No Bookmarks Exist.
Good evening and welcome to the July Watkinsville City Council meeting. We do have a quorum here with us tonight. We're. | 00:00:04 | |
Councilman Garrett will be unable to join us due to a family emergency, and we're hopeful that we'll hear from Councilman Thomas | 00:00:11 | |
from Kuwait. But if he does not join us, we have three out of five, so we do have a quorum. At this point, I'd love to do the | 00:00:17 | |
pledge. Please stand. | 00:00:22 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:00:30 | |
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:00:36 | |
As this typical, our meeting is being broadcast simultaneously on the Suite 1 webcasting app. Those who are not able to attend our | 00:00:47 | |
meetings can always watch them online. There's also recordings posted online afterwards. The full agenda is also aligned with | 00:00:52 | |
that, so you can go through the materials at the same time as a citizen. Our agenda and materials are posted the Friday before our | 00:00:57 | |
meetings typically, which allows citizens to comment and offer thoughts in advance if they care to do that and can't join us at | 00:01:02 | |
the meeting. | 00:01:08 | |
We do have a relatively informal public comment process that is guided by the mayor, attorney and council. We will have some | 00:01:14 | |
formal moments that will require public hearings, will address those when we come. | 00:01:19 | |
Do you have something you want to speak about? Raise your hand. And at Council and attorney's discretion, we may allow that we | 00:01:25 | |
would ask that all those comments be respectful and not be negative, and that all comments are addressed to council, not to the | 00:01:30 | |
crowd. I do anticipate a pretty short meeting tonight, so we'll move quickly through things. | 00:01:36 | |
But obviously if y'all want to unpack or get into something, we will. The first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes | 00:01:41 | |
from the June 21st, 2023 regular meeting. I'll entertain a motion. | 00:01:46 | |
To approve those unless anyone has any comments or suggestions or edits or corrections. | 00:01:52 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:01:58 | |
2nd, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All right, Motion carries 30. Next up, we'll have approval of | 00:02:00 | |
the agenda under. We do have a. | 00:02:05 | |
Items that we need to address there under administration, we need to add an item 3A Downtown Development Authority update under | 00:02:11 | |
new business item 16, we'll have some tea spots program. | 00:02:16 | |
Amendments and under New Business item 17, a Spouse 3 proposed funding request. Those are both related to the additional parking | 00:02:22 | |
that we plan to install. | 00:02:27 | |
Downtown. | 00:02:32 | |
I also note that on the consent agenda, I'm going to let Mayor Pro Tem Tucker manage that. There is an item related to the city's | 00:02:34 | |
banking process there, and I recuse from all banking related matters given my my involvement with the county State Bank. So when | 00:02:40 | |
it comes time for that Mayor Pro Tem, I will step out and allow you to administer the consent agenda. As a reminder, if there's | 00:02:46 | |
anything that anyone wants to remove from the consent agenda, now would be the time to indicate that. | 00:02:52 | |
So I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda with the new items 3816 and 17. | 00:02:59 | |
And if anyone wants to remove an item from the consent agenda at this point? | 00:03:04 | |
I make a motion to approve the agenda with the additions noted. | 00:03:10 | |
Second. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed motion carries 3O. | 00:03:15 | |
We will move on to administration. This is when Sharon Dickerson or Mayor Manager Dickerson, excuse me, reminds us of our, reminds | 00:03:23 | |
us of our. | 00:03:28 | |
Financial situation and then we also get some updates on downtown Development Authority activities. So with that, I'll turn it | 00:03:32 | |
over to our City Manager, Sharon Dickerson. Thank you, Mayor. So everybody should have received the balance sheet as well as the | 00:03:38 | |
profit and loss for the revenues and the expenses through the end of June. I will note that I do anticipate that we will be under | 00:03:43 | |
budget. | 00:03:48 | |
For the fiscal year, however, I can't tell you that for sure until the audits actually done. Auditors did come in this past week | 00:03:54 | |
and everything went well with that. They don't plan to come back till October, which is always a good sign, but we are, we still | 00:04:00 | |
have some outstanding expenses as well as revenues that have to be reconciled and that will all be done through the audit process. | 00:04:05 | |
So are there any questions about any of that? | 00:04:10 | |
OK. You may recall I mentioned I think last month that Splice One is closed out. We use the rest of those funds to pay for sewer | 00:04:17 | |
line a construction. We still have some funds left. | 00:04:22 | |
In this budget to pay for sewer line A that project is completed but we are waiting for the invoices, final invoices to come in | 00:04:27 | |
and. | 00:04:31 | |
From what I've been told, the county believes they're going to come in under budget, which would be really great, but we'll wait | 00:04:35 | |
and see how that looks and hopefully next month we'll be able to report that to you. | 00:04:39 | |
On Spice Three, you remember we began this in October of last year. We have quite a few projects going on in that. We have the | 00:04:45 | |
work at Hair Shoals Park and Rocket Field and we just purchased some. We just used some of that money to purchase some replacement | 00:04:51 | |
vehicles. | 00:04:56 | |
For the Police Department and for the public. | 00:05:03 | |
We this is one of the projects, it's a six year or 72 month project, so we're not very far along in it but. | 00:05:05 | |
So far we are averaging. | 00:05:13 | |
You know 83,000 or so this year, I think overall I don't have that average up, but probably around 76 or 77,000 on average since | 00:05:17 | |
we began and that's how you have to look at it and I'll talk about that in a minute. About T Spice, we we, we estimate an average | 00:05:22 | |
which you know it grows over time. So initially we may not get that much money but by the end we will average that amount. That's | 00:05:27 | |
how we look at it so. | 00:05:32 | |
Auntie's lost and the difference between just point out again the difference between spots three and T splashes plus three was | 00:05:39 | |
under the old percentage that we had under our intergovernmental agreement with Oconee County of 8.63%. Our teaspoons is under a | 00:05:46 | |
new one which is 7.77%. But we are dealing with a larger tax base. So there's some differences, not a huge, some challenges but | 00:05:54 | |
not as huge of a difference as you might expect. We do have two months of revenues now for for teaspost. | 00:06:01 | |
Tonight you guys will be talking about one of the programming requests we have for spending some of that money. And last month you | 00:06:09 | |
approved about $200,000 for some connectivity sidewalks and stuff to connect the citizens for our transportation. | 00:06:16 | |
Plan Here's what it looks like just on a month to month. Again pointed out that even though we were, we were hoping or the plan | 00:06:23 | |
is, is that we will average a. | 00:06:26 | |
The estimated average over the life of it will be around 78,000. So right now we're on the lower end, but again. | 00:06:32 | |
A lot of things change and that that's how it was. It was designed. | 00:06:38 | |
On the American Rescue Plan report, that money is being held right now. Some of it is being has been encumbered for police | 00:06:42 | |
incentives for retention to to attract and retain our officers. The rest of the money I believe council will be making a decision | 00:06:48 | |
as we move forward with the purchase of the 100 acres, maybe using some of that money to to buy down the cost of that of that | 00:06:53 | |
loan. | 00:06:59 | |
Any questions on any of those reports? | 00:07:05 | |
OK, I'll move to the economic development. | 00:07:09 | |
We've got three business licenses that were received and other than that that's pretty quiet, a little bit of insurance payment | 00:07:13 | |
there. | 00:07:16 | |
And then the excise collection report mentioned that we do now collect alcohol excise taxes as well as short term vacation rental | 00:07:20 | |
or hotel motel and that number is we I think we estimated for the budget year, fiscal year 23 around $7000 or so I think for short | 00:07:27 | |
term vacation rentals. So we've more than exceeded that what we you know estimated. | 00:07:33 | |
And we've identified I think four more that we're fine. So we're learning about they don't tell you you got to find them not | 00:07:41 | |
really easy but and we're getting it hopefully going to get them all registered and then those taxes will be coming to us and not | 00:07:46 | |
to the county or not back to you know or maybe not going to anybody so. | 00:07:51 | |
On the economic development side, we had 22 permits for 15 projects. The mayor will probably mention this a little bit later, but | 00:07:58 | |
we have a lot of work going on back at Wire Park, on some residential, on the flats that are being built. | 00:08:04 | |
For house, I'm sorry, three houses over at. | 00:08:10 | |
And then some sign issues and things like that. | 00:08:14 | |
A lot of work going on in the city. Any questions? | 00:08:17 | |
Had any of those? | 00:08:20 | |
Thank you. | 00:08:23 | |
All right. Thank you. Manager Dickerson will now hear an update on the Downtown Development Authority from Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. | 00:08:25 | |
OK, so exciting news today, we learned. | 00:08:32 | |
Today we learned that we have been accepted into the Georgia Main Street Program and it will be on our agenda next month. Is that | 00:08:38 | |
correct? | 00:08:44 | |
But that will give new opportunities for our city and Kate. So that our DBA Director has been doing an amazing job. Also a lot of | 00:08:52 | |
work going into applying for our rural designation application is a lot of work and that is due August 18th. She is making good | 00:09:00 | |
progress on that. That's something that's very competitive. So we may not get it we. | 00:09:08 | |
Having lower income as part of that qualification, and we are fortunately in a community that doesn't have a lot of that. But | 00:09:18 | |
there are some other factors. A lot of it depends on who all else is applying at the same time. So we might get it, we might not. | 00:09:24 | |
And then our creative placemaking committee has continued to work. | 00:09:31 | |
We have, I think I announced last month that the event is going to be October 14th at Rocket Field. There's going to be a great | 00:09:39 | |
swing band. | 00:09:43 | |
That Councilman Campbell helped us procure what the splits That's going to be. Lots of fun. They're going to be local restaurants. | 00:09:49 | |
There's also a big public art component. And so we have. | 00:09:56 | |
We have a local artist that is creating five pieces of public art that communicates our our kind of our mission and our community. | 00:10:05 | |
Our industry, Our hospitality. | 00:10:17 | |
Our arts, our sense of community overall, and everyone in the community comes will have an opportunity to actually paint on. | 00:10:20 | |
These pieces of art, she's drawn them out and it's kind of like a big paint by members. And then they'll be displayed publicly in | 00:10:30 | |
a newly activated little kind of pocket park that we are hoping to have. And then local businesses are sponsoring these pieces of | 00:10:36 | |
art too. So it's also a fundraiser for the DDA to help continue to improve our downtown. So lots of exciting things happening with | 00:10:41 | |
that. | 00:10:47 | |
I. | 00:10:54 | |
And if you do not, if you're on social media, make sure that you follow the DBA on Facebook. | 00:10:55 | |
Oh, signs. Oh, and also you can see an example. Those of y'all out here can see the example. We have new place wayfinding signs | 00:11:01 | |
going in throughout downtown that are really exciting and I was not part of the arrow placement, but bless everyone that was | 00:11:08 | |
making sure with because how many there are 11/12/12 different signs. So obviously depending on where they are, the arrows have to | 00:11:15 | |
be various places. So those were waiting still on the. | 00:11:23 | |
Stakes posts that they're going to be going on, they're going to be nicer than just like a normal stop sign kind of thing. So | 00:11:31 | |
we're still waiting on those and then you'll start seeing those popping up around. | 00:11:35 | |
