Transcript

To a pledge in a moment, but we have a quorum here. Glad to have everybody here with us in person and we will do the pledge. 00:00:00
Attorney Reitman, will you lead us in the pledge? 00:00:06
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:13
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:20
All right, this meeting is being broadcast simultaneously online via suite one that's always available. It's also made available 00:00:33
immediately after the meetings to anyone who is not here. Couldn't make it. 00:00:38
And the portal allows the public to view and listen to the meeting in progress, along with reviewing the meeting materials at the 00:00:44
same time and any associated items that we're considering tonight. 00:00:49
The agenda and materials are posted a full week. The agenda is posted a full week before the meeting. 00:00:54
To allow the comment public to provide comments to the clerk in case they have any about agenda items. The items on the agenda are 00:01:01
typically posted between Wednesday and Friday for public review. 00:01:05
I will now turn to approval of the Minutes. I'll entertain a motion to approve the Minutes unless there's any discussion. 00:01:11
I make a motion to approve the Minutes. 00:01:19
Is there a second? We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion of the Minutes. 00:01:22
All in favor, Say aye. 00:01:27
None opposed the motion car. 00:01:29
All right. We have approval of the agenda. Next, we do have a few small, small changes. Item 2A, we have some special guests here 00:01:32
tonight. So I want to add employee recognition for Drayton Criswell and Alex Zaragoza. Excuse me, Alex, our new public works 00:01:37
department employees. More about them in a moment. 00:01:43
We're removing item 7. That's the concept plan for the pipe plant at the request of the developer. So that is coming off the 00:01:50
agenda, Item 7. 00:01:54
And then we're going to revise item 11. 00:01:58
The party involved is Value Added Concepts LLC rather than KM Holdings. 00:02:01
I mean rather than Hill Point LLC, which is how it was listed there. So value added Concepts is a new LLC that would actually be 00:02:06
the party that will be engaged with on Rocket Field. So I'd love to have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended, please. I make a 00:02:13
motion to adopt the agenda as amended. We have a motion for Miss Tucker. Do we have a second? 00:02:20
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye, any opposed motion carries 5 O. All right, We're going to 00:02:27
move into administration. 00:02:32
The I do want to remind folks as we begin the meeting, we're can be a little less formal here in Watkinsville with our public 00:02:38
input process, but it doesn't mean we don't have rules. So we have members of the public wishing to address the mayor and council 00:02:43
may do so. It noted times like we have a public hearing. 00:02:48
During the meeting, there are times also where you raise your hand and want to comment on a specific item at the Council's 00:02:54
discretion. We may allow you to do that even if there's not a public hearing, but we may not. Again, that's the Council's 00:03:00
discretion, working closely with Attorney Reitman on whether that's appropriate. Comments are typically 4 minutes per person. 00:03:06
Unless we advertise otherwise, we don't allow direct debate, argument, personal attacks, or irrelevant discussion. 00:03:11
If you comment, you should address the pending matter and address those remarks directly to council. Council can't speak to 00:03:18
potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters and will not do so. So we'll do a more. We'll do another reminder if we 00:03:24
get to any public hearings or other moments, but that's generally how it works. We do value interplay with the public and as 00:03:29
necessary, but we want that to be a healthy, respectful process. 00:03:35
Item 2 will move directly into do you want me to do this first year or you want me to do the. OK, OK, so we're going to do 2A 00:03:41
before we do 2 and that is. 00:03:45
Recognizing some new Public Works employees, Drayton and Alex, if you all want to stand up and come up here. 00:03:50
Umm. 00:03:56
Drayton and Alex are our newest public works employees. Our public works team does a tremendous amount in the city. They manage 00:03:57
our. 00:04:01
They keep your ditches clean. They make sure that the city looks beautiful, They keep the grass mode and a lot more than that. 00:04:07
To guys have been in Georgia for many years. We're thankful to have you here Manager Dickerson do you want to share anything else 00:04:16
about these about these gentlemen? Well, so Drayton's been with us what a couple months now I think and Alex has only been here a 00:04:20
couple weeks. 00:04:24
So. 00:04:30
Yeah. So I'm really thrilled to have them. It's been a great, they've been a great add. They also work on the parks. We have 3, 00:04:31
three public parks around here that we have to keep up. They keep up with that. They've been helping with getting the signs up, 00:04:36
the new branding and everything that's rolling out. So I'm really pleased to have them on board and I hope everybody will take 00:04:41
time to say hey to them if you see them downtown or. 00:04:46
Around town so. 00:04:51
One thing I've learned being mayor, there's a lot of magic that kind of happens when nobody's looking in Watkinsville. You know, 00:04:57
we get up, we travel around town, and you don't realize how much work actually goes into making sure that the water flows and that 00:05:02
the the grass is mowed, the parks are kept neat and clean and. 00:05:07
And you all contribute a lot of that and we do appreciate it. So thank you. 00:05:13
Resolved, she had to go back and actually re-enter all the information since September so. 00:05:50
It's a lot. We spend a lot and do a lot, you know, during that time, so. 00:05:55
But I will go over the SPOSS reports because I do have those. So our SPLOST one and our spots to that. Basically all the funds 00:05:59
that are left in spots one and Splice 2 with the exception of about $5000 is going towards the sewer line, a construction project 00:06:05
that the county is working on. 00:06:10
About 5000. Set aside to finish out the project around here with the landscaping, the painting, the building, everything that has 00:06:17
to do with the upgrade of the park facilities and whatnot. So. 00:06:22
Umm. 00:06:27
We are not receiving any more revenues in splash one or two. Those of those are what they are. 00:06:27
SPLOS 3 we have that is the one that started in September of last year. 00:06:33
And we're averaging $73,000 a month since we started collecting. 00:06:40
Right now the most of those funds that are in public safety or funds that you all set aside for capital during the budget process, 00:06:45
the recreation green space money that is for phase one of Harris Shoals Park that we're currently working on. 00:06:50
That has to do with the reimagination or restructuring of the old wooden playground. 00:06:57
The demolition of the building at the front of the park and some upgrades to the restroom facility down there. 00:07:03
The 21,000 that's encumbered right now is for the signs that are going up right now. We've got a whole bunch of other signs. We've 00:07:11
just got the first four up. We'll be working on getting the wayfinding sound down here at the corner up next. 00:07:17
And then the four signs that will go on the county roads that are listed within the city that are within the city. 00:07:22
Will be a little bit smaller and we have to coordinate with the county on that since it's going to be hopefully on there right 00:07:27
away. 00:07:30
And then we'll be doing the historic signs throughout and then the park signs. So we've still got several iterations to go, but 00:07:33
hopefully keeping our fingers crossed we can keep this thing moving. We get most of most of the signs up by Christmas. 00:07:38
Just a little bit of a snapshot to see how the monies were coming in. You'll see just in the first two months of this fiscal year, 00:07:44
we're already at 76,000 a month. But if you look at all of them over the last basically 11 months, you're looking at about 73,000 00:07:50
a month. So we have about $676,000 in the bank for Swiss 3. 00:07:56
The American Rescue Plan report, you guys may recall that fortunately for us, we are not an entitlement unit. And so the federal 00:08:04
government through the state of Georgia gave us all of our money. You elected a standard allowance we ended up with. 00:08:11
I think. 00:08:20
4 million, something like that. I'm trying to remember how much it was, or one 1.1 million is what it was initially. You've spent 00:08:23
some of that money. I'm sorry, it's up there. It says 1.1 million. You spent some of that money, but you have about 823,000 that 00:08:27
has not been spent. There are some outstanding. 00:08:32
Potential opportunities in the future that you all have talked about maybe using that for. And so right now that money is. 00:08:37
Is still available. 00:08:43
Any questions on those? 00:08:45
And I guess one other point about the encumbrance. So the standard allowance allows the city of Watkinsville, all the governments 00:08:49
that selected that. 00:08:53
Under $10 million are up to 10 million to use it for anything. So it can be used for general fund. We're not required to use it as 00:08:58
some of the other entitlement units are required to use it for. 00:09:02
Essential workforce or COVID related activities. So that freed that freed us up quite a bit. 00:09:08
And move in next one. So economic development reports, the business licenses, those are actually renewals are about to go back 00:09:16
out. So we have just a few coming in, not a lot, just a little bit more than $300.00 on that. 00:09:21
Some of those are new businesses that have come in and then we have the excise tax. We started doing doing this report, This is 00:09:28
alcohol excise tax that we always got but never really reported. You thought it'd be worthwhile seeing that. I'm guessing, Julie, 00:09:35
the $536,536 is not the full amount we normally get. That's probably just because we haven't, we didn't get all that reconciled 00:09:42
yet. Well, some of those happened to me because they're not due until October. 00:09:49
That just came in early. OK, That's right. All right. And then we'll have next month we should see some some excise taxes from the 00:09:57
brewery starting up, so. 00:10:02
On the building side, we have 6 permits for five projects, one at water park. 00:10:09
A remodel on 2nd St. and then just some basic things that go on the signs and HVAC. 00:10:15
So not too busy of a. 00:10:22
Any questions? 00:10:24
As I was looking through this, I didn't notice if we got many money yet from the. 00:10:29
Hotel, Motel. 00:10:33
That isn't due until October the 20th. So it was due yesterday, right? Today's note tomorrow. What is today? It's due tomorrow. So 00:10:35
and then we'll know and we're working through that. This is our first rodeo, so we're going to see if we get that. 00:10:42
And I think we talked about this when you approve the hotel motel that we're dealing with these large marketplace innkeepers and 00:10:50
we. 00:10:53
And what we realized is they were charging a tax, but that tax was supposed to come to Watkinsville, but it wasn't. And so, so we 00:11:25
don't know where that was going, whether it was going to the state, going somewhere else. And so we passed a code that says if 00:11:31
you're going to tax folks when they're staying in Watkinsville, you need to send the money to Watkinsville. So that's really what 00:11:36
we're doing there with Airbnb, VRBO and whoever those other marketplace facilitators are, so. 00:11:41
That IT Chair. OK, Chief Brock Police Department report. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be before you. How 00:11:48
are y'all doing? Great. 00:11:52
Any questions over the report that I submitted for the data and the traffic signs that have been reporting? 00:11:58
Any questions? Speeds or speeds are creeping up on Simonton Bridge. I thought it was interesting. Oh yeah, I was. I was shocked at 00:12:05
the percentage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:12:08
I was a little. I wasn't sure what. 00:12:12
Bottom number was that it would say. 00:12:15
I don't know how in front of me like the little percentage, the, the red, the red percentage. Yeah. So I calculated that and 00:12:18
posted those on each one of the sheets. So you all have an understanding of what, what, what the vehicles were doing and let so 00:12:24
the vehicles that are traveling 11 plus miles an hour over are that's the percentage. 00:12:30
Of all the vehicles. OK. Thank you. That's helpful. Yeah. So experiment stations currently sitting at 2.8% at that 11 mph over. 00:12:36
North Main .71%. 00:12:45
Simonton bridge in that's the inbound sign is 17.4%. 00:12:48
And something to bridge out is 12.2%. 00:12:53
South Main out right in front of Councilman's house is a half a percent, Barnett Scholes is .4% and then Greensboro Highway is 2%. 00:12:57
You can see very quickly that the percentage in Simon Bridges is high and we're aware of it and we're trying to address it just as 00:13:08
you know frequently and often as we can. 00:13:12
Any other questions? 00:13:17
So how often do you change the sign? Like where is it is? 00:13:20
I'm wondering if some of the places that have the really low. 00:13:25
Because we still hear from citizens. 00:13:31
Experience that there are some high speeds that seem to be regularly going on. What could we shift the signs like to the other 00:13:33
direction or move them up around in the street? How do you determine that? That's a that's a great question. And the signs that I 00:13:39
have in place at 7 that I've got in place, I'm actually trying to leave in their locations for historical purposes so we can have 00:13:44
those reports for comparison. 00:13:49
I've been using the VMS on the variable message sign that floats around. It's actually been in the field for eight months. This is 00:13:55
the first time it's actually been out of the field since we've had it deployed. 00:14:00
This weekend we brought it back for a few days and. 00:14:05
Planning on where I'm going to put it next, but we've been using that variable message on to address those hotspots that we're 00:14:08
having that don't have the signage, that digital signage that we have currently in place. 00:14:13
Any other questions? 00:14:20
All right, I have a few things I want to highlight before I walk away from here. Tristan Walker. 00:14:22
Is set to graduate October 27th from Piedmont Technical College in Covington. That's next week at 6:00 PM. 00:14:27
At the college. 00:14:34
And any members that would like to participate or attend, we'd love to see all. 00:14:37
And this last week I got a letter from a citizen who lost her wallet or had it stolen. 00:14:42
I'd like to read that for y'all. 00:14:49
My name is Sue. 00:14:51
I live at Marshall. Dr. Remind me to tell you and your department. 00:14:52
What an outstanding con professional. 00:14:57
Officer Rachel Stein OR. 00:15:00
Is she and Sergeant Wade came. 00:15:02
Me yesterday, October 11th, concerning a. 00:15:05
We are really blessed in this community to have such a wonderful professional police. 00:15:09
She wrote a handwritten note to each one of them, Officer Stearns and Sergeant Wade, and brought them into me and was very pleased 00:15:14
with the service that she received. 00:15:19
And that's actually Officer Stearns very. 00:15:24
Recognition from citizen. So it's pretty important to recognize that because. 00:15:27
You often hear me talk. 00:15:33
About how we serve and our servants at heart. 00:15:36
And what we do in our communities. 00:15:39
And I often say things like that's what it looks like. Well. 00:15:42
That letter out there, that is. 00:15:45
And I can't emphasize enough how important that is to. 00:15:48
Coming. 00:15:52
The fall festival was this last weekend and I want. 00:15:54
Thank my team. 00:15:58
It is an absolute blessing to be able to show up to an event. 00:16:00
And have it run Florida State with no hiccups. 00:16:04
Or. 00:16:07
Particularly Sergeant Hitler has gone out of his way to create a traffic plan and flow pattern out of. 00:16:08
Out of the festival event area for all the vendors to come and go. 00:16:16
And it went off without a hitch and received plenty of accolades, you know, throughout the day from citizens walking by going. 00:16:20
Play It pleased they were to see how things were so structured and organized, and I can't do that without a great team. And I've 00:16:28
got one. 00:16:31
And I'm glad. 00:16:36
Any other questions? 00:16:38
Chief, would you share about the LPR issue that we talked about? You know, I had it on my notes and I didn't put it down to my 00:16:41
bullet points. 00:16:45
So a couple weeks ago. 00:16:49
Well, actually let me back up. Let me tell you a little bit story. 00:16:54
A couple months ago, we ended up arresting a guy for stalking his significant other. 00:16:57
She. 00:17:04
Was aware that he was doing it, but she didn't call. 00:17:06
Other citizens started calling us because he was staging his his surveillance operations in various different locations in the. 00:17:09
Citizens caught on to that and started reporting him through Facebook of all places. 00:17:15
So we ended up making contact with him. He basically told us what he was doing. 00:17:21
And we made contact with the victim and ultimately I directed them to put him in jail for stalking. 00:17:27
He went to jail and he was released. He was released on a condition that he was not to return to Oconee. 00:17:34
Until he was either to attend court or was. 00:17:39
Some kind of legal advice from an attorney or something? 00:17:43
The LPRS we. 00:17:48
Plugged in the three different vehicles that he was using. He was using his own personal vehicle and two other friends. We had 00:17:50
that information available to us. We plugged that in. 00:17:55
As they lookout for the LPR. 00:17:59
The LPRS 3 weeks ago started dinging again with his information. 00:18:02
And we quickly were able. 00:18:07
Locate him traveling through town and put him in. 00:18:10
And he was revoked and is remaining in jail because he obviously does not follow the rules. 00:18:14
The LPRS have done good favor for our citizens and keeping them safe. 00:18:21
I'm happy to report that. 00:18:26
All right. And LPR stands for? 00:18:28
License plate recognition. 00:18:32
Any others? Thank you for reminding. 00:18:35
Thank you, Chief. 00:18:39
All right. Council on, we do have one item on the consent agenda. That's the building valuation data table. As a reminder, that's 00:18:47
how we determine the cost of building permits. That's usually in the internationally recognized valuations and numbers that are 00:18:52
then adjusted for local conditions. 00:18:56
No one has to take that off the consent agenda. So since they didn't all entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:19:03
And make a motion to approve the consent. 00:19:08
Do we have a 2nd? I'll second all in favor? Say aye. 00:19:11
All right. We'll move on to our public hearing. We have a couple different. 00:19:16
Sorry, we'll move on to our appearances. We don't have public hearings tonight. 00:19:22
The first one that we have coming up and is the North Main Street parcel for the Oconee County School District and we're excited 00:19:28
to hear from them about their plan for their instructional support center. 00:19:33
So gentlemen, whichever one of you for, or if all four of you are doing this as a quartet, feel free to step forward and tell us 00:19:39
more about what your plans are. 00:19:43
Good evening. 00:19:49
And you want to state your name, address and who you're affiliated with for the record, please. My name is Jeff Robinson. I'm with 00:19:50
Cunningham for a Matthews and. 00:19:54
Architects Our firm is located at 2011 Manchester St. NE, Atlanta, GA. 00:19:58
And we've consistently worked with Newton County school system on many of their projects. And this is Joe Moon with Brie Love Land 00:20:05
Planning. 00:20:09
And he'll further introduce himself when he steps up to. 00:20:14
Do what? Oconee County. Sorry, sorry. 00:20:22
We are the architect for the Oconee County Instructional Support Center. 00:20:29
Is designed to replace the existing Board of Education office currently located on. 00:20:34
The 34 School St. campus that has been occupied for 42 years. 00:20:40
By the Oconee County School System, which will be repurposed by the Oconee County School System after this building is 00:20:46
constructed. 00:20:50
The design features of the buildings features traditional timeless design featuring brick column. 00:20:54
I mean brick and columns in the front of the building. 00:21:01
Also with decorative chimneys. 00:21:05
Cup. 00:21:08
That. 00:21:09
To honor and represent the cupola and and the chimneys that. 00:21:11
Incorporated in the original design of the original. 00:21:15
Historic Oconee County High School Build. 00:21:20
The building also is forward facing. 00:21:23
Welcoming the community inside, but also incorporates safety and security features in the building. 00:21:27
And on the site. 00:21:33
The building is 43,360 square feet. 00:21:35
The design for which is also designed for future growth. 00:21:40
At the school. 00:21:46
The building plan also includes 66 offices and a boardroom that will seat 118 individuals. 00:21:48
And at this point, I'll turn. 00:21:56
Get over to Joe so he can give you kind of a summary of the design of the site. 00:22:00
Good evening, council members. My name is Joe Moon. We love land planning. We're the site design professionals. We're located at 00:22:07
1020 old Bishop Rd. not far from here. 00:22:12
And Bishop GA. 00:22:17
Working on the the school building for the new instructional support center and the concept that you see here that you're looking 00:22:24
at right now is illustrates the master plan for the site to provide adequate space for future expansion as the county grows. And 00:22:31
majority of the parking that you see is provided in rear of the building with a small amount of parking in the front for for 00:22:39
visitors And we revise this layout early part of this week to create more green space to provide a more. 00:22:47
Welcoming appearance with a red brick pedestrian. You kind of see that red brick pedestrian raised table right there for the 00:22:55
little speed hump there to make that more inviting for pedestrians to come to the front of that building. But this will also pay 00:23:02
for respect to other historic structures in the City of Watkinsville. At this time, we'll turn it back over to Jeff. 00:23:09
