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All right, Welcome to the September City of Watkinsville Council meeting. We have an exciting moment tonight and that Councilman | 00:00:07 | |
Brett Thomas is back from deployment in Kuwait. Welcome back. | 00:00:14 | |
We've said it, I think almost every month, but we are so grateful to you and and for your service, Councilman Thomas and. | 00:00:24 | |
Really thankful though to have you back here stateside and joining us. So we we have missed you and welcome back. | 00:00:31 | |
Yeah. Thank you very much. I'm super glad to be back, Glad to be here. I think I've been home for today, Wednesday. | 00:00:37 | |
Eight days now. So super glad to be back. Getting to a routine of normalcy again. Great. Welcome back. Welcome back. We do have a | 00:00:45 | |
quorum here tonight. In fact, we have everyone here, which is great. And we're going to lead off with the pledge as we always do. | 00:00:50 | |
Councilman Thomas, if you could lead us, please. | 00:00:56 | |
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:01:02 | |
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:01:09 | |
We don't have a big crowd tonight, but as always, I'll remind everyone this meeting is being broadcast simultaneously via Suite 1. | 00:01:19 | |
That's our webcasting public portal. Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can access that portal and they can review the | 00:01:26 | |
council packet as we go through it. That packet is also posted in advance so anyone who has questions can send them to us. | 00:01:32 | |
I'll entertain a motion or to approve those or any corrections to the minutes. | 00:02:11 | |
Make a motion to approve both. | 00:02:18 | |
Second. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve both sets of minutes. Any discussion? | 00:02:20 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? | 00:02:27 | |
Motion carries unanimously. | 00:02:30 | |
Second item will be approval of the agenda. I do not have any. | 00:02:33 | |
Requests. We only have one item on consent, so unless anyone has any. | 00:02:38 | |
Adjustments to the agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. | 00:02:43 | |
Make a motion to approve the agenda. | 00:02:48 | |
Do we have a second I? Second we have a motion in a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor, say aye. | 00:02:51 | |
Any opposed motion carries unanimously. | 00:02:58 | |
Under administration, we will let manager Dickerson give us our financial reports as I said earlier. | 00:03:01 | |
Public comment is not typical during this part of the conversation, but if you do want to comment, please indicate and that | 00:03:08 | |
decision will be at the council's discretion. If you do make a comment, refrain from debate, address council and any no personal | 00:03:14 | |
attacks will be tolerated. Ultimately, that comes council and the attorney on matters that are not required. Public hearings will | 00:03:20 | |
make the decision about how long. | 00:03:26 | |
And whether you're to whether you can continue addressing Council Manager Dickerson, if you want to give us our financial reports | 00:03:32 | |
and economic development reports that would be great. Thank you, Mayor. | 00:03:36 | |
So everybody should have their balance sheets, the revenue and expense reports. If there are any questions, we're moving along | 00:03:41 | |
fine. We're only two months since it's kind of hard to tell you much of anything, but. | 00:03:46 | |
We're not out of money yet, so that's good. If you have any questions on that, I'll talk about SP. | 00:03:52 | |
So Sloss 2, we thought this would be closed out, but we've still not received the final invoice from the county for the work on | 00:03:59 | |
sewer line. | 00:04:03 | |
So as soon as that comes in, we will exhaust those funds including the 412 extra will take the balance. I think that probably is a | 00:04:08 | |
mixture of of. | 00:04:12 | |
Interest as well as other monies that we didn't, you know that came in that we didn't allocate for this purpose, but we do have | 00:04:17 | |
some money. You may recall that some of this is going to have to be paid for out of general fund fund balance. So we'll take that | 00:04:22 | |
extra 412 and any other interest we get on that and put it towards that as well. | 00:04:27 | |
So we'll see if we can get that paid before the end of this month and next month we'll have a loss to you, will be closed. | 00:04:32 | |
On splice. | 00:04:37 | |
We have this is the one that we still receive at 8.63% and these are the projects right now that are really active outside of the | 00:04:40 | |
Teesplos work that we'll talk about in a minute. So this is Rocket Field. | 00:04:46 | |
This is equipment we purchased for public works and or for public safety. | 00:04:53 | |
Any of the work that we're talking about tonight with regard to drainage and all that will be out of this fund, but this is where | 00:04:59 | |
we sit right now. So we have. | 00:05:03 | |
Received to date about 15,000 a month for the last 24 months, more than what we thought we were going to be getting. So that's | 00:05:07 | |
always good news. | 00:05:11 | |
So we're sitting above our projections by about $360,000. | 00:05:16 | |
So if we end up, is there a cap on this like so it's just we collect it through the timeline? | 00:05:23 | |
Yep, wonderful. There's a cap there, right? Sharing of the Max. | 00:05:31 | |
The Max amount. So these are all, I think this is all percentage the those numbers that we have the referendum, I put the numbers, | 00:05:35 | |
not the percentages. In the referendum the language was percentage or is it percentage and we estimate the percentage based on | 00:05:40 | |
what they thought they were going to collect. | 00:05:45 | |
So ultimately we never collect the full amounts that may or not make it. So the 5.579 million is the total is the most you can | 00:05:51 | |
collect. I do believe that is correct, but you will never, I don't think any they always set it higher. | 00:05:58 | |
But we always project and it's been about right somewhere between 83 and 85% collection so but now. | 00:06:05 | |
And this gets kind of crazy. But on each of those buckets, the referendum, you can never spend more than what's in that | 00:06:12 | |
referendum, that that line item for the referendum. | 00:06:16 | |
But you could, you know you could potentially. | 00:06:22 | |
Spend 540,000 and public safety but under spend and rec and park so that you don't ever go over you know the amount the over the | 00:06:25 | |
projection that that you have maybe that's not that may not be making sense but anyway but yeah there is the 5.579144 is the | 00:06:31 | |
amount that was approved the referendum they always estimate higher. I don't think anybody has ever gone over it that I know of | 00:06:38 | |
because they always build in a lot more than what they expect so. | 00:06:45 | |
But it will continue to collect and I don't think on Splost 2 and go back to Splos 2 that we. | 00:06:52 | |
Yeah, see, we only collect. | 00:06:58 | |
We collected for today 4 million and they estimate 4.7. | 00:07:00 | |
So are we trending on Spice 3 to be higher than that 83% that we budgeted on? | 00:07:04 | |
With an, I mean, how much we've been going up. Yeah, So the projection of revenues at 83 percent is 65,000 a month and we're at | 00:07:12 | |
79,000. So I don't know what that percentage would be. It's not 100, obviously 100%. | 00:07:18 | |
I can figure that out and let you know. OK. Thank you. And did we and our buckets, did we base them on the 5 million that is | 00:07:25 | |
probably never going to be not the 83. | 00:07:32 | |
Referendum language. You figured out about what you thought you needed in each one of those buckets, and there's even rules about | 00:07:39 | |
moving stuff from one bucket to the other if you need to. If you don't have a, you know so. | 00:07:45 | |
But yes, OK. Thank you. OK. | 00:07:50 | |
And then here's the breakdown so far. So you'll see just between. | 00:07:55 | |
Between July of last year and this year, there's a 15% increase over what was collected. | 00:07:59 | |
That's good news. | 00:08:04 | |
On tea Sploss. So this is right now, most of this money is being spent on sidewalks. You guys have approved and allocated money | 00:08:07 | |
for that. The mayor will talk a little bit about that in his report. | 00:08:12 | |
And we have not actually didn't it didn't clear this month or in July. I mean sorry, in August did not, the check did not clear. | 00:08:19 | |
But we have spent some money for Mr. Mayweather to do the work on new high shelves at just North, sorry, new high shelves. It just | 00:08:23 | |
hasn't shown up. | 00:08:28 | |
In the report yet. | 00:08:32 | |
And then you know this is at a smaller percentage 7.77%. We are averaging, I think I had it over here 68,000, but remember the | 00:08:34 | |
average is over the course of the 60 months. So if we do anticipate it will increase over time. | 00:08:42 | |
And that's how we budget. | 00:08:50 | |
We have about 270,000 or so in the bank. | 00:08:53 | |
The questions AARP, American Rescue plan monies right now you guys approved some appropriate some funds for the park purchase and | 00:08:57 | |
then we have existing money in our public safety retention initiative. Some of those officers are still receiving their second and | 00:09:03 | |
third checks. | 00:09:09 | |
Any questions on any of those? | 00:09:16 | |
Okie dokie. | 00:09:20 | |
And move into economic development? Not a lot yet. Julie's going to be sending out the. | 00:09:21 | |
Business license renewals, probably this next. | 00:09:28 | |
But right now we have 8, but one I'll point out is Mama's boy if y'all haven't been there. They did have a soft opening this | 00:09:32 | |
morning and so they've gotten their their business license and pretty excited about them joining the city. | 00:09:37 | |
Brett, we also have a cat cafe coming, so just you know why you've been gone. | 00:09:44 | |
Did they have biscuits? And they did. They had to form? No, I mean at Kuwait. | 00:09:55 | |
I was about to say you had to be missing some things over there. No, There we go. | 00:10:03 | |
On the excise tax you'll you'll note that August is not showing up for Hotel Motel, it's because we get it after the fact. So | 00:10:09 | |
we'll get the August payment and at the end of this month. | 00:10:13 | |
Alcohol and hotel motel are trending very well. | 00:10:18 | |
And then on the building permits only had a few, four of them, all individual, just basic kind of stuff. I had a little work from | 00:10:22 | |
AT&T going on the right away. | 00:10:26 | |
Any questions about? | 00:10:32 | |
All right, Mayor Pro Tem about the Downtown Development Authority. OK, we had our monthly meeting today. | 00:10:37 | |
Again, we have a fantastic board, really grateful for all of the the members who donate, you know their time and their expertise. | 00:10:46 | |
Again, a reminder if you all do not already have on your calendar October 14th at Rocket Field. We have the event that has been | 00:10:54 | |
made possible by the grant that we got from attending the Creative Placemaking event and it's going to be a lot of fun. The Splits | 00:11:02 | |
band will be there. They'll be music from, I mean Sorry, they'll be food and drink from local. | 00:11:11 | |
Restaurants including chops. | 00:11:20 | |
Brewery Dobies, Mama Nings and possibly some of our farmers market vendors will be there too, and some of the proceeds of all of | 00:11:24 | |
the sales will be going to help support the DVA which we've earmarked it for beautification. | 00:11:31 | |
Of our downtown and also. | 00:11:40 | |
We are, through this creating a pocket park. | 00:11:44 | |
In the space across from Dobies. And so the public art that is going to be created at this event will be displayed there and there | 00:11:48 | |
will be chairs. And we're still kind of figuring out exactly all of the things we're going to do there, but it should be another | 00:11:54 | |
community gathering space. | 00:12:00 | |
A place for us to come connect. So that's going on and moving along smoothly. But please, we're going to start posting things on | 00:12:07 | |
social media about this. If you use social media, if you will, share it. | 00:12:13 | |
And just, you know, we have local businesses who are coming and preparing food. We would hope that there will be people there to | 00:12:19 | |
purchase that. So please get the word out. Is there a name for the event? What's it called? It is called Rock and Art at the park. | 00:12:25 | |
All right. Gotcha. OK, so. | 00:12:30 | |
We also, we have new businesses that are coming into our downtown. We have 4 new businesses in the next few months, which is | 00:12:40 | |
really exciting. So and my notes I'm realizing are sitting on my desk. So I may get the names wrong, but we have. | 00:12:48 | |
The Outfitters, but that's not what it's called, but it's like a Coney Outfitters might be the name going where the old Welcome | 00:12:58 | |
Center is and it's going to have kind of a general store vibe. The owner also does outdoor events and so you'll be able to buy | 00:13:07 | |
packages and stuff there. And I think the kind of vibe of it if you've been to wander up in Clayton. | 00:13:15 | |
Obviously the space is not nearly that big, but it it will have kind of a similar vibe, so I think it'll be a great addition to | 00:13:25 | |
downtown. | 00:13:28 | |
Have a cat cafe coming which we got some details at our meeting of what that actually is. So it will be a spot where you can go in | 00:13:31 | |
and get smoothies, coffee, drinks, prepackaged food. The cats will be behind a glass wall so you will not be like at my house | 00:13:38 | |
where I often have a cat on my lap while I'm drinking my morning coffee. You that will not be happening. You separate the food | 00:13:46 | |
from the cats but you can see them and and so if you like cats but maybe don't want to have them in your house. | 00:13:53 | |
You can enjoy them or you can for a small fee, go in and play with the cats. And they're all adoptable as well. So I think that's | 00:14:00 | |
a fun new addition to downtown. And then the coffee roaster will be coming. They will not be selling cups of coffee, although I | 00:14:07 | |
did hear that if you go, he may give you a cup of coffee. And so that will smell wonderful throughout our town. And then there's a | 00:14:14 | |
new home kind of boutique. | 00:14:21 | |
In the Town Center shopping center. | 00:14:29 | |
By Mama Nings and I can't remember the names about the clothing boutique and so, but it's a local artist, so it will have probably | 00:14:31 | |
a mixture of things. So I think that's another great addition to our downtown. So all of those will be coming in the next few | 00:14:36 | |
months. | 00:14:40 | |
Oh, and we do, but with that, that will come up. | 00:14:50 | |
OK. And also we reviewed the. | 00:14:53 | |
The new business items 10:11 and 12:00 and. | 00:14:57 | |
They. | 00:15:02 | |
The board thought they were good ideas and. | 00:15:05 | |
Yeah. | 00:15:09 | |
Sorry, my notes are sitting on my desk, but they again and we have, if you don't know, the the board is made-up of local. | 00:15:11 | |
