Transcript

All right. Welcome everybody, to the April 19th Watkinsville City Council meeting. Please note that we have a quorum here tonight. 00:00:11
We're joined by Colonel Brett Thomas from Kuwait. Again, welcome Colonel Thomas. We're glad you're with us. And I think everyone 00:00:17
else here in person, I'm glad to see all of you guys on this beautiful April night. We'll begin meeting as we always do. 00:00:23
I believe this is the flag of the United States of America, and two departments for which it stands 1 Mission ungod, indivisible, 00:00:31
with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:36
And speak related to what is on the agenda, there are some specific public hearing rules that we will explain should we go into 00:01:26
one of those situations tonight. So with that, our first time on the agenda tonight is approval, the minutes from the March 15th 00:01:31
meeting for quantity. There might have been a minor amendment set and then we can have a motion on. 00:01:37
Allegiance Fire Chief respects and actually led the pledge. So that change has been made. It has been made and then under all 00:01:44
business historic preservation, it's actually the Watson Brown Foundation and that. 00:01:49
Any other adjuster changes in minutes from. 00:01:56
And there's a motion to approve. 00:01:59
In the motion to recommend a second any conversation, none. I'll ever say aye. 00:02:02
And motion carries item number 2, the approval of the agenda. I would like the table consent agenda item for 9, and I would like 00:02:08
to table Business on #19. If council agrees with that, I'll accept motion to approve the amended agenda, please. 00:02:15
Make a motion to approve the agenda. What else do I have? 00:02:23
Do you have a second? 00:02:28
All in favor? Say aye. Motion carries 50. Thanks everyone. 00:02:30
But it's greater than even the other side of the world, Roger, with us. And always, as I said earlier, we're moving. Glad to be 00:02:35
here. Good. Glad to hear from you. We are moving to the administration portion of the meeting. As I said earlier, we will have 00:02:42
some points on the agenda. Where will Canada's mayor and council. We would have said everybody refrain from any personal tax 00:02:48
arguments, debates or irrelevant discussion. Address comments on the pending matter marks the committee, council, council. 00:02:55
The first one is the child abuse. 00:03:02
Provision month proclamation and I think we may have TR Smithing authority. This is a few step here with me to the smartphone. 00:03:05
We will really leave us in here and I really. 00:03:13
Welcome to Grace. Am I saying that right? TR, excuse me, Tiara and Grace are with us tonight. I will read the proclamation to the 00:03:17
record and then we'll take a picture. OK. And if you guys have something really want to say this to the time too, Child abuse 00:03:22
retention month is correct. 00:03:28
And consider helping parents, their children Safer tree environment. 00:03:57
I'm Brian Broadway of Watkinsville. Do you offer a month of April with Child Abuse Permission month in Watkinsville, Georgia 00:04:01
Encourage all citizens to volunteer their talents and energies on behalf of children in our community to reduce child abuse and 00:04:06
neglect significant in the years ago city of Watkinsville be. 00:04:11
This 19th day of April 2023. 00:04:16
I do want to mention things timely. We did an incident just last week where there was a child abuse and our police officers 00:04:19
responded to that and handled it in first class manner and the suspect was offended, put in jail immediately. The child was put in 00:04:26
a safe position. I think they have an enterprise will actually send them this week and they committed guys and editorial for how 00:04:32
the situation was able to achieve so. 00:04:38
The organization was occurred so I thought it was really fitting that and child abuse prevention in Lawrenceville our teams in 00:04:44
highlight for dealing with various contribution possible so race to you if you have a remark I want to make feel free and then 00:04:49
we'll take the just quickly it does take the community and take law enforcement. 00:04:54
First organization. We covered 7 counties, but we are the organization that works at preventing. 00:04:59
Said work closely with deployment family enjoy services and other organizations and community but we are going into homes every 00:05:05
day and park has no Coney bear that's sitting long. Visiting new parents and try to prevent abusing elective borders is a problem. 00:05:12
So only has been one of our counties for almost about 3 cities around formally notice for my childhood staffing but you want to 00:05:18
help out it doesn't take a little bit turns on to your. 00:05:24
Hold this up, Tom. 00:05:41
Thank you. 00:05:46
OK, we have 3. 00:05:51
City for a lot of years in a row, Julie. I think I'm just going to ask for this to be read into the record by the work. I'm not 00:05:55
going to be this one. But I will say that as Mayor I do hereby proclaim February 17th and April 28th is Barbara Day in the city of 00:06:01
Watkinsville. And there is all citizens to celebrate our day and support to protect our trees and will sit at the plant trees to 00:06:07
clean the heart. That will be those future directions. 00:06:12
I. 00:06:24
Notably, given all she does for us, it is also professional Municipal courts week on April 30th through May 6th of June. If you'll 00:06:25
come up here please. 00:06:29
Y'all anybody knows in Wattsville is like there's a person, you know, that everybody knows that's been taken care of at City Hall 00:06:37
for many years. It's been a great time. That's Julie. I've got to read this like official proclamation for Julie. I don't think 00:06:42
any words can capture what you mean to our city and what you mean to our citizens and what you've got to play shrink through the 00:06:48
years. You were the thread that's consistently been woven walk until for is it how many years. 00:06:54
Whereas professional municipal courts continually strive to improve the administration of affairs of the Office of professional 00:07:33
Clerk, participation in the Haitian smart shops, and annual meetings of their state, provincial, county and international 00:07:37
professional organizations. 00:07:41
Whereas it most appropriate that recognize the compliments of the office of the professional Municipal Court. Now, therefore I 00:07:45
bring broader Mayor of this evening Watkinsville, do hereby recognize the week of April 3 through May 6. 00:07:50
2023 is professional municipal parks. We can further extend appreciation of professional support Julie Fine until professional 00:07:55
support the vital sources they firm perform and their exemplary dedication communities they represent. 00:08:01
Julie, we thank you. 00:08:07
So. 00:08:09
I normally I don't speak, but because public speaking is not really important, I'm going to try. Of course I had to write it down 00:08:14
or I'll get tongue out or cry, which is where I've headed, but we'll see how it goes. 00:08:19
I'd like to thank you. 00:08:26
The past and the present mayors, council members, staff including our City attorney and City engineer, the citizens of 00:08:28
Watkinsville for allowing me to serve as the City clerk. Walkinsville. In almost 27 years here we have seen many changes and 00:08:33
challenges. 00:08:38
The hiring of our City Manager was a positive turning point for Watkinsville the consistency Chair and brings to the table along 00:08:44
with how dedicated the Mayor and Council artist driving for Walkerville to the community of connection and creativity. 00:08:51
Is exciting and I want to thank you all for your hard work and education for Watkinsville. I am grateful and proud to continue to 00:08:59
serve along with each of you. Thank you. 00:09:03
Performance evaluation. 00:09:15
I. 00:09:26
All right. We'll move along to our financial reports mandate. Dickerson, that's you. And for those of us who renew it, that covers 00:09:35
our general finances as well as our spawn funds, ARP funds and our. 00:09:40
Magic. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, so you should receive the balance sheet, the general information. We're doing very well on the 00:09:45
revenue side. We're at 8% renews for the year and we're right at 30% expenses. It's about a difference of almost $300,000. We're 00:09:51
hopeful that some of that may come back into the general fund at the end of the year that we're tracking. 00:09:57
On floss one we had this is a 2009 Brenda the only left in fact that has not that check has actually been written. So this will 00:10:04
close out the flossed 1 project as the swan a check to the county for for construction of that sewer line And so we'll hopefully 00:10:11
this will be a zero out at the end of the next month and you won't have this coming however. So another report so spots two is 00:10:18
mostly a sewer line a you'll see waters or facility 904,000 there's a little bit of money left. 00:10:26
And I think the chef or signs that Chief, but the flash signs you seen around at this limit signs and some work the park has not 00:10:34
cleared yet and that's why those are still showing up. We do have a balance of $27,000 that can be used towards the others that we 00:10:38
anticipate will happen with sewer line. 00:10:42
Slash 3 Report These are This is the 2021 Sloss so this is new. We don't have a lot of adventures yet. We have accumulated a 00:10:48
little bit with $1,000,000 in the bank. The projects and the monies that are listed in the yellow have been encumbered for police 00:10:54
vehicles in roads and sorry and equipment download multipurpose government that has to do with all system equipment, public works 00:11:01
and the rec and parks that many has been in Congress. Some of that money has encumbered for. 00:11:07
Fairfield Park. 00:11:14
Like what else on that list? Recreation Creek base and some money's been satisfied for free space. So those monies are earmarked. 00:11:17
The rest of the monies are available and are still being. Those projects come before council for decisions. We don't make those 00:11:21
decisions without capital approval. 00:11:25
The. 00:11:31
This is just a report show you sort of where out with ours. With our bank accounts 1.1 million we're adding about a 3000 month up 00:11:32
from we normally in fact we budgeted for plus we budgeted about 65,000 a month and we're significantly over that. I will point 00:11:38
though that the first six months of FY23 were at 8.3%. 00:11:44
Actually I take that back. I'm going to reset all of this will be 8.63 it's our piece floss that will be that will change and that 00:11:51
will be 7.77% along our. 00:11:55
So, so we did, we did 100,000 in December. 00:11:59
So we have a very, very good first six months, I'm sure how the next six months ago, but we are, we are averaging more than we 00:12:03
thought we would so. 00:12:06
Impressions. 00:12:10
And then on ARP, we have reported the end of the month to the federal government on this. These funds the council elected to get 00:12:12
entered a lot of up to 10 million means the council can use this funds how they wish. They do not have to fall in any type of 00:12:17
category that the larger governments that got more money have to abide by. We have about 824,000 and about a little bit 780,000 00:12:22
that has been appropriated at this point. 00:12:28
And then just as a reminder, we do have a budget process that is underway tonight and there will be a public hearing on the budget 00:12:35
sort just the count of the citizens interests or input into the development of the budget. There is no budget to respond to yet 00:12:41
that will be provided to Council the 1st May. 00:12:46
Be council sessions, council meetings. 00:12:52
Possibly another council work session and then the budget will be a plea engine 21st. 00:12:54
Any questions on any of that? 00:12:59
Move on to next economic development. So I've not provided a list of these because if you look through your packet, there's a lot 00:13:04
of income. A lot. But this is just excerpts, 2 pages of a business license. 00:13:10