That that's essentially the summary of the building design of the project and. 00:23:18
You know, so that way if we have, if we have feedback and they have feedback, we can have a little bit of a dialogue about what 00:23:54
our feedback is before they've spent, spent a lot of money on detailed plans and things like that. So that's very typical for our 00:24:00
process. So we're not going to be voting on anything tonight. We're going to be providing feedback to our our friends here about 00:24:05
their building, which I must say to Mr. Laduff and and Mr. Ricketts and we. 00:24:11
And we would say to the school board if they're here we we really appreciate your the time in Watkinsville and are excited that 00:24:17
Y'all chosen to to build in Watkinsville. We think that's. 00:24:22
We appreciate that. We think it's the school board belongs in the county seat and the facility belongs in the county seat and 00:24:27
personally I'm a fan of your architecture and the commitments you guys have made to a high quality. 00:24:32
Institutional building, because I think that says a lot. 00:24:37
The caliber of the school system that you are and we need to build buildings that stand the test of time and that we'll be proud 00:24:40
of not just five years from now, but 40 years from now, 50 years from now. So credit to you guys and to your team for the design 00:24:46
work that you've done. Council, at this point, why don't you guys, if you have any questions or comments that you want to share 00:24:51
with the architects and the land Planner and our friends from the school system, please do. 00:24:57
Or you may have questions too. 00:25:05
Of course I've got to talk. I always talk. 00:25:09
No, no, I want to activate the mayor. I was super glad to have this project go on in Watkinsville. 00:25:11
I do have a couple of concerns, mainly the parking that you discussed. I do have our ordinance pulled up specifically discussing 00:25:18
parking. 00:25:22
And Chapter 8, Section 3A Parking lot shall be located to the rear of the buildings. 00:25:27
Or in the interior of a Glock, limiting parking. Limited parking is allowed inside of the building if top off top foot. 00:25:35
So. 00:25:43
Location of open space green. 00:25:47
Shall be. No, that's not should be. It's shall. So that's my main concern. 00:25:49
I understand with that you're trying to keep it in and. 00:25:57
And the. 00:26:03
Resembling like the courthouse and having parking out there. 00:26:05
I haven't discussed this with these guys, So what with me reviewing this, I would probably be amenable to keeping it similar to 00:26:11
the parking lot at courthouse. 00:26:15
With just a singular row of parking from the. 00:26:20
And adding more green space back up there. 00:26:26
But it is a shall not a should. 00:26:30
We'll have to work through that. 00:26:35
I also see that you got two way streets in there and he might be able to. He's a. 00:26:40
Rogue guy. You might be able to speak more to it, but I think it would be more beneficial to have a one way in, one way out, 00:26:46
especially if we do limit. 00:26:50
To a singular row of parking. You come in and you come back out separate way. 00:26:54
That's just kind of my thoughts right off the top of my head after reviewing the plan. 00:27:01
What I would like to see. 00:27:06
You pretty much said what I was going to say, so I agree. I'm thrilled that y'all are staying in downtown Watkinsville. We are so 00:27:10
proud of our school system. You helped make our community. 00:27:17
What it is? So thank you guys so much. 00:27:25
I would say that I am willing to compromise instead of saying absolutely no parking at the front. 00:27:30
To instead have it be something similar to the courthouse where it's more meaningful green space, one one way and some handicap 00:27:38
spaces and some spaces for. I mean I would guess in a normal day you don't have 10 parents come all at once that just have to come 00:27:46
in and say something that's probably not very common, but having one or two spaces, some handicap spaces, you know that I mean in 00:27:54
that first row with my eyes can count them from here, but I would think that would be plenty for a non meeting type of situation. 00:28:02
For people. And then it would give more green space, more of the welcoming, because I do believe this building is going to be here 00:28:10
when I'm gone and even when my kids are gone probably. And so I think it's worth spending, I mean making little adjustments to 00:28:17
make sure it really is. 00:28:23
Fitting into the character that the citizens of Watkinsville, when they I wasn't here when this code was made, this was something 00:28:30
the citizens of Watkinsville were very thoughtful about. There's a reason for this. So I. 00:28:37
I think we need to be respectful of that. 00:28:44
And I believe that current parking, I believe the current parking, if I'm looking at it correctly, there's 27 parking spots. 00:28:48
I'm asking you to reduce it to 13 for round numbers. 00:28:55
Yeah, I would. I would echo with. 00:29:02
The other council members have said as far as the parking, I think resembling the courthouse makes sense. I do like the design of 00:29:05
the building, how you put. 00:29:08
Good thought as far as the chimneys and the cupola, I appreciate that. 00:29:12
And I love the fact that it's going to stay in downtown Watkinsville. I've seen other cities nearby who build this. 00:29:16
Grand building similar like this out in the country for their Board of Education. 00:29:23
It just doesn't make. 00:29:27
In my personal opinion, so I'm excited to see that it'll stay in Watkinsville. Look forward to working with y'all to. 00:29:30
On the project. 00:29:36
Any other comments? 00:29:42
One, so I see that there's three additional, I think it's three additional buildings, two additional buildings, sorry, what what 00:29:45
do you think those are proposed buildings? 00:29:50
Those are just for future growth. 00:29:57
All right. Mr. Laddock, do you have something you want to share? Yes, if that's all right, America, First off, thank you guys for, 00:30:04
for having us on the agenda and and reviewing our plan and for your comments as well. I just wanted to kind of give you an idea of 00:30:11
what our thoughts were in the design phase of the new ISC. So two kind of main things I guess relevant to your comments were we 00:30:19
were trying to do in terms of the community is is ease of access and having a forward facing welcoming. 00:30:26
Building. 00:30:34
The other thing we were had in mind was safety and security. So. 00:30:36
As as you all are aware, all of our school campuses have parking in the in the front. So thank you Miss Tucker for those comments. 00:30:40
And what we also try to do is have a single access point of entry for safety and security reasons, that's where. 00:30:48
If you look at the floor plan of that building, that's where the check-in of guests will be and things like that, so. 00:30:57
That's why it was important for us to have those parking spaces in front and you know we do have several visitors from time to 00:31:05
time now, but we're also thinking about our future growth and and the amount of traffic that we might have. 00:31:12
As we continue to grow. 00:31:20
But thank you again for all your comments and time reviewing our plan. 00:31:22
And what's your timeline for the building start construction and moving forward, it's all all goes according to our schedule. 00:31:28
Currently we're looking to issue forbid early part of next year depending on approvals. 00:31:36
Acquiring per. 00:31:41
That sort of thing we're anticipating. 00:31:43
Around a 15 month construction period for construction. 00:31:46
Of the project. 00:31:50
Place in the construction if all permitting and everything goes will be summer. 00:31:52
28 fold. 00:31:58
And Mr. Ladoof, you mad up in any of you know, I'm just curious, you know how many jobs you currently have in downtown 00:32:00
Watkinsville and then when this my understanding is you're going to consolidate some positions back into this building, how many 00:32:05
employees do you anticipate having in Watkinsville when this is done? 00:32:10
Oh gosh, I think we have roughly 35 at School St. currently and there is. 00:32:17
A whole lot more of us that are considered district office staff that are assigned at schools. 00:32:27
Transportation technology and things like that, so. 00:32:33
Roughly 70 I think is what we're, we're expecting to start. 00:32:39
At the at the new instructional support center. 00:32:43
But I don't have the exact number. And then you also though keep a technology staff or some other group in the old, the old 00:32:47
building to correct. Yes Sir, we will still be using that old building. 00:32:52
Technology is kind of where we're where we're leaning towards now is having our technology staff be housed there. So you'll keep, 00:32:58
you'll keep a similar footprint. Do you think you'll let go of the trailers that are over there? So right now we have technology 00:33:05
staff at our central office, our current central office and some of them are assigned at schools and then we also have an office 00:33:11
at Oak County Middle School. 00:33:18
OK. Any further questions or thoughts? 00:33:27
All right. Gentlemen, thank you for being in. Appreciate, appreciate. 00:33:32
All right, item seven was removed from the agenda. 00:33:38
So we will not be discussing that tonight. Item 8 is School St. demolition. 00:33:43
Charles and Dana Blair don't know if Mr. and Mrs. Blair are here tonight. 00:33:48
They're not here. 00:33:53
So Manager Dickerson and Mr. REIT. 00:33:55
Is that something that we need to wait for them to be here? Is that something we need to go ahead and oppose discretionary? I 00:33:58
don't know whether. 00:34:01
That is discretionary. I don't know whether it is time sensitive. Miss Dickerson may be able to address that better. 00:34:05
It sounds like Engineer Campbell's ready to make a report, so why don't you go ahead and make a report and council can make a 00:34:13
determination after that. 00:34:16
Thank you, Mayor. So this is 22 School St. It is. 00:34:19
Across the street as I would say from from Rocket Field, the request is specifically for demolition permit for an accessory 00:34:25
structure, what they refer to as a a carport garage. There's a portion that's open and then there's a portion that is also 00:34:31
enclosed. It appears to be used for storage currently. So to give you an idea that is where 22 School St. is located. As I said 00:34:37
just adjacent to to the Rocket Field area there as well. 00:34:43
Go to the next slide. So that's a picture from School St. So what you see in that picture is the driveway in the center, the 00:34:51
primary residence on the right. Again, there's no application for demolition of that primary residential structure. It is what you 00:34:56
see there to the left of the driveway. 00:35:01
There may be a better picture. 00:35:06
There that shows a vehicle and then again that the structure that would be demolished in the the forefront there of that picture. 00:35:08
And I can and I can also, I can also report that they did provide renderings of what they intend to build and replacement of that. 00:35:58
It's a very nice structure, very. 00:36:03
Complimentary to that, but that's not where you're here to consider that. That's administrative, but just want to let you know it 00:36:09
will be replaced with something nicer. 00:36:12
OK. All right. I think attorney Reitman wants to make a comment and then council can ask. This is quick kind of two-part question. 00:36:17
I think I know the answer #1 is this an historic structure #2 does it contribute materially to the character of fabric of the 00:36:22
community? 00:36:28
I'm sorry, I was asking if. 00:36:35
Bring your nose will suffice. 00:36:40
Yes, how about that? 00:36:46
Fair enough, And you see why I ask. 00:36:49
Be explosive. 00:36:51
Like I say, I felt like I knew the answer my question. But for the record for the minutes. 00:36:55
OK, All right. Council, do you have questions for? 00:36:59
Engineer, Campbell or manager? 00:37:03
It's not historical. 00:37:07
Looks like 4 by 4 beans with shingles. 00:37:13
Yeah, I don't have, I mean, I don't know what questions I would ask. I'm appreciating that they're planning to replace it with 00:37:21
something that looks better. I mean, I think it's helpful to know what is going to happen there. 00:37:27
I don't care what public. 00:37:34
This is an effort to be as transparent about all city processes as possible. 00:37:37
The criteria for something that might be a primary structure. 00:37:44
Specifically the rise to this historical aspects, a lot of times we come into play is more this is not a primary structure, this 00:37:47
is an accessory structure, but it is still being required to come in front of you as the council to see after a fall festival 00:37:55
somebody showed up and said hey, why that structure not there anymore. It it it in front of this body to be heard to be reviewed 00:38:02
as part of the application process. Well, we're about to do one of the demolition permit on dugout, so you know. 00:38:10
We're being careful on this. Councilman Garrett, Did I see you? Do you have any questions? You're fine. Anyone else? 00:38:18
Our council, I'm open to a motion if y'all are. If you don't have anything else you want to ask her, get questions about her. 00:38:25
If you do. 00:38:31
I make a motion to approve the demo permit on this accessory. 00:38:35
We have a motion to approve the. 00:38:41
The permit, do we have a second? We have a motion, we have a second, We have any further comment? 00:38:45
All right, all in favor. Say aye. Any opposed motion carries, father. 00:38:51
All right, our next appearance, 41 Barnett Shoals Rd. I'm going to ask. 00:38:59
Engineer Campbell for a report and then if the Patterson's are they representative wants to speak after that, that would be fine. 00:39:04
But Engineer Campbell, I know we have some. 00:39:08
Background in history on this one. 00:39:12
We do. So just as a refresher here that it is approximately, we'll call it 7/10 of an acre to round up, it is zoned detached 00:39:14
residential and this would be the demolition of the existing primary residential structure. So a 41 Barnett Shoals Rd. There is at 00:39:21
the corner of Barnet Shoals Rd. And Lawanna Dr. You can see it on the northern side of Barnett Shoulders Rd. there. 00:39:29
We had some pictures when this had come before previously here, so here's some updated pictures. So this would be this house sits 00:39:38
further back from Barnett Shoals Rd. So this is not a picture from Barnett Shoals Rd. but this is a picture from the from the 00:39:44
front of the structure there. There's also subsequent pictures you can see that's essentially the the view from Lawanna Dr. facing 00:39:50
back towards the structure. And then there's a recap if you'll go to the following slide a little bit. So this was initially 00:39:56
discussed at the March meeting. 00:40:03
And then there was discussion about. 00:40:10
Possible options for the structure. 00:40:12
It was tabled at the March meeting. It came back in front at the April meeting. What was specifically discussed at the April 00:40:16
meeting was giving it some some opportunity to be relocated to another location as opposed to just demolished. If you were driving 00:40:23
up around Barnett Shoals Rd. subsequent to that meeting, you would have seen signage and information related there too about the 00:40:30
opportunity to to relocate the house at that based on all the information I have that. 00:40:37
There have been interested parties that were initially interested, but upon further investigation nobody actually followed through 00:40:44
with agreeing to move that structure to another location. So it is with that after the. 00:40:52
Extension of time there that it comes back in front of you as a demolition permit request. 00:41:01
OK. 00:41:12
I don't know if anybody wants to speak on behalf of the applicant at this point. 00:41:16
Mr. Berry. 00:41:19
Welcome back. 00:41:21
Thank you. 00:41:22
Bill Berryman for some building, Griffin, 2500 Dennis Bridge Rd. Athens. 00:41:25
I represent Lisa Culbertson, who's the owner of this. 00:41:30
And Mr. Campbell. 00:41:34
Beginning on April 13th and running through today, Miss Culbertson are one of Representatives showed the House to 14 people. 00:41:36
And she received calls from at least 18 more people. 00:41:46
She's I think, every six weeks she sent a report to Miss Dickerson about the progress, or lack thereof. 00:41:51
To try to get someone to move this house. 00:41:58
One person did do a great deal of due diligence on this property. 00:42:02
And had a pest inspector come in and determined that at least 20% of the floor joists of the structure had termite damage. Could 00:42:07
not get in behind the walls, obviously to see the other parts of the structure that could have termite infestation, but. 00:42:15
It's probable that that was there. 00:42:25
We had interested people. Look, no one was willing to accept the challenge of moving this property. 00:42:28
There were a variety of reasons that we heard from some of the people. A lot of the people were looking for land. Obviously they 00:42:38
couldn't. 00:42:42
Find the land or get it closed in time, but I think ultimately it came down just to the condition of the property and the risk 00:42:45
that might be incurred in moving it and just having it fall apart and not being able to to get it done. 00:42:52
So I think that was the decisive factor. 00:43:01
I think this has been a good experience for everybody. We tested the market, we we had interested people look and it's pretty 00:43:04
clear. 00:43:09
That the condition of the House, the challenges that are there. 00:43:14
Just make it not feasible to either reconstruct this house on site or to move it into reconstruct it. 00:43:20
Not being able to demolish this house and use the property for some other authorized purpose creates a real hardship for Miss 00:43:27
Culbertson. It's just not practical to rebuild that house as it is. 00:43:34
The house meets the definition of a dilapidated structure under the city's property Maintenance code, which gives the owner the 00:43:42
option to demolish the structure. 00:43:46
And she has a clear legal right to a demolition. 00:43:52
So that she can become in compliance with the property maintenance. 00:43:56
So based on all that, I respectfully request that you grant her permit application. 00:44:00
Or demolition of this. 00:44:06
Thank you, Mr. Berryman. 00:44:13
Council, you have questions? 00:44:15
I have a question I. 00:44:21
I'm we have two shining examples here in Watkinsville, at least off the top of my head, Bob Smith's house on South Main St. 00:44:24
The house, the gentleman died. 00:44:36
Next to the church, Jim Carters House. 00:44:39
Two houses. 00:44:42
It had been easier to demolish. 00:44:44
They have been cheaper to demolish. 00:44:46
But now we have 2 historic homes in a small town. 00:44:49
Not many. 00:44:52
That every time we drive. 00:44:55
Two of the nicest homes in the city of Watkins, but they will be for the next 100 years. 00:44:57
I think what needs to be done. 00:45:02
My personal opinion is not my. 00:45:04
It needs to be put up for sale. 00:45:07
If there's no one willing to buy the property and fix up the house. 00:45:09
Then I think. 00:45:14
More of a potential argument for demolition. 00:45:16
But because. 00:45:19
The homeowner wants to put a different house there. I don't think that's. 00:45:22
To to to allow this historic property to be demolished. 00:45:30
My opinion? That would be a shame. 00:45:34
Any other council members wish to make a comment? 00:45:44
All right, counsel you. 00:45:52
You have a we're going to bring it back behind the rail and you now have a decision to make with a motion. 00:45:55
To some effect regarding the. 00:46:03
Regarding a request for demolition permit. 00:46:05
I don't know if Mr. Campbell or Miss Dickerson have anything else to add. Otherwise we'll have a discussion and we'll entertain a 00:46:07
motion, essentially. 00:46:11
Yeah. 00:46:18
I'll make a motion to deny. 00:46:24
We have a motion to deny the demolition permit. 00:46:28
I don't hear a second, so that motion is going to die for lack of a second. 00:46:38
I'll make a motion to approve. 00:46:44
The new motion for. 00:46:47
We have a motion to approve that the motion per. 00:46:49
Do we have? 00:46:51
If there is a second, I would suggest a friendly amendment of an express statement that there has been six months of due diligence 00:47:05
and newly discovered termite damage. That would be a factor in favor of if somebody's willing to make that second. But I think 00:47:13
that needs to be clearly stated in the record that that would be the substantive basis for the motion not just to grant a permit 00:47:20
if they could grant it, but because of six months of due diligence and. 00:47:28
Newly discovered termite damage. 00:47:36
And by the way, what you said, I mean, I've been in Madison, historic Madison, 29 years, which you said very much resonates with 00:47:37
me, but based on the strict legalities. 00:47:42
Yeah. 00:47:48
Yeah, but we want to have about this house. We want to have the Carter, probably want to have my house that we restored. 00:47:50
Every old Woodhouse has termites. 00:47:57
I understand. Isn't that we went in it? 00:47:59
I'm just disappointed. 00:48:04
This house was allowed to deteriorate to the point it is. 00:48:07
When you could spend minimal amount of money on plywood and tar. 00:48:10
And extend the life of the house and make it last longer, I think. 00:48:14
I think it would be a shame. 00:48:20
For us to allow this house to go down. 00:48:22
Without giving. 00:48:25
You say you six months to build it. I disagree. 6 months due diligence, putting it up for sale, selling to someone to fix it up. 00:48:27
In six months they come back. No. 00:48:32
Then you have a valid argument saying I can't afford to fix it up. No one wants to buy it, nobody wants to move it. 00:48:37
Then we got another. 00:48:43
But that out that has not been proposed. 00:48:47
And I just. 00:48:51
Again, the old homes. I live in Old homes. 00:48:53
You can't build a new home to look like an old home. 00:48:56
We only have a few of those left. We need to save them. 00:49:00
When we haven't done our due diligence. 00:49:05
All of our due diligence to save this house in my. 00:49:08
And and I will say that. 00:49:12
Extensive work destroying Organism Termite damage when you're looking at moving a house. 00:49:17
Is a different ball of wax than if you're talking about. 00:49:23
Eradicating. 00:49:28
The the termites and repairing any. 00:49:30
