Transcript

Event transcript
All right. Welcome everybody to our annual planning retreat. Excited to have this time together. 00:00:07
Today, this is when we. This is when we. 00:00:13
Deliver ideas big and small that help our city staff set their budgets, set their priorities for the year. 00:00:16
And. 00:00:23
Do the things that make a difference for Watkinsville and for our citizens. I've been. 00:00:25
Reflecting. 00:00:28
On all the all the things that are done, Sharon's going to share, give you an overview of kind of what all we accomplished in 00:00:30
2024. It's pretty amazing. 00:00:34
I think as we all go around Watkinsville. 00:00:37
We have people approach us. Well, wouldn't this be great? Isn't this a great idea? How many times have we heard that, you know, 00:00:40
and. 00:00:43
I you know. 00:00:47
Not to be demeaning in those people. I love that so many people have ideas for Watkinsville. 00:00:49
But it's one thing to have an idea, it's another thing to have the will and the skill. 00:00:53
To act and execute on this. 00:00:56
And one of the things I'm most proud of with this council is we have the will to act and we have a staff with the skill to 00:00:58
execute. 00:01:01
On great ideas that we agree on, and what that does in the end is it creates opportunities that never would have existed. 00:01:05
For our community, if we hadn't done that and. 00:01:11
Several days a week I have the pleasure of sitting in this office when the when the sun's up, which is most of the time. Sometimes 00:01:15
like last night when the sun is down and. 00:01:19
And I hear the kids laughing and watch them run up and down the ramp and play. That's something that wouldn't have existed without 00:01:23
y'all's courage. 00:01:26
To ACT and insurance and her staff skill to execute that in partnership with the SP. 00:01:29
When you go to Watkinsville Woods, the exact same thing that took a little bit of courage to do years and years ago, and we did 00:01:35
that. 00:01:38
And then I think the finest example is Thomas Farm Preserve. Again, a big win this year. 00:01:42
I can't help but smile every time I drop by and and see all those people out there and think, wow, you know that just who would 00:01:47
have thought that would be an opportunity? 00:01:50
The same thing can happen on the sidewalk. The same thing can happen when you go to Wire Park. The same thing can happen when you 00:01:54
go to a retailer. 00:01:56
That's new, but is there? 00:02:00
Because of an environment that y'all helped create. So. So that's my preamble. I hope we'll all continue to think that way. 00:02:02
In terms of what are the opportunities that we can. 00:02:10
Set the tone for Not all of those require money. Some of them require a commitment on our part to. 00:02:12
Planning or land use some of them require. 00:02:18
Hire. Some of them require establishing a DDA, which we did a few years ago and what that's created so. 00:02:20
But what we'll do today will help set the tone for years to come. 00:02:26
And I'm grateful to all of you for giving us your time. 00:02:30
I am a nerd about keeping us on time with the agenda, so I'm going to facilitate it that way. If there's if the ideas get too far 00:02:33
out there, I might ask Sharon to put that in the parking lot and we'll come back to it. 00:02:37
If we can't stick to it, but in the past we finished up a little early, I hope we can do that today. 00:02:43
One of the things I always like to start with is to realign us on our. 00:02:49
City's vision and values Our vision is to create Georgia's most compelling community by honoring our history, building community, 00:02:52
and creating opportunities for citizens to engage and do business with one another every day. 00:02:58
Our tagline is to come connect and create. 00:03:04
Our values are efficiency, transparency, inclusivity, creativity, kindness, and connectivity. 00:03:07
This council changes every year or two, so I always like to look around and make sure we're all still comfortable with that vision 00:03:14
and those values because, like I've told you before, that guides the decisions that we make. 00:03:19
Are we all comfortable with that or do we want to discuss this? 00:03:24
OK, good. 00:03:28
We'll scratch the first item off the agenda then, if we're all good with that. 00:03:29
Unless anybody else, we do have a little bit of extra time, is there anybody anything anybody else would like to share off the top 00:03:34
on what you'd want to accomplish today? 00:03:37
If not, I'm going to let Sharon move on into. 00:03:41
2024 plan initiatives and funding. I would one thing I did mean to mention, I want to thank our department heads for being here 00:03:44
today. 00:03:47
In JNU as well which leads our DDA. 00:03:51
This is a big commitment on y'all's end. I know how busy y'all are. 00:03:55
I see Mark and the chief all over the city and and Lee never stops. So for y'all to give us five hours of your time today, we're 00:03:59
grateful. We're also grateful for y'all's leadership because without. 00:04:04
You guys, we know 90% of this stuff we can get done and. 00:04:09
Several of us remember those days where we were. 00:04:12
When Julie did it all. Yeah, yeah. When Julie did it all. And. 00:04:15
Brian. Brian was out asking for right away and Connie was. Connie was. 00:04:19
Making things happen. And so it's, it's really refreshing now to know we can get a ton of this done. 00:04:23
With the talented staff. 00:04:28
We also are broadcasting live. 00:04:30
Sharon, did I need to read the thing about the hearing loop? 00:04:32
Yeah, I'm not the best at looking up at that. The city does have a hearing loop system in the council chamber, a wireless network 00:04:35
for those with hearing aids. Signals can be picked up by most hearing aids. 00:04:40
City also has loop receivers for those who still have some difficulty hearing. 00:04:44
Anyone with questions about that can contact Sharon and we can make accommodations. 00:04:48
We do have the TV over here is on the Fritz. Can we just turn it off? 00:04:54
It's a little bit distracting. 00:04:57
Yeah. 00:05:03
All right. I think everything else OK, good. All right. 00:05:05
What's the what's the thing they show you on before you watch a movie now that the lights may be blinking sensitive to after after 00:05:08
five hours, we might have all been a little bit like that. 00:05:13
So anyway, so, so Sharon, unless we let, does anybody else want to share anything else off the top because we've got it. We're a 00:05:18
little ahead already, so. 00:05:21
The question I don't think this is the time for this, right? 00:05:25
Like brainstorming ideas, right? Right. 00:05:28
This isn't it. 00:05:31
Yeah. So we're going to get into that in the, we'll get into that in the 11:00 AM prioritizing. 00:05:32
Now we're going to get into that in the 10 AM, the long term planning and visioning, we'll probably get there pretty quickly, you 00:05:38
know, as it is so. 00:05:41
All right. Any other thoughts? 00:05:45
Questions. Otherwise, I'll hand it to Sharon and let you. 00:05:47
Take it from here, OK? 00:05:50
Thank you, Mayor. 00:05:52
Umm, so we all thought we did a lot in the five years. Umm. 00:05:54
Starting in 2019 to 2024 or 20 I guess 24, but last year was a really. 00:05:59
Really big year I think for us financially and just. 00:06:06
Physically and fiscally, it was a big year. We got a lot of money in and we also did a lot of projects. 00:06:10
I do want to thank everybody in the room because you guys are the ones who set the tone. You made the decision what you wanted us 00:06:16
to do and then gave it to us and let us do what we do best, which is making it happen. 00:06:21
Provided the funding resources for that, I'm very thankful for my staff. 00:06:27
And all the efforts that they went through to make sure that all these things did come to fruition and are in some of them are 00:06:31
still in process. 00:06:35
And as well as our partners, ESP. Oak half the chamber. 00:06:39
The groups that we work with to make some of these events and or. 00:06:43
Programs happen in the community. 00:06:47
So 2024, I think the biggest thing perhaps, I don't know, ties, the two top ones or we were named an All America city. We took a 00:06:49
delegation of 19 people to Denver, competed and won. 00:06:55
I think my throat still hurts from screaming so loud. That was so exciting but. 00:07:01
You know, that was a culmination of partnerships. 00:07:05
And collaborations with ESP and with Ohio County Little League and with private sector. 00:07:09
Funders and with our local African American church, Bethel Baptist and. 00:07:14
All those that's what we went, we presented on is what makes us our small town. 00:07:19
Sorry our. 00:07:23
Small town, big story. 00:07:25
And and really. 00:07:27
Really imbibes what? 00:07:31
Come connect, create means. And so that was I think the highlight of last year and it happened right in the middle of the year and 00:07:33
it happened. 00:07:36
On the heels of us getting. 00:07:39
The next big thing which was this $2.225 million loan and $1.5 million grant from G Tib for the Simonton Bridge Rd. pedestrian 00:07:41
connector, which is we're currently underway with phase one of. 00:07:47
And are releasing or in the process of releasing the RFP's for Phase 2? 00:07:53
Which will be the final phase of the project so. 00:07:58
Super excited about that. Of course, we get our local maintenance improvement grant funds last year and I believe this year we'll 00:08:01
be getting additional funds. 00:08:05
So roughly, you know, $100,000, which for our community is a lot of money. 00:08:09
When we only have a $3.2 million? 00:08:13
Budget. 00:08:17
We also received a $35,000 grant for Georgia Power for the for a strategic plan for downtown, for the downtown area and that's. 00:08:18
We're sort of in the process of pulling that together. 00:08:25
What that will look like and then we've also received some grant money's for safety. 00:08:27
Public safety through the Girma, through our insurance provider and GMA. 00:08:32
And obviously and every year we've worked really hard to keep the bulletproof vest partnership. 00:08:39
And that and this year we got $1800 for that as well. Library was a big win. Obviously wire parks continued to develop. 00:08:44
But the city now has a facility a we actually own the building as you all made-up. We made was made possible by the donation by 00:08:52
Duke Gibbs and his group. 00:08:56
And then the library funding from the state and from the local. 00:09:01
But city and county governments provided. 00:09:05
Provided umm. 00:09:08
Funding to make sure that that opened and it's. 00:09:10
It's booming. I think their biggest problem is our biggest problem at Thomas Farmers Parking. People just, you know, still need 00:09:12
parking, so. 00:09:15
We also resurfaced a lot of roads. I don't have the actual numbers as far as the the miles. It's not a lot, but. 00:09:20
It's a lot for our little city, so all Jackson St. Niagara, Dr. Simonson Way and then a section of School St. 00:09:26
And then we also, we actually completed some of those water St. storm water improvements in 23, but they bled over into into 24. 00:09:33
So I put them on there as well. 00:09:37
As the mayor mentioned, we hired ADA director at the end of last year. She started officially this year. So I didn't actually put 00:09:41
that as an accomplishment, but but we hired her in December, she started in January. 00:09:46
But we had several activities last year, the suite, the street. 00:09:52
The sidewalk poetry contest and the barbecue and Bake Off. The BBQ Bake Off is going to be an annual event, so we'll set that 00:09:56
again this year. 00:09:59
Oh, in Burger Week. 00:10:04
Sorry about that. Yep, missed that. Well, and that, yeah. So that wasn't something that required the City Council. And so I was 00:10:06
going back through the list of all our stuff that we did, and I didn't see that. So Yep, Burger Week, that was awesome. And 00:10:10
they're going to do that next year in January. 00:10:15
Right, so. 00:10:19
I finished up at rocket field with a net climber. We started. We actually completed Phase 1 and 2. 00:10:22
Of the Hair Shoals Park Master Plan that included paving the additional the roadway and adding additional parking spaces. 00:10:29
The Art Walk, I guess as we're calling it, installed 3 art pieces along the backside of City Hall, heading down towards the park. 00:10:36
And then, like I said, we began work on the Simonton Bridge pedestrian connector. So we awarded. 00:10:44
The first phase, which includes the construction of the sidewalk. I noticed when I came through this morning that Spectrum has 00:10:50
taken down the final. 00:10:53
Communication lines. 00:10:58
So now AT&T will come in and drop the polls, which they're going to leave for us to use on the property if we need them. So. 00:10:59
And then and. 00:11:06
And then we completed. 00:11:08
Thomas Farm Preserve, that was probably the biggest lift for all of us. A lot of things that were on our list as probably y'all 00:11:10
operate like I do. Sometimes you put things on your list and other things come along that have to bump those things off the list. 00:11:15
This is one of those things that we've really spent a lot of time. 00:11:19
Really making sure that Thomas Farm was ready for the public by December. 00:11:24
And so we moved mountains to make sure that happened. We renovated the bathroom at the dairy barn, installed more than 3 miles of 00:11:28
walking paths. 00:11:33
Two gravel parking lots. 00:11:38
Fencing along the front. 00:11:40
The trail interpretive. 00:11:42
Entrance signage and then establish the small and large dog park areas which I think. 00:11:44
Has have been great I know my phone goes off every time those cameras go off so there's a lot of people using the dog parks over 00:11:50
in that area so. 00:11:53
But and then we're in phase two where we talked about that at Council meeting last week, we're in phase two of. 00:11:57
Of Thomas Farm Preserve, the master plan, what we want to do there, there'll be some of that we'll talk about today about. 00:12:04
How that might roll out and what other things you guys might want to put on the list for us to do. 00:12:09
We also hired a police chief. 00:12:14
He also got hired, and he got hired in December, so he gets to count on my 2024 accomplishments officially. 00:12:17
And then we had the annual Easter Egg hunt, the annual Cops and Bobbers, which both of those events are scheduled. I believe the 00:12:23
Easter Egg hunt is April 19th and the Cops and Bobbers is May 3rd. And this year Cops and Barbers will be held at Thomas Farm 00:12:27
Preserve. 00:12:32
You all also passed some ordinances, mobile vendors, historic preservation and corridor ordinance. I know the historic 00:12:37
preservation will be discussed today. 00:12:41
As well. 00:12:45
Mindful A. 00:12:46
Some more pictures for bass. I was there yesterday. 00:12:48
No joke, I saw like. 00:12:51
5 LB bass pulled out of there yesterday. It was. 00:12:53
Do you see it put back in? 00:12:56
It was, it was. I was impressed when you get a picture. 00:13:01
Yeah. 00:13:05
Some some of the other things that we did I thought were highlights of the year. Colin Ferry had a student that painted a mural on 00:13:07
Hardin Hill on the Well House. 00:13:11
We accepted the 13th roughly 13 acres of green space at Trove Subdivision. 00:13:16
The city participated in various ways at the Piedmont Garden Tour, the Georgia Historic Trust Ramble. 00:13:22
We had a citywide litter pickup contest. The mayor. 00:13:27
Kicked off, I think it was maybe. 00:13:30
August or so, I can't remember now when that happened and anyway we had that and that was that was a lot of fun. And then the 00:13:33
downtown is trick or treating that happens on Halloween and the Christmas parade and tree light and so. 00:13:37
That's a lot for a staff of 21. And we weren't even fully staffed last year. We were down. 00:13:43
At least three people at any given time. We're still down. 00:13:49
Three now I think, I think we're still down three, one officer and well maybe maybe 21 officer and one public works person, so. 00:13:54
So I mean, that's a lot and I think, and I thank my staff again for, you know, once y'all pass it over to us for making sure that 00:14:02
all that stuff got done. It was a lot of work and it is still a lot of work, but. 00:14:08
But we're all pleased that you guys entrusted us to make sure it happened and we did our best to make sure it happened so. 00:14:14
Any questions about any of that or any comments I guess? 00:14:20
Thank you. 00:14:25
It's a tremendous amount of work and. 00:14:27
Let's see something recording. 00:14:29
And also, I mean, I we talk about this some. 00:14:32
But I am so appreciative. 00:14:35
Of how the city operates overall like. 00:14:39
The way all of the roles are actually done, the way they're supposed to be done, and that is not even unfortunately, normally the 00:14:43
case so. 00:14:47
The mayor provides tremendous leadership and direction. The council, you know we. 00:14:52
Discuss and dig in and disagree and come to a decision. 00:14:57
And then? 00:15:03
Sharon, you lead your staff and then the staff. 00:15:05
And you a lot late nights. I know you work a lot of hours. 00:15:08
Take it and run and make it happen. And that is the way this is supposed to work. 00:15:12
But like I said, I don't see that happening most places unfortunately, and so I feel so. 00:15:18
Grateful to be sitting here today. 00:15:25
And in our sphere, I feel incredibly hopeful. 00:15:29
Because. 00:15:33
When things are happening the way they're supposed to, look what we can do. 00:15:34
And this is everybody in this room. 00:15:39
I mean. 00:15:42
Pat yourself on the back like well done. 00:15:43
And so I am just very, very proud to be sitting here and to be part of this group. 00:15:46
And I am really excited to see. 00:15:51
Next year. 00:15:54
What 2025 is going to say. 00:15:55
I think the other thing that goes without saying is that all this gets done. 00:15:58
But you know, our city is remarkably safe. 00:16:03
The trash gets picked up, the streets are clean, you know so so that the table stakes. 00:16:06
Are taken care of. 00:16:11
And are well done. 00:16:12
You know, so you know, in a lot of cities that they, you know, a lot of places they struggle just to get the basics done well. 00:16:14
And I think I'm really grateful that we can do the basics, the most important things we're supposed to do. 00:16:19
And then we're able to do these additional things that our citizens love and that they want, that are important as we seek to 00:16:24
build community. So. 00:16:27
So it goes without saying that you're, you know, you guys are squeezing a lot through a small straw and doing a great job with it. 00:16:31
And I guess I'll add to I always, I, I, I always consider them staff, but they're not staff. Our city attorney and our city 00:16:38
engineer who we pay to help us with these projects. They have other cities and communities in private sector that they help, but. 00:16:44
We can't do what we're doing without them as well, so certainly want to recognize them in their efforts. 00:16:50
Absolutely. 00:16:56
So we can talk about strategic conditions will be a little bit ahead of schedule which might be good. 00:16:59
What I'd. 00:17:04
What I envision is we'll talk. 00:17:05
Generally about the strategic initiatives I was going to, I did provide a print out to everybody. Do not have this on the screen 00:17:08
because you wouldn't be able to read it anyway. 00:17:11
There are copies on the table for anybody that's here at once one. 00:17:15
And the packet is online, so everybody should have access to that, anybody that's paying attention online. 00:17:18
But what I'll do, what I thought is, is I'll I'll walk through the. 00:17:25
Strategic plan initiatives. 00:17:29
Briefly, I'm not going to get into the weeds too much and then we'll roll right into, OK, now that you see what's on the list and 00:17:32
where we're at. 00:17:35
You know, what are some of the things? 00:17:39
That that would be the big idea. Some of the things that Christine had mentioned a minute ago bringing up or some of the specific 00:17:41
things with like Thomas Farmer Historic preservation. 00:17:45
How much do we want to dig in in fiscal year 26 into those items? 00:17:49
Can you also reground us? 00:17:53
Why this is important from, you know, the DCA and the state level too? 00:17:56
So. 00:18:01
The department, Community Affairs, requires that we have a work plan and every five years it has to be updated. We have to report. 00:18:03
Back on how we did. 00:18:10
And there are the items that are in blue that are on your on the sheets in front of you or if you're, if you're looking online, 00:18:12
those items are part of our work plan. And it's really good that that a lot of them are on our work plan. That means, you know, 00:18:17
because we have to respond and show that we're actually working, we're actually doing something that makes us a qualified local 00:18:22
government, which gives us access to local auction sales tax and other. 00:18:27
Benefits. Umm. 00:18:34
Makes us eligible for grants both state and federal as well. 00:18:35
So the. 00:18:39
The blue items are. 00:18:41
Are things that we we need to get done. It doesn't mean that if for some reason something came along, you know again. 00:18:43
Something happens and it changes our course that we're going to get in trouble if we don't do them. We just have to say, OK, well, 00:18:50
we're working towards that. 00:18:53
And if that doesn't happen, we just have to respond why? You know, maybe there wasn't funding, maybe, you know, the priorities of 00:18:56
the City Council changed, etcetera. 00:19:00
But a lot of them on there are in our work plan and they're being actively. 00:19:05
Pursued. So I think it's it's really good the strategic initiatives. 00:19:09
We have thought we agreed back in 2019, there's five areas of influence that the city has and. 00:19:14
We've got it broken up into land use, government operations, community engagement, infrastructure and economic development. So you 00:19:19
know we. 00:19:23
At any given time, and I've talked to my staff about this, one of the reasons. 00:19:27
That I think our weekly meetings are so important. 00:19:30
And that all my department directors are are are there is that sometimes what happens in parts could affect something in finance 00:19:33
or in personnel or. 00:19:36
Something that happens in public safety could have an impact. 00:19:40
On, you know, something in public works or DD and the DDA. So in the downtown area so. 00:19:43
All of us, you know the Council's making decisions that affect many different areas. If you make a decision on land use, it could 00:19:49
affect economic development or vice versa. 00:19:54
Our government operations are affected anytime there's a decision made, like land use, like, hey, we're going to accept this 00:19:59
donation of land. OK, Well, now that's just affected a whole bunch of things, you know? 00:20:04
What you know, how do we have to budget for this? 00:20:09
You know, how, how are we going to manage, manage the space, etc. So, so these are the strategic initiatives. Everything that we 00:20:11
talked about we try to lay and we try to list under one of these areas. 00:20:17
And that's what we'll talk about briefly. I don't think I have. Yeah, I'm going to come back to that in a minute. 00:20:22
So like I said, I'm just going to walk through. 00:20:28
Fairly quickly. Not going to run too fast through them, but. 00:20:32
Right now. So when we started out, we had. 00:20:36
And I wish I didn't have my, I don't have my original sheet up here, but we had a number of community engagements. I put these in 00:20:39
order of alphabetic order. They're not in any other order. Just figured it made sense to go that way. But, but we're down to two 00:20:44
community engagement initiatives. I don't want anybody freaking out saying that we need to have 10 at any given time. I but I do 00:20:49
think we need to be thinking forward about how. 00:20:53
How do we want to engage the community because we are down to sort of two. 00:20:58
Items on our list, so that's something you may want to. 00:21:02
Is that where we throw ideas about this? Well, are you going over everything? Yeah, I think I'm gonna get over if that's OK. I'll 00:21:06
go through absolutely each of them, and then we'll come back. Is that mayor? Does that work? Do you want to? Yeah. When you said 00:21:10
we're down to 2, does that mean? 00:21:13
We've accomplished, right. We've accomplished all the rest of them and that's why they don't have the original. I'd have to pull 00:21:18
that up to see to show you what we've accomplished. But since the strategic initiatives were established in 2019. 00:21:24
But we only have two community engagement ones that are left on the list. So again. 00:21:31
Something to think about if you feel like we need to be fed up. Is it This would be, you know, an area we could identify that mean 00:21:36
we'll do it in 26? 00:21:39
Fiscal year 26 that may mean that you know we. 00:21:43
We're planning ahead for it in 27 or something like that, so. 00:21:45
So one of our community engagements is to support existing events that happen. We just talked about Easter egg hunt, the cops and 00:21:49
bobbers. Obviously every year the Chamber of Commerce has their fall festival at Rocket Field. We support them. They've actually 00:21:55
submitted their paperwork and that will be in front of you hopefully at the March meeting to make sure that that. 00:22:01
Keeps moving forward. 00:22:07
The Christmas tree Christmas parade tree lighting. 00:22:09
So those are ways that the community currently. 00:22:12
Participates or tries to engage. That's the way the city tries to engage the community in. 00:22:16
In these events and stuff so. 00:22:22
I, I'm sort of torn at whether or not we need to, it's become part of the fabric of what we're doing. I don't know that has to 00:22:24
continue to be on here. These were some of the things we said we needed to start doing. I think, you know, we've shown that we're 00:22:28
continuing to do these. 00:22:32
We can leave those on there. We can think bigger and say, OK, that's just going to be everyday operations, just assume that's 00:22:37
going to happen. 00:22:40
Tracking it, it's not a work program plans, it's not one of those things we have to go back and report to the state on. 00:22:43
So we may or may not. We may just want to say. 00:22:48
You know, yay for us, we've done it. There's obviously more work that we want to do, but I don't know that, you know, that level 00:22:51
detail needs to be in the strategic initiative anymore. 00:22:55
Because it's become so much of it so. 00:23:00
And we'll talk about that here in a minute when we get to the end of this. So the other is exploring the establishment of the 00:23:02
local History Museum. I know there has been a lot of discussion about that or there's been thoughts thrown around about what that 00:23:08
looks like, where it would be, who might be involved in that. The mayor just created an arts committee, will be hopefully today 00:23:15
finalizing that application and getting it out to the public. And that group can probably help lead that and provide some. 00:23:21
Input for the Council to consider. 00:23:28
As that moves forward, so that's those are those are the two community. 00:23:31
Engagement. 00:23:35
Items that are on our list. 00:23:36
On economic development, we have we're down to two on our list. We've completed a lot of the other ones. 00:23:39
The biggest one being developing a downtown master plan or a strategic plan. 00:23:45
A master plan tends to learn more towards master planning like land use or and or. 00:23:51
Physical type structures, whereas a strategic plan may be more about like how you do that, how do you, how do you. 00:23:57
You know, how do you grow your downtown? 00:24:04
In more of a programmatic way or policy way? 00:24:09
So the council does have money, $35,000 from Georgia Power. 00:24:12
To create a strategic plan and that is high on the priority list for the DDA this year. 00:24:17
So so. 00:24:24
And then economic development 21 explored the truck bypass. 00:24:25
In that case, you know there's very little the city can do at this point. It is underway. I think that the update on that was I 00:24:30
put the update that G dot awarded a $5,000,000 bypass project. 00:24:34
To NV5 their their works going to include geomatics, environmental studies, roadway and bridge design, hydraulic and hydrological 00:24:40
analysis, traffic and geotechnical engineering, right away services, and erosion control. 00:24:46
And I think they're still thinking 2030. 00:24:52
52032 something like that before it might actually be in place, but I think this is like a two to three-year effort to actually 00:24:55
plan, you know, figure out the route, figure out what needs to be done and then let the project. 00:25:01
And then it would have to be constructed. So there it's a, it's a long term. 00:25:07
Effort and so as much as it's important to the city, I don't know that you know y'all, you all will have to size that. Do we need 00:25:11
to put any major resources to it or not. 00:25:16
It's not actually in the city. Obviously it impacts us greatly whatever happens, but. 00:25:21
So think about that when we get into the into the discussion here in a minute. 00:25:26
Under government operations, we have 3 items that are still on our list that have not been accomplished, relocated public works 00:25:30
facility and that is to potentially free up. 00:25:35
Very valuable real estate on the corner of Main Street and Experiment Station or Highway 5315. 00:25:40
And so we are pursuing some options. We're trying to look for an area that would. 00:25:47
You know would. 00:25:52
Would be suitable for relocation of the Public Works department. 00:25:55
So that is still that is a high priority for a number of reasons. Like I said, it doesn't it does impact the downtown area as well 00:25:58
and what we just talked about strategic planning so. 00:26:02
The other two are pursuing certification of the Police Department. 00:26:07
The chief has already worked, he's working on the policies that that was something that was being worked on earlier last year. And 00:26:11
then we got a break on that and, and with the new chief, he's come in and started really working at on that in earnest. 00:26:17
Use of force, the really big policy. We need to make sure that we're lined up and shored up on everything on how our officers 00:26:24
react in those situations. 00:26:28
I don't know he's working with. 00:26:32
City attorney to make sure that that is. 00:26:34
Those are those are brought up to standard and that the officers are trying to appropriately for those. 00:26:36
And did a lot of preliminary work on that. Thank you. 00:26:41
We did considerable preliminary work on that maybe eight months or a year ago, but we need to finish that up and Chief look 00:26:46
forward to working with you to accomplish that. Thank you. 00:26:51
One of the side benefits of that is if we do, if we were able to get all those done, we can actually apply for. 00:26:57
The GMA has a. 00:27:03
Police excellence in policing. Excellence in policing. 00:27:07
Certification that will help, it'll actually reduce our our. 00:27:10
Liability insurance rates our premiums by 5%. There are, you know, bigger wins, but they also require bigger. 00:27:13
Bigger investments, so. 00:27:20
We don't have a lot of people that can can maintain the requirements for getting certification. You have to. 00:27:22
Do all these. 00:27:28
Checks and balances and everything throughout the year and that takes a person and I don't know for our size of city, it makes a 00:27:29
lot of sense to use that person to just keep track of reporting and stuff like that. So we'll go after what we can to make sure 00:27:34
that we're doing, we need to be doing and that our officers are trained appropriately at on all of those. 00:27:39
Issues, but there will be a little bit of the benefit once once we get that started so. 00:27:45
City charter amendments. I think this is something we definitely need to. 00:27:50
You know, either say you want to pursue or not pursue. 00:27:53
The council did approve a new charter. 00:27:57
Passed it to the legislature, they didn't move on it. And 20, I guess it was in 22, they didn't move on it and it's sort of sat 00:27:59
there, so I think. 00:28:03
Something y'all need to have some thought about. Again that's not a short term work program. That was something an initiative or 00:28:06
program that you guys. 00:28:09
We're looking at. 00:28:13
Quick comment on that. Your current charter is by memory, 43 or 44 years old. It's somewhat archaic. It does not track the Georgia 00:28:14
Municipal Association model. We all collectively as a group spent a lot of time on this three, 3 1/2 years ago and it is overdue. 00:28:22
Under infrastructure we have. 00:28:32
Six items. 00:28:35
Yes. 00:28:37
Sorry, I meant to ask under the. 00:28:38
Public works facility? How much land do we ideally need? Like minimum? 00:28:40
Just so if we see something in our minds. 00:28:46
Probably an acre to or maybe you should, maybe our city engineer can give you a little bit. So the variability would be sewer, 00:28:49
right? So if you have sewer, then you don't need as much land if you're on septic. 00:28:55
Then you would have to have a septic system associated with that. So if you would need less land, again probably maybe an acre and 00:29:01
1/2. 00:29:05
Or sure if you had sewer. If you don't have sewer, it might be 2 1/2 acres. 00:29:10
Right. So it just depends on. 00:29:14
Obviously once you don't have sewer in your own septic than the condition of the soils. There are some places in the city. 00:29:16
Where their souls aren't great and you need to be able to perk and so then having. 00:29:22
Where those souls are as part of those variabilities. But I don't think you need 4 acres, but I don't think it's something you can 00:29:27
do on half an acre, right. So that that's the range. 00:29:31
OK. Thank you. 00:29:36
What do we need water for other than bathrooms? 00:29:37
Washing equipment or. 00:29:40
Is the building size. 00:29:43
So if you have a second system. 00:29:45
But you have X amount of land for the septic tank field lines or parallel. 00:29:48
Versus a sewer. 00:29:53
Sorry, sorry, I just would since we have people. 00:29:56
Yeah, bathrooms is a is a major portion of that, right. We can't have a public Forks facility without bathrooms for our employees. 00:29:59
But then the, the, the other aspect is currently there is an opportunity for, for for clean up or some other things associated 00:30:03
with. 00:30:08
Just what what Public Works and formerly known as the street department does so. So having a hose bib or having something for 00:30:13
that, that's not usually going into the septic system as well, which is a good point. 00:30:18
The use as far as the requirements. 00:30:23
For a septic system are not like a like a residential or a daycare or restaurant or anything that big. So it would be relatively 00:30:26
small. 00:30:30
OK. Under infrastructure? 00:30:36
We've got improvements of storm water conveyance systems we are actually working on. 00:30:39
Cleaning out some of the culverts that are around the city. That's a project that Public Works is trying to get underway. We've 00:30:47
been short staffed, unfortunately. 00:30:50
Had a really hard time. 00:30:54
Getting people we should be. 00:30:55
We're still going to be short staffed by one person, but we'll have one more person join us March 3rd, so we're working towards 00:30:58
trying to focus on that. There may be some larger. 00:31:02
Drainage improvement options for us or specifically there's one at on Harden Hill at the drainage, there's a area underneath the 00:31:06
the bridge there at Hardin Hill. 00:31:10
Sorry, not under the bridge, under the road that we need to address that something we need to talk about. So that's that's, that's 00:31:15
on the list. I think we'll continue to be on the list for a while until we get a good handle on that. 00:31:20
The street lights and signs the way front. 00:31:27
The wayfinding and all that, we've actually done all that. I think that one is an easy one to remove. Obviously operationally 00:31:29
we'll still continue to do sign updates, but we've. 00:31:34
I believe now gotten all of our wayfinding welcome signage in today or sorry, tomorrow we will see. You'll see a new sign down at 00:31:39
Harris Shoals Park. It'll be similar to the one at Thomas Farm and the coloring and whatnot. And it's supposed to be put in 00:31:43
tomorrow. And then the sun is currently down there. We're going to move up here on the other side of City Hall. So it'll be on the 00:31:48
east entrance into the park. 00:31:52
Exploring and adopting. I'm sorry, exploring and or activating the adopted transportation plan. 00:31:59
Obviously, that is fully underway with the sidewalk improvements that we've made the Thomas. 00:32:05
Sorry, the. 00:32:11
Santon Bridge Rd. pedestrian connector that's underway. There are some, I know there's some, there's been some discussion about 00:32:12
what to do about Barnett Shoals. And so I think that's a that's a discussion to be had about, you know, even though it's not a 00:32:18
road, it is in the city and there's improvements we've talked about in the past about. 00:32:23
That could be done to. 00:32:28
To make it more walkable. 00:32:30
And to connect it now to Wire Park, which is a big part of the city now too. 00:32:32
Establishing a streetlight policy, that's something. Honestly, that's one of the things that's been on the list for a while. It's 00:32:36
really, I think the plan was just to say how it would work if somebody wanted a streetlight. How? What's the process? 00:32:42
It's actually not a big deal to do, but I just haven't had time to put it together. 00:32:49
Again, I don't know that's such a high level thing. I think that's something once I get it done, I'll bring it to you guys to 00:32:53
approve. I don't know that needs to be on our sort of our what I say our big picture. 00:32:57
Thing it does need to be done and it is on my list, it just keeps getting moved down the list so. 00:33:02
I mentioned specifically we do have constructing the Mulberry Simonton Bridge Rd. pedestrian connector actually have that as an 00:33:08
item and of course that is underway. 00:33:12
And hopefully by this time next year, that will be off the list. 00:33:16
And then this goes to what I just talked about on Transportation Barnett Shoals. There's been some discussion about what to do 00:33:20
about Barnett Shoals and how to. 00:33:24
Widen the sidewalks and or produce. 00:33:29
Try to encourage more walkability along that road. 00:33:31
Those are infrastructure and then finally we have land use oops on it. Do it. 00:33:35
Yep, my last one land use we have. 00:33:40
Of six items on there that remain, all of them are fairly active. 00:33:41
The hair Shoals part master plan, we talked about that we. 00:33:47
We technically like I said earlier, we in phase two we did the parking and the. 00:33:50
The parking in the drive improvements and we did the. 00:33:57
The boardwalk, which technically wasn't. 00:34:01
That wasn't really on our list to do. That had to be done. 00:34:04
But phase three is the Girardini Green and possibly we'll see how Ghirardini green goes and and what monies are available and 00:34:07
whether or not you won't want to pursue it, but. 00:34:12
It does call for a bridge across the dam. 00:34:17
And so that's something we can talk about as well. I think right now we got a lot on our plate, but that's something I think y'all 00:34:20
can give us a little bit more direction on if you want us to pursue that, we can start looking at how that might play out. 00:34:25
And and how to fund that so and also from that master plan, another thing that I wonder if it would be less expensive. 00:34:31
Is the kind of amphitheater like the? 00:34:39
The natural amphitheater. 00:34:42
Area down, I think it was around the lake, right, Wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah, like down over here and that that's something that 00:34:44
isn't at Thomas Farm Preserve. I mean that is like a very. So I would be interested to know what that financially would look like. 00:34:51
To pursue that aspect of the master plan. 00:34:58
We also have exploring the rail trail opportunity, which you know would be obviously would be a huge deal for us would connect a 00:35:09
lot of things, but. 00:35:13
That is all privately owned. And so I, I, I'm not really sure the mayor be able to speak to that a little bit later. That may be 00:35:18
something the city can participate in, but I'm not sure the city wouldn't have the funds to buy it, I would guess at this point. 00:35:24
And I'm not sure you know where that all is with the with the estate of the gentleman who owned it. 00:35:30
Consider establishing arts committee. That was actually just done, so that would probably come off the list as well. 00:35:36
Unless you want to give specific. 00:35:42
You know guidance about what what you know if there's bigger pieces like you want to establish a. 00:35:44
You know. 00:35:49
If you want to add areas and and collaborate, I think there's still a lot of. 00:35:52
I know when I got here, there was a, there was. 00:35:56
Maybe a loose committee or something that was deciding about art boards and art, and there were some art sculptures and things 00:35:59
downtown. I think we're down to two sculptures downtown. They're actually still out. The one that's on our property in front of 00:36:03
Blind Peg or yeah, fine. 00:36:08
Yeah, fine pig. And then there's another sculpture that's actually, I think at the Murray house, but it's not, it's not actually 00:36:14
the city's. 00:36:17
So the one that was in front of ATT was falling apart. So that came down last year, but. 00:36:20
So anyway, we'll need a little bit of direction. The committee is going to need some direction too on that. If you all have some 00:36:25
big ideas about what that should look like, I think, you know, you could potentially leave that on here, but change it a little 00:36:28
bit. 00:36:32
Establishment green space program. 00:36:36
Obviously the city's been fortunate we've. 00:36:38
Received a fair amount of green space for free 13 acres over at Trove. We're looking at having some green space over here next to 00:36:40
Waters walk when that project is done. 00:36:45
And and. 00:36:51
So decide and then there's other properties in the community that are for sale that could potentially be. 00:36:53
Space like near Hair Shoals Park or potentially near Thomas Farm or somewhere like that, you know, where we might want to 00:37:00
consider, I think the mayor can speak to that some when we get into the deeper dive. 00:37:05
And then establishing a citywide beautification program. 00:37:10
Again. 00:37:14
That's sort of an ongoing thing that may be one of the things to peel off the list because that's become more operational now. 00:37:15
It's not a project, it's just an everyday occurrence. 00:37:19
We do have, we do have a contractor that handles Main Street just so we could have some consistency because we did have staffing 00:37:23
issues and whatnot. 00:37:27
So we have a contractor handling that. 00:37:31
We have our entry entryway signage and stuff. Our our guys are helping try to keep those tidy right now there's. 00:37:34
Plantings that were planned last year, hopefully we'll start developing some more. 00:37:41
This year. 00:37:45
But, and, and so I'm not really sure. Again, I don't know if that's something that needs to stay on the list or if we've just 00:37:46
operationalized it now and it it can, it can peel off. 00:37:51
The last one is. 00:37:55
Considering a historic preservation ordinance. 00:37:57
And that did get passed, but we still have to identify the historic preservation district, the parcels that will be included and 00:38:00
then your historic preservation Commission and the process. 00:38:05
By which it will operate. So some pretty big, there are some obviously some items on here that are big lists. There's some others 00:38:11
that maybe like I said we've operationalized and no longer need to be. 00:38:16
On a, you know on a project list or program list. 00:38:21
So the. 00:38:27
My thought process was that maybe and I these are just bulletproof bullet points to put on the. 00:38:29
To keep your. 00:38:36
To have some ideas up there for y'all to consider. 00:38:38
The ones at the bottom, I just want to point out real quick, obviously everybody knows today is Oconee County's official 250. I'm 00:38:41
sorry, 150th birthday. I'm trying to make them too old. 150th birthday. It's actually also our finance director Lee Black's 00:38:45
birthday today. 00:38:50
And it's and we won't sing the song. We already sang the song. 00:38:55
But yeah, that's right. Yeah. 00:39:01
She probably feels 150 sometimes. 00:39:04
But the the 100, it's also the city's 150th birthday is the seat of Oconee County, too. So I just want to make a quick note. The 00:39:08
sculpture that was at the AT&T building is actually in storage at Public Works. 00:39:14
The stand that it was on was in disarray, so we disassembled that sculpture and it's in public works. 00:39:21
Waiting to be reinstalled somewhere else. 00:39:27
Yeah. 00:39:30
So, so my thought was this is the point where if you know, if you have ideas, we can, you know, we can start writing them down. We 00:39:33
can decide where they best fit, how those evolve and then and then. 00:39:39
After we get done with this session, then the plan would be to give you guys some some numbers. I'll give you a couple sets of 00:39:46
twos, ones twos and threes and y'all will go to the table. 00:39:51
If we need to, we'll update the list that's on the table before. We'll print those out if there's additional things that are added 00:39:56
and then have you guys prioritize. 00:40:00
What's most important to you? Because obviously all these things are important, but we can't get them all done, you know, can't 00:40:04
get them all done at the same time. We can do them all, but it's not at the same time, so. 00:40:09
Mayor, I'm going to turn it over to you and let you handle this piece of it if you want. 00:40:13
OK. 00:40:17
I think we can. 00:40:18
I think maybe for the sake of. 00:40:21
Most efficient way to do this? You know, we've got some ideas up here that we can expand upon if we need to, but I think. 00:40:23
This point, why don't we just sort of round Robin and let council offer ideas? 00:40:28
And maybe we can just sort of go in this direction and if someone says I don't have any or I don't have it, I'd like to. 00:40:32
React to something we can, we can have a discussion about it, but instead of somebody saying here's my 6 ideas, let's just maybe 00:40:38
