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Welcome to the Watkinsville June City Council meeting. Excited to see all of our guests here tonight. We. 00:00:00
Have a full quorum here. Thank you, City Council and staff, for being here tonight. If we could, let's all stand for the Pledge of 00:00:07
Allegiance. 00:00:10
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:16
indivisible, with liberty and justice. 00:00:22
All right, this meeting is being broadcast online. As usual, we'll apply our typical public. 00:00:36
Public meeting rules tonight. As I've said before, we're tend to be a little less formal than some other bodies. If you have 00:00:42
something you want to say, raise your hand and we'll welcome you up to the podium at the Council's discretion. There are certain 00:00:47
parts in the meeting where there are public hearings and the attorney arrival indicate when those parts occur. When there is 00:00:53
formal public comment, The ability to comment is at the discretion of the Council and Council alone and the attorney. And when you 00:00:59
do talk, please address the council. 00:01:04
The council meeting notice and minutes and previous minutes and agendas all posted one week before the meeting. 00:01:12
To allow the public come time to provide comments in writing to the clerk if they're unable to attend in person, we broadcast 00:01:18
online with Suite 1, which does not have interactive capabilities but provides a lot of other advantages. All right, first up on 00:01:25
the agenda, approval of minutes. We had our very long public hearing on the proposed mileage rate at lunchtime on May 18th. If 00:01:31
anybody cares to make a motion regarding those minutes, I would appreciate it. 00:01:38
Would love a motion to approve those. 00:01:49
All right. Do we have a second? 00:01:52
All in favor? Say aye. All right. Next is our minutes for our regular meeting. I did provide one. 00:01:54
Minor edit on those, but I think that's probably in the latest version that's been posted. Were there any other edits or 00:02:03
corrections to the minutes from the May 18th regular meeting? 00:02:07
Hearing none, do we have a motion. 00:02:14
Make a motion to approve the minutes from last month's meeting. We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:02:15
Any discussion? Hearing? None. All in favor, say aye. Motion carries 5 O on the agenda. 00:02:22
This is the time. Note that we will just approve consent unless anybody asks for consent to come off. We do have two changes, 00:02:30
three changes that I would request. One is we need to add under new business the adoption of the certification for lost 00:02:35
distribution. 00:02:39
OK. So that would come. That would be our new item. 00:02:45
13 AI Guess We'll Call. 00:02:49
OK. I would also ask that we add as item number 17 discussion of our July meeting date. 00:02:52
And I would ask to remove table. 00:03:05
Item. 00:03:11
Hotel, motel, excise tax managers going to continue to do a little bit of refining on that ordinance, so. 00:03:14
Those would be my suggestions. Are there any? 00:03:21
Requests or suggestions on the agenda. 00:03:23
Hearing none, then if someone could make a motion to approve the agenda with the changes as outlined. 00:03:28
I make a motion to approve the agenda with the changes as. 00:03:33
We have a motion. We have a second Any further discussion, all in favor, say aye. 00:03:38
Motion carries 5. 00:03:43
All right, we will move on to administration. My previously covered public public input, so I won't do that again. 00:03:46
First thing under administration, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Mark Novak. Mark, thanks for joining us. 00:03:53
Step up here. I don't know that you need to talk, but I think it's worthy of standing up if you still feel like it. Mark has made. 00:04:01
A tremendous difference for Watkinsville and his time here, I think you all probably. 00:04:08
We decided. 00:04:12
Earlier this year, Late last year, actually, to get more intentional about the appearance of the city and its beautification Mark 00:04:15
has a deep background. 00:04:18
Plants, horticulture, plant sciences and has made a huge difference already for Watkinsville and Mark. I've just whether it's the 00:04:22
work around the Simonton, the bridge on Harden Hill where you've planted. 00:04:28
Help knock our weed bed down and plant some natives there and that looks really great. Can't wait to see how that evolves. 00:04:35
Behind City Hall, if anybody's walked there and seeing the sidewalk and the work that's done there, we remove some old plants 00:04:41
around City Hall, you know, where we used to run into. 00:04:45
You know, I don't think people knew what was a rose and what was a weed. And thankfully Mark does the Crepe Myrtles that got crepe 00:04:49
murdered a few years ago. Mark is helping to avoid any crepe murdering in Watkinsville. 00:04:55
Find the culprits. All right so so Chief and Mark together preventing preventing tree murders in Watkinsville. So and more to come 00:05:01
in terms of downtown beautification in terms of other efforts. And Mark, we know it. We know it's hot. We know you guys are 00:05:07
working hard, but we just want to take a minute, especially as we get going in. Harris Shoals to thank you for. 00:05:14
What you're doing to beautify Watkinsville and to make a pretty awesome first impression And as we get a little further down the 00:05:20
road with our entrance signs and some of these other things, we know you're going to have an opportunity to make an even bigger 00:05:24
impact, so. 00:05:28
I just want to say thank you and if anybody on Council has anything to say, jump in. 00:05:33
I mean, there's obviously more to come, so I'm glad. 00:05:39
What we can believe so far, you know, has been noticed that definitely. 00:05:44
Funding comes from here the. 00:05:49
Time when it comes from here and my supervisor is not here, they'll be spending. 00:05:52
You know, let me focus on some of these projects, so. 00:05:57
The heat puts us on a little bit of hiatus. Seeing what's happening, we're just trying to keep things alive. 00:06:04
One of my favorite things was the article in the Enterprise, where I guess was it Jane, Bath, Christine, I don't know if you 00:06:18
helped connect her to Mark and she had some concerns about the banks and. 00:06:22
Harris Shoals Park and how we were taking care of the Creek and to have an expert on staff to be able to walk down with her and 00:06:27
really go through the. 00:06:30
The plant life and what we're doing down there was super helpful. 00:06:35
Relief to not have to start at step one and just be able to, you know, jump to 10:00 and 11:00. 00:06:39
Express their concerns about, you know, what was. 00:06:45
One week. 00:06:50
It. 00:06:51
It's nice to be clean up some. 00:06:54
Thank you. Well, thank you, Mark. We appreciate you. 00:07:01
All right. Up next, Financial Reports manager Dickerson. 00:07:06
So you should have the revenues and expenditures and the balance sheet there. Any questions on that, please let me know. 00:07:14
I'll walk through a couple. 00:07:22
Project funds lost. One may recall this money and some of the money is lost to is set aside for the sewer line a project. 00:07:24
A little bit more than $248,000 in plus. 00:07:32
And a little bit more than $900,000 in splost to. 00:07:35
The recreational park money, we actually did that, although it did not clear, we did issue a check into possession of. 00:07:39
Miracle League, I'm sorry, The playground in the Miracle League complex. So that is now officially the city of Watkinsville and we 00:07:47
issued the check for $440,000 for that. 00:07:52
We'll talk a little bit more about SPLOST 2 because I'm going to be actually the under the consent agenda you guys had. I I asked 00:08:00
you to consider using some of the money's lost to to deal with the sidewalk. So that's what and we won't talk about it if you 00:08:05
don't have a question. 00:08:11
Splice 3. We have We're trending about $9000. Let's see 7. 00:08:16
About $7000 more a month than what we projected. And that money? Right now, the encumbrances are mainly for the Hair Shoals Park. 00:08:23
Master plan work that's going on, we have some encumbrances for public safety equipment that was that was done through the fiscal 00:08:33
year 22 budget. 00:08:37
But we're right now we're sitting at about $52,000 more than what we projected or have sort of planned to use. There will be a 00:08:41
request tonight under I think it's item. 00:08:45
15/16/17 somewhere back there about Blail Lane where we're going to ask that you do some of that extra money get. 00:08:50
Distributed for that purpose. So there's your comparison report. 00:08:58
You'll see we're monthly average around 71, eight. 00:09:02
Which is, like I said, about $7000 more than what we. 00:09:07
The ARP, which is always a fun little report to give them. Have to figure out a better way to do this because we're just going to. 00:09:11
It's going to keep getting longer and longer, but. 00:09:14
For right. 00:09:18
Most of that money has. 00:09:19
Has been appropriated for essential employees. Public safety personnel are. 00:09:22
Our retention bonus for the police officers that we're trying to bring on board and keep for you know three years at least there 00:09:27
is still a as you see there's still 170 one $172,000 that's been non appropriated for. 00:09:35
Pretty much anything you guys want to do with it at this point because we you elected to. 00:09:43
Take the US Treasury up on. 00:09:49
Electing to use that money for General Services or for the general fund. So that money is still sitting there. There are some 00:09:52
funds. 00:09:56
That we expect will probably that are encumbered, that may not stay encumbered. So we'll talk about that. 00:10:00
Probably next month or so, we're going to wait and see how the fiscal year ends and whatnot. 00:10:07
You didn't come. We didn't come for money for the Police Department. We're not going to need all of that. So some of that's going 00:10:12
to come back into that balance. So we'll hopefully have that figured out next month or the August meeting for sure. 00:10:17
Just a reminder about the budget process, we are in our final day of that public hearing on the mileage rate and the budget 00:10:24
tonight. 00:10:28
Spent. 00:10:33
Had this out, you know, since the 1st of April. The mayor and I've been working on, my Staffs been working on since just the first 00:10:34
of the year. So a lot of time put into this, hopefully we can answer. 00:10:39
Questions that may still remain flavored this evening when we get to that point. 00:10:45
Any questions about that? 00:10:49
I don't know what happened. 00:10:54
There. 00:10:55
If not, I will move to business licenses. 00:10:57
Economic development. 00:11:00
So I still have occupation taxes coming in 29 business licenses in the month of May. 00:11:04
And on the building permit side, we had 18 building permits with 12 projects, quite a few over at the Wire Park. 00:11:11
Some along S part Shoals. 00:11:17
Not anything terribly exciting, but I mean, you know, there's stuff going on, so it's been busy. 00:11:22
Any. 00:11:27
Mr. Chief. 00:11:32
Make sure our audience can. 00:11:45
Good evening, Mayor and Council. It's always pleasure to be here for you this evening. 00:11:52
I submitted my report for the month of June last week. Are there any questions specific to any of the council members? 00:11:56
Seeing none and hearing none. Well, I have some highlights I want to highlight for you. 00:12:08
You know, y'all allowed us to buy a variable message sign last year. Through budget we could have that sign. I have deployed it 00:12:15
now on Hardin Hill in two directions as now as well as VFW. 00:12:21
In two directions, and the VFW data is in this report. 00:12:28
Tonight. 00:12:31
And I'm very happy with the results that I was seeing from those those audits. 00:12:33
I have since deployed it to. 00:12:39
Location. 00:12:43
Adj. 00:12:44
Councilmember Massey's. 00:12:46
Entertaining her and her neighbors. 00:12:48
Interestingly. 00:12:52
Umm. 00:12:54
So last week's data from. 00:12:55
From the sign that you have in the report today was showing a 85th percentile of 39 mph. 00:12:58
The sign was deployed on. 00:13:06
And since that. 00:13:10
The speed has dropped from 39 mph to 38. 00:13:12
At. 00:13:16
That reports coming into town. 00:13:18
So I know it's not a significant decrease. 00:13:20
They're aware that it's there now, and it's bringing bringing a decline in the 85th percentile. As a reminder, 85th percentile is. 00:13:23
Is the engineering standard that's used to determine the speed on the roadways, and basically what it means is that. 00:13:32
The 8085% of the cars that travel through that particular position are traveling at that speed or lower so. 00:13:38
As of today, I pulled the report this afternoon. As of today, they're at 38 or less going through that on an 85th average. 00:13:46
At the VMS sign. This is even more, more better. 00:13:55
At the VMS location located at Councilmember Massey's house. 00:14:00
It's at 30. 00:14:04
We're starting to see a Dec. 00:14:07
In that 85th percentile through that particular area, so that's good. I've also directed. 00:14:09
Since my staffing has increased with part time employment as well as some full time employ. 00:14:16
I have directed those officers to be a bit more focused in that area as well and they've they've spent a bit of time over there 00:14:22
trying. 00:14:26
Reduce the speeds of the. 00:14:31
They spent a couple hours over there the other morning, wrote 24 tickets. 00:14:34
24. 00:14:39
Between between two officers working. 00:14:40
And every one of them were 15 plus over the speed. 00:14:44
