[0:00] [Music] occasions

[0:10] all right ladies so I'm going to get this thing started

[0:13] the town board meeting for September 5th 2023 call into order

[0:18] um welcome everybody and

[0:21] I was Mr Kenny and Christian okay

[0:27] all right um

[0:46] sound minds and make clear decisions really that just stare at this town in

[0:50] the path you'd have it to go I want to describe for every person here for their

[0:53] health and welcome to other families will just keep them safe and help us

[0:57] just to do your will in Jesus name

[1:18] [Music]

[1:27] all right can I get somebody to give me a motion for this

[1:30] I'll make the Larson would approved the maintenance for all of us

[1:41] does anybody have any additions or changes to this evenings

[1:45] agenda

[1:48] at this time Mr Mayor I'll make a motion here for the agenda has his emotion of

[1:53] the city second all those in favor uh okay

[1:59] yeah okay the

[2:03] just read this out just please yes okay

[2:10] um this is a proclamation for North Carolina Daughters of the American

[2:12] Revolution and it does not say what does that last name

[2:21] [Music] um

[2:26] Diane long score is the representative for the daughter North Carolina daughter

[2:30] American Revolution and uh Constitution week that apparently

[2:35] is coming up so I'm going to be doing a proclamation

[2:39] so I'll try to get through this real quick whereas it is privilege and Duty

[2:42] that American people commemorate the 200 31st anniversary of drafting the

[2:47] Constitution United States of America with the appropriate ceremonies and

[2:50] activities and whereas Public Law 915 guarantees

[2:56] the issuing the proclamation of each year by the president United States

[3:00] of America designating September 17th through the 23rd is Constitution week

[3:05] now therefore Eric Roberts the mayor of town Dillon do here by Brooklyn of the

[3:09] week September 17th through the 23rd is Constitution week

[3:13] and our adult citizen studies the Constitution reflect on on the privilege

[3:17] of being an American with all the rights responsibility and privilege it involves

[3:21] we need to sign this in the year of Our Lord just because I

[3:27] was pretty neat do they even teach constitutions going more than anybody no

[3:31] they don't how does that happen

[3:35] they really don't teach constitutional schools no they don't teach cursive

[3:38] anymore either that's fascinating yep

[3:42] all right I'll take care of this

[3:48] of you

[3:51] yeah

[4:00] okay um

[4:02] in Focus bill can you get one so yeah so

[4:10] several things have gone on in the background and some several other things

[4:14] are going to be going on here in the very near future

[4:19] I've had a couple of conversations with in Focus

[4:22] we've got a pretty aggressive calendar I'll go ahead and show it to you but

[4:27] it's it's a little uh

[4:30] hard to understand the most important thing right now is

[4:34] that we get a planning permission planning board whatever you want to call

[4:38] it set up my statute that's a minimum of five Max of right now maximum seven we

[4:45] don't have an Etc to this spot

[4:50] so that's where we're at right now so I emailed you a couple times I think

[4:54] once today a reminder but I really need to get five people set

[4:59] up the MP5 people not own the board correct yeah the board cannot because

[5:03] they recommend to you right so you cannot be you can be more adjustable you

[5:07] can't be thankful um

[5:40] number one on this board yeah I'll totally join this board so we need four

[5:45] more I think Miss Rose said she would join us all you have to there's the only

[5:50] requirements you live in Texas that's the only requirement there's no

[5:54] other there's no legal requirement other than that what if you live life

[5:59] in your sleep but your property is in town if you own

[6:04] property downtown technically your residence must be in town so if the

[6:08] house is outside of town to the properties in and out we can make an

[6:11] exception of it serve that side of town

[6:17] I'll find four more oh it works

[6:22] you yes

[6:25] two Wolverine

[6:28] so there's two that's the only three more

[6:31] people Chris like as well oh yeah

[6:36] what about um did Chris tell you yeah yeah

[6:40] okay okay he was gonna get back to me so I wasn't sure

[6:44] what about Sierra uh

[6:48] we're here she's young

[6:55] I'll call her this video

[7:00] before I tried really hard to get Josh to take the time I'm not sure if he's

[7:03] good yeah

[7:07] I really need to have that information by tomorrow because I've got to get

[7:11] those people we're gonna start getting them lined up

[7:15] and understanding what is is going to happen okay so

[7:21] um you should have some other papers just so you can see what's going on

[7:26] there's uh the packet looks like this at the

[7:31] beginning

[7:33] okay so the first set of pages is a meeting

[7:40] schedule

[7:43] okay it goes from there

[7:46] to a ordinance

[7:51] which will not so I need to actually look at that

[7:54] ordinance it should have been sent to you

[7:59] this morning this morning yeah

[8:05] okay so it'd be great if you could approve

[8:09] that

[8:21] so the final thing is I'll bring you next month we don't have

[8:26] rules and procedures for boards and how people come on boards and golf course so

[8:30] I'll drive something and give that to you next time okay that's just not

[8:33] required for tonight but just wanted to let you know the

[8:39] so the sooner I get confirmation from these people and

[8:43] just having contact me or McKenzie uh we'll start we'll just start blasting

[8:49] the real first meeting for the planning board is scheduled for the first week of

[8:53] October

[9:00] and in focus should be here for that meeting

[9:11] okay

[9:17] and so just to kind of give you so what's going to happen is the info is

[9:21] going to start coming into town talking to businesses talking to Residents

[9:25] talking to you talking to the planning board

[9:28] and so everything they do when they're getting ready they're going to come to

[9:33] you talk about stuff that's going on they're going to bring it to the

[9:37] planning board and you guys are invited you do not make

[9:41] decisions at planning boards so all of you can come we're going to put it on

[9:46] the agenda that you'll be there won't be a quorum because there's no decision

[9:49] making but you are all invited

[9:53] participated citizens yeah so I was just expect you to be there and watch what's

[9:57] going on so you can understand the back and forth that's going on because we're

[10:00] going to give you synopsis The Following month

[10:03] if you want to know the Navy green detail it's really good for you to be

[10:07] there especially for this first year in this cycle

[10:11] once we get through this whole year of in Focus talking about an in Focus

[10:17] presenting elements of the plant the planning for carrying them refining them

[10:22] getting them back to you for approval then we'll start talking about zoning

[10:27] workloads so that but that's down the road if at least 12 months down the road

[10:31] so the planning process or the

[10:35] comprehensive plan which is required stars now

[10:38] okay as soon as I get five numbers okay confirm okay that's it thank you

[10:55] a discussion process we've already done three and four two and three

[11:02] you got any focus of two discuss time processes three yes that's all that's

[11:08] together the InFocus is just letting you know we've I've had a couple of meetings

[11:13] AIA resolution so you should have a copy of that

[11:21] this is just paperwork hiding up paperwork the contractor has submitted

[11:27] their first invoice to the state the state has received it they haven't

[11:31] approved it yet but

[11:35] there's no money out of our pocket this is just we're going to process paperwork

[11:39] so this resolution is just from the

[11:42] resolutions we needed to get signed should have been closer to the beginning

[11:47] of the project but remind me what AI was the asset inventory assessment so that's

[11:52] that 150 000 for the water that's 150 000 for the sewer they've gone done

[11:56] smoke tests they counted all the meters located on

[12:00] they're adjusting all of our GIS layers that work in the top you get all of that

[12:04] they're going to start real soon they're finishing up on the

[12:09] inventory they're going to start doing a Capital Improvements plan that's what we

[12:13] really need out of it but it's a Capital Improvements plan but we're still three

[12:16] months down the road before we get a final place

[12:21] John's not available

[12:41] question is if it doesn't have anything in it email me and I'll make sure to

[12:46] make some adjustments but I'll have to talk about it next month for adoption

[12:51] okay we're going back to the news to make this resolution for you yes

[12:55] yeah we just need you guys to say yes to it and then the mayor can sign up

[13:03] okay [Music]

[13:08] she doesn't have enough batteries wait a minute that's fine let's talk about this

[13:14] shoot

[13:18] thank you yeah we don't need to perform but it's

[13:21] crazy for history so

[13:30] we're good okay uh can I get a motion to approve

[13:35] the Cardinals

[13:41] um but we're doing it on the table this next month so we can actually get a

[13:44] chance to look at it they come up with the policies I just want by bringing it

