No Bookmarks Exist.
We got Mr. Camp. 00:00:06
All right. Good. Good morning, everybody. 00:00:17
I'm not going to imagine that there's a lot of people watching, so we'll just talk to each other, but please do know that this 00:00:20
meeting is being recorded so we could have guests online. 00:00:24
It is likely that people will go back and watch this, so when you speak, please turn on your microphones. 00:00:28
And good morning, everybody. This is an exciting day. Eva. I'm glad you're back with us to help facilitate. 00:00:34
Um. 00:00:40
These are. I love these retreats and. 00:00:41
We may get out early today, we may not, but I think the big idea is we don't often get this time together to really go deeper on 00:00:45
Watkinsville and how we feel about the future and what our hopes and dreams are. And so my challenge to all of y'all today is to. 00:00:53
Is to think boldly, you know. 00:01:01
I think this is our most important moment together as a group during the year. Even though we're not voting on anything today, 00:01:04
this is our opportunity to really ensure that we're aligned about where we where we want this town to go, what citizens have 00:01:10
shared with us and what we want to do. So I'd encourage you to think boldly, think about what we want Watkinsville to be, not just 00:01:16
12 or 18 months from now, but what do we want Watkinsville to be five years, 10 years, 15 years from now? 00:01:22
As we've gone through the branding process and other things recently, it's really made me reflect about some of the shade that we 00:01:28
sit under. 00:01:31
And when I talk about shade that we sit under, it's the shade that comes from trees that were planted 30 or 4050 years ago. 00:01:35
You know, decisions around roads, around infrastructure. 00:01:41
You know some citizens 20 or 30 years ago to believe in the dream of Martha Wiley. 00:01:47
And all of a sudden you have ESP and all of a sudden you have opportunities. 00:01:52
Children and adults with special needs now being activated all over the state of Georgia. That was a small tree that was planted a 00:01:56
long time ago. That's turned out to be great. 00:01:59
Water and sewer was a was a tree that was planted a long time ago that we benefit from. So what are the trees that we want to 00:02:04
plant this year? 00:02:08
That's going to yield a lot of shade for this community in the future. So that's that's a helpful way maybe to just reflect on 00:02:12
that because a lot of the things that we do. 00:02:16
We won't see the fruits of that labor maybe for a long time. Some things we will, you know, some things. Some trees we planted 00:02:20
last year, we're already seeing shade from. We're seeing good work on our branding process. We're seeing good work at Hair Shoals 00:02:24
Park already underway. 00:02:29
We're seeing good work on our downtown efforts. We're seeing great work on community engagement. 00:02:35
Transportation and Sharon will go over a lot of that progress. So we've done a lot, but I'll challenge all of you to think about 00:02:39
what we want to do. 00:02:43
In the next few years. 00:02:48
There are a few areas where I think we're at a critical time for Watkinsville, I think. 00:02:49
We have a window, I think, to make some to do some significant preservation of green space in our community. 00:02:57
And I think that window is closing just given the potential for residential development. 00:03:03
And the pressure that there will be for residential development? No county county in the next five years and. 00:03:09
We still have probably a fifth or sixth of all the land in Watkins. 00:03:14
Is undeveloped, you know, So that's something to think. 00:03:19
Umm, we still have a ways to go in terms of connectivity, in terms of how our citizens. 00:03:23
Can get around and get around inside the community without a vehicle. What does that need to look like? What are our investments 00:03:28
that we can make? 00:03:32
You all understand the constraints that we have in terms of budget. We stretch those dollars a long way, but they're not. 00:03:36
We're not the county, we're not the school system. We don't have their kind of resources, so we're always going to have to be a 00:03:42
little bit creative. 00:03:45
Um. 00:03:48
But if I paint a picture of 12 to 18 months from now and I tell you it's very likely we have 500 new residents in Watkinsville. 00:03:49
It's very likely we will have preserved. 00:03:56
Privately held, but still probably preserved, about 50 acres of green space between Wire Park and Trove. So that feels good. 00:04:00
We'll have a world class facility next door in terms of a accessible playground in ball field. 00:04:06
We'll have synergy, signage and clarity on our brand. 00:04:11
But. 00:04:15
You know, I think the big thing that jumps out to me is, you know, we're going to have, we're going to have a lot of new folks in 00:04:16
this town. 00:04:19
In the next year, and that's exciting, but it also creates some challenges as Wire Park opens and other things open, so. 00:04:23
I would challenge all of you to think boldly and think about what we want Watkinsville to be and what trees you want to maybe 00:04:29
start thinking about. We want to plant today, we're not going to plant them today, but we can go through the landscape design, 00:04:36
right. We can select our, select our trees and think about what we may be able, may be able to afford so. 00:04:42
That's my preamble. I think what we wanted to kick off with would be. 00:04:49
If any of you guys have any big thoughts that you want to share and lean into that Now we'll say that we do have our, you know, 00:04:52
our sort of our collective vision that we've all, you know, aligned around in the past that's at Tab 1. 00:04:59
You know, that's something that we came up with several years ago and I think most of us. 00:05:07
Umm. 00:05:12
I always like to review that at the start of the year. This is sort of my guiding light when I think about the decisions that we 00:05:13
make, so. 00:05:16
But so that is a vision. That's what we call the Watkinsville. 00:05:21
But I'd love to hear from you guys in the next 15 or 20 minutes before we turn it over to Eva. 00:05:25
And if you've got ideas, big picture ideas, hopes, dreams, things that you want to cover today. 00:05:31
Let's come to just get it out there and I would tell you to. 00:05:39
We're in an open session. 00:05:43
So if you want to talk about very specific matters related to land acquisition sensitive stuff. 00:05:45
I would say let's talk more generally today and rather than being super specific about that because we wouldn't want to. 00:05:51
Put ourselves in an awkward position as a council. 00:05:58
With that, does anybody have anything they want to share about? 00:06:02
Their hopes, their dreams, what they want to see in Watkinsville or what you want to accomplish in the next year. 00:06:06
What trees do you want to plant? 00:06:11
For me. 00:06:18
For me, when I was running a year ago, my main concern was sidewalks. I grew up in AI don't know about it. I grew up in a area 00:06:18
that had sidewalks. 00:06:24
Get on your bicycle or your feet and go across the entire county on a sidewalk safely. 00:06:30
And when I moved to Oconee County, there's it was kind of rural, like where I grew up as a child. 00:06:36
And as Oconee grows, I'd really like to continue to see sidewalks become an integral part of well, what we can control is the 00:06:44
city. 00:06:48
Umm. 00:06:53
So I would like that to still be always be at the top of our list because as we grow as a city. 00:06:53
New businesses coming in, new developments such as Wire Park and other things. The Harris Shoals, ESP. 00:07:00
We need to be able to get to these places without using the vehicles and get the kids back on their bicycles and off of their. 00:07:08
Thanks, Jeff. 00:07:19
So I couldn't get it to turn on. 00:07:25
So I. 00:07:28
I agree with you, I. 00:07:31
Walking paths, but I think with the 500 potential new. 00:07:33
People we got in here and all the traffic that we're going to have, we've got to figure out strategically how to get traffic out 00:07:38
of Watkinsville. 00:07:42
And I think that that's one of the bold plans that I really want is from Barnett Shoals to 15. We need a path, like a direct path, 00:07:46
Barnett Souls to 15. 00:07:51
And then we need a direct path. 00:07:56
Simonton Bridge over to 441. Get all of that traffic out. 00:07:59
Out of Watkinsville how we do it, but we need to start looking at it. 00:08:03
We are going to have a big issue. 00:08:09
Here before long with. 00:08:12
We'll pop right on this. 00:08:20
Comments, you know the traffic when I was beating the sidewalks and we do, I agree with you Jeff, 100%. 00:08:23
But most of the people traffic seemed to be the big, big issue in Watkinsville. And you know, I love the idea of planning the 00:08:31
tree. 00:08:36
And the streets, the roads is something that we're probably 20 years behind. 00:08:42
On the on the just this past year, we got an opportunity. 00:08:48
They caught. 00:08:53
My court. 00:08:56
That opportunity of a possible alternate route for the trucks. 00:08:58
Coming down 15, because if everything continues to grow the way it is, then you know we're going to have more trucks. The truckers 00:09:02
don't want to be in downtown. 00:09:07
I'm afraid that will the tier to keep people from coming to downtown because of the traffic. So we got to be very careful that we. 00:09:13
Can make that happen, You know, get people around. 00:09:24
They're going to use all the other veins, all the other little side streets already. 00:09:29
So you know, we need to keep pushing to try to get that alternate route. 00:09:34
To get at least get the trucks deter. 00:09:39
From downtown. 00:09:43
So that's my goal is to keep trying. 00:09:47
Push. 00:09:52
I agree with everything that's been said. I would say also. 00:10:00
As Jeff and I have been going to other little cities and just, you know, traveling, going different places. 00:10:07
I want Watkinsville. 00:10:13
Even though we want to get rid of traffic, I want people to want to come to Watkinsville. I want Watkinsville to be. 00:10:16
A unique. 00:10:23
That. 00:10:25
We have creatively thought outside the box to make it like nothing else in the world. I know that's kind of big, maybe it's a big 00:10:26
oak that I'm, I'm planting there. But I I think we have the potential for that. I think we have the group of people, we have the 00:10:32
resources we have. I mean even being on this branding committee and seeing the group of people on this committee and like we have 00:10:37
phenomenal. 00:10:43
People and community and so and even though the city. 00:10:49
Isn't super flush. We are in better shape than a lot of cities are and we live in a pretty wealthy community and so. 00:10:54
I think there are ways, creative ways that. 00:11:03
Can utilize that and have public private partnerships to make our community. 00:11:08
Just an outstanding place and on the flip side of that, as I was looking through our goals of what we want to be is to be a very 00:11:14
inclusive place. 00:11:19
I would love to find a way to have some more affordable housing in our community because on the one hand, as we make our community 00:11:24
greater and greater, it's going to naturally bring up property values. 00:11:31
Which is is great, you know, I think property values going up is great, but at the same time I think we might need to be thinking 00:11:39
creatively of perhaps. 00:11:42
Some areas that we maybe let tiny houses in, or maybe let just something that is going to give people in their 20s, those those 00:11:46
next group of community members, a way to live in the city limits of Watkinsville affordably. 00:11:54
Connie. 00:12:05
Well, I've been in town for 35 years and it has changed a lot in the last. 00:12:09
15 to 20. 00:12:15
I. 00:12:18
Would hate to see it change a whole lot more. I think we have a lot of plans right now that we need to accomplish before we keep 00:12:19
expanding to more ideas. 00:12:24
We need to keep the city clean, we need to keep the infrastructure in good shape and we need to keep all of the buildings we 00:12:30
currently have. 00:12:33
Occupied because I don't want to see the downtown area turn into a ghost town because we keep adding more and more buildings and 00:12:38
shops outside. 00:12:42
The downtown area. 00:12:47
It's a nice city. It's it's different than what was 35 years ago, but it's still nice. 00:12:49
Perfect. That's a lot of great themes there. I think we cover a lot of those and what we'll talk about today, but. 00:12:57
And I am, you know, I think one of the biggest accomplishments, even if we can't say it's our accomplishment we were part of it is 00:13:03
the May courts approval. 00:13:07
The reality is the vast majority of the traffic in Watkinsville is not from and of Watkinsville, it's from outside of Watkinsville 00:13:11
that's forced to come into Watkinsville. 00:13:15
That road, if approved, will be a game changer. It'll pull trucks, but there's a good chance, depending on how they design it, 00:13:20
that it will pull some other through, traffic through. 00:13:25
We don't want to pull all the traffic out. That's how you get a ghost. That's how you get a Main Street. With nobody coming to it 00:13:29
is you don't have anybody coming through for. 00:13:33
Meals and those kind of things. So it's a fine balance, you know, in terms of terms of what we want I. 00:13:38
The traffic is a problem, but the traffic, you know drive to some other towns in South Georgia that don't have that traffic, 00:13:43
that's a reason why those retailers like it to some degree is because of those traffic count. So we're going to have to balance 00:13:47
that. 00:13:51
As we. 00:13:56
OK, well thank you all for the ideas. 00:13:59
Eva, I think at this point I'm going to turn it over to you. 00:14:03
All right. Well, thank you for having me. 00:14:06
And I brought my my Watkins Little coffee cup this morning. So we have that. Do we have that brand? Do we have that logo on our 00:14:10
brand slide, the Watkinsville Coffee Cup? 00:14:15
Please add it on my behalf. 00:14:22
No, thank you all again, always enjoy coming here and just hearing over the years what you all are looking to work on and and just 00:14:26
seeing how you're progressing through the the list so. 00:14:32
I think First off this morning Sharon is going to do the 2021 year in review. 00:14:39
There was a dedication for the pedestrian bridge there on Hardin Hill and when we finished striping it last month, when it got 00:15:21
finished striping, that project is now complete. I know that is that's a big transformational. 00:15:27
Thing for the city that has been going on for 15 plus years, I believe. Mayor, is that correct? Somewhere around that time Wire 00:15:34
Park is under development. Every day I go by it, there's something new going on that's going to be that's going to be pretty 00:15:40
transformational for the city and you all have to decide how that's going to connect with your downtown and I heard a minute ago. 00:15:46
I think Connie was the one making sure you don't lose people from that. You know, you're gonna have to figure out a way to connect 00:15:52
that better, you know, provide for citizens to better access both those areas and not one or the other. 00:15:57
We had some we had, you know, the Christmas parade as usual, the fall festival, some of the activities, the copper cops and 00:16:04
bobbers, which the chief does to try to engage. 00:16:11
Children and with adults, with police officers so they don't find them scary. 00:16:18
Obviously the ESP, Miracle League field, Ball field and the playground is currently this, you know, this year. It'll be hopefully 00:16:24
completed this year or in any major. 00:16:29
Supply chain issues. 00:16:35
We mentioned you all mentioned May. 00:16:37
And then we had a couple of fun things, engagements that both the Mayor and Councilman Thomas did this year to try to engage the 00:16:40
community more in the community. 00:16:45
With some exercise and with some decorations, outdoor decorations, stuff like that. That was pretty exciting. So those are just 00:16:50
some pictures hit some highlights on this. Administratively talked about American rescue plan but Munich code was huge. We still 00:16:57
have some tweaking to do to our codes. You you will see a few things coming forward. Our subdivision regulations need to be. 00:17:04
Need to reflect our actual process, which they don't. Right now we're working on that stat. We're at staff level and moving it 00:17:12
will move it through the attorney and then get it to y'all. Hopefully we may. We'll see how how it plays into the budget process, 00:17:17
we may not. 00:17:21
Tax you all and put that into the summer because it's not that big of a deal, but it is. It does need to be reflective of how we 00:17:28
actually operate in the city. I mentioned the community engagement, the cemetery we had, you know, we have a map of all the grave 00:17:33
sites, which I think is important again, history of the city. 00:17:37
And of course the the charter, new city charter on the compliance planning side, the library that library services agreement, how 00:17:43
we're going to operate, work with the county as well as support the library. We had quite a few developments as Councilwoman 00:17:51
Massey mentioned Trove Waters, Walk, Wire Park, those are all either either started or continued their process in 2021. 00:18:00
Some other developments the school elementary schools expanding. 00:18:10
Motors on Main, which was a conditional use that you all approve, which is something you know different for the city, which I 00:18:14
think has been really good for the city so far. And then we've had a lot of my staff continues to get. 00:18:20
Training, Toby actually received his local administrative project certification, which gives us access. Once I get the application 00:18:27
complete, gives us access to. 00:18:32
Department of Transportation monies, federal monies that flow through the state, which should open more doors for us. And recently 00:18:39
he got his red card certification. I mentioned that last week, which will allow him to do some inspections of soil erosion. 00:18:46
Issues they're going on on municipal courtside, you know with 2021 we still had issues with the court operating. So we didn't have 00:18:55
as as many court dates and some of that was driven by the judicial. 00:19:00
District that set those rules, but we did you or you did appoint Kevin McFarland as the new city solicitor. Lee was took on 00:19:08
finance responsibilities and she also received her certification for the local administrative administered project that requires. 00:19:16
Lee would handle all the financial issues that the federal government requires for those monies that are gotten are received by 00:19:26
the city from the state or by the state. And then Toby would handle all the sort of. 00:19:32
Physical you know going out making sure the projects are running according to their their protocols and stuff. So we'd have two 00:19:38
people in here to get certified on the police side you know a grants there were you made a decision recently actually the end of 00:19:43
last year about the jaws of life for the fire department as y'all continue to to provide additional support to the fire 00:19:48
department. 00:19:53
License plate readers, those should be going up this month had some technical issues, but those are moving forward. And then, as I 00:19:58
mentioned, the chief has done a really good job of trying to engage the community through the Easter egg hunt, cops and bobbers, 00:20:03
faith in blue, and then our trick or treating downtown. 00:20:08
Really appreciate their effort. We did hire someone to focus on the parks. Mark Novak is new and and that is starting. He's 00:20:44
starting to evolve a little bit. That's evolving. It's going to evolve, continue to evolve as the park project is implemented. 00:20:50
Had some dedication for Sarah Bell and then the pavement management program, which you guys are going to see a little bit more of. 00:20:59
And during the budget process, and maybe even prior to that has to do with what Councilman Garrett mentioned, which is our roads. 00:21:05
We don't have that many roads that are the city's responsibility, but we do have roads that are the city's responsibility that 00:21:10
have not really been maintained in. 00:21:16
Intentional way. It's sort of just been oh there's a there's a hole or you know there's no then no real. 00:21:22
Umm. 00:21:30
The the infrastructure improvements on dirt on Durham St. not inclusive of the road, but of the storm water. We're done. And of 00:22:04
course, we talked about the playground. 00:22:08
So just a couple things to note. I didn't put 2020 next to it. I do have a little bit of data to share, although I hate I. 00:22:15
Hesitate to share too much about because obviously percentages change based on your the amount of money you have too. But so 00:22:24
generally there are four areas where your revenues for large pieces where your revenues come in. I think it's always important, 00:22:29
especially as an elected official to understand where your money goes. People are going to say well what are you spending money 00:22:33
on. 00:22:37
And in this case, where your money comes from? 00:22:43
The majority of it comes from sales tax, which fortunately for us increased 20% between FY20 and 21. Of course, keep in mind FY20 00:22:46
was low. 00:22:50
Because of the the pandemic and actually 20 part of 21 was low as part of the pandemic do we're coming out of it? 00:22:55
Property taxes or make up 15% of the revenues we take in. Those actually went up 5% I expect. I'm trying to remember, Lee, do you 00:23:03
remember what Alan said? He thought they were going up this year, was it 10? 00:23:08
It was the. 00:23:14
Digest was more and maybe more than that yeah. So we'll we'll see what that looks like when we get our get the digest from the 00:23:16
from the from the county. 00:23:20
Franchise fees, which are, you know, gas? 00:23:24
Phone. 00:23:29
Power those are make up 10%, they actually went down a little bit and if you think about the fact that. 00:23:30
And of course there's a whole bunch of little things, but those are the big pieces of what make up their revenues. So a lot of 00:24:16
that we don't control which is I think important to note, we really a lot we're sort of. 00:24:21
You know, we don't, we don't really drive that, although some of some of your decisions can drive that. I mean obviously you 00:24:28
talked about traffic and bringing people in that sales tax, but we do get a percentage of the overall county, not just the city 00:24:34
sales tax, property taxes. You do only get what's in the county, I mean sorry within the city. So wire park, you know you're going 00:24:40
to get, you get those property taxes of course they pay county taxes too so. 00:24:47
On the expense side, what what I guess I'll point out is 73% of what is done is basically. 00:24:56
Hang on a SEC. I jumped a slide. 00:25:05
OK, what I'll point out is Public Safety and Public Works, and for the most part, that's obviously police. And then Public Works 00:25:09
is mostly garbage. So I've mentioned before, I don't have it here, but. 00:25:13
When we go through the budget process, I'll point. 00:25:19
Over half of our, but half of over half $1,000,000 I think it's like. 00:25:21
Six, hang on a second. She gave me that sheet and I think I laid it in my office. I think there's roughly half of our budget, 00:25:27
about $1,000,000 goes towards public safety and garbage. So about 7 or 800,000 I think is for police right now at least budgeted 00:25:33
for police and then right around 3 or 400,000 is budgeted for garbage. So those are two huge services that your citizens want, but 00:25:40
they take up a good portion of your budget. 00:25:47
Is that include leaf and limb or not? Yes, yeah, garbage and leaf and limb work together. 00:25:55
And then this is the one I was going to. So 73% of what we do is people including, I mean everybody in this room including Eva, 00:26:02
because our contract services include Northeast Georgia Regional Commission. We consider them a contract. We pay them to provide 00:26:08
services. This is one of the services they provide. They also helped us with some grant applications. 00:26:14
But you know, the government's typically run on people, there's the rest of it makes up a smaller percentage but mostly physical 00:26:20
bodies doing the work, so. 00:26:25
The contact services for trash and lawyers? Judges. Yeah, all that. Yep. 00:26:32
So that's just sort of a snapshot and then during the budget process we'll get, we can take deeper dives. But I just I think it's 00:26:42
always important for you sort of see where your money you know how it comes in, where it goes and sort of what makes up. 00:26:47
What you're spending money on. 00:26:53
Any questions on any of? 00:26:55
All right. Thank you, Sharon. 00:27:06
So next we're going to talk about strategic initiatives if Y'all turn to Tab 4. 00:27:10
I know past years we've taken the approach of going through kind of line by line with these and this year we're going to see if if 00:27:20
this works better. 00:27:25
To just let y'all lead a little bit and instead of just going line by line, look through these and just share if you have any 00:27:32
comments about any of them, any changes. 00:27:39
I. 00:27:47
Or if you know there's a there's an item that you think is missing from this list, we can discuss that as well. 00:27:48
So Mayor and council, I will let you guys. 00:27:56
I'll give a few quick updates so everybody looks at this. 00:28:06
We had, I think we've discussed. 00:28:10
Y'all are aware that under. 00:28:12
14 I think is what that would be. 00:28:15
Mark is working on a conceptual design for Barnet Shoals that would ideally Again, there's a lot of detail to work out, but would 00:28:19
widen the sidewalk. 00:28:24
Ideally, address some of the storm water challenges that we face, some portions of those roads. 00:28:30
And to address an earlier comment, better connect wire Park to downtown, make that feel like. 00:28:34
Journey, so to speak, you know. So that is underway. There's work remains to be done on that. Then a conversation with the county 00:28:41
on how we might share. 00:28:46
The cost for that, but I did talk to Chairman Daniel and he indicated. 00:28:51
He'd like us to take the first shot at what a concept would look like for that, so we're working on that. 00:28:56
On also on I-14, the Mulberry Simonton Bridge connector. Have not let go of that idea. I'd still like to find a way to get there, 00:29:03
even if we have to do it in slow steps. Chuck, I almost called you on Sunday about went down there and walked that, but at some 00:29:07
point. 00:29:12
I'm going to call on you. We'll go down there and kind of walk that together and look at that. 00:29:17
And then we're still waiting for from the DNR on I-17 for the grant. 00:29:21
Fund that we've applied for. My preliminary indications are that it's unlikely, unlikely that we're going to get it this year. 00:29:26
Umm, but given some of the other things that are going on. 00:29:33
Portions of that route. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. We've got plenty to say. Grace over, so. 00:29:37
Just a couple updates on L. 00:29:42
You for. We continue to work on that. I got an update from. 00:29:45
You know we're working with the county to try to advance that. So I did get an update. I can share offline with some of y'all 00:29:52
maybe during lunch or something on that one. But and then 8021, as you guys know, that's what you dot right now, but that's. 00:29:57
That's a good one. So a couple quick updates but y'all feel. 00:30:03
Ask questions or comment. 00:30:06
On these things or if you have other ideas that we need to. 00:30:09
Look. 00:30:11
I'm. 00:30:13
You know, looking at the sidewalk area in front of Ashford Memorial Church Methodist Church, where it's very difficult and it's 00:30:22
impossible here. Need help? You can't. 00:30:28
Use that stretch of sidewalk. So I mean, I I'm a little biased because I live on Main Street, but from Hardin Hill to Jackson St. 00:30:34
that stretch of Main Street. 00:30:39
I think it would be nice to look at that stretch. 00:30:44
You know, in my eyes, if we could do something would be really nice. I don't know if you work with the state. 00:30:48
Since it's a state. 00:30:54
To because there's a lot of room from the street to where the sidewalk is. Maybe you curve and gutter it and make a very nice 00:30:56
wider sidewalk. 00:31:00
Since that's heavily traveled by pedestrians that like to make. 00:31:05
The hardened hill, new sidewalk. 00:31:12
To Main Street to Jackson St. makes a nice mile loop and I walk it and I see tons of other people walking it. But anyway, the the 00:31:14
corner there, especially at Hardin Hill and the. 00:31:20
You know it's not 80. 00:31:27
Compliant. And anyway, that's something I would like looked at. I think it's very important for the city to look at since it's in. 00:31:30
Our historic downtown. 00:31:36
Sharon, do you want to offer update on that? I know you've talked to G dot about that intersection in particular. 00:31:38
The I think the while we wait on share and I think the you know there's a that's a tricky tricky intersection and. 00:31:44
Very expensive problem to solve. It's one of the reasons that we did not pave Hardin Hill all the way to Main Street because that 00:31:56
would have triggered A requirement that we, correct me if I'm wrong, but that would have triggered A requirement that we then 00:32:01
resolved on our dime that interchange. 00:32:06
We think it's probably G dots issue to resolve. You know you have a non compliant sidewalk there with very little land. 00:32:11
And we also have a mid block crossing. 00:32:19
At Ashford, that is also problematic and not particularly safe. 00:32:21
There. So there's there's a lot that needs to happen in that area. I think and Sharon you may want to comment, but I think in our 00:32:26
perfect world we'd love to at least have G dot be the lead dog on resolving that issue at that intersection. But I agree with you. 00:32:33
And. 00:32:41
The idea of what happens a little further down Main Street is it's an interesting question, you know. 00:32:42
Yeah, so I'm having trouble pulling up the e-mail, but my recollection is, and I know Toby probably helped me if I'm wrong, but is 00:32:48
we sent that to. We actually sent that intersection request because that's an intersection that is controlled by G dot and they 00:32:54
have it on their plan to do, but they haven't given us a date because it would that entire. 00:32:59
You know, all four corners would have to be adjusted. We did get them to address the the sidewalk stuff that was in front of the 00:33:05
Christian Church in order to keep the water from pulling up there. I think that helped a lot. But the that bigger intersection is 00:33:12
something that's on a bigger plan and they really didn't provide any date of when they're going to do it. Toby, do you? 00:33:18
Actually had it in Q1 of 2021. 00:33:27
But our 2020 and then 2021, but with COVID and the restrictions and their mobilization not being able to mobilize their crews 00:33:32
pushed a lot of that back. So we're really. 00:33:37
Thankful but shocked what they did part in terms of the church over there. 00:33:43
But it is on their radar to not only do the one at Hardin Hill and Maine, but also the one at Simonson in Maine. 00:33:48
Because as you know, we don't have a sidewalk that. 00:33:56
Goes from Town Center down to there, but if they fix that intersection and make it 88 accessible, maybe a little bit of sidewalk 00:33:58
in on that side as well. So all that's on there on their path as well as further down. 00:34:06
In front of the courthouse for 3rd St. Connecticut where they have the stairs there fixing that as well. 00:34:15
Well, there's a sidewalk from Town Center to that intersection, right? 00:34:22
But I mean from Town Center to Simonton Bridge. 00:34:29
No, not in front of the AT&T. 00:34:32
You have to walk. 00:34:36
You can walk all the way from Town Center to that. 00:34:39
But Barnett, that's right. 00:34:42
Yeah, but either way that's good news. So is there anything that? 00:34:45
Crosswalk to to the church, to the Ashford. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's a two way. There's only two ways you can. Yeah, yeah. 00:34:49
Designated crosswalking. 00:34:57
Into that side of between Ashford Memorial and the AT&T. 00:34:59
Do we think to Jeff's point though you? 00:35:05
How do we get a feel for whether that's something that they could tackle this year? Is there a way to find out? Do you? 00:35:09
Back out to. 00:35:14
Individuals. 00:35:16
At first. 00:35:18
Started the process of going through the local guys and then what I did was I contacted the person who's in charge of the ABA. 00:35:19
Or she died. With that route, we got a lot more motion. 00:35:28
Did did that include the power pole? Was right slap in the middle. I'm sorry I had to step out for a minute. 00:35:33
The powerful was right slap in the middle, right in front of the elders property right there. 00:35:38
I'd love to surface that. I mean, I'd like to add that on the work program, I think you know to that stretch of sidewalk, both the 00:35:43
power pole, I think both of those should concern the ADA folks absolutely. And honestly I'd rather have G dot run it because I 00:35:48
think it's going to be like it's going to be very tricky with. 00:35:54
Both there with Georgia Power and the elders and then also at Ashford, I mean there's no way to solve that without impacting a 00:36:01
very historic. 00:36:04
Set of properties there, you know you know because you're going to have to, I mean there's going to have to be some sort of a 00:36:08
ramping solution there, right. I mean there's that's all I can I'm trying to probably would cut a wall, cut a retaining wall right 00:36:13
there. 00:36:18
And so you I'm just imagining, especially in front of the the Ashford house, you would have to cut where the flower bed is now, 00:36:23
cut a retaining wall in, and then your sidewalk would be recessed ground level. 00:36:29
For the. 00:36:36
Yeah, just from the my power perspective, that's going to be expensive. 00:36:37
All of those poles, you try to keep them in as straight a line as possible and so you're not going to be able to just move one 00:36:42
pole. We have to move multiple poles and that's gonna be very expensive. 00:36:46
One of the Georgia Power want to since you know, flex, but no, I mean from the standpoint of ABA, that poll was there from ADA 00:36:50
saying that that poll was there before the sidewalk was. 00:36:57
I don't. I don't disagree with you if we're, if we're a community. 00:37:04
That's invested in inclusivity, Extra special people. 00:37:09
All kinds of other things that we've got a whole population that can't use the, what would you call that, the Western pedestrian 00:37:14
infrastructure in our community because of a power pole? 00:37:18
And the challenges presented by the church, you know, then I think that's. 00:37:23
I think. 00:37:27
Should be aware of that, and I think G dot is the right party to bring. 00:37:29
Try to bring everybody together to resolve that rather than us. I mean, we've just got to get them focused on it. 00:37:32
I can include that. 00:37:38
About the intersection. 00:37:40
Slides pictures of the pole on the sidewalk. 00:37:42
A. 00:37:48
And the at that time, Georgia Pat, the guy he spoke with it, Georgia Power said that that poll was not movable. Now what I recall 00:38:22
about the conversation was it has there's a lot of power on it. You know, apparently if you take that, if you have to move that 00:38:28
pole, you're shutting down, you know all of Main Street. And of course when we had that power outage, what a few months ago, I was 00:38:34
like this is perfect time to move to the ball. 00:38:40
All the power's already out. Nobody's going to be upset but so, so I know there's some challenges. We'll certainly work all of our 00:38:46
connections and and we will add that, add that to add that in the intersection improvement to the. 00:38:50
To the list, yeah, it's not that particular poll that has all the devices on it. It's actually the one that's in front of the 00:38:56
Ashford parking lot that has all the devices on it. If you, I mean, if you look up, there's a whole bunch of stuff, but you can't 00:39:00
move one pole out of line. 00:39:05
Without moving the others and so they can do it all. 00:39:10
Yeah, curve around it. Yeah, that would probably be better than. 00:39:16
Yeah. 00:39:22
I mean, you know, I mean, we need five, we need 5 feet of right away, you know, probably 10. We need a temporary easement and we 00:39:23
need some, right. You know, we need an easement. 00:39:27
Permanent easement, Whatever, You know? I mean, we don't need to pay for that dirt. We didn't pay for dirt from people on the 00:39:32
other side, what they'd still own. 00:39:35
And that. But you know that would be. Another solution would be. 00:39:39
They're probably. I mean, I don't what's the right away from the center line of a state highway 25 feet. 00:39:43
50 feet. So I mean, technically G dot already owns that, but that's an old road, so. 00:39:50
Yeah, we've, yeah, we've tried to look that up. 00:39:56
Yeah, and one thing I brought to comment on I had reached out to G dot. 00:40:00
About the sidewalks. 00:40:06
Up near your house, Jeff, where they're all broken and. 00:40:08
And at that time they told me that they. 00:40:12
Bill sidewalks. They did not repair them. I didn't maintain them. That would be left up. 00:40:16
To the city, but mark you, you may know. Or Toby, when you reach out to them to, you know, clarify that and they'll let out new 00:40:22
projects to bid. 00:40:26
That will have sidewalks. 00:40:32
But as far as them? 00:40:34
Building sidewalks and maintaining them, he said. That was left up to the city. 00:40:37
Old school. 00:40:44
Now, a lot of federal money that G dot uses requires them to put sidewalks. 00:40:48
When they redesigned roads and they do roads and so and that. 00:40:55
Actually, I'm sure a lot of y'all have seen it. The center median 3 wireless down through. 00:41:00
Right, right. 00:41:06
Funding to be able to pay, right? But I mean as far as their crews themselves, he said. They. 00:41:12
Would be it would go out to bid, Yeah, Yeah. I think it's unlikely that like for example South main sidewalks that they would mess 00:41:20
with that I do think. 00:41:24
You know, when it comes to these ADA intersections that they control, I think that's that's. 00:41:29
Where I'd like to see us push is on the I think it's probably unrealistic to expect them to do something, for example, from 00:41:36
Ashford Manor down. 00:41:39
Past your house. I mean that, you know, realistically if we want to do something. 00:41:43
We'd probably have to do it, but we got an ADA situation at AG dot controlled interchange I think. 00:41:47
I'd like gdot to. 00:41:53
I'd like G dot to resolve that instead of a little Watkinsville. I mean we could be talking about hundreds of thousands of 00:41:55
dollars, you know that's well, well beyond what we've got the resources to do while we're talking about sidewalks and again I 00:42:01
apologize I would love to continue that South Main on the round all the way to Collin Ferry. You know if we're we're, they just 00:42:06
installed the trove sidewalk all the way to the end of Collin Ferry. 00:42:11
It would be nice to be able to connect. 00:42:18
Quarter mile. 00:42:20
Well, I'd love to see us, you know. Again, it's up to y'all if you want to put it on here. I think to take that sidewalk from 00:42:22
Jackson, even to Harden Hill. 00:42:26
Even if we did it in phases, Phase one to Column Ferry, Phase two, Column Ferry to Jackson Terrace. Phase three. 00:42:30
Jackson Terrace to Hardin Hill And then you've you. 00:42:36
There's a lot of people who walk that anyway, and it's dangerous, you know, and there's there's a fair bit of right away, the 00:42:39
whole way through there, you might have to do it. 00:42:43
Column fairy side instead. 00:42:48
With Jackson Trail side there's there's less less trees and all to takedown. Yeah, I think it would be. That'd be hard to do. I 00:42:52
think we'd have to think through. We'd have to leave that to Mr. Campbell but I think it'd be hard to. 00:42:57
Tell people here's where you cross. Now the other thing that we need to think about potentially is Sharon has mentioned us, the 00:43:04
pipe plant project is likely to come back before us. 00:43:09
The pipe plant project we expect, we don't know would potentially include. 00:43:14
A access to South. 00:43:19
Coming across potentially again what's been previewed to us, I don't have this, you know, don't you know again it's what's been 00:43:22
previous, some sort of connection coming into South Main which could create a natural crossing point. 00:43:28
That would allow then someone to cross their access column ferry. 00:43:35
And safely reach that sidewalk to walk their kids to school. 00:43:40
And then we have worked with Mr. Mcduff. 00:43:43
And his land planner so the plans are finalized. The sidewalk is all the way down, Column Ferry. But the plans. 00:43:46
That everybody knows where the plans have to go on the column Ferry elementary side so that those kids can be getting the school 00:43:51
so. 00:43:54
This time next year we'll have kids walking to school. But to your point Brett, we want also need at some point families who don't 00:43:58
already live on column ferry to be able to cross and access that sidewalk and get their kids down there. So and remind me, please, 00:44:02
are we putting? 00:44:07
Flashing lights at that. OK goodness in the plan. 00:44:12
Yeah. On Column Ferry there was and one of the one of the. 00:44:17
One of the requests was, and I know Chief talked to you all about this was about a always stop at one point there at Column Ferry 00:44:22
at the railroad crossing. But that all is sort of in play depending on what happens, you know if there's a if there's a connection 00:44:27
to. 00:44:32
Potential future pipe plant development, then that may come down further, as the mayor said, further down on the Main Street, then 00:44:38
further out. So it's sort of everything sort of in flux and in play, but I've made some notes. We'll make sure to include those. 00:44:44
Do we want to add the though this other idea of? 00:44:51
Side. 00:44:55
Connectivity further on South Main. As a South Main resident, I'm not comfortable suggesting that so. 00:44:56
But I would need some of y'all to. 00:45:03
That's nod your head and say yes, absolutely, I'll run that, I'll run that. I would love to have a continued path that that comes 00:45:06
down to there. So I have, I'm, I'm all for as many sidewalks as possible so I'm not opposed to it. 00:45:12
If we think through the. 00:45:19
Hopeful. 00:45:22
Rails to trails that would be going through there, How does that impact the decision as far as because as we know how much 00:45:23
sidewalks cost like would that would if we have the rails to trails going through? 00:45:30
Because that's like along that just obviously on the other side does that. 00:45:37
Satisfy at least some of that. As long as there's some way, there's safe connectivity to that. 00:45:42
That's the Railster Trail is would be fantastic. I'd be great, but it doesn't fill the need that we're referencing. I'm calling 00:45:50
Ferry, at least from my thought have always been I want to see kids walking to school. So getting column Ferry and tying it to the 00:45:56
Jackson St. 00:46:01
Area allows Christian lakes. 00:46:08
All Jackson St. area to be able to walk across the street if there's a way. 00:46:12
Again I'm not opposed to it, but if we are emphasizing the rails to trails is there a way to like from Jackson St. have a 00:46:19
crosswalk across the street there and like a path through like next to someone's yard to that rails trails over does that I mean 00:46:26
is that am I making sense if you do have the, if you do have the crossing that were that was kind of presented from the Smith 00:46:34
Setzer plan at the Jackson St. that allows coming down Jackson St. 00:46:41
Crossing at an intersection of some sort there. 00:46:49
To the rails, the trails where you would turn right and then left down the sidewalk that just, you know, just roughly finished. So 00:46:52
yes, yeah, if you do it, I'm just wondering that would be a lot less side. And I'm just thinking about like aren't there ditches. 00:47:00
So maybe we just table this, put it as like a low or medium priority until whatever, whatever happens with. 00:47:08
Pipe plants. So maybe we capture it as a low priority you know to and make it do you think it's around the idea of how do we get 00:47:17
families to that column ferry sidewalk. Yeah. Say I agree you know that you know otherwise we know we're going to have families 00:47:22
walking down. 00:47:26
441 in the mornings trying to cross column ferry to get to the sidewalk. I mean, there's going to be the next version of Jeff 00:47:32
Campbell. I remember when you did that with was it Sadie or Hello Porter when you walked through a city And I got. 00:47:38
So there will be, there will be others who try. I'd love to make it safe for them to do so. I will also just throw out there as 00:47:45
we're talking about crosswalks. I actually had a citizen contact me this weekend. 00:47:50
Saying that she is having issues as she walks in Watkinsville with the crosswalks, with the flashing lights that cars don't stop. 00:47:57
For them. 00:48:04
And. 00:48:06
It is the law, right? Like at a flashing the cars are supposed to and so if that is perhaps something that. 00:48:07
Our law enforcement. 00:48:15
And we can also raise some awareness, you know put something newsletter, put something on Facebook, remind people, well it's 00:48:17
probably not our local residents, it's the piece on Main Street, it's the people coming down. So I don't know if some some pain of 00:48:22
tickets. 00:48:27
Last year, I think now we put some signs and go to try to. 00:48:33
Prepare people. 00:48:41
They're not paying attention way and so that you know maybe some some ticketing there. 00:48:44
Assess that very situation. I believe the same false walk about four years ago. Notice the lack of compliance with another 00:48:53
community. Is using the little bright neon flags where you get one foot out. Wave your flag to get the drivers attention. Actually 00:48:59
works really well with other community that uses that. It's really goofy. 00:49:06
Well, in Athens they had that multi. In Athens they had to do multi colored flags. In Madison, I think they still have orange 00:49:14
flags. 00:49:17
Would work a lot better. 00:49:21
Well, I think our officers have also and again it's kind of nice having Chief on and he can't comment. So we can just. 00:49:25
But. 00:49:33
But you know, I feel like I don't know if it was our previous police chief or this police chief, but we had, we had a little bit 00:49:34
of targeted enforcement where they kind of walked it plainclothes. 00:49:39
And then they had, they had a police car stationed a little bit down the road, and when the cars didn't. 00:49:45
They said that's the license. 00:49:50
Go get them. And all of a sudden you know it did make a difference. 00:49:52
Yeah, yeah. 00:49:58
Yeah. 00:50:00
But a little bit of that probably goes a long way. And to your point, it may be out of towners, but a lot of times it's it's like 00:50:02
the speeding problems in Christian Lake. Several years ago, that was all Christian Lake residents. 00:50:07
Once the police started enforcing it. 00:50:13
I I I think some targeted enforcement could. 00:50:16
Fun. And you could probably we could have a little social media fun with that too, you know, I think that would be much better 00:50:19
than the flags, I think the flags are not illegal. 00:50:23
Way of. 00:50:28
Got in. 00:50:30
I think that's why some of them got away from it when they just get stolen, you know, I mean it's just it's catnip for teenagers 00:50:32
when you have flags sitting out for that, you know, so. 00:50:37
Citizens arrest. 00:50:52
Yeah, so it doesn't matter if the flash is, you get a flag, there's a. 00:50:59
Do we? So I want to make make every effort to if you have any questions about marquee, it has an important hence to leave the 00:51:06
center. 00:51:10
Just in case there's anything related to something that's on this list or even the committee updates that you need to involve in 00:51:15
and you won't feel. 00:51:19
Specifically, I know the transportation study did talk about you know connectivity from Colin Ferry Road to South Main Street and 00:51:28