Business licenses in there, there's $13,000. Little than 13,000 isn't collected for occasion. Taxes or business licenses. We've 00:13:17
had some insurance payments come in and alcohol license payment from is it kite kites? 00:13:23
For the out of license you guys will be considering tonight. 00:13:29
I know X attack size aside, alcohol excise taxes, we have a little more 10,000 since that was approved and our short term vacation 00:13:33
rentals and motor taxes a bit of 18,000. 00:13:37
On economic development building permits, we have 10 parts for six projects, several associated with the mini storage. 00:13:44
And I think you don't be having that work. Yeah, we didn't have cattle, did have one water park. So we continue to see stuff move 00:13:51
in there. 00:13:55
Any questions on any of those? 00:13:59
OK. 00:14:01
Oh, I got. 00:14:04
Should be back on. 00:14:11
All right. 00:14:13
We are back. 00:14:14
And I think we were. 00:14:17
Police Department report chief. 00:14:20
Good evening, Mayor Council, always a pleasure to be for you. 00:14:25
All right, so we wrapped up the Easter egg we were going to. 00:14:30
Next slide, which is where we got held up. 00:14:33
All right, and may, May 6th, we have cops and bombers out here at Harvey Wildlife starting at 9:00 AM. Will kick off an event 00:14:39
where. 00:14:43
Kids can come out and fish and have fun and and catch catch a few fish and win some trophies and some prizes and all that kind of 00:14:48
good stuff. 00:14:52
And we'll feed them and give them some drinks and all that kind of stuff and get them all sugared up and send them home. 00:14:56
With mom and dad. 00:15:02
And. 00:15:03
Thanks to Marshall Gaddy, Sir. Alta, who is the Marshall down in Miami, FL. We. 00:15:05
You know, we're always looking around for, you know, things like that and the major deputy Chief, Todd Teton. 00:15:12
I reached out to a few of his connections in the Marshall service. 00:15:21
And before we know it, we had Marshall, Sir Alta calling us and saying, I'm sending you everything you want. 00:15:24
Which really not a true statement. 00:15:30
But. 00:15:33
But we got a lot more than what we what we, you know, anticipated. He sent us an entire box of gear. 00:15:36
Those are plate carriers. 00:15:43
They are not ballistic rated carriers, but they are plate carriers that will actually house. 00:15:47
The ballistic plates and panels that will help. 00:15:53
Rifle rounds and things like that in the event we have. 00:15:57
An active shooter or a situation where we're, you know, having to take gunfire. 00:16:01
So now the next question is to find the the ceramic place that go inside them and. 00:16:07
But that that that's equivalent to about $11,000 worth of year that. 00:16:12
We were donating. 00:16:17
And we're thankful for that. 00:16:18
You're very helpful. 00:16:20
We're thankful for you and the majors. Resourcefulness on that, and of course, badges and benevolence is the police foundation for 00:16:21
this Watkinsville Police Department. And if you would like to have a dollar for dollar tax credit. 00:16:29
All those QR codes. 00:16:38
Take action. 00:16:41
All right. Anything else? Any other? 00:16:44
Thank you very much. 00:16:50
All right. Thank you, Chief. 00:16:52
All right, consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? 00:16:55
I make a motion to approve the control agenda. All right, Do we have a second? All right, all in favor, say aye. 00:17:03
All right, motion carries 5 O. For our members of the public, the items on the consent agenda were the. 00:17:11
Urban Forest Board appointment of Susanna D. 00:17:19
And the resolution to approve the MO U for application to the Georgia Main Street program. 00:17:22
And appoint the DDA board to serve as the Main Street Board. So Kate, I know that's probably been a lot of work for you. So we're 00:17:27
excited to move that forward and we'll hear about that in the summer we think. 00:17:32
Hope so OK. 00:17:38
All right, we'll move on to a public hearing. The rules that I outlined previously apply 4 minutes per person if you choose to 00:17:40
come forward. No debate, argument, personal attacks will speak to the agenda items, the only item under public hearing tonight. 00:17:47
This is the first of many a Sharon outline public hearings for our budget process. We do not have a draft budget for the public to 00:17:54
review at this point, but this is that moment where if you just have something that you think we need to budget for. 00:18:00
Come on up and let us hear about it. And then that will be taken into account as we move through the budget process. We anticipate 00:18:06
sharing the budget with the Council on May 1st, which is when it would technically become public, and then having conversations 00:18:11
about it at a variety of upcoming meetings and hearings. So is there anyone who would like to come forward and speak about the 00:18:17
2024 capital and operating budget at this time? 00:18:23
All right, seeing no takers, I'm going to close the public hearing and we will move on to appearances. 00:18:33
Our only appearance tonight is consideration of a pouring license for. 00:18:39
Kiki's Kitchen Court client. If you could give me a report please. 00:18:46
We have all the documentation needed. We have the fingerprinting report. All of that is clear. So the only things we'll be waiting 00:18:52
for will be a copy of the state license, as well as a copy of their food service permit, which is related to their business 00:18:59
license. But all other documentation I have on file. OK, great. 00:19:06
My Spanish is rusty, but Miss Chacon, how would I say that? 00:19:14
Chacon, is there anything you'd like to add or would you like to tell us about your new restaurant? That's. 00:19:19
That's coming. That's coming. 00:19:26
Who's the spokesperson for? 00:19:30
All. 00:19:33
That's the manager. OK, We'll come on up and tell us a little bit about what's coming to Watkinsville. We're excited. Thank you 00:19:35
guys for having us here. 00:19:38
Very grateful to have found the spot in. 00:19:43
And we're happy to. 00:19:45
Share with you guys our authentic Mexican food. 00:19:47
It's going to be a pleasure serving you guys. 00:19:51
Being aligned amongst with you guys. 00:19:54
We're like family. 00:19:58
It's like a family structure restaurant, so it's. 00:20:00
You know, very welcoming to you guys and anyone's welcome. 00:20:03
And we're just very excited. Tell us a little bit about the menu and maybe the history of the food and your family. Is there a 00:20:08
family connection to the way that you cook and stuff? The owner is my cousin, and our food is going to consist of a. 00:20:15
I don't know if you guys heard of barrier meat. 00:20:23
It's very good. 00:20:28
It's cooked overnight beef and it's like seasoned. The way he season is like special so. 00:20:32
It's going to be very tasteful and we're going to have all types of meats and vegetables and. 00:20:40
Just a bunch of. 00:20:45
Five days for that. 00:20:50
Yeah, just a bunch of. 00:20:52
Very excited to show you guys share with you guys the food that we have and how about the history of the name? 00:20:54
Yeah, so the owner is. His name is Enrique and. 00:21:01
So. 00:21:07
Back back in the hometown. 00:21:08
You know, people who couldn't pronounce Enrique like the kids and stuff. I run around just calling Kika and then that's just sort 00:21:10
of Enrique and. 00:21:14
Yeah. 00:21:19
Great. Any other questions from council? OK. 00:21:21
Lic. 00:21:28
Are you? 00:21:31
Margaritas. 00:21:32
Down the road, yes, definitely, Definitely down the road. 00:21:37
She has. 00:21:42
We're going to have a bunch of mixed rings with mine and stuff like that, but very excited for that also. 00:21:44
And is it the same menu? I've kind of, I live on our initials. So I've been watching the great mural that you guys have been 00:21:51
putting up and is it a kind of a branch of the one near Danielsville, like added. So that is that menu very similar. 00:21:59
And we're hoping to have more pictures and so you guys can see. 00:22:10
Type of food we will be serving, but we're very excited for that, yes. 00:22:13
When do you anticipate opening? So we're just waiting on the health department, yeah. 00:22:20
Basically, yeah, they said 20-30 days. 00:22:30
Yeah, first week of May. 00:22:34
Right. Yes. All right. That's exciting. Thank you, guys. Welcome to Watkinsville. 00:22:36
One of my favorite things to talk about when I'm out around the state is. 00:22:43
Excited to have you. OK, new business we have. We need to vote. Yeah, I guess we should do that. You don't want to stop. Don't 00:23:23
want to stop that. 00:23:28
Good point. Good point. 00:23:36
All right, good call. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the pouring beer and wine alcohol license for Kiki's kitchen. 00:23:38
Motion to approve it a second, please. 00:23:46
Any further discussion? 00:23:49
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:23:51
Opposed. 00:23:53
Motion carries unanimously. 00:23:55
All right, we have up our friends from Big Springs Properties. They have a demolition permit. 00:23:57
Engineer Campbell, if you could give me a report and then we will hear from the applicants. Absolutely. Thank you Mayor. 00:24:04
So 1210 Greensboro Highway is actually the corner of Greensboro Highway and Morrison St. So the applicant has requested a 00:24:09
demolition of a single structure because there are multiple structures that are on that property. We didn't have a survey 00:24:15
provided, but the tax assessor has indicated it's a little bit more than than two acres at that location. The zoning is corridor 00:24:21
commercial, the existing use is commercial. 00:24:27
If you're aware there, you can see from some pictures if you've driven down the existing building that they're requesting to be 00:24:34
demolished. Did have some damage from a fire back in 2022, so that's the location from the location map again there on the 00:24:40
southern corner Morrison St. and Greensboro Highway, also known as State Route 15. 00:24:45
So directly in front of the structure you can see there kind of between the the sign and the tree, there's a secondary picture 00:24:52
that the next slide would show a little bit of a different angle there. 00:24:58
You can see on the right hand side of that some of the fire damage from the previous, so it is currently a vacant structure. 00:25:06
So the other existing structures as I indicated would would remain, they're not part of this, this application. The applicant has 00:25:14
also indicated that they don't have any desire to necessarily remove the slab that's under the structure supporting the 00:25:20
foundation. So it would be the the demolition of the the metal structure above that down to the slab. 00:25:26
These also indicated there's no mitigation required for any asbestos or mold in this structure. The disturbance is less than one 00:25:34
acre. 00:25:38
It's let It's not within 200 feet of state waters, so it wouldn't require having to go in front of the state from an erosion 00:25:42
control measure standpoint. That said, best management practices would still be required to make sure that during the demolition 00:25:49
process, there's not any tracking or sediment onto the streets, the roadways, or onto any adjacent properties. 00:25:55
Likewise, whoever is conducting any demolition, we need to make sure that all traffic and safety control measures are followed. We 00:26:03
don't want State Route 15 or Morrison St. to to have any traffic blocks during any time of construction for this, but I'll be 00:26:09
happy to answer any other questions. 00:26:15
All right, we've heard from the engineer I didn't know if y'all might want. 00:26:21
Share anything with Is there anything else you want to add? It seems pretty simple, it's just a demolition of a burned building. 00:26:26
Is there anything else you want to add? 00:26:29
All right. Questions for the engineer or the applicant? 00:26:34
All right, hearing none. Then I'll entertain a motion. 00:26:41
I make a motion to approve the demolition request. 00:26:45
Do we have a second? 00:26:48
