
On February 28th. 00:48:36
We finally got the striping in. Thank you Manager Dickerson for expediting that. So we hope to have. 00:48:41
That pedestrian flash are working by the end of the week. 00:48:46
Let's talk about it yesterday. That's right, that's right. I mean that's that's like that's like a miracle, you know. So anyway, 00:48:50
Brett, I called her at the end of the day yesterday when she told me she done, I said how did that happen? We did. We met at 10:30 00:48:55
and then by 430 Sharon had it happened in the next day, so. 00:49:00
Yeah. That is not government speed. That is Sharon Dickerson speed, and we appreciate it so. 00:49:05
Anyway. 00:49:10
So they went ahead and painted that one today. I think they also painted where two future ones are going to go. So we're excited 00:49:11
about that. Other quick updates on that project. 00:49:15
The bridge. The inside of the bridge was painted. It doesn't look like the bottom right anymore. It's all brown inside now. 00:49:20
Lighting is. It's all wired for lighting. 00:49:26
The. 00:49:29
Landscaping will will really go in earnest over the next two months. 00:49:30
The area you see to the right facing the cemetery, we have changed the design of that to add a more formal Plaza area there 00:49:34
because we just think a lot of people will be gathering in that area. 00:49:38
And. 00:49:44
So Don Phillips and the team at IMI are able to absorb most of that cost, Doctor Michael Durr donated. 00:49:45
4 trees to go in there about. 00:49:50
10 foot tall crepe myrtles that will go in there. 00:49:52
Which is going to be really nice. And you know, Doctor Durr, you know he loves some. 00:49:55
Love some trees. And so I see Kathleen cringing at crape myrtles. There's a whole lot of other options that are going in the rest 00:50:00
of that area. Kathleen, rest assured. But this is hot and it needs flowering trees that we don't have to water a lot. 00:50:05
So and it needs something that kind of matches the roof so. 00:50:12
After the I can share the rest of the landscape plan with you. Go to Christian Lakes. You'll see. 00:50:15
Fine example of some. 00:50:21
Beautiful, yeah. 00:50:22
Yeah, your umm. 00:50:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, So anyway, but this, this is really coming along. It's lovely. But but there are a lot of details to do by 00:50:25
our targeted completion date in the middle of April. 00:50:31
There's fences, there's lights, there's landscaping, there's all kinds of things that still need to happen. 00:50:37
Just to get that phase done. So we'll be working hard. 00:50:42
We did figure out the name of the Creek under the bridge. Mr. Christopher, who we referenced earlier, founded in a 1965. 00:50:45
Platt, I think it was called Academy Springs Branch. 00:50:52
And he said that, you know, it was named after the, you know, before it was Watkinsville High School. It was some sort of Academy. 00:50:56
Was the name of the school up there. 00:50:59
And that's where they would go to get their water was from Academy Springs. 00:51:03
Branch umm. 00:51:07
So that's what that little Creek is called down there. Thought that was an interesting fact. 00:51:08
We have. 00:51:13
Thanks to the county. 00:51:15
They have. They have done an interactive map of Watkinsville Woods for us, so that's available online at the city's website. 00:51:17
Or you can scan the QR code and see it. We're hoping they'll also do one for Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:51:24
We've obviously got our drawn maps, but these are kind of cool to have online for people who. 00:51:28
Want to see what the features are and check out these places so we're grateful to. 00:51:33
The county for helping us with that or the county employee who helped us with that? 00:51:38
We're also in the hiring, we've, I think we have a. 00:51:42
Opening uh. 00:51:47
Do we still have the public works, Sharon, or did you say we have one public works role? 00:51:48
And two police officer vacancies. So if you know good people who want to work for a. 00:51:52
A town with a lot of cool things happen and send them our way. 00:51:56
Let's see, Sharon mentioned that we do have a SPLOST. 00:51:59
Elect spouse, vote quietly creeping up on us. That'll be on May 19th and the primary election. 00:52:04
Please remind folks as you talk to them how important those dollars are to us and also to our to our county. 00:52:10
That's how we keep the property taxes low. 00:52:17
I did. Speaking of property taxes, I did have the opportunity to. 00:52:19
Speak at the Capitol to a subcommittee that's looking at. 00:52:24
Property tax reform. 00:52:27
At the Capitol and just walk them through a lot of the unintended consequences of the current state of the bill. I did that on 00:52:29
behalf of the Georgia Municipal Association with. 00:52:33
Four other representatives of cities. Our posture at this point is we're continuing to work with the committee to try to refine 00:52:37
that bill. 00:52:39
And get it to a better place or to encourage more study. There's just a lot of unintended consequences. 00:52:42
In that bill. 00:52:47
And thankfully, Chairman Shaw Blackman. 00:52:48
Is is a really thoughtful guy. He's working hard on that. 00:52:51
And then obviously Representative Houston Gaines is very involved in that since you've got some additional details on that, but as 00:52:55
you run into. 00:52:59
Your representatives, I think we all would welcome lower property taxes for. 00:53:02
Homesteads, but Georgia is a state that. 00:53:07
Historically, uh. 00:53:09
Has done things incrementally. 00:53:11
And I think that's really important because it gives us some predictability. But this bill as it's currently constructed. 00:53:12
Would really create some. 00:53:18
Challenges for us but create some real problems for our school system so. 00:53:19
We could endure it, not without some pain and some having to reshuffle. 00:53:24
But for the school system, there is a big gap. 00:53:28
Because of the way this thing structured, so it definitely needs some. 00:53:30
Definitely need some work. 00:53:33
That's all from the mayor's desk. I'll turn to the council at this point. Councilman Garrett. 00:53:35
Nothing. 00:53:41
Connie, I know you've been involved lately. I've seen you at meetings and I've seen you up there at the Legacy Village. How about 00:53:43
from you? You got an update? 00:53:46
Nothing. 00:53:49
I've always enjoyed going to the Legacy Village and. 00:53:51
To see the smile on their faces when you walk up the top tone, there's just twice. Awesome. Thank you for making time for that. 00:53:55
That's great. 00:53:59
Councilman Thomas, have you been home a little more than lately or I've been home? 00:54:04
This entire week. 00:54:09
As of right now, I'm. 00:54:12
Home next week. 00:54:13
So that could change any moment. 00:54:14
But as right now, I'm home next week as well. All right, good. Glad to be here. 00:54:16
Mayor Pro Tem, any other updates from you? 00:54:20
OK, Councilman Campbell, is that arm all healed up? 00:54:23
Sure. Yeah, Good. All right. OK. All right. 00:54:28
Nothing to report, OK. 00:54:31
We probably just should state publicly for the record, we do have our planning session, Sharon. 00:54:34
That's Monday. Yeah. I'm sorry. I should put that in there. Monday at 9:00 AM in this room. It will be broadcast and it's just our 00:54:39
annual retreat. Mayor and I will manage the meeting together. We've got some. 00:54:44
Going to look back over what we did in 2025. Look back over what? 00:54:50
The key. 00:54:53
Initiatives were, the priorities were and then. 00:54:54
Consider those as well as additional ones to start planning out after those are done where we're going to move from there, so. 00:54:57
Should be a good day. 00:55:04
We'll talk about food and all that later. 00:55:05
Yeah. So you all know this, You know, and again, for the benefit of those watching online, this is an important meeting. This is 00:55:07
where we set our priorities. 00:55:10
For the next. 00:55:13
Fiscal year. It's how Sharon drives the budget with her staff. 00:55:14
How she determines what she's going to focus on next year. Sharon gets things done so fast, she checks everything off the list. 00:55:18
And so we've got to come up with with with some new things to together. So yeah. 00:55:23
Umm, so. So anyway, we're glad to be able to have that. 00:55:28
With that, I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session for real estate. 00:55:32
And pending. And threatened. 00:55:37
Litigation. 00:55:38
I make that motion. 00:55:40
To go into executive session for a real estate and. 00:55:41
Potential litigation. OK, Do we have a second? 00:55:44
All right, all in favor say aye. OK, maybe we can take. 00:55:48
Does anybody need to break? 00:55:51
Before we go into that, are y'all good? We'll just keep going, All right. I make a motion to adjourn. 00:55:53
2nd. 00:55:58
Aye. 00:56:00
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Transcript

Event transcript
All right. 00:00:06
All right. Welcome to the February 2026 Watkinsville City Council meeting. We have a quorum. Glad everybody's here tonight. We'll 00:00:09
start with the pledge. Let's all rise. 00:00:13
