[0:00] meeting of monday june the 14th 2021 to
order
[0:05] i would like to welcome all of you that
are here tonight
[0:08] and those that are following us via
social media
[0:12] we welcome you also and we will give you
a chance during citizens to be heard
[0:18] by calling in uh this number
uh so write it down you gotta print some
[0:24] paper it's
[0:29] 4 980-522-747 5 and cynthia
uh manning the telephone and she will
[0:36] keep you on hold
until citizens to be heard at that time
[0:41] and we will allow you to speak again
that number
[0:45] is
[0:57] lowe of 980-522-7475 presbyterian church
followed by our pledge of allegiance
[1:03] you see i'm delighted to be here and uh
it's great to be in a city where we
[1:08] still
ask god's blessing on what we're doing
[1:13] uh i want to read just a passage from
luke chapter 17
[1:18] verse 10. in the same way when you obey
me you should say we are unworthy
[1:26] servants who have simply done
our duty i think about gail
[1:32] sayers you know when i read that gail
sayers was a
[1:36] tremendous football player played for
the chicago bears and before that he
[1:40] played for
kansas and um one of the things that
[1:45] highlights his life and who he is for
us here in north carolina is that
[1:51] he roomed with a with a pro
player who was from played well he
[1:58] played football
at wake forest brian piccolo and uh
[2:02] we've seen that move years ago kind of
kind of dates me when i say
[2:06] i saw it when it come on tv the first
time but
[2:09] uh gail sayers was a tremendous
christian individual and he lived this
[2:17] all of his life in fact a long time
after
[2:20] his friendship with brian piccolo uh was
you know in the in the distance because
[2:25] brian had passed away
he wrote a book about that experience
[2:29] and he entitled it my god is first
my friends are second and i am third
[2:35] and that started the i am third movement
uh just on a unofficial kind of
[2:42] a way made its way into colleges and
also
[2:46] uh in the high schools and we saw high
school and college athletes with a
[2:51] with a shirt oftentimes it said on there
i am third
[2:54] you know emphasizing that you know the
goal of any
[2:59] college or professional baseball player
is to help their team help their team
[3:08] win the championship game at the end of
the season we know what we're talking
[3:12] about here
uh cheryl is well on its way
[3:18] we know it takes dedication it takes
strength and it takes a good
[3:22] measure of teamwork to get to that point
in recent years however there's become
[3:29] sort of a
fad across our society to move away
[3:34] from that teamwork to the outstanding
individual performance that a single
[3:41] player
brings of course we all know uh you can
[3:46] you can be uh a pitcher that has a
no hitter but if that right outfielder
[3:52] out there is sleeping or got his
mind in arkansas and his uh whistling
[3:57] dixie out there
when it comes time a fly ball is hit out
[4:01] there
but no hitter's gone he's not paying
[4:04] attention but if he catches it he keeps
that
[4:06] he keeps that picture on a no-hitter so
but in our day and time there seems to
[4:13] be uh
this this trend to move toward the
[4:17] individual
getting all the praise and getting all
[4:20] the credit
sports figures rarely avoid the
[4:24] spotlight these days
so when they hit the microphone they
[4:28] have
they have an opportunity to exhibit
[4:34] a key leadership trait
they can brag about and boast about
[4:39] their own personal accomplishments
they can criticize other teams talk
[4:45] about
their players or they can make sure that
[4:49] everyone on that team the team that they
represent
[4:54] gets the credit that he or she deserves
the ability to deflect praise toward
[5:02] those who deserve it
is important for a number of reasons
[5:07] it's a good principle not only for
sports but for
[5:10] every part of life giving credit to
others
[5:14] keeps us you see from being
conceited and self-absorbed
[5:20] in addition it allows those who have a
contributing role
[5:25] to experience the success as well
praising others also shows our personal
[5:32] desire
to be a servant to be a true mark
[5:36] of leadership uh that this attitude is
not one that comes naturally to people
[5:41] we all like to be what number one
we stick that finger up there so often
[5:47] it's not the team is number one anymore
it's i'm number one
[5:51] you know i'm number one and uh to this
end we must commit ourselves to god
[5:56] daily
asking not asking him to help us
[6:01] not live a life that reflects
that selfish conceited kind of character
[6:08] if we're constantly looking for glory
and praise
[6:11] from significant christians then our
priorities are wrong and the same is
[6:15] true if we choose to give god
and others praise but in a show look at
[6:20] me
kind of matter you know too often
[6:24] god says you know we know it's a
spiritual gift when you do something and
[6:28] you don't have to talk about it
but uh jesus made it clear that we are
[6:33] to simply do the things
that he asks us to do and reflect any
[6:38] praise we
might receive away from others
[6:42] after all we're only doing what he's
called us to do
[6:45] right weren't you called to represent
the city of charitable was it a calling
[6:52] sure we're only doing what he
asked but in the end that's more
[6:58] important
than any honor or any award individually
[7:03] that we'll ever receive
gail sayers died you know
[7:10] just not long ago but his lasting
tribute was not on
[7:15] how many touchdowns he ran and how many
yards he made for the chicago bears or
[7:20] for kansas university jayhawks it was
this was a christian man who lived his
[7:27] faith
for the glory of god let us pray
[7:31] lord we come to you this day and we pray
that our calling might be ever evident
[7:37] now
in the way that we conduct this meeting
[7:40] and the way that we go about
the business of the day representing
[7:46] the citizens here the lord above all
else
[7:49] representing you in this citizenship
may we uh continue to give all the
[7:56] credit honor and glory to you
who gives us so many good things
[8:01] that if we were to sit and count them it
would take us
[8:06] a long long time in jesus name
bless us now as we go forward amen
[8:12] amen
[8:16] i pledge allegiance to the divide of the
united states of america
[8:21] and to the republic for which it stands
one nation under god indivisible
[8:28] with liberty and justice for all you may
be
[8:32] [Music]
[8:39] the seated item on our agenda tonight
is to approve the agenda as
[8:45] president right uh do i have direction
from council
[8:50] on the agenda approval
[8:55] [Music]
[9:00] and approve the agenda as presented all
in favor please say aye
[9:06] all opposed there is none okay item 5 is
approval
[9:11] of the minutes of a our city council
meeting of may the 10th 2021
[9:17] b our city council work session meeting
of may the 25th 2021
[9:24] and see our city council closed
session meeting of may the 25th 2021
[9:33] and you did get a handout of our
city council closed session meeting of
[9:38] may the 25th
uh what is the council's pleasure on
[9:41] approval of the minutes of
uh all three
[9:46] make a motion to approve amendments as
[9:51] okay you have a motion to approve all
the minutes as
[9:55] presented of a b and c uh any discussion
if not all in favor of the motion please
[10:01] say
i'll oppose and there is none
[10:07] we'll now go to the mayor's comments
and um first of all i would like to say
