[0:01] good evening and welcome everyone we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order

[0:07] if you would we'll have a moment of silence

[0:22] and if you'd stand will recite the pledge of

[0:29] pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the

[0:34] republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and

[0:40] justice for all

[0:50] rogers here councilman randy bowen here councilwoman debbie gump here councilman

[0:56] herb curtis here city manager nate stansberry present

[1:01] city attorney brian bailey excuse me

[1:05] chief josh thomas chief jimmy suttle

[1:10] street foreign tyler straiter building code zoning mike starrett

[1:16] sanitary director d evans

[1:21] you have the minutes of the work session

[1:25] the regular session and two special sessions in your packet

[1:29] if you want to take a few minutes to look those over

[1:52] thank you

[2:13] um

[2:51] i move to approve the uh reading of the minutes

[2:55] for all regular session and special session

[2:58] meetings

[3:01] is there a second a second

[3:04] it's been moved and second all in favor say aye aye

[3:09] opposed motion carries

[3:13] uh next we have the visitors section and first on the agenda is betty brooks

[3:19] if you don't mind coming to the podium so we can all hear

[3:44] okay

[3:52] okay i don't i know i only get five minutes

[3:56] it's not a hard fast rule all right i think i've got

[4:00] [Laughter] now go

[4:05] all right um

[4:08] i'm bringing this one video up i think i sent a couple pictures to debbie and kim

[4:14] i didn't have your all's numbers to send to before the meeting but i did want to

[4:18] show you this one um this is the one we're concerned about

[4:24] can you all see it is it running um

[4:29] when it rains clear is that what it does well anyway um

[4:36] see it running that's going down the alley beside my

[4:38] house when it rains it's going into our garage

[4:42] so uh if i was talking to kim or

[4:46] the mayor earlier and um what i was concerned about is them opening up an

[4:50] alley it hasn't been open since 1960s we do not want it open because if it does

[4:56] all that's going to come down and make it worse

[4:58] and uh skyler is not here

[5:02] this evening but when uh we had some neighbors that moved in

[5:06] they had been there for a while and they got a big truck and a big camper and all

[5:09] this stuff so the alley they had uh metal posts put in four on one side and

[5:14] was it four on the other three on the other well somebody stole some of them

[5:18] off our side uh we don't know why but they're gone they keep hitting the signs

[5:23] and stuff there was a sign um

[5:27] erected there that stated that no big trucks can come down the alley

[5:31] which meant the uh ups truck the big mail trucks and the uh

[5:37] trash trucks they do a lot of damage to the hillside

[5:40] and that's uh raking it all out i mean it's just

[5:44] really on some of those pictures you can see it's taken out the side of the road

[5:48] is the alley that's closed that the upstairs no it's not the one that's

[5:53] closed it's one that's open it goes from uh walnut street to cemetery street they

[5:58] i don't think it has a name they call it bison alley but you know it's right

[6:02] there beside the house but it's tearing into our bank which means it's going to

[6:06] cave in onto the road okay right now it's on the city property

[6:11] but we do not want responsibility if it falls into the road okay i mean the big

[6:16] trucks are not supposed to when the last trash people had at the browns they

[6:21] didn't allow them to come down through there and i think that's maybe what's

[6:24] going to have to happen again you know and then earl bayless has his at the

[6:28] corner and he's got the big metal poles and stuff up

[6:32] and people you know it's just really ridiculous for a big vehicle to come

[6:36] down through there we hear that hit the signs all the time

[6:40] so but anyway so that was two of the things

[6:43] the other one was um i took pictures of our road on walnut

[6:47] street since 1968

[6:52] 1968 is when i moved up there okay then in 2001

[6:57] i was in office at the time that's the last time that's 21 years ago since that

[7:02] road's been taken care of the water company's been up and it has cut big

[7:08] large gaps you know clear down the road to lay the new pipeline and what's

[7:11] happened is it wasn't filled in correctly so it is sinking and which

[7:16] means it's coming apart and then when the wat when it rains in the water it's

[7:19] cracking the road i mean it's really bad so from one end of point a to point b

[7:25] i feel it needs black topped i don't know how else you're going to correct

[7:28] that because when that water comes down did you see any of the pictures

[7:33] i don't think they were sent to me oh okay i'll have to offer jill's four

[7:37] okay and um anyway but you can't see it from a vehicle good you need to get out

[7:43] and walk it it's not that far from one end of the street to the other they

[7:46] don't want it and then coming down oak street those

[7:49] people uh it's a vacant lot who owns it now and

[7:54] it is got a

[7:57] uh what is it called a mailbox and it's that tall and it's out in on city

[8:02] property it's where a sidewalk should be and when they got the big truck parked

[8:06] over there you can't get up through there i mean you have to back down the

[8:10] hill and go up an alley that to me

[8:13] if it was me they should move the mailbox back a couple feet then we

[8:17] wouldn't have any issues but i just wanted to bring those i

[8:20] didn't know if debbie's been over there looking at stuff or not but that's some

[8:23] of the things that i wanted to bring to their attention before when the weather

[8:27] starts getting bad i know you make a plan

[8:30] i think i've been there since the weather the past it's been a

[8:34] probably the beginning of january oh okay so did you see some of the issues

[8:40] i just wanted to get on the list for some of the stuff to get done be if

[8:44] when before they start planning okay i appreciate your time

[8:48] is there any questions i mean um

[8:52] nate did you want to comment i i mean i'm kind of flying blind here

[8:58] but we can reach out to you and try to meet you on site and look at some of

[9:01] that stuff you know the paving thing i just make a general statement yeah

[9:05] everybody's got a street that once paid right and so we'll try to incorporate

[9:08] that where we can and see if we can come up with some fixes but now oak street

[9:12] there where the southern states at we've got holes huge i took some pictures of

[9:16] those today too and they fill them in but it's with like

[9:19] a cold patch and when they come and plow it all comes out anyway i mean it's the

[9:24] gravel and whatever so it probably needs something else it's just a section

[9:29] probably no bigger than where you're all at but it's still pretty bad okay so

[9:34] all right we've had some holes open up with the winter weather right across

[9:36] town so we'll be working on those shortly all right thank you thank you

[9:41] and billy he's the quiet one thank you

[9:47] okay next we have dr john williams

[9:56] i don't have anything as specific as betty did

[10:00] the truth

[10:03] so i labeled this a public notice and

[10:06] i appreciate everyone providing the props uh that support

[10:10] what i'll be talking about um

[10:13] so this is for the public and everyone here is a member of the public i am

[10:18] we're all lumped in there

[10:25] officials associated with the city of weston incorporated

[10:30] describe their employment as a governmental service

[10:33] they were just talking about a service street paving or something of that

[10:37] nature so that's typically how it's described

[10:40] since the term government is formally defined

[10:44] and as control of the mind

[10:49] by what law agreement contract and others

[10:53] does any person gain control over another's mind

[10:57] well i'll give you some examples but it's i don't want to take that much time

[11:02] this evening but that is the definition of government

[11:05] and if no one's ever pondered that i would

[11:08] ask you to begin to ponder it at this point in time

[11:11] because why is it called that and by the way if you look up the

[11:15] history of this linguistic issue you will find that government is a modern

[11:19] term it dates from what we currently consider in the

[11:23] calendar that's used as the year zero

[11:27] so before that time there was no such thing

[11:31] what did they call the rulers of that time a good question for the public

[11:37] but the point is there is no legislation or statements or

[11:41] constitution or anything that says people can control of people's

[11:47] minds but it's very widespread in our society

[11:50] if you understand what that means and how that is used

[11:55] i'll point to one example that's in this very room and that's that flag everyone

[11:59] was pledging allegiance to i don't know if everyone's aware

[12:03] but an american flag with a golden boundary like you see on that flag

[12:08] that signifies the incorporation act of 1871 in which the original constitution

[12:14] was kicked to the side it's still there but

[12:18] it got kicked to the side and ignored that's why so many unconstitutional

[12:22] things occur in this land at this point in time and anybody can

[12:26] read any newspaper look at any website they want and they're going to see

[12:31] the question is constantly raised is that constitutional is that costly well

[12:35] that's part of the mind control most people in this country don't know

[12:39] that they've been taken over many times before

[12:42] and this dates back the most recent event was 1871. and the place we're

[12:47] standing in that's called a state and i see montana semper liberai up there in

[12:53] latin um

[12:56] makes you wonder if that's ever existed but it's there it is posted for all to

[13:00] see and there's that flag posted for all to

[13:03] see furthermore mind control is classified

[13:08] in existing criminal codes as an offense causing harm to people

[13:14] so if i attempt to engage in mind control on this person or this person

[13:19] i could be charged with criminal action and yet we have entire institutions

[13:24] whose name is mind control government it's astonishing

[13:28] but it is true thus persons engaged in mind control are

[13:32] prosecutable under both common and statutory law

[13:37] this is all information for the public to consider and you can research all you

[13:41] want on this you'll come to the same place i guarantee it so

[13:45] i can't i can't find any question about these things

[13:48] so my question then uh is presented tonight what authority does the city of

[13:54] weston incorporated represent and i've looked into it tried to find it

[14:00] out and it's difficult to find right now according to what i did find

[14:04] in 2022 the city of western is operating as a

[14:08] private corporation it's registered as a duns number and

[14:12] that's the database of universal numbering system uh another global

[14:17] enterprise if you look into that organization and what they're doing

[14:21] you'll be quite surprised and wonder why are we registered why is the city of

[14:24] weston incorporated registered in an international global numbering system

[14:29] it's quite interesting but they have a number zero three nine

[14:33] six zero seven five six nine registered in 1913

[14:37] this was the year after the federal reserve act was thrown through the

[14:41] congress and people were conned into accepting it

[14:44] it was never approved and there's no law authorizing it and yet they're running

[14:49] the whole monetary system now it's quite astonishing

[14:53] the city is a private corporation that's part of the state of west virginia as

[14:58] stated on that placard up there the state is registered

[15:02] as a corporation dunn's number 828092515

[15:08] it is part of the usa incorporated and that incorporation occurred in 1871.

[15:14] most people are totally unaware of that fact you can look it up called the act

[15:18] of 1871 it's registered it was never approved in congress

[15:22] because congress was held in suspension at the time and you may think find this

[15:27] familiar under a state of emergency declared for the first time by an

[15:31] executive that would be president lincoln at the time declared that state

[15:35] of emergency as far as i know it's still in effect

[15:39] because he was assassinated and therefore couldn't rescind the order

[15:46] the constitutionality of executive orders has been reviewed by the supreme

[15:49] court and basically they have no constitutional authority so that's where

[15:53] that stands can the code officials or any member of

[15:56] the city council deny that they are operating as a private corporation

[16:00] i've got the registration numbers right here in front of me and they're

[16:04] available to anybody that looks them up under the duns number

[16:07] this fact has led other americans not me other americans have sued governments

[16:13] before in the united states incorporated and it resulted in a supreme court

[16:17] decision establishing what is called the clear

[16:21] field doctrine out quote from the supreme court's own

[16:24] document quote

[16:27] open quote governments descend to the level of a

[16:30] mere private corporation and take on the characteristics of a mere private

[16:34] citizen just like we are

[16:38] where private corporate commercial paper federal reserve notes and securities or

[16:43] checks is concerned

[16:46] more and more more language so i'll skip over

[16:49] for purposes of suit such corporations and individuals are regarded as entities

[16:54] entirely separate from government that's clearfield trust company versus united

[16:59] states in 1942 case what the clearfield doctrine means and

[17:04] you can read the whole thing if you want to read it all what it basically means

[17:08] is when a body posing as a government is

[17:11] using federal reserve notes

[17:14] commercial paper they're acting as a private corporation

[17:18] by definition of the supreme court

[17:22] that's the clear field doctrine so if you go into the supreme court on a

[17:26] suitcase you may run into that

[17:30] the government loses its sovereignty status

[17:33] and becomes no different than a mere private corporation when they're

[17:36] operating in this manner the fact that the city and its officials

[17:39] continue to represent themselves as governmental officials when in fact they

[17:44] are employees of a private corporation constitutes

[17:49] prima facie evidence of fraud

[17:53] either they're unaware or ignorant of the facts or they are simply

[17:56] misrepresenting themselves to the public so without loss of sovereignty under the

[18:02] clear fuel doctrine that it leaves sovereignty in the hands of

[18:07] the people the public

[18:11] as far as i'm concerned i won't stand under a

[18:15] fraudulent authority such as this or or the state or the

[18:20] united the united states governments a fraud too

[18:24] and has been since 1871. so

[18:29] a free person shouldn't stand under such fraudulent activity

[18:33] um as a private corporation what this means

[18:35] to the average person so betty this applies to you as well

[18:40] so any business that you might have with this institution this organization would