That was a pretty tedious process, so thank you for your leadership on that. And I'm chief Tedderton time for your report. Tell us | 00:12:13 | |
about the great efforts of your team. | 00:12:17 | |
Make sure. | 00:12:23 | |
I think we got it this time. Good evening, Mayor and council. | 00:12:24 | |
You should have received. | 00:12:28 | |
Report packet and if anyone has any questions. | 00:12:30 | |
Go ahead and ask away some of the community events that we've been involved in. | 00:12:35 | |
We've been staying pretty busy on July 4th. The Police Department, a lot of the Daughters of American Revolution and. | 00:12:40 | |
Councilwoman Massey assisted us in putting out 105 flags on US veterans graves. | 00:12:48 | |
We also started our first planning session for our Christmas parade. We have that upcoming and we're continuing our planning for | 00:12:54 | |
our Run for Responders and Fall Festival in October at Veterans Park. | 00:12:59 | |
And trunk or treat? | 00:13:04 | |
We are planning a makeover and cleanup day at Walking Soul Cemetery with assistance for Dollars American Revolution, several local | 00:13:10 | |
scout groups that we're going to kick off and we're just going to do some general cleanup and brush removal and things like that | 00:13:14 | |
out there. | 00:13:17 | |
Under officer training, we've got some guys that are away at training right now and some other training coming up. We did host a | 00:13:22 | |
first responder training event here for eighteen officers where they learned CPR and AED and Narcan. | 00:13:28 | |
13 were our people and five were sheriff's. | 00:13:35 | |
So it's kind of an over wrap of that. For the recap, I want to go over the interesting case of the month. I'll let you take a look | 00:13:39 | |
at that. It's pretty funny. | 00:13:42 | |
On Officer Activ. | 00:13:47 | |
We stayed pretty busy for this month. We had 987 security checks of local businesses and homes. | 00:13:49 | |
We handed out 162 traffic citations. We made three arrests with two juvenile warnings for marijuana. We elected not to arrest a | 00:13:56 | |
juveniles or start their criminal career. We handle that using alternative plan. | 00:14:02 | |
So 5 total there 16113 total calls for. | 00:14:09 | |
And on the citations, just to show we're not bad people, we didn't actually write 100 and 6294 of those were for warning. | 00:14:15 | |
So 96 of them dealt with speeding cases. | 00:14:22 | |
That is talking about speeding. We addressed 2 citizen concerns on speeding. One was on Katie Lane and one was on Jackson. And the | 00:14:27 | |
way we did that is we went out there and we put up our traffic warning boards which also record speed as well, as did officer | 00:14:34 | |
presence. And we learned a couple things. Both of those areas are 25 mph, so. | 00:14:41 | |
If you look at the numbers that I gave you on Katie Lane, there was 137 cars that went by there per week and we had the signs out | 00:14:49 | |
for two weeks monitoring both. | 00:14:53 | |
The average speed recorder was only 14 mph, where the 85th percentile being 22 1/2, still under the posted limit. | 00:14:58 | |
The highest recorded speed was at 3:00 in the morning on Katie Lane at 32 mph, which was 7 over the posted limit. So we didn't | 00:15:06 | |
really. | 00:15:10 | |
The things that. | 00:15:15 | |
Was being brought up. | 00:15:17 | |
Then on Jackson St. we responded to another complaint. There they had 101 cars, average for a week, for two. | 00:15:19 | |
The average speed recorded was only 12 mph. Jackson Street, if you're not familiar, is. | 00:15:26 | |
Pretty narrow and pretty short. | 00:15:31 | |
The 85th percentile was again under the posted limit, 21 1/2. | 00:15:34 | |
And the highest recorded speed at 2:00 in the morning was 29 or 4 miles over the posted speed limit. | 00:15:38 | |
So not a lot happened, but we take those complaints very seriously and we went out there to see what we could find out. | 00:15:44 | |
On North Main. But yeah, we can relocate those signs during the school time. | 00:16:26 | |
So you're. I'm sorry. So you're running it for a week one way and a week the other? Yes, ma'am. | 00:16:31 | |
Without relocating assignment and assign his own city right away, property is mowed by the city we're not encroaching now on. | 00:16:36 | |
Jackson St. We had the offer of a local resident. There was number place on Jackson to put it other than in her yard and she was | 00:16:43 | |
happy to allow us to do that. | 00:16:47 | |
Yeah, just. Anyways, I just want to say, you know, again, these signs are awesome tools. I mean, we get so many complaints about | 00:16:52 | |
speeding. | 00:16:56 | |
There's always going to be somebody driving crazy, but to understand that, you know. | 00:17:01 | |
90% of people are going or 85% of people are going below the speed limit on those roads, and a lot of the other and most of the | 00:17:05 | |
others probably aren't even. | 00:17:09 | |
10 over is is really where we're Vincent, from making decisions based on anecdotal evidence. So thank you. | 00:17:12 | |
If you guys have a breakdown, if you have any questions at all, feel free to call me, reach out to me, I'll be glad to help you at | 00:17:20 | |
any time and other than that I think. | 00:17:23 | |
One and done. | 00:17:27 | |
OK. Thanks. | 00:17:32 | |
All right. Thank you, Chief. All right. At this point, I'm going to step out and let Mayor Pro Tem handle the consent agenda. | 00:17:33 | |
Just waiting till the mayor Brock. OK, so. | 00:17:50 | |
Is there a motion? | 00:17:55 | |
Approve the consent agenda. | 00:17:58 | |
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. | 00:18:00 | |
Is there a second A? | 00:18:05 | |
All in favor. | 00:18:08 | |
All right. | 00:18:11 | |
30. | 00:18:13 | |
And back. | 00:18:16 | |
All right, we will move on to a public hearing. Public hearings are one of those areas where we do have very specific requirements | 00:18:23 | |
for how. | 00:18:27 | |
Common procedures are done. Comments should only be direct related to the agenda items. Speak only from the podium, 4 minutes per | 00:18:32 | |
person. Refrain from debate. Argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant. Discussion address only the merits of the pending matter | 00:18:38 | |
and address remarks directly to council. Council cannot speak to potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters. | 00:18:44 | |
Public input will be allowed after council receives the reports from the staff and or the applicant. Tonight I think we have a | 00:18:51 | |
public hearing for a variance on 1281 Christian Dr. Parcel B, Mr. Samples. I'm going to let Engineer Campbell give us the staff | 00:18:57 | |
report on the variance and then we'll have the applicant come forward to give us their comments as well. So I'll turn it over at | 00:19:03 | |
this point to engineer. | 00:19:09 | |
Mark Campbell, welcome back. We missed you last month if my memory serves right, not with us. So glad you're here, appreciate it. | 00:19:16 | |
So the variance request tonight, as the mayor said it is for 1281 Christian Drive. This is a request for variance to reduce the | 00:19:22 | |
side set back at that location that is in with within the Christian Lake subdivision. So the side set back for detached | 00:19:28 | |
residential zoning there is 10 feet. By code. The request is to reduce that for five feet and specifically related to the proposed | 00:19:34 | |
construction of a detached garage. | 00:19:40 | |
So if you don't know exactly where 1281 Christian Drive is located, you can see it highlighted there within the Christian Lake | 00:19:46 | |
subdivision and the following slide is a markup of a recent survey that was completed. You can see the the location of the house | 00:19:54 | |
is not in the center of the lot. I would say that the existing concrete driveway is approximately in the center of that lot | 00:20:02 | |
location and so to access this proposed attached garage, it would utilize the existing concrete driveway access and then. | 00:20:09 | |
The rear of that detached garage would be facing the side of the property and that's where that encroachment variance request | 00:20:18 | |
would be, again from 10 feet to five feet to allow for the garage to be constructed by utilizing that existing that also allows | 00:20:24 | |
the front of that garage to face the existing structure and therefore the front of the garage does not face the the roadway | 00:20:30 | |
itself. That would be a completely different variance if that were the case. So you can see that the mark up there, here's a | 00:20:36 | |
here's a picture that gives you an idea. | 00:20:42 | |
After the sign had been posted for this required public hearing at tonight's meeting, you can see there are some existing trees | 00:20:48 | |
that are on what I'll call the southern side of that concrete driveway. The applicants indicated that those trees will will stay | 00:20:55 | |
when it had to be removed to to construct this drive. So there's already some vegetation kind of in that area. | 00:21:02 | |
Yeah, there's the code section. You can see 5.02 point I2B4A which states decide your set back should be a minimum of 10 feet in | 00:21:10 | |
order to. | 00:21:15 | |
Seek the request or grant the request, I guess it's been salt is for of reduction to five feet and allow that structure to come in | 00:21:21 | |
again based on the final comment there based on information provided to the staff, no portion of that proposed structure will be | 00:21:28 | |
closer to the roadway than the existing primary residence. | 00:21:35 | |
Be happy to answer any questions you might have. | 00:21:42 | |
Council Any questions for Engineer Campbell? | 00:21:46 | |
OK, none. I'll invite the applicant up or their representative to add any information that they want to add before we. | 00:21:50 | |
Before we invite the public forward, we are in a public hearing. I think I failed to note that earlier. So this is a technically a | 00:21:57 | |
public hearing. | 00:22:01 | |
Hey, I'm Jay Harrison. I'm the builder representing the Samples family. | 00:22:05 | |
Thank you engineer you you covered it perfectly the entire. | 00:22:11 | |
Reason that we're applying for this is so that we can face the garage opposite of the existing garage that is attached to the | 00:22:16 | |
house. | 00:22:20 | |
And the way we have this figured up and laid out, this is more for even just for the cornice that is going to go on the House so | 00:22:25 | |
that it matches the existing structure. So that's really going to be the only part that is encroaching. We wanted to give | 00:22:32 | |
ourselves just a little bit of wiggle room if need be, but it is. The garage doors will match up and face each other completely. | 00:22:39 | |
And it is concealed mostly by the existing Leland cypresses that are on site, so there really won't be that much visibility from | 00:22:46 | |
the. | 00:22:51 | |
Neighborhood So. | 00:22:56 | |
Any other questions? | 00:23:00 | |
Questions. | 00:23:02 | |
Is the Christian like HOA fine with this? So it's already yes. We've gotten approval from the HOA and and from the neighbor as | 00:23:05 | |
well, and the neighbor. | 00:23:09 | |
And in in case those Cleveland cypresses. | 00:23:15 | |
I shouldn't say in case they when they. | 00:23:19 | |
The the the architecture and the look and feel of this structure is matches the home currently correct. So it's it'll have, you | 00:23:22 | |
know Hardy plank siding, it'll have the matching roof pitch. Everything about the garage will look exactly to match up with the | 00:23:29 | |
existing structure down to the windows and and shutters and all that good stuff so. | 00:23:37 | |
OK, I'm curious what why? Why not put it where the? | 00:23:47 | |
Realize it's a separate variance, but why not have it where the driveway dead ends into this garage? | 00:23:53 | |
Because there's already precedent. The 2nd house on the right in the neighborhood on that street has a detached garage where the | 00:23:59 | |
garage faces the street. Sure, we didn't want to remove any more trees, and there's an existing fence on the property as well. | 00:24:06 | |
And they there's also also the septic tank, So this is really the the logical place to put it and it creates a sort of motorcade | 00:24:14 | |
there. | 00:24:19 | |
So that. | 00:24:25 | |
That's our reasoning on. | 00:24:27 | |
And our code also strongly discourages front facing garages. | 00:24:29 | |
Yep. | 00:24:34 | |
OK. | 00:24:36 | |
Any other comments? | 00:24:38 | |
All right, we are in a public hearing. I know we have at least one neighbor here. Any comments you wish to make or questions you | 00:24:42 | |
wish to ask? | 00:24:45 | |
No, OK. All right. Just want to be sure. Thank you for coming tonight. | 00:24:50 | |
I'm sorry, looking at that picture. | 00:24:55 | |
I don't. | 00:25:00 | |