Any further discussion, it's a quick point, just stating the obvious from the photos. There's no historical aspect or element 00:26:50
whatsoever and that's something that's probably important to notate in the minutes. It's it's a Butler building that has been 00:26:55
significantly damaged by a very hot fire. So, and in fact I would argue it's probably we need to demolish it because we do not 00:27:01
need people. 00:27:06
In and out of that building? In its current state, yes, so. 00:27:11
Glad the new owners are taking care of that. So, all right, so we have a motion. We have a second Any let's vote. All in favor. 00:27:14
Say aye. Any opposed? All right, unanimous. 00:27:20
Thank you. 00:27:27
New business continued. We have a couple of wastewater capacity allocation requests. I'm going to let manager Dickerson. 00:27:30
Walk us through those and we will kind of tackle those all together once she gives us the appropriate context. 00:27:37
Thank you, Mayor. 00:27:44
So we have 4 requests for a location that basically all these parcels are and I don't have a map but they're all together on 00:27:45
highway. 00:27:49
15 this These requests have come forward because the location has had at least three occasions, most recently in December and 00:27:54
January, where their septic tank has basically run back. I guess it's run back into the tank from the drain field that's overly 00:28:01
saturated. They've had AI think since about 2010. 00:28:08
I think they've had issues. The County Health Department has been encouraging them to do something about it. The the challenges is 00:28:16
that they. 00:28:20
Don't have septic field area to do anything about it. I'm not not really sure we're going to solve all their problems, but they 00:28:24
have requested a wastewater capacity that is within the city's purview. Under our policy, the city under the agreement with Oconee 00:28:31
County, the city is granted 100,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity to use as we wish for developments within our 00:28:38
community. Prior to that, the county was in charge of sorted yay or nay and on request to to connect to sewer. 00:28:46
So the city does have, we do have capacity. I'll walk through a couple things here. We do have capacity we have. 00:28:54
So on the commercial side, we have about a little bit more than 20,000 gallons per day that has been committed. If you add the 260 00:29:30
* 4 lots, that would be a little bit more than 1000. I think it's 1040 is the number. 00:29:36
But it is important to see the bigger picture as well. And again, the same thing goes with those two last columns. The 12,000 is 00:29:43
actually how much capacity you have left because of that difference between the Oconee schools, what they thought they needed and 00:29:48
what Water resources said they do need. 00:29:52
So you do have some capacity. There will be another 100,000 gallons of capacity granted to the city when the expansion of the 00:29:57
water reclamation facility is completed sometime. 00:30:02
We may be able to help them, Council may decide to vote to give them capacity. 00:31:19
But that isn't going to necessarily get sewer to them that that is something they would have to take up with the water resource 00:31:24
utility. 00:31:26
OK. 00:31:29
So. 00:31:32
To reconcile the amount for Wisteria Ridge now that they'll be open a full year, I think come July. 00:32:04
So you know, we we've identified what they think they need, but they may not actually be using all that and we don't want to tie 00:32:09
up capacity. It could be used for something else. So if the owner doesn't, we will request that. 00:32:14
The but umm. 00:32:56
For instance, that gentleman got capacity, but then he sold the lot for somebody else. Well that person had to come back in and 00:33:00
get capacity. So we cancelled out that gentleman's and and authorized it for the other one. So if anyone of these businesses, 00:33:05
because they're businesses, I don't have that authority. I only have it for residential structures. If any of them, if they sold 00:33:10
their property and they wanted capacity, they could not pass that capacity on. 00:33:16
They would have to come back for council already connected to the sewer technically you're supposed to still come back. We can we 00:33:21
can send a letter to water resources and and I mean I don't know how to you know all the logistics are but I mean they would have 00:33:26
to request that so I mean there is there is a process we haven't had that happen not sure how it would all play out but that is 00:33:30
how it's supposed to work. 00:33:35
All right, so Council, having that background, if anyone's comfortable making a request to approve those. 00:33:41
Wastewater allocation capacity requests for those four entities. I would entertain that motion. 00:33:48
I make a motion to Appro. 00:33:54
We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:33:58
Motion second, any discussion. 00:34:01
All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:34:04
Motion carries. 00:34:09
All right, Item 18, we do not. Item 19 was not was removed from the agenda and tabled. So we have to public comments. 00:34:11
Generally we have. 00:34:20
Open. But we do have someone who's requested to speak to us tonight. That's Chase Boyd, who's leading the Oconee Farmers market. 00:34:23
Chase, thanks for. 00:34:26
Your leadership in your efforts, we're going to let you go first. We'll give you 4 minutes. Hop up. 00:34:29
Can you make sure that Mike's on to make sure the blue? 00:34:35
Yes, just tap on the mic to. Yeah and it's blue. So I'm Chase Boyd, I'm the Vice President on the Board for the Oconee County 00:34:39
Farmers Market. We recently moved to Harris Shoals and we are really excited about the things that we've got going on this year 00:34:45
and we appreciate the fact that you guys are giving us that venue to use. 00:34:52
In partnership with you guys as far as setting things up, just to kind of let you know how we did our first two markets. So April 00:35:00
1st when that Easter egg hunt was going on and the huge delusion hit everybody, we actually had our first market. 00:35:07
In spite of the fact that we only had about two hours where people were able to come toward the end of the market, we generated 00:35:16
almost $2000 in sales from our vendors. 00:35:21
The following week we weren't able to have the market, but then last weekend we had a little over $3200 in sales from the market. 00:35:27
The venue has been great and we really appreciate like I said. 00:35:40
What we've been able to do there, we are looking to do one major event once a month there to involve the community and things like 00:35:42
that. 00:35:47
We had kind of a April first, even though it was horrible. We had the Humane Society come out for dog adoption stuff. We had a 00:35:52
couple little baby goats that people could see, you know, farm animals and that kind of thing. So that was. 00:35:59
Actually, May 6th, we're going. 00:36:06
Baking competition. So we're looking for a couple of people. Hopefully somebody on the Councilor, you mayor maybe, would like to 00:36:11
come and be a guest judge for whoever signs up to do those things. We're trying to showcase summer berries and those kinds of 00:36:16
things and getting people more connected with eating seasonally and that kind of stuff. 00:36:22
That's pretty much all I have at this point, so thank you for your time. 00:36:30
One of the great ones that we have that I think's really cool is we have a shrimp ventilation. 00:37:05
So he actually has a cousin who has a shrimp boat in Savannah. So he goes and picks it up Friday morning and then we sell it 00:37:08
Saturday morning. So it's as fresh as you can get it without actually being in Savannah. 00:37:14
So that's been really cool. We've got some people working on getting their cottage license to be in compliance with selling some 00:37:20
baked goods, so we'll have fresh homemade bread as an option soon. 00:37:26
We've got several meat vendors that are coming into play, so we've got a pork vendor and that kind of stuff. We're really working 00:37:33
on trying to have more food options. 00:37:37
As a market, so we're not just like a craft fair. 00:37:43
Because while that's great and everything for the fall festival and that stuff, people go to a farmers market for produce and that 00:37:48
kind of stuff. So we're working with that. I actually am a school resource officer in Barrow County and we are working with our 00:37:54
alternative education program who has a small garden to grow, produce to actually offer and sell there as well. So that's another 00:38:00
project thing, getting our kids in an alternative program in to a sense of community and working out that way. 00:38:06
So does anyone else have any questions or anything else I can help with? 00:38:12
Can you bring back the baby goats? Absolutely. I'd be happy to. 00:38:18
Oh yeah, you just let me know. 00:38:23
That does bring up one other thing that I wanted to talk about. So like in August, we're going to do a movie night with the 00:38:26
market. So I've already kind of talked with. 00:38:31
Toby and everything about us potentially setting up at the old baseball field and doing a projector out there and playing a family 00:38:36
movie and inviting people to come out as the community and enjoy a nice evening. 00:38:43
Just in Watkinsville, so perfect. 00:38:50
As far As for the. 00:38:55
Saturday mornings, it's from 9:00 to 1:00 for right now as the market continues to grow and like I said, we we average 15 to 20 00:38:57
vendors coming right now. The more people that show up, the more vendors we can have and we're looking to hopefully extend the 00:39:03
hours some if we have the the need for that. And we're also looking at possibly doing like a weekday evening market so that you 00:39:09
can kind of get fresh produce midweek. 00:39:15
As well. So just a one marketing suggestion. Yeah, we do have a celebrity farmer in the community who's on national TV. There's 00:39:22
this. I don't know if anybody's seen it, this farmer. 00:39:26
Farmer wants a wife show in Hunter Racing Hunter Grayson. 00:39:31
Is from Watkinsville. So whether it's for your movie night or another time, you know it might be fun to get the Get your Celebrity 00:39:36
Farmer out there, you could have a little bit of fun with that. So I don't know if anybody knows Hunter, but but anyway, OK. 00:39:44
Oh yeah. So that was the other thing. My wife would be mad if I forgot to do that. So we are on Instagram, it's the Oconee Farmers 00:39:53
market and then we're also on Facebook as Oconee Farmers market. We try and make sure that we let you know the vendors that are 00:39:58
going to be there from week to week because it does vary somewhat and then what kind of events that we have going on and that kind 00:40:02
of stuff. 00:40:07
Oh, and we also have a craft tent where kids can come and do a free craft every Saturday. It's no charge to the parents or the 00:40:13
children, and it gets them engaged and coming out to the market too. 00:40:18
So. 00:40:24
And so Kiki is if they need free, if they need fresh shrimp, you know, on a fry on a Saturday, you know, for some great shrimp 00:40:25
tacos, you know, you can just come right down to hair Shoals Park here, so. 00:40:30
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Great. Thank you. All right. Other members of the public, I know we've got some familiar faces here. 00:40:36
Now we got to talk a little bit during the break. Anybody have anything they want to say? 00:40:46
Clerk, did we receive anything in advance? 00:40:50
All right, Laura, come on up. 00:40:54
It does not have to be, can be on whatever's on your mind. Just state your name and address for the record and we will hear you 00:40:57
out. Laura Rose, 104 White St. 00:41:01
I'm delighted that the City Council is trying to develop a historic condition for the city, but I would really like for you guys 00:41:07
to put some more teeth into the enforcing ordinances on my street. There has been a derelict house for 15 years now. The owner of 00:41:14
it for most of that period of time, kept the grass cut. 00:41:21