and that that is that is a node that is a point of emphasis and and there's a couple different ways to try to look at that. But 00:51:34
one of the issues is sight distance as you approach the curve and and also you don't want to have a mid block crossing. So any 00:51:41
potential new development is, is again part of what's been discussed here today. 00:51:47
You. 00:51:55
The need for that crossing. So there's a little bit of a process, but I appreciate everybody thinking about that and focusing on 00:52:29
that. I don't know that we have a quick and easy solution and maybe the reason it hasn't already been done, but just to think 00:52:34
about, you know, if you could say here's a solution or here's something to work towards that is not a mid block crossing, I think 00:52:39
that'll be cute. 00:52:44
Do we have a Speaking of sidewalks, I know that when we do development agreements that sidewalks are part of that, especially when 00:52:51
they're. 00:52:55
Sewer capacity. But do we have an ordinance that when people are like redoing a home or not in Morgan's manner little neighborhood 00:53:00
but like on any of the main things that in order to pull building permits they have to. I know Clark County has that, that they 00:53:07
have to run a sidewalk like the the house on Main Street that was kind of. 00:53:14
Was very rundown right before Experiment station on the right across from Dobies area. That house just got completely flipped. 00:53:21
And so I'm just thinking as things like that happen, it makes. 00:53:32
If to have people put in sidewalks. 00:53:37
Yeah. 00:53:43
It's not a. 00:53:45
Right. I think it was only sewer is that something we. 00:53:49
Houses being renovated. 00:53:54
Point. 00:53:57
Is that something we want to think about? 00:53:59
I think it have to be on 1/4 that's identified by the transportation plan as. 00:54:11
We want to have sidewalks on that, right, not like and not get point an HVAC permit or a roof permit, but like a, you know, when 00:54:16
you are doing a major renovation on a property. 00:54:20
Patch. 00:54:27
And renovation, because again we think about some of the largest subdivisions in Watkinsville that don't have sidewalks right now, 00:54:30
Christian Lake, Stone shows being one if five years, if somebody in Stone Shoals wants to renovate their home, I think Watkins 00:54:35
would want to encourage that. But then did they put a sidewalk for 100 feet and that's why I think the main corridor not like in 00:54:40
neighborhoods because that would be strange. 00:54:45
I mean and and not as necessary, I think most of us, I mean, would it be ideal for every neighborhood to have sidewalks? Yes. 00:54:51
Do any of us see that as a priority? No. I mean we can. I feel safe walking Morgan's Manor every day with my dog. 00:54:58
You know, same I walk in Christian Lake a lot. I mean, I think that. 00:55:08
It's it's the main corridors, no, the only. 00:55:11
Right. But there are there are properties like this one on North Main that. 00:55:18
Maybe instead of having it be just new construction, I mean there was one on Harden Hill that was completely, they called it a 00:55:23
renovation, but it was basically a teardown. They kept the parts of the foundation and it was a new build. I mean, right. But we 00:55:29
would have wound up with a sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, you know. So I mean it's it's a weird and and the only issue 00:55:34
the issue I see is then you have a. 00:55:40
Potentially 100 foot piece of sidewalk for. 00:55:46
Ever. Just 100 foot piece of sidewalk, yeah. 00:55:49
That we are going to be doing, yeah. 00:55:54
Yes, that's. 00:56:04
Why don't we take a look at our policies on that and see if they need to be updated? I think is a good first step, right? So in 00:56:08
addition to sewer. 00:56:12
On those quarters, is there a trigger for? 00:56:17
Sidewalk construction and what's the appropriate trigger? And then maybe they can circle back to us on that. We can understand a 00:56:20
little bit more. 00:56:23
I could see your point, you know, on. 00:56:26
You know the South main quarter that we were just talking about if a couple with those houses were. 00:56:29
Renovated at a certain level, you know. 00:56:33
Yeah. 00:56:36
Somebody's investing over $100,000 then. 00:56:38
Maybe it makes sense. 00:56:41
To. 00:56:43
Add that ribbon to sidewalk up front. I don't know, maybe we can check on. 00:56:44
What other categories are mark specific in here? I do think it's good to get him while we. 00:56:53
Made the storm water. Do you want to have? Oh yeah, OK Are we comfortable? Y'all moving on to green space and environment. 00:57:00
Do you mind Remember I mentioned something about potentially a truck bypass or a bypass that goes from Barnett Shoals to 15? 00:57:09
Is that something we want to look at as well? 00:57:17
Maybe or or maybe down by like Norton Road. 00:57:22
Yeah, so I'm thinking more to. 00:57:29
Mandate that FEED and seed and LAD can't come through Watkinsville. They got to go and take a truck bypass. 00:57:31
And so I guess. 00:57:39
I really wish we could have caught this before wire part was done so we could have put a continuation all the way across, but you 00:57:42
go from. 00:57:45
15 to Barnett Shoals to Simonton Bridge all the way over to 441 with a truck bypass all the way around Watkinsville. 00:57:49
You'll have one that goes from 15 to 441 eventually, and then you could have one that comes from 15 to. 00:57:59
441 on the opposite side of Watkinsville, like on north. 00:58:05
Out by the fire department. 00:58:09
It's just something to think about because we, I mean, we're about to add a bunch of trucks, cars, people to Watkinsville, a bunch 00:58:12
of them. And I mean anybody that travels through downtown Watkinsville already knows we've got a terrible traffic problem. 00:58:20
Anytime of the day, really. 00:58:28
Yeah, I purposely don't go to downtown Watkinsville because it's just it's. 00:58:34
Traffic jam most of the time, I mean I go around, but it's just something to think about. I mean, so like right there at Norton 00:58:39
Road where you know Wire Park is creating a, you wouldn't be able to put trucks on it because they're having two separate 00:58:44
roundabouts I believe, but maybe at Norton Road. 00:58:49
Coming across over there down the power line because you do have a transmission line that comes right through there. 00:58:55
Umm. 00:59:01
And then same thing for Simonton Bridge, you've got a transmission line that runs across same same line but. 00:59:02
Out of Watkinsville for. 00:59:10
I just think it's wildly, I mean, Brett, I love the way you thinking. I just think it's sort of wildly unfeasible. I mean that's a 00:59:12
gigantic project. 00:59:16
To serve. 00:59:20
Athens Seed and Just. 00:59:22
I just don't see it as. 00:59:25
I don't think you're going to take any out of town trucks. In fact I think you could pull out of town trucks closer in. Ironically 00:59:26
by doing that I'm. 00:59:30
I mean, I've looked at the map a million times. I just don't know how you wiggle something through there without absolutely 00:59:36
destroying that into town. That's my concern. You know, I'll, I'll look at it with you. I got, I got some plans. 00:59:41
Later y'all y'all weigh in. I just. I struggle with that concept and and it wouldn't just be for so here's the my thought you know 00:59:49
I I know we're about to put a bypass around Bishop but most of the trucks don't come down 441 they come down. 00:59:56
Because it's shorter for them, they just. 01:00:03
It's shorter for them to come down 15 and they're going to continue to come through Watkinsville unless somehow or another we 01:00:06
mandate that they go down to 441. Well that's what. 01:00:10
Yep. 01:00:16
You know, so hopefully that does draw the trucks that we're hoping for. 01:00:18
Where you gonna put it all the way back at 20 in Greensboro? 01:00:27
But then if that if that bypass at 1:15 over to 441 happens. 01:00:32
Yeah. 01:00:37
So there. 01:00:55
Something I can help mitigate some. 01:00:58
Truck drivers use. 01:01:01
Think right now is for the most part. 01:01:02
Global positioning mapping systems. 01:01:06
And reaching out those like so. 01:01:09
When they do the software for these mapping systems, they don't take into account a lot of times. 01:01:12
Where they're coming in. 01:01:17
Your point on 15 when you're on I-20. 01:01:20
Take. 01:01:23
Of the Greensboro, and you have to make that hair thing turn down. There was an. 01:01:24
It doesn't take that into. 01:01:28
And it doesn't take into effect that you're going to come through. 01:01:30
A main town where it's top. 01:01:33
And. 01:01:37
Reaching out to those mapping companies that can do the mapping. 01:01:38
Redirecting those trucks through their mapping system to go down to four 31441. 01:01:43
To come down to 441. 01:01:50
That way would be ideal. 01:01:54
You know, because it's the mapping system that they go by, because a lot of those guys. 01:01:57
Over the road, truckers don't know the roads and don't like Some of them are old school and are familiar, but other ones do not 01:02:02
know. 01:02:05
And they're going by their mapping system, which is taking them through Greensboro, which? 01:02:09
1-2 like 390° turns. 01:02:14
And then they're bringing them right down through Watkinsville. 01:02:18
And. 01:02:21
You know, and some of them to that point are actually even coming up Simons. 01:02:22
And then trying to turn left to right, coming off assignments and on the main which we. 01:02:26
Is. 01:02:30
Logistically possible, unless. 01:02:32
You got traffic backed up and I know the chief has reached out the G dot about repositioning. 01:02:34
The lines off of Barnett, where Barnett comes into. 01:02:40
Repositioning those. 01:02:44
Back a little bit further to keep those trucks off the sidewalk. 01:02:46
Right there at Maine and Bar. 01:02:50
But I think that's. 01:02:52
Possibility is to reach out to the mapping companies and see if they can remap. 01:02:54
Those lines and I've talked to Dutch about that and also talked to some folks at G dot and with the Georgia Transportation or 01:02:59
Logistics Innovation Center. 01:03:04
So we're trying to get a call together on that topic like electronically, digitally. What can we do to also? 01:03:10
Encourage trucks to go around. One of the things we're fighting against is there's construction on 441 right now too, which slows 01:03:16
it a little bit more. 01:03:19
That's 441 improves. That's going to help the problem too. You know, in the map, because it's just going to be. 01:03:22
A better Rd. will go a little faster, but for the next two years, Chuck, I guess, you know we've got construction between Eatonton 01:03:28
and Madison, which sort of. 01:03:32
If you use Waze or something like that, it sort of slows it down, but. 01:03:36
There's a guy named Barco Bill who is at the Georgia Southern Logistics Innovation. 01:03:39
And I've talked to him about our issues. And then Dutch knows those mapping systems real. 01:03:44
And so I want to get a call together with the two of them and maybe maybe Seth Milliken from the Georgia. 01:03:48
Transportation Alliance who have also talked to about the Watkinsville situation. So they've all agreed to have a conversation and 01:03:54
see what we can do about how do. 01:03:57
Get freight through Oconee County the most efficient way possible because I think I've told all y'all we're basically the we're 01:04:01
the Atlanta freight bypass right now. And you know, so ideally that freight should move on a four lane Rd. not a two lane Rd. 01:04:07
Through Wrightsville, through Greensboro, through Watkinsville. 01:04:12
You know, which is what it's doing right now. 01:04:19
Yeah. So in my friend in the trucking business at 15 usually pops up about 7 or 8 minutes quicker when you put it in in Savannah. 01:04:22
Well, they don't know 7 or 8 minutes, you know, you know, I mean, big deal to them, but they don't understand what that 7 or 8 01:04:28
minutes means. You know, OK, you really got to sit still. You got to do these turns, all this other stuff, you know, all things 01:04:33
being equal, you know, we need to find a way to steer them towards. 01:04:38
441 but you know. 01:04:43
It's just a terrible and you would think that we can stop the trucking industry industry from coming down 15. 01:04:52
You. 01:04:58
I mean, we can. We're going to work on it with technology, but that's the thing with state routes you can't stop anybody from 01:05:00
using. 01:05:03
That's their that's their right, you know? 01:05:08
All right. Do we want to circle back to the storm water stuff, since I think we've got. 01:05:18
About 20 more minutes with Mark. We've got Parks, Green Space and Environment is our next one right, Eva? Is that where we're 01:05:23
going? OK. 01:05:27
I'm sure, yeah. 01:05:42
Yeah, What? Can you give an update on what's happening? Because I see all of Wire Park getting so pretty and then there's our 01:05:45
library. 01:05:48
It's certainly the details are fairly under design. 01:05:53
Probably. 01:06:03
Starting third quarter of the year, I don't know. Yeah, one point kind of go with the working library. 01:06:06
County branch of library in Rockfordville Ave. or. 01:06:16
More than likely be. 01:06:21
But construction calls for a huge issue. 01:06:26
If you try to do something now, it's more expensive than it was to build a year ago, a few years ago. 01:06:32
If you don't build it now, it probably won't be a lot more questions. 01:06:40
Thank you. 01:06:44
If you build it. 01:06:48
Mark, what you know. 01:06:51
Are there any plans or has anybody discussed the old library and what may happen there? 01:06:53
Is that owned by the Industrial Development Authority or owned by the Library Authority? 01:06:59
Board of Commissioners. OK. All right. 01:07:05
Because that will be an interesting asset for the community, you know. 01:07:07
You know, just a recorder standpoint to give you an idea. Technically my understanding is keep publicly confirmed, but. 01:07:12
The Sheriff's Department with. 01:07:19
Oconee County Board commissioners actually owns the building where the post office is located. 01:07:21
They own the building where the library is located and they own the building where the health department located. So that is along 01:07:26
that corridor on the on the western side of. 01:07:30
The state route that comes. 01:07:36
Can you give us an update on the? 01:07:39
So there is an agenda setting meeting with the Board of Commissioners tonight, at which time they were placed on their agenda for 01:07:42
a vote next week to select the bid for the company that provided the the lowest bid and work towards authorizing that company to 01:07:48
move forward. I want to speak to the Board of Commissioners, but in correspondence, yeah, on February 1st, 4 bids were received. 01:07:54
The date has been going through on those four bids and the. 01:08:01
My understanding. 01:08:08
It's an issue to bid, not a, you know, request for a proposal. So the lowest responsibility will be selected. That'll be put on 01:08:10
the agenda tonight for a vote a week from tonight. 01:08:14
Yeah. And then they can't start construction soon enough and we're still thinking three to five months. 01:08:22
Depending. 01:08:30
Rock. 01:08:31
Maybe I don't have their schedule in front of me. I don't think three months is anywhere in the realm of possibility. 01:08:32
Too short? Correct. 01:08:42
I feel pretty confident that there will be sewer in before the library is open. 01:08:47
I don't think it's a lot. I don't think it's the library we're worried about. 01:08:53
Some of them can because there's existing septic there. 01:09:01
I don't, I don't. I don't think you could begin to get it's there's probably, to Brett's point, there's probably some limited 01:09:05
stuff you could do with the existing but it'll be a challenge to have I would think to have food and the other stuff that. 01:09:12
You know the the highest use from a sewer generally would be a restaurant. You see, anybody who's dealt with, you know, sewer 01:09:22
impact fees or grease traps or any of those other types of things understands if you change your business from a retail business 01:09:27
or an office building to a restaurant, that changes the sewer impact of that location. 01:09:32
Yeah. 01:09:39
We've been involved the whole way. I mean, so we've we handed it to them, but we've remained engaged and continue to be engaged on 01:09:43
the project. 01:09:47
Parks, green space and environment, I guess that would be environment, but is there any any other questions about and again I do 01:09:52
have some some draft or preliminary things, it's very preliminary but just talking about some multi pathways. 01:09:58
That the mayor mentioned earlier along Barnett Shoulders Rd. That will not just be a transportation element. 01:10:06
Or Greenway element that that will have a storm water element within it as well. Still you know, got some obstacles. 01:10:13
We we need to probably be doing everything we can and everything we talked about so far today. 01:10:19
To talk with Georgia Power. 01:10:26
G dot is somebody we always have to coordinate with in Watkinsville because there are so many state routes in Watkinsville, but. 01:10:31
It's difficult to turn around. 01:10:39
And Walkman zeal and not see a powerful OK, so this is going to show my ignorance when it comes to power. I know there are people 01:10:41
who know a lot more than I do. How hard is it to get? 01:10:46
Above ground power lines underground. 01:10:52
So you don't want to do that? 01:10:54
It is very, very costly to do it. 01:10:58
And when they do go out, because they do it. 01:11:01
Exponentially longer because then you got to get people out there to locate the power lines, you got to come dig them up, you've 01:11:05
got to fix. 01:11:08
I mean exponentially. 01:11:13
So just for residential for instance, it goes from probably 15 minutes of fixing an overhead line to two and a half 3-4 hours to 01:11:15
fix it. So an underground for say our overhead lines. 01:11:22
You're talking a full day's project? 01:11:29
I mean, isn't a lot of the power damaged wind and weather that wouldn't affect underground stuff? 01:11:33
There's also a difference between transmission and distribution lines, you know, and so I think, I think what we'd be talking 01:11:39
about would be distribution lines, correct. Yeah. So all the ones you see, all of our main lines that come down are Main Street, 01:11:44
are all distribution now transmission lines are out. 01:11:50
Like Norton Road. That big substation right there. The big, big wires. 01:11:55
But you're you're not going to. It's ridiculously expensive to. You won't see any city that's got all of their stuff on. 01:12:01
Now neighborhoods, big neighborhoods like. 01:12:09
Down in Greensboro. 01:12:12
Forgot the name of the all of those are all underground but that I mean or even Daniel Plantation I mean there's some you know 01:12:14
there's there's some no county that I mean like Christian Lake is all underground but that's that's a resident most big 01:12:18
neighborhoods are all underground. 01:12:22
But coming up to them is overhead wire because it's so much cheaper to do overhead and easier to fix the maintenance arms. 01:12:26
So much cheaper to fix. 01:12:35
So but Christine I think to your point you know we and to marks point is we're going to need to. 01:12:36
You know we're going to need to wrap our brain around for example, Barnett Shoals just hypothetically and we could all probably 01:12:43
stand up and look at those plans if we want to. I mean, Mark, are they over there? Yeah, I mean if y'all want to have a stand up 01:12:47
break and walk over there and look at what Mark's designed, I mean we don't. 01:12:52
Hi everybody. But you know it's nothing says that we have to be miked up the whole time. If we want to go over and look at those, 01:12:57
we can stand up and look at them. 01:13:00
You know the idea, Our idea, this simple idea would be to extend that sidewalk out into the road a little bit. Add a new curb. 01:13:03
I think, Mark, that's what we're still talking about. South, the road Skinny's up a little bit. We still keep wide lanes because 01:13:10
we're not doing bike lanes, but you've got like a 10 foot, 10 foot. 01:13:15
And you saw it in some ways for better for worse on the Harden Hill Rd. You know there was initially planned hey we're going to 01:13:19
move all these powerful and and and we're just going to move them. George Powers going to move them for us because that's the best 01:13:24
thing in the world to do. 01:13:30
And. 01:13:36
And it was it was going to a project that already had a lot of money in the budget. If you start looking at every poll being 4050, 01:13:37
sixty thousand plus, depending on the things that are on the pole, well then that eats up a lot of potential for OK, how much do 01:13:43
you want to shorten the sidewall project? How much do you want an error sidewalk project versus? 01:13:50
And go around the. 01:13:57
And and so there's pluses and minuses that we we we can see it, we can talk about it. But you know, so there are every situation 01:13:59
there's a critical of this poll. 01:14:04
No ifs, ands or buts. At what cost? And hey, this poll can stay where it is. 01:14:10
And you work on an alternate solution, because if you say. 01:14:15
Let's just say $50,000 to move a poll versus an alternate solution. Well, there's probably a lot of alternate solutions. 01:14:20
That don't cost $50,000. 01:14:27
Water parks Annual estimated electric bills $550,000. 01:14:29
If that helps us. So that Georgia Power wasn't getting before. 01:14:34
So just something to think about. So anyway those conversations to your point to that they they are much more amenable to move 01:14:39
stuff when they're making lots of money. 01:14:44
So Harden Hill, they weren't making any additional money. Now they, you know, I didn't know. Let's be real, They're going to make 01:14:49
this money either way. But this is a pretty significant economic development. 01:14:54
I don't know if you want to look at it, if you can visualize it, if anybody wants to stand up and stretch your legs, you could 01:15:33
look at it everybody. 01:15:36
Somewhat, yeah. 01:15:43
With. 01:15:48
Yeah. 01:16:05
So this the right order? Well, it's 2 copies, so it's kind of an overall and then and then an overall. 01:16:13
It gives you an idea. 01:16:22
Just doing it on that northern side of the roadway. So what we I guess discovered in some ways is that one kids with white pathway 01:16:25
is better than two properties. So you still have the sidewalk on the other side of the street. 01:16:32
When you're looking at one side of the road. 01:16:40
Thinking that Kirk is there now, we're having to find the sidewalk that's there now. 01:16:45
There's a 2 foot strip directly to the curve, ripping that curve up, pushing it in. 01:16:49
Making a possible run sidewall. 01:16:55
The thought is to do that without relocating the center line. What will happen is that northern lane will be more narrow lane but. 01:16:59
Yeah, being multi use staff. 01:17:23
But then you know if you're looking. 01:17:27
19. 01:17:35
So what you do? 01:17:39
A lot of. 01:17:43
They have. 01:17:47
Is there enough? 01:17:58
I can. I can look at. I haven't. I don't know that. OK, I'm just trying to. 01:18:00
But this doesn't contemplate this point. Now there will be some storm water work again in that. So when you're digging the storm 01:18:08
water pipe, any changes to that? 01:18:13
A reminder. 01:18:21
Just curious why you chose that side instead of this side? 01:18:25
So I think, you know the connectivity was a big part of that. So there are sidewalks on both sides of the roadway. 01:18:30
And we have to actually familiar with, you know we went through some of this exercise with bike lanes as well but it was it was 01:18:35
specifically connecting to the hives into the only only reason I say that is put it on this side. You know that's correct. You're 01:18:42
correct. But then in theory you've got an issue of and where do you call back. 01:18:49
The only other thing would be the industrial drive which does get a fair amount of of traffic then if you have pedestrians coming 01:19:07
across that area from a multi degree. 01:19:12
I mean, I would personally put it right here. 01:19:19
I think, yeah, there will be something there. And so I mean that's it's good and straight. You can see for 1/2 mile either 01:19:24
direction, quarter mile either direction. 01:19:29
And and you know, most of the pedestrians are going to be on this side too. 01:19:44
This other idea is we control find a way to control some the speed of storm water. 01:19:58
And this is just in general terms because. 01:20:10
Replacing in some. 01:20:13
Impervious, but we're also increasing your landscape. Just this work and I have no idea what we can talk about. 01:20:16
But it would decrease the amount of impervious area that's going to be existing. 01:20:25
Well, again that the thought would be a 2 foot wide strip that's there down you've got Dog Woods, we've got other things. It's 01:20:36
really not wide enough for 20 minutes. So if you go to a three foot wide it would the question then becomes. 01:20:42
Well your opportunities for treasure landscape and at this point you know you could do some undersory trees when after it could 01:20:49
fit no problem. But if you wanted something larger or something but then you have our overhead power but you know you could do a 01:20:54
four foot strip and you can give yourself. 01:20:59
I know we like grass, but that is a whole lot. 01:21:05
You just put additional 12 inches of remember that's accounting really. 01:21:11
Intention is that they have to cut it and we all of course we know that they're going to cut what they're going to cut and we're 01:21:17
going to have to supplement, you know, extra but. 01:21:21
So if. 01:21:24
Personally, don't like it when you put 1218 inches of the grass because. 01:21:27
Then then this. A whole lot but this would this would be a pretty good strip. 01:21:32
And the issue is when we did the Hard Hill Rd. sidewalk, we had a ditch section where again in my opinion that project as much as 01:21:38
it was a pedestrian project was also some more project as well. But you were creating sidewalk and curving whether they were not 01:21:43
there before. And this project there's August sidewalk until we go today. So it's the differential would not be as severe the 01:21:49
water. 01:21:54
Piping, but now the structures are out, so now you got to put. 01:22:01
It. 01:22:06
Well, hard to heal. They weren't there. I mean driveway there wasn't there. So this is again it's an existing turbid intersection 01:22:12
out of the existing big section. So from a improvement standpoint, there would be a storm water element to it, but it should not 01:22:19
be a storm water element because the piping would be you would have storm structures, it might be a lesson structure or something 01:22:25
like that, but you wouldn't have each storm structure would be very small into pipe rather than 100%. 01:22:32
Yeah, jump into. 01:22:52
Out Lexington Highway. Skate around and Winterville. 01:22:59
Winterville has Is that what it is? And it is gorgeous. I got a friend. 01:23:07
And I mean there's there's like 8 or 10 foot wide. 01:23:15
It's got happened while I still get on my bike. 01:23:29
You missed that but just general, but this is this is the point we have so far. 01:23:36
And I think the idea, you know before where you had to be right away acquisition, you had to do some of those things when you're 01:23:51
going back behind it. If you think about the edge of the sidewalk now and it's coming in because you have such a wide landing 01:23:56
theory, you don't have to do by the way acquisition, that's a big. 01:24:01
That's what I think on Main Street from Jackson to Ashford, you have the same thing. You would be going into the street because 01:24:06
there's all of that. 01:24:11
You know you had a section, It would be. 01:24:32
Your own property, yeah. 01:24:41
This is my property so. 01:24:47
But. 01:24:50
So you have not done budget obviously, but that is what will just seem like you're not going to simple like. 01:25:01
You know sidewalk alone would be about a million a mile roughly. And that was probably 2019 figures. So just sidewalk not 01:25:10
including your I mean and there's yeah. 01:25:15
Yeah. On this part and no land acquisition, that's not quite a what is that like? 01:25:21
Something like that. 01:25:32
It's not. I haven't put it together yet. 01:25:34
It's a little less than that, yeah. 01:25:39
Something like that anyway. 01:25:44
So all the powerfuls are on the side, they're not. 01:25:52
Yeah. 01:26:00
It's not the way. It's not the way it worked out. 01:26:07
And there's still a sidewalk here. So it's not like these people can't. Yeah, there's a good sidewalk. But I mean, I still would 01:26:15
prefer this, but I think it would be wise, but we could talk about it. 01:26:23
What would be the right of way, let's say? 01:26:34
Let's. 01:26:38
End of the road again. 01:26:39
But the lanes are still wide enough safely. 01:26:50
You know, but it wouldn't feel like. 01:26:54
There's not many places in the city where you can say hey when you turn 5% walk into a 10 foot title and not have right away 01:26:58
acquisition. But as we talked about kind of in that life lane as well, what were the roadways already relatively wide and what 01:27:03
this is one of these probably. 01:27:09
Sewer only on the water park side the the. 01:27:14
Only on that side? Or is it on both sides? It is mostly. It's not 100%, but it's mostly on this side. 01:27:20
Cortana. 01:27:27
Yeah, we were talking about maybe. 01:27:33
I'm planning to be back. Well, we may be done by. I'll let you know. 01:27:42
OK. 01:27:53
All right, y'all we ready to roll? 01:30:08
Just be sure you get with Julie before you go today. She's got some paperwork for you to sign. Can we get a little clarification 01:30:15
though for our plan? So right now what we have is we have the storm we have on the. 01:30:19
Try. 01:30:58
Evaluate the city on large scale or just go at your direction on specific projects like we are here on this one with the 3rd St. 01:31:00
Gar. 01:31:08
We just. 01:31:10
I'd just like to clarify it a little bit, for the purpose of the plan anyway. 01:31:12
I mean I think you know, you know that where your big areas are and that's why you're focused right now on the, you know the 01:31:17
Barnshall 3rd St. area and. 01:31:21
We refine that where it says maybe instead of issuing RFP we. 01:31:26
You know, work with our consultant with which essentially is right now our city engineer to develop those parties. You know, along 01:31:32
with your priorities and concerns, you hear from the citizens and stuff, maybe address it on a project by project basis. 01:31:37
I don't know how. 01:31:43
I guess my thought, you know after spending the considerable about a time on it this year is that we know that we've there's just 01:31:47
a few areas in the city where we have, where we have. 01:31:51
Some challenges there, we also know it's. 01:31:57
I'm a little nervous about. 01:32:00
A plan which input would imply all of a sudden it's our issue to fix private property owners stormwater. 01:32:03
Um. 01:32:10
So I think ideally in my mind, it may not make as much sense to tackle it that way anymore versus. 01:32:11
You know, we've got a, we know we have a potential situation where there's a lot of water on Barnet Shoals Rd. on Depot Street 01:32:18
that we need to do a better job of controlling that, sort of. 01:32:23
Joint responsibility with the county. We can tackle that, work on that. 01:32:28
Versus I'm a little concerned about what a stormwater plan might yield in terms of. 01:32:32
Umm. 01:32:38
Challenges that we aren't legally obligated to attack, but all of a sudden we'd have a report saying these are issues. So that's 01:32:39
that's kind of where I've landed after looking at this for a while and and if we start trying to manage storm water. 01:32:46
For other people, then where does that end? 01:32:54
Yeah. 01:32:57
And. 01:33:02
I think that makes a lot of sense as you're looking at, especially connectivity issues where there's an opportunity to. 01:33:04
Combine. 01:33:11
To possibly mitigate anything that might be there, but that doesn't mean you take the responsibility, it's just you're trying to 01:33:13
make it. 01:33:16
And I guess I should turn my back to press an issue that that Brian and Brett both alluded to. We need to tread lightly on this. 01:33:26
This road is it is a county owned and managed and. 01:33:32
Maintained at that location of Barnet Shoals, I think we need to probably sit down meet with the county as an initial measure. 01:33:39
And I think that's the, I think the mayor had already gotten some feedback. I think you might have missed that. 01:33:46
Given us the opportunity to maybe pitch something, evaluate it, and then pitch it to the county for their for their feedback, is 01:33:53
that correct, mayor? 01:33:56
Yeah. So we've already talked to the county. They're open to discussing Barnet Shoals as a joint effort. They wanted us to take 01:34:00
the first shot at. 01:34:04
Some designs and some renderings. They actually suggested that during some of their meetings with Wire Park. So it was their 01:34:08
planning director who brought up the idea about Can we? 01:34:12
Should we reimagine that corridor a little bit, which, you know? 01:34:16
It's not the developers responsibility to do that, nor should it be holy hours. I think it it should be a shared responsibility. 01:34:20
To take a look at that since it is a county. 01:34:28
So. 01:34:30
All right, so storm water, are we comfortable with this idea of? 01:34:33
You know. 01:34:36
Stormwater master plan. Either removing that from a list or saying upon evaluation, we've decided that we're going to. 01:34:38
Address the issues as they arise. 01:34:43
Is everyone comfortable with that? OK, Sharon, are you comfortable with that direction and modifying the plan to reflect that? 01:34:48
And our other priorities here, I think we're making good progress on the rest of them, maybe not as fast as we want on everything, 01:34:56
sewer line in particular, but. 01:34:59
Hardin Hills. 01:35:04
Hair Shoals Park, that's proceeding, correct, Christine, Connie, everything's you know. 01:35:05
And in terms of the work actually beginning, I know we've discussed before, do we need to? 01:35:15
Bond or borrow to make that go any faster. Are we comfortable with staff driving that or we at a point where we need to? Is there 01:35:21
anything that this body needs to do to activate that? So as far as. 01:35:25
I should let me clarify the as far as what to do with the old playground, regular committee meetings are happening. 01:35:31
I haven't heard anything from planner Bob Smith in months and months and months and months and so I don't know. I know we were. 01:35:38
Kind of hiring him, but I'm not really sure what his role is supposed to be, how much we're hiring him. Should I be reaching out 01:35:46
to him Like I guess I'm a little confused as to as far as the rest of the park and then how to implement things. So when when we 01:35:52
met, the last time we met and I don't recall if it was, I think it was before Christmas, we met to talk about sort of the next 01:35:58
steps. And most of those are staff level we're evaluating. For instance, we we've met with, we've had Vera Veritas actually do an 01:36:04
evaluation. 01:36:10
Of the playground and they pretty much said it's we shouldn't have anybody on it. You know we've we've known that for a while but 01:36:17
they made it very clear that needs to come down ASAP and so that that is something that. 01:36:22
Is on our agenda for the March. I think you have a meeting March 8th with your committee. 01:36:29
You and you and Connie have that meeting on March 8th to talk about that, but we also have. 01:36:33
Looked at and had evaluated the building, the old well pump house, whatever building at the front. 01:36:39
Parking and pave. 01:37:22
Because that could happen too. Well, you know, we may have some L big money, we may have some AARP, you know, there may be some or 01:37:23
spouse money, whatever. I mean, we need to get estimates so y'all can start making decisions about. 01:37:28
Do you want to do it? How much is it going to cost, etc. And go ahead and get everything we can. Like I said on this side, I think 01:37:34
there's also concerns or questions about what may happen with the BBQ pits and that would that would be part of it. So I've got a 01:37:38
good update from today. 01:37:43
Playing about never sent me a bill for that day that he came and spent an hour. So with us he won't probably but we had engaged 01:38:22
him to sort of sort of start sussing out sort of next plans. And at this point it's been more on the staff side to do everything 01:38:28
we can do within our ability and then and then from that point you know as we determine what. 01:38:34
We can't do getting prices and coming back before you and and asking you just you know designate and appropriate that money out of 01:38:41
those accounts for that. 01:38:44
So I I met with the BBQ committee with Rotary this morning actually. 01:38:49
And and discussed, I took the big book with us and we walked through and so I discussed two different options that you and I, 01:38:57
Christine discussed where to locate new BBQ pits. The consensus was that we would go with the existing smaller structure that is 01:39:02
there. 01:39:08
And that we would extend that out to make it larger. 01:39:14
I have. I would have to meet in front of the full board in order to ask for funds for that, but I have put the bug in their ear 01:39:18
to. 01:39:23
Fund the entire project for the new BBQ pit so that. 01:39:31
That's kind of where the Rotary Club is right now that they like the the smaller pit if. 01:39:38
If you're looking at the old pits that are on the left hand side next to the Shoals, the smaller pit is directly in front of you. 01:39:44
And so the thought would be to just to extend that one. 01:39:56
Pit or that structure to the same length. 01:40:00
Existing structure that when you and I went out there and looked at it, we didn't actually talk about extending the length of that 01:40:05
so. 01:40:08
Yeah, we would have to. So we're going to have to make it bigger. 01:40:13
Idea of the four like building it sideways wasn't. Yeah, they said that wouldn't work. Yeah, of course you're talking to someone 01:40:17
who's never done big Pitbull. So what we what Christine and I discussed was potentially putting 4 pits side by side in that small 01:40:22
area. 01:40:28
The the issue becomes you can't then would not be able to get between. I think there was about 3 feet just rough estimate 3 feet 01:40:34
between what potentially could be pits in there. There just wouldn't be enough area with. 01:40:40
The handles that overhang about 24 inches on. 01:40:47
Each one that there would not be room to get in there and actually move the the. 01:40:52
Wire rack. 01:40:57
And so like I said, we we would have to do concept drawings and all that kind of stuff, but it would be to extend the the building 01:41:00
would they continue to use? 01:41:05
Building that they sort of serve out of and have the sinks and stuff in, yes. So the kitchen, we hope that the kitchen remains 01:41:10
there because that is a huge portion of of us cooking and then you know if if you know those pits go away. 01:41:17
For, you know, seating or viewing what, whatever you use that we can use that for. However, but the kitchen needs to remain here. 01:41:25
That'd be expensive to replace, yeah. And and so the the thought, the additional thought with the location of that smaller 01:41:31
structure is the location proximity to the kitchen. 01:41:38
Yeah, there's just a lot of history in that little quadrant there. Like there's, you know, there's a lot of community sweat equity 01:41:46
that I'd love to find a way to preserve that little piece. 01:41:50
And keep the pits nearby if we can. 01:41:55
But also I just want to be sure y'all continue to. 01:41:58
The Lions Club, the scouts, the others who use it. I just don't know enough about BBQ. I know we've got a few experts in the room, 01:42:01
but if they all use it the same way then that's great. I just want to be sure that. 01:42:06
The Lions Club and the Scouts are cooking the same way as Rotary, so that we're thinking through all the different users. John 01:42:12
Williams, all those folks, you know that they're. 01:42:15
That we do that but. 01:42:21
Generally, I just would love to think through. 01:42:22
I don't want to say the fastest, but I really would love to see. 01:42:26
Some sort of work plan month by month, You know, when are we going to move that old, not old, but when are we going to move the 01:42:30
metal part of the playground? When are we going to put up the handicapped seat? When are we going to pull those old bollards out 01:42:34
that look like? 01:42:37
That look terrible down there, you know, I mean. 01:42:42
I don't know if, Sharon, if that's something that the committee and you can work on, but I think it would also give the staff an 01:42:44
idea of, OK, this month, this is what needs to happen. This month, this is what needs to happen. Otherwise I just feel like it's 01:42:49
going to drag a little bit and we're going to be back to mowing grass. 01:42:53
Without a lot to show for it here in a month or two down there, I know Lawrence Stokes seems excited about the STEM. 01:42:59
Idea, and not necessarily the whole subcommittee is. So we're we might be going back to whatever y'all come, whatever y'all come 01:43:05
up with. You know, I think it's fine. I don't. I just don't want to hold up around that. The playground needs to come down. People 01:43:10
are already playing on this thing. We're having to run them off. I mean there there are people out there Saturday, you know, So I 01:43:15
don't think we're going to be lacking for a playground. 01:43:20
I. 01:43:26
You know, I want to be sure that. 01:43:27
Moving. 01:43:29
If we're not going to spend the money to hit it all at once, I want to be sure we're showing progress quarter every quarter down 01:43:30
there in terms of what's happened well and I will say one other question that I have that maybe y'all know. 01:43:35
And this is something that Brett brought up when he and I were talking about BBQ pits was. 01:43:41
Will because the plan had been to remove the ball field. 01:43:47
But then Brett was saying that the Miracle League field is too small for Little League to use or they're not using it. I don't 01:43:51
know. I don't know if anybody has any clarification for that, but I don't know what our. 01:43:56
Commitment is a Little League like because it makes sense to go ahead and get that. 01:44:02
That my general understanding from talking to Wesley is with Oconee Little League is that they really don't use that for like 01:44:37
games. They use it for practice. They're they're they're using that they do Rocket Field for games and they use the county Rec 01:44:42
fields but they don't use that. So it's not as you know, it's again, it's more for you know, the practice. But even if we get them 01:44:47
through this season, I really don't it doesn't matter. But at the end of the day we need to pull the fence. We need to begin the 01:44:52
transition down there. 01:44:57
I just shared you're gonna have a better feel for what our guys. 01:45:03
Are capable of or if we need to anticipate starting to spend money down there. 01:45:06
I just what we've said all along is we're going to finish this and then pretty quickly work is going to begin down there. 01:45:11
And it's really important to me that work begins down there. 01:45:16
I don't. I don't think pulling the fence and dugouts and all that will stop them from practicing down there. 01:45:19
I mean it they could still play there just won't be a I mean the dugout well, I don't. So I don't know. My general understanding 01:45:27
from when we met with planner Bob and your committee was that we were going to try to do everything on this side. You know just 01:45:34
focus our efforts so that you know the building moving the playground. We were in the process of trying to get figure out if we 01:45:41
can move it, if we have to hire somebody to move it, move in Mr. Former Mayor Ivy's swing down there to in the same area. 01:45:48
But I didn't want to put a lot of resource because that's really just deconstruction. That really isn't a big deal and I don't 01:45:56
want to be doing it while the kids aren't, you know, back. And you know, I just figured let's focus on this side and get 01:46:00
everything we can on this side situated, I will say. 01:46:04
It's my recollection and I can be wrong, but in the in the. 01:46:10
In the Hair Shoals Park master plan, I kind of gathered that the intention was to not to further block the the Vista, the view of 01:46:13
the Creek. And my concern is, is based on what I think I understood Councilman Thomas is that you're going to actually add, you 01:46:21
know we did talk about when we were down there trying to where I'm like we need to talk about that because that wasn't in any of 01:46:28
the plans and so that was their their, their preference. Now that doesn't mean that it has to go that way. 01:46:35
I'm gonna almost speak them out of both mouths right now. Both sides of my mouth. I mean, you and I discussed putting, potentially 01:46:43
putting it down by the dumpsters up against that that hill. 01:46:48
That hill area, so that is a. 01:46:55
Possibility, because that would be a lot more logical as far as traffic flow for people picking up their BBQ, yeah. 01:46:59
So I mean it, it is a possibility. The only concern that was brought up this morning was that it was that. 01:47:05
You know, the pits aren't the prettiest thing in the world. I mean, that's just they aren't and it's going to be right there for, 01:47:13
you know, the. 01:47:17
Anybody that comes? 01:47:21
Now I got you that. 01:47:22
It would be as well by the shoulder, by the Creek as well, right by the dumpster. I mean, like, it's not like, oh, we're. 01:47:24
Focusing on the dumpsters as we go. 01:47:32
So I don't want to take up too much. 01:47:35
Yeah, I'll, I'll come. 01:47:40
And I would love some guidance of for the old playground, What kind of budget do we have? 01:47:43
To now that we know we can't salvage it, it's going to be trashed. What kind of budget do I have to recreate something or to 01:47:50
create something new? I do. Y'all do. I mean, I would love some guidance on that because as I have these subcommittee meetings, 01:47:56
I'm kind of like, well, I really have no idea how much money you have or what we can do. And can we have a community like we did 01:48:03
with building the new playground? Can we have a community deconstruction? 01:48:09
And obviously we know that, you know we're putting in almost you know 450,000 or so on the playground next door which is much 01:49:35
bigger and obviously it's metal and we don't know what you have planned and. 01:49:40
I mean that's sort of a idea of what maybe could be used that we do have separate money set aside for signage for the bathrooms at 01:49:46
both. Well the bathrooms, I'm sorry Rocket Field we we are looking at. I know that was something that your committee asked us to 01:49:51
look into is updating the interior bathrooms and we've already, we've been down there. We went down last week to actually specify 01:49:57
when we're getting with someone to try to. 01:50:03
Get us a price on what that might look like. 01:50:09
I'm wanting some direction from the council and from the mayor. How much do we want to put into? 01:50:44
Repurposing that. 01:50:51
I mean, look, I'll give you all direction all day long, but I'm trying to be inclusive if you guys. 01:50:53
Give direction then I would. 01:50:58
I would. 01:51:01
Fix the ball field area. I would want to fix the pits. I'd want to fix everything that's below the Shoals. 01:51:03
In the next 12 to 18 months and get that done and get estimates for what that takes. 01:51:10
I'm not particularly picky about what appears back on this hill. I think what's going to happen up there is pretty spectacular. 01:51:14
And whatever we wind up redoing in the area of the old playground is great. We're going to have the smaller playground down there. 01:51:20
That's my perspective. And then I think phase two, we push on up the road. We do the community amphitheater, we do the air around 01:51:25
the ponds, we do the trails. That's how I would tackle it. 01:51:30
But you know, again, we're here to have this conversation as a group. I would then say let's go get some estimates and let's see 01:51:36
what we can afford to do and what we can lean into the community. 01:51:40