[10:14] that it's good to look over to my left
and see our city manager is with us
[10:19] tonight he has
been through some health issues and i
[10:23] know it was a scary event for you
and your family as well but we're glad
[10:28] to see you here
and we're glad that you're feeling
[10:31] better and
we had a lot of prayers to fill up for
[10:35] you
[10:38] and um i'll begin my comments by
sharing several recent correspondences
[10:46] the first is a card i received in
response to the may the 20th
[10:51] plaque dedication and the city's abc
building naming and it reads as follows
[10:58] dear mayor and members of the city
council
[11:01] on behalf of my family we would again
express our appreciation
[11:05] for your dedication of the abc store
building
[11:09] in memory of terry terry loved
cherryvale
[11:13] and wanted to see her grow and prosper
the a b store has been able to do that
[11:20] by its contributions
each year thank you for your kind words
[11:24] and caring for someone very special in
appreciation
[11:29] and thanks janet fisher and the family
of terry
[11:33] fish fisher and i'll pass that around to
our council members
[11:38] the second one uh i also received a
thank you card from
[11:44] the uh family
of gene outer whole bean thank you
[11:50] sincerely for sharing our sorrow
her kindness is deeply appreciated and
[11:54] will always be
remembered and finally i received an
[12:00] email i want to share from the north
carolina
[12:02] department of transportation
memorial day starts the 100th deadliest
[12:10] days of the year for teenage drivers in
other words
[12:14] more teenagers are killed in automobile
crashes between memorial day and labor
[12:20] day
than any other 100 day period during the
[12:25] year
the dot of north carolina urges all
[12:29] government
leaders to emphasize the three leading
[12:33] causes of traffic fatalities
and they are not wearing a seat belt
[12:40] impaired driving and speeding
your city officials ask all drivers to
[12:47] slow down
avoid distractions when driving and
[12:51] buckle
up at all times this past
[12:55] thursday public works director brandon
abernathy
[12:58] finance director dixie wall assistant
fire chief jason walford
[13:04] engineer riesel ryden's son and i met
with patrick brindle
[13:09] an associate of piedmont lithium for an
update on the status of locating their
[13:15] facility
within our city's etj which is the
[13:19] extra territorial jurisdiction
this meeting was to discuss the impact
[13:25] of the future development of piedmont
lithium
[13:28] and what if any role our city would play
in their future needs
[13:34] and later on that day i was asked
to attend the cherryville little league
[13:40] championship game and i was so honored
to attend that event and speak on behalf
[13:47] of our city
in support of our little league and i
[13:51] see chad
cash is with us tonight y'all do a
[13:55] wonderful job
on that we appreciate it we understand
[13:58] that the district
will be held later this month in
[14:03] cherryville we will be hosting the
district
[14:06] we will also be hosting the girls
softball state tournament sometime
[14:12] in july and also in
july we will be hosting the american
[14:18] legion state playoffs
so you see cherryville is living up to
[14:23] its name of being the
big baseball city
[14:27] now the city's independence day
celebration
[14:31] will be held on july the 2nd 2021
in the mini park beginning at 6 00 pm
[14:38] the band too much sylvia will be
headlining
[14:42] this event with primarily beach music
the primary lead vocalist steve long won
[14:49] the prestigious
male vocalist of the year in 2020
[14:54] with the carolina beach music
association
[14:58] the city and association with the
cherryville
[15:01] chamber of commerce invites all of our
citizens
[15:04] and visitors as well to join in
in this celebration and enjoy one of the
[15:11] biggest fireworks displays
in the surrounding area lots of food
[15:17] vendors and entertainment for children
of
[15:19] all ages will be available throughout
the event
[15:23] so bring your lawn chairs and come early
fireworks will begin around 10 p.m
[15:30] weather permitting and this concludes
our mayor's comments our next item on
[15:37] the agenda
is our citizens to be heard and
[15:42] any citizen that wishes to speak may do
so by coming to the podium and stating
[15:47] your name and address
and before you speak comments will be
[15:52] strictly held to five
minutes per person we also have uh
[15:58] cynthia cash manning the telephone have
you had any calls
[16:02] for citizens to be heard so at this time
if there is any citizen that would like
[16:07] to be
heard that's present you may do so at
[16:10] this time
[16:30] um we currently have seven kids living
in the house
[16:35] and uh since birthday went up um his
people have been speeding them down the
[16:39] street
and uh i've even caught two police cars
[16:42] doing like six to seven miles an hour on
a little strip
[16:45] of the street one side of the street
said slow down kids
[16:50] and the other side that comes up the
main road there's nothing so when people
[16:54] come
to the street because they don't want to
[16:57] catch that red light
whatever kids that's out on the bikes in
[17:00] the street constantly
[17:03] like i catch them i'll yell something
i'll catch them slow down
[17:08] i don't i don't feel like fighting at my
house this is where i live
[17:14] i was wondering if you guys would
[17:19] [Music]
[17:26] certainly that wouldn't be a problem at
all our police chiefs here
[17:30] if he wants to address that we can maybe
put our
[17:34] speeding speed limit signs up there
or we could uh do a patrol in that area
[17:40] yes all right comment that you would
like to make and that's what's going to
[17:44] mention if you want to step in here if
you get done and i'll talk to you about
[17:47] that we'll put up
we have a radar sign that displays the
[17:51] speed
it'll give us a print off at least
[17:53] something about that come off the main
road all right
[17:56] that's like the last thing i want to
come home from work and
[18:02] well those signs tend to work wherever
we put them
[18:05] it slows the people down and then they
don't realize whether they're still
[18:09] there so uh that that reduces their
speed
[18:14] also so uh if you'll talk to the chief
there
[18:18] uh maybe in the kitchen area and he'll
be able to help
[18:41] up a whole bunch of uh trees out and
they didn't pick up the trees they left
[18:46] there in the parking lot
i used to run a tractor i got a like
[18:49] little tread to blow my attractors and i
run and bite that even though it's not a
[18:53] land
i just don't want you breathing in the
[18:56] yard
something comes up from underneath the
[18:59] fence because the grass is like this
but i i i don't want to go down there i
[19:05] don't know what's in there
okay we'll report that to our public
[19:08] works director and let him
uh when i go to pay the electric bill i
[19:12] usually tell the lady but
i don't know who i should talk to and
[19:16] i've been talking to people
well actually if you talk to one of
[19:20] those girls they can write up a work
order
[19:23] to take care of that they came right you
did the right thing
[19:26] yeah that's i didn't know that's why my
first time
[19:30] all right thanks for coming thank you
for coming i can address that issue that
[19:35] the gentleman is talking about that was
not city services that
[19:39] uh relocated that debris it was a