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:20
Of the United States of America. 00:00:22
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:00:24
One Nation. 00:00:26
Under God. 00:00:28
Indivisible. 00:00:29
With liberty and justice for all. 00:00:30
All right, it's Arbor Week in Georgia, and Arbor Day is Friday. 00:00:39
Celebrating trees and their benefits is worth celebrating every day. We have saplings here at City Hall for anyone who wants some. 00:00:43
We have bald Cypress and red oak available while supplies last. 00:00:48
Thank you to the Keep. 00:00:53
Georgia Beautiful foundation in the Georgia Forestry Commission for making. 00:00:54
This tree giveaway possible. We do have an official proclamation. I'll let the court add that to the record. 00:00:58
Rather than reading it aloud tonight. 00:01:03
It's part of our Tree City USA program. Julie, I can't remember how many years in a row now have we been a Tree City 19. 00:01:05
So we've been a tree city. I remember when we first started that program. 00:01:11
Mark, you're nodding your head, Julie. I know you probably remember that, Connie. It might have been just a smidge before you got 00:01:15
here. 00:01:18
But people freaked out because we had to put a tree ordinance in place, believe it or not, to be a tree city. But that was 19 00:01:20
years ago. And I'm really proud that for 19 years we've continued to plant and invest in trees. So. 00:01:27
Happy Arbor Day, everybody. 00:01:34
We'll move on to the approval of the minutes from the January 21st meeting. 00:01:36
Council, you've had the opportunity to review the minutes, are there any questions about those? 00:01:40
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes. 00:01:46
Make a motion to approve the January. 00:01:49
Meeting minutes. All right. Do we have a second? 00:01:51
I'll second. All right. We have a motion and a second. 00:01:53
Any discussion? 00:01:56
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:01:57
And Christine was not here, so she's abstaining. 00:02:00
We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. 00:02:03
You have the agenda here. Before you there is there are several items on consent. 00:02:08
Um, but if everybody's comfortable. 00:02:14
We can approve the agenda if we want to pull anything off consent. If you have questions, feel free. I know there's several 00:02:16
policies on there. I do want to. 00:02:19
Make note that everybody should have read those policies. 00:02:23
All right, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda then. 00:02:28
Make a motion to approve the agenda. 00:02:32
I'll second. We have a motion, we have a second. All in favor say aye, aye. 00:02:35
Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to administration. I'll remind everybody we've got professionals here. 00:02:40
Who have been to many of these meetings before, but typically at Watkinsville we do allow public input at different points during 00:02:46
the meeting at the council's discretion. 00:02:49
So you can do so when noted on the agenda or if we determine it's appropriate. 00:02:53
Comments should be only relating to the agenda items that we'd want you to come to the podium. 00:02:57
Limit your comments to 4. 00:03:02
Minutes Refrain from debate. Personal attacks. 00:03:03
Or irrelevant discussion. 00:03:06
Council won't speak to potential litigation personnel matters or attorney-client matters. 00:03:08
So with that, we'll move to administration and we'll start with Financial reports manager Dickerson. 00:03:13
Thank you, Mayor. 00:03:17
We caught up. 00:03:18
Thankfully and I we appreciate your old patience. December and January reports, financial reports for general fund are included in 00:03:19
your packet. I'll point out that we are doing very well. We have. 00:03:24
As a into January or revenues or at 62%? 00:03:30
I think. 00:03:34
Should be like 58 or something like that and then and the expense report were only at fit and where it. 00:03:34
On the expense side, we're only at 52% and we should be obviously higher than that, so. 00:03:39
At the end of January, after seven months, so. 00:03:43
That's good news. 00:03:45
Also point out. 00:03:47
That we did not. 00:03:49
This month, for whatever reason, we were off a day getting our SPLOST revenues, both SPLOST, NT SPLOST, so. 00:03:50
You that's going to look a little different. 00:03:55
We'll show that. 00:03:57
Came in like on February 2nd instead of. 00:03:59
January 30th or whatever so. 00:04:01
Probably just the end of the year and how or end of the month and how they do things. But so spliced we have averaged about 86,000 00:04:03
a month. Again, this doesn't account for what happened in January that was not reported yet. 00:04:09
We have this is This shows you the report that shows that we are not showing. 00:04:17
December so January. I'm sorry so I. 00:04:22
Make sure, sorry, I'm looking at this report so end of December reports in January, so we're always a month behind. 00:04:24
We have a little bit more than $1,000,000 in the bank and as I said, our average has been about $86,000 a month. 00:04:30
Reminder on SPLOST and I know the mayor probably speak about this a little bit. We there will be a spouse referendum on May 19th. 00:04:36
Just a reminder, some of the things that we do with the money here and that really helps our government. 00:04:42
Public safety facilities and equipment, Recreation, recreation, parks and green space. 00:04:47
Lots of roads and that's a really expensive thing for our little city to do. And then government facilities, signage and equipment 00:04:52
and. 00:04:55
A lot of those things you can see on the ground that we're doing now, we actually just posted some new signs up around town. 00:04:59
Both SPLOST and T splost to try to draw attention to the projects that the money is going towards. 00:05:04
On T. 00:05:10
We're averaging around 75,000, again not showing the the revenue from December. 00:05:12
Umm, we have. Let's see, I did. So the December distribution I did write this down for tea spots was 99,393. 00:05:18
Dollars. So that would be a little bit less than what we had last December because we had 96,000 last year. 00:05:27
And I don't know that I wrote down, I did write down on SPLOST on SPLOST 3. Let me go back just for next. I think it's worth 00:05:34
saying I meant to say this. So on SPLOST 3, we had. 00:05:38
116,000. 00:05:42
Reported on February 2nd, so again it'll be reported. 00:05:44
Next month's meeting. 00:05:47
So it went up but on the T Spa side we had a bit lower and I always have to go back and remember. 00:05:48
Why that is? There's some difference in that, but it's ever so slight. 00:05:54
I'll brush up on my on the details of that, but there are some differences and why we don't, you know why we don't see the same 00:05:57
amount on each of those. What do you mean the same amount on? 00:06:01
T sponsors, the difference is 7. The difference is 8 point. Yeah, the difference is the percentage 8.63 on splice 3 and 7.77 on T 00:06:06
splost. So that's why you have less. 00:06:11
We're only getting a, We're getting a. 00:06:16
One point. 00:06:19
What less the almonds to point difference? 00:06:20
One percentage. 00:06:23
Difference based on population now, right? Yeah, it's based on population. 00:06:24
I guess my computer and this is probably a neat problem and how math and my brain works. 00:06:28
But why would the pers. 00:06:33
I understand that the amount would be different because it's a different. 00:06:36
Like we're getting different percentages. 00:06:40
But why would the? 00:06:43
Why would it be a different? 00:06:45
Percent of change year to year. 00:06:47
Even if. 00:06:49
The. 00:06:51
This is not important that we talk about. I will ask someone offline. 00:06:54
Between year to year I guess I'm wondering like if. 00:06:59
If the certain amount, I understand that with the higher revenue one. 00:07:03
We're going to get more money, obviously, because it's a higher percentage. 00:07:07
But the the year to year percentage change wouldn't the percent speed? 00:07:11
The same. I don't think so. I think just because the numbers increased slightly, the numbers are a little bit bigger, so it throws 00:07:17
it off a little bit. You know, I'm not, I'm not that Matthew too. But yeah, 'cause it's 3.29 and 3.83. 00:07:22
That's the difference if you look year over year. 00:07:28
Yeah, yeah. So, so I think it's probably just a function of one number being larger than the other, creating a different effect 00:07:30
there. And always have to remember splost threes that are higher than than T splost and lost is the same as T splost, so. 00:07:35
Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway on the. 00:07:41
Let's see on the tea spots that we have. 00:07:45
We only have about 634,000 teaspoons. Some of that is we're waiting on a reimbursement from. 00:07:47
G tab for the Suntan Bridge Rd. project. So some of that is that and then? 00:07:53
The other is the fact that we didn't get the. 00:07:57
100,000 or so in there for that. 00:07:59
For the month so. 00:08:01
Again, projects for T SPLA sidewalk construction big biggest one right now is Simonton Bridge. 00:08:03