Is that the house? I mean, I don't see the garage on that side. | 00:25:01 | |
The rest of the door there so the. | 00:25:14 | |
Left of the photo or the Leland cypresses that and so the the. | 00:25:18 | |
Detached or other proposed detached garages is going to be behind those trees. So now I understand that, but the current garage is | 00:25:21 | |
a front. | 00:25:25 | |
Oh, it's right. OK, Sorry, I'm just. | 00:25:32 | |
Apologies for the photographer skills. | 00:25:38 | |
There's good foliage, so you know it's. | 00:25:41 | |
So the garage is pushed to the front of the house, but on the side. | 00:25:48 | |
Yeah. | 00:25:52 | |
I was wondering the same thing in the picture if I was missing something, but OK, great. | 00:25:53 | |
All right. Any other comments, questions. | 00:25:58 | |
All right, I will close. | 00:26:02 | |
I'll close the public hearing at this point. | 00:26:05 | |
And then we will move on to appearances. And again, during this appearance, we'll have a 10 minute time limit for appearances per | 00:26:09 | |
this guideline of state zoning procedures, laws. I don't think we need that because item 13. | 00:26:14 | |
Is simply a vote on the variance we just discussed. | 00:26:20 | |
So does anyone care to come forward and make any comments about what we just discussed? | 00:26:23 | |
Don't anticipate that, nor do I see it. So at this point I'll entertain. | 00:26:29 | |
A motion regarding the variance request at 1281 Christian Drive. | 00:26:34 | |
I make a motion to approve the variance request. | 00:26:38 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? | 00:26:46 | |
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? | 00:26:49 | |
Motion carries 30. Thanks for being here. | 00:26:53 | |
All right. Yep. All right. We'll move on to old business where we have none, we'll move on to new business. And there we're going | 00:26:56 | |
to talk about some drainage work on column ferry extension. | 00:27:01 | |
And appropriation of some spots for three funds. | 00:27:07 | |
To hopefully. | 00:27:10 | |
Resolve some of that situation so manager Dickerson is going to walk us through. | 00:27:12 | |
Thank you, Mayor. So as the Mayor mentioned, we do have some drainage issues that we've been monitoring for a while and we are | 00:27:16 | |
requesting tonight approval to replace the drain pipe on column, ferry extension and Rep. | 00:27:23 | |
The affected area, that's the cost of about a little bit more than $3000, which Oconee County's road department is going to help | 00:27:30 | |
us with. | 00:27:34 | |
We do intend to use those funds to use some sorry L nick funds that are in the Splos 3. | 00:27:39 | |
Project to pay for this, just a reminder that we do receive those ELMIG funds from G dot every year for the center lane miles that | 00:27:46 | |
we have in the city. We get a certain amount of money, not a lot, roughly just a little bit under $50,000. And this year you guys | 00:27:52 | |
approved the money to be spent on repaving Bunny Hop Trail, which is currently trying. We're trying to get that scheduled right | 00:27:57 | |
now. | 00:28:03 | |
We have about $10,000, eight to $10,000 left in that ELMIG project that we could use funds for, so we're suggesting use 3200 of | 00:28:09 | |
that for this project. | 00:28:15 | |
And just to reiterate that this is something we've been monitoring for a while. | 00:28:22 | |
We did have the county. It was a little bit more expertise in this look at it as well as one of our council members look at it and | 00:28:28 | |
and our city engineer and everything that he's had sort of a take that we feel like if we can replace that that pipe to continue | 00:28:34 | |
to convey that water away from the road and from the residents that will be helpful. It's a very little expense for I think a big | 00:28:41 | |
win. So we are requesting that you approve it. Any questions? | 00:28:47 | |
I know we have Mr. McReynolds from Colin Perry extension here tonight. Do you have any thoughts or anything you want to add on the | 00:28:59 | |
situation, Mr. McReynolds? | 00:29:02 | |
If you do, you need to step up. But if you don't, you can stay where you are. So yeah, thank you. | 00:29:08 | |
The new culvert would would. | 00:29:18 | |
I don't think that it's going to solve the issue. | 00:29:21 | |
Because of the way the water runs over the. | 00:29:25 | |
From the park over the street. | 00:29:28 | |
It doesn't even go into that culvert, but it will help with the water coming down the street. | 00:29:32 | |
But as far as the coming over from the. | 00:29:38 | |
It goes on top of that cover. | 00:29:41 | |
So. | 00:29:45 | |
It will be a it would be great to get a new, bigger culvert in. | 00:29:46 | |
And then, hopefully, the railroad will. | 00:29:50 | |
Clear out the rest of it, Yeah. I think we're working on that issue on a separate track, pardon the pond, but right with the | 00:29:53 | |
railroad. Yep. OK. Alright. Thank you. | 00:29:58 | |
Council So you've heard the recommendation of the manager. I think that's a good value for what gets done there. | 00:30:03 | |
Any questions for manager Dickerson? | 00:30:10 | |
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. | 00:30:13 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:30:17 | |
Yes. | 00:30:21 | |
Option one stated on the screen. | 00:30:25 | |
Second. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion, questions, hearing none. All in favor, say aye, | 00:30:30 | |
aye, Any opposed. That motion carries 3 O and we'll move on. | 00:30:35 | |
The amendment to Code Ordinance Code Chapter 6 around animals. | 00:30:41 | |
Manager Dickerson I'll let you sell as much or as little about this as you want to Well I'm going to I'm actually going to pitch | 00:30:48 | |
most of it to our city attorney but so chapter 6 is going to become Chapter 10 I believe is how the it's been written up and | 00:30:54 | |
chapter 10 which is only one small little piece of moved 11 and that's how he's written up but generally this is this came to | 00:30:59 | |
light because we had one of our employees who got bit by a dog in the in the community and. | 00:31:05 | |
Plus pages long around 2020, which was on the heels of a couple state law changes that gave more authority, more more power to the | 00:31:47 | |
local animal control officers, Animal Services officers to regulate for the purpose of keeping the public health, safety, welfare, | 00:31:55 | |
keep citizens protected from dangerous dogs, vicious dogs, and so forth. All of that and much more is covered in here. You will | 00:32:02 | |
know that even after significant cleanup and simplification. | 00:32:10 | |
Keeping all the numbering, keeping all the sections and subsections so the county can meaningfully enforce our ordinance or assist | 00:32:18 | |
us in doing so. | 00:32:22 | |
That nonetheless, it is still 15 pages long. There's a lot to it, but. | 00:32:26 | |
Been through it. Manager Dickerson's been through it very carefully. It's a good product. I think the county did overall a good | 00:32:32 | |
job of covering the waterfront. Not just dangerous dogs, vicious dogs, but the conditions in which the animals live. Animals | 00:32:37 | |
running at large, feral cat colonies. | 00:32:42 | |
Traps, spay, neuter and release. I mean, it's got all the bells and whistles. Some of this I recognize from the animal control | 00:32:49 | |
person that went from Madison up to Oak County. Gosh, it's probably been seven or eight years ago. I think her name is Crystal and | 00:32:55 | |
did a really good job with bringing some of her new information, ideas and ordinance provisions up to Oconee. | 00:33:01 | |
So Unicode will take care of getting all that updated online and integrating that correct, And then the one thing we have spent | 00:33:50 | |
time on in the past is tethering. | 00:33:54 | |
Does. | 00:33:58 | |
Did we look at our old code? Is there a substantive difference around tethering in our old code? And what's in this? I don't | 00:34:00 | |
remember other than to say I thought I saw something on tethering and on restrictions. It says at page four. In the middle of the | 00:34:06 | |
page, tethered means attached to a stationary object or pulley system by chain, rope, cable, or similar device, not including a | 00:34:13 | |
leash. I thought I remembered seeing in here a reference to tethering needs to be under supervision for the safety of the dog. Do | 00:34:19 | |
you remember the same thing, Sharon? | 00:34:25 | |
I just, I keep putting my hands right on it. I might be able to in a minute, but I do believe it's probably, I can't say with | 00:34:32 | |
certainty, but I think it's probably consistent with our prior discussions. | 00:34:37 | |
All right. Well, I'm comfortable moving this forward tonight, but I know at some point Julie will remember in the in Connie May in | 00:34:44 | |
the past six or eight years we have had. | 00:34:48 | |
Extensive discussions around tethering and whether it's appropriate or not. And then the other gap sometimes that are in there is | 00:34:53 | |
does it account for invisible fences as it relates to animals at all? It talks about under control so restraint on the property | 00:35:00 | |
not running at large is a specific clause on running at large at 10 dash 92 middle page 8 and owner will prevent it from running | 00:35:07 | |
at large. So assuming argue window that the fence works. | 00:35:14 | |
And it keeps the animal under restraint on the property from running at large. Then I would say that would suffice, yeah. And then | 00:35:22 | |
on section 10/10/96, item one, it says an animal may not be chained, tied, fastened, or otherwise tethered to dog houses, trees, | 00:35:27 | |
fences, vehicles, or other stationary objects, except the animal may be temporarily confined by each other while attended by its | 00:35:32 | |
owner. | 00:35:37 | |
So that confirms, OK. I think we then cover those bases good questions or any other questions about it. | 00:35:44 | |
Thank you, Sir. | 00:35:50 | |
OK. Yeah, they're just that may come back. We may have to talk about that later, but I'm comfortable moving it forward tonight as | 00:35:52 | |
a practical matter. | 00:35:56 | |
And we do have the other practical matter of if we diverge from the county, it'll probably have to be pursuant to a discussion | 00:36:00 | |
with them on diverging and make sure we have a comfort level and how do we handle enforcement if we diverge any. Right now we are | 00:36:06 | |
tracking 100%. This is in essence again their ordinance would Smith a little bit to take care of a couple minor typos, get rid of | 00:36:12 | |
some vats, therefore is wearing after pursuant twos etcetera to make it easier for everybody administer. But this is faithful to | 00:36:18 | |
their ordinance. | 00:36:24 | |
Thank you. Yes, Sir, questions from council. | 00:36:30 | |
All right. Entertain a motion. | 00:36:35 | |
Make a Motion to approve item 15. | 00:36:40 | |
All right. We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Any further discussion? | 00:36:44 | |
All in favor, Say aye, aye. Any opposed? | 00:36:49 | |
Motion carries 30. We'll move on to our new items T spots proposed programming amendments. | 00:36:52 | |
Manager Dickerson, I'll let you walk us through. | 00:36:59 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:37:04 | |
At last month's meeting, the council approved for. | 00:37:06 | |
Reprogramming of some funds for some Rd. works and paving and parking work around Rocket Field. It's on 2nd St. and on School St. | 00:37:11 | |
And we, you know, I believe the mayor did mention at the time we weren't sure that was going to be enough money and it wasn't. So | 00:37:21 | |
we're back asking for the difference. Instead of taking out of spouse three, however, we are recommending it be taken out at | 00:37:27 | |
SPLOST fund. We do have resurfacing of school, sorry, resurfacing funds in that, in that. | 00:37:34 | |
In that fund and. | 00:37:41 | |
Earmark those monies though. We need 51,000 to make up the difference and that is what we're asking, is that you program those | 00:37:43 | |
funds and appropriate those funds for that purpose. | 00:37:48 | |
Any questions for the manager? | 00:37:54 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. | 00:37:58 | |
Make a motion to approve. | 00:38:01 | |
Is there a second second? | 00:38:03 | |
Any further discussion? | 00:38:06 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 00:38:10 | |
Any opposed? | 00:38:12 | |
Motion Carries 30. We are going to attempt to work with our work with Value Added Concepts on this under their existing | 00:38:14 | |
construction lease to get this work done. | 00:38:18 | |
In a cost efficient and timely manner. | 00:38:24 | |
Item 17 is a splash funding request, I think also related to work downtown related to stormwater manager Dickerson. Yeah, thank | 00:38:26 | |
