No Bookmarks Exist.
Good evening and welcome to the March meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. Excited to have a good crowd here tonight of | 00:00:15 | |
friends and media. | 00:00:19 | |
We have a quorum tonight. We also have joining. | 00:00:25 | |
From Kuwait, Colonel Brett Thomas once again. | 00:00:28 | |
Colonel Thomas how. | 00:00:32 | |
I'm doing very well. Thank you all for having me. I yeah, the time the time changes is messing with all of the city is 1:30 in the | 00:00:35 | |
morning here though. | 00:00:39 | |
How's the weather in Kuwait? | 00:00:45 | |
It is. It's been warm here lately in the 70s and 80s. | 00:00:50 | |
Uh, mostly. So it's it's warming up over here. All right, well, you stay safe and thank you for your service and always appreciate | 00:00:57 | |
you joining us in the dead of night. | 00:01:01 | |
No, absolutely. It's it's my pleasure. | 00:01:06 | |
All. | 00:01:09 | |
With that, we will move along. We do have a quorum, so we'll move to the pledge. | 00:01:11 | |
I'm gonna pick at random. | 00:01:16 | |
Mr. Thaxton, will you lead us in the pledge please Sir? | 00:01:19 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. | 00:01:24 | |
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:01:29 | |
Yeah. | 00:01:38 | |
Thank you, Chief. | 00:01:42 | |
He has not made it back, but I did want to take a moment to recognize Toby Cartilage. Toby is our Public Works Supervisor and code | 00:01:45 | |
Compliance Officer. | 00:01:49 | |
Toby recently completed his Level 2 certification for the Georgia Association of Code Enforcement. That takes a lot of work. | 00:01:54 | |
There's three levels of certification. He had completed Level one last spring. He completed 45 hours of course work and had to | 00:02:00 | |
pass a written exam for each course. | 00:02:05 | |
With a grade of 70 or better, I'm assuming Toby got straight A's. I hope but but that was probably three additional conferences, | 00:02:11 | |
45 hours of work. I hate that Toby can't be here, but he is one of the busiest men in Watkinsville. | 00:02:18 | |
The portal allows the public to view and listen to the meeting in progress and see those meeting materials as they go through the | 00:03:03 | |
meeting agendas. Posted one full week before and the packet is posted several days in time so we can get those questions. | 00:03:09 | |
With that, we'll move on to the items on the agenda tonight. Number one, approval of the minutes. Everyone's had those, so we had | 00:03:16 | |
time to review those. | 00:03:20 | |
I'll entertain a motion unless there's any edits or changes that need to be suggested. | 00:03:25 | |
Make a motion. | 00:03:30 | |
To approve the Minutes. | 00:03:32 | |
And I said, we have a motion, we have a second, any discussion of the Minutes. | 00:03:33 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. | 00:03:38 | |
Thank you. | 00:03:41 | |
Minutes pass. | 00:03:43 | |
All right. Approval of the agenda. | 00:03:45 | |
We have nothing on the consent agenda, but we have received. | 00:03:49 | |
I would ask Council to consider moving an item. | 00:03:54 | |
New business, not new business. Excuse me from appearances Item 7. | 00:03:59 | |
To the consent agenda, and the reason I'm asking for that is that document has been adjusted significantly since it was initially | 00:04:06 | |
submitted. | 00:04:11 | |
To the point where our City Engineer and City Attorney are both comfortable with it. It will require a few more certifications | 00:04:17 | |
before I can sign it, but there's really no need for us to discuss that under appearances. We can handle that as a matter of. | 00:04:23 | |
Course on the consent agenda at this point I need to see some head nods from Joe and from Mark on that. | 00:04:31 | |
But if everyone's comfortable with that, we'll move that to the consent agenda. If I can get a motion to modify the agenda, | 00:04:36 | |
please, I make a motion to move. | 00:04:40 | |
That item to the consent agenda and out of appearances, OK, And do we have a second on them? | 00:04:45 | |
All right, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. | 00:04:51 | |
All in favor? Say aye. All right, so we're moving item 7 from appearances. | 00:04:56 | |
60 S main subdivision of Platt to. | 00:05:01 | |
The consent agenda, which means we will have no discussion of that. We'll just approve the entire consent agenda at once when that | 00:05:05 | |
we get to that item on the agenda. | 00:05:08 | |
All right. Administration, I'll remind everybody what our public input process is. Generally here in Watkinsville, we try to keep | 00:05:13 | |
it informal. There are a few points where we're required to allow. | 00:05:18 | |
Umm. Umm. | 00:05:23 | |
Public input that's typically under appearances or under zoning matters or changes of code, things like that. If it is formally | 00:05:24 | |
required, then Mr. Reitman will. | 00:05:28 | |
Alert us to that. He and I will administer that. But generally, if you do have something you want to comment on, raise your hand | 00:05:33 | |
and indicate so, and it counsels discretion, we will allow you to comment. We may also ask you to stop. Again, that's a council's | 00:05:38 | |
discretion. If you do decide to comment, we'd ask you to address it to us. Not address it to the crowd or the camera, but to look | 00:05:43 | |
at council and direct your questions and comments to us. | 00:05:48 | |
Refrain from debate, argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant. | 00:05:54 | |
You'll only be addressing the route, the pending matter or if you're under citizen comments, it can be any matter that you choose. | 00:05:58 | |
So that's how we'll handle public comment tonight. But with that, we will go to financial reports and hear from manager Dickerson. | 00:06:04 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:06:10 | |
Before I get started, I just wanted to touch on what obviously a lot of you guys are aware of. There were some bank failings. | 00:06:11 | |
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature were both both failed. I wanted to assure everybody that I talked to the bank and that our our | 00:06:18 | |
funds are insured and protected. In addition, obviously the FDIC is taking additional steps to short the banking system. | 00:06:25 | |
The Silicon Valley Bank and Signature were both specialized banks. They had significant industry concentrations among depositors | 00:06:34 | |
and very high average deposits, meaning a lot of their customers were uninsured. | 00:06:38 | |
All right. So you guys should have received your financial reports, the balance sheet, the revenues and expenditures. On the | 00:07:17 | |
revenue side, we are should be around 66%, we're at 70, almost 72% receipts and on our expense side, we again should be around 66% | 00:07:23 | |
and we're at 62%. So pretty good starting off. | 00:07:29 | |
Any questions on those in general? | 00:07:35 | |
On splashed one, this is our 2009 Splash One. The money's left in there are going are being allocated for the sewer sewer line A. | 00:07:39 | |
Project along with the 904,000 that you see on the water and sewer. | 00:07:48 | |
Facility line there on spots two, we do have a little bit of money left in public Safety and Rec and Parks, but most of that will | 00:07:52 | |
be probably be done this month. So next month you'll see that probably zeroed out. | 00:07:59 | |
On Spice Three, our projects right now we've spent some money in in the public safety line item for the jaws of life for the fire | 00:08:06 | |
and emergency services. There is a set aside we'll talk about later tonight in our capital budget request. There's a set aside | 00:08:12 | |
you've already approved for Police Department equipment. | 00:08:18 | |
On Parkside, we have spent some money on Hair Shoals Park and you guys at last last month's meeting approved an increase the green | 00:08:25 | |
space category on the splash. | 00:08:30 | |
Line item we've also spent money on. | 00:08:36 | |
And roads for the hard hill resurfacing project, I believe on that one. | 00:08:40 | |
I think it's on that one. Maybe it's boss too. I get confused sometimes. Excuse me. And then we've got some money set aside for L | 00:08:46 | |
Meg for the resurfacing projects, which we hope to bring that forward to you guys next month. | 00:08:50 | |
And of course some signage and you will be seeing some additional signage week today finalize the decision on the Hair Shoals park | 00:08:56 | |
sign that's in production. We were hoping to reuse the metal. Unfortunately, that's not going to work. It's so old, it's just not | 00:09:01 | |
going. The paint's not going to work really well, but we've got that under production. We'll have two new signs on either end of | 00:09:06 | |
the industrial park going up and then some wayfinding signs downtown going up as well. Hopefully, hopefully by the end of April | 00:09:12 | |
have all those signs up. | 00:09:17 | |
On the on the actual revenue report, I think it's important to note, obviously we had a really great in December. January wasn't | 00:09:23 | |
wasn't too bad either, but we're averaging 84,000 a month which is 16% higher than the year before. | 00:09:31 | |
And then on the American Rescue plan, we still have roughly $800,000 that's not been appropriated and we talked about different | 00:09:40 | |
uses for that. I know the intent was that that be used for some transformational projects in the city. Those are decisions are | 00:09:45 | |
still yet to be made, but I anticipate that money will be spent you know within the next year probably or dedicated for that for | 00:09:51 | |
those purposes. Any questions on any of those reports? | 00:09:56 | |
Just remind you guys at the physical fiscal year 2024 budget process, we did not have a work session tonight for the capital. I'm | 00:10:03 | |
going to be presenting that just as a regular agenda item tonight for you guys. There won't be a vote on it. It's just simply | 00:10:09 | |
giving you a heads up on what's going on with that. And then you will tonight receive reports from your independent agencies, | 00:10:15 | |
OCALAF and the Fire and Emergency Services. | 00:10:20 | |
All. | 00:10:29 | |
Economic development. | 00:10:34 | |
Our deadline is today. We've gotten Julie do you know how many like percentage wise where we're at with how many people we still | 00:10:36 | |
have outstanding that have not submitted their business licenses with all of the. | 00:10:42 | |
The licenses that have come in, in the last couple of days, we're probably. | 00:10:49 | |
A little less than half that have submitted. Some of those though are just waiting on the fire inspections and those are in | 00:10:56 | |
process. So I think we're we're on a good track. | 00:11:00 | |
And we also received some renewal on our alcohol license. | 00:11:09 | |
For. | 00:11:14 | |
On the excise tax collection report, we are now fully receiving funds from Airbnb, which is our biggest country. I think we have | 00:11:17 | |
one other small one. I can't think of the name of the other vendor, but we're we've got that all ironed out. So we're seeing that | 00:11:22 | |
money come in. | 00:11:27 | |
And alcohol, excise, taxes, all ironed out with the breweries and with the restaurant. | 00:11:33 | |
That. | 00:11:38 | |
On the building permit side, we have 11 permits for eight projects. You'll see quite a few at Electric Ave. or Wire Park. Golden | 00:11:39 | |
Pantry and the library are the two biggest ones on that list. | 00:11:45 | |
Any questions on any of? | 00:11:53 | |
All right. | 00:11:57 | |
And then I'm going to do a little tap dance here for Kate. We're going to talk a little Downtown Development Authority update. | 00:11:59 | |
Obviously you guys remember that back in September of last year you activated. | 00:12:06 | |
Downtown development author. | 00:12:10 | |
And a board. And those seven board members are listed. Our Councilwoman Christine Tucker is the chair. | 00:12:12 | |
We also estab. | 00:12:19 | |
DDA map, which just jump to that real quick to show you what the map looks like, picks up those areas that are now designated as | 00:12:21 | |
Downtown Development Authority. | 00:12:26 | |
Par. | 00:12:31 | |
We hired Kate Patterson in January. She's been going nonstop. We had last Thursday. She had a meet and greet at Oconee State | 00:12:34 | |
Bank's community room. | 00:12:39 | |
With probably about 15 or so people that showed up really good turn out. | 00:12:44 | |
And she right prior to that, about a week prior, she submitted. | 00:12:48 | |
A survey to gather information about downtown and what people would like to see. That survey was out less than 30 hours and | 00:12:52 | |
instead of getting what typically they see around 200 surveys we got. | 00:12:58 | |
700 and somet. | 00:13:04 | |
Surveys in a very short period of time. So we shut down the survey. I think we got plenty of data and a company we've hired | 00:13:05 | |
Georgia Downtown's will be helping us on May 23rd will help the DDA start creating a strategic plan for the next one to three | 00:13:12 | |
years that will provide some road map for the for the development authority as they start to pursue. | 00:13:19 | |
Redevelopment of downtown. | 00:13:27 | |
I'm sorry, do not what I say May 4th, sorry. | 00:13:30 | |
There are two initiatives that require applications will be coming before you guys next month to ask for those to be approved for | 00:13:35 | |
completion. | 00:13:39 | |
Georgia Main Street Program and the rural program. | 00:13:43 | |
George Main Street really just provides a lot of resources, some tools for us to use as we start diving into developing downtown. | 00:13:47 | |
The rural program, however, is a designation that is both These programs are under the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. | 00:13:53 | |
The rural program is a designation that will allow for tax credits if you create two jobs, 2 full-time equivalent jobs. | 00:14:00 | |
Umm, that business will receive a tax credit, not a deduction, but a tax credit. There are also redevelopment tax credits. These | 00:14:08 | |
things are stackable. There's quite a bit of other resources and and opportunities. If we get this as a designation, it will be | 00:14:14 | |
good for five years. It is highly competitive. They only give out 10 every year. So we are hoping that we get it and it's a quite | 00:14:20 | |
lengthy application is I think that one's due in August. | 00:14:26 | |
And the Main Street program, I think both of these have opened, but the Main Street program is in July, I think is due in July. | 00:14:32 | |
Encourage you guys to follow the Downtown Development Authority on Facebook and Instagram there at downtown Watkinsville. | 00:14:39 | |
Yeah, like and share. | 00:14:46 | |
Any questions on? | 00:14:50 | |
That. | 00:14:51 | |
OK. | 00:14:53 | |
All right, Chief, let's hear from you. All right, I'm. | 00:14:57 | |
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be here before. | 00:15:02 | |
I submitted my report for all the activity and fun stuff that we do over the last month last week. | 00:15:06 | |
Is there any questions over any material? | 00:15:13 | |
Hearing, none of seeing. | 00:15:19 | |
That's good. We're Treasurer, right? | 00:15:24 | |
Oh. | 00:15:26 | |
I went too far. I'm sorry, I got excited. I didn't really did that. Sorry about that. I would like to remind everybody that on | 00:15:29 | |
April 1st we're not going to be having any fools because it is a fools day, but we will have a bunch of eggs and a bunch of kids | 00:15:34 | |
and a bunch of fun. | 00:15:39 | |
On April fools day 10:00 AM here at the other side of the building in here in a Shoals park where we're going to. | 00:15:45 | |
Post a bunch of children and eggs and beast, your Bunny will be here. So I'm gonna be taking the Easter Bunny and all that good | 00:15:52 | |
stuff. | 00:15:55 | |
Hope to see some of y'all. | 00:15:59 | |
I am very pleased to announce that you know about badges and benevolence. Walking to the Police Department, Law Enforcement | 00:16:02 | |
Foundation is alive and inactive. | 00:16:06 | |
And I've created some material here for us to give out to business owners and individuals, to direct them, guide them, guard them. | 00:16:11 | |
Where they need to be getting their stuff done to provide tax dollars to us rather than to the state, so. | 00:16:21 | |
I'm all about it. | 00:16:28 | |
The blue link there gives you a PDF document that was created by Georgia Tax Commissioner that gives you step by step processes of | 00:16:29 | |
how to go to tax the Georgia Tax Center website and create your application for pre submission. | 00:16:37 | |
And the yellow link is the actual website where everything resides in the Department of Revenues website for. | 00:16:46 | |
Qualified Law Enforcement Foundation. | 00:16:56 | |
Umm. | 00:17:00 | |
I'm very happy to announce this morning we received a notification from the Commissioner that our first approval was received. | 00:17:00 | |
From a local. | 00:17:09 | |
For a $10,000 donation. | 00:17:11 | |
So we're live and active and if any of y'all would want. | 00:17:17 | |
Some. | 00:17:22 | |
Invoke cards where I have all the information readily available for to hand out and I'll be happy to give it to. | 00:17:23 | |
Any. | 00:17:29 | |
That's great. Are we going to, how are we going to get those? | 00:17:31 | |
Businesses because these this can work for businesses or individuals, correct it allows. The program allows for individuals to | 00:17:34 | |
donate to up to $5000. | 00:17:39 | |
Joint filers can follow up to 10,000. | 00:17:46 | |
And corporations and organizations can do 10,000. | 00:17:50 | |
You know, we'll go around Hannah Mountain. And you know, I've already handed a few out this this afternoon already. I had a couple | 00:17:58 | |