On and let's stick as closely as we can to the plan that the community seen and get it done. 01:51:44
But that's going to some of its going to take, you know, paying people with real equipment and you know Bobcats and some stuff 01:51:50
like that, just to get it done in a timely fashion. Some of it is Toby and his guys. 01:51:55
Getting down there and getting after it too. So you know, so I that's my take, you know, and I think we ought to go run the 01:52:01
numbers and see what we can afford to do. That's why a year ago we were talking about does it make sense just to go ahead. 01:52:07
Because of what construction costs were going to be. And now that's come true, go ahead and get some of this stuff done while 01:52:14
we're actively working down there versus doing it in drips and drives and knowing it'll cost us an extra 20% to do it that way. So 01:52:18
yeah, I I agree, I I would. 01:52:23
Personally, just go ahead and deconstruct the playground and we'll see. I think this right here will suffice. 01:52:29
And I mean this is phenomen. 01:52:36
But I will tell you, as the person who's been talking to people and listening to people about the old playground, there is a lot 01:52:39
of love for that old playground. And so I mean a lot. 01:52:44
And so if there is not a plan of something that is cool, it's gonna, there's gonna be backlash from that. And I feel like it's 01:52:49
also disrespectful like to our community as a whole. So I I don't think we just need to tear it down go Oh well we have this new 01:52:56
playground. We have to have a good plan. Do I have $200,000 ish. Then that gives me some idea of what can happen with it. I mean 01:53:03
I've the the only caution I'll give is is. 01:53:10
You know and I'm not well versed in 88 compliance, but if we redo that. 01:53:17
Playground. I think it will have to all become 88 compliant. Well, I don't know that it's going to be a playground. Like it's not 01:53:23
going to be termed a playground. We we have a beautiful new playground. It's going to be a repurposed space. We're leaning towards 01:53:29
it being very STEM or steam based. 01:53:35
While still embracing the natural. I mean, what we heard over and over from input as we were looking at the park was just the fact 01:53:42
that Harris Shoals is so natural and that was really important to people and so it's figuring out how. 01:53:49
To make that. 01:53:56
Entertaining. Educational. 01:53:58
Accessible. I mean, we have a member from ESP on the committee to make sure that we are thinking through all of these things. 01:54:01
But it's still a meaningful part of our park. So that's probably why it's taking so long. It's there's a lot of moving parts for 01:54:09
it. So, so one approach would be to say OK, this that area TBD, you know, so we could give you a holding number right though we 01:54:14
could say OK, it's going to cost. 01:54:20
You know, again, I'm hesitant to throw out a number, but there's a number right, that that's going to be and and you've got a 01:54:27
number, but we know what the rest of that area. 01:54:30
You know, I do kind of feel like that's going to take some time to figure out, but I feel like I don't know that we should press 01:54:35
pause on. 01:54:38
The other places where we have some reasonable amount of clarity when we're not, I mean we're not like Sharon has said and I was 01:54:42
just thinking I haven't heard from Bob Smith, but yes, we have had multiple conversations and meetings and the. 01:54:48
The city staff is doing a great job of getting things moving along. 01:54:54
Yeah. 01:55:00
Speaking of meetings this morning with Rotary, Jim Alexander was there. 01:55:03
With Hardin Hill Honey and he was talking about how we're a tree city. He was like, it's very easy to become a bee city as well. 01:55:08
And so we had some conversations and he is interested in putting some beehives. I showed him the plan. I took the book with me 01:55:15
this morning. I showed him the plan of all the the grasses and flowers and all that we're putting in there. And so he was very 01:55:21
excited about becoming AB City as well. So we're going to talk through that what what is required I had to get here, so I didn't 01:55:26
get. 01:55:31
Fully discuss it. 01:55:37
Umm becoming AB? 01:55:39
All right. So it seems like we've kind of organically moved into the the committee updates, which is great. 01:55:44
Let me, let me ask one question real quick. The sewer line, I'm going to ask ask this of you. Have we heard anything from the 01:55:54
state about the grant yet? No, we have not and I know we've discussed I think initially it was beginning of January then it moved 01:56:03
to January 31st and they did do the, the broadband announcements, but we have not heard anything for the other buckets that. 01:56:12
Preparing to announce, I know that it was pushed back because they were reviewing. Well, first of all, they received. 01:56:21
A huge amount more applications and just total requests that I think they were anticipating and then also the final rule was 01:56:28
released, so they were. 01:56:33
Re reviewing a number of requests just to make sure that they align with those, but we are, we are keeping in your house. 01:56:39
Um. 01:56:50
I checked the portal this morning, there was no update. 01:56:51
Umm. 01:56:55
So do. 01:56:56
We have kind of any other topics for parks, Green space and environment committee or updates? 01:56:59
That we should cover. 01:57:06
Or have we kind of covered those and we're ready to move on to, we'll circle back to finance and personnel? 01:57:08
Do you think we need to talk a little bit about Rocket Field? 01:57:15
Is the plan to just continue to hold off on that until we have more of a downtown master plan because it is part of the downtown 01:57:19
area, or are there immediate things we need to do? I feel like I have the same Groundhog Day, like I have the same conversation 01:57:25
about Rockville all the time. 01:57:31
What's yeah, last year what we determined was it would make sense to do as part of the downtown master plan. I guess you know the 01:57:38
question would be and this is you know it is a little bit committee driven. We may just have to be a little organic here but. 01:57:43
Don't have a thought on how we might. 01:57:49
Activate or kick that off, you know, at what point do we need to retain somebody to get that process moving or is that? 01:57:52
For you guys to a point where you feel like we can make a recommendation there. I know you've been doing a lot of. 01:57:58
Do you mean for the downtown master plan? Because I think those go together, you know? 01:58:04
I don't think we have. 01:58:11
You know a company to recommend for the master plan, yet we are meeting tomorrow and unfortunately I was. 01:58:13
Fell behind in my duties, let's say, but anyways we are meeting tomorrow as a committee at 22. 01:58:20
Hopefully here. I forgot to ask if we could meet here if there's anything going on. 01:58:26
OK. So anyway we're meeting with the two of us with Courtney and Christy for that and we've. 01:58:31
2 field trips to Monroe and to Greensboro and so it's been a very good educational process for me, especially for both of us I'm 01:58:40
sure. 01:58:45
But we, you know. 01:58:52
Both of them they've used. 01:58:54
Carl Vincent for some of their master plans and I've got 2 here in case anybody wants to look at them. 01:58:57
Bainbridge, GA and Thompson, Georgia. 01:59:03
To me, a master plan makes sense. It would. It's kind of like, well, do you want to build a house with plans or just wing it? 01:59:06
You know. 01:59:14
So the University of Georgia is a resource. There's other businesses that you can choose certainly to create a master plan, but 01:59:17
that'll be our discussion tomorrow. 01:59:22
I would also like to take another field trip and we've discussed going to Madison. 01:59:29
About a year and a half ago, Ish the Madison DDA director, came here. Monica, maybe? Or. 01:59:34
OK. 01:59:46
20 point OK, yeah. So I remember. I remember I was over there then and. 01:59:47
That great council member Marcy Campbell, I think her name was brought her in and. 01:59:54
So anyway, she came and spoke and. 02:00:00
In meeting with Monroe and Greensboro I. 02:00:04
Some of our issues align a little bit more closely with Madison's from the standpoint. 02:00:09
Has been trying to attract business. 02:00:17
And they've done an outstanding job of attracting business in the last few years. Greensboro is trying to attract business. 02:00:19
We don't have the problem of trying to get people, businesses to open up in Watkinsville. We've got that now we're we're trying to 02:00:25
control the control. The chaos may be a little bit strong. 02:00:31
But no, we're trying to figure out the plan for all these new projects. 02:00:38
You know, don't go into any details mentioned earlier of course, but you know the library is going to move. Well, a DDA can kind 02:00:43
of that person could look into library space and be speaking with county, city. 02:00:50
Private individuals as far as working on things that can happen in the city and what projects might be coming up and make all 02:00:57
those contacts and connections so. 02:01:03
I think we need a master plan. Next step is, which we'll work on tomorrow is. 02:01:09
Finding who are the companies that can create a master plan, What that might cost to see if the city what we want to spend, what 02:01:16
can we afford to spend on that project. Therefore we have the plans to create the city we we want. 02:01:24
And then also meeting with Madison to learn. 02:01:33
How they continue her. 02:01:36
Generally, is making the city more attractive making it more interesting. They built that. 02:01:40
Park off the West side of downtown Madison. I would like to learn her role in that. 02:01:47
So in just the redevelopment projects they've done she when she spoke here, I remember her talking about. 02:01:53
Two-bedroom, 1 bath housing, which speaks to your point of smaller affordable housing that they did some project with several 02:01:59
small houses and they sold very quickly, but it was the DDA that worked on those projects. 02:02:06
So that's interesting to me because I think we do need that type of housing and it would be neat to have that type of housing. 02:02:13
Focus towards, you know, artists. Since we've got a lot of artists in the in the region, how can we get them to live? 02:02:20
In the city but those. 02:02:27
Speaking of which, I just got a text from Joe Calloway. One of our local artists literally just popped up. 02:02:29
Anyway, but anyway, those are some of the things we're doing and that will continue to work on SO. 02:02:35
I'll get back on track with the development duties, but that's what we. 02:02:41
Some things be going on. If you have any questions feel free. 02:02:46
Or Christine can add certainly. 02:02:49
I would just say that one of the interesting things in going to Greensboro and Monroe is their challenges are very different than 02:02:52
our challenges because they have more poverty and just trying to revitalize and we are fortunate that we don't have that in our 02:02:57
community. In fact, in Greensboro's, I almost felt like they were like, why are you needing to do anything? You guys have a great 02:03:02
situation. 02:03:07
And so I am very excited to go to Madison 'cause I do think it is going to be a more similar challenge. They also have very 02:03:14
different revenue streams, I think both Greensboro and. 02:03:19
I know Greensboro, but I think also Monroe, they own all the utilities, so they have huge revenue streams that we don't have and 02:03:24
so. 02:03:27
Even though populations were actually similar, they weren't that dissimilar to where we will be in a year. 02:03:31
Their revenue streams are so different and so that feels a little overwhelming to me to think how are we going to be able to 02:03:38
really? 02:03:42
Do this and do this well with the budgets that we have because we don't have utilities. 02:03:47
I gave you a copy two months ago as well, Christine. That kind of 10 page summary, yes, that tracks basically what Monica Callahan 02:03:55
told you all April 2020. She and others in the region are very good with funding with the grant and then you fundraise A matching 02:04:01
grants and so forth. 02:04:08
There's you know a couple other thoughts on that is you may you know. 02:04:16
Nick Messina, who's the head of the Gwinnett Chamber. I know Gwinnett, you know, sometimes it's not what we want to hold up as our 02:04:21
example, but there been several communities there that have been surrounded by other growth and the downtowns have had to go. 02:04:27
Re establish themselves but they're in a situation similar to us and that they are sort of competing with other growth centers you 02:04:33
know and. 02:04:37
Swanee and Duluth in particular, two that have done a really nice job of sort of reinvigorating and creating their downtown. 02:04:41
But he offered to connect us in Chuck Warmington and Lawrenceville. Lawrence has got to, you know, and then the folks in Swanee or 02:04:50
Duluth, if you wanted to see what they've done, I was glad to do that too. I drove through Braselton a couple weeks ago. 02:04:57
There's a parking deck. No those hushed in student. 02:05:05
There's a parking deck downtown in Houston. 02:05:09
You know, in a brewery. It was a very nice downtown, but I was shocked to see a parking deck in Houston. But anyway, they've done 02:05:12
a very good job turning it around. And there's one thing I wanted to mention, the master plan. In addition to creating the 02:05:18
blueprint, it also helps if you have Adda one of. 02:05:23
Potential requirements is having a master plan in order to get funding for the grants that you're talking about. If you have the 02:05:30
master plan, that's one of the requirements. 02:05:34
You know one great resource and I think you all mentioned it earlier is Courtney at the our chamber. We have she's on our 02:05:39
committee. She is phenomenal. I mean I I personally think we've got probably the best director of the chamber that there is. I 02:05:44
mean she is incredible. 02:05:49
So. 02:05:56
To your to your rocket. 02:05:56
I would personally like to get rid of the dog park at Rocket Field. 02:06:01
You know, so just think about all the kids, the Little League kids that are there, the majority of the people that have dogs don't 02:06:08
pick up their. 02:06:12
They just don't. And so now you've got all these Little League kids out there playing in dog poop. 02:06:17
It's, it's not safe. It's not fair. The Little League is. I mean they're leasing it from us and we have dogs that are pooping all 02:06:22
over the field and. 02:06:26
Yeah, I got you. But but we we have turned, we have allowed it to be a dog park. We we've encouraged it to be a dog park and 02:06:31
they're they're not cleaning up. The dog owners are not cleaning up after their dogs. 02:06:36
Um. 02:06:43
You know, and I know that's that's not good for dog owners that like to take their dog and let them go. 02:06:44
Have fun. 02:06:49
Yeah. 02:06:52
This goes back to our master plan. You know, if we can somehow strategically get some more land, then we can create a dog park. 02:06:54
Designated just for dogs because I don't think our baseball field should be. 02:07:03
That area. 02:07:07
I agree with that. Again, I've said this before the there's been a lot of talk about changing Rocket Field, and I think Rocket 02:07:14
Field is part of Watkinsville history. 02:07:19
And the last two years, yes, we didn't have anybody out there playing because of the COVID. But this two weeks ago, the little 02:07:25
kids are coming in practicing already and and it's great to see those little kids out there playing. 02:07:32
And when I talked to the guy in charge of Little League couple years back, he said they needed all the ball fields that we have. 02:07:38
To accommodate all these little kids and if we got over 500 people getting ready to move into Watkinsville, we're going to have 02:07:47
more kids. So we need to keep it a ball field and yes, we need to find some property for a dog park. 02:07:54
Also. 02:08:02
With it being one of the counties. 02:08:04
Baseball fields, I think we ought to be getting, I don't know that we are be getting money from the county to use it as a ball 02:08:06
field. I mean, it's part of their parks and Rec. 02:08:12
They they send kids over to play T-ball at at Rocket Field. 02:08:18
It is one of one of the baseball fields in the county, so I'm not sure why we can't get parks and recs to fund some of the 02:08:23
maintenance cost. You know, new lighting, you know, not all of it. I'm not asking for all of it, but some of it, they do have 02:08:29
somebody that comes in and cuts the grass and as far as I know, they are responsible for paying the lighting bill during the 02:08:35
season when they use it. 02:08:41
But if we need some maintenance done, then yeah, we need to look into that. Little League is separate from the county rec 02:08:48
department. We own the ball field. 02:08:52
At the end of the day, the ball fields our responsibility. We lease it to them. So you know, there's the county rec. 02:08:56
Does not. I think Little League also contracts with County Rec. I don't think that, you know. So it's not like soccer or something 02:09:01
else. Little Leagues, its own entity. 02:09:05
At the end of the day, it. 02:09:09
Responsibility. My perspective on Rocket Field has always been what can we do to maximize? 02:09:11
The use of it for the community, I think it should be a ball field. I don't think it being a ball field precludes it from being 02:09:17
other things we have. 02:09:22
Every community. 02:09:27
We've looked at that. We've cited. 02:09:29
Gathering spaces, squares, green spaces. 02:09:31
That's a logical place that we can do more on than just play baseball. And but I want to respect the history of it. Before it was 02:09:34
Rocket Field or just the ball field, you know, You know, so there's there's some cool history there. I just think there's I think 02:09:40
it could be more if it was carefully planned. 02:09:45
And. 02:09:51
You know than a parking lot and a fall festival in a ball field that gets I think on a normal week, I doubt there's people on it, 02:09:53
more than 5% of the daylight hours and I think that's. 02:09:57
Nobody can go out. 02:10:02
You know, if our people could go out there and have lunch, if our people could go utilize it in different ways, I think that would 02:10:04
be. 02:10:07
Would be wonderful. I agree with that, and I've had several citizens multiple times ask if we could put a bocce ball. 02:10:10
On the outskirts of, I mean, I obviously smack down on people playing ball but like Rocket Field is wider than that. That's just 02:10:18
that would be another aspect of our community another. So just a thought I think if we circle back let's let's kind of this has 02:10:24
been an interesting conversation. Here's what I'd suggest you. 02:10:29
We know we've come back to a fundamental issue, which is we have ideas for things that we'd want to do. We have dollars allocated 02:10:36
for. 02:10:40
Some green space acquisition we have, We can't get into specific parcels I think don't think that would be wise. 02:10:45
But I do think we need to think about, you know, there are things like pickleball, there are things like bocce ball, there are 02:10:52
things that. 02:10:55
You know where, but people don't want that necessarily. At hair Shoals, you know, you get real sensitive to having it be an active 02:10:58
recreation area. 02:11:01
I do think it would be wise for us to sort of put our heads together and say. 02:11:05
You know, I'll tell you the other reality right now is people have gotten it in their head that every acre in downtown 02:11:09
Watkinsville is worth more than $100,000, which is somewhat preposterous, but somehow another that's the number that's in people's 02:11:15
head. So, but I think we have got to think creatively about. 02:11:21
Driving some deals with some of the people who are going to develop in Watkinsville that we expect some of these amenities to 02:11:28
happen or. 02:11:31
We're going to have to get creative and say where are we going to make, where are we going to create these opportunities for our 02:11:34
citizens and how are we going to do it. And it's going to start with getting a little bit more land than what we have, you know? 02:11:39
My two cents, you know. 02:11:46
Again, not for discussion today, but I want to plant that seed with you guys because. 02:11:48
Unless anybody objects, I think you know Sharon and I may have to come back to you guys with some suggestions and thoughts and 02:11:53
would welcome y'all's offline about what may make sense for us to place. 02:11:58
I think I was in. 02:12:04
Gatlinburg, of all places, recently, and they had. 02:12:06
A walking track, a dog park, a patanka and bocce area, all probably on 2 acres or three acres. I mean, it wasn't that complicated. 02:12:09
You just have to have the space to do it and some creative planning. 02:12:16
And the level of use it got was great, you know, and it was a it wasn't just a ball field with dogs running around. It was a kind 02:12:22
of a fun space with a bench and a watering area and all the other kind of stuff you see at a dog park, so. 02:12:28
I think we're going to have to think creatively about how we put that together and where that might be. So I just ask all of you 02:12:33
to kind of wrap your brain around that because a lot of the stuff that we're talking about comes back to this sort of fundamental 02:12:37
challenge of. 02:12:40
We don't have. We need spaces. Even if we can't fund it right now, we need. 02:12:44
Acquire some space and it comes back to what I said at the start, which is if we don't, you know, and maybe that's what we all 02:12:48
want, but. 02:12:52
We're going to We've got some beautiful green space left in this community that's likely to go away in the next 5 or 10 years if 02:12:55
we don't. 02:12:58
Think boldly about what how we may work with some families and others to preserve it. So there's sort of program space where we 02:13:02
probably need more based on what we've heard from our citizens. 02:13:07
And then there's sort of non program green spaces, linear and other that it may be wise for us to be looking at. 02:13:13
Otherwise it's it's going to sort of be out of reach or the private sector is going to just sort of take care of it and we won't 02:13:20
have it anymore. So. So I thought with that and I agree Brian. 02:13:25
Years ago when we were looking at what we do own, we do own that stretch on Barnett Shoals that for a while was where the mulch 02:13:32
and things were going and that always seemed like almost a useless little parcel, but with Wire Park going in and all of that, it 02:13:38
now actually, as I think about it, is a more like maybe we should look at what we do with that. It's no longer like, oh, it's at 02:13:44
the very far end of town. 02:13:50
That's an interesting idea. 02:13:58
Yeah, if we exactly, we're going to be. 02:14:01
Maybe. 02:14:07
Yeah, extend this. Extend the sidewalk. Extend the sidewalk from Shoal Shoal. 02:14:10
Stone Sorry stone Shoals down there. Nothing says friendly neighbors like dogs. 02:14:16
The the other thing keep in mind that the mayor mentioned earlier is Trove has some land that supposed supposedly will be 02:14:24
triggered to become public land. 02:14:29
And Waters Walk, as it moves forward, also has property that will be donated to the city. So those are two, two pieces. I mean 02:14:35
that we. 02:14:39
Are more are closer to being had than others that may be out there to be had, but I mean you certainly look at those as well. 02:14:44
Have to remain green according to the development agreement, though like we will be able to program it right well but well. 02:14:52
But you could have. Well, I think it was passive. I think the key is it wouldn't be for for kids to throw it, you know, basketball 02:14:58
courts or anything. Yeah, but you could have. 02:15:02
I mean, I don't know that a dog park necessarily be AI, don't know. I guess I'm just saying keep in mind that you do have other 02:15:08
parts. Yes. No, that's good. I am personally not excited about dog parks. I'm just going to throw that out there on the record. 02:15:14
Is there a reason we couldn't do a dog park at Hair Shoals? I know that's not super convenient to the folks that live near, you 02:15:22
know, First Second 3rd St. 02:15:26
In the county, there's a great dog park. The people who want to put their dogs in a car and drive to a dog park. 02:15:31
The reason the people who use Rocket Field other than when that dog park was shut down, which was when when I started this was the 02:15:38
issue. 02:15:42
Was the dogs on Rocket? 02:15:46
Um. 02:15:49
That it is people who live with who people don't drive their dogs to Rocket Field. People are just walking and that's their dog, 02:15:51
you know? 02:15:56
You've seen some people drive. 02:16:02
I know that was going on when the dog park was shut down because it isn't an official dog park. 02:16:04
I guess for me, dog parks I think are loud and they're. 02:16:10
Like, I don't know, we, I guess they could follow Joe. 02:16:13
If you post the thing that we're not going to be liable because it's recreation, I don't know. 02:16:18
Drop. 02:16:30
When you have an official dog park, so I. 02:16:32
I am one member of the council, but I would say for me personally, a dog park is low on my priority list and I have two dogs. I 02:16:35
mean, I like, but I walk them and. 02:16:39
Pick up their mess on my walks, I guess my. 02:16:43
I don't have a dog so it doesn't matter to me. I know there are dog owners out there, but the the Little League is complaining. 02:16:48
A lot about the dog poop on Rocket Field and. 02:16:55
I mean. 02:16:59
Tenants if you will, and they complain. 02:17:00
The condition of the field. 02:17:03
Well, I mean, there's a lot to complain about there. The restrooms are nasty. I've not, I've not heard a single complaint from 02:17:06
Little League. Have you heard a complaint from Little League about the dogs? So I would encourage them to, if they've got issues, 02:17:11
it would be good if staff knew that there was actually an issue there and we can begin. 02:17:16
Put up additional signage, we can begin to do some things that may not make it perfect, but right now. 02:17:22
I will say if. 02:17:27
I've spent more hours of my life than I want to on dog parks. You know, if I think we've got to decide if we want a dog park in 02:17:30
Watkinsville, then we need to. 02:17:35
Determine that and find a location for it at some point. But right now, nobody. We have yet to show a true willingness to tackle 02:17:40
Rocket Field. Have the necessary debates. 02:17:45
And figure out what it's going to be if we're going to do it as part of the master plan process then coming out of. 02:17:50
I have a feeling Rocket Field will no longer be a dog park. I also have a feeling Rocket Field may you know, still be a ball 02:17:55
field, but also have some other uses that are more make it a little more easy to access and and activate so. 02:18:01
Until then, I really don't want to get into tweaking Rocket Field, especially with the lease with Little League, you know, So I'd 02:18:10
rather much rather have an input process in a plan than I dealt with it the last time. And it felt like death. By 1000 cuts, it 02:18:14
was it was miserable. 02:18:19
Where are we, Eva? What else do we want to talk about here? So I think we have moved into economic development in downtown 02:18:26
planning. 02:18:30
You know we've we've talked a little about kind of the status of the downtown master plan and maybe activating A DDA. Are there 02:18:34
any other? 02:18:39
Economic develop. 02:18:44
Topics that we need to cover today or are we ready to move into another category? 02:18:45
Seems like we're ready to move into another category, so. 02:18:56
Do we want to get some updates from the finance and personnel committee from Council Member Massey? 02:19:00
I have been attempting to attend some of their weekly meetings that the. 02:19:10
Employees have been having and I'm very impressed with how everybody gets along and everybody keeps everybody else updated on what 02:19:17
they're working on and and the accomplishments they're making and. 02:19:23
Umm. 02:19:31
And I like the fact that. 02:19:33
Sharon and Julie and Lee and everybody's been doing a good job on the financial input of that and keeping all of us updated on all 02:19:36
that. 02:19:40
And. 02:19:45
That's about it. You're doing a good job. Thank you. So we did we do have as of I guess. 02:19:46
Friday I've engaged a company that was doing work with Condrey and Associates to do an evaluation of our performance, our 02:19:53
performance evaluation tool and also help me create a merit pay or pay for performance type program which is one of the goals for 02:20:01
me this year. So we started that process and I'm hoping that before the end of budget will have something we'll have a plan. 02:20:09
Set out to address that so that is 1 update. 02:20:17
All right, wonderful. Any questions or comments with regard to finance and personnel? 02:20:25
I think just a big thank you to Sharon for running so much of that and it. 02:20:32
Being relatively seamless and leave for your work on finance. Thank you to both of. 02:20:35
No, that's a lot of work. 02:20:41
I'm sorry. 02:20:43
I meant to mention with the economic development Jeff and Christina, can we explore the option of possibly having a charging 02:20:45
station put in? 02:20:50
Somewhere downtown. I mean, if we looked at that before, I think it would attract. 02:20:55
Possibly attract, but I don't know what the cost would be to put one or two in. 02:21:01
Yeah. 02:21:07
Yeah. 02:21:08
I mean it makes sense in like that comfort station, yes, definitely like putting, yeah, the pumps or whatever you want to call 02:21:11
them, the charter station, what does the. 02:21:16
I don't know anything about them, but what if I drive my electric car there and attach it? 02:21:21
Do you swipe a credit card? How does that work? Yeah, So one thing I would tell you one you've got to be close to a power source. 02:21:27
A big power source. So the comfort station back there is probably not going to be ideal. 02:21:35
You're going to need to be able to draw some power off of something that hole that try to cross from it on the middle of our 02:21:45
sidewalk. 02:21:49
Yeah. 02:21:54
They're gonna have to. They would have to dig from there through the elders property, over to. 02:21:55
Over there to it. 02:22:03
Again, it's possible, but so yeah, there there's an app. All the different cars have their own. 02:22:06
Charging stations. Tesla has its own app and it tells you, hey there there, your charging stations are in this vicinity. 02:22:14
But yeah, that Georgia Power. 02:22:24
Is there are those pumps are there generic ones so you can charge any brand of. I don't know if the yeah so each car has it's like 02:22:27
specifically Tesla has its own. 02:22:32
Charger that you have to plug into the. 02:22:38
To handle for for the Tesla. 02:22:40
I also had a private sector company contact me about wanting to put one in here. 02:22:44
Which I don't. I don't know that it makes a ton of sense, unless we had electric police cars or something. And then there's 02:22:50
multiple cons like the Superchargers, like a Tesla one would require a huge direct current power source. 02:22:55
Moderate one requires a little bit less. That charges at a reasonable rate. You know, that would give you maybe 20-30 miles an 02:23:01
hour. You know the supercharger would be. 02:23:06
Got crazy? Now Wire part would probably be a phenomenal place to put. 02:23:10
But. 02:23:15
I mean it and it still can go in because I can tell you when when I was working for the power company, we put some in Greensboro 02:23:18
behind an existing facility. And I mean. 02:23:23
People love them. That drop? 02:23:29
Ledger. 02:23:31
Yeah, I. 02:23:32
Well, part would definitely be putting some in. I was just more thinking about downtown area, trying to attract them to the 02:23:36
downtown area and I don't know about the lot to release up on the corner by. 02:23:42
I mean there's nothing. So typically you want to put it somewhere that I mean because it's not like an instant thing. So you need, 02:23:48
you need to plug it in and be able to do something. I mean I guess you could go to Adobe's and I guess if you did put it there 02:23:54
then we could maybe you know walk to downtown area. 02:24:00
But maybe like Town Center or because I mean the existing power is already there. They could come off of like so on the backside 02:24:07
of Town Center, the power, the the Transformers sitting right there. So they could pull off of that and we could have some 02:24:12
charging stations there at Town Center. 02:24:17
Would be feasible for between the salon and the church right there salon and the church. 02:24:23
Where the big powerful is across the street. 02:24:30
The private parking right below. 02:24:34
The Christian Church parking. 02:24:36
Oh. 02:24:38
The power zone powers on the other side of the road, though, so you'd have to know that wouldn't turn the courthouse where they 02:24:44
have their power buried. 02:24:48
There's no power poles back there. There is a transformer somewhere. I'd have to go find out where the big green box is. It's all 02:24:54
buried back there. But yeah, but I mean you'd come off the big green box. I mean the like 6 foot tall big, 6 foot by 6 foot box. 02:25:01
You that's what you would come off of. So there you could put some behind the. 02:25:08
But I Generally speaking, unlike in Greensboro, there's only four for all of I'm not Greensboro, Madison. 02:25:12
There's only four in Madison, and it's right on the Interstate. 02:25:19
That way. 02:25:22
Folks coming down the Interstate can stop, so you're probably not going to want to put them all over. It's probably what I'd 02:25:24
suggest is, you know, we can add it to the work plan. Chuck, I think it's a good idea to explore charging station options in 02:25:29
Watkinsville, Sharon and just see private sector versus Georgia Power. 02:25:35
I can connect you with the guy. He's he's a, he helps with some startup businesses here and he's got a startup in San Francisco 02:25:42
and he comes to Watkinsville a couple times a year and he wanted to put solar panels on our roof. 02:25:48
And use the solar panels to. 02:25:55
Use the solar panels to pay for the charging station. Yeah, you know, so then you're generating the electricity. 02:25:58
Necessary. And that way if we ever want to move to electric police vehicles because our vehicles it's not like they go far out of 02:26:03
town. They come back here and charge up pretty easily anytime and keep a nice charge you know it would it could save us some money 02:26:09
as gas prices increase you know and we sit in the sun here you know this point was. 02:26:14
Your location is pretty good. If you ever want to run any for city vehicles as Ev's you know then you could save costs on gas 02:26:20
overtime with that. The county would probably be a good resource for that as well because you know they built all of. 02:26:27
I call it the mall. 02:26:35
The new behind Home Depot and all that. So you they've got like 20 charging stations over there. Yeah. So they they would have a 02:26:37
contact already for how they did it if it cost them anything. 02:26:44
All right, good thought. 02:26:54
Yeah, that's great. So I think we're ready for the police committee. 02:26:57
So we you know we we initiated the $10,000 bonus for all current employees and and new employee. 02:27:03
Future employees that have the post certification. We do have a couple of candidates in the pipeline right now, but no, no new 02:27:12
employee has currently taken. We haven't hired any new employees yet. 02:27:18
Umm. 02:27:24
That's about it. So we're about to import, about to put out the. 02:27:29
The brand new signage thing that we got. 02:27:33
I don't know what you want to call that. Chiefs got a specific name for it? That's got the the movable. 02:27:37
Radar, the variable message trailer. Yeah, that thing. Have we gotten that yet? 02:27:45
Well, I mean, it's not, I mean, but it's coming soon. Yeah, yeah, it's coming soon. 02:27:51
And I think that's. 02:27:56
About it for the police committee. 02:27:58
Great. Yeah. And I know that we talked about earlier. 02:28:00
You know, potentially increasing enforcement on pedestrians crossing, so OK. 02:28:04
Good. 02:28:10
Since the chief is not here, we are actually putting additional speed limit signs on Thrasher. 02:28:13
3rd. 02:28:21
And Simonson. 02:28:23
I think there's one more going in South Main, yeah. So put an additional speed limit signs in. 02:28:26
To help reduce that traffic and also for enforcement purposes. 02:28:33
OK. Any questions or comments with regard to police and safety? 02:28:40
All right. Well, I think that actually the majority of the conversations this morning have already centered around transportation 02:28:48
mobility. 02:28:53
And St. and kind of property committee, but if there is anything that hasn't been brought up in either of those categories, I'll 02:28:59
give that opportunity now. 02:29:04
Only thing I think we're looking at more signs to. 02:29:10
Direct people when they're coming into town with parking and. 02:29:15
Stuff So. 02:29:19
I think that's on the agenda, on the radar. 02:29:21
Working or something. Yeah. I think I think for the most part we're trying to do any additional signage. So we get the branding 02:29:25
because we'll tie those together with all the directional signage as well as the entrance, gateway, entrance signage and stuff. So 02:29:30
we're probably, you know, a few months out from being able to, you know, couple months at least from finishing this and then 02:29:35
knowing what direction we're going to go. 02:29:40
And I would encourage, I'll take pictures. If you see stuff in cities and places that you like, you know, take some pictures, send 02:29:46
them to us. 02:29:48
Yeah. Oh, good. OK. 02:29:52
A City Hall. The one from Madrid? Yeah. City Hall in Madrid. Yeah, Yeah. Christine's thinking at a whole different scale than the 02:29:55
rest of us, which I appreciate. I said be bold. And she is. So I went to Gatlinburg. That was a little different. But but yeah, 02:30:00
so. 02:30:04
Yeah. Do we need a sister city relationship? I figured Christine would have negotiated that, you know? 02:30:11
Great. And you know, oftentimes that wayfinding signage will kind of organically help with slowing down traffic. 02:30:20
You know, people being more aware of, hey, you're entering A pedestrian downtown area. 02:30:27
So good. I'm excited to to see what designs you guys come up with. This will be great. 02:30:34
All right. Well, I think from here we were going to move into lunch, but we are a little early. So do we want to keep going with? 02:30:40
I think if everyone wants to take a break, we can stop. She she went to pick up lunch. She'll be back shortly. We can take a 02:30:46
little bit of a break and regroup. But I do want to after we eat, I would like to just everybody come back just so we have sort 02:30:52
of. 02:30:57
Debriefing, regrouping of sort of what's going on where what we're doing, what the next steps are for everybody. So we're on the 02:31:04
same page and I'll work on. I'm pulling that together. I do want to just mention about the budget process since we have an 02:31:08
opportunity to have in front of you obviously today. 02:31:13
Is important. A lot of what you told me today will help us as we prepare a capital budget out of the general fund and. 02:31:18
The operating. 02:31:25
For the things that we can handle that are operating wise, obviously there's a lot of capital, but there's always operating that 02:31:28
goes with capital. So you got to be thinking about both at the same time. 02:31:32
The there is a work session on the 23rd at 5:30 which will be. 02:31:37
Presenting you guys with some capital requests to consider, you won't be making votes on any of that stuff at that time. And then 02:31:42
we have the fire department and oh calf of the two independent agencies that are still on the that it will still come before you 02:31:49
asking you for funds to consider during the budget process. Library obviously is already committed money. We don't, it's not 02:31:56
something that you will have to necessarily consider and obviously they're still going to be constructing it so. 02:32:03
But we will. We do have a process. The the mayor will have a couple weeks once staff pulls the budget together. Mayor will have a 02:32:11
couple weeks to then look at it and have another. There will be one public hearing before he has to present it, provide his 02:32:17
comments back to me, and then we'll work on those together and get those to y'all. 02:32:23
So that you'll have time to look at it twice, you'll see it May 18th and you will see it again on I think it's June, yeah, June 02:32:30
15th and there will be some work sessions depending on you know we'll we've got. 02:32:35
Scheduled, but we may not need all three of them. We will be also handling the mileage rate at the same time we've Lee and I went 02:32:42
met last week with Jennifer. Is it Riddle? Jennifer Riddle sounded weird all of a sudden. Jennifer Riddle and Alex Allen Skinner 02:32:48
with a tax assessor's office to start that process and make sure they're aware we're planning on following that same process, that 02:32:54
we don't have two separate public sets of meetings. You guys are meeting public here. Go ahead and do all of them at the same 02:33:00
time. So. 02:33:06
So if we, if we want to go ahead and sort of break for about 1010 or 15 minutes, she should be back with lunch and then we'll as 02:33:16
soon as we get done with lunch, we can come back. And I've just sort of a recap that works for everybody sounds good. 02:33:22
All right. Yogurt. All right. Thank you. All right, let's break. 02:33:28
All right. Welcome back from lunch and thank you for. 02:33:39
That it was delicious. 02:33:44
So wanted to just take a quick minute to go over the items that we discussed adding to the work program just to verify that we're 02:33:47
all on the same page so that staff can proceed accordingly. 02:33:54
So I have that you want to explore EV charging station options. 02:34:03
I think we're all on the same page there. And then I have that the intersection improvements at Symington and Main were something 02:34:12
that Y'all wanted. 02:34:18
Actively pursue this round. 02:34:26
And then I also have Connecting Jackson to Hardin Hill along S Main St. 02:34:31
I have it right now as you know a low priority, but depending on how development progresses and designs go with the pipe plant, 02:34:40
that may become a higher priority just to take advantage of of opportunity there. 02:34:46
All right. All right. And then? 02:34:58
Correct me far out. I think that those were the the three we're adding. Did I miss one? 02:35:03
OK. And then the stormwater? 02:35:08
Was the other one and basically just. 02:35:11
Revised the stormwater master plan. 02:35:14
Item to read more. 02:35:19
Just ongoing work with the engineer to address known storm water issues that are occurring. 02:35:22
OK. 02:35:30
So with that, we'll move on to the Other Items section. 02:35:33
And. 02:35:39
For the sign ordinance. 02:35:40
Did we want? 02:35:44
Well yeah, so the so the overview is is and some of this happened before my job so there may be some fill in but when I came on 02:35:47
board the sign ordinance has or still has a section talking about campaign, is it political campaign signs, is that how it's 02:35:53
political campaign signs. But my understanding is the sign ordinance should be neutral and yet we have a section, well it came up 02:35:59
during. 02:36:05
And we couldn't do anything about it. The way our current signed ordinance is outside of that is you can only have so many, so 02:36:41
many feet apart. They obviously can't be in the right away. They do have to be two by three. I don't know do we have, I don't joke 02:36:46
and talk a little bit more, but I mean so our concern is, is, is. 02:36:52
Do we take it out? Do we take that whole section out and just go with our standard, you know we control because the state 02:36:58
basically is preempting us from being able to have the regulations that we have under campaign signs because we actually do 02:37:04
regulate how many and all that in our code, so. 02:37:09
Jenkins, Nelson and Olson with count 1, but pre owned his zoning firm in the state of Georgia. Yeah, I didn't borrow your bike, 02:37:18
right? So again, Peter Olson was involved in approximately 2005 just before I begin a city attorney in 2006. You're all in the 02:37:26
middle of a billboard signed lawsuit as I was told at the time. And in response to that, Peter Olson put together a fairly 02:37:33
standard conservative legally appropriate. 02:37:41
Sign ordinance for you that has stood from that day. One of the provisions that Peter had in there was entitled election cycle 02:37:49
temporary signs. It didn't identify political signs. So it could be any sign about anything during any election cycle. So what he 02:37:57
did as A and it did it did not target political signs. But what it said was this. On any single lot 1 election cycle temporary 02:38:06
side may be placed for every 10 feet of frontage on a public street. So you don't get the 100 signs, you get one every 10 feet. 02:38:15
And it's for the purpose of Traffic Safety, so you don't have this proliferation to use the fancy sign, you know, gurus, language 02:38:24
of science everywhere on a lot distracting drivers, so on and so forth, so. 02:38:30
What happened in the ensuing years is this was in place and enforced from 2006 to the incident that Sharon spoke of. Then the 02:38:38
issue was raised, I think through the County Attorney, through the election Superintendent, oh hey, we got a state law on this 02:38:44
that preemptive. 02:38:50
So I looked at that. It just struck me as funny. Why would the state be wading into this? So I contacted Peter Olsen about two 02:38:56
weeks ago, just prior to our last meeting, and Peter was like, huh, never heard of that state law. So he looked it up and he 02:39:02
thought it through and he said basically this is a state trying to come into local zoning decisions, which is per him, 02:39:08
inconsistent with our state constitution, inconsistent with our state zoning procedures law, he said. Joe, I just don't think that 02:39:15
this state law is enforceable at all. 02:39:21
I would not change your language. 02:39:27
So there's a whole lot of moving parts of this. There are legal issues I have not had a chance to circle up. 02:39:30
Further with Peter, since he sent our, since he and I talked about, I think he sent us an e-mail. Sharon, I don't know if you have 02:39:36
that at hand. What I'd like to do is get that out to council. 02:39:41
And then maybe if we want to put it on the docket for the next go around, but I'd like to forward you Brian, didn't he? 02:39:46
Did he send us an e-mail that I forward to you? OK, I want to get him to put in writing what I've just stated to you and then we 02:39:52
can assess it further. But right now, based on one of the quote statewide experts in sign ordinances and zoning, he's saying the 02:39:58
state law is unconstitutional, that we are not legally preempted and that we should just leave the language as is. The concern, if 02:40:05
you change the language is right now there is the limit of one sign every 10 feet of any sign, whether it's political or not, It 02:40:11
is any election cycle sign. 02:40:17
If this goes away. 02:40:24
On their property, as they want to without restriction. I almost feel like that I probably ought to advise you stick to your guns 02:40:28
based on advice of Peter Olson and only change if a court tells you it needs to be changed, which I think is highly unlikely. So 02:40:34
that's kind of that's the background and the history of where we are, but I would like to get something. 02:40:41
Since it's significant from Peter Olson in writing on that and get that to you all before the next council meeting. 02:40:48
Quick question on that. What can somebody have a sign in their yard but just leave it there indefinitely? 02:40:56
Well, it depends if it's an election cycle and we're in one of these situations we're in now where you've got multiple, multiple 02:41:05
primaries leading up to the primaries and general elections and then possible special election routes after they could end up you 02:41:10
could end up having. 02:41:15
Limitless signs in a yard for probably. 02:41:21
Eight or ten months? 02:41:25
No, but I mean, I'm not. And I'm not speaking about political science. It could be. 02:41:27
Anytime. Can you just put out, put a sign saying have a nice day in my yard and leave it there and definitely. 02:41:31
