[0:00] and at this time uh i'm calling his meeting to order

[0:04] pastor clark to do a roll call mayor hamm

[0:09] mayor pro temp hello councilwoman jones president

[0:13] councilmember broadway here councilman woman matthews

[0:18] councilman gaylord councilman akon here

[0:22] we're all here uh next item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda

[0:27] is any changes to the event audition yes sir i'd like to add item e under new

[0:34] business goldwell fire department engine number four emergency motor purchase

[0:45] and i believe we have a closed session on them uh to discuss the personnel yes

[0:51] sir okay

[0:55] any other uh conditions or changes to

[1:00] johnny anyone once you might i just want to add i just want to add one um i know

[1:04] we acknowledge councilmember matthews and

[1:07] being the first african-american uh female elected council member i just

[1:12] want to um address the consideration of a resolution to be doing for the

[1:16] archives of the city and that recognition of that

[1:20] do you have one prepared i don't like consideration for they've been doing it

[1:26] [Music]

[1:34] [Music]

[1:39] it's not a motion to uh adopt a gender please

[1:43] move to about six that's that's the job the agenda hasn't

[1:47] been in that case we've got a first and second uh

[1:50] is there any uh any other

[1:54] objections or whatever if not always in favor raise your hand

[1:59] all opposed emotional care

[2:04] we have no old business so we'll go straight into the new business

[2:10] [Music]

[2:13] the fy 20 hours update [Music]

[2:18] good evening mayor council david i am very pleased

[2:24] to tell you that we are as they say in short roads with the audit

[2:29] um so just a quick update so on friday

[2:34] i reviewed the final financial statement and the compliance section so i reviewed

[2:39] the whole audit giving back my corrections that needed to be done

[2:44] and so i anticipate at this point that the

[2:48] senior auditor has turned over the final audit

[2:52] to the partner so it has to go through partner review and then it has to go

[2:57] through qc or quality control review so at that point they will have an issue

[3:02] date i expect that to be done within about

[3:05] two weeks uh borrowing any kind of major interruptions but i don't expect

[3:11] anything different um so very pleased with uh that we're finally getting to

[3:16] the end of this i know the council is um we should be able to get a published

[3:22] audit and bound books in probably about a week after i get the final

[3:27] um the lgc will receive the copy as soon as it's issued final

[3:32] um so they'll actually get it probably before the council will but we'll try to

[3:36] make that as timely as we can to get it to you as quickly as we can

[3:40] so that you have the opportunity to review the audit

[3:44] what our plan is is to bring back to the march 7th meeting is to have john frank

[3:49] the partner in charge he's the cpa that y'all have seen her several times to

[3:54] come back and discuss the audit with the council and answer any questions you

[3:57] have so my hope is that you've had it in your hands at least one to two weeks so

[4:02] you can put together questions or you can ask

[4:05] them on the slot when they get

[4:08] we will have copies for uh found copies for all the council and for the

[4:13] newspaper uh for the city manager and his office

[4:16] as well um so at the time when we bring the uh

[4:20] the dixon huge to present the audit on seven i also have two agenda items one

[4:26] will be to amend the final fy 20 contract

[4:30] that has to be done and approved by council so that they can get paid the

[4:34] final rounds and then i'll also bring the fy 21 contract for the council to

[4:40] approve um they have agreed to continue on to

[4:43] the third year of the audit so what we're going to do is we're going to put

[4:47] in a completion date of june 30 of 2022 which means that

[4:53] getting that done we will be called up okay we'll be calling okay that's good

[4:59] news you say june

[5:02] completion that's a bound copy yes it's i'm gonna be honest with you

[5:06] it's gonna be tight but um as we have discussed we're making some

[5:10] modifications to the duties that i'm doing so that i can focus on the audit

[5:15] so that we can get it done it is going to be a tight deadline because it took

[5:19] probably two or three months to do the financial statement part of the audit so

[5:23] it's going to be time but um you know that's the tentative agreement that

[5:27] we've had with lgc and talking with susan and sharon um so we can get called

[5:33] up so at that point when when we get to july 1 of 2022

[5:39] the 20 the fiscal 22 audit where we are now is due no later than december 1 and

[5:45] midnight okay so we we've got a little bit of time in there so we've already

[5:49] been talking i've talked with auditors about scheduling field work so that we

[5:53] can get done and be on time with that so i just think that's really good positive

[5:58] news that there's been a lot of people that have worked very hard on this and i

[6:02] really appreciate all the effort and the support that i've been given to try to

[6:06] get this done because it has really been a job um i have in your packets um i did

[6:12] this little fun balanced governmental funds in your

[6:16] packet so what this is the top part of this actually comes out of the audited

[6:22] financial statements it's in what's called the statistical section

[6:26] the statistical section is prepared by staff and it is not audited

[6:30] but what i wanted to give you is to show you i want you to

[6:34] look at the top part where it talks about general funds so you have general

[6:38] fund and below that's other governmental funds but where you see highlighted in

[6:42] yellow is that fund balance percentage that we talk so much about if you scroll

[6:48] all the way to your far right under 2020 you see nine point three eight percent

[6:54] okay so that's that magical number that the lgc says has got to be above eight

[6:59] percent now i have talked to y'all for two years

[7:03] that we were not sure that that number if it would not go below eight percent

[7:08] it's at nine point three eight percent so it's not much but we'll take what an

[7:12] extra 1.38 what what i wanted to point out to you

[7:17] is just that table that i have below that's colored in blue and white

[7:22] those are those are the pieces of debt that the council has taken to improve

[7:27] the city of gulf war some of it's been streets some of it's been wa foster

[7:31] brian multi sports complex and so forth so in five fiscal years from fiscal 15

[7:36] through fiscal 19 the city's taking on 30.29

[7:41] uh 39.2 million dollars in debt just in the general fund it's not utility fund

[7:46] stuff plus what's not showing on this sheet is

[7:50] we had a 1.75 million dollar commitment to tiger there was no we did not borrow

[7:55] any money for that even though it had been talked about by previous

[7:58] administration so out of that the general fund paid a

[8:02] million of that so what i want you to look at is if you go back to the middle

[8:06] of the page where it says 2015 and you scroll down about middle where

[8:10] it says fund balance percentage was 51.23

[8:15] now the reason that that number part of the reason gets so high is because

[8:19] there's been a lot of debt that's why i gave you the table below so when you

[8:23] look at all that debt that came on board from 15 until 2019 because if you

[8:28] remember i i came in january and the cd took like uh it's like four million

[8:34] dollars in street bond debt in december just before i got here so that's all

[8:38] part of that number so i think what's important to realize is not to be so

[8:43] short-sighted or short focused to say oh my goodness fund balance went down two

[8:48] million dollars you're at nine point three eight percent in fiscal twenty

[8:51] what's important to realize it is kind of the winding down of like a five-year

[8:56] project so stuff we do doesn't happen in 30 60 90 days it

[9:01] happens over years it happens over various councils so just kind of keep

[9:06] that long-term perspective in your mind and that the the the story that we're

[9:11] showing and sharing with you today is that it's getting better because as you

[9:16] i gave you all that november update and i showed we were two plus million in

[9:20] general fund we're going to be probably like 4 million in the utility time so

[9:25] things are they're going to turn around so when we can get done with the 21 all

[9:29] that hopefully at the end of june or beginning of july

[9:32] then we can tell an additional story where that picture starts going on the

[9:36] upswing so i just wanted to share that with you um just to give that little

[9:41] sneak peak ahead since you're not going to see anything until the first of march

[9:44] and i'd be glad to take any questions amortizations of most of those bonds are

[9:49] 10-year or 15-year amendment yes or most of them

[9:52] are 10 or 15 yes yes sir yes sir that is correct and

[9:57] we're going to see when we do the 2023 budget um there was a refinancing of

[10:03] this building i think it was a combination of this building in the

[10:06] paramount so we're going to have a big chunk of debt service that's going to

[10:09] drop off when we do the fiscal 23 budget which is going to help it's going to

[10:14] give us a little bit of room that some things that might need to be done we'll

[10:17] be able to get uh i haven't prepared the schedules yet to put in the budget but

[10:22] that that's all happening right now i'm actually working on budget sheets so we

[10:25] can get those out to the department any other questions that's actually

[10:30] going to be going down yes sir that's right because because we haven't taken

[10:33] all much debt so the three years we've been here it's just been about three

[10:37] million dollars worth of debt certainly not in comparison to the 39.3 so

[10:42] so yes you're going to start seeing that

[10:46] since it's already come up in conversation the fun balance the magical

[10:50] eight percent eight percent is that because it's one twelfth of the year it

[10:53] is can you talk a little bit about a little bit about what that eight percent

[10:58] would represent why eight percent in what case scenario do we ever need

[11:03] eight percent of our total budget sitting in cash so the reason that um

[11:08] they really want you to have well that's really like the absolute bottom but they

[11:12] want you to have at least eight percent because cash flow

[11:16] paying deals um and i would tell you as from the standpoint of this budget that

[11:21] we manage here is about 65 million managed to budget at the other unit i

[11:26] was that was over 105

[11:31] you're wondering how am i going to pay payroll this week so what they wanted

[11:35] you to have the eight percent for was so that you can pay your bills timely and

[11:40] then if you had a major disaster you know fema disaster flood hurricane

[11:44] whatever that you could react to and then you could make sure that emergency

[11:49] response happened and then you can pay the field so that

[11:53] that was essentially one of the big reasons they want you to have that now i

[11:56] would say units our size which we do not have an electric uh system in ours

[12:02] they're running about 40 and as as i've mentioned before uh susan

[12:07] and sharon at lgc would really like to see us have that probably 30 to 40

[12:11] percent i would say that i would be comfortable if we were like maybe 22 to

[12:16] 25 but but that's yeah exactly so that's not i mean that's my personal opinion

[12:22] but the council does whatever it feels is best for the city

[12:26] thank you yes sir

[12:30] it is good news positive news yes thank you and thank you all for your support

[12:33] we all appreciate it very much thank you [Music]

[12:45] [Music]

[12:50] yes sir i'd like to discuss the american rescue plan coronavirus state and local

[12:54] fiscal recovery funds final guidance there's a little bit of background in

[12:58] march 2021 the arpa state and local fiscal recovery

[13:02] funds were provided to state and local tribal governments with the resources

[13:06] needed to respond to the pandemic and economic effects

[13:10] on may 10 2021 the u.s department of treasury issued its interim final

[13:14] guidance on may 17 2021 the city council

[13:21] accepted 8.8 million in arpa grant funds and on june 21st 2021 the city council

[13:27] adopted the grant project fund for the arp special revenue fund with

[13:31] expenditures of 1.6 million for lost public lost revenue

[13:38] 2.6 million for water sewer and broadband infrastructure as identified

[13:43] in the fy 21 and 22 budget in 4.6 million for contingency

[13:49] on january 6 2022 the u.s treasury issued its final guidance

[13:54] implementing our statutory provisions on eligible and ineligible uses

[13:59] for the state local fiscal recovery funds which provides broader flexibility

[14:04] and greater simplicity in the program one of the most significant changes in

[14:08] the final rule is a standard allowance for revenue loss of up to 10 million

[14:12] dollars not to exceed the awarded amount for each recipient

[14:17] which in our case is 8.8 million given this flexibility staff recommend

[14:22] the full award 8.8 million be applied to lost public sector revenue

[14:27] to fund general government services primary salary and benefits

[14:31] allowable expenditures would include any payroll for a legally

[14:35] authorized function of the government such as public safety environmental