private citizen
[19:43] who had a uh septic or whale or
yeah something happened they were
[19:47] digging over there and they took the
[19:50] trees
[20:04] it is his responsibility with the city
i'm not going to pick that up i used to
[20:09] run the tractor up and down over there
just to keep it short
[20:12] because the kids are out there all the
time and just
[20:15] filed up i'm not going up there
[20:28] this side of the railroad track
i mean
[20:37] right okay any other citizen that would
like to be heard
[20:42] at this time floor
no phone calls
[20:53] okay if not we will move on to
our next item and that's out of 8 which
[20:59] is recognition of city
clerk paige greene and paige
[21:06] i'll just embarrass you a little bit and
just ask you to stand i won't ask you to
[21:09] come forward
but i received this
[21:14] from the state of north carolina
association of municipal clerks
[21:18] and it said uh paige h green
city clerk of the city of cherryvale
[21:24] north carolina has been
awarded for the second time the
[21:28] prestigious designation of north
carolina
[21:31] certified municipal clerk from the north
carolina association of municipal clerks
[21:37] along with the school of government
of the university of north carolina
[21:43] at chapel hill for achieving its high
educational experience and service
[21:49] requirements
as an established member of the north
[21:52] carolina association of municipal clerk
mrs green was among the class of
[21:57] municipal clerks
from north carolina who received their
[22:02] initial state designation
in 2016 and after meeting
[22:07] extensive continuing education
requirements
[22:11] has been awarded the north carolina
certified municipal clerk
[22:15] designation which will continue through
july 2026.
[22:22] the ncamc is a professional organization
of city town and village clerks from
[22:29] across the state
dedicated to the continued growth and
[22:33] development of clerks
and their municipalities was established
[22:38] on november 5th
1975 the association
[22:42] among other things promotes educational
and professional development
[22:47] opportunities for municipal clerks to
enhance their knowledge
[22:51] and effectiveness this is no small task
considering the wide array of duties
[22:57] performed by municipal clerks
which often vary from municipality to
[23:03] municipality the association partners
with the north carolina
[23:08] league of municipalities the school of
government of the university of north
[23:12] carolina at chapel hill
and the international institute of
[23:16] municipal clerks
to meet the needs of each individual
[23:21] municipal clerk
the north carolina certified municipal
[23:25] clerk program
is a five-year designation with
[23:28] requirements for continuing education
to sustain and develop the ever-changing
[23:35] knowledge
of the profession of municipal clerks
[23:38] the na
mc together with the international
[23:42] institute of municipal clerks
strives to promote educational and
[23:47] professional development to enhance the
clerk
[23:50] this certification program was developed
with the assistance
[23:54] of the un school of government at chapel
hill
[23:58] and will be administered in cooperation
with the school of government
[24:02] qualifications of applicants excuse me
are reviewed and approved by the ncamc
[24:10] state certification committee
[24:16] congratulations
[24:21] next item on the agenda item nine is
consideration of our 160d
[24:27] updates to the zoning ordinance and
subdivision ordinance
[24:32] and we have our planning and zoning
director derek mackey here
[24:36] and if you'll go to pages 26 through
60 in your agenda packets
[24:44] we will uh address that at this time
so you have it forward there basically
[24:50] in october of last year the city took
the contract with central line
[24:54] council to update our voters this has
been mandated by the state of quran and
[24:59] basically what it says the new chapter
160d of north carolina jones statue
[25:03] consolidates
current city of county labor statutes
[25:06] for development
regulations into a single unified
[25:09] chapter
chapter 163 places these statutes into
[25:12] more logical
coherent organizations while the new law
[25:15] does not make major
positive changes to shift the scope of
[25:18] authority grants globally
in other words basically most of the
[25:21] terminology which could be seen with the
county
[25:24] and the municipalities they're not going
to change any of the core
[25:27] of our ordinance now but just make it
more uniform
[25:31] it's going to be adopted by july
of this year okay and uh we
[25:37] went through this in work session it's
more just bookkeeping
[25:41] and terminology changing wording
of what is m160 does any of the council
[25:48] members have any questions about
the updates to the zoning ordinance
[25:53] if not i need direction from council to
accept these updates
[25:58] we need to vote on that emotionally
accept the update
[26:06] okay i have a motion in a second to
accept the updates to the zoning
[26:11] ordinance and subdivision ordinance
any other discussion by any council
[26:16] members
if not all in favor of the motion please
[26:20] say aye
all opposed there is none okay we'll
[26:25] move on to item 10 and i think
uh this you can just stay up there derek
[26:31] this is consideration of the ordinance
to demolish
[26:37] gis number 130249 which is
located at 506 west 2nd street
[26:45] and uh for those that
do not recognize that address that was
[26:52] known as the john l mcginnis
parcel which now due to his death goes
[27:00] to his heirs
at 100 terrace uh
[27:07] we would need uh direction on that also
there you go
[27:13] that doesn't give you one 100k
that's my address
[27:33] okay so were you handling some of this
for them i was
[27:37] handling some of it until he passed okay
yeah and i did i was just like what you
[27:44] just said that he didn't
was another something he did some
[27:48] research and you thought that you know
i tried to correct enough but basically
[27:52] is
this house caught on fire january last
[27:55] year
and if you've got the pictures you can
[27:57] see what kind of shape it is it's
totally demolished
[28:15] we've done everything we can to notify
the current owners i think they even
[28:18] missed the house that we're just going
to search on before
[28:21] we can't find anyone like i said they
didn't find someone in australia
[28:25] okay all right to sum this up
uh you have that
[28:33] in front of you the ordinance to
demolish
[28:37] uh and it would be now therefore be it
today
[28:40] ordained by the council that section one
the code enforcement officers should
[28:45] cause the dwelling or house to be
demolished
[28:49] and all resulting debris and overgrown
vegetation be disposed of
[28:55] and section two is the cost of said
demolition
[28:58] clearance disposal and all enforcement
shall be a
[29:02] lien on the premises to be collected
pursuant to chapter
[29:09] 168-443
parentheses six of the north carolina
[29:13] general statutes
section three a copy of this ordinance
[29:17] certified as a true copy by the town
clerk
[29:20] shall be recorded in the gaston county
registry pursuant to the north carolina
[29:25] general statute 168-443
for ephesus 5 and section 4
[29:34] this ordinance shall become affected
upon its adoption
[29:38] and the adoption would be through
council this
[29:41] um what day of may
[29:46] do you have the day of may 2021
it's just 2015 of march 221.