Because you can't kill the termites. If you can't, if you have active infestation and you try to move a house in the middle of 00:49:34
that process, you really are risking having a large investment. 00:49:41
In process and it collapsing before your eyes with nothing that it is different. 00:49:48
Then I mean I have. 00:49:54
I have bought properties that have termite damage and gotten termite bonds and and fix it up and so it's 20%. Lack of four voice 00:49:56
isn't. 00:50:01
Isn't a death sentence on a house at all? I mean, I would say that. 00:50:07
I also feel like it would be a complete. 00:50:13
I know it's complicated. I know it is hard because it is a there's a lot of factors to it on on a purely. 00:50:16
What Watkinsville needs, I would love to see every single historic home that we have be maintained be taken care of. 00:50:26
I would love to still see if there's. I mean I I do want to applaud the effort. It is commendable. A tremendous amount of effort 00:50:38
by the the property owner has gone. 00:50:43
Trying to to see if someone will take this house and that takes a lot of time, effort, energy, so I mean. 00:50:50
She has done everything that we had asked to do so that. I mean, I know I'm kind of speaking up but it's a complicated it's a 00:50:57
complicated issue because yes, what I still love to see this home safe. Yes. Do I think it is possible. 00:51:03
To renovate it in its current place, Absolutely. And it could be beautiful. And I think it would, it would cost less money than it 00:51:09
would to demo it with mitigation of asbestos and that kind of stuff and build a new property. 00:51:17
But I think. 00:51:26
I know there are other factors involved. 00:51:28
So that's why I'm kind of sitting here quietly, because I I want to be very respectful of the property owner. 00:51:31
And everything that she has gone through. And yet I hate to see this leave our community, so I don't know if there is a space. 00:51:39
And Jeff, you said six months. I honestly, I think 6 months is too long. I mean, I I think if we, if we can come up with some 00:51:48
other idea to try something in order to save this house, I don't think moving it. 00:51:55
At this point, is probably going to happen, and the property owners never indicated A willingness to sell. 00:52:02
To sell the lot, correct. 00:52:08
His family wants to stay there, that's correct. So I mean that's the. 00:52:10
And I don't think we can impose that burden on a property owner. 00:52:15
Yeah, we can't. I mean, no, you cannot force them to sell. You can ask, you cannot force. 00:52:20
Yeah, well, I'm going to let council keep coming. We do have a motion out there. I'd love to get a second to that motion, just to 00:52:27
facilitate the conversation here. 00:52:31
If possible, I think it's a healthy conversation, but we do have a motion hanging out there. 00:52:38
And we're talking about a lot of possibilities. 00:52:43
But if we don't have a second then on either of these motions then there then I'm at a little bit of longer I'm I'm right there 00:52:49
with you and that's exactly why I wanted to say something but I don't know what to say because if I own the property and couldn't 00:52:54
afford to. 00:52:58
Couldn't afford to renovate it. I would probably be asking for a demo permit as well. 00:53:04
I do want to remind council that we did recently allow a homeowner to demolish after failure to maintain. 00:53:11
The house as well. 00:53:19
Nope. On Main Street. 00:53:23
I hate to bring that up, but we we have allowed it. 00:53:28
Yeah, that was a that was a very different process. I I would not say that that would be. 00:53:33
That one was very far gone, if I'm thinking. 00:53:40
It was much worse condition than this. 00:53:45
I mean, I feel like I could have, yeah. 00:53:47
I would hate to see this house be gone, but I am would be sitting in your same spot if I were you. 00:53:52
I think it was a family home. I'd love to see it restored. That would make me so happy. 00:53:59
That if I personally do not afford to do it, that's funny. 00:54:03
If it's a financial thing, it's a. 00:54:09
I've got history of the House to see it restored. How wonderful that would that be. 00:54:12
Especially, I mean, I have nothing against you personally at all. You are very kind. Both y'all. 00:54:17
You, like Christine and I come in through the house. 00:54:25
Walking through the house, I was even more impressed with the potential of the house. I didn't walk through there dawn. 00:54:28
Oh God, you know, I went through there going. 00:54:35
This can be fixed. 00:54:38
And I mean, I'd love to see it restored. Especially, as I said, if. 00:54:40
It was mine and I had good family history in. 00:54:45
Which? 00:54:48
Yeah, I mean there was, there was, there were several things you mentioned that was positive. 00:54:51
But regardless, I'd love to. I'd love to see it restored. 00:54:55
Yeah, come up to the podium, if you don't mind, Kathleen. 00:55:04
Kathleen Mcquiston, 13 S Barnett Shoals Rd. I have two questions if she can't afford to rebuild the house. 00:55:12
Then how can she afford to build a new one? 00:55:21
That's one question. And if she did get a demolition permit, could you add a rider to it that at least the facade of the house be 00:55:24
similar to the existing? 00:55:29
Structure. 00:55:35
Thank you. Yeah. Mr. Barry may come on, but before I'll come up. 00:55:37
Just a couple of thoughts I'd like to talk about. 00:55:45
I'm an old house guy. I've restored 3 old houses myself. 00:55:50
But. 00:55:54
Very few people restore. 00:55:55
Unless they can make money on. 00:55:59
Or unless it is a good. 00:56:01
Miss Culbertson has gotten an estimate of the cost of the restoration of this property. 00:56:04
$300,000 and now. 00:56:11
Miss Tucker shakes her head. But you got to consider this is a small house. It has no crawl space. 00:56:15
Is going to have to be. 00:56:22
Gutted probably come from the floors down to fix the gorgeous. There's no crawl space if somebody can get underneath it. 00:56:25
It needs new electrical. 00:56:33
It needs some new walls on the interior bathroom kitchen. 00:56:36
New Sheetrock New. 00:56:42
Everything has to be done, and it's not a house that's on 16 inch centers. For everything is square and fits and everything has to 00:56:44
be. 00:56:48
Carefully done. So $300,000 to fix up a 1200 square foot house. 00:56:53
To get it even to basic standards. 00:57:01
Is not the same as the properties that were discussed before. 00:57:05
Those people, Mr. Carter, he's an expert in this park preservation. I've known you for 40 years before his untimely death. Mr. 00:57:10
Carter knows exactly. He knows all the contractors. He knows how to do everything. These properties that have been successful have 00:57:15
been successful for a reason. 00:57:20
Here you have Miss Culbertson, who's a widow who works as Mark Hodges, assistant in our law firm. 00:57:26
She simply does not have the wherewithal to do that, but she does. This is family property. She wants the property so that her 00:57:35
son. 00:57:39
When he becomes able, can build their house. 00:57:44
After all, isn't this about personal property rights? Isn't this about helping the citizens of this community who lived here? 00:57:51
For their entire lives and devoted their entire lives working for a business in this community. 00:57:59
She's not an investor. 00:58:06
She's not a real estate developer. She's never built a house like this before. 00:58:08
Doesn't that mean something? 00:58:14
The other thing I want to. 00:58:17
The point? 00:58:18
Georgia has a State Enabling Historic Preservation Act. 00:58:20
And it allows, in very narrow circumstances, local governments to do what this Commission, this Council, wants to do, it seems 00:58:25
like, in terms of denying applications to renovate or denying applications to demolish. 00:58:33
And then getting certificates of appropriateness. But there's a very specific process that local governments have to follow. 00:58:42
To get an except. 00:58:49
To the broad rule in Georgia, personal property, so in communities that have adopted historic preservation ordinances. 00:58:50
They can do. 00:58:59
Like what's being discussed here, but the ordinance that Watkinsville has? 00:59:02
Does not satisfy the requirements of the State of Georgia Historic Preservation Act. 00:59:08
And so, and I don't, I don't mean to raise this, I think they're better practical reasons why you should grant this permit, but 00:59:13
respectfully. 00:59:17
There's not a historic preservation ordinance in this. 00:59:21
I don't believe there's legal authority. 00:59:26
For you to deny this permit when in fact the code inspector. 00:59:29
Has sent Let. 00:59:34
To miss Culbertson talking about how it violates the International Property Code. 00:59:37
And how it's. 00:59:42
Violation. 00:59:43
And the International Property Maintenance Code, which this city is adopted, which is a state code under the state of Georgia. 00:59:45
Permits that if the property is dilapidated, the. 00:59:52
Has the option of either tearing it down or bringing it in compliance. 00:59:56
Which recognizes the personal property rights. 01:00:00
Of citizens of. 01:00:04
So. 01:00:07
Every piece of property is different. Every person situation is different, I understand. 01:00:09
The desire to keep this property. 01:00:15
In its present. 01:00:19
But I just respectfully don't believe you can do that. 01:00:21
At the Personal Financial. 01:00:25
Of Miss Culber. 01:00:29
Let Why does she have to bear the burden of the community's desire? 01:00:31
To protect this one particular house, How much? 01:00:36
Does she have to pay? 01:00:40
How much does she have to lose? 01:00:42
To satisfy this desire, respectfully, please. 01:00:45
I request that you grant this demolition permit. 01:00:49
Thank you, Mr. Berryman. 01:00:54
Yeah. 01:00:56
Sure. So very well spoken and again, I've been impressed with everybody involved in this process, I think goodwill. 01:00:57
Abounds. I don't think anybody is trying to hurt anybody or cause any harm to the community or to any individuals. 01:01:06
So it was very eloquently spoken. 01:01:14
And this what I'm about to add. 01:01:19
Mitigate the points about property personal property rights, but I but I do want to put in. 01:01:24
Some context. 01:01:31
The cost of restoration of this home and also what the condition actually is like. So the 1200 square feet is of just the 01:01:33
downstairs, the tax record doesn't show that there is actually an upstairs. So it really is closer to probably 1817 to 1800 square 01:01:40
feet in total. So if that $300,000 is restoring you know to I just think it it's a point of fact there is a pretty sizable crawl 01:01:47
space. 01:01:54
There is opportunity again. It may not be something that we will have the right to impose. I'm not. 01:02:04
Not speaking to. 01:02:11
I would just say as someone who has restored multiple homes. 01:02:14
Someone who came into it not knowing I am not a Jim Carter and I don't know all of the various people that. 01:02:17
I would say practically speaking it will be would be less expensive to restore this home then whatever the demo cost is going to 01:02:26
be. 01:02:31
With having to mitigate when you demo, you have to mitigate the asbestos and the different things when. 01:02:36
Renovating, you don't have to do that. And then just as expensive as it is to build things. So on a purely practical level, I 01:02:42
think long term, big picture it would probably be cheaper to restore this house. But I know there's more involved in this, but I 01:02:48
do just want to kind of say that for the record. 01:02:54
Actual professional, professional opinion. All right, Anybody else on council want to make a comment here? We're going to have to 01:03:04
move this along and if we can bat it around, we can bat it around all night. I think what we're I think you go ahead, Chuck. 01:03:11
The house has been done. I live. 01:03:19
But if you try to get people to work. 01:03:22
You better have big bucks and the price is out of the. 01:03:25
So I think 300,000 is a little bit love problem to do it right. 01:03:29
Nobody, not everybody wants the old houses anymore. I mean, you see what's getting built in town and. 01:03:39
You know, like I said, I live in one, but. 01:03:44
You know, most people want big closets. They want all the latest and greatest and it's not going to get that in those little 01:03:47
house. 01:03:50
OK, so we still have Chucks motion hanging out there. I think the the broader point here, you know Mr. Berryman was articulate and 01:03:55
he clearly articulated a. 01:03:59
You know what we what we may read what we've failed to sell here, which is we've talked about this issues for two or three years. 01:04:04
And the reality is, as a group, we have not made a determination to move forward with any sort of formal historic preservations 01:04:11
ordinance or code in the City of Watkinsville for good reason. OK, so however, this goes tonight. 01:04:18
You know, I think what we'll have to work with Sharon on is as a group, do we think this is an important enough issue? 01:04:24
That we put. 01:04:32
That we that we analyze and determine, do we need to put protections in place for the remaining historic homes in Watkins home? 01:04:33
Because Jeff is exactly right. There's not. We aren't Madison, We aren't Athens. We don't have extra historic homes. Everyone we 01:04:38
lose. 01:04:43
Is it's a much bigger deal because we don't have we don't have them and. 01:04:49
You know, looking around the behind the table here, you know almost all of us live in old homes and so we clearly prioritize that 01:04:54
and another person's probably lived in in other places. So anyway, so I do think. 01:05:00
The thing that we need to think about no matter where this goes tonight is if this is enough of a priority to us. 01:05:07
We've got to do a better job of making it. 01:05:13
Citizens and making sure our citizens are part of that process, for what are we going to do in the future about? 01:05:16
Working to preserve historic homes. 01:05:22
Rather than, you know. 01:05:24
Talking about it, saying are we going to do something about that? Because if whichever happens with this one, we're going to have 01:05:26
another one come before us at some point and and we've really got to think about that and figure that out. So that's all that the 01:05:29
mayor has to say. 01:05:33
At this point, we have a motion that has not been seconded from Councilman Garrett to approve the demolition permit. Do we have a 01:05:37
second for that motion? Can I ask one other thing? 01:05:41
Is it something we haven't discussed? Yes. OK, you may. OK. It's a question for y'all. 01:05:45
So as we have. 01:05:52
Enacting historic preservation, one of the things that we are seeing is that with that comes grants. 01:05:54
And opportunities of funding that comes outside of what a homeowner might have. 01:06:04
If we did enact A historic preservation. 01:06:10
Code District. 01:06:15
And. 01:06:18
Secure some of that funding. 01:06:20
Is that would that make any difference? 01:06:22
I don't believe it would, but I can also tell you from having been a historic preservation advocate since 1981 and having the 01:06:27
County Attorney in Athens Park County for 16 years. 01:06:32
I'm not aware of any grants. 01:06:38
That comes to owner occupied Residential. 01:06:41
We can get a little bit of a tax break. 01:06:49
But I'm just. I've not. I've not seen that. 01:06:51
Thank you. 01:06:54
All right, we have a motion to approve the demolition permit. Is there a second? 01:06:55
All right, I do not have that motion is going to die for life for a second. Chuck. What? Joe, what do we do if we don't have a 01:07:03
motion or a second on? 01:07:06
The other option is a motion to table till next month, which I'm not sure the property owner is excited to hear that option, but 01:07:10
it's an option that leaves the door open for further discussions. 01:07:15
Since we. 01:07:22
May I ask is a question for the homeowner? I can't remember. 01:07:24
It's on septic, is that correct? 01:07:29
I'm not. I don't. 01:07:33
Sorry, I apologize. Yes, yes, sorry. 01:07:38
It's on September. If it was possible to put it on sewer, could they subdivide the lot 'cause you could move that house to the 01:07:43
front part of the lot which. 01:07:47
I think it makes it look more in line with the other. 01:07:52
And you could put two houses. 01:07:55
If there, would they would they homeowner people sell the house to someone if they moved in front of the property and made it into 01:07:57
two lots? If they were allowed to be connected to sewers, I think sewers will be further down and may or may not be apostatized. 01:08:04
Long shot, but just I think it's far too soon to respond to that. 01:08:13
You know, I I know that they've looked at the issue of sewer and it's been virtually impossible to get sewer. 01:08:19
All right. Is there a motion to table? I make a motion to table. Is there a second? All in favor, say aye. 01:08:25
For the record, what is the date of next month's meeting, Sharon, So they know. 01:08:32
All right. N6 guys for next month, for next month, OK, if you've got to, if we've got a solution, if we've got strong. 01:08:37
If you want to interact with Mr. Berryman, who I assume is the right point of contact, and see if there's anything that can be 01:08:46
done here that protects us that is not, that's illegal. 01:08:50
Then please do that. Let's wrap our arms around this before we come back in here and avoid sausage making at the meeting, OK? 01:08:54
And I I think this is we're all passionate about. That's why nobody wants to make a second to demolishing historic home in 01:09:02
Watkinsville. And I get it, y'all. But we've got to. We also have a duty to the wall. We've got a duty to our codes. We've got a 01:09:08
duty to what we've said that we passed. So miss. 01:09:13
Culvert center Miss Patterson, I know I let this roll up here tonight, but I think it's important for y'all to understand our 01:09:20
passion on this. But I intend to get this to a conclusion next month and and be wrapped up with it. OK, so so if we're if anybody 01:09:26
wants to roll up their sleeves and see if there's anything else to be done, let's roll them up and let's. 01:09:31
Give him his Barrett, Mr. Berryman, and see what needs to happen or if anything can happen. 01:09:37
But otherwise. 01:09:43
At the meeting, unless we solve something in between. OK. All right. Thank you. OK. 01:10:17
All right. We're going to move on to item 10, old business. This is the second reading of our resolution for the adoption of a 01:10:24
request to the state legislature for a local act. 01:10:28
To create the City of Watkinsville Public Facilities Authority, we did do a first reading. 01:10:33
For this in August, Attorney Reitman, is there anything else we need to know? No, you're correct. Second radius due to timing with 01:10:38
the legislature, a certain interval between the approval and the legislative session. And again, this is simply a second reading 01:10:44
of the same one approved on a first reading in August as you stated. 01:10:50
OK, alright. 01:10:56
All right, unless there's any discussion, I'll entertain a motion. 01:10:59
To approve the second reading. 01:11:04
Through the 2nd, is there a second? 01:11:07
All right. Any discussion All in favor? Say aye, Aye. Any opposed motion carries 50. 01:11:11
All right, we'll move on to Rocket Field, and there is demolition involved here, but I think this will be less controversial. 01:11:19
The this is we've talked been talking for several months about the opportunity to. 01:11:26
Move forward with the Rocket Field Rebirth and we're now getting the point where we have the legal mechanisms to have that happen. 01:11:33
We've said all along we wanted to get that going after the Fall Festival. The Fall festival was wildly successful and wrapped up. 01:11:39
Last weekend, more on that to come, but these would be the sort of the mechanism to begin that process, I think engineer Campbell. 01:11:47
May make a report here in Manager Dickerson if I did not provide any necessary context. Feel free to chime in. 01:11:55
All right. Thank you, Mayor. So this is AI Guess there's, there's a couple items here that may be even more so than that, but from 01:12:01
an engineering standpoint and happy to answer any questions or conclusions. So this is both demolition of what is there now, the 01:12:09
dugouts and the bathrooms that we all walked around hopefully at the the fall festival and there are pictures of that. 01:12:17
At at City Hall as well so. 01:12:55
That is a picture of the plans. 01:12:58
You can see the elements there of the of the the dugouts and the the restrooms, as well as some of the other elements there around 01:13:02
the the boundary. 01:13:07
In order to do the following page, which would be the site improvement plans there that you see with the, the reoriented ball 01:13:12
field and the other items that would be ancillary not only to the ball field itself, the new structure that would be behind home 01:13:18
plate, but then the. 01:13:23
The community facilities that are outside the the right field line if you will dead away center field and then along the you know 01:13:29
the the the left field line also near the the corners of rocket field so. 01:13:37
Hopefully that has not been too brief and I will also mention there are multiple parcels. If you see the the in your it is parcel 01:13:46
W 06003 which is. 01:13:52
What we think of as Rocket Field. But there's also another parcel to the. 01:13:58
They would be. 01:14:02
Patak courts are being shown. 01:14:04
I will admit I did not know how to spell but talk a few months ago, but that is also a portion of these overall improvement plans 01:14:08
based on requests from citizens of the City of Watkinsville. So that is also part of this overall site improvement. I did not want 01:14:15
to leave that out. That would be located on parcel W 06003. 01:14:22
Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything else, but again, I would be happy to answer any questions from a final standpoint just to 01:14:32
make sure that everybody understands the overall land disturbance as part of this site improvement as you've heard me say before 01:14:37
is less than one acre the overall. 01:14:42
Net impervious area added is less than 5000 square feet, meaning they do not have to give a state erosion control permit for this 01:14:48
work as part of this process that you're reviewing tonight, and also would not be required to do an additional storm water 01:14:56
management because the impervious area added does not exceed that which is required by code. 01:15:03
And Mayor, I put some I brought the renderings back. The only thing you need to know is obviously the top ports are not in the 01:15:13