[18:44] have to be conducted under a contract so the u.s code as it's called the usc

[18:48] codes are corporation contracts and if you look into that code you'll you'll

[18:53] come to understand oh it's all about business it's all about money transfers

[18:56] it's all about things we do have and things we don't

[18:59] have and who gets what and this is the american way excuse me dr williams

[19:05] i appreciate your time here this evening but

[19:08] but you've reached your limit if you could just quickly summarize we'd we

[19:12] would appreciate it yeah well the constitution of course has this free

[19:16] speech thing and you know there's no mention of timeliness in the free speech

[19:19] amendment i'll be darned no it's mentioned in the local

[19:23] government and of course private corporations can set their own rules and

[19:27] play by their own games so go ahead i will i will simply respect your right to

[19:32] your own time so i'm just informing the public and

[19:36] yourselves about these facts and i will leave this copy with my references if

[19:42] anybody else wants to know where to look this stuff up it's all available so at

[19:46] least at this time if it's not been censored

[19:50] so i would urge you to either contact me if you want to learn more or to look

[19:54] into it for yourself and i'll leave this copy with the city council so that they

[19:59] can make copies and spread it around and i will point out

[20:03] do i have an issue yes my one issue falls under this i had

[20:07] presented this to the building appeals court code the code appeals board

[20:12] same information same discussion under an issue that mr starrett had brought to

[20:17] my attention months and months and months ago okay so it has nothing to do

[20:21] with that or that specific issue or anything i'm even concerned with what

[20:24] concerns me is that in subsequent actions

[20:28] nobody in the city had looked at any of the references or any of the information

[20:33] that i had presented now i don't know if you're a lawyer or

[20:37] if you've studied the law but that's prima facie evidence of

[20:42] what they call abusive authority

[20:47] ignorance of the law uh i mean there's many many terms that describe it

[20:52] so i would urge you to look into the information i took time to gather for

[20:56] you and brought to you because it's of importance in the

[21:00] current time and in the time immediately ahead of us

[21:03] as we're watching this entire country be ripped to shreds internally and

[21:07] externally and you may find yourself in a war or

[21:12] you may find yourself in other restrictive measures but it is

[21:16] definitely time that americans learn what the reality is and why we got to

[21:20] this point why things are the way they are mr williams and any person might

[21:24] have to pave a street in a community that has such low funding

[21:29] and such a low priority was he cited with a violation what what's going on

[21:34] here was you cited with a violation we don't need a history lesson

[21:37] was you cited with about uh oh i'm finished i'll i'll wrap up

[21:42] so yeah probably for your attention but my point is i urge you to look into this

[21:48] matter we understand thank you very much thank

[21:53] you thank you

[21:54] i did take notes

[21:58] i seriously do

[22:02] next under uh reports of city boards commissions and outside agencies

[22:08] there is a cemetery board monday february 14th at 9 00 a.m

[22:14] the historic landmarks commission will be meeting thursday at 5 pm

[22:20] the planning commission will be meeting wednesday at 4 30 pm

[22:27] parks and recreation will resume their meetings for the year

[22:32] on friday march 18th at 2 p.m and the lewis county eda's next meeting

[22:39] is wednesday february 23rd at 5 pm

[22:44] the board of zoning appeals will be tuesday february the 8th at 6.

[22:51] cancel okay board of zoning

[22:55] mayor make note of that code of appeals board next meeting

[23:00] thursday february 17th at 6 pm

[23:05] and we have listed that the neighborhood watch will be meeting wednesday march

[23:09] 2nd at 6 pm at the courthouse

[23:15] and the oh there are minutes in your packet from

[23:20] the lapc meeting for lewis and upshur

[23:23] counties

[23:29] and that looks like board of directors agenda minutes is

[23:34] that chamber of commerce okay

[23:42] there are vacancies on the board of zoning appeals two positions

[23:51] and you have a note to appoint a member of council or the city manager

[23:57] to the lewis gilmer solid waste authority

[24:00] i do i think it's time we've gone almost a year now without a member on that

[24:03] board and they struggle to have a quorum and so if no one on council wants to

[24:07] volunteer their time i'm putting myself up as tribute to to be appointed that

[24:12] board if you are willing would someone like to make a motion to

[24:16] appoint the city manager as our representative

[24:20] i'm moved to appoint our city manager that's a representative

[24:24] i'll second okay it's been moved in second to appoint the city manager as

[24:30] our louis gilmer solid waste authority

[24:33] representative all in favor say aye aye opposed

[24:38] motion carries i'll take the chamber

[24:42] so you don't have to rotate a sanitary board report d

[24:53] good

[24:58] evening the uh current project we're just still

[25:03] wrapping up it seems like we've been wrapping up forever

[25:06] but we are wrapping up the issues we've had with a couple of the

[25:11] landowners on that one and one phase one of the sludge removal

[25:17] process we have placed the ads that we needed to place for the blower

[25:22] replacement and for the sludge removal the contractor

[25:27] coming in to take out some of this initial sludge

[25:30] that we had to thank for helping us fund and

[25:35] county commission as well those ads are going to run

[25:38] uh two times and then we'll

[25:42] select the low bidder for that one contract

[25:46] phase two of the project for the long term sludge removal

[25:51] that's also being advertised for engineering services to assist us with

[25:56] that region 7 is taking care of the

[25:59] ads and the procurement process for that will be assisting us with the interview

[26:03] process with that as well

[26:06] as far as the plant report goes brock's been pretty busy because bernie is

[26:12] um as you all know our right hand man and

[26:15] he's off on workers comp because he did hurt his back

[26:18] and he's been out for about three weeks so

[26:21] we're kind of scrambling a little bit down there but getting things done

[26:25] nonetheless and he's also been brock has speaking

[26:29] with some contractors who are interested in the phase one of the job and also

[26:33] with engineers who are interested in phase two

[26:35] we still have a few more meetings with uh different engineers this week as well

[26:40] and i think possibly another one next week

[26:44] we um did a couple new taps one of them was in

[26:49] shady brook one with river another one was in the parking lot behind wendy's

[26:54] that was a holden mr holden for his barber shop

[26:58] it's a miss utility markouts for them and we worked with west virginia

[27:02] american water company on a line replacement because it was very close to

[27:06] our pump station and we want to make sure

[27:09] there wasn't any compromising there so we spent the day out there with them

[27:15] um we did get the westin manor pump station rebuilt with some assistance

[27:19] from precision pumps and we added rails for safety there and added a new lid to

[27:25] that which was in very bad need of replacement

[27:29] vacuum on the vac truck vacuum pump on the back truck did go out

[27:33] adam was able to take care of that for us so we didn't

[27:37] have to send that out which saved us a good bit of money there

[27:41] other than that he just did the routine maintenance on pumps and pump stations

[27:45] this month as far as me in the office i have been

[27:49] working with the engineers and the contractors that have been coming in

[27:52] stopping in asking questions as well working with a software company on

[27:59] trying to get the email billing for customers up and running

[28:03] did all the normal reports of council payable accounts

[28:07] receivable and

[28:10] trying to help brock as much as i could and covering the office for him down

[28:14] there while he's covering for bernie if y'all have any questions i'll be glad

[28:19] to answer anything you have otherwise our meeting is next monday at

[28:23] 4 30. it's open to the public and open to all of you

[28:28] obviously i've got a question sure the you said the back truck what'd you

[28:33] say happened to the backdrop the pump on it yeah went out but adam was able to

[28:38] repair that in-house so we didn't have to

[28:42] not the jet truck but the veterans okay oh that's what i was thinking about

[28:47] i seen the look in your eyes whenever i said that so yeah it was the backdrop

[28:51] and i was just curious due to the lease and what police cover yeah because i was

[28:55] thinking it was just a couple of the uh i think he put two new couplers on it

[29:01] and just kind of revamped it and it was

[29:03] actually working very well for us this week

[29:06] we did have a couple major line breaks today just with the freezing and falling

[29:11] of everything they were able to mandate those a little bit until we can get

[29:15] bernie back in here and help us with actual replacement of those lines

[29:21] have you guys cited many of our lines that's running into

[29:25] your systems that you may bring forward to the city

[29:29] for the spring as far as repairs or where we have money allotted to to get

[29:33] our drainage out of your system

[29:36] i think they're i think brock and uh mike as well as or mike as well as uh

[29:43] tyler have worked on some of those together yeah okay

[29:47] thank you

[29:50] is there any update on the john street slip have you noticed any more slippy

[29:54] chill next i know that was one of the things unless it changed this week no

[29:57] there wasn't any so we're hoping i mean i haven't talked

[30:01] to him today but as of right now no but we did make um dep aware when we

[30:07] went to bidding for uh phase one

[30:10] that we were going to be watching that and there may be a need for using money

[30:14] for that so they're very aware of that it's documented

[30:20] thank you thank you dean thank you

[30:29] okay next uh finance report

[30:34] in our special session you guys were provided with the report nothing much is

[30:38] yeah and we can thank mckenna for that i don't know what's going on yeah

[30:43] thank you must be the finance touch because i was

[30:46] the one who made the report for the last meeting and i couldn't get it to blow up

[30:49] right but uh mckinnon was able to provide that for us and we did get a

[30:52] report late today from our accountants that i'll i'll check on and make sure

[30:56] there's nothing to uh too out of whack but uh

[30:59] unless there's any questions i'll just submit that to your alls for review like

[31:02] i said at the last meeting our revenues are up

[31:06] about 100 000 more than what we projected at this point

[31:09] over the year um and our expenditures are have been

[31:13] lower than projected so just to kind of give a review for those

[31:16] in the in the public i think that we're in a pretty good

[31:19] pretty good standpoint here our sales tax came in this past month and that was

[31:24] um you know we project about 150 000 a quarter on that we had about 167 000

[31:29] come in so from all indication things things are

[31:33] holding pretty true um we may have a little bit money

[31:36] we may be able to throw in a street or something like that in the spring paving

[31:39] season that's what we're gonna any extra funds we have we'll try to do something

[31:43] of that nature you know but

[31:45] up right now and hopefully knock on wood our winner

[31:48] is going to make a turn here in february and be over

[31:52] but yeah we've spent 2 500 3 000 over our assault budget at this point so

[31:57] um but i think it's been money well spent yeah sure and and we'll probably

[32:01] try to buy some more equipment here with the budget we have for those kind of

[32:05] things next year so

[32:08] with that said unless there's any questions i'm just going to submit it

[32:10] and let it stay in it as it is

[32:14] okay street department report you have that in your packet

[32:21] do you know if he got raw for brownie

[32:27] she just asked about the alley behind glenn brown's house we we had a

[32:30] quotation for it because we weren't sure how much to cover and so we said let's

[32:33] just look at rocking the whole thing it was

[32:36] multiple thousands of dollars to rock the whole thing and so we're just

[32:39] waiting for the weather to break to go out there and take a better assessment

[32:42] of it and see if we can try to trim that back a little bit thank you

[32:54] any questions on the street department report

[32:57] oh i think i have a couple may have a couple of items on my front porch that

[33:02] may belong to the street department found in the road

[33:07] i think i have a grease gun and my neighbor brought some spinner thing and

[33:12] put on my porch yesterday i think we were having problems with our salt

[33:15] spinners there's some kind of boat that you were having there we lost the people

[33:19] okay we do believe a greasy gun that maybe

[33:22] came with it

[33:30] appreciate it thank you we'll come get it

[33:32] i've got a quick question yeah

[33:36] confident for the electric lines on the

[33:40] west second bridge the kings electric did they complete that project

[33:45] all has been done that i'm aware of that was going to be completed we talked

[33:48] about doing an additional works there to run conduit from that box down the

[33:52] parking lot to provide to the covid testing but i think at this point

[33:55] they're they're happy with their situation they've got like a generator

[33:58] and things of that nature but on the bridge

[34:00] everything i'm aware of is done and completed

[34:03] we just paid them

[34:08] they're flipped on some of the bulbs were burnt out and so we replaced some

[34:11] of the sides of them and we're working on the other side

[34:21] did you check with dave bush on that not yet no yeah yeah

[34:30] did you replace the green bulb yeah the green bob is no longer there okay

[34:36] it bugs me i know it's no longer there

[34:41] i know right

[34:45] okay we'll move on to police department report

[34:52] [Music]