you Mayor. Absolutely. So as of this morning as they were trying to finalize the work that need to be done on the paving and | 00:38:33 | |
parking improvements, it there was an item that was outstanding that was to deal with the drainage in that area as well. And we've | 00:38:41 | |
got a estimate about $15,000 to make sure that that area drains appropriately and moves into our conveyance system. | 00:38:49 | |
And that is what we're here to ask for is an appropriation of our designation of that 15,000 and appropriation of that those funds | 00:38:57 | |
out of our drainage and key key stormwater improvement line item that's in the in the splice 3 budget. | 00:39:03 | |
Any questions for the manager? | 00:39:12 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. | 00:39:16 | |
I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? | 00:39:20 | |
Second, any further discussion? | 00:39:23 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. | 00:39:26 | |
All right. Any opposed motion carries 30. I will note we've had some questions about that. That'll hopefully address not just the | 00:39:29 | |
area where the additional parking will be. | 00:39:33 | |
For the five of you who are here, this is your moment to shine. Public comments, 4 minutes per person. Come on up and tell us | 00:40:12 | |
what's on your mind if you want to. | 00:40:16 | |
Good, bad, or ugly? | 00:40:21 | |
Walking schools? Awesome. OK, let the record show Watkinsville is awesome. | 00:40:23 | |
Thank you. | 00:40:29 | |
All right. | 00:40:31 | |
If only it were always so simple. All right, we'll move on to the mayors report. | 00:40:33 | |
I'm not usually directionally challenged, but also some new parking on the east side closer to OCAF. So we'll add striping there. | 00:41:42 | |
We're still going to install the patent court. We're going to install a new sidewalk along 2nd St. on that West side. | 00:41:47 | |
We'll add the stage and bandstand area. I noticed that the most of the lumber has been delivered today. I think they hope to pour | 00:41:53 | |
the concrete foundation for that this week as well. | 00:41:58 | |
Which will kind of anchor that. | 00:42:02 | |
That our vendors can still get get out there that we have enough parking for OCALAF and things like that. If we the dog park will | 00:42:37 | |
be a while just given the sensitivity of the turf and then we've also ordered a net climber to go out there. So that's on its way | 00:42:44 | |
and we appropriate it. For those of you who weren't aware last month, I think we appropriated and ordered a new set of St. Lights | 00:42:51 | |
that'll connect that to downtown and make it look look unified and together. | 00:42:58 | |
You'll also note there's not power lines running around and across the field anymore, so it's really turned out nice and we're | 00:43:05 | |
excited to see ongoing use. One of our other big activities coming up is also. | 00:43:10 | |
Clarify and define how management of the field is going to work between Little League and other club teams and others who want to | 00:43:16 | |
use that travel teams and others and the public. So that's on our agenda for this month as well. | 00:43:22 | |
So that's exciting news about Rocket Field. So on a is completed manager Dickerson mentioned that earlier for those of you who | 00:43:29 | |
don't follow sewer lines and there's not many probably other than folks who are here, but this is actually really important. You | 00:43:35 | |
know I know some of our guests have a background in industry, believe it or not most of our industry was on septic tanks for a | 00:43:40 | |
long time including the Southwire facility. | 00:43:45 | |
Before it became Wire Park. So the city has funded a long-awaited sewer line. And that sewer line, as frustrating as it has been | 00:43:51 | |
for how many years now, Julie, 12 years we've been planning this Sierra line. I think it is almost after shortly after I joined | 00:43:56 | |
the council. | 00:44:01 | |
Without that sewer line, there would be no wire park, there would not be and then we anticipate in the years ahead a lot of new | 00:44:06 | |
opportunities for the businesses in our industrial area to expand and grow because they can get rid of their drain fields and | 00:44:11 | |
because they can build new things on those properties. So that was a. | 00:44:16 | |
Multi month process Jerry Smith Dr. has been repaved, the project is done, a lot of new sod has been laid and it's going to create | 00:44:22 | |
some new opportunities for new taxes and new jobs in Watkinsville and Oconee County. So we're grateful to have that done and have | 00:44:28 | |
that behind us and we'll know more about the budget next month as the manager said. | 00:44:34 | |
We've also installed some new signs that reflect our new city branding at the industrial area. We've had complaints in the past | 00:44:40 | |
from some of those users saying they weren't very proud of how that used to look. | 00:44:45 | |
So this is how they look now and then. | 00:44:50 | |
City Beautification manager, I will call him Mark Novak, who does a great job of making City Hall beautiful in other places. Once | 00:44:53 | |
he gets a hold of whatever is going to go in that stone, I'm sure it's going to look lovely. So, but it looks a lot better than it | 00:44:59 | |
did before. So thank you Sharon for getting those signs done. | 00:45:05 | |
Also pleased to show that the residential portion of Wire Park is finally underway. I know people have been waiting on that. So | 00:45:11 | |
the flats are under construction as well as I think the townhomes will follow shortly behind. Permits have been pulled for the | 00:45:16 | |
Flats at Wire Park and construction has begun so. | 00:45:21 | |
That'll be an exciting transition to also having people live at Wire Park in addition. | 00:45:27 | |
In addition to all the activity that's going on out. | 00:45:32 | |
Oconee County Library is also moving to water park. This is a little preview of what's going on inside. They're moving very | 00:45:36 | |
quickly. If you go by out there, they are still hoping to be in in January, is that correct? | 00:45:41 | |
There is a lot of activity on the inside of that structure. | 00:46:21 | |
Studs and with HVAC and electrical and sheetrock and and all those wonderful things getting ready for the new facility. It's very | 00:46:24 | |
exciting. | 00:46:28 | |
Perfect. And the exterior is going to be a mix of brick and metal, is that correct? | 00:46:33 | |
That's correct. It will look very cohesive with what water park already looks like. It's maybe just some very slight changes so | 00:46:37 | |
you can tell that it's a different entity there from the library itself, but it it will. | 00:46:43 | |
The ideas for it to blend in exactly. | 00:46:50 | |
Perfect. And for all the moms watching online, I got to remind them, thanks to Councilwoman Tucker, Mayor Pro Tem, for advocating | 00:46:52 | |
for restrooms in the children's area. And those were added to the budget, correct? All right, Very good. Very good. All right. And | 00:46:58 | |
you guys were able to do all your add-ons. So I also want to congratulate our friends at the county. They are cutting a ribbon | 00:47:03 | |
next Tuesday for their new administrative building, which has turned out really nice on North Main Street at the intersection with | 00:47:08 | |
441. | 00:47:13 | |
So I would. | 00:47:19 | |
And they haven't told me this, but if I were looking to get my tag renewed or go do an administrative function in the county, you | 00:47:21 | |
might want to wait till at some point next week. I got my tags renewed today. | 00:47:26 | |
Because. And so I asked all the things, so Friday they will be closed, but they have marked it as a holiday. So if your tags | 00:47:32 | |
expire on Friday, Monday is a day of grace. So it sounds like there's going to be a lot of a lot of vehicles moving up and down N | 00:47:39 | |
Main St. on Friday and through the weekend to move. Basically all the county administrative functions will move to this new | 00:47:46 | |
structure and then the judicial system of the county will take over. The former, well, the courthouse will remain the courthouse. | 00:47:53 | |
And so, so we will benefit from that and that new structure is done. Oh gosh, somebody happy anniversary 25th to Susan and Brian | 00:48:01 | |
Broderick. So thank you. We had a my wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary yesterday and this group tends to have. | 00:48:10 | |
Notifying the public of those things for somebody else. Thank you for thank you for that and not to be too morbid, coming after my | 00:48:20 | |
25th anniversary, but this was not on the list. But I was reminded of it. We do, we are working with. I've seen a little bit of | 00:48:25 | |
public comment on this. We are working with. | 00:48:30 | |
County commissioner, although he's not in that role, but citizen Amory Harden on some thinking around the Watkinsville cemetery | 00:48:37 | |
and how to best take care of that moving forward. | 00:48:41 | |
We do a lot of the maintenance over there. We're not legally required to, but we take good care of that. | 00:48:46 | |
Interim Chief Tetterton was explaining about the flags and things, but there is a lot of Gray area on what's happening at the | 00:48:52 | |
cemetery, how it's to be taken care of and what's going to happen there in the future. So we're really taking a hard look at | 00:48:56 | |
what's the right way to structure. | 00:49:01 | |
The governance of the cemetery and the organization that to make sure that it's properly maintained, but also that it doesn't put | 00:49:05 | |
a burden back on the city so. | 00:49:09 | |
That's a lengthy mayor's update for you all, and I will now turn it over to Council for their reports. Councilman Garrett is not | 00:49:12 | |
here. So, Connie, that means you get to lead us off with anything you want to share. | 00:49:17 | |
All right. Nothing from Councilwoman Massey. And don't take Brett ever joined. Correct. OK, That leaves it to Mayor Pro Tem. | 00:49:22 | |
Anything from you? | 00:49:28 | |
All right. And Councilman Campbell, just one thing. | 00:49:33 | |
Chief Territon brought up the first responders training. | 00:49:37 | |
And as someone who benefited greatly from that three weeks ago. | 00:49:41 | |
I had a little accident and severed my artery in my left wrist at work and the Oconee County Sheriff's Department were the first | 00:49:46 | |
people there and they knew exactly what to do. They got a tourniquet on my arm right away, beat the ambulance by several minutes, | 00:49:51 | |
so. | 00:49:56 | |
You gave that report and had I heard it last month, I wanted to have given. | 00:50:02 | |
Much thought, but I'm very thankful that our officers, both with the city and the county have that training and I realize how | 00:50:06 | |
important it is because when you're losing a lot of blood, you every minute counts so. | 00:50:13 | |
I haven't trained people. I'm very thankful. | 00:50:20 | |
And I will say I came in here that Friday morning having forgotten that was going on, and had a meeting with some citizens. | 00:50:22 | |
And some some people wanting to evaluate some property and the energy level in here was just outrageous. I mean that was really | 00:50:28 | |
great what you guys were doing and the excitement. | 00:50:33 | |
It's hard to kind of get excited around. I don't know, you know, if a million mannequins and all kinds of stuff in here, but the | 00:50:38 | |
Spree decor. | 00:50:42 | |
Chief around you guys and the work with Oconee and everybody, and I think we even had our public works guys in here in case there | 00:50:46 | |
was an emergency. So it wasn't just our law enforcement first responders. I feel like a lot of our team was getting trained. | 00:50:53 | |
And that's great because you never know when one of these situations is going to arise. So thanks for your leadership on that. And | 00:50:59 | |
for those who don't know, Chief, arrange to get several of those devices donated so that there was enough for everybody to train | 00:51:04 | |
and practice on and including on. | 00:51:08 | |
Youth and babies, I think, if I remember right, which is a big deal, so we know how to take care of them as well, which is | 00:51:14 | |
important. | 00:51:17 | |
OK, awesome updates, Jeff. Glad you're better and feeling better. Let's all keep Councilman Garrett and his family in our prayers. | 00:51:20 | |
We'll let Brett know that we miss him. And unless there's anything else, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. | 00:51:25 | |
All right. I make a motion to adjourn. Second, all in favor, say aye. We are done. | 00:51:32 |
* you need to log in to manage your favorites
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Loading...