Business owners and so there's a good sampling of. | 00:15:22 | |
Of people very invested in our community. Again, I feel like we are incredibly fortunate with with our DBA board. | 00:15:27 | |
OK, that's it. | 00:15:35 | |
All right, until I get home and look at the notes on my desk. | 00:15:37 | |
Well, thank you for all your work and and to our Executive Director, Kate Patterson for keeping all that moving forward. | 00:15:41 | |
Speaking of hard workers, Chief Tedderton, why don't you come up and give us your report? It sounds like it's been an interesting | 00:15:48 | |
month. | 00:15:50 | |
Mayor, Council, good evening. | 00:15:54 | |
So in your packet, if you'll take a glance at the pie chart. | 00:15:56 | |
We had a pretty busy activities over the last 30. | 00:16:01 | |
For calls for service the numbers went up to 19140 that includes self generated activity. | 00:16:05 | |
For security checks on homes and businesses, the guys did 12115 and on. | 00:16:12 | |
Traffic stops, they did 212 of the 200 and 12113 of those were speeding and other 212. We issued a total of 119 warnings. The rest | 00:16:17 | |
of that was 4 citations. | 00:16:23 | |
If you go a little bit farther in on our. | 00:16:31 | |
We had a little bit busier month this month and we did last time we had a total of eight actual principal in custody arrests. We | 00:16:34 | |
had a couple that we. | 00:16:38 | |
Gave notices to appear because there were very low profile violations, but of our eight arrests. | 00:16:43 | |
Three of them were for criminal matters, all of which was drug related, cocaine, marijuana. | 00:16:49 | |
Some methamphetamine was the results of those. Now on one of those arrests we came in contact with three weapons which we seized. | 00:16:57 | |
And we're moving for forfeiture of those in. | 00:17:05 | |
Assault rifle, 2 pistols, a 357 and a 9mm that the people had in their custody and interestingly enough they were. Both of them | 00:17:09 | |
were out on bond on similar charges for weapons. | 00:17:14 | |
Drugs out of Emanuel County Down South and we actually they were coming to a ball game and we interrupted their day. | 00:17:22 | |
The other arrests were all traffic related and it ranged from 2 DUI's as well as. | 00:17:29 | |
Additional charges on those and the others were suspended or revoked driver's license violations. | 00:17:34 | |
So 200. | 00:17:41 | |
Traffic stops all told. | 00:17:43 | |
And all those resulted, all those arrests were from traffic stops. There were about 10 in total, 8 in custody and then two that we | 00:17:45 | |
released. | 00:17:49 | |
Community events. We stayed pretty busy this month. We went over to St. Gabriel's. They host a first responder, a breakfast every | 00:17:54 | |
September 11th. They did it last year for the first time. We were there last year and we were there this year. | 00:18:00 | |
Badges. Benevolence. We have come up with a new idea to do a cops and Cones event with the owner of Scoops and Wire Park. We've | 00:18:08 | |
come up with a Saturday. It's an away game every Saturday in. | 00:18:13 | |
Is a Georgia game, but this one in particular is an away game against Tennessee and we're going to be out there for about two | 00:18:19 | |
hours on a Saturday afternoon. | 00:18:23 | |
With the owner of that, he's providing us an opportunity to give ice cream cones to kids. We're going to let them look at our cars | 00:18:27 | |
and equipment. | 00:18:30 | |
And maybe play some games. | 00:18:33 | |
Recently we went to the library to the children's reading program. I put a Facebook post out and Officer Anglin, myself and | 00:18:37 | |
Sergeant Hiller went there and met some really little kids and read a book about police work and gave them some coloring books. | 00:18:44 | |
And spent some time there with. | 00:18:51 | |
Children's reading. | 00:18:53 | |
We went to an art selection I did with Sheriff Hale and we picked out some and Chief Thaxton from the fire department. | 00:18:56 | |
We picked out some. | 00:19:03 | |
That are going to be given out for the run for responders event in. | 00:19:06 | |
That's our big event. It happens October 1st. | 00:19:10 | |
So if you can, would love to see everybody come out to that. It's a good time. It's a Sunday. It starts at 12:30 and ends at 4:30. | 00:19:13 | |
So if you can come out and do that. | 00:19:21 | |
We have a flag placement that we're going to do in November and we have. | 00:19:24 | |
Kind of a volunteer. | 00:19:29 | |
Cleanup event the first week of November at the cemetery with the Arkansas and some other volunteers. We're just going to do a | 00:19:31 | |
general cleanup. | 00:19:34 | |
Before veterans. | 00:19:38 | |
Officer training. | 00:19:40 | |
Officer Walker leaves for basic narcotics investigations. | 00:19:43 | |
Monday and he'll be gone to Forsyth for a week. Myself, Sergeant Wade. | 00:19:47 | |
And Sergeant Hitler are going over for a garma GMA risk reduction class for law enforcement that's hosted at the Athens Police | 00:19:51 | |
Department. We're going to be doing that next week. | 00:19:56 | |
We went over to Piedmont traffic network in Winder. We had about 60 area law enforcement officers. We conducted ADR checkpoint | 00:20:02 | |
over there and Speaking of that, tomorrow we're going to. | 00:20:09 | |
Doing this month's traffic event over in Clark County, it's a little bit differe. | 00:20:16 | |
We're installing child safety seats and inspecting child safety seats. These are donated seats. | 00:20:20 | |
That we were given to give to needy families that don't have. | 00:20:25 | |
Interesting case of the month. This one was pretty lengthy. | 00:20:30 | |
And it is the one that involves the seizure of the methamphetamine, the cocaine, the marijuana and the firearms. That one's | 00:20:34 | |
detailed. | 00:20:38 | |
In your handout, it resulted from 2 arrests. | 00:20:44 | |
And actually, one of the people in the car shouldn't even have been in possession of guns, because they are a Lottenberg Amendment | 00:20:47 | |
violator. | 00:20:50 | |
Domestic violence, so they kept around firearms to begin. | 00:20:54 | |
But we have had an. | 00:20:59 | |
Month. Recently we've had two cases that are ongoing. Can't talk a lot about them, but they involve thefts at a very large level. | 00:21:01 | |
The smaller one was just over $40,000 and it was what was called the warrant scam, if you read my little. | 00:21:10 | |
Community public Safety announcement. If you'll take the time to read, that will explain what a warrant scam is. | 00:21:16 | |
But essentially, the victim was convinced by someone portraying themselves as a police officer that they had outstanding warrants | 00:21:22 | |
for their arrest. | 00:21:26 | |
And that she needed to provide them cash to stay out of jail. | 00:21:29 | |
And. | 00:21:33 | |
The poor lady drove around from 8:00 in the morning till 7:00 at night. | 00:21:35 | |
And they basically sucked her bank account dry during the course of that whole day. | 00:21:39 | |
And finally released her over at Barnes and Nobles at Epps. | 00:21:43 | |
And she's out about $45,000. | 00:21:48 | |
Umm. | 00:21:52 | |
Shocking. We have another business. | 00:21:54 | |
That is out 72,000. | 00:21:57 | |
We're going to probably be getting some outside help on that case with the GBI and the FBI because it involves transactions. | 00:22:01 | |
Through the wire, out to California, back and forth, and essentially it is a loan scam. | 00:22:08 | |
He was asked. | 00:22:14 | |
Provide money. | 00:22:16 | |
Of good faith money, if you will, The $72,000 in exchange for a loan of $3,000,000. | 00:22:18 | |
Generally speaking. | 00:22:26 | |
That's really unheard of. If you're borrowing money, they don't ask you to front money, especially in that amount. | 00:22:28 | |
But people get caught up in these. | 00:22:34 | |
So take a look at that and. | 00:22:37 | |
Outside of that, I think that's about it for. | 00:22:40 | |
Have you guys got? | 00:22:44 | |
I have a question. Yes, ma'am. So I have noticed that. | 00:22:46 | |
Umm, it seems like actual ticket writing may have gone down and warnings have gone up. And and I mean, I, you know, I don't have | 00:22:52 | |
all decisions in front of me. I know that writing tickets isn't about being punitive. It's not that like, oh, we you know. | 00:22:59 | |
We. | 00:23:07 | |
I mean it's it's not about, it's not about punishment. | 00:23:08 | |
So are you finding that the warnings are effective? And if I'm guessing that if someone gets pulled over for a second time they | 00:23:13 | |
got a warning the first time, they would not get a warning at that. Generally that's true. So when we when we issue a warning. | 00:23:19 | |
We try to keep it about a 5050 balance or maybe a 6040 balance in favor of the. | 00:23:25 | |
But if you're issued a warning when my guys put it into their computer if they stop you a second time? | 00:23:31 | |
Your information appears on the screen. They can tell whether you've had one or not. | 00:23:37 | |
And then they can click on it and it can tell what your warning was. | 00:23:42 | |
So they do take that into consideration, but they do make a judgment call on every individual traffic's office. So just because | 00:23:46 | |
you got one warning doesn't mean you might not get a second. | 00:23:51 | |
A lot of the speeding offenses. | 00:23:55 | |
I think the officers and I know personally, I take into account what a person tells me. | 00:23:58 | |
I. | 00:24:04 | |
You can talk yourself into a ticket, but you can also talk yourself out if you have a viable explanation. | 00:24:06 | |
And I'll give you a for instance, I was running stationary radar on North Main Street, and I clocked the car that was doing about | 00:24:12 | |
70 mph in a 45 zone. So I stopped. | 00:24:17 | |
They were actually on their way to Piedmont. | 00:24:22 | |
Because. | 00:24:25 | |
Mother was in the emergency room and was not expected to make it, so I gave those people a verbal warning and let them go. | 00:24:26 | |
That's an example of someone that. | 00:24:34 | |
We show compassion to and have. | 00:24:35 | |
There is no good reason for speeding, but had a understandable reason for speed. | 00:24:38 | |
But I think warnings are effect. | 00:24:42 | |
If. | 00:24:45 | |
To give somebody a warning. | 00:24:46 | |
Having said, there are things we'll give warnings more and things we will not. | 00:24:48 | |
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's helpful. | 00:24:55 | |
All right. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate all you do and all your guys. | 00:24:59 | |
Next on our item, our agenda is the consent agenda. We have one item on there and I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent | 00:25:05 | |
agenda. | 00:25:09 | |
Make a motion to approve the consent agenda 2nd. I'll second. All right. Thank you, Brett. All in favor, say aye. | 00:25:16 | |
Motion carries unanimously. | 00:25:24 | |
Public Hearings. We Have none Tonight. Appearances We Have White St. Parcel W 05079. | 00:25:26 | |
Demolition permit. We'll start off with them getting a report from the engineer. | 00:25:33 | |
And then we'll hear from the applicant if they want to add anything there. | 00:25:39 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:25:43 | |
So this, the partial AT64 White Street is actually at the corner of White St. and Bunny Hop Trail. It's a detached residential | 00:25:44 | |
zone property. The request is for demolition of the existing structure. It's a relatively small partial based on the available | 00:25:52 | |
information. So you have an idea of where that is located. There again on that that southern corner of a White St. and Bunny Hop. | 00:26:00 | |
Recently the reason for the request of the demolition was recently a tree fell through. | 00:26:09 | |
The structure not just onto the structure, but into the structure. You can see a little bit better that on the. This is from the | 00:26:15 | |
from Bunny hop, so you can see the deterioration there. The applicants provided documentation related to the to the structure and | 00:26:20 | |
the disrepair of the structure. | 00:26:26 | |
That documentation was provided by a company called K2 Disaster Response. It was dated from earlier this month that based on the | 00:26:33 | |
damage that had occurred. | 00:26:38 | |
The. | 00:26:44 | |
Structure essentially is I don't say beyond repair, but in a state such that repair becomes more difficult. So that's the reason | 00:26:46 | |
for the demolition request. | 00:26:51 | |
Oconee County tax assessors does indicate the structure was constructed in 1965, which means it's old. There's no documentation of | 00:26:57 | |
any historical significance related to the structure at this location. | 00:27:02 | |
The applicant did provide information from a third party source related to asbestos. That report did indicate that there's no | 00:27:09 | |
asbestos containing materials, but that does not relieve the applicant from the responsibility of should they encounter any | 00:27:15 | |
asbestos containing materials that they would have to follow state law. As is related to that, again, there's not any disturbance | 00:27:21 | |
of greater than an acre on the site because the site is less than an acre. | 00:27:27 | |
But the applicant would need to take best management practices into place during a demolition to make sure there's no | 00:27:33 | |
sedimentation onto the roadway or any adjacent properties. I will note that the adjacent roadway was recently paved as of today, | 00:27:39 | |
so there will also need to be special care taken to make sure that there's no equipment that would damage that adjacent roadway on | 00:27:44 | |
Bunny Hop Trail. | 00:27:50 | |
Happy to answer any questions you might. | 00:27:56 | |
All right. Is the applicant here tonight? | 00:28:00 | |
All right. | 00:28:03 | |
OK, All right. Do we have any questions for the applicant? | 00:28:07 | |
All right, all right. We don't have any council, any discussion. | 00:28:12 | |
All right, we'll entertain a motion. | 00:28:17 | |
I make a motion that we approve the demolition request. | 00:28:23 | |
All right, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? | 00:28:27 | |
Oh, with the conditions. | 00:28:30 | |
Yes. | 00:28:34 | |
I will second with the conditions. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? | 00:28:36 | |
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Sir. | 00:28:40 | |
You're going to people get plans for a new house. I'm assuming there once this is done. | 00:28:48 | |
Boy. | 00:28:56 | |
Unfortunately, start right over. OK, All right, all right. Good luck. All right. For those who couldn't hear, the the owner does | 00:29:00 | |
plan to put a new house up. | 00:29:06 | |
Later new business, we have item number 9 related to a Water St. drain pipe upgrade. I'll let Manager Dickerson and Engineer | 00:29:13 | |
Campbell give us a report on that please. | 00:29:18 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:29:27 | |
So a little background on this. We are first of all say what we're going to request. We're going to request that you guys approve | 00:29:29 | |
this contractor that you authorize me and the city engineer to negotiate with the lowest price proposal that we've received and | 00:29:35 | |