[13:47] to you I want you to look at it next month

[13:52] no that's the resolution for the AIA yeah I get a motion to approve the AIA

[13:58] resolution no motion

[14:03] all in favor

[14:16] so we're going to table this until next time

[14:21] everybody give you guys a chance to look at it

[14:24] it'll be on your agenda for Action seems like a whole lot of word for we don't

[14:28] care about your safety your health just be here

[14:31] I had to go through state law and state law is really funky and then federal law

[14:37] jumps into and this even works so there's really no allowance in the

[14:42] federal laws or anything from the weather proposing a town hall

[14:46] so you have to say you have to say if we closed Town Hall we pay the employees

[14:52] and we don't pay the employees and that's what governs

[14:55] that's kind of the decision yeah and so that so I'm really really

[15:00] more concerned about the treasure foreclosure than anything else and I

[15:04] know Christy was talking about using or we traditionally use the counties

[15:09] uh tradition if they close we close kind of thing so

[15:15] and of course you'll see in there it exempts certain employees the police

[15:18] department the Public Works employees who plow the road so they're considered

[15:22] essential personnel so they're they're not going to be covered under this other

[15:27] than they're described as a central personnel

[15:33] for the other on paying [Music]

[15:36] a lot of property salary is completed yeah hourly is the issue salary all

[15:43] literally all I have to do is show up four hours a week and you'd have to pay

[15:46] for the entire week that's a federal office I didn't even know that uh

[15:52] uh that is great yes the hourly employees is that's where

[15:58] there's ambiguity and you can make that decision if we close

[16:04] Town Hall I would say anything but

[16:10] no there's no reason at all that's what the federal government uh says unless

[16:15] you say otherwise they give you the leeway to pay salary uh

[16:20] or the state also does the same thing they make you take leave or

[16:25] yeah and then there was in there a provision

[16:29] to allow the employee as they feel unsafe

[16:32] there's a provision that keeps them protected if they choose not to come in

[16:37] but they would take vacation or sick tough to do that

[16:46] administrative job description yeah so you asked me to come back actually back

[16:51] a couple times the last time was at Canada's Forum uh and I thought well I

[16:56] better get it done so I took my job description and I added in a provision

[17:04] currently serve as a liaison between the board and Personnel act as Director of

[17:09] Human Resources and hires

[17:12] with the approval of the select board which is what you used to be called

[17:19] so I've changed it to read hired and fire all staff except the police chief

[17:25] and the Public Works Public Utilities manager

[17:30] so and then I would always update you on what goes on with that regard it

[17:35] wouldn't be in a vacuum

[17:38] needs to be broader than that there's a Litany of things that you

[17:43] should just be managing and doing rather than having to send out emails

[17:49] well I mean my JavaScript is pretty broad beyond that

[17:54] if I have a big dollar and you take an item I'm going to bring it to you just

[17:58] because you know what's going on and get ready about twenty thousand dollars or

[18:02] something you know I just even though it's in the budget I want you to know

[18:05] what's going on but hiring firing Personnel is not one of those items like

[18:09] you have to do it yourself does anybody have any questions if you have any

[18:12] questions you understand what you're talking about I think

[18:18] all right yeah

[18:24] so I don't know everybody got it so you'll see I made a

[18:30] couple of teenagers mostly stylistic you were called select

[18:34] board I changed that and governing board

[18:40] on my promotion with accept this I have a motion to have a second thank you

[18:52] town taxes gotta raise it

[19:00] okay so I'm just going to throw this at you

[19:04] again I don't really remember how it got on back on the agenda I think it was

[19:08] through discussions but prior to my getting here I've been here

[19:15] wow I know it's my first meeting last year

[19:19] so uh so proud of my getting here you guys dropped the taxes like tremendously

[19:31] at the same time the economy tanked it's not doing well right now we're at 5.8

[19:39] inflation so that takes a bite out of any dollar

[19:43] that we spend it requires more dollars than was previously said uh we're having

[19:50] supply chain issues so costs are going up so

[19:53] money is harder to combine and I'm just bringing it back up to you

[19:59] because it's real challenging to get a budget balance

[20:03] and be able to do just the essential thing

[20:07] you'll notice this budget has very few things in it kind of had a police car in

[20:12] it that's pretty much it I did put in some money for Town Hall we're getting

[20:17] ready to drop 13 Grand to fix the front door

[20:21] and fixing Ada issue on the front door so

[20:26] those are just things that you know you're gonna have to

[20:29] to be cognizant of I'm just recommending I recommend of course I recommend

[20:34] balanced budget so I recommend we raise it as the next opportunity

[20:38] and I don't say go back up 0.52 but can we come to a middle ground in there

[20:44] somewhere otherwise I'm afraid we're just gonna

[20:48] have to really really can you showed me those numbers uh last month I think it

[20:53] was on how much of a beating that change

[20:57] caused yeah and then with whatever they call it whatever how bad

[21:04] it's gone exponentially so yeah essentially

[21:09] if we left the tax where it was we would have balanced the budget but we

[21:16] probably wouldn't have bought side

[21:26] they're just in deplorable conditions and it's lack of maintenance

[21:31] we've got that large backhoe we're getting ready to actually trade it for

[21:36] an excavator it'll be an even trade across so whatever we owe

[21:41] we'll get it we'll work with the bank to get that refinance appropriately but

[21:46] that'll give us a backho or an excavator which will be a lot more useful to us

[21:51] get a lot more efficient on the fuel that we use

[21:54] we'll go get better use out of it but we're still looking at replacing at

[21:59] least three more vehicles um and that's in the short term and

[22:04] short term for me is three to five years so what's the mechanism raise the tax

[22:08] backups or certain time frame you're supposed to do that well you really have

[22:11] to rate you can only raise taxes at tax time so everybody's got their tax bill

[22:15] you can't raise it you can raise their tax now but it won't be affected until

[22:18] next year okay

[22:23] yeah you do it for January what you don't do some remaining and then January

[22:27] 1 it takes and then we send out tax bills

[22:53] it really wasn't quite that bad it was you could see the things moving in that

[22:57] direction but it really took off by the time you would have adopted a tax change

[23:01] right after that it just skyrocketed uh and and but I mean you could see it

[23:07] happening yeah

[23:10] so it was just it was too much in my opinion just

[23:15] looking at the budget how numbers work and how how much we spend and how we

[23:19] spend it it was a lot to hear on my recommendations that we seriously

[23:24] consider raising back up at least halfway it's accordingly yeah exactly

[23:34] somewhere in there

[23:38] because I'm afraid if we don't do that we're going to get into a problem where

[23:42] we're going to be up at 0.55 or 0.56 the following year and that's really going

[23:47] to be a shot I think right now we can get up to 0.4849

[23:51] then we're it'll be a little bit of a shock but

[23:56] it's we'll be able to sustain that for a longer period of time

[24:00] we're also doing things online to make it we're more efficient

[24:04] so we're not spending money the way we used to spend it the phone system for

[24:08] example you know cut out a bunch of extends for us we're looking at

[24:13] replacing Vehicles we're replacing the backhoe with the excavator was going to

[24:18] save us much money on fuel much money on insurance so we're looking

[24:23] at different things to try to save money on our end to help balance it out

[24:29] I'm doing some rough figuring so like I do this every time

[24:34] so if someone only has a hundred thousand dollars worth of property if

[24:37] they taxes on it's gonna upload sixty dollars for them to go

[24:42] I mean on the average

[24:53] there's another big ball in one of them after taxes

[25:02] and there's money you know we're sitting over here and we're boating

[25:08] we're he's talking one hand about saving money and then we're voting to send

[25:12] Vehicles home all the way out of County of police officers so I mean and I knew

[25:16] this was coming but that's just my opinion

[25:19] I just don't see the I think we can figure out other ways

[25:25] I would be the greatest president before a month

[25:39] you need to make a change in December

[25:47] provide you whatever information you need to help make your decision just let

[25:51] me know all right event

[26:01] is this a big Trek events I think we were going to do a special

[26:07] meeting about events yeah oh and that was decided event

[26:12] and we and I think Bill or I don't know who but somebody decided to just do it

[26:16] tonight okay so do you remember Christy was here do you remember what it was

[26:20] about

[26:22] it was it was looking at coordination because you Christy are handling the

[26:29] majority of the events but the mayor for example is trying to add things in here