do one at a time. 00:40:41
And then sort of. 00:40:44
Unpack that or just share it, and if you need some processing time, that's fine, we can come back to it, but this will be 00:40:45
relatively informal. 00:40:49
You guys all got my e-mail from a few weeks ago so hopefully you've had time to think about. 00:40:53
Authorities and ideas and if you have. 00:40:58
Let's just kind of get those all out now. Let's discuss. 00:41:00
We've got. 00:41:04
Gosh, we've got until 11, so we've got about an hour, 15 minutes. 00:41:05
And if you don't have good ideas, I've got a long list, so. So go ahead. And yeah, good, Christine does too, so. 00:41:10
So, but mine may not be all good. I tell people a lot of times when when I'm. 00:41:17
Mayoring. It's kind of like being a baseball player, right? I might see 10 pitches and three of them might be hits, you know, but. 00:41:22
If I can get three hits out of every 10 pitches, I'd probably be in the Hall of Fame. So, so. 00:41:29
So anyway, so I, I like to like to take some swings. Some of them hit, some of them miss. But I'll, I'll throw out my ideas as we 00:41:35
move along. 00:41:38
And go through it, But maybe Jeff will let you go first. If you've got anything you want to share, let's just do one at a time and 00:41:42
we'll kind of move. 00:41:45
Jeff, Christine, Brett. 00:41:48
Chuck, Connie and me, and then we'll kind of just keep going around until we run out of steam. 00:41:49
So we're just doing one idea that moving on. Yeah, do one idea and then maybe we can people can react to it, discuss it briefly 00:41:53
and then I'll just move us along if it if we get bogged down so. 00:41:58
And it doesn't have to be one of those, it can be something totally different to SO. 00:42:03
You know, welcome to ordinance BE. Yeah, yeah. Something I wanted like to do this year is work on a shared kitchen ordinance. 00:42:06
It's something that I see. 00:42:16
In my travels to Atlanta. 00:42:18
With our store. 00:42:20
Little background, I go to Atlanta every week and I pick up some supplies like chips. 00:42:22
It's also things like that from a place called Prep Kitchens in Atlanta. 00:42:27
And it's an old office park that's been converted to shared kitchen space. And it's a great incubator space for people with ideas, 00:42:32
which I can relate to because years ago I created a BBQ sauce in my kitchen. 00:42:37
To see if anybody would. 00:42:42
You know, liked it and then it kind of grew. So I'm kind of. 00:42:44
Passionate about helping people with an idea to see. 00:42:47
Clearly can become a viable business. 00:42:50
And so I know several people are in the area that. 00:42:53
Have expressed interest in growing their business. 00:42:57
But don't can't afford a commercial kitchen on their own. 00:43:01
So they need they want to take this next step. They might have a cottage license currently. 00:43:04
But umm. 00:43:09
Can't go full board into. 00:43:10
The food business idea. So they want a shared kitchen. So anyway, that's something. 00:43:13
That I've been talking to a few people on and actually got someone who's. 00:43:18
Would like to do a shared kitchen in Watkinsville. 00:43:22
But we just need to. 00:43:25
Come up with an ordinance and there's. 00:43:26
Many cities across the state have them, so it's. 00:43:29
For me, it's something I learned in Thomasville. It's all about R&D, which is RIP off and duplicate. 00:43:32
So anyway, a little more research on that and I think would be. 00:43:39
A good. 00:43:43
A good ordinance for the city. 00:43:44
Anybody want to build on that, react to that, go ahead. I mean it supports all of our. 00:43:47
Our tagline come connect, create and I think it's a great idea. So full support. 00:43:53
One of the other things that I've talked with some other folks around is like. 00:43:58
Do we want to have a? 00:44:01
Is there a possibility as we sort of think about the future of our. 00:44:04
Industrial area to. 00:44:07
Have parts of it become a little bit more of a? 00:44:09
In a hub for entrepreneurs of different sorts. It already functions that way a little bit informally, but is there anything we 00:44:13
could do? 00:44:15
In the food and art space, you know, maker space, I guess you call it. You know where. 00:44:18
That terms become kind of trite, but. 00:44:23
You know, is there a way that we could encourage, you know, the food entrepreneurs in the community, the art entrepreneurs, give 00:44:25
them a safe landing space. 00:44:29
Or you know, through ordinances to your point have have. 00:44:33
Of, you know, an opportunity for more of them to land in Watkinsville and start those enterprises here. 00:44:36
Jeff, I have a client who has set up an entrepreneurship Academy or institute for lack of a better term, I just spoke to 00:44:45
yesterday. So offline let's you and I connect up and you can reach out to that individual and I hope they can help. This idea I 00:44:50
think with dovetail nicely what you're talking about. 00:44:56
Thank you. 00:45:02
All right, Christine. 00:45:03
OK. 00:45:05
So, umm. 00:45:06
I think this year we need to really start focusing on the House at Thomas Farm Preserve and see what we might. 00:45:09
Want to do with it if we want to. I mean, I think the. 00:45:16
The two ideas that I keep rolling around in my head is that. 00:45:23
The museum idea that would have to be volunteer staffed. 00:45:26
And then also. 00:45:32
Maybe some kind of community, small Community Center, because I know there's been talk over the years that. 00:45:34
City Hall used to function that way, but it doesn't anymore for lots of. 00:45:39
Valid reasons. 00:45:43
So maybe that's something that we would be able to. 00:45:44
To accommodate, again, I know there are staffing issues. I know that I mean there's a lot of factors to look at with that, but I'm 00:45:47
also open to hearing other ideas, but any? 00:45:51
Umm, any structures out there I think. 00:45:56
We need to. 00:46:00
To make the most of and make good use of and so. 00:46:01
I think there is a. 00:46:06
Current business owner that is looking to. 00:46:08
Take some of his space and turn it into a. 00:46:12
Community type center, a rentable community type center. Well that I mean like an event this. 00:46:15
Yes, I know of a couple of people who are looking at creating event spaces in Watkinsville and I think that's great. And I think, 00:46:21
you know, we should have, again, I think we already have some good ordinances around that to make sure it's a balance for the 00:46:25
community as a whole. 00:46:29
I'm thinking more of the. 00:46:34
Affordable, uh. 00:46:36
Small family reunion or a group of people want to have a card night? 00:46:38
And you know. 00:46:44
Building on again when we look at these and where we are with the community building. 00:46:46
If it is more of a Community Center, it would be more about community building. It would need to be sustainable. We need to make 00:46:52
sure it fits in in the budget and whatever that looks like. 00:46:56
Umm, but that it's a space that people can gather and a business is event space that's going to look different. That's when you, 00:47:01
you know, you you've got money to spend for a big birthday party or something for this would be a not-for-profit kind of thing. 00:47:08
So I like the idea of having a process to determine what the future of the house is. Probably the second or third most common 00:47:16
question I get about. 00:47:19
About Thomas Farm, you know, and I don't think we just want to let it sit there forever. 00:47:23
Is there? Do we have any limitations as to? 00:47:28
What can be there? And I know we can't. 00:47:31
Put in a restaurant, anything like that, but we can rent the house out. 00:47:33
If we want to to bring in money. 00:47:38
Is that? 00:47:42
Yeah, so that. 00:47:42
That's some of what I hope I'm going to get some direction from you guys today on what what you would like to see. Do you want it 00:47:44
to see it operate similar to what we're doing at Harris Shoals or people just rent the pavilion? 00:47:49
We don't. We've never. 00:47:55
And I don't think you guys want to go down the route of actually renting out the like shutting on the park for an event. 00:47:57
But we got to talk about, you know, just like we did with rocket field, we were trying to figure out what's a good. 00:48:02
Price, lot price point, right? 00:48:09
Right now we really haven't. Some of it's just been because of staffing. We really haven't pushed hey, come rent rocket field and 00:48:11
we haven't, we've done a couple of events and again, I think a lot of it has more to do with staffing and just the capacity we 00:48:16
have to handle what we've already got on our plate, but. 00:48:21
But I think the price points pretty good. I think rocket field, we figured out sort of the sweet spot potentially on, on what 00:48:26
groups that might want to come in would pay or be willing to pay for the use of that space. So we'll have to figure that out as 00:48:31
well. But I'll I'll need a little bit more direction from you all as to. 00:48:36
What do you envision, would you envision and we did in January allow, I think the JC's jog actually took part of their their dog 00:48:42
through the park. 00:48:46
You know, is there. 00:48:51
We didn't ask for any money on that. I don't know that you want to do that, but I need to know how you feel about that. Do we want 00:48:53
to? 00:48:57
Charge something they're charging people to, you know, to, to participate in their dog. Should there be a fee? If there's, you 00:49:01
know, the biggest thing is always about public safety. If, if there's a fee, we if there's an event like that happened, we 00:49:06
coordinated with them and they had to pay for the officers just like Lamar Park has an event or whatever. 00:49:11
To make sure that the safety you know is, is maintained. But Sharon just real quick, the question was specific specifically in the 00:49:17
house. Is there anything in our loan agreement that would prevent us from. 00:49:22
Doing things there that would require people to pay a fee or anything like that. Not that I mean, again, we. 00:49:28
Not hearing from any higher ups and we haven't really asked specifically, could we? 00:49:36
But from we and you know that came with the property and they were aware that was on the property. So I think we can use whatever 00:49:40
is on the property now. 00:49:44
And I don't think adding the pavilion did anything to affect it either. 00:49:48
So I don't think that's an issue. I think that the deed restriction was mainly on developing it into program, programmatic space, 00:49:53
etc, stay in passive space, so. 00:49:58
I don't think that's that's my recollection as well. I think you're correct. 00:50:02
Yeah, not like the idea of it being a kind of a Community Center since that's what this was originally. 00:50:07
I think that's kind of a need for the community. 00:50:13
And I think incorporated in the community. 00:50:16
Center can be museum pieces in history, but I don't see a manned. 00:50:18
Museum. 00:50:24
Community museum but I only open when it's rented out type space versus. 00:50:26
I don't know that we want to have someone there 9:00 to 5:00. 00:50:31
Manning a museum. 00:50:35
Someone available for a Community Center, but it has the history of. 00:50:37
Watkinsville, Kony. 00:50:40
In the space. 00:50:42
I think if we had something like that, we. 00:50:43
Maybe have some kind of committee and. 00:50:46
It could tie into community engagement as well. I, I do think there are a lot of people in our community as we have newer people 00:50:51
coming in that want to get connected, want to get in and so I think. 00:50:56
Taking advantage. 00:51:02
Of that in a good way of giving some opportunities for people to step in and be part of our community. 00:51:04
Umm. So I like the idea of maybe. 00:51:09
Some of the design. 00:51:13
Of the upstairs, having it kind of lean into the museum, so having pieces, you know. 00:51:14
Like Doctor Ward's book having some of those frame pictures, like there's, there's a lot of amazing history that we have. 00:51:22
Almost decorating it with that, but then maybe having it be. 00:51:28
Really an affordably rented Community Center and sometimes the city hosts something the year, you know, that's something 11 00:51:33
thought would be maybe we. 00:51:37
I think. 00:51:42
Group that together with. 00:51:44
Plan for that because I think we'll also have people who may want to rent the pavilion and use that house to cook in and. 00:51:46
You know, if they're going to have a family reunion or something out there, then OK, if we're going to. 00:51:52
Operate out of the pavilion, but we need the ability to warm up our food or to do some stuff there. 00:51:56
My other suggestion would be maybe we develop also. 00:52:02
We've talked about, you know, do we want to look into having a private partner? Do you know, this was another idea somebody else 00:52:05
may have had to but. 00:52:08
Do we want to explore the idea of the coffee shop and sandwich shop in the dairy barn? 00:52:12
So maybe we kind of wrap that all into one of these things around explore appropriate utilization of the structures that Thomas 00:52:17
farm. 00:52:20
And work on that this year and get some of those in place. I think some of it can be faster than others. 00:52:24
You know, but but I'd love to see. 00:52:30
I don't think we're going to see it slow down out there, you know, and and I think it's. 00:52:34
But I think anything we can do to kind of. 00:52:38
Create that sort of community experience on the front end while people get the. 00:52:40
Wilderness experience in the back is great, you know. 00:52:44
And maybe we can. I mean, this is getting to the weeds and it worked doing big picture here, but let the house be. 00:52:46
Available at dark, so it's. 00:52:53
It almost may be encouraging that. 00:52:56
Thinking about traffic, thinking about overlap, that you know, there's obviously lights and it's safe, that it's something that 00:52:59
people can. 00:53:02
Can rent and have opportunity for in the evening. Anything else on this one? I think it's a great. 00:53:06
Idea. I think we can spend more time unpacking it. Any concerns or other thoughts? 00:53:13
Possibly would haven't. You know, we don't have a welcome center here in Watkinsville anymore. 00:53:19
But I know when we went to that emergency. 00:53:25
Maybe no, but why park into library? You know they was talk about. 00:53:28
Having some place where a lot of information was provided for people that come into town. 00:53:32
You know everything that we offer and how do you get in touch with this person? That person I know we talked about putting it on. 00:53:39
Possibly putting on the. 00:53:45
On the tax bill or whatever, but anyway, something a little. 00:53:47
Just in your face like. 00:53:51
We if you go somewhere, if you have to go to the restroom, whatever, but there's. 00:53:54
Or the house. 00:53:58
You know, uh. 00:53:59
A place to have that kind of information would be great. 00:54:01
And we've just added bulletin boards out there too, so we can start, you know, we don't have anything on those yet, so we can 00:54:04
start putting basic information out there too. 00:54:08
They'll get a lot of eyeballs. 00:54:12
All right. So Sharon, I think that's a good. 00:54:13
That's a good. 00:54:16
List. All right, Brett. 00:54:17
Oh, where to start? 00:54:20
So you know. 00:54:24
I love how much time we're spending at Thomas Farms. It's, it's beautiful. 00:54:26
And I know that we are continually working on hair Shoals. 00:54:29
You know, as one of our oldest parks here, I would love to see that finish. I would love to, you know, let's, let's spend a lot of 00:54:34
time. 00:54:38
Finishing up hair Shoals. Make it Making it. 00:54:42
Being beautiful. 00:54:45
You know, I know we got to keep hair. Thomas Farms. 00:54:46
Preserved like it is. 00:54:50
Like let's let's look at. 00:54:51
Adding stuff. 00:54:55
Here, that gives people things to do. 00:54:56
I I. 00:54:59
I, I, I think you know. 00:55:05
When we had basketball courts or or if we had pickleball courts. 00:55:06
You know, give, give people things to do here in the city of Watkinsville at our parks. 00:55:10
I think that that would be a. 00:55:16
A good use of space and a good use of money to. 00:55:17
Have have them to be able to do stuff. 00:55:21
People like to walk around, but people like to. 00:55:24
Do things as well. So so so then maybe. 00:55:26
Explore opportunities for active recreation. We have a lot passive yes. 00:55:31
But what are opportunities for active recreation and our existing parks or elsewhere? Yes, OK. 00:55:35
For existing green spaces. 00:55:40
Thoughts on that? 00:55:42
I agree. You know, I agree. Yeah. I wish I could have been here two months ago. Yeah. I mean, I I. 00:55:43
I think the way Brian summed it up, I think is good. I think we need to look at that balance of passive and active. I don't know 00:55:52
that we need to all focus just on Harris Shoals. So I like how Brian worded it. I'm not saying none at Harris Shoals, but Hair 00:55:57
Shoals has a incredibly robust master plan that. 00:56:01
Have a insane amount of community input so. 00:56:06
But yes, I agree. I mean having active things is good. I think there's some other I only disagreement to that is that was before 00:56:11
we even knew anything about Thomas Farm preserves and the. 00:56:16
100 beautiful acres of green space. 00:56:21
And we got plenty of green space. It's going to take. 00:56:23
These guys over here. 00:56:27
Every bit of effort to maintain that green space that we have, let's let's start looking at a. 00:56:29
This is just Brett's opinion, let's start looking at some some passive stuff. 00:56:34
Not green space, not I'm not saying citizens, if you have green space, we don't want it. 00:56:38
We would love to take your green space off your hands, but we have a lot to maintain. 00:56:43
As it is so. 00:56:48
All right, so active recreation opportunities. 00:56:50
And I think that. 00:56:53
The sports like basketball, pickleball are good and that they don't require staff. I think that's where we get in trouble. You 00:56:55
know, think about how much the county has to put into. 00:56:59
If any of you look dug into the county's budget numbers for their new park, they're spending, you know. 00:57:03
With lights and electricity and staff. 00:57:09
You know they're spending as much as we spend on Thomas Farm basically on almost each ball field. 00:57:12
You know, it's gets kind of crazy so. 00:57:17
By the time they do the infrastructure. 00:57:20
Just a quick number. 00:57:22
On the pickleball. 00:57:24
If you don't have to have lights so you know if you. 00:57:26
About 100,000. 00:57:29
If it's not any heavy grading to do? 00:57:32
So 4 courts, 4 courts, 9000. 00:57:35
And who wants to? Who gets to live next to the **** **** ****? Yeah. So we gotta think about the location. 00:57:40
Chuck. 00:57:48
A couple of things. 00:57:50
The another historic. 00:57:53
We're working on that. 00:57:54
But the signs I know. 00:57:56
We on the last page was talking about the signage and stuff. 00:57:57
We never didn't get around to getting the. 00:58:01
We took down some historic district signs for the downtown area. 00:58:04
I think we were thinking we were going to redo them all and this was going to come a whole lot quicker. 00:58:09
But it's obviously a process. It's going to take a while. 00:58:14
But the. 00:58:19
End of S Main St. 00:58:21
You can't even. 00:58:24
Read them and read it. The old black ones, Yeah, Yeah. I mean, at least we should think about getting going on and getting those 00:58:26
done. Most of those fall under the. 00:58:31
Department of Interior whether the brownish bronze color. 00:58:36
You see it all. 00:58:40
State parks and stuff. So we do have a documented historic district. 00:58:42
And if you follow what most of the cities have, they do have that. 00:58:47
Type sign. It just says you know, historic district. 00:58:53
So I would like to see that. 00:58:57
On another note, the I know we've said the. 00:59:00
Old public works building is. 00:59:04
Very valuable property. 00:59:07
Are we thinking a traffic circle there or something? 00:59:11
Long term? Long term maybe, but. 00:59:16
My question is. 00:59:20
Why can't some of the equipment and stuff get moved to Thomas farm about? 00:59:21
Why do we? Why do we need a new public's work building? 00:59:25
And if you, what are you going to put in that building? 00:59:31
That, I mean, it's a terrible place to get in and out of. 00:59:34
I mean you, when you leave it, you're going to turn right and go away from town. 00:59:39
With all the traffic and stuff that we have, so it's just. 00:59:45
I was just wondering what what are the plans for that? 00:59:49
So, umm. 00:59:52
The the DVA. 00:59:55
Would love it if the city would lease it to DBA and then. 00:59:59
The DBA could use it kind of as some incubator spaces those. 01:00:04
Different bays would make really great little smaller. 01:00:10
Businesses. 01:00:14
There's also a lot of property with it. There's actually a lot of land and the way it's currently graded. 01:00:15
It is kind of awkward. I mean, a lot of it isn't particularly usable, but there is a lot of potential there. 01:00:21
So. 01:00:27
I also I will just speak. 01:00:28
Aesthetically. 01:00:31
My dad has, I mean, this is, this is random about my dad, but he doesn't say much about the city of Watkinsville. 01:00:33
But as soon as we moved here, he has said multiple times he's like. 01:00:39
Why is like in this main corner of town? 01:00:43
Like this, I mean, a public works building is just not very attractive or pretty. So we got one of our main corridors. 01:00:46
And we have very useful practical things we're grateful for. But is that really? 01:00:54
The best place to house them? 01:01:00
So I think with the size of that actual lot, if you actually walk it and look at it, there will be ways to improve the traffic 01:01:02
flow if some grading happened. 01:01:07
But I think there is just tremendous potential with that. That is a key piece of real estate and it seems like it is not at the 01:01:12
highest and best use. 01:01:16
Some of the one of the things we've looked at is, you know, there's, there's ways you can structure. 01:01:21
Leases you could do. You could do public, private joint ventures where you could. 01:01:26
Because remember, it can, it connects the lot behind it as well as the little. All small, but we're building so you could preserve 01:01:32
the brick structure. 01:01:35
You could level it out and you could do, you could do some different things on that site. And then if G dot came along years later 01:01:39
and offered to pay you out for a traffic circle, you know, then we'd still take the money. 01:01:44
But it's not like we'd be getting any less than we are now. 01:01:49
But we have no idea what the timeline is for that. 01:01:51
So the DDA is leading the way on that. 01:01:54
And and what I've seen too is that. 01:01:56
There is a way to do a traffic circle there and still keep that building? 01:02:00
I mean, it is. It is possible depending on how it's structured. So depending on how it goes, that building might. 01:02:04
Still be able to be preserved. 01:02:11
Because at this point, it is historic. 01:02:12
As well. 01:02:15
That was the first fire department, I think in Oconee County. Yeah, I don't I don't think we. 01:02:16
Ideally wouldn't want to lose the building. 01:02:21
Face it. Yeah. Lucky. Yeah. 01:02:24
So it looks like you've got two parcels there. 01:02:28
Yep. 01:02:30
Connie. 01:02:36
Well, I am concerned with. 01:02:39
Moving the. 01:02:42
Street department and using that building for businesses because of the traffic that that intersection is constantly busy. 01:02:43
And if the people are complaining now because of the street department machinery going in and out, it's going to be even worse 01:02:51
with. 01:02:56
Customers. 01:03:01
Going in if it's some kind of business? 01:03:02
And I just. 01:03:05
Not looking forward to that happening. 01:03:07
OK. Thank you. 01:03:10
I I've got a lot of ideas. One of them I'll throw out something that came up at the All America City. 01:03:15
Was how we engage our youth in the community and. 01:03:20
Create opportunities for our youth to understand. 01:03:23
Not just about Watkinsville, but about, you know, helping local government, why that's important, how that works. Some cities have 01:03:26
a. 01:03:29
You know, a city youth council or a youth leadership program of some sort. 01:03:33
You know, that gives young people the opportunity to get engaged and. 01:03:38
Be a part of you know, learn about everything from police to public works to. 01:03:42
You know our different departments and also how we make decisions and also give us some input on, you know, what do we? 01:03:47
Want to hear from the younger folks, what's important to them, you know, the people that we want to have to move back to this 01:03:53
community so. 01:03:55
I'd love for us to explore some sort of Watkinsville. 01:03:58
Youth council or youth leadership program that would. 01:04:02
Help get the youth in the community. 01:04:05
Engaged. 01:04:08
I'm thinking probably high school aged children. 01:04:09
But also think children of, you know, all backgrounds. So I don't want to just get the same kids who are in Beta club and 01:04:12
absolutely crushing it at Oconee or Athens Academy or Westminster. How do we really get a cross section of? 01:04:17
Kids from Watkinsville engaged and. 01:04:23
You know, giving us some feedback, you know, maybe they have a project, you know, as they work through their year, at the end, 01:04:26
they come to City Council with recommendations on things that they've seen and. 01:04:30
To give them an opportunity to engage, to learn. 01:04:35
And then maybe report back to the council on here's here's what's important to the next generation of Watkinsville citizens. 01:04:38
I think that's a great idea and I would piggyback on that. 01:04:45
There is a. 01:04:50
Community in Georgia. 01:04:52
I can't remember. It's a county that does it and they actually partner with the high school and have an entrepreneurship. 01:04:54
Kind of program. 01:05:02
Umm, which to me goes back to our, you know, wanting to. 01:05:05
To have that creative spirit. There's a great marketing teacher at Oconee County High School as well who's really engaged I. 01:05:11
So not that it would be ours to just run completely. I know that that would be a big lift and not really, but I would love to 01:05:18
facilitate that somehow if there's a way to start the conversations, if it's between even the chamber and the marketing teacher to 01:05:25
kind of kind of high school and and have another kind of piece of engagement for our youth that also we are. 01:05:32
Encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit. 01:05:39
So I'm in the Oconee County, one of the Oconee, one of the two Oconee County Rotary clubs. We made it in the morning and. 01:05:43
We spot help sponsor Rylai, the Rotary Young Youth Leadership. 01:05:50
And I mean, that's, that's a great program. 01:05:56
Of like. 01:06:00
Outside of your beta club people, I mean. Not saying they're not in the beta club, but. 01:06:03
They're very good, very intelligent. 01:06:07
Rotary Youth. 01:06:11
Kids that. 01:06:13
Would be beneficial. 01:06:15
All along same lines of school. I know you had mentioned high school, but we do have the one and only school in the city of 01:06:16
Watkinsville. 01:06:19
Called Ferry that I would love to get engaged with a little more often. 01:06:23
You know, I know our Police Department has in the past. 01:06:28
Sent officers up there, you know, Fridays or whatever to. 01:06:31
But you know, let's if we could get more involved, you know, maybe the council shows up every once in a while and opens doors for 01:06:34
kids or. 01:06:38
You know, I don't know. Let's see how we, us and Doctor Brown could get together and. 01:06:42
And and be engaged with the one and only school we have in the city of Watkinsville. 01:06:47
I like the idea of having a. 01:06:52
A different point of view. 01:06:54
Yeah, because this may sound weird, but stay with me. 01:06:56
The Super Bowl halftime show. 01:07:01
I thought it was the worst halftime show entertainment I've ever seen. 01:07:04
But then I spoke to my daughters and friends, my daughters who are teenagers. 01:07:08
And they loved it, Yeah. 01:07:12
I said, how can you love that? I can understand one word, the person said. That's not music. 01:07:14
But they told me a little background of whatever and they knew the words and apparently had to bleep out a lot of the words. 01:07:19
But anyway, I thought it was interesting how I thought that was horrible. 01:07:25
And I was like, oh, Prince back in Miami in the 90s was the best half time. 01:07:29
Whatever, but I couldn't comprehend that they liked it. 01:07:35
But I didn't know their point of view. 01:07:39
So I think if we had, you know, kids involved and probably. 01:07:41
You know, high school kids involved. What do you want in Watkinsville? 01:07:46
You know what's important to you. 01:07:50
So that down the road like you mentioned. 01:07:52
When they are our age, in their 30s, getting married and what? 01:07:55
Some people getting married sooner than others. 01:07:59
Now they're getting married, they want them to consider Watkinsville. 01:08:02
So, umm. 01:08:06
I think it's a great idea. 01:08:07
All right, cool. 01:08:10
We'll move on to you, Jeff. 01:08:13
I'll go back to my original thing, why I wanted a room for city council's and we're doing a good job with it. It's just 01:08:18
continuing. 01:08:21
With the sidewalks. 01:08:24
You know, expanding sidewalks and improving sidewalks. 01:08:26
I'm still. 01:08:31
I'm still hopeful for the day when we get to where we can have a. 01:08:34
There's a National School Day or Bike to School Day. 01:08:38
I want that here in Watkinsville and I want to see the kids ride by my house. 01:08:42
All the way down. 01:08:46
South Lane. 01:08:48
To Collin Ferry, that's. 01:08:49
My fondest memory as a child is riding my bike to school. And it was. 01:08:51
You know, a couple miles to school and. 01:08:55
I was in elementary school and. 01:08:57
You just did. It was. There's no supervision, but anyway. 01:08:58
I, you know, just. 01:09:03
Improving some of the existing sidewalks we have. I just personally see the ones on Main Street because that's where I live and 01:09:05
that's where I walk. 01:09:08
And it's. 01:09:11
A little bit of an obstacle course going down South Main. 01:09:12
So I just see that. 01:09:15
And then continue it down South means to where it hits Calvin Ferry. We can marry up with the wonderful extension we've got on 01:09:17
High Shoals. 01:09:21
I know there's other areas but that just. 01:09:26
But I see every day. 01:09:28
But that that's that's important to me is the sidewalk that I want to see kids walk into school. 01:09:31
I'd like us to also. 01:09:38
You know when we complete the phase, this year's work which will be to get. 01:09:40
Simonton Place to downtown. 01:09:45
Then I'd like us to begin planning in earnest. How do we get from Simonton Place to Wire Park? 01:09:47
You know, and I think that's, I don't think that's unreasonable. We've got some good partners who can help us with that. 01:09:52
You know, we'll have some of those conversations, but. 01:09:59
I think. 01:10:02
At that point, we'll have done two things that people said were impossible 10 years ago, which is a sidewalk on Hardin Hill and a 01:10:03
sidewalk on Simonton Bridge. 01:10:07
And then I, you know, we've got a good transportation plan on other areas. I think even looking at North Main Street, you know, is 01:10:11
another. 01:10:15
Spot, there's not a ton of houses down there, but those folks, those folks also, you know. 01:10:18
Are hungry for pedestrian connection back to town, so I think I think. 01:10:23
Jeff, I think we got to continue working there. 01:10:27
Yeah, I actually had. I've had two conversations now with Watkinsville First Baptist Church about. 01:10:30
The interconnect going through their property and their. 01:10:37
They have some stuff they're working on with the county for sewer, but. 01:10:40
Along the same lines that would love to. 01:10:45
Partner with us. 01:10:47
And get a. 01:10:49
A pathway that leads through there over. 01:10:51
Down Norton. 01:10:54
So. 01:10:54
All right, Christine. 01:10:58
OK, so. 01:10:59
Y'all might just shut this down. 01:11:02
And I don't know this has happened this year or ever, but when I think of the aesthetics of downtown. 01:11:05
I would love. 01:11:12
To not just move a power pole, but get rid of all the power poles. I mean, I know, I know, we got the former line like, like, but. 01:11:13
Every time I turn on, you know I'm sitting there at Ashford Memorial is one of the most beautiful churches. 01:11:22
It's I've never been able to get a good picture of it because there's all these stupid power. I mean, they're not stupid. We need 01:11:30
them. We like power, but like unattractive power lines right there. So. 01:11:35
If we're just, I mean, this council has done a lot of amazing big things so. 01:11:40
I'm gonna put, I don't know if anyone's ever put it out there, but I would love to have all underground utilities in downtown 01:11:46
Watkinsville. We're doing that on Simonton Bridge. 01:11:50
I know it might be a little trickier on Main Street, but I would I would. 01:11:55
Would love to see that happen. 01:11:59
Very, very expensive, and when it goes out, it's out for much, much longer. 01:12:01
But it wouldn't go out as much because there's no tree limbs falling on it. 01:12:06
So there's always an overhead line somewhere feeding underground. 01:12:10
Anyway I. 01:12:13
I mean. 01:12:16
Very, very expensive. I think it should just even be looked at. 01:12:17
So what I will say is we have a very good partner at Georgia Power right now. 01:12:21
Who's willing to work with us on stuff and look at things and explore things? 01:12:25
I think it would have to be part of a streets get bigger streetscape. 01:12:29
You know, effort, you know which, you know, it's been 20 years, you know, I mean, so. 01:12:32
It probably takes 10 years to get funding and get those things done, so I don't think it hurts to put it on a long range work plan 01:12:36
at all and just think about. 01:12:40
And it may be, hey, we get 1/4 of it done here and another quarter of it done. But you when you think about your strategic plan 01:12:43
for downtown. 01:12:46
That may also may be part of your long range plan is how do we. 01:12:50
In tranches, get some of these buried, like if you think about the. 01:12:53
East side of our downtown sidewalks between. 01:12:56
Between sunshine and. 01:13:02
Eagle Tavern, Those are tiny little sidewalks. They haven't been upgraded in a long time. I mean. 01:13:04
That stretch could be done, you know, so you can kind of take it in sections and think about it without tearing up your whole 01:13:08
downtown. But. 01:13:11
I don't think it's. 01:13:14
I encourage y'all to dream big. Let's dream big. The only other aspect of that is. 01:13:15
Most of the houses that rundown through there have overhead power get. 01:13:21
Goes to their. 01:13:24
Houses. So now you're actually. 01:13:26
Making the homeowners themselves incur a additional expense to go from an overhead service to an underground service. 01:13:29
I mean that's maybe there are grants to help with that. I'm not saying this is going to happen next week. I'm just saying. 01:13:35
I would love to see the city of Watkinsville not have those overhead power lines, so I would love to start the process of looking 01:13:42
at what would that take. 01:13:46
What grants are out there? How much time can we budget for that? Except. 01:13:50
Maybe some plans for some. 01:13:55
There may be some grants out there. 01:13:58
For water lines and stuff, because at some point we're going to be faced. 01:14:00
We we have a tremendously old. 01:14:04
Water system when the infrastructure lives, yeah, old pipes that nobody knows where they're in or anything about. So I mean, 01:14:06
that's something coming down the road, but hopefully there would be some grants. 01:14:12
To help improve those. 01:14:17
You know what they say about how you eat an elephant, right? Yeah, this is an elephant. But, you know, I think the first step is 01:14:20
to figure out what it look like. And I do think since we've got our. 01:14:26
Partner with our downtown strategic plan. It's a good. 01:14:32
Good way to engage them. 01:14:34
If you have something you want to add on, I agree with you know. 01:14:36
Getting rid of the power lines if possible and it it falls into the whole. 01:14:40
You know, streetscape. 01:14:45
Plan and you know you mentioned. 01:14:47
Ask for Memorial Church and that's such. 01:14:49
That's a intersection we'd all like to go to snap our fingers on how to figure out the sidewalk there and the big hill coming down 01:14:52
and what not. 01:14:56
It's all of a bigger picture and I'm. 01:14:59
I'm curious, you know. Let me know. 01:15:02
Has done a. 01:15:04
A very good job. 01:15:05
Their roads leading to downtown. 01:15:07
All got curbed with sidewalks and some. 01:15:10
Pavers in addition to the sidewalk. 01:15:14
And I'm just wondering, you know, and lighting it. 01:15:17
And the lights, which look great. 01:15:20
When they did that, how is that? How big is the? 01:15:23
Money to do that, I guess. Is that all some of the grants with some of it money from the city? 01:15:26
And I just explore OK. 01:15:33
We know those are things we like his other. 01:15:36
Communities that have done it, how did you do it? Well, I mean, I think it's ILA. 01:15:39
Al is the smallest town in the Dang world and they have sidewalks absolutely to nowhere and streetlights every 100 feet. It is 01:15:43
amazing they they don't have any people that live in Isle of. 01:15:49
But we know how much the street light cost. How did they fund that? Who is paying for, I mean, somebody? And they got thousands of 01:15:59
St. lights. So I used to work on all of them, I mean thousands of them. 01:16:04
Monroe has. 01:16:11
You know, one of the things that you kind of to pause and reflect on for us as a municipality we actually have. 01:16:14
Much fewer funding streams than most municipalities. 01:16:19
Monroe controls its own utilities. They have an Internet utility. They have a. 01:16:23
I think they have a gas Yeah. So my. 01:16:28
We gave up all that. Elberton doesn't charge any property taxes. 01:16:31
Because they have, they control, they can they have electric. There are me AG City, which is a they control their electric. 01:16:35
They control Internet they control. 01:16:42
So, umm. 01:16:43
So. 01:16:45
So that these some of these cities have some other utilities that give them a lot more financial flexibility to do things. But I 01:16:46
think it's a. 01:16:49
I think it's a great question on streetscape and planning and. 01:16:52
Like I said, this is the year when we've got this grant. And even if we need to plus up that grant, if like Georgia Power gave us 01:16:56
35, but we think it's going to take 50. 01:17:00
To get the information we need to have the best plan. 01:17:04
Then I think we need to think about that, right. So if we have the right partner and we think about that, then. 01:17:07
Let's let's take a little bit, let's take that Georgia Power money and marry up a little bit more and make sure we get exactly 01:17:12
what we need to take care of us for 10 years on that would be my advice. 01:17:16
To the DDA, as you'll think about how we're going to execute that if you want to make a request back to city to support you on 01:17:20
that if you. 01:17:23
Don't think we can get there, you know, be sure you work with Sharon around budget time because I love all these things. 01:17:26
You know these ideas because ultimately what it'll do is, you know, revitalize. 01:17:31
Fill in those gaps in our downtown and those people pay taxes and it pays for itself. That's why cities do that, I mean. 01:17:36
The beautification then give somebody a confidence to reinvest and. 01:17:42
Build and do something new. 01:17:45
You know, the same with the streetlights and those streetscapes. Monroe's seen it for sure. 01:17:47
The mayor over there and if we want to go visit. 01:17:51
With some of these communities, we could put that on the list for this year too, you know, and understand what they did. 01:17:53
All right, are we? To what? 01:17:59
Christine to Jeff to now back to Brett. So he pulled my sidewalk one but y'all had several amount which is good. We're scratching 01:18:03
off the lips He does have. I do have a questionable piece of sidewalk. I guess so over at Thomas Farms. 01:18:09
If around the small lake we have a the little bridge and it goes from a semicircle, half of it is. 01:18:15
Paved asphalt and then the part I guess through the wetlands is. 01:18:22
I guess that was done on purpose. My daughters had their little scooters yesterday and we're scooting around and then all of a 01:18:27
sudden it ran into gravel and I was like, pick it up. What? What with it? So yeah, it was the wetlands because. 01:18:33
The way the loan structure do, you really don't want to impact the environment. 01:18:39
Sensitive environmental areas. So that still allows it to be porous and doesn't interrupt the flow there. Yeah, good question 01:18:43
there. 01:18:45
Chuck. 01:18:50
OK, Connie. 01:18:52
Well, my main thing is to. 01:18:55
Keep the infrastructure. 01:18:57
All the infrastructure and good working order should be our main concern. 01:19:00
Keep the city clean and. 01:19:04
And keep all the buildings we currently have full. 01:19:06
And continue to work on our list that we are working on and get that all done before we start anything major. 01:19:10
And new. 01:19:18
OK. 01:19:21
We have. 01:19:25
I've got a couple more left that I'll I'll run through as we kind of take turns. 01:19:28
I've mentioned this last year. I still think it's something. 01:19:33
That we should explore and that is a. 01:19:36
Asking the voters. 01:19:40
Whether about a green space or Parks and Rec bond. 01:19:42
That would allow us to continue to preserve green spaces, not. 01:19:46
To Brett's point, not because we may not be able to activate it all in the next 5 years, but I do think in the next 5 to 10 years, 01:19:50
you know, we're already seeing tremendous development pressure. 01:19:54
On the outskirts of town. 01:20:00
Whether we do? 01:20:03
Whether we do anything or not, you know, do we? 01:20:04
Do we want to have? 01:20:07
And what this would require would probably be for us to go to the voters in November and ask them to choose, OK, do you want to 01:20:09
vote on? 01:20:12
Some sort of a bond issuance that would allow us, that would give us the resources we need. 01:20:15
If you know, 20 acres here, 40 acres there. 01:20:19
Some other opportunities came up to. 01:20:23
To do that, to prevent the development of the space, you know we've we've. 01:20:26
One of the reasons I've loved Thomas Farmers, people see, you know, the most common thing as well. 01:20:29
This, you know, here's what this would have become. You know, the grand opening. That was the most common refrain. I'm so thankful 01:20:34
this didn't become that. 01:20:37
I think we need to ask citizens, are you willing to invest? 01:20:41
To prevent that from happening. 01:20:45
If they're not, they're not, right? I mean, you know, they may not be willing to do that. Doesn't mean we can't do some other 01:20:46
things, but to do it in a truly significant way. 01:20:50
I think we need to ask the voters and say, look, are you willing to pay some additional property taxes? That gives us the 01:20:55
capacity. 01:20:58
To go out and bond. 01:21:01
And purchase these spaces and be able to do it in a financially responsible way. 01:21:03
We may or may not be able to do that. I think we could do it in some smaller ways, but I guess my perspective is. 01:21:09
Two things, one. 01:21:15
It's there's not going to be any more land in Watkinsville. 01:21:16
And two, I don't anticipate us. You know, we talk about the infrastructure. 01:21:21
We're not, there's, there's not space to build huge new roads and to do the, you know, to do the things that we need to do to 01:21:26
support these spaces. So. 01:21:29
There's other cities that have done that. The city of Milton is probably the most notable 1. 01:21:33
We'd have to have a process for evaluating which parcels we want and how all those things would work. 01:21:37
But do we want to take a big swing at something like that? 01:21:43
You know, that's what I love y'all's feedback on. 01:21:47
I don't think it's something we do unilaterally. I think it's something that we need to take to the voters and say. 01:21:50
This is a generational investment. Do we want to develop in a different way than most other small towns do and and that might 01:21:55
mean? 01:21:58
We don't have a lot more. 01:22:01
You know, umm. 01:22:03
We don't have a lot, you know these. 01:22:04
The places it could be around Thomas Farm, it could be around Column Ferry, There's there. Believe it or not, there is a fair bit 01:22:06
of. 01:22:09
Space left in the city that could be preserved, and then there's some smaller pieces around too. 01:22:12
I love y'all's reaction to that. 01:22:18
I agree that if we're considering something like that, it definitely should go. 01:22:22
To the voters. 01:22:26
Umm. 01:22:28
And a lot of. 01:22:31
Education even for I mean I need to be better educated on the insurance and outs of what that means. Obviously I know this is just 01:22:34
spitballing so. 01:22:38
And yeah, I mean. 01:22:44
And let me amplify to one thing about that. I don't, I don't limit that to just passive spaces like this could also be a funding 01:22:46
source to do some of the other things that we're talking about like. 01:22:50
To, you know, if we want to have, I mean, right now. 01:22:55
You want to take your kid to play soccer? 01:22:58
You got to drive all the way around Butler's and somewhere else. I mean, we don't have the money just out of our regular budget to 01:23:00
do to create. 01:23:03
The active spaces either right and so this is how a lot of communities pay for it is you know they they'll. 01:23:07
You know they can cover that out of you know. 01:23:12
Nobody's doing that now. What's that? 01:23:16
Yeah, and they probably do that sort of as a matter of course. I mean, they're so big. I mean, you know, when you've got a. 01:23:18
You know, 50 or $60 million budget, you can, you can just do that sort of thing with, you know, just go to the public market, do 01:23:23
it. It'd be a big deal for us and we don't really have to. 01:23:27
Borrowing capacity to do it without dedicating some property tax dollars to it. 01:23:31
It would. 01:23:36