So they're they're righteously getting stopped and ticketed. 00:14:48
What was the time interval? How long did it take him to do 24? 00:14:53
About an hour and a half on Sunday morning. No, it was not on Sunday. 00:14:57
So anybody got caught in that? 00:15:02
The VFW data shows an eastbound 85th percentile of 30 mph. It posted speed. There's 25. The westbound is at 29 mph. 00:15:08
The South Main Street sign, which is also very exciting because I have a lot of complaints over there and it seems like there's a 00:15:20
council member Garrett lives there. 00:15:25
It's at 38, so it's 3 miles over the posted speed limit 35. So that's that's that's good. It's not it's not as severe as what some 00:15:31
would let you believe. 00:15:35
To be there, that's. 00:15:40
And then Greensboro Highway, which is a inbound recent complaint came in about signage there. 00:15:44
I'd like to note that it's 45 miles an hour through there. The 85th percentile is 50 mph at that particular location. That's 00:15:51
that's very good, excellent, excellent data. 00:15:57
We do have some new employees. I've taken on a Sergeant. 00:16:06
Madison County, who is full time with Madison County. Mark Goodman. He's working for us part time. 00:16:10
William Charles who is a 31 year retired. 00:16:16
Atlanta Police Department officer. He is working for us part time Allen Chris, who formerly worked for Oglethorpe County. 00:16:19
Now works for us full time. 00:16:27
Today is his first day working for us as a full time officer he enjoyed. 00:16:29
Working for the. 00:16:35
Agency so much he he decided he was going to leave the Sheriff's Office, policing at the Sheriff's Office and policing at a 00:16:38
municipal agencies. Two different things and he likes the way we do things over here. So he's he's here with us now. 00:16:43
Ryan England is set to graduate Georgia Public Safety Training Center, Athens Academy next Friday, June 24th at One PMI. Would 00:16:49
love to see each and everyone of you there if you can make it at the Classic Center. 00:16:54
His family is very excited. 00:17:00
Yesterday was the first time in 23 years I've received an invitation to a graduation ceremony that I helped Commission, so. 00:17:04
They're they're very excited, and I'm excited about that as well. Rachel Sterns is on track to graduate Piedmont Technical College 00:17:13
Police Academy July 29th, and she begins her firearm training at the end of next week. 00:17:19
Which we don't see any potential problems with that and I've got one employee that is current or one one candidate that is 00:17:27
currently being worked. 00:17:31
Invented to be included in the August Academy at. 00:17:36
So we're we're steadily working diligently to close the gap on the vacancies and and staff out the way we need to be. 00:17:40
So we can provide the quality service that we need to provide. 00:17:49
On the L. 00:17:53
Yep. 00:17:57
Currently, there are 243 expired citations that have been issued and submitted via mail to the violators. 00:17:58
We're starting already to receive payments for those we have not. Question is they'll they'll cut us a check at some point later 00:18:06
in the future. 00:18:10
Again, that's not the primary purpose of. 00:18:16
Readers, but they're proving to be very beneficial in identifying. 00:18:19
The the large quantity of people that like to drive around with no tag registered, so. 00:18:24
It's a very been a very interesting experience. 00:18:30
We're working on placing a link on the city's website so that violators can go click that link and go to the website. 00:18:35
Quest to pay their citation. If you get any questions about that, it is coming out of Utah. That's where the quest is located on 00:18:42
the key. 00:18:46
So it is. You know, one of the questions is this a real ticket? Why is it in Utah? 00:18:52
Umm. 00:18:58
Chair Chief, can you share an example of how that helps? 00:19:00
We were able to use the system to positively identify a vehicle that was involved in a animal abuse case. 00:19:05
In fact, when we pulled the image from the car. 00:19:12
We actually captured the abuse. 00:19:16
Which ultimately ended up not really being. 00:19:19
It was an accident that was just unfortunate. 00:19:22
Is my understanding the animal control is is is going to look at pursuing charges but you know that that's a whole other bottle of 00:19:27
wax but. 00:19:30
Very good that we were able to use that data to positively identify the the owners of that vehicle. 00:19:36
The other things going on, we've recently had an officer who recovered a shoulder mounted modified Glock from a vehicle after an 00:19:43
arrest. 00:19:46
That weapon was located very right next to the driver of the vehicle that was removed. 00:19:50
And this officer at that particular point in time was by themselves. 00:19:57
So the danger is very real. It's. 00:20:00
Just kind of. 00:20:03
Watkins Hills, Not, you know, May. 00:20:08
And last Sunday we have a single vehicle car traffic crash that. 00:20:12
Unfortunately took the life of a 80 year old pass. 00:20:16
Who died at the hospital from her. 00:20:20
Purely an accident. Wheels dropped off the roadway and down into a ditch. 00:20:23
The occupant was not belted in. 00:20:28
So. 00:20:31
And. 00:20:32
That's pretty much it for us. 00:20:33
Any questions? 00:20:35
Was that accident across from the post office? No, that was actually, that was actually a learning driver who lost control of 00:20:41
their vehicle coming out of the parking lot because I was thinking that. 00:20:46
No interest, no interest is staying there. 00:20:50
Any other questions for chief? 00:20:57
Chief, thank you and I'll thank you again. I think I do this every month, but I think it goes without saying we have a lot of 00:21:00
people who complain about speed and Watkinsville and IT. I think it helps all of us when we have data that we can share. There's 00:21:05
always going to be somebody who's driving faster than we want them to, but if. 00:21:09
You know, 85% of people are driving that close to the speed limit then that's meaningful progress. We appreciate it. I didn't, I 00:21:14
didn't highlight this but I did have a sit down meeting and coffee with a citizen here in town and. 00:21:20
Was delightfully able to enlighten them. 00:21:27
Things that they didn't understand. 00:21:30
And left them with a better feeling about what we're doing here as far as the Police Department as well as the council. 00:21:32
So that was a good return. 00:21:39
All right. Thank you for doing that. 00:21:42
All right. We'll move on to the consent agenda. 00:21:47
I'll accept a motion to motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:21:50
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:21:56
Do we have? 00:21:59
I'll second. 00:22:00
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor, say aye. 00:22:02
All right, motion carries 5 O. All right, we're going to move into a public hearing. The public hearing means anybody who wishes 00:22:07
to be heard can be recognized when they come up to the podium. And you'll speak from the podium 4 minutes per person. 00:22:15
No debate, Argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant. Discussion. You'll address the merits related to the pending matter. The 00:22:23
item that we have on, we have two items on. 00:22:27
For public hearing tonight, the 1st is public input on the 2022 property Tax mileage rate manager Dickerson. If you want to give 00:22:33
an overview of that please. 00:22:38
Thank you, Mayor. So the council has proposed through the budget that the mileage rate will stay the same. Of course the digest is 00:22:47
increasing. And so that we do see, even though the military is staying the same, we do see an increase of about $67,000. 00:22:54
Remind everybody that had you not rolled it back last year, you would have seen about 30,000. So potentially you would have seen 00:23:02
the other 30,000 this year. So I mean you're just seeing it all in one year instead of. 00:23:08
One thing to note, I think we put in the ad and we've had all of the required ads, but we've had people ask about, you know, what 00:23:15
does this mean? And technically in the ad we have a $200,000 house. Maybe that's not realistic for Watkinsville anymore, but if 00:23:21
you had a $350,000 house and it was assessed at 40%, your assessment value be 140,000, your mileage would be $2.08 per $1000 00:23:28
assessed, which works out to $291.34 in city tax. 00:23:35
As a comparison. 00:23:43
The city pays $19.82 a month for garbage and leaf and limb, which equals $237.84. So you're basically paying tax and you're 00:23:45
getting a deal because you're you're all, you know, we're collecting revenues to cover all the rest of the services we provide 00:23:52
within the city, but as the citizens are essentially paying for garbage, you know with their taxes, so in the city, so. 00:23:59
Any questions about? 00:24:06
I guess there's not anybody here. 00:24:08
All right, we are in a public hearing. 00:24:11
Would anyone want to come forward and speak about the military? 00:24:14
Kirkland Did we receive any comments online? 00:24:18
No, Sir. All right. We received no comments online. I'm not seeing a Stampede for the podium. So I'm going to close that public 00:24:21
hearing and we will move on to the next one, which is public input on the proposed fiscal year 2023 capital and operating budget 00:24:26
manager Dickerson, if you'd give us an overview of the budget, please. 00:24:32
Sure. So as I mentioned earlier, we've been working on this since the first of the year, the mayor and I since April. We've had a 00:24:39
work session and two other meetings with you all about this. 00:24:44
There have been a couple of changes since the last meeting. 00:24:51
That I did send and they are uploaded as the the emails that I sent out have been uploaded for the public to see as well. But 00:24:56
since the 5:18 meeting there were two changes. 00:25:00
The first change had to do with you may recall that in the revenues, I was being pretty conservative on our revenues and I went 00:25:05
back and looked at those and and actually. 00:25:10
Added we added some money for the alcohol beverage excise tax and we also went back and at that time we thought we'd be closer to 00:25:18
8%. So we changed the the loss to 8% the first six months being 8.637%. 00:25:26
And so those are the 2 I did, I did go back to the budget. I I feel like we're we're pretty pretty tight on our budget especially 00:25:35
because we've got you know consumer price index on things are going is going up. 00:25:40
Inflation, the cost of gas alone is going to, you know, hit hard. But I think we're pretty good on that. I didn't see where we 00:25:46
could trim anymore on that. On the 8th, I followed up after the mayor had negotiated with Chairman Daniel with Oconee County and 00:25:51
settled. 00:25:56
On what we hope will be the local option sales tax distribution for the city at 7.77%. So I went back into the budget and adjusted 00:26:02
the revenues for that. So we are now officially with the expenses staying the same as what you already knew, we are now looking at 00:26:10
a deficit of 133,859 versus the 210, which is what we expected initially. 00:26:17
So those are the changes that have occurred since the 18th meeting. 00:26:26
All right, Council, you've heard the report. We're in a public hearing now. Would any member of the public want to come forward 00:26:31
and discuss the budget? 00:26:34
In court client, have we received any comments? 00:26:39
Yes, Sir. All right. We have no comments online. 00:26:42
Last call. 00:26:45
All right. I don't see anybody. We'll close the public hearing and I think we adopt A budget later on. Correct, Sharon. OK. So 00:26:47
public hearings are now closed. We'll move on to our appearances we have. 00:26:53
Consideration of beer, wine pouring and brewery license application for South Main Brewing. I see Stanton Porter here with us 00:26:59
tonight. Welcome Court Klein. If you want to give us a report on the status of the license application, please. 00:27:05
Yes, Sir. We have received all the documentation for this application. We have the sign off from the Police Department on all the 00:27:11
applicants. So all the fingerprinting things were taken care of and the only thing that we are waiting for is the letter of credit 00:27:18
from Phillip Bernardi, of which I've already been in contact with him. I do not anticipate. I probably have it tomorrow. So I do 00:27:25
not see any issues with the application. OK. Mr. Porter, do you have anything you want to add? 00:27:32
I'll be real brief against Stanton Porter name. Appreciate you know having us back here, was here just a few months ago at the 00:27:43
ordinance time, an initial application just so everyone sort of knows where South Main is right now. 00:27:49
Pence was here in February. We the sort of brewery processes to apply for this federal permit. We received that in April. 00:27:56
And so, sort of oddly, the next step is you actually get the local permit first before going to. 00:28:04
To get the state permitted every every level is there's a permit there on. 00:28:10
It's been great working with City on on going through this application. Think everything is in order. 00:28:14
It is two things that we're actually applying for. One is the permit for the brewery itself, so that this permit to brew the beer 00:28:22
and then actually have to have a separate permit which is on the same application to to serve the beer there in the brewery. 00:28:27
So we are asking for both of those permits or licenses and the only thing that is sort of outstanding is there's a bond that's 00:28:34
required I guess in place in case taxes weren't paid and several other options is $3500. 00:28:40