[26:33] and there and we're just trying to find a mechanism to help coordinate that

[26:38] stuff so that you know you don't have the parachutists and nobody knows about

[26:45] it kind of thing so that that this time period was just the ability to talk

[26:51] about that when did you guys meet for your record guess like for your

[26:54] Christmas dinner parade and stuff like that do you all have meetings on that

[26:58] honestly

[27:02] honestly it was like because most of them have been like something that have

[27:06] started and it's like you're having it happen over time so it just almost it

[27:10] happened it was awful thank you yeah cool okay well let's uh

[27:15] let's let's always try and maybe work out of time and we can sit

[27:20] down and say you know for instance if we're doing skydivers again next year

[27:24] we've got to send them a you know a deposit check and we're going to do

[27:28] fireworks Jamie wanted to do which I agree with and I think everybody agreed

[27:32] with it his name was it voted on on the fishing

[27:35] tournament never was but we know okay well I think that we should add the

[27:39] fishing tournament back in we've got a kind of a quagmire with this next next

[27:43] Fourth of July because I think it comes on like Thursday yeah it's really weird

[27:48] so we really got to figure that out yeah I was just on the Saturday closest

[27:53] I guess people more opportunities yeah I'm perfectly fine

[27:58] the next issue is that this area is actually in June

[28:02] well that's right now

[28:07] it's not fun to go in retrospect or I can't drink that much alcohol

[28:18] do you guys care if I go ahead and talk to Eric he's already called me once uh

[28:23] Jacob

[28:44] even though we told them we didn't really have a we didn't have a good plan

[28:49] on our end to let information get out and I don't understand why we don't like

[28:55] possibly do a you know a spring summer billboard like over in the Banner Elk

[29:00] area with everything that we're doing all the festival we're doing Norman

[29:04] needs to do that somebody used to do it for like Johnson County down there yeah

[29:11] I think you were with me talking a bunch of veterans about the skydivers coming

[29:15] they don't have a clue when they're living here

[29:18] so yeah a lot of this time around let's

[29:21] work them out [Music]

[29:23] on that note who does the public relations who does the marketing who

[29:27] does the pub like all of the social media because I mean like the website

[29:31] needs to be updated updated for Newland things need to be put out there the

[29:35] Newland has going on just like you're saying I mean yeah we're we're

[29:40] when I first came in I was a hawk about that trying to get all that you know

[29:44] worked out Facebook trying to get Instagram trying to get everybody lined

[29:48] up we hired somebody to do the the website website and then we ran him

[29:53] off because we hired a town clerk that had computer experience but then we

[29:57] quickly realized that we were dumping too much stuff onto her

[30:01] and then she dips out of the town Facebook page we recently found out that

[30:05] when she left she left she's in control of that because it's married to her

[30:09] personal page that's why you don't see anything but sounding new look she

[30:12] worked out of that apartment so now we're trying to go through those

[30:15] hooks and trying to get hurt either because she's not compliable

[30:18] uh yeah I'm sure she well I mean I would just try to reach out to her then okay

[30:23] yeah I mean that's that's a serious problem because I mean vaynerd

[30:27] Blowing Rock any any towns that have a tourism industry done through here their

[30:33] stuff is updated you know at least every three months yeah yeah I mean oursis

[30:37] hasn't been updated in almost a year I just looked at it the other day and I'm

[30:40] very disappointed I talked to Spectrum news recently because you know Blowing

[30:43] Rocks always got all their stuff on Spectrum news you know have that little

[30:46] like a minute rolls through what's going on ash what's going on blowing up and

[30:51] you know it's actually free for us to put that put what we're going on with us

[30:55] you know even food truck Thursday put that on there um yeah I spoke the news

[31:00] I'll give you their information but um but yeah that's something that you know

[31:05] that yes it's you know it's hurting our town it's killing we're dying already we

[31:10] don't need a diamond further yeah then coming back to life but that's my

[31:14] opinion I agree thank you James no no I definitely see a lot of changes I've had

[31:20] a lot of people say to me that they see a lot of positive changes there's still

[31:23] a lot to do because it was we we've had over this last year the the events the

[31:29] things that we've done the flags that sort of thing that we've got have just

[31:33] completely changed completely changed the way people look at newly yeah

[31:38] so we're we're moving that down the road and that's one of those things

[31:43] up for Labor Day

[31:50] I mean no direction to do it traditional who else did it I don't know

[32:02] I mean y'all tell me I I always thought you just worked better today

[32:06] [Music]

[32:16] yeah yeah Labor Day I mean no I've seen them you know yeah

[32:23] oh

[32:26] they were for the dream yeah there's nothing to prevents us from doing it we

[32:31] just in that direction not traditional

[32:39] um

[32:44] no apparently y'all got straightened out yeah

[32:55] like every time Lauren puts something on Friends of you and I'll take care of

[32:58] people on our website go ahead Chris

[33:11] Thursday so yeah it's been very recently someone bought a webcam for us to put up

[33:18] right Chief they gave it to you it was a gift to the town I never

[33:23] actually yeah

[33:26] but it was to put up and paste the red lights on it

[33:34] awake when the word outside

[33:39] first I heard about it yeah who bought it who donated I just donated by

[33:43] Creekside Electronics gotcha

[33:47] yes let's keep brainstorming I like that

[33:51] we're rolling about the billboard idea Spectrum news if anyone else think of

[33:56] any other method of promotion I think the signs you know they're all so

[34:01] they're you know that say like the food trucks and stuff like that's good it's

[34:04] good and the one out front of town hall I just try to I know offense to them but

[34:10] I try to avoid the newspaper because I don't feel like it's actually your bang

[34:13] for your buck or considering you know the book is

[34:16] flashing signs but for the wooly worms yeah we do too yeah

[34:23] we've got that yeah so we have one out front and then we have one that's on the

[34:28] street here at the stationary went out president

[34:31] yeah and we was Mobile on it just a lot of

[34:36] people come from Tennessee that's why it's over that way you know that always

[34:39] is something you could apply for a grant for the North Carolina emergency

[34:42] management here I'm thinking what are we trying are we are we having

[34:48] interest in adding more festivals July we'll get the Fall Festival

[34:54] Christmas season just one over season so it

[34:59] doesn't overwhelm me so much but we were being disgusted by the town of

[35:03] Blowing Rock because of the phrase you're

[35:06] Festival which is the Outlander Festival apparently they're trying to take

[35:10] they're trying to bring Outlander and start bringing some of their cast

[35:14] and have a festival for the Frasier Festival anybody here watch out later

[35:19] well technically if you have read the books here's where Fraser's Ridge is

[35:26] [Music]

[35:32] I don't think you have to worry about that but I'm going to bring it up and

[35:36] throw it out there just in case you know the town noodle wants to get in

[35:40] front of that and the suggestion was to be done around

[35:44] uh what the Highland Games something something marries that up I always

[35:50] thought it was nice and neat to do the Scarecrow was in the roofs on the light

[35:54] poles if we could ever get that yeah the new ones up I always thought that was a

[35:58] neat so what we're talking about that Gary

[36:01] you know I've been trying not to put you know too many people

[36:05] too many people's business ad I'm bringing up a couple big sweepers

[36:09] tomorrow from town because I've asked for a year and a half now since I've

[36:12] been mayor was the number one thing I wanted we bought we had fallen short

[36:16] with the fire department they have lost their five thousand dollar donation

[36:19] because they don't want to do it so I'm going to bring them in myself my career

[36:22] is going to be taking care of the gutters tomorrow was pulled up right

[36:26] here at the Carter's Corner Mr carton was kind of spent all that money turned

[36:29] that corner around and it's eight inches in

[36:33] in Weeds and gutters full of dirt so

[36:37] I'm going to be doing that Thursday

[36:42] so Bill and Gary I'd like at some point for

[36:45] us to get together and figure out some more stuff we can do

[36:50] you know just just clean up the appearance

[36:53] let's get back on the planet appearance and all this grass is going through I've

[36:57] seen that we sprayed but you still have four to six inches of dead grass growing

[37:02] through yeah we're also trying to work on

[37:05] striking all the parking spaces so I'll donate the Striking for free I gotta get

[37:11] dot permission on media boats that's what's slowed me out

[37:15] I don't care if it's doing nighttime and just not telling who did it

[37:21] a lot of talks in the past about the T-Rex and

[37:25] how official to have

[37:28] would go in water flowers with milk jugs full of water lined up on the back of