see if they can be as responsive as we need them to be, which is yesterday. | 00:29:40 | |
And then if there's any documents that need to be signed that the Mayor and city clerk be allowed to do that. We are also asking | 00:29:47 | |
to be able to negotiate with this whoever that contractor ends up being to do some add alternates for some other work that's | 00:29:53 | |
needed in the city Jackson St. and possibly Industrial Blvd. With some appropriation of of funds in those in out of Spouse 3. So | 00:29:59 | |
I'll walk you through a little bit. | 00:30:05 | |
So last month you all approved some money to cover some Stormware Stormwater Advance system upgrades. | 00:30:12 | |
And there's been considerable issues on Water St. probably related to some in some adjustments that have been made by G dot on | 00:30:21 | |
Main Street to deal with the water flowing off that road. As a result it's created some issues in the conveyance system. So we're | 00:30:28 | |
asking for some an upgrade to that the Carter engineering has designed and. | 00:30:36 | |
Solution to this problem, or at least somewhat of a solution we think to relieve some of that extra water that's coming off of. | 00:30:46 | |
Main Street and flowing underwater St. and back into the. | 00:30:52 | |
Back down the street, so you'll see we have 4 vendors that provided price proposals. | 00:30:56 | |
This is an emergency sort of situation. So we contacted all the ones that we knew of that would have an interest and we got all | 00:31:02 | |
four of all the four that we reached out to all responded. You'll see they're all sort of group together a little bit higher on | 00:31:07 | |
one of those that last one structural resources but. | 00:31:12 | |
But they're generally in the same area. So we felt pretty good about that. That means they're all sort of looking at the same, | 00:31:18 | |
looking at the same way. Again, purchasing policy allows me to grant some authority to purchase things in an emergency situation | 00:31:24 | |
well differently. And so like I said, we did not go out with a request for proposal, did not have time really for that. We did | 00:31:29 | |
request and didn't have drawings and had them look at those. | 00:31:35 | |
I did speak with the mayor. | 00:31:42 | |
Engineer I think the attorney was aware of it as well, and I believe Councilman Campbell was involved in that as well. | 00:31:44 | |
If the council appropriates, so we have some money left in ELMIG, which I would like to go ahead and use because we have to go | 00:31:51 | |
ahead and ask next month or the following month for the FY24 L Meg monies. So L Meg is the local maintenance improvement grant | 00:31:57 | |
funds that we get from the state to do basically Rd. improvements. | 00:32:02 | |
But it also includes other things like drainage. So we have about 6750 left in that account. So I'd like to allocate that money | 00:32:08 | |
along with the 60,000 that you guys gave us last month for this project. | 00:32:14 | |
And so we're short about roughly $10,000. So we do have the money in SPLOST, 3IN road streets and bridges in the storm water | 00:32:21 | |
improvements and you guys do have, I did provide a spreadsheet. So you'll see where that is. I'm just asking that you appropriate | 00:32:26 | |
it for that project. | 00:32:32 | |
This is a picture if you know. I don't know if engineer Campbell wants to talk about a little bit, but this is, and my cursor is | 00:32:38 | |
not very bright, but you'll see there's a right there in the middle is the pipe that we're talking about. | 00:32:44 | |
Lane across water St. to try to help. | 00:32:50 | |
Some of that water. Do you have anything you'd like? | 00:32:53 | |
Add engineer. | 00:32:56 | |
Yeah, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. But this is again it's, it's added pipe to increase the capacity | 00:32:58 | |
mainly of the subsurface flow that's already existing and and rerouting that to the existing downstream discharge point to help | 00:33:06 | |
alleviate any surface flow that may be occurring there. On Water St. ordinary, the Water Street School St. intersection. This | 00:33:13 | |
should help get some of that water further downstream and have a positive impact on the roadway there. | 00:33:20 | |
And then this is really small and I'm sorry but my spreadsheets are pretty involved. So again, asking for. | 00:33:32 | |
$10,000 to be appropriated out of storm water improvements. I believe it's at the bottom of that. | 00:33:40 | |
And we do have plenty of we do have funds in that and since it's downtown, I believe that one in particular when you all were | 00:33:47 | |
building your Sloss project list there was something specific for downtown. So I felt like that was relevant to come out of that | 00:33:53 | |
line I mean lied on and that that sub bucket or whatever. So and I'll go back to the what were our request is that you'll see if | 00:33:58 | |
somebody wants to. | 00:34:04 | |
Ask questions or anything. | 00:34:11 | |
And is there any authorization needed for the add alternates or you will you come back to us on that or is this, that's what we're | 00:34:14 | |
asking you. I think that's all, that's everything you need for all the alternates you're talking about is? | 00:34:19 | |
So the plan is to use the existing, I mean if we can contract with this. | 00:34:25 | |
Provider, we will negotiate with them since they're going to be already be mobilized to go ahead and try to do those other | 00:34:30 | |
projects for, for example, the Jackson. | 00:34:34 | |
Project would not be covered by this amount of money, correct? | 00:34:38 | |
Yeah, no, we think it. | 00:34:41 | |
OK. | 00:34:43 | |
Right, Yeah. | 00:34:45 | |
There's a pie and not a Councilman Garrett. Maybe I'll explain better, but there's a pipe that runs underneath the road and | 00:34:48 | |
there's some erosion. The road is it. There's a whole bunch of issues with the road and the pipe perhaps and. | 00:34:53 | |
We haven't done a full engineering review of it, but it needs to be addressed. | 00:34:59 | |
If you if you walk down Jackson St. | 00:35:04 | |
Right on the left you can see where the road is. Just a road and falling off. | 00:35:06 | |
Where the. | 00:35:11 | |
Yeah, it's not you. All of us probably walk Jackson St. You don't really notice it. But when you pause down there at that low spot | 00:35:13 | |
and you look, it's bad. It needs to be fixed. | 00:35:17 | |
Down there and appreciate Councilman Garrett bringing that to our attention. | 00:35:22 | |
All right. We all heard the report. Any discussion? | 00:35:29 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to take the action requested shown on the screen. | 00:35:36 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:35:42 | |
We have a motion. Do we have a second? | 00:35:45 | |
2nd. | 00:35:47 | |
Any discussion? | 00:35:49 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 00:35:51 | |
Any opposed hearing? None. Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to item 10. | 00:35:54 | |
This is related to sidewalk permits for businesses, I. | 00:36:00 | |
I'll give a brief preamble here and then we'll turn it over to Manager Dickerson and Attorney Reitman. | 00:36:04 | |
We as we thought about what was going on downtown. | 00:36:11 | |
We've had. | 00:36:15 | |
We've seen some other cities have some pretty significant litigation related to items in the right of way. | 00:36:17 | |
On public sidewalks and other downtown areas. | 00:36:22 | |
And we did not have a process in place to allow businesses to do those displays that protected the city on public right away. So | 00:36:26 | |
we asked those businesses to remove those items and when we did that, they said what we would love to be able to do that again and | 00:36:31 | |
we we listen to them. | 00:36:37 | |
And as a result of that, Manager Dickerson and attorney Reitman have come up with a solution here that would outline a permit | 00:36:42 | |
permitting process. | 00:36:46 | |
So that businesses within some reasonable bounds and without violating ABA and protecting the city legally would be able to move | 00:36:50 | |
forward with that. So manager Dickerson, if you want to unpack the details here. | 00:36:55 | |
That would be great and then we can discuss it. | 00:37:01 | |
All right, well, and the mayor did not give himself credit, but he actually looked at it as well and and helped us button it up | 00:37:04 | |
quite a bit. We he added the planter option which we had not thought about so. | 00:37:10 | |
Chapter 32 of the ordinance that we're asking to amend will include a definition for a display and a planter, and it will be | 00:37:17 | |
specific to. I think I've got those here. It will give specific parameters dimensions for those items again. | 00:37:25 | |
Trying to ensure that the right of way that the sidewalk is passable. | 00:37:35 | |
Making sure that anything that is out being displayed. | 00:37:40 | |
Request, but they may decide not to do it. | 00:38:17 | |
Then they can do that again, there are conditions. It has to be on the front wall, the building. | 00:38:19 | |
Within certain you know, parameters 12 inches deep or long a step, I think Kate, our downtown development director checked and | 00:38:25 | |
most of the steps are about 12 inches deep so. | 00:38:30 | |
Have to be secured. Have to be items if you're displaying items. And we're not talking about planners, but if you're displaying | 00:38:35 | |
odds, they have to be sold as part of your regular what you sell in your business. | 00:38:40 | |
And. | 00:38:47 | |
I don't know if there's anything. The only thing I did not add, I didn't do it today either is I didn't put all the requirements | 00:38:49 | |
for insurance, but they are going to be required to have insurance. | 00:38:52 | |
Same insurance that like a Little League team would have to have. Or I was trying to think of some other. You know, basic | 00:38:57 | |
insurance is not expensive. | 00:39:01 | |
But it protects us that it protects them. If something were to fall out and hit somebody, then they would be responsible for | 00:39:07 | |
consent or right away. And so we have the right to request that they have. | 00:39:12 | |
Insurance and cover it. | 00:39:17 | |
Joe, you want to talk to more of the legal aspect of it since? | 00:39:19 | |
Clearly, protection of the public health, safety and welfare was paramount. References to limits on the size attachments, nothing | 00:39:24 | |
that would be dangerous. It could cause potential harm to our citizens. | 00:39:30 | |
We looked at several other communities. Primarily this was manager Dickerson pulled an exemplar from, I think, Athens Clarke. We | 00:39:37 | |
also had some language from Union Point, Madison that we'd worked on in distant years past. We're able to fold in some elements of | 00:39:45 | |
that and then make it pretty succinct, straightforward, easy to administer, easy to understand and protective of the public, And I | 00:39:53 | |
believe it accomplishes that. You might note there the five plus feet of unobstructed pedestrian passageway. | 00:40:01 | |
A compliance obviously very important. We want to be pedestrian friendly, tourist friendly, visitor friendly, citizen friendly, | 00:40:09 | |
and I think this accomplishes that. Are there any questions? | 00:40:14 | |
So the, you know the obvious example here is Attic treasures. You know will now be able to display items again a limited amount of | 00:40:27 | |
items and the and those items will not be able to fall into the street. You know they'll need to be secured in such a way. So we | 00:40:34 | |
you know that they will not do that and so the traffic's not obscured. But we I think in reflecting on this this is a really. | 00:40:42 | |
I give a lot of credit to our downtown development Director, Kate Patterson and Manager Dickerson for thinking about what's a | 00:40:50 | |
compromise that allows our businesses to show some creativity in a public space and highlight their businesses while protecting | 00:40:57 | |
protecting the city in that case. And so I think this is. | 00:41:03 | |
I think this is a good compromise. | 00:41:10 | |
And there were two notes as we were talking about this at DDA. They have come to me. | 00:41:12 | |
One is that they asked specifically about the sandwich board signs, which is not covered in this because we already do have a sign | 00:41:22 | |
ordinance that would allow that. So there already is a mechanism for that. And then the other thing is a request to slightly amend | 00:41:30 | |
this and I'm not sure how we would do that is that for the few special events a year downtown, such as the Christmas parade trick | 00:41:38 | |
or treating that obviously planters would not have to be moved, but if there are displays. | 00:41:46 | |
That is one option. Another option is just to add a subsection I at the tail end advising that. | 00:42:27 | |
Upon a request of the city, planters and slash or displays may be temporarily removed. | 00:42:33 | |
For short duration, for special events periodically or words to that effect. | 00:42:41 | |
If Julie's captured that, then you could certainly when you make a motion we can add that as item high, which I think would be | 00:42:47 | |
nice to have in there. That's a great catch and then we're going to tackle the sandwich board situation. | 00:42:53 | |
You know, there's there's not great clarity on that. So we're going to circle back to that in a few months, yeah. | 00:43:00 | |
OK. Any other thoughts, questions. | 00:43:06 | |
OK, we'll entertain a motion. | 00:43:10 | |
I make a motion to approve with the addition of letter I as discussed. | 00:43:14 | |
OK, we have a motion. Do we have a second? | 00:43:20 | |
Second All right. Any further discussion? | 00:43:23 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye, aye, any opposed motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to item 11. That's the updated fee | 00:43:26 | |
schedule to adopt fees for sidewalk permits. Yeah. So I didn't put the whole thing on there. Thank you. | 00:43:33 | |
Because I could, I figured you wouldn't be able to read it, but basically we're adding sidewalk display or planner permit. There's | 00:43:40 | |
a flat fee of $10 and that would be an annual fee. | 00:43:43 | |
All right. You've got the fee in front of you, it's. | 00:43:47 | |
Very nominal, Any. | 00:43:51 | |
Any discussion? Hearing, None. I'll entertain a motion. | 00:43:54 | |
I'll make a motion to approve the. | 00:44:00 | |
Fee schedule for other permits and fees for display. So motion to update the fee schedule from Councilman Thomas. Do we have a | 00:44:03 | |
second? | 00:44:07 | |
All right, we got a second from that side of the room. | 00:44:13 | |
Any discussion? Hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. Any opposed? | 00:44:17 | |
The $10 fee passes next item appropriation from suppose 3 for downtown streetscape improvements manager Dickerson. I assume this | 00:44:21 | |
is you. | 00:44:25 | |
Yeah. And you are not able to read that, but I will tell you what this is about. So over the last few months with the improvements | 00:44:29 | |