One of the options is to do a line of credit with Oconee State Bank and that's what we've done. And so just as soon as that 00:28:49
paperwork should be in probably tomorrow, I just verifying that that letter of credit or line of credit there versus actually just 00:28:54
putting up the the extra $3500 that that sits there as a bond as a bond. But I'm happy to answer any questions any of you have 00:29:00
about the the process itself our sort of hope after this is once we have. 00:29:05
The local license is to apply for. 00:29:12
Constructions ongoing over at Wire Park, on the brewery itself, they're working hard. I know they were working real hard today, 00:29:15
hoping maybe for some time in August is a potential opening date. Of course there's a lot of variables there on materials and and 00:29:21
things in place, but certainly happy to answer any questions that anybody may have. 00:29:28
All right. Exciting progress. Any questions for Mr. Porter? 00:29:37
You have a great name for a guy representing representing a brewery, Mr. Porter. So Joe, can we do this as one motion for both the 00:29:42
pouring and the brewery license applications or do we need to have separate motions on this line with you consolidating as long as 00:29:48
it's clear and with the contingency? 00:29:54
That is subject to the letter of credit they received within some reasonable time, seven days or whatever y'all wish to impose. 00:30:00
All right, then, I'll entertain a motion for. 00:30:07
Regarding the beer and wine pouring license and the brewery license application for South Main contingent upon. 00:30:10
Receipt of the letter of credit within the next 7 business days. 00:30:16
So moved. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:30:22
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:30:26
All right. All in favor. Say aye. Opposed. 00:30:30
All right, Motion carries 4. 00:30:34
Thank you, Mr. Porter. 00:30:36
All right. We have tabled item 12 under old business, so we will move on to new business. 00:30:39
We first item is to adopt an excise tax on distilled spirits by the drink attorney, Reitman, manager Dickerson. I think one of you 00:30:47
is going to offer a report on that. 00:30:51
Right, this is pretty straightforward boilerplate, and if you want to take handle the details, share. And I did not draft this 00:30:56
document, she did. 00:31:00
There's not much detail. If you look at the document, it's basically just establishing a levy for 3% on the charge to the public 00:31:05
for each beverage sold. 00:31:10
I don't know what year that. Let's see, is it 2019? I think the Nope, it's not 2019. I'll set it back the county established one 00:31:16
but I don't have the year. I don't know if the chairman happens to maybe in 2016 or 2020. 00:31:21
Anyway, there's two uphold your ordinance. But the city doesn't have one, and so we felt like perhaps it'd be a good thing to do 00:31:27
it so. 00:31:31
Brought it before. 00:31:35
We have. 00:31:40
Questions for the manager or for the attorney on. 00:31:41
If not, I'm happy to entertain a motion. 00:31:45
I'll make a motion that we adopt the excise tax on the sealed spirits by the drink. 00:31:52
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:31:58
All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:32:02
Motion carries. 00:32:05
All right. 13 A, you have a piece of paper in front of you related to lost and what we need to do. I think I've mentioned to 00:32:07
several of you guys that we engage with the county on discussions around our percentage of the local option sales tax. I think 00:32:15
you've all been briefed on that. What you have before you is a resolution that would officially. 00:32:22
Make that official. This would last through the 2030 census, whenever that's completed, and then you have the certificate of 00:32:30
distribution provided by Chairman Daniel at the back. 00:32:35
After extensive discussion with Chairman Daniel with staff with several of you. 00:32:40
It was determined that the 777 distribution. 00:32:45
Was was a place that we could handle landing and then it was. 00:32:50
To be blunt, it just wasn't wasn't really worth the time and energy to carry on, given the uncertainty around how that process 00:32:57
would play out. 00:33:00
So I would. 00:33:04
Happy to answer any questions. 00:33:07
Lost Chairman Daniels here as well if we need to discuss it. If not, we can move towards a motion to approve. I'll just point out 00:33:09
to you that. 00:33:13
Based on the discussion that this tax will not begin until January 1st, 2023, it doesn't, doesn't begin the minute you know this 00:33:18
is approved by them, it will, it will roll over in January. So we'll have half a year at our current distribution amount and then 00:33:25
777 kicks And the other thing is that all parties agreed that the 777 would be our percentage on subsequent Sloss. 00:33:32
And if tea spots is proposed and passed that, that's also a percentage of tea spots. So we're not getting back into the population 00:33:40
percentage on those conversations. This will be our percentage on those those as well. 00:33:46
Any quest? 00:33:59
I'm hesitating. 00:34:06
It's one of those questions that I know so little that I might be just muddying the water. OK, but. 00:34:08
I heard rumblings of talks. 00:34:16
Basically with Costco and the. 00:34:19
Did we get the full 7.77 on the Costco? 00:34:23
Does that make sense what I'm asking? 00:34:29
The bond is is the chairman of non negotiated. There were several other matters that entered into the discussion. 00:34:32
Depending on the percentage that we were you know and so one of the things that came up was OK was their commitment to Costco and 00:34:37
the the the commitment that the counties made to offset some of the infrastructure for Costco. We discussed some of the 00:34:44
commitments we've made to projects in the city as well had an amiable conversation you know around OK we're we're working on our 00:34:50
stuff. They're working on their stuff but none of us our stuff and their stuff, right. It's all. 00:34:56
The county's projects, right. So we're benefiting from them in different ways. We're going to benefit from Wire Park in a lot of 00:35:02
ways and we were kicking a lot of money over to make that happen. The industrial area as well, the county we're going to benefit 00:35:07
from Costco as will be county. We're not contributing to that. The level that John and the county, the county is out of their 00:35:12
budget, so. So there were several things. 00:35:17
That went into that we talked about. We talked about other options that would. 00:35:23
Raise the amount. We spent a tremendous amount of time on it. At the end of the day, you know, just. 00:35:28
You know, it made sense to land where we landed. We can offline about it or we can talk about it now, whatever you think is best. 00:35:34
So yeah. 00:35:38
All right, anybody willing to make a motion 13A? This is local option sales tax. We need a motion to. 00:35:49
Approve the resolution to accept the certificate for distribution for the local option sales tax. 00:35:55
Don't everybody go at once. This might be a Chuck Garrett. I mean, we're this far down and my regular volunteers are saying 00:36:05
anything. 00:36:08
I'll make a motion as stated. 00:36:12
All right. So we have a motion to adopt the resolution. All right. Do we have a second? 00:36:14
All right, we have a second from Councilman Campbell. Any further discussion? 00:36:19
They're so quiet tonight. Nobody. The excitement is palpable. I think the heats want everybody out tonight. All right, we have a 00:36:28
motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:36:33
All in favor, say aye, any. 00:36:39
Like sign hearing none motion carries 50 All right resolution and adoption. We're going to move on to property tax mileage rate. 00:36:42
We talked about this earlier. At this point we had the public hearing. We had the briefing from the manager. Do we have a motion 00:36:50
regarding the property tax, mileage rate or does anybody want to have any further discussion on this? 00:36:55
I make a. 00:37:05
To. 00:37:08
Mile. 00:37:09
All right, so we have a motion to adopt the mileage rate 2.081. Do we have a second? 00:37:11
2nd. 00:37:16
All right. I'm going to give that to Garrett. So we have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion, all in favor, say 00:37:17
aye, any opposed? 00:37:22
Motion carries 50. We'll move on to the budget. 00:37:26
Again, we had the work sessions. We've worked on this. The manager has briefed us again tonight. She's refined the numbers. The 00:37:29
fund balance poll is not what it was. We're thankful for that and we're hopeful that over the course of the year it won't be as 00:37:33
much. 00:37:37
We anticipate. 00:37:42
And certainly don't hope to do that in future years, but unless there's a need for any further discussion or questions of the 00:37:43
manager, I'll have a motion on the budget please. 00:37:47
I make a motion that we. 00:37:54
This is for passing. 00:37:58
Yes, we adopt the budget. 00:38:00
Is that the language that we need for a very fancy language that including the resolution, has presented with all exhibits 00:38:03
reference? 00:38:07
Does that clarify? So moved. I'll second. All right, we got that Cork. I know this is important. OK. So we've approved the budget, 00:38:12
the resolution with all exhibits. OK. We have a motion. We have a second, Mr. Thomas, I think. All right, So we have a motion. We 00:38:18
have a second. Any further discussion? 00:38:23
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:38:30
Budget passes. 00:38:34
We will move on to Layla Lane. Looking good. I drove by there today, so. 00:38:36
Manager Dickerson, if you want to offer a report on that please. 00:38:43
Sure. So First off what we're going to we're asking for is there were some emergency work done on Layla Lane by Oconee County 00:38:47
asking you to appropriate a little bit more than $45,000 to cover those expenses. 00:38:53
I'll talk a little bit about. I'll show you some pictures first. You may recall there was a stormwater pipe going underneath that 00:39:01
road. 00:39:04
We came available. It became apparent during the the resurfacing of that road that there was an issue, but what we did not realize 00:39:08
the significance of that issue until afterward and so the county. 00:39:14
Let me just go through the report. So basically. 00:39:21
The county was able to come in and help us. We had a private contractor that estimated almost twice as much of what the county 00:39:25
said it was going to cost to do it and a much longer time frame to get to it. We had a very short window to. 00:39:31
That contractor up on it. And so we were fortunate to be able to work things out with the county. 00:39:37
Where because it was an emergency issue, it allowed me as as the manager. 00:39:43
To. 00:39:49
Work through the emergency and not go through normal process. I did consult with the mayor, the Council transportation committee, 00:39:49
which involved council members Garrett and Thomas. 00:39:54
Our engineer and our Public Works supervisor to identify and try to figure out the best way to address this. As I said, the 00:40:00
initial estimate was about 83,000 from the private contractor. We reached out to the county and their County Road department who 00:40:06
did do this a lot and they came in much lower with the cost of the work along with removing some trees and an estimated $7500 00:40:13
resurfacing patch by Garrett. Since they did the initial work, we want to go back to them. We're looking at about $45,000 needing 00:40:20
$45,000 to finish this project. 00:40:26
The we. 00:40:34
19 A little bit more than $19,000 in ELMIG. That's a local maintenance improvement grant funds which can be used. I did provide in 00:40:36
the report You can. 00:40:40
This money on a whole bunch of different infrastructure. 00:40:45
Issues such as replacing storm drain pipes and paving, which leaves us with needing about $25,000. I didn't put it on the on the 00:40:48
slide, normally I put the projects, but you may recall that when we did the Splash 3 when you budgeted for Spouse 3 for the 00:40:54
referendum, you. 00:41:00
You determined a certain certain amounts for different categories, the roads and parks and government buildings. And then 00:41:08
underneath that you went ahead and started sort of drafting out ideas of what you need the money for. And some of that money was 00:41:14
for ELMIG matches. Each year we overestimated the matches. So I think the easiest thing to do for for me, and there is money in 00:41:20
the account for for certain, there's already money over what we projected in SPLOST 3, but my request would be that we that I 00:41:26
shaved those, I shave each of those. 00:41:32
I'll make future project matches down by about $5000 apiece, which will give me the $20,000 along with the balance that we have in 00:41:38
the LMG, which will give me more than a little bit more than $26,000 to pay for this project. So I I can adjust our spreadsheet 00:41:44
that we keep all the detail on in case anybody ever audits us on it wants to see how we spent the money. But I think that's an 00:41:50
easy way to to pay for it and I don't think it'll impact any of the future projects. 00:41:56
All right. You heard the report. Any questions for the manager? 00:42:07
Chairman Daniel, thank you to you guys for jumping in and being willing to help us on that. We appreciate it. 00:42:12
Yeah. Do we have any, any, any discussion before we make a motion to approve the? 00:42:17
The funding sources for the Laya Lane Emergency Rd. 00:42:25
Hearing none, I'll entertain. 00:42:31
I'll make a motion to ratify the emergency Rd. 00:42:34