[37:31] their car we just don't have those people and I mean as I wish it could be

[37:35] spread thinner and peanut butter already uh maybe the planning committee

[37:40] I don't know she likes a chunky on there but I don't know

[37:46] and I'm just niche of people are willing to them

[37:50] yes the problem that I have about it and

[37:54] that's all you know hunky dory and Kumbaya but

[37:58] it doesn't get done and I've been the number one thing that I ran on was

[38:02] trying to clean up the gutters and clean up the sidewalks and clean up the lights

[38:06] and and here we are uh you know I keep

[38:09] waiting for the fire department show up and they're not going to do it and we

[38:13] know where we're at for them I'm telling y'all I'm gonna be able to

[38:16] sweeper and I'm hoping this is going to work and I'm sure you'll get a lot of

[38:19] complaints and we'll have some big blowers behind it it's going to make a

[38:22] mess for a little bit but I'm tired of seeing it

[38:26] um so uh you know I don't know why we can't

[38:30] it take some of this 1.37 million dollars to sit in the journal from

[38:34] Jessica

[38:37] let me know is there a reason why we don't you know

[38:41] when you first come in town plus some dailies I told the high school about you

[38:44] know their at that Bakery you'll find some delicious

[38:51] trying to clean it up another thing these lights that you see those other

[38:54] times they string lights you know through the downtown we have enough

[38:58] buildings to do that

[39:02] um

[39:06] so I was in Los Angeles we saw that in every corner I thought that would be

[39:09] anything like Los Angeles but it was ridiculous yeah well the difference

[39:13] between here in Los Angeles is stay on the streets and Dot on it's the main

[39:16] thing so when you say that does that mean that they're not allowed to do

[39:20] something because they've made it very clear to Jamie and I went out there and

[39:23] talked they see anything from the inside of town limits they don't care about

[39:26] them they don't but they still at least how to get permission to mow the the

[39:31] grass there and we stopped to get permission to do striping I mean they

[39:35] own the road so do you remember do you remember the permission they gave us

[39:38] when we were arguing about I mean we had that argument I went out there and the

[39:42] permission we got from them was why are you asking us you you can mow the grass

[39:46] that's fine with us we don't care because it's out of town my point is I'm

[39:49] tired of asking I want some I want something to accomplished

[39:54] okay so if you're having problems with DOT then tell me and I'll pay my guys to

[39:58] do it because that way the town's not involved

[40:00] and we're not worried about somebody getting hit by a car

[40:03] clean it up that's all that's all I want we're red

[40:07] and white oh so that oh I was going to discuss

[40:11] that when you discuss it now so we have uh 273 thousand dollars worth of

[40:18] materials below we don't have that much in the budget

[40:21] we've got like 180 some thousand dollars my recommendation is that we buy the

[40:27] poles now all of them

[40:31] uh the reason I say that is which is 273 right let's say that is because the

[40:36] manufacturing process could change we could buy say a whole circuit or two

[40:41] circuits now I think we we can do like 30 likes now

[40:45] complete but if the manufacturing changes and I

[40:49] can't get that pole anymore then all of a sudden in the middle of the project

[40:51] I'm saying the poles the lights are pretty much you know we can get those

[40:56] minutes all the way down the road with weekends that or give me another 100

[41:01] forty seven thousand dollars and I'll just do the whole thing

[41:06] but that's why recommendation is that we just we just go ahead and get the pulse

[41:09] now that includes the bases and the mounting brackets and the you know

[41:13] everything so from the ground up so all you need to do after that is labor

[41:16] equipment I need labor to put them in and then I'll need the lights themselves

[41:20] so I can get those on next year's budget or if we can find some money

[41:26] okay well tell me something if we can find some money just till we have 1.3

[41:30] something million dollars in two different accounts is that correct no

[41:35] no well we have it I don't care I don't care if it's in 50 accounts we can go

[41:39] 100 if you want to take it

[41:43] and that's fine okay that's fine we have we have we have since I started this

[41:50] yes it's the lights get this can around just like the dog

[41:52] park we've not got anything accomplished and

[41:56] we all agree on what new life is Gail you want new lights

[41:59] Jamie Christie Lauren so I don't understand why the board cannot say okay

[42:06] whatever we need to do to get new lights take it out of the whatever fund we need

[42:09] to take it out of and let's move forward okay and I apologize if I'm no it's just

[42:15] frustrating to me that the government takes so damn long I want lights out I

[42:20] want a town cleaned up so what do you need

[42:23] bill you need 90 000 to buy 273 correct I need another hundred and forty

[42:29] thousand dollars okay is that do it is that doable is that in some mysterious

[42:33] account that we have well they're not mysterious yeah

[42:40] Jamie help me out here so what's going to happen here is 10

[42:44] years from now we're going to still be dealing lights if you want to transfer

[42:48] money in the budget

[42:51] Amendment bam James tell me tell me what what is the hold up here

[42:58] anymore I I don't want to say well I tried for four years to get new lights

[43:02] number one thing that we talked about we got the dog park finally successfully

[43:06] after a year and a half it is complete and they've got to put poles we got the

[43:13] fencing that's again I don't think I was gonna talk about but the fence was

[43:16] completely in so we have other things we want to do we've got the dog it's great

[43:20] dog stations in the signs are up looks great we don't have any furniture yet we

[43:24] don't have any play things from the dog we were going to mulch the entire thing

[43:28] if you'll also look we're cleaning out a pond back there because part of the dog

[43:34] park problem is water sitting so now we've got a flow through there that area

[43:39] will dry out it looks great it looks really good yeah so and again I won't

[43:46] have anything to say when it comes to my turn so that's great but

[43:50] but all these things are kind of interlocking together but the dog park

[43:54] has been used every time I go down there there's there's at least three or four

[43:58] people down there they love it so and I've got a lot of positive feedback I've

[44:02] only got one negative feedback so the two years that Christie tried to get

[44:06] done before I came on 18 months after I came on prompt sure I'd help it is

[44:09] almost four years for a twenty thousand dollar Park

[44:13] okay 28 000 that makes absolutely no sense to me that's

[44:18] so much that thing going on

[44:23] there yeah yeah exactly thank you so tonight I would like for us to resolve

[44:27] the lights thing so Bill put us in a ballpark number yes

[44:36] tonight yeah sure all right

[44:39] bubble confidence public comments anybody like jump in and yes ma'am yes

[44:44] hi my name is Amy great job you're welcome

[44:50] I just want to thank the town everybody anyone Lauren especially for making food

[44:57] trip Thursday night a success it's been a while since it has been

[45:02] great and I'm born and raised David County

[45:06] still live Glory Lake County L.A L.A that's right I will tell you this uh Ada

[45:12] County is growing and he's a lot with what's going on in New York are the

[45:16] closest pushed by another new one that's three times dying yes

[45:20] it's hard to shut down two weeks ago yeah I heard that I mean it's been

[45:24] parties in a new one is picking up and I'm gonna say a lot of it has to do with

[45:29] food truck Thursday but I will say that I've had comments

[45:34] that oh we came up there and we didn't know that the thrift shop was there

[45:39] apparently yeah somebody came and said what's that

[45:44] little diner out there where we can't turn in here that's her case Country

[45:47] Kitchen whether they had the best breakfast in town she's a breakfast

[45:50] place there on Sundays a lady from my church if you don't know it was there it

[45:54] wasn't there if we had never

[46:01] from us so we just want to be sure that we're doing it for next year we're in it

[46:07] for the Long Haul we've got some great food truck rentals

[46:11] We're Cute

[46:15] none of these police officers

[46:26] I'm just here to say thank you thank you for sure

[46:31] [Music] how hard would that be next year to move

[46:36] into a Friday and put a band on the stage again be very hard yes some of the

[46:41] bigger events that we do uh and we're talking about every Friday and Saturday

[46:45] Friday and Saturday again September October but most of my 70 my years

[46:51] before Oh okay this is Saturday so you wouldn't get a food trucks that would be

[46:54] worth pulling in yeah one of the things that Lauren has done brilliantly is

[46:58] marketed this yeah to where people know about it and she's phoned some of the

[47:03] bigger trucks that have the bigger following we have approximately about 15

