Transcript

Event transcript
Manager we ready? 00:00:03
All right. 00:00:05
Welcome everybody to the August meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. It's great to see a full house. 00:00:10
It always means a lot when citizens. 00:00:19
Choose to come and participate and. 00:00:21
Be a part of the civic process and all that that means for our community, especially on a night like tonight. 00:00:24
We do have a quorum and so, as we always do, I will lead off with the pledge and judge England if you will lead us please. 00:00:30
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:43
indivisible, with liberty. 00:00:51
You always know when. 00:01:08
Is it a meeting? 00:01:10
As I said earlier to welcome everyone for being here tonight, we have a couple pieces of business to take care of out of the gate. 00:01:13
I will remind you of our. 00:01:17
A couple things about Watkinsville City Council meetings. These meetings are being simulcast and broadcast online and available to 00:01:21
the public via a system called Suite 1. 00:01:25
Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can always watch on our public portal and see the meeting information, which is also 00:01:29
posted right alongside that. That information is on the website. 00:01:35
From those times. 00:01:42
The agenda and the meeting information is posted on Fridays. You're welcome to review that then before our meetings. We also have 00:01:45
a relatively informal public comment process here. 00:01:49
Regular meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? 00:02:26
I make a motion to approve. You have a second. Second, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. 00:02:31
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:02:37
Ah. 00:02:40
Motion carries, I failed to mention. 00:02:42
Generally I do. When he joins us, we have, we have a Councilman. 00:02:45
And Kuwait Councilman Thomas, we're always grateful that you're able to join us at 2:00 AM local time. 00:02:49
From Kuwait and we want to thank you for your service as well, Sir. 00:02:55
Hey, thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. 00:03:01
Thank you. So when you guys hear a voice speaking through the phone, that is Councilman Thomas. 00:03:04
We Next up we have the approval of the July 26th, 2023 special called Meeting Minutes to have a motion to approve those minutes. 00:03:11
Make a motion to approve those minutes. All right. Do I have? 00:03:20
OK. 00:03:26
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor. Say aye. Aye. 00:03:27
All right, motion carries. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. We do have a couple items on there that I need to address. 00:03:34
I would request that the title Anthem be removed from. 00:03:40
Item 18 And that the renewal recommendation is partly for Anthem, but also for another insurance provider. 00:03:47
And then under consent agenda we'll need to remove item 13. 00:03:53
And move that to old business. So I will add that there is quite a bit on the consent agenda. So if anyone has anything else they 00:03:58
want to remove from consent, now is the time to do that. If not, we'll address all that together and approve those items, but. 00:04:05
So either speak up, if not, I'll entertain a motion to make the change I requested regarding Anthem and to pull item number 13 and 00:04:12
move that to Old business. 00:04:16
I make a motion to approve the agenda. With those two changes, Do I have a second second? 00:04:20
We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. 00:04:27
All right, motion carries. 00:04:32
All right, we will move on to administration again. As I said earlier, public input may or may not occur here. Comments should be 00:04:34
made directly relating to agenda items, speak only from the podium, Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant 00:04:39
discussion. Should you take that opportunity to address? 00:04:45
The Council. 00:04:51
First up, tonight we have. 00:04:53
We were bittersweet moments, probably the best way to describe it. We're going to have recognized our police chief, Shannon Brock, 00:04:58
with several. 00:05:02
Moments. So this. 00:05:08
And Chief, no amount of time that we spend on this is going to justify. 00:05:11
The sacrifices and the service that you've made to Watkinsville, but we're going to start with a little video. 00:05:15
After that, we've got a few proclamations and some people who want to make some remarks. 00:05:19
He's a phone call to his parents. He's a. 00:07:27
He's a teacher that I'm wearing. He's the song stuck in my head. He saw it and he silly like me. I'm getting yours. He knows he's 00:07:33
where he's going. It is good where he's wrong. 00:07:40
He's one of the good ones. 00:07:53
You'll know him when you see him. 00:08:31
You say he hung alone. I say he hung a Galaxy. 00:08:37
Nobody does it better. 00:08:43
I've known her to go. There was a day for me to win. What's the good world? 00:08:46
Communication. 00:08:58
The. 00:10:07
Anybody can be. 00:10:11
He's good all the time. He's one of them. 00:10:15
He's a man. 00:10:23
He's a man. 00:10:33
Chief. 00:11:14
It's going to be a minute if you don't want to stand up yet, so we got a little bit to do here so. 00:11:18
I'm going to take a moment of mayoral privilege. I've got a proclamation, but the last thing anybody wants to do is hear somebody 00:11:24
read a proclamation. So I'm going to speak from my heart. 00:11:27
For those of you who don't know, I think most of you are here for this. But for those of you who don't, we're losing our chief. 00:11:34
Our Chiefs Ret. 00:11:39
But we're losing a piece of our heart. 00:11:41
In Watkinsville. 00:11:43
I don't know that in such a short time I've ever seen somebody make as big a difference in this town. 00:11:46
How many years has it been? 00:11:53
Four years. 00:11:55
In four years, our police departments transform. 00:11:58
You've transformed our community. Your family has leaned. 00:12:01
You've made an amazing difference. 00:12:05
And when I think about you, I think about 5 things. 00:12:08
Those five things are. 00:12:11
Conviction. 00:12:14
Creat. 00:12:16
And. 00:12:17
Everybody who saw that video and everybody knows you knows how big community. 00:12:19
I love that in a lot of those pictures you weren't even in it because it's your officers who took that lesson too. 00:12:23
You've made a difference in our community. 00:12:30
But even bigger. 00:12:33
We had. 00:12:35
We have Black Lives Matter, We have challenging moments challenging this community and you had the courage to take it on. 00:12:36
You didn't put your head down. 00:12:43
You pop your head up even though and everybody's playing in the whole country. 00:12:45
And you stood up and you took it on. 00:12:50
And you showed courage there and countless other. 00:12:53
Again, you've made a difference. 00:12:56
You showed character. 00:12:59
What's character characters, what you do when nobody's looking? 00:13:00
And you showed character the entire time. You showed conviction in your beliefs. There were times when we disagreed. There were 00:13:05
times when you and Sharon disagreed. You didn't back down. You stood up for your men. You stood up for what was right. You showed 00:13:09
conviction. 00:13:13
And you showed creativity. 00:13:19
Those those pictures. Everything that you did. Cops and bobbers. 00:13:21
The different moments. 00:13:26
The mass, the photos, the. 00:13:28
You made policing fun in a time when policing was hard. 00:13:30
All over the country. 00:13:33
You did? 00:13:36
And you did more. 00:13:37
So. 00:13:39
Wasn't our chief tonight. I feel like we're losing part of our heart. 00:13:40
You know that this community. 00:13:44
You meant the world to me. You met the world of the city and and we're incredibly grateful. 00:13:47
Again, I've got a proclamation for you. We'll take a photo in a little while with this proclamation. It says a lot of stuff that 00:13:52
we've shared publicly before, but I want to share a little bit with you and Selena and the family from my heart about what you've. 00:13:57
To me, into the city means a tremendous amount. So thank you, Chief. Thank you for that. I'm going to let this sit here. We've got 00:14:03
Hunter Spear. 00:14:07
Governor Kemp. 00:14:12
And Hunter's going to step forward and read a proclamation from the governor. 00:14:13
For. 00:14:17
Um. 00:14:20
He's aware of your situation and it means a lot that he's here. Then we're going to have another presentation from. 00:14:21
Georgia Military College then. 00:14:27
Todd's Todd's going to do some stuff and then we'll get a picture at the end. So Hunter, if you want to come forward. 00:14:29
Share the proclamation from the governor's office. That'd be great. 00:14:34
Like Mayor said, my name is Hunter Spear from the governor's office, field representative for the area and. 00:14:42
Can't thank chief enough for what he's done for the community. 00:14:47
Proclamation by the Governor of the State of Georgia Accommodation. 00:14:51
Whereas Chief Shannon Brock has faithfully served the people and city of Watkinsville as Chief of Police since 2019. 00:14:55
And whereas as Chief has defined servant leadership as he committed himself and his department to bettering the Watkinsville 00:15:02
community as a whole. 00:15:06
His career in law enforcement has demonstrated A dedication to public safety and to the state of Georgia. 00:15:10
And whereas under his leadership, the Watkinsville Police Department has seen improvements and ongoing developments that have made 00:15:16
it the efficient and effective force it is today. 00:15:20
Chief Rock was instrumental in implementation of up-to-date procedures and equipment along with the folks. 00:15:26
Hiring quality officers across the force. 00:15:32
And whereas as he steps back to focus on his personal health, he is remembered by his city and his state as a chief who not only 00:15:35
protected his fellow citizens but became a friend of his community. 00:15:40
And whereas it is an honor to commend Chief Brock for his monumental career and to wish him well as he navigates the future. 00:15:46
Now, therefore, I Brian P Kemp, Governor of the State of. 00:15:54
Do hereby commend Chief Shannon Brock in witness thereof. I have here and to set my hand and cause the seal of the Executive 00:15:57
Department to be affixed this 14th day of August. 00:16:02
In the Year of Our Lord 2023 signed Brian Pecan. 00:16:07
Thanks. 00:16:12
I think we have someone here from Georgia Military College, Is that correct? 00:16:22
Also. 00:16:33
I'm Gene McKinney. Must see you. Probably in this room. Don't know me. I'm from Georgia Military College. Formerly from Georgia. 00:16:39
Piedmont Law Enforcement Academy. 00:16:43
Where I was the Academy director and that's where I got the pleasure to meet Chief Brock and I have to tell you as being an 00:16:47
Academy director for several years. 00:16:51
I have got the opportunity to meet lots of agency heads, lots of command staff, lots of chiefs, lots of sheriff's. 00:16:57
And I have never met. 00:17:04
An agency had. 00:17:07
That is as universally loved and cherished as Chief Bro. 00:17:08
He clearly knows what it means to be a servant. 00:17:14
I have constantly seen him and the interest he has taken in his people. 00:17:18
And his family. And that's ultimately what you all are to him as his. 00:17:23
So I'm very, very proud to have met you and to have been a small part of your life and for you to be a small part of my life. 00:17:28
So greatly appreciate you for that. 00:17:35
So to show you my appreciation, I've had the pleasure to talk a lot about you to. 00:17:39
Where I'm at, the people where I'm at now, and so I do have. 00:17:45
Person personally signed a letter. 00:17:49
Lieutenant General William Caldwell who is a three star general at our institution and a challenge coin that. 00:17:52
Has the inscription of return with. 00:18:00
And so we appreciate you and everything you do, and thank you for being a shining light in this profession, Sir. 00:18:03
Make sure. 00:18:22
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Todd Tether. 00:18:34
Formally and currently the deputy chief of the City of Watkinsville, serving as the interim chief. 00:18:37
Saying goodbye. 00:18:43
My best friend. 00:18:47
I've known the chief for about 25 years. 00:18:52
We served together in law enforcement in South Georgia. 00:18:55
When he worked in a department and I worked in a neighboring department, we have gone on SWAT calls together. 00:18:59
We have made a rest together, We have done training together. 00:19:04
With the acad. 00:19:07
And as well as our depart. 00:19:08
When I later left local law enforcement to serve as AUS Deputy Marshall. 00:19:11
I continued the relationship I had with. 00:19:16
And was honored to be selected to come up here to be his deputy. 00:19:19
Little did I know that he would be leaving. 00:19:22
So. 00:19:26
You need to. 00:19:36
Let's. 00:19:47
Hey. 00:19:57
I want to thank everybody for being here. 00:20:01
It's a tree humbling. 00:20:04
To see everybody. 00:20:08
I'm so grateful that. 00:20:10
We're all able to come and. 00:20:12
Uh. 00:20:15
Four years ago I provided an opportunity to come to Walkinsville and. 00:20:17
Services. 00:20:22
I know that. 00:20:24
So much of A blessing. 00:20:28
I was brought here by. 00:20:31
I was meant to be. 00:20:35
Because. 00:20:37
City. 00:20:39
Need a Police Department that they can trust that they could rely on that. 00:20:41
Come to. 00:20:48
It was damaged when. 00:20:51
You know they'll put that together. 00:20:54
But not without. 00:20:57
I didn't do this all myself. 00:20:58
The team over there. 00:21:03
Came over. 00:21:06
That's what got it. 00:21:08
I appreciate the relationship we've had. 00:21:14
Between this agency. 00:21:16
Previous organization did not have a good relationship and I'm glad we were able to repair that. 00:21:19
Maintain religious area today and. 00:21:24
I'm grateful. 00:21:29
That we were able to do that because we're all the same, but we're all doing. 00:21:30
And I'll say. 00:21:38
The law enforcement agency in the state or in this country? 00:21:42
Not engaging the. 00:21:46
Face to face with members of the Citiz. 00:21:48
Because that's where it is. That's where it is. We need to get back in our communities. 00:21:55
We need. 00:22:00
Officers are being. 00:22:03
Reliable resources that they can be. 00:22:06
Entrusted. 00:22:10
Agencies need to be transparent in everything they do. 00:22:12
I. 00:22:20
All my. 00:22:23
Also. 00:22:24
To continue doing what we have established already. 00:22:27
Put down the. 00:22:31
People. 00:22:33
Lay in the. 00:22:36
Keeping the kids. Keep keep keeping the backpack back to the kids at the at the car line. 00:22:38
Do all things we did we eat lunch with. 00:22:44
Policy. 00:22:48
Hey, I'm not going anywhere so don't want to come pick me up and take me. 00:22:49
So. 00:22:56
Mayor Council. 00:22:58
Thank you for the opportunity. 00:23:06
Thank you for the opportunity to have been here. 00:23:10
To. 00:23:14
Become a member of. 00:23:21
Because that's what we. 00:23:24
Thank you. 00:23:28
I. 00:23:37
1100. 00:23:56
1100. 00:23:59
Have a good night. 00:24:02
1100 would be 10/7 10:42. Thank you for your 22 years of dedicated and professional law enforcement service to the citizens of the 00:24:09
State of Georgia and the Walkinsville community. 00:24:13
As their police chief, we wish you a safe and happy retirement. According to our units, 1100 would be 10/7 10:42 for the last 00:24:18
time. 00:24:22
I'll hear for that. 00:24:33
OK. 00:24:59
If you and your family would just come up here and we'll get a couple pictures. 00:25:04
Would like to add. 00:25:09
I didn't plan this retirement this early, so. 00:25:12
Councillor. 00:25:15
Four more. 00:25:18
All right. I wonder if you could come up in the box family, Todd, you as well. I think that would be appropriate for quite a few. 00:25:20
Keeping up in the middle. 00:25:32
Right. 00:25:51
All right, let's have another round. 00:26:01
I. 00:26:28
Thank you. 00:26:35
Council, come on up, Julie, come on up to. 00:26:53
And an officer. 00:27:20
While everybody's coming up here, I just want to say thank you for your service and I am proud and grateful that I have had the 00:27:27
opportunity to help you. 00:27:31
I'll get in there. I'm sure it was, but. 00:27:38
Act like you like them. 00:27:42
Thank you. 00:28:14
Council members, do any of you, Connie, thank you for speaking up and reminding me that council members, you have anything you 00:28:21
want to? 00:28:24
Share about the chief and then? 00:28:27
Then we'll what those who are here. 00:28:30
Chief Department council members feel free to share a few reminisces and then we will. 00:28:32
Move on. OK, so. 00:28:38
When we were doing the search for a new chief, I was very skeptical that we would be able to find anyone to run a small town 00:28:42
Police Department. Well, with limited budget, limited resources. 00:28:50
And you blew all of my expectations out of the water. 00:28:58
You have truly done all the things that you said you would, and then some thank you for making. 00:29:12
Our community such a priority and showing what law enforcement can be in a community. 00:29:21
I also really appreciate all the deals you always got. 00:29:28
My Scotch Irish heart sings true to that. 00:29:33
So you always had a creative solution and we're networking and I don't know how you have the time to lead. 00:29:38
This great group of people find new people, train them. 00:29:47
And just build a department that the city can be incredibly proud of. 00:29:53
So thank you so much and thank you for bringing your family to this community as well. They are a jewel as well. So thank you. You 00:30:00
will be very missed. 00:30:05
Yeah, Chief Buck, I think there's people coming to your life, something you get to know really well. Some you just meet in a 00:30:19
conversation, but it sticks with you. 00:30:24
I don't know you real well. 00:30:29
I've been up here for just over 2 and 2 1/2 years. 00:30:32
It's amazing how you make such a big impact. Even things you don't do when you see the all the pictures up there, you're always 00:30:36
smiling. 00:30:40
You know, you're always enjoying life and that's the example that we all need to have. It's just enjoy life, be a positive person. 00:30:45
And I take that whenever I saw you're always smiling. 00:30:51
And I mean the work you did, You know, every. 00:30:57
Praised your work and it was first class and it's what Watkins both needed. So I just appreciate everything you've done, but I 00:31:01
appreciate. 00:31:05
The obvious love for life. You. 00:31:10
She violence, types of echo, whatever one is saying, but you know, we've known each other for a short time and just your 00:31:18
creativity and the things that you brought to the table has been amazing. 00:31:23
For our community and you leaving a legacy here. 00:31:28
Last it'd be here lif. 00:31:33
Thank you. 00:31:35
Councilman Thomas, if you have anything you want to share. 00:31:39
Yeah. Hey Chief, I greatly appreciate your, your, your servant leadership, man, you you have done a fantastic job. 00:31:44
Leading this community and. 00:31:52
You know you will be missed and I look forward to seeing you in and around the city and you've got my number. If there's anything 00:31:56
I can do, please do not hesitate to reach out. That goes to your family as well. 00:32:01
I look forward to seeing you again, brother. 00:32:08
Councilman Massey, anything else you wanted to? 00:32:13
Woman, a few words. 00:32:16
All right. 00:32:19
Chief on behalf of this entire community, on behalf of the City of Watkinsville. 00:32:19
There's not much other to say. 00:32:27
Than a huge thank. 00:32:29
It's not goodbye because you're still around. 00:32:31
And you're still going to be a part of this community. And just because you're not the chief doesn't mean you can't continue to 00:32:34
inspire and serve and do all the amazing things that you have. 00:32:38
And that's what we expect to see from you in the years ahead. 00:32:42
OK, so we're we're grateful to you. We're thankful. 00:32:46
Selena to you and the family. 00:32:50
Wow, you all made such a difference for us too, so we're grateful. But thank you from Watkinsville. Thank you from Oconee County. 00:32:53
Thank you from everybody. Everybody here. Congratulations and good night. Yep. 00:33:03
Yep. 00:33:08
Thank you. 00:33:51
Yeah. 00:34:05
I. 00:34:15
High school. 00:34:22
Can we get a picture quick? Whatever you need to do. 00:34:25
Hey you, you may want to do a contribution to the city. This yard is on the Union. 00:34:42
We got a legend here. 00:34:52
He remembered when the dead seemed still. 00:34:55
Where is. 00:35:07
Yeah. 00:35:11
Two of us. 00:35:46
That was very good man. Thank you. Thank you. That was very good. 00:36:20
Thank God and you know, get so busy and when you stop watching and see. 00:36:26