[14:38] health recreation administration and public utilities

[14:43] this will simplify the compliance requirements under uniform guidance and

[14:47] replace tax and utility revenue that can then fund previously agreed water and

[14:51] sewer infrastructure and other expenditures as determined by council

[14:56] under north carolina law if council approves this change the

[15:00] finance director will bring back a project budget amendment to council at

[15:04] the next meeting in march to amend the grant project related to the

[15:08] slfrf award recommendation is for council to approve

[15:13] utilizing the standard allowance for revenue loss for the full sl frf award

[15:18] of 8.813 514

[15:21] [Music] pending any questions i request a vote

[15:24] to approve this you ever want to understand what you

[15:28] just said i would like for you to um

[15:33] while i have read this um if you could just simplify

[15:38] okay please um to simplify we've been given authority to use all of

[15:44] our 8.8 million in

[15:48] the general fund or you can use it in utility fund

[15:51] there's lots of different ways we can use it it can be applied against

[15:56] personnel is what the staff is recommending because it's very easy to

[15:59] track and very easy to report on

[16:02] and then what would normally have funded tax revenue for personnel can be

[16:07] utilized as we deem appropriate with

[16:13] then applying north carolina state law rather than federal law so federal law

[16:17] on the uniform guidance has a lot of restrictions that you'd have to apply to

[16:20] you need to have a program manager overseeing a lot of different things in

[16:23] this case uh catherine is i think the finance department can oversee

[16:28] the um the funds if we put them towards

[16:30] personnel costs for their payroll etc

[16:34] okay i understand that thank you my question

[16:38] is well maybe i don't understand it so let

[16:41] me ask the question so what you're saying is that funding is now going to

[16:46] fall under what you're saying but it can only

[16:52] be used based on the recommendation of the staff for payroll is that what

[16:56] you're saying staff's recommendations we will assign it against payroll and then

[16:59] the money that you would have gotten in taxes from property taxes sales tax et

[17:03] cetera that would have paid for payroll can then be used in the manner in which

[17:06] we previously decided so 1.6 million as i mentioned earlier in

[17:11] the background has already been put into the budget to pay for operating expenses

[17:15] and payroll and then 2.6 million was to go for capital improvements

[17:19] in public utilities so

[17:22] we can take the funding that is becoming available and apply it

[17:27] still buy those capital projects but we would do that under north carolina law

[17:32] rather than uniform guidance

[17:37] so [Music]

[17:40] do you have to have a decision on this tonight because to be perfectly honest i

[17:45] don't feel confident enough to make a decision

[17:48] because i'm not fully understanding and i don't want to

[17:51] take up a lot of time that i just don't feel confident to make a decision

[17:56] to approve or not approve this

[18:00] so i guess does this have to be settled tonight

[18:03] we can take it to the retreat or we can take it to the march meeting um i know

[18:07] the finance director would prefer to start putting the funding towards the

[18:12] payroll costs so that we can spend it down

[18:17] so i'm not i'm not asking for um and i know councilwoman you have a question

[18:21] but um i would

[18:24] i would like if we could at least move it to the retreat it just would give me

[18:28] more time to ask you know some more questions to you um city manager so i

[18:32] can make a more confident decision okay i would actually like to have the 10

[18:37] arch simply because i am not under

[18:41] understanding everything and i want to make sure that some money

[18:45] goes to public utilities i don't want to backtrack and what we've done and what

[18:51] we've decided and and listening to this i'm not really

[18:55] understanding if we're going to do that so i would like to have more time to

[19:00] research this and it's going to take more time than um councilwoman matthews

[19:06] it's going to take more time than in march because i would like to

[19:10] truly understand it because we are looking at something extremely

[19:16] important here and it affects everyone it affects the staff it will affect our

[19:22] constituents so i want to make sure that i make the right decision

[19:31] i wouldn't change the way we were spending it this year it's just how the

[19:34] different plots of money are aligned um there is one project that was originally

[19:40] put in the budget for 550 thousands to do a study for public utility

[19:45] requirements but because we've got the asset inventory assessment that's being

[19:50] done for 400 000 we're going to put that on hold so

[19:54] that funding would be available to do other things as determined as we go

[19:57] along here but that's that's for another day

[20:01] catherine i don't know if you had anything else to add

[20:16] because you know we're having to get the departments to code their payroll

[20:21] um however with the council having reservations for that i will still go

[20:25] ahead and direct them to start coding their payroll getting their timesheets

[20:29] in because the problem is because we're already

[20:33] you know we're past seven months and for us to get the justification we need to

[20:39] to take the whole 4.5 million we're running out of time and it is a

[20:44] tremendous bonus to try to go back and fix

[20:47] so we it's fine we can do what we need to do and one thing i will say to the

[20:52] council is because we are are supplanting and we're

[20:56] allowed to supplant those monies the council can now say

[21:01] okay well we have general fund monies available to do other things so if you

[21:06] wanted to allocate something for like some utility assistance program out of

[21:10] the general fund you can do that if you so choose to do or you have other

[21:15] projects but the thing you have to realize is remember that first trench of

[21:19] money that 4.5 million is already obligated instant spent the contingency

[21:25] the other 4.7 million you have the ability to decide where you want to go

[21:30] and again that can be a as we go through the 2023 budget process that you can

[21:35] make those decisions because all we're going to do is supplant

[21:39] that other 4.7 million into payroll which brings up other revenues like

[21:46] property tax or sales tax or utility revenues to do a project or if you have

[21:51] some other community based need that you see you can do that in the general fund

[21:56] money the strings are not fair so you don't have to deal with the procurement

[22:00] the contract in the beginning and that can be a real nightmare

[22:04] because one of these you have good services which can be a nightmare when

[22:07] you're trying to find people and you're in a very specialized type of field so

[22:19] [Music] see if i'm oversimplifying this

[22:23] let's say we have two pots of money we've got eight million from

[22:27] the recovery act and we've got our general fund balance

[22:31] all right we get that eight million dollars into

[22:34] this pot here so that pot's got eight million dollars in it

[22:38] all right right now we're taken out of the other pot to pay our personnel

[22:43] and that's taking up a lot of our general fund balance so now what we can

[22:48] do is we can take out from that eight million dollars to pay personnel

[22:53] and that frees up the personnel money to do

[22:56] capital improvements to do whatever we have a need for

[23:01] so really and truly it's it's really a i'm not going to say it's too simple but

[23:08] that's exactly typically you know federal grants they

[23:11] don't allow us discipline so that that's the one thing that has

[23:15] been really um just mind-blowing for all of us and local government that have

[23:19] dealt with federal grants is they typically don't like this

[23:22] but the guidance that we've gotten from school of government and these weekly

[23:26] calls that we sit on with carol she specializes in the finance aspect of

[23:32] it she has been telling us that what we've been reading from the final guys

[23:37] it's okay to do that so that that's for us i think for the administrative

[23:42] nightmare um like we've been with with the crf money with the county how much

[23:46] that this is going to bring this is actually gonna it's more volume but it's

[23:50] actually gonna be simple because we can use it all in payroll so plant those

[23:54] dollars as you said and just take a spin i'd be fine with just to lend it to the

[24:00] retreat myself i'm up for retreat

[24:04] so while i understand that it may be super simple for you guys you have two

[24:10] people on this board who has requested i requested it for the retreat but i am on

[24:16] the same boat with councilwoman and if we can

[24:19] hold this off until march meeting then let's do that

[24:23] i am asking that we do that for those of us who it's not so simple for

[24:29] i would i would suggest that we have time that we treat to discuss

[24:36] this more in depth

[24:40] than we might have uh after another meeting in march

[24:45] and of course that's two weeks from now so hopefully

[24:50] one someone who needs additional information would have

[24:54] two weeks to research it and satisfy themselves

[24:57] that they would take one or the other position

[25:02] by the tweet time councilwoman are you okay with that

[25:05] because i'll still support your mark 7. no i'm not no i'm not but uh i will vote

[25:11] no and it will be voted down but no

[25:16] so i guess we have a a situation here where we need to

[25:20] determine whether we're going to do it and let's just uh

[25:24] the the impact again is you might not be able to transfer that

[25:30] funding to purchase some of the public utility capital

[25:35] improvement programs the way we're talking about under north carolina

[25:39] versus the federal law requirements if we wait until march if you wait

[25:44] you know i i haven't figured out those numbers yet but it makes it more

[25:48] difficult to account for all those personnel costs

[25:51] in the end if you don't do it you can just do it the next year instead of

[25:54] accomplishing all in this budget here you

[25:56] start to put that in the fy 23 budget

[26:02] catherine i will ask you to weigh in on [Music]

[26:06] the salmon's uh comedy just made

[26:11] as to the uh impact of the land

[26:16] so um what because the council approved the 2.5

[26:21] billion for this fiscal year that capital just gets the money okay

[26:26] so there's really unless something breaks you know and it tears up and you

[26:30] can't process your silver so i think you know if you ask for a sherman he would

[26:35] of course like to get it done but i think that my conversations that

[26:39] i've had with the manager with bert that that can weigh

[26:42] so 1.6 million is a given okay so

[26:46] we know that that was used to balance the fy22 budget so we've got authority

[26:51] to do that that's company stop us but really what we're trying to do is

[26:55] get it all gathered in so that it's under lost public sector revenue but

[27:00] it's fine it can wait tomorrow so i i mean it would i i urge manager let's go

[27:05] ahead and try to get it done so i can get the staff started but we can go

[27:09] ahead and get started i'll key in the payroll to do the 1.6 million and if we

[27:14] have to and we've got to shift it and put it in the 2023 budget to do the

[27:18] other 4.5 million we can and if at that one time you know you resolved your

[27:24] questions and you feel comfortable to vote to move it to lost public sector or

[27:28] whatever you know you want to do we can at that point i mean that's fine

[27:43] the problem with march or february my problem is i want to help the finance

[27:47] department as much as i can to get that i don't see that another

[27:51] month and another two weeks makes a lot of

[27:53] difference and we'll have time in february to go through this

[27:58] i think so and like i said it just it makes it a little bit cleaner because

[28:02] the decisions may but if the council's got some you know

[28:07] worries about that it's fine another month is perfectly fine we'll get

[28:10] consistent our budget preparations start in march

[28:15] uh yeah correct well yes we'll start so

[28:19] the managers also start meeting the departments in march we're getting the

[28:22] budget sheets ready now some departments can start putting that stuff in so yes

[28:27] it's cranking up right now but you won't see a whole lot of activity until march

[28:31] and with the unit assistance uh letter the agreement that we have we have to

[28:35] turn the budget into lgc by the 15th of may so you all will actually have the

[28:40] budget in hand probably a good three or four weeks

[28:44] earlier than you've had before which is good because it gives you time to review

[28:48] it and have some time to go ahead and ask questions

[28:51] okay for those of you who understand this

[28:54] and uh councilman aycock did a very

[28:59] good job of explaining that i

[29:04] still am not understanding all of this and i i am a very intelligent woman

[29:10] but i would like to have time to look at this

[29:14] however if you call a vote and you decide that you want to do it in

[29:20] february then

[29:22] i have no other choice but to rush

[29:28] and look at this i'm not asking enough so that's my final

[29:31] say haste makes ways and when someone doesn't understand something

[29:37] then out of respect you should allow them to understand it

[29:41] so that they can make a good decision that's i'm not asking you to rush what

[29:47] i'm just saying is my suggestion right now is to let's not

[29:52] do anything tonight and then when we have our retreat

[29:57] see if all your questions have been answered by the retreat and if we can