with Rocket Field, we have you all had approved and remember these these lines, these items that are in black on the white | 00:44:37 | |
background, those are those are project areas within the within the bucket if you will, the road, streets and bridges is the top. | 00:44:45 | |
Segment and. | 00:44:54 | |
When you created this project list you created in these with these titles or sub buckets and in that we had streetscape | 00:44:55 | |
improvements for downtown where we have spent. | 00:45:01 | |
The park, the pocket park in front of Blind Pig. You'll see some pictures of that. We've done some of that just within our own, | 00:45:42 | |
you know, money we have in the, but this is a bigger lift. This is potentially. | 00:45:46 | |
You. | 00:45:51 | |
To streetscape for downtown improvements. The other thing that is not in here that I did mention to the mayor prior to this | 00:46:24 | |
meeting is we have also hit our limit on the 60,000 that was appropriated for signage, entryway signage, industrial park signage. | 00:46:32 | |
I'm here Shoals Park. I know I'm missing wayfinding signage. All the stuff we've had our we're almost we're butting up against | 00:46:40 | |
that 60,000. We spent almost 57,000 and we still have signage for Rocket Field that needs to be finished. | 00:46:48 | |
Space, the Thomas Farm Park and all these and Trove as well as Watkinsville Woods. So based on what we've already spent, I'm | 00:46:56 | |
asking that you approve an additional 15,000 out of that bucket that's in the second blue mark at the bottom. You know you can't | 00:47:03 | |
read it but multi-purpose government facilities and signage and so we just bump that up to another. | 00:47:09 | |
15,000 We'll pull that money out of the 120 that was set aside for signage. | 00:47:18 | |
So again, we're just sort of we're peeling off out of that appropriations of that money. So another 15 out of the 120 that was set | 00:47:23 | |
aside. | 00:47:27 | |
So we're basically moving money around that we've already allocated for. You know when we, when we did the signage stuff we didn't | 00:47:32 | |
anticipate obviously Thomas Farm Park, all the downtown directional signage, some of the other great things, Rocket Field, you | 00:47:37 | |
know. So there there's we've had a we have some good reasons. | 00:47:42 | |
Spend those funds, but we just need to move some things around in different buckets. | 00:47:48 | |
Anything else? Manager Dickerson? | 00:47:54 | |
On that. | 00:47:57 | |
OK, what would be the language that you would want us to approve here, just in A? | 00:47:57 | |
The appropriation, yeah, I would say yeah, I was 3 for downtown streetscape improvements. | 00:48:04 | |
Well, it's more than 10K, it's, it's several different, yeah. So I think and I'll say it and then we can if some of its motion, | 00:48:09 | |
Julie can capture it off the video, but approve appropriation from Splice 3. | 00:48:14 | |
For $10,000 for Downtown St. safe improvements. | 00:48:21 | |
And we'll move that money from. | 00:48:26 | |
The sidewalk bike lane sub line, if you will. We'll figure out a better way to say that and then 15,000 appropriate 15,000 from | 00:48:29 | |
multi-purpose government facilities. | 00:48:34 | |
Entrance. | 00:48:40 | |
And that will be used for the. | 00:48:42 | |
Signs needed at Rocket Field, The Green Space and Watkinsville Woods. | 00:48:44 | |
All right. Can I hear So moved. Do we have a? | 00:48:49 | |
Second. All right. Quick question before we move on, sharing on. | 00:48:54 | |
So what the records show we're investing an additional $10,000 in downtown beautification of landscaping, correct? Yeah, I just | 00:49:32 | |
want to be sure all of our watchers are clear on that. All right. | 00:49:37 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further questions? | 00:49:42 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? | 00:49:45 | |
All right, 50. Now we're to public comments. There's no one here, Julie, did we receive any comments in advance? No comments | 00:49:51 | |
received in advance. We'll move on to mayor's report. | 00:49:56 | |
I'll work through these pretty quickly this These are some photos of the sidewalks. | 00:50:03 | |
New high schools. That was, I think, the first time that we really put our tea spots money to work in a meaningful way, and that | 00:50:08 | |
was exciting to see. Those are. | 00:50:12 | |
Pretty much done at this point. We're just waiting for grass to grow and for it to look a little cleaner. | 00:50:16 | |
So that has been done and we're glad. I think the residents are thankful for that. Rocket Field, the last I heard is that we, | 00:50:22 | |
knock on wood, want to be wrapped up not this weekend, but next weekend. We had a lot happen in the past month. They've really | 00:50:27 | |
been flying over there, so our new parking is installed. | 00:50:33 | |
With with new drainage underneath it. | 00:50:39 | |
Fence has gone back up, The light posts have gone up, then that makes a tremendous difference. They're beautiful. The bleachers | 00:50:43 | |
are there. Little League is on the field. | 00:50:47 | |
As there are the EC bullets, I went out there Monday night and there were about 33 year old kids running around just having a | 00:50:53 | |
ball. The parents were enjoying it. | 00:50:58 | |
Everything that I'm hearing is is really, really positive. There's a little bit of work still to come. The patent court needs to | 00:51:04 | |
be finished. There's one drainage issue that's going to be addressed. | 00:51:09 | |
There's going to be a little bit more landscaping that's going to go in and then you know we're we're going to, we're going to | 00:51:15 | |
start putting it to real use in October. We've got, I think, 4 different events in October. So our, our team here at the city when | 00:51:21 | |
it gets turned over to us is going to have their work cut out for them in terms of taking care of it. | 00:51:27 | |
So anyway, it's it's. | 00:51:34 | |
Been really great to see it all come together over the past two months. Bread. I'm curious, when you got home, were you impressed | 00:51:35 | |
with how it looked for you? Yeah. | 00:51:40 | |
Yeah. | 00:51:45 | |
Yeah, yeah. | 00:51:46 | |
But the other thing to mention to mayor is the scoreboard is supposed to be in early November, should be up before Thanksgiving, | 00:51:48 | |
and then the net climber that's similar to what water Park has will be put in it. All that's going to be after the fall festival. | 00:51:54 | |
Yeah, and we are working. I'm trying to get access to the calendar that the yard is using. We've had a little. | 00:52:33 | |
Issue getting ahold of it. As soon as I do, I'll create a QR code that will send them to our website and we'll keep the. | 00:52:40 | |
The most recent, because we can't let them into the calendar. They'll go in there and change things there, but we can take a | 00:52:47 | |
snapshot of it and try to keep it updated. So we'll have a QR code at the field so people can look and see when it's available. So | 00:52:52 | |
then though they can't bring their kid out at 3:00 on Saturday because something's going on then, but they'll know they can go out | 00:52:56 | |
at 5:00. So we'll work on that. Hopefully we'll have that done in the next couple weeks. | 00:53:01 | |
Sorry. | 00:53:08 | |
Yeah, so I know that. Umm. | 00:53:12 | |
A dog park was going to be on that that. | 00:53:18 | |
Minimally it is on pause while we wait for the sod to get established. | 00:53:21 | |
It was suggested by a resident who is on the Little Dog Park group meet that perhaps some signage stating that it is the currently | 00:53:27 | |
no dogs are allowed or whatever it is might be helpful. | 00:53:35 | |
Because you know, word doesn't always get around and they might see the fence and go, oh this is the dog park and so just a | 00:53:43 | |
suggestion from a good suggestion. | 00:53:47 | |
OK, great. | 00:53:52 | |
All. | 00:53:55 | |
We already talked about rock and art in the park. We're excited about that. Originally I thought was we were going to combine the | 00:53:58 | |
Rocket Field grand opening with that, but we had, we did have some schedule challenges. So we're also that'll be Saturday, then | 00:54:03 | |
Sunday. | 00:54:07 | |
We're going to also have the official grand opening of Rocket Field, where we'll recognize our donor will have an inning of | 00:54:13 | |
exhibition ball being played. We're going to let the kids run the bases. We're going to do a group photo of everybody in the | 00:54:18 | |
community who wants to come out. | 00:54:23 | |
A big show at that event, The 1st 200 kids who run the bases are going to get a special commemorative gift as well, so we'd love | 00:55:00 | |
to have a lot of kids out there to celebrate with us that day. | 00:55:05 | |
Going to do a Watkinsville Woods work day, September 30th, 9:00 AM for anyone who can join. We need to spread the mulch on The | 00:55:11 | |
Walking trails and we've got a couple other odds and ends. If we have enough people that we want to tackle, that we may want to | 00:55:16 | |
tackle while we're out there. | 00:55:21 | |
Then we have another work day at Harris Shoals that same day. It seems like Sharon and Toby just wanted to knock all that out in | 00:55:27 | |
one day. So we're going to put the I guess our City team are going to divide and conquer and we're going to have Boy Scouts and | 00:55:32 | |
others. But if you're in town, mark your calendar for September 30th. | 00:55:38 | |
It is. I promise I did not tell Sharon that I was going to be out of town that day, but unfortunately I am out of town that day. | 00:55:44 | |
You all know I love the woods, so I would be out there working, but but we would love to have a good community showing there. Keep | 00:55:48 | |
up. County Beautiful is helping us with the one at Harris Shoals. | 00:55:52 | |
This is a pretty big change near the Blind Pig that you'll notice. We're trying to address that area up. We've got some chairs | 00:55:59 | |
coming to replace the old benches, so that's going to have a little bit more of a feel of a pocket park for people who want to sit | 00:56:05 | |
out there and run around before. | 00:56:11 | |
Exposed tree roots. It was just dirt. | 00:56:18 | |
And we know a lot of people like to spend time out there as they wait in the evenings at Rocket Field and it is a pleasant, shady | 00:56:20 | |
area out there. | 00:56:24 | |
At different times of the day, so kudos to the to our public works department for getting that dressed up. I think a lot of that | 00:56:29 | |
work happened today. | 00:56:33 | |
Oconee County Library well underway under the leadership of their Able Board Chair. | 00:56:38 | |
Brick facade is done. The sheetrock looks great. | 00:56:44 | |
And Windows have been installed. So it's it's really coming together. We're still tracking towards January, Mr. Chairman. | 00:56:48 | |
All right. | 00:56:54 | |
We had our first meeting of the Thomas Farm. | 00:56:58 | |
Park meeting was to was Tuesday before last. We'll actually do our site tour this Monday. | 00:57:01 | |
So we're we're looking forward to that and this is the schedule for the rest of those meetings October 4th and 11th council | 00:57:09 | |
members if you want to join us for those that will be public input sessions and we hope to have a good turn out there. Obviously | 00:57:15 | |
we'll have to manage expectations of the public in terms of there's there's not, there's a lot of things we can't do out there but | 00:57:21 | |
we had a really good, we've got a really great committee that's working on addressing the things. | 00:57:27 | |
That we can do this is a snapshot of that. | 00:57:34 | |
And we're thankful to everybody for giving us their. | 00:57:37 | |
We also have a. | 00:57:40 | |
Divided up into three subcommittees, one committee will focus on paths and trails, another will focus on how to best maintain the | 00:57:42 | |
land and the property, and another will focus on. | 00:57:47 | |
Physical structures and branding, fencing, parking you know kind of the the non the capital investments that we need to make so | 00:57:51 | |
folks are volunteering for which subcommittees they want to be on. | 00:57:57 | |
We've also engaged Smith Planning Group at a much reduced cost to help us with actually developing the refined plan and they've | 00:58:03 | |
agreed to do that at less than half of their normal cost to work like this. | 00:58:09 | |
So we're thankful for. | 00:58:16 | |
Oh, it's a birthday with. Yeah, OK, well, happy birthday. What's that is today? Today? | 00:58:18 | |
So the 7th was my birthday, which was also the day I flew home. So probably the longest Day in History because I flew backwards in | 00:58:25 | |
time. Longest birthday ever. But it was a fantastic birthday because I was coming home. OK, well, happy birthday and welcome home. | 00:58:30 | |
Thank you. | 00:58:36 | |
All right, council members, your turn. Chuck Garrett post one. | 00:58:43 | |
I sit in or listened in on the webinar. | 00:58:49 | |
Historic preservations. This. | 00:58:52 | |
Very helpful. And I was telling Jeff it's right spot on with where we at. | 00:58:55 | |
So we're on the right track, the right people to get it going. So awesome. Confirmation. All right, Councilwoman. | 00:59:00 | |
Chuck and I went to. | 00:59:11 | |
Constitution Week event at the church Sunday. And they had a good crowd and it turned out real nice. They did a good job. Always a | 00:59:14 | |
fun event to go to. Yes. All right, good. | 00:59:20 | |
Councilman Thomas, Hey again, just glad to be back here again. Like I said, I I did ride around Watkinsville. I mean immediately | 00:59:29 | |
upon. | 00:59:33 | |
Getting here, that's first thing I did Friday morning after I went and got me a Golden Pantry biscuit. | 00:59:39 | |
So I did ride around. Look, I am extremely pleased with all the work y'all done over the over the last year. Watkinsville looks | 00:59:45 | |
great. It really does. A wire park looks great. I mean just. | 00:59:51 | |
The Rocket Field looks great. I mean just Watkinsville looks great. So proud to be here and proud to be part of this team. | 00:59:57 | |
Welcome back. | 01:00:04 | |
Mayor Pro Tem. | 01:00:05 | |
So just to kind of quick comment on my thankfulness for just being part of this community we. | 01:00:09 | |
I mean, we have our team, our staff team, that is amazing. But also I would say just being part of the city, the friendliness. | 01:00:19 | |
And and our community as a whole, also our county. I went to the. | 01:00:27 | |
The planning meeting for the school system last night and I think it was record turn out about 500 people and. | 01:00:32 | |
Just that that sense of collaboration and for the most part, positivity. | 01:00:43 | |
I'm just really grateful to get to be in this community and grateful to be sitting here. | 01:00:50 | |
So go Walkinsville. | 01:00:56 | |
All right, Councilman Campbell, you get to follow that. | 01:00:59 | |
I can't, so I have nothing to report. | 01:01:04 | |
All right. | 01:01:09 | |
I don't think we have any need for an executive session. | 01:01:11 | |
Hallelujah. So unless anybody objects, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn, Please. I'll make a motion to adjourn and a | 01:01:15 | |
second, please, all in favor say aye. | 01:01:20 |