[34:57] you were busy i appreciate you josh

[35:04] so

[35:21] any questions about that report

[35:28] please convey to the officers that we also appreciate them and all they're

[35:31] doing as well

[35:36] and and i really appreciate them in the morning sitting up by the old water

[35:40] company site when i'm going to school because it really slows me down

[35:45] through the arrows

[35:52] next is the fire department report

[36:02] along with all the other page staff but he has nothing to report outside of the

[36:06] report that's in the packet okay

[36:11] and that's chuck clem right the president of the vfd

[36:15] hey chuck uh when i was cleaning out the supply closet

[36:18] in our department i found came across this book i didn't know the fire

[36:22] department would like to have but it's american heroes and it's fireman would

[36:26] you guys yeah didn't you be interested [Music]

[36:32] did we not ask him to report on that first meeting

[36:35] if if he would um while you're here we had uh one

[36:41] meeting um in regards to the fireworks yes um

[36:46] would you care to provide a report to council

[36:49] about our first meeting yeah still planning early basically yeah just an

[36:54] overview what we're wanting to do is just uh kind

[36:57] of partner with the city uh city businesses

[37:00] on main street and wherever one wanting to hold some type of street fair

[37:04] uh which basically be on water because we would have a parade and then shoot

[37:08] the fireworks off from the city parking lot

[37:11] over on the other side of the river so

[37:14] you know have vendors come in set up have stuff for kids we could have our

[37:18] parade have our flame queen coronation and then we could set fireworks off and

[37:23] then it kind of involves the businesses and stuff more so and then it allows

[37:27] more stuff to take place on main street instead of the athletic field where it's

[37:31] kind of faded away over time uh so

[37:36] we met with um cherry and debbie

[37:40] i think the mayor was sick uh couldn't make it and we've kind of started a

[37:45] planning process rebecca was there as well

[37:49] to uh get this kicked off and try to get

[37:52] something put together for the fourth of july

[37:55] when is your next meeting uh i believe it was the uh first tuesday and

[38:00] now second second tuesday

[38:06] next week at the fire department yes february 8th

[38:09] oh i'm i'm sorry march 8th

[38:12] oh yeah that's right okay sorry

[38:16] march 8. basically the things we're working on right now is trying to time

[38:19] things out for the event it's just you know

[38:22] uh what time is the parade gonna be what times fireworks we know what time

[38:25] they're gonna be 10 15. uh everything else was trying to get

[38:29] organized out and come up with a plan okay

[38:33] basically the street fair with the thought was to have it on water

[38:38] street and

[38:40] since their

[38:44] the public tends not to attend a lot of the activities

[38:49] anymore at the athletic field and of course there is a cost associated

[38:54] with fireworks and um so

[38:58] as we you know the times change we need to change and roll with it and and the

[39:02] street fair um

[39:05] which has has the potential to raise some money for towards the

[39:10] fire work display yes and also businesses over the past few years the

[39:14] fire department has had to go to businesses for uh donations

[39:19] uh for the fireworks um if not we would not be able to do it

[39:24] uh you know fireworks is anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars a year

[39:28] in cost and we was not making that kind of money

[39:31] uh at the field even if we charged you know

[39:34] entrances fees and all that so over the past few years we went to

[39:38] businesses and then you know we will continue to go to businesses along with

[39:42] the help of the people on the committee uh for donations for fireworks and what

[39:47] money we raise this year if it exceeds the amount that we have allotted then

[39:52] that will go towards next year's fireworks

[39:56] and it also gives the citizens something to do downtown and if businesses choose

[40:01] to be open during that time from you know between the parade and fireworks

[40:06] time we can have activities for children i think that we're involving we're going

[40:10] to reach out to some civic organizations such as rotary

[40:14] the chamber and

[40:17] truly be a community effort to provide something for folks to do on 4th of july

[40:22] rebecca

[40:27] [Music]

[40:35] i would also like dad to provide entertainment as well i think would also

[40:39] be part of the festivities the festivities and the draw

[40:43] to get people downtown

[40:47] [Music] does the city ever or in the past

[40:51] assessed with financing the fireworks

[40:54] at one at one time years ago

[40:58] uh they used to provide five thousand dollars i think it was and

[41:02] that's when we done ten thousand they used to pay for half to help offset the

[41:06] cost and then whenever the

[41:09] city had some financial hardship they pulled that and we just never did

[41:13] you know go back to that i just i guess i don't understand why

[41:18] we wouldn't assist the fire department for the community

[41:23] i don't necessarily have an issue with it i think you know in the budget i'll

[41:26] be four days into our new budget so we can set that in the spring priority and

[41:30] make it make it happen i don't see an issue with it necessarily i apologize to

[41:34] you man it's kind of a question to you that's making a general statement but i

[41:38] think it's something to think about but last year when i approached the fire

[41:42] chief about it he was just like well this year you know we've always done by

[41:44] donations we'll continue to do that but it was something i brought approached

[41:47] him so i think we could probably help out in some capacity especially with the

[41:50] flame festival i mean i think that's that's something we need to take to the

[41:53] next level as a community so i mean

[41:56] we're all standing by let us know what you need what you think you think you

[41:59] need especially next month or so that would be very helpful for us in the

[42:02] budget season the main reason i bring it up is because i think a couple years ago

[42:07] we almost had to cancel and shut down the whole fireworks

[42:10] i remember that the donations and i just think it's a

[42:14] big hindrance in the fire department to have to rely on donations that they may

[42:18] not get that we should contribute at least at some point don't

[42:22] disagree and the businesses have had a difficult time with covet for the past

[42:25] couple of years too yeah i really hated last year going

[42:28] around asking business just due to you know

[42:32] um all the all the closures and stuff from codewood so sure

[42:37] we we did not raise enough money last year to compensate for it but the fairs

[42:41] and festivals what we got from them the twenty five

[42:44] hundred dollars end up offsetting that okay so we're gonna work on that well

[42:49] two we're moving it we're making it a city advantage as well sure so

[42:53] there's justification there sure all right thank you thank you

[43:00] okay next building code zoning report

[43:06] well as you all can see my mine's in the packet also i don't want to type much

[43:10] time just reading all this the only thing i will say that

[43:15] when we had the meeting with the state auditor

[43:18] i just want you all to know that this was a team team effort with the state

[43:23] auditor that we had in there and i'm really proud of everyone that worked on

[43:28] that map and we got that to them and again today

[43:32] we reach out to the state auditor on

[43:35] sharing our map with them and i just i just want to say thanks to

[43:40] everyone that helped with that and if you have any questions um i'll be

[43:45] happy to answer on my part and then you can also

[43:48] see on there that mr andrew darby has a part in this this month so if you got

[43:54] any questions for me you can ask me and i am assuming if you have any for andy

[43:58] he'll answer your questions also

[44:03] a quick question maybe as far as the

[44:08] structure and the maps and all because is any part of that digital are we doing

[44:12] that by paper or as far as what i mean by

[44:15] digital is when there's a change in

[44:18] andy you want to come i up yeah they died it wasn't on

[44:26] thank you okay sorry about that so what i was

[44:29] asking was as far as when you're structuring these maps if there's any

[44:32] part that's digital or when a vacant structure becomes uh

[44:40] someone that ends up renting a structure or buying a structure and taking it over

[44:44] filling the structure is there any way going into where you can automatically

[44:49] put that into where it's it would show on a mapping system

[44:53] digital yeah um

[44:57] yeah it's all digital i mean it takes a lot of time at the beginning because you

[45:00] know we've got a hundred and some properties that we added to the map but

[45:04] as going forward as things change all we can get we can go in there and

[45:08] you can change it uh real quick i mean just gotta go in and yeah like you said

[45:13] it's digital and you just change it and change it from

[45:16] if it deteriorates more and we got to tear it down rather than fix it we can

[45:19] do that or if it becomes like you said uh

[45:22] occupied we can change it from vacant occupied

[45:26] click of a button so

[45:29] incidentally for the public we met with jb mccuskey

[45:34] and he made the statement that the city of weston had the most professional

[45:39] presentation that i had seen throughout the state

[45:42] so i want to commend our our city of weston team

[45:48] i thought it was a cookies i'm sorry i'm sorry and debbie brought cookies and he

[45:53] liked the cookies

[45:56] i appreciate it thank you and this map that they have created um

[46:01] [Music] if if

[46:03] mr mccuskey is successful with getting receiving this uh funding for

[46:09] dilapidated buildings across and demolition of them across the state it

[46:14] would create a pool of money so

[46:17] our cost would decrease so westin is ready to submit their

[46:22] proposals now thank you

[46:26] and also her answer your question add a little bit more to that once we get

[46:31] through this the vacant structures and like i said if we got beckon homes or

[46:35] whatever then we get those registered and then

[46:38] they come in to take them off that will be something we can follow also

[46:42] okay yeah i just i thought it was a system that kind of

[46:48] all intertwined with each other as far as

[46:50] you know from from vacant structures to becoming occupied to

[46:55] advertisements for new business coming in just so many things will be

[46:59] intertwined within that system there at some point as we structure it as we go

[47:03] on yeah these these guys they they made

[47:06] note of whether the utilities were on or off you know whether they had a gas

[47:09] service or whether they had electric meter and so with that they can flip

[47:14] i won't say they can push one button but with five ten minutes worth of work they

[47:18] can color code all the buildings in the city that don't have water service or

[47:21] all the buildings that don't have electric you know yes yeah and so and it

[47:26] just takes time and effort and as we get into the vacant structure ordinance

[47:29] we'll be able to create those layers and data sets as well and be able to sort

[47:33] those very quickly and get account you know we open up a essentially an excel

[47:36] spreadsheet and drag and select and we'll give you how many numbers you've

[47:40] got of this and that so that's helpful sure they've done a good job and the

[47:44] other thing i'd like to say on that is our citizen concerns

[47:48] they're way down people i mean you can see this we only have one in ward one

[47:52] and one in ward four so you two need to work on your

[47:55] concern okay

[47:59] and i'll just follow up with that has our billing spectrum been off there's

[48:03] only one you said no we've had a lot of building permits

[48:08] i'm still here i have one question in terms of these

[48:12] structures that hopefully will be coming down soon

[48:15] do we have an idea when those are going to be started

[48:18] don't get in the way tomorrow of our construction company because we're

[48:22] starting it right around 10 30 in the morning on south main

[48:27] that's where i'm down you're warm cherry yeah thank you yeah you're welcome thank

[48:32] you oh great

[48:38] next we have city attorneys

[48:46] reports don't think he included a report in the packet okay he sent us quite a

[48:52] lengthy email all right

[48:54] and we have ordinances we kind of know what he's been doing he stayed busy yeah

[48:59] i wouldn't add one thing just very quickly to that

[49:03] i was reading at home before i came on this city of weston on site citation

[49:09] ordinance

[49:13] we've got that as an agenda item oh is it on there yeah yeah okay sorry

[49:17] about that

[49:20] okay you do have the report in your packet from the city clerk on

[49:25] business licenses issued for duty for january

[49:31] quite a few too yes and now city managers report

[49:40] back to the business license just very very quickly

[49:43] we have an insurance state farm office that's opening up on garden plaza so i

[49:47] assume at some point we'll have a ribbon cutting for that i'm not sure i think

[49:50] they've kind of been operating now there but maybe they haven't gotten quite 100

[49:53] official yet but we'll keep just want to make mention of

[49:56] that still april oh okay

[50:00] [Music]

[50:05] so there is someone during business hours in there if council wanted to stop

[50:09] in and say hello and welcome and the person operating i think right now

[50:14] is covering jenny guertin's branch and they'll be there for some time while

[50:18] they're remodeled and then they're going to move back out to jenny's branch and

[50:21] then this will be a separate thank you

[50:24] okay

[50:38] manager's report yeah we're on city management report

[50:41] sorry yep reap grant time thank you yeah well we're not completely finished we've

[50:45] got to get our final report in and i'm waiting some numbers from uh mountain

[50:48] state because you have to give them how many tons of cardboard you diverted and

[50:52] all that stuff as part of your project so i'll get those numbers and submit it

[50:55] but our quarterly reports in so now it's just the final report you know send the

[50:59] cancel check and stuff like that which we did in the fourth report so it should

[51:03] be and the bins are going to be moved tomorrow

[51:06] i think the mayor set that up okay so we're moving the bins are we the

[51:10] ninth right yeah okay have we put that on social media i haven't done anything

[51:15] before do we have a sign that we're gonna put at city hall and say hey if