Good evening and welcome to the July Watkinsville City Council meeting. We do have a quorum here with us tonight. We're. | 00:00:04 | |
Councilman Garrett will be unable to join us due to a family emergency, and we're hopeful that we'll hear from Councilman Thomas | 00:00:11 | |
from Kuwait. But if he does not join us, we have three out of five, so we do have a quorum. At this point, I'd love to do the | 00:00:17 | |
pledge. Please stand. | 00:00:22 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:00:30 | |
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:00:36 | |
As this typical, our meeting is being broadcast simultaneously on the Suite 1 webcasting app. Those who are not able to attend our | 00:00:47 | |
meetings can always watch them online. There's also recordings posted online afterwards. The full agenda is also aligned with | 00:00:52 | |
that, so you can go through the materials at the same time as a citizen. Our agenda and materials are posted the Friday before our | 00:00:57 | |
meetings typically, which allows citizens to comment and offer thoughts in advance if they care to do that and can't join us at | 00:01:02 | |
the meeting. | 00:01:08 | |
We do have a relatively informal public comment process that is guided by the mayor, attorney and council. We will have some | 00:01:14 | |
formal moments that will require public hearings, will address those when we come. | 00:01:19 | |
Do you have something you want to speak about? Raise your hand. And at Council and attorney's discretion, we may allow that we | 00:01:25 | |
would ask that all those comments be respectful and not be negative, and that all comments are addressed to council, not to the | 00:01:30 | |
crowd. I do anticipate a pretty short meeting tonight, so we'll move quickly through things. | 00:01:36 | |
But obviously if y'all want to unpack or get into something, we will. The first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes | 00:01:41 | |
from the June 21st, 2023 regular meeting. I'll entertain a motion. | 00:01:46 | |
To approve those unless anyone has any comments or suggestions or edits or corrections. | 00:01:52 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:01:58 | |
2nd, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All right, Motion carries 30. Next up, we'll have approval of | 00:02:00 | |
the agenda under. We do have a. | 00:02:05 | |
Items that we need to address there under administration, we need to add an item 3A Downtown Development Authority update under | 00:02:11 | |
new business item 16, we'll have some tea spots program. | 00:02:16 | |
Amendments and under New Business item 17, a Spouse 3 proposed funding request. Those are both related to the additional parking | 00:02:22 | |
that we plan to install. | 00:02:27 | |
Downtown. | 00:02:32 | |
I also note that on the consent agenda, I'm going to let Mayor Pro Tem Tucker manage that. There is an item related to the city's | 00:02:34 | |
banking process there, and I recuse from all banking related matters given my my involvement with the county State Bank. So when | 00:02:40 | |
it comes time for that Mayor Pro Tem, I will step out and allow you to administer the consent agenda. As a reminder, if there's | 00:02:46 | |
anything that anyone wants to remove from the consent agenda, now would be the time to indicate that. | 00:02:52 | |
So I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda with the new items 3816 and 17. | 00:02:59 | |
And if anyone wants to remove an item from the consent agenda at this point? | 00:03:04 | |
I make a motion to approve the agenda with the additions noted. | 00:03:10 | |
Second. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed motion carries 3O. | 00:03:15 | |
We will move on to administration. This is when Sharon Dickerson or Mayor Manager Dickerson, excuse me, reminds us of our, reminds | 00:03:23 | |
us of our. | 00:03:28 | |
Financial situation and then we also get some updates on downtown Development Authority activities. So with that, I'll turn it | 00:03:32 | |
over to our City Manager, Sharon Dickerson. Thank you, Mayor. So everybody should have received the balance sheet as well as the | 00:03:38 | |
profit and loss for the revenues and the expenses through the end of June. I will note that I do anticipate that we will be under | 00:03:43 | |
budget. | 00:03:48 | |
For the fiscal year, however, I can't tell you that for sure until the audits actually done. Auditors did come in this past week | 00:03:54 | |
and everything went well with that. They don't plan to come back till October, which is always a good sign, but we are, we still | 00:04:00 | |
have some outstanding expenses as well as revenues that have to be reconciled and that will all be done through the audit process. | 00:04:05 | |
So are there any questions about any of that? | 00:04:10 | |
OK. You may recall I mentioned I think last month that Splice One is closed out. We use the rest of those funds to pay for sewer | 00:04:17 | |
line a construction. We still have some funds left. | 00:04:22 | |
In this budget to pay for sewer line A that project is completed but we are waiting for the invoices, final invoices to come in | 00:04:27 | |
and. | 00:04:31 | |
From what I've been told, the county believes they're going to come in under budget, which would be really great, but we'll wait | 00:04:35 | |
and see how that looks and hopefully next month we'll be able to report that to you. | 00:04:39 | |
On Spice Three, you remember we began this in October of last year. We have quite a few projects going on in that. We have the | 00:04:45 | |
work at Hair Shoals Park and Rocket Field and we just purchased some. We just used some of that money to purchase some replacement | 00:04:51 | |
vehicles. | 00:04:56 | |
For the Police Department and for the public. | 00:05:03 | |
We this is one of the projects, it's a six year or 72 month project, so we're not very far along in it but. | 00:05:05 | |
So far we are averaging. | 00:05:13 | |
You know 83,000 or so this year, I think overall I don't have that average up, but probably around 76 or 77,000 on average since | 00:05:17 | |
we began and that's how you have to look at it and I'll talk about that in a minute. About T Spice, we we, we estimate an average | 00:05:22 | |
which you know it grows over time. So initially we may not get that much money but by the end we will average that amount. That's | 00:05:27 | |
how we look at it so. | 00:05:32 | |
Auntie's lost and the difference between just point out again the difference between spots three and T splashes plus three was | 00:05:39 | |
under the old percentage that we had under our intergovernmental agreement with Oconee County of 8.63%. Our teaspoons is under a | 00:05:46 | |
new one which is 7.77%. But we are dealing with a larger tax base. So there's some differences, not a huge, some challenges but | 00:05:54 | |
not as huge of a difference as you might expect. We do have two months of revenues now for for teaspost. | 00:06:01 | |
Tonight you guys will be talking about one of the programming requests we have for spending some of that money. And last month you | 00:06:09 | |
approved about $200,000 for some connectivity sidewalks and stuff to connect the citizens for our transportation. | 00:06:16 | |
Plan Here's what it looks like just on a month to month. Again pointed out that even though we were, we were hoping or the plan | 00:06:23 | |
is, is that we will average a. | 00:06:26 | |
The estimated average over the life of it will be around 78,000. So right now we're on the lower end, but again. | 00:06:32 | |
A lot of things change and that that's how it was. It was designed. | 00:06:38 | |
On the American Rescue Plan report, that money is being held right now. Some of it is being has been encumbered for police | 00:06:42 | |
incentives for retention to to attract and retain our officers. The rest of the money I believe council will be making a decision | 00:06:48 | |
as we move forward with the purchase of the 100 acres, maybe using some of that money to to buy down the cost of that of that | 00:06:53 | |
loan. | 00:06:59 | |
Any questions on any of those reports? | 00:07:05 | |
OK, I'll move to the economic development. | 00:07:09 | |
We've got three business licenses that were received and other than that that's pretty quiet, a little bit of insurance payment | 00:07:13 | |
there. | 00:07:16 | |
And then the excise collection report mentioned that we do now collect alcohol excise taxes as well as short term vacation rental | 00:07:20 | |
or hotel motel and that number is we I think we estimated for the budget year, fiscal year 23 around $7000 or so I think for short | 00:07:27 | |
term vacation rentals. So we've more than exceeded that what we you know estimated. | 00:07:33 | |
And we've identified I think four more that we're fine. So we're learning about they don't tell you you got to find them not | 00:07:41 | |
really easy but and we're getting it hopefully going to get them all registered and then those taxes will be coming to us and not | 00:07:46 | |
to the county or not back to you know or maybe not going to anybody so. | 00:07:51 | |
On the economic development side, we had 22 permits for 15 projects. The mayor will probably mention this a little bit later, but | 00:07:58 | |
we have a lot of work going on back at Wire Park, on some residential, on the flats that are being built. | 00:08:04 | |
For house, I'm sorry, three houses over at. | 00:08:10 | |
And then some sign issues and things like that. | 00:08:14 | |
A lot of work going on in the city. Any questions? | 00:08:17 | |
Had any of those? | 00:08:20 | |
Thank you. | 00:08:23 | |
All right. Thank you. Manager Dickerson will now hear an update on the Downtown Development Authority from Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. | 00:08:25 | |
OK, so exciting news today, we learned. | 00:08:32 | |
Today we learned that we have been accepted into the Georgia Main Street Program and it will be on our agenda next month. Is that | 00:08:38 | |
correct? | 00:08:44 | |
But that will give new opportunities for our city and Kate. So that our DBA Director has been doing an amazing job. Also a lot of | 00:08:52 | |
work going into applying for our rural designation application is a lot of work and that is due August 18th. She is making good | 00:09:00 | |
progress on that. That's something that's very competitive. So we may not get it we. | 00:09:08 | |
Having lower income as part of that qualification, and we are fortunately in a community that doesn't have a lot of that. But | 00:09:18 | |
there are some other factors. A lot of it depends on who all else is applying at the same time. So we might get it, we might not. | 00:09:24 | |
And then our creative placemaking committee has continued to work. | 00:09:31 | |
We have, I think I announced last month that the event is going to be October 14th at Rocket Field. There's going to be a great | 00:09:39 | |
swing band. | 00:09:43 | |
That Councilman Campbell helped us procure what the splits That's going to be. Lots of fun. They're going to be local restaurants. | 00:09:49 | |
There's also a big public art component. And so we have. | 00:09:56 | |
We have a local artist that is creating five pieces of public art that communicates our our kind of our mission and our community. | 00:10:05 | |
Our industry, Our hospitality. | 00:10:17 | |
Our arts, our sense of community overall, and everyone in the community comes will have an opportunity to actually paint on. | 00:10:20 | |
These pieces of art, she's drawn them out and it's kind of like a big paint by members. And then they'll be displayed publicly in | 00:10:30 | |
a newly activated little kind of pocket park that we are hoping to have. And then local businesses are sponsoring these pieces of | 00:10:36 | |
art too. So it's also a fundraiser for the DDA to help continue to improve our downtown. So lots of exciting things happening with | 00:10:41 | |
that. | 00:10:47 | |
I. | 00:10:54 | |
And if you do not, if you're on social media, make sure that you follow the DBA on Facebook. | 00:10:55 | |
Oh, signs. Oh, and also you can see an example. Those of y'all out here can see the example. We have new place wayfinding signs | 00:11:01 | |
going in throughout downtown that are really exciting and I was not part of the arrow placement, but bless everyone that was | 00:11:08 | |
making sure with because how many there are 11/12/12 different signs. So obviously depending on where they are, the arrows have to | 00:11:15 | |
be various places. So those were waiting still on the. | 00:11:23 | |
Stakes posts that they're going to be going on, they're going to be nicer than just like a normal stop sign kind of thing. So | 00:11:31 | |
we're still waiting on those and then you'll start seeing those popping up around. | 00:11:35 | |