Numbers and I don't remember. You may remember. 02:41:41
Top your head what it is in a residential that he's speaking, yeah, so it's temporary is a temporary sign and you have to fill out 02:41:45
a permit and you can have it up for two weeks per quarter. 02:41:50
So only two weeks? And what's the difference between a sign and a flag? 02:41:57
So a flag is. 02:42:01
A flag as long as it is on a flag stand or flagpole once. 02:42:04
Attach it to a fence or something like that. It becomes a sign at that point. 02:42:10
OK, So what about like Mr. Lays, Is that a permanent sign on North Main Street? Mr. Lay, sign down in the hole, the political, the 02:42:18
political commentary. So it's my understanding that the political signs that you're not, that you can't regulate the political 02:42:23
signs. 02:42:28
Like the political science can. 02:42:33
Well, that's, that's what we're talking about and that's what we're talking about. 02:42:36
What we got direction from the Board of Elections during the campaign and the key here is again to be content neutral not to. And 02:42:40
this is per Supreme Court decision that came down approximately 2015 that we cannot regulate based on content. That's why I made 02:42:48
the clarifying point that these are election cycle signs as opposed to political signs that are being identified as part of this 02:42:55
discussion. 02:43:02
I think we really need is some written legal advice from the expert who prepared the sign ordinance originally and get him to 02:43:10
affirm what I've just stated and then you can make your final assessment once we have that in hand. Yeah, I I would just kind of 02:43:16
bring up the point. I just wanted to learn for myself. 02:43:22
What's allowed and we we got to be careful. We can't allow one because we agree with it and the other one not. 02:43:29
You know, if we agree or disagree with the message, it shouldn't matter. It's. 02:43:35
And we need to enforce it no matter who it is. 02:43:39
So that's what I was trying to figure out because. 02:43:42
I think we all know which ones are around town. Are they legal? Is all I was trying to figure out. 02:43:45
Right. And on the so on. 02:43:52
Election type signs or political? 02:43:56
We pulled back from that until we have clarity on it because the Sharon's point, we're going by what was indicated to us from the 02:43:58
last election cycle as the you know not that we could not limit how long those were out. 02:44:06
And. 02:44:13
In that time frame, the other sign. 02:44:15
The question remains. You spoke about a flag, so. 02:44:19
Actually a sign as well. 02:44:23
So, but that leads to another question. If I have a flag out there that says. 02:44:25
You know, have a nice day. 02:44:31
And Jeff is flying his UGA flag. 02:44:33
Are they? Do they both fall under the same thing? 02:44:35
Yeah, but I think you just said if it was attached to a fence or something. Yeah, if it's pinned then it becomes a stationary 02:44:39
sign. It's no longer considered a flag, but a flag is a form of signage. 02:44:45
Yeah. 02:44:51
Wouldn't it be too big at that point? If it's a fact, I mean, because we have stopped, the size is regulated. It's probably a 02:44:52
tube. I'm guessing that flag is a two by three, the specific one. 02:44:57
Is probably a 2 by 3. 02:45:02
But I don't see any. I personally don't see any difference between the flag and the concrete and post that is sitting down on 02:45:05
North Main Street that isn't about. 02:45:10
Current elections it's not absolutely. And that's that's that's. 02:45:15
To my point, I've seen no difference in the flag or the. 02:45:19
The post although the. 02:45:24
Innately political. 02:45:27
So you also. 02:45:31
State anything about any candid. 02:45:33
Well, the reality is we cannot differentiate based on that anyway because of the decision the US Supreme Court made in 2015 that 02:45:35
everything has to be content neutral. 02:45:40
But not content, a message. I know it's a fine hair to split but that's for the Supreme Court of it. So I'll I'll talk about some 02:45:48
other signs. You talk about Athens feed and seed forever. They've always had their signs on their fence right there advertising 02:45:54
their pine straw and their. 02:45:59
There. 02:46:05
Whatever seed or flower that they're currently selling. So if we regulate. 02:46:06
A sign that we need to regulate all the. 02:46:11
And I mean that's. 02:46:14
The feed and seed will have to pull their signs down as well off of their fence on their property. 02:46:16
And that may get. 02:46:21
And I'm sorry, but I want to make sure I use the money that gets into, and I don't know the answer to this, Is it a grandfather 02:46:23
preexisting sign that preceded the 2005, 2006 Arizoning ordinance sign ordinance? That's a question you'd have to investigate 02:46:30
before you pursued any enforcement issues. So y'all help me. What problem are we trying to solve here? That's kind of my question 02:46:36
is, well, here's the quote problem. 02:46:42
Is that the interpretation from the County Attorney and the election board is one thing. That our sign ordinance allegedly has 02:46:49
language that's inconsistent with state law. But we're being told by the expert who drew up our sign ordinance is that state law 02:46:55
is patently on its face, unconstitutional and unenforceable, and therefore it does not preempt us and don't change it. But I want 02:47:01
to get that to you in writing. 02:47:07
OK, because I'd rather not poke any bears for the point of poking bears, but if we need to communicate with the county, or. 02:47:16
Candidates or others what our position is, let's have a very thoughtful. 02:47:23
Document that makes it very easy. So when those political candidates call, we can make our case that we know that. 02:47:28
Even if we need to state that we understand there's a state law that's in conflict with this, but we've been advised by our 02:47:34
attorney that this is our position and we'll see you in court if you disagree. 02:47:38
If that's to be our position, so Joe, bring us something to look at on that and we can talk about it at our next meeting unless we 02:47:42
want to. 02:47:45
About this one around. 02:47:49
I see plans for July 4th. Is there anything else on here we need to cover, Sharon? Well, so I mean that's the big thing. We did 02:47:56
budget some monies but we didn't really talk about. 02:48:00
What council really wanted to do with July 4th, like we've done with, you know, Christmas parades. 02:48:05
Downtown, well, we participate in the other activities, so I wasn't sure what the desire was. We didn't get into that. Like I said 02:48:11
during the budget process specifically if there was a plan for us to. 02:48:17
Do anything more than what we did last year. We had a contest you know what's and I know Councilman Thomas, I know you were sort 02:48:24
of the one leading this. So maybe we can get some direction. Yeah, I would. I would love to expound upon what we did last year. I 02:48:28
think it looked great. I think there was a lot of. 02:48:33
Participants that put flags out and and turn the city red, white and blue. I think it looked our city looked great. I love our new 02:48:40
purchase that we did with the the all the flags. I think those look great. I you know I. 02:48:46
You know Bob Smith, when he came around campaigning, had a great idea and had somebody that was going to fund it. I don't know who 02:48:54
it was, but putting a flag on every single Citizens door in all the Watkinsville. 02:49:01
I would love to head that up. 02:49:08
You know, I don't. I would love to use him as a contact and and and push that forward because I think that would be amazing for us 02:49:12
to provide a. 02:49:16
A flag to. 02:49:22
Citizen in Watkinsville and and see how many flags we put up, you know? 02:49:23
All right. So we'll need to start that early. What day of the week is the? It's a Monday, So do we? But generally, conceptually, 02:49:30
other than more flags, we don't see an event. So that's what I'm wondering, should we do? I know last year we kind of didn't do it 02:49:36
because it was a Sunday, but do we want to have any sort of? 02:49:42
An event, or is it? Do you see it as more of just, you know, paint the town red, white and blue? Again, what are we? 02:49:48
I like the idea of now. 02:49:54
I don't know how many people are going to be in town with it being a three day holiday weekend, but I like the idea of like. 02:49:57
When kids decorate their bicycles and you know, you have like an old fashioned little parade around Rocket Field kind of thing, I 02:50:05
don't know if. 02:50:09
Worth that might just be idealism in my brain. 02:50:14
Something worth doing, but we had talked about that idea various times. I think we were going to and then COVID. 02:50:19
I'm open to any ideas. 02:50:27
You know, if we come up with something great that we want to use city resources for us, yeah, absolutely. What if we did that and 02:50:30
then had a early picnic at Rocket Field for community members? I mean, even if it was just. 02:50:35
Is that is that a lot of work? Because that shouldn't even really be money, right? 02:50:43
I mean taking like a potluck yeah, like everybody bring your own picnic to. I mean we talked we were talking earlier about using 02:50:48
Rocket Field for. 02:50:53
Things, and it's not interfering with Little League. 02:50:58
But it would just be a community of. 02:51:04
Early in the day, before it's a million degrees. 02:51:09
So yes, 7:00 AM, if you're doing it, if you're doing, if you're doing that. 02:51:14
I was going to say if you're doing a picnic, you may want to do it later in the day. 02:51:21
I don't know when the county, so the county is probably not going to do fireworks anytime soon. 02:51:28
Well, the reason they're not going to, at least what I was told is. 02:51:37
Egress from the park is. 02:51:41
It's not phenomenal. So they're they're probably not going to even this year. They're not even contemplating it. 02:51:45
Because it's so hard to get people in and out. 02:51:49
So I mean, Chuck just made a great point. If we did it later in the afternoon evening time, then we could do like a movie on the 02:51:53
lawn. 02:51:57
Sparklers or something. Something that's safe and fun and. 02:52:02
Yeah, you. 02:52:06
Roman Campbells and if it's on the evening. 02:52:10
Oh, I forgot about the other rough thing. If they were out of town, might be back in town too. What day is that? You said on 02:52:15
Monday. Yeah 'cause they'll have to be back at school. 02:52:19
Summer. 02:52:26
But that is an interesting idea of like something a little later. 02:52:27
Because rocket field so pretty later in the day like you know you know 6:00 the sun's starting to go down you know and. 02:52:31
I've got a little bias because I'm usually at the Peachtree Rd. race in the morning. 02:52:39
So, but that could be. 02:52:44
What time does? I know we don't want to let Russ dictate, but what time does this thing get rolling? Like, if people want to do 02:52:46
both, is that the Russ Tanner? Russ Tanner, Yeah, So that's. 02:52:51
Yeah, that's usually later. 02:52:57
Yeah. 02:53:01
Yeah, there was a he's there was $80,000 spent in hard works. There's a lot of money spent hours. 02:53:07
You might be able to talk the chief into doing like. 02:53:14
4th of July themed movie out at Rocket Field. 02:53:18
I was thinking about the hatchery too. Now I was honestly thinking about the hatchery. You know, it's right and kind of right 02:53:25
there and. 02:53:27
Yeah, with new creations. 02:53:32
Right there could be, since it's not in the city, they can we can the county a lot. 02:53:35
I was just thinking, yeah, they could sort of help people do food trucks on July 4th. Those guys may want to be off to this, 02:53:41
right? 02:53:45
They just haven't moved. That's actually something to think about. We probably need to move that city limits. I'm like, no, I'm 02:53:50
telling you, the sign is before you get there. 02:53:54
And I'll throw off all the bike groups to that Sprint to the city limits on, but we probably do need to move it down to the down 02:53:58
on the other side. 02:54:01
That is an interesting idea though, to see if Paul and Duke and those guys might want to. And then we probably should check with 02:54:05
Wire Park to make sure they're not thinking about some giant thing on the 4th. 02:54:08
It would take some of it off of us and just let the private sector run. 02:54:13
I do like Daddy as a little kid, like decorating. 02:54:19
Yeah. 02:54:23
A kid bike parades sort of an easy yeah, there's you just show up, show up, start lineup. I mean, honestly that could be a nine 02:54:24
AM, 10 AM thing too. It doesn't have to necessarily be together. I mean if every kid in Watkinsville wants to meet it, meet at 02:54:31
OCAF and ride their bike around the block four times and have a little judge thing that could community volunteers could do that. 02:54:37
Yeah, yeah. Ice cream. Yeah. What's the ice cream guy? Little dude, little. 02:54:43
Man, ice cream. Jeff Campbell's the ice cream, dude. Oh yeah. 02:54:51
Yeah. Oh, that makes very stuff. Yeah, that could be fun to do in the morning. And then if we are able to do something in the 02:54:55
evening, I think I like the idea of an evening thing. I. 02:54:59
People get home after a weekend gone, they can have a low key, they can picnic and if we do a movie or something. 02:55:05
All right. So, Brett, can you take the lead on kind of fleshing that out and giving some options? I'll check with yes, OK. 02:55:12
It's our director of community fund, the Social Social Man, Yeah. 02:55:20
Cool. 02:55:26
Are there any other holidays or things coming up before July 4th we need to think about? I know we typically have that surge in 02:55:28
the fall with Halloween and Christmas and everything else, so yeah, so. 02:55:33
The. 02:55:40
Easter Egg Hunt is the 16th, I think, of April. It'll be here. 02:55:40
May 17th is Cops and Bobbers 7th. Sorry, May 7th is Cops and Bobbers I know on my calendar and then and then we'll put it anytime. 02:55:47
So we've already we've got on our calendar anytime There's like Memorial Day veterans you know veteran's day July 4th. What am I 02:55:53
missing? 02:55:59
Anyway, we'll put. This will put flags out. 02:56:06
On Main Street. Or, you know, in that vicinity anyway. 02:56:09
If there's any other activities, anything I'm missing, is there any while we're planning for that, I know last year we bought the 02:56:13
bunting for the pedestrian bridge that looked really nice. Is there anywhere else in the city if we want to say if I'm just if we 02:56:18
want to add one more thing every year, is there anywhere else? Y'all have thought driven past and thought something would look 02:56:22
great. 02:56:26
There, you know or. 02:56:31
I was just thinking maybe if we want to continue with the flags, we could go on down. I mean, like the corridors. I mean, you 02:56:36
could go down in front of Mayor Pratt, whatever it is now. 02:56:41
Down in front of Mayor Pride. Down that way. 02:56:46
Umm. 02:56:49
Down. 02:57:51
What do you mean by wraps? Do you mean so you could do the flag wraps come around? 02:57:52
The polls? Are they Georgia Power owned? No, no. There's a decorative. OK. The street lamps. Oh, yeah. Anything Georgia Power 02:57:57
owns, you have to ask permission to put anything on. Sure. 02:58:02
Yeah. 02:58:10
I don't know if there's anything else. I can't think of anything else. 02:58:14
Is there anything we missed that we didn't talk about? 02:58:18
What do you think about for Mother's Day, we get a whole bunch of carnations and give out free carnations to kids. 02:58:21
Mother. 02:58:28
Yeah. 02:58:30
But Mother's Day is a tricky holiday. 02:58:31
For people who are able to have children, people who've lost their mothers, people who have mothers, they don't like people, I 02:58:34
mean. 02:58:38
I would just say a lot of churches do things. I I guess I would say no. And I'm the mother who might get some carnations from 02:58:43
children, but. 02:58:46
That's. 02:58:52
We staff is trying to work up and this will come forward probably in the capital budget we are talking about because we have 02:58:54
received requests. I think Councilman Thomas was wanting to ask that we put additional. 02:58:59
Whole decorations for Christmas up down like Barnet Shoals and maybe something, you know, couple play. So we're going to. 02:59:05
We're going to come up with an estimate they're about, on average, anywhere from 5 to $600 a piece. 02:59:10
The Georgia Power will put the power there for us to plug into, but but then we have to and I think our power bill this year was 02:59:17
$2800 when it for running the lights for an entire month. 02:59:21
With just the water with 807080 Toby, how many lights do we have now? I can't remember. Don't we have? 02:59:27
Because we had 4000 bulbs. Do you remember how many there were? 02:59:34
I don't know, there's like 50 or 60 at least I think, right? 02:59:39
Is it only 30? OK, maybe it's only 37. 02:59:43
Yeah, somebody. Yeah, yeah. So Speaking of I had several people complain that they're all white bulbs. Is there any way we can go 02:59:46
back to having some red ones or green ones? Well, part of part of that was we had to buy bulbs and you know you have to make if 02:59:52
you have red, green and. 02:59:58
Sockets and stuff. We decided to go with the white light with white and I don't, I personally don't have an issue. 03:00:38
Bulbs the no, the actual. 03:00:45
So. 03:01:23
Yeah, I mean, it's just, I got the same. I heard from probably some of the same people and my point was it's cheaper, it's easier. 03:01:26
You all are constantly pushing us to be efficient. 03:01:31
And, you know, there's some. I'm OK with it, you know? Do I miss colors? Yeah. But. 03:01:36
I think we can deal with white, but my two cents. So we'll bring forward probably in the capital budget well, so if y'all want to 03:01:43
decide to use some of the money in the bank to buy some more decorations to put maybe down. 03:01:48
Barnard Shoals or further down South Main or North Main or wherever, you know, the main corridors or even I think we talked about 03:01:55
maybe some down Harden Hill. Now that we have the sidewalk, maybe, you know, we'll come up with a plan and the budget and maybe. 03:02:01
Pitch that be all for capital. How about for the parade? Do. 03:02:07
Toby, do you feel like we'll be able to get barriers from you, more barriers from UGA, the secondary second truck to we know we're 03:02:11
going to need more barriers next year? Yeah, I mean, UGA was on task with us using the bears and they said we could get that they 03:02:16
have additional trailers with the barriers. 03:02:22
You know we this is our first go at it, learned a lot of things. The barriers down on 3rd St. we didn't get them in place so that 03:02:28
caused some issues or whatever. 03:02:33
But also putting some barriers down off of. 03:02:38
Water. 03:02:43
Where it comes back into Hardin Hill, making sure those people don't top the hill and then they're sitting at a barrier. 03:02:47
So we did learn a lot of stuff and also the traffic coming back around. 03:02:54
Through third making sure that. 03:02:59
Bisecting the parade as it's still feeding. So we, me and the chief talked about it something we got some work there to do to make 03:03:01
sure we're coordinating people out. Some of them will probably direct down Thrasher. 03:03:07
That are leaving to. 03:03:14
We'll send those down thrasher to go out on main to. 03:03:16
Get back out and that it will cause less traffic going back towards Wire Park that way. Yeah, I'll tell you from the Rotary 03:03:19
standpoint, if you just ask for more volunteers will provide more volunteers. 03:03:24
I. 03:03:31
I I saw from being in the parade that we. 03:03:32
Was that Second Street that? 03:03:35
Anyway, I think it's 2nd St. It comes by the backside of 0. 03:03:38
We had folks coming in that way, and I know that was supposed to be our egress to get out and we had folks coming in. 03:03:43
So we needed somebody there to stop all traffic coming in. Yeah, we did. Just so you all know, we did a big debrief on all those 03:03:49
issues collectively afterwards. So I think they're tackling all of them, but my biggest concern is. 03:03:54
The I think we will move towards a If you're going to have candy, you have to hand the candy out. You're not going to be bombing 03:03:59
it from the middle of the road and then. 03:04:03
I'm hopeful that we'll have barriers the whole way along Main Street. You know, the kids were just too close to the vehicles last 03:04:07
year. It's just not worth it. 03:04:10
So I want to keep as much magic as we can, but we're going to have a crowd of that size there was we don't have the resources to. 03:04:15
Yeah, keep the kids out. I think the county will have, you know, one of our issues was the county just didn't have enough law 03:04:20
enforcement to provide for us. We had to go outside of the county. 03:04:25
You know, so hopefully this year we'll have more law enforcement, but well they participate in the parade. You know they've got 03:04:31
that opportunity. I think we'll be able to resolve all the issues. I just wanted from a capital standpoint, this is the time to 03:04:35
with budget. 03:04:40
If you all think of other things, you know now it's your window for saying Sharon, let's see if we can include this or it can be 03:04:45
an option in the budget. So, so we did get a grant, a $3000 grant from Girma. 03:04:50
Which we purchased some additional barricades and we also purchased 14 of the flashing yellow lights that go on top of the 03:04:56
barricades. 03:05:00
With the parades and the difference of when we do the barricades, many like the saw horse looking things, correct? Correct. And 03:05:07
then the barriers would be more like the little metal fencing you know to keep that would keep kids from running out from under 03:05:11
tractor wheels. 03:05:15
And I'm assuming UGA will provide you with as many of those as you need. The barriers, as many as we need. 03:05:20
Yeah. I mean they have I think 4 trailers is what the chief. 03:05:27
We only used one of the trailers of the ad, so, so we'll take a little bit more planning according well and a little bit more time 03:05:30
to, I mean I need to, I need to work with G dot this year to get more than just the four hours or we shut down that road we may be 03:05:35
asking for. 03:05:39
A much longer period of time to shut down that road. I think you could go ahead and put the barriers out, like in front of pub or 03:05:43
in front of a blind pig. You go ahead and put that right there on the edge of the roadway. 03:05:50
And I mean that way, it keeps everybody from coming out into the road like they did this time. I mean that was the issue though is 03:05:57
in order to get those off the trailer and stuff, you've got our people. And so we'll have to shut down Main Street, probably from 03:06:01
Main Street to Barnett Shoals. 03:06:06
Like 3 or four hours earlier than we did this time. So we'll we'll work with G dot. I understand other other communities haven't 03:06:11
had a problem doing it. So I'm just going to use that and hopefully the team will solve the operational issues. You know, we just 03:06:17
need to, we need to be sure we've got to your point about volunteers, Brett. We may need some volunteers earlier last year, Toby 03:06:22
and the guys work really hard not watch them, you know trying to get all that stuff offloaded in basically an hour. 03:06:28
And at that point they already had crowds who had gathered and other stuff, so you know that. 03:06:34
I think they'll solve all that, But Toby, just stay in touch with us as we get closer. If you need some manpower and then we can, 03:06:38
we can help too. 03:06:41
So I have a thought, if we're talking about spending money on on decor beautification, I think I personally would rather see some 03:06:45
investment in some more. 03:06:51
Flower baskets and things like that on Main Street. Then extra Christmas signs that go down far Net Shoals. 03:06:57
Um. 03:07:05
But that's just me. I don't know if anybody, and I don't know if it's apples to. I don't know what the price is, but I I love when 03:07:06
I go to communities that there's a lot of flowers. 03:07:10
It just is beautiful. And in Georgia, they can last nine months of the year. I mean, they can last a long time. It's not one 03:07:15
month. It's not a lot of power. There's no power. It's manpower to water them. I get that. But I mean, does anybody else have any 03:07:20
thoughts? 03:07:25
So like Greensboro, they have hanging baskets if you go down there, but somebody has to water those daily. 03:07:30
Right now I do know that there's labor involved with it as I'm looking at it, yeah. So what I will say is, you know as Mark came 03:07:36
on board who is our residential guy for you know, plants and trees and such. 03:07:43
Some of the planners that are up on Main Street, those are all actually city owned. 03:07:52
And some of the businesses do care for them and keep stuff in. 03:07:56
Whereas other ones are not. And last year when Mark came on in the fall when we trimmed a bunch of stuff up down Main Street, but 03:08:00
we are looking. 03:08:05
Revitalize all of those planners and plant stuff in there. 03:08:12
And him being more in tune with what's going in there and also coordinating with the people who want. 03:08:16
Manage their own planner that sit down in front of their business being in line with what we're planning where it's kind of a 03:08:23
uniform look. 03:08:26
Down Main Street. So that is part of the direction that I. 03:08:30
When we hired, when we brought Mark in from the mayor. 03:08:34
And moving in that direction so and we have, we have talked. 03:08:37
Adding more planners as well as. 03:08:42
Adding more trash can receptacles down. 03:08:44
Yeah. So Mark is Mark. 03:08:48
Has looked at some of this in Madison and other places and. 03:08:51
And I think as spring approaches, we'll see more. There's a certain size and scale that needs to be with planners, you know, and 03:08:56
how they work. And we also didn't want to take away if we've got business owners who are doing a nice job, the last thing we want 03:09:00
to do is raise our hand and say, Oh yeah, we want to do extra work. 03:09:04
Since they're already doing a good job with. 03:09:09
But I have asked Mark and Toby to take a look at that and get to us with what? 03:09:13
We may want to do, but I don't think that should wait till July. I think we probably need to get those, get some of those done. 03:09:16
Get them, get them going sooner rather than later. The hanging baskets, unless we irrigate them, will require daily, you know, 03:09:22
daily. 03:09:25
Water. So that's tricky, Toby. You'll have to figure out if you can manage to do that. Well, I'm not really sure we have. So we 03:09:28
have the banner, the banners. I don't think we can hang something on that lower banner if the banners up right. I mean we'd have 03:09:32
to have an attachment of some sort. 03:09:36
On a hanging and I get what you're saying, but if you don't have. 03:09:40
If you don't have the proper hardware hanging those baskets. 03:09:45
You get into a thing where you. 03:09:48
Is a hanging too low? There's somebody gonna knock their head on it. Is it gonna get blown off or is it gonna fall off and then 03:09:50
you? 03:09:53
Becomes a lot of different variables outside of watering it. So I mean I think it's something we can look at, but I think 03:09:58
additional planners. 03:10:02
Down main and going further down and you know. 03:10:07
Incorporating some of that is definitely something that. 03:10:11
As we develop the sidewalks and the different. 03:10:15
And you know, to Brian's point, the people that are maintaining those players, we do have a couple of those planners that are 03:10:18
basically growing whatever they're growing so. 03:10:22
Taking those back over on the to the city's maintenance, as you know part of that. 03:10:27
I think you know two other things, Christine, that come to mind as we talk about that. One is, you know, we've talked with the new 03:10:33
leadership at Oak F about reactivating the public art program. 03:10:38
Which may require, you know, we may want to allocate some funds to support that where we would again. 03:10:43
Think about, you know. 03:10:49
Sculpture and bringing some of that art back. Even if the tagline changes, it's still a fundamental part of our community. 03:10:51
You know, so that's something else that we may need to antic. 03:10:56
And the year ahead in terms of a capital, you know, maybe a little bit of a capital expenditure you know to support. 03:11:01
Some some updated public art on some of our some of our pads which I think could be could be nice and. 03:11:06
Would kind of freshen things up as people come through. 03:11:12
I would love to see the art rotate. I mean, like some of the stuff that's sitting there, I would love to. 03:11:15
Rotate every, yeah, every, every. 03:11:19
Two years or so put something new up. 03:11:22
I think that's the idea is even more often than that is getting back into where there is a little bit of a rotation and you know, 03:11:25
Sharon's familiar with some of our agreements. I think some of that aren't we may own now because they never came and reclaimed 03:11:29
it. So some of that may be part of a part of a city collection, but but you know that we do have some places where there's 03:11:34
nothing. 03:11:38
There's nothing sitting on it. You know you have a cat that's questionable, but the there's some of the others that are, you know, 03:11:43
that I think have become ours. But then we also have a. 03:11:47
An art pad sitting out in front of the storage buildings that there's nothing on, you know, that's kind of at a gateway into the 03:11:52
city, so. 03:11:55
That's just, you know, something that's been on my mind that we're trying to reactivate in partnership with a calf. 03:11:59
Figure out how to You know how we can pay that off a little bit more. 03:12:05
What about? 03:12:10
In Greenwood, SC, they have 44 living topiaries. 03:12:12
Throughout the city and it's it's fantastic. It's so, so pretty and they've even got a a map of downtown so you can go from 03:12:17
topiary to topiary and they've got a crocodile that's made from. 03:12:24
Pansies or something, I don't know. And then they've got like like. 03:12:31
In front of Adobe's there was a chicken when it was Chicken Express. It was kind of cool when it was a chicken, but they're not 03:12:35
all that big there. It could be small, but Greenwood, SC, they're downtown. 03:12:40
I mean, it's a city in the middle of nowhere, but it's a thriving downtown and it's that's a. 03:12:45
Thing. Thing. 03:12:51
And I think it would look a lot better. 03:12:52
Some things that, but of course it has to be maintained by. 03:12:55
You know the street department, I guess, Or whatever. 03:12:59
Wherever we have to properly shape them, we've got a bunch of great nurseries, I mean in in this community that could probably 03:13:02
assist us in planning something like that as well. 03:13:07
So many cities. I mean, even the Bulldogs and I mean cities all over do that. I don't. I'm not saying we need to do that, but 03:13:17
they're all sponsored by different things. Topiaries could be sponsored. 03:13:22
One other idea, too, that was kind of spurred by the. 03:13:29
While we're kind of spitballing the vintage of. 03:13:32
I'd love it for us to think about this spring, some sort of a history walk in Watkinsville where we take those images. 03:13:35
And we either put them inside the stores or in front of the stores. 03:13:43
You know where they were, right? And Connie, you may be the person and I love you for it, but who hadn't seen it? But it's kind of 03:13:46
this fun webpage where people are posting historic photos. 03:13:51
And it'll be everything. It'll. 03:13:56
You know what was Elizabeth Ann's 100 years ago, And it'll show pictures of the old hardware store. 03:13:58
All miracles, but yeah, so there's a whole. So this this vintage Oconee page is really interesting, but I'm thinking, how do we 03:14:03
activate that? So my thought is, could we do a day where we have this? 03:14:08
We make a big deal. We have a history tour and then one of the most interesting posts was on School St. They used to have a dance. 03:14:13
And they had a dance and they had a band and people would dance on School St. And if you apparently if you were a really a risk 03:14:21
taker, you would kind of slide out into Main Street for a moment. We wouldn't recommend that, but I thought, how cool was that? 03:14:26
That was up to the 70s apparently, that they were doing dances on. 03:14:31
School St. and I thought, so you do you have a day where you welcome people to town. They come and they you do a little bit of a 03:14:37
walk and you see the history and in the evening you could have a band string some lights and string the lights have a band and you 03:14:42
could you could reenact something that's real. That's true. It happened in Watkins but we're not just making it up and you have 03:14:48
this event on School St. how cool would that be? Let's do that and. 03:14:53
And then we could make it. It could be an annual thing, but I thought how much fun would that be? And then you could perhaps do a 03:15:00
virtual tour, you know, the tour could then you turned over to Christy and those guys and they could say. 03:15:06
This is that spot. This is the spot where this was. But you could, you know, but take a Saturday where you have the stuff out on, 03:15:12
almost like a garden tour, but instead of be the Watkinsville history day and then you finish it off with the dance there on. 03:15:18
On School St. once the gym is renovated, you could that could be a rain place, You know, you could move it up there this year. 03:15:24
We'd have to probably take our chances. But anyway, I thought that could be a really cool idea. That would be very true to our 03:15:29
history and also highlight our history, which I'd love for us to do a better job of doing because we've got a rich history. But 03:15:33
sometimes I feel like we get overshadowed by Madison and Athens and this vintage Oak County thing has really spurred me to say not 03:15:38
only. 03:15:43
Do we have more of these assets, but we should do a better job of kind of gathering them and showing them and highlighting them 03:15:49
so? 03:15:52
One thing that a lot of folks don't know, but UGA was supposed to come right here to Watkinsville. But we were such a heathen town 03:15:56
with our our bar that we had right there at the Eagle Tavern. The UGA couldn't, couldn't be there, so got us in gardening gun. So 03:16:03
that's our that's our claim to fame, you know, that little piece of trivia. But anyway, I thought, you know. 03:16:10
That's kind of inspired. Seeing how excited people are about these, about the history is kind of made me think, well, what if? 03:16:17
We have fun, we activate it, and then we finish the day off with and we could work with. 03:16:24
It's the is it Joe, Joan or Joanne is the woman at the visitor center. She's running that whole side like. So if we partner up 03:16:30
with Christy and them to kind of make that happen. 03:16:34
You know, we we wouldn't necessarily have to do all the heavy lifting. Maybe we provide some resources, but we work with a group 03:16:39
to put that together. Yeah, but it'd be a great way to bring the community together. I think it could be a lot of fun. 03:16:45
So on a less fun note, but something I've been meaning to ask about. 03:16:51
The document that coordinates with the county. 03:16:57
It has a name slip in my brain. 03:17:00
Comprehensive plan, the shared services, yes, yes, delivery. So is that recently been, I mean does that just get rubber stamped 03:17:03
every year? Does it get renegotiated at a certain point like? 03:17:09
And where are we in that 10 year process? Are you talking about service delivery? Yes, so it was signed in 2018. 03:17:17
And so we are into it quite a few years, but that is one of the things, one of my goals this year. 03:17:33
Julie and I are going in April. April will go into some training on service delivery strategies actually you know developing. 03:17:39
The county for since 1998 is how old it is it's been. It's been rubber stamped by every city from the county from since 1998. 03:17:47
Wendell Dawson's name still originally on. 03:17:52
So it's not, it does not reflect what we actually do or how our relationship is and that's really important that we get that 03:17:59
cleared up and you know there's been. 03:18:02
They don't have that same level of of need. So it has been rubber stamps but that is a big thing. I wish I could have already done 03:18:38
it by now but there's it just hasn't been time for it but but we'll get it done this year. That's the goal. We also have the 03:18:44
Conference of land Use plan. The county will lead. I talked to Eva before now before this meeting. I know Chairman Daniel had 03:18:50
indicated the mayor that guy hearing is with the planning department will lead that effort. 03:18:56
The city has a short term work program, so. 03:19:05
Is when so. 03:19:40
You know, it's it's a good practice that you'll see it every year and that we talk about it almost pretty much at every meeting 03:19:42
because there's always some aspect that is affecting that plank. That's that's our working plan. So, but you'll have an 03:19:47
opportunity to review your goals again through this process. And my understanding is they're going to start sometime this summer 03:19:51
because they have to have it. They have to have so many public meetings, you know, well, I don't. We'll probably just participate 03:19:56
in there. I don't because I wasn't here. 03:20:01
The last time y'all did a conference that plan if you had your own individual meetings or if you just globbed onto the counties 03:20:06
and showed up, but you guys will have that. You will have discussions among yourselves in a document that you'll have to approve. 03:20:13
You know as your plan, and we'll see what part of its what Guy Herring's process is and how he wants us to plug in and what we 03:20:19
need to do. 03:20:23
And the other things that are sort of on the horizon on the city county front as you know is the. 03:20:27
You know, because the population of the county in the city have both changed since the census. That affects how we do our SPLOST. 03:20:32
And so we've got to have a conversation with the county about the county grew faster, much faster than Watkinsville did. 03:20:37
My point that has to be approved. We actually have to have an agreement with the county by the end of this year or we lose the 03:20:45
opportunity to get sales tax. So we actually are going to do some training on that as well. So the negotiation has to started by 03:20:50
June. I've had preliminary conversations with the Chairman on that. 03:20:54
We will have obviously shared planning on the further extension of experimentation as it comes into the city. 03:21:00
The county is working on its potential facility out at the end of North Main Street. You know, technically outside the city 03:21:08
limits, likely an extend at the end. So there's a lot of those kind of things. 03:21:12
They're going on that kind of impact, you know day-to-day that you know we'll stay in touch with y'all on or y'all want to lean in 03:21:17
on any of that, let me know. But there's there's always those kind of. 03:21:22
Collaborative things that are there happening and going on, but yeah, shared delivery, shared delivery service delivery strategy, 03:21:27
service delivery strategy and the comp plan will be two big ones this year. 03:21:34
Interface, interface with them. And last time I had the mayor had the opportunity to make an appointment to that group. And if I 03:21:41
do this time again, I'll appoint want to be on to that group to be a part of that conversation. But I'm not sure what process that 03:21:46
was led by the regional center last time. I'm not sure how they're going to do it this time. So I have mentioned this before, but 03:21:52
not in the right times or contacts. There's a new tax. 03:21:57
Statewide on Airbnbs, and it's fairly significant. And I don't, does the state get all that money? Does the county get some of 03:22:04
that money? Because there are a lot of Airbnbs in the city limits of Watkinsville. Yeah, there's probably, I had Angela check 03:22:09
them. So we had a meeting last week with the county. 03:22:15
Me and Lee had a meeting with Wes. Getting to, you may have heard, is the finance director pro Kona, who's leaving to go to Hall 03:22:21
County. 03:22:24
Is it $5000 a year that we're losing? Is it $20,000? I don't know. I mean, I've got to. We just now, literally this past week, 03:23:36
tried to identify how many were in the city that we know of. 03:23:41
Uh. 03:23:47
I have a guest right now in the three night stay and there is a $99.50. 03:23:49
For three nights, so it's 3030 bucks a day. 03:23:55
Tax. 03:23:59
And so it is. That's why my Airbnb provides more tax. 03:24:00
My property taxes. 03:24:06
I mean, it is real money and I. 03:24:09
One bedroom area. So, So the other thing, there's probably, there may be two laws that play. There may be a state. I know what we 03:24:13
approved on the counting level was a hotel motel tax for tourism purposes. I'm guessing that's what Wes would be talking about, 03:24:19
don't you think? Yeah. So that was approved. I think it was on the ballot and was approved by the voters. 03:24:25
And I primarily in advance of the Springhill Suites opening up because that was going to be our first sort of real hotel. 03:24:31
I do think you know the pipe plant there has been talk of a boutique hotel potentially going in there. 03:24:38
You know, Ashford Manners not coming back, but I think the idea is, you know, we're probably benefiting to some degree. 03:24:44
From that hotel motel because the visitor center is headquartered and doing work in Watkinsville. But we can dig deeper and I 03:24:50
think your question about the state. 03:24:54
Understanding whether we should be getting, you know we've lost money on state stuff before where it's some of its coming back to 03:24:57
the county and we're not getting our share. So I think it's a fair good question to ask. 03:25:02
You know, as we talk about this. 03:25:07
Dance idea that's going to cost money and to me that's the kind of thing that could specifically. 03:25:09
Like we could use Airbnb tax money to help fund these types of events. 03:25:17
1. 03:25:24
Go ahead, excuse me. One thing I failed to mention earlier. 03:25:25
With the parks and stuff, Watkinsville Woods, I know Toby and his guys go and do some work there periodically, but. 03:25:31
I guess you got some funding set aside for. 03:25:39
Or what is the ideas for it going forward-looking down the road 5 years from now? I mean more benches or? 03:25:44
So we have an Eagle Scout who's going to install a couple benches over there and I think if if he does his Eagle project, he'll do 03:25:55
2 around Rocket Field as well, Chuck. 03:25:59
But I don't, you know, I think we also Toby recently looked at that maybe Mark two at the bridge down there, which needs a little 03:26:04
bit of work too. 03:26:07
So there's are a few capital expenses that we're going to have to do in the woods over there, just maintaining what, maintaining 03:26:11
what we have. Yeah, yeah. 03:26:15
If you do a dance and you think, I think reasonably got a letter. 03:26:23
Oh, Cap about raising money for the gym. 03:26:28
Why not have a dance at the gym that is a gala and it's a fundraiser. You pay to attend and maybe it's 50s themed going back to 03:26:32
when the gym was. 03:26:36
You know, utilized all the time. 03:26:42
So the gym won't be ready for dancing until it's renovated, which is probably next winter. But I do think the kickoff. This is the 03:26:44
post that said Watkinsville St. dances were popular middle to late 1960s. A band off in the Barong Brothers group, The rebels 03:26:51
would set up on the sidewalk in front of us. Now the Barber shop folks would dance on the sidewalks and in school. 03:26:57
Those more adventurous would shake a leg on Main Street, dodging the traffic. 03:27:04
Does anyone have pictures of these events, or of the rebels at other venues? How about recollections of the street dances? 03:27:08
Fundraising event. 03:27:42
F. 03:27:45
Potentially. 03:27:47
Yeah, I just think there's some power in that kind of school St. streetscape there where you could. 03:27:48
One way. 03:27:56
Where? 03:27:57
But, but I do think either way it's an awesome it's a kind of a cool idea and if you know whether it's. 03:27:58
Whatever we do with the gym, it could be a fundraiser for the gym. You could be, hey, $10 to participate and everybody who comes 03:28:05
or $20 to do the historic tour. But all the funds go to help renovate the gym, which I think would also motivate people. And you 03:28:10
can come to the dance. 03:28:15
I don't know. It says they used to do stuff in front of jail too. There's no telling. So anyway, it's a fun. 03:28:22
Yeah. OK. Yep. 03:28:30
OK. 03:28:37
Yeah. So anyway, so that's that's out there. If we want to do it, I think we need to think about. 03:28:40
Go ahead and get with the folks of the visitors center setting a date and putting that thing together. Otherwise we're going to be 03:28:45
at the fall. We can't do it. This probably can't do it the summer, I don't think. 03:28:49
May's crazy, isn't it? May's crazy, isn't it? 03:28:55
I just don't think we can have people walking all over downtown on a history tour. I mean, should we look to fall? 03:29:01
I think it have to be April. 03:29:06
April is probably. 03:29:08
Should we do it the same weekend as the Easter egg hunt? 03:29:13
What weekends at? 03:29:18
It's not Easter weekend, I don't think, right. It is Easter that late for Easter and spring break are not lined up this year. So 03:29:20
it'd have to be, it'd have to be April. 03:29:25
Probably April 21st is probably what we'd be looking at. 03:29:30
Most likely for. 03:29:34
That. 03:29:36
Is that not a the 16th is a Saturday, right? 03:29:37
OK. Sorry, April 23rd. 03:29:40
That's not Masters weekend or anything crazy. 03:29:46
We'd all have to check our calendars, but that's realistically probably. 03:29:51
Realistically, that's probably the date for something like that or April thir. 03:29:54
Is it worth running to the ground with Christy and them? I think it'd be worth checking. 03:29:59
OK. 03:30:03
Everybody interested in seeing if we can, I don't think we we'd have to be one of several organizers, but. 03:30:05
It's kind of could be. 03:30:11
All right. Well, I'll call Christy and see if see if they think it'd be sort of thing we could put together it could be, could be. 03:30:14
OK. 03:30:21
I'll try to find some partners so we don't have to do all the lifting. 03:30:22
I've got enough to say grace over, and I'm guessing y'all do too, so we'll see if we can, but I'll need one or two of y'all to 03:30:26
lean into it. Help me with it. 03:30:29
What else we got? 03:30:35
I do have. I do have a quick suggestion. 03:30:41
Since since you're all city, but some of you have county connections. 03:30:44
When the library does move. 03:30:49
You know, I think a good use of that building, should they ever entertain it, would be an American Legion for Oconee County. 03:30:51
Which? 03:30:59
A big community service thing to. 03:31:00
Active and retired veterans, and they do a lot of stuff within the community as well, so it might be something to think about on 03:31:05
that note. 03:31:09
Maybe come back to the broader Community Center idea, you know, there's all there's big spaces in there, you know? 03:31:17
It could be used for different things. 03:31:24
I'll mention that Toby, just because there could be a couple different organizations. 03:31:25
May need space to share, you know, and you could carve off little spaces inside the library and then you have the meeting room. 03:31:29
Over to the left. 03:31:35
So. 03:31:37
OK. 03:31:39
Speak now or forever hold your peace unless Eva's got anything else well. 03:31:43
I do not. It sounds like y'all better hit the ground running and get some some stuff to plan for April. But. 03:31:46
No, this has been wonderful and I think Sharon and I have have gone over some notes. So you've given your staff some good 03:31:54
direction and I think you're going to keep yourselves busy too over the next year. But thank you so much for for having me and. 03:32:01
Guess we'll finish up early today. 03:32:10
OK. All right, everybody gets a little time back. 03:32:13
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Name Document type
Retreat Slide Presentation General Document
FY23 Budget Process General Document
Financial Information General Document