lower right or upper right corner, whatever of the. But I thought sometimes visually looking at a flat piece of paper with plants 01:15:18
on it isn't terribly exciting. 01:15:22
But for the most part, except for the top, everything similar. 01:15:28
Yeah. What I do want to note, Sharon, if you go back one for the benefit of the public, what we've determined in partnership with 01:15:33
value added concepts is the infield would actually be constructed of not the. 01:15:39
Area that looks brown on that the diamond. We would be using artificial turf. 01:15:45
And by using artificial turf, it allows us not to have to use to sweep the dirt. It keeps the dirt off people's feet. It's much 01:15:50
more low maintenance in terms of us having either Little League or Watkinsville, having to have people take care of the infield. 01:15:56
But everything else, The outfield, the remainder of the field, the areas. 01:16:03
The foul lines and the dugouts would be traditional turf, but the the the area of the baseball diamond would be artificial turf 01:16:07
and that we think that'll save us a lot of maintenance. That's pretty typical actually in a lot of in some baseball and softball 01:16:12
facilities that are being constructed now. 01:16:18
In terms of the timeline, we anticipate the demolition beginning as soon as November. 01:16:24
You know, we are hopeful to have this done in the spring. 01:16:30
So we'll be moving pretty quickly. So I know the first step looked like it was we we have three things to consider here, right. We 01:16:34
have the site plan which we need to improve the approve the site improvement plan again with minimal modifications with the patent 01:16:39
court moved up. I think we reviewed last month with the top court and again Lawrence and Kathleen and Laura, we have noted on the 01:16:45
plans that we'll you need to ignore those rectangles, right. We're going to work with you guys on how the design will be done in 01:16:51
that area. 01:16:57
We also have a lot of electric poles and other things that we have to work through in that area. So you know we're going to be 01:17:04
doing that so. 01:17:06
That'll be the first thing that we're going to need a motion on. Then we're going to look at the construction lease, which the 01:17:09
manager is going to brief us on in a moment. 01:17:12
And then we're going to look at them. We'll need to approve the demolition permit as the final step. And if you wish to do this as 01:17:16
one motion collectively that you have that option, well, that would make me happy because that's much more breathing. All right. 01:17:21
So Manager Dickerson, if you want to brief us on the construction lease arrangement and then we can answer any questions and. 01:17:27
Sure. So for the most part, value added concepts or or VAC is proposing to spend about 3/4 of $1,000,000 in site work, concrete 01:17:34
work, grass dugouts, the concession area, the scores building restrooms, the change structures, the field fencing and the city is 01:17:42
going to be probably putting forth. It could be close to 100,000 by the time it's all over. But right now we're looking at about 01:17:50
$91,000 for benches, trash cans, pet weigh stations, building, building permit fees and because we have to pay our our permit. 01:17:58
Guy, we ought to pay ourselves, but we have to pay them. The band bands and the stage, the baton courts, the net climber that 01:18:06
we've talked about. Any exercise equipment, trees and the light poles and lights themselves, which probably are, is the biggest 01:18:11
piece of that. 01:18:16
The, the rest of this lease is pretty common, very similar to what we did with the ESP. Basically it's a construction lease. We're 01:18:23
turning everything over. We would be turning everything over to value added concepts. They would do all the work that keeps us 01:18:28
from having to go get bids that slows the process down etcetera. 01:18:32
Much more streamlined. They do this kind of work all the time. 01:18:38
And we would coordinate with someone, we'll have someone on the on helping us with all the construction and whatnot so that we can 01:18:41
keep this thing moving along at A at a good pace. 01:18:47
I do. 01:18:53
Want to make a note about something? Hang on one second. 01:18:55
I think there's some questions. There is a question I believe about maybe the electric and we're going to have to talk about that. 01:18:59
I know the mayor may talk a little bit more about how he wants to handle that since they are not here, but there are funds for 01:19:05
most of this already. 01:19:10
They give them out quarterly, so we'll have an opportunity to go after that. I think it's $50,000 I think is what the the grant 01:19:50
is. So there's money there. 01:19:54
And then with the poles and the lights, I know that we've got someone looking into whether or not that's something that we can 01:20:00
workout. As far as you know, we buy, we pay our lives, we pay for our lights on a monthly basis based on the the size of light, 01:20:06
how many lights we got with Georgia Power and EM. 01:20:11
So it might be that we can work into some sort of a you know project, I guess got some over there, but nonetheless where we can 01:20:17
pay for that over a period of time. It's built into a monthly. So that'd be more of an operating expense than a capital. So those 01:20:22
things are still a little Gray, but I think we can come to you know and understand and figure that out. 01:20:28
Yeah. And what I'd like to do on the construction lease. 01:20:35
You guys to? 01:20:38
Contingent upon the manager not just getting clarity on installation of underground electric and and the details of what's 01:20:40
happening there, we just didn't have, we don't have a fine point on that. So I don't want you know if you guys could approve it 01:20:45
with that contingency that would be that would be helpful work that out with the with our partner on that. 01:20:51
I'm trying to think if there's any other background so again we the motion could be combined to approve. 01:20:58
The site plan, the demolition process and the construction lease agreement with the contingency that. 01:21:04
You know the mayor and the mayor manager authorized to. 01:21:11
You know, workout the details on underground electricity installation and who's responsible for what aspect of that. 01:21:15
Say so, moved if that's your will. 01:21:22
And we'll do a second and then we can discuss it. I know there may be questions, so if anybody wants to 2nd that please 2nd and 01:21:25
then we'll have discussion. All right. We have a second for Mr. Thomas. We have a motion to second. All right questions, 01:21:30
discussion of the project. This is also members of the public. I know this is of interest to you guys. So if you have anything you 01:21:35
want to say, you know that's fine too. We're going to be pretty informal so. 01:21:40
It's me again. 01:21:47
Could we have a water stub out at the dog park? 01:21:50
Cover. 01:21:56
It is on the plans. It's on the plants. OK, great. Thanks. 01:21:57
If you have anything you want to offer too, I know we have some experts in the room on the lighting, so yeah, y'all feel free to 01:22:04
step forward and yeah. 01:22:08
I'm Bruno Scarborough, my partner Johnny Highfield. We own Highfield and Scarborough, lighting and electrical. We've been here for 01:22:14
20 years in Watkinsville and we travel all over the state we do. 01:22:19
We did hurt and see, we did OBP, the buildings, all the lights, you know, we deal. We work with Moscow Qualight, all the big 01:22:25
lighting companies and everything so to. 01:22:31
We did the ESP field over there too, for them that to have something in our backyard, we just wanted to make sure that we were, 01:22:36
you know, we wanted to come up and get in on the ground floor with y'all offer. If there's any help that we can give in any 01:22:42
aspect, we've got got a little bit of familiarity in this kind of business. So if there's anything that we can help with or 01:22:49
whatever, just let us know, we'd be more than willing to. 01:22:55
Do whatever we can, you know, stay. We like to work at home as much as possible instead of making in Douglasville and all these 01:23:01
other places. So anything we can do to help y'all. Just feel free to Mary's got our card and. 01:23:07
I know Miss Jeweler knows how to get hold of us, so that's no problem at all. We can be here, but we help the chief out every 01:23:14
night then. So yeah, probably worthwhile to point out that every year they help us hang the decorations for the Christmas trip. 01:23:20
The the silhouettes I believe is what we call them on the poles and then they helped with the LPRS getting those up to so. 01:23:27
So we may well be in touch a smile when I have Someone Like You come forward Mr. Scarborough. Because I think when Rocket Field 01:23:34
was done Brett, it was it was hot Thomas and a couple guys who figured out how to wire all that stuff together and. 01:23:39
Primary around the top. You will never see that. 01:23:47
OK, I was alignment for 10. 01:23:52
So anyway, so and I don't understand any of it, so I go out there and I'm like, OK, why can't we just take all this down and start 01:23:57
over? It ain't that easy. I've learned that. So. So we may lean on you guys a little bit. Help us through that. So yeah, Council. 01:24:03
Anyone else questions Comments on Rocket SEAL? 01:24:10
Yes, ma'am, Miss. 01:24:14
You got to come up here because you're probably on TV. 01:24:16
I don't know how many viewers we have tonight, Miss Dickerson. We got it. We got a big audience tonight. 01:24:20
OK, All right. Laura Rose. I live at 104 White St. in Watkinsville. 01:24:25
I have made some effort to find out about building a proper baton court. I put one in my backyard but I already had a driveway. It 01:24:32
already had crusher run on it and all I had to do was a lot of heavy lifting of gravel and gravel, sand. 01:24:39
I've asked our wonderful engineer to go over the plans that I've come up with so that we can help develop a a good estimate of 01:24:47
what you really need to do when you have to grade things and then you have to deal with water, which I know nothing about. 01:24:54
And thankfully I think our partners agreed, you know maybe to help us with the with the grading in that area and some of that to 01:25:01
get at least get it roughed out and then we'll work on. 01:25:05
We'll work on the the details of that then that will be kind of be handed over to the city for us to finalize those details. 01:25:09
These are, I know people have asked about what the city's responsibility is, including a guy in a Plaid shirt in the audience. The 01:25:17
these are, this is a list of what the city, what we anticipate being responsible for in this agreement and what we're basing the 01:25:22
budget on, so. 01:25:26
OK. Any other? 01:26:02
Comments. 01:26:05
We can. We've got a motion, we've got a second, then at that point, Lawrence, come on up. 01:26:08
It's large Duke. I live. 01:26:13
Financials and I went out to we've been died by going over there to mark that out for the size and I know you think about a couple 01:26:15
of courts and Laura plays over in Atlanta and the city they're putting in the city there she plays is putting in 20 courts. 01:26:23
It's a. 01:26:30
Milton yeah, you know, and it's one of the reasons that you have more than one court is so when you can have a tournament, you 01:26:32
have enough courts. So I'm suggesting that if you can find it in the budget to put in what we laid. 01:26:38
The scale, it's a little. 01:26:46
Then. 01:26:49
And it's like today we play. 01:26:50
Four Courts. And so it's it's really, there's a lot of people starting to play it. You know, it's not as big as. 01:26:53
******** yet? 01:26:58
I don't know where it's going to go, but I think for the 50 year plan as long as we're going to that trouble to grade that part. 01:27:00
It'd be great if you could because you we marked it like paint today it's. 01:27:07
7 by 70. 01:27:12
So you can take a look at it with the graders and stuff. Yeah, I mean our intent is to work with you guys on the design of it. 01:27:14
You've been, you guys have been very passionate about it. So the intent is let's work together and work, work within the that 01:27:18
sounds good. 01:27:23
All the tournaments are done with strings it's just all right so we'll we'll work with you guys on the design. I'm going to bring 01:27:29
it back up here behind the rail and let's we got a motion we got a second we have any further decision Council. 01:27:35
All right, all in favor. Say aye. All right. Opposed. All right. Motion carries 4/1. 01:27:43
All right, we are to public comment. This is general comments from the public, 4 minutes per person. Same rules as before. Come up 01:27:53
to the podium if you have any general public comments you want to make. 01:27:57
Court client, if we receive any online in advance, no comments, no one coming forth. 01:28:03
Mayor's report. 01:28:09
All right, Fall Festival. 01:28:15
Saturday. 01:28:19
And it was great. By all accounts. We had one of our biggest crowds ever, if not the biggest crowd ever. Beautiful weather, 01:28:21
beautiful day. Certainly felt like fall in Watkinsville for most of the day. Got a little warm in the afternoon, but I guess 01:28:25
that's fall in Georgia. But I just want to give a big thank you, Chief, I know you already talked to your staff, but I can 01:28:30
remember years at the fall festival when the Watkinsville police presence was limited. And I always wondered why it was not 01:28:35
limited. The other day you guys flooded the zone. 01:28:39
Worked incredibly well with our partners at the Chamber Sheriff's Office. Everybody was working together. It was great to see. 01:28:44
People are always going to be grumpy about traffic and having to wait but but the vast majority of people and things that I've 01:28:50
heard were were tremendous and thank you to you guys and. 01:28:54
Guys, we've been remiss. Not a lot of us had to do too much hard work for the fall festival, which brings a ton of people to the 01:28:59
city, to our merchants, Chamber of Commerce. 01:29:03
When you see Courtney Bernardi and her team, give them a huge thank you for working to put that together and coordinating the 01:29:08
volunteers. That is a huge lift and a huge, huge community effort. So please thank the Chamber. I thank Courtney, thank the board 01:29:14
members and everybody who volunteered when you have a chance. 01:29:19
We did open our first brewery on Saturday and it was wildly successful. South Main Brewing. 01:29:26
You know what, Jeff said this, and I don't think I appreciated it at the time, how true it was. 01:29:34
This was a family play show. I mean, there were kids, there were there were little kids, big kids, people outside. 01:29:39
It it's building community and a lot of the things that we talk about that we want to do, whether it's Rocket Field, whether it's 01:29:46
a sidewalk, whether it's a. 01:29:49
An investment in a park, It's around building community and clearly communities being built in South Main Brewing, so just kudos 01:29:54
to. 01:29:57
Dutch guests, Brock Tool and their other partners there for that investment and it's great to begin to see what's happening at 01:30:02
Wire Park. It really is going to be a game changer for our community. So we're we're thrilled to see it. 01:30:07
All right, we have. We're going to announce our Grand Marshall tonight for the Christmas parade and our Grand Marshall this year 01:30:15
is going to be Mr. Harold Townley. 01:30:19
Mr. Townley was a proprietor of Townley's Tree Farm for many years. He was also a longtime volunteer with Oconee County High 01:30:23
School football program. He's Mr. Townley's 80 years old. 01:30:29
He lives in the northern end of the county and has been a tremendous community servant for many, many years. He he volunteered 01:30:36
with the football team, I think, for nearly 20 years with no compensation. He's retired from Ford Motor Company. He's been 01:30:43
involved and engaged in the community for a number of years and by all accounts is a wonderful man. So we're excited to announce 01:30:50
tonight that Mister Harold Townley will be our Grand Marshall and will be at the head of the parade this year on December. 01:30:57
4th The parade will begin at 3:30. AM I getting that right here and just keep nodding your head till I'm wrong. 3:30 on December 01:31:05
Sunday, December 4th the parade will conclude around 5:00 and is twilight occurs. We'll then do our Christmas tree lighting as we 01:31:10
have in the past but. 01:31:14
Mr. Townley is a another one of our remarkable county, county citizens who's helped make this community what it is. 01:31:21
And if you if you see him, if he's not on his tractor, give him a thank you for what he's done and congratulations for being our 01:31:27
Grand Marshall in the parade this year. 01:31:31
We do have our trick or treat on Main Street. That's actually going to be Halloween day this year, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PMI know Sharon 01:31:37
and I and the staff will be out there giving out candy, and any council members who want to join us are welcome to do so. It's 01:31:41
always a fun night. 01:31:45
See so many kids on Main Street. So 4:00 to 6:00 PM on October 31st. 01:31:50
On Main Street, another event that will pack folks in. 01:31:54
Advance voting has begun. I know the Civic Center. I'm hearing great reports that that's not taking very long. 01:31:59
This year, Watkinsville will get a similar amount to our SPLOST allocation every month. If that passes again, those have to be 01:32:35
designated for specific transportation projects and we have a list of long list of things we need to do. I don't have to remind 01:32:40
the people behind the rail, but for those who are watching 3 state highways come together in Watkinsville, most of the traffic in 01:32:46
Watkinsville is not Watkinsville people. 01:32:51
But those people are not helping to pay for our roads right now. 01:32:57
So T Spots is on the ballot. Please vote. 01:33:01
Next branding we have our. 01:33:05
We have our hats. 01:33:09
The, the the signs have gone up. 01:33:12
The logo is starting to appear. We've even seen it on murals and Instagram places. You know it works for you. I'm not a trucker 01:33:16
hat guy. I think Bruno might be our our best candidate for Watkinsville. You know, I see that Georgia one. 01:33:21
So, but we're beginning to see that, beginning to see that brand come to life and that's been a lot of fun to see the new signs go 01:33:28
up and other efforts related to the Watkinsville brand. I think we're giving stuff away on Facebook. 01:33:34
And you know, people are really getting, really getting behind it. So, so anyway, we're excited to see that come to life. 01:33:41
Chair and I don't know if that's Oh yeah, we had. 01:33:49
We've also begun updating the Joint Comprehensive Plan. This is a project that Oconee County guides, but every five years we have 01:33:52
to work with the county to update the county's Comprehensive and Master Plan, which guides land use decisions. This is one of 01:33:57
those things that's important. Y'all because people love to call us up and get fired up and frustrated when a certain thing 01:34:02
happens in a certain area. 01:34:07
This is when a lot of the decisions are made about what the future of the county's land use is going to look like. So we have a 01:34:12
lot, several Watkinsville citizens and business owners and land owners who are our representatives in that process. That list is 01:34:17
up there. I won't read all those, but you'll see it's a it's a diverse group of community leaders and people who wanted to get 01:34:21
engaged in the community. 01:34:26
Who are helping support our efforts related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan the county. 01:34:31
Guy Herring from the county and a consultant is leading that process overall and that's targeted to be completed next spring or 01:34:36
summer. 01:34:39
And then we also had the first meeting of our downtown development authority. 01:34:44
Bruno, you're probably like I can't believe this much is going on in this town, but but the downtown development authorities also 01:34:49
knew. 01:34:51
And that's a group of people, a citizen board, unpaid board, who are going to focus on improving our downtown. 01:34:55
And there's a lot of tools in the toolkit for a downtown development authority. So this was the swearing in for that group that 01:35:01
occurred. 01:35:04
Earlier this month. And that's the group of people who are involved. Christine, thank you for serving. Jeff, thanks for all your 01:35:07
work to make that a reality. So that that group is going to be exclusively focused on working to improve our downtown, create 01:35:13
programming, arts and other things. And that's just the area that you see outlined in dark red here. 01:35:19
And then last but not least, we've started our Fall for Watkinsville decorating contest. I think we've had our first entries come 01:35:27
in, but we want everybody to get in that fall spirit, decorate their front porch and then e-mail the picture to Angela. 01:35:33
And we'll share that on Facebook and we're going to have, we're going to have a vote with it, with some prizes at the end, some 01:35:40
prizes at the end for the people who get the most votes. 01:35:44
And just one clarification, the Christmas parade is actually at 4. The lineup begins at 3:30, so 4:00 Christmas parade begins at 01:35:49
four line up at 3:30 and but we will still be done around twilight and with enough light to get people off the Road home safely. 01:35:56
And then we will light the Christmas tree downtown at approximately 6. 01:36:04
Yeah. 01:36:10
All right, Council, we're going to turn it over to you guys. We have. 01:36:13
First up is Councilman Garrett. Anything to report? 01:36:18
All right, Councilwoman Massey, I don't have anything, all right? 01:36:22
Mr. Thomas. 01:36:26
Miss Tucker. 01:36:30
Just a slight update on the old playground. 01:36:32
I met with Wendy, the director at Okaf, and with a local artist, and we are starting the process of. 01:36:38
Coming up with some ideas that will then come back to the committee. 01:36:48
To add some public art, that would also be things that children could play on and around. So to kind of help, we're going to have 01:36:52
some blank space there. So kind of fill it in and help encourage people. 01:36:59
To be walking between the spaces. 01:37:06
Councilman Campbell. 01:37:11
Nothing to report, OK. 01:37:13
Anybody need an executive? 01:37:16
I did not. 01:37:18
Can I make a motion? Then I will entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. Do we have a second? All in favor. 01:37:21
We're done. 01:37:29
Wait. 01:37:30