What's already been done? The money for it and yeah. 00:42:38
Yep, Yep. 00:42:42
All. 00:42:45
All right, that was that sounds good. I'll second. All right, Councilman Thomas, we have a motion. We have a second. Any further 00:42:46
discussion of Whale Lane hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. Any opposed? 00:42:51
All right, Motion carries 5. 00:42:57
Public comments Once again, the podium is. 00:42:59
Chairman and the. 00:43:04
Not getting up to speak. 00:43:07
Yeah, there's something after July. 00:43:11
Oh, yeah. Got to do the July day. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, for keeping me straight on there. 00:43:13
So July meeting date, I'm going to be out of town at our regular scheduled meeting in July. I've talked to the Mayor Pro Tem. Her 00:43:17
preference would also be to potentially shift that meeting forward one week. 00:43:23
So I wanted to ask if July 17th. 00:43:29
Would potentially work for 13th, excuse me, July 13th would work. That was item 17, July 13th would potentially work for our. 00:43:33
I know I will not be. I will be at the. 00:43:47
Well. 00:43:51
Holy. 00:43:52
I can tell you that right now, based on the agenda, the only thing that may come up will be the hotel motel. I don't expect any 00:43:57
other big items. There may be some housekeeping if we can get some other things done, but it won't be a it won't be a real long I 00:44:03
don't anticipate unless something comes up that I don't know about. 00:44:08
All right, I know we're losing. Councilman Thomas, How about the rest of you potentially could that work? 00:44:15
OK, Jeff. 00:44:21
All right. So we're in favor of that. I don't know that we need a motion, do we? We can just sort of make a make a charter or code 00:44:23
provision, Let's have a motion. 00:44:27
Then ask for a motion to move the July meeting to 6:30 on July 13th. Please. I make a motion to move the July meeting to 6:30 on 00:44:33
the 13th. 00:44:37
All right. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? All right, motion carries. Thank 00:44:42
you, Chairman. Daniel. 00:44:47
Did I miss anything else? 00:44:51
Yeah. 00:44:57
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:44:57
Will reserve the right, reserve the. 00:44:59
OK. 00:45:02
Yeah. All right. Public comment. We didn't have any. We covered that mayor's report. 00:45:06
With our theme tonight, I'll keep this brief. 00:45:12
I think the big news that everybody saw across the street, we had the. 00:45:15
Across the way, certainly a different view from City City Hall than it used to be with the opening of the Miracle Week ball field 00:45:20
last week. 00:45:24
And there's several of you were there I'd like to thank Councilman Campbell for. 00:45:28
On behalf of the city, we appreciate that was exciting to see Blooper and the Braves. 00:45:31
The trophy there. So Jeff, thanks for stepping in when I had the had the covic, appreciate you doing that. So that's a big moment 00:45:37
for Watkinsville. I don't know if everybody saw this sharing are we able to play it? 00:45:42
Finally, summer means baseball, and there's one league making America's past. 00:45:50
To all and it's inspiring America. 00:45:56
They are the sights and sounds of baseball. 00:45:59
But on this field, the score doesn't matter. Everybody is a winner. I'm just going to try and hit the ball and if the ball gets 00:46:03
hit, I'm just run for my life to 1st place. 00:46:09
Here they have truly leveled the playing field. The New York League is an organization that brings the opportunity for individuals 00:46:15
with special needs the chance to play baseball. This week, a new field opened in Watkinsville, Georgia. Thanks to a partnership 00:46:22
between the Miracle League and the charity Extra Special People. We give them dreams that they didn't even know were possible. 00:46:29
We say yes they can. Kids and adults have all abilities, can play together, the game is modified and every player is assigned a 00:46:37
buddy. Drew is never played in a sport and so for us it means a lot to see him. 00:46:44
Doing something that his friends all do at school. Established in 2000, there are now more than 300 miracle leagues across the 00:46:52
country. 00:46:57
Differences are celebrated. 00:47:04
And in this game, smiles are like grand slams and miracles really do come true. 00:47:08
We knew when we first came around the bend and everyone was cheering for our daughter. 00:47:16
That she was right where she needed to be. 00:47:21
OK. 00:47:30
Taking us back to the old days of audio issues there, so you can't watch that without getting chills. And anyway, I was just 00:47:33
really proud and I think it goes without saying that was a huge community lift. That's not a. 00:47:39
There's an old saying that says it's amazing how much can get done when nobody cares who gets the credit. But I'm going to give 00:47:47
some credit to ESP. I'm going to give some credit to all. Y'all for working really hard to get that done. Credit to John, you and 00:47:53
your team contributing to that. We appreciate y'all weaning in on that. 00:47:58
And then hundreds and hundreds of other people in the community who wrote checks and did so many other things to make that happen. 00:48:04
And frankly, you know somebody, the Enterprise did a great job writing about it this week. I thought, you know that if you look 00:48:09
back, I think it was only seven years ago that. 00:48:14
We worked with ESP to break ground on that new building. 00:48:18
They're Just seven years ago, all there was was a gym and a bus sitting next to A. 00:48:21
You know, under a shelter sitting next to that gym. So it's pretty amazing to see what's happened and. 00:48:26
And that just means a lot for Watkinsville. I think it says a lot about Watkinsville, so so that was exciting to see. 00:48:31
Great news for Oconee County in Watkinsville this week we also had a local business owner featured in Georgia Trend, Jared Reeves 00:48:37
from Certified Clean Care. So continue to see our local entrepreneurs and projects featured in state and national media. So that's 00:48:42
exciting and then thanks to the efforts of the. 00:48:48
The Daughters. The American Revolution. The local chapter. We had a great time recognizing Women veteran's day on June 11th, and 00:48:55
that was it. 00:48:59
That was a special event. I think it's something that will grow over time and all the women. 00:49:04
This is a mix of the members of the DAR and the women veterans, but it was really interesting talking to him. You'll see there in 00:49:08
the middle, short hair, white blouse. That's Mayor Giordani's daughter. 00:49:14
Mayor Giardini was a legendary mayor here in Watkinsville, so it was great to honor Melissa and the other veterans at the event 00:49:20
and to thank them for their service. The young woman sitting to the left was actually a medical nurse in the Korean War. 00:49:28
So she served. She served a long time and her husband was a, he's a retired Navy, naval officer and they've retired to Athens. So 00:49:36
it was really a wonderful group of women and had a great time spending time with him and thanking them for their service. So if 00:49:43
you run into Dory and Steve Brown or anybody from DAR, be sure to thank them for what they do. It was really great. They had 00:49:49
raffles for them. They gave them prizes. Local art really made them feel special. It was a. 00:49:56
One of those days that makes makes the community feel like a community for folks who might not have always lived here. 00:50:03
Sharon, I think that might be all I have. So with that, we will turn it over to turn it over to council members. If you have any 00:50:10
reports, we'll start with post one. Councilman Garrett. 00:50:14
All right, go to pass 2 for Councilman Massey. I don't have a report, but I would like to say I have had several citizens 00:50:21
recently. 00:50:26
Tell me that they are concerned with people not stopping at stop signs. 00:50:31
And one place in particular is Thrasher 3rd and School St. because they go through their lot. 00:50:37
And when I'm on my walk around the ball field, if I see ten cars go by, two, two or three of them might stop. The rest of them 00:50:44
just go through. So I don't know. 00:50:49
What we can do about that, but hopefully something. 00:50:55
And they're also concerned with the parking behind Eagle Tavern with large trucks parking back there and they stick out into the 00:50:58
road, so. 00:51:03
I think we need to think about. 00:51:08
Possibly putting some signs up there that say compact cars only to keep the big trucks from parking and sticking out in the in the 00:51:11
street. So they were concerned about those two two areas and and things. 00:51:17
Chief, think that's something you can take a look at. OK. Thank you. Thank you, Connie. 00:51:25
All right, Councilman Thomas, First, I because my uncle Larry, who we recognized a few months ago, his father was the mayor here 00:51:30
65 years ago. 00:51:35
So Elmer Weatherford was the mayor here when the Anaconda plant opened 65 years ago. So Bob Marable wrote an article in the posted 00:51:42
on Facebook. The article from the paper from 65 years ago and I I tried to share that with my 91 year old uncle. He didn't 00:51:49
understand, so he drove from Conyers to Watkinsville to try to get a a copy of the Enterprise. So I'm working to get a copy of the 00:51:56
Enterprise for my my uncle. 00:52:03
But that's just looking at 65 years ago Anaconda opened and we're completely reinventing Anaconda today. So it's it's just it's 00:52:11
nice to see. And I don't know if y'all have followed the thread that old Bob Marrable for that matter, but there's a pretty good 00:52:17
thread about what the. 00:52:23
What the thoughts were for the citizens of Watkinsville with this new plant because it was something brand new to walk the farm 00:52:29
community and we're bringing this massive plant, but it was well received and I believe we're doing the same thing here in 00:52:36
Wattsville today. So that that was great. Second, I know that I've been very lackluster. 00:52:44
In my social duties, but we do have July 4th coming up, so I. 00:52:52
Would like to ask the citizens who are. 00:52:58
To to try to turn the the town red, white and blue again. I think it was a great turn out last year. 00:53:03
And so let's see if we can't try to get that out there and turn Watkinsville red, white and blue again. 00:53:10
I love that idea, Sharon. Maybe if we could work with Angela to get a press release out and get some social media going on that 00:53:16
kind of like we did last year and have a little fun with it. I think that was a great initiative too, and it'll. 00:53:21
Time to get those flags up and are bunting up and all the stuff on the bridge before we know it. So yeah, that's exciting. 00:53:28
Thank you, Brett. And I love the Anaconda perspective. That's really great. Yeah, that was a good threat. Bob's also working, 00:53:34
maybe for a future mayoral update. You know he's there. 00:53:38
I think he's funded an addition to the Oak F Gardens back at the around the corner on 3rd St. That's going to be really nice back 00:53:43
there, so they've started work on that. 00:53:48
All right, Councilman Tucker. 00:53:53
Yes. So I have had another meeting with the very small subcommittee about the the old playground and there is progress on that. We 00:53:57
have morphed our ideas as we start looking at some budget things, big ideas turn into realistic ideas and hopefully and so we are 00:54:04
partnering. 00:54:10
With different. 00:54:18
Organizations. 00:54:22
The community, oh calf, we're trying to reach out to Wendy and to get some ideas with the art aspect. So I'm just excited to see 00:54:24
that continuing to move forward. There will be progress, I promise. And then also this Friday there are popsicles. At what time is 00:54:31
it 4:00, four to six. And that's at our the new playground. 00:54:39
All right, Popsicles and playground. And I did. I've neglected to mention it. Thank Sharon and the staff for putting up the signs. 00:54:48
And here shows Part 2, I think that's really nice that people do know. 00:54:52
What's coming in here? Shells Park now when you visit? It's not as much of A mystery. 00:54:56
How big are the signs sharing 4 by 6? I mean, they're pretty. 00:55:01
What? 00:55:05
4 feet four by three, three different signs in Hair Shoals Park that kind of say hey, you know. 00:55:06
Yeah, progress is being made. Here's what's coming in and they have AQR code if you want to look at the have a direct link to the 00:55:12
plan so people can see that. Also, this is just community related. Tomorrow, the Oconee Chamber is having their summer fest from 00:55:20
3:00 to 6:00 at the Civic Center and a lot of local businesses will be there. And it's not just for businesses to come. I mean 00:55:27
it's so stinking hot outside, like it'll be air conditioned and there are a lot of giveaways and food and drinks. 00:55:34
So come wander around. Bring your kids. 00:55:41
So tomorrow, 3:00 to 6:00 at the Civic Center, and I'm in the way back. 00:55:46
All right. And Councilman Campbell. 00:55:52
Nothing. 00:55:54
All right. 00:55:56
All right. Well, that's what we have. Do we have any need for executive session tonight? 00:55:58
All right. We have no executive session. 00:56:03
So hearing that we. 00:56:06
I'm looking at Manager Dickerson, attorney, REIT. 00:56:09
Chairman Daniel, is there anything, anything else we need to discuss tonight? Yeah. 00:56:13
We have a motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? 00:56:20
All right, Jeff. Got the second. All in favor, say aye, we're out of here. All right. 00:56:23
I'm done. 00:56:29