[51:18] you're looking for the bins or at mountain state waste we don't have a

[51:21] sign yet but we need one okay all right

[51:26] judy you're going to be outside waving this

[51:30] yeah so we'll put something up i guess to get

[51:32] those and on social media yep we'll put that out there as well

[51:36] um you've got my report one thing i'll just

[51:39] mention and i don't think there's really an agenda item for it with the columbia

[51:43] club on here tonight so i'll talk about it now

[51:46] um well actually we've got the the bids coming up there they're at the last 11 f

[51:50] or whatever's our new business but we've spent a lot of time on that

[51:54] in this last month and we're we're starting to make some progress we've

[51:57] brought the attorney or the architect on board they've been hired in

[52:00] a hourly basis not to exceed five thousand dollars without coming back to

[52:04] council and getting your guys's approval for further works um but we're just

[52:08] trying to get through this first process of getting the building stabilized with

[52:12] the front coming off and the the the danger of falling slate addressed

[52:18] before we get into any kind of planning or drawings the building and

[52:23] things of that nature so that's where we're standing i'll save

[52:26] the rest up for that but other than that you know i think we're entering this

[52:30] stage i signed up for the finance the budget preparatory thing and if you

[52:35] guys haven't had a chance to do that and want to go i think it's still available

[52:37] to you i mean want to go with the girls i think that's february 15th

[52:42] and in the next two or three weeks is really

[52:44] just going to be a lot of budget related tasks getting getting those preparations

[52:48] put together um for for our budget season we do have

[52:52] the the public meeting that we need to get advertised for

[52:56] arpa discussion and kind of budget presentation and things that nature and

[52:59] so that's i think february 23rd if i remember correctly off the top of my

[53:02] head and then we've scheduled that for the

[53:04] masonic lodge so um advertising wise i think the mayor

[53:07] and i need to sit down this week and start talking about how we're going to

[53:09] set the format of that and things of that nature yeah it might be helpful if

[53:14] we have maybe a whiteboard i'm not sure or a

[53:18] handout handout of all of the grants that we have

[53:23] submitted for so the public can see what monies we have submitted what's out

[53:29] there you know citywide or for individual for

[53:32] our project okay for pro everything okay yeah everything yeah we need to have a

[53:37] list of that of some sort yeah we do and i think the public needs to know that

[53:40] that you know we're utilizing every avenue of money and not

[53:45] leaving any money on the table but and they could also see some of the

[53:50] projects too that we have this is what we've submitted grants for and sure and

[53:54] the dollar amounts

[53:59] yep um so that's i mean unless there's any

[54:02] other questions i'll just leave the rest so we can get moving here seven o'clock

[54:05] we'll i'll leave any other questions i do do we have an

[54:08] update on the mid avenue so we're reaching out we've got some

[54:12] contact information for the landowner you know everything else is kind of

[54:16] come to the forefront right this last month in regards all our other projects

[54:19] but we're at the stage where we're going to reach out to the landowner to try to

[54:22] acquire additional property there next to where the slip is so we can extend

[54:27] that pull-off area a little bit larger

[54:30] we just with the city attorney i want him to be the focus point of that

[54:33] conversation he just hadn't had the time so that's where we're at with it and

[54:37] then you know regardless of which route we take we're gonna have to get some

[54:40] contemporary easements that's that's our next step in that but we're hoping i

[54:44] think we can realistically look at in may or june to see that constructed

[54:49] thank you i move that we accept department

[54:53] reports for a second

[54:57] second it's been moved in second to accept all department reports all in

[55:03] favor say aye aye opposed motion carries

[55:09] uh next under old business the 2022-1 ordinance

[55:15] authorizing the sale transfer of city-related

[55:20] to west virginia department of transportation doh project

[55:25] this would be the second reading and this is for the property for the

[55:29] bridge in deanville correct correct between haleville and shadybrook

[55:35] right right okay is there a motion to have the

[55:39] second reading

[55:43] i'll move to have the second reading the ordinance authorizing the cell

[55:47] transfer of city related to west virginia department of transportation

[55:50] division of highways bridge project project excuse me state project number

[55:56] s321n1670-0.020

[56:04] by title and yeah my title oh boy

[56:10] okay it's been moved in second we'll have voting by roll call

[56:15] that's a woman sherry rogers

[56:19] yes councilwoman yes councilman

[56:23] motion

[56:25] okay motion carries um

[56:29] and now uh i'll entertain a motion to ex accept the second reading

[56:37] okay i'll move to accept the second reading

[56:42] okay it's been moved in second to accept the second reading

[56:47] voting by roll call councilwoman sherry rogers yes

[56:51] councilman randy bowen yes councilwoman yes councilman curtis yes

[56:59] next oh motion carries we have uh the

[57:05] 2022-3 ordinance to acquire 241 south main

[57:10] i'll entertain a motion to have the second reading i think judy needs to

[57:14] read the ordinance by title did you do that

[57:18] yes i'm sorry [Laughter]

[57:24] 2022-01 a 20-22 ordinance authorizing the sale transfer of city property

[57:32] related to a west virginia department of transportation depart division of

[57:36] highway bridge project state project number

[57:40] s32 1 in 16-70-0.020

[57:50] i title only second reading let's get all that against me now

[57:56] now a motion to accept that i'll move to accept i'll second go ahead randy okay

[58:02] it's been moved in second and we'll have voting by roll call

[58:08] yes

[58:10] councilman councilwoman debbie gump yes sorry debbie counseling herb curtis yes

[58:16] okay

[58:20] and now i'll entertain a motion to have the second reading

[58:25] on the 2022-3 ordinance to acquire 241 south main can i speak to that before we

[58:32] yeah in that motion we've kind of had it on both these properties of hiccup in

[58:36] the last two days yeah and so with 241 south main we'll stick to that one first

[58:41] this property is owned by a woman who is or in the um

[58:45] in a rest home and so typically on the last this is all new to all of us right

[58:49] acquiring property and things of that nature and we're trying to acquire this

[58:53] to when we tear down the house that's going to happen this week we won't place

[58:57] a lien on it we'll have the property then redeem or whatever you know

[59:00] whatever use we need for it at that point

[59:02] but as we've tried to go through that process we've realized two things one

[59:06] she's in a nursing home and and the you know when we're trying to sign the deed

[59:09] the the person representing we're not quite sure the chain of legal custody is

[59:13] there to make sure that that person is the guardian or the

[59:16] power of attorney so we've got to get that clarified then the second thing is

[59:20] that this property is currently in the state tax sale process and we missed

[59:23] that due to it being such a recent process in the in the database hadn't

[59:27] been updated online yet so that doesn't preclude us from being

[59:31] able to pursue the tear down of the structure it just kind of muddies the

[59:35] water as far as acquisition and i'm putting my city attorney hat

[59:39] here for a second since he's not here and he's authorized me to give the

[59:42] explanation i think we can proceed to to pass the ordinance to acquire the

[59:46] property but we won't be able to acquire the

[59:49] property until all that stuff is taken care of and it may never happen

[59:54] and so we're kind of at an impasse and a sense

[59:58] of what what direction we should go and i think it's kind of the council decide

[1:00:01] what they're willing to do i don't necessarily see an issue with us

[1:00:05] holding off and not acquiring the property and tearing it down and being

[1:00:09] ready to place a lien on it but there is some

[1:00:12] question there what would happen you know say somebody were to come in and

[1:00:16] redeem that property off the tax sale and arlene may may disappear you know

[1:00:20] for like a better word and we'd lose any attempt to acquire that money back or

[1:00:25] whatnot so

[1:00:27] that is uh i probably put it rather

[1:00:31] inarticulately but i think that that's kind of the question before us and there

[1:00:35] are some questions like they do owe some property taxes they're not in their well

[1:00:39] in this case they are in the rears because they're in the state tax sale

[1:00:41] process and they also owe us municipal fees

[1:00:44] when we acquired the columbia property uh the columbia club property we we kind

[1:00:49] of set a a standing precedent in a sense right

[1:00:52] that if we were to acquire a piece of property we were willing to waive

[1:00:55] municipal fees and i think in this case we'd probably look to do something

[1:00:58] similar if we can't convince the owner to

[1:01:01] to pay those in advance um

[1:01:04] yeah so that hasn't been that issue itself hasn't been resolved here either

[1:01:08] so i just wanted you guys to be completely be completely upfront with

[1:01:12] you about where this property stands and try to answer any questions or anything

[1:01:16] like that on the way forward but before you

[1:01:18] make that motion to have a second reading thank you is it better for us to

[1:01:22] have our ducks in a row and proceed with the second reading or are are you

[1:01:27] recommending that we i think but better for us is kind of a

[1:01:33] relative term you know what are we trying to achieve here we're trying to

[1:01:36] achieve being able to sell the property down the line then i think you'll miss

[1:01:41] i'd recommend probably that you passed the ordinance so that we can

[1:01:44] quickly once those things resolved have the deed signed and filed

[1:01:47] now i i really questioned in my mind we'll

[1:01:50] ever get to that end point where we'll be able to get things clarified enough

[1:01:54] for us to to do that i don't know you know so if our council i may say

[1:01:59] come back to us when that gets a little bit more clear and we'll proceed from

[1:02:02] there i don't necessarily see a problem either

[1:02:05] way and i don't you know we're not really missing out on it on a whole lot

[1:02:08] here i don't think but i can't predict the future that's my

[1:02:12] problem

[1:02:15] i don't really see a problem with mike wants to

[1:02:20] the gentleman that is taking care of this lady's affairs he assured me that

[1:02:25] he is and he does take care of her affairs at holbrook okay

[1:02:30] so uh he was gonna bring that paper in to me

[1:02:33] but it just never made it there yet i've had bad weather yes we have had bad

[1:02:37] weather but again that's up to you guys uh however you all feel that you should

[1:02:42] be handled and i appreciate it

[1:02:46] well if we go ahead and do it then

[1:02:50] the staff can go ahead and do what they do to that's your make it happen do you

[1:02:54] like to make that motion yes i'll have the second yeah let me

[1:02:58] just clarify we're okay with if we decide to waive the municipal fees to

[1:03:01] acquire that property at that point everybody's

[1:03:04] it needs to come down suzy doesn't shoot us yes

[1:03:09] susie okay with it yes i said as long as we're getting

[1:03:13] something back we are okay we're looking about 250 i think

[1:03:18] okay i would i move to

[1:03:24] have the this is the second reading correct second reading of the ordinance

[1:03:28] 202203 ordinance acquiring property at 241

[1:03:33] south main street westin by title only that's not good okay it's been moved and

[1:03:39] second to have the second reading [Music]

[1:03:42] uh voting by roll call

[1:03:47] roger yes councilman randy bowen councilwoman debbie gump yes councilman

[1:03:52] herb curtis yes

[1:03:55] motion carries i'll move to accept well we have

[1:04:00] to i skipped uh this oh sorry you have to read it yes

[1:04:06] judy get with it

[1:04:09] ordinance 20 2022-03 ordinance acquiring property at 241

[1:04:16] south main street in weston west virginia second reading by title only

[1:04:21] thank you now we're ready i'll move to accept

[1:04:25] i'll second okay it's been moved in second to accept

[1:04:29] the second reading of the 2022-3 ordinance to acquire 241 south

[1:04:35] main by title only and we'll have voting

[1:04:39] by roll call councilwoman sherry rogers yes

[1:04:43] councilman randy bowen yes councilwoman debbie gump yes councilman herb curtis

[1:04:48] yes okay motion carries

[1:04:51] uh next on the agenda is the ordinance to acquire 251 south main second reading

[1:05:00] is there a mission to have that second reading i moved to have the second

[1:05:04] reading of the ordinance uh 2022-5

[1:05:09] to acquire i'm sorry i'm sorry

[1:05:12] uh let me start over i moved to have the second reading

[1:05:16] of the 2022-4 ordinance to acquire 251 south

[1:05:21] main the title

[1:05:24] is there a second a second okay it's been moved in second

[1:05:33] voting by roll call sherry rogers yes councilman randy bowen

[1:05:39] yes councilman woman w yes

[1:05:44] councilwoman yes

[1:05:46] okay motion carries go ahead city clerk ordinance

[1:05:53] 2022-4 ordinance acquiring property at 251

[1:05:57] south main street in weston west virginia by title only second reading

[1:06:07] is there a motion to accept or reject the ordinance

[1:06:12] i need to accept the ordinance 2022.04

[1:06:19] to acquire property at 251 something a second okay it's been moved in second