School. 00:36:32
There we go. 00:36:41
Thanks for coming. 00:37:01
Here. 00:37:24
You're going to get that for Venice and chair to get it sheriff's. Do you want to get in with them? 00:37:27
Me too. 00:37:48
I. 00:37:56
And I get one really quick. 00:38:05
Yeah, they all get gone. 00:38:30
Remember the best high school class county ever. So you know he's got that going. 00:38:44
Yeah. 00:38:49
They didn't get that Italian. 00:38:51
We're going to reconvene. 00:39:33
It's kind of hard to keep going after something like that, Y'all, but we're going to do it. We got got a fairly full agenda that 00:39:38
we're going to keep working through. 00:39:41
And next on our agenda as we have Constitution Week coming up. 00:39:45
I don't know that with all the conversations we're having in America, if there could be a more important week. 00:39:51
That's coming up, and I'm Assembly Givens has been a leader with the junior American citizens and the DAR for a long time. So, 00:39:57
Emily, we're grateful that you're here. If you'll come forward to the Dias with your guests. 00:40:05
I will read a proclamation and give you guys a couple minutes to talk about Constitution Week if you want to. 00:40:14
Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited 00:40:35
government in a Republic dedicated to rule by law. 00:40:39
And whereas September 17th, 2023 marks the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America by 00:40:44
the Constitutional Convention. 00:40:48
And whereas it is fitting and proper to afford official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary. 00:40:53
And to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it. 00:41:00
It witnessed thereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of Watkinsville, Georgia, to be affixed the 16th day of 00:41:35
August, the year of our Lord 2023. 00:41:40
So thank you. 00:41:45
And if you want to share a little bit about what y'all are going to do, I think you have a few things planned and that would be 00:41:50
great. Thank you so much. 00:41:54
Thank you. 00:41:57
Thank you so much. 00:42:01
As the mayor said, I'm Emily Givens. I'm the chair of the Watkins Field Junior American Citizens. We are Youth service club that 00:42:03
is sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution and we've been very active in Watkinsville for over 11 years. With me is 00:42:09
my daughter, Grace Holland Givens, and she is. 00:42:14
Just stepped down as president and we have another JC member that has take this going to be the president for the coming year. 00:42:21
Thank you so much again Mayor for. 00:42:26
Telling everyone about Constitution Week. Constitution Week is so important. In fact, it was the dollars the American Revolution 00:42:32
about 75 years ago. The petition Congress to. 00:42:37
To pass this so that it it. 00:42:43
The law of the land, so to speak, that we take time to remember our Constitution. It is vitally important. Could I? Would. I 00:42:48
would. 00:42:52
I would say no more important than it is at any other time in history for us to come together under this as Americans. And the 00:42:57
wonderful thing about the Constitution is it covers all of us and that's what I think we can all get behind. And that said, I just 00:43:03
want to give you a little sneak peek of what we're going to do. I. 00:43:09
On September 1st, the junior American citizens will be decorating a library cube in the Watkinsville library to kind of help 00:43:16
educate our younger Watkins villains about the Constitution. And the city is graciously will put up the Constitution banners. 00:43:24
Around this second week in September. We appreciate that so much and they'll put out flags for us. 00:43:34
When we get closer to the big day, which is September 17th, and it's a 236th anniversary of the signing of the document, excuse 00:43:42
me, of the Constitution. 00:43:47
In 1787. And when that happened, and those brave men got together, and they. 00:43:53
Put There's John Hancock. Hold it. Bales peeled out over the countryside. And that's exactly what's going to happen on September 00:43:59
17th in Watkinsville. Church bells we ring in. We will have a constitution program at Ashford Memorial Methodist Church starting 00:44:06
at 3:30 with patriotic music. We'll have a community bell ringing at 4:00. And then the junior American citizens, along with the 00:44:13
children of the American Revolution, will present a history program. And then? 00:44:20
Nothing could be a better finale. 00:44:27
Than. 00:44:33
Don Phillips, Civil War Cannon being shot off behind the courthouse and we are so appreciative of John Daniel for letting us do 00:44:34
that two times in a row. So thank you so much. I hope everybody comes to Constitution Day. We really appreciate it and thanks for 00:44:40
all, all all your help. Thank you. 00:44:45
We'll get a photo. And I do want to Emily, you have been an inspiration in terms of patriotic activities in Watkinsville, which I 00:44:55
love. She's always. 00:44:59
Hold on a second. 00:45:41
Thank you. 00:45:48
Thank you. 00:45:57
The balance sheet, the revenues and expenses. 00:46:49
Through the end of July. If there are no questions about that, we'll move on and you can certainly ask me afterward. 00:46:52
On the Splice 2 report, I wanted to mention that with the completion of sewer Line A and the receipt of the final invoices, we 00:46:58
anticipate closing this out this month, so there'll be no money left in this account that you may recall Lost One and Two together 00:47:05
along with some general fund monies made-up the remaining amount of funding for sewer Line. 00:47:12
Sposs 3 Right now we have encumbered funds for the Rocket Field improvements, for streetscape improvements downtown, and for a 00:47:21
Police Department and public works capital expenditures that were part of. 00:47:27
Fiscal Year 24 Budget. 00:47:34
We are averaging about $78,000 a month. 00:47:37
On revenues and you'll see that there, you'll see, well, you'll see between the two years obviously, but we've seen a 15% increase 00:47:40
over year to year between 22 and 23 and we have about 1.2 million in the bank right now. 00:47:46
On our tea spots, which we just started collecting in April, we've only had a small amount of expenditures. But you, the mayor 00:47:54
will talk about in his report tonight, one of our biggest expenditures and projects, very first project is the sidewalk segment. 00:48:01
Installation of sidewalks throughout the community. Right now, New High Shoals Rd. is currently under construction, expected to be 00:48:10
completed possibly by the end of this week. And then we'll be moving on to the other segments that you guys approved. 00:48:17
And right now we're averaging 68,000 on that. There is a difference, remind you guys a difference between tea spots and SPLOST 3 00:48:23
in the percentage because the county in the city agreed to a different percentage on that. 00:48:29
There is your comparison. 00:48:35
Techn. 00:48:37
And we've got a little over $205,000 at the end of July in. 00:48:39
And then our American rescue plan reports that money was set aside. Council approved a standard allowance. The government allowed 00:48:46
us to select that, and by doing so, you can use that money. 00:48:51
For any general fund purpose that the city. 00:48:57
The council approved funding for premium pay for retention of our officers and that that money is encumbered for that purpose and 00:48:59
then future uses to be determined. Council will be making decisions about that in the coming months. 00:49:06
And we have a little bit over $800,000 in that account. 00:49:12
Any questions on any of those? 00:49:17
OK. On economic development, we're actually fixing to kick off the new business license here. So we don't have a lot of these 00:49:19
candidates would be new, new companies that are established and so we only have a couple. 00:49:25
Through the end of July, our excise tax, remind everybody that the monies for June don't come in until July. That's why I'm giving 00:49:31
you this report. 00:49:35
So the July, July money that came in is for June. So all those numbers up there for June are what were received through the end of 00:49:40
July. 00:49:44
And then on the economic development with building permits, you'll note we have the instructional support center, which because of 00:49:51
state law, they're allowed to do their own permitting. They don't have to, they do have to provide review and inspections of that, 00:49:57
but they're not required to go through our office to do that. And so they're, they are listed, the evaluations are listed, but 00:50:04
then we have HVAC's which are typical this time of year and some signs. 00:50:10
Nothing really terribly exciting through July. Any questions on those? 00:50:17
OK. 00:50:23
OK, giving the DDA update, Georgia, our wonderful director Kate has finished the Georgia Main Street training. 00:50:30
And so opportunities with Georgia Main Street are going to be starting. 00:50:42
She also submitted the Revitalizing Underdeveloped Rural Area Legislation Application or the rural designation. It's a very 00:50:48
competitive process. 00:50:54
And it was a lot of work to put the application together. So we're very grateful that Kate did all of that work and fingers 00:51:01
crossed, like I said, it's very competitive to see if we'll get that or not. We probably won't know until the end of the year. 00:51:08
The creative place making grant that we received this winter, The committee is hard at work. If y'all have not heard October 14th, 00:51:17
we are having. 00:51:22
An event at Rocket Field. 00:51:28
The splits band is going to be there. They're a local kind of cover band and they're well known, very popular. There is a public 00:51:30
art project that we will be doing. We have engaged an artist that has come up with five different. 00:51:37
Outline paintings and the community is going to get to paint that and then it will be displayed publicly. And also we have local 00:51:46
restaurants that are there's food for sale and all of it is going to help support the DDA and continued beautification. 00:51:57
Of downtown. So that's really excited. So October 14th. 00:52:10
5 to 8 it is a free event, just bring money for food. 00:52:14
And yeah, that's the main point. 00:52:20
Good evening, Mayor. 00:52:31
Going to make this fairly short in your packet, you should have received the police department's report. 00:52:35
For this month, I'll just touch on a couple of things. 00:52:42
We did attend the opening day Cullen Ferry Elementary School to greet the children. We assisted the principal there on completing 00:52:46
some assigned tasks that she needed and that was during the week on a Wednesday and we followed up that Friday with our very first 00:52:51
yearly bus unloading and. 00:52:57
Children's drop off. We did that with music and about six officers. We had a really good time doing that. The kids seem to really 00:53:04
enjoy it. 00:53:07
Moving farther down. 00:53:12
We have had a badge and vanilla's meeting with ESP and we're in the process of putting together a package to possibly sponsor some 00:53:13
needy children to go to the next summer camp next year. 00:53:19
We are involved with the library program for the young readers. Officer Ryan Anglin is going to read a book there on what it's 00:53:26
like to be a police officer and hold a coloring book event after. And then we're working up to our annual 5K Run for responder 00:53:33
event in October that we're really involved in. And I'm looking for chili entries. So if anybody wants to cook chili, we need all 00:53:40
the chili entries you can you can put in. 00:53:47
Officer Train. 00:53:54
So Sergeant Hitler just became one of the newest Georgia Post firearms instructors. 00:53:56
Completed that A. 00:54:01
To tell you how difficult the class is, they started with 24, they graduated about 12, so it's it's pretty tough. 00:54:03
He joins me in being the agencies. 00:54:11
Firearms instructors Officer Stearns just completed Georgia First responder over in Fulton County. 00:54:15
So she is the next best thing to a paramedic. 00:54:21
We are going to be traveling this Friday. Five of us are going over to assist the Barrow County Sheriff's Office in Winder with 00:54:26
the DUI checkpoint. 00:54:30
And then we will be going over to Clark County the month after and in October we're actually hosting the DUI checkpoint here. 00:54:35
Interesting case the month. I won't touch on this one. All I will tell you is it involved a car? 00:54:43
A gas pump and it didn't workout well for the gas pump. 00:54:48
But it was a hit and run at the Golden Pantry. The vehicle was located and the driver was apprehended and. 00:54:51
The gas pump did not catch on fire, which is a good thing, but you can read about that in the report. 00:54:59
So activity and I don't want to spend a lot on this, but let me just tell you what we got up to. 00:55:06
So if you look. 00:55:11
We had 11184 calls for service for the month since we last. 00:55:13
Our guys issued 134 citations or warnings for various things and we conducted 691 security checks. 00:55:18
So we had a lot of officers away at training and doing different things. So some of those numbers may have dropped slightly, but 00:55:26
not a lot. 00:55:30
On the traffic activity it was mostly speeders, because if you can imagine, we wrote 89 speeding citations and 62 warning. 00:55:33
On our fixed LPR. 00:55:43
We had a total of about 75 on those for various things. 00:55:45
As you go through the packet, there's a breakdown and everything. 00:55:50
Interesting enough, we worked. 00:55:54
A citizen private concern on North Main that came from a couple houses that was worried about speeders. 00:55:58
So the first thing we did is we started conducting extra patrol. Then we put our two variable message signs out there and started 00:56:04
gathering data. 00:56:08
And what we learned is that's a pretty heavily traveled road, right? You just wouldn't believe the numbers of cars. 00:56:12
On one week, going southbound, we recorded about 21,000 cars. 00:56:20
And on northbound, we recorded just under 30,000. 00:56:24
Now when it comes to. 00:56:29
From what we've saw now, we did write some citations and warnings, but generally speaking people are paying attention. I don't 00:56:31
know if it's because of my signs or us, but during those two weeks. 00:56:36
Speeders for enforcement activity. 00:56:41
On the southbound. 00:56:44
Was at .1. 00:56:45
.1% not even 1% Point one. 00:56:48
On the northbound lane they were a little bit heavier. 00:56:51
.2%. 00:56:54
.2 So not a lot there, but our guys are going to continue working it and hopefully we made a difference. I know for a fact that 00:56:56
one of the residents came out and talked with one of the. 00:57:00
And it was one of the residents that actually contacted us, so they were very happy to see us and thanked us a lot. 00:57:05
And that's pretty much everything I've got, unless you got questions. 00:57:12
It's been kind of a hard meeting for. 00:57:16
Thank you. Yeah. I think that's an important note though, that you know that this is. 00:57:22
There's two aspects to community policing. There's getting out and seeing the community and there's being responsive when the 00:57:27
community comes in and I think that's the summary that you put in. The packet is so impressive and shows exactly. 00:57:32
You know, living in a small town with a great police force is an awesome thing that a citizen can ride in with a concern and not 00:57:39
only have an officer show up to run radar a couple times a week, we get a detailed report of. 00:57:43
This is how much traffic this is what percentage you're speeding. We're still going to help address your concerns, but here's the 00:57:49
data that shows what's really going on so that that's really a great example of best practice. So thank you. All right. Thank you, 00:57:53
Sir. 00:57:57
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder, we pulled item 13 off of this, but I would ask for a motion to 00:58:04
approve items 91011121415 and 16. 00:58:09
Do I have a motion on that? 00:58:15
I make a motion to approve. We have a second second. 00:58:16
Any conversation? 00:58:21
If not all in favor, say aye, aye. 00:58:22
We have no public hearings tonight. We have no appearances tonight. We have two items under old business Do we want to do trove or 00:58:28
do we want to do historic preservation first? 00:58:33
OK. Then this will be item 13 off the consent agenda. Attorney Reitman and Manager Dickerson, if you want to update us. 00:58:38
I'm going to let the attorney do all this. All right, Very good. Mayor and council. 00:58:46
I'm going to make available for anybody in the public who wants a copy. This is kind of late breaking. This is a green space 00:58:52
passive recreation land donation agreement. Would anybody like a copy of this? Be glad to carry it back to you if anybody like 00:58:57
copy. I see Madam Press is interested in a copy. 00:59:02
This has been in the works for a couple weeks, but was finalized today. Let me just give you all the very brief highlights in the 00:59:12
interest of time and that we are at a little bit later hour. This pertains to. 00:59:18
Goes back to a development agreement that was agreed upon several years ago on the Trove development. 00:59:26
Wherein subsection C5 of A of an exhibit to the Development Agreement reference specifically. 00:59:34
Parkland, recreation area, green space, walking and biking trails, among other things that noted that the open space may be 00:59:40
conveyed to the city by Trove Constructs, LLC is a company name for inclusion in the city's open Space program. Both parties agree 00:59:47
the area is to be used for passive recreation opportunity only, such as walking and wildlife. There may be a community building in 00:59:55
the area at some point in time, in the discretion of the city. 01:00:02
With perhaps a community garden in various neighborhood amenities including bike racks, pet waste bag receptacles and so forth. So 01:00:10
what this does specifically is it donates 3 parcels of property for these stated purposes which are tracked one at the corner of 01:00:20
Column Ferry and Morrison, which has a substantial value to it $183,000 appraised value 1.967 acres. 01:00:29
Tract #2 is known as Morrison North. 01:00:40
Value assigned to that one is 222 K 7.66 acres. And then tracked 3 Morrison S opinion of value of that parcel $133,500 for 3.219 01:00:43
acres. And again all this is for the purpose of passive recreation, parking, green space, land for use by the citizens and then 01:00:53
most importantly city desires to accept the contribution. 01:01:03
For such public purposes. 01:01:14
The remainder of this is required under the Internal Revenue Code, stock, boiler plate and verbiage, and this is the net result of 01:01:15
a lot of discussion among the attorneys staff. Some heavy lifting by the City Engineer Manager Dickerson ET al Has been a team 01:01:21
effort. 01:01:27
So just some context for our guests here on that. So there's a subdivision called Trove that's being built near Colin Ferry 01:01:34
Elementary School is a part of the conditions with that neighborhood. They were allowed to build on smaller lots than as normal, 01:01:40
but enabled. In order to do that, they had to make several contributions back for the benefit of the city. That included a 01:01:47
sidewalk from the school to Column Ferry Rd. as well as substantial contributions of green space for public use. 01:01:53
Possession of those properties and they'll become part of our parks and green space program. So in total acreage, Joe, what's that 01:02:30
roughly around? 01:02:34
1.97 Let's call that 2 + 7.66 puts us at 9.66 + 3.2 puts us up close to 12 acres. So So the city will. 01:02:39
The city, the citizens will have 12 acres of new green space, 13 acres of green space in the column ferry quarter to use and 01:02:52
again, one of our stated goals that have everybody be within an easy walk of meaningful green space. So this is going to help us 01:02:57
accomplish that. 01:03:02
Council Questions for. 01:03:07
Mr. 01:03:09
And again as as Mayor stated the contingency because we are finalizing the plat which we've been coordinating very carefully. 01:03:12
Madam Manager, the City Engineer and myself, we do need to insert the meats and bounds legal description from the approved plat 01:03:20
into this document. So what you see is almost final, but it will have an updated Exhibit A with all the meets and bounds to make 01:03:28
sure we've dotted I's, cross T's and there's 100% legal. So any motion be contingent upon approval by. 01:03:35
Manager, engineer and attorney, thank you. 01:03:43
All right. Any questions from the public on that? 01:03:46
Kind of an interesting. 01:03:49
All right. I see a thumbs up. Thank you, Kathleen. All right, more green space. That's good, right? All right, Council, do I have 01:03:51