[29:55] okay so i would need direction from
council to accept this
[30:02] uh resolution uh
this consideration of ordinance to
[30:07] demolish
this structure
[30:17] accept the resolution
[30:25] okay i have a motion in a second to
accept the
[30:29] ordinance to demolish said property
any other discussion by any council
[30:34] member
if not all in favor of this motion
[30:37] please say aye
all opposed seriousness thank you
[30:45] we'll move on to item 11 and this
is consideration of a resolution to
[30:51] adopt a policy
for mutual aid assistance with
[30:56] other law enforcement agencies
this is on pages 67 and 68.
[31:04] and i think that is part two
of your uh agenda packets tonight
[31:11] and we have our police chief here to
summarize this resolution
[31:18] mr mayor this is a central iowa council
of governments has a mutual aid
[31:23] agreement that we've been a part of
as long as i can remember but it's due
[31:28] every so many years you have to remove
that
[31:30] and what this allows is this year
they're asking for a resolution by city
[31:34] council
and also i will have to submit a
[31:37] signature page to central iowa council
governments
[31:40] and basically what it does is it allows
us to work in conjunction with
[31:44] assistance from any law enforcement
agency if the need rises
[31:49] some things we use it for just like the
fourth of july festival's coming up
[31:52] we're going to have
the mobile command unit here to help
[31:55] block streets and sheriff's office we
use it for that
[31:59] if if another hc needs assistance uh
with any type of mass incident we're
[32:04] able to send officers there to help so
that's what this resolution is pretty
[32:07] much saying we're accepting that
we'll take the assistance if someone
[32:11] will give it and we can offer assistance
as well
[32:16] okay and again that was in your agenda
package
[32:20] i have a hard copy here but we will need
action from council on that also to
[32:28] adopt this policy or this this accept
this resolution
[32:32] on adopting the policy for the mutual
and assisted aid with other law
[32:36] enforcement agencies
nationally accepted
[32:42] okay i have a motion and a second to
accept the resolution adopting the
[32:47] policy for mutual and assistance
aid with other law enforcement agencies
[32:52] uh any other discussion about council
members
[32:56] if not all in favor of the motion please
say aye
[33:00] i'll oppose there is none thank you
chief thank you mayor
[33:03] kelly's uh i'm not going to mention this
but we sent two police officers
[33:23] carried her quite a distance and it was
told that she was non-verbal and then
[33:28] all of a sudden she said put me down
yes yes after they carried her all that
[33:33] way but yes it was uh
officer schuyler and lieutenant brandon
[33:37] parker and they actually just did a
story on it on news 14
[33:41] last week i believe all right
good job good job okay
[33:48] we'll move on to uh item 12
and this is our public period in
[33:54] reference to
consideration to adopt the fiscal year
[33:58] 2021 2022 proposed
budget and i would need a motion from
[34:05] the council that we go into public
hearing at this time
[34:11] okay city council is now in public
hearing
[34:16] uh i think
[34:32] uh i'm sorry that's my fault uh do
us all in favor of going into public
[34:39] hearing uh say i please
oppose there is none thank you council
[34:48] okay and now we will discuss uh
the budget uh city uh
[34:55] manager do you have any synopsis you
want to give us on it or
[34:59] uh i'll read my multi-page letter or hit
the highlights which do you prefer
[35:04] hopefully you've already read the two
and a half page letter
[35:08] so if you'll let me hit the highlights
there and get the citizens and those
[35:11] watching an idea what this year's budget
composes off and uh if you have any
[35:16] questions that i can't answer
i will just make it up and go as it goes
[35:21] or
i will call big signal she's on standby
[35:24] because she's in theater school but
she's
[35:27] on the youtube and on telephone standby
well the only thing i'm aware
[35:32] of there was a change on our expenditure
and that was under the downtown electric
[35:39] improvement including pink street and
depot
[35:42] underground and we had it down on here
as 220 000 and it was changed to 300
[35:49] 000. another little chance if you
allowed me no
[35:52] recommended tax increase the first thing
a revenue change for us we are
[35:58] increasing some planning and zoning fees
and the community building rental fee
[36:03] and that's the only increases
we're recommending expenditures uh
[36:08] we are not going to be able to fund a
lot of things because we've made
[36:11] priority this year the bond project
and all the renovations going on
[36:16] downtown with
the sewer rehab the water and sewer line
[36:20] and the downtown revitalization this is
the second year of our
[36:24] salary implementation and we needed some
equipment so
[36:28] i'll get some of these and keep in mind
a couple of things that's affected the
[36:32] general
fund due to the auditor's recommendation
[36:36] we'll be moving the main street program
salaries director back to the general
[36:42] fund away from elected fund
which we mentioned to you earlier uh
[36:47] police department we were not able to
fund
[36:50] the things that cam needed with the
exception of the lease car payment
[36:54] uh he's got some serious roof problems
evident storage
[36:58] need and body cam
platform computerized information
[37:04] however back in march of last year
i sent senator burr's office a letter
[37:11] asking for any type of funding
and i got that call about four hours ago
[37:17] that they want more information and
they're interested in
[37:21] give them a couple of choices and the
police department is one of those to
[37:25] have a special appropriation
from the u.s congress that would not be
[37:30] you would not have to pay nothing back
so i hope to hear from that in the next
[37:34] few days
so my first priority would be for the
[37:37] police department and that's probably
around
[37:40] 30 to 40 000 maybe a little more with
some
[37:43] ada issues the fire department we did
not fund the defibrillators but as you
[37:48] well aware we had a generous benefactor
to buy six brand new defibrillators for
[37:53] our fire apparatus
public works no real changes street
[37:58] we had half of the budget but we found
out we can replace the street sweeper
[38:03] with paddle build money
so we're going to put it back in the
[38:06] budget and utilize powder money