I guess what I'd be asking you guys is, is it worth exploring and seeing what it could look like, what what feasibility is, how 01:23:37
much would it cost or not? 01:23:40
For us to. 01:23:44
Consider that. 01:23:45
I don't really want to get into specific parcels or anything like that now given, you know, we'd have to do that in executive 01:23:47
session and have to talk to owners, but. 01:23:51
It would give us the ability to. 01:23:55
In a fiscally responsible and very open way, determine what our citizens priorities are. 01:23:58
And be able to act on those. And if they vote it down, they vote it down, right? I mean, we're being transparent about what we 01:24:03
think is important and what the priorities are and what we're hearing. 01:24:07
But right now, we really. 01:24:11
We could still, we could still do that in smaller ways. We can activate it off of SPLOST and. 01:24:13
Some other things, but if we want to take a big swing at truly creating. 01:24:18
A community where we're we're, we're emphasizing quality of life and that quality of life doesn't revolve around. 01:24:23
You know every property owner feeling like they have to develop their land to exit. 01:24:28
Then, you know, I think we're ultimately going to have to be 1 of the backstops there. 01:24:34
So anyway, that's. 01:24:40
I'm, I'm, I really love that the, that we preserve that land in perpetuity. I think it's like you said, we're not developing any 01:24:43
more land and, and. 01:24:48
I, I grew up here. I I love. 01:24:53
I love this place 20 years ago, 30 years ago when it was much smaller than it is today and. 01:24:57
You know, if we don't start preserving land, there's going to be. 01:25:03
Houses and apartments. And I mean, they're going to. 01:25:06
People are going to come here. 01:25:09
When you have an all American city, people will come. 01:25:11
And the only way to. 01:25:14
Stop that. I think I mean the county is doing a great job at limiting growth. 01:25:16
And I think we could. 01:25:21
Do smart growth, I think that's when I talk to people about growth here. Let's do smart growth in the city of Watkinsville. 01:25:23
You know, let's, let's allow what we want to allow. 01:25:28
You know, because it has to grow. 01:25:32
But let's let's. 01:25:33
Do it smart, smartly. 01:25:35
I don't think that's a word. 01:25:38
I agree with that with the. 01:25:46
One comment to add to it, just like Jeff you had said earlier. 01:25:48
But watching the halftime show? 01:25:52
So we're going to have different ideas and things that come in. 01:25:55
And just like. 01:25:59
Christine, you have a different idea for the. 01:26:00
Public works. 01:26:03
So I feel like we all have to keep an open mind. 01:26:04
And be willing to. 01:26:07
To listen and not just say no. Yep, we don't want a tattoo shop. 01:26:09
We don't want, you know, different thing, but we have. 01:26:15
Catch up and we have all kind of other things that you have to have an open mind to. 01:26:19
Say, OK, that might work, you know. 01:26:25
Might not work for me, but it works for someone and that's what we want, you know, people to. 01:26:27
Come and create and connect. So I mean that's part of it. 01:26:32
All right, Jeff. 01:26:39
You got anything else on your list? 01:26:41
I'm not not real main thing or one other. 01:26:46
Thing is that. 01:26:49
It'd be nice to figure out how to connect hair Shoals to downtown so you could you could walk. 01:26:50
I guess at least if you got it to Durham St. with Durham St. gets repaved once the. 01:26:57
The complex goes in. If we could get a sidewalk up to there so that you could get down to there. 01:27:02
Then you could still get downtown through Durham St. so that would be. 01:27:08
Something. 01:27:12
I would I would like to see. 01:27:13
OK, Christine. 01:27:15
So we have great. 01:27:18
Nonprofits in our community with ESP Lydia Place O Calf. 01:27:21
And I really just want to continue leaning into that and be very intentional. 01:27:26
Waterways as a community. 01:27:32
We can lean into those organizations and maybe there are even other in our small downtown that. 01:27:34
Should be added to that list, but those are three that I know. 01:27:40
Umm, again, to me it it fits with our goals and we do, we do that. But. 01:27:44
Just being very intentional and maybe. 01:27:48
Practically looking at some things with that. 01:27:51
Now I do think OKAF. 01:27:55
Could be a great partner to like we talked about the idea for the History Museum and those kind of things. I still think of calf 01:27:56
could be. 01:27:59
A strong partner on that if we didn't wind up doing something at the house. 01:28:02
You know, I've talked about the the entry to the old gym, different spaces over there where we could. 01:28:07
Maybe help be the funding partner, but leverage some of the space that they have that's available might be more efficient and they 01:28:11
could. 01:28:15
Sort of maintain and they've got staff and the ability to. 01:28:18
Do that but I think. 01:28:21
You know, strengthening that. 01:28:23
Also, that physical connection to OCAF through our downtown is so important. 01:28:24
Jan and I've talked about that and I know that's probably be part of your downtown strategic plan, but how do we? 01:28:28
When somebody lands in downtown Watkinsville, how do we give them a couple different places to go? You know, and. 01:28:33
The sidewalk to Thomas Farmer is going to help with that too. 01:28:38
And particularly Lydia's place because we, I mean, we obviously have a very strong partnership with ESP. 01:28:42
No calf comes and we give them. 01:28:47
There's already some definitely things in place there. 01:28:49
But Lydia's place? 01:28:52
Does such a service to such an underserved population? 01:28:54
Umm, just have it on our radar to see if there are practical ways the city can enter in. 01:29:00
Anybody else? 01:29:08
I'll throw out a few more just for y'all's reaction. I. 01:29:10
The you know, we've talked about the street department a little bit. 01:29:14
I know in the past we've also talked about City Hall, you know? 01:29:17
Is this our? 01:29:20
Ultimate destination. Do we want to stay here? 01:29:22
It has occurred to me with some of these other ideas, the Lydia's plays the others. 01:29:25
You know, is there an opportunity for us to find a space where we could? 01:29:30
Efficiently. 01:29:34
You know how some of these other some of these other needs? 01:29:36
You know, does it make sense to find a place to put the Police Department, the street department, City Hall? 01:29:41
You know, together somewhere else, you know. 01:29:46
I don't know that. I mean, I think this building could serve us well for another 10 years, but do we? 01:29:49
We also know land is just going to do nothing but cost more and there's going to be less of it in 10 years, you know? 01:29:54
So do we. 01:29:59
Do we need to be thinking about that strategically and exploring options on? 01:30:00
Where we can land a. 01:30:04
Again, that may be something that takes four or five years, but. 01:30:06
Staffs staff's not going to go after that if we don't ask him to go after that, you know, So is that something that we. 01:30:10
Something that we need to think about. 01:30:15
To me it is like you said. 01:30:18
Long term, thinking about it, you you never want to. 01:30:22
Have to move in a moment because then you. 01:30:26
Sorry, put in my realtor hat on. Then you panic by and you don't necessarily get what you really want so. 01:30:28
If realistically this we're going to outgrow this in 10 years, then I think it's definitely something that should be on our radar. 01:30:34
Umm. But I think it also needs to be really clear that it's not because. 01:30:42
We think City Hall has to be this beautiful, grandiose. 01:30:46
Base and but that it's just very practical and if there is a way to. 01:30:50
Leverage this resource that's also going to help and serve the community. 01:30:55
And have it be not. 01:30:59
A big lift for taxpayers to make that move. 01:31:02
Than having our eyes open for that opportunity I think would be foolish not to. 01:31:05
Yeah, I don't want to, I pushed back. 01:31:11
Through the years on investing more money in a government building, so I'm not crazy about the idea. 01:31:13
But I do think we all have to sort of recognize there's. 01:31:20
There's probably. 01:31:22
You know, there will be a moment probably in the next decade where we either have to make a big investment here or. 01:31:24
Umm, you know, or do something different. 01:31:30
But, but I don't think we have to. 01:31:33
There's nothing urgent, there's no urgency around that, but there could be some opportunities in the next next year or two. 01:31:35
I think you know if we. 01:31:41
Are looking at a city location. I think it should be centrally located, easily accessible. You know, I don't think it should be 01:31:43
off the beaten path. 01:31:47
You know, I think when you think of the city seat of Watkinsville or the city seat of the county seat of Oconee County is the city 01:31:52
of Watkinsville. It needs to be something that. 01:31:58
Easily found. 01:32:04
You know, this has held us well for a long time here, but I, I. 01:32:06
I don't know where in downtown, the actual city of Watkins where you could place it, but I think that's. 01:32:10
Where it should be? 01:32:17
You know, maybe. 01:32:18
The school board will one day want to give us that piece of property that they have. And then it sits right up there over across, 01:32:21
I mean that I have this grand idea that you've got the County Courthouse and then you got the city of Watkinsville this, you know, 01:32:27
see, and they 2 are down this nice beautiful corridor. 01:32:32
I mean, like if you go to I think it's Tucker where every, all the government buildings are together and you've got them anyway. 01:32:38
Beautiful corridor. 01:32:45
From City Hall to the courthouse and. 01:32:46
And, umm. 01:32:48
Yeah. 01:32:51
All right, the other things I had on my list were just more streetlights in general. You know, even if we could every year add. 01:32:53
8 or 10 More on. 01:32:59
Even on Barnett Shoals, you know what a difference that would make. Just to kind of continue that feel of our downtown St. and 01:33:01
streetlights I think is nice. 01:33:04
Public art we talked about, but I would love us to have, once your committees established, like, what's a goal for public art? You 01:33:09
know, like, do we have? 01:33:13
You know, could we have one significant piece of public art a year to Watkinsville? And then you look back in 10 years and you 01:33:17
actually have kind of a nice. 01:33:20
Collection beyond the art boards and things like that that sort of paid Sharon did you have something you want to You said St. 01:33:24
lights or street light you mean like the decorative ones Decorative. OK all right I just want to make sure we weren't talking 01:33:29
because she's talking about getting rid of poles Yeah no I'm thinking more decorative like it just really sets a. 01:33:35
Nice tone on our sidewalks if we can extend those, you know. 01:33:41
And then I also thought about, you know, if we decide not if, if it's not feasible or if we don't want to pursue, you know, bigger 01:33:47
Parks and Recreation, do we want to look at some smaller bites in terms of parks? Do we want to look at some neighborhood spaces 01:33:50
where? 01:33:54
You know, umm. 01:33:58
Acre to two acre sort of spaces, you know, where people could gather. I like the idea of having everybody be within a 10 minute 01:34:00
walk of a park. You know, right now we have. 01:34:04
Some of that, we don't have a ton of that. 01:34:08
There's certain areas of the city where you just don't have that opportunity. So how can we how can we get a little closer that 01:34:10
those are lighter lifts to all point that's, you know, it's not that. 01:34:14
You know you get the land, but it's also you're not. That's not. 01:34:18
Millions and millions of dollars. It's more of how do we? 01:34:22
Get a little space and maybe add benches or a small playground or a place for families together or things like that. And to speak 01:34:24
to that, Brian, I feel like we have some of those little pocket parks that are really underutilized. 01:34:30
So I would like to see how to better utilize some of those spaces. We have the pocket park right by Wing House. 01:34:36
We have that one. 01:34:45
At column theory, the county has the counties, even though it's in the city. Yep, that's not ours. 01:34:47
OK, Now they'd probably give it to us as long as as we maintain. If we didn't, if we didn't change the name, then we would have to 01:34:53
maintain it. But they maintain it. OK. Yeah. 01:34:57
And what about? 01:35:02
Yeah, we the city does that. 01:35:04
We cut the grass that the county said the. 01:35:06
That McNally Park, Yeah, they'll cut it, but not as frequently. 01:35:08
OK, so. 01:35:12
They'll give it. They'll give it to us. I mean, John said they would as long as we didn't change the name. Yeah, I think we just. 01:35:15
Yeah, so just so. I mean, I'm not saying. 01:35:18
Yeah, I'm not saying we need to adopt that. I mean, there's obviously more. And then what about the, is it Patriot Park? That's 01:35:24
right by Jittery Joe's that little thing anyway, that's tiny. I mean, I don't see a huge play structure going on that, but. 01:35:30
I would love to to make sure that we really look at what we have and utilize what we have. 01:35:36
Yeah, No, I think that would you'd have to plan and say what are the needs, what do we want to do? 01:35:42
What's the walk shed for people so they can get there? Do we need to add? 01:35:47
Pedestrian infrastructure so people can get to these spaces. 01:35:50
Yeah. And say, OK, where's, where do our gaps and how do we want to address it? 01:35:54
So OK. 01:35:58
I think that's all I had. But now, yeah, now we got the land down in the trove as well. Pretty good parcel of land down there, 01:36:02
which I wish that we just let them have those be soccer fields. 01:36:09
I mean, does it have to be passive? Is there is there a way to change it? Yeah, by the by the. 01:36:17
Term. It stays passive by the terms of the thing. 01:36:22
The easement and all those things and well, just it can't be programmed. I don't know that it doesn't mean that. 01:36:26
Like unofficial oriented, we can create like a field, you know what it looks like right now, update a field or something, but you 01:36:32
can put a playground on it or something like that, right? 01:36:36
I don't know that you couldn't do that. I think that's passive. I know. I think we have to look at, I think maybe an attorney 01:36:41
question. Well, and I would love to. I mean, there's this again, this we're doing big ideas, but in Clark County. 01:36:47
School playgrounds when schools on session or public parks. So we do have Colin Ferry Elementary right there. I mean, again, don't 01:36:53
know that it's a. 01:36:58
Conversation that would immediately go anywhere, but I think it's certainly something. 01:37:03
Worth talking about? That's a. 01:37:07
A park that is right there. 01:37:09
A lot of work that. 01:37:12
It's been a while since my baby's played on that playground, so. 01:37:16
Trying very hard to get that redone right now. 01:37:20
Yeah, All right. What about? Let's go back to what's up here. OK, Go ahead, Christine. 01:37:23
So this is this might seem small but this has been something that I have wanted to see happen. 01:37:28
For years and years and years. 01:37:33
And part of our partnership with the library at Wire Park. 01:37:36
Was supposed to have the potential to do this with our funding. I would really like to see library hours extended. 01:37:39
They got cut back during the recession and I know again this is not. 01:37:46
Really in our control. 01:37:50
But. 01:37:52
I don't know if we have even influence in this. 01:37:54
But I would love to see not 6:00 closure times most days. That was cut back during the last recession and we are well past that. 01:37:57
So, umm. 01:38:05
You have a new library director starting this year and. 01:38:05
You know so. 01:38:09
Might be good conversation. 01:38:12
Mark no, I'll be happy to speak on that. I think it's a great a great comment. There is discussions. 01:38:14
The library if you talk to the library board. 01:38:19
As a former. 01:38:21
Board member. 01:38:22
You know, budget, budget, budget. It's it's all about about revenue. I will say this statistics and the data and James Mitchell 01:38:24
let the the Watkinsville branch of the Oconee Library has been great. 01:38:29
But there are really significant differences in the use times for the Watkinsville branch versus the Bogart branch. 01:38:35
So I do think that it's a great conversation. 01:38:44
Just with being partnered at Wire Park when when that move took place. 01:38:48
The utilization times of that library changed completely. 01:38:53
And a lot of it changed over the weekends, right? So I would say at the old location right here on Experiment Station Road, it 01:38:57
would utilize a lot during the week. 01:39:02
And not so much during the weekend and that's almost turned 180° with the with the wire part change, so. 01:39:06
I think. 01:39:14
A lot more of the houses get developed in there. You'll see it exponentially. 01:39:15
The growth in there as well and I think I think all those houses in there are great opportunities for library volunteers. 01:39:21
If you have a volunteer opportunity, you could walk. 01:39:28
And don't have to drive to. I think that's a. That's a good point. 01:39:30
But I do, I think it's a discussion to ongoing happen, but just don't be surprised if. 01:39:34
You know, the discussion is always hey. 01:39:38
Costs are increasing state requirements for for, you know, healthcare and retirement, some of those other things. And staffing is 01:39:41
always, you know, an issue from a library standpoint, so. 01:39:46
If you said hey, we'd like to be open till 10:00 at night, somebody might say that's a great idea. 01:39:51
But you got to pay somebody to work, be willing to work those hours. So that's the challenge. I know when we talked about the 01:39:56
contribution that Watkinsville will be giving to the library and is giving, but is going to continue to increase as Wire Park. 01:40:03
Is more activated. 01:40:10
A lot of that was specifically to have funding in order to increase library hours, knowing that we didn't have control over that, 01:40:12
but as a. 01:40:15
I agree. I agree 100%. I will say the the funding for this previous year because. 01:40:20
Some of the build out was. 01:40:26
Ongoing and not yet done. 01:40:28
It was actually a less. 01:40:30
For 2024. 01:40:33
Probably than than was expected, so so. 01:40:34
That money has not yet really been realized. 01:40:37
I think the other thing for us to remember is when. 01:40:40
Hours get cut back and. 01:40:45
Places and. 01:40:47
It's going to be short term. Let's just all remember a lot of times it turns into long term, you know, and that's unfortunate, so. 01:40:48
That kind of place. Is there anything on this list or Christine, you may have other ideas? 01:40:54
But that was some other things that Sharon suggested. Just the update on the dock on the large pond, we do have a. 01:40:59
I don't know if we made this clear at the last. 01:41:04
Meeting, but we have a donor who stepped up who's going to fabricate and install that dock for us, so we're responsible for. 01:41:07
The screw piles that will hold it. 01:41:14
And getting those installed and then I guess concrete up to the edge of it, but. 01:41:17
The uh. 01:41:21
IMI is going to donate and install. 01:41:22
The dock for us on the pond, A metal dock. 01:41:25
Yeah, yeah. 01:41:29
So cool. 01:41:30
So, which is a really, really awesome. 01:41:33
Contribution. 01:41:35
One one other thing on what's on the board, did anybody come up with anything on the traffic calming? 01:41:37
I mean. 01:41:48
Another chief you were going to look at. 01:41:50
Start looking at stuff and see if you had any ideas. I mean one I see constantly. 01:41:53
If you're coming down South Main. 01:41:59
Into downtown. 01:42:02
You sitting there Jittery Joe's? 01:42:04
The traffic coming out, Barnes shows. 01:42:06
That right turn, I mean, they'll fill it up. 01:42:09
And then the right turns green and nobody has anywhere to go or couple of them go, they're stuck out in the middle of the 01:42:12
intersection. 01:42:15
That don't happen all the time, just during peak times, but. 01:42:19
That's one big thing. 01:42:24
I see that should be addressed. 01:42:27
Possibly. Can we have a knife fight with everybody who uses Barnett Shoals? Can you put a note right on red? 01:42:30
Up there or because it's a. 01:42:38
State. Federal. 01:42:40
Road that goes through there. 01:42:42
Can you adjust the signage? The state would have to approve that. 01:42:44
It's killing me, yeah, but because 15 and 4:40, yeah. 01:42:49
But I guess you would be directing Barnett Shoals. No right on red. But yeah, you're right, You're right. Anybody that uses 01:42:54
varnish holes, they they take rights on red all day long. We probably got some of the same friends. We'd be in a knife fight on 01:42:58
that one for sure. 01:43:03
During the during the development of the transportation plan, there was discussion about some chicanes or things you may have seen 01:43:07
in other communities where it's basically a piece of concrete or median that maybe. 01:43:12
Because people come up on it just like people talk about having cars parked on the road that causes a lot of traffic home because. 01:43:17
They have to slow down, right? They don't want to hit a car. 01:43:22
There was a discussion at one point about something like that along Simonson. 01:43:25
Bridge Road, and I know the chief had mentioned that we're still getting high, high numbers, you know, high speeders on that road. 01:43:29
And so that may be something we can go back and revisit to is the transportation plan it talks about maybe a chicane or something 01:43:36
that would? 01:43:39
You know, an obstacle that would cause people to slow down in the road, you know, to come around and where you put it, That would 01:43:43
be something to have to be engineered. Obviously, it's not our roads, the county, so that would have to be discussion. But. 01:43:48
Since that was a specific. 01:43:53
Mentioned by the chief. That might be something to think about in the the reason I brought that up or the reason I put it on there 01:43:55
was, and I know the mayor's talked about this too. 01:43:59
We do have money in T spots. We have roughly 1.1. 01:44:03
$7,000,000 that's been set aside, not initially in the bank, but money's been set aside as that reference that continue as we 01:44:06
continue to receive collections on that, that are that is for traffic efficiency improvements roundabout. 01:44:13
Intersection realignments and improvements, signals, traffic calming measures, Rd. connections, etc. So those are the kind of 01:44:20
things that we really haven't. You haven't done any programming on that yet. And you know some of us because we've had some 01:44:24
changes in our. 01:44:28
And our, you know, in the Police Department where we need, you know, we need some focus on where it makes sense. And we wanted it 01:44:32
to be data-driven, not just, hey, let's just go drop something in the middle of the road or. 01:44:36
Whatever. So those, I do think that's an area we haven't. 01:44:41
Really focused anytime on need to. 01:44:44
Have some thought about what you guys want to do in that arena? 01:44:47
There's two aspects of that, right? We have congestion. 01:44:50
Where congestion is a functionally calming the traffic, you know, although it's not pleasant, right? I mean, if you go back to 01:44:53
where even 10 years ago we're, we're much more congested now than we were. 01:44:58
There's not a so I like the idea of it being data-driven. If there's a place where speeding is consistently an issue, then let's 01:45:04
look at calming if there's. 01:45:07
We know where congestion is, if there's a place where a small investment could make a significant difference then. 01:45:10
I'm all for it. A slip lane of, you know, something where we partner up with G dot to let people turn. 01:45:16
You know, terrible one is new high Shoals going on to 441 in the morning. You got every kid from the high school backing up there. 01:45:21
That's the county's problem. But they're slow to move on it, you know, But if they would just add a right turn lane. 01:45:26
From new high Shoals to 441 you would probably relieve. 01:45:32
50% of that traffic here. 01:45:34
Inexpensive because very little grading would have to be done on that. I mean, that's a real quick fix. So I mean, you know, so 01:45:37
I'm not excited about spending money for stuff outside of Watkinsville, but that might be a place where we could contribute and 01:45:42
help accelerate something that would benefit our citizens. It's a probably a frustration to 20 or 30% of our population in the 01:45:48
morning as they're trying to get out of the city or get to work. 01:45:53
But you know but one point. 01:45:59
One $7,000,000 sounds like a lot of money, but when it comes to traffic stuff it's not. But if we but some of these other ideas 01:46:02
that we had that we've talked through. 01:46:06
They may require us to do some of these. 01:46:10
Other things you know so. 01:46:13
You know. 01:46:15
Some of the other things that we we mentioned, you know that. 01:46:16
Getting kids to school safely. 01:46:19
You know, umm. 01:46:21
You know, different things that we did, we may have to use some of those funds to get those spaces safe. 01:46:22
Wasn't there something on? 01:46:27
Like sinking those lights. 01:46:29
I know it's been brought up before, something about sinking with the jittery Joe's light to Ashford light and. 01:46:31
But I just don't know. 01:46:36
Anything about that? But I know it's. 01:46:39
Been mentioned that they were sent maybe synced at one time and maybe they're not now or I don't. 01:46:40
Yes, yes, G dot can sync the lights or time. 01:46:45
Differently expand the seconds that they stay green to keep. 01:46:48
You know, North and South main open longer. 01:46:52
They can definitely do that. 01:46:55
But we'd have to ask. 01:46:57
Probably have to request some sort of a study. 01:46:58
You know, for them to look at all those lights because they're all interconnected. But I like that idea of. 01:47:01
You know, do we want to study those 3 traffic lights and make sure they're working as efficiently together as they could? Because 01:47:05
it all does affect, they affect each other. 01:47:08
Nowhere to go that turns yellow and you get one or two clocks. Well, it's the same way at Barnett Shoals. I mean, so when people 01:47:14
have been like you shouldn't be able to turn right on red at Barnett Shoals, I'm like, well then you would sit there forever 01:47:20
because when your light is green often you can't turn. It's actually when the. 01:47:25
Right the left hand turn lane. 01:47:31
Is on. 01:47:33
That's when you actually can turn right onto mainstream from Barnet Shoals is during that. So when people don't do it, I'm like, 01:47:37
come on, this is our chance. 01:47:40
All right, other ideas? 01:47:45
Last thing I this is going back to the roundabout on Norton Road. I know, I think I saw some stuff. We were putting some. 01:47:47
Aggregate around to try to make it a little bigger. Is that? 01:47:55
We're going to do that for a little while and then we're going to pave. 01:47:59
Is that is that? 01:48:02
Somebody I say we I saw a plan that said something about putting aggregate down on. 01:48:04
Besides and then that's going to expand it maybe and then if that works, put some permanent concrete. I think that's what I saw so 01:48:11
the. 01:48:15
The roundabout will stay. 01:48:20
Small. 01:48:22
OK. 01:48:23
What's the solution there, Mark? What's the plan? 01:48:25
There'll be additional concrete paving based on meetings with the developer and the designer. 01:48:29
We're we're lifting on this on a County Road. 01:48:35
And the city limits? 01:48:39
But it is, I will say, the. 01:48:41
Miniature. 01:48:44
Traffic circle. 01:48:47
On Norton Road is still a work in progress. Is that fair? 01:48:49
All right, it definitely calms the traffic, but it doesn't calm people's temperature. I left and went that way from church the 01:48:58
other day, and I went the correct way around. The guy behind me cut to the inside. 01:49:04
I just it. 01:49:09
They didn't pass me, but he cut to the inside. I mean, it's kind of people are being silly, but I mean, I see people do that too. 01:49:11
And I'm just like, you're just. 01:49:14
You're just making a point. 01:49:17
It's not, I mean, what, two extra seconds to take a right turn and go around it? I mean, if you have a trailer, your school bus, I 01:49:18
get why you're frustrated there, but. 01:49:22
I don't know. So are we going to? 01:49:26
Talk through this and look at the agenda. The prioritize that's the next thing is then going through. So things that are already 01:49:29
on this list. 01:49:33
That we want to prioritize. We do not talk about now, we're doing that later, correct? Sharon, how do you, how are we going to 01:49:37
handle that? 01:49:40
So is. 01:49:43
A little before 11, my thought would be to. 01:49:45
Give me a minute to try to add these under the areas they should be, try to reprint the list, put them out and then give you guys 01:49:48
your priority dots. 01:49:52
And let you go and it won't be as pretty as what's out there 'cause I'm going to drop it in real, real quick. But, um. 01:49:57
Then you guys would have, I think the mayor and I agreed, you'd have two number ones, two number twos and two number threes being 01:50:02
#1 being the most important to you. 01:50:06
#2 Second. Third. 01:50:10
The umm. 01:50:12
And so the idea would be for y'all to you know this is. 01:50:14
I think you need to. 01:50:17
Think about. 01:50:18
Think about what you really want to get done, whether it can get done this next year or not. What's the most important thing to 01:50:21
you? And then and then because we, even though it may be the most important, may not be feasible for us to get it done, but there 01:50:26
may be aspects of it we can start moving forward with. Like the mayor said earlier about eating an elephant, We could some of 01:50:31
those things we may have to start doing some of, but we're not actually going to complete whatever you've asked us to do. 01:50:36
So think. Think along the lines of what's the most important thing and then list those. The one thing we do need to talk about 01:50:41
though, before we take a break. 01:50:45
Is. 01:50:50
Next July 4th is the 250th birthday of America. I can't, we can't wait till the July 1 to get money for that or to decide what 01:50:51
we're going to do. So we need to be thinking about that. I don't know on what scale you guys are thinking. 01:50:58
I don't know what the county is going to be doing, you know, do we collaborate with them etcetera. The other thing is this year is 01:51:06
our. 01:51:09
210th birthday. 01:51:13
As a city, December 6th. So if there's anything you know again. 01:51:15
If maybe we pull from some of these groups, you know, our partners and or. 01:51:19
You know, these citizens, citizen groups that were establishing, if there's something that we want to do, just I just don't want 01:51:24
to forget about that because that's going to be here. I mean, we're already fixing to turn the page into another month, so. 01:51:29
Yeah, I love our little July like the little Kitty morning parade picnic at Rocket Field. It would be very. 01:51:34
Not a heavy lift, but is. 01:51:42
And then maybe it could become the 1st annual like we started on the 250th birthday. 01:51:44
So America and then? 01:51:49
I'm sorry, I'm talking about the July 4th like that's that's on here. Yeah, but like, maybe. 01:51:51
Get the plans together and and launch it. And because this has been on our plan for yeah, years and years and years. 01:51:57
I guess I was thinking that would be done on July 4th because. 01:52:12
It. That's right, July 4th, 26 of 26. 01:52:22
So. 01:52:27
We got a budget for it now, we got a budget for it in next year. Can I make a recommendation? So Russ Tanner, I think, does 01:52:28
everybody here know Russ Tanner? He throws a humongous July 4th thing out of his farm every year. 01:52:34
Humongous. 01:52:41
I mean. 01:52:43
$100,000 worth of fireworks off. 01:52:45
Humongous. 01:52:47
It might be worth us seeing if we could. 01:52:48
And I mean food, I mean it's all and it's all on donation. I mean, he sponsors the whole thing, him in a couple, he sponsors the 01:52:51
whole thing. 01:52:55
And so you give them 20 bucks if you choose to give them 20 bucks to eat. I mean, he's got BBQ, he's got food, he's got drink. 01:52:59
It's all. 01:53:03
Done already. 01:53:07
I didn't know if that's something we, the city, might want to. 01:53:08
Partner with. 01:53:12
Somehow you know and I don't know. 01:53:13
I don't know what his cleanup looks like out there and I don't know if I don't know any of that stuff. I don't know the logistics 01:53:16
of it. 01:53:20
But if we. 01:53:23
Partner with him, maybe move it to. 01:53:24
Thomas Farms or something and then fireworks being going off over the lakes, I mean. 01:53:27
Anyway, I just a crazy idea. 01:53:31
But he is already being done and. 01:53:33
Very well organized. 01:53:36
Already. Umm. 01:53:38
And hundreds, I mean, there'll be 500 people out there. 01:53:39
Already so. 01:53:44
I love leaning into. 01:53:46
Partnering with other people. 01:53:48
That our heavy lifting isn't so much. I didn't think that. 01:53:51
The fun thing to look at? 01:53:54
Yeah, yeah. I think we'd have to just see if Russ is willing to. 01:53:56
Partner with us and then we also need to see what the county is planning. I do have a lot of interest from Mike. 01:54:00
The younger citizens and the daughters, the American Revolution, they're already starting to think about this and. 01:54:05
You know, I think it's appropriate for the county to take the lead, but. 01:54:12
You know, you know, if we need to partner up or if they don't have big plans then. 01:54:16
I believe us to do something significant to celebrate the and it doesn't, I mean, I think the the coordinating makes a lot of 01:54:21
sense. 01:54:24
Because it doesn't have to. 01:54:29
All be. Let's see, when is July 4th next year. 01:54:30
It is Saturday, yeah. 01:54:33
But why not Independence Day weekend where the, you know, we see what the county is doing and then we make our plans for a 01:54:36
different time around that and then. 01:54:40
And then we could also use it. We're all together. 01:54:45
Or altogether, although I don't want the whole county in the city, I mean like we don't have the infrastructure for. 01:54:49
Him. 01:54:55
And not the 44,000 people will come but you know, like. 01:54:57
I like the idea. 01:55:01
I always like the idea when there's like a weekend of celebration. 01:55:02
And you have a lot of things and maybe there's one or two bigger things, but then there are smaller things because then you can 01:55:07
find. 01:55:10
It doesn't feel so overwhelming and. 01:55:13
Different people can participate in different things. And then of course having my DBA hat on, I'm like OK, how can we use this to 01:55:16
help promote? 01:55:20
Our local small businesses that summer is often kind of slow. And so no, I was, I mean I know we're talking a year and a half, but 01:55:24
like you said, we got a budget for it and start thinking about it now. So I think be great. 01:55:29
And I'll, I'll try to stay in town. 01:55:35
I have a nephew getting married in Scotland in July of 2026, so that's unfortunate. 01:55:37
So for the 210th, I mean, I'm not dying to do a big celebration. We did a little bit around our 200th, but if you all want to do 01:55:44
something, that's fine. If not, I don't know. 01:55:48
Mayor, I have a suggestion. 01:55:53
Yep, why don't we use the 210th birthday? 01:55:54
Of the city in coordination with. 01:55:59
The Christmas parade and that be the theme this year. 01:56:02
Excellent. Yeah, the parades the following day. 01:56:06
Yeah, Yeah. I think that we're thinking on the same line. I mean, it's a great parade theme, you know, the history of the city. 01:56:09
Yeah. Thank you, Toby. 01:56:13
OK. 01:56:18
Sharon. 01:56:19
Got anything else we need to think about? 01:56:20
I don't think so. All we're about to have a break. So say, yeah, we'll take a break, Let's do. 01:56:23
Let's just do. 01:56:30
Let's try 15 minutes, we'll come back. Y'all can take 15 minutes to prioritize and we can get back on track at 11:30 at work. 01:56:32
We'll take 15 minutes of a break and then 15 minutes. Prioritize that what you're saying? Great, let's do it 15 minutes. 01:56:39
Are still alive. I got to get on there and turn everything off then. 01:56:46
All right. 01:56:55
Welcome back everybody. That was fun prioritizing all the. 01:56:56
Items we will share and do we need to do you want to give us kind of the overview of where the votes landed? 01:56:59
And then I'll we'll update it and send it back out. But so it looks like number ones include. 01:57:07
Under government relocate public works department facility city charter amendments. 01:57:13
Under infrastructure we have we have three votes. This is a. 01:57:20
The other ones just had one vote on it, by the way. 01:57:24
The other number I'm just going to hit number ones I guess at this point but explore and activate. 01:57:27
Adopt A transportation plan. So there's three number one votes on that. 01:57:31
We also have continued sidewalk expansion improvements. 01:57:35
We have on land use, we have actually. 01:57:39
Basically three votes for establishing a green space program because I didn't go back and try to look see where somebody comments 01:57:43
you made actually fit into an existing 1 so. 01:57:47
We had y'all had added ask voters for green space bond, but there was a established a green space program already on the list. So 01:57:52
there's three votes for that. 01:57:55
Consider historic preservation ordinance. There's two votes for that. 01:58:00
For #1. 01:58:03
And then we've got another #1 under Thomas Farm Preserve the explore how to utilize the house. 01:58:05
And that those are all the number ones. 01:58:13
I don't know, there's an easy way to go about giving you all the number twos and stuff, but the the big priorities essentially are 01:58:16
Thomas Farm Historic preservation. 01:58:20
Green space. 01:58:24
And then transportation plan, which basically would also include sidewalks. So I mean we may again, I may be able to fold that 01:58:28
under that. So we'll have some. 01:58:32
Some high priorities. 01:58:36
I think. 01:58:39
And then city charter. 01:58:40
Yeah, OK, so on twos. 01:58:43
And I'll let you know if there's more than one. Otherwise just assume there's only one vote for this so. 01:58:45
Under community engagement, we have support existing events. We have a number two there. We have two number twos on youth 01:58:51
leadership. 01:58:54
Under government we have #2 on city charter, so. 01:59:00
Another essentially never vote for that. 01:59:04
Three number twos on and on improvements to stormwater conveyance systems. So that's a obviously a high #2. 01:59:07
We also have. 01:59:15
Two votes. 01:59:16
Two votes on. 01:59:19
The Barnett Shoals Evaluating Bart Shoals Rd. 01:59:22
We have. 01:59:26
One vote on on sidewalk expansion, which also got a number got a one priority. 01:59:27
Explore relocation of City Hall. We've got a number. 01:59:32
And then? 01:59:37
The last one is exploring opportunities for active recreation in our existing parks and spaces, green spaces, so. 01:59:38
And there may be, like I said, there may be a way and we may want to. 01:59:44
I may want to send this back out. They could let. I don't know. I'm trying to figure out how because I didn't have time to try to 01:59:49
figure out where some of these fit, but I know the. 01:59:52
The green space bond fits. 01:59:56
Really well in the green space program, so that's an easy one. 01:59:58
The recreation, I mean we really don't have, I guess that's going to have to be a stand alone because we don't have any of our 02:00:03
master plans say anything about it recreation so. 02:00:07
That would be a standalone. 02:00:10
I'll go back and Add all those. 02:00:12
In a put in priority order. 02:00:14
And I'll put, I'll probably put out the notes how many number ones and twos or something just so y'all know, it might be the 02:00:16
easier way to do it because it's just kind of hard to do it this way since we don't have like something I can look at on the 02:00:20
screen. 02:00:23
To show you. 02:00:27
You want me go through the threes as well? OK, so on the threes we had, we also had a #2 on this one that's supporting the 02:00:29
existing events in the community. 02:00:33
Then we had Explore Truck Bypass had two votes as a #3. 02:00:40
Evaluate creation of makerspace in the industrial area. We had a #3. 02:00:44
We had under government operations, we had two number threes for relocate public works department. So. 02:00:50
Three people in here thought that that ought to be at least, you know, a priority. 02:00:56
One of the top three priorities. 02:01:01
City charter amendment. Same thing there were. 02:01:04
They received a 12 and a three vote so. 02:01:07
Three people or three? 02:01:11
I guess probably not the same three people could be. 02:01:13
I should have put names on these so I know who did what. 02:01:16
Had a #3 for the doctor transportation plan, so again, four votes for that. That might be the better way to do is see top. Do the 02:01:19
number of votes reach? 02:01:23
Yeah. 02:01:28
Sidewalk expansion got a #3? 02:01:30
Activate and finish Hair Shoals Park got a #3 and it's the only vote it got. And then established a green space program Got a #3. 02:01:34
And then the house at Thomas Farm got a #3. So yeah, maybe the best thing for me to do is come up with. 02:01:41
The total, however, many showed up in the top three and give you those votes and then we'll put them in order on vote. So there's 02:01:46
probably some grouping you can do there as well. Great. 02:01:51
OK. Well, Council, that was great. I am curious, those of you who put stormwater, are there any? 02:01:56
That was something that we didn't talk about much. Is there any specific areas that? 02:02:01
You feel like need to be addressed or we need to think about why we've got staff here so we can put a little finer point on that. 02:02:05
I feel like we've done a lot of work in that area. 02:02:09
But umm. 02:02:13
Is there is just? 02:02:15
Does anybody have any thoughts on stormwater since it got so many votes on where we might want to invest or what we might want to 02:02:17
do? Specific thoughts? Well, I did not put it. 02:02:21
So, but when I think about storm water, we all have our areas of town that we go in. 02:02:25
And so as I walked down Lawana to Wilson. 02:02:30
That area is. 02:02:34
Just a disaster after rain. And that's part of that's part of the area we're looking at. I mean, so some of the issues we have, we 02:02:36
have one of the areas we actually have a really bad problem is that out in the White subdivision, because it's so old, all the 02:02:41
culverts are gone. They've got just all filled in with silt. So there's, when water comes in, there's nowhere for it, you know, 02:02:46
doesn't go back into the culvert because Culver's not there anymore. 02:02:50
The one on Wilson and Jeremy and all that same thing. 02:02:55
Have to keep that out. So that's some of what you all gave us operational money for this year was to try to get in there and 02:02:58
reestablish those culverts so that water coming in the pipes can stay in the channel and get to where it needs to go. 02:03:04
Problem with those SO. 02:03:10
It continues from Lawana across Wilson. 02:03:13
Down into a. 02:03:17
Very hard. 02:03:18
Ravine off 3rd St. and it's. 02:03:20
That that's I think we're going to have to be careful about how we push water because it goes through the. 02:03:24
Backyards of the people in 3rd St. 02:03:29
And it washes out, I mean. 02:03:32
Like their backyards have sank. 02:03:34
10 to 15 feet over the last. 02:03:37
10-15 years. 02:03:39
So we got to be very careful about how we manage pushing water. 02:03:42
Across Wilson and Lawana, Well, I mean off of off of Broad. 02:03:47
Not an engineer at all, but I just know that those yards get like. 02:03:53
There's just leaves and. 02:03:59
Crush pipes and stuff, but I don't know that that affects what's happening. The third I mean. 02:04:00
I don't know. We have gotten, I think there's two pipes, 210 inch or two 12 inch pipes to go under. 02:04:07
Wilson. 02:04:15
And then directs the water. 02:04:17
Towards the backyards of these these people down 3rd St. 02:04:19
And. 02:04:24
It is very much forced water that direction. 02:04:25
I mean, it's the natural flow though. I mean, there is a natural, yeah, I mean there. 02:04:29
And and when you buy a property, you look at yet possible erosion issues and that's part of. 02:04:34
Your due diligence. So the the story is that when they built Morgan Manor, they took all the trees that were from there and piled 02:04:41
them into this ravine. 02:04:45
And as the. 02:04:49
As the trees have eroded. 02:04:50
The ravine has revealed itself again, and so now all of this is. 02:04:54
And it's, it's a bad wash if you go over there, look, I mean, it's people's backyards or. 02:04:58
10 to 15 feet different than when they bought houses. 02:05:03
Good night. Yeah, there's a lot of issues there with this. 02:05:07
There's some. It's a little bit of a. 02:05:10
But, but ultimately, we can't. 02:05:11
Take responsibility for that. 02:05:14
Private storm water conveyance on their property. 02:05:16
Yeah, for, I mean for me, it's Morrison St. I mentioned it. 02:05:19
Privately to a couple people recently. 02:05:22
What I see on Morrison St. is that. 02:05:26
That 15. 02:05:28
Going down Morrison St. at the beginning though. 02:05:30
Culvert areas have kind of grown up. 02:05:33
Not really. 02:05:35
They're not deep at all. 02:05:36
Much more, and also the grass along the edge of the street. 02:05:38
Is high, so it keeps it starts off keeping the water in the street. 02:05:41
And then it funnels down the hill. 02:05:46
And a lot of. 02:05:48
Pretty much every. 02:05:50
On the industrial side of the warehouses. 02:05:51
They're all gravel entrances, so when? 02:05:54
The rain comes down, it's washes away. 02:05:57
The gravel. My warehouse for example has kind of two entrances, lower one. 02:05:59
Heavy rains, I lose that entrance, so I can't tell you how many times I've. 02:06:05
Bought gravel to. 02:06:10
No, Philip, I mean it's literally a three foot. 02:06:12
Ditch that you can't you can't drive in there at some of it, but I got some big rock on it hopefully. But anyway, the drainage 02:06:15
ditches kind of get filled with the. 02:06:19