business owners coming here. | 00:18:02 | |
And talking on kind of hijacked him and the cards. So, but yeah, and I think I think we could send them out on the e-mail list to | 00:18:06 | |
Julie has the businesses. So we can send that out that way. I can do that. And then let's be sure you know those of us who know | 00:18:11 | |
accountants or no business owners to remind them of this. A lot of people are probably more used to doing it for private school. I | 00:18:17 | |
think there's a similar program for private schools. | 00:18:22 | |
In the state where you get a tax credit for donating to. | 00:18:28 | |
A private school. This is an exciting opportunity to be able to do the same for law enforcement. But you do have to move. There's | 00:18:33 | |
only a certain amount of money the state makes available. Correct. Chief State State allocated 75,000,000 for the entire state. | 00:18:40 | |
There really are not that many law enforcement foundations that are alive and active. | 00:18:47 | |
So 75,000,000 can go a long way, but they've only they've they've, they've put a moratorium on what how much a foundation can get | 00:18:53 | |
a year and it's $3,000,000. | 00:18:57 | |
You know, if everything goes well and we can get the information out, we can have $3,000,000 in the foundation, you know, operate. | 00:19:03 | |
A lot of things going on, so. | 00:19:09 | |
We could, we could do some magic with our budget if. | 00:19:11 | |
And you can use that for any So the foundation money can go to help replenish equipment, update equipment. | 00:19:15 | |
Hardware. | 00:19:26 | |
Various things that are needed for law enforcement purposes training. | 00:19:27 | |
Educational expenses and can also provide twice a year bonuses to officers. | 00:19:33 | |
As well as support and manage the. | 00:19:40 | |
Programs that the Police Department runs like the Easter egg Hunt, the Cops and bobbers and all those things as well. | 00:19:43 | |
So is this. | 00:19:50 | |
If someone is interested in doing this, do they need to do it before they file their taxes for 2022? Is this for 2022 or 2023? | 00:19:53 | |
20. | 00:20:02 | |
So it's for tax returns that would be. | 00:20:04 | |
So yes. | 00:20:09 | |
Yeah, I started in January. So anything that's contributed in this year, you get credit for in the next year's taxes? | 00:20:11 | |
OK, so but they don't have to write a check to the Police Department, do they? I mean, it's it's a credit. The state pays the | 00:20:19 | |
money to the Police Department. It is. It is actually. | 00:20:23 | |
Umm. | 00:20:28 | |
To wait for the taxes on the next year is a dollar for dollar thing. But the big thing is, is, you know, because it is a | 00:21:04 | |
moratorium with a $75 million, they're keeping track of it. They're approving it. | 00:21:09 | |
You got to do the pre approval plan, you got to do the pre pre approval that that PDF there will literally walk you step by step | 00:21:15 | |
through the Georgia Tax Center. | 00:21:19 | |
How to? | 00:21:24 | |
Create the information and submit applications. | 00:21:26 | |
Great. Thank you, Chief. Thank. | 00:22:08 | |
All right, Consent agenda used to say none. But there is a consent agenda, so we will all entertain a motion to approve the | 00:22:16 | |
consent agenda. | 00:22:19 | |
Motion to approve the consent agenda All right, do we have a second? | 00:22:23 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. | 00:22:27 | |
Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All right. | 00:22:30 | |
Motion carries. Thank you, Colonel Thomas. | 00:22:34 | |
We got you there. Hang with us. All right? Our appearances we have. | 00:22:39 | |
Always as a part of our budgeting process, we'd like to hear from. | 00:22:44 | |
Independent agencies and two of them that we like to help out and the budget process for the Oconee County Fire Department and the | 00:22:49 | |
Oconee Cultural Affairs Foundation. | 00:22:54 | |
Ladies first, I'll invite Miss Wendy Cooper to step forward and off share what her budget request may be, and then after that | 00:22:59 | |
we'll have Chief Thaxton. | 00:23:04 | |
I was like Cultural Arts Foundation. | 00:23:15 | |
He says cultural affairs. Did I say affairs? Yeah, yeah. County Cultural Arts Foundation. There we go. That sounds better. | 00:23:20 | |
Yeah, no problem. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have submitted a request for $5000. Last year we replaced six of the art | 00:23:28 | |
panels we'd like to replace. 6 markers are looking pretty. | 00:23:35 | |
Worse for wear. And so that would include the actual stipend to the artist, which I'm going to hand pick. There won't be any. | 00:23:44 | |
Controversial pieces and it will also cover some maintenance that needs to be done on some of them as far as sharing up the | 00:23:53 | |
foundations, because we have several that are leaning like this. | 00:23:59 | |
And so that will help me reimburse the city for that assistance if hopefully Toby has time. | 00:24:05 | |
And that was the same amount that was requested two years ago when we replaced the six. So I just went by that same budget. | 00:24:12 | |
And it worked out well. | 00:24:19 | |
Any quest? | 00:24:22 | |
Questions. | 00:24:24 | |
And I know we're getting an update on public art. | 00:24:26 | |
In the meeting, correct. | 00:24:30 | |
Good. When do you gonna hang around for that conversation? Can you? I think we'll. I don't think it'll take us too long to get | 00:24:33 | |
there, so alright. | 00:24:35 | |
All right. If there's no questions, we'll turn it over to Chief Saxon. | 00:24:39 | |
Good evening Mayor, City Council, appreciate the opportunity to be here again tonight. So thank you for letting us put in a | 00:24:50 | |
proposal budget tonight and. | 00:24:55 | |
It's the same amount as last year. I'm asking for 1500 for meal travel, 11,750 for equipment. | 00:25:00 | |
754 meals. | 00:25:10 | |
And this this money is designated for Station 1 here in Watkinsville. | 00:25:12 | |
All right. Any questions? | 00:25:19 | |
Thank you for what y'all do. Thank you. We appreciate it. | 00:25:24 | |
Yep. | 00:25:27 | |
I was just, I'm going to riff a little bit, but, Chairman Daniel at the State of the County meeting yesterday, shared. | 00:25:30 | |
Big numbers on everything that y'all all. | 00:25:36 | |
How many calls you get and all the responses you do and then I really enjoyed seeing on I don't know if it was on your social | 00:25:40 | |
media, but about the work y'all do on is it every Thursday or is it once a month? We all get every piece of equipment out and make | 00:25:44 | |
sure everything's. | 00:25:49 | |
Training is every Thursday night, right? | 00:25:54 | |
Yeah, make sure everything works. That's that's really awesome. And the average response time, John, do you remember off the top | 00:26:00 | |
of your head or one of y'all remember? | 00:26:04 | |
Say that again. | 00:26:11 | |
7 minutes. | 00:26:13 | |
7 minutes 17 seconds with a. | 00:26:15 | |
Fire department in our community really great response time. So thank you all John. Thanks for what y'all do to. | 00:26:19 | |
Keep everything running there and those great looking news stations and everything so. | 00:26:26 | |
All right. | 00:26:30 | |
Item 7 is off the agenda, so we don't have to worry about that. Item eight, we have the cost Creek water. | 00:26:32 | |
Reclamation Facility Site plans, Oconee County Board of Commissioners Engineer Campbell, if you want to give us a report on that. | 00:26:39 | |
Thank you, Mayor. Yes, so this is the, the wastewater reclamation facility that has an address there of Durham's Mill way, but | 00:26:45 | |
it's on the northern side of College Creek. It is within the Watkinsville city limits, although it's not within that beautiful | 00:26:53 | |
mile circle radius. It kind of jogs up there. It's on the on the edges much like Station one. It's not far from there, but so this | 00:27:01 | |
would be an upgrade to that facility. This is kind of the land disturbance site portion of that. So the upgrade is going from 1.5. | 00:27:08 | |
Million to three million. So there you see on the map where that reclamation facility is located. If you haven't happened to had a | 00:27:16 | |
reason to drive down there before, so there's some pictures from you can see there's a lot of already existing buildings. Phase | 00:27:24 | |
one of this upgrade was actually completed or plans were turned in and approved in around 2017. So it's it's been about six years | 00:27:31 | |
since that phase was begun and so this is the beginning of the subsequent phase. | 00:27:38 | |
Most of the. | 00:27:46 | |
So some of the improvements that this includes would be what's called an aerobic digester. | 00:28:28 | |
Again, we're not really reviewing the details from a engineering level of exactly that water treatment that happens at a much | 00:28:37 | |
higher level than the City of Watkinsville. We're really looking at the the land disturbance portion of this. But there will be a | 00:28:45 | |
new pump station which are those are some of the more significant things that will be happening within this phase. | 00:28:52 | |
I've talked to Adam Layfield with Oconee County Water Resources. | 00:29:00 | |
As the director there, and I've also talked to the engineers. | 00:29:07 | |
That they have corresponded with to create these plans. There was a little bit of a question about wetlands and how those wetlands | 00:29:10 | |
are called out. There's no wetlands disturbance this proposed, but there as is actually wetlands within the property because it | 00:29:15 | |
goes to the Creek and and so the area where the Creek is doesn't contain wetlands, but there's no wetlands proposed. They don't | 00:29:21 | |
have to get Army Corps permit. There'll be a clarification on the plans on that, but they do require state approval for erosion | 00:29:26 | |
control. | 00:29:31 | |
I'll be happy to answer any other questions to the best of my ability as well. I have some additional information provided me by | 00:29:37 | |
Adam Layfield and and can read through that, but hopefully that's helpful information. | 00:29:42 | |
All right. Chairman, you have anything you want to add? | 00:29:51 | |
OK. All right. | 00:29:56 | |
Council, Any questions on the project? | 00:29:58 | |
Mark, what are we looking for tonight? Just an approval of, is this a site plan? Is it a building permit? So it's not, yeah, it's | 00:30:01 | |
not a building permit, but I think it's site plan approval with conditions would be acceptable. The conditions could just be that | 00:30:06 | |
comments are addressed. | 00:30:10 | |
I think that would be sufficient. | 00:30:16 | |
So that would be one of the comments is that that we do the plans have been submitted for Georgia Solar Water Conservation | 00:30:18 | |
Commission. They've already got their NOI approved, but we haven't heard back from the tool mark Conservation Commission. So if | 00:30:24 | |
they have any conditions as part of their approval, we would need to make that a condition of our approval. | 00:30:29 | |
OK, So what are the when someone makes a motion? I wanted to be able to say so move, so will you state what you want and what the | 00:30:34 | |
condition? So again, I was trying to keep it simple. There's really only a couple conditions but I think with with, with. | 00:30:39 | |
Approval with conditions of the two staff comments would be sufficient. | 00:30:45 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? | 00:30:53 | |
All right, All in favor. Say aye. | 00:30:58 | |
Motion carries unanimously. | 00:31:02 | |
Old business will move into a historic preservation update. | 00:31:07 | |
Councilman Campbell and Councilman Garrett have been. | 00:31:13 | |
Spearheading, spearheading this for us. I think this was kind of pulled some of this from last week's last month's meeting. I | 00:31:15 | |
think though that Councilman Garrett and Campbell have done some more homework and may have a little update for us and some | 00:31:21 | |
thoughts on what our process might be moving forward. | 00:31:26 | |
Yeah, we met with Chuck and I both. Oh, sorry. Yeah. | 00:31:33 | |
Chuck and I met with Doctor Scott Nesbitt with the University of Georgia. | 00:31:38 | |
He does work in historic preservation. He worked with the city of Winterville. | 00:31:43 | |
As one example, he did a class project to kind of document and define the historic areas of Winterville. | 00:31:48 | |
And so we discussed with him the possibility of another class project. | 00:31:57 | |
For the city of Watkinsville, and he's interested in doing that, that would be in the fall. He's going to get back to. | 00:32:01 | |
Once he knows for sure, he's also got. | 00:32:11 | |
He mentioned Jennifer Lewis as someone who's run charrettes, public charrettes in regards to historic preservation. | 00:32:15 | |
So he was going to reach out with her to find out if she's available to. | 00:32:24 | |
Facilitate one, and he also mentioned the Watson Brown Foundation. | 00:32:29 | |
Which would you could apply? | 00:32:35 | |
For a grant to help pay for, you know, putting this historic preservation ordinance together as it's a lot of work documenting all | 00:32:39 | |
that, all the houses and such. | 00:32:44 | |
So all that would be in the. | 00:32:50 | |
Timeline if we wanted to go that route. | 00:32:52 | |
Was there anything else? | 00:32:58 | |
So council, you know what we talked about before was potentially beginning the public input process in April and kind of moving | 00:33:03 | |
down the road. These were some dates that we had. | 00:33:07 | |
Arrived at it, sounds like we may be able to have. | 00:33:12 | |
Some expert assistance rather than us kind. | 00:33:18 | |
Moving quickly and. | 00:33:21 | |
You know, hearing from citizens but not having a lot of answers, so. | 00:33:23 | |
You know, I think that's an interesting option from the Councilman here. What do y'all think do you feel like? | 00:33:27 | |
This is, it's viable to wait until fall to move this forward. I know staff also has a lot on their plate for the next few months. | 00:33:34 | |
We have an expert in Mr. Nesbitt or Doctor Nesbitt I would say is Health Winterville. And I know that Winterville's approach, | 00:33:41 | |
which is not it's very practical, not super heavy-handed, but also recognizes that architecture. | 00:33:47 | |
So would love to hear from council as to whether we'd like to. | 00:33:54 | |
Maybe at least take a month and see what we can workout with Mr. Nesbitt before we commit to these dates and move on down the | 00:33:57 | |
road. This is a fast this would be a very fast process where we'd be getting input and we wouldn't have a lot for citizens to | 00:34:02 | |
react to on these days. | 00:34:07 | |
The longer I. | 00:34:17 | |
Sit here and see changes and see decisions being made. It makes sense to have experts come in beside us to help. | 00:34:18 | |
So I'm leaning towards as much as I wish this was done four years ago. | 00:34:27 | |
I think waiting just a little bit longer to really do it well and right makes sense to me. | 00:34:33 | |
Connie Brett. | 00:34:41 | |
Thought. | 00:34:43 | |
Nope, that's fine with me. | 00:34:45 | |
Brett, you have any thoughts, are you good if we you might be back by them too? | 00:34:48 | |
Yeah, yeah, I I'm, I'm absolutely OK with holding off a little bit. Let's let's figure it out. | 00:34:56 | |
Well then, Council Councilman, if Y'all can work with Mr. Nesbitt, it could put some meat, more meat on the bone in terms of | 00:35:05 | |
timing, potential budget resources, what exactly we would get from this partnership. | 00:35:10 | |
And you know, we may also want to hop on the phone with Doctor Ellen Winterville and talk it through from an elected official | 00:35:17 | |
perspective. Happy to do that too, if we want to. | 00:35:21 | |
What's her timing? When's best to do that? | 00:35:56 | |
Yeah, whatever the best process is, I think makes a lot of sense. So OK. | 00:36:00 | |
All right. So I don't think we need any action on historic preservation tonight. Thank you both for your work on that. | 00:36:05 | |
We appreciate it. | 00:36:12 | |
Moving on to new business item. | 00:36:14 | |
Capital budget requests for fiscal year 24 Manager Dickerson. Thank you, Mayor. So I just want to point out a couple things before | 00:36:18 | |
we start looking at these. | 00:36:23 | |
So last year we changed how we were budgeting for capital prior to that and for the few years that I was here prior to that time, | 00:36:27 | |
we would set aside a certain amount in each independent individual department's budget to cover capital that might be coming | 00:36:34 | |
forward that. | 00:36:40 | |
You know, didn't start making a lot of sense because we're just putting money in the bank when we weren't needing it. So then last | 00:36:47 | |
year we shifted gears and we're continuing that process this year. | 00:36:51 | |
Where we look at what our needs are, we look at how much money we have in the bank and we say OK. | 00:36:55 | |
We've got X amount of money in the bank. We want to keep a certain amount in the bank. We're going to add a little bit just to | 00:37:00 | |
keep it floating because we're going to have some. If you looked at your packet, you'll see. | 00:37:04 | |
You know, there's like next year, next fiscal year, we don't have any capital that's planned, but then the next year we have quite | 00:37:09 | |
a bit. So I think each year what we'll do is we'll evaluate sort of where things are. I think even if you looked at the and I | 00:37:13 | |
could put it up here because it would have been impossible for y'all to follow for anybody to be able to see, but on the | 00:37:17 | |
spreadsheet. | 00:37:21 | |
There are also some options and the chief is going to be looking into. I found out through the Georgia Georgia City County Manager | 00:37:56 | |