[1:06:26] we'll have voting by roll call councilwoman sherry rogers yes

[1:06:31] councilman randy bowen yes councilwoman debbie gump yes councilman

[1:06:36] herb curtis yes okay motion carries uh next when the agenda is an ordinance

[1:06:43] to acquire easement for forestry traffic control this would be the first reading

[1:06:50] did you want to speak about that please you guys don't have anything in front of

[1:06:54] you for that ordinance because we've yet to receive i don't think the full

[1:06:58] documentation back from mr shriver that bridge is slated to begin

[1:07:03] at any moment um they've contacted me in the last

[1:07:06] couple days to say we're ready where are you guys at

[1:07:09] um and i said let me get to this meeting and i'll tell you where i'm at

[1:07:12] um i think

[1:07:15] through this whole process yes it would be good for us to have a have a road

[1:07:19] there yes it'd be good for us to have

[1:07:21] access to the back of our property in a in a better

[1:07:25] location but and we did work with mr shriver to

[1:07:29] update the language on the ordinance i think we tried to

[1:07:32] run this through here once before right we all realized that there was a

[1:07:35] miscommunication and that we hadn't included permanent access to you know

[1:07:39] for emergency situations and things that nature and that seemed amicable to both

[1:07:43] sides and that's what we were waiting on final review from their their side to to

[1:07:48] approve that and get that into the packet tonight which didn't happen

[1:07:51] but i think at this point

[1:07:54] i've had a couple well one one council person reach out to me and say is this

[1:07:58] really what we need to do and i said i was under the understanding this was

[1:08:01] kind of a priority of counsel to try to make this traffic control

[1:08:04] better or in a different place i just want to clarify and say that i'm

[1:08:09] fine with us to try to attempt it to as is on spring street to use that as our

[1:08:14] diversion if we want to try to save twenty thousand dollars and not go down

[1:08:18] this road with mr shriver um and i think that that's

[1:08:22] yeah it would be nice to have an ordinance or

[1:08:25] to have this read one time and if if this doesn't work for some reason be

[1:08:29] able to read it a second time and and go forward but we don't have that ability i

[1:08:32] don't think tonight so to kind of put a bow on all my

[1:08:36] discussion as i i kind of want some direction from you all to say

[1:08:40] are we fine trying this out with the bridge construction and just utilizing

[1:08:44] spring street um and can i interrupt you you also have

[1:08:47] been in as well as well right well and i guess i don't know which street it is

[1:08:51] there at the end of fourth that curves up but that one little portion there is

[1:08:55] you know 12 13 feet wide and that's where that's my biggest concern is that

[1:08:59] at that point we're going to run into people meeting each other and somebody's

[1:09:02] going to have to back back down the hill which i think is a common occurrence

[1:09:06] today yeah i mean for somebody who has driven that heel

[1:09:09] since she was 16 years of age and we have also miss bush in the back of the

[1:09:13] room as well people know what to do

[1:09:16] people know you know who to back who backs up who goes where what about one

[1:09:20] of those traffic signal things those portable ones is that an option i think

[1:09:25] it is what you check that out yeah the price

[1:09:28] when we need one or two i think two lights would probably do it

[1:09:31] for us there and the cost of that would be what six seven thousand dollars

[1:09:35] probably which we would total or total yeah that's for the year which

[1:09:40] we would have for our street department for our projects is what do you think

[1:09:45] yeah i just yeah i'm okay that and i just think there's there needs to be

[1:09:48] some road like some gabian rock put in some ditches and kind of expand it out a

[1:09:53] little bit just give people do something you really need some repair

[1:09:57] i had asked you know a couple months ago for the

[1:10:00] millings to be put in and they ended up as i said in people's driveways instead

[1:10:04] of on the side of the road so i think you know with some repair and

[1:10:08] some rock uh because people much rather have their roads repaired that they

[1:10:13] drive on with the 20 000 plus that we would spend on that easement okay why

[1:10:18] don't we uh chief do you have any input here

[1:10:22] on just traffic and i agree do you

[1:10:25] have traffic issues over there and your opinion

[1:10:30] jimmy's not here i think there's there was some concerns right about fire

[1:10:34] emergency access over there if there is a fire how we're going to get somebody

[1:10:37] in there but can i re refresh when we did the repairs

[1:10:41] um on depot street i thought that was

[1:10:44] emergency access allowed through that area am i correct on that i think that

[1:10:49] was the intention but yeah the agreement we had expired after 120 days of signing

[1:10:53] it that was maybe that's something we could just go

[1:10:55] back to them and say hey

[1:11:00] we'll see if we can get that fired back up then

[1:11:03] and i would look at it as well as the bridge is an emergency it's been an

[1:11:07] emergency and a safety hazard to the public don't disagree it would be nice

[1:11:11] as far as negotiations to gain access to a new road and access to the back of the

[1:11:16] street department and all that but the bridge is a priority it's a safety

[1:11:20] concern so if we need to go another route and what changes everything is

[1:11:24] that they're ready to go to the state yeah

[1:11:27] yeah so no commit you know we haven't even don't

[1:11:30] even know if the the the road may not even be ready by the time the bridge is

[1:11:34] done it's a real concern yeah so we can't

[1:11:38] i say table it indefinitely at this point that's my recommendation if you're

[1:11:41] going well what about the traffic light i don't have a quote for you or on the

[1:11:46] agenda but that's something i mean uh i'll look into a little bit further and

[1:11:49] i know there was like a four week lead time when i got that quotation so and i

[1:11:53] placed a call with them on friday with the peterson issue to see if i could get

[1:11:56] that bumped up a little bit but i'll see if i can get that

[1:11:59] yeah but i move that we table

[1:12:02] i wonder uh the acquirings of the easement for forestry traffic control

[1:12:07] indefinitely okay is there a second

[1:12:11] i'll second okay there's been a motion and a second

[1:12:15] to table indefinitely the ordinance to acquire easement for

[1:12:20] fourth street traffic control any discussion

[1:12:26] we'll have voting by roll call councilwoman sherry rogers yes

[1:12:31] councilman randy bowen councilwoman debbie gunn yes councilman

[1:12:37] curtis yes okay motion carries next department organizational

[1:12:42] restructure

[1:12:46] okay you guys we've talked about this a couple meetings here in a row

[1:12:49] so i guess for the public out there and just for for the sake of it we're we're

[1:12:53] trying to restructure our department heads to cover um tyler straiter has

[1:12:57] has submitted his resignation as street

[1:13:00] department foreman which i won't say he's resigning as foreman but he he

[1:13:03] can't take on the added duties that we've kind of

[1:13:06] added to his plate to run that area and so with that conversation he's got some

[1:13:11] some private pursuits he wants to pursue after hours and

[1:13:13] i'm completely fine with that and i think he's he's earned that right to do

[1:13:16] those things um what we've proposed and what i'm

[1:13:22] i think a city manager i have the authority to

[1:13:25] to rearrange our organization structure underneath myself but i just wanted to

[1:13:28] make clear to everyone what was going on and i guess there are some salary

[1:13:33] implications so i think that that's with all that being kind of a nebulous what

[1:13:37] is my authority what needs to come to council i think at this point i'm asking

[1:13:41] you uh to do a couple things we're going to

[1:13:45] approved mike starrett's appointment as street commissioner which is a vacant

[1:13:48] position at his current salary of 38 thousand dollars and remain an exempt

[1:13:52] employee in his his existing schedule

[1:13:56] um

[1:13:58] we're going to move or we're going to bring andy darby up as the code official

[1:14:02] for the city so he'll be i'm asking you to appoint him as the code official

[1:14:06] zoning officer and floodplain administrator for the city of weston

[1:14:10] with a salary of 36 000 which is an increase um but he'll be full-time an

[1:14:15] exempt employee there and that that number's to meet that exemption

[1:14:19] threshold by federal law um

[1:14:23] and then i think uh i think for for this issue that pretty

[1:14:26] much takes care of what we're going to do we're going to leave the assistant

[1:14:29] building inspector position vacant for the time being see how this goes forward

[1:14:34] and we did i'll just just make note that we

[1:14:37] did hire our replacement street department worker who started starting

[1:14:40] today caden old acre um and so with with those

[1:14:44] with the rays that darby will mr darby will obtain and and the rate that mr old

[1:14:49] acre they can't they canceled each other out essentially compared to our previous

[1:14:52] street department employee so that was a net yeah net neutral move in a sense

[1:14:58] which was one of the reasons we predicated that that hiring decision so

[1:15:02] um so i guess all that was to say i i we

[1:15:06] can list all those details in the minutes um

[1:15:10] but i'm just asking for feedback i guess on that department of review and

[1:15:13] and approval of those those moves so what now mr stared you said what was

[1:15:19] his title going to be street commissioner i think that's a

[1:15:23] vacant position we've had previously

[1:15:26] is he going to be involved with his old department at all or i think there'll be

[1:15:31] a there'll still be an involvement there and kind of a co-working but mr darby's

[1:15:34] going to run the department he by state building code we have to have a singular

[1:15:38] code official in a sense and so that requires licensing and things that

[1:15:42] nature and he's on his way to doing that and so we'll have to fill out that

[1:15:45] paperwork and such but as far as current projects you know with the with the

[1:15:49] buildings we're tearing down mike's going to stay involved with that

[1:15:52] um see those those through and then yeah i think between the two of them and and

[1:15:56] just our whole inner workings how we work we'll still all work together on a

[1:16:00] lot of these issues in a sense but mr darby will be that point person

[1:16:08] other questions just one second here we're

[1:16:12] working on some numbers here real quick what did you say it was

[1:16:17] do you need my calculator

[1:16:30] [Music]

[1:16:41] [Music] what was the rate for mr old

[1:16:47] 1190 per hour

[1:17:08] [Music] mr curtis are you still ciphering

[1:17:16] yes so you said 11.90 for him and and then

[1:17:21] 36 000. for mr darby so the raise that mr

[1:17:26] darby's getting what's that amount from what he's making now well currently

[1:17:30] we've got him on a part-time basis and so his hourly rate is going to be in a

[1:17:33] sense produced he's 20 20 an hour 20 000 a year is what we budgeted or what we

[1:17:40] agreed to what we're looking at is

[1:17:44] we budgeted 32 000 for that assistant building inspector position so

[1:17:48] essentially we're taking reorganizing our structure right and

[1:17:51] taking mike as the existing is to pull them out of that budget and we'll place

[1:17:54] them in the street department and then mr darby will have to come up with four

[1:17:58] thousand dollars in that for his salary but with our resignation

[1:18:04] in the street department and mr old acres rate that more than

[1:18:08] makes up that four thousand dollar difference that's how i was trying to

[1:18:11] justify being a net neutral move

[1:18:15] he will not they're going to divide

[1:18:23] as far as the street commissioner his duties and is he going to have more to

[1:18:27] take on mike as far as the street commissioner compared to where he's at

[1:18:30] now as far as pay goes

[1:18:35] well his pay isn't changing right

[1:18:38] i mean i think it's that range is a sour or a department

[1:18:42] head level salary in my mind and i think that yeah there will be more duties

[1:18:46] there but he's also in order for in order to be an exempt employee you

[1:18:51] have to manage so many people and so that's

[1:18:54] that exemption is 36 or 35 550 or something like that by federal statute

[1:19:00] at this point so his duties will be street

[1:19:02] commissioner yeah he he'll it's kind of a tough question to answer

[1:19:06] will he have more responsibilities within the street department he will

[1:19:10] right yeah you know absolutely but i don't

[1:19:13] know i think it's from a work perspective right now he's

[1:19:16] juggling three or four different hats in the city building and so

[1:19:21] to me it's a question for him i think in a sense and he's agreed to do it at that

[1:19:24] rate and i think we're trying to move forward

[1:19:27] right mike maybe he's having second thoughts now

[1:19:31] thanks herb

[1:19:55] [Music]

[1:20:20] sorry any more questions i hear rumblings

[1:20:25] [Music]

[1:20:33] and i'll just elaborate on on just for the public sector kind of the motivation

[1:20:37] for all this is that we tried having a working form and

[1:20:41] running the street department um that was it worked into a degree but it

[1:20:46] was very frustrating for mr straighter because he was working and also trying

[1:20:50] to super in inevitably breaking up the cruise where he couldn't be there and he

[1:20:53] had to pull himself out of the hole or whatever to go check on another job and

[1:20:57] very efficient inefficient and i commend him for doing as best he could with it

[1:21:01] um so it really spoke to the need of having one person that kind of oversee

[1:21:04] those operations set up those duties manage the personalities and things of

[1:21:08] that nature a little bit better than somebody who's going to be trying to tie