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Welcome to the Watkinsville June City Council meeting. Excited to see all of our guests here tonight. We. 00:00:00
Have a full quorum here. Thank you, City Council and staff, for being here tonight. If we could, let's all stand for the Pledge of 00:00:07
Allegiance. 00:00:10
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:16
indivisible, with liberty and justice. 00:00:22
All right, this meeting is being broadcast online. As usual, we'll apply our typical public. 00:00:36
Public meeting rules tonight. As I've said before, we're tend to be a little less formal than some other bodies. If you have 00:00:42
something you want to say, raise your hand and we'll welcome you up to the podium at the Council's discretion. There are certain 00:00:47
parts in the meeting where there are public hearings and the attorney arrival indicate when those parts occur. When there is 00:00:53
formal public comment, The ability to comment is at the discretion of the Council and Council alone and the attorney. And when you 00:00:59
do talk, please address the council. 00:01:04
The council meeting notice and minutes and previous minutes and agendas all posted one week before the meeting. 00:01:12
To allow the public come time to provide comments in writing to the clerk if they're unable to attend in person, we broadcast 00:01:18
online with Suite 1, which does not have interactive capabilities but provides a lot of other advantages. All right, first up on 00:01:25
the agenda, approval of minutes. We had our very long public hearing on the proposed mileage rate at lunchtime on May 18th. If 00:01:31
anybody cares to make a motion regarding those minutes, I would appreciate it. 00:01:38
Would love a motion to approve those. 00:01:49
All right. Do we have a second? 00:01:52
All in favor? Say aye. All right. Next is our minutes for our regular meeting. I did provide one. 00:01:54
Minor edit on those, but I think that's probably in the latest version that's been posted. Were there any other edits or 00:02:03
corrections to the minutes from the May 18th regular meeting? 00:02:07
Hearing none, do we have a motion. 00:02:14
Make a motion to approve the minutes from last month's meeting. We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:02:15
Any discussion? Hearing? None. All in favor, say aye. Motion carries 5 O on the agenda. 00:02:22
This is the time. Note that we will just approve consent unless anybody asks for consent to come off. We do have two changes, 00:02:30
three changes that I would request. One is we need to add under new business the adoption of the certification for lost 00:02:35
distribution. 00:02:39
OK. So that would come. That would be our new item. 00:02:45
13 AI Guess We'll Call. 00:02:49
OK. I would also ask that we add as item number 17 discussion of our July meeting date. 00:02:52
And I would ask to remove table. 00:03:05
Item. 00:03:11
Hotel, motel, excise tax managers going to continue to do a little bit of refining on that ordinance, so. 00:03:14
Those would be my suggestions. Are there any? 00:03:21
Requests or suggestions on the agenda. 00:03:23
Hearing none, then if someone could make a motion to approve the agenda with the changes as outlined. 00:03:28
I make a motion to approve the agenda with the changes as. 00:03:33
We have a motion. We have a second Any further discussion, all in favor, say aye. 00:03:38
Motion carries 5. 00:03:43
All right, we will move on to administration. My previously covered public public input, so I won't do that again. 00:03:46
First thing under administration, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Mark Novak. Mark, thanks for joining us. 00:03:53
Step up here. I don't know that you need to talk, but I think it's worthy of standing up if you still feel like it. Mark has made. 00:04:01
A tremendous difference for Watkinsville and his time here, I think you all probably. 00:04:08
We decided. 00:04:12
Earlier this year, Late last year, actually, to get more intentional about the appearance of the city and its beautification Mark 00:04:15
has a deep background. 00:04:18
Plants, horticulture, plant sciences and has made a huge difference already for Watkinsville and Mark. I've just whether it's the 00:04:22
work around the Simonton, the bridge on Harden Hill where you've planted. 00:04:28
Help knock our weed bed down and plant some natives there and that looks really great. Can't wait to see how that evolves. 00:04:35
Behind City Hall, if anybody's walked there and seeing the sidewalk and the work that's done there, we remove some old plants 00:04:41
around City Hall, you know, where we used to run into. 00:04:45
You know, I don't think people knew what was a rose and what was a weed. And thankfully Mark does the Crepe Myrtles that got crepe 00:04:49
murdered a few years ago. Mark is helping to avoid any crepe murdering in Watkinsville. 00:04:55
Find the culprits. All right so so Chief and Mark together preventing preventing tree murders in Watkinsville. So and more to come 00:05:01
in terms of downtown beautification in terms of other efforts. And Mark, we know it. We know it's hot. We know you guys are 00:05:07
working hard, but we just want to take a minute, especially as we get going in. Harris Shoals to thank you for. 00:05:14
What you're doing to beautify Watkinsville and to make a pretty awesome first impression And as we get a little further down the 00:05:20
road with our entrance signs and some of these other things, we know you're going to have an opportunity to make an even bigger 00:05:24
impact, so. 00:05:28
I just want to say thank you and if anybody on Council has anything to say, jump in. 00:05:33
I mean, there's obviously more to come, so I'm glad. 00:05:39
What we can believe so far, you know, has been noticed that definitely. 00:05:44
Funding comes from here the. 00:05:49
Time when it comes from here and my supervisor is not here, they'll be spending. 00:05:52
You know, let me focus on some of these projects, so. 00:05:57
The heat puts us on a little bit of hiatus. Seeing what's happening, we're just trying to keep things alive. 00:06:04
One of my favorite things was the article in the Enterprise, where I guess was it Jane, Bath, Christine, I don't know if you 00:06:18
helped connect her to Mark and she had some concerns about the banks and. 00:06:22
Harris Shoals Park and how we were taking care of the Creek and to have an expert on staff to be able to walk down with her and 00:06:27
really go through the. 00:06:30
The plant life and what we're doing down there was super helpful. 00:06:35
Relief to not have to start at step one and just be able to, you know, jump to 10:00 and 11:00. 00:06:39
Express their concerns about, you know, what was. 00:06:45
One week. 00:06:50
It. 00:06:51
It's nice to be clean up some. 00:06:54
Thank you. Well, thank you, Mark. We appreciate you. 00:07:01
All right. Up next, Financial Reports manager Dickerson. 00:07:06
So you should have the revenues and expenditures and the balance sheet there. Any questions on that, please let me know. 00:07:14
I'll walk through a couple. 00:07:22
Project funds lost. One may recall this money and some of the money is lost to is set aside for the sewer line a project. 00:07:24
A little bit more than $248,000 in plus. 00:07:32
And a little bit more than $900,000 in splost to. 00:07:35
The recreational park money, we actually did that, although it did not clear, we did issue a check into possession of. 00:07:39
Miracle League, I'm sorry, The playground in the Miracle League complex. So that is now officially the city of Watkinsville and we 00:07:47
issued the check for $440,000 for that. 00:07:52
We'll talk a little bit more about SPLOST 2 because I'm going to be actually the under the consent agenda you guys had. I I asked 00:08:00
you to consider using some of the money's lost to to deal with the sidewalk. So that's what and we won't talk about it if you 00:08:05
don't have a question. 00:08:11
Splice 3. We have We're trending about $9000. Let's see 7. 00:08:16
About $7000 more a month than what we projected. And that money? Right now, the encumbrances are mainly for the Hair Shoals Park. 00:08:23
Master plan work that's going on, we have some encumbrances for public safety equipment that was that was done through the fiscal 00:08:33
year 22 budget. 00:08:37
But we're right now we're sitting at about $52,000 more than what we projected or have sort of planned to use. There will be a 00:08:41
request tonight under I think it's item. 00:08:45
15/16/17 somewhere back there about Blail Lane where we're going to ask that you do some of that extra money get. 00:08:50
Distributed for that purpose. So there's your comparison report. 00:08:58
You'll see we're monthly average around 71, eight. 00:09:02
Which is, like I said, about $7000 more than what we. 00:09:07
The ARP, which is always a fun little report to give them. Have to figure out a better way to do this because we're just going to. 00:09:11
It's going to keep getting longer and longer, but. 00:09:14
For right. 00:09:18
Most of that money has. 00:09:19
Has been appropriated for essential employees. Public safety personnel are. 00:09:22
Our retention bonus for the police officers that we're trying to bring on board and keep for you know three years at least there 00:09:27
is still a as you see there's still 170 one $172,000 that's been non appropriated for. 00:09:35
Pretty much anything you guys want to do with it at this point because we you elected to. 00:09:43
Take the US Treasury up on. 00:09:49
Electing to use that money for General Services or for the general fund. So that money is still sitting there. There are some 00:09:52
funds. 00:09:56
That we expect will probably that are encumbered, that may not stay encumbered. So we'll talk about that. 00:10:00
Probably next month or so, we're going to wait and see how the fiscal year ends and whatnot. 00:10:07
You didn't come. We didn't come for money for the Police Department. We're not going to need all of that. So some of that's going 00:10:12
to come back into that balance. So we'll hopefully have that figured out next month or the August meeting for sure. 00:10:17
Just a reminder about the budget process, we are in our final day of that public hearing on the mileage rate and the budget 00:10:24
tonight. 00:10:28
Spent. 00:10:33
Had this out, you know, since the 1st of April. The mayor and I've been working on, my Staffs been working on since just the first 00:10:34
of the year. So a lot of time put into this, hopefully we can answer. 00:10:39
Questions that may still remain flavored this evening when we get to that point. 00:10:45
Any questions about that? 00:10:49
I don't know what happened. 00:10:54
There. 00:10:55
If not, I will move to business licenses. 00:10:57
Economic development. 00:11:00
So I still have occupation taxes coming in 29 business licenses in the month of May. 00:11:04
And on the building permit side, we had 18 building permits with 12 projects, quite a few over at the Wire Park. 00:11:11
Some along S part Shoals. 00:11:17
Not anything terribly exciting, but I mean, you know, there's stuff going on, so it's been busy. 00:11:22
Any. 00:11:27
Mr. Chief. 00:11:32
Make sure our audience can. 00:11:45
Good evening, Mayor and Council. It's always pleasure to be here for you this evening. 00:11:52
I submitted my report for the month of June last week. Are there any questions specific to any of the council members? 00:11:56
Seeing none and hearing none. Well, I have some highlights I want to highlight for you. 00:12:08
You know, y'all allowed us to buy a variable message sign last year. Through budget we could have that sign. I have deployed it 00:12:15
now on Hardin Hill in two directions as now as well as VFW. 00:12:21
In two directions, and the VFW data is in this report. 00:12:28
Tonight. 00:12:31
And I'm very happy with the results that I was seeing from those those audits. 00:12:33
I have since deployed it to. 00:12:39
Location. 00:12:43
Adj. 00:12:44
Councilmember Massey's. 00:12:46
Entertaining her and her neighbors. 00:12:48
Interestingly. 00:12:52
Umm. 00:12:54
So last week's data from. 00:12:55
From the sign that you have in the report today was showing a 85th percentile of 39 mph. 00:12:58
The sign was deployed on. 00:13:06
And since that. 00:13:10
The speed has dropped from 39 mph to 38. 00:13:12
At. 00:13:16
That reports coming into town. 00:13:18
So I know it's not a significant decrease. 00:13:20
They're aware that it's there now, and it's bringing bringing a decline in the 85th percentile. As a reminder, 85th percentile is. 00:13:23
Is the engineering standard that's used to determine the speed on the roadways, and basically what it means is that. 00:13:32
The 8085% of the cars that travel through that particular position are traveling at that speed or lower so. 00:13:38
As of today, I pulled the report this afternoon. As of today, they're at 38 or less going through that on an 85th average. 00:13:46
At the VMS sign. This is even more, more better. 00:13:55
At the VMS location located at Councilmember Massey's house. 00:14:00
It's at 30. 00:14:04
We're starting to see a Dec. 00:14:07
In that 85th percentile through that particular area, so that's good. I've also directed. 00:14:09
Since my staffing has increased with part time employment as well as some full time employ. 00:14:16
I have directed those officers to be a bit more focused in that area as well and they've they've spent a bit of time over there 00:14:22
trying. 00:14:26
Reduce the speeds of the. 00:14:31
They spent a couple hours over there the other morning, wrote 24 tickets. 00:14:34
24. 00:14:39
Between between two officers working. 00:14:40
And every one of them were 15 plus over the speed. 00:14:44