[30:00] make a vote at retreat and we make a vote okay now i can agree with that

[30:05] i can agree with that i'm not i'm not going to try to undermine

[30:09] anybody's you know their understanding of this

[30:14] thank you and you know i'm not trying to say i am trying to undermine it and i'm

[30:18] not going to try to make y'all make a decision you don't feel comfortable with

[30:23] what i'm trying to say is let's see if we can't get it done as soon as you all

[30:27] feel comfortable that's the only thing i'm saying

[30:31] you know if you don't feel comfortable in

[30:34] the 21st and 22nd of february then we'll just extend it until the first meeting

[30:39] in march but no later than the first meeting in march we will have to make a

[30:43] decision thank you and i can agree to that

[30:46] what about you i know we all i know we all get a

[30:49] subscription to the nclm magazine uh and i know roseboro will showcase as

[30:55] far as allocating the allocation of these funds

[30:57] so i think like you said i've been kind of

[31:00] updating myself on this and uh but like i said by

[31:04] that meeting if we haven't decided and there

[31:07] still needs to be some points of clarity made at that point

[31:10] but actually as far as tonight deciding i mean let's say got two weeks for the

[31:14] retreat i mean between now and then and if we

[31:16] need to extend out after that i'll have some questions more questions

[31:20] asked at that point too this one kind of being quiet

[31:23] tonight but um i think like see if we don't necessarily

[31:27] have to vote on it tonight we can wait to the retreat then see if we have any

[31:30] questions thereafter would that be a proper protocol to do that

[31:34] and we can refer to the retreat everyone in an agreement with that

[31:41] okay [Music]

[31:45] you have to put um on the agenda for the retreat yes sir

[31:49] okay

[31:54] next item is the older event center

[31:58] departmental oversight change

[32:06] good

[32:12] evening propose a departmental shift of oversight of the australia event

[32:18] center from paramount to the

[32:22] goldsboro golf course um

[32:31] a little bit of history for those who may or may not know about

[32:35] that uh this was the uh country club

[32:39] purchased and renovated by the city in 2015

[32:42] operations transferred from goldsboro parks and recreation to paramount they

[32:47] was in parks and recreation during the uh during the overhaul

[32:50] and then transferred to paramount in 2016.

[32:54] the site includes a 18 more municipal golf course pickleball ports clay tennis

[32:59] courts uh it is um and the facility itself has

[33:03] a ballroom you're all familiar with that you'll be there in a couple of weeks

[33:08] dining room bar kitchen patio coke shop and locker rooms

[33:12] uh utilities maintenance and certain amenities are split between the uh gdc

[33:17] and the volvo golf course right now between the budgets

[33:20] and the gdc has rented a public weddings banquets conferences meetings etc

[33:26] uh it's available for city department use at no charge and maybe the city

[33:30] sponsored two of the activities at the discretion of the department

[33:33] headquarters prior to kobe 19 which was a uh

[33:39] event activity for a period of time

[33:45] it was growing by an average about about 20 per year

[33:49] [Music]

[33:54] uh what we propose is that uh the oversight be transferred to the golf

[33:59] course uh which is a division of parks and rec

[34:03] uh we feel that this integration of the two together will be allow us to operate

[34:08] more efficiently and will avail us to more uh activity greater activity with

[34:14] the increased use of the golf course that we've been seeing during the the

[34:17] pandemic and since

[34:26] with activity uh while the event center is still rebounding from that uh closure

[34:31] and uh kind of softer activity

[34:35] and uh putting them together with the maintenance ground keeping custodial

[34:39] staff and shared throughout the site and facility

[34:42] uh the activity we more effectively align those increasing tournaments in

[34:47] golf course and finance will no longer need to split

[34:51] utility bills and better contracts between the two departments

[34:55] the budget impact we expect to be modest

[34:58] we expect it to be positive reduced overhead maintenance and administrative

[35:03] expenses uh increased revenue from additional bar and space rental activity

[35:08] we project uh 15 22 percent increase in revenue immediately

[35:14] in this in the rest of this fiscal year uh

[35:19] community activity programs can be explored through revenue streams

[35:28] the existing uh personnel

[35:31] would be uh the events of the manager who we actually are uh interviewing for

[35:35] right now uh our event center venture was

[35:38] enthusiastic about this uh this proposal and uh but then got a nice

[35:43] offer uh elsewhere and and has moved on and so we are uh currently we have some

[35:49] uh excellent applicants and uh we're gonna

[35:51] make those uh uh have those interviews this week and next week

[35:56] uh right now uh we have a patron services and operational assistant who's

[36:00] a permanent part-time uh employee uh jamie tyler

[36:04] um who has worked at the paramount for several years and then has been

[36:09] at the second in command at the event center uh

[36:13] heading up uh staffing for for the events and such

[36:17] um with a flexible schedule uh we have uh several

[36:22] building attendants who are event specific so we're really carrying very

[36:26] little overhead on personnel

[36:29] right now uh and then i am the uh

[36:33] and the uh director of the event center right now i do have an extensive

[36:37] background in hospitality as well as theater so uh it was a good fit

[36:42] but i can also see where the benefit is of uh

[36:45] moving this toward the uh and

[36:49] linking it to the operation of the golf course

[36:52] the proposed

[36:55] personnel will be uh obie uh at the director of gulf uh would now oversee

[37:00] the fgc together with the uh golf course

[37:04] um uh kyle hope who's our clubhouse manager

[37:07] over there right now and then uh the person who we're

[37:11] interviewing for right now uh between the three we get to be a little bit more

[37:16] efficient this is an operation that is days nights and weekends so um anytime

[37:22] that we can save uh by not staffing both uh both sides uh at the same time

[37:29] if it's not essential and then you know that becomes a more efficient operation

[37:34] and then uh jamie tyler uh you know continuing on uh potentially in this

[37:39] position with the picture services and operational assistant heading up our um

[37:44] our event specific staff at that time

[37:52] so this has been it was a new operation back in 2016 and since i arrived in 2019

[38:00] uh you know we've seen it uh continually

[38:03] increase the revenue uh in 2019 of course was

[38:08] last year that before it was closed in 2020

[38:13] and you know it was showing a a good

[38:16] progression and we expect that to bounce back but we

[38:19] don't expect it to be particularly robust for a little while still we have

[38:24] a we have a solid uh schedule ahead but we have not seen a return of

[38:32] activity that we've had in the past not uh um

[38:36] you know not to the level that we have expected or desired uh and so again with

[38:41] the activity at the golf course we think that that we can leave those together

[38:45] and really make something special happen and have a great amount of activity

[38:50] um the revenue you know it has been again

[38:54] steadily increasing but it has never covered the expenses yet however the um

[39:00] added in the use of the city the cost uh or the uh

[39:05] uh the value of the use by the city we start to get close to covering the

[39:10] expenses that we've had and again it's been a trend that we've been watching

[39:13] for for years even if it was predating me i mean to see what those um

[39:19] what those numbers are uh budget impacts uh no additions to staff salary or

[39:23] investments of facility and equipment would be required to make this change

[39:28] the management team will see value adding amenities and modifications to be

[39:32] proposed in future budget years and we see again a net benefit from

[39:38] increased use and efficiency in this first year the remainder of this first

[39:42] year at potentially around 25 000 um

[39:47] so we recommend that this is something that we do it's not a a uh it's not a

[39:53] major uh budget line item you know perhaps in

[39:58] the scope of the city at large but we think that anything that we can do to

[40:02] enhance that efficiency and add value is going to be uh beneficial

[40:08] so

[40:15] [Music]

[40:22] i uh thought of this i've been thinking about

[40:26] it from the day i was hired uh my goal was to of course the concern was

[40:31] to get those words of recognition so the city wants to have the sunshine

[40:51] the jeep they think the clubhouse should be part of the bottles and that

[40:56] and and now it will eliminate a lot of chances that

[41:00] i have not forgotten if i were over it

[41:17] so the goal is you know as usual to try and still create revenue streams for the

[41:22] golf course so that we can still continue to show

[41:27] our profit or break even at the end of the year

[41:31] we have the bar that we're

[41:44] um

[41:54] but now we can use indoors we get to showcase what we have

[41:58] uh today i was visited by somebody

[42:14] they're just

[42:28] [Music] finance director uh

[42:31] miss captain do you have any comments you want to make for this

[42:36] no sir i think this is proposed for the fiscal 23 years

[42:40] so it doesn't pose us any problems as far as financial budget okay

[42:45] and mrs allen you have any comments you're not going to start right now

[42:49] you're going to start it in fiscal year 23.

[42:52] well mike i guess it will depend on that

[42:56] that's the lab

[43:03] and we've seen that that it's something that they started

[43:45] and so rather than me saying well give me a call for us i think that um

[44:07] especially with the base losing their dog

[44:11] you think the timing is very good with everything including the fact that

[44:17] that event centers industry wanted are seeing that soft return

[44:24] we have plenty on the books it's it's not you know everything that we want

[44:28] it's not everything that we've had but if we start adding and making an

[44:31] attractive place uh having having people out there on the

[44:35] patio which is one of the most beautiful places to be and yet it's not utilized

[44:40] right now because we've been exclusively offended

[44:44] it's not rendered it's closed and now that that doesn't have to be the

[44:47] case

[45:03] we bet god the direct one is

[45:08] a good event that panels uh excuse me

[45:12] and the as far as concessions if we do do food and bar

[45:16] my system can handle that it's designed to do retail restaurant and golf okay so

[45:22] as far as i mean we won't need to reach out and rent buy get any other software

[45:28] in order to keep it running stuff it actually

[45:31] we plan to enhance the ability to actually use the space uh i don't think

[45:36] there's an option to put the space online

[45:38] not yet so yeah i'm just talking about that this morning so

[45:42] that could be done right now with people about to come in

[45:45] and uh into the check uh or cash uh for for uh making their payments uh deposits

[45:51] and and uh making this along the way uh and we'd like to make that an online

[45:56] transaction as well and i think together and

[45:59] marching right already has a terrific online option for many things

[46:10] i think there's just a lot more and it's a beautiful refugees

[46:15] it's a better facility when it's aligned with beautiful workforce

[46:19] we've recently hosted

[46:23] mayors and commissioners from eastern north

[46:26] carolina there and we received a tremendous amount of confidence about

[46:30] that facility both um

[46:39] anyone else have any questions

[47:43] thank you

[47:57] [Applause]

[48:00] i'll make this very quick i've given you a copy of my little

[48:06] speech tonight but i'm gonna forego most of that in the lieu of time

[48:10] we do have four vacancies on several boards commissions and i'll bring um

[48:15] this item back to the march 7th meeting for you guys to make recommendations to

[48:19] that board and i'll bring the resolution appointing those members back at the

[48:22] march 21st meeting i do need you guys to review the

[48:28] board's admissions calendar that was given to you by the email as well as in

[48:32] front of you i have one

[48:34] major change which is a time change it was listed as planning commission was

[48:38] meeting at 5 30 they actually meet at six

[48:42] so if you would not mind if you guys would reapprove that calendar from me

[48:46] and we'll get it reposted

[48:50] um before that

[48:53] meeting while we're considering um can you give us a breakdown of the

[48:58] members and what they should never predict that we can do whatever his name

[49:02] i have that for you i'll send it to you tomorrow

[49:09] any questions on the changes uh

[49:14] tomorrow

[49:21] [Applause]

[49:28] so

[49:39] thank you

[49:46] that i approve an emergency purchase of a 50-57

[49:50] engine motor replacement for fire engine number four which is a 12 year old

[49:55] apparatus currently out of service this is a firefighter and public safety