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All right, Welcome to the September City of Watkinsville Council meeting. We have an exciting moment tonight and that Councilman | 00:00:07 | |
Brett Thomas is back from deployment in Kuwait. Welcome back. | 00:00:14 | |
We've said it, I think almost every month, but we are so grateful to you and and for your service, Councilman Thomas and. | 00:00:24 | |
Really thankful though to have you back here stateside and joining us. So we we have missed you and welcome back. | 00:00:31 | |
Yeah. Thank you very much. I'm super glad to be back, Glad to be here. I think I've been home for today, Wednesday. | 00:00:37 | |
Eight days now. So super glad to be back. Getting to a routine of normalcy again. Great. Welcome back. Welcome back. We do have a | 00:00:45 | |
quorum here tonight. In fact, we have everyone here, which is great. And we're going to lead off with the pledge as we always do. | 00:00:50 | |
Councilman Thomas, if you could lead us, please. | 00:00:56 | |
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:01:02 | |
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:01:09 | |
We don't have a big crowd tonight, but as always, I'll remind everyone this meeting is being broadcast simultaneously via Suite 1. | 00:01:19 | |
That's our webcasting public portal. Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can access that portal and they can review the | 00:01:26 | |
council packet as we go through it. That packet is also posted in advance so anyone who has questions can send them to us. | 00:01:32 | |
I'll entertain a motion or to approve those or any corrections to the minutes. | 00:02:11 | |
Make a motion to approve both. | 00:02:18 | |
Second. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve both sets of minutes. Any discussion? | 00:02:20 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? | 00:02:27 | |
Motion carries unanimously. | 00:02:30 | |
Second item will be approval of the agenda. I do not have any. | 00:02:33 | |
Requests. We only have one item on consent, so unless anyone has any. | 00:02:38 | |
Adjustments to the agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. | 00:02:43 | |
Make a motion to approve the agenda. | 00:02:48 | |
Do we have a second I? Second we have a motion in a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor, say aye. | 00:02:51 | |
Any opposed motion carries unanimously. | 00:02:58 | |
Under administration, we will let manager Dickerson give us our financial reports as I said earlier. | 00:03:01 | |
Public comment is not typical during this part of the conversation, but if you do want to comment, please indicate and that | 00:03:08 | |
decision will be at the council's discretion. If you do make a comment, refrain from debate, address council and any no personal | 00:03:14 | |
attacks will be tolerated. Ultimately, that comes council and the attorney on matters that are not required. Public hearings will | 00:03:20 | |
make the decision about how long. | 00:03:26 | |
And whether you're to whether you can continue addressing Council Manager Dickerson, if you want to give us our financial reports | 00:03:32 | |
and economic development reports that would be great. Thank you, Mayor. | 00:03:36 | |
So everybody should have their balance sheets, the revenue and expense reports. If there are any questions, we're moving along | 00:03:41 | |
fine. We're only two months since it's kind of hard to tell you much of anything, but. | 00:03:46 | |
We're not out of money yet, so that's good. If you have any questions on that, I'll talk about SP. | 00:03:52 | |
So Sloss 2, we thought this would be closed out, but we've still not received the final invoice from the county for the work on | 00:03:59 | |
sewer line. | 00:04:03 | |
So as soon as that comes in, we will exhaust those funds including the 412 extra will take the balance. I think that probably is a | 00:04:08 | |
mixture of of. | 00:04:12 | |
Interest as well as other monies that we didn't, you know that came in that we didn't allocate for this purpose, but we do have | 00:04:17 | |
some money. You may recall that some of this is going to have to be paid for out of general fund fund balance. So we'll take that | 00:04:22 | |
extra 412 and any other interest we get on that and put it towards that as well. | 00:04:27 | |
So we'll see if we can get that paid before the end of this month and next month we'll have a loss to you, will be closed. | 00:04:32 | |
On splice. | 00:04:37 | |
We have this is the one that we still receive at 8.63% and these are the projects right now that are really active outside of the | 00:04:40 | |
Teesplos work that we'll talk about in a minute. So this is Rocket Field. | 00:04:46 | |
This is equipment we purchased for public works and or for public safety. | 00:04:53 | |
Any of the work that we're talking about tonight with regard to drainage and all that will be out of this fund, but this is where | 00:04:59 | |
we sit right now. So we have. | 00:05:03 | |
Received to date about 15,000 a month for the last 24 months, more than what we thought we were going to be getting. So that's | 00:05:07 | |
always good news. | 00:05:11 | |
So we're sitting above our projections by about $360,000. | 00:05:16 | |
So if we end up, is there a cap on this like so it's just we collect it through the timeline? | 00:05:23 | |
Yep, wonderful. There's a cap there, right? Sharing of the Max. | 00:05:31 | |
The Max amount. So these are all, I think this is all percentage the those numbers that we have the referendum, I put the numbers, | 00:05:35 | |
not the percentages. In the referendum the language was percentage or is it percentage and we estimate the percentage based on | 00:05:40 | |
what they thought they were going to collect. | 00:05:45 | |
So ultimately we never collect the full amounts that may or not make it. So the 5.579 million is the total is the most you can | 00:05:51 | |
collect. I do believe that is correct, but you will never, I don't think any they always set it higher. | 00:05:58 | |
But we always project and it's been about right somewhere between 83 and 85% collection so but now. | 00:06:05 | |
And this gets kind of crazy. But on each of those buckets, the referendum, you can never spend more than what's in that | 00:06:12 | |
referendum, that that line item for the referendum. | 00:06:16 | |
But you could, you know you could potentially. | 00:06:22 | |
Spend 540,000 and public safety but under spend and rec and park so that you don't ever go over you know the amount the over the | 00:06:25 | |
projection that that you have maybe that's not that may not be making sense but anyway but yeah there is the 5.579144 is the | 00:06:31 | |
amount that was approved the referendum they always estimate higher. I don't think anybody has ever gone over it that I know of | 00:06:38 | |
because they always build in a lot more than what they expect so. | 00:06:45 | |
But it will continue to collect and I don't think on Splost 2 and go back to Splos 2 that we. | 00:06:52 | |
Yeah, see, we only collect. | 00:06:58 | |
We collected for today 4 million and they estimate 4.7. | 00:07:00 | |
So are we trending on Spice 3 to be higher than that 83% that we budgeted on? | 00:07:04 | |
With an, I mean, how much we've been going up. Yeah, So the projection of revenues at 83 percent is 65,000 a month and we're at | 00:07:12 | |
79,000. So I don't know what that percentage would be. It's not 100, obviously 100%. | 00:07:18 | |
I can figure that out and let you know. OK. Thank you. And did we and our buckets, did we base them on the 5 million that is | 00:07:25 | |
probably never going to be not the 83. | 00:07:32 | |
Referendum language. You figured out about what you thought you needed in each one of those buckets, and there's even rules about | 00:07:39 | |
moving stuff from one bucket to the other if you need to. If you don't have a, you know so. | 00:07:45 | |
But yes, OK. Thank you. OK. | 00:07:50 | |
And then here's the breakdown so far. So you'll see just between. | 00:07:55 | |
Between July of last year and this year, there's a 15% increase over what was collected. | 00:07:59 | |
That's good news. | 00:08:04 | |
On tea Sploss. So this is right now, most of this money is being spent on sidewalks. You guys have approved and allocated money | 00:08:07 | |
for that. The mayor will talk a little bit about that in his report. | 00:08:12 | |
And we have not actually didn't it didn't clear this month or in July. I mean sorry, in August did not, the check did not clear. | 00:08:19 | |
But we have spent some money for Mr. Mayweather to do the work on new high shelves at just North, sorry, new high shelves. It just | 00:08:23 | |
hasn't shown up. | 00:08:28 | |
In the report yet. | 00:08:32 | |
And then you know this is at a smaller percentage 7.77%. We are averaging, I think I had it over here 68,000, but remember the | 00:08:34 | |
average is over the course of the 60 months. So if we do anticipate it will increase over time. | 00:08:42 | |
And that's how we budget. | 00:08:50 | |
We have about 270,000 or so in the bank. | 00:08:53 | |
The questions AARP, American Rescue plan monies right now you guys approved some appropriate some funds for the park purchase and | 00:08:57 | |
then we have existing money in our public safety retention initiative. Some of those officers are still receiving their second and | 00:09:03 | |
third checks. | 00:09:09 | |
Any questions on any of those? | 00:09:16 | |
Okie dokie. | 00:09:20 | |
And move into economic development? Not a lot yet. Julie's going to be sending out the. | 00:09:21 | |
Business license renewals, probably this next. | 00:09:28 | |
But right now we have 8, but one I'll point out is Mama's boy if y'all haven't been there. They did have a soft opening this | 00:09:32 | |
morning and so they've gotten their their business license and pretty excited about them joining the city. | 00:09:37 | |
Brett, we also have a cat cafe coming, so just you know why you've been gone. | 00:09:44 | |
Did they have biscuits? And they did. They had to form? No, I mean at Kuwait. | 00:09:55 | |
I was about to say you had to be missing some things over there. No, There we go. | 00:10:03 | |
On the excise tax you'll you'll note that August is not showing up for Hotel Motel, it's because we get it after the fact. So | 00:10:09 | |
we'll get the August payment and at the end of this month. | 00:10:13 | |
Alcohol and hotel motel are trending very well. | 00:10:18 | |
And then on the building permits only had a few, four of them, all individual, just basic kind of stuff. I had a little work from | 00:10:22 | |
AT&T going on the right away. | 00:10:26 | |
Any questions about? | 00:10:32 | |
All right, Mayor Pro Tem about the Downtown Development Authority. OK, we had our monthly meeting today. | 00:10:37 | |
Again, we have a fantastic board, really grateful for all of the the members who donate, you know their time and their expertise. | 00:10:46 | |
Again, a reminder if you all do not already have on your calendar October 14th at Rocket Field. We have the event that has been | 00:10:54 | |
made possible by the grant that we got from attending the Creative Placemaking event and it's going to be a lot of fun. The Splits | 00:11:02 | |
band will be there. They'll be music from, I mean Sorry, they'll be food and drink from local. | 00:11:11 | |
Restaurants including chops. | 00:11:20 | |
Brewery Dobies, Mama Nings and possibly some of our farmers market vendors will be there too, and some of the proceeds of all of | 00:11:24 | |
the sales will be going to help support the DVA which we've earmarked it for beautification. | 00:11:31 | |
Of our downtown and also. | 00:11:40 | |
We are, through this creating a pocket park. | 00:11:44 | |
In the space across from Dobies. And so the public art that is going to be created at this event will be displayed there and there | 00:11:48 | |
will be chairs. And we're still kind of figuring out exactly all of the things we're going to do there, but it should be another | 00:11:54 | |
community gathering space. | 00:12:00 | |
A place for us to come connect. So that's going on and moving along smoothly. But please, we're going to start posting things on | 00:12:07 | |
social media about this. If you use social media, if you will, share it. | 00:12:13 | |
And just, you know, we have local businesses who are coming and preparing food. We would hope that there will be people there to | 00:12:19 | |
purchase that. So please get the word out. Is there a name for the event? What's it called? It is called Rock and Art at the park. | 00:12:25 | |
All right. Gotcha. OK, so. | 00:12:30 | |
We also, we have new businesses that are coming into our downtown. We have 4 new businesses in the next few months, which is | 00:12:40 | |
really exciting. So and my notes I'm realizing are sitting on my desk. So I may get the names wrong, but we have. | 00:12:48 | |
The Outfitters, but that's not what it's called, but it's like a Coney Outfitters might be the name going where the old Welcome | 00:12:58 | |
Center is and it's going to have kind of a general store vibe. The owner also does outdoor events and so you'll be able to buy | 00:13:07 | |
packages and stuff there. And I think the kind of vibe of it if you've been to wander up in Clayton. | 00:13:15 | |
Obviously the space is not nearly that big, but it it will have kind of a similar vibe, so I think it'll be a great addition to | 00:13:25 | |
downtown. | 00:13:28 | |
Have a cat cafe coming which we got some details at our meeting of what that actually is. So it will be a spot where you can go in | 00:13:31 | |
and get smoothies, coffee, drinks, prepackaged food. The cats will be behind a glass wall so you will not be like at my house | 00:13:38 | |
where I often have a cat on my lap while I'm drinking my morning coffee. You that will not be happening. You separate the food | 00:13:46 | |
from the cats but you can see them and and so if you like cats but maybe don't want to have them in your house. | 00:13:53 | |
You can enjoy them or you can for a small fee, go in and play with the cats. And they're all adoptable as well. So I think that's | 00:14:00 | |
a fun new addition to downtown. And then the coffee roaster will be coming. They will not be selling cups of coffee, although I | 00:14:07 | |
did hear that if you go, he may give you a cup of coffee. And so that will smell wonderful throughout our town. And then there's a | 00:14:14 | |
new home kind of boutique. | 00:14:21 | |
In the Town Center shopping center. | 00:14:29 | |
By Mama Nings and I can't remember the names about the clothing boutique and so, but it's a local artist, so it will have probably | 00:14:31 | |
a mixture of things. So I think that's another great addition to our downtown. So all of those will be coming in the next few | 00:14:36 | |
months. | 00:14:40 | |
Oh, and we do, but with that, that will come up. | 00:14:50 | |
OK. And also we reviewed the. | 00:14:53 | |
The new business items 10:11 and 12:00 and. | 00:14:57 | |
They. | 00:15:02 | |
The board thought they were good ideas and. | 00:15:05 | |
Yeah. | 00:15:09 | |
Sorry, my notes are sitting on my desk, but they again and we have, if you don't know, the the board is made-up of local. | 00:15:11 | |
