[0:02] We're going to get started here. Sorry.

[0:12] That's the wrong one. >> Yeah. I'm just trying to blow it up.

[0:22] » Genie, do you know how I do this? Oh no. I got

[0:26] » I hate new Microsoft. Oh my god.

[0:44] Okay. Oh, awesome. All right. Meeting to order. Let's uh please stand for the

[0:49] pledge of allegiance.

[0:54] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[0:59] republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

[1:05] justice for all. >> All right. Good evening everybody.

[1:10] I appreciate everybody who showed up for the working group. Really productive

[1:15] time just like that. I I always like to publicly thank the council members

[1:20] because they do a fantastic job. Uh but I really want to appreciate and thank

[1:25] Amanda for all the stuff she does every single day when she's not at home. Um

[1:34] you do you do awesome. As you can tell if you just listen to

[1:38] Amanda uh she was this little puppy when we hired her and she didn't know

[1:42] anything and now she's getting so strong every single day. you know, it's like

[1:48] the stuff she's learned in, the training and stuff. She's just done phenomenal.

[1:51] Um, as the city manager, I appreciate it. You know, I mess with you a lot. I

[1:57] know that you do. Awesome. >> Thank you.

[2:00] » Um, so I had a very productive working group. I love how the um how the town is

[2:07] moving forward with a lot of activities um and uh as again how the town is is

[2:12] growing. and we'll talk about a couple of those things, but we're looking at

[2:16] short-term rental and how we set that up in our charter. We've got a few

[2:20] businesses or a few citizens who want to set that up for businesses. Um and um

[2:27] also the maturity of our business that we have. We're going into the spring

[2:31] season into the summer. Uh we had a um presentation of event of an event that

[2:38] would um that we'd like to take place on the 2nd of May. We're still uh in the

[2:45] works of that. There's a couple things that we need to to um solilify first. Uh

[2:51] but if everything works out, we'll continue with another celebration for

[2:56] our spring. As we go into uh next month, we're going to be doing our Easter

[3:01] celebration. And it's this month, I'm sorry. And what date is that again?

[3:06] » March 28th. >> March 28th. And it's from 11

[3:10] » 10 a.m. >> 10 a.m. to 1, I'm sorry. To 1, right?

[3:15] Yes. 10 to 1. And we're going to put that in the paper. We're going to have

[3:19] signs for it throughout the county. So, just like it was last year, if you

[3:24] remember that, uh it was a great celebration. We just like to get some

[3:27] more folks down here. All our businesses will be open during that uh time as

[3:32] well. So, uh if you've not noticed it and if you've not drove through Taken

[3:37] Rock at any given time, it's happening all the time. Uh and appreciate it.

[3:42] That's what we always ask for. Uh tourism is a huge thing. Uh our

[3:47] businesses um are fantastic and they need to make money. So, come down here

[3:52] and spend it. Spend your money in the town of Talking Rock. you want to look

[3:56] good at it. Okay. Uh All right. I think that's it on

[4:01] announcements. Okay. All right. So, uh next on it, uh the agenda is the

[4:06] approval of February 2026 meeting minutes.

[4:21] Do I have a motion to accept February's 2026 meeting minutes?

[4:26] » I'll make a motion that we accept February's meeting minutes. Do

[4:29] » I have a second? Do I have a second? >> Second.

[4:31] » All in favor? >> Okay. One of our council members is out

[4:36] for tonight. So for Okay.

[4:42] Next is the the approval review and approval for the February 2026 financial

[4:49] report. Bear with me just one second.

[4:56] Thank I'm going to get better at this. I

[5:00] apologize.

[5:19] Okay, if you look uh at the screen, I apologize.

[5:33] There it is. Okay. So again, um still in the process of moving over our accounts.

[5:40] So this is our previous uh bank that we uh had. So we still have general op uh

[5:47] money in there. We have to keep it in there till we clear everything. It gets

[5:50] transferred and then we have some money from Splash. So in that account for

[5:54] general op, we've got 47.6K. And then the Splash, we have uh $1,900.

[6:17] in our new uh bank account. >> Renaissance. Yes. And Renaissance here

[6:23] is our um our accounts. FEMA, we've got $6 in that account. Our general off is

[6:30] 273,000. So that total from what I told you

[6:34] previous the total was 46 in the other other bank and then 273 in this our

[6:41] general office 320,743.