Some traffic efficiency improvements we're going to talk about during the retreat. 00:08:08
And the road resurfacing, which we shifted all our resurfacing to that so we could free up some more money in SPLA since this was 00:08:12
passed after that. 00:08:16
Oh any questions on? 00:08:21
Those sorry about that, All right, economic development. 00:08:22
Business alcohol licenses are coming in, probably they most people wait till March 15th. So we'll see a huge deluge of those 00:08:25
coming in, but they're coming in steadily. 00:08:30
On the excise collection tax, alcohol and the hotel motel are on target. 00:08:36
We estimate around 31,000 for hotel alcohol, I think it was close to 80 and those come you know and you'll see we've got some 00:08:41
reported in January but not the full amount so. 00:08:46
I think we're we're pretty, pretty tight on that. I think that's good. 00:08:50
And then on the economic development, we had 6 permits for five projects. 00:08:54
Nothing really significant other than obviously the school St. with the classic cities Classic. 00:08:59
City golf swing. 00:09:04
Classic golf swing. 00:09:06
Classic swing golf. I'll get it right in a minute. Anyway, they had a couple of permits on there, so any questions? 00:09:08
OK. 00:09:15
All right, Mayor Pro Tem. 00:09:18
DDA update All right, so we had our annual retreat today and it was. 00:09:20
I would say a really great success. We have an impressive group of board members who all have a. 00:09:27
Lot of areas of expertise. 00:09:32
And everybody was tasked with a certain area. 00:09:34
To report on and it. 00:09:37
Just showed the insight that the board has but also the ideas that came for it. 00:09:41
Came from those insights as a group. 00:09:45
To help. 00:09:48
Propel and support the businesses that we have in downtown, so very successful. I'm excited to see. 00:09:49
The action items that will be coming out of the retreat. 00:09:56
Obviously, everything ties into our strategic planning process too. 00:10:01
So it's super helpful to have that. 00:10:05
New Business news Although I do feel like we have been talking about Classic City Golf Swing for months now. It is Ribbon cutting 00:10:08
is the 19th and the grand opening is the 20th. 00:10:12
A great addition to our community. 00:10:18
Viewfinders Season 4, that is sold out, so I hope you have tickets to that. That is going to be a wonderful event. We are so 00:10:20
fortunate. 00:10:25
To have Chris Greer in our community and committed to our community, he is such an incredible asset. 00:10:30
So talented. So that's going to be a great event. 00:10:36
And also just a reminder that we do have an EV charging station. 00:10:39
Over by the comfort station and. 00:10:44
That is a. 00:10:48
Great resource for people who hopefully will stop and charge up and then enjoy our restaurants and shopping establishments. 00:10:49
And there it is. 00:10:58
And I did notice that went out in the newsletter. 00:11:01
And multiple board members mentioned that they had seen it. So I do think people read those and that's very good. So hopefully the 00:11:03
word is getting out. 00:11:07
So that's it. 00:11:12
OK, perfect. 00:11:14
I'm going to take it back to Manager Dickerson for a second. We have a special guest here tonight that we we. 00:11:15
Skip mentioning. 00:11:21
Yeah, my apologies. So. 00:11:21
On Monday, I guess it was the 9th. 00:11:24
We entered it. We brought in a new employer, Municipal Court Clerk Bailey Price. Bailey if you want to go up and make sure the 00:11:27
mics on if she wants to. 00:11:31
Introduce yourself a little bit more. 00:11:35
Hello. 00:11:40
Hello. Is it on? Yeah, OK. I couldn't hear myself. Hi, I'm Bailey Price. I'm the new Municipal Court clerk. I've been here a 00:11:40
little less than two weeks. 00:11:45
I have absolutely loved working here so far. 00:11:50
All of the employees at the city have been. 00:11:53
Nothing but. 00:11:55
Happy, helpful and energetic in their jobs and. 00:11:56
If you have any questions for me, I'm an open book. 00:12:01
Awesome. 00:12:04
Bailey, tell us a little bit about what you. 00:12:05
What your career has been so far and where you're from? 00:12:07
I'm originally from a small town up north Georgia called Chickamauga, GA. 00:12:10
I graduated from the University of Georgia in 2024. 00:12:16
I started my. 00:12:21
Career working for the City of Winder as their deputy clerk for a year and I decided that. 00:12:22
I was ready for something more. 00:12:28
And uh. 00:12:30
This opportunity has been amazing. 00:12:31
Well, OK. 00:12:33
Welcome to Watkinsville. 00:12:35
Thank you. Yeah. 00:12:36
All right, OK. 00:12:38
We'll move on to Chief Arwood with the Police Department report. 00:12:40
All right. Thank you all for having me. 00:12:44
So start off with the training schedule, training that we had and I'm going to keep an eye on this instead of my. 00:12:46
Piper down here so I can stay on track, but Officer Claire has completed all his significant training, completed his FTO. He 00:12:51
started night shift this past Monday. 00:12:56
So we have all shifts covered again. We. 00:13:01
Also had assisted helping him. 00:13:04
This week and we'll continue probably through the weekend and then that'll give them about 14 weeks of training. 00:13:06
Is Taser with? 00:13:12
Done with Taser certification this year. He actually took voluntary exposure. I think we talked about that last time so. 00:13:14
Yeah, we were looking for one more, just one more so. 00:13:21
Detective Softman went back and freshened up on his DUI field sobriety training. 00:13:26
Hopefully we have planned to get out there. 00:13:31
Some weekends and and maybe do some. 00:13:33
Not necessarily checkpoints, but just some more DUI enforcement. 00:13:36
And Sergeant Anglin, he has taken his first level of leadership. 00:13:40
And supervision training through. 00:13:45
The Georgia Post Council. 00:13:47
That's exciting. It's a 8th day. The first one is the 8th day course so. 00:13:49
We'll definitely miss them and we'll have to make some arrangements on on getting some. 00:13:53
Coverage form so. 00:13:57
February 11th went to the Capitol. That was exciting. 00:14:00
Not the traffic, but the the moment was very exciting. A lot of chiefs. 00:14:04
A lot of familiar faces and it's the first time I went. I didn't go last year because it's in February and I got hired in 00:14:09
December. I felt like I needed to be here, not there, so. 00:14:13
I got to go this year and really enjoyed it. 00:14:18
It's. 00:14:20
Kind of amazing to see what all goes on there, so. 00:14:22
Then on February 12th, we went, oh, connecting crates. See, I went ahead of my. 00:14:26
Connecting create still going strong I just wanted to you know, touch put in some of the phrases that we're getting when I'm 00:14:33
rereading these things and making some phone calls but. 00:14:36
We have a lot of support. 00:14:41
You know, in Watkinsville, the citizens, they're really. 00:14:43
It's amazing to see. 00:14:46
Just all the positive. 00:14:47
Reinforcement that we have, so I just wanted to. 00:14:49
Like a couple notes about that because it's it's. 00:14:52
Watkinsville is a special place. 00:14:55
My cruise light kick off. 00:14:57
I caught this picture but actually all the lights are wrong but the camera when it caught us, some of them are showing off so 00:15:01
they're not flashing. But what we did was change it from a flicker and high intensity to a 5%. 00:15:07
Intensity is a real low. 00:15:13
What a cruise light. I think what a cruise light should be. 00:15:16
And we're going to start off a project with that and just see if we have. 00:15:18
More presence and slowing. Slow down some traffic and some speeders and patrol around with these on and see if we get some. 00:15:23
Some positive results out of it. 00:15:30
I don't guess we really picked a time frame, maybe a month or two and see. 00:15:32
See what the stats are. 00:15:37
I do feel like if we are running around or patrolling around with the cruise lights on and we do see us, Peter. 00:15:39
They're probably not going to get a warning. 00:15:44
We're doing everything we possibly can to slow you down so. 00:15:46
We'll just spread the word. We'll educate folks. 00:15:50
Talked about the police vehicles. 00:15:55
February 12th we went to Legacy Village of Athens. 00:15:58
Very special day. Kind of heartfelt, I actually. 00:16:02
For me personally. 00:16:05
Met a lady that worked with my mother in the 80s that is that is living there now. Resident there so. 00:16:06
Pretty special, Miss Janice. 00:16:12
She is in one of the pictures but. 00:16:14
We we give them some coffee cups filled with some goodies and candies and chocolates and. 00:16:17
I'm spent, I don't know, hour and a half or so out there with them and. 00:16:22
It was, it was just, it's wonderful. Like they really. 00:16:26
Just putting a smile on her face really makes your day, you know? Really makes you think about things. 00:16:29
Our Easter egg hunt is March 28. 00:16:34
We don't have a helicopter unfortunately, but we do have 10,000 eggs in. 00:16:37
We're going to have fun. We'll have some. 00:16:42
Some prizes and some snacks. Kona ice is coming. They're. 00:16:44