a motion? I make a motion to approve. 01:03:55
With final approval and review by the manager, engineer and city attorney, do we have a second second? 01:04:01
All in favor of any conversation. 01:04:10
All right. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 01:04:15
All right. Thank you. We will move on to historic preservation update, I think. Councilman Campbell, this is you. 01:04:19
Yeah, Chuck Garrett and myself met with Professor James Reap yesterday here. He's a professor at University of Georgia and 01:04:28
specializes in teaching historic preservation. 01:04:35
And for those who don't know, he's going to have a class assignment. He's got 14 students in his class that are all graduate 01:04:42
students. One's actually a third year law student and they are going to work on the project of creating our Historical Historic 01:04:48
preservation ordinance. Excuse me. 01:04:54
The and they're going to start on it. 01:05:02
Right now as UGA starts, so the first half of the semester they're going to research all the cities with historical preservation 01:05:04
ordinances in state of Georgia, which they're approximately 150 cities in the state that do. 01:05:11
So that sounds like a lot of fun. 01:05:18
So anyway, they'll do that the first half of the semester. They're going to use the State Historic Preservation Ordinance as the 01:05:22
the baseline to create our ordinance off of. 01:05:28
Let's see. 01:05:36
They'll do the research the first half of the semester and right around October 1st they'll start kind of writing the ordinance 01:05:37
for Watkinsville and basically. 01:05:42
They'll create the ordinance that they think we need, and there'll be discussion back and forth, and then they'll come up with 01:05:46
what they believe is a good ordinance for the city, and then we'll have sh. 01:05:52
To discuss, OK, we like this or let's modify that. There will be, you know some adjustments if you will from the preservation 01:05:59
ordinance at that point and. 01:06:03
There's a lady there, Jennifer Lewis, in the college there. She also has a degree in historic preservation, but she's experienced 01:06:09
in holding Tourette's for these ordinances so she can. 01:06:15
Us down the road, but he kind of want to get wants to get the ordinance. 01:06:23
Done on his end and then we'll she'll leave the tweaking on our end if you will. I. 01:06:27
So that's kind of where we stand there and he's very excited, he's written. 01:06:33
Ordinances for many cities, small and large. 01:06:37
City of Decatur, for example. So he's very well respected. He travels all over the United States working on on this, so we're 01:06:42
fortunate to have him. 01:06:46
Do this with for us and if they didn't add at a low cost. 01:06:51
No cost. Even better. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So great. Yeah. So he's very excited. 01:06:56
Attorney Reitman Yes, Sir. I had the privilege of working with Professor REAP in approximately 2016 on behalf of another 01:07:04
municipality to update an ordinance that was based on the state law model some decades ago, and he was just wonderful to work 01:07:11
with. He's just a real joy because he is such an expert. He's creative, he's very energetic, and he just puts out good work 01:07:19
product. In fact, what you saw is kind of a very initial early rough draft a year or two ago. 01:07:27
Was basically a slightly simplified streamlined. 01:07:34
Version of the culmination of all that work that we did around 2016. You're really getting the best of the best here. And he and I 01:07:40
had a long conversation. He reached out to me about 3 weeks ago, told me basically what you've said. We got into some legal 01:07:46
nuances and details and I was really impressed with the game plan. His team and he advised to basically I think you alluded to 01:07:51
their willingness to come down here and present and and give you basically the best product and what may become a new statewide 01:07:57
model. 01:08:03
Perhaps with tweets? 01:08:10
In the future. 01:08:11
Thank. 01:08:13
And just a reminder for the members of the public, you know our goal with this is we're we have a we have some challenges with 01:08:14
preserving our old homes in Watkins, but we don't have a lot of old homes. 01:08:19
Leading the way on that and I'm really glad we're going to engage the public broadly as we move that forward. I think that's 01:08:53
really important. 01:08:56
So we don't need a vote on that. We'll move on to scouts, hang in there. This is almost as exciting as the financials. We're going 01:09:00
to talk about employee health insurance renewal. Y'all don't appreciate that now, but at some point later in life, you'll 01:09:05
understand the importance of good insurance and we've been working on. 01:09:10
We're going to talk a little bit about that. She's going to help me figure this out. So what we are going to request though is 01:09:47
approve the renewal with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield for our medical dental vision, long term disability. At the current premium 01:09:53
rates that means there's no increase in the rates from this fiscal year 23 to 24 with a $10,000 premium credit that Anthem will 01:10:00
issue us and adding short term disability benefits for 12 months beginning October 1st through September 30, 2024. You did have, I 01:10:06
think I may have actually. 01:10:12
So insurance brokers in Georgia did receive. 01:10:55
Services or I'm sorry, price proposals from Anthem, United Healthcare, Cigna and Oscar and Aetna. 01:11:00
In the last fiscal year, we spent a little bit less than 175,000 on those on those. 01:11:09
Basic benefits, I've updated as you see have updated. We anticipate spending 164,000 and that was. 01:11:15
If you go back and look at #4, that was for 19 full time employees. We're now up to 20 and we're going to be spending 10,000 less. 01:11:23
On those same things, if we stay with Anthem, we already pay for long term disability. That amount that's listed in item 6 of 01:11:29
$4319 is already been budgeted in the budget process that's been approved. 01:11:36
At our request we ask that we look at short term disability for our employees. Some of us do it on our own, but the majority do 01:11:44
not. That would be and this is the revised number $5132.64. It was not accounted for in the budget, but because of the savings 01:11:51
that Anthem is offering the premium credit, it will more than cover that. 01:11:57
In addition, you may recall that the fiscal year 24 budget, we anticipated an increase of more than 5 1/2%, which it now is no 01:12:04
longer required. So. So we're looking at a significant savings and we're hoping that you guys will consider using some of that to 01:12:10
provide that additional. 01:12:15
Service, and this is teeny tiny, but everybody should have a copy in front of them. I want to make sure I had it up on the screen. 01:12:21
And I'm going to let her talk a little bit about why we've changed our position from going with Aetna and now going with Anthem. 01:12:27
And I'm going to pop up some of the reasons here and I'll let you take it from there. 01:12:33
So good evening, everyone. I'm Sandon Shaw Caldwell with Insurance Brokers of Georgia and Oak Bridge Partner. And we are your 01:12:41
benefits broker for employee benefits for the City of Watkinsville. And yes, Sharon, bless her heart. 01:12:47
I send things and then it's a little bit of a dance back and forth, right? And we negotiate, but. 01:12:55
Having a broker, the perk of that is that I shot the market and I compare and contrast all the options from various carriers, 01:13:02
because as a brokerage or a broker, I'm not a captive agent. I can look at every option available and we can. 01:13:10
The biggest thing for the book, right. So initially last week as of end of day Friday that was looking to be Aetna. That was going 01:13:19
to be the recommendation they came in with a great proposal when. 01:13:26
Quoted the Benef. 01:13:33
But I used that proposal to present back to Anthem to negotiate. 01:13:35
What else can you offer us? And ultimately as of 3/30 this afternoon, I got the revised proposal where they originally we did 01:13:43
have, I believe it was a 5.8% rate increase, which was actually excellent. We were very pleased with that. 01:13:51
I was very pleased with that and we negotiated it down to a 0% increase. So we're locked in at the same rates that we were last 01:14:00
year, which is fantastic and a win in and of itself. But on top of that, we got a $10,000 premium credit with Anthem. 01:14:09
And. 01:14:18
We want to add the employer provided short term disability. This is going to benefit your employees twofold. One, it covers 01:14:20
everyone. Anytime a benefit like that can be employer provided as opposed to voluntary, it's more affordable, The rates are lower. 01:14:28
Because you have 100% participation. 01:14:36
The voluntary elections that are currently in place, those employees will experience. 01:14:39
A pay raise essentially because they will no longer have to pay that out of pocket on their own. So that's a great benefit as 01:14:45
well. 01:14:48
With the increase and the deduction, I think the compare and contrast though on Aetna. 01:14:54
You'll notice that there is. 01:15:01
Probably financial savings still to move to Aetna and they also offered an admin credit, however. 01:15:03
Through discussion and just talking about the history of the group, any ongoing claims that may be in process, we feel the 01:15:13
simplicity of staying put and still having a great savings. 01:15:20
Is the better bet and the better way to move forward. So our recommendation at this point is to renew with Anthem. 01:15:28
Based on the revised proposals and negotiations and added value of short term disability and no disruption to any providers. 01:15:36
Pharmacy benefits or prescription medications that anybody may be on at the time. 01:15:47
They wouldn't have to change any of that and there's something be said for that as well, not having to make a change mention about 01:15:53
the chamber. 01:15:57
Also as a member, so with our Anthem plan, it's on a chamber smart plan which is considered a MIWA, it's a multiple employer 01:16:01
welfare arrangement and that means that our claims pool over the course of the year is actually. 01:16:08
Combined with many. 01:16:16
Clients that are in that same chamber plan. So it kind of mitigates or helps our claims experience, whereas if we do move to a 01:16:19
level funded plan of our own potentially with Aetna AFA that was presented or proposed and recommended last Friday, but that has 01:16:26
changed. 01:16:32
Your claims would be all on your own, and so the risk reward of that is that next year we could experience a larger increase 01:16:40
depending on how claims go. One of the perks of Aetna, they do a surplus share if your claims run well, but again when evaluating 01:16:47
all the pieces of the puzzle. 01:16:53
We feel that renewing with Anthem, with the concessions that have been negotiated, makes the most sense for this year. 01:17:01
Yeah. But I'll just remind you all it, it's been hard to get insurance with us just having what do you call it when it's just us 01:17:11
not part of the Hewa, but when it's just our our population here, our pool when it yeah, when it's just your. 01:17:17
You often hear about insurance for. 01:17:25
Companies or employers? And it's like, oh, I love this carrier. I didn't really like that plan. And you really can't judge the 01:17:28
carrier based on that because you have to judge it based on the group. It has nothing to do with me. Each group stands alone. 01:17:36
So your claims, your census, your average age, your zip code, all of those things can get taken into consideration. 01:17:45
With the chamber smart plans. 01:17:55
They lump all of those together in a pool of other participating clients or groups or employers that are. 01:17:57
It just helps alleviate a little bit of that pressure. So historically we had a small number of employees and when you're trying 01:18:08
to go to market with a small number of employees, anyone employee event or insured event, make sure prices skyrocket. And the 01:18:12
other thing is. 01:18:16
So they kind of put those safeguards in. 01:18:49
Kind of for that reason, to protect the carrier swapping if you will, but. 01:18:53
You know my job as your broker is to. 01:18:59
Compare and contrast and shop the market for you. Thank you for your work, Sanda. Do we have any questions from council on 01:19:03
insurance? 01:19:06
Will you be here after the meeting? I sure will. I sure will. A self-employed people. 01:19:11
Look at that Chamber of plan. Seriously. 01:19:19
OK, great. We need a motion to approve the recommendation. 01:19:22
I make a motion to approve the recommendation. 01:19:26
We have a second, second discussion. 01:19:30
All in favor, Say aye. 01:19:34
Motion carries. We will move on to our agreement for maintenance and scheduling at Rocket Field with the yard and we're glad. 01:19:37
To announce this tonight, just a little bit of light context before I turn it over to to the manager to talk about the specifics. 01:19:45
Rocket Field is really coming along, I think what we've realized and thank you Brock Tool as well who's supporting us on that 01:19:49
project. We're glad to see you tonight. 01:19:54
Yeah, we have the potential to have one of the nicest little hometown ball fields in America, I think. 01:20:00
But what we realize is there is a lot more that goes into taking care of a ball field than just dragging it a couple times a month 01:20:05
and keeping the grass mode. So we realized we had some experts in town with the yard. We also had some proposals for how to take 01:20:11
care of that because we don't know that our team in the city really has time to take care of it. 01:20:17
We have some experts at the yard who expressed an interest in that in a public, private way and we also think we can get this and 01:20:23
I'll let the manager. 01:20:27
See if she agrees or disagrees with my guess. But we think we can get this maybe close to revenue neutral through the way that we 01:20:31
utilize the field and have some other groups using it in terms of Little League and others. So. But it's an exciting opportunity 01:20:37
because our goal with Rocket Field wasn't just to get the field fixed, but also to maintain it in such a way that it's a really 01:20:42
awesome venue for anybody who wants to play baseball out there. So Manager Dickerson, I'll let you take it from there. 01:20:48
Well, I'm not sure I'm going to add a whole bunch to that. But as the mayor said, we are looking at trying to maintain it at its 01:20:54
current state and we do not have that expertise on staff. So we've reached out to the community and communities reach back and we 01:21:01
have a proposal from the yard to not only maintain the field and to the desired level that it should be for those playing on the 01:21:07
field, but also helping us schedule events, not just those events that may happen on the feet, the playing field like softball or 01:21:14
baseball teams or T-ball teams. 01:21:21
But also events in the outfield or I guess we're outside the infield. 01:21:27
And the proposal which is in the packets, this is the proposal we have, which roughly comes out to about 1700, sixteen, 1650 a 01:21:33
month. 01:21:38
Sir, good evening. Thank you for having me. My name is Miles Mingi, representing the yard at our park. 01:23:22
On behalf of the Yard, we're grateful to have the potential opportunity to not only preserve this historic site in downtown 01:23:28
Watkinsville, but also enhance it. 01:23:33
I feel like this is a place that. 01:23:38
We can really help people. 01:23:41
And. 01:23:43
Is another site to help people gather and really in Watkinsville, the people that surrounding this place, it's it's what makes it 01:23:46
special. You seen that out there at? 01:23:50
At Wire Park, the reach that we've been able to to have in the youth and the families of this community. 01:23:56
And and Rocket Field is a place that is, it's really a gold mine when it comes to. 01:24:04
To facilities. It's kind of like reminds me of the sand light. There's not many other places I've ever seen this had just, you 01:24:11
know, I've been in this community for a year and a half. 01:24:15
Didn't even know about Rocket Field. 01:24:20
Probably two months ago I wrote up on it and I was like, wow, like why are we not doing anything with this? 01:24:23
And I'm just excited for the potential opportunity to again enhance it, help people gather. 01:24:30
And and really see where it goes again. That place it can. It can, really. 01:24:35
Turn into something special with the with the proper upkeep. And I think not many people realize what it takes to again, not only 01:24:42
maintain it, but to enhance it. 01:24:48
And so yeah, so. 01:24:54
Hopefully. 01:24:56
This can become a site for for people to gather and and and really connect people watkinsville for years to come. So thank you. 01:24:58
Joe, do you have anything you want to? 01:25:08
Just to reiterate a couple key provisions that they the yard will be the point of contact in charge of scheduling the organized 01:25:11
athletic events, which I think is a real benefit and a help for the city and the schedule. We maintain the shareable file, so 01:25:17
there'll be real time access to the city at any given point in time. They will maintain liability insurance and do a standard hold 01:25:23
harmless defendant indemnification. So I think we've covered the bases here. I think it's a very good agreement, mutually 01:25:29
beneficial. 01:25:35
And I recommend. 01:25:41
Council, do we have questions for our friends from the Yard or Sharon? We also have Brock available if we have questions for our 01:25:44
project manager. 01:25:48
Yeah. I have a couple questions. So you had mentioned that this is kind of a trial thing. 01:25:53
Is there a like a timeline? Will it come back before us? I mean, I'm just wondering as we're potentially approving this, what? 01:25:59
You know, simply we budget for it and you guys approve those contracts after the fact. 01:26:46
My other question is how far? 01:26:53
Not how far in advance, but like. 01:26:59
Can someone call and say, oh, we want to book it for tonight or whatever? And I'm sitting here thinking from a city perspective, 01:27:02
from a citizen perspective, that wouldn't be great for just the community who might want to use it. Like will it be posted? 01:27:09
Because I know a lot of families go out and use Rocket Field and we want to be able to continue. I mean, this is a public park and 01:27:15
so we want people to be able to enjoy it and use it. So will there be some kind of schedule posted and how last minute can people 01:27:21
like reserve it? 01:27:28
Absolutely. Good question. I think it's important to note that that with a site like this, it's important for it to be public, but 01:27:35
at the same time in order to preserve it and enhance it and and and it's it's not overdone and overused, I will say that. 01:27:43
It will. 01:27:51
It will be the potential for revenue for the city and in the yard in that aspect is it is rented out by the hour. 01:27:54
And those financial details are to come. 01:28:03
But. 01:28:08
As far as scheduling. 01:28:08
Those details have not come to light yet I would say. I doubt you know the day of the detail, day of scheduling will occur again 01:28:10
just because just the organization of it. 01:28:16
And the structure of it this. 01:28:23
Not something that we want to take lightly and not something that we're just, you know, anybody can go out there at any time. Let 01:28:26
me speak into that a little bit though, because Miles what we talked about I think with Phil. 01:28:31
We don't want to necessarily an organized baseball team going out there at anytime and playing on it. But if, if you know, if 01:28:36
someone and their daughter wants to go, you know nobody's on the field and they want to play. They want to play catch or do some 01:28:41
batting practice or throw the ball around. 01:28:45
Then that's acceptable if the fields not reserved and then we're also I think going to reserve some blocks of time just for public 01:28:50
use. 01:28:54
Saturday, if somebody want to have a tournament, we would need to know that up front because otherwise we would want that 01:30:12
available like the stage if somebody wanted to have. 01:30:15
You know, reunion and they wanted to be on the outfield or maybe they wanted the whole field and that's we'll talk a little bit 01:30:19
about that and the fee structure that we're going to propose here in a minute. But I think we're still working through that. And I 01:30:24
mean I think we're open to that. I think again, we're going to give it a shot. We tweak things here and there and between them and 01:30:30
us and the public, figure out what works the best and adjust as needed. 01:30:35