Association that. | 00:37:59 | |
The 2009 Crown Victoria. The 2011 Crown Victoria. I'm just reminding you guys about the 2011 Crown Victoria. Last fall, Chief came | 00:38:36 | |
forward with a request to buy a used 2018 for 15-8 that should have replaced this car. But you guys may recall that we asked you | 00:38:44 | |
to table that decision because we weren't sure where we were going to be with our staff or whatnot, so we're actually asking that. | 00:38:52 | |
Going ahead and replacing this one with a new one, which means we've basically upped it by 1 vehicle. So I think we'll have 10 | 00:39:01 | |
vehicles. | 00:39:05 | |
And one. | 00:39:09 | |
So we'll have you guys may recall so that we have part time employees that need a vehicle and then we have a vehicle for each | 00:39:11 | |
officer. | 00:39:14 | |
And at any given time we could have a piece of equipment down for some reason. We certainly don't want to have to try to you know. | 00:39:19 | |
Shuffle cars around to try to get a car for an officer. So the intent is to is to replace this one. So basically what that means | 00:39:27 | |
is last year in November you added a vehicle for 15/8. | 00:39:32 | |
There is an 8 year life on that vehicle as well. | 00:39:37 | |
We are again asking that we move up the code truck with. We ran into some problems this year. | 00:39:41 | |
With and I don't sorry about those little I see there's like a question mark that's not supposed to be a question mark. I think | 00:39:47 | |
that was a signal that's something that did not. | 00:39:50 | |
Because the coach not always needed. So it's sort of like a spare. It can be, it can be flexed. Toby's not in it all the time, but | 00:40:33 | |
it gives us some flex with that, with that department and also with parks. | 00:40:38 | |
So we're asking these be surplus, we don't anticipate, I don't know where Chief went, but I don't think we anticipate more than | 00:40:44 | |
two or $3000 for this Crown VIX, but then again who knows right get a lot of money on those surplus. I think the truck we do | 00:40:50 | |
anticipate probably about 10 or 10 or 11,000 again. | 00:40:56 | |
We never know what we're going to get. They get into that auction situation, people get excited. | 00:41:02 | |
We are asking to delay several Massey Ferguson. We don't use it a lot. We've looked at the, you know the hours and time on it. We | 00:41:07 | |
think we can push that out quite a quite a distance. And then the zero turn mowers we actually got Toby got them onto a | 00:41:13 | |
maintenance schedule which we never had before. And so now that we're maintaining them properly, we feel like we can push those | 00:41:18 | |
out, keep it on those. Those are probably about $10,000 a piece. | 00:41:24 | |
So. | 00:41:30 | |
And then finally, we're asking that you add the purchase of a 2023 John Deere Gator for the parks. As we start, we're going to | 00:41:32 | |
start pulling Mark. | 00:41:37 | |
Novak away from public utility public works and moving him more towards the parks as the as both Rocket Field, Watkinsville Woods | 00:41:43 | |
and Harris Hills Park or parts that we're supposed to maintain. He hasn't had a lot of opportunity to to do what he needs to do in | 00:41:48 | |
those areas. As we're starting to move into phase one and hopefully the phase two on Hare Shoals Park, he'll need to be able to | 00:41:53 | |
get into some spots we can't get with a pickup truck. | 00:41:58 | |
A Gator would be a great way to do it. If he needs to get to walk into the woods, we'll trailer it up and get him up through | 00:42:04 | |
there. So we're asking for that as well. | 00:42:07 | |
And then this isn't really and tonight you're not going to be voting on anything anyway. This is all just a primer for the budget | 00:42:10 | |
when you see it come forward. | 00:42:15 | |
But we are it would be worthwhile for us to go ahead and talk about designating the money that is set aside in public safety for | 00:42:21 | |
the vehicles that we see coming forward mainly because you know typically. | 00:42:27 | |
Some of the strategy, some of it is you want to spend the money before you get to your next Bloss because you people don't go | 00:42:34 | |
where you got all this money in the bank you're not going to. This money is set aside for that purpose. It keeps it from coming | 00:42:39 | |
out of the general fund capital, it comes out of SPLOST and and so. | 00:42:43 | |
It'd be worthwhile to do that. So on your spreadsheet, you may have seen where I put in red, it's not for fiscal year 24, but for | 00:42:48 | |
26/27/28. I put those amounts in and it's a pretty complicated spreadsheet. But it like I said, the whole intent is to is to spend | 00:42:55 | |
the money out of the splash project, which is it does end. At some point you do have to use those funds to reduce the burden on | 00:43:02 | |
the general fund and then figure out what the difference is that we need to keep in that. | 00:43:09 | |
Operating operating budget contribution and that I put a TVD because I'm not quite sure what I'm going to recommend yet. I want to | 00:43:17 | |
play with that a little bit and see once we get the numbers in what we really need. I don't. | 00:43:22 | |
If you look, you know the intent is not ever end up in a in a deficit situation on your spreadsheet. So if you look at the | 00:43:28 | |
spreadsheet, you'll see as long as we contribute, we're actually good based on how it's currently all these projects are budgeted, | 00:43:32 | |
we're good and we don't fall into the. | 00:43:37 | |
Until FY 37. | 00:43:42 | |
And that's if we did everything that's on here now, which I'm telling you, some of the stuff may change. We may get grants. I | 00:43:45 | |
mean, there's just all sorts of variables that we can't predict. | 00:43:49 | |
So I think it's a good way to budget. So you know we're still kind of new at it. So I think it just requires a little flexibility | 00:43:53 | |
and and understanding and how we're maneuvering. | 00:43:57 | |
Based on our current needs. | 00:44:03 | |
I think every year it may change. You know, we may say we need this this year, next year, I may say we can push that out a year. | 00:44:04 | |
We need to move something up just like we're doing this year, so. | 00:44:08 | |
That's the general general idea. Any questions about what we're asking for? | 00:44:12 | |
Any. | 00:44:17 | |
How about? | 00:44:21 | |
The capital allocation, I know you said you're just trying to manage it to a number, but for things that are relatively new like | 00:44:23 | |
the playground equipment, that kind of stuff, we're still. | 00:44:27 | |
Planning ahead enough to have those funds set. | 00:44:31 | |
For years down the road when we have to begin making repairs and replacements there, right, Yeah, so the playground equip. So | 00:44:34 | |
that's the other thing too. So we're in, this is still brand new too since they we just got it open. So we have warranties, | 00:44:38 | |
there's limited warranties. | 00:44:42 | |
It has a full one year warranty and I think there's some other pieces to it and there's some things we're doing now to try to | 00:45:19 | |
address during the warranty period what we can do to make sure that that stays in place. | 00:45:24 | |
In the budget process, so but but I did set aside some because I figure there's going to be some cost involved. | 00:46:01 | |
Yeah, I think it's getting getting more use than anybody anticipated. Oh, yeah, it's been crazy. Yeah. | 00:46:07 | |
Watching those, watching those little legs run by. All right, Any questions on capital budgeting? | 00:46:15 | |
OK. Thank you, Sharon, for your diligence on that number 11 alcohol ordinance amendments. Sharon and Joe, this is your item. | 00:46:22 | |
You want to start? Yeah, sure. So. | 00:46:32 | |
This this sort of came up in staff meeting we. | 00:46:35 | |
As we were you know go about enjoying going to lunches and dinners and things, we noticed that some of the bars were doing some | 00:46:39 | |
things that technically were were not allowed by the ordinance, but I'm sorry restaurant sorry restaurants are doing things that | 00:46:45 | |
were not allowed in ordinance and so. | 00:46:50 | |
We were kind of among ourselves saying well you know, should even still be in there. And I'm sure this is just a leftover from | 00:46:56 | |
when everything switched over and and sort of everybody trying to take baby steps into allowing for having alcohol in the in the | 00:47:01 | |
in the city and the county. So the ones that are struck through are the ones we feel like probably could be removed. So the | 00:47:05 | |
recommendation is to remove those and allow that to happen. But it's just a staff recommendation. We're certainly looking for | 00:47:10 | |
input. | 00:47:14 | |
Mr. Reitman, you have anything else you want to offer before council discuss this? | 00:47:23 | |
Fairly standard boilerplate language that was adopted back in 2006 when you all went to beer and wine at restaurants and then | 00:47:27 | |
ultimately mixed drinks to support the local restaurants. So I think this is a discretionary you can keep the boilerplate | 00:47:34 | |
language. If you'd rather dispense with that, you have that option in your legislative discretion. | 00:47:41 | |
Council thoughts? | 00:47:50 | |
Whether or. | 00:47:57 | |
Someone chooses to drink or not to drink, I think. | 00:47:58 | |
Happy hours are great. I mean because they often have food specials that go with them as well and but. | 00:48:02 | |
Because this is saying basically you can't. | 00:48:08 | |
Anyway, I won't go into the details. | 00:48:12 | |
Anybody goes to a restaurant. | 00:48:15 | |
It's a little sticker shock looking at prices, so if this can help people save a little money during certain times of the day, I'm | 00:48:18 | |
all for making these changes. Especially if. | 00:48:22 | |
Some of it's. | 00:48:27 | |
A little bit, anyway. And if some places are trying to really follow the rules and then others aren't, and we don't want to become | 00:48:30 | |
a police state having to figure all that out, it just makes sense to adopt it with. | 00:48:36 | |
New language. | 00:48:42 | |
OK. Any other comments? | 00:48:46 | |
Are. | 00:48:51 | |
All. | 00:48:54 | |
I'll entertain a motion. | 00:48:56 | |
So I make a motion to amend our alcohol ordinance as outlined above. | 00:48:57 | |
We have a second. | 00:49:05 | |
We have a second second from Councilman Campbell. Any discussion. | 00:49:06 | |
All in favor, Say aye, Aye. | 00:49:10 | |
All opposed. | 00:49:13 | |
Motion carries father. | 00:49:16 | |
All right. John Kirkpatrick. | 00:49:19 | |
Welcome back to the Watkinsville City Council. I understand you're going to provide an update on one of our most exciting | 00:49:21 | |
projects, Watkinsville branch of the Oconee County Library. | 00:49:25 | |
Getting the mayor and council, thank you. | 00:49:30 | |
Inviting me before begin. It's really cool to see kids playing on the playground after dinner for the time change. | 00:49:32 | |
When I thought of what I was going to say tonight, and other than just the update, I went back and looked at text messages I. | 00:49:40 | |
Exchange between Councilmember Tucker and. | 00:49:47 | |
Mayor Bob. | 00:49:51 | |
And just to kind of jog my memory on what the timeline is on this project, it started in August of 2020 during the middle of the | 00:49:53 | |
pandemic. That was when this idea to move the library wire part first took place. | 00:50:00 | |
So if you think about over the last 2 1/2 years, we've made it through a pandemic, We've made it through serious inflationary | 00:50:08 | |
pressures. | 00:50:12 | |
We've gone back to our state legislature for more money to compensate for that. | 00:50:17 | |
And we've already broken ground on this library, so. | 00:50:23 | |
It seems like a long time, 2 1/2 years, but quite frankly, we've done a lot and. | 00:50:27 | |
We're now over those hurdles and now now we're building. | 00:50:33 | |
Before I get a brief update, I just want to thank you Mayor. Thank you council for being steadfast throughout all of this you've | 00:50:38 | |
you've supported this project from the get go. | 00:50:44 | |
Since Chairman Daniel's here tonight, I would like to thank him as well, because without him this would never have come to a vote | 00:50:50 | |
before the library board and you didn't have to do that. | 00:50:56 | |
I certainly appreciate that. | 00:51:03 | |
As for the update. | 00:51:06 | |
The construction is. | 00:51:07 | |
There will be a ceremonial groundbreaking on April 14th at 10:00 in the morning. It's obviously after the ground has been broken. | 00:51:10 | |
But this is so that the the legislators can come because they. | 00:51:19 | |
Representatives Weed, Our in Games and Senator Cousin have also played a big role. | 00:51:24 | |
And funding this for us. Without them, you know, we would probably be shipping old shelves and stuff over to the new library. | 00:51:29 | |
So with that said. | 00:51:38 | |
The plan is to complete construction by the end of this year, so we're hopeful that we'll stay on track and have a new library by | 00:51:39 | |
the end of this calendar year. | 00:51:44 | |
Additionally, I know there. | 00:51:51 | |
When Ponder and ponder came here and presented to. | 00:51:53 | |
A list of add-ons that were desired that we did not have funding for at that time. They have all been approved. | 00:51:57 | |
Council member Tucker, especially the bathroom in the children's area. | 00:52:04 | |
So all of the add-ons have been approved. | 00:52:10 | |
All the furniture and equipment and everything that's going to be going into the library is going to be here. So we're going to | 00:52:15 | |
have something really special. That's where we are. | 00:52:18 | |
Any questions that? | 00:52:23 | |
Thank you. | 00:52:25 | |
Questions, John, I do have, just want to call out. And I mentioned this to Missus Bell when I was emailing with her. | 00:52:27 | |
And that's I would just ask y'all to be very thoughtful about. | 00:52:33 | |
The Ivy room and the history space in the current library, which I think is really unique that this called the Ivy room. Isn't it | 00:52:37 | |
the? | 00:52:40 | |
Where the yeah, where there's all the local history and those. | 00:52:44 | |
And. | 00:52:48 | |
We've had so many people in recent weeks and months talk to us about the need to. | 00:52:50 | |
Better capture and highlight our history in Oconee County and that's really a precious resource and. | 00:52:55 | |
I'm not sure how Ponder and Ponder is thinking about that area and those resources and how to be maintained and taken care of and. | 00:53:00 | |
But, you know, I told Valerie, and I'd love it if we could talk a little bit more about what that's what that's going to look like | 00:53:09 | |
and how that information will be curated and shared and made available to the public. | 00:53:14 | |
You know, there's there's just a tremendous amount of interest that I'm seeing. It's something that I think we'll be talking more | 00:53:21 | |
about as a council in terms of. | 00:53:23 | |
What we can do to capture and highlight and share local history and those those books. | 00:53:26 | |
It's funny on Facebook how much interest these you know the historic of county pictures get but if you go to that if you go to Ivy | 00:53:31 | |
Room you just sit there for hours and and you you can just OD on local history which is really cool. But I don't think a lot of | 00:53:37 | |
people know or appreciate that. You know with I think it's a new opportunity for people to re engage at the libraries. They think | 00:53:43 | |
that's a great point Mayor and I'll certainly bring that up. We have our quarterly meeting next month and I'll bring that to. | 00:53:49 | |
OK. Awesome. Thank you. | 00:53:57 | |
All right. I think we're going to talk a little bit about the Public Arts Committee and Creative Place making updates, so I know | 00:54:04 | |
that. | 00:54:08 | |
Some people in the room had. | 00:54:12 | |
Had an intriguing trip to Thomasville and have taken some action since. | 00:54:14 | |
Mayor Pro Tem, I'll let you give us an update and if anybody else wants to chime in, that'd be great. OK, so we received a grant | 00:54:18 | |
and it was actually competitive. I found out more as we went down there. Only 12 communities were selected. | 00:54:25 | |
And all of us that went are in the room right now. It was Wendy Cooper representing Okaf and arts organization. I went | 00:54:35 | |
representing the DDA and then Jeff city government. | 00:54:41 | |
And. | 00:54:48 | |
It was. | 00:54:50 | |
Really an incredible experience, one just being in Thomasville and seeing all that they have accomplished. | 00:54:51 | |
With their arts organization and their just. | 00:54:59 | |
When you have arts organizations, economic develop. | 00:55:04 | |
Functioning and then government being very much supportive of all of that. It is amazing what can happen. And so we have all of | 00:55:09 | |
those pieces. I feel like we have a community that supports all of those things and so we learned from. | 00:55:16 | |
Umm. | 00:55:25 | |
People from all over the state, from big cities like Atlanta and Savannah to smaller communities like Swanee. | 00:55:26 | |
That are using public art to increase community and also economic development and I'll share one story that was really compelling | 00:55:35 | |
I think to all of us. | 00:55:41 | |
So in Newnan GA, there was. | 00:55:47 | |
A derelict kind of alleyway that. | 00:55:52 | |
Teens were going and just kind of hanging out there and weren't up to a lot of good and so the community got together and or a few | 00:55:55 | |
people did because it really only takes a couple people to get. These things sparked and going and they started by just taking. | 00:56:03 | |