Give away some ices and. 00:16:48
I think we'll have a good time. 00:16:50
On the new greens down there, hopefully we won't. 00:16:52
Mess them up too bad. 00:16:54
So spread the word. 00:16:57
Hopefully we get a good crowd and then. 00:16:59
They have the rest of the day so it starts at 9. The egg hunt actually starts at 9:00. 00:17:04
Started off with the stats and I tried to. 00:17:08
Go from December just so we can see the. 00:17:10
The flow again. 00:17:13
But 249 calls. 00:17:15
For 497 security checks and again. 00:17:17
I just want to remind you I think. 00:17:19
The numbers are great with. 00:17:21
Six officers compared to. 00:17:23
The full house so. 00:17:25
That does make a difference. The guys are. 00:17:26
Working tremendously hard and doing extra and. 00:17:28
I really appreciate their hard work. 00:17:32
34 citations, 94 warnings, 15 accidents, which was a lot for that period of time. 00:17:34
One arrest and 0 use of force. So that's that's good. 00:17:41
And. 00:17:46
Thank you. Any questions? 00:17:48
Thank you. 00:17:50
All right, Chief. Thank you. 00:17:54
Thank you. 00:17:55
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. I don't think there's any. We didn't want to take anything off. So I'll entertain 00:17:58
a motion to approve this. 00:18:01
I make a motion to approve. 00:18:07
All right, do we have a second? 00:18:10
2nd. 00:18:11
All right. All in favor, aye. 00:18:12
OK. Motion carries unanimously. 00:18:14
We will move on to. 00:18:18
Public hearing. We've got to do a couple public hearings tonight. 00:18:22
For the benefit of the crowd, meaning Lawrence and whoever is watching. 00:18:27
This the first one is kind of an administrative item that. 00:18:30
Wisteria Ridge is governed by development agreement and we have a development agreement that means any changes. 00:18:34
To those plans require us to update the development agreement, which means it's technically a rezone. Is that right Mr. Attorney? 00:18:39
So that's why we're going to go through this process for Wisteria Ridge. 00:18:44
And with that, I'll ask Engineer Campbell for a report. 00:18:50
Thank you, Mayor. 00:18:53
So hopefully you're familiar with the Wisteria Ridge and its location there along N Main St. So this request is a rezoning that's 00:18:54
specific to the sign and the type of sign that that they're proposing there. So if you can go to the next page showing the 00:18:59
location. 00:19:04
Again, generally of the entire parcel there along the. 00:19:09
N Main St. Specifically, we're looking at the front edge. 00:19:13
So just to give some general ideas, right the the ordinance would stipulate a single sided sign. 00:19:16
This proposed double sided sign which is. 00:19:22
Perpendicular roadways are people that are. 00:19:25
Coming into town or people leaving in town can see it similar to that leasing sign which is. 00:19:27
Not a permanent. 00:19:32
Sign there has two sides. The proposed sign would that's a view kind of from across the street as well. 00:19:34
That will be approximately the same location, so we'll meet the other elements of the code. It's just a matter of. 00:19:40
Instead of being parallel to the road where you only see. 00:19:44
The front of the sign it's perpendicular, so that is a double sided sign. 00:19:47
So that gives you an idea of, you know the. 00:19:51
The uh. 00:19:54
A portion of the code where specifically would talk about that, but it is under a development agreement so there's some 00:19:55
flexibility to do this. 00:19:58
All other code things would still apply, so the minimum set back. 00:20:01
There is a turn lane there, so it's not as much of A. 00:20:05
Concern about site visibility or any of those other things. And again, there is a. 00:20:08
Temporary sign that's in approximately the same location now. 00:20:12
Just from a relative standpoint, from the pictures, but. 00:20:14
The applicant provided. 00:20:18
Some some markups of what those proposed signs would look like, which you should have in your packet as well, but if you've got 00:20:19
any other questions just let me know. 00:20:23
All right. You've heard the report from the engineer. I don't think the applicant is here, so. 00:20:29
Not seeing the applicant? I'll open a public hearing. The rules are similar to what I outlined at the start. 4 minutes. 00:20:35
You're welcome to come up and. 00:20:41
Give us a pro or con on. 00:20:43
The sign. 00:20:45
All right, the hearing is open. The hearing is now closed. We will move to the vote. 00:20:48
I'll entertain a motion or discussion about the double sided monument sign and updating the. 00:20:53
Development agreement to allow that. 00:20:59
I make a motion to approve. 00:21:04
We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? 00:21:06
2nd, we have a motion, we have a second. Any discussion? 00:21:08
All right, hearing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? 00:21:12
Motion carries. 00:21:15
Right now, we will move on to. 00:21:17
An administrative public hearing. This is just again, for context. 00:21:20
We've talked about this before, this is kind of flown under the radar, but I think is actually really cool. This is a. 00:21:24
6.15 acres that were. 00:21:30
Contributed to the city as part of the Waters Walk project. It's essentially functions kind of what you traditionally would have 00:21:33
called a density bonus. 00:21:36
They moved their density up onto the hill they built. 00:21:39
Project that just recently opened and is actually lovely. If you haven't been in there, it is. It is gorgeous. 00:21:42
And starting to fill up. 00:21:47
And what they donated to us were was 6 and a 6.15 acres below the project and along the Creek. 00:21:49
We think this is actually where the original springs for Watkinsville. 00:21:55
Were where Watkinsville's first name came from Big Spring, so it actually had some history to it. 00:21:59
That we didn't appreciate. So long term I think we'll be able to, you know, create a pretty unique experience down there. But for 00:22:03
now we just want to rezone that to. 00:22:06
Parks, recreation and conservation. 00:22:10
Engineer Campbell, if I didn't totally blow up your report, I'll let you offer. 00:22:11
What you want to and then we'll do a public hearing on that. You covered it very well. I'm not sure I have much to add, but again, 00:22:15
you can just see maybe graphically from. 00:22:19
It's currently owned by the city because that was part of the development agreement for Waters Walk. 00:22:24
But because it's the remnant of the previous owning. 00:22:28
It's zoned attached residential. Since the city now owns it, it would be in the city's interest to. 00:22:31
Rezoned to parks. 00:22:35
Recreation and conservation, which was the intent. 00:22:37
You can see the boundaries there along Durham and actually backs up to the courthouse property as well. 00:22:40
And then is bounded also on the what I'll call the western side. 00:22:45
By, you know, tributary to calls Creek there so. 00:22:48
There is a little bit just for clarification, a little bit of encumbrance by some sewer easements that are in that area as well. 00:22:53
So it's not. 00:23:01
To say that there's nothing on that property. 00:23:02
But this will kind of help to continue to. 00:23:04
Conserve, conserve, and preserve it. 00:23:07
So it has that PR zoning. 00:23:09
All right. Thank you, Engineer Campbell. 00:23:13
And that's six acres, just for reference, that's similar in size to Watkinsville Woods, so. 00:23:16
You know, if we actually go down there and walk around, it's a. 00:23:20
It's a It's a pretty cool space. 00:23:23
Very lot, a lot of Springs Creek, stuff like that, so. 00:23:26
So I'm glad we have it. 00:23:30
I'll now entertain a public hearing for anyone who wants to comment on. 00:23:32
The rezone of this space so the public hearing is open. 00:23:37
All right, seeing no one, the public hearing is closed and at this point, we'll move back behind the rail and will entertain. 00:23:41
A vote on tax parcel W 05040 being rezoned to from attached residential to PRC. 00:23:48
Council. 00:23:55
Will entertain any discussion or motion. 00:23:57
I make a motion to approve. 00:23:59
All right, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. 00:24:01
All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? 00:24:04
Hearing none all in favor say aye. 00:24:07
All right. 00:24:09
Motion carries unanimously. We now have six more acres of green space officially in Watkinsville. 00:24:11
Appearances, we have none or business we have none. New business we do have. 00:24:18
Some items here y'all. 00:24:22
So. 00:24:24
This is. 00:24:27
I won't say this is complicated, but. 00:24:28
I'm going to let the engineer go 1st and the attorney go 1st and I'll fill in any blanks that they don't get. 00:24:30
So. 00:24:36
All right. So hopefully I I can speak in some broad strokes there, but this? 00:24:38
Hopefully this color drawing is. I apologize if the yellow is not yellowy enough. 00:24:43
But the the blue and the red on your screen should show up. 00:24:48
So in very general terms, if you're familiar. 00:24:52
With the latest and greatest covered bridge in the state of Georgia. 00:24:55
That is currently under construction. 00:24:59