I think it would be helpful to have like in a laminated way, weatherproof where maybe there's AQR code so that the public could 01:30:41
access that obviously not manipulate the schedule, but access the schedule. So because I don't think it's realistic to constantly 01:30:48
be going to the field and putting up the times, but something like that I think would be super helpful. So that. 01:30:55
You know you don't have disappointed kids because you promised them to come out to Rocket Field and. 01:31:03
There's a someone else's birthday party there and I just a Matt, you know, I was a mom with children. I am a mom with children. 01:31:09
They're just not little children that would scream anymore about this thing. So I think what we're wanting to do is find that mix, 01:31:15
right. What we don't want to do is invest this money and have a facility that's being underutilized, you know, especially when 01:31:20
it's going to be, I think create some amazing opportunities for children who are in the sport. 01:31:26
At the same time, we also want to, and we've watched Rocket Field right where there's not a lot of baseball softball use out 01:31:32
there. So if we're going to put in a nice field, we want people to use it. 01:31:36
Hey, there's good bathrooms. There's an upstairs room where you can have a cake. There's other stuff you can do. So we anticipate 01:32:09
people taking advantage of it that way. And then I think Sharon will walk us through the next part, deposits and stuff like that. 01:32:14
So if you do use it, you can't trash the field and not have to pay because that's the other thing that has happened historically 01:32:19
at Rocket Field is people have a great time out there and then they leave. 01:32:24
You know, enough litter to fill up a trash can and broken toilets and other stuff, and we're stuck with the bill on that. So 01:32:29
that's we're trying to protect that investment that we've made. I think this is a good first step and we'll see how it works. 01:32:35
Any other questions? 01:32:43
All right. Thank you, Miles. 01:32:46
Council with that, any members of the public have questions or comments on Rocket. 01:32:49
That part of it. 01:32:54
Kathleen. 01:32:56
We. 01:32:58
For the record, Kathleen asked about the dog park We. 01:33:02
Kathleen, if you want to talk it through, we can, but the we are, we'll see. I think that's where we are right now. We've realized 01:33:07
that a space is smaller than we thought it was going to be. We're worried about the impact that dogs are going to have on it. We 01:33:12
are actively looking at some other locations potentially if it is a dog park, it won't be before the end of the year. We've got to 01:33:16
let that side settle in. 01:33:21
And route otherwise we'll have wasted a bunch of money on that quadrant. So we're trying to evaluate that. We want to have a dog 01:33:27
park downtown. That's what we're trying to figure out whether it's that tiny space or whether we can find another location is what 01:33:32
we're looking at. So, but we made a commitment when we did that that there would be a dog park. But after looking at it, we are a 01:33:37
little concerned about the size of it. So that's what we're trying to work through. 01:33:42
So that's where we are with it. So maybe, maybe not. 01:33:49
Trying to work. 01:33:53
Anything else? 01:33:56
All right, with that Council, we have a motion to approve the agreement with the yard. 01:33:59
I make a motion to approve the agreement with the yard through this fiscal year. 01:34:07
We have a second. 01:34:12
Any discussion? 01:34:14
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? 01:34:16
Motion carries 5 O fee schedule. Sharon, if you want to walk us through that. 01:34:20
So we reached out to Oconee County Public Parks and Rec to see what therapy structure look like. Pat Sebring has been just a 01:34:27
wealth of knowledge and information and and then we consider what we have which is maybe a little bit nicer than what they have 01:34:34
and and and so we came up with just some pricing. This is sort of throwing it at the wall and sort of looking at what's out there 01:34:41
and I believe Mayor Pro Tem and the mayor both looked at it, we had. 01:34:48
I believe Phil looked at it for Roberts looked at it. What I will say is, as the mayor said, we are going to be recommending, as 01:34:56
the county does, refundable rental deposits, especially when there's a private event. We're not going to do that for the softball 01:35:03
field at this point. That may change. We'll see how they use it and stuff, but for events, private events that are held or even 01:35:10
public events and we'll talk about that in a minute, but public events will will require something as well. 01:35:18
So what we're looking at right now is $50.00 an hour. I believe the county charges 35 an hour. 01:35:25
We. 01:35:31
If if there was a group that wanted to have a one day tournament or two day tournament and the and the the county prices there 01:35:33
similarly it's a little bit more like again they Figure 8 hours. 01:35:38
So we're figuring $50 and eight hours, so $400.00 for the day and then 350 per day if it's a two day. 01:35:44
We talked about concession standing right now that sort of that may be moving a little bit. We're not really sure what will happen 01:36:24
with that with just having one team. It's not like you're being out of OVP and there's multiple teams and you've got a vendor like 01:36:29
Oconee Little League that wants to run your concession stand. You might only have two teams and you know we're not really sure 01:36:34
what that's going to look like yet. So we're keeping it essentially the exact same as what the county has, which is $200 a day or 01:36:39
$400.00 for the weekend. 01:36:44
As I mentioned, we have other spaces other than the infield we call I guess what I'm trying to determine and and this is green 01:36:50
space, this would be everything at this point everything because we haven't determined. 01:36:56
Where the line will be if there is a dog park, where that will be. So we're saying everything outside of the infield is considered 01:37:03
green space. 01:37:05
Covington We looked at some other communities in the area that rent events space like this and we're, you know. 01:37:39
Way under what they're charging, but we're just trying to come up with something again. 01:37:44
If we if we don't get a lot of people that say, yeah, I want to rent it and they go, that's ridiculous, then maybe we'll come back 01:37:48
to y'all and say we need to drop the pie. So it would. We're just trying to sort of figure it out. The market will dictate it and 01:37:53
we'll we'll know soon enough. 01:37:57
We did talk about for any out of county clubs that want to use the baton courts, there won't be any rental or any scheduling or 01:38:02
anything on the baton courts. However, we do know there are other clubs in the area and it could be that they want to rent them. 01:38:07
If they do, we'll let them but it's it's not going to be for free. 01:38:12
I think they have like a flat fee and we were figuring, I think it works out sort of the same, but we figured we do a percentage 01:38:49
and it's high because we don't really want people, we want our citizens to use it. But you know, if somebody had an event, wanted 01:38:56
to have an event over there, we'll consider it on the public, on just some general notes. So again, these are for reservation 01:39:02
purposes. People can go out anytime that it isn't reserved And I love the QR code, Great idea. 01:39:09
Anytime it's not being used, people go out there and use the field, enjoy the field. 01:39:16
And that's on the first come first serve basis we will require or we met. We reserve the right to require anything that may be 01:39:22
essential to help support an event such as trash, additional trash cans or Porta potties. 01:39:28
And if it is a public event, like somebody want to have a concert and invite the public, that is going to be considered a special 01:39:37
event. They will have to come through our our permit process as you normally would like fall festivals as an example or you know 01:39:42
something again wanted to have a concert at the field and invite the public and sell tickets. 01:39:48
We would, we would have to be involved in a different level with them on that. 01:39:54
So that's what we've got so far. 01:39:58
Quest. 01:40:03
A tobacco system for any rentals. 01:40:06
Yeah, I don't know yet. For all rental, for everything except for probably a public event. 01:40:10
Yeah, I think public events, that's where we'll have to talk about it now. We talked for fall festival. We're not going to have 01:40:15
them over for fall festival. They don't want to be responsible for the bathrooms. They can't do them or bring in porta potties for 01:40:19
that. 01:40:22
And so I think, you know, we will try it. I mean again we're going to, this is our first rodeo, so we'll give it a shot, we'll 01:40:26
monitor it back. Right now the bathrooms, the officers have keys to the bathrooms and they're in around 7:00 or 8:00 they're 01:40:33
opening them and around that time at night they're closing them just because. 01:40:39
We have had issues not at Rocket Field, but in other parks we've had issues with, you know, people. 01:40:46
Destroying things. And we just don't want to, you know, have anybody you know, nothing happened, nothing could ever happen after 01:40:53
it gets dark. So we're just not going to encourage that, so. 01:40:57
So with the the baseball that the yard is scheduling, is there going to be something where, and maybe I'm getting to the weeds or 01:41:02
being too paranoid here where after you know? 01:41:08
Two teams have played. Someone's going to check the bathrooms as that. Is the yard going to do that? And then if they've trashed 01:41:15
it, they're responsible because there's no deposit for any of that. Like, I guess I'm just. 01:41:20
Like fix anything but they can alert us hey, there's a problem. 01:42:00
You know, you only take care of that first thing in the morning. Our guys will be back out. We'll try to address it. So it'll be 01:42:02
it's going to be a lot of you know just gonna be team sport trying to make sure if we're keeping track of what's going on and and 01:42:07
and working through it the first first few months or so. 01:42:12
Any other questions? 01:42:19
Lawrence. 01:42:22
No. 01:42:25
That's right. 01:42:27
Yeah, again. 01:42:32
Once we saw what happened when some cars drove on the field previously and the amount of damage it did and the time it took to fix 01:42:35
it. 01:42:38
We realized for the investment we're making, we're not going to allow cars on the field, so we've worked with the chamber. 01:42:42
They're working through the new processes to allow that we're adding gates on different sides of the field to make it easier for 01:42:48
people to get in and out carrying their stuff. Brock I think we're working with Rotary and others to make sure we got volunteers 01:42:52
to help people get set up. 01:42:57
And and then we're adding parking around the field and striping the area closest to Ho CAF. So we're adding parking on the West 01:43:02
side of the field. I think our total new net new parking is somewhere. 01:43:08
Around 16 spaces and then once we stripe the area around OCAF, that's all going to get much more efficient. So we anticipate for 01:43:13
special events in other places where OCAF used to use it, they'll have additional parking and then with the school board 01:43:17
relocating. 01:43:22
Next year we anticipate further spaces being available up there. So it's going to have to be a little bit of learning. But what we 01:43:26
realize is we allow cars on that field, it's going to totally ruin the quality of the field and the experience out there and we 01:43:30
just. 01:43:35
We, you know, too much has been invested to allow that to happen. 01:43:39
To benefit of something for two or three days a year and there's lots of other festivals around Georgia where you can't drive 01:43:43
right up to where your booth is, so. 01:43:46
All right. 01:43:52
We have a motion to approve the fee schedule. 01:43:54
Make a motion to approve the fee schedule. 01:43:58
All right. Do we have a second? Second, all in favor, say aye. 01:44:01
Any opposed motion carries. We will move on to public comments. 01:44:06
Just reminders. Comments should be related to the agenda items. Not really. There's no agenda in public comments. You can say 01:44:13
whatever you want. 01:44:17
But when you do it, be respectful. Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant discussion. 01:44:22
And if anybody wants to come forward and make a comment, now is the time. 4 minutes. State your name and your address and. 01:44:28
Let's hear from. 01:44:34
Oh, Kathleen, no comment tonight. 01:44:38
Or scouts. No y'all ready to get out of here. OK, All right. 01:44:44
All right, we'll move on to the mayor's report. Sharon, if you could tee that up, a couple updates. Number one, want to give a 01:44:50
huge thank you to our. 01:44:54
Street Department public works guys, it feels like every night, thankfully not tonight. We are having thunderstorms and we have 01:44:59
had a lot of damage from those storms and our guys are working tirelessly. 01:45:05
To take care of that. Very grateful for them and coordinating with the county and Georgia Power and others to do that. You can see 01:45:11
the huge tree that was across Thrasher Drive. We've had issues on Katie Lane, we've had issues on 2nd St. we've had issues on 01:45:16
Marshall Drive. 01:45:21
There are a lot of trees coming down and our guys are out there taking care of it and we're grateful to them for that and for 01:45:27
those late hours into the Police Department for coordinating with that. 01:45:31
Sidewalks are almost done on new High Shoals Rd. There's some fair bit of finishing work they're going to come back and do. But 01:45:38
those guys are fast and despite the thunderstorms have made good progress, I didn't go by today. Did they make it to the other? 01:45:44
Our pavilion is looking really nice at Rocket Field. 01:46:23
Credit to everybody who's working on that. We're anticipating a real a formal opening in October. Fields already getting some use 01:46:27
from certain groups and the Pavilion looks great. I think. I haven't been buying a day or two, Brock, but I think we've got steps 01:46:33
on the front now. We've got a roof on that. 01:46:38
And as we mentioned earlier, we've still got to. 01:46:45
How and if the dog park is going to integrate there and how that's going to all fit together, but that's really coming along nice 01:46:48
and it's going to be a really great community resource. So again, thank you to our partners on that. G dot cleaned up a drainage 01:46:54
issue at Hardin Hill. We're always appreciative of them. I always remind people Main Street is not all Rd. so as much. 01:47:01
People might be frustrated with Main Street, its condition, the stormwater, the other things. Scouts. There's different groups who 01:47:08
own roads and control roads. There's city streets, there's county streets, there's state owned streets and there's federal owned 01:47:13
streets. And Main St. in Watkinsville is controlled by the state of Georgia. So we have issues there. We try to get them to take 01:47:18
care of it rather than spending city tax dollars on it. 01:47:23
Accounting Library construction update. It is flying marker. Y'all still looking at January. Yep, so January. Hopefully the 01:47:30
library will move over to Wire Park. A lot of work going on on the outside and the inside. It looks like it's coming along well. 01:47:38
As well. 01:47:46
There's a little preview of what's happening there that's going to be an awesome facility. 01:47:47
Thomas Farm Park, pleased to announce we are going to put together a citizens committee to work with us on that. Again, we would 01:47:53
really hope to really get moving on that January 1st. Our deadline to close is by the end of the year, so we're putting all the 01:47:59
pieces in place to work on that. We've completed due diligence, so our contract is in good shape with the owner. 01:48:06
So I am going to put together a citizens committee to work on that. The names will pop up in a second that who's going to support 01:48:13
us on that but shared if you could pop back. 01:48:18
Our goals are really to help us prioritize the amenities and features, right? I mean, we've already thought about that as a 01:48:23
council finalize our site plan. 01:48:28
Determine what the rough schedule for those improvements looks like. Discuss whether we want to call it Thomas Farm Park or 01:48:34
whether we want to call it something else. 01:48:37
And then? 01:48:42
And then begin moving forward. So that's what we're going to ask these citizens to help us with. Obviously they're also going to 01:48:43
be help us extend deeper out into the public and get. 01:48:47
What the public thinks about this, but ultimately the role, the decision making authority for all this relies right here with you 01:48:51
guys. OK, so they may make recommendations, but I am going to be clear with them in the charge. You know, ultimately it's the city 01:48:58
council's decision about what goes there, but we do want to this group to help us gather input and come up with ideas. 01:49:04
Around that and then obviously our staff will help us with implementation and making sure that reminding sometimes when you get 01:49:11
people together haven't dealt with budgets, sometimes ideas get big and they don't understand the constraints of the dollars and 01:49:15
the resources we have and then obviously. 01:49:19
Attorney and engineer will need to be involved and make sure we don't make any missteps. 01:49:24
This is what we're looking at in terms of timing for that. I really anticipate six or seven different meetings including a 01:49:30
property tour for that group in late September. 01:49:34
In October, I anticipate some public input meetings with an update coming back to us in October refining the concept design, 01:49:39
finalizing that. 01:49:44
In, in December along with the schedule. So that's what I anticipate happening. This is the members of the committee so far. We 01:49:49
may add a few others. 01:49:54
Christine and Jeff, thank you for agreeing to serve on that. 01:50:00
And you'll see some other names here, some that you may may recognize, some that you don't. But it's a mix of neighbors and people 01:50:04
with diverse experience. Some who live in the county, Most live in Watkinsville. 01:50:10
But all kind of have experience that's relevant to what we're trying to do at the park. 01:50:16
There we go. 01:50:25
Yeah. So happy belated birthday, Christine. OK, yeah. 01:50:30
Chuck Garrett Happy birthday, yeah. 01:50:38
Any other surprises, Sharon? Or we're done. OK, good. I never know what's going to come up last on the mayor's report. 01:50:43
With that, council reports will go to Chuck yet for post one. 01:50:50
I think we've already touched on the sidewalk stuff and just a lot of great comments and people are very excited. 01:50:54
To see that happen, and one everybody grumbled about getting mud on their feet, the DLT is. 01:51:02
Stepped in and took care of that. And no mud is with the rain we've had. No mud is on the sidewalk, so. 01:51:09
That's a good. That's their Harden Hill. Yes. Yeah, that's that's good. OK. 01:51:15
All right, Connie, post 2. Nothing to report, OK. 01:51:20
Brett, anything from post 3? 01:51:24
I am just excited to be coming home. 01:51:28
Anticipate being there for next month council meeting. So super excited about coming home and rejoining council behind the behind 01:51:31
the rail. 01:51:37
All right. Well, we're we're super excited about having you back with us. 01:51:43
All right, Post for Councilwoman Tucker, Yes, just a quick update. I met with one of the artists that we have commissioned to do 01:51:47
the art. 01:51:52
Behind. 01:51:58
City Hall essentially. And so we are thinking through placement of the three different pieces of art. So that is ongoing and it 01:51:59
may be next spring before we actually see it. These are very large pieces that they are working on, but that'll be exciting when 01:52:06
they are installed. 01:52:13
Awesome. 01:52:20
Councilman. 01:52:21
Nothing to report. I did mine earlier. All right. Thank you for that update earlier. We do have a brief executive session, so we 01:52:24
will. 01:52:28
Ask all of y'all to head on out of here. If you want to hang around, you're welcome to and we will go back into open session to 01:52:33
adjourn unless we take any action otherwise. Good night. A motion to move to executive session. So I will take a motion to move to 01:52:37
executive session. 01:52:42
All in favor. All in favor. 01:52:50
30. 01:52:57
I make a motion to adjourn. 01:52:59
2nd. 01:53:02
Aye. 01:53:04