So they're they're righteously getting stopped and ticketed. 00:14:48
What was the time interval? How long did it take him to do 24? 00:14:53
About an hour and a half on Sunday morning. No, it was not on Sunday. 00:14:57
So anybody got caught in that? 00:15:02
The VFW data shows an eastbound 85th percentile of 30 mph. It posted speed. There's 25. The westbound is at 29 mph. 00:15:08
The South Main Street sign, which is also very exciting because I have a lot of complaints over there and it seems like there's a 00:15:20
council member Garrett lives there. 00:15:25
It's at 38, so it's 3 miles over the posted speed limit 35. So that's that's that's good. It's not it's not as severe as what some 00:15:31
would let you believe. 00:15:35
To be there, that's. 00:15:40
And then Greensboro Highway, which is a inbound recent complaint came in about signage there. 00:15:44
I'd like to note that it's 45 miles an hour through there. The 85th percentile is 50 mph at that particular location. That's 00:15:51
that's very good, excellent, excellent data. 00:15:57
We do have some new employees. I've taken on a Sergeant. 00:16:06
Madison County, who is full time with Madison County. Mark Goodman. He's working for us part time. 00:16:10
William Charles who is a 31 year retired. 00:16:16
Atlanta Police Department officer. He is working for us part time Allen Chris, who formerly worked for Oglethorpe County. 00:16:19
Now works for us full time. 00:16:27
Today is his first day working for us as a full time officer he enjoyed. 00:16:29
Working for the. 00:16:35
Agency so much he he decided he was going to leave the Sheriff's Office, policing at the Sheriff's Office and policing at a 00:16:38
municipal agencies. Two different things and he likes the way we do things over here. So he's he's here with us now. 00:16:43
Ryan England is set to graduate Georgia Public Safety Training Center, Athens Academy next Friday, June 24th at One PMI. Would 00:16:49
love to see each and everyone of you there if you can make it at the Classic Center. 00:16:54
His family is very excited. 00:17:00
Yesterday was the first time in 23 years I've received an invitation to a graduation ceremony that I helped Commission, so. 00:17:04
They're they're very excited, and I'm excited about that as well. Rachel Sterns is on track to graduate Piedmont Technical College 00:17:13
Police Academy July 29th, and she begins her firearm training at the end of next week. 00:17:19
Which we don't see any potential problems with that and I've got one employee that is current or one one candidate that is 00:17:27
currently being worked. 00:17:31
Invented to be included in the August Academy at. 00:17:36
So we're we're steadily working diligently to close the gap on the vacancies and and staff out the way we need to be. 00:17:40
So we can provide the quality service that we need to provide. 00:17:49
On the L. 00:17:53
Yep. 00:17:57
Currently, there are 243 expired citations that have been issued and submitted via mail to the violators. 00:17:58
We're starting already to receive payments for those we have not. Question is they'll they'll cut us a check at some point later 00:18:06
in the future. 00:18:10
Again, that's not the primary purpose of. 00:18:16
Readers, but they're proving to be very beneficial in identifying. 00:18:19
The the large quantity of people that like to drive around with no tag registered, so. 00:18:24
It's a very been a very interesting experience. 00:18:30
We're working on placing a link on the city's website so that violators can go click that link and go to the website. 00:18:35
Quest to pay their citation. If you get any questions about that, it is coming out of Utah. That's where the quest is located on 00:18:42
the key. 00:18:46
So it is. You know, one of the questions is this a real ticket? Why is it in Utah? 00:18:52
Umm. 00:18:58
Chair Chief, can you share an example of how that helps? 00:19:00
We were able to use the system to positively identify a vehicle that was involved in a animal abuse case. 00:19:05
In fact, when we pulled the image from the car. 00:19:12
We actually captured the abuse. 00:19:16
Which ultimately ended up not really being. 00:19:19
It was an accident that was just unfortunate. 00:19:22
Is my understanding the animal control is is is going to look at pursuing charges but you know that that's a whole other bottle of 00:19:27
wax but. 00:19:30
Very good that we were able to use that data to positively identify the the owners of that vehicle. 00:19:36
The other things going on, we've recently had an officer who recovered a shoulder mounted modified Glock from a vehicle after an 00:19:43
arrest. 00:19:46
That weapon was located very right next to the driver of the vehicle that was removed. 00:19:50
And this officer at that particular point in time was by themselves. 00:19:57
So the danger is very real. It's. 00:20:00
Just kind of. 00:20:03
Watkins Hills, Not, you know, May. 00:20:08
And last Sunday we have a single vehicle car traffic crash that. 00:20:12
Unfortunately took the life of a 80 year old pass. 00:20:16
Who died at the hospital from her. 00:20:20
Purely an accident. Wheels dropped off the roadway and down into a ditch. 00:20:23
The occupant was not belted in. 00:20:28
So. 00:20:31
And. 00:20:32
That's pretty much it for us. 00:20:33
Any questions? 00:20:35
Was that accident across from the post office? No, that was actually, that was actually a learning driver who lost control of 00:20:41
their vehicle coming out of the parking lot because I was thinking that. 00:20:46
No interest, no interest is staying there. 00:20:50
Any other questions for chief? 00:20:57
Chief, thank you and I'll thank you again. I think I do this every month, but I think it goes without saying we have a lot of 00:21:00
people who complain about speed and Watkinsville and IT. I think it helps all of us when we have data that we can share. There's 00:21:05
always going to be somebody who's driving faster than we want them to, but if. 00:21:09
You know, 85% of people are driving that close to the speed limit then that's meaningful progress. We appreciate it. I didn't, I 00:21:14
didn't highlight this but I did have a sit down meeting and coffee with a citizen here in town and. 00:21:20
Was delightfully able to enlighten them. 00:21:27
Things that they didn't understand. 00:21:30
And left them with a better feeling about what we're doing here as far as the Police Department as well as the council. 00:21:32
So that was a good return. 00:21:39
All right. Thank you for doing that. 00:21:42
All right. We'll move on to the consent agenda. 00:21:47
I'll accept a motion to motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:21:50
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:21:56
Do we have? 00:21:59
I'll second. 00:22:00
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor, say aye. 00:22:02
All right, motion carries 5 O. All right, we're going to move into a public hearing. The public hearing means anybody who wishes 00:22:07
to be heard can be recognized when they come up to the podium. And you'll speak from the podium 4 minutes per person. 00:22:15
No debate, Argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant. Discussion. You'll address the merits related to the pending matter. The 00:22:23
item that we have on, we have two items on. 00:22:27
For public hearing tonight, the 1st is public input on the 2022 property Tax mileage rate manager Dickerson. If you want to give 00:22:33
an overview of that please. 00:22:38
Thank you, Mayor. So the council has proposed through the budget that the mileage rate will stay the same. Of course the digest is 00:22:47
increasing. And so that we do see, even though the military is staying the same, we do see an increase of about $67,000. 00:22:54
Remind everybody that had you not rolled it back last year, you would have seen about 30,000. So potentially you would have seen 00:23:02
the other 30,000 this year. So I mean you're just seeing it all in one year instead of. 00:23:08
One thing to note, I think we put in the ad and we've had all of the required ads, but we've had people ask about, you know, what 00:23:15
does this mean? And technically in the ad we have a $200,000 house. Maybe that's not realistic for Watkinsville anymore, but if 00:23:21
you had a $350,000 house and it was assessed at 40%, your assessment value be 140,000, your mileage would be $2.08 per $1000 00:23:28
assessed, which works out to $291.34 in city tax. 00:23:35
As a comparison. 00:23:43
The city pays $19.82 a month for garbage and leaf and limb, which equals $237.84. So you're basically paying tax and you're 00:23:45
getting a deal because you're you're all, you know, we're collecting revenues to cover all the rest of the services we provide 00:23:52
within the city, but as the citizens are essentially paying for garbage, you know with their taxes, so in the city, so. 00:23:59
Any questions about? 00:24:06
I guess there's not anybody here. 00:24:08
All right, we are in a public hearing. 00:24:11
Would anyone want to come forward and speak about the military? 00:24:14
Kirkland Did we receive any comments online? 00:24:18
No, Sir. All right. We received no comments online. I'm not seeing a Stampede for the podium. So I'm going to close that public 00:24:21
hearing and we will move on to the next one, which is public input on the proposed fiscal year 2023 capital and operating budget 00:24:26
manager Dickerson, if you'd give us an overview of the budget, please. 00:24:32
Sure. So as I mentioned earlier, we've been working on this since the first of the year, the mayor and I since April. We've had a 00:24:39
work session and two other meetings with you all about this. 00:24:44
There have been a couple of changes since the last meeting. 00:24:51
That I did send and they are uploaded as the the emails that I sent out have been uploaded for the public to see as well. But 00:24:56
since the 5:18 meeting there were two changes. 00:25:00
The first change had to do with you may recall that in the revenues, I was being pretty conservative on our revenues and I went 00:25:05
back and looked at those and and actually. 00:25:10
Added we added some money for the alcohol beverage excise tax and we also went back and at that time we thought we'd be closer to 00:25:18
8%. So we changed the the loss to 8% the first six months being 8.637%. 00:25:26
And so those are the 2 I did, I did go back to the budget. I I feel like we're we're pretty pretty tight on our budget especially 00:25:35
because we've got you know consumer price index on things are going is going up. 00:25:40
Inflation, the cost of gas alone is going to, you know, hit hard. But I think we're pretty good on that. I didn't see where we 00:25:46
could trim anymore on that. On the 8th, I followed up after the mayor had negotiated with Chairman Daniel with Oconee County and 00:25:51
settled. 00:25:56
On what we hope will be the local option sales tax distribution for the city at 7.77%. So I went back into the budget and adjusted 00:26:02
the revenues for that. So we are now officially with the expenses staying the same as what you already knew, we are now looking at 00:26:10
a deficit of 133,859 versus the 210, which is what we expected initially. 00:26:17
So those are the changes that have occurred since the 18th meeting. 00:26:26
All right, Council, you've heard the report. We're in a public hearing now. Would any member of the public want to come forward 00:26:31
and discuss the budget? 00:26:34
In court client, have we received any comments? 00:26:39
Yes, Sir. All right. We have no comments online. 00:26:42
Last call. 00:26:45
All right. I don't see anybody. We'll close the public hearing and I think we adopt A budget later on. Correct, Sharon. OK. So 00:26:47
public hearings are now closed. We'll move on to our appearances we have. 00:26:53
Consideration of beer, wine pouring and brewery license application for South Main Brewing. I see Stanton Porter here with us 00:26:59
tonight. Welcome Court Klein. If you want to give us a report on the status of the license application, please. 00:27:05
Yes, Sir. We have received all the documentation for this application. We have the sign off from the Police Department on all the 00:27:11
applicants. So all the fingerprinting things were taken care of and the only thing that we are waiting for is the letter of credit 00:27:18
from Phillip Bernardi, of which I've already been in contact with him. I do not anticipate. I probably have it tomorrow. So I do 00:27:25
not see any issues with the application. OK. Mr. Porter, do you have anything you want to add? 00:27:32
I'll be real brief against Stanton Porter name. Appreciate you know having us back here, was here just a few months ago at the 00:27:43
ordinance time, an initial application just so everyone sort of knows where South Main is right now. 00:27:49
Pence was here in February. We the sort of brewery processes to apply for this federal permit. We received that in April. 00:27:56
And so, sort of oddly, the next step is you actually get the local permit first before going to. 00:28:04
To get the state permitted every every level is there's a permit there on. 00:28:10
It's been great working with City on on going through this application. Think everything is in order. 00:28:14
It is two things that we're actually applying for. One is the permit for the brewery itself, so that this permit to brew the beer 00:28:22
and then actually have to have a separate permit which is on the same application to to serve the beer there in the brewery. 00:28:27
So we are asking for both of those permits or licenses and the only thing that is sort of outstanding is there's a bond that's 00:28:34
required I guess in place in case taxes weren't paid and several other options is $3500. 00:28:40