[47:06] 000 people that follow all of us we're pulling from Spruce Pine for Banner out

[47:10] we're pulling Burnsville Marion yeah would it hurt y'all if you put a band on

[47:15] the stage with you on Thursday no sir not what somewhere

[47:21] that's a lot of Fellowship that goes Island yeah just the entertainment

[47:27] but I will share with you that others have tried it and it wasn't it didn't

[47:31] matter yeah they might buy from the Japanese like him and he can enter there

[47:38] didn't come get him a donut right through the band or the people no

[47:43] no no the people to stay what we want them to try to stay in here okay well

[47:48] you I mean you wouldn't believe how many people come and that's that we're still

[47:51] there a couple hours later yeah I mean it's sort of like a class for you you

[47:56] know a family yeah they have it now and they hang around and tile we appreciate

[48:01] y'all I mean we could try it it would I love music okay

[48:06] search up on it say do can you give a microphone I taught to Lynn church about

[48:18] you know it might draw a few of their fans in to buy food too yeah yeah

[48:24] and we didn't have a lot of great local talent been in church yeah

[48:29] I love them boys really good we need more

[48:33] too much so we've been doing it every other is a lot to put too much

[48:39] away from them too

[48:42] if they feel like they're being took away the problem

[48:44] someone told me Point blanket we've had people famous

[48:50] [Music]

[48:59] [Music] anything every Thursday next summer

[49:04] would not be too much on you it might be too much

[49:07] so I have to understand well I think you you've done a great job

[49:14] of building a successful model the point to where other towns want to copy it so

[49:18] elf Park is coffee you know rolling mountains coffee and that's why I was

[49:22] trying to get it we're trying to Mitchell County their Chamber of

[49:25] Commerce is trying to do that again but the formula that you have and that's

[49:29] what the others want to say with the band I don't mess with success if it's

[49:33] working I don't want to pick something bro

[49:36] so but um we want to try it a couple times why

[49:40] not but um long story short thank you very much

[49:43] for the pounding me on very close to us but we're grateful we're

[49:48] grateful for Lauren for all of them because there's hundreds of hours ago no

[49:52] he doesn't this is not something that's easy and I will tell you bigger

[49:56] constituents yeah oh yeah I hear it every day yeah yeah we hear nothing but

[50:01] positives about it yeah when the restaurants are saying they like it and

[50:04] you've done something right

[50:09] strategic giving people that Thursday off it makes them want it more yeah

[50:16] next Thursday

[50:25] oh we got that tomorrow we go there tomorrow if they see us oh we gotta go

[50:29] we didn't see them again so I mean same way if you're a good person we know sit

[50:33] with the first time we might not get back yeah

[50:47] go ahead

[50:50] um I just want to thank Commander for finding

[50:53] um they are so professional and like 10 times like family and and the lady Tammy

[51:00] spoke about it's exactly

[51:11] you know

[51:17] um

[51:22] anyone

[51:26] anymore

[51:31] it was all his idea let me tell you the story this man literally he came in on

[51:35] the December event the day of it's like hey I heard you have another event can I

[51:40] come be a part and he thought it was wildly successful the new one like the

[51:45] Rock Gym the Christmas thing and in the cold weather he was selling Donuts like

[51:49] hotcakes so he's like let's do something here let's make something along the map

[52:07] the dates for the others are September 7th this Thursday

[52:11] the 21st the 12th of October and the 26th of

[52:16] October yes and that while we're at events treat

[52:20] strangle this fall on Halloween this year yeah I saw that on Facebook

[52:23] somebody was asking my articles yes and I get lots of flack the years that I

[52:27] have to put on another day but you have to realize the business owners are

[52:30] imperative to treat Street and we don't want to drag them out on a Saturday or

[52:34] Sunday they deserve their day off so y'all coming home

[52:39] do you all want to come and vegan I mean I haven't offered that in the group yet

[52:43] but okay

[52:53] how many people

[52:57] I've always heard it's been pets there's a 2300 2400 at least

[53:04] good start we tried to do an unofficial account

[53:09] last year I got well over 15

[53:15] more than one time but I walked up and down the street and just started

[53:19] counting and I got over 1500 it's like yes yeah it was

[53:25] Halloween this year yeah if it's a weekday it's cool but if it's a Saturday

[53:31] Byron did you happen to see my email about asking of how we could make it a

[53:35] little more pedestrian friendly I did and I'm still thinking about that

[53:41] somebody at the courthouse had mentioned it to my colleague Michael P

[53:46] um and I think he's willing to coordinate

[53:49] with you if you want extra hormones

[54:13] yeah they remain open and they set up outside their door and

[54:17] you know set up stuff but

[54:22] okay all right

[54:25] um any other public comments

[54:34] and I just want to thank you and about Roscoe wants to thank you and I I see

[54:41] the same a lot of the same people out there and you don't know how much that

[54:45] means and um

[54:48] she said I literally had to keep my dog in my house this whole time because she

[54:54] can't keep you know the dog pulls her a little bit yeah and she said be able to

[54:59] let that dog and I know it took a long time but I

[55:03] know you guys worked on grants I know you did anything but it means a lot that

[55:07] you listen and I also wanted to talk about and I

[55:11] didn't know why you were cleaning that up you know it really looks good yeah

[55:16] and I was there on Saturday and I don't think it was one of your

[55:21] officers I believe it's real nice failure he was trying to find someone

[55:24] that I think he'd plan to be bothering um and so he was there and he pulled up

[55:29] and he you know everything and he said this is going to help us so much yeah

[55:34] because we can see from the road there and I was walking the other morning and

[55:38] two there's two two or three elderly they said walk every morning and that's

[55:44] I told him I was coming to think about this and they said well you know thank

[55:47] thank him for this because you know when they went around that corner yeah

[55:53] so I feel safer yeah but so um I know you know I I just it just meant a lot to

[56:01] me that you listened to me well tell me this it says

[56:05] you use it what else could we put out there I mean I know we're gonna put some

[56:08] yeah I feel a lot of different things of

[56:11] course benches is the first thing you want to be careful about toys and things

[56:16] uh because you have to watch uh skateboarders and you know because they

[56:21] want to come if you do ramps and do tricks and stuff so you want to be very

[56:25] careful that you don't have things that people can destroy and they'll get in

[56:29] there so right now the people who are using our dog owners and I promised when

[56:34] I came here we had when I came here four years ago three years ago I said if you

[56:38] get one I will check it regularly and I do I check it in the morning

[56:42] and walk the dog the dog and I my dog's gonna come midday

[56:45] and then I'll check it in the afternoon uh to make sure that it's because we got

[56:50] to take care of what you guys need have you been out there at night yet is there

[56:54] enough lighting yes it's there's enough lighting there's not many people that

[56:58] use it at night um but do you think if we I'm talking

[57:02] about electric and they've agreed to put a light pole on the back corner which

[57:06] would cover the entire thing I think it would help and then uh since I think

[57:10] Public Works is here so and I wasn't willing to Bride on them

[57:14] about another thing sometimes we just brag today I was wondering if we could

[57:20] if we could do an outside spigot there at the bathroom

[57:24] you know that frost proof for the water for the dogs

[57:28] somebody kindly left a nice heavy bowl video and uh and and I've left that

[57:34] there you know now there's been I think two times since you pay that I've had to

[57:38] pick up any trash in there and I don't have to tell you only one time I had to

[57:43] clean up another person's so so they're taking care of that I think the benches

[57:47] would help and then an outside Stadium the other thing is I live right outside

[57:52] of Newton but connected to to where I live is the uh the old station they're

[57:59] the septic stations and you know it goes off sometimes and that

[58:05] uh Roger and those guys they I call and they're so quick to come and apologize

[58:12] if that's going on so you really have people that are trying uh they don't

[58:17] ever say it seem like it's you know but that's a big thing thank you for

[58:21] listening thank you for coming because it's very rare that there's people

[58:25] coming out of it seems like we're having Kumbaya even tonight

[58:28] that's fine if somebody you know was against it you

[58:33] know I think I read somewhere you're against animals and I don't know before

[58:37] you because I mean you know they're the most innocent creatures

[58:41] um so I I would love that and then I was going to ask if if a person wanted on

[58:47] the Treat Street if they wanted to to set up a KB Cannon interview yeah

[58:51] absolutely okay CVS parking lot any of the Open Spaces you just pull up so have