That is directly adjacent to the blue area that you see there. 00:25:01
So there's area that's owned by the city of Watkinsville. 00:25:06
In the area where the bridge is. 00:25:09
Once you start to move past that. 00:25:11
There's areas for which. 00:25:14
The city has easements. 00:25:16
To do construction of the project, but to allow for some further beautification, there's an opportunity here. 00:25:17
To umm, uh. 00:25:24
You know, gain some additional property from that property owner who's amenable to that in exchange for some clarification on some 00:25:25
boundary line and encumbrance issues. 00:25:30
So, umm. 00:25:35
What the city would be gaining is the area that is in blue again that is mostly encumbered by some easements and all. Now that 00:25:36
exists, it would just be fee simple you would own. 00:25:40
Own the property, not just have. 00:25:45
Easement on somebody else's property. 00:25:46
And then what would? 00:25:48
Would clearly happen. Is the area that is in red. 00:25:50
Would be part of the Christopher property. 00:25:53
He owns both sides of. 00:25:56
Mowbray St. and the roadway there and then the property in yellow would be clearly part of the what I'll call the. 00:25:58
Verner Thurman Property. 00:26:04
So again, there's. 00:26:06
Some old plots. If you've said with Mr. Chris for too long, you get a history lesson. 00:26:08
And that's great for the city of Rockinsville, but this helps to provide some clarification. 00:26:13
Along with those old plats. So hopefully I've I've given a little bit of description. Maybe the color helps somewhat. 00:26:17
But happy to answer any questions. 00:26:24
And I'll, I'll just add in and then I'll let attorney Reitman finish this up. But essentially what we're the city. 00:26:26
Had years ago contemplated a Rd. 00:26:31
Where that red and yellow is and that road would have connected Mulberry Drive to Thrasher. 00:26:34
And at that point, the Vernors and whoever owned that land before Mr. Christopher would have been able to develop their land off 00:26:39
of that red. 00:26:42
Obviously, that road was never built. 00:26:46
There's a, you know, the right. 00:26:48
The the rights revert back to the property owners. 00:26:50
But the property owners want to ensure that there couldn't be a claim made against them for that property ever from the city. So 00:26:53
we didn't own that, but we asserted that we had. 00:26:57
An easement or right away or the property owners felt like we. 00:27:01
Could assert that. 00:27:03
And in exchange for us giving up. 00:27:05
That Joe will give you the right language, but in exchange for us sort of giving up any claim we might make to that old right 00:27:07
away. 00:27:10
They're going to give us fees. Simple. 00:27:13
The acreage we need. 00:27:15
Close to the famous triangle. 00:27:16
Gap that we spent so much time getting. 00:27:18
Which will allow us to install a restroom. 00:27:20
And do some additional beautification right at the western edge of the covered bridge. 00:27:23
So right. 00:27:27
Yep. And just to recap, back in the 1960s, there was this theoretical roadway contemplated. 00:27:28
The city? Never. 00:27:35
Based on our due diligence, did any quote deed of acceptance, it never received it and never utilized it, had never claimed it, It 00:27:37
never developed or improved in any way. 00:27:42
So all we're going to do here is very simple quick claim deeds, 1/2 side of Christopher, 1/2 side to Thurmond in exchange for 00:27:47
which Mr. Christopher and or Miss Christopher, whoever owns the hash mark blue down below next to that triangle area. 00:27:54
Will deed that property for the reasons stated just a moment ago and so this will be done basically by quick claim deeds for which 00:28:02
you see above the narrow strips and then probably get a warranty deed because we do want to have. 00:28:08
Clear fee simple. 00:28:15
Marketable, uh. 00:28:17
Title ownership to which you see below in blue. 00:28:18
So this is where what I'm going to ask for tonight is approval contingent upon the legal documentation being finalized. We think 00:28:23
that will happen in the next two to three weeks. So I don't want to wait. 00:28:28
Till the next council meeting and have to hold up construction and the other stuff that needs to happen down there. 00:28:33
So what I'd ask for you guys is approval contingent upon the legal documentation being finalized and signed for me to be able to 00:28:37
sign and accept that property and release the narrow potential narrow easement strips to. 00:28:43
Mr. Christopher and Mrs. Thurmond. 00:28:49
There's somebody just want to say so move. That would suffice. 00:28:51
So moved. 00:28:54
Let's so move. We got it in one at a time though, so I need somebody to to just read release of the narrow easement strips. 00:28:55
You know of the quick claim date. Christine make a motion that we release the potential narrow easement strips by quick claim 00:29:01
deed. 00:29:06
OK. Contingent upon the legal, contingent upon the legal documentation. Perfect. Thank you. 00:29:10
We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:29:15
2nd. 00:29:16
All right, we have two seconds any. 00:29:18
Any further discussion necessary? 00:29:20
OK. All right. All in favor, say aye, OK. 00:29:23
All right, we have released. 00:29:28
The easement Now I'll entertain a motion to. 00:29:30
Acquire the .44 acres contingent upon. 00:29:33
Finalization of the legal documents. I make a motion that we acquire the .44 acres. 00:29:38
Upon completion of the correct legal documents, all right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:29:45
2nd. 00:29:50
We have a second from Councilman Thomas. Any further discussion questions? 00:29:51
Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Motion carries unanimously. 00:29:55
Thank you all. 00:29:59
This has been a It's been an interesting project trying to get all this sewn up but. 00:30:01
We're grateful to the Christopher family and to. 00:30:05
Mrs. Ellen Verner Thurman for working with us on this as well, and we'll hopefully get all this buttoned up in the next couple 00:30:08
weeks and get it finalized. 00:30:12
We'll move on to item 17. SPLOST 3 funds for streetscape improvements on Business Blvd. Manager Dickerson. 00:30:16
Thank you, Mayor. 00:30:22
So we're going to ask tonight is approval for the appropriation of up to $40,000 to do a streetscape improvement project on 00:30:23
Business Blvd. 00:30:27
The history is really just about SPLOST and the fact that. 00:30:32
There are funds that can be used for that purpose you all set aside. 00:30:35
Money in those four categories, public safety, rec and parks, roads and streets and multi government facilities. 00:30:39
Streetscape. 00:30:46
Is really to enhance the the appeal of that corridor. We're now that we've got more people going down there because of the road 00:30:47
development and more businesses that are moving in and. 00:30:51
The business that the business park that's going in. 00:30:56
They're in the. 00:30:59
In the bend of Morrison St. just beyond us. 00:31:01
It's become an issue. During the storm we had during the ice storm, we had one of the trees come down. 00:31:04
And so we have been, we've actually been talking about it probably for the better part of two years now. 00:31:10
And, you know, we've had other parties and we finally got to the point where we needed it. 00:31:15
Address it and. 00:31:18
Engineer Campbell went and did the. 00:31:20
Due diligence determine where the right away was. 00:31:22
We've talked to. 00:31:24
One of the properties, one of the property owners, one of the neighboring properties in there and I'd left information for. 00:31:26
I think it's Bell that owns the. 00:31:31
Static, whatever's next door I went by yesterday I can't get hold of, but I did leave a copy of the agenda report. I did hear from 00:31:33
Zaxby's. Is it Harrison that maybe Mr. Harrison or something was Zaxby's that has the building the. 00:31:39
Business back in there and they were very. 00:31:45
Pleased to hear that we're going to do something. 00:31:47
But the improvements are going to include. 00:31:49
May include more than this, but right now, removal of the dead trees, the landscaping with new trees, we're actually going to. 00:31:52
Be moving. 00:31:58
The Jolly Green giants that are sitting across from. 00:31:59
Wire Park on Barnet Shoals where we the city owned some property over there. 00:32:01
We had originally. 00:32:06
Planned on using that as a mulch site. You know, that was early on when I got here, how we were going to handle things, and we 00:32:07
ended up finding another way to handle mulch. So we sort of abandoned that idea, but we put some trees in there for lands for 00:32:11
screening and those trees have now gotten to about 20 feet tall. 00:32:16
But they're very valuable trees and they'll do really well in this area, according to the both the landscapers we talked to. So 00:32:21
we're going to. 00:32:24
Have one of them move them and the other one's going to be working to beautify the area with mulch and sod and whatnot. 00:32:27
We are. We did expose. There's going to be, there's an existing sign there that we're going to try to. 00:32:34