we do have some paving on the north side
[38:11] of town that we're going to look at and
a couple storm drains
[38:14] that are our responsibility sanitation
at the recommendation
[38:18] of the auditor has also been moved
uh from the general fund to a
[38:24] self-supported
utility fund and all these are affected
[38:28] especially the way the general fund
typically looks recreation they had
[38:33] several requests we were not able to
fund those
[38:36] the cemetery the scattering grounds we
were not
[38:39] there are some electrical changes and i
think we'll be very proud to hear this
[38:43] especially
mr freeman this year we will
[38:47] provide for our residential customers a
five percent
[38:52] electric discount so in the past three
years there will be a total of seven
[38:56] percent discount to residential
customers
[39:00] commercial no change industrial no
change we're going to have some slight
[39:04] changes in the op-12
and cp98 rider which is some of our
[39:09] newer
larger facilities that have never been
[39:13] put on the proper
appropriate rate schedule and y'all know
[39:17] the ones that i'm talking about
while we're under that uh our revenue
[39:22] changes i'd like to comment too that
newpower had asked for a i've heard a 13
[39:30] increase then i heard a 9 but it
basically got down
[39:34] to they're going up 5 so we're going
down 5
[39:40] new powers going up 5 so
that tells you how concerned these
[39:45] people are up here about
what our utility bills are and where
[39:49] they're going so
we're going to keep going as far as we
[39:52] can to help our citizens
and uh we're going to probably get on a
[39:57] level
play and field with duke power even
[40:00] better in the future so i just wanted to
make that comment here i'd like to point
[40:03] out that we're already on the same level
as most of our sister cities and we're
[40:07] beginning to
creep closer to some of the other larger
[40:12] power
agencies so we continue to chill
[40:15] chisel away at that um there's some
repairs
[40:19] that the electric compartment that the
mayor mentioned and we thought was going
[40:22] to be around
a quarter of a million but it's going to
[40:24] be 300 000
um we are going to uh
[40:30] look at some administrative stuff we got
the debt service that we're going to
[40:34] start paying the bonds back with
and this year it will be 169 000 on the
[40:39] first payment
and we do have to connect with lincoln
[40:43] uh we have the blackrock improvements
that schedule that water line to go to
[40:47] that subdivision
repair it to pump station the one that
[40:51] serves re
roll for the electric and then a
[40:55] compound water needs a plant
and a new pickup for that department
[41:00] uh the water plant they need to replace
a high surface pump
[41:04] it's been in service a long time but we
simply did not have the funding to do
[41:07] that
and push that to other income that we
[41:10] may be experiencing
uh the wastewater plant larry's
[41:14] department needs a roof on bowel or
pumping station
[41:17] and a brand new generator because the
other generator
[41:20] has had seven heart attacks and two
strokes
[41:24] all funds again and salary adjustments
are in there
[41:28] i recommended a one and a half percent
cost of living increase
[41:32] which is on the lower side of many of
these cities
[41:35] in our area um and our health insurance
is going up on our employees
[41:40] five percent dental 2.62
we have an increase in local government
[41:46] of
one and one point two percent from five
[41:51] point
one from 10.15 i'm sorry to 11.35 which
[41:55] is mandated
by the general assembly and the treasury
[41:58] department and the law enforcement
so we pay for cam uh 1.2 percent
[42:03] increase which goes from 10.90
to 12.10 so we're having to incur
[42:09] some additional fringe benefit costs to
the city that we have no real control
[42:13] over some other notes we are into the
second year of the three-year cost of
[42:19] salary adjustment
i did mention the one and a half percent
[42:22] cost of living raise
and i am requesting for the first time
[42:26] to get competitive with other cities and
other governmental agencies
[42:30] that we move our longevity pay from cash
to a percent of an individual's year of
[42:35] service when dixie ran the numbers
it was not a lot of money to begin with
[42:40] but the percentage
seemed to be a little more fair to the
[42:43] employees in the cash
benefit and when we did this hour study
[42:49] we're trying to get everybody on the
same level
[42:51] what separate those long tenured
employees
[42:54] is the longevity pay that's where
they're
[42:58] rewarded for their loyalty and that's
why we recommend it to getting to a
[43:02] percentage
and mayor that pretty well hits the
[43:05] highlights and my letter
covered the other smaller items and if
[43:09] you've got any questions
i'll do my best to answer them okay
[43:14] we're now open for questions do i have
any questions from any
[43:19] staff member citizen or
council member at this time just like to
[43:26] say i appreciate you getting that
five percent decrease in the electric
[43:31] rate i know
you worked hard to get that our staff
[43:35] especially
dixie and brandon worked hard to advise
[43:38] me you know i was
very concerned about it and somebody
[43:42] mentioned seven percent
[43:46] five percent of where we said but the
hardware goes for dixie
[43:50] and brandon and dixie is on the right
committee so she pushed hard to keep
[43:55] lakerson's race
okay and we need her like since she's
[43:59] made her school we can get her own
and we've had a decrease
[44:07] this will be five percent the coming
year last year as you said was
[44:11] two the year zero last year
zero then we had two percent a year
[44:17] before two percent year before
zero year before that so
[44:22] we're trying to get there and uh we will
eventually
[44:27] to all our citizens we want you to know
that we we feel for you
[44:31] we're working hard as we can we're
making cuts where we can
[44:34] and we hope we'll have that as good a
news
[44:38] uh next year at this time or for our
next budget
[44:42] but uh anyone have any questions
in regard to the budget i've got uh
[44:49] one thing that i'd like to bring up is
uh
[44:54] we're incenting
some of our equipment to be worked on
[45:00] and
seemed like we keep having equipment
[45:04] down
what i would like to ask this council to
[45:09] do
is to add a full-time mechanic
[45:13] at 20 an hour that would help keep our
equipment up