Business owners and so there's a good sampling of. | 00:15:22 | |
Of people very invested in our community. Again, I feel like we are incredibly fortunate with with our DBA board. | 00:15:27 | |
OK, that's it. | 00:15:35 | |
All right, until I get home and look at the notes on my desk. | 00:15:37 | |
Well, thank you for all your work and and to our Executive Director, Kate Patterson for keeping all that moving forward. | 00:15:41 | |
Speaking of hard workers, Chief Tedderton, why don't you come up and give us your report? It sounds like it's been an interesting | 00:15:48 | |
month. | 00:15:50 | |
Mayor, Council, good evening. | 00:15:54 | |
So in your packet, if you'll take a glance at the pie chart. | 00:15:56 | |
We had a pretty busy activities over the last 30. | 00:16:01 | |
For calls for service the numbers went up to 19140 that includes self generated activity. | 00:16:05 | |
For security checks on homes and businesses, the guys did 12115 and on. | 00:16:12 | |
Traffic stops, they did 212 of the 200 and 12113 of those were speeding and other 212. We issued a total of 119 warnings. The rest | 00:16:17 | |
of that was 4 citations. | 00:16:23 | |
If you go a little bit farther in on our. | 00:16:31 | |
We had a little bit busier month this month and we did last time we had a total of eight actual principal in custody arrests. We | 00:16:34 | |
had a couple that we. | 00:16:38 | |
Gave notices to appear because there were very low profile violations, but of our eight arrests. | 00:16:43 | |
Three of them were for criminal matters, all of which was drug related, cocaine, marijuana. | 00:16:49 | |
Some methamphetamine was the results of those. Now on one of those arrests we came in contact with three weapons which we seized. | 00:16:57 | |
And we're moving for forfeiture of those in. | 00:17:05 | |
Assault rifle, 2 pistols, a 357 and a 9mm that the people had in their custody and interestingly enough they were. Both of them | 00:17:09 | |
were out on bond on similar charges for weapons. | 00:17:14 | |
Drugs out of Emanuel County Down South and we actually they were coming to a ball game and we interrupted their day. | 00:17:22 | |
The other arrests were all traffic related and it ranged from 2 DUI's as well as. | 00:17:29 | |
Additional charges on those and the others were suspended or revoked driver's license violations. | 00:17:34 | |
So 200. | 00:17:41 | |
Traffic stops all told. | 00:17:43 | |
And all those resulted, all those arrests were from traffic stops. There were about 10 in total, 8 in custody and then two that we | 00:17:45 | |
released. | 00:17:49 | |
Community events. We stayed pretty busy this month. We went over to St. Gabriel's. They host a first responder, a breakfast every | 00:17:54 | |
September 11th. They did it last year for the first time. We were there last year and we were there this year. | 00:18:00 | |
Badges. Benevolence. We have come up with a new idea to do a cops and Cones event with the owner of Scoops and Wire Park. We've | 00:18:08 | |
come up with a Saturday. It's an away game every Saturday in. | 00:18:13 | |
Is a Georgia game, but this one in particular is an away game against Tennessee and we're going to be out there for about two | 00:18:19 | |
hours on a Saturday afternoon. | 00:18:23 | |
With the owner of that, he's providing us an opportunity to give ice cream cones to kids. We're going to let them look at our cars | 00:18:27 | |
and equipment. | 00:18:30 | |
And maybe play some games. | 00:18:33 | |
Recently we went to the library to the children's reading program. I put a Facebook post out and Officer Anglin, myself and | 00:18:37 | |
Sergeant Hiller went there and met some really little kids and read a book about police work and gave them some coloring books. | 00:18:44 | |
And spent some time there with. | 00:18:51 | |
Children's reading. | 00:18:53 | |
We went to an art selection I did with Sheriff Hale and we picked out some and Chief Thaxton from the fire department. | 00:18:56 | |
We picked out some. | 00:19:03 | |
That are going to be given out for the run for responders event in. | 00:19:06 | |
That's our big event. It happens October 1st. | 00:19:10 | |
So if you can, would love to see everybody come out to that. It's a good time. It's a Sunday. It starts at 12:30 and ends at 4:30. | 00:19:13 | |
So if you can come out and do that. | 00:19:21 | |
We have a flag placement that we're going to do in November and we have. | 00:19:24 | |
Kind of a volunteer. | 00:19:29 | |
Cleanup event the first week of November at the cemetery with the Arkansas and some other volunteers. We're just going to do a | 00:19:31 | |
general cleanup. | 00:19:34 | |
Before veterans. | 00:19:38 | |
Officer training. | 00:19:40 | |
Officer Walker leaves for basic narcotics investigations. | 00:19:43 | |
Monday and he'll be gone to Forsyth for a week. Myself, Sergeant Wade. | 00:19:47 | |
And Sergeant Hitler are going over for a garma GMA risk reduction class for law enforcement that's hosted at the Athens Police | 00:19:51 | |
Department. We're going to be doing that next week. | 00:19:56 | |
We went over to Piedmont traffic network in Winder. We had about 60 area law enforcement officers. We conducted ADR checkpoint | 00:20:02 | |
over there and Speaking of that, tomorrow we're going to. | 00:20:09 | |
Doing this month's traffic event over in Clark County, it's a little bit differe. | 00:20:16 | |
We're installing child safety seats and inspecting child safety seats. These are donated seats. | 00:20:20 | |
That we were given to give to needy families that don't have. | 00:20:25 | |
Interesting case of the month. This one was pretty lengthy. | 00:20:30 | |
And it is the one that involves the seizure of the methamphetamine, the cocaine, the marijuana and the firearms. That one's | 00:20:34 | |
detailed. | 00:20:38 | |
In your handout, it resulted from 2 arrests. | 00:20:44 | |
And actually, one of the people in the car shouldn't even have been in possession of guns, because they are a Lottenberg Amendment | 00:20:47 | |
violator. | 00:20:50 | |
Domestic violence, so they kept around firearms to begin. | 00:20:54 | |
But we have had an. | 00:20:59 | |
Month. Recently we've had two cases that are ongoing. Can't talk a lot about them, but they involve thefts at a very large level. | 00:21:01 | |
The smaller one was just over $40,000 and it was what was called the warrant scam, if you read my little. | 00:21:10 | |
Community public Safety announcement. If you'll take the time to read, that will explain what a warrant scam is. | 00:21:16 | |
But essentially, the victim was convinced by someone portraying themselves as a police officer that they had outstanding warrants | 00:21:22 | |
for their arrest. | 00:21:26 | |
And that she needed to provide them cash to stay out of jail. | 00:21:29 | |
And. | 00:21:33 | |
The poor lady drove around from 8:00 in the morning till 7:00 at night. | 00:21:35 | |
And they basically sucked her bank account dry during the course of that whole day. | 00:21:39 | |
And finally released her over at Barnes and Nobles at Epps. | 00:21:43 | |
And she's out about $45,000. | 00:21:48 | |
Umm. | 00:21:52 | |
Shocking. We have another business. | 00:21:54 | |
That is out 72,000. | 00:21:57 | |
We're going to probably be getting some outside help on that case with the GBI and the FBI because it involves transactions. | 00:22:01 | |
Through the wire, out to California, back and forth, and essentially it is a loan scam. | 00:22:08 | |
He was asked. | 00:22:14 | |
Provide money. | 00:22:16 | |
Of good faith money, if you will, The $72,000 in exchange for a loan of $3,000,000. | 00:22:18 | |
Generally speaking. | 00:22:26 | |
That's really unheard of. If you're borrowing money, they don't ask you to front money, especially in that amount. | 00:22:28 | |
But people get caught up in these. | 00:22:34 | |
So take a look at that and. | 00:22:37 | |
Outside of that, I think that's about it for. | 00:22:40 | |
Have you guys got? | 00:22:44 | |
I have a question. Yes, ma'am. So I have noticed that. | 00:22:46 | |
Umm, it seems like actual ticket writing may have gone down and warnings have gone up. And and I mean, I, you know, I don't have | 00:22:52 | |
all decisions in front of me. I know that writing tickets isn't about being punitive. It's not that like, oh, we you know. | 00:22:59 | |
We. | 00:23:07 | |
I mean it's it's not about, it's not about punishment. | 00:23:08 | |
So are you finding that the warnings are effective? And if I'm guessing that if someone gets pulled over for a second time they | 00:23:13 | |
got a warning the first time, they would not get a warning at that. Generally that's true. So when we when we issue a warning. | 00:23:19 | |
We try to keep it about a 5050 balance or maybe a 6040 balance in favor of the. | 00:23:25 | |
But if you're issued a warning when my guys put it into their computer if they stop you a second time? | 00:23:31 | |
Your information appears on the screen. They can tell whether you've had one or not. | 00:23:37 | |
And then they can click on it and it can tell what your warning was. | 00:23:42 | |
So they do take that into consideration, but they do make a judgment call on every individual traffic's office. So just because | 00:23:46 | |
you got one warning doesn't mean you might not get a second. | 00:23:51 | |
A lot of the speeding offenses. | 00:23:55 | |
I think the officers and I know personally, I take into account what a person tells me. | 00:23:58 | |
I. | 00:24:04 | |
You can talk yourself into a ticket, but you can also talk yourself out if you have a viable explanation. | 00:24:06 | |
And I'll give you a for instance, I was running stationary radar on North Main Street, and I clocked the car that was doing about | 00:24:12 | |
70 mph in a 45 zone. So I stopped. | 00:24:17 | |
They were actually on their way to Piedmont. | 00:24:22 | |
Because. | 00:24:25 | |
Mother was in the emergency room and was not expected to make it, so I gave those people a verbal warning and let them go. | 00:24:26 | |
That's an example of someone that. | 00:24:34 | |
We show compassion to and have. | 00:24:35 | |
There is no good reason for speeding, but had a understandable reason for speed. | 00:24:38 | |
But I think warnings are effect. | 00:24:42 | |
If. | 00:24:45 | |
To give somebody a warning. | 00:24:46 | |
Having said, there are things we'll give warnings more and things we will not. | 00:24:48 | |
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's helpful. | 00:24:55 | |
All right. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate all you do and all your guys. | 00:24:59 | |
Next on our item, our agenda is the consent agenda. We have one item on there and I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent | 00:25:05 | |
agenda. | 00:25:09 | |
Make a motion to approve the consent agenda 2nd. I'll second. All right. Thank you, Brett. All in favor, say aye. | 00:25:16 | |
Motion carries unanimously. | 00:25:24 | |
Public Hearings. We Have none Tonight. Appearances We Have White St. Parcel W 05079. | 00:25:26 | |
Demolition permit. We'll start off with them getting a report from the engineer. | 00:25:33 | |
And then we'll hear from the applicant if they want to add anything there. | 00:25:39 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:25:43 | |
So this, the partial AT64 White Street is actually at the corner of White St. and Bunny Hop Trail. It's a detached residential | 00:25:44 | |
zone property. The request is for demolition of the existing structure. It's a relatively small partial based on the available | 00:25:52 | |
information. So you have an idea of where that is located. There again on that that southern corner of a White St. and Bunny Hop. | 00:26:00 | |
Recently the reason for the request of the demolition was recently a tree fell through. | 00:26:09 | |
The structure not just onto the structure, but into the structure. You can see a little bit better that on the. This is from the | 00:26:15 | |
from Bunny hop, so you can see the deterioration there. The applicants provided documentation related to the to the structure and | 00:26:20 | |
the disrepair of the structure. | 00:26:26 | |
That documentation was provided by a company called K2 Disaster Response. It was dated from earlier this month that based on the | 00:26:33 | |
damage that had occurred. | 00:26:38 | |
The. | 00:26:44 | |
Structure essentially is I don't say beyond repair, but in a state such that repair becomes more difficult. So that's the reason | 00:26:46 | |
for the demolition request. | 00:26:51 | |
Oconee County tax assessors does indicate the structure was constructed in 1965, which means it's old. There's no documentation of | 00:26:57 | |
any historical significance related to the structure at this location. | 00:27:02 | |
The applicant did provide information from a third party source related to asbestos. That report did indicate that there's no | 00:27:09 | |
asbestos containing materials, but that does not relieve the applicant from the responsibility of should they encounter any | 00:27:15 | |
asbestos containing materials that they would have to follow state law. As is related to that, again, there's not any disturbance | 00:27:21 | |
of greater than an acre on the site because the site is less than an acre. | 00:27:27 | |
But the applicant would need to take best management practices into place during a demolition to make sure there's no | 00:27:33 | |
sedimentation onto the roadway or any adjacent properties. I will note that the adjacent roadway was recently paved as of today, | 00:27:39 | |
so there will also need to be special care taken to make sure that there's no equipment that would damage that adjacent roadway on | 00:27:44 | |
Bunny Hop Trail. | 00:27:50 | |
Happy to answer any questions you might. | 00:27:56 | |
All right. Is the applicant here tonight? | 00:28:00 | |
All right. | 00:28:03 | |
OK, All right. Do we have any questions for the applicant? | 00:28:07 | |
All right, all right. We don't have any council, any discussion. | 00:28:12 | |
All right, we'll entertain a motion. | 00:28:17 | |
I make a motion that we approve the demolition request. | 00:28:23 | |
All right, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? | 00:28:27 | |
Oh, with the conditions. | 00:28:30 | |
Yes. | 00:28:34 | |
I will second with the conditions. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? | 00:28:36 | |
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Sir. | 00:28:40 | |
You're going to people get plans for a new house. I'm assuming there once this is done. | 00:28:48 | |
Boy. | 00:28:56 | |
Unfortunately, start right over. OK, All right, all right. Good luck. All right. For those who couldn't hear, the the owner does | 00:29:00 | |
plan to put a new house up. | 00:29:06 | |
Later new business, we have item number 9 related to a Water St. drain pipe upgrade. I'll let Manager Dickerson and Engineer | 00:29:13 | |
Campbell give us a report on that please. | 00:29:18 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 00:29:27 | |
So a little background on this. We are first of all say what we're going to request. We're going to request that you guys approve | 00:29:29 | |
this contractor that you authorize me and the city engineer to negotiate with the lowest price proposal that we've received and | 00:29:35 | |