One of the options is to do a line of credit with Oconee State Bank and that's what we've done. And so just as soon as that 00:28:49
paperwork should be in probably tomorrow, I just verifying that that letter of credit or line of credit there versus actually just 00:28:54
putting up the the extra $3500 that that sits there as a bond as a bond. But I'm happy to answer any questions any of you have 00:29:00
about the the process itself our sort of hope after this is once we have. 00:29:05
The local license is to apply for. 00:29:12
Constructions ongoing over at Wire Park, on the brewery itself, they're working hard. I know they were working real hard today, 00:29:15
hoping maybe for some time in August is a potential opening date. Of course there's a lot of variables there on materials and and 00:29:21
things in place, but certainly happy to answer any questions that anybody may have. 00:29:28
All right. Exciting progress. Any questions for Mr. Porter? 00:29:37
You have a great name for a guy representing representing a brewery, Mr. Porter. So Joe, can we do this as one motion for both the 00:29:42
pouring and the brewery license applications or do we need to have separate motions on this line with you consolidating as long as 00:29:48
it's clear and with the contingency? 00:29:54
That is subject to the letter of credit they received within some reasonable time, seven days or whatever y'all wish to impose. 00:30:00
All right, then, I'll entertain a motion for. 00:30:07
Regarding the beer and wine pouring license and the brewery license application for South Main contingent upon. 00:30:10
Receipt of the letter of credit within the next 7 business days. 00:30:16
So moved. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:30:22
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:30:26
All right. All in favor. Say aye. Opposed. 00:30:30
All right, Motion carries 4. 00:30:34
Thank you, Mr. Porter. 00:30:36
All right. We have tabled item 12 under old business, so we will move on to new business. 00:30:39
We first item is to adopt an excise tax on distilled spirits by the drink attorney, Reitman, manager Dickerson. I think one of you 00:30:47
is going to offer a report on that. 00:30:51
Right, this is pretty straightforward boilerplate, and if you want to take handle the details, share. And I did not draft this 00:30:56
document, she did. 00:31:00
There's not much detail. If you look at the document, it's basically just establishing a levy for 3% on the charge to the public 00:31:05
for each beverage sold. 00:31:10
I don't know what year that. Let's see, is it 2019? I think the Nope, it's not 2019. I'll set it back the county established one 00:31:16
but I don't have the year. I don't know if the chairman happens to maybe in 2016 or 2020. 00:31:21
Anyway, there's two uphold your ordinance. But the city doesn't have one, and so we felt like perhaps it'd be a good thing to do 00:31:27
it so. 00:31:31
Brought it before. 00:31:35
We have. 00:31:40
Questions for the manager or for the attorney on. 00:31:41
If not, I'm happy to entertain a motion. 00:31:45
I'll make a motion that we adopt the excise tax on the sealed spirits by the drink. 00:31:52
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:31:58
All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:32:02
Motion carries. 00:32:05
All right. 13 A, you have a piece of paper in front of you related to lost and what we need to do. I think I've mentioned to 00:32:07
several of you guys that we engage with the county on discussions around our percentage of the local option sales tax. I think 00:32:15
you've all been briefed on that. What you have before you is a resolution that would officially. 00:32:22
Make that official. This would last through the 2030 census, whenever that's completed, and then you have the certificate of 00:32:30
distribution provided by Chairman Daniel at the back. 00:32:35
After extensive discussion with Chairman Daniel with staff with several of you. 00:32:40
It was determined that the 777 distribution. 00:32:45
Was was a place that we could handle landing and then it was. 00:32:50
To be blunt, it just wasn't wasn't really worth the time and energy to carry on, given the uncertainty around how that process 00:32:57
would play out. 00:33:00
So I would. 00:33:04
Happy to answer any questions. 00:33:07
Lost Chairman Daniels here as well if we need to discuss it. If not, we can move towards a motion to approve. I'll just point out 00:33:09
to you that. 00:33:13
Based on the discussion that this tax will not begin until January 1st, 2023, it doesn't, doesn't begin the minute you know this 00:33:18
is approved by them, it will, it will roll over in January. So we'll have half a year at our current distribution amount and then 00:33:25
777 kicks And the other thing is that all parties agreed that the 777 would be our percentage on subsequent Sloss. 00:33:32
And if tea spots is proposed and passed that, that's also a percentage of tea spots. So we're not getting back into the population 00:33:40
percentage on those conversations. This will be our percentage on those those as well. 00:33:46
Any quest? 00:33:59
I'm hesitating. 00:34:06
It's one of those questions that I know so little that I might be just muddying the water. OK, but. 00:34:08
I heard rumblings of talks. 00:34:16
Basically with Costco and the. 00:34:19
Did we get the full 7.77 on the Costco? 00:34:23
Does that make sense what I'm asking? 00:34:29
The bond is is the chairman of non negotiated. There were several other matters that entered into the discussion. 00:34:32
Depending on the percentage that we were you know and so one of the things that came up was OK was their commitment to Costco and 00:34:37
the the the commitment that the counties made to offset some of the infrastructure for Costco. We discussed some of the 00:34:44
commitments we've made to projects in the city as well had an amiable conversation you know around OK we're we're working on our 00:34:50
stuff. They're working on their stuff but none of us our stuff and their stuff, right. It's all. 00:34:56
The county's projects, right. So we're benefiting from them in different ways. We're going to benefit from Wire Park in a lot of 00:35:02
ways and we were kicking a lot of money over to make that happen. The industrial area as well, the county we're going to benefit 00:35:07
from Costco as will be county. We're not contributing to that. The level that John and the county, the county is out of their 00:35:12
budget, so. So there were several things. 00:35:17
That went into that we talked about. We talked about other options that would. 00:35:23
Raise the amount. We spent a tremendous amount of time on it. At the end of the day, you know, just. 00:35:28
You know, it made sense to land where we landed. We can offline about it or we can talk about it now, whatever you think is best. 00:35:34
So yeah. 00:35:38
All right, anybody willing to make a motion 13A? This is local option sales tax. We need a motion to. 00:35:49
Approve the resolution to accept the certificate for distribution for the local option sales tax. 00:35:55
Don't everybody go at once. This might be a Chuck Garrett. I mean, we're this far down and my regular volunteers are saying 00:36:05
anything. 00:36:08
I'll make a motion as stated. 00:36:12
All right. So we have a motion to adopt the resolution. All right. Do we have a second? 00:36:14
All right, we have a second from Councilman Campbell. Any further discussion? 00:36:19
They're so quiet tonight. Nobody. The excitement is palpable. I think the heats want everybody out tonight. All right, we have a 00:36:28
motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:36:33
All in favor, say aye, any. 00:36:39
Like sign hearing none motion carries 50 All right resolution and adoption. We're going to move on to property tax mileage rate. 00:36:42
We talked about this earlier. At this point we had the public hearing. We had the briefing from the manager. Do we have a motion 00:36:50
regarding the property tax, mileage rate or does anybody want to have any further discussion on this? 00:36:55
I make a. 00:37:05
To. 00:37:08
Mile. 00:37:09
All right, so we have a motion to adopt the mileage rate 2.081. Do we have a second? 00:37:11
2nd. 00:37:16
All right. I'm going to give that to Garrett. So we have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion, all in favor, say 00:37:17
aye, any opposed? 00:37:22
Motion carries 50. We'll move on to the budget. 00:37:26
Again, we had the work sessions. We've worked on this. The manager has briefed us again tonight. She's refined the numbers. The 00:37:29
fund balance poll is not what it was. We're thankful for that and we're hopeful that over the course of the year it won't be as 00:37:33
much. 00:37:37
We anticipate. 00:37:42
And certainly don't hope to do that in future years, but unless there's a need for any further discussion or questions of the 00:37:43
manager, I'll have a motion on the budget please. 00:37:47
I make a motion that we. 00:37:54
This is for passing. 00:37:58
Yes, we adopt the budget. 00:38:00
Is that the language that we need for a very fancy language that including the resolution, has presented with all exhibits 00:38:03
reference? 00:38:07
Does that clarify? So moved. I'll second. All right, we got that Cork. I know this is important. OK. So we've approved the budget, 00:38:12
the resolution with all exhibits. OK. We have a motion. We have a second, Mr. Thomas, I think. All right, So we have a motion. We 00:38:18
have a second. Any further discussion? 00:38:23
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:38:30
Budget passes. 00:38:34
We will move on to Layla Lane. Looking good. I drove by there today, so. 00:38:36
Manager Dickerson, if you want to offer a report on that please. 00:38:43
Sure. So First off what we're going to we're asking for is there were some emergency work done on Layla Lane by Oconee County 00:38:47
asking you to appropriate a little bit more than $45,000 to cover those expenses. 00:38:53
I'll talk a little bit about. I'll show you some pictures first. You may recall there was a stormwater pipe going underneath that 00:39:01
road. 00:39:04
We came available. It became apparent during the the resurfacing of that road that there was an issue, but what we did not realize 00:39:08
the significance of that issue until afterward and so the county. 00:39:14
Let me just go through the report. So basically. 00:39:21
The county was able to come in and help us. We had a private contractor that estimated almost twice as much of what the county 00:39:25
said it was going to cost to do it and a much longer time frame to get to it. We had a very short window to. 00:39:31
That contractor up on it. And so we were fortunate to be able to work things out with the county. 00:39:37
Where because it was an emergency issue, it allowed me as as the manager. 00:39:43
To. 00:39:49
Work through the emergency and not go through normal process. I did consult with the mayor, the Council transportation committee, 00:39:49
which involved council members Garrett and Thomas. 00:39:54
Our engineer and our Public Works supervisor to identify and try to figure out the best way to address this. As I said, the 00:40:00
initial estimate was about 83,000 from the private contractor. We reached out to the county and their County Road department who 00:40:06
did do this a lot and they came in much lower with the cost of the work along with removing some trees and an estimated $7500 00:40:13
resurfacing patch by Garrett. Since they did the initial work, we want to go back to them. We're looking at about $45,000 needing 00:40:20
$45,000 to finish this project. 00:40:26
The we. 00:40:34
19 A little bit more than $19,000 in ELMIG. That's a local maintenance improvement grant funds which can be used. I did provide in 00:40:36
the report You can. 00:40:40
This money on a whole bunch of different infrastructure. 00:40:45
Issues such as replacing storm drain pipes and paving, which leaves us with needing about $25,000. I didn't put it on the on the 00:40:48
slide, normally I put the projects, but you may recall that when we did the Splash 3 when you budgeted for Spouse 3 for the 00:40:54
referendum, you. 00:41:00
You determined a certain certain amounts for different categories, the roads and parks and government buildings. And then 00:41:08
underneath that you went ahead and started sort of drafting out ideas of what you need the money for. And some of that money was 00:41:14
for ELMIG matches. Each year we overestimated the matches. So I think the easiest thing to do for for me, and there is money in 00:41:20
the account for for certain, there's already money over what we projected in SPLOST 3, but my request would be that we that I 00:41:26
shaved those, I shave each of those. 00:41:32
I'll make future project matches down by about $5000 apiece, which will give me the $20,000 along with the balance that we have in 00:41:38
the LMG, which will give me more than a little bit more than $26,000 to pay for this project. So I I can adjust our spreadsheet 00:41:44
that we keep all the detail on in case anybody ever audits us on it wants to see how we spent the money. But I think that's an 00:41:50
easy way to to pay for it and I don't think it'll impact any of the future projects. 00:41:56
All right. You heard the report. Any questions for the manager? 00:42:07
Chairman Daniel, thank you to you guys for jumping in and being willing to help us on that. We appreciate it. 00:42:12
Yeah. Do we have any, any, any discussion before we make a motion to approve the? 00:42:17
The funding sources for the Laya Lane Emergency Rd. 00:42:25
Hearing none, I'll entertain. 00:42:31
I'll make a motion to ratify the emergency Rd. 00:42:34