But didn't do anything else to the house. There's a new owner for over a year. There was a dump truck and a dumpster in the front 00:41:30
yard. 00:41:34
After many complaints, it was finally taken away, but now there is still. 00:41:41
A bathtub. 00:41:46
A hot water. 00:41:48
And the sink in the front yard, along with some boards leading up to the steps of the house with the doors open. It looks like the 00:41:50
house is at the roof, is going to cave in, and I just really feel like there should be some teeth to the ordinances that make 00:41:56
people actually. 00:42:02
Maintain at least some kind of appropriate condition, at least for the front yard. I don't even want to tell you what the backyard 00:42:08
is like. 00:42:12
Do you know the address of the house, Laura? I think it's 60 White Lane. It's hard to miss. 00:42:18
And he's never cut the grass. We'll have code enforcement. Take a look at it. Thank you. 00:42:25
All right. Anything else? 00:42:32
All right, then we will move on to the mayor's report. 00:42:36
Had some exciting things happen in the past month in Watkinsville. We broke ground on the Oconee County Library, Watkinsville 00:42:42
Branch at Wire Park last Friday. 00:42:46
I believe Councilman Garrett and Councilwoman Tucker were there. Thank you all for being there. It was a fun day and that project 00:42:51
is supposed to be complete by the end of the year. Is that correct, Mr. Campbell? 00:42:57
Engineer Campbell, not wearing his engineer hat, is is one of the leaders of the library board and also spoken. Did a wonderful 00:43:05
job. So that was an exciting day for Watkinsville. 00:43:09
I just wanted to highlight one of our longest stand, not our longest, but a wonderful innovative business in Watkinsville to Fosi 00:43:16
Optics celebrated their 20th anniversary. They're one of our international brands in Watkinsville and they celebrated that last 00:43:21
Friday. They market and sell. 00:43:26
Sunglasses and I wear products for everything from video games to cycling to running to outdoors to fishing all over the world. 00:43:32
And they celebrated the big Two of last Friday, so congratulations to our friends. 00:43:37
To Fossey, Joe and Elizabeth Early started that business 20 years ago with just a dream and have built it into something that is. 00:43:43
Really cool. I think it they have actually the leading eyewear product for for running and hiking now. So neat little business 00:43:49
that like a lot that quietly operates in our industrial area. 00:43:54
Sewer line A if you haven't observed it yet, it was kind of slow going getting through. 00:44:01
Jerry Smith Dr. And then a very trick. 00:44:08
Jack and bore around some property but once they got through there they are moving quickly so they are have moved on up to. 00:44:11
To the industrial area and are moving up. I don't think that's industrial drive. What's the other name of that red mark, 00:44:18
Industrial Blvd. 00:44:21
I had that wrong when I sent it to Sharon. That's on me. So they're they're moving along Industrial Blvd. with some more dry 00:44:26
weather. Unless they hit rock, they are fine at this point. So it's really good to see. Hopefully that wraps up pretty soon. 00:44:32
With EV chargers, but if they're very popular then we may add more. But the idea being this will show up on the maps and on the 00:45:12
software. If people want to park while they're traveling through traveling from north to South and visit downtown Watkinsville and 00:45:17
go to our restaurants, they'll be able to. So that's coming soon. 00:45:23
Rocket Field is coming along very quickly. The dugouts and the concession stand were all painted this week. The light bulbs have 00:45:31
been printed, The light bulbs, the light poles have been prepped and they're ready to go up. I think they're just letting those, 00:45:37
the foundation settle in after a lot of rain, making sure they aren't going to move. So those are laid out on the field and ready 00:45:43
to be stood up. Then after that we'll get into a lot of concrete and dirt work. 00:45:49
I think we're still targeting late May, knock on wood to get that project wrapped up. 00:45:56
And but they are moving along and it's really going to be first class. 00:46:02
Hair Shoals Park making progress on our improvements there. You've probably seen the new sign. The bathrooms have been improved 00:46:08
and unless you go way to the back, what you might not have noticed was our big long bridge. 00:46:13
What had a bad sag in? 00:46:20
So our public works department got out there and rebuilt a couple of the foundational pieces of that bridge. 00:46:22
And that's really important. Y'all, because if we let that bridge go, the whole thing could have fallen down into that swamp and 00:46:27
it is a mess back there, so. 00:46:30
Kudos to Toby and team for jumping on that quickly and getting that stood back up. It's a beautiful area back there. 00:46:33
But it's kind of easy to from easy to forget about if you don't go back there. So as soon as we noticed that, they got back there 00:46:40
and got on that and got that stood back up. 00:46:44
Some big news on hair Shoals. 00:46:49
Again, I try not to get too hopeful about state or federal funding because we never know if we're going to get it, but we have 00:46:52
been shortlisted. 00:46:55
And Senator Warnock is suggesting Parishes Park for a potential $3.2 million appropriation. 00:46:59
To implement our hair Shoals, master. 00:47:08
Plan. So that has a ways to go. It's got to get through the Appropriations Committee, then it's got to get through the federal 00:47:11
budget process. So we're not going to get our hopes up too much. 00:47:16
But this is out in the public eye at this point, and I thought it would make sense for us to notify everyone of that. Christine, 00:47:21
Councilwoman Tucker. 00:47:26
And. 00:47:31
And Councilwoman Massey put a lot of work into getting that master plan done. So we're really excited if we can leverage some 00:47:32
federal dollars to activate that and move that quickly forward once we have the dollars. But it will probably be at least a year 00:47:38
before we know if we're going to actually get those. 00:47:43
Get those funds. 00:47:50
Anyway, cross your fingers, cross your toes, say a little prayer. If you know about anybody in Washington, put a good word in for 00:47:51
us. But that would be huge for those of you who need contacts. Are newcomers here tonight from Key Case, our total budget in 00:47:57
Watkinsville is about $2.6 million, so this would be more than our budget. 00:48:02
To improve the park back there. So that would be that would be tremendous. It would allow us to really do implement our plan in a 00:48:08
very meaningful way. 00:48:11
Just a little bit of recognition for the crew that redid City Hall. Landscaping continues to progress. The plants that Mark 00:48:18
planted are really starting to grow out front. We have sod and our little island. That didn't look great. Sharon, I really 00:48:23
appreciate you and the team. 00:48:28
Making sure our first impression is very positive. We have more visitors than ever now to City Hall to visit the playground, so 00:48:34
it's we're making an important first impression on the public when they visit. It really looks great and the Christine Tucker Blue 00:48:39
also looks great, so. 00:48:44
Also had the pleasure to meet with the new leader of the Oconee campus of the University of North Georgia, Russell Willis, earlier 00:48:51
this month and walk him through Watkinsville and talk about a few potential partnerships. We had a great meal at Lalos and he 00:48:57
actually met one of his students there who needed a little bit of help navigating some administrative stuff. So it turned out to 00:49:03
be very convenient for him. So we had a great visit and I think he'll do a nice job. 00:49:09
And I don't know who this guy is, but he had a birthday on Sunday. 00:49:18
You know, turn 21. So it was a big day. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. 00:49:23
And we'll move on to council member reports. 00:49:28
Unless there's any other surprises, we'll start with Councilman. 00:49:31
All right, Councilwoman. 00:49:35
And from K. 00:49:38
Councilman. 00:49:40
Hey, good evening everybody. Hey, you know service doesn't just stop when I leave Watkinsville. I wanted y'all to know that. I 00:49:44
appreciate that the opportunity to be here. I am leading an effort here in Kuwait at the US. 00:49:52
We have rebuilt a back patio. 00:50:02
And it is is absolutely gorgeous. I have to get y'all some pictures of what we're doing here. 00:50:07
To show we've saved the the USO organization with through volunteer hours. Over 1000 volunteer hours, we've saved the USO. 00:50:13
About $30,000. 00:50:22
Build this back patio so it's it's a great organization and and. 00:50:25
I just want y'all to know that the service continues. 00:50:30
Abroad when I am not there, so I greatly appreciate y'all allowing me to continue to serve from abroad and I look forward to 00:50:35
getting back home here in a few months. 00:50:40
Well, we appreciate your service and everything you're doing, Councilman, we really do. So we. But we can't wait to have you back 00:50:46
in Watkinsville. 00:50:49
All right, Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 00:50:54
So the main things we already talked about with the DBA update and mentioning the creative place making committee. 00:50:56
Also, we put out a call. 00:51:07
For some public art to start life. 00:51:10
I've got it on. 00:51:16
Overtime lining the pad. Unless we get that grant then. 00:51:20
Very excited to see what we would do in this space but to start lining the path the hair shows park up to the new playground and 00:51:23
possibilities in City Hall and. 00:51:29
My understanding is we only have one. 00:51:36
Submission from an artist. So we have put the deadline would be at the end of April. 00:51:40
But I just want a reminder of that. 00:51:45
You guys know any artists? It should be something, that is. 00:51:49
Can be touched by children. I mean, it doesn't have to be like an interactive thing, but it's just something that you know. 00:51:55
It should be child friendly, It should be focused on our native flora and fauna in the park. 00:52:01
And there's a relatively healthy, I mean, I am not an artist, so I do not understand all of the budget. But what I hear is it's 00:52:06
actually a relatively healthy. 00:52:10
Budget for an artist because we do believe in paying artists for their work so would love to see a few more. 00:52:13
All. 00:52:25
Councilman Camp. 00:52:26
The only thing I have is on the historic preservation. Scott Nesbitt is not sure if his class is going to be able to do the 00:52:29
project. 00:52:33
They said they said that class, so he's trying to see how he can make it work. 00:52:37
He gave me Jennifer Lewis's phone number last night. 00:52:41
She's someone who has LED shreds in regards to historic preservations. I want to contact her. 00:52:45
Hopefully tomorrow and kind of learn. 00:52:52
How she can help us? 00:52:56
More about the process. So then I'll wait to hear back from Scott in regards to. 00:52:58
What other ideas or options we have? It's not dead that it's asking into a via. Sounds like he wants to possibly have another 00:53:03
class to. 00:53:07
Waiting to hear that. 00:53:11
That's all I got. 00:53:13
All right. Thank you, Councilman Campbell. 00:53:16
With that, I'll ask for a motion to leave regular session and go into executive session for the purpose of discussing. 00:53:19
Personnel, real estate and threatened and pending litigation, which is Y'all's opportunity. 00:53:26
To exit and once that motion is made and approved. 00:53:32
Motion to leave to go into executive session. 00:53:37
For the formation reasons, we have a second. 00:53:39
All right, All in favor. Say aye. 00:53:45
Aye. 00:53:47
Mayor. 00:53:49
All right, I'll entertain a motion to Do we need a motion any other motion other than to adjourn? 00:53:51
I make a motion to adjourn. Second, all in favor, Say aye. 00:53:57