You know the gravel sand from? 02:06:24
Above the street, they kind of all washed down and kind of clogged the culverts and if you look at the very bottom. 02:06:26
Right below the Otters Lake. 02:06:33
It becomes a lake. 02:06:35
When it rains and cool all the sand that's blocking the culverts under the driveway. So anyway, that's that's an area that I see 02:06:36
that. 02:06:41
You know, could be looked at. 02:06:45
I know we gave some operating money for that, but have we talked to the county about partnering is would it be more efficient if 02:06:50
they came in and helped us since they do that every year around the? 02:06:54
Anyway, versus US doing it ourselves in terms of blowing out the culverts and stuff. 02:06:58
So I've talked with Mike Weathers. He gave me a contact. 02:07:03
And we're looking at. 02:07:08
To Sharon's point, we're looking at the White subdivision and then over there on. 02:07:10
Wilson and Lawana. 02:07:15
And Jeremy? 02:07:17
Looking to see what can be done there. 02:07:18
And we just got to attack this in the stages. What I will say is once we start this process. 02:07:20
I'm sure we'll get plenty of calls saying. 02:07:25
Mine, mine, mine. 02:07:28
But we're looking at the more critical ones right now that don't have. 02:07:29
Any culverts because if you go over there white subdivision. 02:07:34
You see the pipes up under. 02:07:37
Driveways and then. 02:07:39
Right after the. 02:07:41
Is basically silted all the way in grass. 02:07:43
And it's just basically. 02:07:45
An impression at best in a lot of those areas where it flows. I talked to him, though, about what when we talked to right. So when 02:07:48
I talked to Mike about them being able to partner with us, they're just so overwhelmed with their stuff. 02:07:54
That you know. 02:08:01
The times that we do, get them to help us. 02:08:02
At more critical times, like when we had them help us with the tree over there on Jackson and stuff, but. 02:08:05
They're just so overloaded. 02:08:10
With their own stuff with the county. 02:08:12
And that's why he gave me the contact for the guy that does it independently. 02:08:14
What about? 02:08:18
I mean the. 02:08:21
Ditches, massive ditches and erosion on right there. 02:08:21
At Ameripride and down through there, I mean. 02:08:26
Those those of you can see they've sank. 02:08:28
They're pretty bad. 02:08:31
Eroded down through there. Oh, that's it. That's AG dot Rd. Yeah, happens to be the city, I mean. 02:08:33
You know, I mean that that is part of that will be addressed when they eventually finish out this last section of Mars Hill or 02:08:39
experimentation. We're gonna call Highway 15, you know, but. 02:08:44
We don't have a date for that. 02:08:49
When that will happen, so I agree with that is is. 02:08:51
We're losing it. 02:08:54
Going down through that big time, but one thing would help. 02:08:56
I know so many people. 02:08:59
Get the yards taken care of if and we do have we do offer leaf and limb pickup so if. 02:09:01
Each individual would get. 02:09:09
There, whoever they have doing the yards to get the leaves up and pile them up. 02:09:10
Instead of just blowing them into the ditch because that's. 02:09:16
Where that's where it starts, that's what starts it getting stopped up. 02:09:19
None of it gets hauled off, it just gets piled in there. 02:09:24
So. 02:09:28
Yeah, that is actually I wonder when we look at our policy, I think it's more of a policy than an ordinance on leaf and limb that 02:09:32
if. 02:09:35
If you have a landscaper or a yard guy who does the work that technically it's not supposed to get picked up. 02:09:39
But I wonder if. 02:09:44
As long as it's not like a big commercial job like. 02:09:46
We had somebody take out. 02:09:49
2 trees that were not responsible for that, but if it's normal. 02:09:51
Like yard clean. 02:09:56
Why does it matter if it is? 02:09:58
You know. 02:10:00
Jimmy down the street, your pain or? 02:10:02
You're doing it. 02:10:04
So what I'll say is typically curbside the only time they push back. 02:10:06
Is when it's a contractor that's removing a tree and Vanessa. 02:10:10
The leaves, I never hear Jennifer say, oh, they had a contractor pile the leaves up and so. 02:10:13
You know they should be taking care of it is more the tree removal and limbs. 02:10:19
That a contractor does that, they're responsible for getting it up then but. 02:10:24
She's never, they've never pushed back on leaves. 02:10:27
We might want to look at that policy then because it is a little bit of a pain, you know, if you have. 02:10:31
Somebody helping you and you're like, well. 02:10:35
You know by the letter of the law, you know they. 02:10:38
They can't leave a pile of sticks. 02:10:41
Out there, you know, if it's not you or someone in your family. 02:10:43
So they're, you know. 02:10:47
Only thing they're really specific about is like I mean cuz I I have cut neighbors trees down for them is root balls you can't 02:10:48
have anything. 02:10:53
I mean, even like bushes, you can't pull a Bush out and they will not take a Bush that's got a root ball on it. Oh yeah, yeah, 02:10:57
they shouldn't. I mean, they'll tear it up. 02:11:01
OK, all I'll say is the Chuck's point. 02:11:08
So a lot of people, you know. 02:11:10
Take care of their properties and stuff where we see the abundance of leaves that get inside of the culverts and inside of the 02:11:12
ditches. 02:11:16
Are the rental properties. 02:11:19
One other thing that came up while we were talking, I don't think it's a strategic priority sharing, but I think it's a good flag 02:11:25
and you and I've been dealing with it for. 02:11:28
A year or two and we probably need to just get it done. This year's do something with Business Blvd. 02:11:31
It looks terrible. 02:11:36
Off Morrison, Figure out who's. 02:11:37
Who owns the right of way? Who's the fallen trees? You know, all that kind of stuff. 02:11:41
We just need to push that to a conclusion because it's. 02:11:46
You know, umm. 02:11:49
Just looks awful. 02:11:49
Anything else we want to share? Because if not, we're. 02:11:54
Tweak our agenda here. 02:11:56
We're going to do the tour of the Police Department training room next. Then we'll eat lunch. That'll allow us to do the hearing 02:11:58
loop training as soon as. 02:12:02
Mr. Stiles here, and then we'll be able to wrap up early. 02:12:06
So that sounds good, everybody. Yeah. 02:12:09
Anything else anybody wants to offer while we're on the strategic stuff? 02:12:12
I just have a question with the process. 02:12:16
So for the things we talked about, but they didn't get any votes. 02:12:19
Do those still live somewhere or do you just take them off the list or what's the plan with that? Yeah, now there's still, I mean 02:12:22
all the rest of these things are going to stay on their special, the ones that are on our work, our short term work program. 02:12:28
I forgot. I just need to think through what the best way to do because once once I line these up, I've got to reorganize. I'm 02:12:39
going to reorganize them like I did last time I put number one, party number two, number three or something. So I've got to resort 02:12:44
that and I can't do that in my head right now, but but that I'll. 02:12:48
I'll do that on paper and then send it to y'all and then that'll be sort of the basis for the, when we go into budget for y'all to 02:12:54
keep that in mind. Those are the things you want us to focus on and those are things we'll try to budget around whether it's. 02:13:00
General fund dollars, philosophies lost, you know, whatever. 02:13:06
Capital funds so. 02:13:10
Yeah. So for now, everything will stay on the list though that we talked about today. Yeah, we'll just, we'll just leave it on. 02:13:13
And yeah, once we send it back out if y'all, you know, there were some things I think we mentioned. 02:13:18
There was. 02:13:24
Now that I've added all this stuff, I've changed my. 02:13:27
Sheet around umm. 02:13:29
The streetlight policy, I mean, that's something. 02:13:31
You know, I don't know, that's a big ticket, big thing, but it's on the list and I know it's important for y'all. We basically 02:13:33
have one that's operating. I just don't have it written down how we're handling that when somebody wants to, you know, street 02:13:37
light or whatever. 02:13:41
And you all said there seemed to be some. 02:13:47
Grouping of people wanting to do something about the charter, so that's going to stay on. 02:13:50
I'll go back through it if something comes up, I'll ask you and the e-mail to give me some direction at the next council meeting 02:13:54
or something about it. But so would it make sense to have under government operations like an ongoing that has to do with tweaking 02:14:00
ordinances in general and just like you have then the notes, like the specific ones? 02:14:06
But. 02:14:13
Because I feel like we're all, that's always something we need to be thinking about. They're always ordinances. 02:14:15
That we want to make our government more efficient. We want to make it. 02:14:19
Not always just sufficient, but what people want or need as times change. And so I feel like that almost should always be. 02:14:23
A priority, but then what? They are making changes? 02:14:30
Well, I mean, I think. 02:14:33
In in my mind anyway, I don't know if my staff feels there, but in my mind that's. 02:14:35
Just an understood party. I mean, if something, you know, at any point there need we need to do you know, I don't know that having 02:14:39
something written on there says update ordinance or I mean, well, I guess I'm just thinking because you have like the streetlight 02:14:43
ordinance as a specific thing, the streetlights not an ordinance. It would just be a policy. Just how do we handle that when 02:14:48
people call in because. 02:14:52
Every Tom, **** and Harry may call me, I want a little light here. Well, how we're going to handle that, you know, and so I've got 02:14:57
to think through. 02:15:00
You know, have we have any complaints? You know, how do I, yeah, collect that and make that data-driven instead of just. 02:15:03
A call in kind of. So I just need to think about that a little bit. 02:15:09
So it'll stay on the list, but. 02:15:12
Buffalo get done this year so. 02:15:14
You would look at that as a street by St. Once you start a street then you might probably be committed. 02:15:16
And have so many feet. 02:15:22
You know, I think that's not the decorative ones, Chuck. She's talking about the big ones up on the poles. We Yeah, that's what I 02:15:25
was talking about too. I mean, you know, if you. 02:15:29
Just I was asked the street she. 02:15:34
Below Trove. 02:15:39
They had asked, they had said it was real dark down in near the end, close to Colin Ferry Morrison. Morrison. 02:15:41
Robert had asked me about. 02:15:48
You know, I said. Well, call in and and see. 02:15:50
I didn't talk to Robert about that one too. And that is tricky because they're in the polls where Robert wants a poll, right? But 02:15:53
once you start. 02:15:56
That's what we just need to. I just haven't had time to do it. So sorry now to have opened up this rabbit trail. But why is it 02:16:30
vehicle? I mean vehicles have headlights people don't like. Why would it streetlights not be for pedestrians? 02:16:36
Well, the street lights are for this. 02:16:44
Straight not I know, but if we don't have sidewalk, I mean like like. 02:16:46
For much of our inner. 02:16:51
Where even if you have sidewalks. 02:16:53
But actually it's irrelevant. I mean, we, we want people to walk in our city. That is a major plan. So people are either walking 02:16:55
on sidewalks next to our streets or they're walking on the streets with no sidewalks. 02:17:01
And so I. 02:17:06
And there. 02:17:08
To me, I always thought it was about people say like just the safety of our community to have that light. But I mean, I think it's 02:17:09
used that way. But I mean, technically it's it's for vehicle traffic for, you know. 02:17:15
I mean, that's how I that's. 02:17:21
How I've grown up in government understanding it. I mean you have St. lamps for pedestrian. 02:17:22
I mean, people do take it. You do get a, you get the side benefit of the fact that people can use those lights for seeing if 02:17:27
they're walking on the street or whatever, or maybe next to a sidewalk that happens to have a street light. But the street 02:17:31
lighting is for vehicles. That's the difference between. 02:17:36
Pole lights and. 02:17:42
St. lamps. I thought that had to do with money and look. 02:17:43
That's two different you look at Georgia Power or any any power company, that's the difference one once for. 02:17:49
Road lighting and the other is for pedestrian lighting. 02:17:54
Send Christine for clarity, your street light. 02:17:58
Has a larger broadcast and not as defined. 02:18:01
And it's more about bringing attention to the roadway that you're traveling. 02:18:04
Of things that may enter the roadway. 02:18:09
And that's why I typically you see streetlights on. 02:18:11
Sections. 02:18:14
Where traffic is heavy. 02:18:15
And it brings caution to that area. 02:18:17
Were cars being parked on the side of the road or something entering the roadway? And that's why they're stationed up higher and 02:18:20
they have a larger broadcast out into the street to light the street. So in a sense you are protecting pedestrians because you 02:18:25
don't want cars to hit them because they cannot see them. 02:18:31
OK. 02:18:37
And that's why we added the ones on the Wanna too, because it was, it was also, it was street, but it was also going to have a 02:18:39
benefit of anybody walking in the area where there are no sidewalks, so. 02:18:43
All right, we ready for ready to head on over to the other side of the wall, Chief. 02:18:51
OK, all right, remember mics are still alive till I get. 02:18:56
Stop. 02:18:59
First, your scholar and gentlemen. Yeah, yeah. 02:19:14
We weren't. 02:19:23
Yeah, that's what we were just talking about, yeah. 02:19:28
Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. Let me just check it myself. 02:19:35
Testing 121212. 02:19:39
Sweet. 02:19:44
Don't tase me bro. 02:19:46
All right. So we've, I think we're back public here as we discussed potential Tasing candidates. 02:19:48
Welcome back to the hundreds of people who are observing. 02:19:54
To the Watkinsville Mayor and Council retreat, our final item on the agenda I think today. 02:19:58
Is hearing loop training. It looks like James Stole still well, Still well. 02:20:03
Thank you. Welcome. Glad you're here. Tell us. 02:20:08
What we need to know? 02:20:11
Well, I. 02:20:13
These are my hearing aids. 02:20:18
And I'm not going to put them in because I don't want to hear myself talk. 02:20:19
OK, but your loops working really really well. 02:20:23
Even where these chairs says it's not working. 02:20:26
Like, oh, there we go. Thank you. 02:20:28
Check, check, check. All right. 02:20:31
Hey my name is James Stowell and I am the owner. 02:20:33
And CEO of a company called. 02:20:36
American Hearing loop. 02:20:39
Been around 15 years. 02:20:40
Got loops from here. Well, let's see. 02:20:42
Not much West, but we did all of Broadway, all the museums in Washington DC. 02:20:45
Virginia Beach. Norfolk, VA. 02:20:50
Richmond, VA. All their big theaters and auditoriums we've done all of Duke and Chapel Hill, all their. 02:20:53
Examination rooms and. 02:20:58
Where did you leave here? That's right. OK. 02:21:00
Hey you guys are on Google. I saw it. 02:21:04
Gotta go loop in the council room right here. 02:21:06
And, umm. 02:21:09
It was an interesting process to put the loop in here, but how many of you knew about a hearing loop before you walked into this 02:21:10
room? 02:21:14
Saw this sign or did you even notice the sign coming in the room? 02:21:17
Yeah, that's the international sign. 02:21:23
Where here you live? 02:21:27
And if you're hearing impaired? 02:21:29
Then you know what that is. 02:21:32
Because it says right here. See that? 02:21:33
Switch your hearing aid to T coil mode. 02:21:35
And I'm already doing the worst thing I can do this microphone etiquette. 02:21:38
Move the microphone. 02:21:42
So if you're hearing impaired, you can raise your hand and say put the microphone back up to your mouth again. 02:21:43
So here another word for hearing loop is audio. 02:21:48
Frequency induction. 02:21:51
Listening system. 02:21:54
It's a tongue twister. 02:21:57
So everybody got tired of saying that. 02:21:58
Saying hearing loop. 02:22:00
Which is much easier. 02:22:01
And uh. 02:22:03
He basically is. 02:22:04
Old technology. 02:22:07
But its job is to take. 02:22:08
Speech between 100 Hertz and 5000. 02:22:12
And that's important, and I'll tell you why in a minute. 02:22:15
Take it into this digital microphone. 02:22:18
And there's a box in there that converts it. 02:22:23
Into old analog, so we're going from. 02:22:26
Digital. 02:22:29
Back in time again. 02:22:29
And it takes it. 02:22:31
And puts it into this wire. 02:22:33
It's right here. 02:22:35
The one right there. 02:22:37
There's some back there. 02:22:38
And it induces a. 02:22:40
Magnetic signal. 02:22:42
Closest thing I can tell you that it's coming out of there is. 02:22:44
Does everybody here have magnets on the refrigerator? 02:22:47
Yeah, we all do, don't we? OK, so take one of those magnets. 02:22:50
And try to hold it. Get it as close as you can to that refrigerator and hold it off. Don't let it touch. 02:22:53
What happens? 02:22:59
It wants to you just start shaking. 02:23:01
It's got to get on the refrigerators, got to get on that steel. 02:23:03
That's called induction. 02:23:07
That's not James Bond. Don't mix it up with seduction. 02:23:10
This is induction OK. 02:23:13
You're inducing a current into that refrigerator. 02:23:15
And what's happening, if you could see it? 02:23:18
If we all see it. 02:23:20
And we have instruments. 02:23:22
We can see this floor, not right now with a naked eye, but. 02:23:23
We could see it with our instruments, which are out in our truck. 02:23:26
We can see the electrons when they get close to that refrigerator. 02:23:29
They go from this and all your right hand. 02:23:33
They go from this curling motion. 02:23:37
To this. 02:23:39
So in this room. 02:23:42
This wire. 02:23:44
Is seeing that wire. 02:23:46
Seeing that next wire? 02:23:47
And once they see each other. 02:23:49
They're like best friends. 02:23:52
They're the straightest lines in the world. 02:23:54
And then all we do is add a little bit of voltage. 02:23:56
About. 02:24:00
A AA battery. 02:24:01
OK, what Appalachian did the Michigan State and the AA one time when they beat him? You guys probably didn't follow that, did you? 02:24:03
I followed it all the way to the very end of that game. 02:24:08
When the guy. 02:24:12
Narrating that games, it's just hard. 02:24:14
Can be and they got tired. 02:24:18
What in closing, they just smack them right off the field, so. 02:24:20
When those water see each other, we induce a current. 02:24:24
It brings it up and in this room is 6 1/2. 02:24:28
Almost 7 feet right here. 02:24:31
Now. 02:24:33
It also spills over. 02:24:34
This is in the loop. 02:24:36
This is out of loop. 02:24:40
And as you get further from the loop, it dims down, it starts to go down, the signal goes down and down and down. 02:24:41
And when you're talking in these microphones? 02:24:47
It's in the loop. 02:24:50
It's not here. 02:24:51
But you can hear it here, but not much. 02:24:53
So. 02:24:56
In the loop. 02:24:57
Out of the loop, so if you have a speaker out here like me with a microphone. 02:24:58
And uh. 02:25:02
These microphones are really good. You can actually I could. 02:25:03
Go outside in the parking lot and still talk to you. 02:25:06
That's how good they are. 02:25:08
And. 02:25:10
It puts that signal into here. 02:25:11
Old oxygen. 02:25:13
Now, is anybody here wearing hearing aids? 02:25:15
Besides me. 02:25:18
We're breaking. We're breaking the rule here. 02:25:20
It's one in three. 02:25:22
One in three people. 02:25:24
Our hearing impaired. 02:25:26
Now think about that. There's 335 million people in the United States. 02:25:28
In one and three. 02:25:32
It's a big number. 02:25:35
What do you think the CDC thinks about that? 02:25:37
That place in Atlanta? 02:25:39
Center for Disease Control. 02:25:41
Well then, classified hearing impairment as a chronic disease. 02:25:44
Yeah. 02:25:49
The biggest issue is why does the insurance pay? 02:25:52
For hearing aids for chronic disease. 02:25:54
Well, I guarantee you representatives in this. 02:25:57
State, our state, North Carolina, Virginia, working hard on that to change that. 02:26:01
Right there. 02:26:05
But it's a disease, a chronic disease is a disease that you get. 02:26:06
That gets worse. 02:26:10
And the only way it goes away is when you die. 02:26:11
How many people in here know somebody who's hearing impaired? 02:26:15
Now we know what's coming up on TV, right? It's called March Madness. 02:26:19
Right. Yeah. 02:26:23
I got 5 uncles. 02:26:24
What do they do when they sit in front of a TV and they're all shot Gunners? They're all. 02:26:26
Shotgun bird hunters. 02:26:30
Turn it up. Turn up. 02:26:32
Supper ties it'll go. 02:26:35
That's what I hear from them. 02:26:38
Yeah, they're all hearing impaired. They don't believe it. 02:26:40
But we do. 02:26:43
And that's when you hear it the most is around the holidays. 02:26:45
And the other thing that happens is that. 02:26:48
How do you know somebody's hearing impaired? 02:26:52
What's the first thing that gives them away? 02:26:54
What's that? What what you say? 02:26:55
Yeah, you got it right there. You'll see it all the time, especially here. Here's what I see it the most. 02:27:00
And I don't spend my life in a hospital, but the outpatient clinics in the hospital. 02:27:06
When the people lean over and go. 02:27:10
I'm trying, I'm trying to help. 02:27:12
Trying to help the lady sitting there is leaning way back going. 02:27:14
I hear you. 02:27:18
So those are our biggest customers. We those little inpatient, outpatient things that we put. 02:27:19
Pairing lips, each one of them. 02:27:24
So that both people the employee. 02:27:25
Who could be here impaired? 02:27:28
And the patient who's here impaired, we do it at banks, we do it at. 02:27:29
All the ticket offices is the ball game. 02:27:34
You know, at the at the. 02:27:36
Football stadiums. 02:27:38
But that's how you tell you hear somebody because they can't hear themselves talking. 02:27:40
So that. 02:27:46
When you wear a hearing aid. 02:27:47
You've lost over 80% of your hearing. 02:27:49
Go ahead everybody. Just. 02:27:52
Take your two fingers. 02:27:54
Put them in years. 02:27:57
OK, there you go. There you go. 02:27:59
Now you're experiencing. 02:28:01
My, I'll go ahead and take them out. 02:28:03
That's mild hearing loss. That's what somebody with mild hearing losses. 02:28:05
And it comes from children just being born or babies being born. 02:28:09
All the way to what day does it happen? 02:28:12
I'm working with that the school district. 02:28:16
Up in North Carolina, Rowan County. 02:28:18
And they have. 02:28:21
Teacher just a star Super teacher 24 years old. 02:28:22
She's a superstar of the school. 02:28:26
Everybody loves her, she loves everybody. 02:28:28
Week of December, she got up in the morning. 02:28:31
What's going on? 02:28:36
And it went just like this. 02:28:39
Downhill. Her hearing. 02:28:41
Until when I was there last week. It's almost gone. 02:28:43
24 years old. She has to get cochlear implants. Do you know what those are? CIS? 02:28:46
Yeah, that's that's those are miracles. 02:28:51
They they put a piece of foil. 02:28:54
Down inside in the new. 02:28:57
Your audio network of your brain. 02:29:00
It's it's that whole network, it's like this and your brain sits in it. 02:29:02
And it picks up the sound from that. 02:29:07
And then it has a magnet in your head. 02:29:10
And the hearing aid which hangs on your ear like a regular hearing aid. 02:29:13
It's plugged into that and you probably see those magnets on peoples heads right there. 02:29:16
When you get to that point, that's profound hearing loss, so you've lost almost everything. 02:29:20
So 100 Hertz to 5000. 02:29:26
Is what this loop is built for. 02:29:28
So that will work in your hearing aids. 02:29:31
We build these to the same specifications that the ADA requires. 02:29:33
And the federal government requires. 02:29:37
The hearing aid manufacturers to build their hearing aids. 02:29:39
We have the same. 02:29:42
Specs. Same specs. 02:29:44
And in North Carolina is the Fire Marshall. 02:29:47
South Carolina is the Department of Health. 02:29:50
Environmental Science. 02:29:53
And I forget who it is in Georgia. Who doesn't expect that you have? 02:29:55
I met with him at a meeting in Marietta. But then you have a group of inspectors. 02:30:01
Who abide by the ADA? Make sure everybody abiding by the ADA. 02:30:05
You know, putting in wheelchair ramps and things like that. 02:30:09
That's your protection. 02:30:12
That you'll be able to hear. 02:30:14
If you're not wearing hearing aids now. 02:30:17
You might be very soon, you never know. It could be overnight like that gal. 02:30:19
Another gal that we did was the the head of the HR department for the hospital system in Greenville. 02:30:23
And everybody had to get a flu shot in the hospital. 02:30:29
Or you're fired. 02:30:33
That's a pretty big deal. 02:30:35
You can fire everybody at the hospital 'cause they don't get a flu shot. What if they don't want it? 02:30:38
Well, she started the pioneering. The way she goes, I'll go first. 02:30:42
She got her flu shot and everything was great. 02:30:47
Next day we get a call. 02:30:50
She lost her hearing. 02:30:53
24 hours. 02:30:54
She was head HR for all the hospital systems. 02:30:56
Now her office is completely looped. 02:30:59
She couldn't hear a thing in that office if he didn't have a hearing loop and her hearing aids. 02:31:02
So, so it can happen to anytime, to anyone. We know people, so we have to learn to talk to people. 02:31:06
We have to look when you speak into your microphones. 02:31:12
These microphones all have different designs, not the these are the two of the same. All these are the same but this ones 02:31:15
different. 02:31:18
I have to talk here. 02:31:22
Three fingers, elbow in tight. 02:31:23
If I. 02:31:26
So if you're hearing impaired, you can raise your hand. 02:31:29
Call it here. Report microphone etiquette, please. Straighten up, fly right. Get that microphone back up there. 02:31:32
A lot of places need. 02:31:41
Hearing loops. 02:31:43
And the word of mouth, of hearing moves. 02:31:44
When you meet those people with these family, what we got March Madness coming up, but we got the 4th of July coming up, but it's 02:31:47
outside. 02:31:50
But then you got Thanksgiving and Christmas. 02:31:53
And what's going to happen there? 02:31:55
If I told you how many? 02:31:59
Family reunion tables with loop. 02:32:00
You wouldn't even believe it. 02:32:03
Because. 02:32:04
And it's a family reunion. 02:32:06
And if you're hearing impaired? 02:32:07
It's nothing but a noise gathering center. 02:32:09
But if you have a loop. 02:32:12
And some microphones. And, you know, the kids, grandkids really know what those might. They know what microphones are. 02:32:14
Just don't give them one. Just let them hold it for them. If you give them one, you're in trouble. 02:32:19
They I've seen it in the church they had. 02:32:24
In the church they had them. 02:32:27
Grandparents Day. 02:32:29
Pick up all your grandkids. Bring them to the church. 02:32:31
And they have the. 02:32:34
The master of the. 02:32:36
Pastor who's taking care of all the kids? 02:32:42
And he made the mistake. 02:32:45
You got all the kids up there and the grandparents are in the loop. They're in the back. They never heard the grandkids. 02:32:47
I mean, all they hear is. 02:32:53
You know a little girl yells at 8000 Hertz. 02:32:55
I hear he only works at 5000. 02:32:58
You don't hear it. 02:33:00
You'll hear him scream. 02:33:02
They'll be screaming all day. You'll never find them. 02:33:03
So. 02:33:06
Put all these kids up there and they were asking questions about what they learned and on. 02:33:08
Sunday, that little. 02:33:12
Religious class in the. 02:33:15
He made the mistake. 02:33:17
Given the microphone to a little girl. 02:33:18
He said. What's your favorite thing? She said. Well, let me tell you what my mom and dad do. 02:33:21
And again, I said you can give that microphone back, but she got up and walked off down and proceeded to tell everybody too much 02:33:26
information. 02:33:30
About what her parents did. 02:33:33
Oh, I see these. 02:33:37
Is there a weak signal right here? 02:33:41
That that's what we've been told. That's it. That's what we're going to have you check today. 02:33:43
There there's a thing about a hearing. 02:33:47
And it's pure physics. 02:33:51
I use the right hand rule because that's the first thing we learned in physics class. 02:33:53
Is that the energy is coming out of my thumb? 02:33:56
And then the radiation. 02:34:00
For the energy. 02:34:02
Curly, it's called the right hand rule. There's not a left hand rule. It didn't count. 02:34:03
It's only the right. 02:34:07
So this wire right here. 02:34:09
Has energy coming this way? 02:34:11
It's rolling this way. 02:34:13
And it has to intercept. 02:34:15
The Wire over here. 02:34:17
This way. 02:34:19
If you're right over top of the wire. 02:34:22
When I say right over top of the fire, no matter what the size. 02:34:26
That's called the null NUL. 02:34:29
So if you stand over. 02:34:31
And you can get your hearing aids just about perfect. 02:34:33
You'll hear. 02:34:36
It dies down. 02:34:38
All you have to do is move over a little bit and get the sweet spot. 02:34:40
If you sit right over it. 02:34:43
And I can sure I'll find it. 02:34:45
We'll bring instruments as if you sit right over it. 02:34:46
With your ear right over the wire. 02:34:50
Not going to happen, It's just physics. 02:34:53
If somebody sits here and says to you. 02:34:56
Gosh, I can't hear sitting here. 02:34:58
But he steers me just fine, right? 02:35:00
Yeah, yeah. 02:35:02
Yeah, well, scoot your chair up a little bit. 02:35:03
That's all you're gonna do. 02:35:06
And it's not against the well. 02:35:07
So if you go there. 02:35:09
Now your head against the wall so where I can hear it, you're right, you're not going to be able to hear it. 02:35:10
So you it's it's a two way St. you got to find a sweet spot. 02:35:16
And. 02:35:20
You got to tell somebody if you're not getting it, but it does work, works well, and I just listen to it. 02:35:21
So I'm going to open this up to question and you can ask anything if. 02:35:26
You know, I I can do it technically or I can try to do it in layman's language. 02:35:31
I like the technical answers better. Are we Speaking of these microphones? 02:35:36
How close is it in the same three finger? Ideally it's not. 02:35:41
OK, it said. It has to be played at the level of your mouth. 02:35:44
So that's tilted right there is perfectly nice. Go ahead and. 02:35:47
You tell me, go ahead and just speak normally. 02:35:50
Hi there, Can you hear me good? 02:35:52
See that you see where yours is up on your forehead. 02:35:55
So you watch. 02:35:58
OK, talk like this. Perfect. 02:35:59
Bend it down so you don't have to have the floor because these are really good mics. These are 12 inches. 02:36:02
Right here, but right at your mouth. Point at your mouth and don't lean into it because it'll get loud and it will distort. 02:36:08
You don't want to do that. 02:36:17
Here for me, this one right here, it's like this. 02:36:18
So good question. 02:36:22
That's really good to know. It's OK because if you have a lot of hearing impaired people in here and they talk to me, they be 02:36:26
raising their hands on you. Hey, fix that microphone. 02:36:30
I mean, you wanted to say, come on, yeah, I'll fix mine. Can you hear better now? 02:36:34
James, question for you. There are 159 counties in Georgia, 500 plus municipalities. 02:36:40
Do you know statistically how many of those counties, how many municipalities have an installed functional hearing? I do them, I 02:36:46
know that has answered that question one. 02:36:51
One, most lawyers don't ask questions that they don't know the answers to. 02:36:57
This one right here. 02:37:03
We tried real hard and some people are still trying very hard, but. 02:37:04
Here's the problem. 02:37:08
How many people here here in Paris? 02:37:10
Model Yeah, just hanging around here so I have no hearing in my left ear. 02:37:15
Profoundly on my right ear. 02:37:20
That's why I have those hearing aids over there. 02:37:21
Here's the problem hard enough to crack. It's a law, by the way. 02:37:24
ADA. And who manages the ADA? Do you remember who manages them? Who's your boss? 02:37:29
The Department of Justice. 02:37:34
They're busy these days, aren't they? 02:37:36
And they can. And they're going to get busy on this kind of thing soon enough. Right now, they're just finishing up the wheelchair 02:37:39
ramps. 02:37:41
And you get a city like Charleston who hasn't put one in yet. 02:37:44
They call it the Holy City, but they won't put a wheelchair ramping for anybody. 02:37:48
So the Department of Justice and ADA, there's a law was passed in 2010. 02:37:52
One in active in 2012 and says where there are two or more people. 02:37:56
I count more than two here. 02:38:02
Gathered in a public place. 02:38:04
That has. 02:38:07
A microphone PE system. 02:38:08
You must have assisted listening. 02:38:10
Those municipalities are breaking the law. 02:38:12
But they're not the only ones. 02:38:15
Did any of the federal conference buildings? 02:38:17
In downtown Atlanta. 02:38:20
They got nothing. 02:38:21
And it says in their building code they have to have it. 02:38:23
But they're not doing it. 02:38:26
So who's the victims here? 02:38:28
Here we are. We've got. 02:38:30
One in three. 02:38:31
60 something million. 02:38:33
Folks who are hearing impaired, and by the way, don't let anybody fool you if you say I'm not hearing impaired. I just have 02:38:34
ringing in my ears. 02:38:38
You got a problem. 02:38:43
That ring, it didn't come from nowhere. 02:38:44
It comes from a disease. 02:38:46
OK, so how do we as a group get going? 02:38:48
You know, there's a there's like Salt Lake City. 02:38:53
Their City Council decreed. 02:38:55
Here loops on every new renovation, every new. 02:38:58
Public floor, The City of Marietta. 02:39:02
Same thing. 02:39:05
They've got loops everywhere, you know, life and university everywhere. Their loops. 02:39:06
It's where do we start? 02:39:10
I thought maybe. 02:39:13
Working with the governor would help, but. 02:39:14
Try to get in to see. 02:39:16
Well, back then it was it was, it was a he Brian Camp. 02:39:18
Try to get in and see him. It couldn't make any headway at all. 02:39:21
None. 02:39:24
He's not hearing impaired. He doesn't know anybody. 02:39:25
Why we care? 02:39:28
He's not wheelchair bound, why would he care about that? 02:39:30
Why? 02:39:33
How much does it cost to install a system? 02:39:35
To install the system. Well this system here. 02:39:39
I'm going to say the average system, I can't. This one doesn't count because this, you know, this municipality discounts things 02:39:45
like that. 02:39:48
Our average system is between 12 and $20,000. 02:39:52
Per room. Wow. 02:39:55
OK, none, five year warranty. 02:39:57
It works. 02:39:59
Satisfies. Legally, it satisfies the requirement. 02:40:01
And it's a capital investment. 02:40:05
You know, you put the money out there. 02:40:08
And you get what you pay for. 02:40:10
So that's that's about right, but I've done some that are. 02:40:12
Like let's say 5 theaters. 02:40:15
On Broadway was 200,000. 02:40:18
Michigan State Basketball Arena. 02:40:23
186,000. 02:40:26
I'm trying to think of something the Peace Center in Greenville. 02:40:30
Seats 3700. 02:40:33
And that. 02:40:34
Fleming Arts Center. 02:40:36
Another 180,000. 02:40:38
It's got 18 loops and. 02:40:39
25,000 feet of wire. 02:40:41
And it works wonderful. Have my favorite seats in there. 02:40:44
So. 02:40:50
Good question. 02:40:51
Every place is different. 02:40:52
Like before the loop went in here. 02:40:54
We tested it over and over. 02:40:56
Several hours, over and over. 02:40:58
And. 02:41:00
You look at the budget and you say, Gee, what can I get by with? OK, so this loop is made just like it is in a church. 02:41:01
It's made for you to do exactly what your mother told you to do. 02:41:08
Sit the back straight and sit up. 02:41:12
Don't fall asleep at the table. Don't put your elbows on the table. 02:41:14
This is how it's built. 02:41:18
Why is it built like this? 02:41:19
Because the. 02:41:21
It's inside that hearing aid. 02:41:23
Is built perpendicular to the loop. 02:41:24
OK, so here it is. 02:41:28
Walk my head. 02:41:31
I go horizontal with the loop, everything. 02:41:34
All bets are off. 02:41:35
It's got to be perpendicular like. 02:41:37
What John's holding there, so he's holding it up right like that. It's got to be like that. Put it in your shirt pocket. Do 02:41:40
anything you want, but keep it upright. 02:41:43
This is called a single. 02:41:47
Array loop. 02:41:49
We do. 02:41:50
I just finished a NBA basketball court. 02:41:52
In Richmond, VA. 02:41:56
For special needs school. 02:41:58
Got a huge gymnasium? 02:41:59
And they want their young athletes to be able to hear with their hearing aids. 02:42:01
While they're tumbling, jumping and playing ball. 02:42:06
So we put in a phase array. 02:42:08
So we have this loop that's here. 02:42:11
Why are there? Why are there? 02:42:13
Every four feet we put a wire. 02:42:15
In the concrete. 02:42:18
So anywhere you go. 02:42:21
Including all the way under the bleachers. 02:42:23
In that basketball arena. 02:42:25
If you're hearing impaired, you can hear everything going on. 02:42:28
Even if there's not microphones, they've got to be microphones. Got to have a source. I'm sorry I didn't explain it. Source. 02:42:30
Goes to hearing loop driver in the closet. 02:42:38
To the wire. 02:42:40
OK, three things you got to have and they can be. 02:42:41
You got to go test it. 02:42:45
Now when we get a new construction like. 02:42:47
That one in Richmond, they, you know, two years ago they sent us the drawings. 02:42:49
It's just here's what we're planning. 02:42:53
We want the gymnasium and here's what we want in it. Here's what we want to have happen. Can you do it? 02:42:56
Answers. Yeah. 02:43:00
So now I've done probably. 02:43:02
2000 basketball NBA basketball courts. 02:43:03
In the concrete. 02:43:07
Then they lay the wooden frame, and then they lay the rubber, and then they lay that nice wood. 02:43:08
There are a lot of churches that have huge gymnasiums like that that we've done. 02:43:13
In Atlanta. 02:43:16
Probably, I would say. 02:43:17
I did 4IN Atlanta right now. 02:43:20
And they have these schools. 02:43:23
Religious schools. The Episcopal Church. 02:43:27
Christchurch, they have huge gyms. 02:43:29
So we're able to do that. 02:43:31
You know, I think. 02:43:34
Toby, did you have a question? 02:43:35
Yeah, barring an outside source like. 02:43:36
Cutting the line or severing a line was the longevity of. 02:43:40
The system that you've seen. 02:43:43
You know, I know you weren't here for five years. 02:43:45
Yeah. The question is, oh, you guys aren't in the loop. But anyway, the question is, is how does the longevity play out based on 02:43:48
the equipment? 02:43:52
So, umm. 02:43:56
A wire. 02:43:57
That's in the floor, undisturbed, like under this carpet. It's a flat wire. 02:43:58
It'll probably outlast you. 02:44:03
And everybody in this room. 02:44:05
If we put it in concrete, it has 100 year warranty on it. 02:44:07
So he's going to outlive me. I'm not going to be 100 so. 02:44:10
The drivers. 02:44:14
Or normally five years. 02:44:15
And the new drivers seem to barely make it 5 years. The old ones, the old big heavy duty opera style seemed to last. I probably 02:44:20
have 100. 02:44:25
Those old opera style drivers that I put in and. 02:44:30
2010. 02:44:33
And they're still working. 02:44:35
I sure wish they'd break. 02:44:38
I'm a business guy. I don't want to break. 02:44:41
You know what they pay for those drivers 15 years ago? 02:44:44
There's probably more than what they cost today because, you know, this is this kind of electronics has gone down in price, not 02:44:48
up. 02:44:51
You know, because they got smarter. The new ones look like an iPhone on the front. 02:44:56
The old ones you had to have a little screwdriver. 02:45:00
And you had to have up two or three meters going on and you had the tunnels and lights just right and get them just right. 02:45:02
So it's the box that breaks, not the wires. 02:45:10
What? The wires, they break when people remodel. OK, but because I was like, wow, that'd be really expensive to have to replace 02:45:14
all the wires every five years is. Yeah, if you decide to replace this carpet every five years, you need to think about putting it 02:45:18
down in the concrete. 02:45:22
We do a lot of retirement homes. 02:45:28
And they do replace their carpet every five years. 02:45:30
And so when they're replacing carpets, we're we're cutting concrete, they started out like this. 02:45:34
But now they want it in the concrete. They want that 100 year warranty. 02:45:39
So. 02:45:43
And but boy, I'll tell you what, a carpet cutter with that knife. 02:45:44
They are so good, it'll cut this wire so fast you wouldn't believe it. 02:45:48
And it may happen to you in here. And then we can find the cut and we can fix a lot. 02:45:52
I'll say the worst case was a. 02:45:57
In Greenville First Baptist Church. 02:45:59
Seats 2500. 02:46:01
Big amphitheater. 02:46:04
Church umm. 02:46:05
The they were putting a new carpet, so we laid all the wire, flat wire just like this. 02:46:06
Everywhere. 02:46:11
I mean, just thousands of feet, thousands of feet. 02:46:12
Came back two days later and here's that beautiful carpet in. 02:46:15
Test salute. Nothing. 02:46:20
No. Check all the wires, nothing. 02:46:23
And the guy was a was a company called Bonnets. 02:46:25
And they had a big guy run it. 02:46:29
And I said hey. 02:46:31
I got a question for you. I was pulling up the carpet here, somebody cut this wire and we had put boards. 02:46:32
Wood boards. 02:46:38
On top of every place they could possibly cut that wire. 02:46:39
And said do not cut the wire. 02:46:42
Gave him a place to cut the carpet on the board. 02:46:45
He said to me, he said. 02:46:48
We don't cut no wire. 02:46:50
We didn't cut the water. 02:46:52
I said, yeah, somebody did whoever's in here putting this carpet and cut the wire and he said no, we didn't. 02:46:53
And he was a big guy. 02:46:58
Got up against me, but right here in my face. 02:47:01
It's pushing you backwards. I was going. 02:47:05
This is not going to happen like this. 02:47:07
Call the. 02:47:09
The facility manager. 02:47:10
He had the whole thing on video. 02:47:12
And every time that carpet knife cut that wire. 02:47:14
You got to spark a copper. 02:47:17
I mean called the boss, the owner and showed it to him. 02:47:20
It's $1000 a cut to fix. 02:47:25
I'm not crying. 02:47:28
Well, look at me. I'm. 02:47:31
One of the guys that worked for me, Don, he retired. He he's just mad because he's a Craftsman. 02:47:33
You know, you cut my wife ****** me off. I don't care how much you pay me, but me, I just said get your checkbook outlet's get 02:47:37
going, you know? 02:47:40
So yeah, it's $1000 to fix it so. 02:47:44
Try to impress upon anybody that comes in here to work on this. 02:47:48
If you've got to pull it up. 02:47:52
And let's pull it up. 02:47:53
But this one wasn't that expensive. 02:47:55
So we can replace this unless if you want to put it in concrete. 02:47:57
You know we. 02:48:00
We used to contract out concrete cutters. We've seen it on the street, right with the big sauce. 02:48:01
Well, OSHA, which is the safety people to protect your lives. 02:48:05
Like the writing on the cigarettes and stuff, they're there to protect you. 02:48:09
They they tighten it way up. 02:48:14
The silicon dust from concrete will kill you eventually. 02:48:17
So they tighten that all up so that we. 02:48:21
We decided to start cutting concrete on our own. 02:48:24
So we bought all the right equipment that OSHA approved. They came and proved it, washed his cut. 02:48:26
And if you get our Facebook page for American Hearing Room. 02:48:31
Just turn your volume down because you can watch us cut concrete because it's loud. You know, we wear earplugs and knee pads and 02:48:35
helmets and boots and stuff. 02:48:38
But we do ourselves. 02:48:42
And the price difference is interesting. We're talking about price. 02:48:44
If you bring in somebody concrete cutter. 02:48:47
They'll charge you about anywhere between 25 and $45.00 a foot. 02:48:50
The cut. 02:48:54
We charge $5 a foot. 02:48:56
Because when we cut half an inch down. 02:48:58
Those guys with those big saws on the street cutting their curbs and stuff. 02:49:01
I mean, they're cutting. 02:49:04
Like that? 02:49:06
So yeah, if you, if you have to pull this up and if it does start sticking when you're pulling it up. 02:49:07
Then it might be best just to go ahead and just pull it up. 02:49:12
And have us come back, put wire and it wasn't that expensive. 02:49:16
I mean, it's expense, but it's not that expensive. 02:49:19
All right. OK. Questions, more questions. 02:49:21
I know it sounds like you're going to be doing an inspection here this afternoon. Yeah, we're going to. We're going to run tests 02:49:26
on everything. Great. 02:49:29
Well, thank you very much. This has been super enlightening. Yeah, you're welcome. Be sure you tell everybody, though, that's. 02:49:32
I want you to talk to those other municipalities, you look like the right guy, and ask him say. 02:49:38
Ada. 02:49:45
It's a law. 02:49:46
You got to do it. You're supposed to do it anyway. 02:49:48
Those folks that aren't shy anymore, they're retired. 02:49:52
They'll drop it down on anybody. 02:49:55
No call. No. Call Ada and they'll call me. 02:49:58
They weren't you down here putting the loop in? I said. I didn't know. 02:50:01
So. 02:50:03
Oh, you guys know? 02:50:05
Yep. So we've done all their theaters down there. So yeah. So if you end up in Sun City. 02:50:08
You got a wonderful theater with hand movement, so. 02:50:12
Well, people retire there. 02:50:16
Sharon, thanks for the invite. 02:50:17
Thank you. Thank you. 02:50:19
All right. Well, Council, with that, I think that's our. 02:50:21
Final agenda item we advance the Police Department tour. Is there anything else anybody wants to share before we wrap up? 02:50:25
All right, Well, this meeting is done. Thanks again to everybody for their input. All right. 02:50:33
My. 02:50:39
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Unable to preview the file. Make sure you have Adobe Reader installed