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Transcript

To a pledge in a moment, but we have a quorum here. Glad to have everybody here with us in person and we will do the pledge. 00:00:00
Attorney Reitman, will you lead us in the pledge? 00:00:06
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:13
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:20
All right, this meeting is being broadcast simultaneously online via suite one that's always available. It's also made available 00:00:33
immediately after the meetings to anyone who is not here. Couldn't make it. 00:00:38
And the portal allows the public to view and listen to the meeting in progress, along with reviewing the meeting materials at the 00:00:44
same time and any associated items that we're considering tonight. 00:00:49
The agenda and materials are posted a full week. The agenda is posted a full week before the meeting. 00:00:54
To allow the comment public to provide comments to the clerk in case they have any about agenda items. The items on the agenda are 00:01:01
typically posted between Wednesday and Friday for public review. 00:01:05
I will now turn to approval of the Minutes. I'll entertain a motion to approve the Minutes unless there's any discussion. 00:01:11
I make a motion to approve the Minutes. 00:01:19
Is there a second? We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion of the Minutes. 00:01:22
All in favor, Say aye. 00:01:27
None opposed the motion car. 00:01:29
All right. We have approval of the agenda. Next, we do have a few small, small changes. Item 2A, we have some special guests here 00:01:32
tonight. So I want to add employee recognition for Drayton Criswell and Alex Zaragoza. Excuse me, Alex, our new public works 00:01:37
department employees. More about them in a moment. 00:01:43
We're removing item 7. That's the concept plan for the pipe plant at the request of the developer. So that is coming off the 00:01:50
agenda, Item 7. 00:01:54
And then we're going to revise item 11. 00:01:58
The party involved is Value Added Concepts LLC rather than KM Holdings. 00:02:01
I mean rather than Hill Point LLC, which is how it was listed there. So value added Concepts is a new LLC that would actually be 00:02:06
the party that will be engaged with on Rocket Field. So I'd love to have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended, please. I make a 00:02:13
motion to adopt the agenda as amended. We have a motion for Miss Tucker. Do we have a second? 00:02:20
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye, any opposed motion carries 5 O. All right, We're going to 00:02:27
move into administration. 00:02:32
The I do want to remind folks as we begin the meeting, we're can be a little less formal here in Watkinsville with our public 00:02:38
input process, but it doesn't mean we don't have rules. So we have members of the public wishing to address the mayor and council 00:02:43
may do so. It noted times like we have a public hearing. 00:02:48
During the meeting, there are times also where you raise your hand and want to comment on a specific item at the Council's 00:02:54
discretion. We may allow you to do that even if there's not a public hearing, but we may not. Again, that's the Council's 00:03:00
discretion, working closely with Attorney Reitman on whether that's appropriate. Comments are typically 4 minutes per person. 00:03:06
Unless we advertise otherwise, we don't allow direct debate, argument, personal attacks, or irrelevant discussion. 00:03:11
If you comment, you should address the pending matter and address those remarks directly to council. Council can't speak to 00:03:18
potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters and will not do so. So we'll do a more. We'll do another reminder if we 00:03:24
get to any public hearings or other moments, but that's generally how it works. We do value interplay with the public and as 00:03:29
necessary, but we want that to be a healthy, respectful process. 00:03:35
Item 2 will move directly into do you want me to do this first year or you want me to do the. OK, OK, so we're going to do 2A 00:03:41
before we do 2 and that is. 00:03:45
Recognizing some new Public Works employees, Drayton and Alex, if you all want to stand up and come up here. 00:03:50
Umm. 00:03:56
Drayton and Alex are our newest public works employees. Our public works team does a tremendous amount in the city. They manage 00:03:57
our. 00:04:01
They keep your ditches clean. They make sure that the city looks beautiful, They keep the grass mode and a lot more than that. 00:04:07
To guys have been in Georgia for many years. We're thankful to have you here Manager Dickerson do you want to share anything else 00:04:16
about these about these gentlemen? Well, so Drayton's been with us what a couple months now I think and Alex has only been here a 00:04:20
couple weeks. 00:04:24
So. 00:04:30
Yeah. So I'm really thrilled to have them. It's been a great, they've been a great add. They also work on the parks. We have 3, 00:04:31
three public parks around here that we have to keep up. They keep up with that. They've been helping with getting the signs up, 00:04:36
the new branding and everything that's rolling out. So I'm really pleased to have them on board and I hope everybody will take 00:04:41
time to say hey to them if you see them downtown or. 00:04:46
Around town so. 00:04:51
One thing I've learned being mayor, there's a lot of magic that kind of happens when nobody's looking in Watkinsville. You know, 00:04:57
we get up, we travel around town, and you don't realize how much work actually goes into making sure that the water flows and that 00:05:02
the the grass is mowed, the parks are kept neat and clean and. 00:05:07
And you all contribute a lot of that and we do appreciate it. So thank you. 00:05:13
Resolved, she had to go back and actually re-enter all the information since September so. 00:05:50
It's a lot. We spend a lot and do a lot, you know, during that time, so. 00:05:55
But I will go over the SPOSS reports because I do have those. So our SPLOST one and our spots to that. Basically all the funds 00:05:59
that are left in spots one and Splice 2 with the exception of about $5000 is going towards the sewer line, a construction project 00:06:05
that the county is working on. 00:06:10
About 5000. Set aside to finish out the project around here with the landscaping, the painting, the building, everything that has 00:06:17
to do with the upgrade of the park facilities and whatnot. So. 00:06:22
Umm. 00:06:27
We are not receiving any more revenues in splash one or two. Those of those are what they are. 00:06:27
SPLOS 3 we have that is the one that started in September of last year. 00:06:33
And we're averaging $73,000 a month since we started collecting. 00:06:40
Right now the most of those funds that are in public safety or funds that you all set aside for capital during the budget process, 00:06:45
the recreation green space money that is for phase one of Harris Shoals Park that we're currently working on. 00:06:50
That has to do with the reimagination or restructuring of the old wooden playground. 00:06:57
The demolition of the building at the front of the park and some upgrades to the restroom facility down there. 00:07:03
The 21,000 that's encumbered right now is for the signs that are going up right now. We've got a whole bunch of other signs. We've 00:07:11
just got the first four up. We'll be working on getting the wayfinding sound down here at the corner up next. 00:07:17
And then the four signs that will go on the county roads that are listed within the city that are within the city. 00:07:22
Will be a little bit smaller and we have to coordinate with the county on that since it's going to be hopefully on there right 00:07:27
away. 00:07:30
And then we'll be doing the historic signs throughout and then the park signs. So we've still got several iterations to go, but 00:07:33
hopefully keeping our fingers crossed we can keep this thing moving. We get most of most of the signs up by Christmas. 00:07:38
Just a little bit of a snapshot to see how the monies were coming in. You'll see just in the first two months of this fiscal year, 00:07:44
we're already at 76,000 a month. But if you look at all of them over the last basically 11 months, you're looking at about 73,000 00:07:50
a month. So we have about $676,000 in the bank for Swiss 3. 00:07:56
The American Rescue Plan report, you guys may recall that fortunately for us, we are not an entitlement unit. And so the federal 00:08:04
government through the state of Georgia gave us all of our money. You elected a standard allowance we ended up with. 00:08:11
I think. 00:08:20
4 million, something like that. I'm trying to remember how much it was, or one 1.1 million is what it was initially. You've spent 00:08:23
some of that money. I'm sorry, it's up there. It says 1.1 million. You spent some of that money, but you have about 823,000 that 00:08:27
has not been spent. There are some outstanding. 00:08:32
Potential opportunities in the future that you all have talked about maybe using that for. And so right now that money is. 00:08:37
Is still available. 00:08:43
Any questions on those? 00:08:45
And I guess one other point about the encumbrance. So the standard allowance allows the city of Watkinsville, all the governments 00:08:49
that selected that. 00:08:53
Under $10 million are up to 10 million to use it for anything. So it can be used for general fund. We're not required to use it as 00:08:58
some of the other entitlement units are required to use it for. 00:09:02
Essential workforce or COVID related activities. So that freed that freed us up quite a bit. 00:09:08
And move in next one. So economic development reports, the business licenses, those are actually renewals are about to go back 00:09:16
out. So we have just a few coming in, not a lot, just a little bit more than $300.00 on that. 00:09:21
Some of those are new businesses that have come in and then we have the excise tax. We started doing doing this report, This is 00:09:28
alcohol excise tax that we always got but never really reported. You thought it'd be worthwhile seeing that. I'm guessing, Julie, 00:09:35
the $536,536 is not the full amount we normally get. That's probably just because we haven't, we didn't get all that reconciled 00:09:42
yet. Well, some of those happened to me because they're not due until October. 00:09:49
That just came in early. OK, That's right. All right. And then we'll have next month we should see some some excise taxes from the 00:09:57
brewery starting up, so. 00:10:02
On the building side, we have 6 permits for five projects, one at water park. 00:10:09
A remodel on 2nd St. and then just some basic things that go on the signs and HVAC. 00:10:15
So not too busy of a. 00:10:22
Any questions? 00:10:24
As I was looking through this, I didn't notice if we got many money yet from the. 00:10:29
Hotel, Motel. 00:10:33
That isn't due until October the 20th. So it was due yesterday, right? Today's note tomorrow. What is today? It's due tomorrow. So 00:10:35
and then we'll know and we're working through that. This is our first rodeo, so we're going to see if we get that. 00:10:42
And I think we talked about this when you approve the hotel motel that we're dealing with these large marketplace innkeepers and 00:10:50
we. 00:10:53
And what we realized is they were charging a tax, but that tax was supposed to come to Watkinsville, but it wasn't. And so, so we 00:11:25
don't know where that was going, whether it was going to the state, going somewhere else. And so we passed a code that says if 00:11:31
you're going to tax folks when they're staying in Watkinsville, you need to send the money to Watkinsville. So that's really what 00:11:36
we're doing there with Airbnb, VRBO and whoever those other marketplace facilitators are, so. 00:11:41
That IT Chair. OK, Chief Brock Police Department report. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be before you. How 00:11:48
are y'all doing? Great. 00:11:52
Any questions over the report that I submitted for the data and the traffic signs that have been reporting? 00:11:58
Any questions? Speeds or speeds are creeping up on Simonton Bridge. I thought it was interesting. Oh yeah, I was. I was shocked at 00:12:05
the percentage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:12:08
I was a little. I wasn't sure what. 00:12:12
Bottom number was that it would say. 00:12:15
I don't know how in front of me like the little percentage, the, the red, the red percentage. Yeah. So I calculated that and 00:12:18
posted those on each one of the sheets. So you all have an understanding of what, what, what the vehicles were doing and let so 00:12:24
the vehicles that are traveling 11 plus miles an hour over are that's the percentage. 00:12:30
Of all the vehicles. OK. Thank you. That's helpful. Yeah. So experiment stations currently sitting at 2.8% at that 11 mph over. 00:12:36
North Main .71%. 00:12:45
Simonton bridge in that's the inbound sign is 17.4%. 00:12:48
And something to bridge out is 12.2%. 00:12:53
South Main out right in front of Councilman's house is a half a percent, Barnett Scholes is .4% and then Greensboro Highway is 2%. 00:12:57
You can see very quickly that the percentage in Simon Bridges is high and we're aware of it and we're trying to address it just as 00:13:08
you know frequently and often as we can. 00:13:12
Any other questions? 00:13:17
So how often do you change the sign? Like where is it is? 00:13:20
I'm wondering if some of the places that have the really low. 00:13:25
Because we still hear from citizens. 00:13:31
Experience that there are some high speeds that seem to be regularly going on. What could we shift the signs like to the other 00:13:33
direction or move them up around in the street? How do you determine that? That's a that's a great question. And the signs that I 00:13:39
have in place at 7 that I've got in place, I'm actually trying to leave in their locations for historical purposes so we can have 00:13:44
those reports for comparison. 00:13:49
I've been using the VMS on the variable message sign that floats around. It's actually been in the field for eight months. This is 00:13:55
the first time it's actually been out of the field since we've had it deployed. 00:14:00
This weekend we brought it back for a few days and. 00:14:05
Planning on where I'm going to put it next, but we've been using that variable message on to address those hotspots that we're 00:14:08
having that don't have the signage, that digital signage that we have currently in place. 00:14:13
Any other questions? 00:14:20
All right, I have a few things I want to highlight before I walk away from here. Tristan Walker. 00:14:22
Is set to graduate October 27th from Piedmont Technical College in Covington. That's next week at 6:00 PM. 00:14:27
At the college. 00:14:34
And any members that would like to participate or attend, we'd love to see all. 00:14:37
And this last week I got a letter from a citizen who lost her wallet or had it stolen. 00:14:42
I'd like to read that for y'all. 00:14:49
My name is Sue. 00:14:51
I live at Marshall. Dr. Remind me to tell you and your department. 00:14:52
What an outstanding con professional. 00:14:57
Officer Rachel Stein OR. 00:15:00
Is she and Sergeant Wade came. 00:15:02
Me yesterday, October 11th, concerning a. 00:15:05
We are really blessed in this community to have such a wonderful professional police. 00:15:09
She wrote a handwritten note to each one of them, Officer Stearns and Sergeant Wade, and brought them into me and was very pleased 00:15:14
with the service that she received. 00:15:19
And that's actually Officer Stearns very. 00:15:24
Recognition from citizen. So it's pretty important to recognize that because. 00:15:27
You often hear me talk. 00:15:33
About how we serve and our servants at heart. 00:15:36
And what we do in our communities. 00:15:39
And I often say things like that's what it looks like. Well. 00:15:42
That letter out there, that is. 00:15:45
And I can't emphasize enough how important that is to. 00:15:48
Coming. 00:15:52
The fall festival was this last weekend and I want. 00:15:54
Thank my team. 00:15:58
It is an absolute blessing to be able to show up to an event. 00:16:00
And have it run Florida State with no hiccups. 00:16:04
Or. 00:16:07
Particularly Sergeant Hitler has gone out of his way to create a traffic plan and flow pattern out of. 00:16:08
Out of the festival event area for all the vendors to come and go. 00:16:16
And it went off without a hitch and received plenty of accolades, you know, throughout the day from citizens walking by going. 00:16:20
Play It pleased they were to see how things were so structured and organized, and I can't do that without a great team. And I've 00:16:28
got one. 00:16:31
And I'm glad. 00:16:36
Any other questions? 00:16:38
Chief, would you share about the LPR issue that we talked about? You know, I had it on my notes and I didn't put it down to my 00:16:41
bullet points. 00:16:45
So a couple weeks ago. 00:16:49
Well, actually let me back up. Let me tell you a little bit story. 00:16:54
A couple months ago, we ended up arresting a guy for stalking his significant other. 00:16:57
She. 00:17:04
Was aware that he was doing it, but she didn't call. 00:17:06
Other citizens started calling us because he was staging his his surveillance operations in various different locations in the. 00:17:09
Citizens caught on to that and started reporting him through Facebook of all places. 00:17:15
So we ended up making contact with him. He basically told us what he was doing. 00:17:21
And we made contact with the victim and ultimately I directed them to put him in jail for stalking. 00:17:27
He went to jail and he was released. He was released on a condition that he was not to return to Oconee. 00:17:34
Until he was either to attend court or was. 00:17:39
Some kind of legal advice from an attorney or something? 00:17:43
The LPRS we. 00:17:48
Plugged in the three different vehicles that he was using. He was using his own personal vehicle and two other friends. We had 00:17:50
that information available to us. We plugged that in. 00:17:55
As they lookout for the LPR. 00:17:59
The LPRS 3 weeks ago started dinging again with his information. 00:18:02
And we quickly were able. 00:18:07
Locate him traveling through town and put him in. 00:18:10
And he was revoked and is remaining in jail because he obviously does not follow the rules. 00:18:14
The LPRS have done good favor for our citizens and keeping them safe. 00:18:21
I'm happy to report that. 00:18:26
All right. And LPR stands for? 00:18:28
License plate recognition. 00:18:32
Any others? Thank you for reminding. 00:18:35
Thank you, Chief. 00:18:39
All right. Council on, we do have one item on the consent agenda. That's the building valuation data table. As a reminder, that's 00:18:47
how we determine the cost of building permits. That's usually in the internationally recognized valuations and numbers that are 00:18:52
then adjusted for local conditions. 00:18:56
No one has to take that off the consent agenda. So since they didn't all entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:19:03
And make a motion to approve the consent. 00:19:08
Do we have a 2nd? I'll second all in favor? Say aye. 00:19:11
All right. We'll move on to our public hearing. We have a couple different. 00:19:16
Sorry, we'll move on to our appearances. We don't have public hearings tonight. 00:19:22
The first one that we have coming up and is the North Main Street parcel for the Oconee County School District and we're excited 00:19:28
to hear from them about their plan for their instructional support center. 00:19:33
So gentlemen, whichever one of you for, or if all four of you are doing this as a quartet, feel free to step forward and tell us 00:19:39
more about what your plans are. 00:19:43
Good evening. 00:19:49
And you want to state your name, address and who you're affiliated with for the record, please. My name is Jeff Robinson. I'm with 00:19:50
Cunningham for a Matthews and. 00:19:54
Architects Our firm is located at 2011 Manchester St. NE, Atlanta, GA. 00:19:58
And we've consistently worked with Newton County school system on many of their projects. And this is Joe Moon with Brie Love Land 00:20:05
Planning. 00:20:09
And he'll further introduce himself when he steps up to. 00:20:14
Do what? Oconee County. Sorry, sorry. 00:20:22
We are the architect for the Oconee County Instructional Support Center. 00:20:29
Is designed to replace the existing Board of Education office currently located on. 00:20:34
The 34 School St. campus that has been occupied for 42 years. 00:20:40
By the Oconee County School System, which will be repurposed by the Oconee County School System after this building is 00:20:46
constructed. 00:20:50
The design features of the buildings features traditional timeless design featuring brick column. 00:20:54
I mean brick and columns in the front of the building. 00:21:01
Also with decorative chimneys. 00:21:05
Cup. 00:21:08
That. 00:21:09
To honor and represent the cupola and and the chimneys that. 00:21:11
Incorporated in the original design of the original. 00:21:15
Historic Oconee County High School Build. 00:21:20
The building also is forward facing. 00:21:23
Welcoming the community inside, but also incorporates safety and security features in the building. 00:21:27
And on the site. 00:21:33
The building is 43,360 square feet. 00:21:35
The design for which is also designed for future growth. 00:21:40
At the school. 00:21:46
The building plan also includes 66 offices and a boardroom that will seat 118 individuals. 00:21:48
And at this point, I'll turn. 00:21:56
Get over to Joe so he can give you kind of a summary of the design of the site. 00:22:00
Good evening, council members. My name is Joe Moon. We love land planning. We're the site design professionals. We're located at 00:22:07
1020 old Bishop Rd. not far from here. 00:22:12
And Bishop GA. 00:22:17
Working on the the school building for the new instructional support center and the concept that you see here that you're looking 00:22:24
at right now is illustrates the master plan for the site to provide adequate space for future expansion as the county grows. And 00:22:31
majority of the parking that you see is provided in rear of the building with a small amount of parking in the front for for 00:22:39
visitors And we revise this layout early part of this week to create more green space to provide a more. 00:22:47
Welcoming appearance with a red brick pedestrian. You kind of see that red brick pedestrian raised table right there for the 00:22:55
little speed hump there to make that more inviting for pedestrians to come to the front of that building. But this will also pay 00:23:02
for respect to other historic structures in the City of Watkinsville. At this time, we'll turn it back over to Jeff. 00:23:09