[6:46] The schoolhouse 86k 86.8 eight special projects 82,000

[6:55] and splash is 62k. I'm sorry for the for that combined it's

[7:02] going to be 84,000 splash and uh I apologize for the

[7:07] council um or I'm apologizing to the council. One of the things we didn't

[7:11] work to talk about the working group was our special projects. So, just real

[7:15] quick, we'll talk about it next month in our working group, but start thinking

[7:20] about how we're going to prioritize because that one of the things that

[7:23] Amanda and I will bring up is um we're going to start moving on our special

[7:27] projects. So, we need to prioritize. I know that Amanda's talking working with

[7:31] Tony on the crosswalks and stuff like that and some other things, but we're

[7:36] ready to move forward. nothing for the council need to be aware of the splash

[7:39] is growing quickly and so we have got to decide and move forward on what we can

[7:44] do that on improving the roads and things like that sidewalks and stuff.

[7:48] Okay. Um so be prepared to talk about that cuz we did fantastic last year on

[7:55] deciding our special projects and then moving forward and getting those knocked

[7:59] out. So we need to continue. I do remember uh one of the priorities was um

[8:05] fixing up the um the train cars. Uh and I know Tony, you've been working with

[8:11] Amanda on >> I think we got somebody coming up next

[8:14] week. >> Yep. Okay. So, that'll be that first

[8:17] one. So, okay. Any questions on those monies?

[8:44] She's dead.

[9:08] Okay. Um, do I have a motion to accept February's 2026 financial reports?

[9:14] » Make a motion that we accept February 2026 financial reports.

[9:18] » Do I have a second? >> Second.

[9:20] » All in favor? All right. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Uh

[9:26] summary of maintenance. Jim, good afternoon, sir.

[9:29] » Good afternoon. Evening, mayor. Been working on trimming hedges in the park

[9:33] and playground. I hung the signs on the front of the building. I wasn't here at

[9:38] the last meeting to tell you that. And went pick up stuff for the Easter. Got

[9:43] that out of storage the other day. And Friday, the septic tank overflowed at

[9:49] the pavilion. and uh she called the septic company and

[9:55] it's been all taken care of. Okay. >> So, that was a exciting lesson. That's

[9:59] all I have. Spring's coming so I'll be busy.

[10:02] » Yeah, we had forgot to do that, >> right?

[10:05] » What's that? >> We didn't do it at the same time when we

[10:08] did town halls because we wanted to see we really needed to or not. So, it was

[10:12] doing fine. But now the toilets were backing up. I guess all that rain,

[10:17] everything they ended up having to off the park.

[10:21] » Yeah, this the park, not here. >> That's you just change that out.

[10:25] » Yeah.

[10:31] » They'll put a new paint over there long ago.

[10:35] » Well, we didn't we didn't we didn't do line. We did the runoffs.

[10:39] » Yeah, the runoffs in the park. That's not That's not the

[10:45] field. We didn't replace the septic tank.

[10:47] » No, we replaced the >> still should be draining lines draining

[10:52] field. >> No, that Yeah, we just Yeah, that ain't

[10:56] that was backing up the toilets from the septic like not the drains coming off

[11:02] the side. >> Talking about just the gutters and the

[11:04] stuff off the side. >> No, we're talking about the drain field

[11:07] for the septic tank. You can't see it. >> He said that was working and it's in

[11:11] good working order right now. before it wasn't working right.

[11:16] » So, he lifted the lid up and >> pump it

[11:18] » up. >> What did we have to pump it if it was

[11:20] empty? >> Oh, it was full. It was all the way to

[11:23] the top and it was backing up into the bathrooms.

[11:26] » Okay. I I I understand that they're saying All right. So, we need to reach

[11:30] out to um the individual that installed it and I know who that is and I need him

[11:36] to come out and take a look at it cuz that that is right. That was two summers

[11:40] ago that we >> call the health department first just to

[11:43] tell them what's happening and see if that's something

[11:49] » we did have a big flood not too long ago.

[11:51] » Just remind

[11:59] uh any hell damage that >> not that I could see.

[12:03] » Okay. I came in the next morning, still had hail and some of some of the

[12:09] sidewalks going. Everything look pretty good.

[12:12] » And we should be moving into next month uh starting to do the mulch and stuff

[12:16] like that. >> Yep.

[12:19] » And you're probably going to have to trim those bushes that you planted last

[12:22] year in the front. They're getting massive.

[12:25] » Yeah, that was me being an essay. >> I've been picking the weeds out.

[12:29] » Yeah. When my grandkids come down here and

[12:32] visit the park, they'll be just big enough to

[12:35] » at least they're still alive. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[12:38] » Oh, and I have a bunch of flower seeds I'm going to plant in front of the

[12:41] pavilion. I got merry golds and some other stuff.

[12:44] » And I have a Anybody wants any irises? I got bundles of them in the back my

[12:48] truck. I'm going to plant some down along the creek. Okay.