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Unable to preview the file. Make sure you have Adobe Reader installed

Transcript

Event transcript
All right. Welcome everybody to our annual planning retreat. Excited to have this time together. 00:00:07
Today, this is when we. This is when we. 00:00:13
Deliver ideas big and small that help our city staff set their budgets, set their priorities for the year. 00:00:16
And. 00:00:23
Do the things that make a difference for Watkinsville and for our citizens. I've been. 00:00:25
Reflecting. 00:00:28
On all the all the things that are done, Sharon's going to share, give you an overview of kind of what all we accomplished in 00:00:30
2024. It's pretty amazing. 00:00:34
I think as we all go around Watkinsville. 00:00:37
We have people approach us. Well, wouldn't this be great? Isn't this a great idea? How many times have we heard that, you know, 00:00:40
and. 00:00:43
I you know. 00:00:47
Not to be demeaning in those people. I love that so many people have ideas for Watkinsville. 00:00:49
But it's one thing to have an idea, it's another thing to have the will and the skill. 00:00:53
To act and execute on this. 00:00:56
And one of the things I'm most proud of with this council is we have the will to act and we have a staff with the skill to 00:00:58
execute. 00:01:01
On great ideas that we agree on, and what that does in the end is it creates opportunities that never would have existed. 00:01:05
For our community, if we hadn't done that and. 00:01:11
Several days a week I have the pleasure of sitting in this office when the when the sun's up, which is most of the time. Sometimes 00:01:15
like last night when the sun is down and. 00:01:19
And I hear the kids laughing and watch them run up and down the ramp and play. That's something that wouldn't have existed without 00:01:23
y'all's courage. 00:01:26
To ACT and insurance and her staff skill to execute that in partnership with the SP. 00:01:29
When you go to Watkinsville Woods, the exact same thing that took a little bit of courage to do years and years ago, and we did 00:01:35
that. 00:01:38
And then I think the finest example is Thomas Farm Preserve. Again, a big win this year. 00:01:42
I can't help but smile every time I drop by and and see all those people out there and think, wow, you know that just who would 00:01:47
have thought that would be an opportunity? 00:01:50
The same thing can happen on the sidewalk. The same thing can happen when you go to Wire Park. The same thing can happen when you 00:01:54
go to a retailer. 00:01:56
That's new, but is there? 00:02:00
Because of an environment that y'all helped create. So. So that's my preamble. I hope we'll all continue to think that way. 00:02:02
In terms of what are the opportunities that we can. 00:02:10
Set the tone for Not all of those require money. Some of them require a commitment on our part to. 00:02:12
Planning or land use some of them require. 00:02:18
Hire. Some of them require establishing a DDA, which we did a few years ago and what that's created so. 00:02:20
But what we'll do today will help set the tone for years to come. 00:02:26
And I'm grateful to all of you for giving us your time. 00:02:30
I am a nerd about keeping us on time with the agenda, so I'm going to facilitate it that way. If there's if the ideas get too far 00:02:33
out there, I might ask Sharon to put that in the parking lot and we'll come back to it. 00:02:37
If we can't stick to it, but in the past we finished up a little early, I hope we can do that today. 00:02:43
One of the things I always like to start with is to realign us on our. 00:02:49
City's vision and values Our vision is to create Georgia's most compelling community by honoring our history, building community, 00:02:52
and creating opportunities for citizens to engage and do business with one another every day. 00:02:58
Our tagline is to come connect and create. 00:03:04
Our values are efficiency, transparency, inclusivity, creativity, kindness, and connectivity. 00:03:07
This council changes every year or two, so I always like to look around and make sure we're all still comfortable with that vision 00:03:14
and those values because, like I've told you before, that guides the decisions that we make. 00:03:19
Are we all comfortable with that or do we want to discuss this? 00:03:24
OK, good. 00:03:28
We'll scratch the first item off the agenda then, if we're all good with that. 00:03:29
Unless anybody else, we do have a little bit of extra time, is there anybody anything anybody else would like to share off the top 00:03:34
on what you'd want to accomplish today? 00:03:37
If not, I'm going to let Sharon move on into. 00:03:41
2024 plan initiatives and funding. I would one thing I did mean to mention, I want to thank our department heads for being here 00:03:44
today. 00:03:47
In JNU as well which leads our DDA. 00:03:51
This is a big commitment on y'all's end. I know how busy y'all are. 00:03:55
I see Mark and the chief all over the city and and Lee never stops. So for y'all to give us five hours of your time today, we're 00:03:59
grateful. We're also grateful for y'all's leadership because without. 00:04:04
You guys, we know 90% of this stuff we can get done and. 00:04:09
Several of us remember those days where we were. 00:04:12
When Julie did it all. Yeah, yeah. When Julie did it all. And. 00:04:15
Brian. Brian was out asking for right away and Connie was. Connie was. 00:04:19
Making things happen. And so it's, it's really refreshing now to know we can get a ton of this done. 00:04:23
With the talented staff. 00:04:28
We also are broadcasting live. 00:04:30
Sharon, did I need to read the thing about the hearing loop? 00:04:32
Yeah, I'm not the best at looking up at that. The city does have a hearing loop system in the council chamber, a wireless network 00:04:35
for those with hearing aids. Signals can be picked up by most hearing aids. 00:04:40
City also has loop receivers for those who still have some difficulty hearing. 00:04:44
Anyone with questions about that can contact Sharon and we can make accommodations. 00:04:48
We do have the TV over here is on the Fritz. Can we just turn it off? 00:04:54
It's a little bit distracting. 00:04:57
Yeah. 00:05:03
All right. I think everything else OK, good. All right. 00:05:05
What's the what's the thing they show you on before you watch a movie now that the lights may be blinking sensitive to after after 00:05:08
five hours, we might have all been a little bit like that. 00:05:13
So anyway, so, so Sharon, unless we let, does anybody else want to share anything else off the top because we've got it. We're a 00:05:18
little ahead already, so. 00:05:21
The question I don't think this is the time for this, right? 00:05:25
Like brainstorming ideas, right? Right. 00:05:28
This isn't it. 00:05:31
Yeah. So we're going to get into that in the, we'll get into that in the 11:00 AM prioritizing. 00:05:32
Now we're going to get into that in the 10 AM, the long term planning and visioning, we'll probably get there pretty quickly, you 00:05:38
know, as it is so. 00:05:41
All right. Any other thoughts? 00:05:45
Questions. Otherwise, I'll hand it to Sharon and let you. 00:05:47
Take it from here, OK? 00:05:50
Thank you, Mayor. 00:05:52
Umm, so we all thought we did a lot in the five years. Umm. 00:05:54
Starting in 2019 to 2024 or 20 I guess 24, but last year was a really. 00:05:59
Really big year I think for us financially and just. 00:06:06
Physically and fiscally, it was a big year. We got a lot of money in and we also did a lot of projects. 00:06:10
I do want to thank everybody in the room because you guys are the ones who set the tone. You made the decision what you wanted us 00:06:16
to do and then gave it to us and let us do what we do best, which is making it happen. 00:06:21
Provided the funding resources for that, I'm very thankful for my staff. 00:06:27
And all the efforts that they went through to make sure that all these things did come to fruition and are in some of them are 00:06:31
still in process. 00:06:35
And as well as our partners, ESP. Oak half the chamber. 00:06:39
The groups that we work with to make some of these events and or. 00:06:43
Programs happen in the community. 00:06:47
So 2024, I think the biggest thing perhaps, I don't know, ties, the two top ones or we were named an All America city. We took a 00:06:49
delegation of 19 people to Denver, competed and won. 00:06:55
I think my throat still hurts from screaming so loud. That was so exciting but. 00:07:01
You know, that was a culmination of partnerships. 00:07:05
And collaborations with ESP and with Ohio County Little League and with private sector. 00:07:09
Funders and with our local African American church, Bethel Baptist and. 00:07:14
All those that's what we went, we presented on is what makes us our small town. 00:07:19
Sorry our. 00:07:23
Small town, big story. 00:07:25
And and really. 00:07:27
Really imbibes what? 00:07:31
Come connect, create means. And so that was I think the highlight of last year and it happened right in the middle of the year and 00:07:33
it happened. 00:07:36
On the heels of us getting. 00:07:39
The next big thing which was this $2.225 million loan and $1.5 million grant from G Tib for the Simonton Bridge Rd. pedestrian 00:07:41
connector, which is we're currently underway with phase one of. 00:07:47
And are releasing or in the process of releasing the RFP's for Phase 2? 00:07:53
Which will be the final phase of the project so. 00:07:58
Super excited about that. Of course, we get our local maintenance improvement grant funds last year and I believe this year we'll 00:08:01
be getting additional funds. 00:08:05
So roughly, you know, $100,000, which for our community is a lot of money. 00:08:09
When we only have a $3.2 million? 00:08:13
Budget. 00:08:17
We also received a $35,000 grant for Georgia Power for the for a strategic plan for downtown, for the downtown area and that's. 00:08:18
We're sort of in the process of pulling that together. 00:08:25
What that will look like and then we've also received some grant money's for safety. 00:08:27
Public safety through the Girma, through our insurance provider and GMA. 00:08:32
And obviously and every year we've worked really hard to keep the bulletproof vest partnership. 00:08:39
And that and this year we got $1800 for that as well. Library was a big win. Obviously wire parks continued to develop. 00:08:44
But the city now has a facility a we actually own the building as you all made-up. We made was made possible by the donation by 00:08:52
Duke Gibbs and his group. 00:08:56
And then the library funding from the state and from the local. 00:09:01
But city and county governments provided. 00:09:05
Provided umm. 00:09:08
Funding to make sure that that opened and it's. 00:09:10
It's booming. I think their biggest problem is our biggest problem at Thomas Farmers Parking. People just, you know, still need 00:09:12
parking, so. 00:09:15
We also resurfaced a lot of roads. I don't have the actual numbers as far as the the miles. It's not a lot, but. 00:09:20
It's a lot for our little city, so all Jackson St. Niagara, Dr. Simonson Way and then a section of School St. 00:09:26
And then we also, we actually completed some of those water St. storm water improvements in 23, but they bled over into into 24. 00:09:33
So I put them on there as well. 00:09:37
As the mayor mentioned, we hired ADA director at the end of last year. She started officially this year. So I didn't actually put 00:09:41
that as an accomplishment, but but we hired her in December, she started in January. 00:09:46
But we had several activities last year, the suite, the street. 00:09:52
The sidewalk poetry contest and the barbecue and Bake Off. The BBQ Bake Off is going to be an annual event, so we'll set that 00:09:56
again this year. 00:09:59
Oh, in Burger Week. 00:10:04
Sorry about that. Yep, missed that. Well, and that, yeah. So that wasn't something that required the City Council. And so I was 00:10:06
going back through the list of all our stuff that we did, and I didn't see that. So Yep, Burger Week, that was awesome. And 00:10:10
they're going to do that next year in January. 00:10:15
Right, so. 00:10:19
I finished up at rocket field with a net climber. We started. We actually completed Phase 1 and 2. 00:10:22
Of the Hair Shoals Park Master Plan that included paving the additional the roadway and adding additional parking spaces. 00:10:29
The Art Walk, I guess as we're calling it, installed 3 art pieces along the backside of City Hall, heading down towards the park. 00:10:36
And then, like I said, we began work on the Simonton Bridge pedestrian connector. So we awarded. 00:10:44
The first phase, which includes the construction of the sidewalk. I noticed when I came through this morning that Spectrum has 00:10:50
taken down the final. 00:10:53
Communication lines. 00:10:58
So now AT&T will come in and drop the polls, which they're going to leave for us to use on the property if we need them. So. 00:10:59
And then and. 00:11:06
And then we completed. 00:11:08
Thomas Farm Preserve, that was probably the biggest lift for all of us. A lot of things that were on our list as probably y'all 00:11:10
operate like I do. Sometimes you put things on your list and other things come along that have to bump those things off the list. 00:11:15
This is one of those things that we've really spent a lot of time. 00:11:19
Really making sure that Thomas Farm was ready for the public by December. 00:11:24
And so we moved mountains to make sure that happened. We renovated the bathroom at the dairy barn, installed more than 3 miles of 00:11:28
walking paths. 00:11:33
Two gravel parking lots. 00:11:38
Fencing along the front. 00:11:40
The trail interpretive. 00:11:42
Entrance signage and then establish the small and large dog park areas which I think. 00:11:44
Has have been great I know my phone goes off every time those cameras go off so there's a lot of people using the dog parks over 00:11:50
in that area so. 00:11:53
But and then we're in phase two where we talked about that at Council meeting last week, we're in phase two of. 00:11:57
Of Thomas Farm Preserve, the master plan, what we want to do there, there'll be some of that we'll talk about today about. 00:12:04
How that might roll out and what other things you guys might want to put on the list for us to do. 00:12:09
We also hired a police chief. 00:12:14
He also got hired, and he got hired in December, so he gets to count on my 2024 accomplishments officially. 00:12:17
And then we had the annual Easter Egg hunt, the annual Cops and Bobbers, which both of those events are scheduled. I believe the 00:12:23
Easter Egg hunt is April 19th and the Cops and Bobbers is May 3rd. And this year Cops and Barbers will be held at Thomas Farm 00:12:27
Preserve. 00:12:32
You all also passed some ordinances, mobile vendors, historic preservation and corridor ordinance. I know the historic 00:12:37
preservation will be discussed today. 00:12:41
As well. 00:12:45
Mindful A. 00:12:46
Some more pictures for bass. I was there yesterday. 00:12:48
No joke, I saw like. 00:12:51
5 LB bass pulled out of there yesterday. It was. 00:12:53
Do you see it put back in? 00:12:56
It was, it was. I was impressed when you get a picture. 00:13:01
Yeah. 00:13:05
Some some of the other things that we did I thought were highlights of the year. Colin Ferry had a student that painted a mural on 00:13:07
Hardin Hill on the Well House. 00:13:11
We accepted the 13th roughly 13 acres of green space at Trove Subdivision. 00:13:16
The city participated in various ways at the Piedmont Garden Tour, the Georgia Historic Trust Ramble. 00:13:22
We had a citywide litter pickup contest. The mayor. 00:13:27
Kicked off, I think it was maybe. 00:13:30
August or so, I can't remember now when that happened and anyway we had that and that was that was a lot of fun. And then the 00:13:33
downtown is trick or treating that happens on Halloween and the Christmas parade and tree light and so. 00:13:37
That's a lot for a staff of 21. And we weren't even fully staffed last year. We were down. 00:13:43
At least three people at any given time. We're still down. 00:13:49
Three now I think, I think we're still down three, one officer and well maybe maybe 21 officer and one public works person, so. 00:13:54
So I mean, that's a lot and I think, and I thank my staff again for, you know, once y'all pass it over to us for making sure that 00:14:02
all that stuff got done. It was a lot of work and it is still a lot of work, but. 00:14:08
But we're all pleased that you guys entrusted us to make sure it happened and we did our best to make sure it happened so. 00:14:14
Any questions about any of that or any comments I guess? 00:14:20
Thank you. 00:14:25
It's a tremendous amount of work and. 00:14:27
Let's see something recording. 00:14:29
And also, I mean, I we talk about this some. 00:14:32
But I am so appreciative. 00:14:35
Of how the city operates overall like. 00:14:39
The way all of the roles are actually done, the way they're supposed to be done, and that is not even unfortunately, normally the 00:14:43
case so. 00:14:47
The mayor provides tremendous leadership and direction. The council, you know we. 00:14:52
Discuss and dig in and disagree and come to a decision. 00:14:57
And then? 00:15:03
Sharon, you lead your staff and then the staff. 00:15:05
And you a lot late nights. I know you work a lot of hours. 00:15:08
Take it and run and make it happen. And that is the way this is supposed to work. 00:15:12
But like I said, I don't see that happening most places unfortunately, and so I feel so. 00:15:18
Grateful to be sitting here today. 00:15:25
And in our sphere, I feel incredibly hopeful. 00:15:29
Because. 00:15:33
When things are happening the way they're supposed to, look what we can do. 00:15:34
And this is everybody in this room. 00:15:39
I mean. 00:15:42
Pat yourself on the back like well done. 00:15:43
And so I am just very, very proud to be sitting here and to be part of this group. 00:15:46
And I am really excited to see. 00:15:51
Next year. 00:15:54
What 2025 is going to say. 00:15:55
I think the other thing that goes without saying is that all this gets done. 00:15:58
But you know, our city is remarkably safe. 00:16:03
The trash gets picked up, the streets are clean, you know so so that the table stakes. 00:16:06
Are taken care of. 00:16:11
And are well done. 00:16:12
You know, so you know, in a lot of cities that they, you know, a lot of places they struggle just to get the basics done well. 00:16:14
And I think I'm really grateful that we can do the basics, the most important things we're supposed to do. 00:16:19
And then we're able to do these additional things that our citizens love and that they want, that are important as we seek to 00:16:24
build community. So. 00:16:27
So it goes without saying that you're, you know, you guys are squeezing a lot through a small straw and doing a great job with it. 00:16:31
And I guess I'll add to I always, I, I, I always consider them staff, but they're not staff. Our city attorney and our city 00:16:38
engineer who we pay to help us with these projects. They have other cities and communities in private sector that they help, but. 00:16:44
We can't do what we're doing without them as well, so certainly want to recognize them in their efforts. 00:16:50
Absolutely. 00:16:56
So we can talk about strategic conditions will be a little bit ahead of schedule which might be good. 00:16:59
What I'd. 00:17:04
What I envision is we'll talk. 00:17:05
Generally about the strategic initiatives I was going to, I did provide a print out to everybody. Do not have this on the screen 00:17:08
because you wouldn't be able to read it anyway. 00:17:11
There are copies on the table for anybody that's here at once one. 00:17:15
And the packet is online, so everybody should have access to that, anybody that's paying attention online. 00:17:18
But what I'll do, what I thought is, is I'll I'll walk through the. 00:17:25
Strategic plan initiatives. 00:17:29
Briefly, I'm not going to get into the weeds too much and then we'll roll right into, OK, now that you see what's on the list and 00:17:32
where we're at. 00:17:35
You know, what are some of the things? 00:17:39
That that would be the big idea. Some of the things that Christine had mentioned a minute ago bringing up or some of the specific 00:17:41
things with like Thomas Farmer Historic preservation. 00:17:45
How much do we want to dig in in fiscal year 26 into those items? 00:17:49
Can you also reground us? 00:17:53
Why this is important from, you know, the DCA and the state level too? 00:17:56
So. 00:18:01
The department, Community Affairs, requires that we have a work plan and every five years it has to be updated. We have to report. 00:18:03
Back on how we did. 00:18:10
And there are the items that are in blue that are on your on the sheets in front of you or if you're, if you're looking online, 00:18:12
those items are part of our work plan. And it's really good that that a lot of them are on our work plan. That means, you know, 00:18:17
because we have to respond and show that we're actually working, we're actually doing something that makes us a qualified local 00:18:22
government, which gives us access to local auction sales tax and other. 00:18:27
Benefits. Umm. 00:18:34
Makes us eligible for grants both state and federal as well. 00:18:35
So the. 00:18:39
The blue items are. 00:18:41
Are things that we we need to get done. It doesn't mean that if for some reason something came along, you know again. 00:18:43
Something happens and it changes our course that we're going to get in trouble if we don't do them. We just have to say, OK, well, 00:18:50
we're working towards that. 00:18:53
And if that doesn't happen, we just have to respond why? You know, maybe there wasn't funding, maybe, you know, the priorities of 00:18:56
the City Council changed, etcetera. 00:19:00
But a lot of them on there are in our work plan and they're being actively. 00:19:05
Pursued. So I think it's it's really good the strategic initiatives. 00:19:09
We have thought we agreed back in 2019, there's five areas of influence that the city has and. 00:19:14
We've got it broken up into land use, government operations, community engagement, infrastructure and economic development. So you 00:19:19
know we. 00:19:23
At any given time, and I've talked to my staff about this, one of the reasons. 00:19:27
That I think our weekly meetings are so important. 00:19:30
And that all my department directors are are are there is that sometimes what happens in parts could affect something in finance 00:19:33
or in personnel or. 00:19:36
Something that happens in public safety could have an impact. 00:19:40
On, you know, something in public works or DD and the DDA. So in the downtown area so. 00:19:43
All of us, you know the Council's making decisions that affect many different areas. If you make a decision on land use, it could 00:19:49
affect economic development or vice versa. 00:19:54
Our government operations are affected anytime there's a decision made, like land use, like, hey, we're going to accept this 00:19:59
donation of land. OK, Well, now that's just affected a whole bunch of things, you know? 00:20:04
What you know, how do we have to budget for this? 00:20:09
You know, how, how are we going to manage, manage the space, etc. So, so these are the strategic initiatives. Everything that we 00:20:11
talked about we try to lay and we try to list under one of these areas. 00:20:17
And that's what we'll talk about briefly. I don't think I have. Yeah, I'm going to come back to that in a minute. 00:20:22
So like I said, I'm just going to walk through. 00:20:28
Fairly quickly. Not going to run too fast through them, but. 00:20:32
Right now. So when we started out, we had. 00:20:36
And I wish I didn't have my, I don't have my original sheet up here, but we had a number of community engagements. I put these in 00:20:39
order of alphabetic order. They're not in any other order. Just figured it made sense to go that way. But, but we're down to two 00:20:44
community engagement initiatives. I don't want anybody freaking out saying that we need to have 10 at any given time. I but I do 00:20:49
think we need to be thinking forward about how. 00:20:53
How do we want to engage the community because we are down to sort of two. 00:20:58
Items on our list, so that's something you may want to. 00:21:02
Is that where we throw ideas about this? Well, are you going over everything? Yeah, I think I'm gonna get over if that's OK. I'll 00:21:06
go through absolutely each of them, and then we'll come back. Is that mayor? Does that work? Do you want to? Yeah. When you said 00:21:10
we're down to 2, does that mean? 00:21:13
We've accomplished, right. We've accomplished all the rest of them and that's why they don't have the original. I'd have to pull 00:21:18
that up to see to show you what we've accomplished. But since the strategic initiatives were established in 2019. 00:21:24
But we only have two community engagement ones that are left on the list. So again. 00:21:31
Something to think about if you feel like we need to be fed up. Is it This would be, you know, an area we could identify that mean 00:21:36
we'll do it in 26? 00:21:39
Fiscal year 26 that may mean that you know we. 00:21:43
We're planning ahead for it in 27 or something like that, so. 00:21:45
So one of our community engagements is to support existing events that happen. We just talked about Easter egg hunt, the cops and 00:21:49
bobbers. Obviously every year the Chamber of Commerce has their fall festival at Rocket Field. We support them. They've actually 00:21:55
submitted their paperwork and that will be in front of you hopefully at the March meeting to make sure that that. 00:22:01
Keeps moving forward. 00:22:07
The Christmas tree Christmas parade tree lighting. 00:22:09
So those are ways that the community currently. 00:22:12
Participates or tries to engage. That's the way the city tries to engage the community in. 00:22:16
In these events and stuff so. 00:22:22
I, I'm sort of torn at whether or not we need to, it's become part of the fabric of what we're doing. I don't know that has to 00:22:24
continue to be on here. These were some of the things we said we needed to start doing. I think, you know, we've shown that we're 00:22:28
continuing to do these. 00:22:32
We can leave those on there. We can think bigger and say, OK, that's just going to be everyday operations, just assume that's 00:22:37
going to happen. 00:22:40
Tracking it, it's not a work program plans, it's not one of those things we have to go back and report to the state on. 00:22:43
So we may or may not. We may just want to say. 00:22:48
You know, yay for us, we've done it. There's obviously more work that we want to do, but I don't know that, you know, that level 00:22:51
detail needs to be in the strategic initiative anymore. 00:22:55
Because it's become so much of it so. 00:23:00
And we'll talk about that here in a minute when we get to the end of this. So the other is exploring the establishment of the 00:23:02
local History Museum. I know there has been a lot of discussion about that or there's been thoughts thrown around about what that 00:23:08
looks like, where it would be, who might be involved in that. The mayor just created an arts committee, will be hopefully today 00:23:15
finalizing that application and getting it out to the public. And that group can probably help lead that and provide some. 00:23:21
Input for the Council to consider. 00:23:28
As that moves forward, so that's those are those are the two community. 00:23:31
Engagement. 00:23:35
Items that are on our list. 00:23:36
On economic development, we have we're down to two on our list. We've completed a lot of the other ones. 00:23:39
The biggest one being developing a downtown master plan or a strategic plan. 00:23:45
A master plan tends to learn more towards master planning like land use or and or. 00:23:51
Physical type structures, whereas a strategic plan may be more about like how you do that, how do you, how do you. 00:23:57
You know, how do you grow your downtown? 00:24:04
In more of a programmatic way or policy way? 00:24:09
So the council does have money, $35,000 from Georgia Power. 00:24:12
To create a strategic plan and that is high on the priority list for the DDA this year. 00:24:17
So so. 00:24:24
And then economic development 21 explored the truck bypass. 00:24:25
In that case, you know there's very little the city can do at this point. It is underway. I think that the update on that was I 00:24:30
put the update that G dot awarded a $5,000,000 bypass project. 00:24:34
To NV5 their their works going to include geomatics, environmental studies, roadway and bridge design, hydraulic and hydrological 00:24:40
analysis, traffic and geotechnical engineering, right away services, and erosion control. 00:24:46
And I think they're still thinking 2030. 00:24:52
52032 something like that before it might actually be in place, but I think this is like a two to three-year effort to actually 00:24:55
plan, you know, figure out the route, figure out what needs to be done and then let the project. 00:25:01
And then it would have to be constructed. So there it's a, it's a long term. 00:25:07
Effort and so as much as it's important to the city, I don't know that you know y'all, you all will have to size that. Do we need 00:25:11
to put any major resources to it or not. 00:25:16
It's not actually in the city. Obviously it impacts us greatly whatever happens, but. 00:25:21
So think about that when we get into the into the discussion here in a minute. 00:25:26
Under government operations, we have 3 items that are still on our list that have not been accomplished, relocated public works 00:25:30
facility and that is to potentially free up. 00:25:35
Very valuable real estate on the corner of Main Street and Experiment Station or Highway 5315. 00:25:40
And so we are pursuing some options. We're trying to look for an area that would. 00:25:47
You know would. 00:25:52
Would be suitable for relocation of the Public Works department. 00:25:55
So that is still that is a high priority for a number of reasons. Like I said, it doesn't it does impact the downtown area as well 00:25:58
and what we just talked about strategic planning so. 00:26:02
The other two are pursuing certification of the Police Department. 00:26:07
The chief has already worked, he's working on the policies that that was something that was being worked on earlier last year. And 00:26:11
then we got a break on that and, and with the new chief, he's come in and started really working at on that in earnest. 00:26:17
Use of force, the really big policy. We need to make sure that we're lined up and shored up on everything on how our officers 00:26:24
react in those situations. 00:26:28
I don't know he's working with. 00:26:32
City attorney to make sure that that is. 00:26:34
Those are those are brought up to standard and that the officers are trying to appropriately for those. 00:26:36
And did a lot of preliminary work on that. Thank you. 00:26:41
We did considerable preliminary work on that maybe eight months or a year ago, but we need to finish that up and Chief look 00:26:46
forward to working with you to accomplish that. Thank you. 00:26:51
One of the side benefits of that is if we do, if we were able to get all those done, we can actually apply for. 00:26:57
The GMA has a. 00:27:03
Police excellence in policing. Excellence in policing. 00:27:07
Certification that will help, it'll actually reduce our our. 00:27:10
Liability insurance rates our premiums by 5%. There are, you know, bigger wins, but they also require bigger. 00:27:13
Bigger investments, so. 00:27:20
We don't have a lot of people that can can maintain the requirements for getting certification. You have to. 00:27:22
Do all these. 00:27:28
Checks and balances and everything throughout the year and that takes a person and I don't know for our size of city, it makes a 00:27:29
lot of sense to use that person to just keep track of reporting and stuff like that. So we'll go after what we can to make sure 00:27:34
that we're doing, we need to be doing and that our officers are trained appropriately at on all of those. 00:27:39
Issues, but there will be a little bit of the benefit once once we get that started so. 00:27:45
City charter amendments. I think this is something we definitely need to. 00:27:50
You know, either say you want to pursue or not pursue. 00:27:53
The council did approve a new charter. 00:27:57
Passed it to the legislature, they didn't move on it. And 20, I guess it was in 22, they didn't move on it and it's sort of sat 00:27:59
there, so I think. 00:28:03
Something y'all need to have some thought about. Again that's not a short term work program. That was something an initiative or 00:28:06
program that you guys. 00:28:09
We're looking at. 00:28:13
Quick comment on that. Your current charter is by memory, 43 or 44 years old. It's somewhat archaic. It does not track the Georgia 00:28:14
Municipal Association model. We all collectively as a group spent a lot of time on this three, 3 1/2 years ago and it is overdue. 00:28:22
Under infrastructure we have. 00:28:32
Six items. 00:28:35
Yes. 00:28:37
Sorry, I meant to ask under the. 00:28:38
Public works facility? How much land do we ideally need? Like minimum? 00:28:40
Just so if we see something in our minds. 00:28:46
Probably an acre to or maybe you should, maybe our city engineer can give you a little bit. So the variability would be sewer, 00:28:49
right? So if you have sewer, then you don't need as much land if you're on septic. 00:28:55
Then you would have to have a septic system associated with that. So if you would need less land, again probably maybe an acre and 00:29:01
1/2. 00:29:05
Or sure if you had sewer. If you don't have sewer, it might be 2 1/2 acres. 00:29:10
Right. So it just depends on. 00:29:14
Obviously once you don't have sewer in your own septic than the condition of the soils. There are some places in the city. 00:29:16
Where their souls aren't great and you need to be able to perk and so then having. 00:29:22
Where those souls are as part of those variabilities. But I don't think you need 4 acres, but I don't think it's something you can 00:29:27
do on half an acre, right. So that that's the range. 00:29:31
OK. Thank you. 00:29:36
What do we need water for other than bathrooms? 00:29:37
Washing equipment or. 00:29:40
Is the building size. 00:29:43
So if you have a second system. 00:29:45
But you have X amount of land for the septic tank field lines or parallel. 00:29:48
Versus a sewer. 00:29:53
Sorry, sorry, I just would since we have people. 00:29:56
Yeah, bathrooms is a is a major portion of that, right. We can't have a public Forks facility without bathrooms for our employees. 00:29:59
But then the, the, the other aspect is currently there is an opportunity for, for for clean up or some other things associated 00:30:03
with. 00:30:08
Just what what Public Works and formerly known as the street department does so. So having a hose bib or having something for 00:30:13
that, that's not usually going into the septic system as well, which is a good point. 00:30:18
The use as far as the requirements. 00:30:23
For a septic system are not like a like a residential or a daycare or restaurant or anything that big. So it would be relatively 00:30:26
small. 00:30:30
OK. Under infrastructure? 00:30:36
We've got improvements of storm water conveyance systems we are actually working on. 00:30:39
Cleaning out some of the culverts that are around the city. That's a project that Public Works is trying to get underway. We've 00:30:47
been short staffed, unfortunately. 00:30:50
Had a really hard time. 00:30:54
Getting people we should be. 00:30:55
We're still going to be short staffed by one person, but we'll have one more person join us March 3rd, so we're working towards 00:30:58
trying to focus on that. There may be some larger. 00:31:02
Drainage improvement options for us or specifically there's one at on Harden Hill at the drainage, there's a area underneath the 00:31:06
the bridge there at Hardin Hill. 00:31:10
Sorry, not under the bridge, under the road that we need to address that something we need to talk about. So that's that's, that's 00:31:15
on the list. I think we'll continue to be on the list for a while until we get a good handle on that. 00:31:20
The street lights and signs the way front. 00:31:27
The wayfinding and all that, we've actually done all that. I think that one is an easy one to remove. Obviously operationally 00:31:29
we'll still continue to do sign updates, but we've. 00:31:34
I believe now gotten all of our wayfinding welcome signage in today or sorry, tomorrow we will see. You'll see a new sign down at 00:31:39
Harris Shoals Park. It'll be similar to the one at Thomas Farm and the coloring and whatnot. And it's supposed to be put in 00:31:43
tomorrow. And then the sun is currently down there. We're going to move up here on the other side of City Hall. So it'll be on the 00:31:48
east entrance into the park. 00:31:52
Exploring and adopting. I'm sorry, exploring and or activating the adopted transportation plan. 00:31:59
Obviously, that is fully underway with the sidewalk improvements that we've made the Thomas. 00:32:05
Sorry, the. 00:32:11
Santon Bridge Rd. pedestrian connector that's underway. There are some, I know there's some, there's been some discussion about 00:32:12
what to do about Barnett Shoals. And so I think that's a that's a discussion to be had about, you know, even though it's not a 00:32:18
road, it is in the city and there's improvements we've talked about in the past about. 00:32:23
That could be done to. 00:32:28
To make it more walkable. 00:32:30
And to connect it now to Wire Park, which is a big part of the city now too. 00:32:32
Establishing a streetlight policy, that's something. Honestly, that's one of the things that's been on the list for a while. It's 00:32:36
really, I think the plan was just to say how it would work if somebody wanted a streetlight. How? What's the process? 00:32:42
It's actually not a big deal to do, but I just haven't had time to put it together. 00:32:49
Again, I don't know that's such a high level thing. I think that's something once I get it done, I'll bring it to you guys to 00:32:53
approve. I don't know that needs to be on our sort of our what I say our big picture. 00:32:57
Thing it does need to be done and it is on my list, it just keeps getting moved down the list so. 00:33:02
I mentioned specifically we do have constructing the Mulberry Simonton Bridge Rd. pedestrian connector actually have that as an 00:33:08
item and of course that is underway. 00:33:12
And hopefully by this time next year, that will be off the list. 00:33:16
And then this goes to what I just talked about on Transportation Barnett Shoals. There's been some discussion about what to do 00:33:20
about Barnett Shoals and how to. 00:33:24
Widen the sidewalks and or produce. 00:33:29
Try to encourage more walkability along that road. 00:33:31
Those are infrastructure and then finally we have land use oops on it. Do it. 00:33:35
Yep, my last one land use we have. 00:33:40
Of six items on there that remain, all of them are fairly active. 00:33:41
The hair Shoals part master plan, we talked about that we. 00:33:47
We technically like I said earlier, we in phase two we did the parking and the. 00:33:50
The parking in the drive improvements and we did the. 00:33:57
The boardwalk, which technically wasn't. 00:34:01
That wasn't really on our list to do. That had to be done. 00:34:04
But phase three is the Girardini Green and possibly we'll see how Ghirardini green goes and and what monies are available and 00:34:07
whether or not you won't want to pursue it, but. 00:34:12
It does call for a bridge across the dam. 00:34:17
And so that's something we can talk about as well. I think right now we got a lot on our plate, but that's something I think y'all 00:34:20
can give us a little bit more direction on if you want us to pursue that, we can start looking at how that might play out. 00:34:25
And and how to fund that so and also from that master plan, another thing that I wonder if it would be less expensive. 00:34:31
Is the kind of amphitheater like the? 00:34:39
The natural amphitheater. 00:34:42
Area down, I think it was around the lake, right, Wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah, like down over here and that that's something that 00:34:44
isn't at Thomas Farm Preserve. I mean that is like a very. So I would be interested to know what that financially would look like. 00:34:51
To pursue that aspect of the master plan. 00:34:58
We also have exploring the rail trail opportunity, which you know would be obviously would be a huge deal for us would connect a 00:35:09
lot of things, but. 00:35:13
That is all privately owned. And so I, I, I'm not really sure the mayor be able to speak to that a little bit later. That may be 00:35:18
something the city can participate in, but I'm not sure the city wouldn't have the funds to buy it, I would guess at this point. 00:35:24
And I'm not sure you know where that all is with the with the estate of the gentleman who owned it. 00:35:30
Consider establishing arts committee. That was actually just done, so that would probably come off the list as well. 00:35:36
Unless you want to give specific. 00:35:42
You know guidance about what what you know if there's bigger pieces like you want to establish a. 00:35:44
You know. 00:35:49
If you want to add areas and and collaborate, I think there's still a lot of. 00:35:52
I know when I got here, there was a, there was. 00:35:56
Maybe a loose committee or something that was deciding about art boards and art, and there were some art sculptures and things 00:35:59
downtown. I think we're down to two sculptures downtown. They're actually still out. The one that's on our property in front of 00:36:03
Blind Peg or yeah, fine. 00:36:08
Yeah, fine pig. And then there's another sculpture that's actually, I think at the Murray house, but it's not, it's not actually 00:36:14
the city's. 00:36:17
So the one that was in front of ATT was falling apart. So that came down last year, but. 00:36:20
So anyway, we'll need a little bit of direction. The committee is going to need some direction too on that. If you all have some 00:36:25
big ideas about what that should look like, I think, you know, you could potentially leave that on here, but change it a little 00:36:28
bit. 00:36:32
Establishment green space program. 00:36:36
Obviously the city's been fortunate we've. 00:36:38
Received a fair amount of green space for free 13 acres over at Trove. We're looking at having some green space over here next to 00:36:40
Waters walk when that project is done. 00:36:45
And and. 00:36:51
So decide and then there's other properties in the community that are for sale that could potentially be. 00:36:53
Space like near Hair Shoals Park or potentially near Thomas Farm or somewhere like that, you know, where we might want to 00:37:00
consider, I think the mayor can speak to that some when we get into the deeper dive. 00:37:05
And then establishing a citywide beautification program. 00:37:10
Again. 00:37:14
That's sort of an ongoing thing that may be one of the things to peel off the list because that's become more operational now. 00:37:15
It's not a project, it's just an everyday occurrence. 00:37:19
We do have, we do have a contractor that handles Main Street just so we could have some consistency because we did have staffing 00:37:23
issues and whatnot. 00:37:27
So we have a contractor handling that. 00:37:31
We have our entry entryway signage and stuff. Our our guys are helping try to keep those tidy right now there's. 00:37:34
Plantings that were planned last year, hopefully we'll start developing some more. 00:37:41
This year. 00:37:45
But, and, and so I'm not really sure. Again, I don't know if that's something that needs to stay on the list or if we've just 00:37:46
operationalized it now and it it can, it can peel off. 00:37:51
The last one is. 00:37:55
Considering a historic preservation ordinance. 00:37:57
And that did get passed, but we still have to identify the historic preservation district, the parcels that will be included and 00:38:00
then your historic preservation Commission and the process. 00:38:05
By which it will operate. So some pretty big, there are some obviously some items on here that are big lists. There's some others 00:38:11
that maybe like I said we've operationalized and no longer need to be. 00:38:16
On a, you know on a project list or program list. 00:38:21
So the. 00:38:27
My thought process was that maybe and I these are just bulletproof bullet points to put on the. 00:38:29
To keep your. 00:38:36
To have some ideas up there for y'all to consider. 00:38:38
The ones at the bottom, I just want to point out real quick, obviously everybody knows today is Oconee County's official 250. I'm 00:38:41
sorry, 150th birthday. I'm trying to make them too old. 150th birthday. It's actually also our finance director Lee Black's 00:38:45
birthday today. 00:38:50
And it's and we won't sing the song. We already sang the song. 00:38:55
But yeah, that's right. Yeah. 00:39:01
She probably feels 150 sometimes. 00:39:04
But the the 100, it's also the city's 150th birthday is the seat of Oconee County, too. So I just want to make a quick note. The 00:39:08
sculpture that was at the AT&T building is actually in storage at Public Works. 00:39:14
The stand that it was on was in disarray, so we disassembled that sculpture and it's in public works. 00:39:21
Waiting to be reinstalled somewhere else. 00:39:27
Yeah. 00:39:30
So, so my thought was this is the point where if you know, if you have ideas, we can, you know, we can start writing them down. We 00:39:33
can decide where they best fit, how those evolve and then and then. 00:39:39
After we get done with this session, then the plan would be to give you guys some some numbers. I'll give you a couple sets of 00:39:46
twos, ones twos and threes and y'all will go to the table. 00:39:51
If we need to, we'll update the list that's on the table before. We'll print those out if there's additional things that are added 00:39:56
and then have you guys prioritize. 00:40:00
What's most important to you? Because obviously all these things are important, but we can't get them all done, you know, can't 00:40:04
get them all done at the same time. We can do them all, but it's not at the same time, so. 00:40:09
Mayor, I'm going to turn it over to you and let you handle this piece of it if you want. 00:40:13
OK. 00:40:17
I think we can. 00:40:18
I think maybe for the sake of. 00:40:21
Most efficient way to do this? You know, we've got some ideas up here that we can expand upon if we need to, but I think. 00:40:23
This point, why don't we just sort of round Robin and let council offer ideas? 00:40:28
And maybe we can just sort of go in this direction and if someone says I don't have any or I don't have it, I'd like to. 00:40:32