That was a pretty tedious process, so thank you for your leadership on that. And I'm chief Tedderton time for your report. Tell us | 00:12:13 | |
about the great efforts of your team. | 00:12:17 | |
Make sure. | 00:12:23 | |
I think we got it this time. Good evening, Mayor and council. | 00:12:24 | |
You should have received. | 00:12:28 | |
Report packet and if anyone has any questions. | 00:12:30 | |
Go ahead and ask away some of the community events that we've been involved in. | 00:12:35 | |
We've been staying pretty busy on July 4th. The Police Department, a lot of the Daughters of American Revolution and. | 00:12:40 | |
Councilwoman Massey assisted us in putting out 105 flags on US veterans graves. | 00:12:48 | |
We also started our first planning session for our Christmas parade. We have that upcoming and we're continuing our planning for | 00:12:54 | |
our Run for Responders and Fall Festival in October at Veterans Park. | 00:12:59 | |
And trunk or treat? | 00:13:04 | |
We are planning a makeover and cleanup day at Walking Soul Cemetery with assistance for Dollars American Revolution, several local | 00:13:10 | |
scout groups that we're going to kick off and we're just going to do some general cleanup and brush removal and things like that | 00:13:14 | |
out there. | 00:13:17 | |
Under officer training, we've got some guys that are away at training right now and some other training coming up. We did host a | 00:13:22 | |
first responder training event here for eighteen officers where they learned CPR and AED and Narcan. | 00:13:28 | |
13 were our people and five were sheriff's. | 00:13:35 | |
So it's kind of an over wrap of that. For the recap, I want to go over the interesting case of the month. I'll let you take a look | 00:13:39 | |
at that. It's pretty funny. | 00:13:42 | |
On Officer Activ. | 00:13:47 | |
We stayed pretty busy for this month. We had 987 security checks of local businesses and homes. | 00:13:49 | |
We handed out 162 traffic citations. We made three arrests with two juvenile warnings for marijuana. We elected not to arrest a | 00:13:56 | |
juveniles or start their criminal career. We handle that using alternative plan. | 00:14:02 | |
So 5 total there 16113 total calls for. | 00:14:09 | |
And on the citations, just to show we're not bad people, we didn't actually write 100 and 6294 of those were for warning. | 00:14:15 | |
So 96 of them dealt with speeding cases. | 00:14:22 | |
That is talking about speeding. We addressed 2 citizen concerns on speeding. One was on Katie Lane and one was on Jackson. And the | 00:14:27 | |
way we did that is we went out there and we put up our traffic warning boards which also record speed as well, as did officer | 00:14:34 | |
presence. And we learned a couple things. Both of those areas are 25 mph, so. | 00:14:41 | |
If you look at the numbers that I gave you on Katie Lane, there was 137 cars that went by there per week and we had the signs out | 00:14:49 | |
for two weeks monitoring both. | 00:14:53 | |
The average speed recorder was only 14 mph, where the 85th percentile being 22 1/2, still under the posted limit. | 00:14:58 | |
The highest recorded speed was at 3:00 in the morning on Katie Lane at 32 mph, which was 7 over the posted limit. So we didn't | 00:15:06 | |
really. | 00:15:10 | |
The things that. | 00:15:15 | |
Was being brought up. | 00:15:17 | |
Then on Jackson St. we responded to another complaint. There they had 101 cars, average for a week, for two. | 00:15:19 | |
The average speed recorded was only 12 mph. Jackson Street, if you're not familiar, is. | 00:15:26 | |
Pretty narrow and pretty short. | 00:15:31 | |
The 85th percentile was again under the posted limit, 21 1/2. | 00:15:34 | |
And the highest recorded speed at 2:00 in the morning was 29 or 4 miles over the posted speed limit. | 00:15:38 | |
So not a lot happened, but we take those complaints very seriously and we went out there to see what we could find out. | 00:15:44 | |
On North Main. But yeah, we can relocate those signs during the school time. | 00:16:26 | |
So you're. I'm sorry. So you're running it for a week one way and a week the other? Yes, ma'am. | 00:16:31 | |
Without relocating assignment and assign his own city right away, property is mowed by the city we're not encroaching now on. | 00:16:36 | |
Jackson St. We had the offer of a local resident. There was number place on Jackson to put it other than in her yard and she was | 00:16:43 | |
happy to allow us to do that. | 00:16:47 | |
Yeah, just. Anyways, I just want to say, you know, again, these signs are awesome tools. I mean, we get so many complaints about | 00:16:52 | |
speeding. | 00:16:56 | |
There's always going to be somebody driving crazy, but to understand that, you know. | 00:17:01 | |
90% of people are going or 85% of people are going below the speed limit on those roads, and a lot of the other and most of the | 00:17:05 | |
others probably aren't even. | 00:17:09 | |
10 over is is really where we're Vincent, from making decisions based on anecdotal evidence. So thank you. | 00:17:12 | |
If you guys have a breakdown, if you have any questions at all, feel free to call me, reach out to me, I'll be glad to help you at | 00:17:20 | |
any time and other than that I think. | 00:17:23 | |
One and done. | 00:17:27 | |
OK. Thanks. | 00:17:32 | |
All right. Thank you, Chief. All right. At this point, I'm going to step out and let Mayor Pro Tem handle the consent agenda. | 00:17:33 | |
Just waiting till the mayor Brock. OK, so. | 00:17:50 | |
Is there a motion? | 00:17:55 | |
Approve the consent agenda. | 00:17:58 | |
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. | 00:18:00 | |
Is there a second A? | 00:18:05 | |
All in favor. | 00:18:08 | |
All right. | 00:18:11 | |
30. | 00:18:13 | |
And back. | 00:18:16 | |
All right, we will move on to a public hearing. Public hearings are one of those areas where we do have very specific requirements | 00:18:23 | |
for how. | 00:18:27 | |
Common procedures are done. Comments should only be direct related to the agenda items. Speak only from the podium, 4 minutes per | 00:18:32 | |
person. Refrain from debate. Argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant. Discussion address only the merits of the pending matter | 00:18:38 | |
and address remarks directly to council. Council cannot speak to potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters. | 00:18:44 | |
Public input will be allowed after council receives the reports from the staff and or the applicant. Tonight I think we have a | 00:18:51 | |
public hearing for a variance on 1281 Christian Dr. Parcel B, Mr. Samples. I'm going to let Engineer Campbell give us the staff | 00:18:57 | |
report on the variance and then we'll have the applicant come forward to give us their comments as well. So I'll turn it over at | 00:19:03 | |
this point to engineer. | 00:19:09 | |
Mark Campbell, welcome back. We missed you last month if my memory serves right, not with us. So glad you're here, appreciate it. | 00:19:16 | |
So the variance request tonight, as the mayor said it is for 1281 Christian Drive. This is a request for variance to reduce the | 00:19:22 | |
side set back at that location that is in with within the Christian Lake subdivision. So the side set back for detached | 00:19:28 | |
residential zoning there is 10 feet. By code. The request is to reduce that for five feet and specifically related to the proposed | 00:19:34 | |
construction of a detached garage. | 00:19:40 | |
So if you don't know exactly where 1281 Christian Drive is located, you can see it highlighted there within the Christian Lake | 00:19:46 | |
subdivision and the following slide is a markup of a recent survey that was completed. You can see the the location of the house | 00:19:54 | |
is not in the center of the lot. I would say that the existing concrete driveway is approximately in the center of that lot | 00:20:02 | |
location and so to access this proposed attached garage, it would utilize the existing concrete driveway access and then. | 00:20:09 | |
The rear of that detached garage would be facing the side of the property and that's where that encroachment variance request | 00:20:18 | |
would be, again from 10 feet to five feet to allow for the garage to be constructed by utilizing that existing that also allows | 00:20:24 | |
the front of that garage to face the existing structure and therefore the front of the garage does not face the the roadway | 00:20:30 | |
itself. That would be a completely different variance if that were the case. So you can see that the mark up there, here's a | 00:20:36 | |
here's a picture that gives you an idea. | 00:20:42 | |
After the sign had been posted for this required public hearing at tonight's meeting, you can see there are some existing trees | 00:20:48 | |
that are on what I'll call the southern side of that concrete driveway. The applicants indicated that those trees will will stay | 00:20:55 | |
when it had to be removed to to construct this drive. So there's already some vegetation kind of in that area. | 00:21:02 | |
Yeah, there's the code section. You can see 5.02 point I2B4A which states decide your set back should be a minimum of 10 feet in | 00:21:10 | |
order to. | 00:21:15 | |
Seek the request or grant the request, I guess it's been salt is for of reduction to five feet and allow that structure to come in | 00:21:21 | |
again based on the final comment there based on information provided to the staff, no portion of that proposed structure will be | 00:21:28 | |
closer to the roadway than the existing primary residence. | 00:21:35 | |
Be happy to answer any questions you might have. | 00:21:42 | |
Council Any questions for Engineer Campbell? | 00:21:46 | |
OK, none. I'll invite the applicant up or their representative to add any information that they want to add before we. | 00:21:50 | |
Before we invite the public forward, we are in a public hearing. I think I failed to note that earlier. So this is a technically a | 00:21:57 | |
public hearing. | 00:22:01 | |
Hey, I'm Jay Harrison. I'm the builder representing the Samples family. | 00:22:05 | |
Thank you engineer you you covered it perfectly the entire. | 00:22:11 | |
Reason that we're applying for this is so that we can face the garage opposite of the existing garage that is attached to the | 00:22:16 | |
house. | 00:22:20 | |
And the way we have this figured up and laid out, this is more for even just for the cornice that is going to go on the House so | 00:22:25 | |
that it matches the existing structure. So that's really going to be the only part that is encroaching. We wanted to give | 00:22:32 | |
ourselves just a little bit of wiggle room if need be, but it is. The garage doors will match up and face each other completely. | 00:22:39 | |
And it is concealed mostly by the existing Leland cypresses that are on site, so there really won't be that much visibility from | 00:22:46 | |
the. | 00:22:51 | |
Neighborhood So. | 00:22:56 | |
Any other questions? | 00:23:00 | |
Questions. | 00:23:02 | |
Is the Christian like HOA fine with this? So it's already yes. We've gotten approval from the HOA and and from the neighbor as | 00:23:05 | |
well, and the neighbor. | 00:23:09 | |
And in in case those Cleveland cypresses. | 00:23:15 | |
I shouldn't say in case they when they. | 00:23:19 | |
The the the architecture and the look and feel of this structure is matches the home currently correct. So it's it'll have, you | 00:23:22 | |
know Hardy plank siding, it'll have the matching roof pitch. Everything about the garage will look exactly to match up with the | 00:23:29 | |
existing structure down to the windows and and shutters and all that good stuff so. | 00:23:37 | |
OK, I'm curious what why? Why not put it where the? | 00:23:47 | |
Realize it's a separate variance, but why not have it where the driveway dead ends into this garage? | 00:23:53 | |
Because there's already precedent. The 2nd house on the right in the neighborhood on that street has a detached garage where the | 00:23:59 | |
garage faces the street. Sure, we didn't want to remove any more trees, and there's an existing fence on the property as well. | 00:24:06 | |
And they there's also also the septic tank, So this is really the the logical place to put it and it creates a sort of motorcade | 00:24:14 | |
there. | 00:24:19 | |
So that. | 00:24:25 | |
That's our reasoning on. | 00:24:27 | |
And our code also strongly discourages front facing garages. | 00:24:29 | |
Yep. | 00:24:34 | |
OK. | 00:24:36 | |
Any other comments? | 00:24:38 | |
All right, we are in a public hearing. I know we have at least one neighbor here. Any comments you wish to make or questions you | 00:24:42 | |
wish to ask? | 00:24:45 | |
No, OK. All right. Just want to be sure. Thank you for coming tonight. | 00:24:50 | |