[49:59] issue we're relying on a 24 year old backup reserve vehicle with essentially

[50:05] 500 000 miles worth of engine time on the

[50:10] motor replacement is not a budgeted item so we may need to come out of fund

[50:14] balance for this in the future but with council concurrence the finance director

[50:18] will come back to you at a later date with a budget amendment

[50:22] chief barfor is here to answer any questions we have about the specific

[50:26] vehicle and engine problems

[50:35] i think it's a public safety issue we can't ignore

[50:52] okay

[51:02] is

[51:08] so i just wanted to uh i just wanted to make a recommendation

[51:12] for councilwoman matthews to have an official

[51:15] resolution drawn up and more archived for monumental contributions to

[51:19] the city council as being the first african-american female councilwoman to

[51:22] serve on this council i realize she's been recognized um other ways but i

[51:27] think that she needs an official document uh presented by the council

[51:31] going to the city

[51:34] that's all right

[51:57] is

[52:17] so with that being said tonight you have a 40 uh student

[52:21] specialties permanence uh request from the county's

[52:27] above ground fuel dispensing facility off of 8th street the other one is for

[52:34] the applicant's unbelief students

[52:42] i'll let you know tonight if you would like a refresher let me

[52:46] know but i'll just tell you again the planning board did make the

[52:49] recommendation for both of these recipes use permits to be approved by counseling

[52:56] in greek we are asking the board to approve the use for each one of these

[53:00] requests and order uh a proven use of each request again

[53:04] from a long ground fuel dispensing facility by wayne county and we'll

[53:08] replace them entertainment with abc permits by function first limits if you

[53:12] have any questions please let me know if i need to address it through a slide

[53:16] please let me know i'm glad you're a refresher

[53:19] okay any questions

[53:31] [Music]

[53:40] items

[53:45] it will recess until seven o'clock

[59:43] okay it's seven o'clock uh monday february 7th 2022

[59:49] the regular session of the goldberg city council is called water

[59:54] this time i would uh invite archbishop anthony

[59:59] slater to come forward and give us a prayer for the meeting and then we'll

[1:00:05] follow that with the praise believers so if you stand please

[1:00:09] good evening everyone amen shall we pray our father and our god we thank you for

[1:00:15] this moment that we can come together and just call on your name

[1:00:19] father we ask you to bless these who have coming to do the bidding for the

[1:00:22] people the warnings that are hearing our voice

[1:00:25] and preparing this city to go to the next level

[1:00:28] father we thank you we thank you for all the things that have happening

[1:00:32] the good and the bad the bad even preparing us to appreciate

[1:00:36] the good now father we ask you lord for guidance

[1:00:39] tonight we ask you lord to help us as we continue to press toward the mark

[1:00:45] thank you for goldberg and all these things we pray amen amen

[1:00:50] thank you sir thank you

[1:00:54] thank you [Music]

[1:01:05] liberty and justice for all

[1:01:14] okay madam clerk if you would call the roll please mayor ham yeah mayor protein

[1:01:18] politics councilwoman jones

[1:01:21] councilman broadway here councilwoman matthews thank you councilman gala

[1:01:26] councilman aco okay we're all here

[1:01:30] next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes on january 24th the work

[1:01:35] session and the regular uh meeting minutes

[1:01:39] i'll have a

[1:01:43] motion to approve those second motion approve and second uh

[1:01:49] any opposed

[1:01:54] okay question and proof

[1:02:01] i'll tell you our presentations i think we have someone from the uh gowanus club

[1:02:05] to come speaking david you needed to vote on yeah i'm sorry we need it i'm

[1:02:10] sorry uh we had a motion in a second i'm sorry

[1:02:14] all in favor approve of the minutes of january 24 2022 raise your hand

[1:02:21] those are not favored there are none motions

[1:02:25] carried and approved thank you now we can go to the

[1:02:30] presentation

[1:02:38] can't even start

[1:02:44] well good evening uh i'm chip i'm chip craig with the club in goldsboro and i'm

[1:02:48] happy to be here to do an update presentation on where we

[1:02:52] are with the uh the status of the miniature train

[1:02:56] uh this presentation coming up i think so

[1:03:11] you just press the middle button the middle button okay

[1:03:16] uh if just just a quick reminder uh we call it

[1:03:20] the kiwanis miniature train at hermann park the reality is

[1:03:24] it is a gold city of gold for a miniature train you guys own the

[1:03:28] existing train you will own the new train that is coming uh basically it's

[1:03:32] the kiwanis club we are stewards of that train for you and our

[1:03:36] responsibility is we operated for the city

[1:03:40] we have done that for 67 years now 100 as volunteers nobody's ever gotten paid

[1:03:45] to do that uh

[1:03:47] it is a am i doing that are you doing that

[1:03:56] so it has been going on for 67 years uh it's an iconic part of the uh the city

[1:04:02] uh some people i know i've had four generations now that uh that have

[1:04:05] written a train i don't know if we have five generations but i know we have at

[1:04:09] least four generations that have ridden that train uh it's been featured in our

[1:04:13] state magazine several times but we had a discussion about what was gonna uh

[1:04:17] what we needed to do with the train uh we came to the conclusion uh in late

[1:04:22] june of this year the trains would have to be replaced

[1:04:24] if we wanted to keep going for another 40 50 60 70 years

[1:04:30] so at that time we came before the city council

[1:04:35] and we asked you on august 16th we asked a few things

[1:04:39] we asked for your permission that the kiwanis club could initiate a

[1:04:43] fundraising campaign on behalf of the city to raise the funds needed to

[1:04:47] replace the train and do you approve that

[1:04:49] we asked that that you allow us to use the reserve funds that we we had set

[1:04:55] aside that's required by the city that we had those uh just like you heard

[1:04:59] about the fire truck committed ago nobody wanted an unexpected expense so

[1:05:04] we actually allow us to use the reserve funds uh then we had uh down

[1:05:09] payment for the new trade he approved that

[1:05:12] uh he gave us permission to work with the city staff on the design

[1:05:16] uh and the plans what was going to be coming from the upgraded experience

[1:05:20] and an important aspect as well as number four

[1:05:24] was if the old training has been sold in any proceeds from that train

[1:05:27] would not be used just in the general city office but instead we'll come back

[1:05:31] to the kiwanis club specifically for the street replacement

[1:05:35] project

[1:05:43] chip one second is this is this a powerpoint because it looks like he's

[1:05:48] not able to it it is a this looks like

[1:05:54] it's also it's a i think

[1:05:56] this is a piece it's a pdf but it should be a good play

[1:06:00] last time

[1:06:12] [Music] slides

[1:06:30] i think he's going to do it for you i think okay that would be fine

[1:06:40] [Music] slides

[1:06:53] uh on october 31st uh on halloween day we finished our 67th

[1:06:58] season of running this train uh we had over 12 000 riders in the

[1:07:03] regular season that's an absolute record for us uh by the time we throw the polar

[1:07:08] express and the other extended runs we did

[1:07:10] we probably had close to 18 000 riders this year uh and that that is absolutely

[1:07:15] phenomenal uh next

[1:07:20] one since then november 4th we had a very cold groundbreaking day

[1:07:27] we plan on running train that day we've had phenomenal great weather all year

[1:07:31] where we run the train almost anytime we wanted to for that particular day if you

[1:07:35] remember it's got 45 degrees and raining and we cannot run the train thanks

[1:07:43] uh and then we normally do the uh the jiggle in the park which is only one or

[1:07:47] two days of ride in the train uh we expanded that this year to do the

[1:07:52] full express and we ran the next two weekends on extended runs

[1:07:56] uh and you'll see a couple pictures there you may see that we're actually a

[1:07:59] dog friendly uh type friendly ride there you'll see uh bear ham was happy to be

[1:08:04] there for his dogs uh and you'll see on the far right-hand

[1:08:08] side it says 1953 training retired on december 18 2021

[1:08:13] and about 8 30 on that night that was the last part of the stream the mayor

[1:08:17] had the opportunity to be on the train after that particular run uh then we put

[1:08:21] it away in the tunnel we had everything decorated and we left it that way for a

[1:08:25] couple days we left lights on everything else just kind of felt like a fitting

[1:08:28] way to retire the train and running for over

[1:08:32] 67 years

[1:08:38] all right here we go all right let's go back and look at the bunches in

[1:08:42] august of 16 2021 the left-hand side we said there's gonna be about a hundred

[1:08:47] and ten thousand dollars for the new train

[1:08:49] ten thousand dollars is gonna cost us for the bricks because you are gonna be

[1:08:53] a fundraising bricks and about thirty thousand dollars for a

[1:08:57] train platform of some type if funds allowed and we needed about 150 000

[1:09:03] to get there right now is today we're looking at

[1:09:06] still a hundred ten thousand dollars for a new trade we're looking at twenty four

[1:09:10] thousand dollars what's the cost of the bricks

[1:09:12] that's an increase in expense but you know what's good about that that means a

[1:09:16] lot more people bought a lot more bricks than we anticipated that our fundraising

[1:09:21] goal uh was more than that and uh so when we figured we're done

[1:09:26] with that we have about 60 000 cash fund will be available

[1:09:30] to construct the platform uh that a significant increase

[1:09:34] uh so about 200 uh two thousand dollars total

[1:09:39] if we go back and look at how the funding was originally here's how we

[1:09:42] planned on funding this fifty thousand dollars from that legacy fund that

[1:09:46] reserve fund that you allowed us to pull down and we did that

[1:09:49] uh we figured about twenty five thousand dollars in the old trade we go towards

[1:09:53] new trade and to me i thought this is stretch but

[1:09:57] about seventy five thousand dollars from donations from our community our

[1:10:01] citizens and our businesses look at the right-hand side

[1:10:05] we still have that fifty thousand dollars we put into that train

[1:10:08] there is zero money going from the new train to be sold when we go into that

[1:10:13] 152 000 of cash donations in this community uh for this trade that is

[1:10:19] absolutely phenomenal exceeds our wildest dreams and that is still on the

[1:10:24] low end because they got a call again today when somebody said hey they want

[1:10:27] to contribute a significant amount of money for that

[1:10:30] so we think that more money is going to be coming in

[1:10:33] uh here so that's a good thing so we know we

[1:10:36] have about 202 000 total of cash that we can spend on this project

[1:10:43] on that 152 000 i can tell you right now that uh as of

[1:10:48] uh about three o'clock this afternoon 129 000 i was sitting in our foundation

[1:10:52] bank account we have about twenty three thousand we do still coming in for

[1:10:56] people in the committee that we actually know this would be there and then i got

[1:10:59] a call from the train manufacturer saying i needed another 25 000

[1:11:03] uh to go to the next step on the train so

[1:11:06] i'm now down to 104 000 because we have released twenty five thousand dollars

[1:11:10] more than hit for

[1:11:18] so the fundraising 152 000 so you see the golden ticket says 65 000

[1:11:24] we had 12 reserved seats one to train so i would be contributing five thousand

[1:11:28] dollars you wanted to a1c you could do that somehow we ended up selling 13

[1:11:34] uh instead of 12. that created a little bit of a problem that somebody uh

[1:11:38] was actually going

[1:11:44] level a thousand dollar level we have 16 donors and we have 15 donors giving us

[1:11:50] 500 or more but what i really want to focus

[1:11:53] attention on is that yellow graph that 34 000 doesn't sound like a lot for

[1:11:58] the citizens but that is nickels and dimes and dollars and five dollars

[1:12:03] and 100 donations and hundreds of citizens in this community step forward

[1:12:08] to give towards that trade it's that thirty four thousand dollars it really