That that's essentially the summary of the building design of the project and. 00:23:18
You know, so that way if we have, if we have feedback and they have feedback, we can have a little bit of a dialogue about what 00:23:54
our feedback is before they've spent, spent a lot of money on detailed plans and things like that. So that's very typical for our 00:24:00
process. So we're not going to be voting on anything tonight. We're going to be providing feedback to our our friends here about 00:24:05
their building, which I must say to Mr. Laduff and and Mr. Ricketts and we. 00:24:11
And we would say to the school board if they're here we we really appreciate your the time in Watkinsville and are excited that 00:24:17
Y'all chosen to to build in Watkinsville. We think that's. 00:24:22
We appreciate that. We think it's the school board belongs in the county seat and the facility belongs in the county seat and 00:24:27
personally I'm a fan of your architecture and the commitments you guys have made to a high quality. 00:24:32
Institutional building, because I think that says a lot. 00:24:37
The caliber of the school system that you are and we need to build buildings that stand the test of time and that we'll be proud 00:24:40
of not just five years from now, but 40 years from now, 50 years from now. So credit to you guys and to your team for the design 00:24:46
work that you've done. Council, at this point, why don't you guys, if you have any questions or comments that you want to share 00:24:51
with the architects and the land Planner and our friends from the school system, please do. 00:24:57
Or you may have questions too. 00:25:05
Of course I've got to talk. I always talk. 00:25:09
No, no, I want to activate the mayor. I was super glad to have this project go on in Watkinsville. 00:25:11
I do have a couple of concerns, mainly the parking that you discussed. I do have our ordinance pulled up specifically discussing 00:25:18
parking. 00:25:22
And Chapter 8, Section 3A Parking lot shall be located to the rear of the buildings. 00:25:27
Or in the interior of a Glock, limiting parking. Limited parking is allowed inside of the building if top off top foot. 00:25:35
So. 00:25:43
Location of open space green. 00:25:47
Shall be. No, that's not should be. It's shall. So that's my main concern. 00:25:49
I understand with that you're trying to keep it in and. 00:25:57
And the. 00:26:03
Resembling like the courthouse and having parking out there. 00:26:05
I haven't discussed this with these guys, So what with me reviewing this, I would probably be amenable to keeping it similar to 00:26:11
the parking lot at courthouse. 00:26:15
With just a singular row of parking from the. 00:26:20
And adding more green space back up there. 00:26:26
But it is a shall not a should. 00:26:30
We'll have to work through that. 00:26:35
I also see that you got two way streets in there and he might be able to. He's a. 00:26:40
Rogue guy. You might be able to speak more to it, but I think it would be more beneficial to have a one way in, one way out, 00:26:46
especially if we do limit. 00:26:50
To a singular row of parking. You come in and you come back out separate way. 00:26:54
That's just kind of my thoughts right off the top of my head after reviewing the plan. 00:27:01
What I would like to see. 00:27:06
You pretty much said what I was going to say, so I agree. I'm thrilled that y'all are staying in downtown Watkinsville. We are so 00:27:10
proud of our school system. You helped make our community. 00:27:17
What it is? So thank you guys so much. 00:27:25
I would say that I am willing to compromise instead of saying absolutely no parking at the front. 00:27:30
To instead have it be something similar to the courthouse where it's more meaningful green space, one one way and some handicap 00:27:38
spaces and some spaces for. I mean I would guess in a normal day you don't have 10 parents come all at once that just have to come 00:27:46
in and say something that's probably not very common, but having one or two spaces, some handicap spaces, you know that I mean in 00:27:54
that first row with my eyes can count them from here, but I would think that would be plenty for a non meeting type of situation. 00:28:02
For people. And then it would give more green space, more of the welcoming, because I do believe this building is going to be here 00:28:10
when I'm gone and even when my kids are gone probably. And so I think it's worth spending, I mean making little adjustments to 00:28:17
make sure it really is. 00:28:23
Fitting into the character that the citizens of Watkinsville, when they I wasn't here when this code was made, this was something 00:28:30
the citizens of Watkinsville were very thoughtful about. There's a reason for this. So I. 00:28:37
I think we need to be respectful of that. 00:28:44
And I believe that current parking, I believe the current parking, if I'm looking at it correctly, there's 27 parking spots. 00:28:48
I'm asking you to reduce it to 13 for round numbers. 00:28:55
Yeah, I would. I would echo with. 00:29:02
The other council members have said as far as the parking, I think resembling the courthouse makes sense. I do like the design of 00:29:05
the building, how you put. 00:29:08
Good thought as far as the chimneys and the cupola, I appreciate that. 00:29:12
And I love the fact that it's going to stay in downtown Watkinsville. I've seen other cities nearby who build this. 00:29:16
Grand building similar like this out in the country for their Board of Education. 00:29:23
It just doesn't make. 00:29:27
In my personal opinion, so I'm excited to see that it'll stay in Watkinsville. Look forward to working with y'all to. 00:29:30
On the project. 00:29:36
Any other comments? 00:29:42
One, so I see that there's three additional, I think it's three additional buildings, two additional buildings, sorry, what what 00:29:45
do you think those are proposed buildings? 00:29:50
Those are just for future growth. 00:29:57
All right. Mr. Laddock, do you have something you want to share? Yes, if that's all right, America, First off, thank you guys for, 00:30:04
for having us on the agenda and and reviewing our plan and for your comments as well. I just wanted to kind of give you an idea of 00:30:11
what our thoughts were in the design phase of the new ISC. So two kind of main things I guess relevant to your comments were we 00:30:19
were trying to do in terms of the community is is ease of access and having a forward facing welcoming. 00:30:26
Building. 00:30:34
The other thing we were had in mind was safety and security. So. 00:30:36
As as you all are aware, all of our school campuses have parking in the in the front. So thank you Miss Tucker for those comments. 00:30:40
And what we also try to do is have a single access point of entry for safety and security reasons, that's where. 00:30:48
If you look at the floor plan of that building, that's where the check-in of guests will be and things like that, so. 00:30:57
That's why it was important for us to have those parking spaces in front and you know we do have several visitors from time to 00:31:05
time now, but we're also thinking about our future growth and and the amount of traffic that we might have. 00:31:12
As we continue to grow. 00:31:20
But thank you again for all your comments and time reviewing our plan. 00:31:22
And what's your timeline for the building start construction and moving forward, it's all all goes according to our schedule. 00:31:28
Currently we're looking to issue forbid early part of next year depending on approvals. 00:31:36
Acquiring per. 00:31:41
That sort of thing we're anticipating. 00:31:43
Around a 15 month construction period for construction. 00:31:46
Of the project. 00:31:50
Place in the construction if all permitting and everything goes will be summer. 00:31:52
28 fold. 00:31:58
And Mr. Ladoof, you mad up in any of you know, I'm just curious, you know how many jobs you currently have in downtown 00:32:00
Watkinsville and then when this my understanding is you're going to consolidate some positions back into this building, how many 00:32:05
employees do you anticipate having in Watkinsville when this is done? 00:32:10
Oh gosh, I think we have roughly 35 at School St. currently and there is. 00:32:17
A whole lot more of us that are considered district office staff that are assigned at schools. 00:32:27
Transportation technology and things like that, so. 00:32:33
Roughly 70 I think is what we're, we're expecting to start. 00:32:39
At the at the new instructional support center. 00:32:43
But I don't have the exact number. And then you also though keep a technology staff or some other group in the old, the old 00:32:47
building to correct. Yes Sir, we will still be using that old building. 00:32:52
Technology is kind of where we're where we're leaning towards now is having our technology staff be housed there. So you'll keep, 00:32:58
you'll keep a similar footprint. Do you think you'll let go of the trailers that are over there? So right now we have technology 00:33:05
staff at our central office, our current central office and some of them are assigned at schools and then we also have an office 00:33:11
at Oak County Middle School. 00:33:18
OK. Any further questions or thoughts? 00:33:27
All right. Gentlemen, thank you for being in. Appreciate, appreciate. 00:33:32
All right, item seven was removed from the agenda. 00:33:38
So we will not be discussing that tonight. Item 8 is School St. demolition. 00:33:43
Charles and Dana Blair don't know if Mr. and Mrs. Blair are here tonight. 00:33:48
They're not here. 00:33:53
So Manager Dickerson and Mr. REIT. 00:33:55
Is that something that we need to wait for them to be here? Is that something we need to go ahead and oppose discretionary? I 00:33:58
don't know whether. 00:34:01
That is discretionary. I don't know whether it is time sensitive. Miss Dickerson may be able to address that better. 00:34:05
It sounds like Engineer Campbell's ready to make a report, so why don't you go ahead and make a report and council can make a 00:34:13
determination after that. 00:34:16
Thank you, Mayor. So this is 22 School St. It is. 00:34:19
Across the street as I would say from from Rocket Field, the request is specifically for demolition permit for an accessory 00:34:25
structure, what they refer to as a a carport garage. There's a portion that's open and then there's a portion that is also 00:34:31
enclosed. It appears to be used for storage currently. So to give you an idea that is where 22 School St. is located. As I said 00:34:37
just adjacent to to the Rocket Field area there as well. 00:34:43
Go to the next slide. So that's a picture from School St. So what you see in that picture is the driveway in the center, the 00:34:51
primary residence on the right. Again, there's no application for demolition of that primary residential structure. It is what you 00:34:56
see there to the left of the driveway. 00:35:01
There may be a better picture. 00:35:06
There that shows a vehicle and then again that the structure that would be demolished in the the forefront there of that picture. 00:35:08
And I can and I can also, I can also report that they did provide renderings of what they intend to build and replacement of that. 00:35:58
It's a very nice structure, very. 00:36:03
Complimentary to that, but that's not where you're here to consider that. That's administrative, but just want to let you know it 00:36:09
will be replaced with something nicer. 00:36:12
OK. All right. I think attorney Reitman wants to make a comment and then council can ask. This is quick kind of two-part question. 00:36:17
I think I know the answer #1 is this an historic structure #2 does it contribute materially to the character of fabric of the 00:36:22
community? 00:36:28
I'm sorry, I was asking if. 00:36:35
Bring your nose will suffice. 00:36:40
Yes, how about that? 00:36:46
Fair enough, And you see why I ask. 00:36:49
Be explosive. 00:36:51
Like I say, I felt like I knew the answer my question. But for the record for the minutes. 00:36:55
OK, All right. Council, do you have questions for? 00:36:59
Engineer, Campbell or manager? 00:37:03
It's not historical. 00:37:07
Looks like 4 by 4 beans with shingles. 00:37:13
Yeah, I don't have, I mean, I don't know what questions I would ask. I'm appreciating that they're planning to replace it with 00:37:21
something that looks better. I mean, I think it's helpful to know what is going to happen there. 00:37:27
I don't care what public. 00:37:34
This is an effort to be as transparent about all city processes as possible. 00:37:37
The criteria for something that might be a primary structure. 00:37:44
Specifically the rise to this historical aspects, a lot of times we come into play is more this is not a primary structure, this 00:37:47
is an accessory structure, but it is still being required to come in front of you as the council to see after a fall festival 00:37:55
somebody showed up and said hey, why that structure not there anymore. It it it in front of this body to be heard to be reviewed 00:38:02
as part of the application process. Well, we're about to do one of the demolition permit on dugout, so you know. 00:38:10
We're being careful on this. Councilman Garrett, Did I see you? Do you have any questions? You're fine. Anyone else? 00:38:18
Our council, I'm open to a motion if y'all are. If you don't have anything else you want to ask her, get questions about her. 00:38:25
If you do. 00:38:31
I make a motion to approve the demo permit on this accessory. 00:38:35
We have a motion to approve the. 00:38:41
The permit, do we have a second? We have a motion, we have a second, We have any further comment? 00:38:45
All right, all in favor. Say aye. Any opposed motion carries, father. 00:38:51
All right, our next appearance, 41 Barnett Shoals Rd. I'm going to ask. 00:38:59
Engineer Campbell for a report and then if the Patterson's are they representative wants to speak after that, that would be fine. 00:39:04
But Engineer Campbell, I know we have some. 00:39:08
Background in history on this one. 00:39:12
We do. So just as a refresher here that it is approximately, we'll call it 7/10 of an acre to round up, it is zoned detached 00:39:14
residential and this would be the demolition of the existing primary residential structure. So a 41 Barnett Shoals Rd. There is at 00:39:21
the corner of Barnet Shoals Rd. And Lawanna Dr. You can see it on the northern side of Barnett Shoulders Rd. there. 00:39:29
We had some pictures when this had come before previously here, so here's some updated pictures. So this would be this house sits 00:39:38
further back from Barnett Shoals Rd. So this is not a picture from Barnett Shoals Rd. but this is a picture from the from the 00:39:44
front of the structure there. There's also subsequent pictures you can see that's essentially the the view from Lawanna Dr. facing 00:39:50
back towards the structure. And then there's a recap if you'll go to the following slide a little bit. So this was initially 00:39:56
discussed at the March meeting. 00:40:03
And then there was discussion about. 00:40:10
Possible options for the structure. 00:40:12
It was tabled at the March meeting. It came back in front at the April meeting. What was specifically discussed at the April 00:40:16
meeting was giving it some some opportunity to be relocated to another location as opposed to just demolished. If you were driving 00:40:23
up around Barnett Shoals Rd. subsequent to that meeting, you would have seen signage and information related there too about the 00:40:30
opportunity to to relocate the house at that based on all the information I have that. 00:40:37
There have been interested parties that were initially interested, but upon further investigation nobody actually followed through 00:40:44
with agreeing to move that structure to another location. So it is with that after the. 00:40:52
Extension of time there that it comes back in front of you as a demolition permit request. 00:41:01
OK. 00:41:12
I don't know if anybody wants to speak on behalf of the applicant at this point. 00:41:16
Mr. Berry. 00:41:19
Welcome back. 00:41:21
Thank you. 00:41:22
Bill Berryman for some building, Griffin, 2500 Dennis Bridge Rd. Athens. 00:41:25
I represent Lisa Culbertson, who's the owner of this. 00:41:30
And Mr. Campbell. 00:41:34
Beginning on April 13th and running through today, Miss Culbertson are one of Representatives showed the House to 14 people. 00:41:36
And she received calls from at least 18 more people. 00:41:46
She's I think, every six weeks she sent a report to Miss Dickerson about the progress, or lack thereof. 00:41:51
To try to get someone to move this house. 00:41:58
One person did do a great deal of due diligence on this property. 00:42:02
And had a pest inspector come in and determined that at least 20% of the floor joists of the structure had termite damage. Could 00:42:07
not get in behind the walls, obviously to see the other parts of the structure that could have termite infestation, but. 00:42:15
It's probable that that was there. 00:42:25
We had interested people. Look, no one was willing to accept the challenge of moving this property. 00:42:28
There were a variety of reasons that we heard from some of the people. A lot of the people were looking for land. Obviously they 00:42:38
couldn't. 00:42:42
Find the land or get it closed in time, but I think ultimately it came down just to the condition of the property and the risk 00:42:45
that might be incurred in moving it and just having it fall apart and not being able to to get it done. 00:42:52
So I think that was the decisive factor. 00:43:01
I think this has been a good experience for everybody. We tested the market, we we had interested people look and it's pretty 00:43:04
clear. 00:43:09
That the condition of the House, the challenges that are there. 00:43:14
Just make it not feasible to either reconstruct this house on site or to move it into reconstruct it. 00:43:20
Not being able to demolish this house and use the property for some other authorized purpose creates a real hardship for Miss 00:43:27
Culbertson. It's just not practical to rebuild that house as it is. 00:43:34
The house meets the definition of a dilapidated structure under the city's property Maintenance code, which gives the owner the 00:43:42
option to demolish the structure. 00:43:46
And she has a clear legal right to a demolition. 00:43:52
So that she can become in compliance with the property maintenance. 00:43:56
So based on all that, I respectfully request that you grant her permit application. 00:44:00
Or demolition of this. 00:44:06
Thank you, Mr. Berryman. 00:44:13
Council, you have questions? 00:44:15
I have a question I. 00:44:21
I'm we have two shining examples here in Watkinsville, at least off the top of my head, Bob Smith's house on South Main St. 00:44:24
The house, the gentleman died. 00:44:36
Next to the church, Jim Carters House. 00:44:39
Two houses. 00:44:42
It had been easier to demolish. 00:44:44
They have been cheaper to demolish. 00:44:46
But now we have 2 historic homes in a small town. 00:44:49
Not many. 00:44:52
That every time we drive. 00:44:55
Two of the nicest homes in the city of Watkins, but they will be for the next 100 years. 00:44:57
I think what needs to be done. 00:45:02
My personal opinion is not my. 00:45:04
It needs to be put up for sale. 00:45:07
If there's no one willing to buy the property and fix up the house. 00:45:09
Then I think. 00:45:14
More of a potential argument for demolition. 00:45:16
But because. 00:45:19
The homeowner wants to put a different house there. I don't think that's. 00:45:22
To to to allow this historic property to be demolished. 00:45:30
My opinion? That would be a shame. 00:45:34
Any other council members wish to make a comment? 00:45:44
All right, counsel you. 00:45:52
You have a we're going to bring it back behind the rail and you now have a decision to make with a motion. 00:45:55
To some effect regarding the. 00:46:03
Regarding a request for demolition permit. 00:46:05
I don't know if Mr. Campbell or Miss Dickerson have anything else to add. Otherwise we'll have a discussion and we'll entertain a 00:46:07
motion, essentially. 00:46:11
Yeah. 00:46:18
I'll make a motion to deny. 00:46:24
We have a motion to deny the demolition permit. 00:46:28
I don't hear a second, so that motion is going to die for lack of a second. 00:46:38
I'll make a motion to approve. 00:46:44
The new motion for. 00:46:47
We have a motion to approve that the motion per. 00:46:49
Do we have? 00:46:51
If there is a second, I would suggest a friendly amendment of an express statement that there has been six months of due diligence 00:47:05
and newly discovered termite damage. That would be a factor in favor of if somebody's willing to make that second. But I think 00:47:13
that needs to be clearly stated in the record that that would be the substantive basis for the motion not just to grant a permit 00:47:20
if they could grant it, but because of six months of due diligence and. 00:47:28
Newly discovered termite damage. 00:47:36
And by the way, what you said, I mean, I've been in Madison, historic Madison, 29 years, which you said very much resonates with 00:47:37
me, but based on the strict legalities. 00:47:42
Yeah. 00:47:48
Yeah, but we want to have about this house. We want to have the Carter, probably want to have my house that we restored. 00:47:50
Every old Woodhouse has termites. 00:47:57
I understand. Isn't that we went in it? 00:47:59
I'm just disappointed. 00:48:04
This house was allowed to deteriorate to the point it is. 00:48:07
When you could spend minimal amount of money on plywood and tar. 00:48:10
And extend the life of the house and make it last longer, I think. 00:48:14
I think it would be a shame. 00:48:20
For us to allow this house to go down. 00:48:22
Without giving. 00:48:25
You say you six months to build it. I disagree. 6 months due diligence, putting it up for sale, selling to someone to fix it up. 00:48:27
In six months they come back. No. 00:48:32
Then you have a valid argument saying I can't afford to fix it up. No one wants to buy it, nobody wants to move it. 00:48:37
Then we got another. 00:48:43
But that out that has not been proposed. 00:48:47
And I just. 00:48:51
Again, the old homes. I live in Old homes. 00:48:53
You can't build a new home to look like an old home. 00:48:56
We only have a few of those left. We need to save them. 00:49:00
When we haven't done our due diligence. 00:49:05
All of our due diligence to save this house in my. 00:49:08
And and I will say that. 00:49:12
Extensive work destroying Organism Termite damage when you're looking at moving a house. 00:49:17
Is a different ball of wax than if you're talking about. 00:49:23
Eradicating. 00:49:28
The the termites and repairing any. 00:49:30