[45:19] and that way we could bring all vehicles
and all equipment
[45:23] in-house that we wouldn't have to go
outside
[45:27] to have anything down outside
so that would require a
[45:35] amendment make an amendment to a
hiring full-time mechanic at twenty
[45:41] dollars an hour
for 40-hour workweek
[45:46] full time research whatever
experience the certified mechanic can
[45:53] get one to twenty dollars now
yes we can so this has already been
[45:58] discussed there's true
a possibility yeah so this individual
[46:03] been hired already
no so that would be definitely making an
[46:08] amendment to our
budget now uh speaking as
[46:13] as mayor we do outsource a good bit of
our
[46:18] i think one of our problems is
one part goes to this mechanic
[46:25] one goes to this mechanic and it's sort
of who they favor
[46:29] and if we did have an in-house mechanic
all the work from the water plant waste
[46:34] water treatment plant
for public works from sanitation we
[46:39] could bring them all
in and say there's not a choice anymore
[46:42] we've got a full-time mechanic
uh all the work will go to that and
[46:48] i'm going to tell you by looking at some
of the checks
[46:51] i think the city would actually save
money on this i'm not sure dixie would
[46:56] be the one that
could give you more information on that
[46:59] but
this would require direction from
[47:05] council to make amendment to our
budget and we would have to
[47:11] uh have dixie to present that to us
uh you could actually mayor approve this
[47:18] budget if that's your desire
contingent on those dollars being added
[47:37] for sure before we do that but
we're still open for public hearing yeah
[47:43] my only
question can i still speak to that
[47:47] because
we've had a budget work session all day
[47:51] and i don't know why i just don't know
that this is the time to place
[47:54] it through something like that in the
budget we went all day long
[47:59] to discuss these things i would think
that would be the most appropriate place
[48:03] for that
i don't understand watch this all of a
[48:05] sudden come back it wasn't brought up in
the
[48:07] workstation and i worked i was i was
there
[48:14] i remember being brought up but why
didn't we include it then
[48:20] we didn't feel like we could afford it
at the time
[48:23] and at that time we did have a part time
and and also we were
[48:30] outsourcing at that time but we still
have the part time and he's
[48:35] still being right right this doesn't
affect the part-time time
[48:40] okay so my question is can we afford it
but
[48:44] we can afford to do whatever you tell us
to do but we may have to take think
[48:47] about fundamentals
[48:52] okay okay if this work is done by
each one of our departments
[49:00] then some of that's going to come out of
each one of them right it will this
[49:03] parker but there is no way one
individual can handle
[49:06] all of the technical needs that we have
for some of our specialty media
[49:11] they will be able to handle more like
the hydraulics
[49:15] we've got some very technical equipment
that we still will have to source i was
[49:21] thinking
yeah yeah on some of that large
[49:24] equipment that uh
[49:28] well i really don't know until they look
at it
[49:31] i mean i don't think the mechanic
actually works on the patrol cars other
[49:36] than preventive maintenance
and the the mechanic does not work on
[49:42] the fire truck
we'll still be writing big checks for
[49:45] cars you know
the checks you were talking about had
[49:49] parts labor included
let's do that by parts my official
[49:54] standby is your manager
we can make it happen i would just love
[49:58] to have known about it
during this budget process not so much
[50:02] up to the night of
budget approval yeah that's kind of
[50:05] makes planning very difficult and
challenging
[50:10] okay we can still accept this budget
contingent
[50:14] on discussing the uh
the new position can we take that
[50:21] position for tonight and go ahead and
prove this oh yeah
[50:39] the salary and the fridge benefits even
though you've stayed at a rate
[50:42] i don't know if we can get a quality
mechanic for twenty dollars an hour
[50:46] and we typically don't pay part-time
staff
[50:50] twenty dollars we typically pay
part-time staff twenty-five dollars an
[50:53] hour because they received some benefits
and it would shake out on our flow chart
[51:00] of the salary deemed for that type of
position stepping grade
[51:07] okay and we don't have that information
in front of us tonight
[51:12] so we're still in public hearing uh
any other comments to be made at this
[51:18] time
before we go out public
[51:37] a second to go out of public hearing all
in favor say aye
[51:42] all opposed we are now out of public
period
[51:47] okay and yeah
i got a couple handouts y'all need to be
[51:52] made aware of
um can i get my lovely assistant
[51:57] why are you doing that
[52:00] i'm gonna make a motion to hire
[52:17] to open up a yes like that with all
three speculative partners that's the
[52:21] manager's job to hire
and locate an employee
[52:26] that's the manager's office actually the
city
[52:29] council's job to look after the western
city that's not i understand that
[52:34] completely but it's general statutes
clearly gives your manager
[52:38] to hiring your firing responsibilities
[52:45] i made a motion
[52:49] and the motion is to hire a full-time
mechanic
[52:54] at a rate of 20 an hour with
the city benefits full benefits
[53:01] do i have a second
[53:06] okay let's just table it for right now
until we can get some particulars with
[53:11] the managers
we do not have our works
[53:17] director here tonight for our finance
director so okay
[53:23] would you agree with that uh councilman
parker that we
[53:39] okay all right uh
municipal clerk if you will make note on
[53:45] the 29th
that will be discussed in one obsession
[53:49] with uh a decision to
be made at that time as i stated there
[53:55] we'll do anything to direct us to i
would like to have the kind of
[53:58] research okay that
is my job okay
[54:06] okay uh do you have two handouts later
yes we do okay the first one is a list
[54:14] of the upcoming major projects for the
next two or three months
[54:17] and i'm not going to read them all you
can peruse down through there
[54:21] but one of them on there is the ada
plant and you heard me mention that
[54:25] several departments like larry smith
at the seward plant want a pumpkin
[54:29] station a generator
other departments that didn't get funded
[54:33] we're going to receive