see if they can be as responsive as we need them to be, which is yesterday. | 00:29:40 | |
And then if there's any documents that need to be signed that the Mayor and city clerk be allowed to do that. We are also asking | 00:29:47 | |
to be able to negotiate with this whoever that contractor ends up being to do some add alternates for some other work that's | 00:29:53 | |
needed in the city Jackson St. and possibly Industrial Blvd. With some appropriation of of funds in those in out of Spouse 3. So | 00:29:59 | |
I'll walk you through a little bit. | 00:30:05 | |
So last month you all approved some money to cover some Stormware Stormwater Advance system upgrades. | 00:30:12 | |
And there's been considerable issues on Water St. probably related to some in some adjustments that have been made by G dot on | 00:30:21 | |
Main Street to deal with the water flowing off that road. As a result it's created some issues in the conveyance system. So we're | 00:30:28 | |
asking for some an upgrade to that the Carter engineering has designed and. | 00:30:36 | |
Solution to this problem, or at least somewhat of a solution we think to relieve some of that extra water that's coming off of. | 00:30:46 | |
Main Street and flowing underwater St. and back into the. | 00:30:52 | |
Back down the street, so you'll see we have 4 vendors that provided price proposals. | 00:30:56 | |
This is an emergency sort of situation. So we contacted all the ones that we knew of that would have an interest and we got all | 00:31:02 | |
four of all the four that we reached out to all responded. You'll see they're all sort of group together a little bit higher on | 00:31:07 | |
one of those that last one structural resources but. | 00:31:12 | |
But they're generally in the same area. So we felt pretty good about that. That means they're all sort of looking at the same, | 00:31:18 | |
looking at the same way. Again, purchasing policy allows me to grant some authority to purchase things in an emergency situation | 00:31:24 | |
well differently. And so like I said, we did not go out with a request for proposal, did not have time really for that. We did | 00:31:29 | |
request and didn't have drawings and had them look at those. | 00:31:35 | |
I did speak with the mayor. | 00:31:42 | |
Engineer I think the attorney was aware of it as well, and I believe Councilman Campbell was involved in that as well. | 00:31:44 | |
If the council appropriates, so we have some money left in ELMIG, which I would like to go ahead and use because we have to go | 00:31:51 | |
ahead and ask next month or the following month for the FY24 L Meg monies. So L Meg is the local maintenance improvement grant | 00:31:57 | |
funds that we get from the state to do basically Rd. improvements. | 00:32:02 | |
But it also includes other things like drainage. So we have about 6750 left in that account. So I'd like to allocate that money | 00:32:08 | |
along with the 60,000 that you guys gave us last month for this project. | 00:32:14 | |
And so we're short about roughly $10,000. So we do have the money in SPLOST, 3IN road streets and bridges in the storm water | 00:32:21 | |
improvements and you guys do have, I did provide a spreadsheet. So you'll see where that is. I'm just asking that you appropriate | 00:32:26 | |
it for that project. | 00:32:32 | |
This is a picture if you know. I don't know if engineer Campbell wants to talk about a little bit, but this is, and my cursor is | 00:32:38 | |
not very bright, but you'll see there's a right there in the middle is the pipe that we're talking about. | 00:32:44 | |
Lane across water St. to try to help. | 00:32:50 | |
Some of that water. Do you have anything you'd like? | 00:32:53 | |
Add engineer. | 00:32:56 | |
Yeah, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. But this is again it's, it's added pipe to increase the capacity | 00:32:58 | |
mainly of the subsurface flow that's already existing and and rerouting that to the existing downstream discharge point to help | 00:33:06 | |
alleviate any surface flow that may be occurring there. On Water St. ordinary, the Water Street School St. intersection. This | 00:33:13 | |
should help get some of that water further downstream and have a positive impact on the roadway there. | 00:33:20 | |
And then this is really small and I'm sorry but my spreadsheets are pretty involved. So again, asking for. | 00:33:32 | |
$10,000 to be appropriated out of storm water improvements. I believe it's at the bottom of that. | 00:33:40 | |
And we do have plenty of we do have funds in that and since it's downtown, I believe that one in particular when you all were | 00:33:47 | |
building your Sloss project list there was something specific for downtown. So I felt like that was relevant to come out of that | 00:33:53 | |
line I mean lied on and that that sub bucket or whatever. So and I'll go back to the what were our request is that you'll see if | 00:33:58 | |
somebody wants to. | 00:34:04 | |
Ask questions or anything. | 00:34:11 | |
And is there any authorization needed for the add alternates or you will you come back to us on that or is this, that's what we're | 00:34:14 | |
asking you. I think that's all, that's everything you need for all the alternates you're talking about is? | 00:34:19 | |
So the plan is to use the existing, I mean if we can contract with this. | 00:34:25 | |
Provider, we will negotiate with them since they're going to be already be mobilized to go ahead and try to do those other | 00:34:30 | |
projects for, for example, the Jackson. | 00:34:34 | |
Project would not be covered by this amount of money, correct? | 00:34:38 | |
Yeah, no, we think it. | 00:34:41 | |
OK. | 00:34:43 | |
Right, Yeah. | 00:34:45 | |
There's a pie and not a Councilman Garrett. Maybe I'll explain better, but there's a pipe that runs underneath the road and | 00:34:48 | |
there's some erosion. The road is it. There's a whole bunch of issues with the road and the pipe perhaps and. | 00:34:53 | |
We haven't done a full engineering review of it, but it needs to be addressed. | 00:34:59 | |
If you if you walk down Jackson St. | 00:35:04 | |
Right on the left you can see where the road is. Just a road and falling off. | 00:35:06 | |
Where the. | 00:35:11 | |
Yeah, it's not you. All of us probably walk Jackson St. You don't really notice it. But when you pause down there at that low spot | 00:35:13 | |
and you look, it's bad. It needs to be fixed. | 00:35:17 | |
Down there and appreciate Councilman Garrett bringing that to our attention. | 00:35:22 | |
All right. We all heard the report. Any discussion? | 00:35:29 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to take the action requested shown on the screen. | 00:35:36 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:35:42 | |
We have a motion. Do we have a second? | 00:35:45 | |
2nd. | 00:35:47 | |
Any discussion? | 00:35:49 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 00:35:51 | |
Any opposed hearing? None. Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to item 10. | 00:35:54 | |
This is related to sidewalk permits for businesses, I. | 00:36:00 | |
I'll give a brief preamble here and then we'll turn it over to Manager Dickerson and Attorney Reitman. | 00:36:04 | |
We as we thought about what was going on downtown. | 00:36:11 | |
We've had. | 00:36:15 | |
We've seen some other cities have some pretty significant litigation related to items in the right of way. | 00:36:17 | |
On public sidewalks and other downtown areas. | 00:36:22 | |
And we did not have a process in place to allow businesses to do those displays that protected the city on public right away. So | 00:36:26 | |
we asked those businesses to remove those items and when we did that, they said what we would love to be able to do that again and | 00:36:31 | |
we we listen to them. | 00:36:37 | |
And as a result of that, Manager Dickerson and attorney Reitman have come up with a solution here that would outline a permit | 00:36:42 | |
permitting process. | 00:36:46 | |
So that businesses within some reasonable bounds and without violating ABA and protecting the city legally would be able to move | 00:36:50 | |
forward with that. So manager Dickerson, if you want to unpack the details here. | 00:36:55 | |
That would be great and then we can discuss it. | 00:37:01 | |
All right, well, and the mayor did not give himself credit, but he actually looked at it as well and and helped us button it up | 00:37:04 | |
quite a bit. We he added the planter option which we had not thought about so. | 00:37:10 | |
Chapter 32 of the ordinance that we're asking to amend will include a definition for a display and a planter, and it will be | 00:37:17 | |
specific to. I think I've got those here. It will give specific parameters dimensions for those items again. | 00:37:25 | |
Trying to ensure that the right of way that the sidewalk is passable. | 00:37:35 | |
Making sure that anything that is out being displayed. | 00:37:40 | |
Request, but they may decide not to do it. | 00:38:17 | |
Then they can do that again, there are conditions. It has to be on the front wall, the building. | 00:38:19 | |
Within certain you know, parameters 12 inches deep or long a step, I think Kate, our downtown development director checked and | 00:38:25 | |
most of the steps are about 12 inches deep so. | 00:38:30 | |
Have to be secured. Have to be items if you're displaying items. And we're not talking about planners, but if you're displaying | 00:38:35 | |
odds, they have to be sold as part of your regular what you sell in your business. | 00:38:40 | |
And. | 00:38:47 | |
I don't know if there's anything. The only thing I did not add, I didn't do it today either is I didn't put all the requirements | 00:38:49 | |
for insurance, but they are going to be required to have insurance. | 00:38:52 | |
Same insurance that like a Little League team would have to have. Or I was trying to think of some other. You know, basic | 00:38:57 | |
insurance is not expensive. | 00:39:01 | |
But it protects us that it protects them. If something were to fall out and hit somebody, then they would be responsible for | 00:39:07 | |
consent or right away. And so we have the right to request that they have. | 00:39:12 | |
Insurance and cover it. | 00:39:17 | |
Joe, you want to talk to more of the legal aspect of it since? | 00:39:19 | |
Clearly, protection of the public health, safety and welfare was paramount. References to limits on the size attachments, nothing | 00:39:24 | |
that would be dangerous. It could cause potential harm to our citizens. | 00:39:30 | |
We looked at several other communities. Primarily this was manager Dickerson pulled an exemplar from, I think, Athens Clarke. We | 00:39:37 | |
also had some language from Union Point, Madison that we'd worked on in distant years past. We're able to fold in some elements of | 00:39:45 | |
that and then make it pretty succinct, straightforward, easy to administer, easy to understand and protective of the public, And I | 00:39:53 | |
believe it accomplishes that. You might note there the five plus feet of unobstructed pedestrian passageway. | 00:40:01 | |
A compliance obviously very important. We want to be pedestrian friendly, tourist friendly, visitor friendly, citizen friendly, | 00:40:09 | |
and I think this accomplishes that. Are there any questions? | 00:40:14 | |
So the, you know the obvious example here is Attic treasures. You know will now be able to display items again a limited amount of | 00:40:27 | |
items and the and those items will not be able to fall into the street. You know they'll need to be secured in such a way. So we | 00:40:34 | |
you know that they will not do that and so the traffic's not obscured. But we I think in reflecting on this this is a really. | 00:40:42 | |
I give a lot of credit to our downtown development Director, Kate Patterson and Manager Dickerson for thinking about what's a | 00:40:50 | |
compromise that allows our businesses to show some creativity in a public space and highlight their businesses while protecting | 00:40:57 | |
protecting the city in that case. And so I think this is. | 00:41:03 | |
I think this is a good compromise. | 00:41:10 | |
And there were two notes as we were talking about this at DDA. They have come to me. | 00:41:12 | |
One is that they asked specifically about the sandwich board signs, which is not covered in this because we already do have a sign | 00:41:22 | |
ordinance that would allow that. So there already is a mechanism for that. And then the other thing is a request to slightly amend | 00:41:30 | |
this and I'm not sure how we would do that is that for the few special events a year downtown, such as the Christmas parade trick | 00:41:38 | |
or treating that obviously planters would not have to be moved, but if there are displays. | 00:41:46 | |
That is one option. Another option is just to add a subsection I at the tail end advising that. | 00:42:27 | |
Upon a request of the city, planters and slash or displays may be temporarily removed. | 00:42:33 | |
For short duration, for special events periodically or words to that effect. | 00:42:41 | |
If Julie's captured that, then you could certainly when you make a motion we can add that as item high, which I think would be | 00:42:47 | |
nice to have in there. That's a great catch and then we're going to tackle the sandwich board situation. | 00:42:53 | |
You know, there's there's not great clarity on that. So we're going to circle back to that in a few months, yeah. | 00:43:00 | |
OK. Any other thoughts, questions. | 00:43:06 | |
OK, we'll entertain a motion. | 00:43:10 | |
I make a motion to approve with the addition of letter I as discussed. | 00:43:14 | |
OK, we have a motion. Do we have a second? | 00:43:20 | |
Second All right. Any further discussion? | 00:43:23 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye, aye, any opposed motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to item 11. That's the updated fee | 00:43:26 | |
schedule to adopt fees for sidewalk permits. Yeah. So I didn't put the whole thing on there. Thank you. | 00:43:33 | |
Because I could, I figured you wouldn't be able to read it, but basically we're adding sidewalk display or planner permit. There's | 00:43:40 | |
a flat fee of $10 and that would be an annual fee. | 00:43:43 | |
All right. You've got the fee in front of you, it's. | 00:43:47 | |
Very nominal, Any. | 00:43:51 | |
Any discussion? Hearing, None. I'll entertain a motion. | 00:43:54 | |
I'll make a motion to approve the. | 00:44:00 | |
Fee schedule for other permits and fees for display. So motion to update the fee schedule from Councilman Thomas. Do we have a | 00:44:03 | |
second? | 00:44:07 | |
All right, we got a second from that side of the room. | 00:44:13 | |
Any discussion? Hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. Any opposed? | 00:44:17 | |
The $10 fee passes next item appropriation from suppose 3 for downtown streetscape improvements manager Dickerson. I assume this | 00:44:21 | |
is you. | 00:44:25 | |
Yeah. And you are not able to read that, but I will tell you what this is about. So over the last few months with the improvements | 00:44:29 | |