Paint hands from Home Depot and spray painting them and putting them in the alley. And then they kind of observed what happened | 00:56:11 | |
with them and they looked at where people were. | 00:56:15 | |
Using them to sit, one was used to collect water that was kind of leaking and they ended up going in and putting. | 00:56:20 | |
More permanent furniture in those places, cleaning up the alley and all. They only spent $14,000, including in kind donations, and | 00:56:28 | |
it ended up. | 00:56:33 | |
Having an impact of over $1,000,000 in economic development because it ended up revitalizing that entire area with the businesses | 00:56:39 | |
and so. | 00:56:44 | |
You think about a few people you know sweat equity time ideas. | 00:56:49 | |
But not much financially invested and then what it did for the community as a whole, so we have incredible opportunities here. | 00:56:56 | |
I don't know if we have any derelict alleys. | 00:57:04 | |
But I'm I'm sure that we have spaces that could be become those third spaces that you hear about that not work, not home, but | 00:57:08 | |
those community spaces that people can gather. | 00:57:14 | |
And that's one of the core values of us as a city, is that? | 00:57:22 | |
That we want those. | 00:57:28 | |
We want to be a community that really connects. So at the end of this incredible workshop where we saw things in person and heard | 00:57:30 | |
incredible information. Also because it was small, it was very. | 00:57:37 | |
We had contact and could have just, you know, spontaneous conversations with all of the speakers, with all of the people in | 00:57:46 | |
Thomasville. And so there was great opportunity to ask questions and learn and they had a whole session where we were making | 00:57:51 | |
plans. | 00:57:56 | |
So coming out of this. | 00:58:01 | |
We are and. | 00:58:04 | |
DDA. | 00:58:07 | |
Committee. | 00:58:09 | |
We, the Downtown Development Authority, is has approved the start of a. | 00:58:12 | |
New committee called Creative Placemaking and because we have received an $8000 grant. | 00:58:20 | |
To use on this and so. | 00:58:30 | |
Up on the board are or the screen are the the members of this committee. It's a nice cross section of people in our community. We | 00:58:33 | |
have Best Carter, the art teacher at Oconee County High School, Ashley Johnson, Kaylin Ashford and Caitlin. | 00:58:42 | |
Message are all community members that have a lot of different things that they can bring to the table. Bobby Johnson is a local | 00:58:52 | |
artist. We have conversations with a few potential student artists to be involved. And then Wendy Cooper, our Oakaf Director, Jeff | 00:59:00 | |
Campbell Council member, myself as ADDA Board Chairperson and then Kate Patterson is our DDA director, so. | 00:59:08 | |
We hope to have our final project has to be done in order to get the grant, has to be done by the end of the year. | 00:59:18 | |
We are ambitious. | 00:59:23 | |
Not even having met this committee yet, hoping to have ours at the end of September, beginning of October, prior to Fall Festival. | 00:59:25 | |
So that is our ambitious goal and. | 00:59:31 | |
I'm very excited that we have had the opportunity to learn and again, just always impressed by our community. | 00:59:38 | |
The resource, the people, resources we have, we are so, so fortunate. | 00:59:47 | |
To live and be where we are. | 00:59:51 | |
That was a lot. I don't know if they want to add. | 00:59:56 | |
What 08000, I thought I said that but yes, we got an 8000, so we had gotten $500 grant to help with just the expenses of going | 01:00:00 | |
down there and then at the end they announced that we got an $8000 grant to put towards this project which has to just. | 01:00:08 | |
Community have some kind of art aspect which can be visual art, performance art and be a partnership with the city. | 01:00:16 | |
Art organization and then hopefully help spark some economic development with that as well. | 01:00:26 | |
That's great, Jeff. Anything? | 01:00:34 | |
She covered a lot of it. Do you, the previous couple slides there, were you going to talk about those? How to solve those? | 01:00:37 | |
I just put them up, but I was not prepared. She just pulled them. Yeah, go to the next. | 01:00:46 | |
Yeah, that was one. That's a bit yes. Savannah, GA they did a mural on. | 01:00:51 | |
The road it's going Di. | 01:00:57 | |
From the Senators across, from left to right left corner to the bottom right corner, that street is now the longest mural. No, no, | 01:01:01 | |
in the middle of the slide. That kind of goes diagonally from top left to bottom right. | 01:01:08 | |
That mural looks like a street that's been painted, yeah. | 01:01:14 | |
It's the the longest mural in Georgia on a street, I believe, she said. 574 feet. | 01:01:18 | |
And it was an area of town that was just rundown and neglected. And there's the old Waterworks building. You can see at the top | 01:01:26 | |
there that they're in the process of renovating. And one idea they had was that kind of hard to see, but there's. | 01:01:33 | |
Tall windows that are arched at the top on that brick building, towards the top you can see four of them and so they're going | 01:01:41 | |
around that building. | 01:01:45 | |
What they did, they found historic pictures of people who lived in that area 100 years ago roughly. And they put those pictures of | 01:01:49 | |
those people that represent this was our neighborhood. | 01:01:55 | |
And so that that was a very interesting project of revitalizing that area of Savannah. | 01:02:02 | |
Then the next one I think was 21 swings in Montreal, Canada. | 01:02:09 | |
So those swings. | 01:02:13 | |
21 of them. And as they swing there's a, it's a like a solid pad you sit on and there's like a light bar underneath it. So at | 01:02:15 | |
night it kind of lights up as you go back and forth, but the really cool thing is. | 01:02:21 | |
As you move, it's a harp is the instrument to use and it's in do re MI faculatida, so it's going back and forth so you try to | 01:02:29 | |
swing in unison, so so it's even louder. So it makes music so neat, so just if you Google 21 swings Montreal, you'll see it | 01:02:37 | |
anyway. It's just a neat thing and it gets children and adults playing together because everybody likes to swing. | 01:02:45 | |
Beltway. Oh, they did they. This one probably doesn't apply to us too much, but it's pretty cool. | 01:02:55 | |
Chairman Daniels, you can maybe. You know, 441 maybe, but. | 01:03:01 | |
Yeah, all the new, yeah, that's maybe that's our Main Street solution. When we put in the L that goes through, it was a rundown | 01:03:08 | |
area underneath an overpass that they converted to a park. So you know space you already had that just. | 01:03:16 | |
Now it's being used by everybody to bike and jog, so that was anyone. | 01:03:24 | |
Anyway, it got you thinking about and I I personally did not think of art as economic development. I just thought. | 01:03:29 | |
Nice. I like art but never thought about it attracting business. And you know, Christine, talking about that example that started | 01:03:37 | |
with, you know, buckets from Lowe's brought in you know, over $1,000,000 to the city of Newnan is very impressive. | 01:03:43 | |
You know, starting off with, you know, $5 and. | 01:03:50 | |
You know, led to it. | 01:03:54 | |
The bikes, OK, Thomasville. | 01:03:56 | |
Their first project was they want to do a temporary art exhibit. | 01:03:59 | |
And it was. | 01:04:05 | |
In a section of town that was kind of neglected, it was the poor side of town and. | 01:04:07 | |
There were no businesses in the buildings. One of the buildings had actually fallen in, so it created this alleyway in between | 01:04:14 | |
2:00. | 01:04:17 | |
Old buildings and in the back was a mud. | 01:04:20 | |
Well, the mud pit, they converted to an amphitheater. This now alleyway, they decided they got Darlene, which. | 01:04:24 | |
Our new favorite person. She's a person that just gets things done. She doesn't say we need to do this. She's the one with a saw, | 01:04:33 | |
you know, and doing things. Anyway, She decided her project was going to be to do a temporary art exhibit on the walls of this now | 01:04:40 | |
alleyway. And it'd be temporary. It'd be up for 30 days, and they do it about every other year. | 01:04:47 | |
And the first one was that she went to the junkyard herself and her pickup truck and rounded up every bicycle that was in the | 01:04:55 | |
junkyard. Brought them back, spray painted them all with caution. Paint yellow, just ugly. I mean, tires, wheels, it looks like | 01:05:01 | |
the whole paint. The bicycle was dipped in a, you know, a VAT of paint. | 01:05:07 | |
Then she decides to get sponsors and you so your business could buy a bicycle and be in front of your store for it's like 30 to 60 | 01:05:14 | |
days. | 01:05:19 | |
Yeah. So it's $500 per bicycle. She got 48 businesses. | 01:05:25 | |
To spend $500 on a hideous yellow bicycle, you know, but it on there, said who sponsored that bicycle and that was the event was | 01:05:30 | |
called Flaunt. | 01:05:35 | |
And I think it must have said something about, you know. | 01:05:41 | |
Go here in whatever the date is when there are going to be, all these bikes will eventually be moved. So anyway, all the bikes, | 01:05:45 | |
you got 48 bikes around downtown. So it gets everyone talking, what in the world are these yellow bikes? What's going on? So you | 01:05:52 | |
know it builds momentum, it builds anticipation, builds interest and and then three days before. | 01:05:59 | |
The unveiling. They went around, picked up all the bikes in the town, disassembled every single bike, took the wheels off chains | 01:06:06 | |
off handlebars off whatever, and they bolted them onto the two sides of the buildings next door and just created this. | 01:06:14 | |
Art out of bicycles that you know cost. | 01:06:22 | |
And they left it up for 30 days and everyone just. | 01:06:26 | |
So, and this led to, OK, now we're going to do it, you know, next year. So they say it's about every two years to do. And it's | 01:06:29 | |
just everyone loves it. It's like, oh, why'd you take it down? It's like, well, you know, it's not permanent. It's 30 days. | 01:06:36 | |
Anyway, that was a great concept that's kind of been some inspiration for our initial thoughts on what we want to do. And it also | 01:06:43 | |
that project ended up revitalizing a whole section of their town. So it's the main thoroughfare from Tallahassee up through that | 01:06:50 | |
section of town and people would actually bypass it, go out of their way because it was so rundown and then revitalizing this one | 01:06:57 | |
non building building now. | 01:07:04 | |
Has completely sparked It's their Creative Arts district now. | 01:07:12 | |
And I don't even know how they didn't give numbers, but I'm sure it has sparked a lot of economic development. I mean, 30-40 | 01:07:15 | |
million, Yeah, at least there's a brewery of restaurants and yarn shop. So I mean. | 01:07:22 | |
It's it's it's one of the coolest stretches of St. Down there. I've never been to Thomasville before. | 01:07:31 | |
And Christine and I were both falling in love with it, with the city. So yeah, it was a great trip, Wendy. Anything you want to | 01:07:36 | |
have? | 01:07:40 | |
Yeah, I was just reiterating how incredible that experience was and I was very grateful to be able to go. | 01:07:45 | |
Unbelievable educational about how and they call it activating the spaces when they go into you know space and county fairly and | 01:07:52 | |
we're going to activate the space. | 01:07:57 | |
Temporary exhibition People come, and then it ends up just in like, you're right, Thomasville, their whole arts district. | 01:08:04 | |
Is developed around this space. It was building. It was turned down between two older buildings of Justice. | 01:08:10 | |
Space with two brick walls and they have rotating and positions there now. It is amazing. | 01:08:16 | |
And I love the connection piece and how connected so many people in our. | 01:08:22 | |
One project, 50 bucks. | 01:08:27 | |
Uh. | 01:08:29 | |
So they did the bicycles then. Then this past year it was they did the Monopoly game. | 01:08:31 | |
So they had these life. Well, you know, these houses that were about 6 feet tall like cutouts of a house for the pieces, the mayor | 01:08:36 | |
dressed up as the monopoly guy with the monocle and the tucks and everything. So it was just really great to see the whole | 01:08:42 | |
community involved in in such a fun project. | 01:08:49 | |
Awesome. Well, thank you all for your leadership. They're really excited to see. | 01:08:57 | |
You know the art side of the community being reactivated, Wendy. Thank you for your leadership and stewardship at Oak F. | 01:09:03 | |
And Jeff and Christine thanks for all your. | 01:09:09 | |
And I'm excited to see what the committee comes up with. Let's. | 01:09:13 | |
Move quickly. That's great. All right, now is the time for public comments while we wait for anyone who wants to come forward. | 01:09:17 | |
Julie, did we receive any online? | 01:09:22 | |
All right. We had done online. Anybody have anything they wish to share? | 01:09:28 | |
All right. Hearing none, we'll move along to the mayor's. | 01:09:33 | |
A couple items I. | 01:09:37 | |
Highlight I'll be quick, February 25th. I know a lot of us were out there. The Community Field Festival at Wire Park was a big | 01:09:39 | |
success. | 01:09:43 | |
Great, great attendance, great music We had. You know, a good BBQ. Unfortunately, the wrong choice was made. | 01:09:48 | |
In the in in the for the winter, Jeff, here's yours was the best that I had. | 01:09:57 | |
And so anyway, but it was a but it was a really great night for Watkinsville. It's great to see that community spirit continuing | 01:10:05 | |
to happen at Wire Park. I think they're having something on Saint Patrick's Day if anyone wants to Don their green and head out | 01:10:09 | |
there. | 01:10:14 | |
I would anticipate a nice crowd and some good music. So so anyway another great event out there. Continue to make progress at | 01:10:19 | |
Rocket Field. Sometimes it's hard to tell when there's a lot of dirt work going, but they are working out there. | 01:10:26 | |
We have we're in good shape on our inspections. | 01:10:33 | |
Dugouts will be foundations will be poured next week. | 01:10:37 | |
Windows are going up in the in the building we have. | 01:10:40 | |
Have a lot happening, so anyway we continue to track. Lights are anticipated arriving there around April 15th. | 01:10:48 | |
We've got a few having some good discussions with our partner on some of the finished materials. | 01:10:56 | |
What some of the best choices are. So I'll update you guys as we get a little further down the road on that, but continue to make | 01:11:03 | |
great progress there. | 01:11:05 | |
Sewer line A we are under Hwy. 15 and I don't think we are under. We've got one more Jack and bore right underneath that dock at | 01:11:12 | |
the Bishop building. Have they started that yet Mark or they getting close, do you know? | 01:11:18 | |
They hadn't OK yeah, they hadn't. As of I think it rained and they didn't look like got much got done on Monday when I went. | 01:11:25 | |
But they are off Jerry Smith, which is great because that was a mess for a while, but overall I don't think it was quite as bad as | 01:11:32 | |
we had feared. I know they hit some rock mark, but it didn't seem like it brought him to a complete stop or anything. They were | 01:11:36 | |
able to keep moving. | 01:11:40 | |
So now they have one more board to do and hopefully that'll go smoothly. That's a little bit of it's a tricky bend in the line | 01:11:44 | |
where they're going under a existing building with a loading dock, so. | 01:11:50 | |
But that is on the agenda and happening moving quickly John and his team. Thank you John for leading the way on the comprehensive | 01:11:56 | |
plan update And Guy Herring's office, I do want to call out the comp plan does impact us. The county has been great about it, | 01:12:01 | |
keeping us engaged through that process. | 01:12:06 | |
There is an open house March 29th, three to seven. PMI will drop in there at some point. I would encourage any of you to also drop | 01:12:12 | |
in and share your thoughts. Chairman Daniel made a great point yesterday talking about the first comprehensive plan was done when | 01:12:17 | |
you're how old, John too, two years old. | 01:12:23 | |
And he said it hadn't changed much. And I think we all appreciate that. But the reason it doesn't change much and I give John and | 01:12:29 | |
his colleagues a lot of credit is they're very disciplined in terms of listening to that comp plan and making their decisions | 01:12:34 | |
based on what the citizens have said they want. | 01:12:39 | |
Well, you know how they know what the citizens want. You got to go and come to these things. So we've been pretty clear on that, | 01:12:44 | |
but take some time and I'd encourage our citizens to go and get engaged in that process. | 01:12:49 | |
We also have on the county level. This is also really important. | 01:12:54 | |
The Parks and Rec team has done a really nice master plan. | 01:13:00 | |
For recs it includes some also includes things that are near and dear to our heart including future plans for on their master plan | 01:13:05 | |
involving should it become available, the rail line a trail called the Hog Mountain trail blue ways on county rivers which is | 01:13:12 | |
something a lot of people have talked about some really cool ideas John credit to you and Lisa and your team. | 01:13:20 | |
Advancing this and T spots that gives our friends at the county. John, you just shake your head if I get this wrong because I'm | 01:13:28 | |