1.78 million dollars from president
[54:38] biden's
a uh rp program the money is starting to
[54:42] begin to flow
probably july 15 july 20th
[54:47] the staff at a staff meeting got
together and developed a priority list
[54:51] that we want you to take a look at
and most of this is stuff and we can't
[54:55] fund it all
but you all need to give us a priority
[54:59] of those items because it's going to be
a one-time
[55:03] expense there's going to be some streams
but not as much as you would think
[55:07] normally dealing with federal dollars
and we're also
[55:11] going to get a second payment uh half of
it in this year and half of it next july
[55:16] and the state because of our size is
managing our distribution the larger
[55:21] metro area has got the funds directly so
you
[55:24] will have to help me make sure that our
general assembly
[55:27] don't tuck that money away for something
that they can't but it is
[55:31] federal law they have to hand it down to
us
[55:34] if you remember a few years ago some
money got handed down and it went in the
[55:38] state's rainy day fund
so i'm going to be monitoring that very
[55:42] closely
and so you can see that card now these
[55:46] priority projects
none of these were funded in our budget
[55:51] so this is all items that were not
i don't remember if the defibrillators
[55:55] were left on there or not
um but there's some pretty large price
[56:00] items
on there and uh i noticed the very
[56:05] second item on here is that kiosk
installation uh i thought that was
[56:09] supposed to already be here
i apologize mayor the company has jerked
[56:13] us around
a little bit it is sitting in the bay
[56:17] at city hall now to be installed but i
did not want them to install it without
[56:21] dixon being here to supervise it
so that's why uh that has not been done
[56:29] as i mentioned on march 31st i sent a
letter to
[56:32] senator burke and as you know senator
burke is
[56:35] finalizing his career in d.c so he got
my letter uh they called me today
[56:40] and because it wasn't from a lobbyist
and because
[56:44] from a small town he wants to help us
and we're going to submit tomorrow
[56:48] morning by
launch of three proposals within the
[56:52] fund earmarked charitable some money
and that's part of what things didn't
[56:56] get funded in the budget between that
monies
[56:59] and the money from arp we should be in
good shape
[57:03] and even in good shape for a while to
work and we'll go out
[57:06] in here and possibly next year you can
look at a tax credit
[57:12] good good so we're given approximately
890 000
[57:17] this year and then next year would be
another 890
[57:21] 000. correct
[57:31] okay so council members will look you'll
see the second page is where the
[57:36] priority list is
of where the american rescue plan known
[57:41] as arp where that money
would be allocated and when you see
[57:47] uh like the half cost of a street
sweeper
[57:51] does that mean the next one the next
year
[57:55] we'll do the other half no on the street
sweeper remember i told you
[57:58] that and it wasn't corrected on that
sheet we can fund it from power funds
[58:03] 100 of that where you see half and half
means it's going to come out of one
[58:07] budget
and 50 out of another budget that's why
[58:10] you see half one location
half the other for example but it's on
[58:15] the priority list of
the arp we didn't know if we were going
[58:19] to get the channel
[58:30] okay and that's not a wishlist but
there's a couple of things on there
[58:34] that's a wish list there's recreational
stuff but most of that is items that was
[58:39] fun
[58:42] and it's really unprecedented my 43
years of government
[58:46] i have never seen a direct
[58:50] appropriation to a municipality with
very few strings attached
[58:54] unprecedented and i know at one time
uh city manager
[59:02] chief cash we had talked about this
and uh we were aware that there was a
[59:08] lot of bookkeeping
involved with this so if the state's
[59:11] handling it now
will that be less for keeping for us are
[59:15] we still going to be
with
[59:30] but it's going to be a lot less headache
than mr falwell
[59:34] than it would be somebody in budget and
appropriations in washington dc
[59:38] so we got a good trade-off on i think
exactly i mean even though it's not
[59:42] coming
directly for us to deposit in the
[59:50] it's nothing to the tune that you all
are familiar with
[59:54] with the uh like the sidewalk grant we
got
[59:57] see man see mac
[1:00:12] us and on each seminar that i sit on or
go to
[1:00:16] it's kind of free money it helps
stimulate the economy
[1:00:22] we'll take it
[1:00:26] does uh any council members have any
questions there any other items that
[1:00:33] stand out
that have been funded other than this
[1:00:37] the street sweeper has not been funded
it'll be funded this year but freeman
[1:00:41] and we will use 100
of pal bill funds uh you see the bond
[1:00:47] items are on there we have the money for
those
[1:00:49] in the bond but if there's some monies
y'all preferred to go there and save
[1:00:53] some of the bonds
that could work too the blackrock would
[1:00:57] definitely be a priority
the police department you heard me
[1:00:59] mention that we could get the earmark
from
[1:01:02] senator of burr's office and the
evidence room the body cam
[1:01:06] the street sweeper needs to come off uh
we're going to fund it and it's going to
[1:01:10] come out
[1:01:13] planning and zoning software that
derrick needs he's been researching that
[1:01:17] we couldn't
fund it a little more for recreation
[1:01:21] a storage building for recreation a
generator for larry
[1:01:24] the roof at the wastewater treatment
plant and a raw water pump
[1:01:28] the water plant road is in disastrous
shape down to the creek
[1:01:33] high surface pump the little lead
parking lot for extra overflow
[1:01:37] parking uh ada at city hall remember
with ada
[1:01:40] it's a huge monster we've attacked the
deepsea youth fields
[1:01:44] we've got pricing and drawings at city
hall
[1:01:49] that has done none of the other
buildings the only one that's compliant
[1:01:52] right now is the fire station
so that's a big animal a big price tag
[1:01:56] in as much as four to five million
dollars
[1:01:58] come up with an elevator today right now
i'd put elevator at city hall
[1:02:02] and you see west gates upgrades and a
splash pad
[1:02:06] and ada citywide other locations
staff's put a lot of research into it
[1:02:12] but that's our recommendation
we'll do the priority details
[1:02:15] appropriately