Council Committee Information General Document
Strategic Initiatives General Document
2021 Accomplishments General Document
Vision General Document
We got Mr. Camp. 00:00:06
All right. Good. Good morning, everybody. 00:00:17
I'm not going to imagine that there's a lot of people watching, so we'll just talk to each other, but please do know that this 00:00:20
meeting is being recorded so we could have guests online. 00:00:24
It is likely that people will go back and watch this, so when you speak, please turn on your microphones. 00:00:28
And good morning, everybody. This is an exciting day. Eva. I'm glad you're back with us to help facilitate. 00:00:34
Um. 00:00:40
These are. I love these retreats and. 00:00:41
We may get out early today, we may not, but I think the big idea is we don't often get this time together to really go deeper on 00:00:45
Watkinsville and how we feel about the future and what our hopes and dreams are. And so my challenge to all of y'all today is to. 00:00:53
Is to think boldly, you know. 00:01:01
I think this is our most important moment together as a group during the year. Even though we're not voting on anything today, 00:01:04
this is our opportunity to really ensure that we're aligned about where we where we want this town to go, what citizens have 00:01:10
shared with us and what we want to do. So I'd encourage you to think boldly, think about what we want Watkinsville to be, not just 00:01:16
12 or 18 months from now, but what do we want Watkinsville to be five years, 10 years, 15 years from now? 00:01:22
As we've gone through the branding process and other things recently, it's really made me reflect about some of the shade that we 00:01:28
sit under. 00:01:31
And when I talk about shade that we sit under, it's the shade that comes from trees that were planted 30 or 4050 years ago. 00:01:35
You know, decisions around roads, around infrastructure. 00:01:41
You know some citizens 20 or 30 years ago to believe in the dream of Martha Wiley. 00:01:47
And all of a sudden you have ESP and all of a sudden you have opportunities. 00:01:52
Children and adults with special needs now being activated all over the state of Georgia. That was a small tree that was planted a 00:01:56
long time ago. That's turned out to be great. 00:01:59
Water and sewer was a was a tree that was planted a long time ago that we benefit from. So what are the trees that we want to 00:02:04
plant this year? 00:02:08
That's going to yield a lot of shade for this community in the future. So that's that's a helpful way maybe to just reflect on 00:02:12
that because a lot of the things that we do. 00:02:16
We won't see the fruits of that labor maybe for a long time. Some things we will, you know, some things. Some trees we planted 00:02:20
last year, we're already seeing shade from. We're seeing good work on our branding process. We're seeing good work at Hair Shoals 00:02:24
Park already underway. 00:02:29
We're seeing good work on our downtown efforts. We're seeing great work on community engagement. 00:02:35
Transportation and Sharon will go over a lot of that progress. So we've done a lot, but I'll challenge all of you to think about 00:02:39
what we want to do. 00:02:43
In the next few years. 00:02:48
There are a few areas where I think we're at a critical time for Watkinsville, I think. 00:02:49
We have a window, I think, to make some to do some significant preservation of green space in our community. 00:02:57
And I think that window is closing just given the potential for residential development. 00:03:03
And the pressure that there will be for residential development? No county county in the next five years and. 00:03:09
We still have probably a fifth or sixth of all the land in Watkins. 00:03:14
Is undeveloped, you know, So that's something to think. 00:03:19
Umm, we still have a ways to go in terms of connectivity, in terms of how our citizens. 00:03:23
Can get around and get around inside the community without a vehicle. What does that need to look like? What are our investments 00:03:28
that we can make? 00:03:32
You all understand the constraints that we have in terms of budget. We stretch those dollars a long way, but they're not. 00:03:36
We're not the county, we're not the school system. We don't have their kind of resources, so we're always going to have to be a 00:03:42
little bit creative. 00:03:45
Um. 00:03:48
But if I paint a picture of 12 to 18 months from now and I tell you it's very likely we have 500 new residents in Watkinsville. 00:03:49
It's very likely we will have preserved. 00:03:56
Privately held, but still probably preserved, about 50 acres of green space between Wire Park and Trove. So that feels good. 00:04:00
We'll have a world class facility next door in terms of a accessible playground in ball field. 00:04:06
We'll have synergy, signage and clarity on our brand. 00:04:11
But. 00:04:15
You know, I think the big thing that jumps out to me is, you know, we're going to have, we're going to have a lot of new folks in 00:04:16
this town. 00:04:19
In the next year, and that's exciting, but it also creates some challenges as Wire Park opens and other things open, so. 00:04:23
I would challenge all of you to think boldly and think about what we want Watkinsville to be and what trees you want to maybe 00:04:29
start thinking about. We want to plant today, we're not going to plant them today, but we can go through the landscape design, 00:04:36
right. We can select our, select our trees and think about what we may be able, may be able to afford so. 00:04:42
That's my preamble. I think what we wanted to kick off with would be. 00:04:49
If any of you guys have any big thoughts that you want to share and lean into that Now we'll say that we do have our, you know, 00:04:52
our sort of our collective vision that we've all, you know, aligned around in the past that's at Tab 1. 00:04:59
You know, that's something that we came up with several years ago and I think most of us. 00:05:07
Umm. 00:05:12
I always like to review that at the start of the year. This is sort of my guiding light when I think about the decisions that we 00:05:13
make, so. 00:05:16
But so that is a vision. That's what we call the Watkinsville. 00:05:21
But I'd love to hear from you guys in the next 15 or 20 minutes before we turn it over to Eva. 00:05:25
And if you've got ideas, big picture ideas, hopes, dreams, things that you want to cover today. 00:05:31
Let's come to just get it out there and I would tell you to. 00:05:39
We're in an open session. 00:05:43
So if you want to talk about very specific matters related to land acquisition sensitive stuff. 00:05:45
I would say let's talk more generally today and rather than being super specific about that because we wouldn't want to. 00:05:51
Put ourselves in an awkward position as a council. 00:05:58
With that, does anybody have anything they want to share about? 00:06:02
Their hopes, their dreams, what they want to see in Watkinsville or what you want to accomplish in the next year. 00:06:06
What trees do you want to plant? 00:06:11
For me. 00:06:18
For me, when I was running a year ago, my main concern was sidewalks. I grew up in AI don't know about it. I grew up in a area 00:06:18
that had sidewalks. 00:06:24
Get on your bicycle or your feet and go across the entire county on a sidewalk safely. 00:06:30
And when I moved to Oconee County, there's it was kind of rural, like where I grew up as a child. 00:06:36
And as Oconee grows, I'd really like to continue to see sidewalks become an integral part of well, what we can control is the 00:06:44
city. 00:06:48
Umm. 00:06:53
So I would like that to still be always be at the top of our list because as we grow as a city. 00:06:53
New businesses coming in, new developments such as Wire Park and other things. The Harris Shoals, ESP. 00:07:00
We need to be able to get to these places without using the vehicles and get the kids back on their bicycles and off of their. 00:07:08
Thanks, Jeff. 00:07:19
So I couldn't get it to turn on. 00:07:25
So I. 00:07:28
I agree with you, I. 00:07:31
Walking paths, but I think with the 500 potential new. 00:07:33
People we got in here and all the traffic that we're going to have, we've got to figure out strategically how to get traffic out 00:07:38
of Watkinsville. 00:07:42
And I think that that's one of the bold plans that I really want is from Barnett Shoals to 15. We need a path, like a direct path, 00:07:46
Barnett Souls to 15. 00:07:51
And then we need a direct path. 00:07:56
Simonton Bridge over to 441. Get all of that traffic out. 00:07:59
Out of Watkinsville how we do it, but we need to start looking at it. 00:08:03
We are going to have a big issue. 00:08:09
Here before long with. 00:08:12
We'll pop right on this. 00:08:20
Comments, you know the traffic when I was beating the sidewalks and we do, I agree with you Jeff, 100%. 00:08:23
But most of the people traffic seemed to be the big, big issue in Watkinsville. And you know, I love the idea of planning the 00:08:31
tree. 00:08:36
And the streets, the roads is something that we're probably 20 years behind. 00:08:42
On the on the just this past year, we got an opportunity. 00:08:48
They caught. 00:08:53
My court. 00:08:56
That opportunity of a possible alternate route for the trucks. 00:08:58
Coming down 15, because if everything continues to grow the way it is, then you know we're going to have more trucks. The truckers 00:09:02
don't want to be in downtown. 00:09:07
I'm afraid that will the tier to keep people from coming to downtown because of the traffic. So we got to be very careful that we. 00:09:13
Can make that happen, You know, get people around. 00:09:24
They're going to use all the other veins, all the other little side streets already. 00:09:29
So you know, we need to keep pushing to try to get that alternate route. 00:09:34
To get at least get the trucks deter. 00:09:39
From downtown. 00:09:43
So that's my goal is to keep trying. 00:09:47
Push. 00:09:52
I agree with everything that's been said. I would say also. 00:10:00
As Jeff and I have been going to other little cities and just, you know, traveling, going different places. 00:10:07
I want Watkinsville. 00:10:13
Even though we want to get rid of traffic, I want people to want to come to Watkinsville. I want Watkinsville to be. 00:10:16
A unique. 00:10:23
That. 00:10:25
We have creatively thought outside the box to make it like nothing else in the world. I know that's kind of big, maybe it's a big 00:10:26
oak that I'm, I'm planting there. But I I think we have the potential for that. I think we have the group of people, we have the 00:10:32
resources we have. I mean even being on this branding committee and seeing the group of people on this committee and like we have 00:10:37
phenomenal. 00:10:43
People and community and so and even though the city. 00:10:49
Isn't super flush. We are in better shape than a lot of cities are and we live in a pretty wealthy community and so. 00:10:54
I think there are ways, creative ways that. 00:11:03
Can utilize that and have public private partnerships to make our community. 00:11:08
Just an outstanding place and on the flip side of that, as I was looking through our goals of what we want to be is to be a very 00:11:14
inclusive place. 00:11:19
I would love to find a way to have some more affordable housing in our community because on the one hand, as we make our community 00:11:24
greater and greater, it's going to naturally bring up property values. 00:11:31
Which is is great, you know, I think property values going up is great, but at the same time I think we might need to be thinking 00:11:39
creatively of perhaps. 00:11:42
Some areas that we maybe let tiny houses in, or maybe let just something that is going to give people in their 20s, those those 00:11:46
next group of community members, a way to live in the city limits of Watkinsville affordably. 00:11:54
Connie. 00:12:05
Well, I've been in town for 35 years and it has changed a lot in the last. 00:12:09
15 to 20. 00:12:15
I. 00:12:18
Would hate to see it change a whole lot more. I think we have a lot of plans right now that we need to accomplish before we keep 00:12:19
expanding to more ideas. 00:12:24
We need to keep the city clean, we need to keep the infrastructure in good shape and we need to keep all of the buildings we 00:12:30
currently have. 00:12:33
Occupied because I don't want to see the downtown area turn into a ghost town because we keep adding more and more buildings and 00:12:38
shops outside. 00:12:42
The downtown area. 00:12:47
It's a nice city. It's it's different than what was 35 years ago, but it's still nice. 00:12:49
Perfect. That's a lot of great themes there. I think we cover a lot of those and what we'll talk about today, but. 00:12:57
And I am, you know, I think one of the biggest accomplishments, even if we can't say it's our accomplishment we were part of it is 00:13:03
the May courts approval. 00:13:07
The reality is the vast majority of the traffic in Watkinsville is not from and of Watkinsville, it's from outside of Watkinsville 00:13:11
that's forced to come into Watkinsville. 00:13:15
That road, if approved, will be a game changer. It'll pull trucks, but there's a good chance, depending on how they design it, 00:13:20
that it will pull some other through, traffic through. 00:13:25
We don't want to pull all the traffic out. That's how you get a ghost. That's how you get a Main Street. With nobody coming to it 00:13:29
is you don't have anybody coming through for. 00:13:33
Meals and those kind of things. So it's a fine balance, you know, in terms of terms of what we want I. 00:13:38
The traffic is a problem, but the traffic, you know drive to some other towns in South Georgia that don't have that traffic, 00:13:43
that's a reason why those retailers like it to some degree is because of those traffic count. So we're going to have to balance 00:13:47
that. 00:13:51
As we. 00:13:56
OK, well thank you all for the ideas. 00:13:59
Eva, I think at this point I'm going to turn it over to you. 00:14:03
All right. Well, thank you for having me. 00:14:06
And I brought my my Watkins Little coffee cup this morning. So we have that. Do we have that brand? Do we have that logo on our 00:14:10
brand slide, the Watkinsville Coffee Cup? 00:14:15
Please add it on my behalf. 00:14:22
No, thank you all again, always enjoy coming here and just hearing over the years what you all are looking to work on and and just 00:14:26
seeing how you're progressing through the the list so. 00:14:32
I think First off this morning Sharon is going to do the 2021 year in review. 00:14:39
There was a dedication for the pedestrian bridge there on Hardin Hill and when we finished striping it last month, when it got 00:15:21
finished striping, that project is now complete. I know that is that's a big transformational. 00:15:27
Thing for the city that has been going on for 15 plus years, I believe. Mayor, is that correct? Somewhere around that time Wire 00:15:34
Park is under development. Every day I go by it, there's something new going on that's going to be that's going to be pretty 00:15:40
transformational for the city and you all have to decide how that's going to connect with your downtown and I heard a minute ago. 00:15:46
I think Connie was the one making sure you don't lose people from that. You know, you're gonna have to figure out a way to connect 00:15:52
that better, you know, provide for citizens to better access both those areas and not one or the other. 00:15:57
We had some we had, you know, the Christmas parade as usual, the fall festival, some of the activities, the copper cops and 00:16:04
bobbers, which the chief does to try to engage. 00:16:11
Children and with adults, with police officers so they don't find them scary. 00:16:18
Obviously the ESP, Miracle League field, Ball field and the playground is currently this, you know, this year. It'll be hopefully 00:16:24
completed this year or in any major. 00:16:29
Supply chain issues. 00:16:35
We mentioned you all mentioned May. 00:16:37
And then we had a couple of fun things, engagements that both the Mayor and Councilman Thomas did this year to try to engage the 00:16:40
community more in the community. 00:16:45
With some exercise and with some decorations, outdoor decorations, stuff like that. That was pretty exciting. So those are just 00:16:50
some pictures hit some highlights on this. Administratively talked about American rescue plan but Munich code was huge. We still 00:16:57
have some tweaking to do to our codes. You you will see a few things coming forward. Our subdivision regulations need to be. 00:17:04
Need to reflect our actual process, which they don't. Right now we're working on that stat. We're at staff level and moving it 00:17:12
will move it through the attorney and then get it to y'all. Hopefully we may. We'll see how how it plays into the budget process, 00:17:17
we may not. 00:17:21
Tax you all and put that into the summer because it's not that big of a deal, but it is. It does need to be reflective of how we 00:17:28
actually operate in the city. I mentioned the community engagement, the cemetery we had, you know, we have a map of all the grave 00:17:33
sites, which I think is important again, history of the city. 00:17:37
And of course the the charter, new city charter on the compliance planning side, the library that library services agreement, how 00:17:43
we're going to operate, work with the county as well as support the library. We had quite a few developments as Councilwoman 00:17:51
Massey mentioned Trove Waters, Walk, Wire Park, those are all either either started or continued their process in 2021. 00:18:00
Some other developments the school elementary schools expanding. 00:18:10
Motors on Main, which was a conditional use that you all approve, which is something you know different for the city, which I 00:18:14
think has been really good for the city so far. And then we've had a lot of my staff continues to get. 00:18:20
Training, Toby actually received his local administrative project certification, which gives us access. Once I get the application 00:18:27
complete, gives us access to. 00:18:32
Department of Transportation monies, federal monies that flow through the state, which should open more doors for us. And recently 00:18:39
he got his red card certification. I mentioned that last week, which will allow him to do some inspections of soil erosion. 00:18:46
Issues they're going on on municipal courtside, you know with 2021 we still had issues with the court operating. So we didn't have 00:18:55
as as many court dates and some of that was driven by the judicial. 00:19:00
District that set those rules, but we did you or you did appoint Kevin McFarland as the new city solicitor. Lee was took on 00:19:08
finance responsibilities and she also received her certification for the local administrative administered project that requires. 00:19:16
Lee would handle all the financial issues that the federal government requires for those monies that are gotten are received by 00:19:26
the city from the state or by the state. And then Toby would handle all the sort of. 00:19:32
Physical you know going out making sure the projects are running according to their their protocols and stuff. So we'd have two 00:19:38
people in here to get certified on the police side you know a grants there were you made a decision recently actually the end of 00:19:43
last year about the jaws of life for the fire department as y'all continue to to provide additional support to the fire 00:19:48
department. 00:19:53
License plate readers, those should be going up this month had some technical issues, but those are moving forward. And then, as I 00:19:58
mentioned, the chief has done a really good job of trying to engage the community through the Easter egg hunt, cops and bobbers, 00:20:03
faith in blue, and then our trick or treating downtown. 00:20:08
Really appreciate their effort. We did hire someone to focus on the parks. Mark Novak is new and and that is starting. He's 00:20:44
starting to evolve a little bit. That's evolving. It's going to evolve, continue to evolve as the park project is implemented. 00:20:50
Had some dedication for Sarah Bell and then the pavement management program, which you guys are going to see a little bit more of. 00:20:59
And during the budget process, and maybe even prior to that has to do with what Councilman Garrett mentioned, which is our roads. 00:21:05
We don't have that many roads that are the city's responsibility, but we do have roads that are the city's responsibility that 00:21:10
have not really been maintained in. 00:21:16
Intentional way. It's sort of just been oh there's a there's a hole or you know there's no then no real. 00:21:22
Umm. 00:21:30
The the infrastructure improvements on dirt on Durham St. not inclusive of the road, but of the storm water. We're done. And of 00:22:04
course, we talked about the playground. 00:22:08
So just a couple things to note. I didn't put 2020 next to it. I do have a little bit of data to share, although I hate I. 00:22:15
Hesitate to share too much about because obviously percentages change based on your the amount of money you have too. But so 00:22:24
generally there are four areas where your revenues for large pieces where your revenues come in. I think it's always important, 00:22:29
especially as an elected official to understand where your money goes. People are going to say well what are you spending money 00:22:33
on. 00:22:37
And in this case, where your money comes from? 00:22:43
The majority of it comes from sales tax, which fortunately for us increased 20% between FY20 and 21. Of course, keep in mind FY20 00:22:46
was low. 00:22:50
Because of the the pandemic and actually 20 part of 21 was low as part of the pandemic do we're coming out of it? 00:22:55
Property taxes or make up 15% of the revenues we take in. Those actually went up 5% I expect. I'm trying to remember, Lee, do you 00:23:03
remember what Alan said? He thought they were going up this year, was it 10? 00:23:08
It was the. 00:23:14
Digest was more and maybe more than that yeah. So we'll we'll see what that looks like when we get our get the digest from the 00:23:16
from the from the county. 00:23:20
Franchise fees, which are, you know, gas? 00:23:24
Phone. 00:23:29
Power those are make up 10%, they actually went down a little bit and if you think about the fact that. 00:23:30
And of course there's a whole bunch of little things, but those are the big pieces of what make up their revenues. So a lot of 00:24:16
that we don't control which is I think important to note, we really a lot we're sort of. 00:24:21
You know, we don't, we don't really drive that, although some of some of your decisions can drive that. I mean obviously you 00:24:28
talked about traffic and bringing people in that sales tax, but we do get a percentage of the overall county, not just the city 00:24:34
sales tax, property taxes. You do only get what's in the county, I mean sorry within the city. So wire park, you know you're going 00:24:40
to get, you get those property taxes of course they pay county taxes too so. 00:24:47
On the expense side, what what I guess I'll point out is 73% of what is done is basically. 00:24:56
Hang on a SEC. I jumped a slide. 00:25:05
OK, what I'll point out is Public Safety and Public Works, and for the most part, that's obviously police. And then Public Works 00:25:09
is mostly garbage. So I've mentioned before, I don't have it here, but. 00:25:13
When we go through the budget process, I'll point. 00:25:19
Over half of our, but half of over half $1,000,000 I think it's like. 00:25:21
Six, hang on a second. She gave me that sheet and I think I laid it in my office. I think there's roughly half of our budget, 00:25:27
about $1,000,000 goes towards public safety and garbage. So about 7 or 800,000 I think is for police right now at least budgeted 00:25:33
for police and then right around 3 or 400,000 is budgeted for garbage. So those are two huge services that your citizens want, but 00:25:40
they take up a good portion of your budget. 00:25:47
Is that include leaf and limb or not? Yes, yeah, garbage and leaf and limb work together. 00:25:55
And then this is the one I was going to. So 73% of what we do is people including, I mean everybody in this room including Eva, 00:26:02
because our contract services include Northeast Georgia Regional Commission. We consider them a contract. We pay them to provide 00:26:08
services. This is one of the services they provide. They also helped us with some grant applications. 00:26:14
But you know, the government's typically run on people, there's the rest of it makes up a smaller percentage but mostly physical 00:26:20
bodies doing the work, so. 00:26:25
The contact services for trash and lawyers? Judges. Yeah, all that. Yep. 00:26:32
So that's just sort of a snapshot and then during the budget process we'll get, we can take deeper dives. But I just I think it's 00:26:42
always important for you sort of see where your money you know how it comes in, where it goes and sort of what makes up. 00:26:47
What you're spending money on. 00:26:53
Any questions on any of? 00:26:55
All right. Thank you, Sharon. 00:27:06
So next we're going to talk about strategic initiatives if Y'all turn to Tab 4. 00:27:10
I know past years we've taken the approach of going through kind of line by line with these and this year we're going to see if if 00:27:20
this works better. 00:27:25
To just let y'all lead a little bit and instead of just going line by line, look through these and just share if you have any 00:27:32
comments about any of them, any changes. 00:27:39
I. 00:27:47
Or if you know there's a there's an item that you think is missing from this list, we can discuss that as well. 00:27:48
So Mayor and council, I will let you guys. 00:27:56
I'll give a few quick updates so everybody looks at this. 00:28:06
We had, I think we've discussed. 00:28:10
Y'all are aware that under. 00:28:12
14 I think is what that would be. 00:28:15
Mark is working on a conceptual design for Barnet Shoals that would ideally Again, there's a lot of detail to work out, but would 00:28:19
widen the sidewalk. 00:28:24
Ideally, address some of the storm water challenges that we face, some portions of those roads. 00:28:30
And to address an earlier comment, better connect wire Park to downtown, make that feel like. 00:28:34
Journey, so to speak, you know. So that is underway. There's work remains to be done on that. Then a conversation with the county 00:28:41
on how we might share. 00:28:46
The cost for that, but I did talk to Chairman Daniel and he indicated. 00:28:51
He'd like us to take the first shot at what a concept would look like for that, so we're working on that. 00:28:56
On also on I-14, the Mulberry Simonton Bridge connector. Have not let go of that idea. I'd still like to find a way to get there, 00:29:03
even if we have to do it in slow steps. Chuck, I almost called you on Sunday about went down there and walked that, but at some 00:29:07
point. 00:29:12
I'm going to call on you. We'll go down there and kind of walk that together and look at that. 00:29:17
And then we're still waiting for from the DNR on I-17 for the grant. 00:29:21
Fund that we've applied for. My preliminary indications are that it's unlikely, unlikely that we're going to get it this year. 00:29:26
Umm, but given some of the other things that are going on. 00:29:33
Portions of that route. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. We've got plenty to say. Grace over, so. 00:29:37
Just a couple updates on L. 00:29:42
You for. We continue to work on that. I got an update from. 00:29:45
You know we're working with the county to try to advance that. So I did get an update. I can share offline with some of y'all 00:29:52
maybe during lunch or something on that one. But and then 8021, as you guys know, that's what you dot right now, but that's. 00:29:57
That's a good one. So a couple quick updates but y'all feel. 00:30:03
Ask questions or comment. 00:30:06
On these things or if you have other ideas that we need to. 00:30:09
Look. 00:30:11
I'm. 00:30:13
You know, looking at the sidewalk area in front of Ashford Memorial Church Methodist Church, where it's very difficult and it's 00:30:22
impossible here. Need help? You can't. 00:30:28
Use that stretch of sidewalk. So I mean, I I'm a little biased because I live on Main Street, but from Hardin Hill to Jackson St. 00:30:34
that stretch of Main Street. 00:30:39
I think it would be nice to look at that stretch. 00:30:44
You know, in my eyes, if we could do something would be really nice. I don't know if you work with the state. 00:30:48
Since it's a state. 00:30:54
To because there's a lot of room from the street to where the sidewalk is. Maybe you curve and gutter it and make a very nice 00:30:56
wider sidewalk. 00:31:00
Since that's heavily traveled by pedestrians that like to make. 00:31:05
The hardened hill, new sidewalk. 00:31:12
To Main Street to Jackson St. makes a nice mile loop and I walk it and I see tons of other people walking it. But anyway, the the 00:31:14
corner there, especially at Hardin Hill and the. 00:31:20
You know it's not 80. 00:31:27
Compliant. And anyway, that's something I would like looked at. I think it's very important for the city to look at since it's in. 00:31:30
Our historic downtown. 00:31:36
Sharon, do you want to offer update on that? I know you've talked to G dot about that intersection in particular. 00:31:38
The I think the while we wait on share and I think the you know there's a that's a tricky tricky intersection and. 00:31:44
Very expensive problem to solve. It's one of the reasons that we did not pave Hardin Hill all the way to Main Street because that 00:31:56
would have triggered A requirement that we, correct me if I'm wrong, but that would have triggered A requirement that we then 00:32:01
resolved on our dime that interchange. 00:32:06
We think it's probably G dots issue to resolve. You know you have a non compliant sidewalk there with very little land. 00:32:11
And we also have a mid block crossing. 00:32:19
At Ashford, that is also problematic and not particularly safe. 00:32:21
There. So there's there's a lot that needs to happen in that area. I think and Sharon you may want to comment, but I think in our 00:32:26
perfect world we'd love to at least have G dot be the lead dog on resolving that issue at that intersection. But I agree with you. 00:32:33
And. 00:32:41
The idea of what happens a little further down Main Street is it's an interesting question, you know. 00:32:42
Yeah, so I'm having trouble pulling up the e-mail, but my recollection is, and I know Toby probably helped me if I'm wrong, but is 00:32:48
we sent that to. We actually sent that intersection request because that's an intersection that is controlled by G dot and they 00:32:54
have it on their plan to do, but they haven't given us a date because it would that entire. 00:32:59
You know, all four corners would have to be adjusted. We did get them to address the the sidewalk stuff that was in front of the 00:33:05
Christian Church in order to keep the water from pulling up there. I think that helped a lot. But the that bigger intersection is 00:33:12
something that's on a bigger plan and they really didn't provide any date of when they're going to do it. Toby, do you? 00:33:18
Actually had it in Q1 of 2021. 00:33:27
But our 2020 and then 2021, but with COVID and the restrictions and their mobilization not being able to mobilize their crews 00:33:32
pushed a lot of that back. So we're really. 00:33:37
Thankful but shocked what they did part in terms of the church over there. 00:33:43
But it is on their radar to not only do the one at Hardin Hill and Maine, but also the one at Simonson in Maine. 00:33:48
Because as you know, we don't have a sidewalk that. 00:33:56
Goes from Town Center down to there, but if they fix that intersection and make it 88 accessible, maybe a little bit of sidewalk 00:33:58
in on that side as well. So all that's on there on their path as well as further down. 00:34:06
In front of the courthouse for 3rd St. Connecticut where they have the stairs there fixing that as well. 00:34:15
Well, there's a sidewalk from Town Center to that intersection, right? 00:34:22
But I mean from Town Center to Simonton Bridge. 00:34:29
No, not in front of the AT&T. 00:34:32
You have to walk. 00:34:36
You can walk all the way from Town Center to that. 00:34:39
But Barnett, that's right. 00:34:42
Yeah, but either way that's good news. So is there anything that? 00:34:45
Crosswalk to to the church, to the Ashford. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's a two way. There's only two ways you can. Yeah, yeah. 00:34:49
Designated crosswalking. 00:34:57
Into that side of between Ashford Memorial and the AT&T. 00:34:59
Do we think to Jeff's point though you? 00:35:05
How do we get a feel for whether that's something that they could tackle this year? Is there a way to find out? Do you? 00:35:09
Back out to. 00:35:14
Individuals. 00:35:16
At first. 00:35:18
Started the process of going through the local guys and then what I did was I contacted the person who's in charge of the ABA. 00:35:19
Or she died. With that route, we got a lot more motion. 00:35:28
Did did that include the power pole? Was right slap in the middle. I'm sorry I had to step out for a minute. 00:35:33
The powerful was right slap in the middle, right in front of the elders property right there. 00:35:38
I'd love to surface that. I mean, I'd like to add that on the work program, I think you know to that stretch of sidewalk, both the 00:35:43
power pole, I think both of those should concern the ADA folks absolutely. And honestly I'd rather have G dot run it because I 00:35:48
think it's going to be like it's going to be very tricky with. 00:35:54
Both there with Georgia Power and the elders and then also at Ashford, I mean there's no way to solve that without impacting a 00:36:01
very historic. 00:36:04
Set of properties there, you know you know because you're going to have to, I mean there's going to have to be some sort of a 00:36:08
ramping solution there, right. I mean there's that's all I can I'm trying to probably would cut a wall, cut a retaining wall right 00:36:13
there. 00:36:18
And so you I'm just imagining, especially in front of the the Ashford house, you would have to cut where the flower bed is now, 00:36:23
cut a retaining wall in, and then your sidewalk would be recessed ground level. 00:36:29
For the. 00:36:36
Yeah, just from the my power perspective, that's going to be expensive. 00:36:37
All of those poles, you try to keep them in as straight a line as possible and so you're not going to be able to just move one 00:36:42
pole. We have to move multiple poles and that's gonna be very expensive. 00:36:46
One of the Georgia Power want to since you know, flex, but no, I mean from the standpoint of ABA, that poll was there from ADA 00:36:50
saying that that poll was there before the sidewalk was. 00:36:57
I don't. I don't disagree with you if we're, if we're a community. 00:37:04
That's invested in inclusivity, Extra special people. 00:37:09
All kinds of other things that we've got a whole population that can't use the, what would you call that, the Western pedestrian 00:37:14
infrastructure in our community because of a power pole? 00:37:18
And the challenges presented by the church, you know, then I think that's. 00:37:23
I think. 00:37:27
Should be aware of that, and I think G dot is the right party to bring. 00:37:29
Try to bring everybody together to resolve that rather than us. I mean, we've just got to get them focused on it. 00:37:32
I can include that. 00:37:38
About the intersection. 00:37:40
Slides pictures of the pole on the sidewalk. 00:37:42
A. 00:37:48
And the at that time, Georgia Pat, the guy he spoke with it, Georgia Power said that that poll was not movable. Now what I recall 00:38:22
about the conversation was it has there's a lot of power on it. You know, apparently if you take that, if you have to move that 00:38:28
pole, you're shutting down, you know all of Main Street. And of course when we had that power outage, what a few months ago, I was 00:38:34
like this is perfect time to move to the ball. 00:38:40
All the power's already out. Nobody's going to be upset but so, so I know there's some challenges. We'll certainly work all of our 00:38:46
connections and and we will add that, add that to add that in the intersection improvement to the. 00:38:50
To the list, yeah, it's not that particular poll that has all the devices on it. It's actually the one that's in front of the 00:38:56
Ashford parking lot that has all the devices on it. If you, I mean, if you look up, there's a whole bunch of stuff, but you can't 00:39:00
move one pole out of line. 00:39:05
Without moving the others and so they can do it all. 00:39:10
Yeah, curve around it. Yeah, that would probably be better than. 00:39:16
Yeah. 00:39:22
I mean, you know, I mean, we need five, we need 5 feet of right away, you know, probably 10. We need a temporary easement and we 00:39:23
need some, right. You know, we need an easement. 00:39:27
Permanent easement, Whatever, You know? I mean, we don't need to pay for that dirt. We didn't pay for dirt from people on the 00:39:32
other side, what they'd still own. 00:39:35
And that. But you know that would be. Another solution would be. 00:39:39
They're probably. I mean, I don't what's the right away from the center line of a state highway 25 feet. 00:39:43
50 feet. So I mean, technically G dot already owns that, but that's an old road, so. 00:39:50
Yeah, we've, yeah, we've tried to look that up. 00:39:56
Yeah, and one thing I brought to comment on I had reached out to G dot. 00:40:00
About the sidewalks. 00:40:06
Up near your house, Jeff, where they're all broken and. 00:40:08
And at that time they told me that they. 00:40:12
Bill sidewalks. They did not repair them. I didn't maintain them. That would be left up. 00:40:16
To the city, but mark you, you may know. Or Toby, when you reach out to them to, you know, clarify that and they'll let out new 00:40:22
projects to bid. 00:40:26
That will have sidewalks. 00:40:32
But as far as them? 00:40:34
Building sidewalks and maintaining them, he said. That was left up to the city. 00:40:37
Old school. 00:40:44
Now, a lot of federal money that G dot uses requires them to put sidewalks. 00:40:48
When they redesigned roads and they do roads and so and that. 00:40:55
Actually, I'm sure a lot of y'all have seen it. The center median 3 wireless down through. 00:41:00
Right, right. 00:41:06
Funding to be able to pay, right? But I mean as far as their crews themselves, he said. They. 00:41:12
Would be it would go out to bid, Yeah, Yeah. I think it's unlikely that like for example South main sidewalks that they would mess 00:41:20
with that I do think. 00:41:24
You know, when it comes to these ADA intersections that they control, I think that's that's. 00:41:29
Where I'd like to see us push is on the I think it's probably unrealistic to expect them to do something, for example, from 00:41:36
Ashford Manor down. 00:41:39
Past your house. I mean that, you know, realistically if we want to do something. 00:41:43
We'd probably have to do it, but we got an ADA situation at AG dot controlled interchange I think. 00:41:47
I'd like gdot to. 00:41:53
I'd like G dot to resolve that instead of a little Watkinsville. I mean we could be talking about hundreds of thousands of 00:41:55
dollars, you know that's well, well beyond what we've got the resources to do while we're talking about sidewalks and again I 00:42:01
apologize I would love to continue that South Main on the round all the way to Collin Ferry. You know if we're we're, they just 00:42:06
installed the trove sidewalk all the way to the end of Collin Ferry. 00:42:11
It would be nice to be able to connect. 00:42:18
Quarter mile. 00:42:20
Well, I'd love to see us, you know. Again, it's up to y'all if you want to put it on here. I think to take that sidewalk from 00:42:22
Jackson, even to Harden Hill. 00:42:26
Even if we did it in phases, Phase one to Column Ferry, Phase two, Column Ferry to Jackson Terrace. Phase three. 00:42:30
Jackson Terrace to Hardin Hill And then you've you. 00:42:36
There's a lot of people who walk that anyway, and it's dangerous, you know, and there's there's a fair bit of right away, the 00:42:39
whole way through there, you might have to do it. 00:42:43
Column fairy side instead. 00:42:48
With Jackson Trail side there's there's less less trees and all to takedown. Yeah, I think it would be. That'd be hard to do. I 00:42:52
think we'd have to think through. We'd have to leave that to Mr. Campbell but I think it'd be hard to. 00:42:57
Tell people here's where you cross. Now the other thing that we need to think about potentially is Sharon has mentioned us, the 00:43:04
pipe plant project is likely to come back before us. 00:43:09
The pipe plant project we expect, we don't know would potentially include. 00:43:14
A access to South. 00:43:19
Coming across potentially again what's been previewed to us, I don't have this, you know, don't you know again it's what's been 00:43:22
previous, some sort of connection coming into South Main which could create a natural crossing point. 00:43:28
That would allow then someone to cross their access column ferry. 00:43:35
And safely reach that sidewalk to walk their kids to school. 00:43:40
And then we have worked with Mr. Mcduff. 00:43:43
And his land planner so the plans are finalized. The sidewalk is all the way down, Column Ferry. But the plans. 00:43:46
That everybody knows where the plans have to go on the column Ferry elementary side so that those kids can be getting the school 00:43:51
so. 00:43:54
This time next year we'll have kids walking to school. But to your point Brett, we want also need at some point families who don't 00:43:58
already live on column ferry to be able to cross and access that sidewalk and get their kids down there. So and remind me, please, 00:44:02
are we putting? 00:44:07
Flashing lights at that. OK goodness in the plan. 00:44:12
Yeah. On Column Ferry there was and one of the one of the. 00:44:17
One of the requests was, and I know Chief talked to you all about this was about a always stop at one point there at Column Ferry 00:44:22
at the railroad crossing. But that all is sort of in play depending on what happens, you know if there's a if there's a connection 00:44:27
to. 00:44:32
Potential future pipe plant development, then that may come down further, as the mayor said, further down on the Main Street, then 00:44:38
further out. So it's sort of everything sort of in flux and in play, but I've made some notes. We'll make sure to include those. 00:44:44
Do we want to add the though this other idea of? 00:44:51
Side. 00:44:55
Connectivity further on South Main. As a South Main resident, I'm not comfortable suggesting that so. 00:44:56
But I would need some of y'all to. 00:45:03
That's nod your head and say yes, absolutely, I'll run that, I'll run that. I would love to have a continued path that that comes 00:45:06
down to there. So I have, I'm, I'm all for as many sidewalks as possible so I'm not opposed to it. 00:45:12
If we think through the. 00:45:19
Hopeful. 00:45:22
Rails to trails that would be going through there, How does that impact the decision as far as because as we know how much 00:45:23
sidewalks cost like would that would if we have the rails to trails going through? 00:45:30
Because that's like along that just obviously on the other side does that. 00:45:37
Satisfy at least some of that. As long as there's some way, there's safe connectivity to that. 00:45:42
That's the Railster Trail is would be fantastic. I'd be great, but it doesn't fill the need that we're referencing. I'm calling 00:45:50
Ferry, at least from my thought have always been I want to see kids walking to school. So getting column Ferry and tying it to the 00:45:56
Jackson St. 00:46:01
Area allows Christian lakes. 00:46:08
All Jackson St. area to be able to walk across the street if there's a way. 00:46:12
Again I'm not opposed to it, but if we are emphasizing the rails to trails is there a way to like from Jackson St. have a 00:46:19
crosswalk across the street there and like a path through like next to someone's yard to that rails trails over does that I mean 00:46:26
is that am I making sense if you do have the, if you do have the crossing that were that was kind of presented from the Smith 00:46:34
Setzer plan at the Jackson St. that allows coming down Jackson St. 00:46:41
Crossing at an intersection of some sort there. 00:46:49
To the rails, the trails where you would turn right and then left down the sidewalk that just, you know, just roughly finished. So 00:46:52
yes, yeah, if you do it, I'm just wondering that would be a lot less side. And I'm just thinking about like aren't there ditches. 00:47:00
So maybe we just table this, put it as like a low or medium priority until whatever, whatever happens with. 00:47:08
Pipe plants. So maybe we capture it as a low priority you know to and make it do you think it's around the idea of how do we get 00:47:17
families to that column ferry sidewalk. Yeah. Say I agree you know that you know otherwise we know we're going to have families 00:47:22
walking down. 00:47:26
441 in the mornings trying to cross column ferry to get to the sidewalk. I mean, there's going to be the next version of Jeff 00:47:32
Campbell. I remember when you did that with was it Sadie or Hello Porter when you walked through a city And I got. 00:47:38
So there will be, there will be others who try. I'd love to make it safe for them to do so. I will also just throw out there as 00:47:45
we're talking about crosswalks. I actually had a citizen contact me this weekend. 00:47:50
Saying that she is having issues as she walks in Watkinsville with the crosswalks, with the flashing lights that cars don't stop. 00:47:57
For them. 00:48:04
And. 00:48:06
It is the law, right? Like at a flashing the cars are supposed to and so if that is perhaps something that. 00:48:07
Our law enforcement. 00:48:15
And we can also raise some awareness, you know put something newsletter, put something on Facebook, remind people, well it's 00:48:17
probably not our local residents, it's the piece on Main Street, it's the people coming down. So I don't know if some some pain of 00:48:22
tickets. 00:48:27
Last year, I think now we put some signs and go to try to. 00:48:33
Prepare people. 00:48:41
They're not paying attention way and so that you know maybe some some ticketing there. 00:48:44
Assess that very situation. I believe the same false walk about four years ago. Notice the lack of compliance with another 00:48:53
community. Is using the little bright neon flags where you get one foot out. Wave your flag to get the drivers attention. Actually 00:48:59
works really well with other community that uses that. It's really goofy. 00:49:06
Well, in Athens they had that multi. In Athens they had to do multi colored flags. In Madison, I think they still have orange 00:49:14
flags. 00:49:17
Would work a lot better. 00:49:21
Well, I think our officers have also and again it's kind of nice having Chief on and he can't comment. So we can just. 00:49:25
But. 00:49:33
But you know, I feel like I don't know if it was our previous police chief or this police chief, but we had, we had a little bit 00:49:34
of targeted enforcement where they kind of walked it plainclothes. 00:49:39
And then they had, they had a police car stationed a little bit down the road, and when the cars didn't. 00:49:45
They said that's the license. 00:49:50
Go get them. And all of a sudden you know it did make a difference. 00:49:52
Yeah, yeah. 00:49:58
Yeah. 00:50:00
But a little bit of that probably goes a long way. And to your point, it may be out of towners, but a lot of times it's it's like 00:50:02
the speeding problems in Christian Lake. Several years ago, that was all Christian Lake residents. 00:50:07
Once the police started enforcing it. 00:50:13
I I I think some targeted enforcement could. 00:50:16
Fun. And you could probably we could have a little social media fun with that too, you know, I think that would be much better 00:50:19
than the flags, I think the flags are not illegal. 00:50:23
Way of. 00:50:28
Got in. 00:50:30
I think that's why some of them got away from it when they just get stolen, you know, I mean it's just it's catnip for teenagers 00:50:32
when you have flags sitting out for that, you know, so. 00:50:37
Citizens arrest. 00:50:52
Yeah, so it doesn't matter if the flash is, you get a flag, there's a. 00:50:59
Do we? So I want to make make every effort to if you have any questions about marquee, it has an important hence to leave the 00:51:06
center. 00:51:10
Just in case there's anything related to something that's on this list or even the committee updates that you need to involve in 00:51:15
and you won't feel. 00:51:19