speaking for you. But this is, you know, as John said it yesterday. The T spot gives us the ability to go ahead and advance and | 01:13:33 | |
get some of these things moving that have been planned for a while. | 01:13:37 | |
So this is really exciting. So I'd encourage if any of y'all can make it and support that plan. This is a big priority for our | 01:13:42 | |
citizens, these kind of paths and connections. We're going to want to get connected into what the county's infrastructure is doing | 01:13:47 | |
and connect that to what we're doing. | 01:13:52 | |
So let's show up and support, support this if if we can. So that's next Tuesday night, right, John? | 01:13:57 | |
Yep. | 01:14:03 | |
The wooden playground is no more, I know. | 01:14:07 | |
A lot of us have watched our children play on that or might have played on that ourselves and we'll miss it, but obviously we know | 01:14:11 | |
the other playground nearby is getting a ton of use. | 01:14:15 | |
And credit to Christine and her committee, as you said last week, we just couldn't find. | 01:14:19 | |
Particularly practical use for that equipment, but I think we are going to try to reuse a little bit of that. | 01:14:23 | |
In our art project at Hair Shoals. | 01:14:28 | |
Which Wendy, thank you for issuing that RFP and excited to see where that comes in. | 01:14:32 | |
There's actually one thing I wanted to add at hair Shoals on phase one. We're working on the bathrooms right now and we had an | 01:14:38 | |
issue yesterday where they got into replacing the roof and we had Carpenter ants up in the roof and. | 01:14:44 | |
In the insulation, they got in the insulation. So it's going to require that we buy insulation. Well, I happen to know that | 01:14:52 | |
certainty will give it to you free if you ask them. So we asked them and we'll be picking it up tomorrow morning. So we'll be | 01:14:56 | |
taking pictures and we'll highlight that next month because they get back to the community that way. We're going to be getting 4 | 01:15:00 | |
big. | 01:15:04 | |
You know, rolls, I think it's like 300 feet plus of insulation to put in the in the top of the of the park bathrooms. | 01:15:08 | |
Thank you, Certainte. | 01:15:16 | |
Yes, ma'am. | 01:15:19 | |
Good. | 01:15:21 | |
Would they brought it over to Captain Lawrence Duke? Thoughts. An artist to use it, and an artist picked it up. | 01:15:23 | |
As being repurposed for a children's educational. | 01:15:29 | |
Thing at Little Rose. Yeah, that's great. | 01:15:33 | |
And there's any left for potential art projects for the? | 01:15:39 | |
OK. | 01:15:44 | |
All right. We're all we're all for. | 01:15:45 | |
Yeah, we're all we're all for free cycling. That's great. | 01:15:50 | |
A couple months ago, Matthew Miller completed his Eagle Scout project in Watkinsville Woods. This lovely, lovely bridge that those | 01:15:54 | |
of you who travel the woods have probably used. | 01:15:58 | |
It is. It's really awesome. Rock solid. He had a couple scouts help. | 01:16:05 | |
And did a great job on that project. So thank you Matthew. I think he's officially going to be. | 01:16:09 | |
Get his pen this weekend. So excited for Matthew and his family. | 01:16:15 | |
And with that, I'm done. I'll turn it over at post One. Councilman Garrett, you got any updates? | 01:16:20 | |
All right. | 01:16:26 | |
Post to Miss Massey. | 01:16:27 | |
Post 3 Colonel Thomas. | 01:16:30 | |
None of this stuff. | 01:16:33 | |
Post for Miss Tucker. I already gave mine. | 01:16:36 | |
Post 5 Mr. Campbell. | 01:16:39 | |
Just one thing, the stop sign on Morrison St. you know, I initially got some negative feedback that was from business owners on | 01:16:42 | |
Morrison St. | 01:16:46 | |
But I've been driving the street, you know, to my warehouse regularly every day, and everyone stopping at the stop sign or at | 01:16:51 | |
least doing a. | 01:16:55 | |
You know, a slow around the bend at least, Yeah. And so anyway, it's it's, it's working well and it's making it a much safer. | 01:17:00 | |
Area on Morrison St. so that was. It's been nice to see because it is. Some people just cut that corner with a stop sign. They're | 01:17:09 | |
not cutting the corner. | 01:17:13 | |
I know the neighbors are pleased. | 01:17:17 | |
As I remind people who complain about the speed limits and other things, I said I I really start listening when the neighbors talk | 01:17:19 | |
to me, not the people who are just driving through. | 01:17:23 | |
So, so anyway and I know that they're they're pleased with that, so and that's important. | 01:17:27 | |
I did visit Speaking of things in that neighborhood I visited Trove the other day and they said that they have two or three either | 01:17:33 | |
lots under contract where people want to build their own homes or pick their own finishes for homes that are to come. So so anyway | 01:17:39 | |
and they're optimistic that they. | 01:17:45 | |
Some of the others may go under contract soon, so anyway, interesting visit over. | 01:17:51 | |
They had people coming in and out on a Sunday, cold and rainy Sunday, which was good. | 01:17:56 | |
All right. Unless there's anything else, we will. | 01:18:01 | |
Entertain a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel, real estate, and threatened and pending | 01:18:04 | |
litigation. | 01:18:08 | |
To go to executive session for those things, do we have a second? | 01:18:13 | |
All in favor? Say aye. All right, Councilman Thomas. Feel. Remain with us. | 01:18:17 | |
I make a motion to adjourn. | 01:18:43 | |
I'll. | 01:18:45 | |
We have a second second. | 01:18:47 | |
Motion is second All in favor of journey, Say aye. | 01:18:49 |
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Good evening and welcome to the March meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. Excited to have a good crowd here tonight of | 00:00:15 | |
friends and media. | 00:00:19 | |
We have a quorum tonight. We also have joining. | 00:00:25 | |
From Kuwait, Colonel Brett Thomas once again. | 00:00:28 | |
Colonel Thomas how. | 00:00:32 | |
I'm doing very well. Thank you all for having me. I yeah, the time the time changes is messing with all of the city is 1:30 in the | 00:00:35 | |
morning here though. | 00:00:39 | |
How's the weather in Kuwait? | 00:00:45 | |
It is. It's been warm here lately in the 70s and 80s. | 00:00:50 | |
Uh, mostly. So it's it's warming up over here. All right, well, you stay safe and thank you for your service and always appreciate | 00:00:57 | |
you joining us in the dead of night. | 00:01:01 | |
No, absolutely. It's it's my pleasure. | 00:01:06 | |
All. | 00:01:09 | |
With that, we will move along. We do have a quorum, so we'll move to the pledge. | 00:01:11 | |
I'm gonna pick at random. | 00:01:16 | |
Mr. Thaxton, will you lead us in the pledge please Sir? | 00:01:19 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. | 00:01:24 | |
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:01:29 | |
Yeah. | 00:01:38 | |
Thank you, Chief. | 00:01:42 | |
He has not made it back, but I did want to take a moment to recognize Toby Cartilage. Toby is our Public Works Supervisor and code | 00:01:45 | |
Compliance Officer. | 00:01:49 | |
Toby recently completed his Level 2 certification for the Georgia Association of Code Enforcement. That takes a lot of work. | 00:01:54 | |
There's three levels of certification. He had completed Level one last spring. He completed 45 hours of course work and had to | 00:02:00 | |
pass a written exam for each course. | 00:02:05 | |
With a grade of 70 or better, I'm assuming Toby got straight A's. I hope but but that was probably three additional conferences, | 00:02:11 | |
45 hours of work. I hate that Toby can't be here, but he is one of the busiest men in Watkinsville. | 00:02:18 | |
The portal allows the public to view and listen to the meeting in progress and see those meeting materials as they go through the | 00:03:03 | |
meeting agendas. Posted one full week before and the packet is posted several days in time so we can get those questions. | 00:03:09 | |
With that, we'll move on to the items on the agenda tonight. Number one, approval of the minutes. Everyone's had those, so we had | 00:03:16 | |
time to review those. | 00:03:20 | |
I'll entertain a motion unless there's any edits or changes that need to be suggested. | 00:03:25 | |
Make a motion. | 00:03:30 | |
To approve the Minutes. | 00:03:32 | |
And I said, we have a motion, we have a second, any discussion of the Minutes. | 00:03:33 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. | 00:03:38 | |
Thank you. | 00:03:41 | |
Minutes pass. | 00:03:43 | |
All right. Approval of the agenda. | 00:03:45 | |
We have nothing on the consent agenda, but we have received. | 00:03:49 | |
I would ask Council to consider moving an item. | 00:03:54 | |
New business, not new business. Excuse me from appearances Item 7. | 00:03:59 | |
To the consent agenda, and the reason I'm asking for that is that document has been adjusted significantly since it was initially | 00:04:06 | |
submitted. | 00:04:11 | |
To the point where our City Engineer and City Attorney are both comfortable with it. It will require a few more certifications | 00:04:17 | |
before I can sign it, but there's really no need for us to discuss that under appearances. We can handle that as a matter of. | 00:04:23 | |
Course on the consent agenda at this point I need to see some head nods from Joe and from Mark on that. | 00:04:31 | |
But if everyone's comfortable with that, we'll move that to the consent agenda. If I can get a motion to modify the agenda, | 00:04:36 | |
please, I make a motion to move. | 00:04:40 | |
That item to the consent agenda and out of appearances, OK, And do we have a second on them? | 00:04:45 | |
All right, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. | 00:04:51 | |
All in favor? Say aye. All right, so we're moving item 7 from appearances. | 00:04:56 | |
60 S main subdivision of Platt to. | 00:05:01 | |
The consent agenda, which means we will have no discussion of that. We'll just approve the entire consent agenda at once when that | 00:05:05 | |
we get to that item on the agenda. | 00:05:08 | |
All right. Administration, I'll remind everybody what our public input process is. Generally here in Watkinsville, we try to keep | 00:05:13 | |
it informal. There are a few points where we're required to allow. | 00:05:18 | |
Umm. Umm. | 00:05:23 | |
Public input that's typically under appearances or under zoning matters or changes of code, things like that. If it is formally | 00:05:24 | |
required, then Mr. Reitman will. | 00:05:28 | |
Alert us to that. He and I will administer that. But generally, if you do have something you want to comment on, raise your hand | 00:05:33 | |
and indicate so, and it counsels discretion, we will allow you to comment. We may also ask you to stop. Again, that's a council's | 00:05:38 | |
discretion. If you do decide to comment, we'd ask you to address it to us. Not address it to the crowd or the camera, but to look | 00:05:43 | |
at council and direct your questions and comments to us. | 00:05:48 | |
Refrain from debate, argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant. | 00:05:54 | |
You'll only be addressing the route, the pending matter or if you're under citizen comments, it can be any matter that you choose. | 00:05:58 | |
So that's how we'll handle public comment tonight. But with that, we will go to financial reports and hear from manager Dickerson. | 00:06:04 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:06:10 | |
Before I get started, I just wanted to touch on what obviously a lot of you guys are aware of. There were some bank failings. | 00:06:11 | |
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature were both both failed. I wanted to assure everybody that I talked to the bank and that our our | 00:06:18 | |
funds are insured and protected. In addition, obviously the FDIC is taking additional steps to short the banking system. | 00:06:25 | |
The Silicon Valley Bank and Signature were both specialized banks. They had significant industry concentrations among depositors | 00:06:34 | |
and very high average deposits, meaning a lot of their customers were uninsured. | 00:06:38 | |
All right. So you guys should have received your financial reports, the balance sheet, the revenues and expenditures. On the | 00:07:17 | |
revenue side, we are should be around 66%, we're at 70, almost 72% receipts and on our expense side, we again should be around 66% | 00:07:23 | |
and we're at 62%. So pretty good starting off. | 00:07:29 | |
Any questions on those in general? | 00:07:35 | |
On splashed one, this is our 2009 Splash One. The money's left in there are going are being allocated for the sewer sewer line A. | 00:07:39 | |
Project along with the 904,000 that you see on the water and sewer. | 00:07:48 | |
Facility line there on spots two, we do have a little bit of money left in public Safety and Rec and Parks, but most of that will | 00:07:52 | |
be probably be done this month. So next month you'll see that probably zeroed out. | 00:07:59 | |
On Spice Three, our projects right now we've spent some money in in the public safety line item for the jaws of life for the fire | 00:08:06 | |
and emergency services. There is a set aside we'll talk about later tonight in our capital budget request. There's a set aside | 00:08:12 | |
you've already approved for Police Department equipment. | 00:08:18 | |
On Parkside, we have spent some money on Hair Shoals Park and you guys at last last month's meeting approved an increase the green | 00:08:25 | |
space category on the splash. | 00:08:30 | |
Line item we've also spent money on. | 00:08:36 | |
And roads for the hard hill resurfacing project, I believe on that one. | 00:08:40 | |
I think it's on that one. Maybe it's boss too. I get confused sometimes. Excuse me. And then we've got some money set aside for L | 00:08:46 | |
Meg for the resurfacing projects, which we hope to bring that forward to you guys next month. | 00:08:50 | |
And of course some signage and you will be seeing some additional signage week today finalize the decision on the Hair Shoals park | 00:08:56 | |
sign that's in production. We were hoping to reuse the metal. Unfortunately, that's not going to work. It's so old, it's just not | 00:09:01 | |
going. The paint's not going to work really well, but we've got that under production. We'll have two new signs on either end of | 00:09:06 | |
the industrial park going up and then some wayfinding signs downtown going up as well. Hopefully, hopefully by the end of April | 00:09:12 | |
have all those signs up. | 00:09:17 | |
On the on the actual revenue report, I think it's important to note, obviously we had a really great in December. January wasn't | 00:09:23 | |
wasn't too bad either, but we're averaging 84,000 a month which is 16% higher than the year before. | 00:09:31 | |
And then on the American Rescue plan, we still have roughly $800,000 that's not been appropriated and we talked about different | 00:09:40 | |
uses for that. I know the intent was that that be used for some transformational projects in the city. Those are decisions are | 00:09:45 | |
still yet to be made, but I anticipate that money will be spent you know within the next year probably or dedicated for that for | 00:09:51 | |
those purposes. Any questions on any of those reports? | 00:09:56 | |
Just remind you guys at the physical fiscal year 2024 budget process, we did not have a work session tonight for the capital. I'm | 00:10:03 | |
going to be presenting that just as a regular agenda item tonight for you guys. There won't be a vote on it. It's just simply | 00:10:09 | |
giving you a heads up on what's going on with that. And then you will tonight receive reports from your independent agencies, | 00:10:15 | |
OCALAF and the Fire and Emergency Services. | 00:10:20 | |
All. | 00:10:29 | |
Economic development. | 00:10:34 | |
Our deadline is today. We've gotten Julie do you know how many like percentage wise where we're at with how many people we still | 00:10:36 | |
have outstanding that have not submitted their business licenses with all of the. | 00:10:42 | |
The licenses that have come in, in the last couple of days, we're probably. | 00:10:49 | |
A little less than half that have submitted. Some of those though are just waiting on the fire inspections and those are in | 00:10:56 | |
process. So I think we're we're on a good track. | 00:11:00 | |
And we also received some renewal on our alcohol license. | 00:11:09 | |
For. | 00:11:14 | |
On the excise tax collection report, we are now fully receiving funds from Airbnb, which is our biggest country. I think we have | 00:11:17 | |
one other small one. I can't think of the name of the other vendor, but we're we've got that all ironed out. So we're seeing that | 00:11:22 | |
money come in. | 00:11:27 | |
And alcohol, excise, taxes, all ironed out with the breweries and with the restaurant. | 00:11:33 | |
That. | 00:11:38 | |
On the building permit side, we have 11 permits for eight projects. You'll see quite a few at Electric Ave. or Wire Park. Golden | 00:11:39 | |
Pantry and the library are the two biggest ones on that list. | 00:11:45 | |
Any questions on any of? | 00:11:53 | |
All right. | 00:11:57 | |
And then I'm going to do a little tap dance here for Kate. We're going to talk a little Downtown Development Authority update. | 00:11:59 | |
Obviously you guys remember that back in September of last year you activated. | 00:12:06 | |
Downtown development author. | 00:12:10 | |
And a board. And those seven board members are listed. Our Councilwoman Christine Tucker is the chair. | 00:12:12 | |
We also estab. | 00:12:19 | |
DDA map, which just jump to that real quick to show you what the map looks like, picks up those areas that are now designated as | 00:12:21 | |
Downtown Development Authority. | 00:12:26 | |
Par. | 00:12:31 | |