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Transcript

Event transcript
Manager we ready? 00:00:03
All right. 00:00:05
Welcome everybody to the August meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. It's great to see a full house. 00:00:10
It always means a lot when citizens. 00:00:19
Choose to come and participate and. 00:00:21
Be a part of the civic process and all that that means for our community, especially on a night like tonight. 00:00:24
We do have a quorum and so, as we always do, I will lead off with the pledge and judge England if you will lead us please. 00:00:30
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:43
indivisible, with liberty. 00:00:51
You always know when. 00:01:08
Is it a meeting? 00:01:10
As I said earlier to welcome everyone for being here tonight, we have a couple pieces of business to take care of out of the gate. 00:01:13
I will remind you of our. 00:01:17
A couple things about Watkinsville City Council meetings. These meetings are being simulcast and broadcast online and available to 00:01:21
the public via a system called Suite 1. 00:01:25
Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can always watch on our public portal and see the meeting information, which is also 00:01:29
posted right alongside that. That information is on the website. 00:01:35
From those times. 00:01:42
The agenda and the meeting information is posted on Fridays. You're welcome to review that then before our meetings. We also have 00:01:45
a relatively informal public comment process here. 00:01:49
Regular meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? 00:02:26
I make a motion to approve. You have a second. Second, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion. 00:02:31
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:02:37
Ah. 00:02:40
Motion carries, I failed to mention. 00:02:42
Generally I do. When he joins us, we have, we have a Councilman. 00:02:45
And Kuwait Councilman Thomas, we're always grateful that you're able to join us at 2:00 AM local time. 00:02:49
From Kuwait and we want to thank you for your service as well, Sir. 00:02:55
Hey, thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. 00:03:01
Thank you. So when you guys hear a voice speaking through the phone, that is Councilman Thomas. 00:03:04
We Next up we have the approval of the July 26th, 2023 special called Meeting Minutes to have a motion to approve those minutes. 00:03:11
Make a motion to approve those minutes. All right. Do I have? 00:03:20
OK. 00:03:26
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor. Say aye. Aye. 00:03:27
All right, motion carries. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. We do have a couple items on there that I need to address. 00:03:34
I would request that the title Anthem be removed from. 00:03:40
Item 18 And that the renewal recommendation is partly for Anthem, but also for another insurance provider. 00:03:47
And then under consent agenda we'll need to remove item 13. 00:03:53
And move that to old business. So I will add that there is quite a bit on the consent agenda. So if anyone has anything else they 00:03:58
want to remove from consent, now is the time to do that. If not, we'll address all that together and approve those items, but. 00:04:05
So either speak up, if not, I'll entertain a motion to make the change I requested regarding Anthem and to pull item number 13 and 00:04:12
move that to Old business. 00:04:16
I make a motion to approve the agenda. With those two changes, Do I have a second second? 00:04:20
We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. 00:04:27
All right, motion carries. 00:04:32
All right, we will move on to administration again. As I said earlier, public input may or may not occur here. Comments should be 00:04:34
made directly relating to agenda items, speak only from the podium, Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant 00:04:39
discussion. Should you take that opportunity to address? 00:04:45
The Council. 00:04:51
First up, tonight we have. 00:04:53
We were bittersweet moments, probably the best way to describe it. We're going to have recognized our police chief, Shannon Brock, 00:04:58
with several. 00:05:02
Moments. So this. 00:05:08
And Chief, no amount of time that we spend on this is going to justify. 00:05:11
The sacrifices and the service that you've made to Watkinsville, but we're going to start with a little video. 00:05:15
After that, we've got a few proclamations and some people who want to make some remarks. 00:05:19
He's a phone call to his parents. He's a. 00:07:27
He's a teacher that I'm wearing. He's the song stuck in my head. He saw it and he silly like me. I'm getting yours. He knows he's 00:07:33
where he's going. It is good where he's wrong. 00:07:40
He's one of the good ones. 00:07:53
You'll know him when you see him. 00:08:31
You say he hung alone. I say he hung a Galaxy. 00:08:37
Nobody does it better. 00:08:43
I've known her to go. There was a day for me to win. What's the good world? 00:08:46
Communication. 00:08:58
The. 00:10:07
Anybody can be. 00:10:11
He's good all the time. He's one of them. 00:10:15
He's a man. 00:10:23
He's a man. 00:10:33
Chief. 00:11:14
It's going to be a minute if you don't want to stand up yet, so we got a little bit to do here so. 00:11:18
I'm going to take a moment of mayoral privilege. I've got a proclamation, but the last thing anybody wants to do is hear somebody 00:11:24
read a proclamation. So I'm going to speak from my heart. 00:11:27
For those of you who don't know, I think most of you are here for this. But for those of you who don't, we're losing our chief. 00:11:34
Our Chiefs Ret. 00:11:39
But we're losing a piece of our heart. 00:11:41
In Watkinsville. 00:11:43
I don't know that in such a short time I've ever seen somebody make as big a difference in this town. 00:11:46
How many years has it been? 00:11:53
Four years. 00:11:55
In four years, our police departments transform. 00:11:58
You've transformed our community. Your family has leaned. 00:12:01
You've made an amazing difference. 00:12:05
And when I think about you, I think about 5 things. 00:12:08
Those five things are. 00:12:11
Conviction. 00:12:14
Creat. 00:12:16
And. 00:12:17
Everybody who saw that video and everybody knows you knows how big community. 00:12:19
I love that in a lot of those pictures you weren't even in it because it's your officers who took that lesson too. 00:12:23
You've made a difference in our community. 00:12:30
But even bigger. 00:12:33
We had. 00:12:35
We have Black Lives Matter, We have challenging moments challenging this community and you had the courage to take it on. 00:12:36
You didn't put your head down. 00:12:43
You pop your head up even though and everybody's playing in the whole country. 00:12:45
And you stood up and you took it on. 00:12:50
And you showed courage there and countless other. 00:12:53
Again, you've made a difference. 00:12:56
You showed character. 00:12:59
What's character characters, what you do when nobody's looking? 00:13:00
And you showed character the entire time. You showed conviction in your beliefs. There were times when we disagreed. There were 00:13:05
times when you and Sharon disagreed. You didn't back down. You stood up for your men. You stood up for what was right. You showed 00:13:09
conviction. 00:13:13
And you showed creativity. 00:13:19
Those those pictures. Everything that you did. Cops and bobbers. 00:13:21
The different moments. 00:13:26
The mass, the photos, the. 00:13:28
You made policing fun in a time when policing was hard. 00:13:30
All over the country. 00:13:33
You did? 00:13:36
And you did more. 00:13:37
So. 00:13:39
Wasn't our chief tonight. I feel like we're losing part of our heart. 00:13:40
You know that this community. 00:13:44
You meant the world to me. You met the world of the city and and we're incredibly grateful. 00:13:47
Again, I've got a proclamation for you. We'll take a photo in a little while with this proclamation. It says a lot of stuff that 00:13:52
we've shared publicly before, but I want to share a little bit with you and Selena and the family from my heart about what you've. 00:13:57
To me, into the city means a tremendous amount. So thank you, Chief. Thank you for that. I'm going to let this sit here. We've got 00:14:03
Hunter Spear. 00:14:07
Governor Kemp. 00:14:12
And Hunter's going to step forward and read a proclamation from the governor. 00:14:13
For. 00:14:17
Um. 00:14:20
He's aware of your situation and it means a lot that he's here. Then we're going to have another presentation from. 00:14:21
Georgia Military College then. 00:14:27
Todd's Todd's going to do some stuff and then we'll get a picture at the end. So Hunter, if you want to come forward. 00:14:29
Share the proclamation from the governor's office. That'd be great. 00:14:34
Like Mayor said, my name is Hunter Spear from the governor's office, field representative for the area and. 00:14:42
Can't thank chief enough for what he's done for the community. 00:14:47
Proclamation by the Governor of the State of Georgia Accommodation. 00:14:51
Whereas Chief Shannon Brock has faithfully served the people and city of Watkinsville as Chief of Police since 2019. 00:14:55
And whereas as Chief has defined servant leadership as he committed himself and his department to bettering the Watkinsville 00:15:02
community as a whole. 00:15:06
His career in law enforcement has demonstrated A dedication to public safety and to the state of Georgia. 00:15:10
And whereas under his leadership, the Watkinsville Police Department has seen improvements and ongoing developments that have made 00:15:16
it the efficient and effective force it is today. 00:15:20
Chief Rock was instrumental in implementation of up-to-date procedures and equipment along with the folks. 00:15:26
Hiring quality officers across the force. 00:15:32
And whereas as he steps back to focus on his personal health, he is remembered by his city and his state as a chief who not only 00:15:35
protected his fellow citizens but became a friend of his community. 00:15:40
And whereas it is an honor to commend Chief Brock for his monumental career and to wish him well as he navigates the future. 00:15:46
Now, therefore, I Brian P Kemp, Governor of the State of. 00:15:54
Do hereby commend Chief Shannon Brock in witness thereof. I have here and to set my hand and cause the seal of the Executive 00:15:57
Department to be affixed this 14th day of August. 00:16:02
In the Year of Our Lord 2023 signed Brian Pecan. 00:16:07
Thanks. 00:16:12
I think we have someone here from Georgia Military College, Is that correct? 00:16:22
Also. 00:16:33
I'm Gene McKinney. Must see you. Probably in this room. Don't know me. I'm from Georgia Military College. Formerly from Georgia. 00:16:39
Piedmont Law Enforcement Academy. 00:16:43
Where I was the Academy director and that's where I got the pleasure to meet Chief Brock and I have to tell you as being an 00:16:47
Academy director for several years. 00:16:51
I have got the opportunity to meet lots of agency heads, lots of command staff, lots of chiefs, lots of sheriff's. 00:16:57
And I have never met. 00:17:04
An agency had. 00:17:07
That is as universally loved and cherished as Chief Bro. 00:17:08
He clearly knows what it means to be a servant. 00:17:14
I have constantly seen him and the interest he has taken in his people. 00:17:18
And his family. And that's ultimately what you all are to him as his. 00:17:23
So I'm very, very proud to have met you and to have been a small part of your life and for you to be a small part of my life. 00:17:28
So greatly appreciate you for that. 00:17:35
So to show you my appreciation, I've had the pleasure to talk a lot about you to. 00:17:39
Where I'm at, the people where I'm at now, and so I do have. 00:17:45
Person personally signed a letter. 00:17:49
Lieutenant General William Caldwell who is a three star general at our institution and a challenge coin that. 00:17:52
Has the inscription of return with. 00:18:00
And so we appreciate you and everything you do, and thank you for being a shining light in this profession, Sir. 00:18:03
Make sure. 00:18:22
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Todd Tether. 00:18:34
Formally and currently the deputy chief of the City of Watkinsville, serving as the interim chief. 00:18:37
Saying goodbye. 00:18:43
My best friend. 00:18:47
I've known the chief for about 25 years. 00:18:52
We served together in law enforcement in South Georgia. 00:18:55
When he worked in a department and I worked in a neighboring department, we have gone on SWAT calls together. 00:18:59
We have made a rest together, We have done training together. 00:19:04
With the acad. 00:19:07
And as well as our depart. 00:19:08
When I later left local law enforcement to serve as AUS Deputy Marshall. 00:19:11
I continued the relationship I had with. 00:19:16
And was honored to be selected to come up here to be his deputy. 00:19:19
Little did I know that he would be leaving. 00:19:22
So. 00:19:26
You need to. 00:19:36
Let's. 00:19:47
Hey. 00:19:57
I want to thank everybody for being here. 00:20:01
It's a tree humbling. 00:20:04
To see everybody. 00:20:08
I'm so grateful that. 00:20:10
We're all able to come and. 00:20:12
Uh. 00:20:15
Four years ago I provided an opportunity to come to Walkinsville and. 00:20:17
Services. 00:20:22
I know that. 00:20:24
So much of A blessing. 00:20:28
I was brought here by. 00:20:31
I was meant to be. 00:20:35
Because. 00:20:37
City. 00:20:39
Need a Police Department that they can trust that they could rely on that. 00:20:41
Come to. 00:20:48
It was damaged when. 00:20:51
You know they'll put that together. 00:20:54
But not without. 00:20:57
I didn't do this all myself. 00:20:58
The team over there. 00:21:03
Came over. 00:21:06
That's what got it. 00:21:08
I appreciate the relationship we've had. 00:21:14
Between this agency. 00:21:16
Previous organization did not have a good relationship and I'm glad we were able to repair that. 00:21:19
Maintain religious area today and. 00:21:24
I'm grateful. 00:21:29
That we were able to do that because we're all the same, but we're all doing. 00:21:30
And I'll say. 00:21:38
The law enforcement agency in the state or in this country? 00:21:42
Not engaging the. 00:21:46
Face to face with members of the Citiz. 00:21:48
Because that's where it is. That's where it is. We need to get back in our communities. 00:21:55
We need. 00:22:00
Officers are being. 00:22:03
Reliable resources that they can be. 00:22:06
Entrusted. 00:22:10
Agencies need to be transparent in everything they do. 00:22:12
I. 00:22:20
All my. 00:22:23
Also. 00:22:24
To continue doing what we have established already. 00:22:27
Put down the. 00:22:31
People. 00:22:33
Lay in the. 00:22:36
Keeping the kids. Keep keep keeping the backpack back to the kids at the at the car line. 00:22:38
Do all things we did we eat lunch with. 00:22:44
Policy. 00:22:48
Hey, I'm not going anywhere so don't want to come pick me up and take me. 00:22:49
So. 00:22:56
Mayor Council. 00:22:58
Thank you for the opportunity. 00:23:06
Thank you for the opportunity to have been here. 00:23:10
To. 00:23:14
Become a member of. 00:23:21
Because that's what we. 00:23:24
Thank you. 00:23:28
I. 00:23:37
1100. 00:23:56
1100. 00:23:59
Have a good night. 00:24:02
1100 would be 10/7 10:42. Thank you for your 22 years of dedicated and professional law enforcement service to the citizens of the 00:24:09
State of Georgia and the Walkinsville community. 00:24:13
As their police chief, we wish you a safe and happy retirement. According to our units, 1100 would be 10/7 10:42 for the last 00:24:18
time. 00:24:22
I'll hear for that. 00:24:33
OK. 00:24:59
If you and your family would just come up here and we'll get a couple pictures. 00:25:04
Would like to add. 00:25:09
I didn't plan this retirement this early, so. 00:25:12
Councillor. 00:25:15
Four more. 00:25:18
All right. I wonder if you could come up in the box family, Todd, you as well. I think that would be appropriate for quite a few. 00:25:20
Keeping up in the middle. 00:25:32
Right. 00:25:51
All right, let's have another round. 00:26:01
I. 00:26:28
Thank you. 00:26:35
Council, come on up, Julie, come on up to. 00:26:53
And an officer. 00:27:20
While everybody's coming up here, I just want to say thank you for your service and I am proud and grateful that I have had the 00:27:27
opportunity to help you. 00:27:31
I'll get in there. I'm sure it was, but. 00:27:38
Act like you like them. 00:27:42
Thank you. 00:28:14
Council members, do any of you, Connie, thank you for speaking up and reminding me that council members, you have anything you 00:28:21
want to? 00:28:24
Share about the chief and then? 00:28:27
Then we'll what those who are here. 00:28:30
Chief Department council members feel free to share a few reminisces and then we will. 00:28:32
Move on. OK, so. 00:28:38
When we were doing the search for a new chief, I was very skeptical that we would be able to find anyone to run a small town 00:28:42
Police Department. Well, with limited budget, limited resources. 00:28:50
And you blew all of my expectations out of the water. 00:28:58
You have truly done all the things that you said you would, and then some thank you for making. 00:29:12
Our community such a priority and showing what law enforcement can be in a community. 00:29:21
I also really appreciate all the deals you always got. 00:29:28
My Scotch Irish heart sings true to that. 00:29:33
So you always had a creative solution and we're networking and I don't know how you have the time to lead. 00:29:38
This great group of people find new people, train them. 00:29:47
And just build a department that the city can be incredibly proud of. 00:29:53
So thank you so much and thank you for bringing your family to this community as well. They are a jewel as well. So thank you. You 00:30:00
will be very missed. 00:30:05
Yeah, Chief Buck, I think there's people coming to your life, something you get to know really well. Some you just meet in a 00:30:19
conversation, but it sticks with you. 00:30:24
I don't know you real well. 00:30:29
I've been up here for just over 2 and 2 1/2 years. 00:30:32
It's amazing how you make such a big impact. Even things you don't do when you see the all the pictures up there, you're always 00:30:36
smiling. 00:30:40
You know, you're always enjoying life and that's the example that we all need to have. It's just enjoy life, be a positive person. 00:30:45
And I take that whenever I saw you're always smiling. 00:30:51
And I mean the work you did, You know, every. 00:30:57
Praised your work and it was first class and it's what Watkins both needed. So I just appreciate everything you've done, but I 00:31:01
appreciate. 00:31:05
The obvious love for life. You. 00:31:10
She violence, types of echo, whatever one is saying, but you know, we've known each other for a short time and just your 00:31:18
creativity and the things that you brought to the table has been amazing. 00:31:23
For our community and you leaving a legacy here. 00:31:28
Last it'd be here lif. 00:31:33
Thank you. 00:31:35
Councilman Thomas, if you have anything you want to share. 00:31:39
Yeah. Hey Chief, I greatly appreciate your, your, your servant leadership, man, you you have done a fantastic job. 00:31:44
Leading this community and. 00:31:52
You know you will be missed and I look forward to seeing you in and around the city and you've got my number. If there's anything 00:31:56
I can do, please do not hesitate to reach out. That goes to your family as well. 00:32:01
I look forward to seeing you again, brother. 00:32:08
Councilman Massey, anything else you wanted to? 00:32:13
Woman, a few words. 00:32:16
All right. 00:32:19
Chief on behalf of this entire community, on behalf of the City of Watkinsville. 00:32:19
There's not much other to say. 00:32:27
Than a huge thank. 00:32:29
It's not goodbye because you're still around. 00:32:31
And you're still going to be a part of this community. And just because you're not the chief doesn't mean you can't continue to 00:32:34
inspire and serve and do all the amazing things that you have. 00:32:38
And that's what we expect to see from you in the years ahead. 00:32:42
OK, so we're we're grateful to you. We're thankful. 00:32:46
Selena to you and the family. 00:32:50
Wow, you all made such a difference for us too, so we're grateful. But thank you from Watkinsville. Thank you from Oconee County. 00:32:53
Thank you from everybody. Everybody here. Congratulations and good night. Yep. 00:33:03
Yep. 00:33:08
Thank you. 00:33:51
Yeah. 00:34:05
I. 00:34:15
High school. 00:34:22
Can we get a picture quick? Whatever you need to do. 00:34:25
Hey you, you may want to do a contribution to the city. This yard is on the Union. 00:34:42
We got a legend here. 00:34:52
He remembered when the dead seemed still. 00:34:55
Where is. 00:35:07
Yeah. 00:35:11
Two of us. 00:35:46
That was very good man. Thank you. Thank you. That was very good. 00:36:20
Thank God and you know, get so busy and when you stop watching and see. 00:36:26