[1:12:12] helps us do a whole lot more than we plan on doing

[1:12:16] also let me just go back right i learned two things as well on this

[1:12:22] never underestimate the power of a mother on that 5 000 column over there

[1:12:27] those golden tickets i had a call from the individual uh back in late january

[1:12:32] he said he wanted to donate five thousand dollars for his business

[1:12:35] somebody i did not know they were not on any of our lists to say this is somebody

[1:12:39] we should approach but i asked the person

[1:12:42] well why do you want to do this they said well my mother wrote the train

[1:12:46] uh during the bull express had one of your cars and she called me up and said

[1:12:51] you need to contribute to this project uh so we appreciate the uh that little

[1:12:56] motherly knowledge there uh community gets some kind it's hard

[1:13:00] for us to put a value in this but i can tell you right now it is significant as

[1:13:03] you will see in a moment we have what we call a construction

[1:13:06] coalition of partners that are donating their time their talents their expertise

[1:13:10] and their labor for the construction and the improvements

[1:13:15] what they do significantly magnifies the amount of money we have because if the

[1:13:20] money we had towards the construction issues primarily for materials not for

[1:13:24] labor we could do a whole lot more uh i also have a group that uh two

[1:13:29] individuals contacts and said that what they would like to do is they have the

[1:13:32] equipment to do it they would like to go to lufkin texas so the train's ready to

[1:13:36] pick it up and bring it back here that saves us five thousand dollars because

[1:13:40] that's gonna be a five thousand dollar hard cost

[1:13:42] a contract transportation company get that trained here so that's a huge

[1:13:47] savings again that hundred and ten thousand seventh time for the train

[1:13:51] here's an additional five thousand that's now freed up with these towards

[1:13:54] uh other upgrades let's look at our construction coalition

[1:13:58] partners uh we were approaching and talking to each of these companies uh

[1:14:03] individually and they don't know me i know some of

[1:14:06] these people they don't necessarily know me i'm not a construction person i don't

[1:14:09] run in that circle necessarily but a lot of people said yeah they were

[1:14:13] willing to help i was in communication with david perry

[1:14:17] with the goldsberg building supply and he and i would shake his females about a

[1:14:21] week or so before christmas he asked me for a whole lot of details

[1:14:25] about what does it cost to be what do you think about the sign and things like

[1:14:28] that so i sent him a detailed email and

[1:14:30] that's six or seven pages of information and

[1:14:34] details he was looking for but i said to him i said the number one

[1:14:38] thing that need is i need somebody who can get all these people potential

[1:14:43] stakeholders in the room at the same time that we can do that we think we do

[1:14:47] a lot because talking to everybody individually i was like kind of hurting

[1:14:50] cats probably the best christmas gift done

[1:14:54] yet in a long time at 8 30 in the morning or chris support i got an email

[1:14:57] from david saying that he was all in the volunteer

[1:15:00] building supply that he would take the point he would be in charge he would

[1:15:04] make that kind of meeting happen that's exactly what we needed to happen

[1:15:07] in late january he pulled together all kinds of different individuals they had

[1:15:12] a meeting what came out of that ta loving company said they're going to

[1:15:16] step up they are now the construction

[1:15:18] supervisors managers planners providing all the labor all the

[1:15:23] budgeting they're taking control of the product from that aspect that is

[1:15:27] significant you just can't put a value on that because there's a lot of money

[1:15:30] to be involved in that jeremy smith jason simple said

[1:15:34] he'd take care of all the ground work needed to be done all the grading

[1:15:38] everything needs to be done to prep for the uh patio

[1:15:41] uh wayne electric and senior students and yet we're all in take care of the

[1:15:44] electrical part uh we've got to rework some defensing

[1:15:48] in there signals take care of that joe smith the smith's engineer design

[1:15:53] said you think they're going on the architectural drawings

[1:15:56] and brian jones was a civil engineering keyboard said yeah you think you're

[1:16:02] doing one need to know the simple engineering designs in order to get that

[1:16:05] from having a lead and take it all through the planning commissions and

[1:16:08] everything else t11 said hey we'll guide you to the historic commission

[1:16:12] everything needs to be done this is significant i don't know how to

[1:16:15] put a valid figure on there but it's a significant dialogue here what these

[1:16:19] people got i think somebody in this council asked me a few months ago

[1:16:24] are you going to use local people i think the answer yes

[1:16:27] uh it's not that we have to contract the working people they have step forward

[1:16:31] and say we want to make a difference in this community

[1:16:36] so what's going to happen with the cash funds we've donated this 152 000 plus i

[1:16:41] can tell you right now 100 every penny will be spent

[1:16:46] on this upgrade project uh none of the donated cash funds are going to be used

[1:16:51] to replenish that reserve fund we're going to pull that up for the down

[1:16:54] payment none of those funds are being used for

[1:16:57] any kind of expenses anybody form

[1:17:00] awareness not using that for anything like groundbreaking ceremonies anything

[1:17:05] like that we feel when people say we want to give

[1:17:08] towards this project new training the upgrade 100 of those dollars in penny

[1:17:13] should go towards that project it's exactly what's going on there are no

[1:17:16] overhead expenses or anything else 100 of every dollar is going to go right

[1:17:20] into this project they could approve for the city

[1:17:25] where are we now really three phases one's the training too is that brick

[1:17:29] patty everything to construct three is the uh construction of some

[1:17:34] kind of platform phase one new trains one of your

[1:17:37] railroad companies they can train i received these pictures last week the

[1:17:41] train is almost finished right now we're kind of waiting for him to get a paint

[1:17:44] shot when we started the project we were

[1:17:47] about a 10 month lead time and todd swann said that uh with the

[1:17:52] training he said while we gave him the money it would probably be about june

[1:17:55] before we'll have a train that was kind of disappointing

[1:17:59] i was in shock on the wednesday before thanksgiving he called me and said well

[1:18:03] you had to schedule because you had another train

[1:18:05] just like this with these manufacturing so you could do kind of two of them side

[1:18:09] by side at the same time do some things get some

[1:18:14] a little bit of time savings there he said i think the

[1:18:17] training will be ready for about the first week of february which is right

[1:18:20] now we've been in communication but

[1:18:23] unfortunately thanks to the new omicron uh version of covet this shot has been

[1:18:28] armed by that uh and they were in the training city right now there's several

[1:18:32] trainees working on the normal custody they're waiting for the painters paint

[1:18:37] shop and the paint shop has been shut down for six weeks now

[1:18:40] so we're a few weeks behind so we think they're going to be uh in this stage

[1:18:44] that are probably in the late march we should have taken the trip

[1:18:49] we're talking about expanding the patio area around the uh around the concession

[1:18:54] state the pink area is the existing footprint such a standard train station

[1:18:59] everything is gray and blue is existing concrete that the areas are

[1:19:04] green are areas we're going to expand into

[1:19:07] everything right now should be replaced with paper so it's all going to be

[1:19:11] worked in actually full-size bricks it'll be a significant improvement

[1:19:17] we have uh 583 individual bricks there uh in

[1:19:23] into this design we're incorporating lots of literacy elements

[1:19:27] so we are trying to make this a a come to place

[1:19:30] for kids when the train's not running it's still going to come to the

[1:19:33] educational learning experience a literacy

[1:19:36] experience one of our five thousand hour donors

[1:19:39] were playing at this plan for them to call us back up a couple days later said

[1:19:44] we already gave you five thousand because we're so all about limits and we

[1:19:48] wanted to get an additional 2500 to help underwrite the cost of those

[1:19:52] wonderful breaks so again people really stepped in and

[1:19:56] helped us out in a lot of different ways the reason we want to do this

[1:20:02] if the slide will change

[1:20:08] is this is what the area looks like around an existing transect it's all

[1:20:11] dirt and look it's not very attractive so everything

[1:20:13] you see there all that gray area is going to be a nice brick patio at some

[1:20:17] point that's the significant improvement we think for uh

[1:20:20] [Music] from this angle or everything you see

[1:20:23] it's all going to be great favors that will be a big improvement

[1:20:27] uh we just think that's a if we did nothing to get a new tree and

[1:20:31] there's a great patio they think that's a big improvement for hunter park

[1:20:36] uh the other thing we've been working with we've been working on the city of

[1:20:39] designs and everything else the city and departure recreation department they

[1:20:43] received a recent grant uh to put in some ada compliant

[1:20:47] sidewalks uh uh in the area uh in the park

[1:20:51] right now to get to the train station you have to walk the dirt bug those

[1:20:55] sidewalks any kind of access here

[1:20:57] so working with the city they've been working on the signs and stuff

[1:21:01] because we're doing this and they've decided that if they if the fund's

[1:21:04] allowed to do everything they want to be great if the funds don't allow them do

[1:21:08] everything that they want to do what partisan rex would like to do

[1:21:13] is a five five foot wide 88 line sidewalk comes with the parking lot of

[1:21:17] the spring patio and then on the back side and come off that patio and go to

[1:21:21] the playing around and go out to the back parking lots it's something we

[1:21:24] don't have right now but we think that's going to be a significant improvement as

[1:21:28] well and they've given us commission we can get paid all kinds of new things on

[1:21:31] their sidewalks as long as we maintain it

[1:21:34] so we can make the sidewalk educational as well

[1:21:37] [Music] phase three is what are you gonna do as

[1:21:40] far as construction we'll talk about it at overhang and everything else so we

[1:21:44] wanted to cover the area uh this is a picture of

[1:21:48] the existing downtown train depot our initial thoughts for the thirty

[1:21:52] thousand hours so we tried to build something that kind of looked like this

[1:21:56] that would go over top of the uh training and some of the brick areas

[1:22:00] uh now we're looking at something a little

[1:22:03] bit different uh this is actually a train station at some other part i think

[1:22:06] it's in wisconsin that's a miniature train just like ours you can see that

[1:22:10] that building looks like an old train the way the roof line is and everything

[1:22:14] else so as now that we have more money

[1:22:17] available to us we think we're gonna have probably 70 75 thousand dollars

[1:22:22] federal refurbished and labor that's basically covered

[1:22:26] then we're meeting with the ta loving your design folks and stuff our plan

[1:22:30] right now and we're in this design phase is probably take the roof off the

[1:22:35] concession stand rebuild it with something like this

[1:22:39] integrate the architectural features and make it look like a training code and

[1:22:42] try to do uh a covered uh platform area as well

[1:22:47] because we have that much more money available to us

[1:22:49] that's just a huge improvement from the community

[1:22:54] so what's the future of the old trade that questions being asked uh we have

[1:22:58] decided for a variety of reasons and it's best to sell the train

[1:23:02] and the reason of that is it's still fully functioning operational we have

[1:23:07] hate to have teared apart they've done it

[1:23:10] to do that and there are several places that would love to have this train

[1:23:14] we think we have set uh based on the forms of the virtual rim this is train

[1:23:18] number 688 it's the 188 train of these ever built up about 250.