React to something we can, we can have a discussion about it, but instead of somebody saying here's my 6 ideas, let's just maybe 00:40:38
do one at a time. 00:40:41
And then sort of. 00:40:44
Unpack that or just share it, and if you need some processing time, that's fine, we can come back to it, but this will be 00:40:45
relatively informal. 00:40:49
You guys all got my e-mail from a few weeks ago so hopefully you've had time to think about. 00:40:53
Authorities and ideas and if you have. 00:40:58
Let's just kind of get those all out now. Let's discuss. 00:41:00
We've got. 00:41:04
Gosh, we've got until 11, so we've got about an hour, 15 minutes. 00:41:05
And if you don't have good ideas, I've got a long list, so. So go ahead. And yeah, good, Christine does too, so. 00:41:10
So, but mine may not be all good. I tell people a lot of times when when I'm. 00:41:17
Mayoring. It's kind of like being a baseball player, right? I might see 10 pitches and three of them might be hits, you know, but. 00:41:22
If I can get three hits out of every 10 pitches, I'd probably be in the Hall of Fame. So, so. 00:41:29
So anyway, so I, I like to like to take some swings. Some of them hit, some of them miss. But I'll, I'll throw out my ideas as we 00:41:35
move along. 00:41:38
And go through it, But maybe Jeff will let you go first. If you've got anything you want to share, let's just do one at a time and 00:41:42
we'll kind of move. 00:41:45
Jeff, Christine, Brett. 00:41:48
Chuck, Connie and me, and then we'll kind of just keep going around until we run out of steam. 00:41:49
So we're just doing one idea that moving on. Yeah, do one idea and then maybe we can people can react to it, discuss it briefly 00:41:53
and then I'll just move us along if it if we get bogged down so. 00:41:58
And it doesn't have to be one of those, it can be something totally different to SO. 00:42:03
You know, welcome to ordinance BE. Yeah, yeah. Something I wanted like to do this year is work on a shared kitchen ordinance. 00:42:06
It's something that I see. 00:42:16
In my travels to Atlanta. 00:42:18
With our store. 00:42:20
Little background, I go to Atlanta every week and I pick up some supplies like chips. 00:42:22
It's also things like that from a place called Prep Kitchens in Atlanta. 00:42:27
And it's an old office park that's been converted to shared kitchen space. And it's a great incubator space for people with ideas, 00:42:32
which I can relate to because years ago I created a BBQ sauce in my kitchen. 00:42:37
To see if anybody would. 00:42:42
You know, liked it and then it kind of grew. So I'm kind of. 00:42:44
Passionate about helping people with an idea to see. 00:42:47
Clearly can become a viable business. 00:42:50
And so I know several people are in the area that. 00:42:53
Have expressed interest in growing their business. 00:42:57
But don't can't afford a commercial kitchen on their own. 00:43:01
So they need they want to take this next step. They might have a cottage license currently. 00:43:04
But umm. 00:43:09
Can't go full board into. 00:43:10
The food business idea. So they want a shared kitchen. So anyway, that's something. 00:43:13
That I've been talking to a few people on and actually got someone who's. 00:43:18
Would like to do a shared kitchen in Watkinsville. 00:43:22
But we just need to. 00:43:25
Come up with an ordinance and there's. 00:43:26
Many cities across the state have them, so it's. 00:43:29
For me, it's something I learned in Thomasville. It's all about R&D, which is RIP off and duplicate. 00:43:32
So anyway, a little more research on that and I think would be. 00:43:39
A good. 00:43:43
A good ordinance for the city. 00:43:44
Anybody want to build on that, react to that, go ahead. I mean it supports all of our. 00:43:47
Our tagline come connect, create and I think it's a great idea. So full support. 00:43:53
One of the other things that I've talked with some other folks around is like. 00:43:58
Do we want to have a? 00:44:01
Is there a possibility as we sort of think about the future of our. 00:44:04
Industrial area to. 00:44:07
Have parts of it become a little bit more of a? 00:44:09
In a hub for entrepreneurs of different sorts. It already functions that way a little bit informally, but is there anything we 00:44:13
could do? 00:44:15
In the food and art space, you know, maker space, I guess you call it. You know where. 00:44:18
That terms become kind of trite, but. 00:44:23
You know, is there a way that we could encourage, you know, the food entrepreneurs in the community, the art entrepreneurs, give 00:44:25
them a safe landing space. 00:44:29
Or you know, through ordinances to your point have have. 00:44:33
Of, you know, an opportunity for more of them to land in Watkinsville and start those enterprises here. 00:44:36
Jeff, I have a client who has set up an entrepreneurship Academy or institute for lack of a better term, I just spoke to 00:44:45
yesterday. So offline let's you and I connect up and you can reach out to that individual and I hope they can help. This idea I 00:44:50
think with dovetail nicely what you're talking about. 00:44:56
Thank you. 00:45:02
All right, Christine. 00:45:03
OK. 00:45:05
So, umm. 00:45:06
I think this year we need to really start focusing on the House at Thomas Farm Preserve and see what we might. 00:45:09
Want to do with it if we want to. I mean, I think the. 00:45:16
The two ideas that I keep rolling around in my head is that. 00:45:23
The museum idea that would have to be volunteer staffed. 00:45:26
And then also. 00:45:32
Maybe some kind of community, small Community Center, because I know there's been talk over the years that. 00:45:34
City Hall used to function that way, but it doesn't anymore for lots of. 00:45:39
Valid reasons. 00:45:43
So maybe that's something that we would be able to. 00:45:44
To accommodate, again, I know there are staffing issues. I know that I mean there's a lot of factors to look at with that, but I'm 00:45:47
also open to hearing other ideas, but any? 00:45:51
Umm, any structures out there I think. 00:45:56
We need to. 00:46:00
To make the most of and make good use of and so. 00:46:01
I think there is a. 00:46:06
Current business owner that is looking to. 00:46:08
Take some of his space and turn it into a. 00:46:12
Community type center, a rentable community type center. Well that I mean like an event this. 00:46:15
Yes, I know of a couple of people who are looking at creating event spaces in Watkinsville and I think that's great. And I think, 00:46:21
you know, we should have, again, I think we already have some good ordinances around that to make sure it's a balance for the 00:46:25
community as a whole. 00:46:29
I'm thinking more of the. 00:46:34
Affordable, uh. 00:46:36
Small family reunion or a group of people want to have a card night? 00:46:38
And you know. 00:46:44
Building on again when we look at these and where we are with the community building. 00:46:46
If it is more of a Community Center, it would be more about community building. It would need to be sustainable. We need to make 00:46:52
sure it fits in in the budget and whatever that looks like. 00:46:56
Umm, but that it's a space that people can gather and a business is event space that's going to look different. That's when you, 00:47:01
you know, you you've got money to spend for a big birthday party or something for this would be a not-for-profit kind of thing. 00:47:08
So I like the idea of having a process to determine what the future of the house is. Probably the second or third most common 00:47:16
question I get about. 00:47:19
About Thomas Farm, you know, and I don't think we just want to let it sit there forever. 00:47:23
Is there? Do we have any limitations as to? 00:47:28
What can be there? And I know we can't. 00:47:31
Put in a restaurant, anything like that, but we can rent the house out. 00:47:33
If we want to to bring in money. 00:47:38
Is that? 00:47:42
Yeah, so that. 00:47:42
That's some of what I hope I'm going to get some direction from you guys today on what what you would like to see. Do you want it 00:47:44
to see it operate similar to what we're doing at Harris Shoals or people just rent the pavilion? 00:47:49
We don't. We've never. 00:47:55
And I don't think you guys want to go down the route of actually renting out the like shutting on the park for an event. 00:47:57
But we got to talk about, you know, just like we did with rocket field, we were trying to figure out what's a good. 00:48:02
Price, lot price point, right? 00:48:09
Right now we really haven't. Some of it's just been because of staffing. We really haven't pushed hey, come rent rocket field and 00:48:11
we haven't, we've done a couple of events and again, I think a lot of it has more to do with staffing and just the capacity we 00:48:16
have to handle what we've already got on our plate, but. 00:48:21
But I think the price points pretty good. I think rocket field, we figured out sort of the sweet spot potentially on, on what 00:48:26
groups that might want to come in would pay or be willing to pay for the use of that space. So we'll have to figure that out as 00:48:31
well. But I'll I'll need a little bit more direction from you all as to. 00:48:36
What do you envision, would you envision and we did in January allow, I think the JC's jog actually took part of their their dog 00:48:42
through the park. 00:48:46
You know, is there. 00:48:51
We didn't ask for any money on that. I don't know that you want to do that, but I need to know how you feel about that. Do we want 00:48:53
to? 00:48:57
Charge something they're charging people to, you know, to, to participate in their dog. Should there be a fee? If there's, you 00:49:01
know, the biggest thing is always about public safety. If, if there's a fee, we if there's an event like that happened, we 00:49:06
coordinated with them and they had to pay for the officers just like Lamar Park has an event or whatever. 00:49:11
To make sure that the safety you know is, is maintained. But Sharon just real quick, the question was specific specifically in the 00:49:17
house. Is there anything in our loan agreement that would prevent us from. 00:49:22
Doing things there that would require people to pay a fee or anything like that. Not that I mean, again, we. 00:49:28
Not hearing from any higher ups and we haven't really asked specifically, could we? 00:49:36
But from we and you know that came with the property and they were aware that was on the property. So I think we can use whatever 00:49:40
is on the property now. 00:49:44
And I don't think adding the pavilion did anything to affect it either. 00:49:48
So I don't think that's an issue. I think that the deed restriction was mainly on developing it into program, programmatic space, 00:49:53
etc, stay in passive space, so. 00:49:58
I don't think that's that's my recollection as well. I think you're correct. 00:50:02
Yeah, not like the idea of it being a kind of a Community Center since that's what this was originally. 00:50:07
I think that's kind of a need for the community. 00:50:13
And I think incorporated in the community. 00:50:16
Center can be museum pieces in history, but I don't see a manned. 00:50:18
Museum. 00:50:24
Community museum but I only open when it's rented out type space versus. 00:50:26
I don't know that we want to have someone there 9:00 to 5:00. 00:50:31
Manning a museum. 00:50:35
Someone available for a Community Center, but it has the history of. 00:50:37
Watkinsville, Kony. 00:50:40
In the space. 00:50:42
I think if we had something like that, we. 00:50:43
Maybe have some kind of committee and. 00:50:46
It could tie into community engagement as well. I, I do think there are a lot of people in our community as we have newer people 00:50:51
coming in that want to get connected, want to get in and so I think. 00:50:56
Taking advantage. 00:51:02
Of that in a good way of giving some opportunities for people to step in and be part of our community. 00:51:04
Umm. So I like the idea of maybe. 00:51:09
Some of the design. 00:51:13
Of the upstairs, having it kind of lean into the museum, so having pieces, you know. 00:51:14
Like Doctor Ward's book having some of those frame pictures, like there's, there's a lot of amazing history that we have. 00:51:22
Almost decorating it with that, but then maybe having it be. 00:51:28
Really an affordably rented Community Center and sometimes the city hosts something the year, you know, that's something 11 00:51:33
thought would be maybe we. 00:51:37
I think. 00:51:42
Group that together with. 00:51:44
Plan for that because I think we'll also have people who may want to rent the pavilion and use that house to cook in and. 00:51:46
You know, if they're going to have a family reunion or something out there, then OK, if we're going to. 00:51:52
Operate out of the pavilion, but we need the ability to warm up our food or to do some stuff there. 00:51:56
My other suggestion would be maybe we develop also. 00:52:02
We've talked about, you know, do we want to look into having a private partner? Do you know, this was another idea somebody else 00:52:05
may have had to but. 00:52:08
Do we want to explore the idea of the coffee shop and sandwich shop in the dairy barn? 00:52:12
So maybe we kind of wrap that all into one of these things around explore appropriate utilization of the structures that Thomas 00:52:17
farm. 00:52:20
And work on that this year and get some of those in place. I think some of it can be faster than others. 00:52:24
You know, but but I'd love to see. 00:52:30
I don't think we're going to see it slow down out there, you know, and and I think it's. 00:52:34
But I think anything we can do to kind of. 00:52:38
Create that sort of community experience on the front end while people get the. 00:52:40
Wilderness experience in the back is great, you know. 00:52:44
And maybe we can. I mean, this is getting to the weeds and it worked doing big picture here, but let the house be. 00:52:46
Available at dark, so it's. 00:52:53
It almost may be encouraging that. 00:52:56
Thinking about traffic, thinking about overlap, that you know, there's obviously lights and it's safe, that it's something that 00:52:59
people can. 00:53:02
Can rent and have opportunity for in the evening. Anything else on this one? I think it's a great. 00:53:06
Idea. I think we can spend more time unpacking it. Any concerns or other thoughts? 00:53:13
Possibly would haven't. You know, we don't have a welcome center here in Watkinsville anymore. 00:53:19
But I know when we went to that emergency. 00:53:25
Maybe no, but why park into library? You know they was talk about. 00:53:28
Having some place where a lot of information was provided for people that come into town. 00:53:32
You know everything that we offer and how do you get in touch with this person? That person I know we talked about putting it on. 00:53:39
Possibly putting on the. 00:53:45
On the tax bill or whatever, but anyway, something a little. 00:53:47
Just in your face like. 00:53:51
We if you go somewhere, if you have to go to the restroom, whatever, but there's. 00:53:54
Or the house. 00:53:58
You know, uh. 00:53:59
A place to have that kind of information would be great. 00:54:01
And we've just added bulletin boards out there too, so we can start, you know, we don't have anything on those yet, so we can 00:54:04
start putting basic information out there too. 00:54:08
They'll get a lot of eyeballs. 00:54:12
All right. So Sharon, I think that's a good. 00:54:13
That's a good. 00:54:16
List. All right, Brett. 00:54:17
Oh, where to start? 00:54:20
So you know. 00:54:24
I love how much time we're spending at Thomas Farms. It's, it's beautiful. 00:54:26
And I know that we are continually working on hair Shoals. 00:54:29
You know, as one of our oldest parks here, I would love to see that finish. I would love to, you know, let's, let's spend a lot of 00:54:34
time. 00:54:38
Finishing up hair Shoals. Make it Making it. 00:54:42
Being beautiful. 00:54:45
You know, I know we got to keep hair. Thomas Farms. 00:54:46
Preserved like it is. 00:54:50
Like let's let's look at. 00:54:51
Adding stuff. 00:54:55
Here, that gives people things to do. 00:54:56
I I. 00:54:59
I, I, I think you know. 00:55:05
When we had basketball courts or or if we had pickleball courts. 00:55:06
You know, give, give people things to do here in the city of Watkinsville at our parks. 00:55:10
I think that that would be a. 00:55:16
A good use of space and a good use of money to. 00:55:17
Have have them to be able to do stuff. 00:55:21
People like to walk around, but people like to. 00:55:24
Do things as well. So so so then maybe. 00:55:26
Explore opportunities for active recreation. We have a lot passive yes. 00:55:31
But what are opportunities for active recreation and our existing parks or elsewhere? Yes, OK. 00:55:35
For existing green spaces. 00:55:40
Thoughts on that? 00:55:42
I agree. You know, I agree. Yeah. I wish I could have been here two months ago. Yeah. I mean, I I. 00:55:43
I think the way Brian summed it up, I think is good. I think we need to look at that balance of passive and active. I don't know 00:55:52
that we need to all focus just on Harris Shoals. So I like how Brian worded it. I'm not saying none at Harris Shoals, but Hair 00:55:57
Shoals has a incredibly robust master plan that. 00:56:01
Have a insane amount of community input so. 00:56:06
But yes, I agree. I mean having active things is good. I think there's some other I only disagreement to that is that was before 00:56:11
we even knew anything about Thomas Farm preserves and the. 00:56:16
100 beautiful acres of green space. 00:56:21
And we got plenty of green space. It's going to take. 00:56:23
These guys over here. 00:56:27
Every bit of effort to maintain that green space that we have, let's let's start looking at a. 00:56:29
This is just Brett's opinion, let's start looking at some some passive stuff. 00:56:34
Not green space, not I'm not saying citizens, if you have green space, we don't want it. 00:56:38
We would love to take your green space off your hands, but we have a lot to maintain. 00:56:43
As it is so. 00:56:48
All right, so active recreation opportunities. 00:56:50
And I think that. 00:56:53
The sports like basketball, pickleball are good and that they don't require staff. I think that's where we get in trouble. You 00:56:55
know, think about how much the county has to put into. 00:56:59
If any of you look dug into the county's budget numbers for their new park, they're spending, you know. 00:57:03
With lights and electricity and staff. 00:57:09
You know they're spending as much as we spend on Thomas Farm basically on almost each ball field. 00:57:12
You know, it's gets kind of crazy so. 00:57:17
By the time they do the infrastructure. 00:57:20
Just a quick number. 00:57:22
On the pickleball. 00:57:24
If you don't have to have lights so you know if you. 00:57:26
About 100,000. 00:57:29
If it's not any heavy grading to do? 00:57:32
So 4 courts, 4 courts, 9000. 00:57:35
And who wants to? Who gets to live next to the **** **** ****? Yeah. So we gotta think about the location. 00:57:40
Chuck. 00:57:48
A couple of things. 00:57:50
The another historic. 00:57:53
We're working on that. 00:57:54
But the signs I know. 00:57:56
We on the last page was talking about the signage and stuff. 00:57:57
We never didn't get around to getting the. 00:58:01
We took down some historic district signs for the downtown area. 00:58:04
I think we were thinking we were going to redo them all and this was going to come a whole lot quicker. 00:58:09
But it's obviously a process. It's going to take a while. 00:58:14
But the. 00:58:19
End of S Main St. 00:58:21
You can't even. 00:58:24
Read them and read it. The old black ones, Yeah, Yeah. I mean, at least we should think about getting going on and getting those 00:58:26
done. Most of those fall under the. 00:58:31
Department of Interior whether the brownish bronze color. 00:58:36
You see it all. 00:58:40
State parks and stuff. So we do have a documented historic district. 00:58:42
And if you follow what most of the cities have, they do have that. 00:58:47
Type sign. It just says you know, historic district. 00:58:53
So I would like to see that. 00:58:57
On another note, the I know we've said the. 00:59:00
Old public works building is. 00:59:04
Very valuable property. 00:59:07
Are we thinking a traffic circle there or something? 00:59:11
Long term? Long term maybe, but. 00:59:16
My question is. 00:59:20
Why can't some of the equipment and stuff get moved to Thomas farm about? 00:59:21
Why do we? Why do we need a new public's work building? 00:59:25
And if you, what are you going to put in that building? 00:59:31
That, I mean, it's a terrible place to get in and out of. 00:59:34
I mean you, when you leave it, you're going to turn right and go away from town. 00:59:39
With all the traffic and stuff that we have, so it's just. 00:59:45
I was just wondering what what are the plans for that? 00:59:49
So, umm. 00:59:52
The the DVA. 00:59:55
Would love it if the city would lease it to DBA and then. 00:59:59
The DBA could use it kind of as some incubator spaces those. 01:00:04
Different bays would make really great little smaller. 01:00:10
Businesses. 01:00:14
There's also a lot of property with it. There's actually a lot of land and the way it's currently graded. 01:00:15
It is kind of awkward. I mean, a lot of it isn't particularly usable, but there is a lot of potential there. 01:00:21
So. 01:00:27
I also I will just speak. 01:00:28
Aesthetically. 01:00:31
My dad has, I mean, this is, this is random about my dad, but he doesn't say much about the city of Watkinsville. 01:00:33
But as soon as we moved here, he has said multiple times he's like. 01:00:39
Why is like in this main corner of town? 01:00:43
Like this, I mean, a public works building is just not very attractive or pretty. So we got one of our main corridors. 01:00:46
And we have very useful practical things we're grateful for. But is that really? 01:00:54
The best place to house them? 01:01:00
So I think with the size of that actual lot, if you actually walk it and look at it, there will be ways to improve the traffic 01:01:02
flow if some grading happened. 01:01:07
But I think there is just tremendous potential with that. That is a key piece of real estate and it seems like it is not at the 01:01:12
highest and best use. 01:01:16
Some of the one of the things we've looked at is, you know, there's, there's ways you can structure. 01:01:21
Leases you could do. You could do public, private joint ventures where you could. 01:01:26
Because remember, it can, it connects the lot behind it as well as the little. All small, but we're building so you could preserve 01:01:32
the brick structure. 01:01:35
You could level it out and you could do, you could do some different things on that site. And then if G dot came along years later 01:01:39
and offered to pay you out for a traffic circle, you know, then we'd still take the money. 01:01:44
But it's not like we'd be getting any less than we are now. 01:01:49
But we have no idea what the timeline is for that. 01:01:51
So the DDA is leading the way on that. 01:01:54
And and what I've seen too is that. 01:01:56
There is a way to do a traffic circle there and still keep that building? 01:02:00
I mean, it is. It is possible depending on how it's structured. So depending on how it goes, that building might. 01:02:04
Still be able to be preserved. 01:02:11
Because at this point, it is historic. 01:02:12
As well. 01:02:15
That was the first fire department, I think in Oconee County. Yeah, I don't I don't think we. 01:02:16
Ideally wouldn't want to lose the building. 01:02:21
Face it. Yeah. Lucky. Yeah. 01:02:24
So it looks like you've got two parcels there. 01:02:28
Yep. 01:02:30
Connie. 01:02:36
Well, I am concerned with. 01:02:39
Moving the. 01:02:42
Street department and using that building for businesses because of the traffic that that intersection is constantly busy. 01:02:43
And if the people are complaining now because of the street department machinery going in and out, it's going to be even worse 01:02:51
with. 01:02:56
Customers. 01:03:01
Going in if it's some kind of business? 01:03:02
And I just. 01:03:05
Not looking forward to that happening. 01:03:07
OK. Thank you. 01:03:10
I I've got a lot of ideas. One of them I'll throw out something that came up at the All America City. 01:03:15
Was how we engage our youth in the community and. 01:03:20
Create opportunities for our youth to understand. 01:03:23
Not just about Watkinsville, but about, you know, helping local government, why that's important, how that works. Some cities have 01:03:26
a. 01:03:29
You know, a city youth council or a youth leadership program of some sort. 01:03:33
You know, that gives young people the opportunity to get engaged and. 01:03:38
Be a part of you know, learn about everything from police to public works to. 01:03:42
You know our different departments and also how we make decisions and also give us some input on, you know, what do we? 01:03:47
Want to hear from the younger folks, what's important to them, you know, the people that we want to have to move back to this 01:03:53
community so. 01:03:55
I'd love for us to explore some sort of Watkinsville. 01:03:58
Youth council or youth leadership program that would. 01:04:02
Help get the youth in the community. 01:04:05
Engaged. 01:04:08
I'm thinking probably high school aged children. 01:04:09
But also think children of, you know, all backgrounds. So I don't want to just get the same kids who are in Beta club and 01:04:12
absolutely crushing it at Oconee or Athens Academy or Westminster. How do we really get a cross section of? 01:04:17
Kids from Watkinsville engaged and. 01:04:23
You know, giving us some feedback, you know, maybe they have a project, you know, as they work through their year, at the end, 01:04:26
they come to City Council with recommendations on things that they've seen and. 01:04:30
To give them an opportunity to engage, to learn. 01:04:35
And then maybe report back to the council on here's here's what's important to the next generation of Watkinsville citizens. 01:04:38
I think that's a great idea and I would piggyback on that. 01:04:45
There is a. 01:04:50
Community in Georgia. 01:04:52
I can't remember. It's a county that does it and they actually partner with the high school and have an entrepreneurship. 01:04:54
Kind of program. 01:05:02
Umm, which to me goes back to our, you know, wanting to. 01:05:05
To have that creative spirit. There's a great marketing teacher at Oconee County High School as well who's really engaged I. 01:05:11
So not that it would be ours to just run completely. I know that that would be a big lift and not really, but I would love to 01:05:18
facilitate that somehow if there's a way to start the conversations, if it's between even the chamber and the marketing teacher to 01:05:25
kind of kind of high school and and have another kind of piece of engagement for our youth that also we are. 01:05:32
Encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit. 01:05:39
So I'm in the Oconee County, one of the Oconee, one of the two Oconee County Rotary clubs. We made it in the morning and. 01:05:43
We spot help sponsor Rylai, the Rotary Young Youth Leadership. 01:05:50
And I mean, that's, that's a great program. 01:05:56
Of like. 01:06:00
Outside of your beta club people, I mean. Not saying they're not in the beta club, but. 01:06:03
They're very good, very intelligent. 01:06:07
Rotary Youth. 01:06:11
Kids that. 01:06:13
Would be beneficial. 01:06:15
All along same lines of school. I know you had mentioned high school, but we do have the one and only school in the city of 01:06:16
Watkinsville. 01:06:19
Called Ferry that I would love to get engaged with a little more often. 01:06:23
You know, I know our Police Department has in the past. 01:06:28
Sent officers up there, you know, Fridays or whatever to. 01:06:31
But you know, let's if we could get more involved, you know, maybe the council shows up every once in a while and opens doors for 01:06:34
kids or. 01:06:38
You know, I don't know. Let's see how we, us and Doctor Brown could get together and. 01:06:42
And and be engaged with the one and only school we have in the city of Watkinsville. 01:06:47
I like the idea of having a. 01:06:52
A different point of view. 01:06:54
Yeah, because this may sound weird, but stay with me. 01:06:56
The Super Bowl halftime show. 01:07:01
I thought it was the worst halftime show entertainment I've ever seen. 01:07:04
But then I spoke to my daughters and friends, my daughters who are teenagers. 01:07:08
And they loved it, Yeah. 01:07:12
I said, how can you love that? I can understand one word, the person said. That's not music. 01:07:14
But they told me a little background of whatever and they knew the words and apparently had to bleep out a lot of the words. 01:07:19
But anyway, I thought it was interesting how I thought that was horrible. 01:07:25
And I was like, oh, Prince back in Miami in the 90s was the best half time. 01:07:29
Whatever, but I couldn't comprehend that they liked it. 01:07:35
But I didn't know their point of view. 01:07:39
So I think if we had, you know, kids involved and probably. 01:07:41
You know, high school kids involved. What do you want in Watkinsville? 01:07:46
You know what's important to you. 01:07:50
So that down the road like you mentioned. 01:07:52
When they are our age, in their 30s, getting married and what? 01:07:55
Some people getting married sooner than others. 01:07:59
Now they're getting married, they want them to consider Watkinsville. 01:08:02
So, umm. 01:08:06
I think it's a great idea. 01:08:07
All right, cool. 01:08:10
We'll move on to you, Jeff. 01:08:13
I'll go back to my original thing, why I wanted a room for city council's and we're doing a good job with it. It's just 01:08:18
continuing. 01:08:21
With the sidewalks. 01:08:24
You know, expanding sidewalks and improving sidewalks. 01:08:26
I'm still. 01:08:31
I'm still hopeful for the day when we get to where we can have a. 01:08:34
There's a National School Day or Bike to School Day. 01:08:38
I want that here in Watkinsville and I want to see the kids ride by my house. 01:08:42
All the way down. 01:08:46
South Lane. 01:08:48
To Collin Ferry, that's. 01:08:49
My fondest memory as a child is riding my bike to school. And it was. 01:08:51
You know, a couple miles to school and. 01:08:55
I was in elementary school and. 01:08:57
You just did. It was. There's no supervision, but anyway. 01:08:58
I, you know, just. 01:09:03
Improving some of the existing sidewalks we have. I just personally see the ones on Main Street because that's where I live and 01:09:05
that's where I walk. 01:09:08
And it's. 01:09:11
A little bit of an obstacle course going down South Main. 01:09:12
So I just see that. 01:09:15
And then continue it down South means to where it hits Calvin Ferry. We can marry up with the wonderful extension we've got on 01:09:17
High Shoals. 01:09:21
I know there's other areas but that just. 01:09:26
But I see every day. 01:09:28
But that that's that's important to me is the sidewalk that I want to see kids walk into school. 01:09:31
I'd like us to also. 01:09:38
You know when we complete the phase, this year's work which will be to get. 01:09:40
Simonton Place to downtown. 01:09:45
Then I'd like us to begin planning in earnest. How do we get from Simonton Place to Wire Park? 01:09:47
You know, and I think that's, I don't think that's unreasonable. We've got some good partners who can help us with that. 01:09:52
You know, we'll have some of those conversations, but. 01:09:59
I think. 01:10:02
At that point, we'll have done two things that people said were impossible 10 years ago, which is a sidewalk on Hardin Hill and a 01:10:03
sidewalk on Simonton Bridge. 01:10:07
And then I, you know, we've got a good transportation plan on other areas. I think even looking at North Main Street, you know, is 01:10:11
another. 01:10:15
Spot, there's not a ton of houses down there, but those folks, those folks also, you know. 01:10:18
Are hungry for pedestrian connection back to town, so I think I think. 01:10:23
Jeff, I think we got to continue working there. 01:10:27
Yeah, I actually had. I've had two conversations now with Watkinsville First Baptist Church about. 01:10:30
The interconnect going through their property and their. 01:10:37
They have some stuff they're working on with the county for sewer, but. 01:10:40
Along the same lines that would love to. 01:10:45
Partner with us. 01:10:47
And get a. 01:10:49
A pathway that leads through there over. 01:10:51
Down Norton. 01:10:54
So. 01:10:54
All right, Christine. 01:10:58
OK, so. 01:10:59
Y'all might just shut this down. 01:11:02
And I don't know this has happened this year or ever, but when I think of the aesthetics of downtown. 01:11:05
I would love. 01:11:12
To not just move a power pole, but get rid of all the power poles. I mean, I know, I know, we got the former line like, like, but. 01:11:13
Every time I turn on, you know I'm sitting there at Ashford Memorial is one of the most beautiful churches. 01:11:22
It's I've never been able to get a good picture of it because there's all these stupid power. I mean, they're not stupid. We need 01:11:30
them. We like power, but like unattractive power lines right there. So. 01:11:35
If we're just, I mean, this council has done a lot of amazing big things so. 01:11:40
I'm gonna put, I don't know if anyone's ever put it out there, but I would love to have all underground utilities in downtown 01:11:46
Watkinsville. We're doing that on Simonton Bridge. 01:11:50
I know it might be a little trickier on Main Street, but I would I would. 01:11:55
Would love to see that happen. 01:11:59
Very, very expensive, and when it goes out, it's out for much, much longer. 01:12:01
But it wouldn't go out as much because there's no tree limbs falling on it. 01:12:06
So there's always an overhead line somewhere feeding underground. 01:12:10
Anyway I. 01:12:13
I mean. 01:12:16
Very, very expensive. I think it should just even be looked at. 01:12:17
So what I will say is we have a very good partner at Georgia Power right now. 01:12:21
Who's willing to work with us on stuff and look at things and explore things? 01:12:25
I think it would have to be part of a streets get bigger streetscape. 01:12:29
You know, effort, you know which, you know, it's been 20 years, you know, I mean, so. 01:12:32
It probably takes 10 years to get funding and get those things done, so I don't think it hurts to put it on a long range work plan 01:12:36
at all and just think about. 01:12:40
And it may be, hey, we get 1/4 of it done here and another quarter of it done. But you when you think about your strategic plan 01:12:43
for downtown. 01:12:46
That may also may be part of your long range plan is how do we. 01:12:50
In tranches, get some of these buried, like if you think about the. 01:12:53
East side of our downtown sidewalks between. 01:12:56
Between sunshine and. 01:13:02
Eagle Tavern, Those are tiny little sidewalks. They haven't been upgraded in a long time. I mean. 01:13:04
That stretch could be done, you know, so you can kind of take it in sections and think about it without tearing up your whole 01:13:08
downtown. But. 01:13:11
I don't think it's. 01:13:14
I encourage y'all to dream big. Let's dream big. The only other aspect of that is. 01:13:15
Most of the houses that rundown through there have overhead power get. 01:13:21
Goes to their. 01:13:24
Houses. So now you're actually. 01:13:26
Making the homeowners themselves incur a additional expense to go from an overhead service to an underground service. 01:13:29
I mean that's maybe there are grants to help with that. I'm not saying this is going to happen next week. I'm just saying. 01:13:35
I would love to see the city of Watkinsville not have those overhead power lines, so I would love to start the process of looking 01:13:42
at what would that take. 01:13:46
What grants are out there? How much time can we budget for that? Except. 01:13:50
Maybe some plans for some. 01:13:55
There may be some grants out there. 01:13:58
For water lines and stuff, because at some point we're going to be faced. 01:14:00
We we have a tremendously old. 01:14:04
Water system when the infrastructure lives, yeah, old pipes that nobody knows where they're in or anything about. So I mean, 01:14:06
that's something coming down the road, but hopefully there would be some grants. 01:14:12
To help improve those. 01:14:17
You know what they say about how you eat an elephant, right? Yeah, this is an elephant. But, you know, I think the first step is 01:14:20
to figure out what it look like. And I do think since we've got our. 01:14:26
Partner with our downtown strategic plan. It's a good. 01:14:32
Good way to engage them. 01:14:34
If you have something you want to add on, I agree with you know. 01:14:36
Getting rid of the power lines if possible and it it falls into the whole. 01:14:40
You know, streetscape. 01:14:45
Plan and you know you mentioned. 01:14:47
Ask for Memorial Church and that's such. 01:14:49
That's a intersection we'd all like to go to snap our fingers on how to figure out the sidewalk there and the big hill coming down 01:14:52
and what not. 01:14:56
It's all of a bigger picture and I'm. 01:14:59
I'm curious, you know. Let me know. 01:15:02
Has done a. 01:15:04
A very good job. 01:15:05
Their roads leading to downtown. 01:15:07
All got curbed with sidewalks and some. 01:15:10
Pavers in addition to the sidewalk. 01:15:14
And I'm just wondering, you know, and lighting it. 01:15:17
And the lights, which look great. 01:15:20
When they did that, how is that? How big is the? 01:15:23
Money to do that, I guess. Is that all some of the grants with some of it money from the city? 01:15:26
And I just explore OK. 01:15:33
We know those are things we like his other. 01:15:36
Communities that have done it, how did you do it? Well, I mean, I think it's ILA. 01:15:39
Al is the smallest town in the Dang world and they have sidewalks absolutely to nowhere and streetlights every 100 feet. It is 01:15:43
amazing they they don't have any people that live in Isle of. 01:15:49
But we know how much the street light cost. How did they fund that? Who is paying for, I mean, somebody? And they got thousands of 01:15:59
St. lights. So I used to work on all of them, I mean thousands of them. 01:16:04
Monroe has. 01:16:11
You know, one of the things that you kind of to pause and reflect on for us as a municipality we actually have. 01:16:14
Much fewer funding streams than most municipalities. 01:16:19
Monroe controls its own utilities. They have an Internet utility. They have a. 01:16:23
I think they have a gas Yeah. So my. 01:16:28
We gave up all that. Elberton doesn't charge any property taxes. 01:16:31
Because they have, they control, they can they have electric. There are me AG City, which is a they control their electric. 01:16:35
They control Internet they control. 01:16:42
So, umm. 01:16:43
So. 01:16:45
So that these some of these cities have some other utilities that give them a lot more financial flexibility to do things. But I 01:16:46
think it's a. 01:16:49
I think it's a great question on streetscape and planning and. 01:16:52
Like I said, this is the year when we've got this grant. And even if we need to plus up that grant, if like Georgia Power gave us 01:16:56
35, but we think it's going to take 50. 01:17:00
To get the information we need to have the best plan. 01:17:04
Then I think we need to think about that, right. So if we have the right partner and we think about that, then. 01:17:07
Let's let's take a little bit, let's take that Georgia Power money and marry up a little bit more and make sure we get exactly 01:17:12
what we need to take care of us for 10 years on that would be my advice. 01:17:16
To the DDA, as you'll think about how we're going to execute that if you want to make a request back to city to support you on 01:17:20
that if you. 01:17:23
Don't think we can get there, you know, be sure you work with Sharon around budget time because I love all these things. 01:17:26
You know these ideas because ultimately what it'll do is, you know, revitalize. 01:17:31
Fill in those gaps in our downtown and those people pay taxes and it pays for itself. That's why cities do that, I mean. 01:17:36
The beautification then give somebody a confidence to reinvest and. 01:17:42
Build and do something new. 01:17:45
You know, the same with the streetlights and those streetscapes. Monroe's seen it for sure. 01:17:47
The mayor over there and if we want to go visit. 01:17:51
With some of these communities, we could put that on the list for this year too, you know, and understand what they did. 01:17:53
All right, are we? To what? 01:17:59
Christine to Jeff to now back to Brett. So he pulled my sidewalk one but y'all had several amount which is good. We're scratching 01:18:03
off the lips He does have. I do have a questionable piece of sidewalk. I guess so over at Thomas Farms. 01:18:09
If around the small lake we have a the little bridge and it goes from a semicircle, half of it is. 01:18:15
Paved asphalt and then the part I guess through the wetlands is. 01:18:22
I guess that was done on purpose. My daughters had their little scooters yesterday and we're scooting around and then all of a 01:18:27
sudden it ran into gravel and I was like, pick it up. What? What with it? So yeah, it was the wetlands because. 01:18:33
The way the loan structure do, you really don't want to impact the environment. 01:18:39
Sensitive environmental areas. So that still allows it to be porous and doesn't interrupt the flow there. Yeah, good question 01:18:43
there. 01:18:45
Chuck. 01:18:50
OK, Connie. 01:18:52
Well, my main thing is to. 01:18:55
Keep the infrastructure. 01:18:57
All the infrastructure and good working order should be our main concern. 01:19:00
Keep the city clean and. 01:19:04
And keep all the buildings we currently have full. 01:19:06
And continue to work on our list that we are working on and get that all done before we start anything major. 01:19:10
And new. 01:19:18
OK. 01:19:21
We have. 01:19:25
I've got a couple more left that I'll I'll run through as we kind of take turns. 01:19:28
I've mentioned this last year. I still think it's something. 01:19:33
That we should explore and that is a. 01:19:36
Asking the voters. 01:19:40
Whether about a green space or Parks and Rec bond. 01:19:42
That would allow us to continue to preserve green spaces, not. 01:19:46
To Brett's point, not because we may not be able to activate it all in the next 5 years, but I do think in the next 5 to 10 years, 01:19:50
you know, we're already seeing tremendous development pressure. 01:19:54
On the outskirts of town. 01:20:00
Whether we do? 01:20:03
Whether we do anything or not, you know, do we? 01:20:04
Do we want to have? 01:20:07
And what this would require would probably be for us to go to the voters in November and ask them to choose, OK, do you want to 01:20:09
vote on? 01:20:12
Some sort of a bond issuance that would allow us, that would give us the resources we need. 01:20:15
If you know, 20 acres here, 40 acres there. 01:20:19
Some other opportunities came up to. 01:20:23
To do that, to prevent the development of the space, you know we've we've. 01:20:26
One of the reasons I've loved Thomas Farmers, people see, you know, the most common thing as well. 01:20:29
This, you know, here's what this would have become. You know, the grand opening. That was the most common refrain. I'm so thankful 01:20:34
this didn't become that. 01:20:37
I think we need to ask citizens, are you willing to invest? 01:20:41
To prevent that from happening. 01:20:45
If they're not, they're not, right? I mean, you know, they may not be willing to do that. Doesn't mean we can't do some other 01:20:46
things, but to do it in a truly significant way. 01:20:50
I think we need to ask the voters and say, look, are you willing to pay some additional property taxes? That gives us the 01:20:55
capacity. 01:20:58
To go out and bond. 01:21:01
And purchase these spaces and be able to do it in a financially responsible way. 01:21:03
We may or may not be able to do that. I think we could do it in some smaller ways, but I guess my perspective is. 01:21:09
Two things, one. 01:21:15
It's there's not going to be any more land in Watkinsville. 01:21:16
And two, I don't anticipate us. You know, we talk about the infrastructure. 01:21:21
We're not, there's, there's not space to build huge new roads and to do the, you know, to do the things that we need to do to 01:21:26
support these spaces. So. 01:21:29
There's other cities that have done that. The city of Milton is probably the most notable 1. 01:21:33
We'd have to have a process for evaluating which parcels we want and how all those things would work. 01:21:37
But do we want to take a big swing at something like that? 01:21:43
You know, that's what I love y'all's feedback on. 01:21:47
I don't think it's something we do unilaterally. I think it's something that we need to take to the voters and say. 01:21:50
This is a generational investment. Do we want to develop in a different way than most other small towns do and and that might 01:21:55
mean? 01:21:58
We don't have a lot more. 01:22:01
You know, umm. 01:22:03
We don't have a lot, you know these. 01:22:04
The places it could be around Thomas Farm, it could be around Column Ferry, There's there. Believe it or not, there is a fair bit 01:22:06
of. 01:22:09
Space left in the city that could be preserved, and then there's some smaller pieces around too. 01:22:12
I love y'all's reaction to that. 01:22:18
I agree that if we're considering something like that, it definitely should go. 01:22:22
To the voters. 01:22:26
Umm. 01:22:28
And a lot of. 01:22:31
Education even for I mean I need to be better educated on the insurance and outs of what that means. Obviously I know this is just 01:22:34
spitballing so. 01:22:38
And yeah, I mean. 01:22:44
And let me amplify to one thing about that. I don't, I don't limit that to just passive spaces like this could also be a funding 01:22:46
source to do some of the other things that we're talking about like. 01:22:50
To, you know, if we want to have, I mean, right now. 01:22:55
You want to take your kid to play soccer? 01:22:58
You got to drive all the way around Butler's and somewhere else. I mean, we don't have the money just out of our regular budget to 01:23:00
do to create. 01:23:03
The active spaces either right and so this is how a lot of communities pay for it is you know they they'll. 01:23:07
You know they can cover that out of you know. 01:23:12
Nobody's doing that now. What's that? 01:23:16
Yeah, and they probably do that sort of as a matter of course. I mean, they're so big. I mean, you know, when you've got a. 01:23:18
You know, 50 or $60 million budget, you can, you can just do that sort of thing with, you know, just go to the public market, do 01:23:23
it. It'd be a big deal for us and we don't really have to. 01:23:27