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Unable to preview the file. Make sure you have Adobe Reader installed

Transcript

All right. Welcome everybody, to the April 19th Watkinsville City Council meeting. Please note that we have a quorum here tonight. 00:00:11
We're joined by Colonel Brett Thomas from Kuwait. Again, welcome Colonel Thomas. We're glad you're with us. And I think everyone 00:00:17
else here in person, I'm glad to see all of you guys on this beautiful April night. We'll begin meeting as we always do. 00:00:23
I believe this is the flag of the United States of America, and two departments for which it stands 1 Mission ungod, indivisible, 00:00:31
with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:36
And speak related to what is on the agenda, there are some specific public hearing rules that we will explain should we go into 00:01:26
one of those situations tonight. So with that, our first time on the agenda tonight is approval, the minutes from the March 15th 00:01:31
meeting for quantity. There might have been a minor amendment set and then we can have a motion on. 00:01:37
Allegiance Fire Chief respects and actually led the pledge. So that change has been made. It has been made and then under all 00:01:44
business historic preservation, it's actually the Watson Brown Foundation and that. 00:01:49
Any other adjuster changes in minutes from. 00:01:56
And there's a motion to approve. 00:01:59
In the motion to recommend a second any conversation, none. I'll ever say aye. 00:02:02
And motion carries item number 2, the approval of the agenda. I would like the table consent agenda item for 9, and I would like 00:02:08
to table Business on #19. If council agrees with that, I'll accept motion to approve the amended agenda, please. 00:02:15
Make a motion to approve the agenda. What else do I have? 00:02:23
Do you have a second? 00:02:28
All in favor? Say aye. Motion carries 50. Thanks everyone. 00:02:30
But it's greater than even the other side of the world, Roger, with us. And always, as I said earlier, we're moving. Glad to be 00:02:35
here. Good. Glad to hear from you. We are moving to the administration portion of the meeting. As I said earlier, we will have 00:02:42
some points on the agenda. Where will Canada's mayor and council. We would have said everybody refrain from any personal tax 00:02:48
arguments, debates or irrelevant discussion. Address comments on the pending matter marks the committee, council, council. 00:02:55
The first one is the child abuse. 00:03:02
Provision month proclamation and I think we may have TR Smithing authority. This is a few step here with me to the smartphone. 00:03:05
We will really leave us in here and I really. 00:03:13
Welcome to Grace. Am I saying that right? TR, excuse me, Tiara and Grace are with us tonight. I will read the proclamation to the 00:03:17
record and then we'll take a picture. OK. And if you guys have something really want to say this to the time too, Child abuse 00:03:22
retention month is correct. 00:03:28
And consider helping parents, their children Safer tree environment. 00:03:57
I'm Brian Broadway of Watkinsville. Do you offer a month of April with Child Abuse Permission month in Watkinsville, Georgia 00:04:01
Encourage all citizens to volunteer their talents and energies on behalf of children in our community to reduce child abuse and 00:04:06
neglect significant in the years ago city of Watkinsville be. 00:04:11
This 19th day of April 2023. 00:04:16
I do want to mention things timely. We did an incident just last week where there was a child abuse and our police officers 00:04:19
responded to that and handled it in first class manner and the suspect was offended, put in jail immediately. The child was put in 00:04:26
a safe position. I think they have an enterprise will actually send them this week and they committed guys and editorial for how 00:04:32
the situation was able to achieve so. 00:04:38
The organization was occurred so I thought it was really fitting that and child abuse prevention in Lawrenceville our teams in 00:04:44
highlight for dealing with various contribution possible so race to you if you have a remark I want to make feel free and then 00:04:49
we'll take the just quickly it does take the community and take law enforcement. 00:04:54
First organization. We covered 7 counties, but we are the organization that works at preventing. 00:04:59
Said work closely with deployment family enjoy services and other organizations and community but we are going into homes every 00:05:05
day and park has no Coney bear that's sitting long. Visiting new parents and try to prevent abusing elective borders is a problem. 00:05:12
So only has been one of our counties for almost about 3 cities around formally notice for my childhood staffing but you want to 00:05:18
help out it doesn't take a little bit turns on to your. 00:05:24
Hold this up, Tom. 00:05:41
Thank you. 00:05:46
OK, we have 3. 00:05:51
City for a lot of years in a row, Julie. I think I'm just going to ask for this to be read into the record by the work. I'm not 00:05:55
going to be this one. But I will say that as Mayor I do hereby proclaim February 17th and April 28th is Barbara Day in the city of 00:06:01
Watkinsville. And there is all citizens to celebrate our day and support to protect our trees and will sit at the plant trees to 00:06:07
clean the heart. That will be those future directions. 00:06:12
I. 00:06:24
Notably, given all she does for us, it is also professional Municipal courts week on April 30th through May 6th of June. If you'll 00:06:25
come up here please. 00:06:29
Y'all anybody knows in Wattsville is like there's a person, you know, that everybody knows that's been taken care of at City Hall 00:06:37
for many years. It's been a great time. That's Julie. I've got to read this like official proclamation for Julie. I don't think 00:06:42
any words can capture what you mean to our city and what you mean to our citizens and what you've got to play shrink through the 00:06:48
years. You were the thread that's consistently been woven walk until for is it how many years. 00:06:54
Whereas professional municipal courts continually strive to improve the administration of affairs of the Office of professional 00:07:33
Clerk, participation in the Haitian smart shops, and annual meetings of their state, provincial, county and international 00:07:37
professional organizations. 00:07:41
Whereas it most appropriate that recognize the compliments of the office of the professional Municipal Court. Now, therefore I 00:07:45
bring broader Mayor of this evening Watkinsville, do hereby recognize the week of April 3 through May 6. 00:07:50
2023 is professional municipal parks. We can further extend appreciation of professional support Julie Fine until professional 00:07:55
support the vital sources they firm perform and their exemplary dedication communities they represent. 00:08:01
Julie, we thank you. 00:08:07
So. 00:08:09
I normally I don't speak, but because public speaking is not really important, I'm going to try. Of course I had to write it down 00:08:14
or I'll get tongue out or cry, which is where I've headed, but we'll see how it goes. 00:08:19
I'd like to thank you. 00:08:26
The past and the present mayors, council members, staff including our City attorney and City engineer, the citizens of 00:08:28
Watkinsville for allowing me to serve as the City clerk. Walkinsville. In almost 27 years here we have seen many changes and 00:08:33
challenges. 00:08:38
The hiring of our City Manager was a positive turning point for Watkinsville the consistency Chair and brings to the table along 00:08:44
with how dedicated the Mayor and Council artist driving for Walkerville to the community of connection and creativity. 00:08:51
Is exciting and I want to thank you all for your hard work and education for Watkinsville. I am grateful and proud to continue to 00:08:59
serve along with each of you. Thank you. 00:09:03
Performance evaluation. 00:09:15
I. 00:09:26
All right. We'll move along to our financial reports mandate. Dickerson, that's you. And for those of us who renew it, that covers 00:09:35
our general finances as well as our spawn funds, ARP funds and our. 00:09:40
Magic. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, so you should receive the balance sheet, the general information. We're doing very well on the 00:09:45
revenue side. We're at 8% renews for the year and we're right at 30% expenses. It's about a difference of almost $300,000. We're 00:09:51
hopeful that some of that may come back into the general fund at the end of the year that we're tracking. 00:09:57
On floss one we had this is a 2009 Brenda the only left in fact that has not that check has actually been written. So this will 00:10:04
close out the flossed 1 project as the swan a check to the county for for construction of that sewer line And so we'll hopefully 00:10:11
this will be a zero out at the end of the next month and you won't have this coming however. So another report so spots two is 00:10:18
mostly a sewer line a you'll see waters or facility 904,000 there's a little bit of money left. 00:10:26
And I think the chef or signs that Chief, but the flash signs you seen around at this limit signs and some work the park has not 00:10:34
cleared yet and that's why those are still showing up. We do have a balance of $27,000 that can be used towards the others that we 00:10:38
anticipate will happen with sewer line. 00:10:42
Slash 3 Report These are This is the 2021 Sloss so this is new. We don't have a lot of adventures yet. We have accumulated a 00:10:48
little bit with $1,000,000 in the bank. The projects and the monies that are listed in the yellow have been encumbered for police 00:10:54
vehicles in roads and sorry and equipment download multipurpose government that has to do with all system equipment, public works 00:11:01
and the rec and parks that many has been in Congress. Some of that money has encumbered for. 00:11:07
Fairfield Park. 00:11:14
Like what else on that list? Recreation Creek base and some money's been satisfied for free space. So those monies are earmarked. 00:11:17
The rest of the monies are available and are still being. Those projects come before council for decisions. We don't make those 00:11:21
decisions without capital approval. 00:11:25
The. 00:11:31
This is just a report show you sort of where out with ours. With our bank accounts 1.1 million we're adding about a 3000 month up 00:11:32
from we normally in fact we budgeted for plus we budgeted about 65,000 a month and we're significantly over that. I will point 00:11:38
though that the first six months of FY23 were at 8.3%. 00:11:44
Actually I take that back. I'm going to reset all of this will be 8.63 it's our piece floss that will be that will change and that 00:11:51
will be 7.77% along our. 00:11:55
So, so we did, we did 100,000 in December. 00:11:59
So we have a very, very good first six months, I'm sure how the next six months ago, but we are, we are averaging more than we 00:12:03
thought we would so. 00:12:06
Impressions. 00:12:10
And then on ARP, we have reported the end of the month to the federal government on this. These funds the council elected to get 00:12:12
entered a lot of up to 10 million means the council can use this funds how they wish. They do not have to fall in any type of 00:12:17
category that the larger governments that got more money have to abide by. We have about 824,000 and about a little bit 780,000 00:12:22
that has been appropriated at this point. 00:12:28
And then just as a reminder, we do have a budget process that is underway tonight and there will be a public hearing on the budget 00:12:35
sort just the count of the citizens interests or input into the development of the budget. There is no budget to respond to yet 00:12:41
that will be provided to Council the 1st May. 00:12:46
Be council sessions, council meetings. 00:12:52
Possibly another council work session and then the budget will be a plea engine 21st. 00:12:54
Any questions on any of that? 00:12:59
Move on to next economic development. So I've not provided a list of these because if you look through your packet, there's a lot 00:13:04