What's already been done? The money for it and yeah. 00:42:38
Yep, Yep. 00:42:42
All. 00:42:45
All right, that was that sounds good. I'll second. All right, Councilman Thomas, we have a motion. We have a second. Any further 00:42:46
discussion of Whale Lane hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. Any opposed? 00:42:51
All right, Motion carries 5. 00:42:57
Public comments Once again, the podium is. 00:42:59
Chairman and the. 00:43:04
Not getting up to speak. 00:43:07
Yeah, there's something after July. 00:43:11
Oh, yeah. Got to do the July day. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, for keeping me straight on there. 00:43:13
So July meeting date, I'm going to be out of town at our regular scheduled meeting in July. I've talked to the Mayor Pro Tem. Her 00:43:17
preference would also be to potentially shift that meeting forward one week. 00:43:23
So I wanted to ask if July 17th. 00:43:29
Would potentially work for 13th, excuse me, July 13th would work. That was item 17, July 13th would potentially work for our. 00:43:33
I know I will not be. I will be at the. 00:43:47
Well. 00:43:51
Holy. 00:43:52
I can tell you that right now, based on the agenda, the only thing that may come up will be the hotel motel. I don't expect any 00:43:57
other big items. There may be some housekeeping if we can get some other things done, but it won't be a it won't be a real long I 00:44:03
don't anticipate unless something comes up that I don't know about. 00:44:08
All right, I know we're losing. Councilman Thomas, How about the rest of you potentially could that work? 00:44:15
OK, Jeff. 00:44:21
All right. So we're in favor of that. I don't know that we need a motion, do we? We can just sort of make a make a charter or code 00:44:23
provision, Let's have a motion. 00:44:27
Then ask for a motion to move the July meeting to 6:30 on July 13th. Please. I make a motion to move the July meeting to 6:30 on 00:44:33
the 13th. 00:44:37
All right. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? All right, motion carries. Thank 00:44:42
you, Chairman. Daniel. 00:44:47
Did I miss anything else? 00:44:51
Yeah. 00:44:57
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:44:57
Will reserve the right, reserve the. 00:44:59
OK. 00:45:02
Yeah. All right. Public comment. We didn't have any. We covered that mayor's report. 00:45:06
With our theme tonight, I'll keep this brief. 00:45:12
I think the big news that everybody saw across the street, we had the. 00:45:15
Across the way, certainly a different view from City City Hall than it used to be with the opening of the Miracle Week ball field 00:45:20
last week. 00:45:24
And there's several of you were there I'd like to thank Councilman Campbell for. 00:45:28
On behalf of the city, we appreciate that was exciting to see Blooper and the Braves. 00:45:31
The trophy there. So Jeff, thanks for stepping in when I had the had the covic, appreciate you doing that. So that's a big moment 00:45:37
for Watkinsville. I don't know if everybody saw this sharing are we able to play it? 00:45:42
Finally, summer means baseball, and there's one league making America's past. 00:45:50
To all and it's inspiring America. 00:45:56
They are the sights and sounds of baseball. 00:45:59
But on this field, the score doesn't matter. Everybody is a winner. I'm just going to try and hit the ball and if the ball gets 00:46:03
hit, I'm just run for my life to 1st place. 00:46:09
Here they have truly leveled the playing field. The New York League is an organization that brings the opportunity for individuals 00:46:15
with special needs the chance to play baseball. This week, a new field opened in Watkinsville, Georgia. Thanks to a partnership 00:46:22
between the Miracle League and the charity Extra Special People. We give them dreams that they didn't even know were possible. 00:46:29
We say yes they can. Kids and adults have all abilities, can play together, the game is modified and every player is assigned a 00:46:37
buddy. Drew is never played in a sport and so for us it means a lot to see him. 00:46:44
Doing something that his friends all do at school. Established in 2000, there are now more than 300 miracle leagues across the 00:46:52
country. 00:46:57
Differences are celebrated. 00:47:04
And in this game, smiles are like grand slams and miracles really do come true. 00:47:08
We knew when we first came around the bend and everyone was cheering for our daughter. 00:47:16
That she was right where she needed to be. 00:47:21
OK. 00:47:30
Taking us back to the old days of audio issues there, so you can't watch that without getting chills. And anyway, I was just 00:47:33
really proud and I think it goes without saying that was a huge community lift. That's not a. 00:47:39
There's an old saying that says it's amazing how much can get done when nobody cares who gets the credit. But I'm going to give 00:47:47
some credit to ESP. I'm going to give some credit to all. Y'all for working really hard to get that done. Credit to John, you and 00:47:53
your team contributing to that. We appreciate y'all weaning in on that. 00:47:58
And then hundreds and hundreds of other people in the community who wrote checks and did so many other things to make that happen. 00:48:04
And frankly, you know somebody, the Enterprise did a great job writing about it this week. I thought, you know that if you look 00:48:09
back, I think it was only seven years ago that. 00:48:14
We worked with ESP to break ground on that new building. 00:48:18
They're Just seven years ago, all there was was a gym and a bus sitting next to A. 00:48:21
You know, under a shelter sitting next to that gym. So it's pretty amazing to see what's happened and. 00:48:26
And that just means a lot for Watkinsville. I think it says a lot about Watkinsville, so so that was exciting to see. 00:48:31
Great news for Oconee County in Watkinsville this week we also had a local business owner featured in Georgia Trend, Jared Reeves 00:48:37
from Certified Clean Care. So continue to see our local entrepreneurs and projects featured in state and national media. So that's 00:48:42
exciting and then thanks to the efforts of the. 00:48:48
The Daughters. The American Revolution. The local chapter. We had a great time recognizing Women veteran's day on June 11th, and 00:48:55
that was it. 00:48:59
That was a special event. I think it's something that will grow over time and all the women. 00:49:04
This is a mix of the members of the DAR and the women veterans, but it was really interesting talking to him. You'll see there in 00:49:08
the middle, short hair, white blouse. That's Mayor Giordani's daughter. 00:49:14
Mayor Giardini was a legendary mayor here in Watkinsville, so it was great to honor Melissa and the other veterans at the event 00:49:20
and to thank them for their service. The young woman sitting to the left was actually a medical nurse in the Korean War. 00:49:28
So she served. She served a long time and her husband was a, he's a retired Navy, naval officer and they've retired to Athens. So 00:49:36
it was really a wonderful group of women and had a great time spending time with him and thanking them for their service. So if 00:49:43
you run into Dory and Steve Brown or anybody from DAR, be sure to thank them for what they do. It was really great. They had 00:49:49
raffles for them. They gave them prizes. Local art really made them feel special. It was a. 00:49:56
One of those days that makes makes the community feel like a community for folks who might not have always lived here. 00:50:03
Sharon, I think that might be all I have. So with that, we will turn it over to turn it over to council members. If you have any 00:50:10
reports, we'll start with post one. Councilman Garrett. 00:50:14
All right, go to pass 2 for Councilman Massey. I don't have a report, but I would like to say I have had several citizens 00:50:21
recently. 00:50:26
Tell me that they are concerned with people not stopping at stop signs. 00:50:31
And one place in particular is Thrasher 3rd and School St. because they go through their lot. 00:50:37
And when I'm on my walk around the ball field, if I see ten cars go by, two, two or three of them might stop. The rest of them 00:50:44
just go through. So I don't know. 00:50:49
What we can do about that, but hopefully something. 00:50:55
And they're also concerned with the parking behind Eagle Tavern with large trucks parking back there and they stick out into the 00:50:58
road, so. 00:51:03
I think we need to think about. 00:51:08
Possibly putting some signs up there that say compact cars only to keep the big trucks from parking and sticking out in the in the 00:51:11
street. So they were concerned about those two two areas and and things. 00:51:17
Chief, think that's something you can take a look at. OK. Thank you. Thank you, Connie. 00:51:25
All right, Councilman Thomas, First, I because my uncle Larry, who we recognized a few months ago, his father was the mayor here 00:51:30
65 years ago. 00:51:35
So Elmer Weatherford was the mayor here when the Anaconda plant opened 65 years ago. So Bob Marable wrote an article in the posted 00:51:42
on Facebook. The article from the paper from 65 years ago and I I tried to share that with my 91 year old uncle. He didn't 00:51:49
understand, so he drove from Conyers to Watkinsville to try to get a a copy of the Enterprise. So I'm working to get a copy of the 00:51:56
Enterprise for my my uncle. 00:52:03
But that's just looking at 65 years ago Anaconda opened and we're completely reinventing Anaconda today. So it's it's just it's 00:52:11
nice to see. And I don't know if y'all have followed the thread that old Bob Marrable for that matter, but there's a pretty good 00:52:17
thread about what the. 00:52:23
What the thoughts were for the citizens of Watkinsville with this new plant because it was something brand new to walk the farm 00:52:29
community and we're bringing this massive plant, but it was well received and I believe we're doing the same thing here in 00:52:36
Wattsville today. So that that was great. Second, I know that I've been very lackluster. 00:52:44
In my social duties, but we do have July 4th coming up, so I. 00:52:52
Would like to ask the citizens who are. 00:52:58
To to try to turn the the town red, white and blue again. I think it was a great turn out last year. 00:53:03
And so let's see if we can't try to get that out there and turn Watkinsville red, white and blue again. 00:53:10
I love that idea, Sharon. Maybe if we could work with Angela to get a press release out and get some social media going on that 00:53:16
kind of like we did last year and have a little fun with it. I think that was a great initiative too, and it'll. 00:53:21
Time to get those flags up and are bunting up and all the stuff on the bridge before we know it. So yeah, that's exciting. 00:53:28
Thank you, Brett. And I love the Anaconda perspective. That's really great. Yeah, that was a good threat. Bob's also working, 00:53:34
maybe for a future mayoral update. You know he's there. 00:53:38
I think he's funded an addition to the Oak F Gardens back at the around the corner on 3rd St. That's going to be really nice back 00:53:43
there, so they've started work on that. 00:53:48
All right, Councilman Tucker. 00:53:53
Yes. So I have had another meeting with the very small subcommittee about the the old playground and there is progress on that. We 00:53:57
have morphed our ideas as we start looking at some budget things, big ideas turn into realistic ideas and hopefully and so we are 00:54:04
partnering. 00:54:10
With different. 00:54:18
Organizations. 00:54:22
The community, oh calf, we're trying to reach out to Wendy and to get some ideas with the art aspect. So I'm just excited to see 00:54:24
that continuing to move forward. There will be progress, I promise. And then also this Friday there are popsicles. At what time is 00:54:31
it 4:00, four to six. And that's at our the new playground. 00:54:39
All right, Popsicles and playground. And I did. I've neglected to mention it. Thank Sharon and the staff for putting up the signs. 00:54:48
And here shows Part 2, I think that's really nice that people do know. 00:54:52
What's coming in here? Shells Park now when you visit? It's not as much of A mystery. 00:54:56
How big are the signs sharing 4 by 6? I mean, they're pretty. 00:55:01
What? 00:55:05
4 feet four by three, three different signs in Hair Shoals Park that kind of say hey, you know. 00:55:06
Yeah, progress is being made. Here's what's coming in and they have AQR code if you want to look at the have a direct link to the 00:55:12
plan so people can see that. Also, this is just community related. Tomorrow, the Oconee Chamber is having their summer fest from 00:55:20
3:00 to 6:00 at the Civic Center and a lot of local businesses will be there. And it's not just for businesses to come. I mean 00:55:27
it's so stinking hot outside, like it'll be air conditioned and there are a lot of giveaways and food and drinks. 00:55:34
So come wander around. Bring your kids. 00:55:41
So tomorrow, 3:00 to 6:00 at the Civic Center, and I'm in the way back. 00:55:46
All right. And Councilman Campbell. 00:55:52
Nothing. 00:55:54
All right. 00:55:56
All right. Well, that's what we have. Do we have any need for executive session tonight? 00:55:58
All right. We have no executive session. 00:56:03
So hearing that we. 00:56:06
I'm looking at Manager Dickerson, attorney, REIT. 00:56:09
Chairman Daniel, is there anything, anything else we need to discuss tonight? Yeah. 00:56:13
We have a motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? 00:56:20
All right, Jeff. Got the second. All in favor, say aye, we're out of here. All right. 00:56:23
I'm done. 00:56:29
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