[1:21:12] it into getting work done and things of that nature

[1:21:15] and so from from my standpoint when i looked at

[1:21:18] it as the city manager you know could we have advertised the

[1:21:21] position possibly but i i felt that mr stared had the

[1:21:25] skills really to run that department and the skills that we'd look for in

[1:21:29] that position but also it didn't require us to create a new position in the sense

[1:21:33] of from a budgetary standpoint so i thought this was really a win-win

[1:21:37] situation for all parties i think mike had expressed some interest in

[1:21:42] doing it and so that when that opportunity presented itself i

[1:21:44] approached him about it and felt this was the the best way forward for us as a

[1:21:48] city to try to to keep our overhead low and and move forward and we're still

[1:21:53] still see production and see see things get turned around so

[1:22:02] and mike doesn't receive benefits so i don't see 40 000

[1:22:06] being online i'm good with that okay

[1:22:10] he's proven himself okay it's additional duties it's only two thousand good i'm

[1:22:16] fine more here if you watch i'm good with that

[1:22:21] would you like to make a motion so how do you want that word edney to

[1:22:26] accept the reorganizational chart as presented yeah

[1:22:31] i think that's fine and we'll list those changes salary in the minutes so that

[1:22:34] you guys have that stuff in front of you i think we're required

[1:22:37] to list those in the minutes yeah and i think that's fine

[1:22:40] but i won't make you repeat them all or anything like that yeah thanks because

[1:22:43] they're on my desk

[1:22:46] okay is there a second to approve that reorganization

[1:22:52] okay it's been second any discussion

[1:22:57] we'll have voting by roll call councilwoman sherry rogers yes one randy

[1:23:02] bowen yes councilwoman debbie gump yes councilman herb curtis yes okay motion

[1:23:07] carries moving on to

[1:23:10] new business letter a all right

[1:23:16] this kind of tied into that departmental organizational restructure

[1:23:20] mouthful that we just handled but by charter we're supposed to have a

[1:23:24] finance director we have an operator that we've kind of operated under the

[1:23:27] assumption and that the city manager would handle those

[1:23:30] duties which i think

[1:23:33] it's accomplished it's worked but it hasn't worked as well but we also had a

[1:23:37] firm that we paid yeah and we and we still do yeah we've been using subtle

[1:23:40] sonic to kind of fill in for those those holes of knowledge that i don't have and

[1:23:44] they kind of provide a check on me in a sense right they're checking our

[1:23:47] financial reports and generating those and things

[1:23:49] um but as we've discussed i think we we see a need for bringing these

[1:23:54] duties back in house and as we stalk talk through the different uh the

[1:23:58] different times we had the special meetings we had about this topic uh

[1:24:02] i see really two spheres of influence within the finance department a

[1:24:05] collector's side and of the finance payroll yeah the the revenue side and

[1:24:11] the collection side i guess is the best best way to say it but

[1:24:15] so miss johnson i've approached her about

[1:24:18] taking on expanded duties within her role

[1:24:21] she's reticent let's say to be very honest about it and i've assured her

[1:24:26] that this isn't we're not hiring her to be our financial expert in a sense but

[1:24:30] we do need somebody who's directing the day-to-day

[1:24:32] um supervision of our our financial workings that's something with all the

[1:24:37] other duties that i'm performing in the state of our operation that i think that

[1:24:41] i've i've really been shorted on and i haven't had an opportunity to really

[1:24:45] delve into our our quickbooks and make sure each day our transactions have been

[1:24:49] attributed correctly and things that nature

[1:24:51] and also like with benefits with peia it works i pair bills

[1:24:56] but you know i haven't really had a chance to really delve into the numbers

[1:24:59] and all that stuff and and really give probably probably what our employees

[1:25:02] deserve as far as um advice and updates and things of that

[1:25:06] nature and so those two roles are what i'm i'm really

[1:25:09] seeing her sliding into

[1:25:13] so at this point and then i think with that

[1:25:16] move in the future here we're going to identify a candidate to come in and

[1:25:19] essentially be the assistant with a little bit

[1:25:22] more financial background more financial experience to handle that other side of

[1:25:26] the equation for us and then attempt to pull back the duties from settle and

[1:25:30] sonic or that that are routine you know such as

[1:25:34] accounts payable and things of that nature that they really

[1:25:38] you know what they say a basic level accountant could could be trained to do

[1:25:42] very easily and so that and then their estimation

[1:25:45] that's about 20 or so hours a week so that's the that's the track i'm trying

[1:25:49] to put us on and jump start us all into so at this point i think we need to have

[1:25:52] a finance director and i'm recommending you appoint susie johnston and her

[1:25:56] salary would be forty five thousand dollars a year

[1:26:00] and then i'll ask make that recommendation answer any

[1:26:02] questions you have

[1:26:05] ms johnson have acceptable credentials yeah can we see her last two evaluations

[1:26:11] please incidentally how long have you been

[1:26:14] working for the city and collections and in finance

[1:26:18] six sets what i thought yeah

[1:26:23] thank you i moved to appoint

[1:26:28] susie johnston as the finance director at a salary of forty five thousand

[1:26:32] dollars a year and she'll be an exempt employee just an

[1:26:36] exempt employee

[1:26:40] okay it's been moved in second any discussion

[1:26:45] i just want to say i think susie does an excellent job will be

[1:26:49] excellent disposition i agree and i'll be keeping my eye on her

[1:26:55] we'll have voting by roll call

[1:26:59] yes that's one randy bowen yes

[1:27:02] councilwoman

[1:27:06] yes motion carries

[1:27:09] next westport conservation poke creek watershed dams and channel

[1:27:14] it's the cost share agreement i believe it's the same amount as last

[1:27:19] year correct forty four hundred dollars

[1:27:24] i'll move to approve a second it's been moved in second to

[1:27:28] approve in the amount of forty four hundred dollars any discussion

[1:27:34] all um voting by roll call councilwoman sherry rogers yes

[1:27:40] comes from randy bowen yes yes councilman curtis yes

[1:27:47] okay motion carries next the

[1:27:51] 2022-6 ordinance updated vacant structure and vacant

[1:27:55] property ordinance first reading

[1:28:00] you want to do a preface on yeah sure i don't want to cast any doubt on our

[1:28:05] city attorney's abilities but um and i'm not doing that

[1:28:10] but this is in a sense hot off the press you know this is something that you all

[1:28:15] have been given i think the weekend the read

[1:28:18] which it's not a long document so i think that that's reasonable in a sense

[1:28:22] but this is something that today we set through this afternoon and as a staff i

[1:28:26] mean the attorney prepared it he's given it his review

[1:28:29] i've gone through it and made some notes i don't know if those notes have been

[1:28:33] incorporated or not at this point and we've got some some questions on our

[1:28:37] site as far as fees and stuff of that nature that we'll point out here in a

[1:28:40] second so i want to say i mean i know we're all hot to get this issue going

[1:28:44] and get this settled but this may be something that you want to take a little

[1:28:48] bit longer look at and i think that would be fair

[1:28:50] to do that it's up to you all i mean i don't know

[1:28:54] if you said hey i was up all weekend reading this thing and i love it i'm

[1:28:57] ready to rock and roll i'm fine moving forward but

[1:29:00] i do think what one thing that kind of came to the surface in our discussion

[1:29:04] today was the fee structure i wasn't uh

[1:29:08] maybe i missed something i was okay with the fee structure well i think there

[1:29:12] shouldn't be more when you guys had previously enacted this

[1:29:15] ordinance i think that the fees were more yeah they were and

[1:29:18] we you know we sat down today and and kind of worked through that old fee

[1:29:22] structure and said yeah that's 6 500 for somebody that first year

[1:29:27] if they don't if they're vacant that whole year and that's strong

[1:29:31] and i don't think it's necessarily illegal

[1:29:34] but i think that that's with a program that's kind of in essence starting from

[1:29:38] scratch right it's something that maybe is not out there very well for folks to

[1:29:41] know about or even you know you've got three months and then you're paying 500

[1:29:44] if i got the numbers right to me that's uh i think from from our

[1:29:49] standpoint we're going to have some serious blowback on us from a pr

[1:29:53] perspective right and i think for us to get the program off the ground

[1:29:58] these lighter numbers probably make a little bit more sense for us

[1:30:01] from that perspective but they do you know if you look at the vacant or the

[1:30:06] ordinance in front of you we're only charging 500 for properties that are

[1:30:09] vacant for in the first year and there's no fee to register the the vacant

[1:30:13] properties in this from what i recall and i don't necessarily disagree yeah

[1:30:19] and so i think that for this is policy this is

[1:30:23] right up you know on the curve of what a city manager does and what council does

[1:30:26] this is this is your wheelhouse to to write the laws and things of that

[1:30:30] nature i'm just trying to give you some feedback and i think i wish the attorney

[1:30:34] was here to work with you kind of more on a one-on-one basis but

[1:30:37] um i'm more than willing you know if you

[1:30:39] like i said if you spend all weekend looking at it and say i've got 10

[1:30:41] comments i want to give you i'll take them and

[1:30:44] try to integrate them but otherwise like i said i think it might

[1:30:48] might behoove us to look at this a little bit longer

[1:30:51] i got it you have some more joyful questions on the language

[1:30:54] excuse me on the language first starting off under complaints

[1:30:59] notice excuse me the police chief any police

[1:31:03] officer the chief of the fire department and any member of the fire department

[1:31:07] the city building code official shall have the authority to identify

[1:31:12] nuisances and provide a warning sorry yeah that's the next one we tell

[1:31:17] you what section or page you're on there sorry yeah

[1:31:20] that is the next ordinance that's the uh one site yeah that's um

[1:31:25] the on-site citation ordinance okay this one is

[1:31:30] vacant building ordinance 2022 06. where's that at

[1:31:35] well i have like it is on

[1:31:40] after the west fork watershed agreement the last

[1:31:45] signature page of the west fork water shed treatment

[1:31:49] it's on the other side

[1:32:09] i would appreciate it if he could make those changes and also i do believe that

[1:32:14] we do need this wasn't it 250 dollars for the

[1:32:20] that's here

[1:32:24] right

[1:32:35] yeah it's on the first year

[1:32:39] total first year 3500 66 000. 6 000.

[1:32:46] okay

[1:32:50] okay but on the other thing we discussed

[1:32:55] [Music]

[1:33:03] vacant property where's the theme now

[1:33:16] [Music]

[1:33:20] i think

[1:33:32] or regular

[1:33:36] at a future meeting i think at this point

[1:33:38] i don't know is there a way for us to kind of converse back and forth on the

[1:33:41] on the ordinance to say this is what can we share drafts with

[1:33:46] you guys via email i think that's allowed

[1:33:48] and then get us to a point where we're happy with it

[1:33:51] it's probably the best way and then we should send our input we have a motion

[1:33:54] and a second to table

[1:33:58] any discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed motion

[1:34:04] carries now we're on that next one next updated

[1:34:08] on-site citations did you have a question herb

[1:34:12] uh yes but i'm good let's see if the city manager wants to speak on this one

[1:34:16] first okay just real briefly and also i haven't i haven't even reviewed

[1:34:20] this one um you did get a second copy of the ordinance you had one in your packet

[1:34:24] yeah today through those discussions we we decided to

[1:34:28] uh codify i think was the right word our guys to say we're going to make sure

[1:34:32] there's a warning process in this citation so other municipalities when

[1:34:36] you read their on-site citation they can basically walk up and say oh there's

[1:34:39] trash here's a ticket and and i think

[1:34:42] we were fine with that approach but just from our discussion we we would

[1:34:47] like to use a warning process where we go out there and say hey here's a

[1:34:50] warning please take care of your your issue just to work with people and then

[1:34:55] if they haven't done that within the days prescribing it we'll be back and

[1:34:57] we'll issue a citation at that point so we decided to put that in the code and

[1:35:02] that's when you when you look at that second copy you received today that

[1:35:05] language is added in red okay and then we also had a question about

[1:35:11] fines you know we had some latitude there

[1:35:14] and what we decided essentially was to kick

[1:35:17] kick this subject to the municipal court right instead of saying hey your first

[1:35:20] offense is going to be a hundred dollars right

[1:35:23] i think yeah the crime and and their reticence and all that stuff

[1:35:28] that's the judge's role to kind of take that into consideration some the

[1:35:32] ordinance we used for this as our bases i think was martinsburg they had every

[1:35:35] one of these appeals or complaints coming before city council but we felt