of income. A lot. But this is just excerpts, 2 pages of a business license. 00:13:10
Business licenses in there, there's $13,000. Little than 13,000 isn't collected for occasion. Taxes or business licenses. We've 00:13:17
had some insurance payments come in and alcohol license payment from is it kite kites? 00:13:23
For the out of license you guys will be considering tonight. 00:13:29
I know X attack size aside, alcohol excise taxes, we have a little more 10,000 since that was approved and our short term vacation 00:13:33
rentals and motor taxes a bit of 18,000. 00:13:37
On economic development building permits, we have 10 parts for six projects, several associated with the mini storage. 00:13:44
And I think you don't be having that work. Yeah, we didn't have cattle, did have one water park. So we continue to see stuff move 00:13:51
in there. 00:13:55
Any questions on any of those? 00:13:59
OK. 00:14:01
Oh, I got. 00:14:04
Should be back on. 00:14:11
All right. 00:14:13
We are back. 00:14:14
And I think we were. 00:14:17
Police Department report chief. 00:14:20
Good evening, Mayor Council, always a pleasure to be for you. 00:14:25
All right, so we wrapped up the Easter egg we were going to. 00:14:30
Next slide, which is where we got held up. 00:14:33
All right, and may, May 6th, we have cops and bombers out here at Harvey Wildlife starting at 9:00 AM. Will kick off an event 00:14:39
where. 00:14:43
Kids can come out and fish and have fun and and catch catch a few fish and win some trophies and some prizes and all that kind of 00:14:48
good stuff. 00:14:52
And we'll feed them and give them some drinks and all that kind of stuff and get them all sugared up and send them home. 00:14:56
With mom and dad. 00:15:02
And. 00:15:03
Thanks to Marshall Gaddy, Sir. Alta, who is the Marshall down in Miami, FL. We. 00:15:05
You know, we're always looking around for, you know, things like that and the major deputy Chief, Todd Teton. 00:15:12
I reached out to a few of his connections in the Marshall service. 00:15:21
And before we know it, we had Marshall, Sir Alta calling us and saying, I'm sending you everything you want. 00:15:24
Which really not a true statement. 00:15:30
But. 00:15:33
But we got a lot more than what we what we, you know, anticipated. He sent us an entire box of gear. 00:15:36
Those are plate carriers. 00:15:43
They are not ballistic rated carriers, but they are plate carriers that will actually house. 00:15:47
The ballistic plates and panels that will help. 00:15:53
Rifle rounds and things like that in the event we have. 00:15:57
An active shooter or a situation where we're, you know, having to take gunfire. 00:16:01
So now the next question is to find the the ceramic place that go inside them and. 00:16:07
But that that that's equivalent to about $11,000 worth of year that. 00:16:12
We were donating. 00:16:17
And we're thankful for that. 00:16:18
You're very helpful. 00:16:20
We're thankful for you and the majors. Resourcefulness on that, and of course, badges and benevolence is the police foundation for 00:16:21
this Watkinsville Police Department. And if you would like to have a dollar for dollar tax credit. 00:16:29
All those QR codes. 00:16:38
Take action. 00:16:41
All right. Anything else? Any other? 00:16:44
Thank you very much. 00:16:50
All right. Thank you, Chief. 00:16:52
All right, consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? 00:16:55
I make a motion to approve the control agenda. All right, Do we have a second? All right, all in favor, say aye. 00:17:03
All right, motion carries 5 O. For our members of the public, the items on the consent agenda were the. 00:17:11
Urban Forest Board appointment of Susanna D. 00:17:19
And the resolution to approve the MO U for application to the Georgia Main Street program. 00:17:22
And appoint the DDA board to serve as the Main Street Board. So Kate, I know that's probably been a lot of work for you. So we're 00:17:27
excited to move that forward and we'll hear about that in the summer we think. 00:17:32
Hope so OK. 00:17:38
All right, we'll move on to a public hearing. The rules that I outlined previously apply 4 minutes per person if you choose to 00:17:40
come forward. No debate, argument, personal attacks will speak to the agenda items, the only item under public hearing tonight. 00:17:47
This is the first of many a Sharon outline public hearings for our budget process. We do not have a draft budget for the public to 00:17:54
review at this point, but this is that moment where if you just have something that you think we need to budget for. 00:18:00
Come on up and let us hear about it. And then that will be taken into account as we move through the budget process. We anticipate 00:18:06
sharing the budget with the Council on May 1st, which is when it would technically become public, and then having conversations 00:18:11
about it at a variety of upcoming meetings and hearings. So is there anyone who would like to come forward and speak about the 00:18:17
2024 capital and operating budget at this time? 00:18:23
All right, seeing no takers, I'm going to close the public hearing and we will move on to appearances. 00:18:33
Our only appearance tonight is consideration of a pouring license for. 00:18:39
Kiki's Kitchen Court client. If you could give me a report please. 00:18:46
We have all the documentation needed. We have the fingerprinting report. All of that is clear. So the only things we'll be waiting 00:18:52
for will be a copy of the state license, as well as a copy of their food service permit, which is related to their business 00:18:59
license. But all other documentation I have on file. OK, great. 00:19:06
My Spanish is rusty, but Miss Chacon, how would I say that? 00:19:14
Chacon, is there anything you'd like to add or would you like to tell us about your new restaurant? That's. 00:19:19
That's coming. That's coming. 00:19:26
Who's the spokesperson for? 00:19:30
All. 00:19:33
That's the manager. OK, We'll come on up and tell us a little bit about what's coming to Watkinsville. We're excited. Thank you 00:19:35
guys for having us here. 00:19:38
Very grateful to have found the spot in. 00:19:43
And we're happy to. 00:19:45
Share with you guys our authentic Mexican food. 00:19:47
It's going to be a pleasure serving you guys. 00:19:51
Being aligned amongst with you guys. 00:19:54
We're like family. 00:19:58
It's like a family structure restaurant, so it's. 00:20:00
You know, very welcoming to you guys and anyone's welcome. 00:20:03
And we're just very excited. Tell us a little bit about the menu and maybe the history of the food and your family. Is there a 00:20:08
family connection to the way that you cook and stuff? The owner is my cousin, and our food is going to consist of a. 00:20:15
I don't know if you guys heard of barrier meat. 00:20:23
It's very good. 00:20:28
It's cooked overnight beef and it's like seasoned. The way he season is like special so. 00:20:32
It's going to be very tasteful and we're going to have all types of meats and vegetables and. 00:20:40
Just a bunch of. 00:20:45
Five days for that. 00:20:50
Yeah, just a bunch of. 00:20:52
Very excited to show you guys share with you guys the food that we have and how about the history of the name? 00:20:54
Yeah, so the owner is. His name is Enrique and. 00:21:01
So. 00:21:07
Back back in the hometown. 00:21:08
You know, people who couldn't pronounce Enrique like the kids and stuff. I run around just calling Kika and then that's just sort 00:21:10
of Enrique and. 00:21:14
Yeah. 00:21:19
Great. Any other questions from council? OK. 00:21:21
Lic. 00:21:28
Are you? 00:21:31
Margaritas. 00:21:32
Down the road, yes, definitely, Definitely down the road. 00:21:37
She has. 00:21:42
We're going to have a bunch of mixed rings with mine and stuff like that, but very excited for that also. 00:21:44
And is it the same menu? I've kind of, I live on our initials. So I've been watching the great mural that you guys have been 00:21:51
putting up and is it a kind of a branch of the one near Danielsville, like added. So that is that menu very similar. 00:21:59
And we're hoping to have more pictures and so you guys can see. 00:22:10
Type of food we will be serving, but we're very excited for that, yes. 00:22:13
When do you anticipate opening? So we're just waiting on the health department, yeah. 00:22:20
Basically, yeah, they said 20-30 days. 00:22:30
Yeah, first week of May. 00:22:34
Right. Yes. All right. That's exciting. Thank you, guys. Welcome to Watkinsville. 00:22:36
One of my favorite things to talk about when I'm out around the state is. 00:22:43
Excited to have you. OK, new business we have. We need to vote. Yeah, I guess we should do that. You don't want to stop. Don't 00:23:23
want to stop that. 00:23:28
Good point. Good point. 00:23:36
All right, good call. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the pouring beer and wine alcohol license for Kiki's kitchen. 00:23:38
Motion to approve it a second, please. 00:23:46
Any further discussion? 00:23:49
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:23:51
Opposed. 00:23:53
Motion carries unanimously. 00:23:55
All right, we have up our friends from Big Springs Properties. They have a demolition permit. 00:23:57
Engineer Campbell, if you could give me a report and then we will hear from the applicants. Absolutely. Thank you Mayor. 00:24:04
So 1210 Greensboro Highway is actually the corner of Greensboro Highway and Morrison St. So the applicant has requested a 00:24:09
demolition of a single structure because there are multiple structures that are on that property. We didn't have a survey 00:24:15
provided, but the tax assessor has indicated it's a little bit more than than two acres at that location. The zoning is corridor 00:24:21
commercial, the existing use is commercial. 00:24:27
If you're aware there, you can see from some pictures if you've driven down the existing building that they're requesting to be 00:24:34
demolished. Did have some damage from a fire back in 2022, so that's the location from the location map again there on the 00:24:40
southern corner Morrison St. and Greensboro Highway, also known as State Route 15. 00:24:45
So directly in front of the structure you can see there kind of between the the sign and the tree, there's a secondary picture 00:24:52
that the next slide would show a little bit of a different angle there. 00:24:58
You can see on the right hand side of that some of the fire damage from the previous, so it is currently a vacant structure. 00:25:06
So the other existing structures as I indicated would would remain, they're not part of this, this application. The applicant has 00:25:14
also indicated that they don't have any desire to necessarily remove the slab that's under the structure supporting the 00:25:20
foundation. So it would be the the demolition of the the metal structure above that down to the slab. 00:25:26
These also indicated there's no mitigation required for any asbestos or mold in this structure. The disturbance is less than one 00:25:34
acre. 00:25:38
It's let It's not within 200 feet of state waters, so it wouldn't require having to go in front of the state from an erosion 00:25:42
control measure standpoint. That said, best management practices would still be required to make sure that during the demolition 00:25:49
process, there's not any tracking or sediment onto the streets, the roadways, or onto any adjacent properties. 00:25:55
Likewise, whoever is conducting any demolition, we need to make sure that all traffic and safety control measures are followed. We 00:26:03
don't want State Route 15 or Morrison St. to to have any traffic blocks during any time of construction for this, but I'll be 00:26:09
happy to answer any other questions. 00:26:15
All right, we've heard from the engineer I didn't know if y'all might want. 00:26:21
Share anything with Is there anything else you want to add? It seems pretty simple, it's just a demolition of a burned building. 00:26:26
Is there anything else you want to add? 00:26:29
All right. Questions for the engineer or the applicant? 00:26:34
All right, hearing none. Then I'll entertain a motion. 00:26:41
I make a motion to approve the demolition request. 00:26:45