Specifically, I know the transportation study did talk about you know connectivity from Colin Ferry Road to South Main Street and 00:51:28
and that that is that is a node that is a point of emphasis and and there's a couple different ways to try to look at that. But 00:51:34
one of the issues is sight distance as you approach the curve and and also you don't want to have a mid block crossing. So any 00:51:41
potential new development is, is again part of what's been discussed here today. 00:51:47
You. 00:51:55
The need for that crossing. So there's a little bit of a process, but I appreciate everybody thinking about that and focusing on 00:52:29
that. I don't know that we have a quick and easy solution and maybe the reason it hasn't already been done, but just to think 00:52:34
about, you know, if you could say here's a solution or here's something to work towards that is not a mid block crossing, I think 00:52:39
that'll be cute. 00:52:44
Do we have a Speaking of sidewalks, I know that when we do development agreements that sidewalks are part of that, especially when 00:52:51
they're. 00:52:55
Sewer capacity. But do we have an ordinance that when people are like redoing a home or not in Morgan's manner little neighborhood 00:53:00
but like on any of the main things that in order to pull building permits they have to. I know Clark County has that, that they 00:53:07
have to run a sidewalk like the the house on Main Street that was kind of. 00:53:14
Was very rundown right before Experiment station on the right across from Dobies area. That house just got completely flipped. 00:53:21
And so I'm just thinking as things like that happen, it makes. 00:53:32
If to have people put in sidewalks. 00:53:37
Yeah. 00:53:43
It's not a. 00:53:45
Right. I think it was only sewer is that something we. 00:53:49
Houses being renovated. 00:53:54
Point. 00:53:57
Is that something we want to think about? 00:53:59
I think it have to be on 1/4 that's identified by the transportation plan as. 00:54:11
We want to have sidewalks on that, right, not like and not get point an HVAC permit or a roof permit, but like a, you know, when 00:54:16
you are doing a major renovation on a property. 00:54:20
Patch. 00:54:27
And renovation, because again we think about some of the largest subdivisions in Watkinsville that don't have sidewalks right now, 00:54:30
Christian Lake, Stone shows being one if five years, if somebody in Stone Shoals wants to renovate their home, I think Watkins 00:54:35
would want to encourage that. But then did they put a sidewalk for 100 feet and that's why I think the main corridor not like in 00:54:40
neighborhoods because that would be strange. 00:54:45
I mean and and not as necessary, I think most of us, I mean, would it be ideal for every neighborhood to have sidewalks? Yes. 00:54:51
Do any of us see that as a priority? No. I mean we can. I feel safe walking Morgan's Manor every day with my dog. 00:54:58
You know, same I walk in Christian Lake a lot. I mean, I think that. 00:55:08
It's it's the main corridors, no, the only. 00:55:11
Right. But there are there are properties like this one on North Main that. 00:55:18
Maybe instead of having it be just new construction, I mean there was one on Harden Hill that was completely, they called it a 00:55:23
renovation, but it was basically a teardown. They kept the parts of the foundation and it was a new build. I mean, right. But we 00:55:29
would have wound up with a sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, you know. So I mean it's it's a weird and and the only issue 00:55:34
the issue I see is then you have a. 00:55:40
Potentially 100 foot piece of sidewalk for. 00:55:46
Ever. Just 100 foot piece of sidewalk, yeah. 00:55:49
That we are going to be doing, yeah. 00:55:54
Yes, that's. 00:56:04
Why don't we take a look at our policies on that and see if they need to be updated? I think is a good first step, right? So in 00:56:08
addition to sewer. 00:56:12
On those quarters, is there a trigger for? 00:56:17
Sidewalk construction and what's the appropriate trigger? And then maybe they can circle back to us on that. We can understand a 00:56:20
little bit more. 00:56:23
I could see your point, you know, on. 00:56:26
You know the South main quarter that we were just talking about if a couple with those houses were. 00:56:29
Renovated at a certain level, you know. 00:56:33
Yeah. 00:56:36
Somebody's investing over $100,000 then. 00:56:38
Maybe it makes sense. 00:56:41
To. 00:56:43
Add that ribbon to sidewalk up front. I don't know, maybe we can check on. 00:56:44
What other categories are mark specific in here? I do think it's good to get him while we. 00:56:53
Made the storm water. Do you want to have? Oh yeah, OK Are we comfortable? Y'all moving on to green space and environment. 00:57:00
Do you mind Remember I mentioned something about potentially a truck bypass or a bypass that goes from Barnett Shoals to 15? 00:57:09
Is that something we want to look at as well? 00:57:17
Maybe or or maybe down by like Norton Road. 00:57:22
Yeah, so I'm thinking more to. 00:57:29
Mandate that FEED and seed and LAD can't come through Watkinsville. They got to go and take a truck bypass. 00:57:31
And so I guess. 00:57:39
I really wish we could have caught this before wire part was done so we could have put a continuation all the way across, but you 00:57:42
go from. 00:57:45
15 to Barnett Shoals to Simonton Bridge all the way over to 441 with a truck bypass all the way around Watkinsville. 00:57:49
You'll have one that goes from 15 to 441 eventually, and then you could have one that comes from 15 to. 00:57:59
441 on the opposite side of Watkinsville, like on north. 00:58:05
Out by the fire department. 00:58:09
It's just something to think about because we, I mean, we're about to add a bunch of trucks, cars, people to Watkinsville, a bunch 00:58:12
of them. And I mean anybody that travels through downtown Watkinsville already knows we've got a terrible traffic problem. 00:58:20
Anytime of the day, really. 00:58:28
Yeah, I purposely don't go to downtown Watkinsville because it's just it's. 00:58:34
Traffic jam most of the time, I mean I go around, but it's just something to think about. I mean, so like right there at Norton 00:58:39
Road where you know Wire Park is creating a, you wouldn't be able to put trucks on it because they're having two separate 00:58:44
roundabouts I believe, but maybe at Norton Road. 00:58:49
Coming across over there down the power line because you do have a transmission line that comes right through there. 00:58:55
Umm. 00:59:01
And then same thing for Simonton Bridge, you've got a transmission line that runs across same same line but. 00:59:02
Out of Watkinsville for. 00:59:10
I just think it's wildly, I mean, Brett, I love the way you thinking. I just think it's sort of wildly unfeasible. I mean that's a 00:59:12
gigantic project. 00:59:16
To serve. 00:59:20
Athens Seed and Just. 00:59:22
I just don't see it as. 00:59:25
I don't think you're going to take any out of town trucks. In fact I think you could pull out of town trucks closer in. Ironically 00:59:26
by doing that I'm. 00:59:30
I mean, I've looked at the map a million times. I just don't know how you wiggle something through there without absolutely 00:59:36
destroying that into town. That's my concern. You know, I'll, I'll look at it with you. I got, I got some plans. 00:59:41
Later y'all y'all weigh in. I just. I struggle with that concept and and it wouldn't just be for so here's the my thought you know 00:59:49
I I know we're about to put a bypass around Bishop but most of the trucks don't come down 441 they come down. 00:59:56
Because it's shorter for them, they just. 01:00:03
It's shorter for them to come down 15 and they're going to continue to come through Watkinsville unless somehow or another we 01:00:06
mandate that they go down to 441. Well that's what. 01:00:10
Yep. 01:00:16
You know, so hopefully that does draw the trucks that we're hoping for. 01:00:18
Where you gonna put it all the way back at 20 in Greensboro? 01:00:27
But then if that if that bypass at 1:15 over to 441 happens. 01:00:32
Yeah. 01:00:37
So there. 01:00:55
Something I can help mitigate some. 01:00:58
Truck drivers use. 01:01:01
Think right now is for the most part. 01:01:02
Global positioning mapping systems. 01:01:06
And reaching out those like so. 01:01:09
When they do the software for these mapping systems, they don't take into account a lot of times. 01:01:12
Where they're coming in. 01:01:17
Your point on 15 when you're on I-20. 01:01:20
Take. 01:01:23
Of the Greensboro, and you have to make that hair thing turn down. There was an. 01:01:24
It doesn't take that into. 01:01:28
And it doesn't take into effect that you're going to come through. 01:01:30
A main town where it's top. 01:01:33
And. 01:01:37
Reaching out to those mapping companies that can do the mapping. 01:01:38
Redirecting those trucks through their mapping system to go down to four 31441. 01:01:43
To come down to 441. 01:01:50
That way would be ideal. 01:01:54
You know, because it's the mapping system that they go by, because a lot of those guys. 01:01:57
Over the road, truckers don't know the roads and don't like Some of them are old school and are familiar, but other ones do not 01:02:02
know. 01:02:05
And they're going by their mapping system, which is taking them through Greensboro, which? 01:02:09
1-2 like 390° turns. 01:02:14
And then they're bringing them right down through Watkinsville. 01:02:18
And. 01:02:21
You know, and some of them to that point are actually even coming up Simons. 01:02:22
And then trying to turn left to right, coming off assignments and on the main which we. 01:02:26
Is. 01:02:30
Logistically possible, unless. 01:02:32
You got traffic backed up and I know the chief has reached out the G dot about repositioning. 01:02:34
The lines off of Barnett, where Barnett comes into. 01:02:40
Repositioning those. 01:02:44
Back a little bit further to keep those trucks off the sidewalk. 01:02:46
Right there at Maine and Bar. 01:02:50
But I think that's. 01:02:52
Possibility is to reach out to the mapping companies and see if they can remap. 01:02:54
Those lines and I've talked to Dutch about that and also talked to some folks at G dot and with the Georgia Transportation or 01:02:59
Logistics Innovation Center. 01:03:04
So we're trying to get a call together on that topic like electronically, digitally. What can we do to also? 01:03:10
Encourage trucks to go around. One of the things we're fighting against is there's construction on 441 right now too, which slows 01:03:16
it a little bit more. 01:03:19
That's 441 improves. That's going to help the problem too. You know, in the map, because it's just going to be. 01:03:22
A better Rd. will go a little faster, but for the next two years, Chuck, I guess, you know we've got construction between Eatonton 01:03:28
and Madison, which sort of. 01:03:32
If you use Waze or something like that, it sort of slows it down, but. 01:03:36
There's a guy named Barco Bill who is at the Georgia Southern Logistics Innovation. 01:03:39
And I've talked to him about our issues. And then Dutch knows those mapping systems real. 01:03:44
And so I want to get a call together with the two of them and maybe maybe Seth Milliken from the Georgia. 01:03:48
Transportation Alliance who have also talked to about the Watkinsville situation. So they've all agreed to have a conversation and 01:03:54
see what we can do about how do. 01:03:57
Get freight through Oconee County the most efficient way possible because I think I've told all y'all we're basically the we're 01:04:01
the Atlanta freight bypass right now. And you know, so ideally that freight should move on a four lane Rd. not a two lane Rd. 01:04:07
Through Wrightsville, through Greensboro, through Watkinsville. 01:04:12
You know, which is what it's doing right now. 01:04:19
Yeah. So in my friend in the trucking business at 15 usually pops up about 7 or 8 minutes quicker when you put it in in Savannah. 01:04:22
Well, they don't know 7 or 8 minutes, you know, you know, I mean, big deal to them, but they don't understand what that 7 or 8 01:04:28
minutes means. You know, OK, you really got to sit still. You got to do these turns, all this other stuff, you know, all things 01:04:33
being equal, you know, we need to find a way to steer them towards. 01:04:38
441 but you know. 01:04:43
It's just a terrible and you would think that we can stop the trucking industry industry from coming down 15. 01:04:52
You. 01:04:58
I mean, we can. We're going to work on it with technology, but that's the thing with state routes you can't stop anybody from 01:05:00
using. 01:05:03
That's their that's their right, you know? 01:05:08
All right. Do we want to circle back to the storm water stuff, since I think we've got. 01:05:18
About 20 more minutes with Mark. We've got Parks, Green Space and Environment is our next one right, Eva? Is that where we're 01:05:23
going? OK. 01:05:27
I'm sure, yeah. 01:05:42
Yeah, What? Can you give an update on what's happening? Because I see all of Wire Park getting so pretty and then there's our 01:05:45
library. 01:05:48
It's certainly the details are fairly under design. 01:05:53
Probably. 01:06:03
Starting third quarter of the year, I don't know. Yeah, one point kind of go with the working library. 01:06:06
County branch of library in Rockfordville Ave. or. 01:06:16
More than likely be. 01:06:21
But construction calls for a huge issue. 01:06:26
If you try to do something now, it's more expensive than it was to build a year ago, a few years ago. 01:06:32
If you don't build it now, it probably won't be a lot more questions. 01:06:40
Thank you. 01:06:44
If you build it. 01:06:48
Mark, what you know. 01:06:51
Are there any plans or has anybody discussed the old library and what may happen there? 01:06:53
Is that owned by the Industrial Development Authority or owned by the Library Authority? 01:06:59
Board of Commissioners. OK. All right. 01:07:05
Because that will be an interesting asset for the community, you know. 01:07:07
You know, just a recorder standpoint to give you an idea. Technically my understanding is keep publicly confirmed, but. 01:07:12
The Sheriff's Department with. 01:07:19
Oconee County Board commissioners actually owns the building where the post office is located. 01:07:21
They own the building where the library is located and they own the building where the health department located. So that is along 01:07:26
that corridor on the on the western side of. 01:07:30
The state route that comes. 01:07:36
Can you give us an update on the? 01:07:39
So there is an agenda setting meeting with the Board of Commissioners tonight, at which time they were placed on their agenda for 01:07:42
a vote next week to select the bid for the company that provided the the lowest bid and work towards authorizing that company to 01:07:48
move forward. I want to speak to the Board of Commissioners, but in correspondence, yeah, on February 1st, 4 bids were received. 01:07:54
The date has been going through on those four bids and the. 01:08:01
My understanding. 01:08:08
It's an issue to bid, not a, you know, request for a proposal. So the lowest responsibility will be selected. That'll be put on 01:08:10
the agenda tonight for a vote a week from tonight. 01:08:14
Yeah. And then they can't start construction soon enough and we're still thinking three to five months. 01:08:22
Depending. 01:08:30
Rock. 01:08:31
Maybe I don't have their schedule in front of me. I don't think three months is anywhere in the realm of possibility. 01:08:32
Too short? Correct. 01:08:42
I feel pretty confident that there will be sewer in before the library is open. 01:08:47
I don't think it's a lot. I don't think it's the library we're worried about. 01:08:53
Some of them can because there's existing septic there. 01:09:01
I don't, I don't. I don't think you could begin to get it's there's probably, to Brett's point, there's probably some limited 01:09:05
stuff you could do with the existing but it'll be a challenge to have I would think to have food and the other stuff that. 01:09:12
You know the the highest use from a sewer generally would be a restaurant. You see, anybody who's dealt with, you know, sewer 01:09:22
impact fees or grease traps or any of those other types of things understands if you change your business from a retail business 01:09:27
or an office building to a restaurant, that changes the sewer impact of that location. 01:09:32
Yeah. 01:09:39
We've been involved the whole way. I mean, so we've we handed it to them, but we've remained engaged and continue to be engaged on 01:09:43
the project. 01:09:47
Parks, green space and environment, I guess that would be environment, but is there any any other questions about and again I do 01:09:52
have some some draft or preliminary things, it's very preliminary but just talking about some multi pathways. 01:09:58
That the mayor mentioned earlier along Barnett Shoulders Rd. That will not just be a transportation element. 01:10:06
Or Greenway element that that will have a storm water element within it as well. Still you know, got some obstacles. 01:10:13
We we need to probably be doing everything we can and everything we talked about so far today. 01:10:19
To talk with Georgia Power. 01:10:26
G dot is somebody we always have to coordinate with in Watkinsville because there are so many state routes in Watkinsville, but. 01:10:31
It's difficult to turn around. 01:10:39
And Walkman zeal and not see a powerful OK, so this is going to show my ignorance when it comes to power. I know there are people 01:10:41
who know a lot more than I do. How hard is it to get? 01:10:46
Above ground power lines underground. 01:10:52
So you don't want to do that? 01:10:54
It is very, very costly to do it. 01:10:58
And when they do go out, because they do it. 01:11:01
Exponentially longer because then you got to get people out there to locate the power lines, you got to come dig them up, you've 01:11:05
got to fix. 01:11:08
I mean exponentially. 01:11:13
So just for residential for instance, it goes from probably 15 minutes of fixing an overhead line to two and a half 3-4 hours to 01:11:15
fix it. So an underground for say our overhead lines. 01:11:22
You're talking a full day's project? 01:11:29
I mean, isn't a lot of the power damaged wind and weather that wouldn't affect underground stuff? 01:11:33
There's also a difference between transmission and distribution lines, you know, and so I think, I think what we'd be talking 01:11:39
about would be distribution lines, correct. Yeah. So all the ones you see, all of our main lines that come down are Main Street, 01:11:44
are all distribution now transmission lines are out. 01:11:50
Like Norton Road. That big substation right there. The big, big wires. 01:11:55
But you're you're not going to. It's ridiculously expensive to. You won't see any city that's got all of their stuff on. 01:12:01
Now neighborhoods, big neighborhoods like. 01:12:09
Down in Greensboro. 01:12:12
Forgot the name of the all of those are all underground but that I mean or even Daniel Plantation I mean there's some you know 01:12:14
there's there's some no county that I mean like Christian Lake is all underground but that's that's a resident most big 01:12:18
neighborhoods are all underground. 01:12:22
But coming up to them is overhead wire because it's so much cheaper to do overhead and easier to fix the maintenance arms. 01:12:26
So much cheaper to fix. 01:12:35
So but Christine I think to your point you know we and to marks point is we're going to need to. 01:12:36
You know we're going to need to wrap our brain around for example, Barnett Shoals just hypothetically and we could all probably 01:12:43
stand up and look at those plans if we want to. I mean, Mark, are they over there? Yeah, I mean if y'all want to have a stand up 01:12:47
break and walk over there and look at what Mark's designed, I mean we don't. 01:12:52
Hi everybody. But you know it's nothing says that we have to be miked up the whole time. If we want to go over and look at those, 01:12:57
we can stand up and look at them. 01:13:00
You know the idea, Our idea, this simple idea would be to extend that sidewalk out into the road a little bit. Add a new curb. 01:13:03
I think, Mark, that's what we're still talking about. South, the road Skinny's up a little bit. We still keep wide lanes because 01:13:10
we're not doing bike lanes, but you've got like a 10 foot, 10 foot. 01:13:15
And you saw it in some ways for better for worse on the Harden Hill Rd. You know there was initially planned hey we're going to 01:13:19
move all these powerful and and and we're just going to move them. George Powers going to move them for us because that's the best 01:13:24
thing in the world to do. 01:13:30
And. 01:13:36
And it was it was going to a project that already had a lot of money in the budget. If you start looking at every poll being 4050, 01:13:37
sixty thousand plus, depending on the things that are on the pole, well then that eats up a lot of potential for OK, how much do 01:13:43
you want to shorten the sidewall project? How much do you want an error sidewalk project versus? 01:13:50
And go around the. 01:13:57
And and so there's pluses and minuses that we we we can see it, we can talk about it. But you know, so there are every situation 01:13:59
there's a critical of this poll. 01:14:04
No ifs, ands or buts. At what cost? And hey, this poll can stay where it is. 01:14:10
And you work on an alternate solution, because if you say. 01:14:15
Let's just say $50,000 to move a poll versus an alternate solution. Well, there's probably a lot of alternate solutions. 01:14:20
That don't cost $50,000. 01:14:27
Water parks Annual estimated electric bills $550,000. 01:14:29
If that helps us. So that Georgia Power wasn't getting before. 01:14:34
So just something to think about. So anyway those conversations to your point to that they they are much more amenable to move 01:14:39
stuff when they're making lots of money. 01:14:44
So Harden Hill, they weren't making any additional money. Now they, you know, I didn't know. Let's be real, They're going to make 01:14:49
this money either way. But this is a pretty significant economic development. 01:14:54
I don't know if you want to look at it, if you can visualize it, if anybody wants to stand up and stretch your legs, you could 01:15:33
look at it everybody. 01:15:36
Somewhat, yeah. 01:15:43
With. 01:15:48
Yeah. 01:16:05
So this the right order? Well, it's 2 copies, so it's kind of an overall and then and then an overall. 01:16:13
It gives you an idea. 01:16:22
Just doing it on that northern side of the roadway. So what we I guess discovered in some ways is that one kids with white pathway 01:16:25
is better than two properties. So you still have the sidewalk on the other side of the street. 01:16:32
When you're looking at one side of the road. 01:16:40
Thinking that Kirk is there now, we're having to find the sidewalk that's there now. 01:16:45
There's a 2 foot strip directly to the curve, ripping that curve up, pushing it in. 01:16:49
Making a possible run sidewall. 01:16:55
The thought is to do that without relocating the center line. What will happen is that northern lane will be more narrow lane but. 01:16:59
Yeah, being multi use staff. 01:17:23
But then you know if you're looking. 01:17:27
19. 01:17:35
So what you do? 01:17:39
A lot of. 01:17:43
They have. 01:17:47
Is there enough? 01:17:58
I can. I can look at. I haven't. I don't know that. OK, I'm just trying to. 01:18:00
But this doesn't contemplate this point. Now there will be some storm water work again in that. So when you're digging the storm 01:18:08
water pipe, any changes to that? 01:18:13
A reminder. 01:18:21
Just curious why you chose that side instead of this side? 01:18:25
So I think, you know the connectivity was a big part of that. So there are sidewalks on both sides of the roadway. 01:18:30
And we have to actually familiar with, you know we went through some of this exercise with bike lanes as well but it was it was 01:18:35
specifically connecting to the hives into the only only reason I say that is put it on this side. You know that's correct. You're 01:18:42
correct. But then in theory you've got an issue of and where do you call back. 01:18:49
The only other thing would be the industrial drive which does get a fair amount of of traffic then if you have pedestrians coming 01:19:07
across that area from a multi degree. 01:19:12
I mean, I would personally put it right here. 01:19:19
I think, yeah, there will be something there. And so I mean that's it's good and straight. You can see for 1/2 mile either 01:19:24
direction, quarter mile either direction. 01:19:29
And and you know, most of the pedestrians are going to be on this side too. 01:19:44
This other idea is we control find a way to control some the speed of storm water. 01:19:58
And this is just in general terms because. 01:20:10
Replacing in some. 01:20:13
Impervious, but we're also increasing your landscape. Just this work and I have no idea what we can talk about. 01:20:16
But it would decrease the amount of impervious area that's going to be existing. 01:20:25
Well, again that the thought would be a 2 foot wide strip that's there down you've got Dog Woods, we've got other things. It's 01:20:36
really not wide enough for 20 minutes. So if you go to a three foot wide it would the question then becomes. 01:20:42
Well your opportunities for treasure landscape and at this point you know you could do some undersory trees when after it could 01:20:49
fit no problem. But if you wanted something larger or something but then you have our overhead power but you know you could do a 01:20:54
four foot strip and you can give yourself. 01:20:59
I know we like grass, but that is a whole lot. 01:21:05
You just put additional 12 inches of remember that's accounting really. 01:21:11
Intention is that they have to cut it and we all of course we know that they're going to cut what they're going to cut and we're 01:21:17
going to have to supplement, you know, extra but. 01:21:21
So if. 01:21:24
Personally, don't like it when you put 1218 inches of the grass because. 01:21:27
Then then this. A whole lot but this would this would be a pretty good strip. 01:21:32
And the issue is when we did the Hard Hill Rd. sidewalk, we had a ditch section where again in my opinion that project as much as 01:21:38
it was a pedestrian project was also some more project as well. But you were creating sidewalk and curving whether they were not 01:21:43
there before. And this project there's August sidewalk until we go today. So it's the differential would not be as severe the 01:21:49
water. 01:21:54
Piping, but now the structures are out, so now you got to put. 01:22:01
It. 01:22:06
Well, hard to heal. They weren't there. I mean driveway there wasn't there. So this is again it's an existing turbid intersection 01:22:12
out of the existing big section. So from a improvement standpoint, there would be a storm water element to it, but it should not 01:22:19
be a storm water element because the piping would be you would have storm structures, it might be a lesson structure or something 01:22:25
like that, but you wouldn't have each storm structure would be very small into pipe rather than 100%. 01:22:32
Yeah, jump into. 01:22:52
Out Lexington Highway. Skate around and Winterville. 01:22:59
Winterville has Is that what it is? And it is gorgeous. I got a friend. 01:23:07
And I mean there's there's like 8 or 10 foot wide. 01:23:15
It's got happened while I still get on my bike. 01:23:29
You missed that but just general, but this is this is the point we have so far. 01:23:36
And I think the idea, you know before where you had to be right away acquisition, you had to do some of those things when you're 01:23:51
going back behind it. If you think about the edge of the sidewalk now and it's coming in because you have such a wide landing 01:23:56
theory, you don't have to do by the way acquisition, that's a big. 01:24:01
That's what I think on Main Street from Jackson to Ashford, you have the same thing. You would be going into the street because 01:24:06
there's all of that. 01:24:11
You know you had a section, It would be. 01:24:32
Your own property, yeah. 01:24:41
This is my property so. 01:24:47
But. 01:24:50
So you have not done budget obviously, but that is what will just seem like you're not going to simple like. 01:25:01
You know sidewalk alone would be about a million a mile roughly. And that was probably 2019 figures. So just sidewalk not 01:25:10
including your I mean and there's yeah. 01:25:15
Yeah. On this part and no land acquisition, that's not quite a what is that like? 01:25:21
Something like that. 01:25:32
It's not. I haven't put it together yet. 01:25:34
It's a little less than that, yeah. 01:25:39
Something like that anyway. 01:25:44
So all the powerfuls are on the side, they're not. 01:25:52
Yeah. 01:26:00
It's not the way. It's not the way it worked out. 01:26:07
And there's still a sidewalk here. So it's not like these people can't. Yeah, there's a good sidewalk. But I mean, I still would 01:26:15
prefer this, but I think it would be wise, but we could talk about it. 01:26:23
What would be the right of way, let's say? 01:26:34
Let's. 01:26:38
End of the road again. 01:26:39
But the lanes are still wide enough safely. 01:26:50
You know, but it wouldn't feel like. 01:26:54
There's not many places in the city where you can say hey when you turn 5% walk into a 10 foot title and not have right away 01:26:58
acquisition. But as we talked about kind of in that life lane as well, what were the roadways already relatively wide and what 01:27:03
this is one of these probably. 01:27:09
Sewer only on the water park side the the. 01:27:14
Only on that side? Or is it on both sides? It is mostly. It's not 100%, but it's mostly on this side. 01:27:20
Cortana. 01:27:27
Yeah, we were talking about maybe. 01:27:33
I'm planning to be back. Well, we may be done by. I'll let you know. 01:27:42
OK. 01:27:53
All right, y'all we ready to roll? 01:30:08
Just be sure you get with Julie before you go today. She's got some paperwork for you to sign. Can we get a little clarification 01:30:15
though for our plan? So right now what we have is we have the storm we have on the. 01:30:19
Try. 01:30:58
Evaluate the city on large scale or just go at your direction on specific projects like we are here on this one with the 3rd St. 01:31:00
Gar. 01:31:08
We just. 01:31:10
I'd just like to clarify it a little bit, for the purpose of the plan anyway. 01:31:12
I mean I think you know, you know that where your big areas are and that's why you're focused right now on the, you know the 01:31:17
Barnshall 3rd St. area and. 01:31:21
We refine that where it says maybe instead of issuing RFP we. 01:31:26
You know, work with our consultant with which essentially is right now our city engineer to develop those parties. You know, along 01:31:32
with your priorities and concerns, you hear from the citizens and stuff, maybe address it on a project by project basis. 01:31:37
I don't know how. 01:31:43
I guess my thought, you know after spending the considerable about a time on it this year is that we know that we've there's just 01:31:47
a few areas in the city where we have, where we have. 01:31:51
Some challenges there, we also know it's. 01:31:57
I'm a little nervous about. 01:32:00
A plan which input would imply all of a sudden it's our issue to fix private property owners stormwater. 01:32:03
Um. 01:32:10
So I think ideally in my mind, it may not make as much sense to tackle it that way anymore versus. 01:32:11
You know, we've got a, we know we have a potential situation where there's a lot of water on Barnet Shoals Rd. on Depot Street 01:32:18
that we need to do a better job of controlling that, sort of. 01:32:23
Joint responsibility with the county. We can tackle that, work on that. 01:32:28
Versus I'm a little concerned about what a stormwater plan might yield in terms of. 01:32:32
Umm. 01:32:38
Challenges that we aren't legally obligated to attack, but all of a sudden we'd have a report saying these are issues. So that's 01:32:39
that's kind of where I've landed after looking at this for a while and and if we start trying to manage storm water. 01:32:46
For other people, then where does that end? 01:32:54
Yeah. 01:32:57
And. 01:33:02
I think that makes a lot of sense as you're looking at, especially connectivity issues where there's an opportunity to. 01:33:04
Combine. 01:33:11
To possibly mitigate anything that might be there, but that doesn't mean you take the responsibility, it's just you're trying to 01:33:13
make it. 01:33:16
And I guess I should turn my back to press an issue that that Brian and Brett both alluded to. We need to tread lightly on this. 01:33:26
This road is it is a county owned and managed and. 01:33:32
Maintained at that location of Barnet Shoals, I think we need to probably sit down meet with the county as an initial measure. 01:33:39
And I think that's the, I think the mayor had already gotten some feedback. I think you might have missed that. 01:33:46
Given us the opportunity to maybe pitch something, evaluate it, and then pitch it to the county for their for their feedback, is 01:33:53
that correct, mayor? 01:33:56
Yeah. So we've already talked to the county. They're open to discussing Barnet Shoals as a joint effort. They wanted us to take 01:34:00
the first shot at. 01:34:04
Some designs and some renderings. They actually suggested that during some of their meetings with Wire Park. So it was their 01:34:08
planning director who brought up the idea about Can we? 01:34:12
Should we reimagine that corridor a little bit, which, you know? 01:34:16
It's not the developers responsibility to do that, nor should it be holy hours. I think it it should be a shared responsibility. 01:34:20
To take a look at that since it is a county. 01:34:28
So. 01:34:30
All right, so storm water, are we comfortable with this idea of? 01:34:33
You know. 01:34:36
Stormwater master plan. Either removing that from a list or saying upon evaluation, we've decided that we're going to. 01:34:38
Address the issues as they arise. 01:34:43
Is everyone comfortable with that? OK, Sharon, are you comfortable with that direction and modifying the plan to reflect that? 01:34:48
And our other priorities here, I think we're making good progress on the rest of them, maybe not as fast as we want on everything, 01:34:56
sewer line in particular, but. 01:34:59
Hardin Hills. 01:35:04
Hair Shoals Park, that's proceeding, correct, Christine, Connie, everything's you know. 01:35:05
And in terms of the work actually beginning, I know we've discussed before, do we need to? 01:35:15
Bond or borrow to make that go any faster. Are we comfortable with staff driving that or we at a point where we need to? Is there 01:35:21
anything that this body needs to do to activate that? So as far as. 01:35:25
I should let me clarify the as far as what to do with the old playground, regular committee meetings are happening. 01:35:31
I haven't heard anything from planner Bob Smith in months and months and months and months and so I don't know. I know we were. 01:35:38
Kind of hiring him, but I'm not really sure what his role is supposed to be, how much we're hiring him. Should I be reaching out 01:35:46
to him Like I guess I'm a little confused as to as far as the rest of the park and then how to implement things. So when when we 01:35:52
met, the last time we met and I don't recall if it was, I think it was before Christmas, we met to talk about sort of the next 01:35:58
steps. And most of those are staff level we're evaluating. For instance, we we've met with, we've had Vera Veritas actually do an 01:36:04
evaluation. 01:36:10
Of the playground and they pretty much said it's we shouldn't have anybody on it. You know we've we've known that for a while but 01:36:17
they made it very clear that needs to come down ASAP and so that that is something that. 01:36:22
Is on our agenda for the March. I think you have a meeting March 8th with your committee. 01:36:29
You and you and Connie have that meeting on March 8th to talk about that, but we also have. 01:36:33
Looked at and had evaluated the building, the old well pump house, whatever building at the front. 01:36:39
Parking and pave. 01:37:22
Because that could happen too. Well, you know, we may have some L big money, we may have some AARP, you know, there may be some or 01:37:23
spouse money, whatever. I mean, we need to get estimates so y'all can start making decisions about. 01:37:28
Do you want to do it? How much is it going to cost, etc. And go ahead and get everything we can. Like I said on this side, I think 01:37:34
there's also concerns or questions about what may happen with the BBQ pits and that would that would be part of it. So I've got a 01:37:38
good update from today. 01:37:43
Playing about never sent me a bill for that day that he came and spent an hour. So with us he won't probably but we had engaged 01:38:22
him to sort of sort of start sussing out sort of next plans. And at this point it's been more on the staff side to do everything 01:38:28
we can do within our ability and then and then from that point you know as we determine what. 01:38:34
We can't do getting prices and coming back before you and and asking you just you know designate and appropriate that money out of 01:38:41
those accounts for that. 01:38:44
So I I met with the BBQ committee with Rotary this morning actually. 01:38:49
And and discussed, I took the big book with us and we walked through and so I discussed two different options that you and I, 01:38:57
Christine discussed where to locate new BBQ pits. The consensus was that we would go with the existing smaller structure that is 01:39:02
there. 01:39:08
And that we would extend that out to make it larger. 01:39:14
I have. I would have to meet in front of the full board in order to ask for funds for that, but I have put the bug in their ear 01:39:18
to. 01:39:23
Fund the entire project for the new BBQ pit so that. 01:39:31
That's kind of where the Rotary Club is right now that they like the the smaller pit if. 01:39:38
If you're looking at the old pits that are on the left hand side next to the Shoals, the smaller pit is directly in front of you. 01:39:44
And so the thought would be to just to extend that one. 01:39:56
Pit or that structure to the same length. 01:40:00
Existing structure that when you and I went out there and looked at it, we didn't actually talk about extending the length of that 01:40:05
so. 01:40:08
Yeah, we would have to. So we're going to have to make it bigger. 01:40:13
Idea of the four like building it sideways wasn't. Yeah, they said that wouldn't work. Yeah, of course you're talking to someone 01:40:17
who's never done big Pitbull. So what we what Christine and I discussed was potentially putting 4 pits side by side in that small 01:40:22
area. 01:40:28
The the issue becomes you can't then would not be able to get between. I think there was about 3 feet just rough estimate 3 feet 01:40:34
between what potentially could be pits in there. There just wouldn't be enough area with. 01:40:40
The handles that overhang about 24 inches on. 01:40:47
Each one that there would not be room to get in there and actually move the the. 01:40:52
Wire rack. 01:40:57
And so like I said, we we would have to do concept drawings and all that kind of stuff, but it would be to extend the the building 01:41:00
would they continue to use? 01:41:05
Building that they sort of serve out of and have the sinks and stuff in, yes. So the kitchen, we hope that the kitchen remains 01:41:10
there because that is a huge portion of of us cooking and then you know if if you know those pits go away. 01:41:17
For, you know, seating or viewing what, whatever you use that we can use that for. However, but the kitchen needs to remain here. 01:41:25
That'd be expensive to replace, yeah. And and so the the thought, the additional thought with the location of that smaller 01:41:31
structure is the location proximity to the kitchen. 01:41:38
Yeah, there's just a lot of history in that little quadrant there. Like there's, you know, there's a lot of community sweat equity 01:41:46
that I'd love to find a way to preserve that little piece. 01:41:50
And keep the pits nearby if we can. 01:41:55
But also I just want to be sure y'all continue to. 01:41:58
The Lions Club, the scouts, the others who use it. I just don't know enough about BBQ. I know we've got a few experts in the room, 01:42:01
but if they all use it the same way then that's great. I just want to be sure that. 01:42:06
The Lions Club and the Scouts are cooking the same way as Rotary, so that we're thinking through all the different users. John 01:42:12
Williams, all those folks, you know that they're. 01:42:15
That we do that but. 01:42:21
Generally, I just would love to think through. 01:42:22
I don't want to say the fastest, but I really would love to see. 01:42:26
Some sort of work plan month by month, You know, when are we going to move that old, not old, but when are we going to move the 01:42:30
metal part of the playground? When are we going to put up the handicapped seat? When are we going to pull those old bollards out 01:42:34
that look like? 01:42:37
That look terrible down there, you know, I mean. 01:42:42
I don't know if, Sharon, if that's something that the committee and you can work on, but I think it would also give the staff an 01:42:44
idea of, OK, this month, this is what needs to happen. This month, this is what needs to happen. Otherwise I just feel like it's 01:42:49
going to drag a little bit and we're going to be back to mowing grass. 01:42:53
Without a lot to show for it here in a month or two down there, I know Lawrence Stokes seems excited about the STEM. 01:42:59
Idea, and not necessarily the whole subcommittee is. So we're we might be going back to whatever y'all come, whatever y'all come 01:43:05
up with. You know, I think it's fine. I don't. I just don't want to hold up around that. The playground needs to come down. People 01:43:10
are already playing on this thing. We're having to run them off. I mean there there are people out there Saturday, you know, So I 01:43:15
don't think we're going to be lacking for a playground. 01:43:20
I. 01:43:26
You know, I want to be sure that. 01:43:27
Moving. 01:43:29
If we're not going to spend the money to hit it all at once, I want to be sure we're showing progress quarter every quarter down 01:43:30
there in terms of what's happened well and I will say one other question that I have that maybe y'all know. 01:43:35
And this is something that Brett brought up when he and I were talking about BBQ pits was. 01:43:41
Will because the plan had been to remove the ball field. 01:43:47
But then Brett was saying that the Miracle League field is too small for Little League to use or they're not using it. I don't 01:43:51
know. I don't know if anybody has any clarification for that, but I don't know what our. 01:43:56
Commitment is a Little League like because it makes sense to go ahead and get that. 01:44:02
That my general understanding from talking to Wesley is with Oconee Little League is that they really don't use that for like 01:44:37
games. They use it for practice. They're they're they're using that they do Rocket Field for games and they use the county Rec 01:44:42
fields but they don't use that. So it's not as you know, it's again, it's more for you know, the practice. But even if we get them 01:44:47
through this season, I really don't it doesn't matter. But at the end of the day we need to pull the fence. We need to begin the 01:44:52
transition down there. 01:44:57
I just shared you're gonna have a better feel for what our guys. 01:45:03
Are capable of or if we need to anticipate starting to spend money down there. 01:45:06
I just what we've said all along is we're going to finish this and then pretty quickly work is going to begin down there. 01:45:11
And it's really important to me that work begins down there. 01:45:16
I don't. I don't think pulling the fence and dugouts and all that will stop them from practicing down there. 01:45:19
I mean it they could still play there just won't be a I mean the dugout well, I don't. So I don't know. My general understanding 01:45:27
from when we met with planner Bob and your committee was that we were going to try to do everything on this side. You know just 01:45:34
focus our efforts so that you know the building moving the playground. We were in the process of trying to get figure out if we 01:45:41
can move it, if we have to hire somebody to move it, move in Mr. Former Mayor Ivy's swing down there to in the same area. 01:45:48
But I didn't want to put a lot of resource because that's really just deconstruction. That really isn't a big deal and I don't 01:45:56
want to be doing it while the kids aren't, you know, back. And you know, I just figured let's focus on this side and get 01:46:00
everything we can on this side situated, I will say. 01:46:04
It's my recollection and I can be wrong, but in the in the. 01:46:10
In the Hair Shoals Park master plan, I kind of gathered that the intention was to not to further block the the Vista, the view of 01:46:13
the Creek. And my concern is, is based on what I think I understood Councilman Thomas is that you're going to actually add, you 01:46:21
know we did talk about when we were down there trying to where I'm like we need to talk about that because that wasn't in any of 01:46:28
the plans and so that was their their, their preference. Now that doesn't mean that it has to go that way. 01:46:35
I'm gonna almost speak them out of both mouths right now. Both sides of my mouth. I mean, you and I discussed putting, potentially 01:46:43
putting it down by the dumpsters up against that that hill. 01:46:48
That hill area, so that is a. 01:46:55
Possibility, because that would be a lot more logical as far as traffic flow for people picking up their BBQ, yeah. 01:46:59
So I mean it, it is a possibility. The only concern that was brought up this morning was that it was that. 01:47:05
You know, the pits aren't the prettiest thing in the world. I mean, that's just they aren't and it's going to be right there for, 01:47:13
you know, the. 01:47:17
Anybody that comes? 01:47:21
Now I got you that. 01:47:22
It would be as well by the shoulder, by the Creek as well, right by the dumpster. I mean, like, it's not like, oh, we're. 01:47:24
Focusing on the dumpsters as we go. 01:47:32
So I don't want to take up too much. 01:47:35
Yeah, I'll, I'll come. 01:47:40
And I would love some guidance of for the old playground, What kind of budget do we have? 01:47:43
To now that we know we can't salvage it, it's going to be trashed. What kind of budget do I have to recreate something or to 01:47:50
create something new? I do. Y'all do. I mean, I would love some guidance on that because as I have these subcommittee meetings, 01:47:56
I'm kind of like, well, I really have no idea how much money you have or what we can do. And can we have a community like we did 01:48:03
with building the new playground? Can we have a community deconstruction? 01:48:09
And obviously we know that, you know we're putting in almost you know 450,000 or so on the playground next door which is much 01:49:35
bigger and obviously it's metal and we don't know what you have planned and. 01:49:40
I mean that's sort of a idea of what maybe could be used that we do have separate money set aside for signage for the bathrooms at 01:49:46
both. Well the bathrooms, I'm sorry Rocket Field we we are looking at. I know that was something that your committee asked us to 01:49:51
look into is updating the interior bathrooms and we've already, we've been down there. We went down last week to actually specify 01:49:57
when we're getting with someone to try to. 01:50:03
Get us a price on what that might look like. 01:50:09
I'm wanting some direction from the council and from the mayor. How much do we want to put into? 01:50:44
Repurposing that. 01:50:51
I mean, look, I'll give you all direction all day long, but I'm trying to be inclusive if you guys. 01:50:53
Give direction then I would. 01:50:58
I would. 01:51:01
Fix the ball field area. I would want to fix the pits. I'd want to fix everything that's below the Shoals. 01:51:03
In the next 12 to 18 months and get that done and get estimates for what that takes. 01:51:10
I'm not particularly picky about what appears back on this hill. I think what's going to happen up there is pretty spectacular. 01:51:14
And whatever we wind up redoing in the area of the old playground is great. We're going to have the smaller playground down there. 01:51:20
That's my perspective. And then I think phase two, we push on up the road. We do the community amphitheater, we do the air around 01:51:25
the ponds, we do the trails. That's how I would tackle it. 01:51:30
But you know, again, we're here to have this conversation as a group. I would then say let's go get some estimates and let's see 01:51:36