Rehab some, but we're also going to add us on similar to what we have at the Industrial Drive. I'm sorry, Industrial Blvd. 00:32:39
At the entrance on both sides of industrial. 00:32:47
Of the industrial park. 00:32:49
That will just say business Blvd. on it. It'll look very, you know, have the branding everything, but then the other side is more 00:32:51
of a sign that would have placards for the businesses and. 00:32:55
There'll be some, you know, work on that. That's why I asked for a little bit more money. 00:32:59
To make sure we have enough to rehab that sign. 00:33:03
But I will be two sided sign too. I just want to let you all know that. 00:33:07
You can't see either side right now, but. 00:33:12
But this is consistent with a streetscape project. So it is eligible for these funds and that's we're asking, this is sort of a 00:33:15
picture. 00:33:18
I think we're moving. Are we moving? 00:33:21
The Jolly Greens are at the front, so those are the four on either side and then the back, I think there are they lace. 00:33:24
Belt. 00:33:29
Councilman Garrett gave us some suggestions. There was a concern about the big trucks coming out. 00:33:39
Heading oh gosh, what White East all I guess on that road and. 00:33:45
Carving out some of the there's a drainage area there, so our public works guys are going to work to try to. 00:33:49
Pull the rock back and they're going to use some millions to try to reinforce that. 00:33:54
That area for now, we'll keep an eye on that. 00:33:57
So we appreciate his help on that. 00:34:00
Again, it's consistent with SPLOST 3 Spas, 3 funds. 00:34:03
Requesting for up to 40,000 for this project. 00:34:08
And again, it supports, you know, economic vitality, vitality and long term infrastructure investment in the community and that's 00:34:12
where us, so we're we are requesting option one. 00:34:16
Is the recommendation. 00:34:20
And we're hoping it won't cost this much. We just want to. 00:34:24
Put the number out there for what it what it may take to get everything done we. 00:34:27
You know, this is one of those where there's. 00:34:30
This thing just grown up over 20 or 30 years and there's just, it's wild and woolly in there. So hopefully we can. 00:34:32
Clean it up and get the get a nice streetscape going in there and we decided not to do a lot of different shrubs and stuff just so 00:34:38
it's clean. It's going to be basically sodden trees. 00:34:42
Easier to maintain, but. 00:34:46
We all know what a first impression means, and we've got some really nice. 00:34:48
Thriving small businesses back there, but. 00:34:51
They're really embarrassed when folks have to come see him and drive in there and see. 00:34:53
You know the. 00:34:57
The Leland cypresses that were planted, about 2/3 of those died. 00:34:58
You know, a couple years back then they fell over and so we get we have to pay to get rid of all those. 00:35:01
We also tried to pursue a grant for this. That's one of the reasons it's taken so long and. 00:35:06
We didn't win the grant at this point. We decided we just, we just need to take care of this so. 00:35:10
So with that, any questions for the manager? 00:35:15
All right, OK. We'll entertain a motion to approve the appropriation. 00:35:21
I make a motion to approve the appropriation. 00:35:24
Is there a second? 00:35:27
I'll second. 00:35:29
We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? 00:35:30
All in favor say aye. 00:35:33
And gets to accuse myself. Yeah, yeah. 00:35:35
40 We have an adjacent property owner sitting here. So he was he is. 00:35:38
Right front, center, right front and center on the day. 00:35:43
All right. We have the approval of a floating holiday up next. I'll let the manager talk about that. 00:35:48
Thank you, Mayor. 00:35:53
We're requesting the addition of a floating holiday to the city employee holiday schedule to be effective July 1. 00:35:55
We are continuing to try to be as competitive as we can. We still have three open positions. 00:36:03
And so we want to mirror ourselves against our neighbors and in this case, Oconee County. So we currently have 9 paid holidays. 00:36:08
Oconee County has 10. They added a floating holiday. 00:36:15
The idea of a floating holiday is, you know you have veteran's day. 00:36:18
Perhaps Good Friday? 00:36:21
Presidents Day. Some of those days. Juneteenth. 00:36:24
That are celebrated by other governments. I mentioned Winder, Athens, Clarke, Morgan, Monroe, Madison. They do one or more of 00:36:26
these. 00:36:30
Holidays. But a floating holiday gives the opportunity for the individual who, let's say you know, Good Friday. 00:36:35
Very religious, want to have that day. 00:36:40
So they can use it on that day, use their floating holiday whenever, of course, with the approval of their supervisors. 00:36:42
And so we're again just asking that it gives some flexibility. We're just asking. 00:36:48
That that be added it will continue to help. 00:36:53
Keep us competitive and in line with what our. 00:36:55
Other local governments are doing in the area. 00:36:58
There again, minimal. 00:37:01
Fiscal impact. 00:37:03
Just redistributing compensated time rather than. 00:37:05
Increase in total compensation soon. 00:37:08
And if I may take a, just a. 00:37:10
Bit of time the. 00:37:12
My company does something that's really unique as well that I might offer off to the city. It's called VTO, volunteer time off. 00:37:14
So I'm allowed to take. 00:37:21
Up to a week I usually don't take that much time, but up to a week of time a year. 00:37:23
To volunteer doing something beneficial to. 00:37:29
The community that we work in. 00:37:31
So whether you're working in a homeless shelter, feeding, feeding folks or. 00:37:33
Going on storm duty to help people. We're, we're paid. So I mean, it's, it's a really great way to encourage your employees to. 00:37:37
Get out in the community. 00:37:46
Help other people, I mean. 00:37:48
Not that y'all don't help the community as a whole, but it helps. 00:37:50
It helps. 00:37:54
Our our company do. It's just something unique that that my company does. 00:37:55
Yeah. All right. 00:38:01
Any other comments on the floating holiday? 00:38:05
If not, I'll entertain a motion. 00:38:09
I think it's a great idea I. 00:38:11
Make a motion. 00:38:14
All right, we have a motion to approve the addition of the floating holiday. Do we have a second? 00:38:19
I'll second. 00:38:22
All right, any further discussion? 00:38:24
All right, hearing none, all in favor say aye. 00:38:27
Any opposed? 00:38:29
All right, motion carries 5-O. 00:38:31
We'll move on to public comments. 00:38:34
The folks who are here know the rules, so I will dispense with doing that. 00:38:37
Kathleen or Lawrence y'all have anything you want to share this month? 00:38:41
OK. He's doing a great job. Thank you. All right, well, thank you for the kind words. 00:38:44
We're grateful to y'all. 00:38:50
All right, we'll move on to the mayor's report. 00:38:52
We had a cool moment for Watkinsville. I don't know if most of most of y'all. 00:38:57
Have probably heard that Laura Whitaker's published a book, The Joy Exchange. 00:39:02
It's so far I've enjoyed, you know, just kind of pick up and read parts, but. 00:39:07
It's kind of fun to have an inspirational book where Watkinsville is in the middle of the whole doggone thing. You know? Like, 00:39:11
there's a lot of anecdotes in here, but there are a lot of moments. 00:39:14
Where Watkinsville is kind of the star of the show here, and it really made me proud as I read it. 00:39:19
Um, there was there. 00:39:25
There's a quote in here from. 00:39:27
Mayor Dave. 00:39:30
Or about Mayor Dave and Laura writes about the. 00:39:31
Laura writes about the playground and the ball field. I thought it was really interesting. 00:39:35
I'm just going to read an excerpt because I thought it was. I thought it was really great because it speaks to what. 00:39:39
We're, you know, kind of what we've accomplished if you think back, it says. On a hot August afternoon, I laid renderings on Mayor 00:39:44
Davis. Desk research on inclusive play, Miracle league designs, rough budgets, 100 tiny hurdles, council votes. 00:39:50
Public feedback permits city dollars. 00:39:56
We dreamed. 00:39:59
Then reality would creep in. 00:40:00
Construction costs, timelines to rain challenges. I caught myself scaling back. 00:40:02
Dave leaned across the desk, salt and pepper hair following across his forehead. 1 button too casual. 00:40:07
God bless him. 00:40:12
And put his hand over mine. 00:40:15
Nora, he said quietly. 00:40:17
Make no small plans. 00:40:18
We've come a long way in Watkinsville, but. 00:40:24
You know, one of the reasons we came a long way is because the leaders like Laura and leaders like Mayor Dave. 00:40:26
If you think back to where we were back in those days, I mean that was. 00:40:32
That was a huge dream. 00:40:35
You know, that was a huge commitment. 00:40:36
And it's easy to take it for granted now when we we do things like that every year in Watkinsville, but when we. 00:40:39
Did that. I mean that was. 00:40:44
That was huge and that was there was a real tribute to. 00:40:46
Most of you who are sitting here, then to Laura, to Dave, to everybody who came together to do that. 00:40:50