[1:23:24] we think the city of goldsburg or this trade has set an operational record for

[1:23:28] these types of trades it has been a continuous service for 68 years it has

[1:23:33] never missed a year there are older trains out there but most of these

[1:23:36] operations have multiple trades they'll take a train out of service for a few

[1:23:40] years and rebuild it or fix it up and then put it back in the service so we

[1:23:44] think based on the feedback we've gotten from the museum and everything else this

[1:23:48] train is probably set a record we'd like to see it and continue to set that

[1:23:51] regular operating somewhere else uh

[1:23:54] currently it's being sold at surplus equipment uh by the city which is what

[1:23:58] it has to be done it's the sort of gov deals

[1:24:01] site uh the minimum bid for that is 20 000 so

[1:24:05] that sale will close next week 2016. but here's the thing i'm going to do

[1:24:10] instead of that money that we get from the proceeds from there we're not going

[1:24:14] to put it back to the training

[1:24:19] [Music]

[1:24:23] we don't need a fifty thousand dollar reserve fund right now because we have a

[1:24:27] new trade you don't expect the huge expenses if we can get back to that uh

[1:24:31] 20 000 plus uh they were in a pretty good shape in

[1:24:34] case something was wrong with the tracks very big expenses we have the reserve

[1:24:38] fund in place and then lastly what's ahead for all

[1:24:43] this uh well we're in the design phase right now in february and march we'll be

[1:24:47] coming back to you here sometime in the future for the planning efficient for us

[1:24:50] to hear design ideas we have uh we expect delivery to trade sometime

[1:24:55] in the late march the first part of april

[1:24:58] in march and april we expect the implementation

[1:25:02] of that brick patio that we should put that in place

[1:25:05] and probably because we've expanded what we want to do

[1:25:09] construction-wise maybe this summer before we had the platform

[1:25:13] replaced the key thing is we feel since the

[1:25:16] donors have given us money uh in order to

[1:25:20] get these bricks in order to make this happen we feel it's absolutely critical

[1:25:24] if you don't open the tray and start running your train until that patio in

[1:25:28] place it has all those bricks there that uh that they paid for to make that so

[1:25:33] we've got some pressure ones to get that patio part done and we want to do all

[1:25:36] that together we can wait a little bit longer on the other construction in the

[1:25:41] summer things really slow down as it's too hot

[1:25:44] that's one of the reasons why we want to build a covered area kind of

[1:25:47] continue to operate so we feel that once we get into it that

[1:25:50] we should be able to put ourselves in position if we need to stop running for

[1:25:54] two or three weeks to get the construction done or been postponed

[1:25:58] until fall we're very comfortable with that

[1:26:01] uh and then we just want to thank everybody i want to thank the community

[1:26:04] that's out there and all the supporters because this is not something that wants

[1:26:08] something for the city this is being done by the

[1:26:11] community uh for the city of goldsboro because

[1:26:15] they feel that this is an important thing and i kind of want to thank you

[1:26:18] for watching for 67 years have been donating volunteering their

[1:26:22] time to get that training running and i appreciate all those that have come

[1:26:26] before me for decades to make that happen

[1:26:29] so thank you

[1:26:33] any questions good job thank you thank you

[1:26:37] all right one last thing while i'm here today goldberg 2022.com

[1:26:42] we have semi officially closed out our fundraising campaign however for

[1:26:47] some reason anybody wants to continue to donate

[1:26:51] we are at that limit let's say about the deadline i'm saying tonight or tomorrow

[1:26:55] the only reason we still you still have the opportunity to donate

[1:26:58] and get a break is because we're waiting on some of the

[1:27:03] finalization of the graphics part of the print company

[1:27:06] the important breaks of things that we have uh integrated that we use the

[1:27:10] corporate logos where the graphics department brick

[1:27:14] company is finalizing that because quite finalized that yet

[1:27:18] but that could happen we're hoping to happen today or they happen tomorrow as

[1:27:21] soon as that happens then we're done so if you haven't had the opportunity you

[1:27:25] still have the opportunity to get it right probably by about noon tomorrow so

[1:27:30] thank you any other questions or anything about this

[1:27:33] mr craig i

[1:27:35] i know you're very passionate about this and i've seen you

[1:27:40] up here i've seen you out of the park and your wife as well

[1:27:44] and uh i can't say enough about your dedication to this project

[1:27:52] you've been out there in rain cold uh hot uh

[1:27:56] heat and so forth and there's also other members of this

[1:28:00] organization that are also very dedicated

[1:28:03] this is going to be a great addition to the park

[1:28:07] and it's going to be enjoyed this new one's going to be enjoyed like the open

[1:28:11] has been george for generations as well so i commend you and uh

[1:28:16] your wife and all the other members and i i guess uh

[1:28:21] harsh best is probably uh we were long-time conductors

[1:28:26] yes yeah he's been a member of our club i

[1:28:28] think since i would say in 1977 they performed then

[1:28:32] so he's probably driven that train more than anybody else and he proved his life

[1:28:37] he made the he drove the last round or something

[1:28:46] [Music] because we just knew that any day

[1:28:51] something could go wrong with this old train

[1:28:53] and it's important community we'd be out of business for once on there and we

[1:28:56] just felt that the best way to keep going for another 50 60 70 years at the

[1:29:01] same time in the effort to try to train there so

[1:29:04] uh teaming forward and what part of those work and one

[1:29:08] other thing i want to mention uh i think it's pretty clear

[1:29:11] but for those that don't know there are no paid

[1:29:15] uh staff

[1:29:17] of this uh project uh in terms of running the train it's all volunteer am

[1:29:22] i correct it is hundreds of volunteers uh none of us have ever gotten paid uh

[1:29:27] it's not an item that's even a significant budget item for the city

[1:29:32] because we take that burden as well uh i want us as an exchange for that you

[1:29:37] allow us to operate it allows us to keep the funds from being raised at the train

[1:29:42] but since none of them has ever gotten paid i'd like to talk about

[1:29:45] 100 percent of the money we make of the trade we put it right back in the

[1:29:49] community of charities scholarships

[1:29:52] supporting various types of programs things like that so we don't keep any of

[1:29:56] that money from the quantum scopes on anything goes into that recession stand

[1:30:00] uh for training sales concessions 107 right back in the

[1:30:09] and things like that so well again uh thank you uh for the

[1:30:14] presentation and thank you so much for you and your wife and all the other

[1:30:18] members of that team that makes this happen thank you for voting for many

[1:30:22] more years thank you thank you sir thank you

[1:30:26] okay this time we'll

[1:30:29] go to the public comment period and uh

[1:30:35] citizens that are in the audience that uh want to come up and speak uh please

[1:30:38] do so and you have three minutes to uh speak please announce your name

[1:30:45] when you come to the podium

[1:30:54] i'm here to make a request to the council

[1:30:58] in lieu of transparency that you bring back your finance director to recap the

[1:31:05] um discussion on the audit tonight because unfortunately myself along with

[1:31:10] a lot of other schools watching online as soon as councilwoman matthews asked

[1:31:15] some really important questions and sound went off and i believe

[1:31:18] councilwoman jones also asked the question but it didn't come in

[1:31:23] until after um miss quinn's presentation was over and it got jumbled with some

[1:31:28] current conversation but i know

[1:31:31] it's a serious issue and like i said in rule of transparency um i believe the

[1:31:37] citizens of both world want to know the financial health of our city so um maybe

[1:31:42] councilman matthews and jones in your indie comment you can recap the

[1:31:46] questions that you asked and if you've got a response to them

[1:31:49] thank you nope i think miss gwen is in the

[1:31:53] audience or maybe like next council meetings she

[1:31:56] could come up and you know just maybe recap and give it

[1:32:00] again i think it's important was it the um audit discussion or was it

[1:32:05] the discussion about the 8.8 million dollars that they were trying to

[1:32:08] reallocate i believe you said i need you to clarify i think my city manager was

[1:32:13] explaining these facts and then that piece of the conversation we just

[1:32:17] couldn't hear it was that one

[1:32:20] yes so if you could recap it i think you know a lot of people were really

[1:32:24] interested in what was being said at that point mr city manager when you give

[1:32:27] your report do you mind recapping that piece about the 8.8

[1:32:33] when you give your report sure okay thank you

[1:32:37] okay is there someone else

[1:32:48] i too was at home watching youtube because

[1:32:52] the video feed on facebook wasn't happening it wasn't working

[1:32:56] but several times during the time when i was watching youtube

[1:33:00] it went sound i could see you moving

[1:33:03] but there were no words

[1:33:08] the reason why i'm here is not simply

[1:33:12] because i want you to do so

[1:33:17] i'm demanding that you do the right thing

[1:33:20] you see you can't have personal conversations about city

[1:33:25] business it's supposed to be held

[1:33:28] in a public forum so that the public can have access to it

[1:33:35] well with today's technology with virtual meetings

[1:33:39] youtube and the searchlight there is no reason

[1:33:44] why we can't do this or why the city of goldsberg can't do this in fact

[1:33:49] i know for a fact i know for a fact that the city manager

[1:33:54] has been notified about this issue some weeks ago

[1:34:00] again it appears to me that there's more of

[1:34:04] these this game plan

[1:34:08] and we're tired you know

[1:34:12] when you go for a championship you put your best team

[1:34:16] on the floor that's what we need

[1:34:20] a good team we need ball players

[1:34:24] we don't need third street players okay

[1:34:30] and on another note

[1:34:33] i was told that um

[1:34:37] i'll just be direct that councilman gaylon was appointed to

[1:34:42] shut me down let me be direct i feel no man

[1:34:50] let me be direct i have took the oath to my higher power

[1:34:55] that i will take it all the way and that means i'm gonna tell the truth

[1:35:00] and just because i don't give it to you like you want it why don't chucking job

[1:35:06] that's up to you as long as i don't work any longer

[1:35:09] that's on god

[1:35:13] councilman edcock i can recall

[1:35:16] you saying to councilwoman howard john you accused her

[1:35:21] that she was making a political choice when she didn't vote to raise the

[1:35:26] utility bill

[1:35:30] but yet when you interview

[1:35:33] councilman gala you asked him did he have any problem

[1:35:38] disagreeing with me well you have obviously a problem with disagreeing

[1:35:43] with councilwoman walker jones and you pretty much articulated that

[1:35:49] when i watch these city council meetings from from at

[1:35:53] home i'm gathering data

[1:35:56] [Music] and i think you all know that i've sent

[1:36:00] you an analysis

[1:36:03] okay you're starting your time thanks sir

[1:36:16] uh

[1:36:28] my name is james skane [Music]

[1:36:32] and i want to thank you mayor david hamm and council members for giving me this

[1:36:37] time speech i would like to give thanks to the

[1:36:40] public workers who are essential to our city

[1:36:45] that improve all of our lives

[1:36:52] and this is the letter and i will also write for the

[1:36:57] senate judge to make sure that the public will talk to this thing

[1:37:03] and this uh okay janice kane greeting of the city of

[1:37:07] goldsberg it has been necessary for me to write right this level to the city of

[1:37:13] goldsboro specifically to the department of code enforcement and public works

[1:37:18] the community of king draft in goldsboro north carolina send a heartfelt thanks

[1:37:23] out to all involved for four years i have been calling the city for a system

[1:37:29] concerning the wooded area behind my house

[1:37:32] this winter area poses a very dangerous and unsafe environment for families that

[1:37:37] live in this area each year the cause fail on deaf ears

[1:37:42] with no help or relief due to high strawberry bushes trees this

[1:37:48] area became a solid safe haven for all roads and insects passing large field

[1:37:53] wrecks knives squirrels rabbits and snakes and lords

[1:38:00] whoever has that phone i want to cut it off or leave this council's chambers

[1:38:04] right now this is the third time i've heard this phone

[1:38:08] don't bring it back in here turn it on sir

[1:38:14] do you need help um silence it bro maybe i'll get it i'll do it we're gonna

[1:38:19] need to just kick him out if he needs help trying to silence his phone

[1:38:25] stop the clock yeah reset the clock please

[1:38:31] sorry miss fiends okay a large rat dead into my home

[1:38:37] squirrels destroyed my yard boy and my neighbor born and i grasped in the