[58:56] a good day okay because I noticed last year a lot of people did have to go

[59:13] [Music]

[59:34] you're welcome

[59:38] and you have some work hard I don't know where they live

[59:42] in new one but they pick up trash every Sunday afternoon and I don't know who

[59:47] those people are so have you seen them I really don't know where they live but

[59:52] every Sunday afternoon they're beginning to talk about yeah one kind of thought

[59:56] he runs every morning uh they live right above you or Aaron my name is

[1:00:07] and not always talking back oh okay and also my doctors

[1:00:14] [Music] that's awesome okay

[1:00:18] um you know any other problems

[1:00:21] public comments all right let's uh move to our reports

[1:00:29] Gary all right I tried to print mine out but

[1:00:33] uh printer wouldn't work so uh doing a lot of molding had a lot of things going

[1:00:37] on

[1:00:40] and just trying to catch up on some things uh trying to keep 181 going out

[1:00:46] of town mode I know we got to get back over on the other side it's just kind of

[1:00:49] hard to do that with

[1:00:52] um what do you think about spraying them just kill it off yeah around the uh

[1:00:56] guardrail number one is I want to wash down into the river number two then it's

[1:01:00] all going to wash away if we kill the grass

[1:01:04] kind of catch but you know if I thought about trying to go out

[1:01:08] there with a push mower but there's so many ones and well the push more better

[1:01:13] than weed here we need to move along but I've got a lot going on with the park I

[1:01:19] was down there most of the day Jessica said I look like I've been on the beach

[1:01:22] I said well I missed that trip there's a lot going on there uh we fixed

[1:01:28] the link ups cost of the day coming out of the whale and we currently

[1:01:33] have a problem with well forward so uh not sure if it's the pump or if it's

[1:01:39] just the wine is in the motor uh Gerald was never going to look at that in the

[1:01:42] morning so uh that's pretty much what we've got

[1:01:45] right now so when I sent you the text about him taking the power offline they

[1:01:49] had already done it yeah yeah because that takes the guys to tell them and

[1:01:52] Mark said well the generator running the detergent plane so yeah they I mean they

[1:01:57] don't mean much but yeah sorry yeah all right uh finance officer

[1:02:05] oh okay so you all have all your numbers for all of our accounts if you're ready

[1:02:12] uh pretty much all I've been really focusing on is that 2122 annual Town

[1:02:19] audit that I've been working on for a couple months my goal is to have that

[1:02:24] completed by the end of October and then we will go ahead and do our 22-23 which

[1:02:31] fingers crossed that's not going to be that bad and hopefully that's going to

[1:02:33] be kind of selling and then we're going to be all caught up and I also submitted

[1:02:39] our annual workers comp self audit this this might have been haven't heard

[1:02:43] anything back so hopefully that thing

[1:02:49] and just keeping up all their day to day-to-day things

[1:02:54] Gary I was going to say one more thing I mean like Bill said I've heard nothing

[1:02:58] but good things about what we're doing down there I mean it's going to take a

[1:03:02] couple more weeks to get it cleaned up and look nice but of all the people I've

[1:03:06] talked to has come out on the Riverwalk and said what are y'all doing

[1:03:09] everybody's been like great you know what do you need to do this so you're

[1:03:12] gonna try and get on the other side of the river as well

[1:03:15] hopefully I mean we've got to be careful with the river but we we do want there's

[1:03:19] some decent taller trees over there you know that we want to leave along but we

[1:03:23] want to kind of get in between you know get the brush cleaned out in between

[1:03:26] because that that too there's places to hide along that River Bank back there so

[1:03:31] we want a full line site if we can get them so but that's that's the next step

[1:03:36] he's working down to here and then I think before we finish cleaning up

[1:03:40] because that's going to make even more messes to try and get

[1:03:43] River and then once we clean up we'll be moved through and be done just the water

[1:03:48] running in that little pond off huh

[1:03:53] depends not really usually it fills up with a big rain but like where he's

[1:03:59] cleaned stuff out you know when we let Friday there wasn't hardly any water

[1:04:03] except just down at the bottom and then when we walked right there Saturday it's

[1:04:07] like where did all that water go from so as the ground dries out it's coming back

[1:04:12] up I think if we get it down to a point we can keep water in the pond but you're

[1:04:17] probably not going to get a lot of water other than that would it be something

[1:04:21] maybe a miniature with the live Community a little fish and falling in

[1:04:24] and just stock of the white bluegill or something for the kids or anything

[1:04:27] I don't know if it would be deep enough it's only like seven feet oh that's way

[1:04:32] deep in that I don't know if you don't have fresh water it's continuous you

[1:04:37] know it's like you kind of clumping out of the river

[1:04:41] we might be able to figure something out I mean you can catch it out of the river

[1:04:46] and run it in and run it up it's a state project that is just designed to kind of

[1:04:50] take overflow

[1:04:53] yeah

[1:04:58] it's one of those projects that we got on the ground that we're supposed to be

[1:05:03] maintaining we haven't maintained it so it's in bad condition so it's taking a

[1:05:08] lot of effort to get it into good condition

[1:05:12] one more thing we could have done with the backup we don't have to reach we've

[1:05:16] got an excavator with the guy that's helping them and then he's got plenty of

[1:05:20] reach on there so he's able to get around

[1:05:22] the only thing is the timing of a dog park kind of messed him up so he has a

[1:05:27] machine that goes through and just eats weeds

[1:05:30] for lunch I mean breaks them down into little chunks it's a great machine but

[1:05:35] he can't get it back because the fence is in already

[1:05:38] so you can't get back there because of the Ponder outside

[1:05:42] but you know just getting that thing cleaned out

[1:05:45] and getting all the muck out of it there's you're going to see a lot of

[1:05:49] changes we're putting in some additional piping covering uh because the Beavers

[1:05:54] love to build dams in there and try to track the water so we're gonna get them

[1:05:58] at least push them out to the river and get them out of that area and see if

[1:06:03] we can keep it up longer we're going to put in a set on the Basin before the

[1:06:07] pond to try to catch some of the mud and stuff coming down so the water that goes

[1:06:11] through there stays cleaner it doesn't fill up as fast just back up what are

[1:06:16] you trying to do with the Beavers yeah move them out to the river where

[1:06:20] they belong they're enlighten me so I'll call every liberal outfit up

[1:06:25] here if you start messing with the Beavers

[1:06:30] okay any more public comments yes ma'am I wanted to um

[1:06:36] say a lot of us in Land Harbor went and rescued the paper blocks that were taken

[1:06:41] out from Courthouse area over there when they redid that area and

[1:06:46] um we didn't know about it until somebody stumbled across it but we sure

[1:06:51] appreciate it because we pulled almost a thousand paper blocks out of there

[1:06:54] between us and we're reusing those and we're reusing we went for bags of sand

[1:06:59] and stuff and so we've got it pretty well cleaned out of there was pretty

[1:07:03] much a big mess at the recycle center but we we've got most of the materials

[1:07:07] back out of there all right

[1:07:10] County Courthouse oh yeah we just apparently Discord all of them all with

[1:07:15] the recycle center

[1:07:20] you know backyards or stairs or whatever and this year

[1:07:26] um thanks to Lauren we're also going to be participating a group of us in the uh

[1:07:31] There She Goes Again

[1:07:52] [Music]

[1:07:56] thank you thank you for coming Stephen

[1:07:59] is anybody else say anything for public comments yeah

[1:08:15] marijuana

[1:08:29] perhapso been working pretty diligently on the bank of Michigan we've had the

[1:08:34] last couple of months we're still still looking at those cases

[1:08:40] per day so

[1:08:48] thank you

[1:08:52] thank you because already yeah you've already done

[1:08:56] years most of it I just want to point out some

[1:09:00] of the vandalisms talking about that's happening at our our facilities

[1:09:04] so every time we see something we say something to the cheese so we can try to

[1:09:09] get at acquire in the facilities uh I don't know if you went out to the ark

[1:09:15] but they tore the ramp off of that and somebody painted some really graphic

[1:09:19] graffiti on the inside we got to complain about that just take it and

[1:09:25] so I mean eventually it's coming down I just don't know we're taking it down or

[1:09:29] the church statement down let's play with a dog breach but indelible yeah we