[12:52] » If you guys want any for your house, I got like

[12:54] » Awesome. A lot. >> Okay. Um

[13:00] we'll move on to um new business. Um we talked about a couple things uh in

[13:07] our working group, but the first thing on it was uh regarding a potential noise

[13:13] ordinance development. Um we talked about it as a council. Um we're going to

[13:19] » continue with it. We're going to look at uh some of the towns that are similar to

[13:23] ours and see what they use an example. Anything else I'm missing to say about

[13:28] that? Okay. And the and the reason for that is

[13:33] because we're we're going to update our charter for short-term rentals and uh

[13:41] with our businesses and um potential businesses. We just need to make sure

[13:45] that we have the right verbiage and the right understandings on our um noise

[13:50] ordinance in our charter. Yep. All right. Next on the agenda is

[13:58] discussion regarding the development of the special events ordinance.

[14:03] » So just discuss like we discussed earlier the different things that are

[14:06] going to go into that. If people want to have larger events in town, we need to

[14:11] set up rules and guidelines for them to have to follow and go by. So we're just

[14:16] starting to talk about it. I know, but I just need y'all everybody's input on

[14:20] kind of how y'all feel definite things we need to have if we're going to do

[14:24] special events in the town and allow people to have special events in the

[14:27] town. >> Okay. Again, as we mature as a a town in

[14:32] our businesses, because again, as I've stated in the past, we have more

[14:36] businesses than we've ever had in the history of this town today. Uh, and so

[14:41] we have the potential of having a couple more businesses. So, we really need to

[14:46] sit down and update our charter on several um different subjects. This one

[14:52] again, the special events tied into uh our ordinary ordinance or our ordinary

[14:58] uh the way we do business versus special events and things like that because of

[15:03] our uh festivals and other things that we have. So, just wanted the town to be

[15:09] aware of that that the council is working on that. Uh, and you'll start

[15:13] seeing that here. Uh, we should have a lot of this solidified by the first of

[15:18] the summer. Okay. Uh, another thing that I forgot to talk about was that we have

[15:24] um an annexation request. um we talked about in the the working group and uh we

[15:32] have a resident that is requesting to have approximately 2 acres uh reszone

[15:38] back into the town. So um Amanda is going to uh post that in the paper

[15:45] starting next week for the next 30 days and we will have a public hearing on

[15:49] April 2nd. Is that right? Our next April 2nd uh that'll be our next council

[15:54] meeting. Uh and so uh please be looking at that in the paper and if you have any

[16:00] questions, comments, please uh attend our next council meeting. Our working

[16:04] group, our our public hearing will be before our council meeting uh at 7:00.

[16:12] Okay. Any other questions?

[16:17] Huh? Shortterm. What about short term? >> Oh. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

[16:23] Okay. Uh we uh we also reviewed and discussed our uh short-term rental

[16:28] ordinance. Again, um we are going to update um our charter uh with the

[16:36] short-term rental or for the shortterm ordinance and uh what we discuss. Is

[16:42] there anything? >> I think we've got it pretty much

[16:45] finalized. Um looking at everything that defines how we're going to do things,

[16:49] control things. I think it's more now that we need to get out there what we

[16:53] have put together, what we're going to charge for the license, and then also

[16:57] have a public hearing for it so that it can actually be voted into the town as

[17:02] an ordinance for the town. >> Yeah, I was sleeping there.

[17:06] » So, we had a great example that was put together. The council agreed that we'll

[17:10] stick with that example. So, that's going to be posted in the paper tomorrow

[17:14] as well. Oh, yes. 30 days for the um and we'll also have that posted here in the

[17:20] town hall and on our website. Uh so take a look at that. We will have the public

[17:26] hearing again at 7:00 on April 2nd right after the public hearing that we have

[17:32] for the annexation. And if you have any questions, concerns, uh please bring at

[17:37] that time. Anything else? Okay. Awesome. Okay. Uh,

[17:44] as always, down and dirty, fast and quick. Any questions from the gallery?

[17:47] So many people out there today. Got any questions, ma'am? You good?

[17:53] Uh, okay. Our next, uh, again, uh, for everybody, um, we have our Easter

[17:59] celebration, so please come out, support that. Uh, we've got our all our

[18:05] businesses are still rocking and rolling, so we're good on that. Uh

[18:12] our next council meeting again is April 2nd. Working group starts at 5:30. Um

[18:17] and then we'll have two B public hearings starting at 7:00 back to back

[18:22] and then we'll run right into our council meeting. Okay.

[18:26] All right. Anything else?

[18:31] Okay. All right. Uh do I have a motion to end tonight's meeting? I make a

[18:35] motion we end tonight's meeting. Do >> I have a second?

[18:39] You sure? >> All in favor?

[18:43] Okay. Thank you.

Town of Talking Rock Council | March 5, 2026

Transcript