So I read that today and then I walked out there and our parking lots full. 00:40:56
In the playgrounds full and ESP has programs. 00:41:00
And uh. 00:41:04
You know. 00:41:05
All the kids are playing together. 00:41:05
And it was just. 00:41:07
It was amazing. So anyway, sometimes it's good to pause and remember. 00:41:09
How we got to where we are. 00:41:13
Both whether you're Laura and you've built something amazing at ESP or were you just a little old Watkinsville? And that was a 00:41:15
good reminder. So I would encourage y'all. 00:41:18
To pick up a copy of the book or maybe we can even talk about ESP about maybe getting a couple copies for City Council. So. 00:41:22
Make a little time to read it. 00:41:28
Umm, OK. 00:41:31
So y'all we are going to throw. 00:41:32
A party on July 3rd in Watkinsville. 00:41:34
And I am so excited. 00:41:38
To share that, Oconee County is going to have a series of celebrations leading up to July 4th. 00:41:40
But the grand finale will be at Thomas Farm Preserve on July 3rd. 00:41:46
Which is a Friday. 00:41:51
The the Oconee 250 celebration will be at Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:41:53
It's going to be a countrywide event. We'll bring together the entire community and all its cities for a day of celebration. 00:41:57
We're going to have a morning 5K. 00:42:02
Will have historical programming, family friendly activities. We've got a great band. It sounds like coming. 00:42:04
Food and beverage vendors. 00:42:09
A lot of opportunities for community gathering. 00:42:11
And then we're going to conclude with a patriotic drone display. 00:42:13
That's going to offer a memorable and signature moment for attendees. So we are really. 00:42:16
Excited about that. You'll also notice we're starting to use some 250 branding. 00:42:21
As we build towards that date, so you can see the new logos here. 00:42:26
You'll see it on our letterhead. You'll see it in. 00:42:30
Auto signature. 00:42:32
So that's going to be around. 00:42:34
I'm also really excited to share something that I think is unique to Watkinsville. Is that right, Sharon and Jan, the spirit of 76 00:42:36
nominations? 00:42:40
So we are going to honor. 00:42:45
15, yeah. 00:42:47
Watkinsville citizens. They can be alive or they can be deceased. 00:42:48
Who represent the Spirit? 00:42:53
The spirit of service, unity and civic pride in our city. 00:42:56
They can be residents, they can be property owners. 00:42:59
But they they need to be connected to Watkinsville. 00:43:02
And we're going to recognize those 15 people as we get towards July 3rd and some fun ways. 00:43:06
So they need to be residents, property owners or business owners in Watkinsville. 00:43:12
And these are the characteristics we're going to be looking for. So we're going to take applications. 00:43:16
By April 3rd and we'll choose 15. 00:43:21
And we'll have nomination forms ready this next week after the retreat, right? 00:43:23
So we're excited to share that and to recognize some of our citizens. 00:43:28
Who have made Watkinsville the place that it is? 00:43:32
To pull off our big event, we are we do need some sponsors, so we're looking to raise about 50,000 for that event. 00:43:34
Today, Georgia Power and Oconee State Bank have already stepped up as. 00:43:40
Top tier sponsors, so we were already 1/5 of the way there to raising that total, but we are going to be looking for other. 00:43:44
Sponsors and they can contact City Hall for a sponsorship package. 00:43:50
Sharon, Jan, I know you all been very involved in this. Is there anything else that you want to share about? 00:43:54
The day and. 00:43:59
We you, you all may know that because we have so much going on, we actually have engaged Melanie Adkins, the owner of Chops and 00:44:01
Hops. She helps us with our Christmas spread every year, but she's also really good at organizing things. So she's helping staff 00:44:07
sort of organize this whole event. So she's helped us with this sponsorship package. 00:44:13
With the band, with the stage, there's going to be a stage. There's a lot of other very detailed stuff that we're pulling together 00:44:19
right now. 00:44:22
That she's helping us with There is also I found that very right before this I finally got the website. There is an Oconee 250 00:44:26
website. I will get that out. We'll get that on in our. 00:44:31
On our Facebook page and on the website a link to that and that's where we'll. 00:44:37
Be promoting all the sponsors and the events and the activities and the calendar and all that kind of stuff for what's going to be 00:44:41
happening because it's. 00:44:44
Our event is the final event for July 4th so, but it's happening the day before. 00:44:48
But there's lots of other events and that, you know, Bishop and Bogart and. 00:44:52
North high schools, all of them have different. 00:44:56
Events or activities are going on, so that's that. That will be the website that you'll want to go to to find out more about it. 00:44:59
So we'll get that out. 00:45:02
As well. Uh. 00:45:06
And then so this is one of the reasons, again, you know, everybody is going to ask about parking. So if you hear about that, 00:45:07
that's one of the reasons we're really working so hard to get the sidewalk done. 00:45:10
To First Baptist Church into downtown. 00:45:14
So that we'll have the ability for people to be able to walk in and gather there and then walk out at night because we won't be 00:45:17
able to park everybody there and we don't want. 00:45:20
People parking all over the neighborhoods, but this is going to be a huge lift, we expect. 00:45:24
Thousands of people. 00:45:27
It'll certainly be on the scale of the Christmas parade, except it'll be a much longer event. 00:45:29
But I think it's going to be a wonderful moment for our community to come together for 2:50. 00:45:34
Another logical question you may get is why July 3rd? Why not July 4th? July 3rd allows us to have an awesome celebration. We're 00:45:38
not competing at a financial level with some of these other vendors, you know, for the fireworks and stuff. It also allows our 00:45:43
employees to actually enjoy. 00:45:47
July 4th. 00:45:52
And their weekend as a day off. 00:45:53
So we think it may actually be even more popular because it's on July 3rd. People have their traditions on July 4th. 00:45:56
Things they're going to do. 00:46:01
So I think it's going to be a wonderful way to celebrate. Wonderful way to celebrate. 00:46:03
But we were. 00:46:07
This is a way that we could allow our employees to really enjoy the weekend. 00:46:08
And also save some costs on. 00:46:12
You like the drones and some of the other vendors that were that were going to be harder to procure and more expensive? 00:46:14
So the only other thing to mention is obviously very thankful that Oconee County is covering the cost of the drone show. It's. 00:46:19
50 about $55,000 for that drone show, but that's. 00:46:26
Very comparative with what fireworks would be. But this will be a cleaner. It'll be nice for dogs people to bring their their 00:46:30
young kids. 00:46:33
It won't be as noisy as that or as messy, so we think it's a win win. 00:46:36
Well, in the park we have some rules and regs around the environment, you know, and things with the you know, we. 00:46:40
We we took the government money to help pay for the park and it's one of the reasons it's preserved. But we also have some 00:46:45
environmental commitments we have to honor as part of that. So we really thought the drones would be a. 00:46:50
Probably be more in line with those expectations there. 00:46:55
So anyway, exciting more to come will will be announcing additional details I think over over weeks and weeks as we build up to 00:46:57
this. So really excited about it. 00:47:02
Storm drain decals. You got yours? OK. You got one in front of your house or? Yeah. 00:47:07
So this is part of public works crews did this. This is part of our municipal separate stores, municipal separate storm water, 00:47:13
storm sewer systems, National pollutant discharge elimination system. 00:47:18
NPDES Mark Campbell educates us on that every year, but we have to do that to keep our permit with the EPD. 00:47:24
So we put those stickers on there so people know what's going into the water. This regulates pollutants and helps people know, 00:47:30
hey, don't pour your motor oil down the drain, right? Because that's going. 00:47:34
Going into going into our water supply or water and we don't want that. 00:47:39
We're going to have an invasion. We had an invasive removal day. 00:47:43
At Harris Shoals Park on February 16th. 00:47:46
Um, and it looks like we had a good crowd. I wasn't able to make it. What did we? 00:47:51
Get into autumn olive, is that right? 00:47:54
Yeah, cemetery clean up. This is the this is. 00:47:56
The uh, uh. 00:48:03
Like are we focused on the entire cemetery or just the area? 00:48:04
So the historically black area at the cemetery is. 00:48:08
Needs some work, right? And so we're going to do a cemetery cleanup in partnership. 00:48:12
With some of the local churches. 00:48:15
And we're going to work in the work in the that part of the cemetery. 00:48:18