We hired Kate Patterson in January. She's been going nonstop. We had last Thursday. She had a meet and greet at Oconee State | 00:12:34 | |
Bank's community room. | 00:12:39 | |
With probably about 15 or so people that showed up really good turn out. | 00:12:44 | |
And she right prior to that, about a week prior, she submitted. | 00:12:48 | |
A survey to gather information about downtown and what people would like to see. That survey was out less than 30 hours and | 00:12:52 | |
instead of getting what typically they see around 200 surveys we got. | 00:12:58 | |
700 and somet. | 00:13:04 | |
Surveys in a very short period of time. So we shut down the survey. I think we got plenty of data and a company we've hired | 00:13:05 | |
Georgia Downtown's will be helping us on May 23rd will help the DDA start creating a strategic plan for the next one to three | 00:13:12 | |
years that will provide some road map for the for the development authority as they start to pursue. | 00:13:19 | |
Redevelopment of downtown. | 00:13:27 | |
I'm sorry, do not what I say May 4th, sorry. | 00:13:30 | |
There are two initiatives that require applications will be coming before you guys next month to ask for those to be approved for | 00:13:35 | |
completion. | 00:13:39 | |
Georgia Main Street Program and the rural program. | 00:13:43 | |
George Main Street really just provides a lot of resources, some tools for us to use as we start diving into developing downtown. | 00:13:47 | |
The rural program, however, is a designation that is both These programs are under the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. | 00:13:53 | |
The rural program is a designation that will allow for tax credits if you create two jobs, 2 full-time equivalent jobs. | 00:14:00 | |
Umm, that business will receive a tax credit, not a deduction, but a tax credit. There are also redevelopment tax credits. These | 00:14:08 | |
things are stackable. There's quite a bit of other resources and and opportunities. If we get this as a designation, it will be | 00:14:14 | |
good for five years. It is highly competitive. They only give out 10 every year. So we are hoping that we get it and it's a quite | 00:14:20 | |
lengthy application is I think that one's due in August. | 00:14:26 | |
And the Main Street program, I think both of these have opened, but the Main Street program is in July, I think is due in July. | 00:14:32 | |
Encourage you guys to follow the Downtown Development Authority on Facebook and Instagram there at downtown Watkinsville. | 00:14:39 | |
Yeah, like and share. | 00:14:46 | |
Any questions on? | 00:14:50 | |
That. | 00:14:51 | |
OK. | 00:14:53 | |
All right, Chief, let's hear from you. All right, I'm. | 00:14:57 | |
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be here before. | 00:15:02 | |
I submitted my report for all the activity and fun stuff that we do over the last month last week. | 00:15:06 | |
Is there any questions over any material? | 00:15:13 | |
Hearing, none of seeing. | 00:15:19 | |
That's good. We're Treasurer, right? | 00:15:24 | |
Oh. | 00:15:26 | |
I went too far. I'm sorry, I got excited. I didn't really did that. Sorry about that. I would like to remind everybody that on | 00:15:29 | |
April 1st we're not going to be having any fools because it is a fools day, but we will have a bunch of eggs and a bunch of kids | 00:15:34 | |
and a bunch of fun. | 00:15:39 | |
On April fools day 10:00 AM here at the other side of the building in here in a Shoals park where we're going to. | 00:15:45 | |
Post a bunch of children and eggs and beast, your Bunny will be here. So I'm gonna be taking the Easter Bunny and all that good | 00:15:52 | |
stuff. | 00:15:55 | |
Hope to see some of y'all. | 00:15:59 | |
I am very pleased to announce that you know about badges and benevolence. Walking to the Police Department, Law Enforcement | 00:16:02 | |
Foundation is alive and inactive. | 00:16:06 | |
And I've created some material here for us to give out to business owners and individuals, to direct them, guide them, guard them. | 00:16:11 | |
Where they need to be getting their stuff done to provide tax dollars to us rather than to the state, so. | 00:16:21 | |
I'm all about it. | 00:16:28 | |
The blue link there gives you a PDF document that was created by Georgia Tax Commissioner that gives you step by step processes of | 00:16:29 | |
how to go to tax the Georgia Tax Center website and create your application for pre submission. | 00:16:37 | |
And the yellow link is the actual website where everything resides in the Department of Revenues website for. | 00:16:46 | |
Qualified Law Enforcement Foundation. | 00:16:56 | |
Umm. | 00:17:00 | |
I'm very happy to announce this morning we received a notification from the Commissioner that our first approval was received. | 00:17:00 | |
From a local. | 00:17:09 | |
For a $10,000 donation. | 00:17:11 | |
So we're live and active and if any of y'all would want. | 00:17:17 | |
Some. | 00:17:22 | |
Invoke cards where I have all the information readily available for to hand out and I'll be happy to give it to. | 00:17:23 | |
Any. | 00:17:29 | |
That's great. Are we going to, how are we going to get those? | 00:17:31 | |
Businesses because these this can work for businesses or individuals, correct it allows. The program allows for individuals to | 00:17:34 | |
donate to up to $5000. | 00:17:39 | |
Joint filers can follow up to 10,000. | 00:17:46 | |
And corporations and organizations can do 10,000. | 00:17:50 | |
You know, we'll go around Hannah Mountain. And you know, I've already handed a few out this this afternoon already. I had a couple | 00:17:58 | |
business owners coming here. | 00:18:02 | |
And talking on kind of hijacked him and the cards. So, but yeah, and I think I think we could send them out on the e-mail list to | 00:18:06 | |
Julie has the businesses. So we can send that out that way. I can do that. And then let's be sure you know those of us who know | 00:18:11 | |
accountants or no business owners to remind them of this. A lot of people are probably more used to doing it for private school. I | 00:18:17 | |
think there's a similar program for private schools. | 00:18:22 | |
In the state where you get a tax credit for donating to. | 00:18:28 | |
A private school. This is an exciting opportunity to be able to do the same for law enforcement. But you do have to move. There's | 00:18:33 | |
only a certain amount of money the state makes available. Correct. Chief State State allocated 75,000,000 for the entire state. | 00:18:40 | |
There really are not that many law enforcement foundations that are alive and active. | 00:18:47 | |
So 75,000,000 can go a long way, but they've only they've they've, they've put a moratorium on what how much a foundation can get | 00:18:53 | |
a year and it's $3,000,000. | 00:18:57 | |
You know, if everything goes well and we can get the information out, we can have $3,000,000 in the foundation, you know, operate. | 00:19:03 | |
A lot of things going on, so. | 00:19:09 | |
We could, we could do some magic with our budget if. | 00:19:11 | |
And you can use that for any So the foundation money can go to help replenish equipment, update equipment. | 00:19:15 | |
Hardware. | 00:19:26 | |
Various things that are needed for law enforcement purposes training. | 00:19:27 | |
Educational expenses and can also provide twice a year bonuses to officers. | 00:19:33 | |
As well as support and manage the. | 00:19:40 | |
Programs that the Police Department runs like the Easter egg Hunt, the Cops and bobbers and all those things as well. | 00:19:43 | |
So is this. | 00:19:50 | |
If someone is interested in doing this, do they need to do it before they file their taxes for 2022? Is this for 2022 or 2023? | 00:19:53 | |
20. | 00:20:02 | |
So it's for tax returns that would be. | 00:20:04 | |
So yes. | 00:20:09 | |
Yeah, I started in January. So anything that's contributed in this year, you get credit for in the next year's taxes? | 00:20:11 | |
OK, so but they don't have to write a check to the Police Department, do they? I mean, it's it's a credit. The state pays the | 00:20:19 | |
money to the Police Department. It is. It is actually. | 00:20:23 | |
Umm. | 00:20:28 | |
To wait for the taxes on the next year is a dollar for dollar thing. But the big thing is, is, you know, because it is a | 00:21:04 | |
moratorium with a $75 million, they're keeping track of it. They're approving it. | 00:21:09 | |
You got to do the pre approval plan, you got to do the pre pre approval that that PDF there will literally walk you step by step | 00:21:15 | |
through the Georgia Tax Center. | 00:21:19 | |
How to? | 00:21:24 | |
Create the information and submit applications. | 00:21:26 | |
Great. Thank you, Chief. Thank. | 00:22:08 | |
All right, Consent agenda used to say none. But there is a consent agenda, so we will all entertain a motion to approve the | 00:22:16 | |
consent agenda. | 00:22:19 | |
Motion to approve the consent agenda All right, do we have a second? | 00:22:23 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. | 00:22:27 | |
Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All right. | 00:22:30 | |
Motion carries. Thank you, Colonel Thomas. | 00:22:34 | |
We got you there. Hang with us. All right? Our appearances we have. | 00:22:39 | |
Always as a part of our budgeting process, we'd like to hear from. | 00:22:44 | |
Independent agencies and two of them that we like to help out and the budget process for the Oconee County Fire Department and the | 00:22:49 | |
Oconee Cultural Affairs Foundation. | 00:22:54 | |
Ladies first, I'll invite Miss Wendy Cooper to step forward and off share what her budget request may be, and then after that | 00:22:59 | |
we'll have Chief Thaxton. | 00:23:04 | |
I was like Cultural Arts Foundation. | 00:23:15 | |
He says cultural affairs. Did I say affairs? Yeah, yeah. County Cultural Arts Foundation. There we go. That sounds better. | 00:23:20 | |
Yeah, no problem. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have submitted a request for $5000. Last year we replaced six of the art | 00:23:28 | |
panels we'd like to replace. 6 markers are looking pretty. | 00:23:35 | |
Worse for wear. And so that would include the actual stipend to the artist, which I'm going to hand pick. There won't be any. | 00:23:44 | |
Controversial pieces and it will also cover some maintenance that needs to be done on some of them as far as sharing up the | 00:23:53 | |
foundations, because we have several that are leaning like this. | 00:23:59 | |
And so that will help me reimburse the city for that assistance if hopefully Toby has time. | 00:24:05 | |
And that was the same amount that was requested two years ago when we replaced the six. So I just went by that same budget. | 00:24:12 | |
And it worked out well. | 00:24:19 | |
Any quest? | 00:24:22 | |
Questions. | 00:24:24 | |
And I know we're getting an update on public art. | 00:24:26 | |
In the meeting, correct. | 00:24:30 | |
Good. When do you gonna hang around for that conversation? Can you? I think we'll. I don't think it'll take us too long to get | 00:24:33 | |
there, so alright. | 00:24:35 | |
All right. If there's no questions, we'll turn it over to Chief Saxon. | 00:24:39 | |
Good evening Mayor, City Council, appreciate the opportunity to be here again tonight. So thank you for letting us put in a | 00:24:50 | |
proposal budget tonight and. | 00:24:55 | |
It's the same amount as last year. I'm asking for 1500 for meal travel, 11,750 for equipment. | 00:25:00 | |
754 meals. | 00:25:10 | |
And this this money is designated for Station 1 here in Watkinsville. | 00:25:12 | |
All right. Any questions? | 00:25:19 | |
Thank you for what y'all do. Thank you. We appreciate it. | 00:25:24 | |
Yep. | 00:25:27 | |
I was just, I'm going to riff a little bit, but, Chairman Daniel at the State of the County meeting yesterday, shared. | 00:25:30 | |
Big numbers on everything that y'all all. | 00:25:36 | |
How many calls you get and all the responses you do and then I really enjoyed seeing on I don't know if it was on your social | 00:25:40 | |
media, but about the work y'all do on is it every Thursday or is it once a month? We all get every piece of equipment out and make | 00:25:44 | |
sure everything's. | 00:25:49 | |
Training is every Thursday night, right? | 00:25:54 | |
Yeah, make sure everything works. That's that's really awesome. And the average response time, John, do you remember off the top | 00:26:00 | |
of your head or one of y'all remember? | 00:26:04 | |
Say that again. | 00:26:11 | |
7 minutes. | 00:26:13 | |
7 minutes 17 seconds with a. | 00:26:15 | |
Fire department in our community really great response time. So thank you all John. Thanks for what y'all do to. | 00:26:19 | |
Keep everything running there and those great looking news stations and everything so. | 00:26:26 | |
All right. | 00:26:30 | |
Item 7 is off the agenda, so we don't have to worry about that. Item eight, we have the cost Creek water. | 00:26:32 | |
Reclamation Facility Site plans, Oconee County Board of Commissioners Engineer Campbell, if you want to give us a report on that. | 00:26:39 | |
Thank you, Mayor. Yes, so this is the, the wastewater reclamation facility that has an address there of Durham's Mill way, but | 00:26:45 | |
it's on the northern side of College Creek. It is within the Watkinsville city limits, although it's not within that beautiful | 00:26:53 | |
mile circle radius. It kind of jogs up there. It's on the on the edges much like Station one. It's not far from there, but so this | 00:27:01 | |
would be an upgrade to that facility. This is kind of the land disturbance site portion of that. So the upgrade is going from 1.5. | 00:27:08 | |
Million to three million. So there you see on the map where that reclamation facility is located. If you haven't happened to had a | 00:27:16 | |
reason to drive down there before, so there's some pictures from you can see there's a lot of already existing buildings. Phase | 00:27:24 | |
one of this upgrade was actually completed or plans were turned in and approved in around 2017. So it's it's been about six years | 00:27:31 | |
since that phase was begun and so this is the beginning of the subsequent phase. | 00:27:38 | |
Most of the. | 00:27:46 | |
So some of the improvements that this includes would be what's called an aerobic digester. | 00:28:28 | |
Again, we're not really reviewing the details from a engineering level of exactly that water treatment that happens at a much | 00:28:37 | |
higher level than the City of Watkinsville. We're really looking at the the land disturbance portion of this. But there will be a | 00:28:45 | |
new pump station which are those are some of the more significant things that will be happening within this phase. | 00:28:52 | |
I've talked to Adam Layfield with Oconee County Water Resources. | 00:29:00 | |
As the director there, and I've also talked to the engineers. | 00:29:07 | |
That they have corresponded with to create these plans. There was a little bit of a question about wetlands and how those wetlands | 00:29:10 | |
are called out. There's no wetlands disturbance this proposed, but there as is actually wetlands within the property because it | 00:29:15 | |
goes to the Creek and and so the area where the Creek is doesn't contain wetlands, but there's no wetlands proposed. They don't | 00:29:21 | |
have to get Army Corps permit. There'll be a clarification on the plans on that, but they do require state approval for erosion | 00:29:26 | |
control. | 00:29:31 | |
I'll be happy to answer any other questions to the best of my ability as well. I have some additional information provided me by | 00:29:37 | |
Adam Layfield and and can read through that, but hopefully that's helpful information. | 00:29:42 | |
All right. Chairman, you have anything you want to add? | 00:29:51 | |
OK. All right. | 00:29:56 | |
Council, Any questions on the project? | 00:29:58 | |
Mark, what are we looking for tonight? Just an approval of, is this a site plan? Is it a building permit? So it's not, yeah, it's | 00:30:01 | |
not a building permit, but I think it's site plan approval with conditions would be acceptable. The conditions could just be that | 00:30:06 | |
comments are addressed. | 00:30:10 | |
I think that would be sufficient. | 00:30:16 | |
So that would be one of the comments is that that we do the plans have been submitted for Georgia Solar Water Conservation | 00:30:18 | |
Commission. They've already got their NOI approved, but we haven't heard back from the tool mark Conservation Commission. So if | 00:30:24 | |
they have any conditions as part of their approval, we would need to make that a condition of our approval. | 00:30:29 | |
OK, So what are the when someone makes a motion? I wanted to be able to say so move, so will you state what you want and what the | 00:30:34 | |
condition? So again, I was trying to keep it simple. There's really only a couple conditions but I think with with, with. | 00:30:39 | |
Approval with conditions of the two staff comments would be sufficient. | 00:30:45 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? | 00:30:53 | |
All right, All in favor. Say aye. | 00:30:58 | |
Motion carries unanimously. | 00:31:02 | |
Old business will move into a historic preservation update. | 00:31:07 | |
Councilman Campbell and Councilman Garrett have been. | 00:31:13 | |
Spearheading, spearheading this for us. I think this was kind of pulled some of this from last week's last month's meeting. I | 00:31:15 | |
think though that Councilman Garrett and Campbell have done some more homework and may have a little update for us and some | 00:31:21 | |
thoughts on what our process might be moving forward. | 00:31:26 | |
Yeah, we met with Chuck and I both. Oh, sorry. Yeah. | 00:31:33 | |
Chuck and I met with Doctor Scott Nesbitt with the University of Georgia. | 00:31:38 | |