School. 00:36:32
There we go. 00:36:41
Thanks for coming. 00:37:01
Here. 00:37:24
You're going to get that for Venice and chair to get it sheriff's. Do you want to get in with them? 00:37:27
Me too. 00:37:48
I. 00:37:56
And I get one really quick. 00:38:05
Yeah, they all get gone. 00:38:30
Remember the best high school class county ever. So you know he's got that going. 00:38:44
Yeah. 00:38:49
They didn't get that Italian. 00:38:51
We're going to reconvene. 00:39:33
It's kind of hard to keep going after something like that, Y'all, but we're going to do it. We got got a fairly full agenda that 00:39:38
we're going to keep working through. 00:39:41
And next on our agenda as we have Constitution Week coming up. 00:39:45
I don't know that with all the conversations we're having in America, if there could be a more important week. 00:39:51
That's coming up, and I'm Assembly Givens has been a leader with the junior American citizens and the DAR for a long time. So, 00:39:57
Emily, we're grateful that you're here. If you'll come forward to the Dias with your guests. 00:40:05
I will read a proclamation and give you guys a couple minutes to talk about Constitution Week if you want to. 00:40:14
Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited 00:40:35
government in a Republic dedicated to rule by law. 00:40:39
And whereas September 17th, 2023 marks the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America by 00:40:44
the Constitutional Convention. 00:40:48
And whereas it is fitting and proper to afford official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary. 00:40:53
And to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it. 00:41:00
It witnessed thereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of Watkinsville, Georgia, to be affixed the 16th day of 00:41:35
August, the year of our Lord 2023. 00:41:40
So thank you. 00:41:45
And if you want to share a little bit about what y'all are going to do, I think you have a few things planned and that would be 00:41:50
great. Thank you so much. 00:41:54
Thank you. 00:41:57
Thank you so much. 00:42:01
As the mayor said, I'm Emily Givens. I'm the chair of the Watkins Field Junior American Citizens. We are Youth service club that 00:42:03
is sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution and we've been very active in Watkinsville for over 11 years. With me is 00:42:09
my daughter, Grace Holland Givens, and she is. 00:42:14
Just stepped down as president and we have another JC member that has take this going to be the president for the coming year. 00:42:21
Thank you so much again Mayor for. 00:42:26
Telling everyone about Constitution Week. Constitution Week is so important. In fact, it was the dollars the American Revolution 00:42:32
about 75 years ago. The petition Congress to. 00:42:37
To pass this so that it it. 00:42:43
The law of the land, so to speak, that we take time to remember our Constitution. It is vitally important. Could I? Would. I 00:42:48
would. 00:42:52
I would say no more important than it is at any other time in history for us to come together under this as Americans. And the 00:42:57
wonderful thing about the Constitution is it covers all of us and that's what I think we can all get behind. And that said, I just 00:43:03
want to give you a little sneak peek of what we're going to do. I. 00:43:09
On September 1st, the junior American citizens will be decorating a library cube in the Watkinsville library to kind of help 00:43:16
educate our younger Watkins villains about the Constitution. And the city is graciously will put up the Constitution banners. 00:43:24
Around this second week in September. We appreciate that so much and they'll put out flags for us. 00:43:34
When we get closer to the big day, which is September 17th, and it's a 236th anniversary of the signing of the document, excuse 00:43:42
me, of the Constitution. 00:43:47
In 1787. And when that happened, and those brave men got together, and they. 00:43:53
Put There's John Hancock. Hold it. Bales peeled out over the countryside. And that's exactly what's going to happen on September 00:43:59
17th in Watkinsville. Church bells we ring in. We will have a constitution program at Ashford Memorial Methodist Church starting 00:44:06
at 3:30 with patriotic music. We'll have a community bell ringing at 4:00. And then the junior American citizens, along with the 00:44:13
children of the American Revolution, will present a history program. And then? 00:44:20
Nothing could be a better finale. 00:44:27
Than. 00:44:33
Don Phillips, Civil War Cannon being shot off behind the courthouse and we are so appreciative of John Daniel for letting us do 00:44:34
that two times in a row. So thank you so much. I hope everybody comes to Constitution Day. We really appreciate it and thanks for 00:44:40
all, all all your help. Thank you. 00:44:45
We'll get a photo. And I do want to Emily, you have been an inspiration in terms of patriotic activities in Watkinsville, which I 00:44:55
love. She's always. 00:44:59
Hold on a second. 00:45:41
Thank you. 00:45:48
Thank you. 00:45:57
The balance sheet, the revenues and expenses. 00:46:49
Through the end of July. If there are no questions about that, we'll move on and you can certainly ask me afterward. 00:46:52
On the Splice 2 report, I wanted to mention that with the completion of sewer Line A and the receipt of the final invoices, we 00:46:58
anticipate closing this out this month, so there'll be no money left in this account that you may recall Lost One and Two together 00:47:05
along with some general fund monies made-up the remaining amount of funding for sewer Line. 00:47:12
Sposs 3 Right now we have encumbered funds for the Rocket Field improvements, for streetscape improvements downtown, and for a 00:47:21
Police Department and public works capital expenditures that were part of. 00:47:27
Fiscal Year 24 Budget. 00:47:34
We are averaging about $78,000 a month. 00:47:37
On revenues and you'll see that there, you'll see, well, you'll see between the two years obviously, but we've seen a 15% increase 00:47:40
over year to year between 22 and 23 and we have about 1.2 million in the bank right now. 00:47:46
On our tea spots, which we just started collecting in April, we've only had a small amount of expenditures. But you, the mayor 00:47:54
will talk about in his report tonight, one of our biggest expenditures and projects, very first project is the sidewalk segment. 00:48:01
Installation of sidewalks throughout the community. Right now, New High Shoals Rd. is currently under construction, expected to be 00:48:10
completed possibly by the end of this week. And then we'll be moving on to the other segments that you guys approved. 00:48:17
And right now we're averaging 68,000 on that. There is a difference, remind you guys a difference between tea spots and SPLOST 3 00:48:23
in the percentage because the county in the city agreed to a different percentage on that. 00:48:29
There is your comparison. 00:48:35
Techn. 00:48:37
And we've got a little over $205,000 at the end of July in. 00:48:39
And then our American rescue plan reports that money was set aside. Council approved a standard allowance. The government allowed 00:48:46
us to select that, and by doing so, you can use that money. 00:48:51
For any general fund purpose that the city. 00:48:57
The council approved funding for premium pay for retention of our officers and that that money is encumbered for that purpose and 00:48:59
then future uses to be determined. Council will be making decisions about that in the coming months. 00:49:06
And we have a little bit over $800,000 in that account. 00:49:12
Any questions on any of those? 00:49:17
OK. On economic development, we're actually fixing to kick off the new business license here. So we don't have a lot of these 00:49:19
candidates would be new, new companies that are established and so we only have a couple. 00:49:25
Through the end of July, our excise tax, remind everybody that the monies for June don't come in until July. That's why I'm giving 00:49:31
you this report. 00:49:35
So the July, July money that came in is for June. So all those numbers up there for June are what were received through the end of 00:49:40
July. 00:49:44
And then on the economic development with building permits, you'll note we have the instructional support center, which because of 00:49:51
state law, they're allowed to do their own permitting. They don't have to, they do have to provide review and inspections of that, 00:49:57
but they're not required to go through our office to do that. And so they're, they are listed, the evaluations are listed, but 00:50:04
then we have HVAC's which are typical this time of year and some signs. 00:50:10
Nothing really terribly exciting through July. Any questions on those? 00:50:17
OK. 00:50:23
OK, giving the DDA update, Georgia, our wonderful director Kate has finished the Georgia Main Street training. 00:50:30
And so opportunities with Georgia Main Street are going to be starting. 00:50:42
She also submitted the Revitalizing Underdeveloped Rural Area Legislation Application or the rural designation. It's a very 00:50:48
competitive process. 00:50:54
And it was a lot of work to put the application together. So we're very grateful that Kate did all of that work and fingers 00:51:01
crossed, like I said, it's very competitive to see if we'll get that or not. We probably won't know until the end of the year. 00:51:08
The creative place making grant that we received this winter, The committee is hard at work. If y'all have not heard October 14th, 00:51:17
we are having. 00:51:22
An event at Rocket Field. 00:51:28
The splits band is going to be there. They're a local kind of cover band and they're well known, very popular. There is a public 00:51:30
art project that we will be doing. We have engaged an artist that has come up with five different. 00:51:37
Outline paintings and the community is going to get to paint that and then it will be displayed publicly. And also we have local 00:51:46
restaurants that are there's food for sale and all of it is going to help support the DDA and continued beautification. 00:51:57
Of downtown. So that's really excited. So October 14th. 00:52:10
5 to 8 it is a free event, just bring money for food. 00:52:14
And yeah, that's the main point. 00:52:20
Good evening, Mayor. 00:52:31
Going to make this fairly short in your packet, you should have received the police department's report. 00:52:35
For this month, I'll just touch on a couple of things. 00:52:42
We did attend the opening day Cullen Ferry Elementary School to greet the children. We assisted the principal there on completing 00:52:46
some assigned tasks that she needed and that was during the week on a Wednesday and we followed up that Friday with our very first 00:52:51
yearly bus unloading and. 00:52:57
Children's drop off. We did that with music and about six officers. We had a really good time doing that. The kids seem to really 00:53:04
enjoy it. 00:53:07
Moving farther down. 00:53:12
We have had a badge and vanilla's meeting with ESP and we're in the process of putting together a package to possibly sponsor some 00:53:13
needy children to go to the next summer camp next year. 00:53:19
We are involved with the library program for the young readers. Officer Ryan Anglin is going to read a book there on what it's 00:53:26
like to be a police officer and hold a coloring book event after. And then we're working up to our annual 5K Run for responder 00:53:33
event in October that we're really involved in. And I'm looking for chili entries. So if anybody wants to cook chili, we need all 00:53:40
the chili entries you can you can put in. 00:53:47
Officer Train. 00:53:54
So Sergeant Hitler just became one of the newest Georgia Post firearms instructors. 00:53:56
Completed that A. 00:54:01
To tell you how difficult the class is, they started with 24, they graduated about 12, so it's it's pretty tough. 00:54:03
He joins me in being the agencies. 00:54:11
Firearms instructors Officer Stearns just completed Georgia First responder over in Fulton County. 00:54:15
So she is the next best thing to a paramedic. 00:54:21
We are going to be traveling this Friday. Five of us are going over to assist the Barrow County Sheriff's Office in Winder with 00:54:26
the DUI checkpoint. 00:54:30
And then we will be going over to Clark County the month after and in October we're actually hosting the DUI checkpoint here. 00:54:35
Interesting case the month. I won't touch on this one. All I will tell you is it involved a car? 00:54:43
A gas pump and it didn't workout well for the gas pump. 00:54:48
But it was a hit and run at the Golden Pantry. The vehicle was located and the driver was apprehended and. 00:54:51
The gas pump did not catch on fire, which is a good thing, but you can read about that in the report. 00:54:59
So activity and I don't want to spend a lot on this, but let me just tell you what we got up to. 00:55:06
So if you look. 00:55:11
We had 11184 calls for service for the month since we last. 00:55:13
Our guys issued 134 citations or warnings for various things and we conducted 691 security checks. 00:55:18
So we had a lot of officers away at training and doing different things. So some of those numbers may have dropped slightly, but 00:55:26
not a lot. 00:55:30
On the traffic activity it was mostly speeders, because if you can imagine, we wrote 89 speeding citations and 62 warning. 00:55:33
On our fixed LPR. 00:55:43
We had a total of about 75 on those for various things. 00:55:45
As you go through the packet, there's a breakdown and everything. 00:55:50
Interesting enough, we worked. 00:55:54
A citizen private concern on North Main that came from a couple houses that was worried about speeders. 00:55:58
So the first thing we did is we started conducting extra patrol. Then we put our two variable message signs out there and started 00:56:04
gathering data. 00:56:08
And what we learned is that's a pretty heavily traveled road, right? You just wouldn't believe the numbers of cars. 00:56:12
On one week, going southbound, we recorded about 21,000 cars. 00:56:20
And on northbound, we recorded just under 30,000. 00:56:24
Now when it comes to. 00:56:29
From what we've saw now, we did write some citations and warnings, but generally speaking people are paying attention. I don't 00:56:31
know if it's because of my signs or us, but during those two weeks. 00:56:36
Speeders for enforcement activity. 00:56:41
On the southbound. 00:56:44
Was at .1. 00:56:45
.1% not even 1% Point one. 00:56:48
On the northbound lane they were a little bit heavier. 00:56:51
.2%. 00:56:54
.2 So not a lot there, but our guys are going to continue working it and hopefully we made a difference. I know for a fact that 00:56:56
one of the residents came out and talked with one of the. 00:57:00
And it was one of the residents that actually contacted us, so they were very happy to see us and thanked us a lot. 00:57:05
And that's pretty much everything I've got, unless you got questions. 00:57:12
It's been kind of a hard meeting for. 00:57:16
Thank you. Yeah. I think that's an important note though, that you know that this is. 00:57:22
There's two aspects to community policing. There's getting out and seeing the community and there's being responsive when the 00:57:27
community comes in and I think that's the summary that you put in. The packet is so impressive and shows exactly. 00:57:32
You know, living in a small town with a great police force is an awesome thing that a citizen can ride in with a concern and not 00:57:39
only have an officer show up to run radar a couple times a week, we get a detailed report of. 00:57:43
This is how much traffic this is what percentage you're speeding. We're still going to help address your concerns, but here's the 00:57:49
data that shows what's really going on so that that's really a great example of best practice. So thank you. All right. Thank you, 00:57:53
Sir. 00:57:57
All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder, we pulled item 13 off of this, but I would ask for a motion to 00:58:04
approve items 91011121415 and 16. 00:58:09
Do I have a motion on that? 00:58:15
I make a motion to approve. We have a second second. 00:58:16
Any conversation? 00:58:21
If not all in favor, say aye, aye. 00:58:22
We have no public hearings tonight. We have no appearances tonight. We have two items under old business Do we want to do trove or 00:58:28
do we want to do historic preservation first? 00:58:33
OK. Then this will be item 13 off the consent agenda. Attorney Reitman and Manager Dickerson, if you want to update us. 00:58:38
I'm going to let the attorney do all this. All right, Very good. Mayor and council. 00:58:46
I'm going to make available for anybody in the public who wants a copy. This is kind of late breaking. This is a green space 00:58:52
passive recreation land donation agreement. Would anybody like a copy of this? Be glad to carry it back to you if anybody like 00:58:57
copy. I see Madam Press is interested in a copy. 00:59:02
This has been in the works for a couple weeks, but was finalized today. Let me just give you all the very brief highlights in the 00:59:12
interest of time and that we are at a little bit later hour. This pertains to. 00:59:18
Goes back to a development agreement that was agreed upon several years ago on the Trove development. 00:59:26
Wherein subsection C5 of A of an exhibit to the Development Agreement reference specifically. 00:59:34
Parkland, recreation area, green space, walking and biking trails, among other things that noted that the open space may be 00:59:40
conveyed to the city by Trove Constructs, LLC is a company name for inclusion in the city's open Space program. Both parties agree 00:59:47
the area is to be used for passive recreation opportunity only, such as walking and wildlife. There may be a community building in 00:59:55
the area at some point in time, in the discretion of the city. 01:00:02
With perhaps a community garden in various neighborhood amenities including bike racks, pet waste bag receptacles and so forth. So 01:00:10
what this does specifically is it donates 3 parcels of property for these stated purposes which are tracked one at the corner of 01:00:20
Column Ferry and Morrison, which has a substantial value to it $183,000 appraised value 1.967 acres. 01:00:29
Tract #2 is known as Morrison North. 01:00:40
Value assigned to that one is 222 K 7.66 acres. And then tracked 3 Morrison S opinion of value of that parcel $133,500 for 3.219 01:00:43
acres. And again all this is for the purpose of passive recreation, parking, green space, land for use by the citizens and then 01:00:53
most importantly city desires to accept the contribution. 01:01:03
For such public purposes. 01:01:14
The remainder of this is required under the Internal Revenue Code, stock, boiler plate and verbiage, and this is the net result of 01:01:15
a lot of discussion among the attorneys staff. Some heavy lifting by the City Engineer Manager Dickerson ET al Has been a team 01:01:21
effort. 01:01:27
So just some context for our guests here on that. So there's a subdivision called Trove that's being built near Colin Ferry 01:01:34
Elementary School is a part of the conditions with that neighborhood. They were allowed to build on smaller lots than as normal, 01:01:40
but enabled. In order to do that, they had to make several contributions back for the benefit of the city. That included a 01:01:47
sidewalk from the school to Column Ferry Rd. as well as substantial contributions of green space for public use. 01:01:53
Possession of those properties and they'll become part of our parks and green space program. So in total acreage, Joe, what's that 01:02:30
roughly around? 01:02:34
1.97 Let's call that 2 + 7.66 puts us at 9.66 + 3.2 puts us up close to 12 acres. So So the city will. 01:02:39
The city, the citizens will have 12 acres of new green space, 13 acres of green space in the column ferry quarter to use and 01:02:52
again, one of our stated goals that have everybody be within an easy walk of meaningful green space. So this is going to help us 01:02:57
accomplish that. 01:03:02
Council Questions for. 01:03:07
Mr. 01:03:09
And again as as Mayor stated the contingency because we are finalizing the plat which we've been coordinating very carefully. 01:03:12
Madam Manager, the City Engineer and myself, we do need to insert the meats and bounds legal description from the approved plat 01:03:20
into this document. So what you see is almost final, but it will have an updated Exhibit A with all the meets and bounds to make 01:03:28
sure we've dotted I's, cross T's and there's 100% legal. So any motion be contingent upon approval by. 01:03:35
Manager, engineer and attorney, thank you. 01:03:43
All right. Any questions from the public on that? 01:03:46
Kind of an interesting. 01:03:49
All right. I see a thumbs up. Thank you, Kathleen. All right, more green space. That's good, right? All right, Council, do I have 01:03:51