Borrowing capacity to do it without dedicating some property tax dollars to it. 01:23:31
It would. 01:23:36
I guess what I'd be asking you guys is, is it worth exploring and seeing what it could look like, what what feasibility is, how 01:23:37
much would it cost or not? 01:23:40
For us to. 01:23:44
Consider that. 01:23:45
I don't really want to get into specific parcels or anything like that now given, you know, we'd have to do that in executive 01:23:47
session and have to talk to owners, but. 01:23:51
It would give us the ability to. 01:23:55
In a fiscally responsible and very open way, determine what our citizens priorities are. 01:23:58
And be able to act on those. And if they vote it down, they vote it down, right? I mean, we're being transparent about what we 01:24:03
think is important and what the priorities are and what we're hearing. 01:24:07
But right now, we really. 01:24:11
We could still, we could still do that in smaller ways. We can activate it off of SPLOST and. 01:24:13
Some other things, but if we want to take a big swing at truly creating. 01:24:18
A community where we're we're, we're emphasizing quality of life and that quality of life doesn't revolve around. 01:24:23
You know every property owner feeling like they have to develop their land to exit. 01:24:28
Then, you know, I think we're ultimately going to have to be 1 of the backstops there. 01:24:34
So anyway, that's. 01:24:40
I'm, I'm, I really love that the, that we preserve that land in perpetuity. I think it's like you said, we're not developing any 01:24:43
more land and, and. 01:24:48
I, I grew up here. I I love. 01:24:53
I love this place 20 years ago, 30 years ago when it was much smaller than it is today and. 01:24:57
You know, if we don't start preserving land, there's going to be. 01:25:03
Houses and apartments. And I mean, they're going to. 01:25:06
People are going to come here. 01:25:09
When you have an all American city, people will come. 01:25:11
And the only way to. 01:25:14
Stop that. I think I mean the county is doing a great job at limiting growth. 01:25:16
And I think we could. 01:25:21
Do smart growth, I think that's when I talk to people about growth here. Let's do smart growth in the city of Watkinsville. 01:25:23
You know, let's, let's allow what we want to allow. 01:25:28
You know, because it has to grow. 01:25:32
But let's let's. 01:25:33
Do it smart, smartly. 01:25:35
I don't think that's a word. 01:25:38
I agree with that with the. 01:25:46
One comment to add to it, just like Jeff you had said earlier. 01:25:48
But watching the halftime show? 01:25:52
So we're going to have different ideas and things that come in. 01:25:55
And just like. 01:25:59
Christine, you have a different idea for the. 01:26:00
Public works. 01:26:03
So I feel like we all have to keep an open mind. 01:26:04
And be willing to. 01:26:07
To listen and not just say no. Yep, we don't want a tattoo shop. 01:26:09
We don't want, you know, different thing, but we have. 01:26:15
Catch up and we have all kind of other things that you have to have an open mind to. 01:26:19
Say, OK, that might work, you know. 01:26:25
Might not work for me, but it works for someone and that's what we want, you know, people to. 01:26:27
Come and create and connect. So I mean that's part of it. 01:26:32
All right, Jeff. 01:26:39
You got anything else on your list? 01:26:41
I'm not not real main thing or one other. 01:26:46
Thing is that. 01:26:49
It'd be nice to figure out how to connect hair Shoals to downtown so you could you could walk. 01:26:50
I guess at least if you got it to Durham St. with Durham St. gets repaved once the. 01:26:57
The complex goes in. If we could get a sidewalk up to there so that you could get down to there. 01:27:02
Then you could still get downtown through Durham St. so that would be. 01:27:08
Something. 01:27:12
I would I would like to see. 01:27:13
OK, Christine. 01:27:15
So we have great. 01:27:18
Nonprofits in our community with ESP Lydia Place O Calf. 01:27:21
And I really just want to continue leaning into that and be very intentional. 01:27:26
Waterways as a community. 01:27:32
We can lean into those organizations and maybe there are even other in our small downtown that. 01:27:34
Should be added to that list, but those are three that I know. 01:27:40
Umm, again, to me it it fits with our goals and we do, we do that. But. 01:27:44
Just being very intentional and maybe. 01:27:48
Practically looking at some things with that. 01:27:51
Now I do think OKAF. 01:27:55
Could be a great partner to like we talked about the idea for the History Museum and those kind of things. I still think of calf 01:27:56
could be. 01:27:59
A strong partner on that if we didn't wind up doing something at the house. 01:28:02
You know, I've talked about the the entry to the old gym, different spaces over there where we could. 01:28:07
Maybe help be the funding partner, but leverage some of the space that they have that's available might be more efficient and they 01:28:11
could. 01:28:15
Sort of maintain and they've got staff and the ability to. 01:28:18
Do that but I think. 01:28:21
You know, strengthening that. 01:28:23
Also, that physical connection to OCAF through our downtown is so important. 01:28:24
Jan and I've talked about that and I know that's probably be part of your downtown strategic plan, but how do we? 01:28:28
When somebody lands in downtown Watkinsville, how do we give them a couple different places to go? You know, and. 01:28:33
The sidewalk to Thomas Farmer is going to help with that too. 01:28:38
And particularly Lydia's place because we, I mean, we obviously have a very strong partnership with ESP. 01:28:42
No calf comes and we give them. 01:28:47
There's already some definitely things in place there. 01:28:49
But Lydia's place? 01:28:52
Does such a service to such an underserved population? 01:28:54
Umm, just have it on our radar to see if there are practical ways the city can enter in. 01:29:00
Anybody else? 01:29:08
I'll throw out a few more just for y'all's reaction. I. 01:29:10
The you know, we've talked about the street department a little bit. 01:29:14
I know in the past we've also talked about City Hall, you know? 01:29:17
Is this our? 01:29:20
Ultimate destination. Do we want to stay here? 01:29:22
It has occurred to me with some of these other ideas, the Lydia's plays the others. 01:29:25
You know, is there an opportunity for us to find a space where we could? 01:29:30
Efficiently. 01:29:34
You know how some of these other some of these other needs? 01:29:36
You know, does it make sense to find a place to put the Police Department, the street department, City Hall? 01:29:41
You know, together somewhere else, you know. 01:29:46
I don't know that. I mean, I think this building could serve us well for another 10 years, but do we? 01:29:49
We also know land is just going to do nothing but cost more and there's going to be less of it in 10 years, you know? 01:29:54
So do we. 01:29:59
Do we need to be thinking about that strategically and exploring options on? 01:30:00
Where we can land a. 01:30:04
Again, that may be something that takes four or five years, but. 01:30:06
Staffs staff's not going to go after that if we don't ask him to go after that, you know, So is that something that we. 01:30:10
Something that we need to think about. 01:30:15
To me it is like you said. 01:30:18
Long term, thinking about it, you you never want to. 01:30:22
Have to move in a moment because then you. 01:30:26
Sorry, put in my realtor hat on. Then you panic by and you don't necessarily get what you really want so. 01:30:28
If realistically this we're going to outgrow this in 10 years, then I think it's definitely something that should be on our radar. 01:30:34
Umm. But I think it also needs to be really clear that it's not because. 01:30:42
We think City Hall has to be this beautiful, grandiose. 01:30:46
Base and but that it's just very practical and if there is a way to. 01:30:50
Leverage this resource that's also going to help and serve the community. 01:30:55
And have it be not. 01:30:59
A big lift for taxpayers to make that move. 01:31:02
Than having our eyes open for that opportunity I think would be foolish not to. 01:31:05
Yeah, I don't want to, I pushed back. 01:31:11
Through the years on investing more money in a government building, so I'm not crazy about the idea. 01:31:13
But I do think we all have to sort of recognize there's. 01:31:20
There's probably. 01:31:22
You know, there will be a moment probably in the next decade where we either have to make a big investment here or. 01:31:24
Umm, you know, or do something different. 01:31:30
But, but I don't think we have to. 01:31:33
There's nothing urgent, there's no urgency around that, but there could be some opportunities in the next next year or two. 01:31:35
I think you know if we. 01:31:41
Are looking at a city location. I think it should be centrally located, easily accessible. You know, I don't think it should be 01:31:43
off the beaten path. 01:31:47
You know, I think when you think of the city seat of Watkinsville or the city seat of the county seat of Oconee County is the city 01:31:52
of Watkinsville. It needs to be something that. 01:31:58
Easily found. 01:32:04
You know, this has held us well for a long time here, but I, I. 01:32:06
I don't know where in downtown, the actual city of Watkins where you could place it, but I think that's. 01:32:10
Where it should be? 01:32:17
You know, maybe. 01:32:18
The school board will one day want to give us that piece of property that they have. And then it sits right up there over across, 01:32:21
I mean that I have this grand idea that you've got the County Courthouse and then you got the city of Watkinsville this, you know, 01:32:27
see, and they 2 are down this nice beautiful corridor. 01:32:32
I mean, like if you go to I think it's Tucker where every, all the government buildings are together and you've got them anyway. 01:32:38
Beautiful corridor. 01:32:45
From City Hall to the courthouse and. 01:32:46
And, umm. 01:32:48
Yeah. 01:32:51
All right, the other things I had on my list were just more streetlights in general. You know, even if we could every year add. 01:32:53
8 or 10 More on. 01:32:59
Even on Barnett Shoals, you know what a difference that would make. Just to kind of continue that feel of our downtown St. and 01:33:01
streetlights I think is nice. 01:33:04
Public art we talked about, but I would love us to have, once your committees established, like, what's a goal for public art? You 01:33:09
know, like, do we have? 01:33:13
You know, could we have one significant piece of public art a year to Watkinsville? And then you look back in 10 years and you 01:33:17
actually have kind of a nice. 01:33:20
Collection beyond the art boards and things like that that sort of paid Sharon did you have something you want to You said St. 01:33:24
lights or street light you mean like the decorative ones Decorative. OK all right I just want to make sure we weren't talking 01:33:29
because she's talking about getting rid of poles Yeah no I'm thinking more decorative like it just really sets a. 01:33:35
Nice tone on our sidewalks if we can extend those, you know. 01:33:41
And then I also thought about, you know, if we decide not if, if it's not feasible or if we don't want to pursue, you know, bigger 01:33:47
Parks and Recreation, do we want to look at some smaller bites in terms of parks? Do we want to look at some neighborhood spaces 01:33:50
where? 01:33:54
You know, umm. 01:33:58
Acre to two acre sort of spaces, you know, where people could gather. I like the idea of having everybody be within a 10 minute 01:34:00
walk of a park. You know, right now we have. 01:34:04
Some of that, we don't have a ton of that. 01:34:08
There's certain areas of the city where you just don't have that opportunity. So how can we how can we get a little closer that 01:34:10
those are lighter lifts to all point that's, you know, it's not that. 01:34:14
You know you get the land, but it's also you're not. That's not. 01:34:18
Millions and millions of dollars. It's more of how do we? 01:34:22
Get a little space and maybe add benches or a small playground or a place for families together or things like that. And to speak 01:34:24
to that, Brian, I feel like we have some of those little pocket parks that are really underutilized. 01:34:30
So I would like to see how to better utilize some of those spaces. We have the pocket park right by Wing House. 01:34:36
We have that one. 01:34:45
At column theory, the county has the counties, even though it's in the city. Yep, that's not ours. 01:34:47
OK, Now they'd probably give it to us as long as as we maintain. If we didn't, if we didn't change the name, then we would have to 01:34:53
maintain it. But they maintain it. OK. Yeah. 01:34:57
And what about? 01:35:02
Yeah, we the city does that. 01:35:04
We cut the grass that the county said the. 01:35:06
That McNally Park, Yeah, they'll cut it, but not as frequently. 01:35:08
OK, so. 01:35:12
They'll give it. They'll give it to us. I mean, John said they would as long as we didn't change the name. Yeah, I think we just. 01:35:15
Yeah, so just so. I mean, I'm not saying. 01:35:18
Yeah, I'm not saying we need to adopt that. I mean, there's obviously more. And then what about the, is it Patriot Park? That's 01:35:24
right by Jittery Joe's that little thing anyway, that's tiny. I mean, I don't see a huge play structure going on that, but. 01:35:30
I would love to to make sure that we really look at what we have and utilize what we have. 01:35:36
Yeah, No, I think that would you'd have to plan and say what are the needs, what do we want to do? 01:35:42
What's the walk shed for people so they can get there? Do we need to add? 01:35:47
Pedestrian infrastructure so people can get to these spaces. 01:35:50
Yeah. And say, OK, where's, where do our gaps and how do we want to address it? 01:35:54
So OK. 01:35:58
I think that's all I had. But now, yeah, now we got the land down in the trove as well. Pretty good parcel of land down there, 01:36:02
which I wish that we just let them have those be soccer fields. 01:36:09
I mean, does it have to be passive? Is there is there a way to change it? Yeah, by the by the. 01:36:17
Term. It stays passive by the terms of the thing. 01:36:22
The easement and all those things and well, just it can't be programmed. I don't know that it doesn't mean that. 01:36:26
Like unofficial oriented, we can create like a field, you know what it looks like right now, update a field or something, but you 01:36:32
can put a playground on it or something like that, right? 01:36:36
I don't know that you couldn't do that. I think that's passive. I know. I think we have to look at, I think maybe an attorney 01:36:41
question. Well, and I would love to. I mean, there's this again, this we're doing big ideas, but in Clark County. 01:36:47
School playgrounds when schools on session or public parks. So we do have Colin Ferry Elementary right there. I mean, again, don't 01:36:53
know that it's a. 01:36:58
Conversation that would immediately go anywhere, but I think it's certainly something. 01:37:03
Worth talking about? That's a. 01:37:07
A park that is right there. 01:37:09
A lot of work that. 01:37:12
It's been a while since my baby's played on that playground, so. 01:37:16
Trying very hard to get that redone right now. 01:37:20
Yeah, All right. What about? Let's go back to what's up here. OK, Go ahead, Christine. 01:37:23
So this is this might seem small but this has been something that I have wanted to see happen. 01:37:28
For years and years and years. 01:37:33
And part of our partnership with the library at Wire Park. 01:37:36
Was supposed to have the potential to do this with our funding. I would really like to see library hours extended. 01:37:39
They got cut back during the recession and I know again this is not. 01:37:46
Really in our control. 01:37:50
But. 01:37:52
I don't know if we have even influence in this. 01:37:54
But I would love to see not 6:00 closure times most days. That was cut back during the last recession and we are well past that. 01:37:57
So, umm. 01:38:05
You have a new library director starting this year and. 01:38:05
You know so. 01:38:09
Might be good conversation. 01:38:12
Mark no, I'll be happy to speak on that. I think it's a great a great comment. There is discussions. 01:38:14
The library if you talk to the library board. 01:38:19
As a former. 01:38:21
Board member. 01:38:22
You know, budget, budget, budget. It's it's all about about revenue. I will say this statistics and the data and James Mitchell 01:38:24
let the the Watkinsville branch of the Oconee Library has been great. 01:38:29
But there are really significant differences in the use times for the Watkinsville branch versus the Bogart branch. 01:38:35
So I do think that it's a great conversation. 01:38:44
Just with being partnered at Wire Park when when that move took place. 01:38:48
The utilization times of that library changed completely. 01:38:53
And a lot of it changed over the weekends, right? So I would say at the old location right here on Experiment Station Road, it 01:38:57
would utilize a lot during the week. 01:39:02
And not so much during the weekend and that's almost turned 180° with the with the wire part change, so. 01:39:06
I think. 01:39:14
A lot more of the houses get developed in there. You'll see it exponentially. 01:39:15
The growth in there as well and I think I think all those houses in there are great opportunities for library volunteers. 01:39:21
If you have a volunteer opportunity, you could walk. 01:39:28
And don't have to drive to. I think that's a. That's a good point. 01:39:30
But I do, I think it's a discussion to ongoing happen, but just don't be surprised if. 01:39:34
You know, the discussion is always hey. 01:39:38
Costs are increasing state requirements for for, you know, healthcare and retirement, some of those other things. And staffing is 01:39:41
always, you know, an issue from a library standpoint, so. 01:39:46
If you said hey, we'd like to be open till 10:00 at night, somebody might say that's a great idea. 01:39:51
But you got to pay somebody to work, be willing to work those hours. So that's the challenge. I know when we talked about the 01:39:56
contribution that Watkinsville will be giving to the library and is giving, but is going to continue to increase as Wire Park. 01:40:03
Is more activated. 01:40:10
A lot of that was specifically to have funding in order to increase library hours, knowing that we didn't have control over that, 01:40:12
but as a. 01:40:15
I agree. I agree 100%. I will say the the funding for this previous year because. 01:40:20
Some of the build out was. 01:40:26
Ongoing and not yet done. 01:40:28
It was actually a less. 01:40:30
For 2024. 01:40:33
Probably than than was expected, so so. 01:40:34
That money has not yet really been realized. 01:40:37
I think the other thing for us to remember is when. 01:40:40
Hours get cut back and. 01:40:45
Places and. 01:40:47
It's going to be short term. Let's just all remember a lot of times it turns into long term, you know, and that's unfortunate, so. 01:40:48
That kind of place. Is there anything on this list or Christine, you may have other ideas? 01:40:54
But that was some other things that Sharon suggested. Just the update on the dock on the large pond, we do have a. 01:40:59
I don't know if we made this clear at the last. 01:41:04
Meeting, but we have a donor who stepped up who's going to fabricate and install that dock for us, so we're responsible for. 01:41:07
The screw piles that will hold it. 01:41:14
And getting those installed and then I guess concrete up to the edge of it, but. 01:41:17
The uh. 01:41:21
IMI is going to donate and install. 01:41:22
The dock for us on the pond, A metal dock. 01:41:25
Yeah, yeah. 01:41:29
So cool. 01:41:30
So, which is a really, really awesome. 01:41:33
Contribution. 01:41:35
One one other thing on what's on the board, did anybody come up with anything on the traffic calming? 01:41:37
I mean. 01:41:48
Another chief you were going to look at. 01:41:50
Start looking at stuff and see if you had any ideas. I mean one I see constantly. 01:41:53
If you're coming down South Main. 01:41:59
Into downtown. 01:42:02
You sitting there Jittery Joe's? 01:42:04
The traffic coming out, Barnes shows. 01:42:06
That right turn, I mean, they'll fill it up. 01:42:09
And then the right turns green and nobody has anywhere to go or couple of them go, they're stuck out in the middle of the 01:42:12
intersection. 01:42:15
That don't happen all the time, just during peak times, but. 01:42:19
That's one big thing. 01:42:24
I see that should be addressed. 01:42:27
Possibly. Can we have a knife fight with everybody who uses Barnett Shoals? Can you put a note right on red? 01:42:30
Up there or because it's a. 01:42:38
State. Federal. 01:42:40
Road that goes through there. 01:42:42
Can you adjust the signage? The state would have to approve that. 01:42:44
It's killing me, yeah, but because 15 and 4:40, yeah. 01:42:49
But I guess you would be directing Barnett Shoals. No right on red. But yeah, you're right, You're right. Anybody that uses 01:42:54
varnish holes, they they take rights on red all day long. We probably got some of the same friends. We'd be in a knife fight on 01:42:58
that one for sure. 01:43:03
During the during the development of the transportation plan, there was discussion about some chicanes or things you may have seen 01:43:07
in other communities where it's basically a piece of concrete or median that maybe. 01:43:12
Because people come up on it just like people talk about having cars parked on the road that causes a lot of traffic home because. 01:43:17
They have to slow down, right? They don't want to hit a car. 01:43:22
There was a discussion at one point about something like that along Simonson. 01:43:25
Bridge Road, and I know the chief had mentioned that we're still getting high, high numbers, you know, high speeders on that road. 01:43:29
And so that may be something we can go back and revisit to is the transportation plan it talks about maybe a chicane or something 01:43:36
that would? 01:43:39
You know, an obstacle that would cause people to slow down in the road, you know, to come around and where you put it, That would 01:43:43
be something to have to be engineered. Obviously, it's not our roads, the county, so that would have to be discussion. But. 01:43:48
Since that was a specific. 01:43:53
Mentioned by the chief. That might be something to think about in the the reason I brought that up or the reason I put it on there 01:43:55
was, and I know the mayor's talked about this too. 01:43:59
We do have money in T spots. We have roughly 1.1. 01:44:03
$7,000,000 that's been set aside, not initially in the bank, but money's been set aside as that reference that continue as we 01:44:06
continue to receive collections on that, that are that is for traffic efficiency improvements roundabout. 01:44:13
Intersection realignments and improvements, signals, traffic calming measures, Rd. connections, etc. So those are the kind of 01:44:20
things that we really haven't. You haven't done any programming on that yet. And you know some of us because we've had some 01:44:24
changes in our. 01:44:28
And our, you know, in the Police Department where we need, you know, we need some focus on where it makes sense. And we wanted it 01:44:32
to be data-driven, not just, hey, let's just go drop something in the middle of the road or. 01:44:36
Whatever. So those, I do think that's an area we haven't. 01:44:41
Really focused anytime on need to. 01:44:44
Have some thought about what you guys want to do in that arena? 01:44:47
There's two aspects of that, right? We have congestion. 01:44:50
Where congestion is a functionally calming the traffic, you know, although it's not pleasant, right? I mean, if you go back to 01:44:53
where even 10 years ago we're, we're much more congested now than we were. 01:44:58
There's not a so I like the idea of it being data-driven. If there's a place where speeding is consistently an issue, then let's 01:45:04
look at calming if there's. 01:45:07
We know where congestion is, if there's a place where a small investment could make a significant difference then. 01:45:10
I'm all for it. A slip lane of, you know, something where we partner up with G dot to let people turn. 01:45:16
You know, terrible one is new high Shoals going on to 441 in the morning. You got every kid from the high school backing up there. 01:45:21
That's the county's problem. But they're slow to move on it, you know, But if they would just add a right turn lane. 01:45:26
From new high Shoals to 441 you would probably relieve. 01:45:32
50% of that traffic here. 01:45:34
Inexpensive because very little grading would have to be done on that. I mean, that's a real quick fix. So I mean, you know, so 01:45:37
I'm not excited about spending money for stuff outside of Watkinsville, but that might be a place where we could contribute and 01:45:42
help accelerate something that would benefit our citizens. It's a probably a frustration to 20 or 30% of our population in the 01:45:48
morning as they're trying to get out of the city or get to work. 01:45:53
But you know but one point. 01:45:59
One $7,000,000 sounds like a lot of money, but when it comes to traffic stuff it's not. But if we but some of these other ideas 01:46:02
that we had that we've talked through. 01:46:06
They may require us to do some of these. 01:46:10
Other things you know so. 01:46:13
You know. 01:46:15
Some of the other things that we we mentioned, you know that. 01:46:16
Getting kids to school safely. 01:46:19
You know, umm. 01:46:21
You know, different things that we did, we may have to use some of those funds to get those spaces safe. 01:46:22
Wasn't there something on? 01:46:27
Like sinking those lights. 01:46:29
I know it's been brought up before, something about sinking with the jittery Joe's light to Ashford light and. 01:46:31
But I just don't know. 01:46:36
Anything about that? But I know it's. 01:46:39
Been mentioned that they were sent maybe synced at one time and maybe they're not now or I don't. 01:46:40
Yes, yes, G dot can sync the lights or time. 01:46:45
Differently expand the seconds that they stay green to keep. 01:46:48
You know, North and South main open longer. 01:46:52
They can definitely do that. 01:46:55
But we'd have to ask. 01:46:57
Probably have to request some sort of a study. 01:46:58
You know, for them to look at all those lights because they're all interconnected. But I like that idea of. 01:47:01
You know, do we want to study those 3 traffic lights and make sure they're working as efficiently together as they could? Because 01:47:05
it all does affect, they affect each other. 01:47:08
Nowhere to go that turns yellow and you get one or two clocks. Well, it's the same way at Barnett Shoals. I mean, so when people 01:47:14
have been like you shouldn't be able to turn right on red at Barnett Shoals, I'm like, well then you would sit there forever 01:47:20
because when your light is green often you can't turn. It's actually when the. 01:47:25
Right the left hand turn lane. 01:47:31
Is on. 01:47:33
That's when you actually can turn right onto mainstream from Barnet Shoals is during that. So when people don't do it, I'm like, 01:47:37
come on, this is our chance. 01:47:40
All right, other ideas? 01:47:45
Last thing I this is going back to the roundabout on Norton Road. I know, I think I saw some stuff. We were putting some. 01:47:47
Aggregate around to try to make it a little bigger. Is that? 01:47:55
We're going to do that for a little while and then we're going to pave. 01:47:59
Is that is that? 01:48:02
Somebody I say we I saw a plan that said something about putting aggregate down on. 01:48:04
Besides and then that's going to expand it maybe and then if that works, put some permanent concrete. I think that's what I saw so 01:48:11
the. 01:48:15
The roundabout will stay. 01:48:20
Small. 01:48:22
OK. 01:48:23
What's the solution there, Mark? What's the plan? 01:48:25
There'll be additional concrete paving based on meetings with the developer and the designer. 01:48:29
We're we're lifting on this on a County Road. 01:48:35
And the city limits? 01:48:39
But it is, I will say, the. 01:48:41
Miniature. 01:48:44
Traffic circle. 01:48:47
On Norton Road is still a work in progress. Is that fair? 01:48:49
All right, it definitely calms the traffic, but it doesn't calm people's temperature. I left and went that way from church the 01:48:58
other day, and I went the correct way around. The guy behind me cut to the inside. 01:49:04
I just it. 01:49:09
They didn't pass me, but he cut to the inside. I mean, it's kind of people are being silly, but I mean, I see people do that too. 01:49:11
And I'm just like, you're just. 01:49:14
You're just making a point. 01:49:17
It's not, I mean, what, two extra seconds to take a right turn and go around it? I mean, if you have a trailer, your school bus, I 01:49:18
get why you're frustrated there, but. 01:49:22
I don't know. So are we going to? 01:49:26
Talk through this and look at the agenda. The prioritize that's the next thing is then going through. So things that are already 01:49:29
on this list. 01:49:33
That we want to prioritize. We do not talk about now, we're doing that later, correct? Sharon, how do you, how are we going to 01:49:37
handle that? 01:49:40
So is. 01:49:43
A little before 11, my thought would be to. 01:49:45
Give me a minute to try to add these under the areas they should be, try to reprint the list, put them out and then give you guys 01:49:48
your priority dots. 01:49:52
And let you go and it won't be as pretty as what's out there 'cause I'm going to drop it in real, real quick. But, um. 01:49:57
Then you guys would have, I think the mayor and I agreed, you'd have two number ones, two number twos and two number threes being 01:50:02
#1 being the most important to you. 01:50:06
#2 Second. Third. 01:50:10
The umm. 01:50:12
And so the idea would be for y'all to you know this is. 01:50:14
I think you need to. 01:50:17
Think about. 01:50:18
Think about what you really want to get done, whether it can get done this next year or not. What's the most important thing to 01:50:21
you? And then and then because we, even though it may be the most important, may not be feasible for us to get it done, but there 01:50:26
may be aspects of it we can start moving forward with. Like the mayor said earlier about eating an elephant, We could some of 01:50:31
those things we may have to start doing some of, but we're not actually going to complete whatever you've asked us to do. 01:50:36
So think. Think along the lines of what's the most important thing and then list those. The one thing we do need to talk about 01:50:41
though, before we take a break. 01:50:45
Is. 01:50:50
Next July 4th is the 250th birthday of America. I can't, we can't wait till the July 1 to get money for that or to decide what 01:50:51
we're going to do. So we need to be thinking about that. I don't know on what scale you guys are thinking. 01:50:58
I don't know what the county is going to be doing, you know, do we collaborate with them etcetera. The other thing is this year is 01:51:06
our. 01:51:09
210th birthday. 01:51:13
As a city, December 6th. So if there's anything you know again. 01:51:15
If maybe we pull from some of these groups, you know, our partners and or. 01:51:19
You know, these citizens, citizen groups that were establishing, if there's something that we want to do, just I just don't want 01:51:24
to forget about that because that's going to be here. I mean, we're already fixing to turn the page into another month, so. 01:51:29
Yeah, I love our little July like the little Kitty morning parade picnic at Rocket Field. It would be very. 01:51:34
Not a heavy lift, but is. 01:51:42
And then maybe it could become the 1st annual like we started on the 250th birthday. 01:51:44
So America and then? 01:51:49
I'm sorry, I'm talking about the July 4th like that's that's on here. Yeah, but like, maybe. 01:51:51
Get the plans together and and launch it. And because this has been on our plan for yeah, years and years and years. 01:51:57
I guess I was thinking that would be done on July 4th because. 01:52:12
It. That's right, July 4th, 26 of 26. 01:52:22
So. 01:52:27
We got a budget for it now, we got a budget for it in next year. Can I make a recommendation? So Russ Tanner, I think, does 01:52:28
everybody here know Russ Tanner? He throws a humongous July 4th thing out of his farm every year. 01:52:34
Humongous. 01:52:41
I mean. 01:52:43
$100,000 worth of fireworks off. 01:52:45
Humongous. 01:52:47
It might be worth us seeing if we could. 01:52:48
And I mean food, I mean it's all and it's all on donation. I mean, he sponsors the whole thing, him in a couple, he sponsors the 01:52:51
whole thing. 01:52:55
And so you give them 20 bucks if you choose to give them 20 bucks to eat. I mean, he's got BBQ, he's got food, he's got drink. 01:52:59
It's all. 01:53:03
Done already. 01:53:07
I didn't know if that's something we, the city, might want to. 01:53:08
Partner with. 01:53:12
Somehow you know and I don't know. 01:53:13
I don't know what his cleanup looks like out there and I don't know if I don't know any of that stuff. I don't know the logistics 01:53:16
of it. 01:53:20
But if we. 01:53:23
Partner with him, maybe move it to. 01:53:24
Thomas Farms or something and then fireworks being going off over the lakes, I mean. 01:53:27
Anyway, I just a crazy idea. 01:53:31
But he is already being done and. 01:53:33
Very well organized. 01:53:36
Already. Umm. 01:53:38
And hundreds, I mean, there'll be 500 people out there. 01:53:39
Already so. 01:53:44
I love leaning into. 01:53:46
Partnering with other people. 01:53:48
That our heavy lifting isn't so much. I didn't think that. 01:53:51
The fun thing to look at? 01:53:54
Yeah, yeah. I think we'd have to just see if Russ is willing to. 01:53:56
Partner with us and then we also need to see what the county is planning. I do have a lot of interest from Mike. 01:54:00
The younger citizens and the daughters, the American Revolution, they're already starting to think about this and. 01:54:05
You know, I think it's appropriate for the county to take the lead, but. 01:54:12
You know, you know, if we need to partner up or if they don't have big plans then. 01:54:16
I believe us to do something significant to celebrate the and it doesn't, I mean, I think the the coordinating makes a lot of 01:54:21
sense. 01:54:24
Because it doesn't have to. 01:54:29
All be. Let's see, when is July 4th next year. 01:54:30
It is Saturday, yeah. 01:54:33
But why not Independence Day weekend where the, you know, we see what the county is doing and then we make our plans for a 01:54:36
different time around that and then. 01:54:40
And then we could also use it. We're all together. 01:54:45
Or altogether, although I don't want the whole county in the city, I mean like we don't have the infrastructure for. 01:54:49
Him. 01:54:55
And not the 44,000 people will come but you know, like. 01:54:57
I like the idea. 01:55:01
I always like the idea when there's like a weekend of celebration. 01:55:02
And you have a lot of things and maybe there's one or two bigger things, but then there are smaller things because then you can 01:55:07
find. 01:55:10
It doesn't feel so overwhelming and. 01:55:13
Different people can participate in different things. And then of course having my DBA hat on, I'm like OK, how can we use this to 01:55:16
help promote? 01:55:20
Our local small businesses that summer is often kind of slow. And so no, I was, I mean I know we're talking a year and a half, but 01:55:24
like you said, we got a budget for it and start thinking about it now. So I think be great. 01:55:29
And I'll, I'll try to stay in town. 01:55:35
I have a nephew getting married in Scotland in July of 2026, so that's unfortunate. 01:55:37
So for the 210th, I mean, I'm not dying to do a big celebration. We did a little bit around our 200th, but if you all want to do 01:55:44
something, that's fine. If not, I don't know. 01:55:48
Mayor, I have a suggestion. 01:55:53
Yep, why don't we use the 210th birthday? 01:55:54
Of the city in coordination with. 01:55:59
The Christmas parade and that be the theme this year. 01:56:02
Excellent. Yeah, the parades the following day. 01:56:06
Yeah, Yeah. I think that we're thinking on the same line. I mean, it's a great parade theme, you know, the history of the city. 01:56:09
Yeah. Thank you, Toby. 01:56:13
OK. 01:56:18
Sharon. 01:56:19
Got anything else we need to think about? 01:56:20
I don't think so. All we're about to have a break. So say, yeah, we'll take a break, Let's do. 01:56:23
Let's just do. 01:56:30
Let's try 15 minutes, we'll come back. Y'all can take 15 minutes to prioritize and we can get back on track at 11:30 at work. 01:56:32
We'll take 15 minutes of a break and then 15 minutes. Prioritize that what you're saying? Great, let's do it 15 minutes. 01:56:39
Are still alive. I got to get on there and turn everything off then. 01:56:46
All right. 01:56:55
Welcome back everybody. That was fun prioritizing all the. 01:56:56
Items we will share and do we need to do you want to give us kind of the overview of where the votes landed? 01:56:59
And then I'll we'll update it and send it back out. But so it looks like number ones include. 01:57:07
Under government relocate public works department facility city charter amendments. 01:57:13
Under infrastructure we have we have three votes. This is a. 01:57:20
The other ones just had one vote on it, by the way. 01:57:24
The other number I'm just going to hit number ones I guess at this point but explore and activate. 01:57:27
Adopt A transportation plan. So there's three number one votes on that. 01:57:31
We also have continued sidewalk expansion improvements. 01:57:35
We have on land use, we have actually. 01:57:39
Basically three votes for establishing a green space program because I didn't go back and try to look see where somebody comments 01:57:43
you made actually fit into an existing 1 so. 01:57:47
We had y'all had added ask voters for green space bond, but there was a established a green space program already on the list. So 01:57:52
there's three votes for that. 01:57:55
Consider historic preservation ordinance. There's two votes for that. 01:58:00
For #1. 01:58:03
And then we've got another #1 under Thomas Farm Preserve the explore how to utilize the house. 01:58:05
And that those are all the number ones. 01:58:13
I don't know, there's an easy way to go about giving you all the number twos and stuff, but the the big priorities essentially are 01:58:16
Thomas Farm Historic preservation. 01:58:20
Green space. 01:58:24
And then transportation plan, which basically would also include sidewalks. So I mean we may again, I may be able to fold that 01:58:28
under that. So we'll have some. 01:58:32
Some high priorities. 01:58:36
I think. 01:58:39
And then city charter. 01:58:40
Yeah, OK, so on twos. 01:58:43
And I'll let you know if there's more than one. Otherwise just assume there's only one vote for this so. 01:58:45
Under community engagement, we have support existing events. We have a number two there. We have two number twos on youth 01:58:51
leadership. 01:58:54
Under government we have #2 on city charter, so. 01:59:00
Another essentially never vote for that. 01:59:04
Three number twos on and on improvements to stormwater conveyance systems. So that's a obviously a high #2. 01:59:07
We also have. 01:59:15
Two votes. 01:59:16
Two votes on. 01:59:19
The Barnett Shoals Evaluating Bart Shoals Rd. 01:59:22
We have. 01:59:26
One vote on on sidewalk expansion, which also got a number got a one priority. 01:59:27
Explore relocation of City Hall. We've got a number. 01:59:32
And then? 01:59:37
The last one is exploring opportunities for active recreation in our existing parks and spaces, green spaces, so. 01:59:38
And there may be, like I said, there may be a way and we may want to. 01:59:44
I may want to send this back out. They could let. I don't know. I'm trying to figure out how because I didn't have time to try to 01:59:49
figure out where some of these fit, but I know the. 01:59:52
The green space bond fits. 01:59:56
Really well in the green space program, so that's an easy one. 01:59:58
The recreation, I mean we really don't have, I guess that's going to have to be a stand alone because we don't have any of our 02:00:03
master plans say anything about it recreation so. 02:00:07
That would be a standalone. 02:00:10
I'll go back and Add all those. 02:00:12
In a put in priority order. 02:00:14
And I'll put, I'll probably put out the notes how many number ones and twos or something just so y'all know, it might be the 02:00:16
easier way to do it because it's just kind of hard to do it this way since we don't have like something I can look at on the 02:00:20
screen. 02:00:23
To show you. 02:00:27
You want me go through the threes as well? OK, so on the threes we had, we also had a #2 on this one that's supporting the 02:00:29
existing events in the community. 02:00:33
Then we had Explore Truck Bypass had two votes as a #3. 02:00:40
Evaluate creation of makerspace in the industrial area. We had a #3. 02:00:44
We had under government operations, we had two number threes for relocate public works department. So. 02:00:50
Three people in here thought that that ought to be at least, you know, a priority. 02:00:56
One of the top three priorities. 02:01:01
City charter amendment. Same thing there were. 02:01:04
They received a 12 and a three vote so. 02:01:07
Three people or three? 02:01:11
I guess probably not the same three people could be. 02:01:13
I should have put names on these so I know who did what. 02:01:16
Had a #3 for the doctor transportation plan, so again, four votes for that. That might be the better way to do is see top. Do the 02:01:19
number of votes reach? 02:01:23
Yeah. 02:01:28
Sidewalk expansion got a #3? 02:01:30
Activate and finish Hair Shoals Park got a #3 and it's the only vote it got. And then established a green space program Got a #3. 02:01:34
And then the house at Thomas Farm got a #3. So yeah, maybe the best thing for me to do is come up with. 02:01:41
The total, however, many showed up in the top three and give you those votes and then we'll put them in order on vote. So there's 02:01:46
probably some grouping you can do there as well. Great. 02:01:51
OK. Well, Council, that was great. I am curious, those of you who put stormwater, are there any? 02:01:56
That was something that we didn't talk about much. Is there any specific areas that? 02:02:01
You feel like need to be addressed or we need to think about why we've got staff here so we can put a little finer point on that. 02:02:05
I feel like we've done a lot of work in that area. 02:02:09
But umm. 02:02:13
Is there is just? 02:02:15
Does anybody have any thoughts on stormwater since it got so many votes on where we might want to invest or what we might want to 02:02:17
do? Specific thoughts? Well, I did not put it. 02:02:21
So, but when I think about storm water, we all have our areas of town that we go in. 02:02:25
And so as I walked down Lawana to Wilson. 02:02:30
That area is. 02:02:34
Just a disaster after rain. And that's part of that's part of the area we're looking at. I mean, so some of the issues we have, we 02:02:36
have one of the areas we actually have a really bad problem is that out in the White subdivision, because it's so old, all the 02:02:41
culverts are gone. They've got just all filled in with silt. So there's, when water comes in, there's nowhere for it, you know, 02:02:46
doesn't go back into the culvert because Culver's not there anymore. 02:02:50
The one on Wilson and Jeremy and all that same thing. 02:02:55
Have to keep that out. So that's some of what you all gave us operational money for this year was to try to get in there and 02:02:58
reestablish those culverts so that water coming in the pipes can stay in the channel and get to where it needs to go. 02:03:04
Problem with those SO. 02:03:10
It continues from Lawana across Wilson. 02:03:13
Down into a. 02:03:17
Very hard. 02:03:18
Ravine off 3rd St. and it's. 02:03:20
That that's I think we're going to have to be careful about how we push water because it goes through the. 02:03:24
Backyards of the people in 3rd St. 02:03:29
And it washes out, I mean. 02:03:32
Like their backyards have sank. 02:03:34
10 to 15 feet over the last. 02:03:37
10-15 years. 02:03:39
So we got to be very careful about how we manage pushing water. 02:03:42
Across Wilson and Lawana, Well, I mean off of off of Broad. 02:03:47
Not an engineer at all, but I just know that those yards get like. 02:03:53
There's just leaves and. 02:03:59
Crush pipes and stuff, but I don't know that that affects what's happening. The third I mean. 02:04:00
I don't know. We have gotten, I think there's two pipes, 210 inch or two 12 inch pipes to go under. 02:04:07
Wilson. 02:04:15
And then directs the water. 02:04:17
Towards the backyards of these these people down 3rd St. 02:04:19
And. 02:04:24
It is very much forced water that direction. 02:04:25
I mean, it's the natural flow though. I mean, there is a natural, yeah, I mean there. 02:04:29
And and when you buy a property, you look at yet possible erosion issues and that's part of. 02:04:34
Your due diligence. So the the story is that when they built Morgan Manor, they took all the trees that were from there and piled 02:04:41
them into this ravine. 02:04:45
And as the. 02:04:49
As the trees have eroded. 02:04:50
The ravine has revealed itself again, and so now all of this is. 02:04:54
And it's, it's a bad wash if you go over there, look, I mean, it's people's backyards or. 02:04:58
10 to 15 feet different than when they bought houses. 02:05:03
Good night. Yeah, there's a lot of issues there with this. 02:05:07
There's some. It's a little bit of a. 02:05:10
But, but ultimately, we can't. 02:05:11
Take responsibility for that. 02:05:14
Private storm water conveyance on their property. 02:05:16
Yeah, for, I mean for me, it's Morrison St. I mentioned it. 02:05:19
Privately to a couple people recently. 02:05:22
What I see on Morrison St. is that. 02:05:26
That 15. 02:05:28
Going down Morrison St. at the beginning though. 02:05:30
Culvert areas have kind of grown up. 02:05:33
Not really. 02:05:35
They're not deep at all. 02:05:36
Much more, and also the grass along the edge of the street. 02:05:38
Is high, so it keeps it starts off keeping the water in the street. 02:05:41
And then it funnels down the hill. 02:05:46
And a lot of. 02:05:48
Pretty much every. 02:05:50
On the industrial side of the warehouses. 02:05:51
They're all gravel entrances, so when? 02:05:54
The rain comes down, it's washes away. 02:05:57
The gravel. My warehouse for example has kind of two entrances, lower one. 02:05:59
Heavy rains, I lose that entrance, so I can't tell you how many times I've. 02:06:05
Bought gravel to. 02:06:10
No, Philip, I mean it's literally a three foot. 02:06:12