Cleaning it up, helping with some of those grave sites parked next to the dog park. 00:48:22
You can register in advance. There's a QR code there. We'll get that information out, or people can just show up and we can. 00:48:27
Will certainly accommodate them. 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. 00:48:33
On February 28th. 00:48:36
We finally got the striping in. Thank you Manager Dickerson for expediting that. So we hope to have. 00:48:41
That pedestrian flash are working by the end of the week. 00:48:46
Let's talk about it yesterday. That's right, that's right. I mean that's that's like that's like a miracle, you know. So anyway, 00:48:50
Brett, I called her at the end of the day yesterday when she told me she done, I said how did that happen? We did. We met at 10:30 00:48:55
and then by 430 Sharon had it happened in the next day, so. 00:49:00
Yeah. That is not government speed. That is Sharon Dickerson speed, and we appreciate it so. 00:49:05
Anyway. 00:49:10
So they went ahead and painted that one today. I think they also painted where two future ones are going to go. So we're excited 00:49:11
about that. Other quick updates on that project. 00:49:15
The bridge. The inside of the bridge was painted. It doesn't look like the bottom right anymore. It's all brown inside now. 00:49:20
Lighting is. It's all wired for lighting. 00:49:26
The. 00:49:29
Landscaping will will really go in earnest over the next two months. 00:49:30
The area you see to the right facing the cemetery, we have changed the design of that to add a more formal Plaza area there 00:49:34
because we just think a lot of people will be gathering in that area. 00:49:38
And. 00:49:44
So Don Phillips and the team at IMI are able to absorb most of that cost, Doctor Michael Durr donated. 00:49:45
4 trees to go in there about. 00:49:50
10 foot tall crepe myrtles that will go in there. 00:49:52
Which is going to be really nice. And you know, Doctor Durr, you know he loves some. 00:49:55
Love some trees. And so I see Kathleen cringing at crape myrtles. There's a whole lot of other options that are going in the rest 00:50:00
of that area. Kathleen, rest assured. But this is hot and it needs flowering trees that we don't have to water a lot. 00:50:05
So and it needs something that kind of matches the roof so. 00:50:12
After the I can share the rest of the landscape plan with you. Go to Christian Lakes. You'll see. 00:50:15
Fine example of some. 00:50:21
Beautiful, yeah. 00:50:22
Yeah, your umm. 00:50:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, So anyway, but this, this is really coming along. It's lovely. But but there are a lot of details to do by 00:50:25
our targeted completion date in the middle of April. 00:50:31
There's fences, there's lights, there's landscaping, there's all kinds of things that still need to happen. 00:50:37
Just to get that phase done. So we'll be working hard. 00:50:42
We did figure out the name of the Creek under the bridge. Mr. Christopher, who we referenced earlier, founded in a 1965. 00:50:45
Platt, I think it was called Academy Springs Branch. 00:50:52
And he said that, you know, it was named after the, you know, before it was Watkinsville High School. It was some sort of Academy. 00:50:56
Was the name of the school up there. 00:50:59
And that's where they would go to get their water was from Academy Springs. 00:51:03
Branch umm. 00:51:07
So that's what that little Creek is called down there. Thought that was an interesting fact. 00:51:08
We have. 00:51:13
Thanks to the county. 00:51:15
They have. They have done an interactive map of Watkinsville Woods for us, so that's available online at the city's website. 00:51:17
Or you can scan the QR code and see it. We're hoping they'll also do one for Thomas Farm Preserve. 00:51:24
We've obviously got our drawn maps, but these are kind of cool to have online for people who. 00:51:28
Want to see what the features are and check out these places so we're grateful to. 00:51:33
The county for helping us with that or the county employee who helped us with that? 00:51:38
We're also in the hiring, we've, I think we have a. 00:51:42
Opening uh. 00:51:47
Do we still have the public works, Sharon, or did you say we have one public works role? 00:51:48
And two police officer vacancies. So if you know good people who want to work for a. 00:51:52
A town with a lot of cool things happen and send them our way. 00:51:56
Let's see, Sharon mentioned that we do have a SPLOST. 00:51:59
Elect spouse, vote quietly creeping up on us. That'll be on May 19th and the primary election. 00:52:04
Please remind folks as you talk to them how important those dollars are to us and also to our to our county. 00:52:10
That's how we keep the property taxes low. 00:52:17
I did. Speaking of property taxes, I did have the opportunity to. 00:52:19
Speak at the Capitol to a subcommittee that's looking at. 00:52:24
Property tax reform. 00:52:27
At the Capitol and just walk them through a lot of the unintended consequences of the current state of the bill. I did that on 00:52:29
behalf of the Georgia Municipal Association with. 00:52:33
Four other representatives of cities. Our posture at this point is we're continuing to work with the committee to try to refine 00:52:37
that bill. 00:52:39
And get it to a better place or to encourage more study. There's just a lot of unintended consequences. 00:52:42
In that bill. 00:52:47
And thankfully, Chairman Shaw Blackman. 00:52:48
Is is a really thoughtful guy. He's working hard on that. 00:52:51
And then obviously Representative Houston Gaines is very involved in that since you've got some additional details on that, but as 00:52:55
you run into. 00:52:59
Your representatives, I think we all would welcome lower property taxes for. 00:53:02
Homesteads, but Georgia is a state that. 00:53:07
Historically, uh. 00:53:09
Has done things incrementally. 00:53:11
And I think that's really important because it gives us some predictability. But this bill as it's currently constructed. 00:53:12
Would really create some. 00:53:18
Challenges for us but create some real problems for our school system so. 00:53:19
We could endure it, not without some pain and some having to reshuffle. 00:53:24
But for the school system, there is a big gap. 00:53:28
Because of the way this thing structured, so it definitely needs some. 00:53:30
Definitely need some work. 00:53:33
That's all from the mayor's desk. I'll turn to the council at this point. Councilman Garrett. 00:53:35
Nothing. 00:53:41
Connie, I know you've been involved lately. I've seen you at meetings and I've seen you up there at the Legacy Village. How about 00:53:43
from you? You got an update? 00:53:46
Nothing. 00:53:49
I've always enjoyed going to the Legacy Village and. 00:53:51
To see the smile on their faces when you walk up the top tone, there's just twice. Awesome. Thank you for making time for that. 00:53:55
That's great. 00:53:59
Councilman Thomas, have you been home a little more than lately or I've been home? 00:54:04
This entire week. 00:54:09
As of right now, I'm. 00:54:12
Home next week. 00:54:13
So that could change any moment. 00:54:14
But as right now, I'm home next week as well. All right, good. Glad to be here. 00:54:16
Mayor Pro Tem, any other updates from you? 00:54:20
OK, Councilman Campbell, is that arm all healed up? 00:54:23
Sure. Yeah, Good. All right. OK. All right. 00:54:28
Nothing to report, OK. 00:54:31
We probably just should state publicly for the record, we do have our planning session, Sharon. 00:54:34
That's Monday. Yeah. I'm sorry. I should put that in there. Monday at 9:00 AM in this room. It will be broadcast and it's just our 00:54:39
annual retreat. Mayor and I will manage the meeting together. We've got some. 00:54:44
Going to look back over what we did in 2025. Look back over what? 00:54:50
The key. 00:54:53
Initiatives were, the priorities were and then. 00:54:54
Consider those as well as additional ones to start planning out after those are done where we're going to move from there, so. 00:54:57
Should be a good day. 00:55:04
We'll talk about food and all that later. 00:55:05
Yeah. So you all know this, You know, and again, for the benefit of those watching online, this is an important meeting. This is 00:55:07
where we set our priorities. 00:55:10
For the next. 00:55:13
Fiscal year. It's how Sharon drives the budget with her staff. 00:55:14
How she determines what she's going to focus on next year. Sharon gets things done so fast, she checks everything off the list. 00:55:18
And so we've got to come up with with with some new things to together. So yeah. 00:55:23
Umm, so. So anyway, we're glad to be able to have that. 00:55:28
With that, I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session for real estate. 00:55:32
And pending. And threatened. 00:55:37
Litigation. 00:55:38
I make that motion. 00:55:40
To go into executive session for a real estate and. 00:55:41
Potential litigation. OK, Do we have a second? 00:55:44
All right, all in favor say aye. OK, maybe we can take. 00:55:48
Does anybody need to break? 00:55:51
Before we go into that, are y'all good? We'll just keep going, All right. I make a motion to adjourn. 00:55:53
2nd. 00:55:58
Aye. 00:56:00