okay and the council members have any
[1:02:20] questions at this time
[1:02:24] we need to go ahead and vote on the
budget contingent
[1:02:30] uh on tabling one item
[1:02:38] have a motion this second that we go
ahead and approve the budget
[1:02:42] contingent on our work session
discussion
[1:02:46] on another position okay uh any other
discussion by any council members
[1:02:52] if not all in favor of the motion please
say i
[1:02:56] uh all opposed
[1:02:59] it is unanimous okay
[1:03:10] we'll now go into
[1:03:13] other business and that's item 13
on your agenda packet at this time
[1:03:19] [Music]
[1:03:23] okay that's that's closed session i
think that's where you work now
[1:03:27] we're going to do other business so that
it's closed session we can just come
[1:03:32] back
and got you close okay great great
[1:03:35] jinx approached me twice
since the last meeting about debris
[1:03:42] that's not being
[Music]
[1:03:47] he says it's causing some of that to
wash in the storm drain
[1:03:53] another problem he says mostly elderly
residents who hire someone like him
[1:04:02] to do work on the property and they
place his stuff out the street and then
[1:04:06] the public works down they can't think
of that because someone was hired to
[1:04:11] put it out there there's no calling off
himself he says he's gonna have a truck
[1:04:14] big enough all at all
he said he would drive a city truck
[1:04:21] but he said he would be willing to
volunteer to work and help the movement
[1:04:39] you know again my husband cut limbs
put them down there they never did they
[1:04:45] laid out there all week
and then when i called the first week i
[1:04:50] got the chipper truck
down again so now my grass is bedded
[1:04:54] in down there where it was so do we have
anybody else contractual that when our
[1:05:01] chipper truck
is out of commission i know rick's got a
[1:05:06] chipper truck we we have not missed
parker but we could definitely research
[1:05:10] that and bring that back to the next man
i know rick and he would do something to
[1:05:16] get it up you know a lot of our
residents that are paying taxes and
[1:05:19] everything else that we
offer they have like a loan service they
[1:05:24] pay a lot of money to keep
their grounds looking good and you can't
[1:05:29] afford for it to lay down our two three
weeks
[1:05:31] this is the second time because even
when the leaf truck is down
[1:05:35] the problem is the policy states that if
it's been contracted out
[1:05:39] we don't pick it up we're doing it
ourselves
[1:05:43] we don't have a contractor involved in
our case but
[1:05:46] it's still happening for other people
and if we had someone
[1:05:50] in place that can fix these things don't
know what the
[1:05:54] another mechanic could do i know brandon
said they could use them
[1:05:58] but we've got to do something to get it
up
[1:06:01] off of our residents
i mean this is anybody not just
[1:06:06] something that a contractor puts out
those
[1:06:08] big contractors have their own shippers
yeah i can comment to that
[1:06:13] uh brandon's not here he's at myrtle
beach at an
[1:06:17] ami meeting but uh i talked to jason
today and he told me they have ordered
[1:06:25] the park
and they're waiting on the park to come
[1:06:28] in on the chipper truck
so public works has taken care of
[1:06:33] repairing but they have to wait on the
parts and i understand
[1:06:38] that's not the whole issue that you're
talking with but
[1:06:42] i wanted to tell you they do have the
part on the way he said he thought it
[1:06:46] may be here today
but i don't know whether it came or not
[1:06:50] they wanted that trump replacement but
we just simply could not afford
[1:06:56] it's hard to keep it right
[1:07:06] okay any other business from any council
[Music]
[1:07:12] member
i can't help but get this off my chest
[1:07:16] uh i know we need to get on the block
and i don't know everything about what
[1:07:21] goes on here but
you know when i was elected i was told
[1:07:25] how things worked here
that our city manager was responsible
[1:07:29] for discipline
hiring and firing employees
[1:07:34] and when is that changed i mean when is
it our responsibility
[1:07:38] we should give him direction and if he
doesn't follow our direction we should
[1:07:41] fire him
is my understanding uh i just feel like
[1:07:47] that here at the last minute you know an
underhanded deal's been done
[1:07:51] that is against our city policy
to hire somebody when it's not our job
[1:07:57] to do a hiker
so if i'm wrong somebody tell me i'm
[1:08:00] wrong i'll get ready to tell you i know
you're wrong
[1:08:03] nobody has insinuated to hire a certain
person
[1:08:07] you said you had somebody already lined
up as you said that's still the
[1:08:10] manager's job to decide if that's the
right one or not
[1:08:13] okay one thing i was doing was just
putting the position
[1:08:17] in place and negotiating the process and
he will accept that process
[1:08:25] don't start insinuating that i did this
and did that
[1:08:29] well when you've talked about apparently
you've got a price set for him what
[1:08:33] he'll do it for
so something's been done but still see
[1:08:35] the rangers supposed
i think we've already addressed this and
[1:08:41] that it will be continued at our work
session
[1:08:44] on june 29th just listen together
are noted uh that will be
[1:08:55] in our minutes that you did note that
but
[1:08:58] um i'm not going to sit here and hash
this out during this meeting when
[1:09:03] we can do that easily on the i'm sorry i
said that yeah the 29th of june
[1:09:09] and we've moved it to work session it
will be discussed in detail at that time
[1:09:14] and we'll all have more information all
of us will have more information
[1:09:19] and as the city manager as well
he can do some research on the sport
[1:09:26] okay do i have any other business from
any council member
[1:09:35] city staff
[1:09:38] okay okay
if not then we will
[1:09:44] uh go to the next item which is item 14
and this is consideration to enter into
[1:09:51] closed session in regard to
north carolina general statute
[1:09:58] 143-318-11
dot parentheses four and parentheses
[1:10:03] six i will need uh direction for counsel
to
[1:10:07] enter into closed sessions
i need a second sir have a second a
[1:10:19] motion
and a second to go into closed session
[1:10:22] at this time
all in favor of the motion please say
[1:10:25] aye
all of those there isn't so we are
[1:10:28] considered
going to close session i think we set up
[1:10:31] next door
this