with Rocket Field, we have you all had approved and remember these these lines, these items that are in black on the white | 00:44:37 | |
background, those are those are project areas within the within the bucket if you will, the road, streets and bridges is the top. | 00:44:45 | |
Segment and. | 00:44:54 | |
When you created this project list you created in these with these titles or sub buckets and in that we had streetscape | 00:44:55 | |
improvements for downtown where we have spent. | 00:45:01 | |
The park, the pocket park in front of Blind Pig. You'll see some pictures of that. We've done some of that just within our own, | 00:45:42 | |
you know, money we have in the, but this is a bigger lift. This is potentially. | 00:45:46 | |
You. | 00:45:51 | |
To streetscape for downtown improvements. The other thing that is not in here that I did mention to the mayor prior to this | 00:46:24 | |
meeting is we have also hit our limit on the 60,000 that was appropriated for signage, entryway signage, industrial park signage. | 00:46:32 | |
I'm here Shoals Park. I know I'm missing wayfinding signage. All the stuff we've had our we're almost we're butting up against | 00:46:40 | |
that 60,000. We spent almost 57,000 and we still have signage for Rocket Field that needs to be finished. | 00:46:48 | |
Space, the Thomas Farm Park and all these and Trove as well as Watkinsville Woods. So based on what we've already spent, I'm | 00:46:56 | |
asking that you approve an additional 15,000 out of that bucket that's in the second blue mark at the bottom. You know you can't | 00:47:03 | |
read it but multi-purpose government facilities and signage and so we just bump that up to another. | 00:47:09 | |
15,000 We'll pull that money out of the 120 that was set aside for signage. | 00:47:18 | |
So again, we're just sort of we're peeling off out of that appropriations of that money. So another 15 out of the 120 that was set | 00:47:23 | |
aside. | 00:47:27 | |
So we're basically moving money around that we've already allocated for. You know when we, when we did the signage stuff we didn't | 00:47:32 | |
anticipate obviously Thomas Farm Park, all the downtown directional signage, some of the other great things, Rocket Field, you | 00:47:37 | |
know. So there there's we've had a we have some good reasons. | 00:47:42 | |
Spend those funds, but we just need to move some things around in different buckets. | 00:47:48 | |
Anything else? Manager Dickerson? | 00:47:54 | |
On that. | 00:47:57 | |
OK, what would be the language that you would want us to approve here, just in A? | 00:47:57 | |
The appropriation, yeah, I would say yeah, I was 3 for downtown streetscape improvements. | 00:48:04 | |
Well, it's more than 10K, it's, it's several different, yeah. So I think and I'll say it and then we can if some of its motion, | 00:48:09 | |
Julie can capture it off the video, but approve appropriation from Splice 3. | 00:48:14 | |
For $10,000 for Downtown St. safe improvements. | 00:48:21 | |
And we'll move that money from. | 00:48:26 | |
The sidewalk bike lane sub line, if you will. We'll figure out a better way to say that and then 15,000 appropriate 15,000 from | 00:48:29 | |
multi-purpose government facilities. | 00:48:34 | |
Entrance. | 00:48:40 | |
And that will be used for the. | 00:48:42 | |
Signs needed at Rocket Field, The Green Space and Watkinsville Woods. | 00:48:44 | |
All right. Can I hear So moved. Do we have a? | 00:48:49 | |
Second. All right. Quick question before we move on, sharing on. | 00:48:54 | |
So what the records show we're investing an additional $10,000 in downtown beautification of landscaping, correct? Yeah, I just | 00:49:32 | |
want to be sure all of our watchers are clear on that. All right. | 00:49:37 | |
We have a motion. We have a second. Any further questions? | 00:49:42 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? | 00:49:45 | |
All right, 50. Now we're to public comments. There's no one here, Julie, did we receive any comments in advance? No comments | 00:49:51 | |
received in advance. We'll move on to mayor's report. | 00:49:56 | |
I'll work through these pretty quickly this These are some photos of the sidewalks. | 00:50:03 | |
New high schools. That was, I think, the first time that we really put our tea spots money to work in a meaningful way, and that | 00:50:08 | |
was exciting to see. Those are. | 00:50:12 | |
Pretty much done at this point. We're just waiting for grass to grow and for it to look a little cleaner. | 00:50:16 | |
So that has been done and we're glad. I think the residents are thankful for that. Rocket Field, the last I heard is that we, | 00:50:22 | |
knock on wood, want to be wrapped up not this weekend, but next weekend. We had a lot happen in the past month. They've really | 00:50:27 | |
been flying over there, so our new parking is installed. | 00:50:33 | |
With with new drainage underneath it. | 00:50:39 | |
Fence has gone back up, The light posts have gone up, then that makes a tremendous difference. They're beautiful. The bleachers | 00:50:43 | |
are there. Little League is on the field. | 00:50:47 | |
As there are the EC bullets, I went out there Monday night and there were about 33 year old kids running around just having a | 00:50:53 | |
ball. The parents were enjoying it. | 00:50:58 | |
Everything that I'm hearing is is really, really positive. There's a little bit of work still to come. The patent court needs to | 00:51:04 | |
be finished. There's one drainage issue that's going to be addressed. | 00:51:09 | |
There's going to be a little bit more landscaping that's going to go in and then you know we're we're going to, we're going to | 00:51:15 | |
start putting it to real use in October. We've got, I think, 4 different events in October. So our, our team here at the city when | 00:51:21 | |
it gets turned over to us is going to have their work cut out for them in terms of taking care of it. | 00:51:27 | |
So anyway, it's it's. | 00:51:34 | |
Been really great to see it all come together over the past two months. Bread. I'm curious, when you got home, were you impressed | 00:51:35 | |
with how it looked for you? Yeah. | 00:51:40 | |
Yeah. | 00:51:45 | |
Yeah, yeah. | 00:51:46 | |
But the other thing to mention to mayor is the scoreboard is supposed to be in early November, should be up before Thanksgiving, | 00:51:48 | |
and then the net climber that's similar to what water Park has will be put in it. All that's going to be after the fall festival. | 00:51:54 | |
Yeah, and we are working. I'm trying to get access to the calendar that the yard is using. We've had a little. | 00:52:33 | |
Issue getting ahold of it. As soon as I do, I'll create a QR code that will send them to our website and we'll keep the. | 00:52:40 | |
The most recent, because we can't let them into the calendar. They'll go in there and change things there, but we can take a | 00:52:47 | |
snapshot of it and try to keep it updated. So we'll have a QR code at the field so people can look and see when it's available. So | 00:52:52 | |
then though they can't bring their kid out at 3:00 on Saturday because something's going on then, but they'll know they can go out | 00:52:56 | |
at 5:00. So we'll work on that. Hopefully we'll have that done in the next couple weeks. | 00:53:01 | |
Sorry. | 00:53:08 | |
Yeah, so I know that. Umm. | 00:53:12 | |
A dog park was going to be on that that. | 00:53:18 | |
Minimally it is on pause while we wait for the sod to get established. | 00:53:21 | |
It was suggested by a resident who is on the Little Dog Park group meet that perhaps some signage stating that it is the currently | 00:53:27 | |
no dogs are allowed or whatever it is might be helpful. | 00:53:35 | |
Because you know, word doesn't always get around and they might see the fence and go, oh this is the dog park and so just a | 00:53:43 | |
suggestion from a good suggestion. | 00:53:47 | |
OK, great. | 00:53:52 | |
All. | 00:53:55 | |
We already talked about rock and art in the park. We're excited about that. Originally I thought was we were going to combine the | 00:53:58 | |
Rocket Field grand opening with that, but we had, we did have some schedule challenges. So we're also that'll be Saturday, then | 00:54:03 | |
Sunday. | 00:54:07 | |
We're going to also have the official grand opening of Rocket Field, where we'll recognize our donor will have an inning of | 00:54:13 | |
exhibition ball being played. We're going to let the kids run the bases. We're going to do a group photo of everybody in the | 00:54:18 | |
community who wants to come out. | 00:54:23 | |
A big show at that event, The 1st 200 kids who run the bases are going to get a special commemorative gift as well, so we'd love | 00:55:00 | |
to have a lot of kids out there to celebrate with us that day. | 00:55:05 | |
Going to do a Watkinsville Woods work day, September 30th, 9:00 AM for anyone who can join. We need to spread the mulch on The | 00:55:11 | |
Walking trails and we've got a couple other odds and ends. If we have enough people that we want to tackle, that we may want to | 00:55:16 | |
tackle while we're out there. | 00:55:21 | |
Then we have another work day at Harris Shoals that same day. It seems like Sharon and Toby just wanted to knock all that out in | 00:55:27 | |
one day. So we're going to put the I guess our City team are going to divide and conquer and we're going to have Boy Scouts and | 00:55:32 | |
others. But if you're in town, mark your calendar for September 30th. | 00:55:38 | |
It is. I promise I did not tell Sharon that I was going to be out of town that day, but unfortunately I am out of town that day. | 00:55:44 | |
You all know I love the woods, so I would be out there working, but but we would love to have a good community showing there. Keep | 00:55:48 | |
up. County Beautiful is helping us with the one at Harris Shoals. | 00:55:52 | |
This is a pretty big change near the Blind Pig that you'll notice. We're trying to address that area up. We've got some chairs | 00:55:59 | |
coming to replace the old benches, so that's going to have a little bit more of a feel of a pocket park for people who want to sit | 00:56:05 | |
out there and run around before. | 00:56:11 | |
Exposed tree roots. It was just dirt. | 00:56:18 | |
And we know a lot of people like to spend time out there as they wait in the evenings at Rocket Field and it is a pleasant, shady | 00:56:20 | |
area out there. | 00:56:24 | |
At different times of the day, so kudos to the to our public works department for getting that dressed up. I think a lot of that | 00:56:29 | |
work happened today. | 00:56:33 | |
Oconee County Library well underway under the leadership of their Able Board Chair. | 00:56:38 | |
Brick facade is done. The sheetrock looks great. | 00:56:44 | |
And Windows have been installed. So it's it's really coming together. We're still tracking towards January, Mr. Chairman. | 00:56:48 | |
All right. | 00:56:54 | |
We had our first meeting of the Thomas Farm. | 00:56:58 | |
Park meeting was to was Tuesday before last. We'll actually do our site tour this Monday. | 00:57:01 | |
So we're we're looking forward to that and this is the schedule for the rest of those meetings October 4th and 11th council | 00:57:09 | |
members if you want to join us for those that will be public input sessions and we hope to have a good turn out there. Obviously | 00:57:15 | |
we'll have to manage expectations of the public in terms of there's there's not, there's a lot of things we can't do out there but | 00:57:21 | |
we had a really good, we've got a really great committee that's working on addressing the things. | 00:57:27 | |
That we can do this is a snapshot of that. | 00:57:34 | |
And we're thankful to everybody for giving us their. | 00:57:37 | |
We also have a. | 00:57:40 | |
Divided up into three subcommittees, one committee will focus on paths and trails, another will focus on how to best maintain the | 00:57:42 | |
land and the property, and another will focus on. | 00:57:47 | |
Physical structures and branding, fencing, parking you know kind of the the non the capital investments that we need to make so | 00:57:51 | |
folks are volunteering for which subcommittees they want to be on. | 00:57:57 | |
We've also engaged Smith Planning Group at a much reduced cost to help us with actually developing the refined plan and they've | 00:58:03 | |
agreed to do that at less than half of their normal cost to work like this. | 00:58:09 | |
So we're thankful for. | 00:58:16 | |
Oh, it's a birthday with. Yeah, OK, well, happy birthday. What's that is today? Today? | 00:58:18 | |
So the 7th was my birthday, which was also the day I flew home. So probably the longest Day in History because I flew backwards in | 00:58:25 | |
time. Longest birthday ever. But it was a fantastic birthday because I was coming home. OK, well, happy birthday and welcome home. | 00:58:30 | |
Thank you. | 00:58:36 | |
All right, council members, your turn. Chuck Garrett post one. | 00:58:43 | |
I sit in or listened in on the webinar. | 00:58:49 | |
Historic preservations. This. | 00:58:52 | |
Very helpful. And I was telling Jeff it's right spot on with where we at. | 00:58:55 | |
So we're on the right track, the right people to get it going. So awesome. Confirmation. All right, Councilwoman. | 00:59:00 | |
Chuck and I went to. | 00:59:11 | |
Constitution Week event at the church Sunday. And they had a good crowd and it turned out real nice. They did a good job. Always a | 00:59:14 | |
fun event to go to. Yes. All right, good. | 00:59:20 | |
Councilman Thomas, Hey again, just glad to be back here again. Like I said, I I did ride around Watkinsville. I mean immediately | 00:59:29 | |
upon. | 00:59:33 | |
Getting here, that's first thing I did Friday morning after I went and got me a Golden Pantry biscuit. | 00:59:39 | |
So I did ride around. Look, I am extremely pleased with all the work y'all done over the over the last year. Watkinsville looks | 00:59:45 | |
great. It really does. A wire park looks great. I mean just. | 00:59:51 | |
The Rocket Field looks great. I mean just Watkinsville looks great. So proud to be here and proud to be part of this team. | 00:59:57 | |
Welcome back. | 01:00:04 | |
Mayor Pro Tem. | 01:00:05 | |
So just to kind of quick comment on my thankfulness for just being part of this community we. | 01:00:09 | |
I mean, we have our team, our staff team, that is amazing. But also I would say just being part of the city, the friendliness. | 01:00:19 | |
And and our community as a whole, also our county. I went to the. | 01:00:27 | |
The planning meeting for the school system last night and I think it was record turn out about 500 people and. | 01:00:32 | |
Just that that sense of collaboration and for the most part, positivity. | 01:00:43 | |
I'm just really grateful to get to be in this community and grateful to be sitting here. | 01:00:50 | |
So go Walkinsville. | 01:00:56 | |
All right, Councilman Campbell, you get to follow that. | 01:00:59 | |
I can't, so I have nothing to report. | 01:01:04 | |
All right. | 01:01:09 | |
I don't think we have any need for an executive session. | 01:01:11 | |
Hallelujah. So unless anybody objects, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn, Please. I'll make a motion to adjourn and a | 01:01:15 | |
second, please, all in favor say aye. | 01:01:20 |