Because you can't kill the termites. If you can't, if you have active infestation and you try to move a house in the middle of 00:49:34
that process, you really are risking having a large investment. 00:49:41
In process and it collapsing before your eyes with nothing that it is different. 00:49:48
Then I mean I have. 00:49:54
I have bought properties that have termite damage and gotten termite bonds and and fix it up and so it's 20%. Lack of four voice 00:49:56
isn't. 00:50:01
Isn't a death sentence on a house at all? I mean, I would say that. 00:50:07
I also feel like it would be a complete. 00:50:13
I know it's complicated. I know it is hard because it is a there's a lot of factors to it on on a purely. 00:50:16
What Watkinsville needs, I would love to see every single historic home that we have be maintained be taken care of. 00:50:26
I would love to still see if there's. I mean I I do want to applaud the effort. It is commendable. A tremendous amount of effort 00:50:38
by the the property owner has gone. 00:50:43
Trying to to see if someone will take this house and that takes a lot of time, effort, energy, so I mean. 00:50:50
She has done everything that we had asked to do so that. I mean, I know I'm kind of speaking up but it's a complicated it's a 00:50:57
complicated issue because yes, what I still love to see this home safe. Yes. Do I think it is possible. 00:51:03
To renovate it in its current place, Absolutely. And it could be beautiful. And I think it would, it would cost less money than it 00:51:09
would to demo it with mitigation of asbestos and that kind of stuff and build a new property. 00:51:17
But I think. 00:51:26
I know there are other factors involved. 00:51:28
So that's why I'm kind of sitting here quietly, because I I want to be very respectful of the property owner. 00:51:31
And everything that she has gone through. And yet I hate to see this leave our community, so I don't know if there is a space. 00:51:39
And Jeff, you said six months. I honestly, I think 6 months is too long. I mean, I I think if we, if we can come up with some 00:51:48
other idea to try something in order to save this house, I don't think moving it. 00:51:55
At this point, is probably going to happen, and the property owners never indicated A willingness to sell. 00:52:02
To sell the lot, correct. 00:52:08
His family wants to stay there, that's correct. So I mean that's the. 00:52:10
And I don't think we can impose that burden on a property owner. 00:52:15
Yeah, we can't. I mean, no, you cannot force them to sell. You can ask, you cannot force. 00:52:20
Yeah, well, I'm going to let council keep coming. We do have a motion out there. I'd love to get a second to that motion, just to 00:52:27
facilitate the conversation here. 00:52:31
If possible, I think it's a healthy conversation, but we do have a motion hanging out there. 00:52:38
And we're talking about a lot of possibilities. 00:52:43
But if we don't have a second then on either of these motions then there then I'm at a little bit of longer I'm I'm right there 00:52:49
with you and that's exactly why I wanted to say something but I don't know what to say because if I own the property and couldn't 00:52:54
afford to. 00:52:58
Couldn't afford to renovate it. I would probably be asking for a demo permit as well. 00:53:04
I do want to remind council that we did recently allow a homeowner to demolish after failure to maintain. 00:53:11
The house as well. 00:53:19
Nope. On Main Street. 00:53:23
I hate to bring that up, but we we have allowed it. 00:53:28
Yeah, that was a that was a very different process. I I would not say that that would be. 00:53:33
That one was very far gone, if I'm thinking. 00:53:40
It was much worse condition than this. 00:53:45
I mean, I feel like I could have, yeah. 00:53:47
I would hate to see this house be gone, but I am would be sitting in your same spot if I were you. 00:53:52
I think it was a family home. I'd love to see it restored. That would make me so happy. 00:53:59
That if I personally do not afford to do it, that's funny. 00:54:03
If it's a financial thing, it's a. 00:54:09
I've got history of the House to see it restored. How wonderful that would that be. 00:54:12
Especially, I mean, I have nothing against you personally at all. You are very kind. Both y'all. 00:54:17
You, like Christine and I come in through the house. 00:54:25
Walking through the house, I was even more impressed with the potential of the house. I didn't walk through there dawn. 00:54:28
Oh God, you know, I went through there going. 00:54:35
This can be fixed. 00:54:38
And I mean, I'd love to see it restored. Especially, as I said, if. 00:54:40
It was mine and I had good family history in. 00:54:45
Which? 00:54:48
Yeah, I mean there was, there was, there were several things you mentioned that was positive. 00:54:51
But regardless, I'd love to. I'd love to see it restored. 00:54:55
Yeah, come up to the podium, if you don't mind, Kathleen. 00:55:04
Kathleen Mcquiston, 13 S Barnett Shoals Rd. I have two questions if she can't afford to rebuild the house. 00:55:12
Then how can she afford to build a new one? 00:55:21
That's one question. And if she did get a demolition permit, could you add a rider to it that at least the facade of the house be 00:55:24
similar to the existing? 00:55:29
Structure. 00:55:35
Thank you. Yeah. Mr. Barry may come on, but before I'll come up. 00:55:37
Just a couple of thoughts I'd like to talk about. 00:55:45
I'm an old house guy. I've restored 3 old houses myself. 00:55:50
But. 00:55:54
Very few people restore. 00:55:55
Unless they can make money on. 00:55:59
Or unless it is a good. 00:56:01
Miss Culbertson has gotten an estimate of the cost of the restoration of this property. 00:56:04
$300,000 and now. 00:56:11
Miss Tucker shakes her head. But you got to consider this is a small house. It has no crawl space. 00:56:15
Is going to have to be. 00:56:22
Gutted probably come from the floors down to fix the gorgeous. There's no crawl space if somebody can get underneath it. 00:56:25
It needs new electrical. 00:56:33
It needs some new walls on the interior bathroom kitchen. 00:56:36
New Sheetrock New. 00:56:42
Everything has to be done, and it's not a house that's on 16 inch centers. For everything is square and fits and everything has to 00:56:44
be. 00:56:48
Carefully done. So $300,000 to fix up a 1200 square foot house. 00:56:53
To get it even to basic standards. 00:57:01
Is not the same as the properties that were discussed before. 00:57:05
Those people, Mr. Carter, he's an expert in this park preservation. I've known you for 40 years before his untimely death. Mr. 00:57:10
Carter knows exactly. He knows all the contractors. He knows how to do everything. These properties that have been successful have 00:57:15
been successful for a reason. 00:57:20
Here you have Miss Culbertson, who's a widow who works as Mark Hodges, assistant in our law firm. 00:57:26
She simply does not have the wherewithal to do that, but she does. This is family property. She wants the property so that her 00:57:35
son. 00:57:39
When he becomes able, can build their house. 00:57:44
After all, isn't this about personal property rights? Isn't this about helping the citizens of this community who lived here? 00:57:51
For their entire lives and devoted their entire lives working for a business in this community. 00:57:59
She's not an investor. 00:58:06
She's not a real estate developer. She's never built a house like this before. 00:58:08
Doesn't that mean something? 00:58:14
The other thing I want to. 00:58:17
The point? 00:58:18
Georgia has a State Enabling Historic Preservation Act. 00:58:20
And it allows, in very narrow circumstances, local governments to do what this Commission, this Council, wants to do, it seems 00:58:25
like, in terms of denying applications to renovate or denying applications to demolish. 00:58:33
And then getting certificates of appropriateness. But there's a very specific process that local governments have to follow. 00:58:42
To get an except. 00:58:49
To the broad rule in Georgia, personal property, so in communities that have adopted historic preservation ordinances. 00:58:50
They can do. 00:58:59
Like what's being discussed here, but the ordinance that Watkinsville has? 00:59:02
Does not satisfy the requirements of the State of Georgia Historic Preservation Act. 00:59:08
And so, and I don't, I don't mean to raise this, I think they're better practical reasons why you should grant this permit, but 00:59:13
respectfully. 00:59:17
There's not a historic preservation ordinance in this. 00:59:21
I don't believe there's legal authority. 00:59:26
For you to deny this permit when in fact the code inspector. 00:59:29
Has sent Let. 00:59:34
To miss Culbertson talking about how it violates the International Property Code. 00:59:37
And how it's. 00:59:42
Violation. 00:59:43
And the International Property Maintenance Code, which this city is adopted, which is a state code under the state of Georgia. 00:59:45
Permits that if the property is dilapidated, the. 00:59:52
Has the option of either tearing it down or bringing it in compliance. 00:59:56
Which recognizes the personal property rights. 01:00:00
Of citizens of. 01:00:04
So. 01:00:07
Every piece of property is different. Every person situation is different, I understand. 01:00:09
The desire to keep this property. 01:00:15
In its present. 01:00:19
But I just respectfully don't believe you can do that. 01:00:21
At the Personal Financial. 01:00:25
Of Miss Culber. 01:00:29
Let Why does she have to bear the burden of the community's desire? 01:00:31
To protect this one particular house, How much? 01:00:36
Does she have to pay? 01:00:40
How much does she have to lose? 01:00:42
To satisfy this desire, respectfully, please. 01:00:45
I request that you grant this demolition permit. 01:00:49
Thank you, Mr. Berryman. 01:00:54
Yeah. 01:00:56
Sure. So very well spoken and again, I've been impressed with everybody involved in this process, I think goodwill. 01:00:57
Abounds. I don't think anybody is trying to hurt anybody or cause any harm to the community or to any individuals. 01:01:06
So it was very eloquently spoken. 01:01:14
And this what I'm about to add. 01:01:19
Mitigate the points about property personal property rights, but I but I do want to put in. 01:01:24
Some context. 01:01:31
The cost of restoration of this home and also what the condition actually is like. So the 1200 square feet is of just the 01:01:33
downstairs, the tax record doesn't show that there is actually an upstairs. So it really is closer to probably 1817 to 1800 square 01:01:40
feet in total. So if that $300,000 is restoring you know to I just think it it's a point of fact there is a pretty sizable crawl 01:01:47
space. 01:01:54
There is opportunity again. It may not be something that we will have the right to impose. I'm not. 01:02:04
Not speaking to. 01:02:11
I would just say as someone who has restored multiple homes. 01:02:14
Someone who came into it not knowing I am not a Jim Carter and I don't know all of the various people that. 01:02:17
I would say practically speaking it will be would be less expensive to restore this home then whatever the demo cost is going to 01:02:26
be. 01:02:31
With having to mitigate when you demo, you have to mitigate the asbestos and the different things when. 01:02:36
Renovating, you don't have to do that. And then just as expensive as it is to build things. So on a purely practical level, I 01:02:42
think long term, big picture it would probably be cheaper to restore this house. But I know there's more involved in this, but I 01:02:48
do just want to kind of say that for the record. 01:02:54
Actual professional, professional opinion. All right, Anybody else on council want to make a comment here? We're going to have to 01:03:04
move this along and if we can bat it around, we can bat it around all night. I think what we're I think you go ahead, Chuck. 01:03:11
The house has been done. I live. 01:03:19
But if you try to get people to work. 01:03:22
You better have big bucks and the price is out of the. 01:03:25
So I think 300,000 is a little bit love problem to do it right. 01:03:29
Nobody, not everybody wants the old houses anymore. I mean, you see what's getting built in town and. 01:03:39
You know, like I said, I live in one, but. 01:03:44
You know, most people want big closets. They want all the latest and greatest and it's not going to get that in those little 01:03:47
house. 01:03:50
OK, so we still have Chucks motion hanging out there. I think the the broader point here, you know Mr. Berryman was articulate and 01:03:55
he clearly articulated a. 01:03:59
You know what we what we may read what we've failed to sell here, which is we've talked about this issues for two or three years. 01:04:04
And the reality is, as a group, we have not made a determination to move forward with any sort of formal historic preservations 01:04:11
ordinance or code in the City of Watkinsville for good reason. OK, so however, this goes tonight. 01:04:18
You know, I think what we'll have to work with Sharon on is as a group, do we think this is an important enough issue? 01:04:24
That we put. 01:04:32
That we that we analyze and determine, do we need to put protections in place for the remaining historic homes in Watkins home? 01:04:33
Because Jeff is exactly right. There's not. We aren't Madison, We aren't Athens. We don't have extra historic homes. Everyone we 01:04:38
lose. 01:04:43
Is it's a much bigger deal because we don't have we don't have them and. 01:04:49
You know, looking around the behind the table here, you know almost all of us live in old homes and so we clearly prioritize that 01:04:54
and another person's probably lived in in other places. So anyway, so I do think. 01:05:00
The thing that we need to think about no matter where this goes tonight is if this is enough of a priority to us. 01:05:07
We've got to do a better job of making it. 01:05:13
Citizens and making sure our citizens are part of that process, for what are we going to do in the future about? 01:05:16
Working to preserve historic homes. 01:05:22
Rather than, you know. 01:05:24
Talking about it, saying are we going to do something about that? Because if whichever happens with this one, we're going to have 01:05:26
another one come before us at some point and and we've really got to think about that and figure that out. So that's all that the 01:05:29
mayor has to say. 01:05:33
At this point, we have a motion that has not been seconded from Councilman Garrett to approve the demolition permit. Do we have a 01:05:37
second for that motion? Can I ask one other thing? 01:05:41
Is it something we haven't discussed? Yes. OK, you may. OK. It's a question for y'all. 01:05:45
So as we have. 01:05:52
Enacting historic preservation, one of the things that we are seeing is that with that comes grants. 01:05:54
And opportunities of funding that comes outside of what a homeowner might have. 01:06:04
If we did enact A historic preservation. 01:06:10
Code District. 01:06:15
And. 01:06:18
Secure some of that funding. 01:06:20
Is that would that make any difference? 01:06:22
I don't believe it would, but I can also tell you from having been a historic preservation advocate since 1981 and having the 01:06:27
County Attorney in Athens Park County for 16 years. 01:06:32
I'm not aware of any grants. 01:06:38
That comes to owner occupied Residential. 01:06:41
We can get a little bit of a tax break. 01:06:49
But I'm just. I've not. I've not seen that. 01:06:51
Thank you. 01:06:54
All right, we have a motion to approve the demolition permit. Is there a second? 01:06:55
All right, I do not have that motion is going to die for life for a second. Chuck. What? Joe, what do we do if we don't have a 01:07:03
motion or a second on? 01:07:06
The other option is a motion to table till next month, which I'm not sure the property owner is excited to hear that option, but 01:07:10
it's an option that leaves the door open for further discussions. 01:07:15
Since we. 01:07:22
May I ask is a question for the homeowner? I can't remember. 01:07:24
It's on septic, is that correct? 01:07:29
I'm not. I don't. 01:07:33
Sorry, I apologize. Yes, yes, sorry. 01:07:38
It's on September. If it was possible to put it on sewer, could they subdivide the lot 'cause you could move that house to the 01:07:43
front part of the lot which. 01:07:47
I think it makes it look more in line with the other. 01:07:52
And you could put two houses. 01:07:55
If there, would they would they homeowner people sell the house to someone if they moved in front of the property and made it into 01:07:57
two lots? If they were allowed to be connected to sewers, I think sewers will be further down and may or may not be apostatized. 01:08:04
Long shot, but just I think it's far too soon to respond to that. 01:08:13
You know, I I know that they've looked at the issue of sewer and it's been virtually impossible to get sewer. 01:08:19
All right. Is there a motion to table? I make a motion to table. Is there a second? All in favor, say aye. 01:08:25
For the record, what is the date of next month's meeting, Sharon, So they know. 01:08:32
All right. N6 guys for next month, for next month, OK, if you've got to, if we've got a solution, if we've got strong. 01:08:37
If you want to interact with Mr. Berryman, who I assume is the right point of contact, and see if there's anything that can be 01:08:46
done here that protects us that is not, that's illegal. 01:08:50
Then please do that. Let's wrap our arms around this before we come back in here and avoid sausage making at the meeting, OK? 01:08:54
And I I think this is we're all passionate about. That's why nobody wants to make a second to demolishing historic home in 01:09:02
Watkinsville. And I get it, y'all. But we've got to. We also have a duty to the wall. We've got a duty to our codes. We've got a 01:09:08
duty to what we've said that we passed. So miss. 01:09:13
Culvert center Miss Patterson, I know I let this roll up here tonight, but I think it's important for y'all to understand our 01:09:20
passion on this. But I intend to get this to a conclusion next month and and be wrapped up with it. OK, so so if we're if anybody 01:09:26
wants to roll up their sleeves and see if there's anything else to be done, let's roll them up and let's. 01:09:31
Give him his Barrett, Mr. Berryman, and see what needs to happen or if anything can happen. 01:09:37
But otherwise. 01:09:43
At the meeting, unless we solve something in between. OK. All right. Thank you. OK. 01:10:17
All right. We're going to move on to item 10, old business. This is the second reading of our resolution for the adoption of a 01:10:24
request to the state legislature for a local act. 01:10:28
To create the City of Watkinsville Public Facilities Authority, we did do a first reading. 01:10:33
For this in August, Attorney Reitman, is there anything else we need to know? No, you're correct. Second radius due to timing with 01:10:38
the legislature, a certain interval between the approval and the legislative session. And again, this is simply a second reading 01:10:44
of the same one approved on a first reading in August as you stated. 01:10:50
OK, alright. 01:10:56
All right, unless there's any discussion, I'll entertain a motion. 01:10:59
To approve the second reading. 01:11:04
Through the 2nd, is there a second? 01:11:07
All right. Any discussion All in favor? Say aye, Aye. Any opposed motion carries 50. 01:11:11
All right, we'll move on to Rocket Field, and there is demolition involved here, but I think this will be less controversial. 01:11:19
The this is we've talked been talking for several months about the opportunity to. 01:11:26
Move forward with the Rocket Field Rebirth and we're now getting the point where we have the legal mechanisms to have that happen. 01:11:33
We've said all along we wanted to get that going after the Fall Festival. The Fall festival was wildly successful and wrapped up. 01:11:39
Last weekend, more on that to come, but these would be the sort of the mechanism to begin that process, I think engineer Campbell. 01:11:47
May make a report here in Manager Dickerson if I did not provide any necessary context. Feel free to chime in. 01:11:55
All right. Thank you, Mayor. So this is AI Guess there's, there's a couple items here that may be even more so than that, but from 01:12:01
an engineering standpoint and happy to answer any questions or conclusions. So this is both demolition of what is there now, the 01:12:09
dugouts and the bathrooms that we all walked around hopefully at the the fall festival and there are pictures of that. 01:12:17
At at City Hall as well so. 01:12:55
That is a picture of the plans. 01:12:58
You can see the elements there of the of the the dugouts and the the restrooms, as well as some of the other elements there around 01:13:02
the the boundary. 01:13:07
In order to do the following page, which would be the site improvement plans there that you see with the, the reoriented ball 01:13:12
field and the other items that would be ancillary not only to the ball field itself, the new structure that would be behind home 01:13:18
plate, but then the. 01:13:23
The community facilities that are outside the the right field line if you will dead away center field and then along the you know 01:13:29
the the the left field line also near the the corners of rocket field so. 01:13:37
Hopefully that has not been too brief and I will also mention there are multiple parcels. If you see the the in your it is parcel 01:13:46
W 06003 which is. 01:13:52
What we think of as Rocket Field. But there's also another parcel to the. 01:13:58
They would be. 01:14:02
Patak courts are being shown. 01:14:04
I will admit I did not know how to spell but talk a few months ago, but that is also a portion of these overall improvement plans 01:14:08
based on requests from citizens of the City of Watkinsville. So that is also part of this overall site improvement. I did not want 01:14:15
to leave that out. That would be located on parcel W 06003. 01:14:22
Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything else, but again, I would be happy to answer any questions from a final standpoint just to 01:14:32
make sure that everybody understands the overall land disturbance as part of this site improvement as you've heard me say before 01:14:37
is less than one acre the overall. 01:14:42
Net impervious area added is less than 5000 square feet, meaning they do not have to give a state erosion control permit for this 01:14:48
work as part of this process that you're reviewing tonight, and also would not be required to do an additional storm water 01:14:56
management because the impervious area added does not exceed that which is required by code. 01:15:03
And Mayor, I put some I brought the renderings back. The only thing you need to know is obviously the top ports are not in the 01:15:13