what we can afford to do and what we can lean into the community. 01:51:40
On and let's stick as closely as we can to the plan that the community seen and get it done. 01:51:44
But that's going to some of its going to take, you know, paying people with real equipment and you know Bobcats and some stuff 01:51:50
like that, just to get it done in a timely fashion. Some of it is Toby and his guys. 01:51:55
Getting down there and getting after it too. So you know, so I that's my take, you know, and I think we ought to go run the 01:52:01
numbers and see what we can afford to do. That's why a year ago we were talking about does it make sense just to go ahead. 01:52:07
Because of what construction costs were going to be. And now that's come true, go ahead and get some of this stuff done while 01:52:14
we're actively working down there versus doing it in drips and drives and knowing it'll cost us an extra 20% to do it that way. So 01:52:18
yeah, I I agree, I I would. 01:52:23
Personally, just go ahead and deconstruct the playground and we'll see. I think this right here will suffice. 01:52:29
And I mean this is phenomen. 01:52:36
But I will tell you, as the person who's been talking to people and listening to people about the old playground, there is a lot 01:52:39
of love for that old playground. And so I mean a lot. 01:52:44
And so if there is not a plan of something that is cool, it's gonna, there's gonna be backlash from that. And I feel like it's 01:52:49
also disrespectful like to our community as a whole. So I I don't think we just need to tear it down go Oh well we have this new 01:52:56
playground. We have to have a good plan. Do I have $200,000 ish. Then that gives me some idea of what can happen with it. I mean 01:53:03
I've the the only caution I'll give is is. 01:53:10
You know and I'm not well versed in 88 compliance, but if we redo that. 01:53:17
Playground. I think it will have to all become 88 compliant. Well, I don't know that it's going to be a playground. Like it's not 01:53:23
going to be termed a playground. We we have a beautiful new playground. It's going to be a repurposed space. We're leaning towards 01:53:29
it being very STEM or steam based. 01:53:35
While still embracing the natural. I mean, what we heard over and over from input as we were looking at the park was just the fact 01:53:42
that Harris Shoals is so natural and that was really important to people and so it's figuring out how. 01:53:49
To make that. 01:53:56
Entertaining. Educational. 01:53:58
Accessible. I mean, we have a member from ESP on the committee to make sure that we are thinking through all of these things. 01:54:01
But it's still a meaningful part of our park. So that's probably why it's taking so long. It's there's a lot of moving parts for 01:54:09
it. So, so one approach would be to say OK, this that area TBD, you know, so we could give you a holding number right though we 01:54:14
could say OK, it's going to cost. 01:54:20
You know, again, I'm hesitant to throw out a number, but there's a number right, that that's going to be and and you've got a 01:54:27
number, but we know what the rest of that area. 01:54:30
You know, I do kind of feel like that's going to take some time to figure out, but I feel like I don't know that we should press 01:54:35
pause on. 01:54:38
The other places where we have some reasonable amount of clarity when we're not, I mean we're not like Sharon has said and I was 01:54:42
just thinking I haven't heard from Bob Smith, but yes, we have had multiple conversations and meetings and the. 01:54:48
The city staff is doing a great job of getting things moving along. 01:54:54
Yeah. 01:55:00
Speaking of meetings this morning with Rotary, Jim Alexander was there. 01:55:03
With Hardin Hill Honey and he was talking about how we're a tree city. He was like, it's very easy to become a bee city as well. 01:55:08
And so we had some conversations and he is interested in putting some beehives. I showed him the plan. I took the book with me 01:55:15
this morning. I showed him the plan of all the the grasses and flowers and all that we're putting in there. And so he was very 01:55:21
excited about becoming AB City as well. So we're going to talk through that what what is required I had to get here, so I didn't 01:55:26
get. 01:55:31
Fully discuss it. 01:55:37
Umm becoming AB? 01:55:39
All right. So it seems like we've kind of organically moved into the the committee updates, which is great. 01:55:44
Let me, let me ask one question real quick. The sewer line, I'm going to ask ask this of you. Have we heard anything from the 01:55:54
state about the grant yet? No, we have not and I know we've discussed I think initially it was beginning of January then it moved 01:56:03
to January 31st and they did do the, the broadband announcements, but we have not heard anything for the other buckets that. 01:56:12
Preparing to announce, I know that it was pushed back because they were reviewing. Well, first of all, they received. 01:56:21
A huge amount more applications and just total requests that I think they were anticipating and then also the final rule was 01:56:28
released, so they were. 01:56:33
Re reviewing a number of requests just to make sure that they align with those, but we are, we are keeping in your house. 01:56:39
Um. 01:56:50
I checked the portal this morning, there was no update. 01:56:51
Umm. 01:56:55
So do. 01:56:56
We have kind of any other topics for parks, Green space and environment committee or updates? 01:56:59
That we should cover. 01:57:06
Or have we kind of covered those and we're ready to move on to, we'll circle back to finance and personnel? 01:57:08
Do you think we need to talk a little bit about Rocket Field? 01:57:15
Is the plan to just continue to hold off on that until we have more of a downtown master plan because it is part of the downtown 01:57:19
area, or are there immediate things we need to do? I feel like I have the same Groundhog Day, like I have the same conversation 01:57:25
about Rockville all the time. 01:57:31
What's yeah, last year what we determined was it would make sense to do as part of the downtown master plan. I guess you know the 01:57:38
question would be and this is you know it is a little bit committee driven. We may just have to be a little organic here but. 01:57:43
Don't have a thought on how we might. 01:57:49
Activate or kick that off, you know, at what point do we need to retain somebody to get that process moving or is that? 01:57:52
For you guys to a point where you feel like we can make a recommendation there. I know you've been doing a lot of. 01:57:58
Do you mean for the downtown master plan? Because I think those go together, you know? 01:58:04
I don't think we have. 01:58:11
You know a company to recommend for the master plan, yet we are meeting tomorrow and unfortunately I was. 01:58:13
Fell behind in my duties, let's say, but anyways we are meeting tomorrow as a committee at 22. 01:58:20
Hopefully here. I forgot to ask if we could meet here if there's anything going on. 01:58:26
OK. So anyway we're meeting with the two of us with Courtney and Christy for that and we've. 01:58:31
2 field trips to Monroe and to Greensboro and so it's been a very good educational process for me, especially for both of us I'm 01:58:40
sure. 01:58:45
But we, you know. 01:58:52
Both of them they've used. 01:58:54
Carl Vincent for some of their master plans and I've got 2 here in case anybody wants to look at them. 01:58:57
Bainbridge, GA and Thompson, Georgia. 01:59:03
To me, a master plan makes sense. It would. It's kind of like, well, do you want to build a house with plans or just wing it? 01:59:06
You know. 01:59:14
So the University of Georgia is a resource. There's other businesses that you can choose certainly to create a master plan, but 01:59:17
that'll be our discussion tomorrow. 01:59:22
I would also like to take another field trip and we've discussed going to Madison. 01:59:29
About a year and a half ago, Ish the Madison DDA director, came here. Monica, maybe? Or. 01:59:34
OK. 01:59:46
20 point OK, yeah. So I remember. I remember I was over there then and. 01:59:47
That great council member Marcy Campbell, I think her name was brought her in and. 01:59:54
So anyway, she came and spoke and. 02:00:00
In meeting with Monroe and Greensboro I. 02:00:04
Some of our issues align a little bit more closely with Madison's from the standpoint. 02:00:09
Has been trying to attract business. 02:00:17
And they've done an outstanding job of attracting business in the last few years. Greensboro is trying to attract business. 02:00:19
We don't have the problem of trying to get people, businesses to open up in Watkinsville. We've got that now we're we're trying to 02:00:25
control the control. The chaos may be a little bit strong. 02:00:31
But no, we're trying to figure out the plan for all these new projects. 02:00:38
You know, don't go into any details mentioned earlier of course, but you know the library is going to move. Well, a DDA can kind 02:00:43
of that person could look into library space and be speaking with county, city. 02:00:50
Private individuals as far as working on things that can happen in the city and what projects might be coming up and make all 02:00:57
those contacts and connections so. 02:01:03
I think we need a master plan. Next step is, which we'll work on tomorrow is. 02:01:09
Finding who are the companies that can create a master plan, What that might cost to see if the city what we want to spend, what 02:01:16
can we afford to spend on that project. Therefore we have the plans to create the city we we want. 02:01:24
And then also meeting with Madison to learn. 02:01:33
How they continue her. 02:01:36
Generally, is making the city more attractive making it more interesting. They built that. 02:01:40
Park off the West side of downtown Madison. I would like to learn her role in that. 02:01:47
So in just the redevelopment projects they've done she when she spoke here, I remember her talking about. 02:01:53
Two-bedroom, 1 bath housing, which speaks to your point of smaller affordable housing that they did some project with several 02:01:59
small houses and they sold very quickly, but it was the DDA that worked on those projects. 02:02:06
So that's interesting to me because I think we do need that type of housing and it would be neat to have that type of housing. 02:02:13
Focus towards, you know, artists. Since we've got a lot of artists in the in the region, how can we get them to live? 02:02:20
In the city but those. 02:02:27
Speaking of which, I just got a text from Joe Calloway. One of our local artists literally just popped up. 02:02:29
Anyway, but anyway, those are some of the things we're doing and that will continue to work on SO. 02:02:35
I'll get back on track with the development duties, but that's what we. 02:02:41
Some things be going on. If you have any questions feel free. 02:02:46
Or Christine can add certainly. 02:02:49
I would just say that one of the interesting things in going to Greensboro and Monroe is their challenges are very different than 02:02:52
our challenges because they have more poverty and just trying to revitalize and we are fortunate that we don't have that in our 02:02:57
community. In fact, in Greensboro's, I almost felt like they were like, why are you needing to do anything? You guys have a great 02:03:02
situation. 02:03:07
And so I am very excited to go to Madison 'cause I do think it is going to be a more similar challenge. They also have very 02:03:14
different revenue streams, I think both Greensboro and. 02:03:19
I know Greensboro, but I think also Monroe, they own all the utilities, so they have huge revenue streams that we don't have and 02:03:24
so. 02:03:27
Even though populations were actually similar, they weren't that dissimilar to where we will be in a year. 02:03:31
Their revenue streams are so different and so that feels a little overwhelming to me to think how are we going to be able to 02:03:38
really? 02:03:42
Do this and do this well with the budgets that we have because we don't have utilities. 02:03:47
I gave you a copy two months ago as well, Christine. That kind of 10 page summary, yes, that tracks basically what Monica Callahan 02:03:55
told you all April 2020. She and others in the region are very good with funding with the grant and then you fundraise A matching 02:04:01
grants and so forth. 02:04:08
There's you know a couple other thoughts on that is you may you know. 02:04:16
Nick Messina, who's the head of the Gwinnett Chamber. I know Gwinnett, you know, sometimes it's not what we want to hold up as our 02:04:21
example, but there been several communities there that have been surrounded by other growth and the downtowns have had to go. 02:04:27
Re establish themselves but they're in a situation similar to us and that they are sort of competing with other growth centers you 02:04:33
know and. 02:04:37
Swanee and Duluth in particular, two that have done a really nice job of sort of reinvigorating and creating their downtown. 02:04:41
But he offered to connect us in Chuck Warmington and Lawrenceville. Lawrence has got to, you know, and then the folks in Swanee or 02:04:50
Duluth, if you wanted to see what they've done, I was glad to do that too. I drove through Braselton a couple weeks ago. 02:04:57
There's a parking deck. No those hushed in student. 02:05:05
There's a parking deck downtown in Houston. 02:05:09
You know, in a brewery. It was a very nice downtown, but I was shocked to see a parking deck in Houston. But anyway, they've done 02:05:12
a very good job turning it around. And there's one thing I wanted to mention, the master plan. In addition to creating the 02:05:18
blueprint, it also helps if you have Adda one of. 02:05:23
Potential requirements is having a master plan in order to get funding for the grants that you're talking about. If you have the 02:05:30
master plan, that's one of the requirements. 02:05:34
You know one great resource and I think you all mentioned it earlier is Courtney at the our chamber. We have she's on our 02:05:39
committee. She is phenomenal. I mean I I personally think we've got probably the best director of the chamber that there is. I 02:05:44
mean she is incredible. 02:05:49
So. 02:05:56
To your to your rocket. 02:05:56
I would personally like to get rid of the dog park at Rocket Field. 02:06:01
You know, so just think about all the kids, the Little League kids that are there, the majority of the people that have dogs don't 02:06:08
pick up their. 02:06:12
They just don't. And so now you've got all these Little League kids out there playing in dog poop. 02:06:17
It's, it's not safe. It's not fair. The Little League is. I mean they're leasing it from us and we have dogs that are pooping all 02:06:22
over the field and. 02:06:26
Yeah, I got you. But but we we have turned, we have allowed it to be a dog park. We we've encouraged it to be a dog park and 02:06:31
they're they're not cleaning up. The dog owners are not cleaning up after their dogs. 02:06:36
Um. 02:06:43
You know, and I know that's that's not good for dog owners that like to take their dog and let them go. 02:06:44
Have fun. 02:06:49
Yeah. 02:06:52
This goes back to our master plan. You know, if we can somehow strategically get some more land, then we can create a dog park. 02:06:54
Designated just for dogs because I don't think our baseball field should be. 02:07:03
That area. 02:07:07
I agree with that. Again, I've said this before the there's been a lot of talk about changing Rocket Field, and I think Rocket 02:07:14
Field is part of Watkinsville history. 02:07:19
And the last two years, yes, we didn't have anybody out there playing because of the COVID. But this two weeks ago, the little 02:07:25
kids are coming in practicing already and and it's great to see those little kids out there playing. 02:07:32
And when I talked to the guy in charge of Little League couple years back, he said they needed all the ball fields that we have. 02:07:38
To accommodate all these little kids and if we got over 500 people getting ready to move into Watkinsville, we're going to have 02:07:47
more kids. So we need to keep it a ball field and yes, we need to find some property for a dog park. 02:07:54
Also. 02:08:02
With it being one of the counties. 02:08:04
Baseball fields, I think we ought to be getting, I don't know that we are be getting money from the county to use it as a ball 02:08:06
field. I mean, it's part of their parks and Rec. 02:08:12
They they send kids over to play T-ball at at Rocket Field. 02:08:18
It is one of one of the baseball fields in the county, so I'm not sure why we can't get parks and recs to fund some of the 02:08:23
maintenance cost. You know, new lighting, you know, not all of it. I'm not asking for all of it, but some of it, they do have 02:08:29
somebody that comes in and cuts the grass and as far as I know, they are responsible for paying the lighting bill during the 02:08:35
season when they use it. 02:08:41
But if we need some maintenance done, then yeah, we need to look into that. Little League is separate from the county rec 02:08:48
department. We own the ball field. 02:08:52
At the end of the day, the ball fields our responsibility. We lease it to them. So you know, there's the county rec. 02:08:56
Does not. I think Little League also contracts with County Rec. I don't think that, you know. So it's not like soccer or something 02:09:01
else. Little Leagues, its own entity. 02:09:05
At the end of the day, it. 02:09:09
Responsibility. My perspective on Rocket Field has always been what can we do to maximize? 02:09:11
The use of it for the community, I think it should be a ball field. I don't think it being a ball field precludes it from being 02:09:17
other things we have. 02:09:22
Every community. 02:09:27
We've looked at that. We've cited. 02:09:29
Gathering spaces, squares, green spaces. 02:09:31
That's a logical place that we can do more on than just play baseball. And but I want to respect the history of it. Before it was 02:09:34
Rocket Field or just the ball field, you know, You know, so there's there's some cool history there. I just think there's I think 02:09:40
it could be more if it was carefully planned. 02:09:45
And. 02:09:51
You know than a parking lot and a fall festival in a ball field that gets I think on a normal week, I doubt there's people on it, 02:09:53
more than 5% of the daylight hours and I think that's. 02:09:57
Nobody can go out. 02:10:02
You know, if our people could go out there and have lunch, if our people could go utilize it in different ways, I think that would 02:10:04
be. 02:10:07
Would be wonderful. I agree with that, and I've had several citizens multiple times ask if we could put a bocce ball. 02:10:10
On the outskirts of, I mean, I obviously smack down on people playing ball but like Rocket Field is wider than that. That's just 02:10:18
that would be another aspect of our community another. So just a thought I think if we circle back let's let's kind of this has 02:10:24
been an interesting conversation. Here's what I'd suggest you. 02:10:29
We know we've come back to a fundamental issue, which is we have ideas for things that we'd want to do. We have dollars allocated 02:10:36
for. 02:10:40
Some green space acquisition we have, We can't get into specific parcels I think don't think that would be wise. 02:10:45
But I do think we need to think about, you know, there are things like pickleball, there are things like bocce ball, there are 02:10:52
things that. 02:10:55
You know where, but people don't want that necessarily. At hair Shoals, you know, you get real sensitive to having it be an active 02:10:58
recreation area. 02:11:01
I do think it would be wise for us to sort of put our heads together and say. 02:11:05
You know, I'll tell you the other reality right now is people have gotten it in their head that every acre in downtown 02:11:09
Watkinsville is worth more than $100,000, which is somewhat preposterous, but somehow another that's the number that's in people's 02:11:15
head. So, but I think we have got to think creatively about. 02:11:21
Driving some deals with some of the people who are going to develop in Watkinsville that we expect some of these amenities to 02:11:28
happen or. 02:11:31
We're going to have to get creative and say where are we going to make, where are we going to create these opportunities for our 02:11:34
citizens and how are we going to do it. And it's going to start with getting a little bit more land than what we have, you know? 02:11:39
My two cents, you know. 02:11:46
Again, not for discussion today, but I want to plant that seed with you guys because. 02:11:48
Unless anybody objects, I think you know Sharon and I may have to come back to you guys with some suggestions and thoughts and 02:11:53
would welcome y'all's offline about what may make sense for us to place. 02:11:58
I think I was in. 02:12:04
Gatlinburg, of all places, recently, and they had. 02:12:06
A walking track, a dog park, a patanka and bocce area, all probably on 2 acres or three acres. I mean, it wasn't that complicated. 02:12:09
You just have to have the space to do it and some creative planning. 02:12:16
And the level of use it got was great, you know, and it was a it wasn't just a ball field with dogs running around. It was a kind 02:12:22
of a fun space with a bench and a watering area and all the other kind of stuff you see at a dog park, so. 02:12:28
I think we're going to have to think creatively about how we put that together and where that might be. So I just ask all of you 02:12:33
to kind of wrap your brain around that because a lot of the stuff that we're talking about comes back to this sort of fundamental 02:12:37
challenge of. 02:12:40
We don't have. We need spaces. Even if we can't fund it right now, we need. 02:12:44
Acquire some space and it comes back to what I said at the start, which is if we don't, you know, and maybe that's what we all 02:12:48
want, but. 02:12:52
We're going to We've got some beautiful green space left in this community that's likely to go away in the next 5 or 10 years if 02:12:55
we don't. 02:12:58
Think boldly about what how we may work with some families and others to preserve it. So there's sort of program space where we 02:13:02
probably need more based on what we've heard from our citizens. 02:13:07
And then there's sort of non program green spaces, linear and other that it may be wise for us to be looking at. 02:13:13
Otherwise it's it's going to sort of be out of reach or the private sector is going to just sort of take care of it and we won't 02:13:20
have it anymore. So. So I thought with that and I agree Brian. 02:13:25
Years ago when we were looking at what we do own, we do own that stretch on Barnett Shoals that for a while was where the mulch 02:13:32
and things were going and that always seemed like almost a useless little parcel, but with Wire Park going in and all of that, it 02:13:38
now actually, as I think about it, is a more like maybe we should look at what we do with that. It's no longer like, oh, it's at 02:13:44
the very far end of town. 02:13:50
That's an interesting idea. 02:13:58
Yeah, if we exactly, we're going to be. 02:14:01
Maybe. 02:14:07
Yeah, extend this. Extend the sidewalk. Extend the sidewalk from Shoal Shoal. 02:14:10
Stone Sorry stone Shoals down there. Nothing says friendly neighbors like dogs. 02:14:16
The the other thing keep in mind that the mayor mentioned earlier is Trove has some land that supposed supposedly will be 02:14:24
triggered to become public land. 02:14:29
And Waters Walk, as it moves forward, also has property that will be donated to the city. So those are two, two pieces. I mean 02:14:35
that we. 02:14:39
Are more are closer to being had than others that may be out there to be had, but I mean you certainly look at those as well. 02:14:44
Have to remain green according to the development agreement, though like we will be able to program it right well but well. 02:14:52
But you could have. Well, I think it was passive. I think the key is it wouldn't be for for kids to throw it, you know, basketball 02:14:58
courts or anything. Yeah, but you could have. 02:15:02
I mean, I don't know that a dog park necessarily be AI, don't know. I guess I'm just saying keep in mind that you do have other 02:15:08
parts. Yes. No, that's good. I am personally not excited about dog parks. I'm just going to throw that out there on the record. 02:15:14
Is there a reason we couldn't do a dog park at Hair Shoals? I know that's not super convenient to the folks that live near, you 02:15:22
know, First Second 3rd St. 02:15:26
In the county, there's a great dog park. The people who want to put their dogs in a car and drive to a dog park. 02:15:31
The reason the people who use Rocket Field other than when that dog park was shut down, which was when when I started this was the 02:15:38
issue. 02:15:42
Was the dogs on Rocket? 02:15:46
Um. 02:15:49
That it is people who live with who people don't drive their dogs to Rocket Field. People are just walking and that's their dog, 02:15:51
you know? 02:15:56
You've seen some people drive. 02:16:02
I know that was going on when the dog park was shut down because it isn't an official dog park. 02:16:04
I guess for me, dog parks I think are loud and they're. 02:16:10
Like, I don't know, we, I guess they could follow Joe. 02:16:13
If you post the thing that we're not going to be liable because it's recreation, I don't know. 02:16:18
Drop. 02:16:30
When you have an official dog park, so I. 02:16:32
I am one member of the council, but I would say for me personally, a dog park is low on my priority list and I have two dogs. I 02:16:35
mean, I like, but I walk them and. 02:16:39
Pick up their mess on my walks, I guess my. 02:16:43
I don't have a dog so it doesn't matter to me. I know there are dog owners out there, but the the Little League is complaining. 02:16:48
A lot about the dog poop on Rocket Field and. 02:16:55
I mean. 02:16:59
Tenants if you will, and they complain. 02:17:00
The condition of the field. 02:17:03
Well, I mean, there's a lot to complain about there. The restrooms are nasty. I've not, I've not heard a single complaint from 02:17:06
Little League. Have you heard a complaint from Little League about the dogs? So I would encourage them to, if they've got issues, 02:17:11
it would be good if staff knew that there was actually an issue there and we can begin. 02:17:16
Put up additional signage, we can begin to do some things that may not make it perfect, but right now. 02:17:22
I will say if. 02:17:27
I've spent more hours of my life than I want to on dog parks. You know, if I think we've got to decide if we want a dog park in 02:17:30
Watkinsville, then we need to. 02:17:35
Determine that and find a location for it at some point. But right now, nobody. We have yet to show a true willingness to tackle 02:17:40
Rocket Field. Have the necessary debates. 02:17:45
And figure out what it's going to be if we're going to do it as part of the master plan process then coming out of. 02:17:50
I have a feeling Rocket Field will no longer be a dog park. I also have a feeling Rocket Field may you know, still be a ball 02:17:55
field, but also have some other uses that are more make it a little more easy to access and and activate so. 02:18:01
Until then, I really don't want to get into tweaking Rocket Field, especially with the lease with Little League, you know, So I'd 02:18:10
rather much rather have an input process in a plan than I dealt with it the last time. And it felt like death. By 1000 cuts, it 02:18:14
was it was miserable. 02:18:19
Where are we, Eva? What else do we want to talk about here? So I think we have moved into economic development in downtown 02:18:26
planning. 02:18:30
You know we've we've talked a little about kind of the status of the downtown master plan and maybe activating A DDA. Are there 02:18:34
any other? 02:18:39
Economic develop. 02:18:44
Topics that we need to cover today or are we ready to move into another category? 02:18:45
Seems like we're ready to move into another category, so. 02:18:56
Do we want to get some updates from the finance and personnel committee from Council Member Massey? 02:19:00
I have been attempting to attend some of their weekly meetings that the. 02:19:10
Employees have been having and I'm very impressed with how everybody gets along and everybody keeps everybody else updated on what 02:19:17
they're working on and and the accomplishments they're making and. 02:19:23
Umm. 02:19:31
And I like the fact that. 02:19:33
Sharon and Julie and Lee and everybody's been doing a good job on the financial input of that and keeping all of us updated on all 02:19:36
that. 02:19:40
And. 02:19:45
That's about it. You're doing a good job. Thank you. So we did we do have as of I guess. 02:19:46
Friday I've engaged a company that was doing work with Condrey and Associates to do an evaluation of our performance, our 02:19:53
performance evaluation tool and also help me create a merit pay or pay for performance type program which is one of the goals for 02:20:01
me this year. So we started that process and I'm hoping that before the end of budget will have something we'll have a plan. 02:20:09
Set out to address that so that is 1 update. 02:20:17
All right, wonderful. Any questions or comments with regard to finance and personnel? 02:20:25
I think just a big thank you to Sharon for running so much of that and it. 02:20:32
Being relatively seamless and leave for your work on finance. Thank you to both of. 02:20:35
No, that's a lot of work. 02:20:41
I'm sorry. 02:20:43
I meant to mention with the economic development Jeff and Christina, can we explore the option of possibly having a charging 02:20:45
station put in? 02:20:50
Somewhere downtown. I mean, if we looked at that before, I think it would attract. 02:20:55
Possibly attract, but I don't know what the cost would be to put one or two in. 02:21:01
Yeah. 02:21:07
Yeah. 02:21:08
I mean it makes sense in like that comfort station, yes, definitely like putting, yeah, the pumps or whatever you want to call 02:21:11
them, the charter station, what does the. 02:21:16
I don't know anything about them, but what if I drive my electric car there and attach it? 02:21:21
Do you swipe a credit card? How does that work? Yeah, So one thing I would tell you one you've got to be close to a power source. 02:21:27
A big power source. So the comfort station back there is probably not going to be ideal. 02:21:35
You're going to need to be able to draw some power off of something that hole that try to cross from it on the middle of our 02:21:45
sidewalk. 02:21:49
Yeah. 02:21:54
They're gonna have to. They would have to dig from there through the elders property, over to. 02:21:55
Over there to it. 02:22:03
Again, it's possible, but so yeah, there there's an app. All the different cars have their own. 02:22:06
Charging stations. Tesla has its own app and it tells you, hey there there, your charging stations are in this vicinity. 02:22:14
But yeah, that Georgia Power. 02:22:24
Is there are those pumps are there generic ones so you can charge any brand of. I don't know if the yeah so each car has it's like 02:22:27
specifically Tesla has its own. 02:22:32
Charger that you have to plug into the. 02:22:38
To handle for for the Tesla. 02:22:40
I also had a private sector company contact me about wanting to put one in here. 02:22:44
Which I don't. I don't know that it makes a ton of sense, unless we had electric police cars or something. And then there's 02:22:50
multiple cons like the Superchargers, like a Tesla one would require a huge direct current power source. 02:22:55
Moderate one requires a little bit less. That charges at a reasonable rate. You know, that would give you maybe 20-30 miles an 02:23:01
hour. You know the supercharger would be. 02:23:06
Got crazy? Now Wire part would probably be a phenomenal place to put. 02:23:10
But. 02:23:15
I mean it and it still can go in because I can tell you when when I was working for the power company, we put some in Greensboro 02:23:18
behind an existing facility. And I mean. 02:23:23
People love them. That drop? 02:23:29
Ledger. 02:23:31
Yeah, I. 02:23:32
Well, part would definitely be putting some in. I was just more thinking about downtown area, trying to attract them to the 02:23:36
downtown area and I don't know about the lot to release up on the corner by. 02:23:42
I mean there's nothing. So typically you want to put it somewhere that I mean because it's not like an instant thing. So you need, 02:23:48
you need to plug it in and be able to do something. I mean I guess you could go to Adobe's and I guess if you did put it there 02:23:54
then we could maybe you know walk to downtown area. 02:24:00
But maybe like Town Center or because I mean the existing power is already there. They could come off of like so on the backside 02:24:07
of Town Center, the power, the the Transformers sitting right there. So they could pull off of that and we could have some 02:24:12
charging stations there at Town Center. 02:24:17
Would be feasible for between the salon and the church right there salon and the church. 02:24:23
Where the big powerful is across the street. 02:24:30
The private parking right below. 02:24:34
The Christian Church parking. 02:24:36
Oh. 02:24:38
The power zone powers on the other side of the road, though, so you'd have to know that wouldn't turn the courthouse where they 02:24:44
have their power buried. 02:24:48
There's no power poles back there. There is a transformer somewhere. I'd have to go find out where the big green box is. It's all 02:24:54
buried back there. But yeah, but I mean you'd come off the big green box. I mean the like 6 foot tall big, 6 foot by 6 foot box. 02:25:01
You that's what you would come off of. So there you could put some behind the. 02:25:08
But I Generally speaking, unlike in Greensboro, there's only four for all of I'm not Greensboro, Madison. 02:25:12
There's only four in Madison, and it's right on the Interstate. 02:25:19
That way. 02:25:22
Folks coming down the Interstate can stop, so you're probably not going to want to put them all over. It's probably what I'd 02:25:24
suggest is, you know, we can add it to the work plan. Chuck, I think it's a good idea to explore charging station options in 02:25:29
Watkinsville, Sharon and just see private sector versus Georgia Power. 02:25:35
I can connect you with the guy. He's he's a, he helps with some startup businesses here and he's got a startup in San Francisco 02:25:42
and he comes to Watkinsville a couple times a year and he wanted to put solar panels on our roof. 02:25:48
And use the solar panels to. 02:25:55
Use the solar panels to pay for the charging station. Yeah, you know, so then you're generating the electricity. 02:25:58
Necessary. And that way if we ever want to move to electric police vehicles because our vehicles it's not like they go far out of 02:26:03
town. They come back here and charge up pretty easily anytime and keep a nice charge you know it would it could save us some money 02:26:09
as gas prices increase you know and we sit in the sun here you know this point was. 02:26:14
Your location is pretty good. If you ever want to run any for city vehicles as Ev's you know then you could save costs on gas 02:26:20
overtime with that. The county would probably be a good resource for that as well because you know they built all of. 02:26:27
I call it the mall. 02:26:35
The new behind Home Depot and all that. So you they've got like 20 charging stations over there. Yeah. So they they would have a 02:26:37
contact already for how they did it if it cost them anything. 02:26:44
All right, good thought. 02:26:54
Yeah, that's great. So I think we're ready for the police committee. 02:26:57
So we you know we we initiated the $10,000 bonus for all current employees and and new employee. 02:27:03
Future employees that have the post certification. We do have a couple of candidates in the pipeline right now, but no, no new 02:27:12
employee has currently taken. We haven't hired any new employees yet. 02:27:18
Umm. 02:27:24
That's about it. So we're about to import, about to put out the. 02:27:29
The brand new signage thing that we got. 02:27:33
I don't know what you want to call that. Chiefs got a specific name for it? That's got the the movable. 02:27:37
Radar, the variable message trailer. Yeah, that thing. Have we gotten that yet? 02:27:45
Well, I mean, it's not, I mean, but it's coming soon. Yeah, yeah, it's coming soon. 02:27:51
And I think that's. 02:27:56
About it for the police committee. 02:27:58
Great. Yeah. And I know that we talked about earlier. 02:28:00
You know, potentially increasing enforcement on pedestrians crossing, so OK. 02:28:04
Good. 02:28:10
Since the chief is not here, we are actually putting additional speed limit signs on Thrasher. 02:28:13
3rd. 02:28:21
And Simonson. 02:28:23
I think there's one more going in South Main, yeah. So put an additional speed limit signs in. 02:28:26
To help reduce that traffic and also for enforcement purposes. 02:28:33
OK. Any questions or comments with regard to police and safety? 02:28:40
All right. Well, I think that actually the majority of the conversations this morning have already centered around transportation 02:28:48
mobility. 02:28:53
And St. and kind of property committee, but if there is anything that hasn't been brought up in either of those categories, I'll 02:28:59
give that opportunity now. 02:29:04
Only thing I think we're looking at more signs to. 02:29:10
Direct people when they're coming into town with parking and. 02:29:15
Stuff So. 02:29:19
I think that's on the agenda, on the radar. 02:29:21
Working or something. Yeah. I think I think for the most part we're trying to do any additional signage. So we get the branding 02:29:25
because we'll tie those together with all the directional signage as well as the entrance, gateway, entrance signage and stuff. So 02:29:30
we're probably, you know, a few months out from being able to, you know, couple months at least from finishing this and then 02:29:35
knowing what direction we're going to go. 02:29:40
And I would encourage, I'll take pictures. If you see stuff in cities and places that you like, you know, take some pictures, send 02:29:46
them to us. 02:29:48
Yeah. Oh, good. OK. 02:29:52
A City Hall. The one from Madrid? Yeah. City Hall in Madrid. Yeah, Yeah. Christine's thinking at a whole different scale than the 02:29:55
rest of us, which I appreciate. I said be bold. And she is. So I went to Gatlinburg. That was a little different. But but yeah, 02:30:00
so. 02:30:04
Yeah. Do we need a sister city relationship? I figured Christine would have negotiated that, you know? 02:30:11
Great. And you know, oftentimes that wayfinding signage will kind of organically help with slowing down traffic. 02:30:20
You know, people being more aware of, hey, you're entering A pedestrian downtown area. 02:30:27
So good. I'm excited to to see what designs you guys come up with. This will be great. 02:30:34
All right. Well, I think from here we were going to move into lunch, but we are a little early. So do we want to keep going with? 02:30:40
I think if everyone wants to take a break, we can stop. She she went to pick up lunch. She'll be back shortly. We can take a 02:30:46
little bit of a break and regroup. But I do want to after we eat, I would like to just everybody come back just so we have sort 02:30:52
of. 02:30:57
Debriefing, regrouping of sort of what's going on where what we're doing, what the next steps are for everybody. So we're on the 02:31:04
same page and I'll work on. I'm pulling that together. I do want to just mention about the budget process since we have an 02:31:08
opportunity to have in front of you obviously today. 02:31:13
Is important. A lot of what you told me today will help us as we prepare a capital budget out of the general fund and. 02:31:18
The operating. 02:31:25
For the things that we can handle that are operating wise, obviously there's a lot of capital, but there's always operating that 02:31:28
goes with capital. So you got to be thinking about both at the same time. 02:31:32
The there is a work session on the 23rd at 5:30 which will be. 02:31:37
Presenting you guys with some capital requests to consider, you won't be making votes on any of that stuff at that time. And then 02:31:42
we have the fire department and oh calf of the two independent agencies that are still on the that it will still come before you 02:31:49
asking you for funds to consider during the budget process. Library obviously is already committed money. We don't, it's not 02:31:56
something that you will have to necessarily consider and obviously they're still going to be constructing it so. 02:32:03
But we will. We do have a process. The the mayor will have a couple weeks once staff pulls the budget together. Mayor will have a 02:32:11
couple weeks to then look at it and have another. There will be one public hearing before he has to present it, provide his 02:32:17
comments back to me, and then we'll work on those together and get those to y'all. 02:32:23
So that you'll have time to look at it twice, you'll see it May 18th and you will see it again on I think it's June, yeah, June 02:32:30
15th and there will be some work sessions depending on you know we'll we've got. 02:32:35
Scheduled, but we may not need all three of them. We will be also handling the mileage rate at the same time we've Lee and I went 02:32:42
met last week with Jennifer. Is it Riddle? Jennifer Riddle sounded weird all of a sudden. Jennifer Riddle and Alex Allen Skinner 02:32:48
with a tax assessor's office to start that process and make sure they're aware we're planning on following that same process, that 02:32:54
we don't have two separate public sets of meetings. You guys are meeting public here. Go ahead and do all of them at the same 02:33:00
time. So. 02:33:06
So if we, if we want to go ahead and sort of break for about 1010 or 15 minutes, she should be back with lunch and then we'll as 02:33:16
soon as we get done with lunch, we can come back. And I've just sort of a recap that works for everybody sounds good. 02:33:22
All right. Yogurt. All right. Thank you. All right, let's break. 02:33:28
All right. Welcome back from lunch and thank you for. 02:33:39
That it was delicious. 02:33:44
So wanted to just take a quick minute to go over the items that we discussed adding to the work program just to verify that we're 02:33:47
all on the same page so that staff can proceed accordingly. 02:33:54
So I have that you want to explore EV charging station options. 02:34:03
I think we're all on the same page there. And then I have that the intersection improvements at Symington and Main were something 02:34:12
that Y'all wanted. 02:34:18
Actively pursue this round. 02:34:26
And then I also have Connecting Jackson to Hardin Hill along S Main St. 02:34:31
I have it right now as you know a low priority, but depending on how development progresses and designs go with the pipe plant, 02:34:40
that may become a higher priority just to take advantage of of opportunity there. 02:34:46
All right. All right. And then? 02:34:58
Correct me far out. I think that those were the the three we're adding. Did I miss one? 02:35:03
OK. And then the stormwater? 02:35:08
Was the other one and basically just. 02:35:11
Revised the stormwater master plan. 02:35:14
Item to read more. 02:35:19
Just ongoing work with the engineer to address known storm water issues that are occurring. 02:35:22
OK. 02:35:30
So with that, we'll move on to the Other Items section. 02:35:33
And. 02:35:39
For the sign ordinance. 02:35:40
Did we want? 02:35:44
Well yeah, so the so the overview is is and some of this happened before my job so there may be some fill in but when I came on 02:35:47
board the sign ordinance has or still has a section talking about campaign, is it political campaign signs, is that how it's 02:35:53
political campaign signs. But my understanding is the sign ordinance should be neutral and yet we have a section, well it came up 02:35:59
during. 02:36:05
And we couldn't do anything about it. The way our current signed ordinance is outside of that is you can only have so many, so 02:36:41
many feet apart. They obviously can't be in the right away. They do have to be two by three. I don't know do we have, I don't joke 02:36:46
and talk a little bit more, but I mean so our concern is, is, is. 02:36:52
Do we take it out? Do we take that whole section out and just go with our standard, you know we control because the state 02:36:58
basically is preempting us from being able to have the regulations that we have under campaign signs because we actually do 02:37:04
regulate how many and all that in our code, so. 02:37:09
Jenkins, Nelson and Olson with count 1, but pre owned his zoning firm in the state of Georgia. Yeah, I didn't borrow your bike, 02:37:18
right? So again, Peter Olson was involved in approximately 2005 just before I begin a city attorney in 2006. You're all in the 02:37:26
middle of a billboard signed lawsuit as I was told at the time. And in response to that, Peter Olson put together a fairly 02:37:33
standard conservative legally appropriate. 02:37:41
Sign ordinance for you that has stood from that day. One of the provisions that Peter had in there was entitled election cycle 02:37:49
temporary signs. It didn't identify political signs. So it could be any sign about anything during any election cycle. So what he 02:37:57
did as A and it did it did not target political signs. But what it said was this. On any single lot 1 election cycle temporary 02:38:06
side may be placed for every 10 feet of frontage on a public street. So you don't get the 100 signs, you get one every 10 feet. 02:38:15
And it's for the purpose of Traffic Safety, so you don't have this proliferation to use the fancy sign, you know, gurus, language 02:38:24
of science everywhere on a lot distracting drivers, so on and so forth, so. 02:38:30
What happened in the ensuing years is this was in place and enforced from 2006 to the incident that Sharon spoke of. Then the 02:38:38
issue was raised, I think through the County Attorney, through the election Superintendent, oh hey, we got a state law on this 02:38:44
that preemptive. 02:38:50
So I looked at that. It just struck me as funny. Why would the state be wading into this? So I contacted Peter Olsen about two 02:38:56
weeks ago, just prior to our last meeting, and Peter was like, huh, never heard of that state law. So he looked it up and he 02:39:02
thought it through and he said basically this is a state trying to come into local zoning decisions, which is per him, 02:39:08
inconsistent with our state constitution, inconsistent with our state zoning procedures law, he said. Joe, I just don't think that 02:39:15
this state law is enforceable at all. 02:39:21
I would not change your language. 02:39:27
So there's a whole lot of moving parts of this. There are legal issues I have not had a chance to circle up. 02:39:30
Further with Peter, since he sent our, since he and I talked about, I think he sent us an e-mail. Sharon, I don't know if you have 02:39:36
that at hand. What I'd like to do is get that out to council. 02:39:41
And then maybe if we want to put it on the docket for the next go around, but I'd like to forward you Brian, didn't he? 02:39:46
Did he send us an e-mail that I forward to you? OK, I want to get him to put in writing what I've just stated to you and then we 02:39:52
can assess it further. But right now, based on one of the quote statewide experts in sign ordinances and zoning, he's saying the 02:39:58
state law is unconstitutional, that we are not legally preempted and that we should just leave the language as is. The concern, if 02:40:05
you change the language is right now there is the limit of one sign every 10 feet of any sign, whether it's political or not, It 02:40:11
is any election cycle sign. 02:40:17
If this goes away. 02:40:24
On their property, as they want to without restriction. I almost feel like that I probably ought to advise you stick to your guns 02:40:28
based on advice of Peter Olson and only change if a court tells you it needs to be changed, which I think is highly unlikely. So 02:40:34
that's kind of that's the background and the history of where we are, but I would like to get something. 02:40:41
Since it's significant from Peter Olson in writing on that and get that to you all before the next council meeting. 02:40:48
Quick question on that. What can somebody have a sign in their yard but just leave it there indefinitely? 02:40:56
Well, it depends if it's an election cycle and we're in one of these situations we're in now where you've got multiple, multiple 02:41:05
primaries leading up to the primaries and general elections and then possible special election routes after they could end up you 02:41:10
could end up having. 02:41:15
Limitless signs in a yard for probably. 02:41:21
Eight or ten months? 02:41:25