[1:38:42] backyard we spent a great deal of our time raking

[1:38:46] seasonal falling leaves from the trees or paying someone to do it an elderly

[1:38:51] neighbor fell and injured herself trying to get away from the snake that got into

[1:38:55] her shed they crawled the windows and lies in our yard are on the porch these

[1:39:01] animals are poisonous and carry viruses and diseases that could pose an unwanted

[1:39:07] medical situation we are taxpayers and our home supposed to be a safe haven not

[1:39:13] for the uninvited or unwanted robots this became a fourth year mission for me

[1:39:19] because of the silliness of the issues and concerns i had no intention of

[1:39:23] giving up our neighborhood became more toxic after the center goals were

[1:39:28] cleaned up on one side of the bench cutting our struggle and tree which left

[1:39:33] the road of no choice but to move on the other side the more familiar the city

[1:39:39] manager that i came in contact with with did come to assess the issues

[1:39:45] they acknowledged that there was a problem and they hoped to come up with a

[1:39:50] solution but they never that never happened however one day i called the

[1:39:55] call enforcement office at the center goldsboro and reached miss stephanie

[1:39:59] booker and shared with her the the community issues they consider of four

[1:40:04] years mr allen weeks and miss booker came out to assess the area after

[1:40:09] assessing the area before the month was out they contacted the right people and

[1:40:14] public works to take care of the problem as of november 1st 20th 21st

[1:40:20] special thanks to stephanie booker alan weeks and his team

[1:40:25] aaron hope said smith and christian caleb those were the young men who came

[1:40:31] out and cleared the area they need to be given credit and recognized for making

[1:40:37] our community and home a safer place and i'll read this request

[1:40:43] okay the last time i stood before the council i was told by some that they

[1:40:48] were looking to a way to have senior citizens with that water bill i was

[1:40:52] under the assumption that the council member was going to initiate a program

[1:40:57] of their own the fire that was inserted with the water bill january 2022 the

[1:41:03] lihp low-income household water assistance program does not benefit all

[1:41:09] citizens to be ethical for this program the

[1:41:13] household must have an income equal to a less than 50 of the federal property

[1:41:18] level this program does not address the concerns that was brought up before the

[1:41:23] council many of our elderly were not qualified they will be eliminated i'm

[1:41:29] requesting that the council member continued looking to a better way to

[1:41:34] assist the elderly and plan their water bill we have many senior citizens that

[1:41:39] are disabled can not i do not know how to voice their concerns we are their

[1:41:46] votes thank you thank you [Music]

[1:41:49] leave that with the uh manager miss gaines you're going to give that to

[1:41:54] the motivator with the clerk oh yeah

[1:42:11] for you

[1:42:20] [Music]

[1:42:24] is

[1:42:39] um

[1:42:49] thank you man thank you okay we have anyone else to speak

[1:43:02] my name is doc first i'd like to apologize for

[1:43:06] my cell phone electronic challenge

[1:43:12] um

[1:43:15] i have a bad habit that i

[1:43:18] guess and i'd like to sorry

[1:43:24] thank you sir

[1:43:28] the other one you gave me

[1:43:31] no thanks excuse me

[1:43:37] it was nothing personal

[1:43:40] i know you've been here many times

[1:43:49] we know you're offended

[1:43:53] thank you so much

[1:43:56] due respect um what i really like to talk

[1:44:00] about much

[1:44:18] and i'm

[1:44:26] um [Music]

[1:44:44] have a very serious problem you know there

[1:44:55] [Music]

[1:45:06] did he go to the city manager in the clerk and ask for

[1:45:10] time to make a presentation at one of our regular meetings

[1:45:14] sure sir yes sir

[1:45:21] [Music] anyone else like to speak

[1:45:36] [Music]

[1:45:42] they [Music]

[1:45:56] opponents check to see if they have covets or whatnot and

[1:46:00] those who never try to create some safety

[1:46:05] and i said and the next thing is that i want to

[1:46:08] mention this and asked for the um

[1:46:12] of everybody but not real starting up fundraising campaign

[1:46:17] which is actually it was from an idea that's

[1:46:20] going to be one of our programs before the people that we're working

[1:46:33] for the homes and what that is is where we're gonna go around and we're gonna

[1:46:37] solicit uh donations of scrap metal jump out of

[1:46:42] what may happen and we're going to take it to our places we can

[1:46:46] break them down and recycle them and then we'll

[1:46:48] uh sell them to make revenue and everything for

[1:46:52] the organization and um the restoration of hope village

[1:46:56] so we are coming for you all this secret yeah

[1:47:00] it could pass word out and you know just think of this because i'm sure

[1:47:06] they a strap right here that will get collected and used to

[1:47:11] uh have donated to us we can earn some things and just like say that

[1:47:17] it gives the guys stuff that we're working with training

[1:47:27] [Music]

[1:47:35] i feel like it creates harmony and it also allows us to

[1:47:39] make money

[1:47:47] it became the city

[1:48:03] give me your information so somebody at home wants to have some metal or

[1:48:08] something picked up i'm in the process of getting my

[1:48:10] garage renovated i've got a 10 roof so if you were to give your

[1:48:15] phone number if you didn't mind or your contact information

[1:48:18] right now so anybody that may want to donate will

[1:48:21] call you or text you because i know of a lot of elderly people that may have

[1:48:25] metal uh you know

[1:48:28] soda cans or anything that anything any any dollar amount oh so if

[1:48:33] you don't mind they can contact us uh call me at

[1:48:41] [Music]

[1:48:45] dot 919-750-4665 gmail.com

[1:48:48] or on facebook

[1:48:51] if you uh we'll come back we're gonna go back and pick it up if you want but if

[1:48:55] you'd like to you can be dropped off at our place 117

[1:49:02] [Music]

[1:49:15] mr rice give that information to our clerk over here so she can have it as a

[1:49:20] if anyone calls or meet us we need yes

[1:49:26] which is

[1:49:30] anyone else that would like to speak anyone else would like to speak if so

[1:49:36] come forward

[1:49:40] here's no one else wishes to speak so we'll

[1:49:44] move to the next item um

[1:49:48] city manager's report

[1:49:51] consent agenda items be back to the consent agenda i'm sorry we got to hear

[1:49:54] them myself item c and d are presented for council approval

[1:50:00] so we've heard uh the

[1:50:03] special use permits explained earlier

[1:50:07] there's a motion to approve items uh c and d on the consideration

[1:50:13] so move so

[1:50:15] now for a second all in favor excuse me

[1:50:20] make the wrong call here

[1:50:24] mayor pro tempo yes councilwoman jones yeah councilman broadway yes

[1:50:29] councilwoman matthews yes councilman that gayler yes councilman again yes

[1:50:35] okay we got a consensus approval on the consent of gender items

[1:50:40] so now we'll move to the city manager's report

[1:50:43] all right sir i'll apologize for uh losing the facebook and youtube feeds so

[1:50:47] i believe he was asked to go through new business item b the arpa state and local

[1:50:52] fiscal recovery funds update i think that's where it was lost

[1:50:58] so to reiterate the american rescue plan act coronavirus state and local fiscal

[1:51:02] recovery funds final guidance background information in march 2021 the

[1:51:08] american rescue plan act established the coronavirus state and local fiscal

[1:51:12] recovery funds to provide state local and tribal

[1:51:15] governments with the resources needed to respond to the pandemic and its effects

[1:51:20] on may 10 2021 the u.s department of treasury issued the interim final rule

[1:51:25] implementing the state local fiscal recovery fund program

[1:51:30] on may 17 2021 the city council of the city of goldsboro accepted eight million

[1:51:35] eight hundred and thirteen thousand five hundred and fourteen dollars in our

[1:51:39] grant funds that may be obligated through december 31st 2024

[1:51:45] on june 21st 2021 the city council adopted the grant project fund for the

[1:51:49] ark special revenue fund with expenditures of one million six hundred

[1:51:54] and sixty four thousand five hundred dollars for lost public sector revenue

[1:51:58] and two million five hundred and fifty eight thousand hundred 994 dollars for

[1:52:03] water sewer and broadband infrastructure as identified in the fy 2122 budget

[1:52:10] and four million five hundred and ninety thousand twenty dollars was set aside

[1:52:14] for contingency on january 6 2022 the u.s treasury

[1:52:19] issued the final rule implementing the arpa statutory provisions on eligible

[1:52:23] and ineligible uses of the slfrf funding which provides

[1:52:28] broader flexibility and greater simplicity in the program

[1:52:33] one of the most significant changes in the final rule is a standard allowance

[1:52:36] for revenue loss of up to 10 million dollars not to exceed the award amount

[1:52:41] for each recipient for the provision of government services

[1:52:46] given this flexibility staff recommend the full award of eight

[1:52:50] million eight hundred thirteen thousand five hundred and fourteen be applied to

[1:52:54] lost public sector revenue to fund general government services

[1:52:58] primarily salary and benefits the allowable expenditures would include

[1:53:03] any payroll for a legally authorized function of the government such as

[1:53:06] public safety environmental health recreation administration and public

[1:53:11] utilities this will simplify the compliance

[1:53:14] requirements under uniform guidance and replace tax and utility revenue that can

[1:53:19] then fund previously agreed water and sewer infrastructure and other

[1:53:22] expenditures as determined by council under north carolina law

[1:53:27] the council approves this change the finance director will bring a project

[1:53:31] budget amendment to council at the next meeting to amend the grant project

[1:53:35] related to the slfrf award council then determined that they wanted

[1:53:40] more information and they would wait until the council retreat

[1:53:44] to ask additional questions or get additional information

[1:53:47] on this

[1:54:06] it's not like is closed captioning the option for the

[1:54:10] council for for the words to actually go across

[1:54:13] do we have that technology it is we do have so

[1:54:17] the feed has to go through for they all wanted to be able to even use

[1:54:28] is going to take my audio which will capture the whole meeting and

[1:54:32] put it up tomorrow so he'll work with some magic and make sure that

[1:54:37] every everything will be captured tonight it'll be back up tomorrow

[1:54:40] we'll be brandon with the video he should be able to do that but regardless

[1:54:44] we'll at least have we'll have some way for everybody to be able to hear

[1:54:47] everything okay

[1:54:58] yes sir and this item will be back in the agenda

[1:55:01] packet as well okay

[1:55:04] do you have other comments yes i do i would like to introduce the

[1:55:08] temporary assistant city manager mr hugh rowe o'donnell

[1:55:13] stand up we're very fortunate to have rowe here

[1:55:17] for the next two months he basically brings a wealth of experience he was the

[1:55:21] assistant city manager and an interim city manager for the town of wake forest

[1:55:26] he saw excessive growth in that uh town from i believe nine thousand over forty

[1:55:31] thousand correct row uh row was also public utilities director

[1:55:35] there and he was the city engineer for the city of rocky mount

[1:55:39] um so

[1:55:41] we're very fortunate to have rowe here advising the staff and myself and he

[1:55:46] will be helping us prepare for the budget cycle and then he has a plane

[1:55:51] ticket back to ireland at the end of march so we won't have them beyond that

[1:55:54] time period so we have them for two months but

[1:55:57] joe originally is uh from ireland came over to the states i think in 79

[1:56:02] directly and then got your citizenship and uh i've been doing great things ever

[1:56:06] since thank you for joining our team

[1:56:25] also mentioned the retreat again has been rescheduled from the 22nd and 23rd

[1:56:29] to the 21st and 22nd at the goldsboro event center working on finalizing the