He does work in historic preservation. He worked with the city of Winterville. | 00:31:43 | |
As one example, he did a class project to kind of document and define the historic areas of Winterville. | 00:31:48 | |
And so we discussed with him the possibility of another class project. | 00:31:57 | |
For the city of Watkinsville, and he's interested in doing that, that would be in the fall. He's going to get back to. | 00:32:01 | |
Once he knows for sure, he's also got. | 00:32:11 | |
He mentioned Jennifer Lewis as someone who's run charrettes, public charrettes in regards to historic preservation. | 00:32:15 | |
So he was going to reach out with her to find out if she's available to. | 00:32:24 | |
Facilitate one, and he also mentioned the Watson Brown Foundation. | 00:32:29 | |
Which would you could apply? | 00:32:35 | |
For a grant to help pay for, you know, putting this historic preservation ordinance together as it's a lot of work documenting all | 00:32:39 | |
that, all the houses and such. | 00:32:44 | |
So all that would be in the. | 00:32:50 | |
Timeline if we wanted to go that route. | 00:32:52 | |
Was there anything else? | 00:32:58 | |
So council, you know what we talked about before was potentially beginning the public input process in April and kind of moving | 00:33:03 | |
down the road. These were some dates that we had. | 00:33:07 | |
Arrived at it, sounds like we may be able to have. | 00:33:12 | |
Some expert assistance rather than us kind. | 00:33:18 | |
Moving quickly and. | 00:33:21 | |
You know, hearing from citizens but not having a lot of answers, so. | 00:33:23 | |
You know, I think that's an interesting option from the Councilman here. What do y'all think do you feel like? | 00:33:27 | |
This is, it's viable to wait until fall to move this forward. I know staff also has a lot on their plate for the next few months. | 00:33:34 | |
We have an expert in Mr. Nesbitt or Doctor Nesbitt I would say is Health Winterville. And I know that Winterville's approach, | 00:33:41 | |
which is not it's very practical, not super heavy-handed, but also recognizes that architecture. | 00:33:47 | |
So would love to hear from council as to whether we'd like to. | 00:33:54 | |
Maybe at least take a month and see what we can workout with Mr. Nesbitt before we commit to these dates and move on down the | 00:33:57 | |
road. This is a fast this would be a very fast process where we'd be getting input and we wouldn't have a lot for citizens to | 00:34:02 | |
react to on these days. | 00:34:07 | |
The longer I. | 00:34:17 | |
Sit here and see changes and see decisions being made. It makes sense to have experts come in beside us to help. | 00:34:18 | |
So I'm leaning towards as much as I wish this was done four years ago. | 00:34:27 | |
I think waiting just a little bit longer to really do it well and right makes sense to me. | 00:34:33 | |
Connie Brett. | 00:34:41 | |
Thought. | 00:34:43 | |
Nope, that's fine with me. | 00:34:45 | |
Brett, you have any thoughts, are you good if we you might be back by them too? | 00:34:48 | |
Yeah, yeah, I I'm, I'm absolutely OK with holding off a little bit. Let's let's figure it out. | 00:34:56 | |
Well then, Council Councilman, if Y'all can work with Mr. Nesbitt, it could put some meat, more meat on the bone in terms of | 00:35:05 | |
timing, potential budget resources, what exactly we would get from this partnership. | 00:35:10 | |
And you know, we may also want to hop on the phone with Doctor Ellen Winterville and talk it through from an elected official | 00:35:17 | |
perspective. Happy to do that too, if we want to. | 00:35:21 | |
What's her timing? When's best to do that? | 00:35:56 | |
Yeah, whatever the best process is, I think makes a lot of sense. So OK. | 00:36:00 | |
All right. So I don't think we need any action on historic preservation tonight. Thank you both for your work on that. | 00:36:05 | |
We appreciate it. | 00:36:12 | |
Moving on to new business item. | 00:36:14 | |
Capital budget requests for fiscal year 24 Manager Dickerson. Thank you, Mayor. So I just want to point out a couple things before | 00:36:18 | |
we start looking at these. | 00:36:23 | |
So last year we changed how we were budgeting for capital prior to that and for the few years that I was here prior to that time, | 00:36:27 | |
we would set aside a certain amount in each independent individual department's budget to cover capital that might be coming | 00:36:34 | |
forward that. | 00:36:40 | |
You know, didn't start making a lot of sense because we're just putting money in the bank when we weren't needing it. So then last | 00:36:47 | |
year we shifted gears and we're continuing that process this year. | 00:36:51 | |
Where we look at what our needs are, we look at how much money we have in the bank and we say OK. | 00:36:55 | |
We've got X amount of money in the bank. We want to keep a certain amount in the bank. We're going to add a little bit just to | 00:37:00 | |
keep it floating because we're going to have some. If you looked at your packet, you'll see. | 00:37:04 | |
You know, there's like next year, next fiscal year, we don't have any capital that's planned, but then the next year we have quite | 00:37:09 | |
a bit. So I think each year what we'll do is we'll evaluate sort of where things are. I think even if you looked at the and I | 00:37:13 | |
could put it up here because it would have been impossible for y'all to follow for anybody to be able to see, but on the | 00:37:17 | |
spreadsheet. | 00:37:21 | |
There are also some options and the chief is going to be looking into. I found out through the Georgia Georgia City County Manager | 00:37:56 | |
Association that. | 00:37:59 | |
The 2009 Crown Victoria. The 2011 Crown Victoria. I'm just reminding you guys about the 2011 Crown Victoria. Last fall, Chief came | 00:38:36 | |
forward with a request to buy a used 2018 for 15-8 that should have replaced this car. But you guys may recall that we asked you | 00:38:44 | |
to table that decision because we weren't sure where we were going to be with our staff or whatnot, so we're actually asking that. | 00:38:52 | |
Going ahead and replacing this one with a new one, which means we've basically upped it by 1 vehicle. So I think we'll have 10 | 00:39:01 | |
vehicles. | 00:39:05 | |
And one. | 00:39:09 | |
So we'll have you guys may recall so that we have part time employees that need a vehicle and then we have a vehicle for each | 00:39:11 | |
officer. | 00:39:14 | |
And at any given time we could have a piece of equipment down for some reason. We certainly don't want to have to try to you know. | 00:39:19 | |
Shuffle cars around to try to get a car for an officer. So the intent is to is to replace this one. So basically what that means | 00:39:27 | |
is last year in November you added a vehicle for 15/8. | 00:39:32 | |
There is an 8 year life on that vehicle as well. | 00:39:37 | |
We are again asking that we move up the code truck with. We ran into some problems this year. | 00:39:41 | |
With and I don't sorry about those little I see there's like a question mark that's not supposed to be a question mark. I think | 00:39:47 | |
that was a signal that's something that did not. | 00:39:50 | |
Because the coach not always needed. So it's sort of like a spare. It can be, it can be flexed. Toby's not in it all the time, but | 00:40:33 | |
it gives us some flex with that, with that department and also with parks. | 00:40:38 | |
So we're asking these be surplus, we don't anticipate, I don't know where Chief went, but I don't think we anticipate more than | 00:40:44 | |
two or $3000 for this Crown VIX, but then again who knows right get a lot of money on those surplus. I think the truck we do | 00:40:50 | |
anticipate probably about 10 or 10 or 11,000 again. | 00:40:56 | |
We never know what we're going to get. They get into that auction situation, people get excited. | 00:41:02 | |
We are asking to delay several Massey Ferguson. We don't use it a lot. We've looked at the, you know the hours and time on it. We | 00:41:07 | |
think we can push that out quite a quite a distance. And then the zero turn mowers we actually got Toby got them onto a | 00:41:13 | |
maintenance schedule which we never had before. And so now that we're maintaining them properly, we feel like we can push those | 00:41:18 | |
out, keep it on those. Those are probably about $10,000 a piece. | 00:41:24 | |
So. | 00:41:30 | |
And then finally, we're asking that you add the purchase of a 2023 John Deere Gator for the parks. As we start, we're going to | 00:41:32 | |
start pulling Mark. | 00:41:37 | |
Novak away from public utility public works and moving him more towards the parks as the as both Rocket Field, Watkinsville Woods | 00:41:43 | |
and Harris Hills Park or parts that we're supposed to maintain. He hasn't had a lot of opportunity to to do what he needs to do in | 00:41:48 | |
those areas. As we're starting to move into phase one and hopefully the phase two on Hare Shoals Park, he'll need to be able to | 00:41:53 | |
get into some spots we can't get with a pickup truck. | 00:41:58 | |
A Gator would be a great way to do it. If he needs to get to walk into the woods, we'll trailer it up and get him up through | 00:42:04 | |
there. So we're asking for that as well. | 00:42:07 | |
And then this isn't really and tonight you're not going to be voting on anything anyway. This is all just a primer for the budget | 00:42:10 | |
when you see it come forward. | 00:42:15 | |
But we are it would be worthwhile for us to go ahead and talk about designating the money that is set aside in public safety for | 00:42:21 | |
the vehicles that we see coming forward mainly because you know typically. | 00:42:27 | |
Some of the strategy, some of it is you want to spend the money before you get to your next Bloss because you people don't go | 00:42:34 | |
where you got all this money in the bank you're not going to. This money is set aside for that purpose. It keeps it from coming | 00:42:39 | |
out of the general fund capital, it comes out of SPLOST and and so. | 00:42:43 | |
It'd be worthwhile to do that. So on your spreadsheet, you may have seen where I put in red, it's not for fiscal year 24, but for | 00:42:48 | |
26/27/28. I put those amounts in and it's a pretty complicated spreadsheet. But it like I said, the whole intent is to is to spend | 00:42:55 | |
the money out of the splash project, which is it does end. At some point you do have to use those funds to reduce the burden on | 00:43:02 | |
the general fund and then figure out what the difference is that we need to keep in that. | 00:43:09 | |
Operating operating budget contribution and that I put a TVD because I'm not quite sure what I'm going to recommend yet. I want to | 00:43:17 | |
play with that a little bit and see once we get the numbers in what we really need. I don't. | 00:43:22 | |
If you look, you know the intent is not ever end up in a in a deficit situation on your spreadsheet. So if you look at the | 00:43:28 | |
spreadsheet, you'll see as long as we contribute, we're actually good based on how it's currently all these projects are budgeted, | 00:43:32 | |
we're good and we don't fall into the. | 00:43:37 | |
Until FY 37. | 00:43:42 | |
And that's if we did everything that's on here now, which I'm telling you, some of the stuff may change. We may get grants. I | 00:43:45 | |
mean, there's just all sorts of variables that we can't predict. | 00:43:49 | |
So I think it's a good way to budget. So you know we're still kind of new at it. So I think it just requires a little flexibility | 00:43:53 | |
and and understanding and how we're maneuvering. | 00:43:57 | |
Based on our current needs. | 00:44:03 | |
I think every year it may change. You know, we may say we need this this year, next year, I may say we can push that out a year. | 00:44:04 | |
We need to move something up just like we're doing this year, so. | 00:44:08 | |
That's the general general idea. Any questions about what we're asking for? | 00:44:12 | |
Any. | 00:44:17 | |
How about? | 00:44:21 | |
The capital allocation, I know you said you're just trying to manage it to a number, but for things that are relatively new like | 00:44:23 | |
the playground equipment, that kind of stuff, we're still. | 00:44:27 | |
Planning ahead enough to have those funds set. | 00:44:31 | |
For years down the road when we have to begin making repairs and replacements there, right, Yeah, so the playground equip. So | 00:44:34 | |
that's the other thing too. So we're in, this is still brand new too since they we just got it open. So we have warranties, | 00:44:38 | |
there's limited warranties. | 00:44:42 | |
It has a full one year warranty and I think there's some other pieces to it and there's some things we're doing now to try to | 00:45:19 | |
address during the warranty period what we can do to make sure that that stays in place. | 00:45:24 | |
In the budget process, so but but I did set aside some because I figure there's going to be some cost involved. | 00:46:01 | |
Yeah, I think it's getting getting more use than anybody anticipated. Oh, yeah, it's been crazy. Yeah. | 00:46:07 | |
Watching those, watching those little legs run by. All right, Any questions on capital budgeting? | 00:46:15 | |
OK. Thank you, Sharon, for your diligence on that number 11 alcohol ordinance amendments. Sharon and Joe, this is your item. | 00:46:22 | |
You want to start? Yeah, sure. So. | 00:46:32 | |
This this sort of came up in staff meeting we. | 00:46:35 | |
As we were you know go about enjoying going to lunches and dinners and things, we noticed that some of the bars were doing some | 00:46:39 | |
things that technically were were not allowed by the ordinance, but I'm sorry restaurant sorry restaurants are doing things that | 00:46:45 | |
were not allowed in ordinance and so. | 00:46:50 | |
We were kind of among ourselves saying well you know, should even still be in there. And I'm sure this is just a leftover from | 00:46:56 | |
when everything switched over and and sort of everybody trying to take baby steps into allowing for having alcohol in the in the | 00:47:01 | |
in the city and the county. So the ones that are struck through are the ones we feel like probably could be removed. So the | 00:47:05 | |
recommendation is to remove those and allow that to happen. But it's just a staff recommendation. We're certainly looking for | 00:47:10 | |
input. | 00:47:14 | |
Mr. Reitman, you have anything else you want to offer before council discuss this? | 00:47:23 | |
Fairly standard boilerplate language that was adopted back in 2006 when you all went to beer and wine at restaurants and then | 00:47:27 | |
ultimately mixed drinks to support the local restaurants. So I think this is a discretionary you can keep the boilerplate | 00:47:34 | |
language. If you'd rather dispense with that, you have that option in your legislative discretion. | 00:47:41 | |
Council thoughts? | 00:47:50 | |
Whether or. | 00:47:57 | |
Someone chooses to drink or not to drink, I think. | 00:47:58 | |
Happy hours are great. I mean because they often have food specials that go with them as well and but. | 00:48:02 | |
Because this is saying basically you can't. | 00:48:08 | |
Anyway, I won't go into the details. | 00:48:12 | |
Anybody goes to a restaurant. | 00:48:15 | |
It's a little sticker shock looking at prices, so if this can help people save a little money during certain times of the day, I'm | 00:48:18 | |
all for making these changes. Especially if. | 00:48:22 | |
Some of it's. | 00:48:27 | |
A little bit, anyway. And if some places are trying to really follow the rules and then others aren't, and we don't want to become | 00:48:30 | |
a police state having to figure all that out, it just makes sense to adopt it with. | 00:48:36 | |
New language. | 00:48:42 | |
OK. Any other comments? | 00:48:46 | |
Are. | 00:48:51 | |
All. | 00:48:54 | |
I'll entertain a motion. | 00:48:56 | |
So I make a motion to amend our alcohol ordinance as outlined above. | 00:48:57 | |
We have a second. | 00:49:05 | |
We have a second second from Councilman Campbell. Any discussion. | 00:49:06 | |
All in favor, Say aye, Aye. | 00:49:10 | |
All opposed. | 00:49:13 | |
Motion carries father. | 00:49:16 | |
All right. John Kirkpatrick. | 00:49:19 | |
Welcome back to the Watkinsville City Council. I understand you're going to provide an update on one of our most exciting | 00:49:21 | |
projects, Watkinsville branch of the Oconee County Library. | 00:49:25 | |
Getting the mayor and council, thank you. | 00:49:30 | |
Inviting me before begin. It's really cool to see kids playing on the playground after dinner for the time change. | 00:49:32 | |
When I thought of what I was going to say tonight, and other than just the update, I went back and looked at text messages I. | 00:49:40 | |
Exchange between Councilmember Tucker and. | 00:49:47 | |
Mayor Bob. | 00:49:51 | |
And just to kind of jog my memory on what the timeline is on this project, it started in August of 2020 during the middle of the | 00:49:53 | |
pandemic. That was when this idea to move the library wire part first took place. | 00:50:00 | |
So if you think about over the last 2 1/2 years, we've made it through a pandemic, We've made it through serious inflationary | 00:50:08 | |
pressures. | 00:50:12 | |
We've gone back to our state legislature for more money to compensate for that. | 00:50:17 | |
And we've already broken ground on this library, so. | 00:50:23 | |
It seems like a long time, 2 1/2 years, but quite frankly, we've done a lot and. | 00:50:27 | |
We're now over those hurdles and now now we're building. | 00:50:33 | |
Before I get a brief update, I just want to thank you Mayor. Thank you council for being steadfast throughout all of this you've | 00:50:38 | |
you've supported this project from the get go. | 00:50:44 | |