a motion? I make a motion to approve. 01:03:55
With final approval and review by the manager, engineer and city attorney, do we have a second second? 01:04:01
All in favor of any conversation. 01:04:10
All right. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 01:04:15
All right. Thank you. We will move on to historic preservation update, I think. Councilman Campbell, this is you. 01:04:19
Yeah, Chuck Garrett and myself met with Professor James Reap yesterday here. He's a professor at University of Georgia and 01:04:28
specializes in teaching historic preservation. 01:04:35
And for those who don't know, he's going to have a class assignment. He's got 14 students in his class that are all graduate 01:04:42
students. One's actually a third year law student and they are going to work on the project of creating our Historical Historic 01:04:48
preservation ordinance. Excuse me. 01:04:54
The and they're going to start on it. 01:05:02
Right now as UGA starts, so the first half of the semester they're going to research all the cities with historical preservation 01:05:04
ordinances in state of Georgia, which they're approximately 150 cities in the state that do. 01:05:11
So that sounds like a lot of fun. 01:05:18
So anyway, they'll do that the first half of the semester. They're going to use the State Historic Preservation Ordinance as the 01:05:22
the baseline to create our ordinance off of. 01:05:28
Let's see. 01:05:36
They'll do the research the first half of the semester and right around October 1st they'll start kind of writing the ordinance 01:05:37
for Watkinsville and basically. 01:05:42
They'll create the ordinance that they think we need, and there'll be discussion back and forth, and then they'll come up with 01:05:46
what they believe is a good ordinance for the city, and then we'll have sh. 01:05:52
To discuss, OK, we like this or let's modify that. There will be, you know some adjustments if you will from the preservation 01:05:59
ordinance at that point and. 01:06:03
There's a lady there, Jennifer Lewis, in the college there. She also has a degree in historic preservation, but she's experienced 01:06:09
in holding Tourette's for these ordinances so she can. 01:06:15
Us down the road, but he kind of want to get wants to get the ordinance. 01:06:23
Done on his end and then we'll she'll leave the tweaking on our end if you will. I. 01:06:27
So that's kind of where we stand there and he's very excited, he's written. 01:06:33
Ordinances for many cities, small and large. 01:06:37
City of Decatur, for example. So he's very well respected. He travels all over the United States working on on this, so we're 01:06:42
fortunate to have him. 01:06:46
Do this with for us and if they didn't add at a low cost. 01:06:51
No cost. Even better. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So great. Yeah. So he's very excited. 01:06:56
Attorney Reitman Yes, Sir. I had the privilege of working with Professor REAP in approximately 2016 on behalf of another 01:07:04
municipality to update an ordinance that was based on the state law model some decades ago, and he was just wonderful to work 01:07:11
with. He's just a real joy because he is such an expert. He's creative, he's very energetic, and he just puts out good work 01:07:19
product. In fact, what you saw is kind of a very initial early rough draft a year or two ago. 01:07:27
Was basically a slightly simplified streamlined. 01:07:34
Version of the culmination of all that work that we did around 2016. You're really getting the best of the best here. And he and I 01:07:40
had a long conversation. He reached out to me about 3 weeks ago, told me basically what you've said. We got into some legal 01:07:46
nuances and details and I was really impressed with the game plan. His team and he advised to basically I think you alluded to 01:07:51
their willingness to come down here and present and and give you basically the best product and what may become a new statewide 01:07:57
model. 01:08:03
Perhaps with tweets? 01:08:10
In the future. 01:08:11
Thank. 01:08:13
And just a reminder for the members of the public, you know our goal with this is we're we have a we have some challenges with 01:08:14
preserving our old homes in Watkins, but we don't have a lot of old homes. 01:08:19
Leading the way on that and I'm really glad we're going to engage the public broadly as we move that forward. I think that's 01:08:53
really important. 01:08:56
So we don't need a vote on that. We'll move on to scouts, hang in there. This is almost as exciting as the financials. We're going 01:09:00
to talk about employee health insurance renewal. Y'all don't appreciate that now, but at some point later in life, you'll 01:09:05
understand the importance of good insurance and we've been working on. 01:09:10
We're going to talk a little bit about that. She's going to help me figure this out. So what we are going to request though is 01:09:47
approve the renewal with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield for our medical dental vision, long term disability. At the current premium 01:09:53
rates that means there's no increase in the rates from this fiscal year 23 to 24 with a $10,000 premium credit that Anthem will 01:10:00
issue us and adding short term disability benefits for 12 months beginning October 1st through September 30, 2024. You did have, I 01:10:06
think I may have actually. 01:10:12
So insurance brokers in Georgia did receive. 01:10:55
Services or I'm sorry, price proposals from Anthem, United Healthcare, Cigna and Oscar and Aetna. 01:11:00
In the last fiscal year, we spent a little bit less than 175,000 on those on those. 01:11:09
Basic benefits, I've updated as you see have updated. We anticipate spending 164,000 and that was. 01:11:15
If you go back and look at #4, that was for 19 full time employees. We're now up to 20 and we're going to be spending 10,000 less. 01:11:23
On those same things, if we stay with Anthem, we already pay for long term disability. That amount that's listed in item 6 of 01:11:29
$4319 is already been budgeted in the budget process that's been approved. 01:11:36
At our request we ask that we look at short term disability for our employees. Some of us do it on our own, but the majority do 01:11:44
not. That would be and this is the revised number $5132.64. It was not accounted for in the budget, but because of the savings 01:11:51
that Anthem is offering the premium credit, it will more than cover that. 01:11:57
In addition, you may recall that the fiscal year 24 budget, we anticipated an increase of more than 5 1/2%, which it now is no 01:12:04
longer required. So. So we're looking at a significant savings and we're hoping that you guys will consider using some of that to 01:12:10
provide that additional. 01:12:15
Service, and this is teeny tiny, but everybody should have a copy in front of them. I want to make sure I had it up on the screen. 01:12:21
And I'm going to let her talk a little bit about why we've changed our position from going with Aetna and now going with Anthem. 01:12:27
And I'm going to pop up some of the reasons here and I'll let you take it from there. 01:12:33
So good evening, everyone. I'm Sandon Shaw Caldwell with Insurance Brokers of Georgia and Oak Bridge Partner. And we are your 01:12:41
benefits broker for employee benefits for the City of Watkinsville. And yes, Sharon, bless her heart. 01:12:47
I send things and then it's a little bit of a dance back and forth, right? And we negotiate, but. 01:12:55
Having a broker, the perk of that is that I shot the market and I compare and contrast all the options from various carriers, 01:13:02
because as a brokerage or a broker, I'm not a captive agent. I can look at every option available and we can. 01:13:10
The biggest thing for the book, right. So initially last week as of end of day Friday that was looking to be Aetna. That was going 01:13:19
to be the recommendation they came in with a great proposal when. 01:13:26
Quoted the Benef. 01:13:33
But I used that proposal to present back to Anthem to negotiate. 01:13:35
What else can you offer us? And ultimately as of 3/30 this afternoon, I got the revised proposal where they originally we did 01:13:43
have, I believe it was a 5.8% rate increase, which was actually excellent. We were very pleased with that. 01:13:51
I was very pleased with that and we negotiated it down to a 0% increase. So we're locked in at the same rates that we were last 01:14:00
year, which is fantastic and a win in and of itself. But on top of that, we got a $10,000 premium credit with Anthem. 01:14:09
And. 01:14:18
We want to add the employer provided short term disability. This is going to benefit your employees twofold. One, it covers 01:14:20
everyone. Anytime a benefit like that can be employer provided as opposed to voluntary, it's more affordable, The rates are lower. 01:14:28
Because you have 100% participation. 01:14:36
The voluntary elections that are currently in place, those employees will experience. 01:14:39
A pay raise essentially because they will no longer have to pay that out of pocket on their own. So that's a great benefit as 01:14:45
well. 01:14:48
With the increase and the deduction, I think the compare and contrast though on Aetna. 01:14:54
You'll notice that there is. 01:15:01
Probably financial savings still to move to Aetna and they also offered an admin credit, however. 01:15:03
Through discussion and just talking about the history of the group, any ongoing claims that may be in process, we feel the 01:15:13
simplicity of staying put and still having a great savings. 01:15:20
Is the better bet and the better way to move forward. So our recommendation at this point is to renew with Anthem. 01:15:28
Based on the revised proposals and negotiations and added value of short term disability and no disruption to any providers. 01:15:36
Pharmacy benefits or prescription medications that anybody may be on at the time. 01:15:47
They wouldn't have to change any of that and there's something be said for that as well, not having to make a change mention about 01:15:53
the chamber. 01:15:57
Also as a member, so with our Anthem plan, it's on a chamber smart plan which is considered a MIWA, it's a multiple employer 01:16:01
welfare arrangement and that means that our claims pool over the course of the year is actually. 01:16:08
Combined with many. 01:16:16
Clients that are in that same chamber plan. So it kind of mitigates or helps our claims experience, whereas if we do move to a 01:16:19
level funded plan of our own potentially with Aetna AFA that was presented or proposed and recommended last Friday, but that has 01:16:26
changed. 01:16:32
Your claims would be all on your own, and so the risk reward of that is that next year we could experience a larger increase 01:16:40
depending on how claims go. One of the perks of Aetna, they do a surplus share if your claims run well, but again when evaluating 01:16:47
all the pieces of the puzzle. 01:16:53
We feel that renewing with Anthem, with the concessions that have been negotiated, makes the most sense for this year. 01:17:01
Yeah. But I'll just remind you all it, it's been hard to get insurance with us just having what do you call it when it's just us 01:17:11
not part of the Hewa, but when it's just our our population here, our pool when it yeah, when it's just your. 01:17:17
You often hear about insurance for. 01:17:25
Companies or employers? And it's like, oh, I love this carrier. I didn't really like that plan. And you really can't judge the 01:17:28
carrier based on that because you have to judge it based on the group. It has nothing to do with me. Each group stands alone. 01:17:36
So your claims, your census, your average age, your zip code, all of those things can get taken into consideration. 01:17:45
With the chamber smart plans. 01:17:55
They lump all of those together in a pool of other participating clients or groups or employers that are. 01:17:57
It just helps alleviate a little bit of that pressure. So historically we had a small number of employees and when you're trying 01:18:08
to go to market with a small number of employees, anyone employee event or insured event, make sure prices skyrocket. And the 01:18:12
other thing is. 01:18:16
So they kind of put those safeguards in. 01:18:49
Kind of for that reason, to protect the carrier swapping if you will, but. 01:18:53
You know my job as your broker is to. 01:18:59
Compare and contrast and shop the market for you. Thank you for your work, Sanda. Do we have any questions from council on 01:19:03
insurance? 01:19:06
Will you be here after the meeting? I sure will. I sure will. A self-employed people. 01:19:11
Look at that Chamber of plan. Seriously. 01:19:19
OK, great. We need a motion to approve the recommendation. 01:19:22
I make a motion to approve the recommendation. 01:19:26
We have a second, second discussion. 01:19:30
All in favor, Say aye. 01:19:34
Motion carries. We will move on to our agreement for maintenance and scheduling at Rocket Field with the yard and we're glad. 01:19:37
To announce this tonight, just a little bit of light context before I turn it over to to the manager to talk about the specifics. 01:19:45
Rocket Field is really coming along, I think what we've realized and thank you Brock Tool as well who's supporting us on that 01:19:49
project. We're glad to see you tonight. 01:19:54
Yeah, we have the potential to have one of the nicest little hometown ball fields in America, I think. 01:20:00
But what we realize is there is a lot more that goes into taking care of a ball field than just dragging it a couple times a month 01:20:05
and keeping the grass mode. So we realized we had some experts in town with the yard. We also had some proposals for how to take 01:20:11
care of that because we don't know that our team in the city really has time to take care of it. 01:20:17
We have some experts at the yard who expressed an interest in that in a public, private way and we also think we can get this and 01:20:23
I'll let the manager. 01:20:27
See if she agrees or disagrees with my guess. But we think we can get this maybe close to revenue neutral through the way that we 01:20:31
utilize the field and have some other groups using it in terms of Little League and others. So. But it's an exciting opportunity 01:20:37
because our goal with Rocket Field wasn't just to get the field fixed, but also to maintain it in such a way that it's a really 01:20:42
awesome venue for anybody who wants to play baseball out there. So Manager Dickerson, I'll let you take it from there. 01:20:48
Well, I'm not sure I'm going to add a whole bunch to that. But as the mayor said, we are looking at trying to maintain it at its 01:20:54
current state and we do not have that expertise on staff. So we've reached out to the community and communities reach back and we 01:21:01
have a proposal from the yard to not only maintain the field and to the desired level that it should be for those playing on the 01:21:07
field, but also helping us schedule events, not just those events that may happen on the feet, the playing field like softball or 01:21:14
baseball teams or T-ball teams. 01:21:21
But also events in the outfield or I guess we're outside the infield. 01:21:27
And the proposal which is in the packets, this is the proposal we have, which roughly comes out to about 1700, sixteen, 1650 a 01:21:33
month. 01:21:38
Sir, good evening. Thank you for having me. My name is Miles Mingi, representing the yard at our park. 01:23:22
On behalf of the Yard, we're grateful to have the potential opportunity to not only preserve this historic site in downtown 01:23:28
Watkinsville, but also enhance it. 01:23:33
I feel like this is a place that. 01:23:38
We can really help people. 01:23:41
And. 01:23:43
Is another site to help people gather and really in Watkinsville, the people that surrounding this place, it's it's what makes it 01:23:46
special. You seen that out there at? 01:23:50
At Wire Park, the reach that we've been able to to have in the youth and the families of this community. 01:23:56
And and Rocket Field is a place that is, it's really a gold mine when it comes to. 01:24:04
To facilities. It's kind of like reminds me of the sand light. There's not many other places I've ever seen this had just, you 01:24:11
know, I've been in this community for a year and a half. 01:24:15
Didn't even know about Rocket Field. 01:24:20
Probably two months ago I wrote up on it and I was like, wow, like why are we not doing anything with this? 01:24:23
And I'm just excited for the potential opportunity to again enhance it, help people gather. 01:24:30
And and really see where it goes again. That place it can. It can, really. 01:24:35
Turn into something special with the with the proper upkeep. And I think not many people realize what it takes to again, not only 01:24:42
maintain it, but to enhance it. 01:24:48
And so yeah, so. 01:24:54
Hopefully. 01:24:56
This can become a site for for people to gather and and and really connect people watkinsville for years to come. So thank you. 01:24:58
Joe, do you have anything you want to? 01:25:08
Just to reiterate a couple key provisions that they the yard will be the point of contact in charge of scheduling the organized 01:25:11
athletic events, which I think is a real benefit and a help for the city and the schedule. We maintain the shareable file, so 01:25:17
there'll be real time access to the city at any given point in time. They will maintain liability insurance and do a standard hold 01:25:23
harmless defendant indemnification. So I think we've covered the bases here. I think it's a very good agreement, mutually 01:25:29
beneficial. 01:25:35
And I recommend. 01:25:41
Council, do we have questions for our friends from the Yard or Sharon? We also have Brock available if we have questions for our 01:25:44
project manager. 01:25:48
Yeah. I have a couple questions. So you had mentioned that this is kind of a trial thing. 01:25:53
Is there a like a timeline? Will it come back before us? I mean, I'm just wondering as we're potentially approving this, what? 01:25:59
You know, simply we budget for it and you guys approve those contracts after the fact. 01:26:46
My other question is how far? 01:26:53
Not how far in advance, but like. 01:26:59
Can someone call and say, oh, we want to book it for tonight or whatever? And I'm sitting here thinking from a city perspective, 01:27:02
from a citizen perspective, that wouldn't be great for just the community who might want to use it. Like will it be posted? 01:27:09
Because I know a lot of families go out and use Rocket Field and we want to be able to continue. I mean, this is a public park and 01:27:15
so we want people to be able to enjoy it and use it. So will there be some kind of schedule posted and how last minute can people 01:27:21
like reserve it? 01:27:28
Absolutely. Good question. I think it's important to note that that with a site like this, it's important for it to be public, but 01:27:35
at the same time in order to preserve it and enhance it and and and it's it's not overdone and overused, I will say that. 01:27:43
It will. 01:27:51
It will be the potential for revenue for the city and in the yard in that aspect is it is rented out by the hour. 01:27:54
And those financial details are to come. 01:28:03
But. 01:28:08
As far as scheduling. 01:28:08
Those details have not come to light yet I would say. I doubt you know the day of the detail, day of scheduling will occur again 01:28:10
just because just the organization of it. 01:28:16
And the structure of it this. 01:28:23
Not something that we want to take lightly and not something that we're just, you know, anybody can go out there at any time. Let 01:28:26
me speak into that a little bit though, because Miles what we talked about I think with Phil. 01:28:31
We don't want to necessarily an organized baseball team going out there at anytime and playing on it. But if, if you know, if 01:28:36
someone and their daughter wants to go, you know nobody's on the field and they want to play. They want to play catch or do some 01:28:41
batting practice or throw the ball around. 01:28:45
Then that's acceptable if the fields not reserved and then we're also I think going to reserve some blocks of time just for public 01:28:50
use. 01:28:54
Saturday, if somebody want to have a tournament, we would need to know that up front because otherwise we would want that 01:30:12
available like the stage if somebody wanted to have. 01:30:15
You know, reunion and they wanted to be on the outfield or maybe they wanted the whole field and that's we'll talk a little bit 01:30:19
about that and the fee structure that we're going to propose here in a minute. But I think we're still working through that. And I 01:30:24
mean I think we're open to that. I think again, we're going to give it a shot. We tweak things here and there and between them and 01:30:30