[1:35:39] the municipal court was probably the proper jurisdiction

[1:35:42] and the proper setting for those things to kind of be

[1:35:46] banning about and negotiated and all that that manner so

[1:35:50] i think it's a i got to read this this afternoon right

[1:35:53] before i got here and i found one typo and like i said i think it's some i

[1:35:58] think another review it was it had to do with let me see if i could find the page

[1:36:02] ahead of that's okay it was uh the section where we talked

[1:36:05] about court and one of those vestige councils

[1:36:09] so if i can find it there so i'll get that corrected but um

[1:36:13] i thought it looked good yeah i think i think it's a very good ordinance i just

[1:36:17] like said i think from our from our standpoint we we've

[1:36:21] all we know what kind of situation we've walked into here and we're trying to get

[1:36:24] things up and running sure these these ordinances i think are very critical

[1:36:28] they deserve some deliberation some thought you know i don't necessarily see

[1:36:32] the need to to get this done here and there it's you

[1:36:35] know emergency scenario i think it's it's good to give your yeah to bring

[1:36:39] this before council and say here's a draft ordinance let's talk about a

[1:36:43] little bit right and then then sit on that for a month and come back and say

[1:36:48] are we all happy with it right and then pass that and we can deliberate back and

[1:36:51] forth i think that's a good precedent for us to sell set for

[1:36:54] ourselves when we're dealing with these ordinances in the future and as we go

[1:36:58] forward so that's that's my two cents on it you

[1:37:02] guys can disagree with that but like i said i would rather take

[1:37:05] take the time up front and make sure we're all comfortable with it and rather

[1:37:08] than say oh shoot we get into this we miss

[1:37:10] something critical and then we're back here doing an amendment to the ordinance

[1:37:13] a month or two later does that make sense so you're recommending that we

[1:37:16] table this one as well i'm i would

[1:37:20] that's my preference if unless you guys feel like you've read enough i mean you

[1:37:23] just got the red lettering today right yeah this evening and i read it yeah and

[1:37:28] actually i'm ready i'm fine and what i do like about this ordinance

[1:37:33] as and we have people online who have are on

[1:37:38] the phone who have called in who there have been many concerns

[1:37:42] about some of these nuisances that uh particularly noise

[1:37:48] that cannot it doesn't the the after 10 pm noise

[1:37:54] ordinance doesn't really address um

[1:37:57] but this ordinance does address those

[1:38:01] nuisances so someone doesn't have to listen to excessive

[1:38:06] noise throughout and when i say excessive

[1:38:09] noise it is excessive noise that they should not be

[1:38:13] subject to too if you can't have a picnic in your

[1:38:17] backyard or a grill out in your backyard because of your neighbors in

[1:38:21] consideration i think uh this ordinance addresses that

[1:38:26] so if the ordinance is read and passed at a first reading

[1:38:31] you can still review and and our city attorney can make

[1:38:36] additional corrections for where i understand it you can't make

[1:38:40] changes to the ordinance that would materially change it what is the

[1:38:44] definition of material change i'd leave that the council and the

[1:38:47] attorney to to go back and forth on that

[1:38:59] i think it needs some work i'm definitely

[1:39:02] forward table and as far as the language goes okay as i stated earlier under

[1:39:06] complaints and notice i spoke with the building specter code enforcement

[1:39:12] officer over earlier before the meeting and the chief of police

[1:39:16] under complaints and notice it says states in the beginning the police chief

[1:39:20] and police officer the chief of the fire department any member of the fire

[1:39:24] department and the city building code officials shall have the authority to

[1:39:28] identify nuisances and provide a warning to the alleged violator

[1:39:36] do they also have open range as well everyone stated here in this language to

[1:39:46] to give an on-site citation as well and the reason i ask that's because

[1:39:52] nuisance is a broad term and

[1:39:56] of course as you're aware mr city manager you got to go

[1:39:59] to you know through training and all sorts of things to become a code

[1:40:03] enforcement officer to cite someone for a nuisance

[1:40:08] or even a warning as far as that goes because

[1:40:11] it involves and is included and leads up to a citation which is

[1:40:15] given by someone that has to take training classes to

[1:40:19] to do on-site citations and and to cite someone for a nuisance so

[1:40:24] that was the first part that i've seen that maybe

[1:40:28] we may be going just a little broad as far as who can

[1:40:33] generate warnings and in citations councilman curtis would you like to make

[1:40:38] a motion to table this yeah i've got one more part

[1:40:42] in regard to some of the fire

[1:40:47] issues okay yeah not a nuisance but i don't even know what it deals with oh

[1:40:53] okay yeah it might be good to send him a copy of

[1:40:56] that because he'd probably have some input yeah yeah that's what i said i

[1:41:00] think it's oh hey i don't i don't want to say that we were rushing it but we

[1:41:03] we're kind of trying to move things forward as quickly as possible right so

[1:41:06] we've got this in front of you tonight to ask these questions sure okay you

[1:41:09] know and i think that and you might want to win councilman curtis has one more

[1:41:13] point yeah my second was said warning

[1:41:17] which is the next sentence said warning shall give the violator a reasonable

[1:41:21] amount of time to abate the nuisance a reasonable reasonable amount of times

[1:41:27] a broad statement as well i think there at least should be a window of five to

[1:41:32] 15 days five to 20 days

[1:41:36] there needs there needs to be a means to an end here

[1:41:41] a cut-off point and and i just think that leaves a wide open window because

[1:41:46] first of all you have all these different titles above that's that

[1:41:50] you're given authority to cite someone with a warning or citation and then

[1:41:55] you're saying given the violator

[1:41:58] or shall give the violated a reasonable amount of reasonable amount of time

[1:42:02] could you know when you're having five or six different titles here could

[1:42:06] be five days to 400 days

[1:42:13] and i hear what you're saying i don't necessarily disagree i yeah it's a

[1:42:16] common practice i guess the law especially in this regard right it kind

[1:42:19] of gives the authority to the policeman i use that term generally to

[1:42:24] kind of make that decision right they're trying to work

[1:42:26] with people and things that nature right now sure you'll get a complaint say well

[1:42:30] i broke my back and my husband's out of town until

[1:42:33] the next two months can i get this trash pile behind my house in the next few

[1:42:36] months and you say well yeah but if you you know five to 20 days and you're kind

[1:42:39] of handicapped by the law in a sense you're breaking the law by giving them

[1:42:43] more so i think that's that's the general reason for that broad of

[1:42:46] language right you let people allow them to work with them within reason

[1:42:50] sure but that's in any of these titles when they're on site with during an

[1:42:55] issue could tell some you know a landowner hey

[1:42:58] you need to clean this up or this is an issue here and if you you

[1:43:02] know this is something the city can cite you for to look at a later time but as

[1:43:05] far as tying it in with uh issuing citations and with the code

[1:43:10] enforcement department itself i wasn't sure about that and then again

[1:43:14] a reasonable amount of times i think should be narrowed down just a

[1:43:19] little more and other than that i think it looks

[1:43:22] good and that typo i was telling you guys about that was at section 7c at the

[1:43:27] very end there there's a before council there i don't think you want any role in

[1:43:30] that i think that's before municipal court that's that that language

[1:43:34] yeah it's just something that gets overlooked

[1:43:37] sometimes you're ready to make that motion

[1:43:40] did we table that yet we're waiting for a motion to table okay

[1:43:48] i moved to table the

[1:43:56] the first reading of the on-site citation

[1:43:59] ordinance

[1:44:02] but is there a second a second

[1:44:07] it's been moved in second to table the first reading of the ordinance

[1:44:12] on updating on-site citations

[1:44:16] any discussion all in favor say aye

[1:44:22] opposed motion carries

[1:44:26] uh next under letter e 2022-8 ordinance denial and or

[1:44:33] revocation of licenses and permits this would be the first

[1:44:37] reading

[1:44:41] that's 20 22.00 five or six

[1:44:46] seven eight eight thank you go ahead

[1:44:52] we have discussion sure yes

[1:44:56] okay the the whole

[1:45:00] procedure and the whole situation in regards to

[1:45:06] code enforcement and cleaning up our town

[1:45:11] is to clean up our town so why would you revoke a permit

[1:45:15] because they owe you money let them put the money into fixing up their property

[1:45:20] if they want to so that that's a point i'd like to make

[1:45:24] about that ordinance if there's something i'm missing

[1:45:28] i'll listen [Music]

[1:45:34] i the motivation for this is that we've

[1:45:37] created a process if you can call it that i mean it's very

[1:45:41] informal we check our b o taxes our business license things that nature to

[1:45:46] make sure if somebody's coming in and getting a building permit that they've

[1:45:49] if they're a contractor they've registered to have a business license in

[1:45:52] the city that they're up to date on their b o taxes

[1:45:56] and you know if you're a property unit you paid your municipal fees that that

[1:45:59] things of that nature it's been a very effective process for us we've been able

[1:46:03] to a lot of people you know said well we're

[1:46:05] your contractors out there waiting you haven't paid your business owner you

[1:46:10] haven't paid your municipal fees let's see how much i owe 500 bucks okay

[1:46:15] i'll pay and then we've we've brought in untold thousands

[1:46:19] by by doing that now in recent weeks we've had questions

[1:46:23] from outside agencies i'll call them in this

[1:46:26] discussion at this point to say where do you have that on the books that you you

[1:46:30] can hold up this building permit because of this

[1:46:34] we don't necessarily have any explicit language that says we can do that

[1:46:37] there's some general language in there that says you know you know all proper

[1:46:40] fees and things like that should be paid before the permit is issued we wanted to

[1:46:45] make that a little bit more explicit so that we can hand this off to those folks

[1:46:47] when that when that question comes and to clarify for anybody thinking and

[1:46:52] this this language here came from the city of charleston from there being a

[1:46:55] tax sec section that gave them the authority to do this

[1:46:58] so that's where this comes from now i think the

[1:47:02] the point that councilman bowen's made is a legitimate let me step in real

[1:47:07] quick and save us some time i i was thinking that um

[1:47:11] these restrictions of revocations was being directed at the homeowner or the

[1:47:17] person which i don't think that should be i

[1:47:20] should have differentiated i understand the point of view of the contractor and

[1:47:24] the license i get that but we stand but we do and let me clarify it we do do

[1:47:29] that to the homeowner as well if they're doing the work themselves we're checking

[1:47:33] to see that their fees have been paid i don't think you should do it to the

[1:47:36] homeowners or the people who owns the property if they're wanting to come in

[1:47:40] and fix it up and clean it up and you're sitting there telling me you want you

[1:47:44] want their money before they can spend their money i i don't think that's a

[1:47:48] the right way to go about that i think you should uh

[1:47:52] allow them to improve their property and hope to get your money it's still your

[1:47:56] property's improved and ultimately that's your goal

[1:47:59] and let me let me finish my thought there is that in my time here we've had

[1:48:03] one issue and this is the issue that we're that we've all received an email

[1:48:06] about today um that's the one time we've had that

[1:48:09] that situation that permit wasn't denied we contacted that homeowner and said hey

[1:48:14] you've got multiple years of municipal fees here that haven't been paid

[1:48:19] by our current current practice we don't issue these

[1:48:22] unless that's happened what's going on here and that person said oh you know i

[1:48:25] forgot and whatever you didn't think time's been tough

[1:48:29] the typical answers and we said can we get you on a payment plan and they came

[1:48:32] in and we negotiated with them with a payment they felt comfortable with they

[1:48:36] came in and made that payment we issued the permit

[1:48:39] and so i you know i think everybody needs to be treated fairly in the permit

[1:48:42] process too and that's an important aspect of this and we don't want to see

[1:48:47] anybody you know raked over the coals because they're down on their luck or

[1:48:50] anything of that nature but i do think you've got to make a good faith effort

[1:48:54] to meet the laws that are on the books for all citizens and we're just trying

[1:48:58] to figure out the best way of doing that and so this like i said it was

[1:49:02] mostly directly copied and pasted from charleston

[1:49:05] i'm fine tabling this too and adding some language in there to say do we want

[1:49:08] to put a payment you know a provision in there that says you know and if you

[1:49:14] can't pay for some reason you can enter into a payment plan but i think we all

[1:49:18] understand that there are people out there with

[1:49:20] tremendous means who will take advantage of a system like that

[1:49:24] and and will get on the payment plan and you

[1:49:27] know use us as a interest-free institution in a sense so yeah we can we

[1:49:32] need a system in place you gotta you gotta have a structure to make things