Since Chairman Daniel's here tonight, I would like to thank him as well, because without him this would never have come to a vote | 00:50:50 | |
before the library board and you didn't have to do that. | 00:50:56 | |
I certainly appreciate that. | 00:51:03 | |
As for the update. | 00:51:06 | |
The construction is. | 00:51:07 | |
There will be a ceremonial groundbreaking on April 14th at 10:00 in the morning. It's obviously after the ground has been broken. | 00:51:10 | |
But this is so that the the legislators can come because they. | 00:51:19 | |
Representatives Weed, Our in Games and Senator Cousin have also played a big role. | 00:51:24 | |
And funding this for us. Without them, you know, we would probably be shipping old shelves and stuff over to the new library. | 00:51:29 | |
So with that said. | 00:51:38 | |
The plan is to complete construction by the end of this year, so we're hopeful that we'll stay on track and have a new library by | 00:51:39 | |
the end of this calendar year. | 00:51:44 | |
Additionally, I know there. | 00:51:51 | |
When Ponder and ponder came here and presented to. | 00:51:53 | |
A list of add-ons that were desired that we did not have funding for at that time. They have all been approved. | 00:51:57 | |
Council member Tucker, especially the bathroom in the children's area. | 00:52:04 | |
So all of the add-ons have been approved. | 00:52:10 | |
All the furniture and equipment and everything that's going to be going into the library is going to be here. So we're going to | 00:52:15 | |
have something really special. That's where we are. | 00:52:18 | |
Any questions that? | 00:52:23 | |
Thank you. | 00:52:25 | |
Questions, John, I do have, just want to call out. And I mentioned this to Missus Bell when I was emailing with her. | 00:52:27 | |
And that's I would just ask y'all to be very thoughtful about. | 00:52:33 | |
The Ivy room and the history space in the current library, which I think is really unique that this called the Ivy room. Isn't it | 00:52:37 | |
the? | 00:52:40 | |
Where the yeah, where there's all the local history and those. | 00:52:44 | |
And. | 00:52:48 | |
We've had so many people in recent weeks and months talk to us about the need to. | 00:52:50 | |
Better capture and highlight our history in Oconee County and that's really a precious resource and. | 00:52:55 | |
I'm not sure how Ponder and Ponder is thinking about that area and those resources and how to be maintained and taken care of and. | 00:53:00 | |
But, you know, I told Valerie, and I'd love it if we could talk a little bit more about what that's what that's going to look like | 00:53:09 | |
and how that information will be curated and shared and made available to the public. | 00:53:14 | |
You know, there's there's just a tremendous amount of interest that I'm seeing. It's something that I think we'll be talking more | 00:53:21 | |
about as a council in terms of. | 00:53:23 | |
What we can do to capture and highlight and share local history and those those books. | 00:53:26 | |
It's funny on Facebook how much interest these you know the historic of county pictures get but if you go to that if you go to Ivy | 00:53:31 | |
Room you just sit there for hours and and you you can just OD on local history which is really cool. But I don't think a lot of | 00:53:37 | |
people know or appreciate that. You know with I think it's a new opportunity for people to re engage at the libraries. They think | 00:53:43 | |
that's a great point Mayor and I'll certainly bring that up. We have our quarterly meeting next month and I'll bring that to. | 00:53:49 | |
OK. Awesome. Thank you. | 00:53:57 | |
All right. I think we're going to talk a little bit about the Public Arts Committee and Creative Place making updates, so I know | 00:54:04 | |
that. | 00:54:08 | |
Some people in the room had. | 00:54:12 | |
Had an intriguing trip to Thomasville and have taken some action since. | 00:54:14 | |
Mayor Pro Tem, I'll let you give us an update and if anybody else wants to chime in, that'd be great. OK, so we received a grant | 00:54:18 | |
and it was actually competitive. I found out more as we went down there. Only 12 communities were selected. | 00:54:25 | |
And all of us that went are in the room right now. It was Wendy Cooper representing Okaf and arts organization. I went | 00:54:35 | |
representing the DDA and then Jeff city government. | 00:54:41 | |
And. | 00:54:48 | |
It was. | 00:54:50 | |
Really an incredible experience, one just being in Thomasville and seeing all that they have accomplished. | 00:54:51 | |
With their arts organization and their just. | 00:54:59 | |
When you have arts organizations, economic develop. | 00:55:04 | |
Functioning and then government being very much supportive of all of that. It is amazing what can happen. And so we have all of | 00:55:09 | |
those pieces. I feel like we have a community that supports all of those things and so we learned from. | 00:55:16 | |
Umm. | 00:55:25 | |
People from all over the state, from big cities like Atlanta and Savannah to smaller communities like Swanee. | 00:55:26 | |
That are using public art to increase community and also economic development and I'll share one story that was really compelling | 00:55:35 | |
I think to all of us. | 00:55:41 | |
So in Newnan GA, there was. | 00:55:47 | |
A derelict kind of alleyway that. | 00:55:52 | |
Teens were going and just kind of hanging out there and weren't up to a lot of good and so the community got together and or a few | 00:55:55 | |
people did because it really only takes a couple people to get. These things sparked and going and they started by just taking. | 00:56:03 | |
Paint hands from Home Depot and spray painting them and putting them in the alley. And then they kind of observed what happened | 00:56:11 | |
with them and they looked at where people were. | 00:56:15 | |
Using them to sit, one was used to collect water that was kind of leaking and they ended up going in and putting. | 00:56:20 | |
More permanent furniture in those places, cleaning up the alley and all. They only spent $14,000, including in kind donations, and | 00:56:28 | |
it ended up. | 00:56:33 | |
Having an impact of over $1,000,000 in economic development because it ended up revitalizing that entire area with the businesses | 00:56:39 | |
and so. | 00:56:44 | |
You think about a few people you know sweat equity time ideas. | 00:56:49 | |
But not much financially invested and then what it did for the community as a whole, so we have incredible opportunities here. | 00:56:56 | |
I don't know if we have any derelict alleys. | 00:57:04 | |
But I'm I'm sure that we have spaces that could be become those third spaces that you hear about that not work, not home, but | 00:57:08 | |
those community spaces that people can gather. | 00:57:14 | |
And that's one of the core values of us as a city, is that? | 00:57:22 | |
That we want those. | 00:57:28 | |
We want to be a community that really connects. So at the end of this incredible workshop where we saw things in person and heard | 00:57:30 | |
incredible information. Also because it was small, it was very. | 00:57:37 | |
We had contact and could have just, you know, spontaneous conversations with all of the speakers, with all of the people in | 00:57:46 | |
Thomasville. And so there was great opportunity to ask questions and learn and they had a whole session where we were making | 00:57:51 | |
plans. | 00:57:56 | |
So coming out of this. | 00:58:01 | |
We are and. | 00:58:04 | |
DDA. | 00:58:07 | |
Committee. | 00:58:09 | |
We, the Downtown Development Authority, is has approved the start of a. | 00:58:12 | |
New committee called Creative Placemaking and because we have received an $8000 grant. | 00:58:20 | |
To use on this and so. | 00:58:30 | |
Up on the board are or the screen are the the members of this committee. It's a nice cross section of people in our community. We | 00:58:33 | |
have Best Carter, the art teacher at Oconee County High School, Ashley Johnson, Kaylin Ashford and Caitlin. | 00:58:42 | |
Message are all community members that have a lot of different things that they can bring to the table. Bobby Johnson is a local | 00:58:52 | |
artist. We have conversations with a few potential student artists to be involved. And then Wendy Cooper, our Oakaf Director, Jeff | 00:59:00 | |
Campbell Council member, myself as ADDA Board Chairperson and then Kate Patterson is our DDA director, so. | 00:59:08 | |
We hope to have our final project has to be done in order to get the grant, has to be done by the end of the year. | 00:59:18 | |
We are ambitious. | 00:59:23 | |
Not even having met this committee yet, hoping to have ours at the end of September, beginning of October, prior to Fall Festival. | 00:59:25 | |
So that is our ambitious goal and. | 00:59:31 | |
I'm very excited that we have had the opportunity to learn and again, just always impressed by our community. | 00:59:38 | |
The resource, the people, resources we have, we are so, so fortunate. | 00:59:47 | |
To live and be where we are. | 00:59:51 | |
That was a lot. I don't know if they want to add. | 00:59:56 | |
What 08000, I thought I said that but yes, we got an 8000, so we had gotten $500 grant to help with just the expenses of going | 01:00:00 | |
down there and then at the end they announced that we got an $8000 grant to put towards this project which has to just. | 01:00:08 | |
Community have some kind of art aspect which can be visual art, performance art and be a partnership with the city. | 01:00:16 | |
Art organization and then hopefully help spark some economic development with that as well. | 01:00:26 | |
That's great, Jeff. Anything? | 01:00:34 | |
She covered a lot of it. Do you, the previous couple slides there, were you going to talk about those? How to solve those? | 01:00:37 | |
I just put them up, but I was not prepared. She just pulled them. Yeah, go to the next. | 01:00:46 | |
Yeah, that was one. That's a bit yes. Savannah, GA they did a mural on. | 01:00:51 | |
The road it's going Di. | 01:00:57 | |
From the Senators across, from left to right left corner to the bottom right corner, that street is now the longest mural. No, no, | 01:01:01 | |
in the middle of the slide. That kind of goes diagonally from top left to bottom right. | 01:01:08 | |
That mural looks like a street that's been painted, yeah. | 01:01:14 | |
It's the the longest mural in Georgia on a street, I believe, she said. 574 feet. | 01:01:18 | |
And it was an area of town that was just rundown and neglected. And there's the old Waterworks building. You can see at the top | 01:01:26 | |
there that they're in the process of renovating. And one idea they had was that kind of hard to see, but there's. | 01:01:33 | |
Tall windows that are arched at the top on that brick building, towards the top you can see four of them and so they're going | 01:01:41 | |
around that building. | 01:01:45 | |
What they did, they found historic pictures of people who lived in that area 100 years ago roughly. And they put those pictures of | 01:01:49 | |
those people that represent this was our neighborhood. | 01:01:55 | |
And so that that was a very interesting project of revitalizing that area of Savannah. | 01:02:02 | |
Then the next one I think was 21 swings in Montreal, Canada. | 01:02:09 | |
So those swings. | 01:02:13 | |
21 of them. And as they swing there's a, it's a like a solid pad you sit on and there's like a light bar underneath it. So at | 01:02:15 | |
night it kind of lights up as you go back and forth, but the really cool thing is. | 01:02:21 | |
As you move, it's a harp is the instrument to use and it's in do re MI faculatida, so it's going back and forth so you try to | 01:02:29 | |
swing in unison, so so it's even louder. So it makes music so neat, so just if you Google 21 swings Montreal, you'll see it | 01:02:37 | |
anyway. It's just a neat thing and it gets children and adults playing together because everybody likes to swing. | 01:02:45 | |
Beltway. Oh, they did they. This one probably doesn't apply to us too much, but it's pretty cool. | 01:02:55 | |
Chairman Daniels, you can maybe. You know, 441 maybe, but. | 01:03:01 | |
Yeah, all the new, yeah, that's maybe that's our Main Street solution. When we put in the L that goes through, it was a rundown | 01:03:08 | |
area underneath an overpass that they converted to a park. So you know space you already had that just. | 01:03:16 | |
Now it's being used by everybody to bike and jog, so that was anyone. | 01:03:24 | |
Anyway, it got you thinking about and I I personally did not think of art as economic development. I just thought. | 01:03:29 | |
Nice. I like art but never thought about it attracting business. And you know, Christine, talking about that example that started | 01:03:37 | |
with, you know, buckets from Lowe's brought in you know, over $1,000,000 to the city of Newnan is very impressive. | 01:03:43 | |
You know, starting off with, you know, $5 and. | 01:03:50 | |
You know, led to it. | 01:03:54 | |
The bikes, OK, Thomasville. | 01:03:56 | |
Their first project was they want to do a temporary art exhibit. | 01:03:59 | |
And it was. | 01:04:05 | |
In a section of town that was kind of neglected, it was the poor side of town and. | 01:04:07 | |
There were no businesses in the buildings. One of the buildings had actually fallen in, so it created this alleyway in between | 01:04:14 | |
2:00. | 01:04:17 | |
Old buildings and in the back was a mud. | 01:04:20 | |
Well, the mud pit, they converted to an amphitheater. This now alleyway, they decided they got Darlene, which. | 01:04:24 | |
Our new favorite person. She's a person that just gets things done. She doesn't say we need to do this. She's the one with a saw, | 01:04:33 | |
you know, and doing things. Anyway, She decided her project was going to be to do a temporary art exhibit on the walls of this now | 01:04:40 | |
alleyway. And it'd be temporary. It'd be up for 30 days, and they do it about every other year. | 01:04:47 | |
And the first one was that she went to the junkyard herself and her pickup truck and rounded up every bicycle that was in the | 01:04:55 | |
junkyard. Brought them back, spray painted them all with caution. Paint yellow, just ugly. I mean, tires, wheels, it looks like | 01:05:01 | |
the whole paint. The bicycle was dipped in a, you know, a VAT of paint. | 01:05:07 | |
Then she decides to get sponsors and you so your business could buy a bicycle and be in front of your store for it's like 30 to 60 | 01:05:14 | |
days. | 01:05:19 | |
Yeah. So it's $500 per bicycle. She got 48 businesses. | 01:05:25 | |
To spend $500 on a hideous yellow bicycle, you know, but it on there, said who sponsored that bicycle and that was the event was | 01:05:30 | |
called Flaunt. | 01:05:35 | |
And I think it must have said something about, you know. | 01:05:41 | |
Go here in whatever the date is when there are going to be, all these bikes will eventually be moved. So anyway, all the bikes, | 01:05:45 | |
you got 48 bikes around downtown. So it gets everyone talking, what in the world are these yellow bikes? What's going on? So you | 01:05:52 | |
know it builds momentum, it builds anticipation, builds interest and and then three days before. | 01:05:59 | |
The unveiling. They went around, picked up all the bikes in the town, disassembled every single bike, took the wheels off chains | 01:06:06 | |
off handlebars off whatever, and they bolted them onto the two sides of the buildings next door and just created this. | 01:06:14 | |
Art out of bicycles that you know cost. | 01:06:22 | |
And they left it up for 30 days and everyone just. | 01:06:26 | |
So, and this led to, OK, now we're going to do it, you know, next year. So they say it's about every two years to do. And it's | 01:06:29 | |
just everyone loves it. It's like, oh, why'd you take it down? It's like, well, you know, it's not permanent. It's 30 days. | 01:06:36 | |
Anyway, that was a great concept that's kind of been some inspiration for our initial thoughts on what we want to do. And it also | 01:06:43 | |
that project ended up revitalizing a whole section of their town. So it's the main thoroughfare from Tallahassee up through that | 01:06:50 | |
section of town and people would actually bypass it, go out of their way because it was so rundown and then revitalizing this one | 01:06:57 | |
non building building now. | 01:07:04 | |
Has completely sparked It's their Creative Arts district now. | 01:07:12 | |
And I don't even know how they didn't give numbers, but I'm sure it has sparked a lot of economic development. I mean, 30-40 | 01:07:15 | |
million, Yeah, at least there's a brewery of restaurants and yarn shop. So I mean. | 01:07:22 | |
It's it's it's one of the coolest stretches of St. Down there. I've never been to Thomasville before. | 01:07:31 | |
And Christine and I were both falling in love with it, with the city. So yeah, it was a great trip, Wendy. Anything you want to | 01:07:36 | |
have? | 01:07:40 | |
Yeah, I was just reiterating how incredible that experience was and I was very grateful to be able to go. | 01:07:45 | |
Unbelievable educational about how and they call it activating the spaces when they go into you know space and county fairly and | 01:07:52 | |
we're going to activate the space. | 01:07:57 | |
Temporary exhibition People come, and then it ends up just in like, you're right, Thomasville, their whole arts district. | 01:08:04 | |
Is developed around this space. It was building. It was turned down between two older buildings of Justice. | 01:08:10 | |
Space with two brick walls and they have rotating and positions there now. It is amazing. | 01:08:16 | |
And I love the connection piece and how connected so many people in our. | 01:08:22 | |
One project, 50 bucks. | 01:08:27 | |
Uh. | 01:08:29 | |
So they did the bicycles then. Then this past year it was they did the Monopoly game. |