I'm sorry, looking at that picture. | 00:24:55 | |
I don't. | 00:25:00 | |
Is that the house? I mean, I don't see the garage on that side. | 00:25:01 | |
The rest of the door there so the. | 00:25:14 | |
Left of the photo or the Leland cypresses that and so the the. | 00:25:18 | |
Detached or other proposed detached garages is going to be behind those trees. So now I understand that, but the current garage is | 00:25:21 | |
a front. | 00:25:25 | |
Oh, it's right. OK, Sorry, I'm just. | 00:25:32 | |
Apologies for the photographer skills. | 00:25:38 | |
There's good foliage, so you know it's. | 00:25:41 | |
So the garage is pushed to the front of the house, but on the side. | 00:25:48 | |
Yeah. | 00:25:52 | |
I was wondering the same thing in the picture if I was missing something, but OK, great. | 00:25:53 | |
All right. Any other comments, questions. | 00:25:58 | |
All right, I will close. | 00:26:02 | |
I'll close the public hearing at this point. | 00:26:05 | |
And then we will move on to appearances. And again, during this appearance, we'll have a 10 minute time limit for appearances per | 00:26:09 | |
this guideline of state zoning procedures, laws. I don't think we need that because item 13. | 00:26:14 | |
Is simply a vote on the variance we just discussed. | 00:26:20 | |
So does anyone care to come forward and make any comments about what we just discussed? | 00:26:23 | |
Don't anticipate that, nor do I see it. So at this point I'll entertain. | 00:26:29 | |
A motion regarding the variance request at 1281 Christian Drive. | 00:26:34 | |
I make a motion to approve the variance request. | 00:26:38 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? | 00:26:46 | |
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? | 00:26:49 | |
Motion carries 30. Thanks for being here. | 00:26:53 | |
All right. Yep. All right. We'll move on to old business where we have none, we'll move on to new business. And there we're going | 00:26:56 | |
to talk about some drainage work on column ferry extension. | 00:27:01 | |
And appropriation of some spots for three funds. | 00:27:07 | |
To hopefully. | 00:27:10 | |
Resolve some of that situation so manager Dickerson is going to walk us through. | 00:27:12 | |
Thank you, Mayor. So as the Mayor mentioned, we do have some drainage issues that we've been monitoring for a while and we are | 00:27:16 | |
requesting tonight approval to replace the drain pipe on column, ferry extension and Rep. | 00:27:23 | |
The affected area, that's the cost of about a little bit more than $3000, which Oconee County's road department is going to help | 00:27:30 | |
us with. | 00:27:34 | |
We do intend to use those funds to use some sorry L nick funds that are in the Splos 3. | 00:27:39 | |
Project to pay for this, just a reminder that we do receive those ELMIG funds from G dot every year for the center lane miles that | 00:27:46 | |
we have in the city. We get a certain amount of money, not a lot, roughly just a little bit under $50,000. And this year you guys | 00:27:52 | |
approved the money to be spent on repaving Bunny Hop Trail, which is currently trying. We're trying to get that scheduled right | 00:27:57 | |
now. | 00:28:03 | |
We have about $10,000, eight to $10,000 left in that ELMIG project that we could use funds for, so we're suggesting use 3200 of | 00:28:09 | |
that for this project. | 00:28:15 | |
And just to reiterate that this is something we've been monitoring for a while. | 00:28:22 | |
We did have the county. It was a little bit more expertise in this look at it as well as one of our council members look at it and | 00:28:28 | |
and our city engineer and everything that he's had sort of a take that we feel like if we can replace that that pipe to continue | 00:28:34 | |
to convey that water away from the road and from the residents that will be helpful. It's a very little expense for I think a big | 00:28:41 | |
win. So we are requesting that you approve it. Any questions? | 00:28:47 | |
I know we have Mr. McReynolds from Colin Perry extension here tonight. Do you have any thoughts or anything you want to add on the | 00:28:59 | |
situation, Mr. McReynolds? | 00:29:02 | |
If you do, you need to step up. But if you don't, you can stay where you are. So yeah, thank you. | 00:29:08 | |
The new culvert would would. | 00:29:18 | |
I don't think that it's going to solve the issue. | 00:29:21 | |
Because of the way the water runs over the. | 00:29:25 | |
From the park over the street. | 00:29:28 | |
It doesn't even go into that culvert, but it will help with the water coming down the street. | 00:29:32 | |
But as far as the coming over from the. | 00:29:38 | |
It goes on top of that cover. | 00:29:41 | |
So. | 00:29:45 | |
It will be a it would be great to get a new, bigger culvert in. | 00:29:46 | |
And then, hopefully, the railroad will. | 00:29:50 | |
Clear out the rest of it, Yeah. I think we're working on that issue on a separate track, pardon the pond, but right with the | 00:29:53 | |
railroad. Yep. OK. Alright. Thank you. | 00:29:58 | |
Council So you've heard the recommendation of the manager. I think that's a good value for what gets done there. | 00:30:03 | |
Any questions for manager Dickerson? | 00:30:10 | |
All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. | 00:30:13 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:30:17 | |
Yes. | 00:30:21 | |
Option one stated on the screen. | 00:30:25 | |
Second. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion, questions, hearing none. All in favor, say aye, | 00:30:30 | |
aye, Any opposed. That motion carries 3 O and we'll move on. | 00:30:35 | |
The amendment to Code Ordinance Code Chapter 6 around animals. | 00:30:41 | |
Manager Dickerson I'll let you sell as much or as little about this as you want to Well I'm going to I'm actually going to pitch | 00:30:48 | |
most of it to our city attorney but so chapter 6 is going to become Chapter 10 I believe is how the it's been written up and | 00:30:54 | |
chapter 10 which is only one small little piece of moved 11 and that's how he's written up but generally this is this came to | 00:30:59 | |
light because we had one of our employees who got bit by a dog in the in the community and. | 00:31:05 | |
Plus pages long around 2020, which was on the heels of a couple state law changes that gave more authority, more more power to the | 00:31:47 | |
local animal control officers, Animal Services officers to regulate for the purpose of keeping the public health, safety, welfare, | 00:31:55 | |
keep citizens protected from dangerous dogs, vicious dogs, and so forth. All of that and much more is covered in here. You will | 00:32:02 | |
know that even after significant cleanup and simplification. | 00:32:10 | |
Keeping all the numbering, keeping all the sections and subsections so the county can meaningfully enforce our ordinance or assist | 00:32:18 | |
us in doing so. | 00:32:22 | |
That nonetheless, it is still 15 pages long. There's a lot to it, but. | 00:32:26 | |
Been through it. Manager Dickerson's been through it very carefully. It's a good product. I think the county did overall a good | 00:32:32 | |
job of covering the waterfront. Not just dangerous dogs, vicious dogs, but the conditions in which the animals live. Animals | 00:32:37 | |
running at large, feral cat colonies. | 00:32:42 | |
Traps, spay, neuter and release. I mean, it's got all the bells and whistles. Some of this I recognize from the animal control | 00:32:49 | |
person that went from Madison up to Oak County. Gosh, it's probably been seven or eight years ago. I think her name is Crystal and | 00:32:55 | |
did a really good job with bringing some of her new information, ideas and ordinance provisions up to Oconee. | 00:33:01 | |
So Unicode will take care of getting all that updated online and integrating that correct, And then the one thing we have spent | 00:33:50 | |
time on in the past is tethering. | 00:33:54 | |
Does. | 00:33:58 | |
Did we look at our old code? Is there a substantive difference around tethering in our old code? And what's in this? I don't | 00:34:00 | |
remember other than to say I thought I saw something on tethering and on restrictions. It says at page four. In the middle of the | 00:34:06 | |
page, tethered means attached to a stationary object or pulley system by chain, rope, cable, or similar device, not including a | 00:34:13 | |
leash. I thought I remembered seeing in here a reference to tethering needs to be under supervision for the safety of the dog. Do | 00:34:19 | |
you remember the same thing, Sharon? | 00:34:25 | |
I just, I keep putting my hands right on it. I might be able to in a minute, but I do believe it's probably, I can't say with | 00:34:32 | |
certainty, but I think it's probably consistent with our prior discussions. | 00:34:37 | |
All right. Well, I'm comfortable moving this forward tonight, but I know at some point Julie will remember in the in Connie May in | 00:34:44 | |
the past six or eight years we have had. | 00:34:48 | |
Extensive discussions around tethering and whether it's appropriate or not. And then the other gap sometimes that are in there is | 00:34:53 | |
does it account for invisible fences as it relates to animals at all? It talks about under control so restraint on the property | 00:35:00 | |
not running at large is a specific clause on running at large at 10 dash 92 middle page 8 and owner will prevent it from running | 00:35:07 | |
at large. So assuming argue window that the fence works. | 00:35:14 | |
And it keeps the animal under restraint on the property from running at large. Then I would say that would suffice, yeah. And then | 00:35:22 | |
on section 10/10/96, item one, it says an animal may not be chained, tied, fastened, or otherwise tethered to dog houses, trees, | 00:35:27 | |
fences, vehicles, or other stationary objects, except the animal may be temporarily confined by each other while attended by its | 00:35:32 | |
owner. | 00:35:37 | |
So that confirms, OK. I think we then cover those bases good questions or any other questions about it. | 00:35:44 | |
Thank you, Sir. | 00:35:50 | |
OK. Yeah, they're just that may come back. We may have to talk about that later, but I'm comfortable moving it forward tonight as | 00:35:52 | |
a practical matter. | 00:35:56 | |
And we do have the other practical matter of if we diverge from the county, it'll probably have to be pursuant to a discussion | 00:36:00 | |
with them on diverging and make sure we have a comfort level and how do we handle enforcement if we diverge any. Right now we are | 00:36:06 | |
tracking 100%. This is in essence again their ordinance would Smith a little bit to take care of a couple minor typos, get rid of | 00:36:12 | |
some vats, therefore is wearing after pursuant twos etcetera to make it easier for everybody administer. But this is faithful to | 00:36:18 | |
their ordinance. | 00:36:24 | |
Thank you. Yes, Sir, questions from council. | 00:36:30 | |
All right. Entertain a motion. | 00:36:35 | |
Make a Motion to approve item 15. | 00:36:40 | |
All right. We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Any further discussion? | 00:36:44 | |
All in favor, Say aye, aye. Any opposed? | 00:36:49 | |
Motion carries 30. We'll move on to our new items T spots proposed programming amendments. | 00:36:52 | |
Manager Dickerson, I'll let you walk us through. | 00:36:59 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:37:04 | |
At last month's meeting, the council approved for. | 00:37:06 | |
Reprogramming of some funds for some Rd. works and paving and parking work around Rocket Field. It's on 2nd St. and on School St. | 00:37:11 | |
And we, you know, I believe the mayor did mention at the time we weren't sure that was going to be enough money and it wasn't. So | 00:37:21 | |
we're back asking for the difference. Instead of taking out of spouse three, however, we are recommending it be taken out at | 00:37:27 | |
SPLOST fund. We do have resurfacing of school, sorry, resurfacing funds in that, in that. | 00:37:34 | |
In that fund and. | 00:37:41 | |
Earmark those monies though. We need 51,000 to make up the difference and that is what we're asking, is that you program those | 00:37:43 | |
funds and appropriate those funds for that purpose. | 00:37:48 | |
Any questions for the manager? | 00:37:54 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. | 00:37:58 | |
Make a motion to approve. | 00:38:01 | |
Is there a second second? | 00:38:03 | |
Any further discussion? | 00:38:06 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 00:38:10 | |
Any opposed? | 00:38:12 | |
Motion Carries 30. We are going to attempt to work with our work with Value Added Concepts on this under their existing | 00:38:14 | |
construction lease to get this work done. | 00:38:18 | |
In a cost efficient and timely manner. | 00:38:24 | |