Do we have a second? 00:26:48
Any further discussion, it's a quick point, just stating the obvious from the photos. There's no historical aspect or element 00:26:50
whatsoever and that's something that's probably important to notate in the minutes. It's it's a Butler building that has been 00:26:55
significantly damaged by a very hot fire. So, and in fact I would argue it's probably we need to demolish it because we do not 00:27:01
need people. 00:27:06
In and out of that building? In its current state, yes, so. 00:27:11
Glad the new owners are taking care of that. So, all right, so we have a motion. We have a second Any let's vote. All in favor. 00:27:14
Say aye. Any opposed? All right, unanimous. 00:27:20
Thank you. 00:27:27
New business continued. We have a couple of wastewater capacity allocation requests. I'm going to let manager Dickerson. 00:27:30
Walk us through those and we will kind of tackle those all together once she gives us the appropriate context. 00:27:37
Thank you, Mayor. 00:27:44
So we have 4 requests for a location that basically all these parcels are and I don't have a map but they're all together on 00:27:45
highway. 00:27:49
15 this These requests have come forward because the location has had at least three occasions, most recently in December and 00:27:54
January, where their septic tank has basically run back. I guess it's run back into the tank from the drain field that's overly 00:28:01
saturated. They've had AI think since about 2010. 00:28:08
I think they've had issues. The County Health Department has been encouraging them to do something about it. The the challenges is 00:28:16
that they. 00:28:20
Don't have septic field area to do anything about it. I'm not not really sure we're going to solve all their problems, but they 00:28:24
have requested a wastewater capacity that is within the city's purview. Under our policy, the city under the agreement with Oconee 00:28:31
County, the city is granted 100,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity to use as we wish for developments within our 00:28:38
community. Prior to that, the county was in charge of sorted yay or nay and on request to to connect to sewer. 00:28:46
So the city does have, we do have capacity. I'll walk through a couple things here. We do have capacity we have. 00:28:54
So on the commercial side, we have about a little bit more than 20,000 gallons per day that has been committed. If you add the 260 00:29:30
* 4 lots, that would be a little bit more than 1000. I think it's 1040 is the number. 00:29:36
But it is important to see the bigger picture as well. And again, the same thing goes with those two last columns. The 12,000 is 00:29:43
actually how much capacity you have left because of that difference between the Oconee schools, what they thought they needed and 00:29:48
what Water resources said they do need. 00:29:52
So you do have some capacity. There will be another 100,000 gallons of capacity granted to the city when the expansion of the 00:29:57
water reclamation facility is completed sometime. 00:30:02
We may be able to help them, Council may decide to vote to give them capacity. 00:31:19
But that isn't going to necessarily get sewer to them that that is something they would have to take up with the water resource 00:31:24
utility. 00:31:26
OK. 00:31:29
So. 00:31:32
To reconcile the amount for Wisteria Ridge now that they'll be open a full year, I think come July. 00:32:04
So you know, we we've identified what they think they need, but they may not actually be using all that and we don't want to tie 00:32:09
up capacity. It could be used for something else. So if the owner doesn't, we will request that. 00:32:14
The but umm. 00:32:56
For instance, that gentleman got capacity, but then he sold the lot for somebody else. Well that person had to come back in and 00:33:00
get capacity. So we cancelled out that gentleman's and and authorized it for the other one. So if anyone of these businesses, 00:33:05
because they're businesses, I don't have that authority. I only have it for residential structures. If any of them, if they sold 00:33:10
their property and they wanted capacity, they could not pass that capacity on. 00:33:16
They would have to come back for council already connected to the sewer technically you're supposed to still come back. We can we 00:33:21
can send a letter to water resources and and I mean I don't know how to you know all the logistics are but I mean they would have 00:33:26
to request that so I mean there is there is a process we haven't had that happen not sure how it would all play out but that is 00:33:30
how it's supposed to work. 00:33:35
All right, so Council, having that background, if anyone's comfortable making a request to approve those. 00:33:41
Wastewater allocation capacity requests for those four entities. I would entertain that motion. 00:33:48
I make a motion to Appro. 00:33:54
We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:33:58
Motion second, any discussion. 00:34:01
All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:34:04
Motion carries. 00:34:09
All right, Item 18, we do not. Item 19 was not was removed from the agenda and tabled. So we have to public comments. 00:34:11
Generally we have. 00:34:20
Open. But we do have someone who's requested to speak to us tonight. That's Chase Boyd, who's leading the Oconee Farmers market. 00:34:23
Chase, thanks for. 00:34:26
Your leadership in your efforts, we're going to let you go first. We'll give you 4 minutes. Hop up. 00:34:29
Can you make sure that Mike's on to make sure the blue? 00:34:35
Yes, just tap on the mic to. Yeah and it's blue. So I'm Chase Boyd, I'm the Vice President on the Board for the Oconee County 00:34:39
Farmers Market. We recently moved to Harris Shoals and we are really excited about the things that we've got going on this year 00:34:45
and we appreciate the fact that you guys are giving us that venue to use. 00:34:52
In partnership with you guys as far as setting things up, just to kind of let you know how we did our first two markets. So April 00:35:00
1st when that Easter egg hunt was going on and the huge delusion hit everybody, we actually had our first market. 00:35:07
In spite of the fact that we only had about two hours where people were able to come toward the end of the market, we generated 00:35:16
almost $2000 in sales from our vendors. 00:35:21
The following week we weren't able to have the market, but then last weekend we had a little over $3200 in sales from the market. 00:35:27
The venue has been great and we really appreciate like I said. 00:35:40
What we've been able to do there, we are looking to do one major event once a month there to involve the community and things like 00:35:42
that. 00:35:47
We had kind of a April first, even though it was horrible. We had the Humane Society come out for dog adoption stuff. We had a 00:35:52
couple little baby goats that people could see, you know, farm animals and that kind of thing. So that was. 00:35:59
Actually, May 6th, we're going. 00:36:06
Baking competition. So we're looking for a couple of people. Hopefully somebody on the Councilor, you mayor maybe, would like to 00:36:11
come and be a guest judge for whoever signs up to do those things. We're trying to showcase summer berries and those kinds of 00:36:16
things and getting people more connected with eating seasonally and that kind of stuff. 00:36:22
That's pretty much all I have at this point, so thank you for your time. 00:36:30
One of the great ones that we have that I think's really cool is we have a shrimp ventilation. 00:37:05
So he actually has a cousin who has a shrimp boat in Savannah. So he goes and picks it up Friday morning and then we sell it 00:37:08
Saturday morning. So it's as fresh as you can get it without actually being in Savannah. 00:37:14
So that's been really cool. We've got some people working on getting their cottage license to be in compliance with selling some 00:37:20
baked goods, so we'll have fresh homemade bread as an option soon. 00:37:26
We've got several meat vendors that are coming into play, so we've got a pork vendor and that kind of stuff. We're really working 00:37:33
on trying to have more food options. 00:37:37
As a market, so we're not just like a craft fair. 00:37:43
Because while that's great and everything for the fall festival and that stuff, people go to a farmers market for produce and that 00:37:48
kind of stuff. So we're working with that. I actually am a school resource officer in Barrow County and we are working with our 00:37:54
alternative education program who has a small garden to grow, produce to actually offer and sell there as well. So that's another 00:38:00
project thing, getting our kids in an alternative program in to a sense of community and working out that way. 00:38:06
So does anyone else have any questions or anything else I can help with? 00:38:12
Can you bring back the baby goats? Absolutely. I'd be happy to. 00:38:18
Oh yeah, you just let me know. 00:38:23
That does bring up one other thing that I wanted to talk about. So like in August, we're going to do a movie night with the 00:38:26
market. So I've already kind of talked with. 00:38:31
Toby and everything about us potentially setting up at the old baseball field and doing a projector out there and playing a family 00:38:36
movie and inviting people to come out as the community and enjoy a nice evening. 00:38:43
Just in Watkinsville, so perfect. 00:38:50
As far As for the. 00:38:55
Saturday mornings, it's from 9:00 to 1:00 for right now as the market continues to grow and like I said, we we average 15 to 20 00:38:57
vendors coming right now. The more people that show up, the more vendors we can have and we're looking to hopefully extend the 00:39:03
hours some if we have the the need for that. And we're also looking at possibly doing like a weekday evening market so that you 00:39:09
can kind of get fresh produce midweek. 00:39:15
As well. So just a one marketing suggestion. Yeah, we do have a celebrity farmer in the community who's on national TV. There's 00:39:22
this. I don't know if anybody's seen it, this farmer. 00:39:26
Farmer wants a wife show in Hunter Racing Hunter Grayson. 00:39:31
Is from Watkinsville. So whether it's for your movie night or another time, you know it might be fun to get the Get your Celebrity 00:39:36
Farmer out there, you could have a little bit of fun with that. So I don't know if anybody knows Hunter, but but anyway, OK. 00:39:44
Oh yeah. So that was the other thing. My wife would be mad if I forgot to do that. So we are on Instagram, it's the Oconee Farmers 00:39:53
market and then we're also on Facebook as Oconee Farmers market. We try and make sure that we let you know the vendors that are 00:39:58
going to be there from week to week because it does vary somewhat and then what kind of events that we have going on and that kind 00:40:02
of stuff. 00:40:07
Oh, and we also have a craft tent where kids can come and do a free craft every Saturday. It's no charge to the parents or the 00:40:13
children, and it gets them engaged and coming out to the market too. 00:40:18
So. 00:40:24
And so Kiki is if they need free, if they need fresh shrimp, you know, on a fry on a Saturday, you know, for some great shrimp 00:40:25
tacos, you know, you can just come right down to hair Shoals Park here, so. 00:40:30
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Great. Thank you. All right. Other members of the public, I know we've got some familiar faces here. 00:40:36
Now we got to talk a little bit during the break. Anybody have anything they want to say? 00:40:46
Clerk, did we receive anything in advance? 00:40:50
All right, Laura, come on up. 00:40:54
It does not have to be, can be on whatever's on your mind. Just state your name and address for the record and we will hear you 00:40:57
out. Laura Rose, 104 White St. 00:41:01
I'm delighted that the City Council is trying to develop a historic condition for the city, but I would really like for you guys 00:41:07
to put some more teeth into the enforcing ordinances on my street. There has been a derelict house for 15 years now. The owner of 00:41:14