us and the public, figure out what works the best and adjust as needed. 01:30:35
I think it would be helpful to have like in a laminated way, weatherproof where maybe there's AQR code so that the public could 01:30:41
access that obviously not manipulate the schedule, but access the schedule. So because I don't think it's realistic to constantly 01:30:48
be going to the field and putting up the times, but something like that I think would be super helpful. So that. 01:30:55
You know you don't have disappointed kids because you promised them to come out to Rocket Field and. 01:31:03
There's a someone else's birthday party there and I just a Matt, you know, I was a mom with children. I am a mom with children. 01:31:09
They're just not little children that would scream anymore about this thing. So I think what we're wanting to do is find that mix, 01:31:15
right. What we don't want to do is invest this money and have a facility that's being underutilized, you know, especially when 01:31:20
it's going to be, I think create some amazing opportunities for children who are in the sport. 01:31:26
At the same time, we also want to, and we've watched Rocket Field right where there's not a lot of baseball softball use out 01:31:32
there. So if we're going to put in a nice field, we want people to use it. 01:31:36
Hey, there's good bathrooms. There's an upstairs room where you can have a cake. There's other stuff you can do. So we anticipate 01:32:09
people taking advantage of it that way. And then I think Sharon will walk us through the next part, deposits and stuff like that. 01:32:14
So if you do use it, you can't trash the field and not have to pay because that's the other thing that has happened historically 01:32:19
at Rocket Field is people have a great time out there and then they leave. 01:32:24
You know, enough litter to fill up a trash can and broken toilets and other stuff, and we're stuck with the bill on that. So 01:32:29
that's we're trying to protect that investment that we've made. I think this is a good first step and we'll see how it works. 01:32:35
Any other questions? 01:32:43
All right. Thank you, Miles. 01:32:46
Council with that, any members of the public have questions or comments on Rocket. 01:32:49
That part of it. 01:32:54
Kathleen. 01:32:56
We. 01:32:58
For the record, Kathleen asked about the dog park We. 01:33:02
Kathleen, if you want to talk it through, we can, but the we are, we'll see. I think that's where we are right now. We've realized 01:33:07
that a space is smaller than we thought it was going to be. We're worried about the impact that dogs are going to have on it. We 01:33:12
are actively looking at some other locations potentially if it is a dog park, it won't be before the end of the year. We've got to 01:33:16
let that side settle in. 01:33:21
And route otherwise we'll have wasted a bunch of money on that quadrant. So we're trying to evaluate that. We want to have a dog 01:33:27
park downtown. That's what we're trying to figure out whether it's that tiny space or whether we can find another location is what 01:33:32
we're looking at. So, but we made a commitment when we did that that there would be a dog park. But after looking at it, we are a 01:33:37
little concerned about the size of it. So that's what we're trying to work through. 01:33:42
So that's where we are with it. So maybe, maybe not. 01:33:49
Trying to work. 01:33:53
Anything else? 01:33:56
All right, with that Council, we have a motion to approve the agreement with the yard. 01:33:59
I make a motion to approve the agreement with the yard through this fiscal year. 01:34:07
We have a second. 01:34:12
Any discussion? 01:34:14
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? 01:34:16
Motion carries 5 O fee schedule. Sharon, if you want to walk us through that. 01:34:20
So we reached out to Oconee County Public Parks and Rec to see what therapy structure look like. Pat Sebring has been just a 01:34:27
wealth of knowledge and information and and then we consider what we have which is maybe a little bit nicer than what they have 01:34:34
and and and so we came up with just some pricing. This is sort of throwing it at the wall and sort of looking at what's out there 01:34:41
and I believe Mayor Pro Tem and the mayor both looked at it, we had. 01:34:48
I believe Phil looked at it for Roberts looked at it. What I will say is, as the mayor said, we are going to be recommending, as 01:34:56
the county does, refundable rental deposits, especially when there's a private event. We're not going to do that for the softball 01:35:03
field at this point. That may change. We'll see how they use it and stuff, but for events, private events that are held or even 01:35:10
public events and we'll talk about that in a minute, but public events will will require something as well. 01:35:18
So what we're looking at right now is $50.00 an hour. I believe the county charges 35 an hour. 01:35:25
We. 01:35:31
If if there was a group that wanted to have a one day tournament or two day tournament and the and the the county prices there 01:35:33
similarly it's a little bit more like again they Figure 8 hours. 01:35:38
So we're figuring $50 and eight hours, so $400.00 for the day and then 350 per day if it's a two day. 01:35:44
We talked about concession standing right now that sort of that may be moving a little bit. We're not really sure what will happen 01:36:24
with that with just having one team. It's not like you're being out of OVP and there's multiple teams and you've got a vendor like 01:36:29
Oconee Little League that wants to run your concession stand. You might only have two teams and you know we're not really sure 01:36:34
what that's going to look like yet. So we're keeping it essentially the exact same as what the county has, which is $200 a day or 01:36:39
$400.00 for the weekend. 01:36:44
As I mentioned, we have other spaces other than the infield we call I guess what I'm trying to determine and and this is green 01:36:50
space, this would be everything at this point everything because we haven't determined. 01:36:56
Where the line will be if there is a dog park, where that will be. So we're saying everything outside of the infield is considered 01:37:03
green space. 01:37:05
Covington We looked at some other communities in the area that rent events space like this and we're, you know. 01:37:39
Way under what they're charging, but we're just trying to come up with something again. 01:37:44
If we if we don't get a lot of people that say, yeah, I want to rent it and they go, that's ridiculous, then maybe we'll come back 01:37:48
to y'all and say we need to drop the pie. So it would. We're just trying to sort of figure it out. The market will dictate it and 01:37:53
we'll we'll know soon enough. 01:37:57
We did talk about for any out of county clubs that want to use the baton courts, there won't be any rental or any scheduling or 01:38:02
anything on the baton courts. However, we do know there are other clubs in the area and it could be that they want to rent them. 01:38:07
If they do, we'll let them but it's it's not going to be for free. 01:38:12
I think they have like a flat fee and we were figuring, I think it works out sort of the same, but we figured we do a percentage 01:38:49
and it's high because we don't really want people, we want our citizens to use it. But you know, if somebody had an event, wanted 01:38:56
to have an event over there, we'll consider it on the public, on just some general notes. So again, these are for reservation 01:39:02
purposes. People can go out anytime that it isn't reserved And I love the QR code, Great idea. 01:39:09
Anytime it's not being used, people go out there and use the field, enjoy the field. 01:39:16
And that's on the first come first serve basis we will require or we met. We reserve the right to require anything that may be 01:39:22
essential to help support an event such as trash, additional trash cans or Porta potties. 01:39:28
And if it is a public event, like somebody want to have a concert and invite the public, that is going to be considered a special 01:39:37
event. They will have to come through our our permit process as you normally would like fall festivals as an example or you know 01:39:42
something again wanted to have a concert at the field and invite the public and sell tickets. 01:39:48
We would, we would have to be involved in a different level with them on that. 01:39:54
So that's what we've got so far. 01:39:58
Quest. 01:40:03
A tobacco system for any rentals. 01:40:06
Yeah, I don't know yet. For all rental, for everything except for probably a public event. 01:40:10
Yeah, I think public events, that's where we'll have to talk about it now. We talked for fall festival. We're not going to have 01:40:15
them over for fall festival. They don't want to be responsible for the bathrooms. They can't do them or bring in porta potties for 01:40:19
that. 01:40:22
And so I think, you know, we will try it. I mean again we're going to, this is our first rodeo, so we'll give it a shot, we'll 01:40:26
monitor it back. Right now the bathrooms, the officers have keys to the bathrooms and they're in around 7:00 or 8:00 they're 01:40:33
opening them and around that time at night they're closing them just because. 01:40:39
We have had issues not at Rocket Field, but in other parks we've had issues with, you know, people. 01:40:46
Destroying things. And we just don't want to, you know, have anybody you know, nothing happened, nothing could ever happen after 01:40:53
it gets dark. So we're just not going to encourage that, so. 01:40:57
So with the the baseball that the yard is scheduling, is there going to be something where, and maybe I'm getting to the weeds or 01:41:02
being too paranoid here where after you know? 01:41:08
Two teams have played. Someone's going to check the bathrooms as that. Is the yard going to do that? And then if they've trashed 01:41:15
it, they're responsible because there's no deposit for any of that. Like, I guess I'm just. 01:41:20
Like fix anything but they can alert us hey, there's a problem. 01:42:00
You know, you only take care of that first thing in the morning. Our guys will be back out. We'll try to address it. So it'll be 01:42:02
it's going to be a lot of you know just gonna be team sport trying to make sure if we're keeping track of what's going on and and 01:42:07
and working through it the first first few months or so. 01:42:12
Any other questions? 01:42:19
Lawrence. 01:42:22
No. 01:42:25
That's right. 01:42:27
Yeah, again. 01:42:32
Once we saw what happened when some cars drove on the field previously and the amount of damage it did and the time it took to fix 01:42:35
it. 01:42:38
We realized for the investment we're making, we're not going to allow cars on the field, so we've worked with the chamber. 01:42:42
They're working through the new processes to allow that we're adding gates on different sides of the field to make it easier for 01:42:48
people to get in and out carrying their stuff. Brock I think we're working with Rotary and others to make sure we got volunteers 01:42:52
to help people get set up. 01:42:57
And and then we're adding parking around the field and striping the area closest to Ho CAF. So we're adding parking on the West 01:43:02
side of the field. I think our total new net new parking is somewhere. 01:43:08
Around 16 spaces and then once we stripe the area around OCAF, that's all going to get much more efficient. So we anticipate for 01:43:13
special events in other places where OCAF used to use it, they'll have additional parking and then with the school board 01:43:17
relocating. 01:43:22
Next year we anticipate further spaces being available up there. So it's going to have to be a little bit of learning. But what we 01:43:26
realize is we allow cars on that field, it's going to totally ruin the quality of the field and the experience out there and we 01:43:30
just. 01:43:35
We, you know, too much has been invested to allow that to happen. 01:43:39
To benefit of something for two or three days a year and there's lots of other festivals around Georgia where you can't drive 01:43:43
right up to where your booth is, so. 01:43:46
All right. 01:43:52
We have a motion to approve the fee schedule. 01:43:54
Make a motion to approve the fee schedule. 01:43:58
All right. Do we have a second? Second, all in favor, say aye. 01:44:01
Any opposed motion carries. We will move on to public comments. 01:44:06
Just reminders. Comments should be related to the agenda items. Not really. There's no agenda in public comments. You can say 01:44:13
whatever you want. 01:44:17
But when you do it, be respectful. Refrain from debate, argument, personal attacks or irrelevant discussion. 01:44:22
And if anybody wants to come forward and make a comment, now is the time. 4 minutes. State your name and your address and. 01:44:28
Let's hear from. 01:44:34
Oh, Kathleen, no comment tonight. 01:44:38
Or scouts. No y'all ready to get out of here. OK, All right. 01:44:44
All right, we'll move on to the mayor's report. Sharon, if you could tee that up, a couple updates. Number one, want to give a 01:44:50
huge thank you to our. 01:44:54
Street Department public works guys, it feels like every night, thankfully not tonight. We are having thunderstorms and we have 01:44:59
had a lot of damage from those storms and our guys are working tirelessly. 01:45:05
To take care of that. Very grateful for them and coordinating with the county and Georgia Power and others to do that. You can see 01:45:11
the huge tree that was across Thrasher Drive. We've had issues on Katie Lane, we've had issues on 2nd St. we've had issues on 01:45:16
Marshall Drive. 01:45:21
There are a lot of trees coming down and our guys are out there taking care of it and we're grateful to them for that and for 01:45:27
those late hours into the Police Department for coordinating with that. 01:45:31
Sidewalks are almost done on new High Shoals Rd. There's some fair bit of finishing work they're going to come back and do. But 01:45:38
those guys are fast and despite the thunderstorms have made good progress, I didn't go by today. Did they make it to the other? 01:45:44
Our pavilion is looking really nice at Rocket Field. 01:46:23
Credit to everybody who's working on that. We're anticipating a real a formal opening in October. Fields already getting some use 01:46:27
from certain groups and the Pavilion looks great. I think. I haven't been buying a day or two, Brock, but I think we've got steps 01:46:33
on the front now. We've got a roof on that. 01:46:38
And as we mentioned earlier, we've still got to. 01:46:45
How and if the dog park is going to integrate there and how that's going to all fit together, but that's really coming along nice 01:46:48
and it's going to be a really great community resource. So again, thank you to our partners on that. G dot cleaned up a drainage 01:46:54
issue at Hardin Hill. We're always appreciative of them. I always remind people Main Street is not all Rd. so as much. 01:47:01
People might be frustrated with Main Street, its condition, the stormwater, the other things. Scouts. There's different groups who 01:47:08
own roads and control roads. There's city streets, there's county streets, there's state owned streets and there's federal owned 01:47:13
streets. And Main St. in Watkinsville is controlled by the state of Georgia. So we have issues there. We try to get them to take 01:47:18
care of it rather than spending city tax dollars on it. 01:47:23
Accounting Library construction update. It is flying marker. Y'all still looking at January. Yep, so January. Hopefully the 01:47:30
library will move over to Wire Park. A lot of work going on on the outside and the inside. It looks like it's coming along well. 01:47:38
As well. 01:47:46
There's a little preview of what's happening there that's going to be an awesome facility. 01:47:47
Thomas Farm Park, pleased to announce we are going to put together a citizens committee to work with us on that. Again, we would 01:47:53
really hope to really get moving on that January 1st. Our deadline to close is by the end of the year, so we're putting all the 01:47:59
pieces in place to work on that. We've completed due diligence, so our contract is in good shape with the owner. 01:48:06
So I am going to put together a citizens committee to work on that. The names will pop up in a second that who's going to support 01:48:13
us on that but shared if you could pop back. 01:48:18
Our goals are really to help us prioritize the amenities and features, right? I mean, we've already thought about that as a 01:48:23
council finalize our site plan. 01:48:28
Determine what the rough schedule for those improvements looks like. Discuss whether we want to call it Thomas Farm Park or 01:48:34
whether we want to call it something else. 01:48:37
And then? 01:48:42
And then begin moving forward. So that's what we're going to ask these citizens to help us with. Obviously they're also going to 01:48:43
be help us extend deeper out into the public and get. 01:48:47
What the public thinks about this, but ultimately the role, the decision making authority for all this relies right here with you 01:48:51
guys. OK, so they may make recommendations, but I am going to be clear with them in the charge. You know, ultimately it's the city 01:48:58
council's decision about what goes there, but we do want to this group to help us gather input and come up with ideas. 01:49:04
Around that and then obviously our staff will help us with implementation and making sure that reminding sometimes when you get 01:49:11
people together haven't dealt with budgets, sometimes ideas get big and they don't understand the constraints of the dollars and 01:49:15
the resources we have and then obviously. 01:49:19
Attorney and engineer will need to be involved and make sure we don't make any missteps. 01:49:24
This is what we're looking at in terms of timing for that. I really anticipate six or seven different meetings including a 01:49:30
property tour for that group in late September. 01:49:34
In October, I anticipate some public input meetings with an update coming back to us in October refining the concept design, 01:49:39
finalizing that. 01:49:44
In, in December along with the schedule. So that's what I anticipate happening. This is the members of the committee so far. We 01:49:49
may add a few others. 01:49:54
Christine and Jeff, thank you for agreeing to serve on that. 01:50:00
And you'll see some other names here, some that you may may recognize, some that you don't. But it's a mix of neighbors and people 01:50:04
with diverse experience. Some who live in the county, Most live in Watkinsville. 01:50:10
But all kind of have experience that's relevant to what we're trying to do at the park. 01:50:16
There we go. 01:50:25
Yeah. So happy belated birthday, Christine. OK, yeah. 01:50:30
Chuck Garrett Happy birthday, yeah. 01:50:38
Any other surprises, Sharon? Or we're done. OK, good. I never know what's going to come up last on the mayor's report. 01:50:43
With that, council reports will go to Chuck yet for post one. 01:50:50
I think we've already touched on the sidewalk stuff and just a lot of great comments and people are very excited. 01:50:54
To see that happen, and one everybody grumbled about getting mud on their feet, the DLT is. 01:51:02
Stepped in and took care of that. And no mud is with the rain we've had. No mud is on the sidewalk, so. 01:51:09
That's a good. That's their Harden Hill. Yes. Yeah, that's that's good. OK. 01:51:15
All right, Connie, post 2. Nothing to report, OK. 01:51:20
Brett, anything from post 3? 01:51:24
I am just excited to be coming home. 01:51:28
Anticipate being there for next month council meeting. So super excited about coming home and rejoining council behind the behind 01:51:31
the rail. 01:51:37
All right. Well, we're we're super excited about having you back with us. 01:51:43
All right, Post for Councilwoman Tucker, Yes, just a quick update. I met with one of the artists that we have commissioned to do 01:51:47
the art. 01:51:52
Behind. 01:51:58
City Hall essentially. And so we are thinking through placement of the three different pieces of art. So that is ongoing and it 01:51:59
may be next spring before we actually see it. These are very large pieces that they are working on, but that'll be exciting when 01:52:06
they are installed. 01:52:13
Awesome. 01:52:20
Councilman. 01:52:21
Nothing to report. I did mine earlier. All right. Thank you for that update earlier. We do have a brief executive session, so we 01:52:24
will. 01:52:28
Ask all of y'all to head on out of here. If you want to hang around, you're welcome to and we will go back into open session to 01:52:33
adjourn unless we take any action otherwise. Good night. A motion to move to executive session. So I will take a motion to move to 01:52:37
executive session. 01:52:42
All in favor. All in favor. 01:52:50
30. 01:52:57
I make a motion to adjourn. 01:52:59
2nd. 01:53:02
Aye. 01:53:04