Ditch that you can't you can't drive in there at some of it, but I got some big rock on it hopefully. But anyway, the drainage 02:06:15
ditches kind of get filled with the. 02:06:19
You know the gravel sand from? 02:06:24
Above the street, they kind of all washed down and kind of clogged the culverts and if you look at the very bottom. 02:06:26
Right below the Otters Lake. 02:06:33
It becomes a lake. 02:06:35
When it rains and cool all the sand that's blocking the culverts under the driveway. So anyway, that's that's an area that I see 02:06:36
that. 02:06:41
You know, could be looked at. 02:06:45
I know we gave some operating money for that, but have we talked to the county about partnering is would it be more efficient if 02:06:50
they came in and helped us since they do that every year around the? 02:06:54
Anyway, versus US doing it ourselves in terms of blowing out the culverts and stuff. 02:06:58
So I've talked with Mike Weathers. He gave me a contact. 02:07:03
And we're looking at. 02:07:08
To Sharon's point, we're looking at the White subdivision and then over there on. 02:07:10
Wilson and Lawana. 02:07:15
And Jeremy? 02:07:17
Looking to see what can be done there. 02:07:18
And we just got to attack this in the stages. What I will say is once we start this process. 02:07:20
I'm sure we'll get plenty of calls saying. 02:07:25
Mine, mine, mine. 02:07:28
But we're looking at the more critical ones right now that don't have. 02:07:29
Any culverts because if you go over there white subdivision. 02:07:34
You see the pipes up under. 02:07:37
Driveways and then. 02:07:39
Right after the. 02:07:41
Is basically silted all the way in grass. 02:07:43
And it's just basically. 02:07:45
An impression at best in a lot of those areas where it flows. I talked to him, though, about what when we talked to right. So when 02:07:48
I talked to Mike about them being able to partner with us, they're just so overwhelmed with their stuff. 02:07:54
That you know. 02:08:01
The times that we do, get them to help us. 02:08:02
At more critical times, like when we had them help us with the tree over there on Jackson and stuff, but. 02:08:05
They're just so overloaded. 02:08:10
With their own stuff with the county. 02:08:12
And that's why he gave me the contact for the guy that does it independently. 02:08:14
What about? 02:08:18
I mean the. 02:08:21
Ditches, massive ditches and erosion on right there. 02:08:21
At Ameripride and down through there, I mean. 02:08:26
Those those of you can see they've sank. 02:08:28
They're pretty bad. 02:08:31
Eroded down through there. Oh, that's it. That's AG dot Rd. Yeah, happens to be the city, I mean. 02:08:33
You know, I mean that that is part of that will be addressed when they eventually finish out this last section of Mars Hill or 02:08:39
experimentation. We're gonna call Highway 15, you know, but. 02:08:44
We don't have a date for that. 02:08:49
When that will happen, so I agree with that is is. 02:08:51
We're losing it. 02:08:54
Going down through that big time, but one thing would help. 02:08:56
I know so many people. 02:08:59
Get the yards taken care of if and we do have we do offer leaf and limb pickup so if. 02:09:01
Each individual would get. 02:09:09
There, whoever they have doing the yards to get the leaves up and pile them up. 02:09:10
Instead of just blowing them into the ditch because that's. 02:09:16
Where that's where it starts, that's what starts it getting stopped up. 02:09:19
None of it gets hauled off, it just gets piled in there. 02:09:24
So. 02:09:28
Yeah, that is actually I wonder when we look at our policy, I think it's more of a policy than an ordinance on leaf and limb that 02:09:32
if. 02:09:35
If you have a landscaper or a yard guy who does the work that technically it's not supposed to get picked up. 02:09:39
But I wonder if. 02:09:44
As long as it's not like a big commercial job like. 02:09:46
We had somebody take out. 02:09:49
2 trees that were not responsible for that, but if it's normal. 02:09:51
Like yard clean. 02:09:56
Why does it matter if it is? 02:09:58
You know. 02:10:00
Jimmy down the street, your pain or? 02:10:02
You're doing it. 02:10:04
So what I'll say is typically curbside the only time they push back. 02:10:06
Is when it's a contractor that's removing a tree and Vanessa. 02:10:10
The leaves, I never hear Jennifer say, oh, they had a contractor pile the leaves up and so. 02:10:13
You know they should be taking care of it is more the tree removal and limbs. 02:10:19
That a contractor does that, they're responsible for getting it up then but. 02:10:24
She's never, they've never pushed back on leaves. 02:10:27
We might want to look at that policy then because it is a little bit of a pain, you know, if you have. 02:10:31
Somebody helping you and you're like, well. 02:10:35
You know by the letter of the law, you know they. 02:10:38
They can't leave a pile of sticks. 02:10:41
Out there, you know, if it's not you or someone in your family. 02:10:43
So they're, you know. 02:10:47
Only thing they're really specific about is like I mean cuz I I have cut neighbors trees down for them is root balls you can't 02:10:48
have anything. 02:10:53
I mean, even like bushes, you can't pull a Bush out and they will not take a Bush that's got a root ball on it. Oh yeah, yeah, 02:10:57
they shouldn't. I mean, they'll tear it up. 02:11:01
OK, all I'll say is the Chuck's point. 02:11:08
So a lot of people, you know. 02:11:10
Take care of their properties and stuff where we see the abundance of leaves that get inside of the culverts and inside of the 02:11:12
ditches. 02:11:16
Are the rental properties. 02:11:19
One other thing that came up while we were talking, I don't think it's a strategic priority sharing, but I think it's a good flag 02:11:25
and you and I've been dealing with it for. 02:11:28
A year or two and we probably need to just get it done. This year's do something with Business Blvd. 02:11:31
It looks terrible. 02:11:36
Off Morrison, Figure out who's. 02:11:37
Who owns the right of way? Who's the fallen trees? You know, all that kind of stuff. 02:11:41
We just need to push that to a conclusion because it's. 02:11:46
You know, umm. 02:11:49
Just looks awful. 02:11:49
Anything else we want to share? Because if not, we're. 02:11:54
Tweak our agenda here. 02:11:56
We're going to do the tour of the Police Department training room next. Then we'll eat lunch. That'll allow us to do the hearing 02:11:58
loop training as soon as. 02:12:02
Mr. Stiles here, and then we'll be able to wrap up early. 02:12:06
So that sounds good, everybody. Yeah. 02:12:09
Anything else anybody wants to offer while we're on the strategic stuff? 02:12:12
I just have a question with the process. 02:12:16
So for the things we talked about, but they didn't get any votes. 02:12:19
Do those still live somewhere or do you just take them off the list or what's the plan with that? Yeah, now there's still, I mean 02:12:22
all the rest of these things are going to stay on their special, the ones that are on our work, our short term work program. 02:12:28
I forgot. I just need to think through what the best way to do because once once I line these up, I've got to reorganize. I'm 02:12:39
going to reorganize them like I did last time I put number one, party number two, number three or something. So I've got to resort 02:12:44
that and I can't do that in my head right now, but but that I'll. 02:12:48
I'll do that on paper and then send it to y'all and then that'll be sort of the basis for the, when we go into budget for y'all to 02:12:54
keep that in mind. Those are the things you want us to focus on and those are things we'll try to budget around whether it's. 02:13:00
General fund dollars, philosophies lost, you know, whatever. 02:13:06
Capital funds so. 02:13:10
Yeah. So for now, everything will stay on the list though that we talked about today. Yeah, we'll just, we'll just leave it on. 02:13:13
And yeah, once we send it back out if y'all, you know, there were some things I think we mentioned. 02:13:18
There was. 02:13:24
Now that I've added all this stuff, I've changed my. 02:13:27
Sheet around umm. 02:13:29
The streetlight policy, I mean, that's something. 02:13:31
You know, I don't know, that's a big ticket, big thing, but it's on the list and I know it's important for y'all. We basically 02:13:33
have one that's operating. I just don't have it written down how we're handling that when somebody wants to, you know, street 02:13:37
light or whatever. 02:13:41
And you all said there seemed to be some. 02:13:47
Grouping of people wanting to do something about the charter, so that's going to stay on. 02:13:50
I'll go back through it if something comes up, I'll ask you and the e-mail to give me some direction at the next council meeting 02:13:54
or something about it. But so would it make sense to have under government operations like an ongoing that has to do with tweaking 02:14:00
ordinances in general and just like you have then the notes, like the specific ones? 02:14:06
But. 02:14:13
Because I feel like we're all, that's always something we need to be thinking about. They're always ordinances. 02:14:15
That we want to make our government more efficient. We want to make it. 02:14:19
Not always just sufficient, but what people want or need as times change. And so I feel like that almost should always be. 02:14:23
A priority, but then what? They are making changes? 02:14:30
Well, I mean, I think. 02:14:33
In in my mind anyway, I don't know if my staff feels there, but in my mind that's. 02:14:35
Just an understood party. I mean, if something, you know, at any point there need we need to do you know, I don't know that having 02:14:39
something written on there says update ordinance or I mean, well, I guess I'm just thinking because you have like the streetlight 02:14:43
ordinance as a specific thing, the streetlights not an ordinance. It would just be a policy. Just how do we handle that when 02:14:48
people call in because. 02:14:52
Every Tom, **** and Harry may call me, I want a little light here. Well, how we're going to handle that, you know, and so I've got 02:14:57
to think through. 02:15:00
You know, have we have any complaints? You know, how do I, yeah, collect that and make that data-driven instead of just. 02:15:03
A call in kind of. So I just need to think about that a little bit. 02:15:09
So it'll stay on the list, but. 02:15:12
Buffalo get done this year so. 02:15:14
You would look at that as a street by St. Once you start a street then you might probably be committed. 02:15:16
And have so many feet. 02:15:22
You know, I think that's not the decorative ones, Chuck. She's talking about the big ones up on the poles. We Yeah, that's what I 02:15:25
was talking about too. I mean, you know, if you. 02:15:29
Just I was asked the street she. 02:15:34
Below Trove. 02:15:39
They had asked, they had said it was real dark down in near the end, close to Colin Ferry Morrison. Morrison. 02:15:41
Robert had asked me about. 02:15:48
You know, I said. Well, call in and and see. 02:15:50
I didn't talk to Robert about that one too. And that is tricky because they're in the polls where Robert wants a poll, right? But 02:15:53
once you start. 02:15:56
That's what we just need to. I just haven't had time to do it. So sorry now to have opened up this rabbit trail. But why is it 02:16:30
vehicle? I mean vehicles have headlights people don't like. Why would it streetlights not be for pedestrians? 02:16:36
Well, the street lights are for this. 02:16:44
Straight not I know, but if we don't have sidewalk, I mean like like. 02:16:46
For much of our inner. 02:16:51
Where even if you have sidewalks. 02:16:53
But actually it's irrelevant. I mean, we, we want people to walk in our city. That is a major plan. So people are either walking 02:16:55
on sidewalks next to our streets or they're walking on the streets with no sidewalks. 02:17:01
And so I. 02:17:06
And there. 02:17:08
To me, I always thought it was about people say like just the safety of our community to have that light. But I mean, I think it's 02:17:09
used that way. But I mean, technically it's it's for vehicle traffic for, you know. 02:17:15
I mean, that's how I that's. 02:17:21
How I've grown up in government understanding it. I mean you have St. lamps for pedestrian. 02:17:22
I mean, people do take it. You do get a, you get the side benefit of the fact that people can use those lights for seeing if 02:17:27
they're walking on the street or whatever, or maybe next to a sidewalk that happens to have a street light. But the street 02:17:31
lighting is for vehicles. That's the difference between. 02:17:36
Pole lights and. 02:17:42
St. lamps. I thought that had to do with money and look. 02:17:43
That's two different you look at Georgia Power or any any power company, that's the difference one once for. 02:17:49
Road lighting and the other is for pedestrian lighting. 02:17:54
Send Christine for clarity, your street light. 02:17:58
Has a larger broadcast and not as defined. 02:18:01
And it's more about bringing attention to the roadway that you're traveling. 02:18:04
Of things that may enter the roadway. 02:18:09
And that's why I typically you see streetlights on. 02:18:11
Sections. 02:18:14
Where traffic is heavy. 02:18:15
And it brings caution to that area. 02:18:17
Were cars being parked on the side of the road or something entering the roadway? And that's why they're stationed up higher and 02:18:20
they have a larger broadcast out into the street to light the street. So in a sense you are protecting pedestrians because you 02:18:25
don't want cars to hit them because they cannot see them. 02:18:31
OK. 02:18:37
And that's why we added the ones on the Wanna too, because it was, it was also, it was street, but it was also going to have a 02:18:39
benefit of anybody walking in the area where there are no sidewalks, so. 02:18:43
All right, we ready for ready to head on over to the other side of the wall, Chief. 02:18:51
OK, all right, remember mics are still alive till I get. 02:18:56
Stop. 02:18:59
First, your scholar and gentlemen. Yeah, yeah. 02:19:14
We weren't. 02:19:23
Yeah, that's what we were just talking about, yeah. 02:19:28
Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. Let me just check it myself. 02:19:35
Testing 121212. 02:19:39
Sweet. 02:19:44
Don't tase me bro. 02:19:46
All right. So we've, I think we're back public here as we discussed potential Tasing candidates. 02:19:48
Welcome back to the hundreds of people who are observing. 02:19:54
To the Watkinsville Mayor and Council retreat, our final item on the agenda I think today. 02:19:58
Is hearing loop training. It looks like James Stole still well, Still well. 02:20:03
Thank you. Welcome. Glad you're here. Tell us. 02:20:08
What we need to know? 02:20:11
Well, I. 02:20:13
These are my hearing aids. 02:20:18
And I'm not going to put them in because I don't want to hear myself talk. 02:20:19
OK, but your loops working really really well. 02:20:23
Even where these chairs says it's not working. 02:20:26
Like, oh, there we go. Thank you. 02:20:28
Check, check, check. All right. 02:20:31
Hey my name is James Stowell and I am the owner. 02:20:33
And CEO of a company called. 02:20:36
American Hearing loop. 02:20:39
Been around 15 years. 02:20:40
Got loops from here. Well, let's see. 02:20:42
Not much West, but we did all of Broadway, all the museums in Washington DC. 02:20:45
Virginia Beach. Norfolk, VA. 02:20:50
Richmond, VA. All their big theaters and auditoriums we've done all of Duke and Chapel Hill, all their. 02:20:53
Examination rooms and. 02:20:58
Where did you leave here? That's right. OK. 02:21:00
Hey you guys are on Google. I saw it. 02:21:04
Gotta go loop in the council room right here. 02:21:06
And, umm. 02:21:09
It was an interesting process to put the loop in here, but how many of you knew about a hearing loop before you walked into this 02:21:10
room? 02:21:14
Saw this sign or did you even notice the sign coming in the room? 02:21:17
Yeah, that's the international sign. 02:21:23
Where here you live? 02:21:27
And if you're hearing impaired? 02:21:29
Then you know what that is. 02:21:32
Because it says right here. See that? 02:21:33
Switch your hearing aid to T coil mode. 02:21:35
And I'm already doing the worst thing I can do this microphone etiquette. 02:21:38
Move the microphone. 02:21:42
So if you're hearing impaired, you can raise your hand and say put the microphone back up to your mouth again. 02:21:43
So here another word for hearing loop is audio. 02:21:48
Frequency induction. 02:21:51
Listening system. 02:21:54
It's a tongue twister. 02:21:57
So everybody got tired of saying that. 02:21:58
Saying hearing loop. 02:22:00
Which is much easier. 02:22:01
And uh. 02:22:03
He basically is. 02:22:04
Old technology. 02:22:07
But its job is to take. 02:22:08
Speech between 100 Hertz and 5000. 02:22:12
And that's important, and I'll tell you why in a minute. 02:22:15
Take it into this digital microphone. 02:22:18
And there's a box in there that converts it. 02:22:23
Into old analog, so we're going from. 02:22:26
Digital. 02:22:29
Back in time again. 02:22:29
And it takes it. 02:22:31
And puts it into this wire. 02:22:33
It's right here. 02:22:35
The one right there. 02:22:37
There's some back there. 02:22:38
And it induces a. 02:22:40
Magnetic signal. 02:22:42
Closest thing I can tell you that it's coming out of there is. 02:22:44
Does everybody here have magnets on the refrigerator? 02:22:47
Yeah, we all do, don't we? OK, so take one of those magnets. 02:22:50
And try to hold it. Get it as close as you can to that refrigerator and hold it off. Don't let it touch. 02:22:53
What happens? 02:22:59
It wants to you just start shaking. 02:23:01
It's got to get on the refrigerators, got to get on that steel. 02:23:03
That's called induction. 02:23:07
That's not James Bond. Don't mix it up with seduction. 02:23:10
This is induction OK. 02:23:13
You're inducing a current into that refrigerator. 02:23:15
And what's happening, if you could see it? 02:23:18
If we all see it. 02:23:20
And we have instruments. 02:23:22
We can see this floor, not right now with a naked eye, but. 02:23:23
We could see it with our instruments, which are out in our truck. 02:23:26
We can see the electrons when they get close to that refrigerator. 02:23:29
They go from this and all your right hand. 02:23:33
They go from this curling motion. 02:23:37
To this. 02:23:39
So in this room. 02:23:42
This wire. 02:23:44
Is seeing that wire. 02:23:46
Seeing that next wire? 02:23:47
And once they see each other. 02:23:49
They're like best friends. 02:23:52
They're the straightest lines in the world. 02:23:54
And then all we do is add a little bit of voltage. 02:23:56
About. 02:24:00
A AA battery. 02:24:01
OK, what Appalachian did the Michigan State and the AA one time when they beat him? You guys probably didn't follow that, did you? 02:24:03
I followed it all the way to the very end of that game. 02:24:08
When the guy. 02:24:12
Narrating that games, it's just hard. 02:24:14
Can be and they got tired. 02:24:18
What in closing, they just smack them right off the field, so. 02:24:20
When those water see each other, we induce a current. 02:24:24
It brings it up and in this room is 6 1/2. 02:24:28
Almost 7 feet right here. 02:24:31
Now. 02:24:33
It also spills over. 02:24:34
This is in the loop. 02:24:36
This is out of loop. 02:24:40
And as you get further from the loop, it dims down, it starts to go down, the signal goes down and down and down. 02:24:41
And when you're talking in these microphones? 02:24:47
It's in the loop. 02:24:50
It's not here. 02:24:51
But you can hear it here, but not much. 02:24:53
So. 02:24:56
In the loop. 02:24:57
Out of the loop, so if you have a speaker out here like me with a microphone. 02:24:58
And uh. 02:25:02
These microphones are really good. You can actually I could. 02:25:03
Go outside in the parking lot and still talk to you. 02:25:06
That's how good they are. 02:25:08
And. 02:25:10
It puts that signal into here. 02:25:11
Old oxygen. 02:25:13
Now, is anybody here wearing hearing aids? 02:25:15
Besides me. 02:25:18
We're breaking. We're breaking the rule here. 02:25:20
It's one in three. 02:25:22
One in three people. 02:25:24
Our hearing impaired. 02:25:26
Now think about that. There's 335 million people in the United States. 02:25:28
In one and three. 02:25:32
It's a big number. 02:25:35
What do you think the CDC thinks about that? 02:25:37
That place in Atlanta? 02:25:39
Center for Disease Control. 02:25:41
Well then, classified hearing impairment as a chronic disease. 02:25:44
Yeah. 02:25:49
The biggest issue is why does the insurance pay? 02:25:52
For hearing aids for chronic disease. 02:25:54
Well, I guarantee you representatives in this. 02:25:57
State, our state, North Carolina, Virginia, working hard on that to change that. 02:26:01
Right there. 02:26:05
But it's a disease, a chronic disease is a disease that you get. 02:26:06
That gets worse. 02:26:10
And the only way it goes away is when you die. 02:26:11
How many people in here know somebody who's hearing impaired? 02:26:15
Now we know what's coming up on TV, right? It's called March Madness. 02:26:19
Right. Yeah. 02:26:23
I got 5 uncles. 02:26:24
What do they do when they sit in front of a TV and they're all shot Gunners? They're all. 02:26:26
Shotgun bird hunters. 02:26:30
Turn it up. Turn up. 02:26:32
Supper ties it'll go. 02:26:35
That's what I hear from them. 02:26:38
Yeah, they're all hearing impaired. They don't believe it. 02:26:40
But we do. 02:26:43
And that's when you hear it the most is around the holidays. 02:26:45
And the other thing that happens is that. 02:26:48
How do you know somebody's hearing impaired? 02:26:52
What's the first thing that gives them away? 02:26:54
What's that? What what you say? 02:26:55
Yeah, you got it right there. You'll see it all the time, especially here. Here's what I see it the most. 02:27:00
And I don't spend my life in a hospital, but the outpatient clinics in the hospital. 02:27:06
When the people lean over and go. 02:27:10
I'm trying, I'm trying to help. 02:27:12
Trying to help the lady sitting there is leaning way back going. 02:27:14
I hear you. 02:27:18
So those are our biggest customers. We those little inpatient, outpatient things that we put. 02:27:19
Pairing lips, each one of them. 02:27:24
So that both people the employee. 02:27:25
Who could be here impaired? 02:27:28
And the patient who's here impaired, we do it at banks, we do it at. 02:27:29
All the ticket offices is the ball game. 02:27:34
You know, at the at the. 02:27:36
Football stadiums. 02:27:38
But that's how you tell you hear somebody because they can't hear themselves talking. 02:27:40
So that. 02:27:46
When you wear a hearing aid. 02:27:47
You've lost over 80% of your hearing. 02:27:49
Go ahead everybody. Just. 02:27:52
Take your two fingers. 02:27:54
Put them in years. 02:27:57
OK, there you go. There you go. 02:27:59
Now you're experiencing. 02:28:01
My, I'll go ahead and take them out. 02:28:03
That's mild hearing loss. That's what somebody with mild hearing losses. 02:28:05
And it comes from children just being born or babies being born. 02:28:09
All the way to what day does it happen? 02:28:12
I'm working with that the school district. 02:28:16
Up in North Carolina, Rowan County. 02:28:18
And they have. 02:28:21
Teacher just a star Super teacher 24 years old. 02:28:22
She's a superstar of the school. 02:28:26
Everybody loves her, she loves everybody. 02:28:28
Week of December, she got up in the morning. 02:28:31
What's going on? 02:28:36
And it went just like this. 02:28:39
Downhill. Her hearing. 02:28:41
Until when I was there last week. It's almost gone. 02:28:43
24 years old. She has to get cochlear implants. Do you know what those are? CIS? 02:28:46
Yeah, that's that's those are miracles. 02:28:51
They they put a piece of foil. 02:28:54
Down inside in the new. 02:28:57
Your audio network of your brain. 02:29:00
It's it's that whole network, it's like this and your brain sits in it. 02:29:02
And it picks up the sound from that. 02:29:07
And then it has a magnet in your head. 02:29:10
And the hearing aid which hangs on your ear like a regular hearing aid. 02:29:13
It's plugged into that and you probably see those magnets on peoples heads right there. 02:29:16
When you get to that point, that's profound hearing loss, so you've lost almost everything. 02:29:20
So 100 Hertz to 5000. 02:29:26
Is what this loop is built for. 02:29:28
So that will work in your hearing aids. 02:29:31
We build these to the same specifications that the ADA requires. 02:29:33
And the federal government requires. 02:29:37
The hearing aid manufacturers to build their hearing aids. 02:29:39
We have the same. 02:29:42
Specs. Same specs. 02:29:44
And in North Carolina is the Fire Marshall. 02:29:47
South Carolina is the Department of Health. 02:29:50
Environmental Science. 02:29:53
And I forget who it is in Georgia. Who doesn't expect that you have? 02:29:55
I met with him at a meeting in Marietta. But then you have a group of inspectors. 02:30:01
Who abide by the ADA? Make sure everybody abiding by the ADA. 02:30:05
You know, putting in wheelchair ramps and things like that. 02:30:09
That's your protection. 02:30:12
That you'll be able to hear. 02:30:14
If you're not wearing hearing aids now. 02:30:17
You might be very soon, you never know. It could be overnight like that gal. 02:30:19
Another gal that we did was the the head of the HR department for the hospital system in Greenville. 02:30:23
And everybody had to get a flu shot in the hospital. 02:30:29
Or you're fired. 02:30:33
That's a pretty big deal. 02:30:35
You can fire everybody at the hospital 'cause they don't get a flu shot. What if they don't want it? 02:30:38
Well, she started the pioneering. The way she goes, I'll go first. 02:30:42
She got her flu shot and everything was great. 02:30:47
Next day we get a call. 02:30:50
She lost her hearing. 02:30:53
24 hours. 02:30:54
She was head HR for all the hospital systems. 02:30:56
Now her office is completely looped. 02:30:59
She couldn't hear a thing in that office if he didn't have a hearing loop and her hearing aids. 02:31:02
So, so it can happen to anytime, to anyone. We know people, so we have to learn to talk to people. 02:31:06
We have to look when you speak into your microphones. 02:31:12
These microphones all have different designs, not the these are the two of the same. All these are the same but this ones 02:31:15
different. 02:31:18
I have to talk here. 02:31:22
Three fingers, elbow in tight. 02:31:23
If I. 02:31:26
So if you're hearing impaired, you can raise your hand. 02:31:29
Call it here. Report microphone etiquette, please. Straighten up, fly right. Get that microphone back up there. 02:31:32
A lot of places need. 02:31:41
Hearing loops. 02:31:43
And the word of mouth, of hearing moves. 02:31:44
When you meet those people with these family, what we got March Madness coming up, but we got the 4th of July coming up, but it's 02:31:47
outside. 02:31:50
But then you got Thanksgiving and Christmas. 02:31:53
And what's going to happen there? 02:31:55
If I told you how many? 02:31:59
Family reunion tables with loop. 02:32:00
You wouldn't even believe it. 02:32:03
Because. 02:32:04
And it's a family reunion. 02:32:06
And if you're hearing impaired? 02:32:07
It's nothing but a noise gathering center. 02:32:09
But if you have a loop. 02:32:12
And some microphones. And, you know, the kids, grandkids really know what those might. They know what microphones are. 02:32:14
Just don't give them one. Just let them hold it for them. If you give them one, you're in trouble. 02:32:19
They I've seen it in the church they had. 02:32:24
In the church they had them. 02:32:27
Grandparents Day. 02:32:29
Pick up all your grandkids. Bring them to the church. 02:32:31
And they have the. 02:32:34
The master of the. 02:32:36
Pastor who's taking care of all the kids? 02:32:42
And he made the mistake. 02:32:45
You got all the kids up there and the grandparents are in the loop. They're in the back. They never heard the grandkids. 02:32:47
I mean, all they hear is. 02:32:53
You know a little girl yells at 8000 Hertz. 02:32:55
I hear he only works at 5000. 02:32:58
You don't hear it. 02:33:00
You'll hear him scream. 02:33:02
They'll be screaming all day. You'll never find them. 02:33:03
So. 02:33:06
Put all these kids up there and they were asking questions about what they learned and on. 02:33:08
Sunday, that little. 02:33:12
Religious class in the. 02:33:15
He made the mistake. 02:33:17
Given the microphone to a little girl. 02:33:18
He said. What's your favorite thing? She said. Well, let me tell you what my mom and dad do. 02:33:21
And again, I said you can give that microphone back, but she got up and walked off down and proceeded to tell everybody too much 02:33:26
information. 02:33:30
About what her parents did. 02:33:33
Oh, I see these. 02:33:37
Is there a weak signal right here? 02:33:41
That that's what we've been told. That's it. That's what we're going to have you check today. 02:33:43
There there's a thing about a hearing. 02:33:47
And it's pure physics. 02:33:51
I use the right hand rule because that's the first thing we learned in physics class. 02:33:53
Is that the energy is coming out of my thumb? 02:33:56
And then the radiation. 02:34:00
For the energy. 02:34:02
Curly, it's called the right hand rule. There's not a left hand rule. It didn't count. 02:34:03
It's only the right. 02:34:07
So this wire right here. 02:34:09
Has energy coming this way? 02:34:11
It's rolling this way. 02:34:13
And it has to intercept. 02:34:15
The Wire over here. 02:34:17
This way. 02:34:19
If you're right over top of the wire. 02:34:22
When I say right over top of the fire, no matter what the size. 02:34:26
That's called the null NUL. 02:34:29
So if you stand over. 02:34:31
And you can get your hearing aids just about perfect. 02:34:33
You'll hear. 02:34:36
It dies down. 02:34:38
All you have to do is move over a little bit and get the sweet spot. 02:34:40
If you sit right over it. 02:34:43
And I can sure I'll find it. 02:34:45
We'll bring instruments as if you sit right over it. 02:34:46
With your ear right over the wire. 02:34:50
Not going to happen, It's just physics. 02:34:53
If somebody sits here and says to you. 02:34:56
Gosh, I can't hear sitting here. 02:34:58
But he steers me just fine, right? 02:35:00
Yeah, yeah. 02:35:02
Yeah, well, scoot your chair up a little bit. 02:35:03
That's all you're gonna do. 02:35:06
And it's not against the well. 02:35:07
So if you go there. 02:35:09
Now your head against the wall so where I can hear it, you're right, you're not going to be able to hear it. 02:35:10
So you it's it's a two way St. you got to find a sweet spot. 02:35:16
And. 02:35:20
You got to tell somebody if you're not getting it, but it does work, works well, and I just listen to it. 02:35:21
So I'm going to open this up to question and you can ask anything if. 02:35:26
You know, I I can do it technically or I can try to do it in layman's language. 02:35:31
I like the technical answers better. Are we Speaking of these microphones? 02:35:36
How close is it in the same three finger? Ideally it's not. 02:35:41
OK, it said. It has to be played at the level of your mouth. 02:35:44
So that's tilted right there is perfectly nice. Go ahead and. 02:35:47
You tell me, go ahead and just speak normally. 02:35:50
Hi there, Can you hear me good? 02:35:52
See that you see where yours is up on your forehead. 02:35:55
So you watch. 02:35:58
OK, talk like this. Perfect. 02:35:59
Bend it down so you don't have to have the floor because these are really good mics. These are 12 inches. 02:36:02
Right here, but right at your mouth. Point at your mouth and don't lean into it because it'll get loud and it will distort. 02:36:08
You don't want to do that. 02:36:17
Here for me, this one right here, it's like this. 02:36:18
So good question. 02:36:22
That's really good to know. It's OK because if you have a lot of hearing impaired people in here and they talk to me, they be 02:36:26
raising their hands on you. Hey, fix that microphone. 02:36:30
I mean, you wanted to say, come on, yeah, I'll fix mine. Can you hear better now? 02:36:34
James, question for you. There are 159 counties in Georgia, 500 plus municipalities. 02:36:40
Do you know statistically how many of those counties, how many municipalities have an installed functional hearing? I do them, I 02:36:46
know that has answered that question one. 02:36:51
One, most lawyers don't ask questions that they don't know the answers to. 02:36:57
This one right here. 02:37:03
We tried real hard and some people are still trying very hard, but. 02:37:04
Here's the problem. 02:37:08
How many people here here in Paris? 02:37:10
Model Yeah, just hanging around here so I have no hearing in my left ear. 02:37:15
Profoundly on my right ear. 02:37:20
That's why I have those hearing aids over there. 02:37:21
Here's the problem hard enough to crack. It's a law, by the way. 02:37:24
ADA. And who manages the ADA? Do you remember who manages them? Who's your boss? 02:37:29
The Department of Justice. 02:37:34
They're busy these days, aren't they? 02:37:36
And they can. And they're going to get busy on this kind of thing soon enough. Right now, they're just finishing up the wheelchair 02:37:39
ramps. 02:37:41
And you get a city like Charleston who hasn't put one in yet. 02:37:44
They call it the Holy City, but they won't put a wheelchair ramping for anybody. 02:37:48
So the Department of Justice and ADA, there's a law was passed in 2010. 02:37:52
One in active in 2012 and says where there are two or more people. 02:37:56
I count more than two here. 02:38:02
Gathered in a public place. 02:38:04
That has. 02:38:07
A microphone PE system. 02:38:08
You must have assisted listening. 02:38:10
Those municipalities are breaking the law. 02:38:12
But they're not the only ones. 02:38:15
Did any of the federal conference buildings? 02:38:17
In downtown Atlanta. 02:38:20
They got nothing. 02:38:21
And it says in their building code they have to have it. 02:38:23
But they're not doing it. 02:38:26
So who's the victims here? 02:38:28
Here we are. We've got. 02:38:30
One in three. 02:38:31
60 something million. 02:38:33
Folks who are hearing impaired, and by the way, don't let anybody fool you if you say I'm not hearing impaired. I just have 02:38:34
ringing in my ears. 02:38:38
You got a problem. 02:38:43
That ring, it didn't come from nowhere. 02:38:44
It comes from a disease. 02:38:46
OK, so how do we as a group get going? 02:38:48
You know, there's a there's like Salt Lake City. 02:38:53
Their City Council decreed. 02:38:55
Here loops on every new renovation, every new. 02:38:58
Public floor, The City of Marietta. 02:39:02
Same thing. 02:39:05
They've got loops everywhere, you know, life and university everywhere. Their loops. 02:39:06
It's where do we start? 02:39:10
I thought maybe. 02:39:13
Working with the governor would help, but. 02:39:14
Try to get in to see. 02:39:16
Well, back then it was it was, it was a he Brian Camp. 02:39:18
Try to get in and see him. It couldn't make any headway at all. 02:39:21
None. 02:39:24
He's not hearing impaired. He doesn't know anybody. 02:39:25
Why we care? 02:39:28
He's not wheelchair bound, why would he care about that? 02:39:30
Why? 02:39:33
How much does it cost to install a system? 02:39:35
To install the system. Well this system here. 02:39:39
I'm going to say the average system, I can't. This one doesn't count because this, you know, this municipality discounts things 02:39:45
like that. 02:39:48
Our average system is between 12 and $20,000. 02:39:52
Per room. Wow. 02:39:55
OK, none, five year warranty. 02:39:57
It works. 02:39:59
Satisfies. Legally, it satisfies the requirement. 02:40:01
And it's a capital investment. 02:40:05
You know, you put the money out there. 02:40:08
And you get what you pay for. 02:40:10
So that's that's about right, but I've done some that are. 02:40:12
Like let's say 5 theaters. 02:40:15
On Broadway was 200,000. 02:40:18
Michigan State Basketball Arena. 02:40:23
186,000. 02:40:26
I'm trying to think of something the Peace Center in Greenville. 02:40:30
Seats 3700. 02:40:33
And that. 02:40:34
Fleming Arts Center. 02:40:36
Another 180,000. 02:40:38
It's got 18 loops and. 02:40:39
25,000 feet of wire. 02:40:41
And it works wonderful. Have my favorite seats in there. 02:40:44
So. 02:40:50
Good question. 02:40:51
Every place is different. 02:40:52
Like before the loop went in here. 02:40:54
We tested it over and over. 02:40:56
Several hours, over and over. 02:40:58
And. 02:41:00
You look at the budget and you say, Gee, what can I get by with? OK, so this loop is made just like it is in a church. 02:41:01
It's made for you to do exactly what your mother told you to do. 02:41:08
Sit the back straight and sit up. 02:41:12
Don't fall asleep at the table. Don't put your elbows on the table. 02:41:14
This is how it's built. 02:41:18
Why is it built like this? 02:41:19
Because the. 02:41:21
It's inside that hearing aid. 02:41:23
Is built perpendicular to the loop. 02:41:24
OK, so here it is. 02:41:28
Walk my head. 02:41:31
I go horizontal with the loop, everything. 02:41:34
All bets are off. 02:41:35
It's got to be perpendicular like. 02:41:37
What John's holding there, so he's holding it up right like that. It's got to be like that. Put it in your shirt pocket. Do 02:41:40
anything you want, but keep it upright. 02:41:43
This is called a single. 02:41:47
Array loop. 02:41:49
We do. 02:41:50
I just finished a NBA basketball court. 02:41:52
In Richmond, VA. 02:41:56
For special needs school. 02:41:58
Got a huge gymnasium? 02:41:59
And they want their young athletes to be able to hear with their hearing aids. 02:42:01
While they're tumbling, jumping and playing ball. 02:42:06
So we put in a phase array. 02:42:08
So we have this loop that's here. 02:42:11
Why are there? Why are there? 02:42:13
Every four feet we put a wire. 02:42:15
In the concrete. 02:42:18
So anywhere you go. 02:42:21
Including all the way under the bleachers. 02:42:23
In that basketball arena. 02:42:25
If you're hearing impaired, you can hear everything going on. 02:42:28
Even if there's not microphones, they've got to be microphones. Got to have a source. I'm sorry I didn't explain it. Source. 02:42:30
Goes to hearing loop driver in the closet. 02:42:38
To the wire. 02:42:40
OK, three things you got to have and they can be. 02:42:41
You got to go test it. 02:42:45
Now when we get a new construction like. 02:42:47
That one in Richmond, they, you know, two years ago they sent us the drawings. 02:42:49
It's just here's what we're planning. 02:42:53
We want the gymnasium and here's what we want in it. Here's what we want to have happen. Can you do it? 02:42:56
Answers. Yeah. 02:43:00
So now I've done probably. 02:43:02
2000 basketball NBA basketball courts. 02:43:03
In the concrete. 02:43:07
Then they lay the wooden frame, and then they lay the rubber, and then they lay that nice wood. 02:43:08
There are a lot of churches that have huge gymnasiums like that that we've done. 02:43:13
In Atlanta. 02:43:16
Probably, I would say. 02:43:17
I did 4IN Atlanta right now. 02:43:20
And they have these schools. 02:43:23
Religious schools. The Episcopal Church. 02:43:27
Christchurch, they have huge gyms. 02:43:29
So we're able to do that. 02:43:31
You know, I think. 02:43:34
Toby, did you have a question? 02:43:35
Yeah, barring an outside source like. 02:43:36
Cutting the line or severing a line was the longevity of. 02:43:40
The system that you've seen. 02:43:43
You know, I know you weren't here for five years. 02:43:45
Yeah. The question is, oh, you guys aren't in the loop. But anyway, the question is, is how does the longevity play out based on 02:43:48
the equipment? 02:43:52
So, umm. 02:43:56
A wire. 02:43:57
That's in the floor, undisturbed, like under this carpet. It's a flat wire. 02:43:58
It'll probably outlast you. 02:44:03
And everybody in this room. 02:44:05
If we put it in concrete, it has 100 year warranty on it. 02:44:07
So he's going to outlive me. I'm not going to be 100 so. 02:44:10
The drivers. 02:44:14
Or normally five years. 02:44:15
And the new drivers seem to barely make it 5 years. The old ones, the old big heavy duty opera style seemed to last. I probably 02:44:20
have 100. 02:44:25
Those old opera style drivers that I put in and. 02:44:30
2010. 02:44:33
And they're still working. 02:44:35
I sure wish they'd break. 02:44:38
I'm a business guy. I don't want to break. 02:44:41
You know what they pay for those drivers 15 years ago? 02:44:44
There's probably more than what they cost today because, you know, this is this kind of electronics has gone down in price, not 02:44:48
up. 02:44:51
You know, because they got smarter. The new ones look like an iPhone on the front. 02:44:56
The old ones you had to have a little screwdriver. 02:45:00
And you had to have up two or three meters going on and you had the tunnels and lights just right and get them just right. 02:45:02
So it's the box that breaks, not the wires. 02:45:10
What? The wires, they break when people remodel. OK, but because I was like, wow, that'd be really expensive to have to replace 02:45:14
all the wires every five years is. Yeah, if you decide to replace this carpet every five years, you need to think about putting it 02:45:18
down in the concrete. 02:45:22
We do a lot of retirement homes. 02:45:28
And they do replace their carpet every five years. 02:45:30
And so when they're replacing carpets, we're we're cutting concrete, they started out like this. 02:45:34
But now they want it in the concrete. They want that 100 year warranty. 02:45:39
So. 02:45:43
And but boy, I'll tell you what, a carpet cutter with that knife. 02:45:44
They are so good, it'll cut this wire so fast you wouldn't believe it. 02:45:48
And it may happen to you in here. And then we can find the cut and we can fix a lot. 02:45:52
I'll say the worst case was a. 02:45:57
In Greenville First Baptist Church. 02:45:59
Seats 2500. 02:46:01
Big amphitheater. 02:46:04
Church umm. 02:46:05
The they were putting a new carpet, so we laid all the wire, flat wire just like this. 02:46:06
Everywhere. 02:46:11
I mean, just thousands of feet, thousands of feet. 02:46:12
Came back two days later and here's that beautiful carpet in. 02:46:15
Test salute. Nothing. 02:46:20
No. Check all the wires, nothing. 02:46:23
And the guy was a was a company called Bonnets. 02:46:25
And they had a big guy run it. 02:46:29
And I said hey. 02:46:31
I got a question for you. I was pulling up the carpet here, somebody cut this wire and we had put boards. 02:46:32
Wood boards. 02:46:38
On top of every place they could possibly cut that wire. 02:46:39
And said do not cut the wire. 02:46:42
Gave him a place to cut the carpet on the board. 02:46:45
He said to me, he said. 02:46:48
We don't cut no wire. 02:46:50
We didn't cut the water. 02:46:52
I said, yeah, somebody did whoever's in here putting this carpet and cut the wire and he said no, we didn't. 02:46:53
And he was a big guy. 02:46:58
Got up against me, but right here in my face. 02:47:01
It's pushing you backwards. I was going. 02:47:05
This is not going to happen like this. 02:47:07
Call the. 02:47:09
The facility manager. 02:47:10
He had the whole thing on video. 02:47:12
And every time that carpet knife cut that wire. 02:47:14
You got to spark a copper. 02:47:17
I mean called the boss, the owner and showed it to him. 02:47:20
It's $1000 a cut to fix. 02:47:25
I'm not crying. 02:47:28
Well, look at me. I'm. 02:47:31
One of the guys that worked for me, Don, he retired. He he's just mad because he's a Craftsman. 02:47:33
You know, you cut my wife ****** me off. I don't care how much you pay me, but me, I just said get your checkbook outlet's get 02:47:37
going, you know? 02:47:40
So yeah, it's $1000 to fix it so. 02:47:44
Try to impress upon anybody that comes in here to work on this. 02:47:48
If you've got to pull it up. 02:47:52
And let's pull it up. 02:47:53
But this one wasn't that expensive. 02:47:55
So we can replace this unless if you want to put it in concrete. 02:47:57
You know we. 02:48:00
We used to contract out concrete cutters. We've seen it on the street, right with the big sauce. 02:48:01
Well, OSHA, which is the safety people to protect your lives. 02:48:05
Like the writing on the cigarettes and stuff, they're there to protect you. 02:48:09
They they tighten it way up. 02:48:14
The silicon dust from concrete will kill you eventually. 02:48:17
So they tighten that all up so that we. 02:48:21
We decided to start cutting concrete on our own. 02:48:24
So we bought all the right equipment that OSHA approved. They came and proved it, washed his cut. 02:48:26
And if you get our Facebook page for American Hearing Room. 02:48:31
Just turn your volume down because you can watch us cut concrete because it's loud. You know, we wear earplugs and knee pads and 02:48:35
helmets and boots and stuff. 02:48:38
But we do ourselves. 02:48:42
And the price difference is interesting. We're talking about price. 02:48:44
If you bring in somebody concrete cutter. 02:48:47
They'll charge you about anywhere between 25 and $45.00 a foot. 02:48:50
The cut. 02:48:54
We charge $5 a foot. 02:48:56
Because when we cut half an inch down. 02:48:58
Those guys with those big saws on the street cutting their curbs and stuff. 02:49:01
I mean, they're cutting. 02:49:04
Like that? 02:49:06
So yeah, if you, if you have to pull this up and if it does start sticking when you're pulling it up. 02:49:07
Then it might be best just to go ahead and just pull it up. 02:49:12
And have us come back, put wire and it wasn't that expensive. 02:49:16
I mean, it's expense, but it's not that expensive. 02:49:19
All right. OK. Questions, more questions. 02:49:21
I know it sounds like you're going to be doing an inspection here this afternoon. Yeah, we're going to. We're going to run tests 02:49:26
on everything. Great. 02:49:29
Well, thank you very much. This has been super enlightening. Yeah, you're welcome. Be sure you tell everybody, though, that's. 02:49:32
I want you to talk to those other municipalities, you look like the right guy, and ask him say. 02:49:38
Ada. 02:49:45
It's a law. 02:49:46
You got to do it. You're supposed to do it anyway. 02:49:48
Those folks that aren't shy anymore, they're retired. 02:49:52
They'll drop it down on anybody. 02:49:55
No call. No. Call Ada and they'll call me. 02:49:58
They weren't you down here putting the loop in? I said. I didn't know. 02:50:01
So. 02:50:03
Oh, you guys know? 02:50:05
Yep. So we've done all their theaters down there. So yeah. So if you end up in Sun City. 02:50:08
You got a wonderful theater with hand movement, so. 02:50:12
Well, people retire there. 02:50:16
Sharon, thanks for the invite. 02:50:17
Thank you. Thank you. 02:50:19
All right. Well, Council, with that, I think that's our. 02:50:21
Final agenda item we advance the Police Department tour. Is there anything else anybody wants to share before we wrap up? 02:50:25
All right, Well, this meeting is done. Thanks again to everybody for their input. All right. 02:50:33
My. 02:50:39