lower right or upper right corner, whatever of the. But I thought sometimes visually looking at a flat piece of paper with plants 01:15:18
on it isn't terribly exciting. 01:15:22
But for the most part, except for the top, everything similar. 01:15:28
Yeah. What I do want to note, Sharon, if you go back one for the benefit of the public, what we've determined in partnership with 01:15:33
value added concepts is the infield would actually be constructed of not the. 01:15:39
Area that looks brown on that the diamond. We would be using artificial turf. 01:15:45
And by using artificial turf, it allows us not to have to use to sweep the dirt. It keeps the dirt off people's feet. It's much 01:15:50
more low maintenance in terms of us having either Little League or Watkinsville, having to have people take care of the infield. 01:15:56
But everything else, The outfield, the remainder of the field, the areas. 01:16:03
The foul lines and the dugouts would be traditional turf, but the the the area of the baseball diamond would be artificial turf 01:16:07
and that we think that'll save us a lot of maintenance. That's pretty typical actually in a lot of in some baseball and softball 01:16:12
facilities that are being constructed now. 01:16:18
In terms of the timeline, we anticipate the demolition beginning as soon as November. 01:16:24
You know, we are hopeful to have this done in the spring. 01:16:30
So we'll be moving pretty quickly. So I know the first step looked like it was we we have three things to consider here, right. We 01:16:34
have the site plan which we need to improve the approve the site improvement plan again with minimal modifications with the patent 01:16:39
court moved up. I think we reviewed last month with the top court and again Lawrence and Kathleen and Laura, we have noted on the 01:16:45
plans that we'll you need to ignore those rectangles, right. We're going to work with you guys on how the design will be done in 01:16:51
that area. 01:16:57
We also have a lot of electric poles and other things that we have to work through in that area. So you know we're going to be 01:17:04
doing that so. 01:17:06
That'll be the first thing that we're going to need a motion on. Then we're going to look at the construction lease, which the 01:17:09
manager is going to brief us on in a moment. 01:17:12
And then we're going to look at them. We'll need to approve the demolition permit as the final step. And if you wish to do this as 01:17:16
one motion collectively that you have that option, well, that would make me happy because that's much more breathing. All right. 01:17:21
So Manager Dickerson, if you want to brief us on the construction lease arrangement and then we can answer any questions and. 01:17:27
Sure. So for the most part, value added concepts or or VAC is proposing to spend about 3/4 of $1,000,000 in site work, concrete 01:17:34
work, grass dugouts, the concession area, the scores building restrooms, the change structures, the field fencing and the city is 01:17:42
going to be probably putting forth. It could be close to 100,000 by the time it's all over. But right now we're looking at about 01:17:50
$91,000 for benches, trash cans, pet weigh stations, building, building permit fees and because we have to pay our our permit. 01:17:58
Guy, we ought to pay ourselves, but we have to pay them. The band bands and the stage, the baton courts, the net climber that 01:18:06
we've talked about. Any exercise equipment, trees and the light poles and lights themselves, which probably are, is the biggest 01:18:11
piece of that. 01:18:16
The, the rest of this lease is pretty common, very similar to what we did with the ESP. Basically it's a construction lease. We're 01:18:23
turning everything over. We would be turning everything over to value added concepts. They would do all the work that keeps us 01:18:28
from having to go get bids that slows the process down etcetera. 01:18:32
Much more streamlined. They do this kind of work all the time. 01:18:38
And we would coordinate with someone, we'll have someone on the on helping us with all the construction and whatnot so that we can 01:18:41
keep this thing moving along at A at a good pace. 01:18:47
I do. 01:18:53
Want to make a note about something? Hang on one second. 01:18:55
I think there's some questions. There is a question I believe about maybe the electric and we're going to have to talk about that. 01:18:59
I know the mayor may talk a little bit more about how he wants to handle that since they are not here, but there are funds for 01:19:05
most of this already. 01:19:10
They give them out quarterly, so we'll have an opportunity to go after that. I think it's $50,000 I think is what the the grant 01:19:50
is. So there's money there. 01:19:54
And then with the poles and the lights, I know that we've got someone looking into whether or not that's something that we can 01:20:00
workout. As far as you know, we buy, we pay our lives, we pay for our lights on a monthly basis based on the the size of light, 01:20:06
how many lights we got with Georgia Power and EM. 01:20:11
So it might be that we can work into some sort of a you know project, I guess got some over there, but nonetheless where we can 01:20:17
pay for that over a period of time. It's built into a monthly. So that'd be more of an operating expense than a capital. So those 01:20:22
things are still a little Gray, but I think we can come to you know and understand and figure that out. 01:20:28
Yeah. And what I'd like to do on the construction lease. 01:20:35
You guys to? 01:20:38
Contingent upon the manager not just getting clarity on installation of underground electric and and the details of what's 01:20:40
happening there, we just didn't have, we don't have a fine point on that. So I don't want you know if you guys could approve it 01:20:45
with that contingency that would be that would be helpful work that out with the with our partner on that. 01:20:51
I'm trying to think if there's any other background so again we the motion could be combined to approve. 01:20:58
The site plan, the demolition process and the construction lease agreement with the contingency that. 01:21:04
You know the mayor and the mayor manager authorized to. 01:21:11
You know, workout the details on underground electricity installation and who's responsible for what aspect of that. 01:21:15
Say so, moved if that's your will. 01:21:22
And we'll do a second and then we can discuss it. I know there may be questions, so if anybody wants to 2nd that please 2nd and 01:21:25
then we'll have discussion. All right. We have a second for Mr. Thomas. We have a motion to second. All right questions, 01:21:30
discussion of the project. This is also members of the public. I know this is of interest to you guys. So if you have anything you 01:21:35
want to say, you know that's fine too. We're going to be pretty informal so. 01:21:40
It's me again. 01:21:47
Could we have a water stub out at the dog park? 01:21:50
Cover. 01:21:56
It is on the plans. It's on the plants. OK, great. Thanks. 01:21:57
If you have anything you want to offer too, I know we have some experts in the room on the lighting, so yeah, y'all feel free to 01:22:04
step forward and yeah. 01:22:08
I'm Bruno Scarborough, my partner Johnny Highfield. We own Highfield and Scarborough, lighting and electrical. We've been here for 01:22:14
20 years in Watkinsville and we travel all over the state we do. 01:22:19
We did hurt and see, we did OBP, the buildings, all the lights, you know, we deal. We work with Moscow Qualight, all the big 01:22:25
lighting companies and everything so to. 01:22:31
We did the ESP field over there too, for them that to have something in our backyard, we just wanted to make sure that we were, 01:22:36
you know, we wanted to come up and get in on the ground floor with y'all offer. If there's any help that we can give in any 01:22:42
aspect, we've got got a little bit of familiarity in this kind of business. So if there's anything that we can help with or 01:22:49
whatever, just let us know, we'd be more than willing to. 01:22:55
Do whatever we can, you know, stay. We like to work at home as much as possible instead of making in Douglasville and all these 01:23:01
other places. So anything we can do to help y'all. Just feel free to Mary's got our card and. 01:23:07
I know Miss Jeweler knows how to get hold of us, so that's no problem at all. We can be here, but we help the chief out every 01:23:14
night then. So yeah, probably worthwhile to point out that every year they help us hang the decorations for the Christmas trip. 01:23:20
The the silhouettes I believe is what we call them on the poles and then they helped with the LPRS getting those up to so. 01:23:27
So we may well be in touch a smile when I have Someone Like You come forward Mr. Scarborough. Because I think when Rocket Field 01:23:34
was done Brett, it was it was hot Thomas and a couple guys who figured out how to wire all that stuff together and. 01:23:39
Primary around the top. You will never see that. 01:23:47
OK, I was alignment for 10. 01:23:52
So anyway, so and I don't understand any of it, so I go out there and I'm like, OK, why can't we just take all this down and start 01:23:57
over? It ain't that easy. I've learned that. So. So we may lean on you guys a little bit. Help us through that. So yeah, Council. 01:24:03
Anyone else questions Comments on Rocket SEAL? 01:24:10
Yes, ma'am, Miss. 01:24:14
You got to come up here because you're probably on TV. 01:24:16
I don't know how many viewers we have tonight, Miss Dickerson. We got it. We got a big audience tonight. 01:24:20
OK, All right. Laura Rose. I live at 104 White St. in Watkinsville. 01:24:25
I have made some effort to find out about building a proper baton court. I put one in my backyard but I already had a driveway. It 01:24:32
already had crusher run on it and all I had to do was a lot of heavy lifting of gravel and gravel, sand. 01:24:39
I've asked our wonderful engineer to go over the plans that I've come up with so that we can help develop a a good estimate of 01:24:47
what you really need to do when you have to grade things and then you have to deal with water, which I know nothing about. 01:24:54
And thankfully I think our partners agreed, you know maybe to help us with the with the grading in that area and some of that to 01:25:01
get at least get it roughed out and then we'll work on. 01:25:05
We'll work on the the details of that then that will be kind of be handed over to the city for us to finalize those details. 01:25:09
These are, I know people have asked about what the city's responsibility is, including a guy in a Plaid shirt in the audience. The 01:25:17
these are, this is a list of what the city, what we anticipate being responsible for in this agreement and what we're basing the 01:25:22
budget on, so. 01:25:26
OK. Any other? 01:26:02
Comments. 01:26:05
We can. We've got a motion, we've got a second, then at that point, Lawrence, come on up. 01:26:08
It's large Duke. I live. 01:26:13
Financials and I went out to we've been died by going over there to mark that out for the size and I know you think about a couple 01:26:15
of courts and Laura plays over in Atlanta and the city they're putting in the city there she plays is putting in 20 courts. 01:26:23
It's a. 01:26:30
Milton yeah, you know, and it's one of the reasons that you have more than one court is so when you can have a tournament, you 01:26:32
have enough courts. So I'm suggesting that if you can find it in the budget to put in what we laid. 01:26:38
The scale, it's a little. 01:26:46
Then. 01:26:49
And it's like today we play. 01:26:50
Four Courts. And so it's it's really, there's a lot of people starting to play it. You know, it's not as big as. 01:26:53
******** yet? 01:26:58
I don't know where it's going to go, but I think for the 50 year plan as long as we're going to that trouble to grade that part. 01:27:00
It'd be great if you could because you we marked it like paint today it's. 01:27:07
7 by 70. 01:27:12
So you can take a look at it with the graders and stuff. Yeah, I mean our intent is to work with you guys on the design of it. 01:27:14
You've been, you guys have been very passionate about it. So the intent is let's work together and work, work within the that 01:27:18
sounds good. 01:27:23
All the tournaments are done with strings it's just all right so we'll we'll work with you guys on the design. I'm going to bring 01:27:29
it back up here behind the rail and let's we got a motion we got a second we have any further decision Council. 01:27:35
All right, all in favor. Say aye. All right. Opposed. All right. Motion carries 4/1. 01:27:43
All right, we are to public comment. This is general comments from the public, 4 minutes per person. Same rules as before. Come up 01:27:53
to the podium if you have any general public comments you want to make. 01:27:57
Court client, if we receive any online in advance, no comments, no one coming forth. 01:28:03
Mayor's report. 01:28:09
All right, Fall Festival. 01:28:15
Saturday. 01:28:19
And it was great. By all accounts. We had one of our biggest crowds ever, if not the biggest crowd ever. Beautiful weather, 01:28:21
beautiful day. Certainly felt like fall in Watkinsville for most of the day. Got a little warm in the afternoon, but I guess 01:28:25
that's fall in Georgia. But I just want to give a big thank you, Chief, I know you already talked to your staff, but I can 01:28:30
remember years at the fall festival when the Watkinsville police presence was limited. And I always wondered why it was not 01:28:35
limited. The other day you guys flooded the zone. 01:28:39
Worked incredibly well with our partners at the Chamber Sheriff's Office. Everybody was working together. It was great to see. 01:28:44
People are always going to be grumpy about traffic and having to wait but but the vast majority of people and things that I've 01:28:50
heard were were tremendous and thank you to you guys and. 01:28:54
Guys, we've been remiss. Not a lot of us had to do too much hard work for the fall festival, which brings a ton of people to the 01:28:59
city, to our merchants, Chamber of Commerce. 01:29:03
When you see Courtney Bernardi and her team, give them a huge thank you for working to put that together and coordinating the 01:29:08
volunteers. That is a huge lift and a huge, huge community effort. So please thank the Chamber. I thank Courtney, thank the board 01:29:14
members and everybody who volunteered when you have a chance. 01:29:19
We did open our first brewery on Saturday and it was wildly successful. South Main Brewing. 01:29:26
You know what, Jeff said this, and I don't think I appreciated it at the time, how true it was. 01:29:34
This was a family play show. I mean, there were kids, there were there were little kids, big kids, people outside. 01:29:39
It it's building community and a lot of the things that we talk about that we want to do, whether it's Rocket Field, whether it's 01:29:46
a sidewalk, whether it's a. 01:29:49
An investment in a park, It's around building community and clearly communities being built in South Main Brewing, so just kudos 01:29:54
to. 01:29:57
Dutch guests, Brock Tool and their other partners there for that investment and it's great to begin to see what's happening at 01:30:02
Wire Park. It really is going to be a game changer for our community. So we're we're thrilled to see it. 01:30:07
All right, we have. We're going to announce our Grand Marshall tonight for the Christmas parade and our Grand Marshall this year 01:30:15
is going to be Mr. Harold Townley. 01:30:19
Mr. Townley was a proprietor of Townley's Tree Farm for many years. He was also a longtime volunteer with Oconee County High 01:30:23
School football program. He's Mr. Townley's 80 years old. 01:30:29
He lives in the northern end of the county and has been a tremendous community servant for many, many years. He he volunteered 01:30:36
with the football team, I think, for nearly 20 years with no compensation. He's retired from Ford Motor Company. He's been 01:30:43
involved and engaged in the community for a number of years and by all accounts is a wonderful man. So we're excited to announce 01:30:50
tonight that Mister Harold Townley will be our Grand Marshall and will be at the head of the parade this year on December. 01:30:57
4th The parade will begin at 3:30. AM I getting that right here and just keep nodding your head till I'm wrong. 3:30 on December 01:31:05
Sunday, December 4th the parade will conclude around 5:00 and is twilight occurs. We'll then do our Christmas tree lighting as we 01:31:10
have in the past but. 01:31:14
Mr. Townley is a another one of our remarkable county, county citizens who's helped make this community what it is. 01:31:21
And if you if you see him, if he's not on his tractor, give him a thank you for what he's done and congratulations for being our 01:31:27
Grand Marshall in the parade this year. 01:31:31
We do have our trick or treat on Main Street. That's actually going to be Halloween day this year, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PMI know Sharon 01:31:37
and I and the staff will be out there giving out candy, and any council members who want to join us are welcome to do so. It's 01:31:41
always a fun night. 01:31:45
See so many kids on Main Street. So 4:00 to 6:00 PM on October 31st. 01:31:50
On Main Street, another event that will pack folks in. 01:31:54
Advance voting has begun. I know the Civic Center. I'm hearing great reports that that's not taking very long. 01:31:59
This year, Watkinsville will get a similar amount to our SPLOST allocation every month. If that passes again, those have to be 01:32:35
designated for specific transportation projects and we have a list of long list of things we need to do. I don't have to remind 01:32:40
the people behind the rail, but for those who are watching 3 state highways come together in Watkinsville, most of the traffic in 01:32:46
Watkinsville is not Watkinsville people. 01:32:51
But those people are not helping to pay for our roads right now. 01:32:57
So T Spots is on the ballot. Please vote. 01:33:01
Next branding we have our. 01:33:05
We have our hats. 01:33:09
The, the the signs have gone up. 01:33:12
The logo is starting to appear. We've even seen it on murals and Instagram places. You know it works for you. I'm not a trucker 01:33:16
hat guy. I think Bruno might be our our best candidate for Watkinsville. You know, I see that Georgia one. 01:33:21
So, but we're beginning to see that, beginning to see that brand come to life and that's been a lot of fun to see the new signs go 01:33:28
up and other efforts related to the Watkinsville brand. I think we're giving stuff away on Facebook. 01:33:34
And you know, people are really getting, really getting behind it. So, so anyway, we're excited to see that come to life. 01:33:41
Chair and I don't know if that's Oh yeah, we had. 01:33:49
We've also begun updating the Joint Comprehensive Plan. This is a project that Oconee County guides, but every five years we have 01:33:52
to work with the county to update the county's Comprehensive and Master Plan, which guides land use decisions. This is one of 01:33:57
those things that's important. Y'all because people love to call us up and get fired up and frustrated when a certain thing 01:34:02
happens in a certain area. 01:34:07
This is when a lot of the decisions are made about what the future of the county's land use is going to look like. So we have a 01:34:12
lot, several Watkinsville citizens and business owners and land owners who are our representatives in that process. That list is 01:34:17
up there. I won't read all those, but you'll see it's a it's a diverse group of community leaders and people who wanted to get 01:34:21
engaged in the community. 01:34:26
Who are helping support our efforts related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan the county. 01:34:31
Guy Herring from the county and a consultant is leading that process overall and that's targeted to be completed next spring or 01:34:36
summer. 01:34:39
And then we also had the first meeting of our downtown development authority. 01:34:44
Bruno, you're probably like I can't believe this much is going on in this town, but but the downtown development authorities also 01:34:49
knew. 01:34:51
And that's a group of people, a citizen board, unpaid board, who are going to focus on improving our downtown. 01:34:55
And there's a lot of tools in the toolkit for a downtown development authority. So this was the swearing in for that group that 01:35:01
occurred. 01:35:04
Earlier this month. And that's the group of people who are involved. Christine, thank you for serving. Jeff, thanks for all your 01:35:07
work to make that a reality. So that that group is going to be exclusively focused on working to improve our downtown, create 01:35:13
programming, arts and other things. And that's just the area that you see outlined in dark red here. 01:35:19
And then last but not least, we've started our Fall for Watkinsville decorating contest. I think we've had our first entries come 01:35:27
in, but we want everybody to get in that fall spirit, decorate their front porch and then e-mail the picture to Angela. 01:35:33
And we'll share that on Facebook and we're going to have, we're going to have a vote with it, with some prizes at the end, some 01:35:40
prizes at the end for the people who get the most votes. 01:35:44
And just one clarification, the Christmas parade is actually at 4. The lineup begins at 3:30, so 4:00 Christmas parade begins at 01:35:49
four line up at 3:30 and but we will still be done around twilight and with enough light to get people off the Road home safely. 01:35:56
And then we will light the Christmas tree downtown at approximately 6. 01:36:04
Yeah. 01:36:10
All right, Council, we're going to turn it over to you guys. We have. 01:36:13
First up is Councilman Garrett. Anything to report? 01:36:18
All right, Councilwoman Massey, I don't have anything, all right? 01:36:22
Mr. Thomas. 01:36:26
Miss Tucker. 01:36:30
Just a slight update on the old playground. 01:36:32
I met with Wendy, the director at Okaf, and with a local artist, and we are starting the process of. 01:36:38
Coming up with some ideas that will then come back to the committee. 01:36:48
To add some public art, that would also be things that children could play on and around. So to kind of help, we're going to have 01:36:52
some blank space there. So kind of fill it in and help encourage people. 01:36:59
To be walking between the spaces. 01:37:06
Councilman Campbell. 01:37:11
Nothing to report, OK. 01:37:13
Anybody need an executive? 01:37:16
I did not. 01:37:18
Can I make a motion? Then I will entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. Do we have a second? All in favor. 01:37:21
We're done. 01:37:29
Wait. 01:37:30