[1:56:33] agenda for that uh also mentioned for the public out

[1:56:37] there that the parks and rec youth program for the spring is

[1:56:44] open for registration so yes so the soccer softball baseball

[1:56:49] t-ball for ages three through 14. and the senior games

[1:56:53] registration is also available through the first of march for tennis pickleball

[1:56:57] ping pong etc that's all i have sir thank you

[1:57:03] because the uh

[1:57:07] we did not and we when we did the approval of the

[1:57:12] agenda did uh

[1:57:15] you had a closed session you did sir

[1:57:19] i did yes you mentioned it yes all right

[1:57:24] well before we go there uh let's go around the table here and

[1:57:30] uh have council comments do the

[1:57:35] we'll start with you counselor [Music]

[1:57:49] um

[1:57:54] i have the proclamation uh resonating uh

[1:57:59] this month as black national black history month black history month

[1:58:03] proclamation whereas the 2022 theme for national

[1:58:08] black history month is black history and wellness

[1:58:12] recognizing black scholars and practitioners of western and alternative

[1:58:16] medicine past and present who have made advances

[1:58:20] in medical fields and care daily for the bodies minds and emotional stat states

[1:58:26] of people of their communities and whereas during black history month

[1:58:30] we celebrate the many achievements and contributions made by african americans

[1:58:35] to our medical economic cultural spirit and political development

[1:58:39] and whereas dr carter g woodson known as the father of

[1:58:44] black's history initiated negro history week in february 1926 and for

[1:58:50] many years the second week of february chosen to

[1:58:54] coincide with the birthdays of frederick douglass

[1:58:57] and abraham lincoln was celebrated by african-americans in

[1:59:01] the united states and whereas in 1976

[1:59:06] negro history week was expanded and became established

[1:59:10] as black history month it is now celebrated all over north

[1:59:14] america and whereas black history month is a time for all americans to remember

[1:59:19] the stories and teachings of those who helped build our nation

[1:59:23] advance the cause of civil rights and strengthen the families and

[1:59:27] communities and whereas african-americans have made

[1:59:31] significant contributions as leaders at the highest levels of the medicine

[1:59:36] military business education law government the arts sports and religion

[1:59:43] and whereas the city of gold's worst commission on community relations and

[1:59:46] development has committed to working within

[1:59:49] all layers of the community to promote understanding enhanced knowledge and

[1:59:54] seek opportunity for change in the face of this community

[1:59:58] now therefore i david hamm mayor city the city of goldsboro north carolina

[2:00:03] hereby proclaim the month of february 2022 as black history month and the city

[2:00:08] of goldsboro encouraged all citizens to observe this month

[2:00:12] by participating and supporting all festivities celebrating the proud

[2:00:16] heritage of african-americans and witnesses therefore

[2:00:20] i have been to this set my hand and the fix to seal the city of goldberg north

[2:00:24] carolina on the 7th of february 2022.

[2:00:39] at this time then go around and

[2:00:42] ask comments and i was told to counsel the performance

[2:00:46] okay i did have a question for the city

[2:00:49] manager but in lower time um

[2:00:53] and i know it is going to require some um

[2:00:57] discussion um it's regarding the repaying of 38

[2:01:02] 528 and 64 cents

[2:01:09] back to the annual community assessment paper

[2:01:16] 2020 paper and i know that that's going to require some

[2:01:21] some discussion what i wanted to know is um

[2:01:26] this is that um those bureau must spend an additional 31

[2:01:31] 000 funds before

[2:01:33] may the 20th 22 and i want to know where we are with that and

[2:01:40] why are we paying back this money did we not use it could

[2:01:45] we not find um

[2:01:48] housing could we not find uh people that needed this money that

[2:01:53] needed this assistance i'll have the community relations and

[2:01:56] development director update you on that information you could

[2:01:59] do it at the retreat or the next council meeting but the repayment of those funds

[2:02:03] was essentially an administrative error double booking

[2:02:07] those funds so they could pay for our employees salaries to my knowledge and

[2:02:14] then the other spending we'd have to get you

[2:02:16] an update on where where they're at for that

[2:02:19] okay thank you um

[2:02:22] i would like to thank the mayor for the proclamation of black history month

[2:02:27] i personally think that black history is every month

[2:02:31] 365 days of the year but i really do appreciate it and thank you

[2:02:36] i would also like to ask

[2:02:40] um individuals to please check out the um

[2:02:44] the library and the wayne county museum who has have wonderful exhibits of the

[2:02:52] accomplishments and the presence of the african-american indus and the culture

[2:02:58] as well as in the city there's another thing that i would like

[2:03:02] to share when we're talking about elderly

[2:03:06] there is a general statute 105 2771 and it's for the elderly disabled

[2:03:14] homestead exclusion and um it helps with the

[2:03:20] paying of property tax which i need to pay mine for mainly in the paper but

[2:03:27] um it helps with um homeowners 65 and older

[2:03:32] uh if you qualify i i have a 84 year assistant and and she

[2:03:38] did qualify so she you know doesn't have to pay um taxes

[2:03:42] now so i did want uh individuals to know that that is out there

[2:03:47] um go to the tax office and see if you qualify

[2:03:54] and that's it

[2:03:57] i'd like to uh thank chip and becky craig and all the quantums who

[2:04:03] over these years and all the guys that have driven the train and all the work

[2:04:07] you've done so thank you very much and i think it's a wonderful project thank you

[2:04:13] that's all i have i just want to encourage everyone to

[2:04:16] take the time to educate yourselves especially during this designated month

[2:04:20] of black history to understand the impact as well as the contributions the

[2:04:24] african americans have made not only in this country but around the world one of

[2:04:28] my students who goes for high school as a member of the interact club is working

[2:04:31] on a proposal to have a weekend title black excellence

[2:04:34] which will be similar to a homecoming setting um we whereas every day would

[2:04:40] highlight different aspects of the african-american experience and i just

[2:04:43] want to give a special shout out to my third block student ms heinz for your

[2:04:46] visions that's all i have

[2:04:52] sure for those of you that could hear earlier

[2:04:55] uh a question was asked about why it was that that i was appointed to

[2:04:59] counsel and i want to refer back to the the

[2:05:03] presentation that i gave whenever i was given the opportunity to speak to

[2:05:07] council about why i believed that i was a good fit at that time

[2:05:11] and i believe that the position of goldsboro

[2:05:15] economically speaking in the region and preparing for the growth of the region

[2:05:19] over the next decade and decade and a half and beyond

[2:05:23] is is what we should be focused on that is

[2:05:26] what i focused on when i was presenting to council and not tied to any one

[2:05:30] individual or any group of individuals it's tied to

[2:05:35] the best way to position this city as we look towards the future and how it

[2:05:39] will interact with the region around it so to that point tonight we saw an

[2:05:45] amazing opportunity from our local quantities chip and becky craig who have

[2:05:50] built incredible careers here in goldsboro but also reinforced this club

[2:05:53] in goldsboro to do something

[2:05:56] that keeps the city on the map and keeps it humble within itself something as

[2:06:01] simple as a train where that anyone can go and ride with

[2:06:05] their with their father with their mother with their grands with their

[2:06:08] grandparent and then they're rebuilding this thing and look at the list of

[2:06:12] donors 34 000 dollars coming from just individual folks that's the 100 cap

[2:06:20] so people donate up to 100 000 or below 34 000 this is the second highest

[2:06:25] category that was in front of them this is a generous city

[2:06:29] we should be grateful for this city and

[2:06:32] then they're using local businesses not because we told them you have to but

[2:06:37] because they're the ones that stepped up to the plate anyway

[2:06:40] these are people who put in dollars

[2:06:44] and then put in their own sweat equity as well to make goals for as strong as

[2:06:49] it possibly can be i just want to say thank you they're one example there are

[2:06:53] countless other organizations that do the same thing in spirit and act

[2:06:57] and i just want to say thank you to all of you for making goldsboro the place

[2:07:01] that it is and putting us on a path to be an even better place

[2:07:22] i carried my grandson

[2:07:26] so it is a family tradition uh and the second thing is

[2:07:31] here's the month of january i've got more phone calls

[2:07:35] about leaves and einstein not being picked up

[2:07:39] over five weeks period don't blame the public works department

[2:07:43] their equipment was in horrible horrible condition during that month

[2:07:49] and they got way behind and they started working every day to the week and some

[2:07:54] of them work on the mediums so don't blame them

[2:07:57] it's been picked up now and hopefully we can get back on schedule

[2:08:01] but i just want you to know that

[2:08:04] i did receive your phone calls and i did make calls to the public works

[2:08:09] and they explained to me and i accepted it and i'm sure it's true

[2:08:14] so thank you thank you

[2:08:17] i want to say that

[2:08:21] i often uh approach people uh

[2:08:25] and that i have a reason to uh or are in close proximity

[2:08:31] to and ask them where these residents have

[2:08:34] goals for and if they say they are i ask them

[2:08:39] you know how they like the city any issues etc

[2:08:43] etc uh and i get some good remarks i get uh

[2:08:48] comments i get uh recommendations suggested etc

[2:08:52] uh one of the things i particularly like uh

[2:08:55] finding out or talking with are people who have recently come to goldsboro

[2:09:01] i had that opportunity the other day when i was waiting in the gas line

[2:09:06] and the gentleman that was working there at the uh

[2:09:10] there were just probably 15 cars waiting to get fuel and he was hustling around

[2:09:16] trying to keep or uh people moving and so forth that

[2:09:20] kepper's uh a little bit uh flared from time to time

[2:09:26] and so i i stepped out of the car and

[2:09:30] asked him uh you know or asked him his name and and

[2:09:35] complimented him on how the job he was doing

[2:09:38] i also asked him if he was a resident goldsberg he said he had just moved here

[2:09:42] six months before and this is last week by the way

[2:09:47] and i said so why did you come to goldsboro he said

[2:09:50] well my son's out uh signed out of seymour johnson

[2:09:54] and i moved down here from pennsylvania and

[2:09:59] so i i talked to him uh what he thought of the city so far

[2:10:04] i was amazed at how complimentary he was of the people here in goldstone

[2:10:12] it just impressed me that here's a person from pennsylvania who

[2:10:16] came down here uh

[2:10:20] as a job working

[2:10:23] but he came here to support his son also not not financially but to give him

[2:10:27] moral support and try to encourage him in his uh

[2:10:31] career that he's now been in six years we have lots of those people here in

[2:10:37] goldsboro we have those that have been here all

[2:10:41] their lives that we have people who've been here six months like warren

[2:10:46] and uh it does my heart good to hear

[2:10:51] good comments about the city uh and i

[2:10:57] i'm proud of

[2:11:00] the city here this city that i call home goldsboro and

[2:11:04] the people that make it what it is so let's go forward

[2:11:09] and continue that and and please i urge a counselor

[2:11:13] uh when you're out in the public if you have an opportunity to uh speak to

[2:11:17] people do so get their comments about uh their

[2:11:22] how they feel about goals for our land and uh if some of them may be negative

[2:11:27] uh things that we can learn from them that we can change and make them better

[2:11:31] so that that was my comment uh and

[2:11:36] it uh i wanted to share it with the public

[2:11:39] at this time i'm going to uh pass that we close the uh

[2:11:45] regular session and go into closed session and i have a motion to do

[2:11:49] something so

[2:11:53] you have a motion to close the regular section go into closed session all in

[2:11:57] favor all right

[2:12:01] so if you please uh exit the

[2:40:38] [Music] thank you

[2:41:01] with another session on is there any further business on the council

[2:41:05] [Music] if not

Goldsboro City Council Work Session and Meeting 02-07-2022

Transcript