[1:09:33] can do that

[1:09:36] and then you're opening yeah yeah but because Jesus came from

[1:09:41] uh I I want to say also that you know we're again you're starting to see stuff

[1:09:48] happen we're getting into a position where stuff is happening

[1:09:52] uh the pond out there is something that we should have done all along we're now

[1:09:56] getting it it's on our maintenance schedule now once we get it cleaned out

[1:09:59] uh we're getting it set up so when Gary goes to maintain it at the beginning of

[1:10:04] the year it'll be simpler and won't be as big and complex as it is we'll be

[1:10:10] able to keep it vote down part of that mowing down was access to the river but

[1:10:14] it was safe there was just no safety there at all I

[1:10:18] mean I I stood out there one day and watched people walk around the pond and

[1:10:22] want to get around the other side it's like I don't see them again I don't know

[1:10:25] what happens and you got little Trails down in the river and then you've got

[1:10:30] clothing all along there so people are sleeping back in there

[1:10:35] so there's you know there are a lot of safety

[1:10:39] concerns that we have this is our plan along the entire stretch of the

[1:10:43] Riverwalk from from one end to the other is making

[1:10:47] sure the banks are stabilized making sure the brush is clear so you can get

[1:10:51] easy access and you have visibility

[1:10:55] one of the things we'll do with street lights that we take out is try to put

[1:10:59] some on you know filling gaps

[1:11:03] on the trail on the Riverwalk so we'll fill in some gaps uh put some in where

[1:11:09] the you know the dog park and any other place that we can find it we're also

[1:11:13] looking at the way we provide power at the event area is not adequate so we're

[1:11:22] looking at ways to fix that the way we provide water is not accurate we want to

[1:11:27] basically run hose across the river and bring it to us speaking so that

[1:11:33] we're looking at ways to change that so we're getting prices on that we're going

[1:11:36] to see if we can work it in this budget grade if not we'll be on the next budget

[1:11:39] but those are all things that we're doing to try to get things on our hip to

[1:11:44] run a lot smoother time on putting in when people pay to

[1:11:48] get water from poker apps thank you

[1:11:52] what do you mean it depends on the complexity we've got one that we're

[1:11:56] going to have to have a contract to pull the water because it's going under the

[1:11:58] river uh it's going to take him three weeks two weeks well we were waiting on

[1:12:04] you know what yeah it probably within the next week yeah right now if we're

[1:12:10] doing it it's it you know we can get it done pretty quickly but now we're

[1:12:14] running into the issue we don't have the parts

[1:12:16] we put in so many water connections or replace water connections we don't have

[1:12:20] the parts and we can't get them I only got four yolks left and I got to order

[1:12:23] straw for them yeah and I'm trying to get some more uh we

[1:12:28] got 12 in right after I started and then here this past three months we've had a

[1:12:33] run we've had to change out before that you

[1:12:38] know we had a leak and went to get it it didn't have a backflip around here it

[1:12:42] was damaged beyond the so we've changed that at least four just

[1:12:47] because what was there was no longer adequate so

[1:12:50] if we didn't have that we would have it when I'm trying to acquire some more but

[1:12:53] I have 12 on the order over here we did anywhere

[1:12:57] now what was your other question well I mean

[1:13:01] I know there's nothing to do with it I know

[1:13:04] but I I don't understand why in the summer

[1:13:09] when it's 80 degrees why is the pool closing five o'clock

[1:13:13] that's a family voice because But there again you know like today as hot as it

[1:13:20] was right close with you why does the pool not open when school gets out but

[1:13:24] they're closer to you well I understand it but it's a heating pool

[1:13:29] it's government Gary it's wasted money it's government

[1:13:34] okay whatever forget I said anything

[1:13:42] okay let's go back around the black holes and finish that conversation and

[1:13:46] then I want to go back to the race

[1:13:57] so anyway we're going to take the old light poles that are usable we're going

[1:14:01] to try to move them in places that make sense

[1:14:04] that provide to get more safe another question I have I've had a lot

[1:14:09] of requests from task force we used to be a passport office

[1:14:14] and we have to

[1:14:17] re-up reapply this passport office the because it's easy on our side all we do

[1:14:25] is we have some training it's online it doesn't cost us anything to do that it

[1:14:29] was time I stay up to two full-time employees available

[1:14:33] uh so they have to be full-time employees and then you know they have to

[1:14:37] be available that's the only thing right when you're saying with DMV girls well

[1:14:41] they could be that it could be McKenzie I mean it doesn't matter who the

[1:14:44] employees are but we've had a lot of asks for it uh

[1:14:50] apparently Banner Elk we don't know if they do it or not because it's a

[1:14:54] question of I guess when you go there and Boone is the only one that's around

[1:14:58] here that you can pass

[1:15:02] okay so I mean we can pursue this I just want to make sure you just change in

[1:15:05] service no we gave it up

[1:15:11] yeah I I didn't know if we were doing this I

[1:15:13] guess that was a conversation before my time so I'll start that process

[1:15:20] what do we need get these lights done

[1:15:26] well you guys give me a directive a directive to do it don't get done tell

[1:15:33] me where the 147 comes from because the digits you gave me were 273 and

[1:15:37] materials and then 180 budgeted yeah

[1:15:45] the actual quote for materials is 256.2 Plus

[1:15:57] an additional 37 for for the galvanized Breakaway anchor

[1:16:03] bolts that's the complete set

[1:16:07] and then there's the installation cost which right now we're programming 50

[1:16:13] Grand as a number we don't it can be is it

[1:16:19] could be as simple as doing a hundred dollars 150 bucks to do it it could be

[1:16:22] as complex as five thousand dollars to install it depends on what we find

[1:16:26] underground and how difficult it is to set the

[1:16:30] anchor balls and it's not our guys doing it no uh actually we have this contract

[1:16:36] that you already agreed to our CED is supplying the parts and which

[1:16:41] Consolidated electric and money Grant Construction and he's using limbo River

[1:16:47] Electric to do the electrical this will also

[1:16:52] at what I don't have price in here are photocells good heavy duty photocells

[1:16:59] and timers so that's going to be an extra that's three connection five

[1:17:02] thousand Chicken Thousand four thousand eight hundred I think it was

[1:17:07] okay the question is how much do you need

[1:17:12] so right now we need an additional 224 000. okay

[1:17:19] and that we've got that would have to be a new line item what does it mean no no

[1:17:22] all I need is for you to direct me to find the money and whatever fund is

[1:17:27] available it will give you a next meeting a budget amendment that you can

[1:17:31] approve but that'll give me the directions I can

[1:17:34] go ahead and get the process started because we can transfer the money

[1:17:37] anytime the approval of the budgets you need

[1:17:41] these folks to vote on that to tell you to move forward

[1:17:45] and we won't hamper the current Services we'll go to one of the funds yeah I was

[1:17:50] going to say you'll have to transfer from another

[1:17:52] because

[1:17:58] the monies have been sitting there for very long time

[1:18:02] when I take it from one but the money's there

[1:18:06] it's been there for a while correct yes we have contingency funds for both

[1:18:11] general fund and employment service and you have to keep someone we have to

[1:18:17] keep so much so we won't endanger that we will not endanger that correct

[1:18:28] we can easily justify that in the eyes of the auditor so

[1:18:33] it's the original taxpayer money Union correct yes yeah we just like say we're

[1:18:38] required to keep a percentage of our operating budget

[1:18:42] so we we've got well I think we've got 18 or 19 months months without hurting

[1:18:47] us I guess my confusion is back when the when the board voted to do the lights it

[1:18:52] was just not it was just not funded is that what the problem no he's funded it

[1:18:55] but you funded that and the dog park and something else it was like they're all

[1:18:59] lumped together in one so when I gave you the current budget that you have I

[1:19:03] broke it out put it in a capital line Capital items and I said well it's going

[1:19:07] to cost me this much to do the dog park so the rest is going to be for this and

[1:19:12] then you have another I think songs what's the other one we do that number

[1:19:15] so I took those two out what was left over was was three months

[1:19:20] okay

[1:19:26] so we had no idea at the time what they were going to cost because nobody got a

[1:19:29] cost for it so we've got two hard cause for it and they're roughly equivalent

[1:19:35] one was a little bit higher uh and the labor in the directional wind

[1:19:40] was buying is direct from the electrical supplies and we're not paying the

[1:19:43] contractor of the Service Media yeah CED is going to supply it directly