No, but I mean, I'm not. And I'm not speaking about political science. It could be. 02:41:27
Anytime. Can you just put out, put a sign saying have a nice day in my yard and leave it there and definitely. 02:41:31
Numbers and I don't remember. You may remember. 02:41:41
Top your head what it is in a residential that he's speaking, yeah, so it's temporary is a temporary sign and you have to fill out 02:41:45
a permit and you can have it up for two weeks per quarter. 02:41:50
So only two weeks? And what's the difference between a sign and a flag? 02:41:57
So a flag is. 02:42:01
A flag as long as it is on a flag stand or flagpole once. 02:42:04
Attach it to a fence or something like that. It becomes a sign at that point. 02:42:10
OK, So what about like Mr. Lays, Is that a permanent sign on North Main Street? Mr. Lay, sign down in the hole, the political, the 02:42:18
political commentary. So it's my understanding that the political signs that you're not, that you can't regulate the political 02:42:23
signs. 02:42:28
Like the political science can. 02:42:33
Well, that's, that's what we're talking about and that's what we're talking about. 02:42:36
What we got direction from the Board of Elections during the campaign and the key here is again to be content neutral not to. And 02:42:40
this is per Supreme Court decision that came down approximately 2015 that we cannot regulate based on content. That's why I made 02:42:48
the clarifying point that these are election cycle signs as opposed to political signs that are being identified as part of this 02:42:55
discussion. 02:43:02
I think we really need is some written legal advice from the expert who prepared the sign ordinance originally and get him to 02:43:10
affirm what I've just stated and then you can make your final assessment once we have that in hand. Yeah, I I would just kind of 02:43:16
bring up the point. I just wanted to learn for myself. 02:43:22
What's allowed and we we got to be careful. We can't allow one because we agree with it and the other one not. 02:43:29
You know, if we agree or disagree with the message, it shouldn't matter. It's. 02:43:35
And we need to enforce it no matter who it is. 02:43:39
So that's what I was trying to figure out because. 02:43:42
I think we all know which ones are around town. Are they legal? Is all I was trying to figure out. 02:43:45
Right. And on the so on. 02:43:52
Election type signs or political? 02:43:56
We pulled back from that until we have clarity on it because the Sharon's point, we're going by what was indicated to us from the 02:43:58
last election cycle as the you know not that we could not limit how long those were out. 02:44:06
And. 02:44:13
In that time frame, the other sign. 02:44:15
The question remains. You spoke about a flag, so. 02:44:19
Actually a sign as well. 02:44:23
So, but that leads to another question. If I have a flag out there that says. 02:44:25
You know, have a nice day. 02:44:31
And Jeff is flying his UGA flag. 02:44:33
Are they? Do they both fall under the same thing? 02:44:35
Yeah, but I think you just said if it was attached to a fence or something. Yeah, if it's pinned then it becomes a stationary 02:44:39
sign. It's no longer considered a flag, but a flag is a form of signage. 02:44:45
Yeah. 02:44:51
Wouldn't it be too big at that point? If it's a fact, I mean, because we have stopped, the size is regulated. It's probably a 02:44:52
tube. I'm guessing that flag is a two by three, the specific one. 02:44:57
Is probably a 2 by 3. 02:45:02
But I don't see any. I personally don't see any difference between the flag and the concrete and post that is sitting down on 02:45:05
North Main Street that isn't about. 02:45:10
Current elections it's not absolutely. And that's that's that's. 02:45:15
To my point, I've seen no difference in the flag or the. 02:45:19
The post although the. 02:45:24
Innately political. 02:45:27
So you also. 02:45:31
State anything about any candid. 02:45:33
Well, the reality is we cannot differentiate based on that anyway because of the decision the US Supreme Court made in 2015 that 02:45:35
everything has to be content neutral. 02:45:40
But not content, a message. I know it's a fine hair to split but that's for the Supreme Court of it. So I'll I'll talk about some 02:45:48
other signs. You talk about Athens feed and seed forever. They've always had their signs on their fence right there advertising 02:45:54
their pine straw and their. 02:45:59
There. 02:46:05
Whatever seed or flower that they're currently selling. So if we regulate. 02:46:06
A sign that we need to regulate all the. 02:46:11
And I mean that's. 02:46:14
The feed and seed will have to pull their signs down as well off of their fence on their property. 02:46:16
And that may get. 02:46:21
And I'm sorry, but I want to make sure I use the money that gets into, and I don't know the answer to this, Is it a grandfather 02:46:23
preexisting sign that preceded the 2005, 2006 Arizoning ordinance sign ordinance? That's a question you'd have to investigate 02:46:30
before you pursued any enforcement issues. So y'all help me. What problem are we trying to solve here? That's kind of my question 02:46:36
is, well, here's the quote problem. 02:46:42
Is that the interpretation from the County Attorney and the election board is one thing. That our sign ordinance allegedly has 02:46:49
language that's inconsistent with state law. But we're being told by the expert who drew up our sign ordinance is that state law 02:46:55
is patently on its face, unconstitutional and unenforceable, and therefore it does not preempt us and don't change it. But I want 02:47:01
to get that to you in writing. 02:47:07
OK, because I'd rather not poke any bears for the point of poking bears, but if we need to communicate with the county, or. 02:47:16
Candidates or others what our position is, let's have a very thoughtful. 02:47:23
Document that makes it very easy. So when those political candidates call, we can make our case that we know that. 02:47:28
Even if we need to state that we understand there's a state law that's in conflict with this, but we've been advised by our 02:47:34
attorney that this is our position and we'll see you in court if you disagree. 02:47:38
If that's to be our position, so Joe, bring us something to look at on that and we can talk about it at our next meeting unless we 02:47:42
want to. 02:47:45
About this one around. 02:47:49
I see plans for July 4th. Is there anything else on here we need to cover, Sharon? Well, so I mean that's the big thing. We did 02:47:56
budget some monies but we didn't really talk about. 02:48:00
What council really wanted to do with July 4th, like we've done with, you know, Christmas parades. 02:48:05
Downtown, well, we participate in the other activities, so I wasn't sure what the desire was. We didn't get into that. Like I said 02:48:11
during the budget process specifically if there was a plan for us to. 02:48:17
Do anything more than what we did last year. We had a contest you know what's and I know Councilman Thomas, I know you were sort 02:48:24
of the one leading this. So maybe we can get some direction. Yeah, I would. I would love to expound upon what we did last year. I 02:48:28
think it looked great. I think there was a lot of. 02:48:33
Participants that put flags out and and turn the city red, white and blue. I think it looked our city looked great. I love our new 02:48:40
purchase that we did with the the all the flags. I think those look great. I you know I. 02:48:46
You know Bob Smith, when he came around campaigning, had a great idea and had somebody that was going to fund it. I don't know who 02:48:54
it was, but putting a flag on every single Citizens door in all the Watkinsville. 02:49:01
I would love to head that up. 02:49:08
You know, I don't. I would love to use him as a contact and and and push that forward because I think that would be amazing for us 02:49:12
to provide a. 02:49:16
A flag to. 02:49:22
Citizen in Watkinsville and and see how many flags we put up, you know? 02:49:23
All right. So we'll need to start that early. What day of the week is the? It's a Monday, So do we? But generally, conceptually, 02:49:30
other than more flags, we don't see an event. So that's what I'm wondering, should we do? I know last year we kind of didn't do it 02:49:36
because it was a Sunday, but do we want to have any sort of? 02:49:42
An event, or is it? Do you see it as more of just, you know, paint the town red, white and blue? Again, what are we? 02:49:48
I like the idea of now. 02:49:54
I don't know how many people are going to be in town with it being a three day holiday weekend, but I like the idea of like. 02:49:57
When kids decorate their bicycles and you know, you have like an old fashioned little parade around Rocket Field kind of thing, I 02:50:05
don't know if. 02:50:09
Worth that might just be idealism in my brain. 02:50:14
Something worth doing, but we had talked about that idea various times. I think we were going to and then COVID. 02:50:19
I'm open to any ideas. 02:50:27
You know, if we come up with something great that we want to use city resources for us, yeah, absolutely. What if we did that and 02:50:30
then had a early picnic at Rocket Field for community members? I mean, even if it was just. 02:50:35
Is that is that a lot of work? Because that shouldn't even really be money, right? 02:50:43
I mean taking like a potluck yeah, like everybody bring your own picnic to. I mean we talked we were talking earlier about using 02:50:48
Rocket Field for. 02:50:53
Things, and it's not interfering with Little League. 02:50:58
But it would just be a community of. 02:51:04
Early in the day, before it's a million degrees. 02:51:09
So yes, 7:00 AM, if you're doing it, if you're doing, if you're doing that. 02:51:14
I was going to say if you're doing a picnic, you may want to do it later in the day. 02:51:21
I don't know when the county, so the county is probably not going to do fireworks anytime soon. 02:51:28
Well, the reason they're not going to, at least what I was told is. 02:51:37
Egress from the park is. 02:51:41
It's not phenomenal. So they're they're probably not going to even this year. They're not even contemplating it. 02:51:45
Because it's so hard to get people in and out. 02:51:49
So I mean, Chuck just made a great point. If we did it later in the afternoon evening time, then we could do like a movie on the 02:51:53
lawn. 02:51:57
Sparklers or something. Something that's safe and fun and. 02:52:02
Yeah, you. 02:52:06
Roman Campbells and if it's on the evening. 02:52:10
Oh, I forgot about the other rough thing. If they were out of town, might be back in town too. What day is that? You said on 02:52:15
Monday. Yeah 'cause they'll have to be back at school. 02:52:19
Summer. 02:52:26
But that is an interesting idea of like something a little later. 02:52:27
Because rocket field so pretty later in the day like you know you know 6:00 the sun's starting to go down you know and. 02:52:31
I've got a little bias because I'm usually at the Peachtree Rd. race in the morning. 02:52:39
So, but that could be. 02:52:44
What time does? I know we don't want to let Russ dictate, but what time does this thing get rolling? Like, if people want to do 02:52:46
both, is that the Russ Tanner? Russ Tanner, Yeah, So that's. 02:52:51
Yeah, that's usually later. 02:52:57
Yeah. 02:53:01
Yeah, there was a he's there was $80,000 spent in hard works. There's a lot of money spent hours. 02:53:07
You might be able to talk the chief into doing like. 02:53:14
4th of July themed movie out at Rocket Field. 02:53:18
I was thinking about the hatchery too. Now I was honestly thinking about the hatchery. You know, it's right and kind of right 02:53:25
there and. 02:53:27
Yeah, with new creations. 02:53:32
Right there could be, since it's not in the city, they can we can the county a lot. 02:53:35
I was just thinking, yeah, they could sort of help people do food trucks on July 4th. Those guys may want to be off to this, 02:53:41
right? 02:53:45
They just haven't moved. That's actually something to think about. We probably need to move that city limits. I'm like, no, I'm 02:53:50
telling you, the sign is before you get there. 02:53:54
And I'll throw off all the bike groups to that Sprint to the city limits on, but we probably do need to move it down to the down 02:53:58
on the other side. 02:54:01
That is an interesting idea though, to see if Paul and Duke and those guys might want to. And then we probably should check with 02:54:05
Wire Park to make sure they're not thinking about some giant thing on the 4th. 02:54:08
It would take some of it off of us and just let the private sector run. 02:54:13
I do like Daddy as a little kid, like decorating. 02:54:19
Yeah. 02:54:23
A kid bike parades sort of an easy yeah, there's you just show up, show up, start lineup. I mean, honestly that could be a nine 02:54:24
AM, 10 AM thing too. It doesn't have to necessarily be together. I mean if every kid in Watkinsville wants to meet it, meet at 02:54:31
OCAF and ride their bike around the block four times and have a little judge thing that could community volunteers could do that. 02:54:37
Yeah, yeah. Ice cream. Yeah. What's the ice cream guy? Little dude, little. 02:54:43
Man, ice cream. Jeff Campbell's the ice cream, dude. Oh yeah. 02:54:51
Yeah. Oh, that makes very stuff. Yeah, that could be fun to do in the morning. And then if we are able to do something in the 02:54:55
evening, I think I like the idea of an evening thing. I. 02:54:59
People get home after a weekend gone, they can have a low key, they can picnic and if we do a movie or something. 02:55:05
All right. So, Brett, can you take the lead on kind of fleshing that out and giving some options? I'll check with yes, OK. 02:55:12
It's our director of community fund, the Social Social Man, Yeah. 02:55:20
Cool. 02:55:26
Are there any other holidays or things coming up before July 4th we need to think about? I know we typically have that surge in 02:55:28
the fall with Halloween and Christmas and everything else, so yeah, so. 02:55:33
The. 02:55:40
Easter Egg Hunt is the 16th, I think, of April. It'll be here. 02:55:40
May 17th is Cops and Bobbers 7th. Sorry, May 7th is Cops and Bobbers I know on my calendar and then and then we'll put it anytime. 02:55:47
So we've already we've got on our calendar anytime There's like Memorial Day veterans you know veteran's day July 4th. What am I 02:55:53
missing? 02:55:59
Anyway, we'll put. This will put flags out. 02:56:06
On Main Street. Or, you know, in that vicinity anyway. 02:56:09
If there's any other activities, anything I'm missing, is there any while we're planning for that, I know last year we bought the 02:56:13
bunting for the pedestrian bridge that looked really nice. Is there anywhere else in the city if we want to say if I'm just if we 02:56:18
want to add one more thing every year, is there anywhere else? Y'all have thought driven past and thought something would look 02:56:22
great. 02:56:26
There, you know or. 02:56:31
I was just thinking maybe if we want to continue with the flags, we could go on down. I mean, like the corridors. I mean, you 02:56:36
could go down in front of Mayor Pratt, whatever it is now. 02:56:41
Down in front of Mayor Pride. Down that way. 02:56:46
Umm. 02:56:49
Down. 02:57:51
What do you mean by wraps? Do you mean so you could do the flag wraps come around? 02:57:52
The polls? Are they Georgia Power owned? No, no. There's a decorative. OK. The street lamps. Oh, yeah. Anything Georgia Power 02:57:57
owns, you have to ask permission to put anything on. Sure. 02:58:02
Yeah. 02:58:10
I don't know if there's anything else. I can't think of anything else. 02:58:14
Is there anything we missed that we didn't talk about? 02:58:18
What do you think about for Mother's Day, we get a whole bunch of carnations and give out free carnations to kids. 02:58:21
Mother. 02:58:28
Yeah. 02:58:30
But Mother's Day is a tricky holiday. 02:58:31
For people who are able to have children, people who've lost their mothers, people who have mothers, they don't like people, I 02:58:34
mean. 02:58:38
I would just say a lot of churches do things. I I guess I would say no. And I'm the mother who might get some carnations from 02:58:43
children, but. 02:58:46
That's. 02:58:52
We staff is trying to work up and this will come forward probably in the capital budget we are talking about because we have 02:58:54
received requests. I think Councilman Thomas was wanting to ask that we put additional. 02:58:59
Whole decorations for Christmas up down like Barnet Shoals and maybe something, you know, couple play. So we're going to. 02:59:05
We're going to come up with an estimate they're about, on average, anywhere from 5 to $600 a piece. 02:59:10
The Georgia Power will put the power there for us to plug into, but but then we have to and I think our power bill this year was 02:59:17
$2800 when it for running the lights for an entire month. 02:59:21
With just the water with 807080 Toby, how many lights do we have now? I can't remember. Don't we have? 02:59:27
Because we had 4000 bulbs. Do you remember how many there were? 02:59:34
I don't know, there's like 50 or 60 at least I think, right? 02:59:39
Is it only 30? OK, maybe it's only 37. 02:59:43
Yeah, somebody. Yeah, yeah. So Speaking of I had several people complain that they're all white bulbs. Is there any way we can go 02:59:46
back to having some red ones or green ones? Well, part of part of that was we had to buy bulbs and you know you have to make if 02:59:52
you have red, green and. 02:59:58
Sockets and stuff. We decided to go with the white light with white and I don't, I personally don't have an issue. 03:00:38
Bulbs the no, the actual. 03:00:45
So. 03:01:23
Yeah, I mean, it's just, I got the same. I heard from probably some of the same people and my point was it's cheaper, it's easier. 03:01:26
You all are constantly pushing us to be efficient. 03:01:31
And, you know, there's some. I'm OK with it, you know? Do I miss colors? Yeah. But. 03:01:36
I think we can deal with white, but my two cents. So we'll bring forward probably in the capital budget well, so if y'all want to 03:01:43
decide to use some of the money in the bank to buy some more decorations to put maybe down. 03:01:48
Barnard Shoals or further down South Main or North Main or wherever, you know, the main corridors or even I think we talked about 03:01:55
maybe some down Harden Hill. Now that we have the sidewalk, maybe, you know, we'll come up with a plan and the budget and maybe. 03:02:01
Pitch that be all for capital. How about for the parade? Do. 03:02:07
Toby, do you feel like we'll be able to get barriers from you, more barriers from UGA, the secondary second truck to we know we're 03:02:11
going to need more barriers next year? Yeah, I mean, UGA was on task with us using the bears and they said we could get that they 03:02:16
have additional trailers with the barriers. 03:02:22
You know we this is our first go at it, learned a lot of things. The barriers down on 3rd St. we didn't get them in place so that 03:02:28
caused some issues or whatever. 03:02:33
But also putting some barriers down off of. 03:02:38
Water. 03:02:43
Where it comes back into Hardin Hill, making sure those people don't top the hill and then they're sitting at a barrier. 03:02:47
So we did learn a lot of stuff and also the traffic coming back around. 03:02:54
Through third making sure that. 03:02:59
Bisecting the parade as it's still feeding. So we, me and the chief talked about it something we got some work there to do to make 03:03:01
sure we're coordinating people out. Some of them will probably direct down Thrasher. 03:03:07
That are leaving to. 03:03:14
We'll send those down thrasher to go out on main to. 03:03:16
Get back out and that it will cause less traffic going back towards Wire Park that way. Yeah, I'll tell you from the Rotary 03:03:19
standpoint, if you just ask for more volunteers will provide more volunteers. 03:03:24
I. 03:03:31
I I saw from being in the parade that we. 03:03:32
Was that Second Street that? 03:03:35
Anyway, I think it's 2nd St. It comes by the backside of 0. 03:03:38
We had folks coming in that way, and I know that was supposed to be our egress to get out and we had folks coming in. 03:03:43
So we needed somebody there to stop all traffic coming in. Yeah, we did. Just so you all know, we did a big debrief on all those 03:03:49
issues collectively afterwards. So I think they're tackling all of them, but my biggest concern is. 03:03:54
The I think we will move towards a If you're going to have candy, you have to hand the candy out. You're not going to be bombing 03:03:59
it from the middle of the road and then. 03:04:03
I'm hopeful that we'll have barriers the whole way along Main Street. You know, the kids were just too close to the vehicles last 03:04:07
year. It's just not worth it. 03:04:10
So I want to keep as much magic as we can, but we're going to have a crowd of that size there was we don't have the resources to. 03:04:15
Yeah, keep the kids out. I think the county will have, you know, one of our issues was the county just didn't have enough law 03:04:20
enforcement to provide for us. We had to go outside of the county. 03:04:25
You know, so hopefully this year we'll have more law enforcement, but well they participate in the parade. You know they've got 03:04:31
that opportunity. I think we'll be able to resolve all the issues. I just wanted from a capital standpoint, this is the time to 03:04:35
with budget. 03:04:40
If you all think of other things, you know now it's your window for saying Sharon, let's see if we can include this or it can be 03:04:45
an option in the budget. So, so we did get a grant, a $3000 grant from Girma. 03:04:50
Which we purchased some additional barricades and we also purchased 14 of the flashing yellow lights that go on top of the 03:04:56
barricades. 03:05:00
With the parades and the difference of when we do the barricades, many like the saw horse looking things, correct? Correct. And 03:05:07
then the barriers would be more like the little metal fencing you know to keep that would keep kids from running out from under 03:05:11
tractor wheels. 03:05:15
And I'm assuming UGA will provide you with as many of those as you need. The barriers, as many as we need. 03:05:20
Yeah. I mean they have I think 4 trailers is what the chief. 03:05:27
We only used one of the trailers of the ad, so, so we'll take a little bit more planning according well and a little bit more time 03:05:30
to, I mean I need to, I need to work with G dot this year to get more than just the four hours or we shut down that road we may be 03:05:35
asking for. 03:05:39
A much longer period of time to shut down that road. I think you could go ahead and put the barriers out, like in front of pub or 03:05:43
in front of a blind pig. You go ahead and put that right there on the edge of the roadway. 03:05:50
And I mean that way, it keeps everybody from coming out into the road like they did this time. I mean that was the issue though is 03:05:57
in order to get those off the trailer and stuff, you've got our people. And so we'll have to shut down Main Street, probably from 03:06:01
Main Street to Barnett Shoals. 03:06:06
Like 3 or four hours earlier than we did this time. So we'll we'll work with G dot. I understand other other communities haven't 03:06:11
had a problem doing it. So I'm just going to use that and hopefully the team will solve the operational issues. You know, we just 03:06:17
need to, we need to be sure we've got to your point about volunteers, Brett. We may need some volunteers earlier last year, Toby 03:06:22
and the guys work really hard not watch them, you know trying to get all that stuff offloaded in basically an hour. 03:06:28
And at that point they already had crowds who had gathered and other stuff, so you know that. 03:06:34
I think they'll solve all that, But Toby, just stay in touch with us as we get closer. If you need some manpower and then we can, 03:06:38
we can help too. 03:06:41
So I have a thought, if we're talking about spending money on on decor beautification, I think I personally would rather see some 03:06:45
investment in some more. 03:06:51
Flower baskets and things like that on Main Street. Then extra Christmas signs that go down far Net Shoals. 03:06:57
Um. 03:07:05
But that's just me. I don't know if anybody, and I don't know if it's apples to. I don't know what the price is, but I I love when 03:07:06
I go to communities that there's a lot of flowers. 03:07:10
It just is beautiful. And in Georgia, they can last nine months of the year. I mean, they can last a long time. It's not one 03:07:15
month. It's not a lot of power. There's no power. It's manpower to water them. I get that. But I mean, does anybody else have any 03:07:20
thoughts? 03:07:25
So like Greensboro, they have hanging baskets if you go down there, but somebody has to water those daily. 03:07:30
Right now I do know that there's labor involved with it as I'm looking at it, yeah. So what I will say is, you know as Mark came 03:07:36
on board who is our residential guy for you know, plants and trees and such. 03:07:43
Some of the planners that are up on Main Street, those are all actually city owned. 03:07:52
And some of the businesses do care for them and keep stuff in. 03:07:56
Whereas other ones are not. And last year when Mark came on in the fall when we trimmed a bunch of stuff up down Main Street, but 03:08:00
we are looking. 03:08:05
Revitalize all of those planners and plant stuff in there. 03:08:12
And him being more in tune with what's going in there and also coordinating with the people who want. 03:08:16
Manage their own planner that sit down in front of their business being in line with what we're planning where it's kind of a 03:08:23
uniform look. 03:08:26
Down Main Street. So that is part of the direction that I. 03:08:30
When we hired, when we brought Mark in from the mayor. 03:08:34
And moving in that direction so and we have, we have talked. 03:08:37
Adding more planners as well as. 03:08:42
Adding more trash can receptacles down. 03:08:44
Yeah. So Mark is Mark. 03:08:48
Has looked at some of this in Madison and other places and. 03:08:51
And I think as spring approaches, we'll see more. There's a certain size and scale that needs to be with planners, you know, and 03:08:56
how they work. And we also didn't want to take away if we've got business owners who are doing a nice job, the last thing we want 03:09:00
to do is raise our hand and say, Oh yeah, we want to do extra work. 03:09:04
Since they're already doing a good job with. 03:09:09
But I have asked Mark and Toby to take a look at that and get to us with what? 03:09:13
We may want to do, but I don't think that should wait till July. I think we probably need to get those, get some of those done. 03:09:16
Get them, get them going sooner rather than later. The hanging baskets, unless we irrigate them, will require daily, you know, 03:09:22
daily. 03:09:25
Water. So that's tricky, Toby. You'll have to figure out if you can manage to do that. Well, I'm not really sure we have. So we 03:09:28
have the banner, the banners. I don't think we can hang something on that lower banner if the banners up right. I mean we'd have 03:09:32
to have an attachment of some sort. 03:09:36
On a hanging and I get what you're saying, but if you don't have. 03:09:40
If you don't have the proper hardware hanging those baskets. 03:09:45
You get into a thing where you. 03:09:48
Is a hanging too low? There's somebody gonna knock their head on it. Is it gonna get blown off or is it gonna fall off and then 03:09:50
you? 03:09:53
Becomes a lot of different variables outside of watering it. So I mean I think it's something we can look at, but I think 03:09:58
additional planners. 03:10:02
Down main and going further down and you know. 03:10:07
Incorporating some of that is definitely something that. 03:10:11
As we develop the sidewalks and the different. 03:10:15
And you know, to Brian's point, the people that are maintaining those players, we do have a couple of those planners that are 03:10:18
basically growing whatever they're growing so. 03:10:22
Taking those back over on the to the city's maintenance, as you know part of that. 03:10:27
I think you know two other things, Christine, that come to mind as we talk about that. One is, you know, we've talked with the new 03:10:33
leadership at Oak F about reactivating the public art program. 03:10:38
Which may require, you know, we may want to allocate some funds to support that where we would again. 03:10:43
Think about, you know. 03:10:49
Sculpture and bringing some of that art back. Even if the tagline changes, it's still a fundamental part of our community. 03:10:51
You know, so that's something else that we may need to antic. 03:10:56
And the year ahead in terms of a capital, you know, maybe a little bit of a capital expenditure you know to support. 03:11:01
Some some updated public art on some of our some of our pads which I think could be could be nice and. 03:11:06
Would kind of freshen things up as people come through. 03:11:12
I would love to see the art rotate. I mean, like some of the stuff that's sitting there, I would love to. 03:11:15
Rotate every, yeah, every, every. 03:11:19
Two years or so put something new up. 03:11:22
I think that's the idea is even more often than that is getting back into where there is a little bit of a rotation and you know, 03:11:25
Sharon's familiar with some of our agreements. I think some of that aren't we may own now because they never came and reclaimed 03:11:29
it. So some of that may be part of a part of a city collection, but but you know that we do have some places where there's 03:11:34
nothing. 03:11:38
There's nothing sitting on it. You know you have a cat that's questionable, but the there's some of the others that are, you know, 03:11:43
that I think have become ours. But then we also have a. 03:11:47
An art pad sitting out in front of the storage buildings that there's nothing on, you know, that's kind of at a gateway into the 03:11:52
city, so. 03:11:55
That's just, you know, something that's been on my mind that we're trying to reactivate in partnership with a calf. 03:11:59
Figure out how to You know how we can pay that off a little bit more. 03:12:05
What about? 03:12:10
In Greenwood, SC, they have 44 living topiaries. 03:12:12
Throughout the city and it's it's fantastic. It's so, so pretty and they've even got a a map of downtown so you can go from 03:12:17
topiary to topiary and they've got a crocodile that's made from. 03:12:24
Pansies or something, I don't know. And then they've got like like. 03:12:31
In front of Adobe's there was a chicken when it was Chicken Express. It was kind of cool when it was a chicken, but they're not 03:12:35
all that big there. It could be small, but Greenwood, SC, they're downtown. 03:12:40
I mean, it's a city in the middle of nowhere, but it's a thriving downtown and it's that's a. 03:12:45
Thing. Thing. 03:12:51
And I think it would look a lot better. 03:12:52
Some things that, but of course it has to be maintained by. 03:12:55
You know the street department, I guess, Or whatever. 03:12:59
Wherever we have to properly shape them, we've got a bunch of great nurseries, I mean in in this community that could probably 03:13:02
assist us in planning something like that as well. 03:13:07
So many cities. I mean, even the Bulldogs and I mean cities all over do that. I don't. I'm not saying we need to do that, but 03:13:17
they're all sponsored by different things. Topiaries could be sponsored. 03:13:22
One other idea, too, that was kind of spurred by the. 03:13:29
While we're kind of spitballing the vintage of. 03:13:32
I'd love it for us to think about this spring, some sort of a history walk in Watkinsville where we take those images. 03:13:35
And we either put them inside the stores or in front of the stores. 03:13:43
You know where they were, right? And Connie, you may be the person and I love you for it, but who hadn't seen it? But it's kind of 03:13:46
this fun webpage where people are posting historic photos. 03:13:51
And it'll be everything. It'll. 03:13:56
You know what was Elizabeth Ann's 100 years ago, And it'll show pictures of the old hardware store. 03:13:58
All miracles, but yeah, so there's a whole. So this this vintage Oconee page is really interesting, but I'm thinking, how do we 03:14:03
activate that? So my thought is, could we do a day where we have this? 03:14:08
We make a big deal. We have a history tour and then one of the most interesting posts was on School St. They used to have a dance. 03:14:13
And they had a dance and they had a band and people would dance on School St. And if you apparently if you were a really a risk 03:14:21
taker, you would kind of slide out into Main Street for a moment. We wouldn't recommend that, but I thought, how cool was that? 03:14:26
That was up to the 70s apparently, that they were doing dances on. 03:14:31
School St. and I thought, so you do you have a day where you welcome people to town. They come and they you do a little bit of a 03:14:37
walk and you see the history and in the evening you could have a band string some lights and string the lights have a band and you 03:14:42
could you could reenact something that's real. That's true. It happened in Watkins but we're not just making it up and you have 03:14:48
this event on School St. how cool would that be? Let's do that and. 03:14:53
And then we could make it. It could be an annual thing, but I thought how much fun would that be? And then you could perhaps do a 03:15:00
virtual tour, you know, the tour could then you turned over to Christy and those guys and they could say. 03:15:06
This is that spot. This is the spot where this was. But you could, you know, but take a Saturday where you have the stuff out on, 03:15:12
almost like a garden tour, but instead of be the Watkinsville history day and then you finish it off with the dance there on. 03:15:18
On School St. once the gym is renovated, you could that could be a rain place, You know, you could move it up there this year. 03:15:24
We'd have to probably take our chances. But anyway, I thought that could be a really cool idea. That would be very true to our 03:15:29
history and also highlight our history, which I'd love for us to do a better job of doing because we've got a rich history. But 03:15:33
sometimes I feel like we get overshadowed by Madison and Athens and this vintage Oak County thing has really spurred me to say not 03:15:38
only. 03:15:43
Do we have more of these assets, but we should do a better job of kind of gathering them and showing them and highlighting them 03:15:49
so? 03:15:52
One thing that a lot of folks don't know, but UGA was supposed to come right here to Watkinsville. But we were such a heathen town 03:15:56
with our our bar that we had right there at the Eagle Tavern. The UGA couldn't, couldn't be there, so got us in gardening gun. So 03:16:03
that's our that's our claim to fame, you know, that little piece of trivia. But anyway, I thought, you know. 03:16:10
That's kind of inspired. Seeing how excited people are about these, about the history is kind of made me think, well, what if? 03:16:17
We have fun, we activate it, and then we finish the day off with and we could work with. 03:16:24
It's the is it Joe, Joan or Joanne is the woman at the visitor center. She's running that whole side like. So if we partner up 03:16:30
with Christy and them to kind of make that happen. 03:16:34
You know, we we wouldn't necessarily have to do all the heavy lifting. Maybe we provide some resources, but we work with a group 03:16:39
to put that together. Yeah, but it'd be a great way to bring the community together. I think it could be a lot of fun. 03:16:45
So on a less fun note, but something I've been meaning to ask about. 03:16:51
The document that coordinates with the county. 03:16:57
It has a name slip in my brain. 03:17:00
Comprehensive plan, the shared services, yes, yes, delivery. So is that recently been, I mean does that just get rubber stamped 03:17:03
every year? Does it get renegotiated at a certain point like? 03:17:09
And where are we in that 10 year process? Are you talking about service delivery? Yes, so it was signed in 2018. 03:17:17
And so we are into it quite a few years, but that is one of the things, one of my goals this year. 03:17:33
Julie and I are going in April. April will go into some training on service delivery strategies actually you know developing. 03:17:39
The county for since 1998 is how old it is it's been. It's been rubber stamped by every city from the county from since 1998. 03:17:47
Wendell Dawson's name still originally on. 03:17:52
So it's not, it does not reflect what we actually do or how our relationship is and that's really important that we get that 03:17:59
cleared up and you know there's been. 03:18:02
They don't have that same level of of need. So it has been rubber stamps but that is a big thing. I wish I could have already done 03:18:38
it by now but there's it just hasn't been time for it but but we'll get it done this year. That's the goal. We also have the 03:18:44
Conference of land Use plan. The county will lead. I talked to Eva before now before this meeting. I know Chairman Daniel had 03:18:50
indicated the mayor that guy hearing is with the planning department will lead that effort. 03:18:56
The city has a short term work program, so. 03:19:05
Is when so. 03:19:40
You know, it's it's a good practice that you'll see it every year and that we talk about it almost pretty much at every meeting 03:19:42
because there's always some aspect that is affecting that plank. That's that's our working plan. So, but you'll have an 03:19:47
opportunity to review your goals again through this process. And my understanding is they're going to start sometime this summer 03:19:51
because they have to have it. They have to have so many public meetings, you know, well, I don't. We'll probably just participate 03:19:56
in there. I don't because I wasn't here. 03:20:01
The last time y'all did a conference that plan if you had your own individual meetings or if you just globbed onto the counties 03:20:06
and showed up, but you guys will have that. You will have discussions among yourselves in a document that you'll have to approve. 03:20:13
You know as your plan, and we'll see what part of its what Guy Herring's process is and how he wants us to plug in and what we 03:20:19
need to do. 03:20:23
And the other things that are sort of on the horizon on the city county front as you know is the. 03:20:27
You know, because the population of the county in the city have both changed since the census. That affects how we do our SPLOST. 03:20:32
And so we've got to have a conversation with the county about the county grew faster, much faster than Watkinsville did. 03:20:37
My point that has to be approved. We actually have to have an agreement with the county by the end of this year or we lose the 03:20:45
opportunity to get sales tax. So we actually are going to do some training on that as well. So the negotiation has to started by 03:20:50
June. I've had preliminary conversations with the Chairman on that. 03:20:54
We will have obviously shared planning on the further extension of experimentation as it comes into the city. 03:21:00
The county is working on its potential facility out at the end of North Main Street. You know, technically outside the city 03:21:08
limits, likely an extend at the end. So there's a lot of those kind of things. 03:21:12
They're going on that kind of impact, you know day-to-day that you know we'll stay in touch with y'all on or y'all want to lean in 03:21:17
on any of that, let me know. But there's there's always those kind of. 03:21:22
Collaborative things that are there happening and going on, but yeah, shared delivery, shared delivery service delivery strategy, 03:21:27
service delivery strategy and the comp plan will be two big ones this year. 03:21:34
Interface, interface with them. And last time I had the mayor had the opportunity to make an appointment to that group. And if I 03:21:41
do this time again, I'll appoint want to be on to that group to be a part of that conversation. But I'm not sure what process that 03:21:46
was led by the regional center last time. I'm not sure how they're going to do it this time. So I have mentioned this before, but 03:21:52
not in the right times or contacts. There's a new tax. 03:21:57
Statewide on Airbnbs, and it's fairly significant. And I don't, does the state get all that money? Does the county get some of 03:22:04
that money? Because there are a lot of Airbnbs in the city limits of Watkinsville. Yeah, there's probably, I had Angela check 03:22:09
them. So we had a meeting last week with the county. 03:22:15
Me and Lee had a meeting with Wes. Getting to, you may have heard, is the finance director pro Kona, who's leaving to go to Hall 03:22:21
County. 03:22:24
Is it $5000 a year that we're losing? Is it $20,000? I don't know. I mean, I've got to. We just now, literally this past week, 03:23:36
tried to identify how many were in the city that we know of. 03:23:41
Uh. 03:23:47
I have a guest right now in the three night stay and there is a $99.50. 03:23:49
For three nights, so it's 3030 bucks a day. 03:23:55
Tax. 03:23:59
And so it is. That's why my Airbnb provides more tax. 03:24:00
My property taxes. 03:24:06
I mean, it is real money and I. 03:24:09
One bedroom area. So, So the other thing, there's probably, there may be two laws that play. There may be a state. I know what we 03:24:13
approved on the counting level was a hotel motel tax for tourism purposes. I'm guessing that's what Wes would be talking about, 03:24:19
don't you think? Yeah. So that was approved. I think it was on the ballot and was approved by the voters. 03:24:25
And I primarily in advance of the Springhill Suites opening up because that was going to be our first sort of real hotel. 03:24:31
I do think you know the pipe plant there has been talk of a boutique hotel potentially going in there. 03:24:38
You know, Ashford Manners not coming back, but I think the idea is, you know, we're probably benefiting to some degree. 03:24:44
From that hotel motel because the visitor center is headquartered and doing work in Watkinsville. But we can dig deeper and I 03:24:50
think your question about the state. 03:24:54
Understanding whether we should be getting, you know we've lost money on state stuff before where it's some of its coming back to 03:24:57
the county and we're not getting our share. So I think it's a fair good question to ask. 03:25:02
You know, as we talk about this. 03:25:07
Dance idea that's going to cost money and to me that's the kind of thing that could specifically. 03:25:09
Like we could use Airbnb tax money to help fund these types of events. 03:25:17
1. 03:25:24
Go ahead, excuse me. One thing I failed to mention earlier. 03:25:25
With the parks and stuff, Watkinsville Woods, I know Toby and his guys go and do some work there periodically, but. 03:25:31
I guess you got some funding set aside for. 03:25:39
Or what is the ideas for it going forward-looking down the road 5 years from now? I mean more benches or? 03:25:44
So we have an Eagle Scout who's going to install a couple benches over there and I think if if he does his Eagle project, he'll do 03:25:55
2 around Rocket Field as well, Chuck. 03:25:59
But I don't, you know, I think we also Toby recently looked at that maybe Mark two at the bridge down there, which needs a little 03:26:04
bit of work too. 03:26:07
So there's are a few capital expenses that we're going to have to do in the woods over there, just maintaining what, maintaining 03:26:11
what we have. Yeah, yeah. 03:26:15
If you do a dance and you think, I think reasonably got a letter. 03:26:23
Oh, Cap about raising money for the gym. 03:26:28
Why not have a dance at the gym that is a gala and it's a fundraiser. You pay to attend and maybe it's 50s themed going back to 03:26:32
when the gym was. 03:26:36
You know, utilized all the time. 03:26:42
So the gym won't be ready for dancing until it's renovated, which is probably next winter. But I do think the kickoff. This is the 03:26:44
post that said Watkinsville St. dances were popular middle to late 1960s. A band off in the Barong Brothers group, The rebels 03:26:51
would set up on the sidewalk in front of us. Now the Barber shop folks would dance on the sidewalks and in school. 03:26:57
Those more adventurous would shake a leg on Main Street, dodging the traffic. 03:27:04
Does anyone have pictures of these events, or of the rebels at other venues? How about recollections of the street dances? 03:27:08
Fundraising event. 03:27:42
F. 03:27:45
Potentially. 03:27:47
Yeah, I just think there's some power in that kind of school St. streetscape there where you could. 03:27:48
One way. 03:27:56
Where? 03:27:57
But, but I do think either way it's an awesome it's a kind of a cool idea and if you know whether it's. 03:27:58
Whatever we do with the gym, it could be a fundraiser for the gym. You could be, hey, $10 to participate and everybody who comes 03:28:05
or $20 to do the historic tour. But all the funds go to help renovate the gym, which I think would also motivate people. And you 03:28:10
can come to the dance. 03:28:15
I don't know. It says they used to do stuff in front of jail too. There's no telling. So anyway, it's a fun. 03:28:22
Yeah. OK. Yep. 03:28:30
OK. 03:28:37
Yeah. So anyway, so that's that's out there. If we want to do it, I think we need to think about. 03:28:40
Go ahead and get with the folks of the visitors center setting a date and putting that thing together. Otherwise we're going to be 03:28:45
at the fall. We can't do it. This probably can't do it the summer, I don't think. 03:28:49
May's crazy, isn't it? May's crazy, isn't it? 03:28:55
I just don't think we can have people walking all over downtown on a history tour. I mean, should we look to fall? 03:29:01
I think it have to be April. 03:29:06
April is probably. 03:29:08
Should we do it the same weekend as the Easter egg hunt? 03:29:13
What weekends at? 03:29:18
It's not Easter weekend, I don't think, right. It is Easter that late for Easter and spring break are not lined up this year. So 03:29:20
it'd have to be, it'd have to be April. 03:29:25
Probably April 21st is probably what we'd be looking at. 03:29:30
Most likely for. 03:29:34
That. 03:29:36
Is that not a the 16th is a Saturday, right? 03:29:37
OK. Sorry, April 23rd. 03:29:40
That's not Masters weekend or anything crazy. 03:29:46
We'd all have to check our calendars, but that's realistically probably. 03:29:51
Realistically, that's probably the date for something like that or April thir. 03:29:54
Is it worth running to the ground with Christy and them? I think it'd be worth checking. 03:29:59
OK. 03:30:03
Everybody interested in seeing if we can, I don't think we we'd have to be one of several organizers, but. 03:30:05
It's kind of could be. 03:30:11
All right. Well, I'll call Christy and see if see if they think it'd be sort of thing we could put together it could be, could be. 03:30:14
OK. 03:30:21
I'll try to find some partners so we don't have to do all the lifting. 03:30:22
I've got enough to say grace over, and I'm guessing y'all do too, so we'll see if we can, but I'll need one or two of y'all to 03:30:26
lean into it. Help me with it. 03:30:29
What else we got? 03:30:35
I do have. I do have a quick suggestion. 03:30:41
Since since you're all city, but some of you have county connections. 03:30:44
When the library does move. 03:30:49
You know, I think a good use of that building, should they ever entertain it, would be an American Legion for Oconee County. 03:30:51
Which? 03:30:59
A big community service thing to. 03:31:00
Active and retired veterans, and they do a lot of stuff within the community as well, so it might be something to think about on 03:31:05
that note. 03:31:09
Maybe come back to the broader Community Center idea, you know, there's all there's big spaces in there, you know? 03:31:17
It could be used for different things. 03:31:24
I'll mention that Toby, just because there could be a couple different organizations. 03:31:25
May need space to share, you know, and you could carve off little spaces inside the library and then you have the meeting room. 03:31:29
Over to the left. 03:31:35
So. 03:31:37
OK. 03:31:39
Speak now or forever hold your peace unless Eva's got anything else well. 03:31:43
I do not. It sounds like y'all better hit the ground running and get some some stuff to plan for April. But. 03:31:46
No, this has been wonderful and I think Sharon and I have have gone over some notes. So you've given your staff some good 03:31:54
direction and I think you're going to keep yourselves busy too over the next year. But thank you so much for for having me and. 03:32:01
Guess we'll finish up early today. 03:32:10
OK. All right, everybody gets a little time back. 03:32:13
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