it for most of that period of time, kept the grass cut. 00:41:21
But didn't do anything else to the house. There's a new owner for over a year. There was a dump truck and a dumpster in the front 00:41:30
yard. 00:41:34
After many complaints, it was finally taken away, but now there is still. 00:41:41
A bathtub. 00:41:46
A hot water. 00:41:48
And the sink in the front yard, along with some boards leading up to the steps of the house with the doors open. It looks like the 00:41:50
house is at the roof, is going to cave in, and I just really feel like there should be some teeth to the ordinances that make 00:41:56
people actually. 00:42:02
Maintain at least some kind of appropriate condition, at least for the front yard. I don't even want to tell you what the backyard 00:42:08
is like. 00:42:12
Do you know the address of the house, Laura? I think it's 60 White Lane. It's hard to miss. 00:42:18
And he's never cut the grass. We'll have code enforcement. Take a look at it. Thank you. 00:42:25
All right. Anything else? 00:42:32
All right, then we will move on to the mayor's report. 00:42:36
Had some exciting things happen in the past month in Watkinsville. We broke ground on the Oconee County Library, Watkinsville 00:42:42
Branch at Wire Park last Friday. 00:42:46
I believe Councilman Garrett and Councilwoman Tucker were there. Thank you all for being there. It was a fun day and that project 00:42:51
is supposed to be complete by the end of the year. Is that correct, Mr. Campbell? 00:42:57
Engineer Campbell, not wearing his engineer hat, is is one of the leaders of the library board and also spoken. Did a wonderful 00:43:05
job. So that was an exciting day for Watkinsville. 00:43:09
I just wanted to highlight one of our longest stand, not our longest, but a wonderful innovative business in Watkinsville to Fosi 00:43:16
Optics celebrated their 20th anniversary. They're one of our international brands in Watkinsville and they celebrated that last 00:43:21
Friday. They market and sell. 00:43:26
Sunglasses and I wear products for everything from video games to cycling to running to outdoors to fishing all over the world. 00:43:32
And they celebrated the big Two of last Friday, so congratulations to our friends. 00:43:37
To Fossey, Joe and Elizabeth Early started that business 20 years ago with just a dream and have built it into something that is. 00:43:43
Really cool. I think it they have actually the leading eyewear product for for running and hiking now. So neat little business 00:43:49
that like a lot that quietly operates in our industrial area. 00:43:54
Sewer line A if you haven't observed it yet, it was kind of slow going getting through. 00:44:01
Jerry Smith Dr. And then a very trick. 00:44:08
Jack and bore around some property but once they got through there they are moving quickly so they are have moved on up to. 00:44:11
To the industrial area and are moving up. I don't think that's industrial drive. What's the other name of that red mark, 00:44:18
Industrial Blvd. 00:44:21
I had that wrong when I sent it to Sharon. That's on me. So they're they're moving along Industrial Blvd. with some more dry 00:44:26
weather. Unless they hit rock, they are fine at this point. So it's really good to see. Hopefully that wraps up pretty soon. 00:44:32
With EV chargers, but if they're very popular then we may add more. But the idea being this will show up on the maps and on the 00:45:12
software. If people want to park while they're traveling through traveling from north to South and visit downtown Watkinsville and 00:45:17
go to our restaurants, they'll be able to. So that's coming soon. 00:45:23
Rocket Field is coming along very quickly. The dugouts and the concession stand were all painted this week. The light bulbs have 00:45:31
been printed, The light bulbs, the light poles have been prepped and they're ready to go up. I think they're just letting those, 00:45:37
the foundation settle in after a lot of rain, making sure they aren't going to move. So those are laid out on the field and ready 00:45:43
to be stood up. Then after that we'll get into a lot of concrete and dirt work. 00:45:49
I think we're still targeting late May, knock on wood to get that project wrapped up. 00:45:56
And but they are moving along and it's really going to be first class. 00:46:02
Hair Shoals Park making progress on our improvements there. You've probably seen the new sign. The bathrooms have been improved 00:46:08
and unless you go way to the back, what you might not have noticed was our big long bridge. 00:46:13
What had a bad sag in? 00:46:20
So our public works department got out there and rebuilt a couple of the foundational pieces of that bridge. 00:46:22
And that's really important. Y'all, because if we let that bridge go, the whole thing could have fallen down into that swamp and 00:46:27
it is a mess back there, so. 00:46:30
Kudos to Toby and team for jumping on that quickly and getting that stood back up. It's a beautiful area back there. 00:46:33
But it's kind of easy to from easy to forget about if you don't go back there. So as soon as we noticed that, they got back there 00:46:40
and got on that and got that stood back up. 00:46:44
Some big news on hair Shoals. 00:46:49
Again, I try not to get too hopeful about state or federal funding because we never know if we're going to get it, but we have 00:46:52
been shortlisted. 00:46:55
And Senator Warnock is suggesting Parishes Park for a potential $3.2 million appropriation. 00:46:59
To implement our hair Shoals, master. 00:47:08
Plan. So that has a ways to go. It's got to get through the Appropriations Committee, then it's got to get through the federal 00:47:11
budget process. So we're not going to get our hopes up too much. 00:47:16
But this is out in the public eye at this point, and I thought it would make sense for us to notify everyone of that. Christine, 00:47:21
Councilwoman Tucker. 00:47:26
And. 00:47:31
And Councilwoman Massey put a lot of work into getting that master plan done. So we're really excited if we can leverage some 00:47:32
federal dollars to activate that and move that quickly forward once we have the dollars. But it will probably be at least a year 00:47:38
before we know if we're going to actually get those. 00:47:43
Get those funds. 00:47:50
Anyway, cross your fingers, cross your toes, say a little prayer. If you know about anybody in Washington, put a good word in for 00:47:51
us. But that would be huge for those of you who need contacts. Are newcomers here tonight from Key Case, our total budget in 00:47:57
Watkinsville is about $2.6 million, so this would be more than our budget. 00:48:02
To improve the park back there. So that would be that would be tremendous. It would allow us to really do implement our plan in a 00:48:08
very meaningful way. 00:48:11
Just a little bit of recognition for the crew that redid City Hall. Landscaping continues to progress. The plants that Mark 00:48:18
planted are really starting to grow out front. We have sod and our little island. That didn't look great. Sharon, I really 00:48:23
appreciate you and the team. 00:48:28
Making sure our first impression is very positive. We have more visitors than ever now to City Hall to visit the playground, so 00:48:34
it's we're making an important first impression on the public when they visit. It really looks great and the Christine Tucker Blue 00:48:39
also looks great, so. 00:48:44
Also had the pleasure to meet with the new leader of the Oconee campus of the University of North Georgia, Russell Willis, earlier 00:48:51
this month and walk him through Watkinsville and talk about a few potential partnerships. We had a great meal at Lalos and he 00:48:57
actually met one of his students there who needed a little bit of help navigating some administrative stuff. So it turned out to 00:49:03
be very convenient for him. So we had a great visit and I think he'll do a nice job. 00:49:09
And I don't know who this guy is, but he had a birthday on Sunday. 00:49:18
You know, turn 21. So it was a big day. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. 00:49:23
And we'll move on to council member reports. 00:49:28
Unless there's any other surprises, we'll start with Councilman. 00:49:31
All right, Councilwoman. 00:49:35
And from K. 00:49:38
Councilman. 00:49:40
Hey, good evening everybody. Hey, you know service doesn't just stop when I leave Watkinsville. I wanted y'all to know that. I 00:49:44
appreciate that the opportunity to be here. I am leading an effort here in Kuwait at the US. 00:49:52
We have rebuilt a back patio. 00:50:02
And it is is absolutely gorgeous. I have to get y'all some pictures of what we're doing here. 00:50:07
To show we've saved the the USO organization with through volunteer hours. Over 1000 volunteer hours, we've saved the USO. 00:50:13
About $30,000. 00:50:22
Build this back patio so it's it's a great organization and and. 00:50:25
I just want y'all to know that the service continues. 00:50:30
Abroad when I am not there, so I greatly appreciate y'all allowing me to continue to serve from abroad and I look forward to 00:50:35
getting back home here in a few months. 00:50:40
Well, we appreciate your service and everything you're doing, Councilman, we really do. So we. But we can't wait to have you back 00:50:46
in Watkinsville. 00:50:49
All right, Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 00:50:54
So the main things we already talked about with the DBA update and mentioning the creative place making committee. 00:50:56
Also, we put out a call. 00:51:07
For some public art to start life. 00:51:10
I've got it on. 00:51:16
Overtime lining the pad. Unless we get that grant then. 00:51:20
Very excited to see what we would do in this space but to start lining the path the hair shows park up to the new playground and 00:51:23
possibilities in City Hall and. 00:51:29
My understanding is we only have one. 00:51:36
Submission from an artist. So we have put the deadline would be at the end of April. 00:51:40
But I just want a reminder of that. 00:51:45
You guys know any artists? It should be something, that is. 00:51:49
Can be touched by children. I mean, it doesn't have to be like an interactive thing, but it's just something that you know. 00:51:55
It should be child friendly, It should be focused on our native flora and fauna in the park. 00:52:01
And there's a relatively healthy, I mean, I am not an artist, so I do not understand all of the budget. But what I hear is it's 00:52:06
actually a relatively healthy. 00:52:10
Budget for an artist because we do believe in paying artists for their work so would love to see a few more. 00:52:13
All. 00:52:25
Councilman Camp. 00:52:26
The only thing I have is on the historic preservation. Scott Nesbitt is not sure if his class is going to be able to do the 00:52:29
project. 00:52:33
They said they said that class, so he's trying to see how he can make it work. 00:52:37
He gave me Jennifer Lewis's phone number last night. 00:52:41
She's someone who has LED shreds in regards to historic preservations. I want to contact her. 00:52:45
Hopefully tomorrow and kind of learn. 00:52:52
How she can help us? 00:52:56
More about the process. So then I'll wait to hear back from Scott in regards to. 00:52:58
What other ideas or options we have? It's not dead that it's asking into a via. Sounds like he wants to possibly have another 00:53:03
class to. 00:53:07
Waiting to hear that. 00:53:11
That's all I got. 00:53:13
All right. Thank you, Councilman Campbell. 00:53:16
With that, I'll ask for a motion to leave regular session and go into executive session for the purpose of discussing. 00:53:19
Personnel, real estate and threatened and pending litigation, which is Y'all's opportunity. 00:53:26
To exit and once that motion is made and approved. 00:53:32
Motion to leave to go into executive session. 00:53:37
For the formation reasons, we have a second. 00:53:39
All right, All in favor. Say aye. 00:53:45
Aye. 00:53:47
Mayor. 00:53:49
All right, I'll entertain a motion to Do we need a motion any other motion other than to adjourn? 00:53:51
I make a motion to adjourn. Second, all in favor, Say aye. 00:53:57