[1:19:49] to us so we don't have it we don't have a middle name and then uh Bragg is going

[1:19:54] to supply the labor materials except for the electrical

[1:20:01] yeah you thought those figures out one more

[1:20:05] time I had to spend it um okay so we are short how much and we need to amend the

[1:20:09] budget for how much

[1:20:27] so

[1:20:32] about 100

[1:20:35] yeah 132. so that boosts up just thought of numbers to 364

[1:20:40] 000. yeah the shortfall of the budget we have a money market account so the

[1:20:44] shortfall of the budget once that money market or CD matures that'll cover that

[1:20:49] and we'll still have money left over on that side but in the money market budget

[1:20:54] right here to see the internet right here

[1:20:58] which one's the CD

[1:21:02] so that money is already expensive 140 pounds

[1:21:12] so you would have to take 130 whatever out of that

[1:21:22] that's more than a half a million dollars

[1:21:33] yeah we have money for Citizens because we couldn't pass something interest rate

[1:21:41] yeah we have to get done with this audit that she's trying to finish up by the

[1:21:45] end of next month yeah we just have to have access direct

[1:21:51] access to all that record and be able to question so

[1:21:56] just I know it's a lot of money it ain't gonna get there too

[1:22:07] ultimately we voted to put up new lights everybody wants new lights we're going

[1:22:11] to have to spend the money we have 1.3 .37 million dollars the taxpayer money

[1:22:15] that we've ported up from the taxpayers I understand we have events we've got to

[1:22:20] keep minimums for the state we have to keep that over six months operating

[1:22:24] expenses and you have that even if we have like a little over 18 it's not

[1:22:29] quite 19. so you so what I'm hearing we've got all the buttons are being

[1:22:34] pushed right yes so I'm just patiently awaiting this

[1:22:38] at our our trust funds are divided up into basically general fund utility

[1:22:43] words the 18 months operating experience with that what's in

[1:22:49] it that's the trust funds so so that's in

[1:22:53] there too yeah it's in it's in the financial form we

[1:22:59] have the two trust funds that that we keep money

[1:23:03] and those are our emergency funds but they're quite High

[1:23:07] some of that money was siphoned off into a separate count a money market at one

[1:23:13] point it became a CD the Bank closed we didn't have records over here the

[1:23:18] Bank closed said hey we're closing this Branch you need to get in this account

[1:23:22] and we found old records and the bank said oh no no and even they had trouble

[1:23:27] finding it because they changed their account

[1:23:29] number system so many times it took me how long I mean you were there she was

[1:23:33] there all day one day so once we finally got in we just

[1:23:36] immediately transferred that money over to First Citizens that because

[1:23:41] the CD rate they were paying was killing we couldn't we couldn't say no to it

[1:23:46] so we've got a short-term CD on that when that becomes mature we're going to

[1:23:50] take that we're going to take part of it and balance the budget and then the

[1:23:54] wrestling is going to go back into another investment

[1:24:01] so if we can take money from well you got to watch how you doing with this

[1:24:06] packet and I'm waiting on lend a massage [Music]

[1:24:10] we can take what what we'll end up doing is taking a

[1:24:16] little bit of half the money from one trust fund and half the money from the

[1:24:19] other customer so you won't really have a noticeable

[1:24:22] impact on constructions

[1:24:27] Miss Gail where you land you Landing go ahead and close this deal yeah I'll make

[1:24:33] a notion that we I don't know how to say it

[1:24:37] that we take the money that's existing and make a budget amendment make a

[1:24:41] budget amendment to take the money that's needed to give people a

[1:24:45] completely find that applies I got a motion do I

[1:24:49] have a second

[1:24:56] we have a second all those in favor say aye

[1:25:01] um

[1:25:04] [Laughter] I don't know

[1:25:10] because then we're going to turn around and raise taxes that just looks like

[1:25:12] magic

[1:25:21] yeah we're spending more money yeah

[1:25:28] all right [Music]

[1:25:39] that's you know you have to look to demographics here in the town again you

[1:25:46] have voted for the whites two years ago big guy you got to fund the lights you

[1:25:49] got to understand that and you can tell whoever looks as you say anything you

[1:25:53] got a whole room in here all bobbinger is they want the lights and something

[1:25:56] this whole side of the room is Newland folks okay well that's fine you go down

[1:26:01] as a name so what does that mean good luck

[1:26:06] the Texas had to shoot up we're in bionomics honey we're we're under a

[1:26:11] Democratic president they're going to go up you don't have to shoot them up I

[1:26:15] know 1020. they're going well before you did that trust me they're going up

[1:26:19] before you didn't they I'll never vote for a Time budget

[1:26:23] amendment ASAP let's get this stuff let's get this stuff going well we're

[1:26:27] gonna have new board in October when we're doing that December December and

[1:26:32] your new world will be sworn in on that meeting

[1:26:34] there we go so once we know who the board members

[1:26:39] will be we can provide them with any information they need so that when

[1:26:42] they're prepared for the meeting all right is anybody else in Council have

[1:26:45] any more comments

[1:26:50] I need emotions I have some go ahead Grace

[1:26:54] I think that truthfully that you that that you know those that

[1:27:00] wants these lights that's fine I want to this lives we priced these lights two

[1:27:05] three years ago and you know I think what it falls back

[1:27:10] to is the ones that was here in charge then not y'all

[1:27:14] didn't give I'm not gonna let you get away with that

[1:27:16] you priced those lights this year the two quotes that we got are this year

[1:27:20] from VPC and Mike Gregg so they went up that much they never went out those were

[1:27:24] the original quotes I've just been kicking this

[1:27:32] oldest quote is VPC

[1:27:36] which is this board

[1:27:46] all right that was

[1:27:53] issue day April 18th so that was the first quote we got the

[1:27:58] first quote I got and we approved that much in the budget no no we didn't put

[1:28:02] that much in the budget you approved certain amount of money for the dog park

[1:28:07] and yeah the lights and something else I just can't figure out

[1:28:11] their but their money so you know it was 674 000

[1:28:17] that included the labor or any other issues that we might run into

[1:28:22] so it might be why we're not going with them well so you you have just the

[1:28:26] materials only their materials were 170 000 more okay than the CED materials but

[1:28:33] that don't stop my initial question why wasn't the total price within the budget

[1:28:38] Community well that's I mean that's up to you so when I did the budget I had a

[1:28:42] number and that number was for the dog park the signs and the street lights so

[1:28:49] I knew I only knew the dog park how much it cost because I had a had a estimate

[1:28:54] and the streets that there's new signs that entry signs I had an estimate so I

[1:28:59] had those two that's all I had and what was left over

[1:29:04] is what I put in the budget I bumped it a little bit but I was

[1:29:09] already running a budget with a deficit to begin with so I was I was constrained

[1:29:14] at that point when we started this conversation when I became mayor we all

[1:29:18] just to guess it's going to cost about five thousand dollars per lay okay we

[1:29:22] have 68 likes yeah actually 67 right okay it's 350 000 that's what we talked

[1:29:28] about when I became mayor 18 months ago yeah I don't know why right now that all

[1:29:33] these numbers are shock well they're not a shock I'm just

[1:29:36] wondering why don't weren't putting the initial budget that's what I'm finding

[1:29:39] out you know the budget could everybody passed and you know again he was one of

[1:29:45] doing a face he was going to do it and then let's get the lamp post set and

[1:29:49] then lights later and step by step okay we're not doing that anymore we're

[1:29:54] changing that we're going to do it you've changed that just

[1:29:59] so what we'll end up doing because this process would take four years and that

[1:30:04] number we've had at 54 because that's the estimate labor cost

[1:30:09] so we've added 50 000 for the estimated labor costs how long do you think before

[1:30:13] we start seeing lights go up ballpark I have to order they said they're six

[1:30:16] weeks out for the polls and also think about Christmas we'll see some lights

[1:30:20] coming up yeah bam that's what I'm talking about

[1:30:24] so and that's the other things with VPC the polls were like months out

[1:30:29] so here we've got a little over a month out now

[1:30:33] thank you Gail and Lauren okay I have a motion to adjourn this

[1:30:47] thank you once again

[1:30:53] I have a motion to adjourn do I have a second I'll save you all those in favor

TOWN OF NEWLAND SEPTEMBER MEETING

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