[1:49:36] work as you said it's working and

[1:49:40] what's that

[1:49:49] yet receives city services so we're talking about an issue of

[1:49:54] fairness here you know

[1:49:57] you're putting a structure you know the system in place to

[1:50:01] to help out on the city side and in a sense to help the owner and the

[1:50:05] homeowner as well but at some point

[1:50:08] the city of weston is going to have to start reaping some of the benefits back

[1:50:12] from the people instead of all the people were even from

[1:50:15] the city that's why we're in the shape we're in that's why our town looks like

[1:50:18] it looks now so i mean if it works

[1:50:24] you can't very well you know have a list in the truck and lift the blade when you

[1:50:29] go past somebody if it doesn't fit their municipal fees i mean you know they're

[1:50:34] still receiving a discount on their insurance because they're so close to

[1:50:37] the fire department they're they're receiving a lot of services for

[1:50:42] being in the city limits the same services that someone that pays

[1:50:46] their fees so is there an appetite to have the

[1:50:50] first reading of this proposed ordinance or to table it this evening for

[1:50:56] [Music] additional language modification

[1:51:01] can can the word pleasure can the ordinance be amended

[1:51:04] for the second reading as far as as long as it's not materially changed

[1:51:11] plan i think that would be fine okay i think that if we add the payment plan

[1:51:15] though we do have some business owners that will take advantage of that i hate

[1:51:20] to say that but it's just gonna be a fact susie i think there's language you

[1:51:24] can entertain where you throw it in the lap of the city manager or this finance

[1:51:28] director to make that determination right a reasonable

[1:51:31] you know consideration of your circumstances to ensure that if the city

[1:51:36] sees works go forward but also that payment's received or something some

[1:51:39] kind of language like that and i'm thinking at that point you get maybe we

[1:51:42] put a place in there where that can be challenged at municipal fee appeals

[1:51:45] board or municipal court or something that nature

[1:51:48] but which could be done amended for the second reading i've

[1:51:53] i'm i'm fine with it you know why not okay i think the gist of what

[1:51:57] we're trying to accomplish is still there right we're requiring the payment

[1:52:00] of all fees randy does that language help you and no yeah i'm good i just got

[1:52:05] questions sometimes i ask them okay is is there a motion to have the

[1:52:11] first reading yep i move that we have the first

[1:52:14] reading of the ordinance

[1:52:17] let's see

[1:52:21] for denial and or

[1:52:24] revocation of license and permits

[1:52:33] okay it's been moved in second any discussion

[1:52:37] we'll have voting by roll call that's a woman sherry

[1:52:42] rodgers bowen yes yes

[1:52:48] yes okay city clerk please read that

[1:52:53] 2022-08 an ordinance to require payment of any

[1:52:58] and all municipal fees tax or the life before city license and permit

[1:53:04] shall be issued

[1:53:08] looking for a mission to accept the second or the first reading by title i

[1:53:13] moved to accept the first reading by title only of ordinance 2022.08

[1:53:19] [Music] a second

[1:53:21] randy seconds okay it's been moved in second any discussion

[1:53:27] voting by roll call again councilwoman sherry rogers yes

[1:53:32] councilman randy bowen yes councilwoman debbie gump

[1:53:36] yes councilman herb curtis yes

[1:53:41] motion carries next columbia club front demolition

[1:53:46] well initially we had an invoice that we were a quotation that we're going to ask

[1:53:49] you all to approve it was over five thousand dollars

[1:53:52] friday i got the call from them said hey we want to reconsider that quotation

[1:53:56] we've got some real questions there um i said well i think

[1:53:59] van ostern architects who we've solicited and brought into the fold to

[1:54:05] advise us on this stuff so let's meet with him today on monday so

[1:54:08] through that conversation i think we we we decided a more

[1:54:14] careful approach was needed in consultation with the contractor

[1:54:18] and we'd solicited quotations and these guys were the low quotation now it

[1:54:22] sounds like that price is going to considerably increase because of the the

[1:54:26] nature of the works needed so i don't have a quotation in front of

[1:54:30] you and it may involve we'll we'll kind of cross that bridge when we get the

[1:54:33] quotation and see what the value is but we may even end up having to advertise

[1:54:37] this if we can't find a way to to kind of justify this this being a public

[1:54:42] safety hazard and things of that nature i i think we

[1:54:46] we would have the the right innocence right to say here's a couple quotations

[1:54:50] let's move forward and skip this bidding process i think that's in the language

[1:54:53] but i'll keep you apprised of that but i don't have any further details at this

[1:54:57] point i apologize um it's kind of a moving situation

[1:55:01] looking for a motion to the table i've got

[1:55:06] excuse me uh i had a member of my ward

[1:55:10] a resident asked me about the manchester bidwell corporation

[1:55:17] correct if you do you have any information about them

[1:55:21] i think that's mr spellsberg right i think i got an email from him today

[1:55:24] about it um what was this what was his final

[1:55:27] request just refresh my memory he's one he wanted to know when they

[1:55:30] could get in the building and to me he asked me who the

[1:55:34] best uh to arrange a tour tour the columbia club and i said city

[1:55:38] manager and i'll work with him on and i'll get back to him on it i think

[1:55:42] it'll be when we take this front face off there'll be some access issues for

[1:55:45] our time being until we can kind of get that restored so it may be a little bit

[1:55:48] later towards the middle of summer before it

[1:55:51] gets in but we'll try to work something out with them i don't have an issue with

[1:55:54] it thank you

[1:56:00] i'll move the table is there a second

[1:56:04] a second okay it's been moved in second to table the discussion on the columbia

[1:56:10] club front demolition any discussion

[1:56:15] all those in favor say aye aye opposed

[1:56:19] motion carries the hour is getting late and i

[1:56:23] appreciate everyone's patience i'm going to pass the baton to councilwoman rogers

[1:56:29] thank you that's getting late i'll be very

[1:56:32] brief i would like to encourage the public

[1:56:38] more of the public to attend our meetings our committees our

[1:56:42] boards to become involved you all are most

[1:56:46] welcome always and i hope you feel that at every meeting i know we do have

[1:56:50] people now joining us on zoom and those

[1:56:55] agendas are posted and uh we did have a constituent who

[1:57:00] suggested that we move the public comment to the beginning of the meeting

[1:57:05] which i think is is nice a nice accommodation

[1:57:08] that that has been done for constituents so you can read

[1:57:14] what's on the agenda and comment before we discuss and before the agenda item

[1:57:19] comes up so we are making every effort if

[1:57:23] there are any other accommodations that we could possibly do

[1:57:27] to accommodate the public we would certainly entertain those and

[1:57:31] feel most welcome to um

[1:57:35] to let us know i do want to

[1:57:39] also mention the arpa meeting february 23rd at six at the masonic lodge those

[1:57:45] are community weed meetings they're rounds to table discussions they um

[1:57:53] we encourage the public to come and sit down and have a

[1:57:57] conversation about our community i think that

[1:58:02] everyone has pretty much been involved our city manager has scheduled those

[1:58:06] meetings um we'll we'll be publicizing those

[1:58:10] meetings and definitely would like for everyone to

[1:58:13] attend and provide their input and actually i think it would be a nice

[1:58:17] time just to sit down and have discussions about our community and um

[1:58:22] also an opportunity to learn what's going on

[1:58:25] in our community so

[1:58:28] also the last thing i want to talk about is the

[1:58:33] i think once again i know i always thank

[1:58:36] the the city team

[1:58:40] but uh it just can't be said enough i can't thank you enough i think that

[1:58:44] things are moving in the right direction i think as a result maybe the public

[1:58:48] doesn't know but we have had some a couple of neighborhoods actually

[1:58:54] interested in being annexed into the city of western because of our services

[1:58:59] that are being provided and we could not do that without our

[1:59:04] staff and our city team thank you

[1:59:09] i think we've pulled out the same speech bucket

[1:59:12] really i believe yeah yeah she's she come from a different way

[1:59:17] i'm talking about community involvement

[1:59:21] and i think every person in here needs to

[1:59:25] question everything that every elected official and every appointed and every

[1:59:31] entity that's involved in your life you need to go out

[1:59:35] and look and and see what they're doing and what they're presenting and what

[1:59:38] they're selling us as a good and what they're doing to our children

[1:59:43] or grandchildren

[1:59:46] i think we need to become involved when things

[1:59:50] things that you've seen happening for many years and and you see it come

[1:59:54] crashing down around you and you see the pain and the suffering that it that

[1:59:59] creates and a lot of it's coming from the people

[2:00:03] who think that there are leaders and think that they're telling us what we

[2:00:07] need to do we need to step up and tell them what we think they need to do

[2:00:12] and and to get out of our life and to allow us to to do things for

[2:00:18] ourselves because i think if

[2:00:21] as we've uh been apathetic over the past 30 or 40 years we've let we've let this

[2:00:27] stuff slip away from us and and it's on the world i mean you can't pay

[2:00:32] attention much to the media i'm sorry

[2:00:36] but welcome back

[2:00:42] but i mean but on a big scale but whenever things hit close to home and

[2:00:47] there's there's nobody's feeding you the story and there's nobody

[2:00:51] selling you on the story line and it hits and you're

[2:00:55] looking and you're like i think that's what's caused these

[2:00:58] things so i i'm kind of going around in about way to try to be

[2:01:03] diplomatic but we really need to question

[2:01:07] who's in charge of our children we need to question who's in charge of our

[2:01:10] cities we need to question who's in charge of our counties at all times

[2:01:14] we've forgotten that we have that right and we haven't done it for 40

[2:01:20] or 50 years and believe me it's really showing thank you

[2:01:28] i echo the sentiments of the previous council members

[2:01:33] community is very important i think i talked about that last time

[2:01:38] i do want to stress that there are some upcoming things that people in the

[2:01:41] community can support and that is the chocolate festival

[2:01:45] at the glass museum this weekend i mean chocolate should be just a draw of

[2:01:50] everybody coming in but that is 1

[2:01:54] 00 p.m to 3 p.m at the glass museum and that is a

[2:01:59] 10 covers year cost of all the chocolate

[2:02:02] you can eat so it's just like a smorgasbord of

[2:02:07] chocolate so i've already started working on my

[2:02:10] chocolate so just putting out there no cookies but a lot of chocolate

[2:02:14] and i also uh of course more details be coming but we do have the community

[2:02:20] meeting planned for later in the month on february 23rd so that's at the

[2:02:25] masonic temple and that's a great opportunity for every

[2:02:29] community member to get involved and voice their opinions and give us some

[2:02:33] feedback on what you would like to see the last thing i would like to

[2:02:40] leave on is to encourage anybody that is out there that is having a

[2:02:47] crisis situation um to please seek help

[2:02:52] and to um

[2:02:55] realize there are people out there that will listen to you we are in a community

[2:03:00] that there are a lot of avenues that you can reach out to so i just want to

[2:03:04] encourage you to to think

[2:03:08] and and to talk and to ask and to seek help

[2:03:12] thank you

[2:03:16] you want to announce me or yes

[2:03:20] councilman curtis ward 4. it's it's really i appreciate it thank

[2:03:25] you mayor no problem it's a disadvantage being on

[2:03:29] this end because everybody talks about everything

[2:03:32] under the sun and time it gets to me but i will reiterate as councilwoman gump

[2:03:38] said that there will be a community meeting at the

[2:03:41] masonic temple on the 23rd of february and i'd just like to say as far as since

[2:03:47] i've joined the council i've seen over the last couple years

[2:03:51] with all the committees

[2:03:54] to me that has been rebirth with really good people that's put a lot of time and

[2:03:58] effort into them um people within the community that's

[2:04:02] helped with writing grants each department our new city manager

[2:04:06] we've got a new city attorney on board that has spent countless hours on these

[2:04:10] ordinances and so for all the people out there when you see us sitting up here

[2:04:15] and we're debating back and forth or maybe table and

[2:04:19] uh ordinances or ideas that's come about that's on the

[2:04:23] agenda uh it's just to make you know to create more preparation and to

[2:04:28] to make sure we have our all of our ducks in a row i think you have some

[2:04:32] pretty pretty intelligent professional people

[2:04:36] within the city government and on this board as well as far as a

[2:04:40] mayor and council that's just doing a tremendous job and just making sure to

[2:04:44] take their time to get all their ducks in a row uh to make things better for

[2:04:49] each one of you and the city as a whole um

[2:04:53] and with that said i think i'm finished would you like to

[2:04:57] make a motion i moved to adjourn is there a second a second it's been moved

[2:05:01] in second to adjourn all in favor say aye aye

[2:05:05] motion carries

City of Weston Regular Session of City Council Feb 2 2022

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