Item 17 is a splash funding request, I think also related to work downtown related to stormwater manager Dickerson. Yeah, thank | 00:38:26 | |
you Mayor. Absolutely. So as of this morning as they were trying to finalize the work that need to be done on the paving and | 00:38:33 | |
parking improvements, it there was an item that was outstanding that was to deal with the drainage in that area as well. And we've | 00:38:41 | |
got a estimate about $15,000 to make sure that that area drains appropriately and moves into our conveyance system. | 00:38:49 | |
And that is what we're here to ask for is an appropriation of our designation of that 15,000 and appropriation of that those funds | 00:38:57 | |
out of our drainage and key key stormwater improvement line item that's in the in the splice 3 budget. | 00:39:03 | |
Any questions for the manager? | 00:39:12 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. | 00:39:16 | |
I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? | 00:39:20 | |
Second, any further discussion? | 00:39:23 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. | 00:39:26 | |
All right. Any opposed motion carries 30. I will note we've had some questions about that. That'll hopefully address not just the | 00:39:29 | |
area where the additional parking will be. | 00:39:33 | |
For the five of you who are here, this is your moment to shine. Public comments, 4 minutes per person. Come on up and tell us | 00:40:12 | |
what's on your mind if you want to. | 00:40:16 | |
Good, bad, or ugly? | 00:40:21 | |
Walking schools? Awesome. OK, let the record show Watkinsville is awesome. | 00:40:23 | |
Thank you. | 00:40:29 | |
All right. | 00:40:31 | |
If only it were always so simple. All right, we'll move on to the mayors report. | 00:40:33 | |
I'm not usually directionally challenged, but also some new parking on the east side closer to OCAF. So we'll add striping there. | 00:41:42 | |
We're still going to install the patent court. We're going to install a new sidewalk along 2nd St. on that West side. | 00:41:47 | |
We'll add the stage and bandstand area. I noticed that the most of the lumber has been delivered today. I think they hope to pour | 00:41:53 | |
the concrete foundation for that this week as well. | 00:41:58 | |
Which will kind of anchor that. | 00:42:02 | |
That our vendors can still get get out there that we have enough parking for OCALAF and things like that. If we the dog park will | 00:42:37 | |
be a while just given the sensitivity of the turf and then we've also ordered a net climber to go out there. So that's on its way | 00:42:44 | |
and we appropriate it. For those of you who weren't aware last month, I think we appropriated and ordered a new set of St. Lights | 00:42:51 | |
that'll connect that to downtown and make it look look unified and together. | 00:42:58 | |
You'll also note there's not power lines running around and across the field anymore, so it's really turned out nice and we're | 00:43:05 | |
excited to see ongoing use. One of our other big activities coming up is also. | 00:43:10 | |
Clarify and define how management of the field is going to work between Little League and other club teams and others who want to | 00:43:16 | |
use that travel teams and others and the public. So that's on our agenda for this month as well. | 00:43:22 | |
So that's exciting news about Rocket Field. So on a is completed manager Dickerson mentioned that earlier for those of you who | 00:43:29 | |
don't follow sewer lines and there's not many probably other than folks who are here, but this is actually really important. You | 00:43:35 | |
know I know some of our guests have a background in industry, believe it or not most of our industry was on septic tanks for a | 00:43:40 | |
long time including the Southwire facility. | 00:43:45 | |
Before it became Wire Park. So the city has funded a long-awaited sewer line. And that sewer line, as frustrating as it has been | 00:43:51 | |
for how many years now, Julie, 12 years we've been planning this Sierra line. I think it is almost after shortly after I joined | 00:43:56 | |
the council. | 00:44:01 | |
Without that sewer line, there would be no wire park, there would not be and then we anticipate in the years ahead a lot of new | 00:44:06 | |
opportunities for the businesses in our industrial area to expand and grow because they can get rid of their drain fields and | 00:44:11 | |
because they can build new things on those properties. So that was a. | 00:44:16 | |
Multi month process Jerry Smith Dr. has been repaved, the project is done, a lot of new sod has been laid and it's going to create | 00:44:22 | |
some new opportunities for new taxes and new jobs in Watkinsville and Oconee County. So we're grateful to have that done and have | 00:44:28 | |
that behind us and we'll know more about the budget next month as the manager said. | 00:44:34 | |
We've also installed some new signs that reflect our new city branding at the industrial area. We've had complaints in the past | 00:44:40 | |
from some of those users saying they weren't very proud of how that used to look. | 00:44:45 | |
So this is how they look now and then. | 00:44:50 | |
City Beautification manager, I will call him Mark Novak, who does a great job of making City Hall beautiful in other places. Once | 00:44:53 | |
he gets a hold of whatever is going to go in that stone, I'm sure it's going to look lovely. So, but it looks a lot better than it | 00:44:59 | |
did before. So thank you Sharon for getting those signs done. | 00:45:05 | |
Also pleased to show that the residential portion of Wire Park is finally underway. I know people have been waiting on that. So | 00:45:11 | |
the flats are under construction as well as I think the townhomes will follow shortly behind. Permits have been pulled for the | 00:45:16 | |
Flats at Wire Park and construction has begun so. | 00:45:21 | |
That'll be an exciting transition to also having people live at Wire Park in addition. | 00:45:27 | |
In addition to all the activity that's going on out. | 00:45:32 | |
Oconee County Library is also moving to water park. This is a little preview of what's going on inside. They're moving very | 00:45:36 | |
quickly. If you go by out there, they are still hoping to be in in January, is that correct? | 00:45:41 | |
There is a lot of activity on the inside of that structure. | 00:46:21 | |
Studs and with HVAC and electrical and sheetrock and and all those wonderful things getting ready for the new facility. It's very | 00:46:24 | |
exciting. | 00:46:28 | |
Perfect. And the exterior is going to be a mix of brick and metal, is that correct? | 00:46:33 | |
That's correct. It will look very cohesive with what water park already looks like. It's maybe just some very slight changes so | 00:46:37 | |
you can tell that it's a different entity there from the library itself, but it it will. | 00:46:43 | |
The ideas for it to blend in exactly. | 00:46:50 | |
Perfect. And for all the moms watching online, I got to remind them, thanks to Councilwoman Tucker, Mayor Pro Tem, for advocating | 00:46:52 | |
for restrooms in the children's area. And those were added to the budget, correct? All right, Very good. Very good. All right. And | 00:46:58 | |
you guys were able to do all your add-ons. So I also want to congratulate our friends at the county. They are cutting a ribbon | 00:47:03 | |
next Tuesday for their new administrative building, which has turned out really nice on North Main Street at the intersection with | 00:47:08 | |
441. | 00:47:13 | |
So I would. | 00:47:19 | |
And they haven't told me this, but if I were looking to get my tag renewed or go do an administrative function in the county, you | 00:47:21 | |
might want to wait till at some point next week. I got my tags renewed today. | 00:47:26 | |
Because. And so I asked all the things, so Friday they will be closed, but they have marked it as a holiday. So if your tags | 00:47:32 | |
expire on Friday, Monday is a day of grace. So it sounds like there's going to be a lot of a lot of vehicles moving up and down N | 00:47:39 | |
Main St. on Friday and through the weekend to move. Basically all the county administrative functions will move to this new | 00:47:46 | |
structure and then the judicial system of the county will take over. The former, well, the courthouse will remain the courthouse. | 00:47:53 | |
And so, so we will benefit from that and that new structure is done. Oh gosh, somebody happy anniversary 25th to Susan and Brian | 00:48:01 | |
Broderick. So thank you. We had a my wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary yesterday and this group tends to have. | 00:48:10 | |
Notifying the public of those things for somebody else. Thank you for thank you for that and not to be too morbid, coming after my | 00:48:20 | |
25th anniversary, but this was not on the list. But I was reminded of it. We do, we are working with. I've seen a little bit of | 00:48:25 | |
public comment on this. We are working with. | 00:48:30 | |
County commissioner, although he's not in that role, but citizen Amory Harden on some thinking around the Watkinsville cemetery | 00:48:37 | |
and how to best take care of that moving forward. | 00:48:41 | |
We do a lot of the maintenance over there. We're not legally required to, but we take good care of that. | 00:48:46 | |
Interim Chief Tetterton was explaining about the flags and things, but there is a lot of Gray area on what's happening at the | 00:48:52 | |
cemetery, how it's to be taken care of and what's going to happen there in the future. So we're really taking a hard look at | 00:48:56 | |
what's the right way to structure. | 00:49:01 | |
The governance of the cemetery and the organization that to make sure that it's properly maintained, but also that it doesn't put | 00:49:05 | |
a burden back on the city so. | 00:49:09 | |
That's a lengthy mayor's update for you all, and I will now turn it over to Council for their reports. Councilman Garrett is not | 00:49:12 | |
here. So, Connie, that means you get to lead us off with anything you want to share. | 00:49:17 | |
All right. Nothing from Councilwoman Massey. And don't take Brett ever joined. Correct. OK, That leaves it to Mayor Pro Tem. | 00:49:22 | |
Anything from you? | 00:49:28 | |
All right. And Councilman Campbell, just one thing. | 00:49:33 | |
Chief Territon brought up the first responders training. | 00:49:37 | |
And as someone who benefited greatly from that three weeks ago. | 00:49:41 | |
I had a little accident and severed my artery in my left wrist at work and the Oconee County Sheriff's Department were the first | 00:49:46 | |
people there and they knew exactly what to do. They got a tourniquet on my arm right away, beat the ambulance by several minutes, | 00:49:51 | |
so. | 00:49:56 | |
You gave that report and had I heard it last month, I wanted to have given. | 00:50:02 | |
Much thought, but I'm very thankful that our officers, both with the city and the county have that training and I realize how | 00:50:06 | |
important it is because when you're losing a lot of blood, you every minute counts so. | 00:50:13 | |
I haven't trained people. I'm very thankful. | 00:50:20 | |
And I will say I came in here that Friday morning having forgotten that was going on, and had a meeting with some citizens. | 00:50:22 | |
And some some people wanting to evaluate some property and the energy level in here was just outrageous. I mean that was really | 00:50:28 | |
great what you guys were doing and the excitement. | 00:50:33 | |
It's hard to kind of get excited around. I don't know, you know, if a million mannequins and all kinds of stuff in here, but the | 00:50:38 | |
Spree decor. | 00:50:42 | |
Chief around you guys and the work with Oconee and everybody, and I think we even had our public works guys in here in case there | 00:50:46 | |
was an emergency. So it wasn't just our law enforcement first responders. I feel like a lot of our team was getting trained. | 00:50:53 | |
And that's great because you never know when one of these situations is going to arise. So thanks for your leadership on that. And | 00:50:59 | |
for those who don't know, Chief, arrange to get several of those devices donated so that there was enough for everybody to train | 00:51:04 | |
and practice on and including on. | 00:51:08 | |
Youth and babies, I think, if I remember right, which is a big deal, so we know how to take care of them as well, which is | 00:51:14 | |
important. | 00:51:17 | |
OK, awesome updates, Jeff. Glad you're better and feeling better. Let's all keep Councilman Garrett and his family in our prayers. | 00:51:20 | |
We'll let Brett know that we miss him. And unless there's anything else, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. | 00:51:25 | |
All right. I make a motion to adjourn. Second, all in favor, say aye. We are done. | 00:51:32 |