Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. We'll call we have several public hearings tonight and we'll go ahead and get started with with the public hearings. The first public hearing will be on the second reading to annex property located on line street Lexon County TMS number 005900-8-00005 Saluda County TMS number 183- 09- 01-00003 TMS number 183 09- -01-00004 consisting of 20.5 acres and to be zoned R1 single family residential. Now open this public hearing. We have anyone that's going to address us with that? All right. If you'll come forward and tell us your name, what your address is, and which district you're from.

Um, my name is Dennis Boozer. I'm not a Lexon County resident, but my mother's a Saluda County resident right on the border of Lexon and Saluda County. Can I still speak or I'm not Am I not allowed to speak? Well, I'm going to read I'm going to read to you what our ordinance says.

Public hearings will be orderly, allowing all who wish to speak to do so without interruption. The presiding officer will take necessary measures to assure all citizens and citizens means voting citizens of Batesburg Leville who wish to be heard or allowed to speak. Council members may not speak as an opponent or proponent at any public hearing. So technically, if you aren't a citizen of the town of Batsburg, Leville, you're not supposed to speak in this against this or for it, whichever. Okay, sir. Sorry.

All right. Have a good day. Anyone else? If not, we'll close the first public hearing. Second public hearing is the second reading to reszone 532 West Columbia Avenue from C2 office and institutional to C1 general commercial Lexington County TMS number 007027-07-00001. We have anyone to speak on that public hearing? If not, we'll close that public hearing and move on to the next. And next public hearing is on the second reading to reszone 413 Hartley Street from C1 General Commercial to R3 Multifamily Residential Lexing County TMS number 00720-05-00004. Is there anyone to speak on this one? If not, we'll close that public hearing and go on to the next. The second reading to approve an ordinance providing for the acquisition and financing of a water meter replacement upgrade project and related equipment. Anyone to speak on that? If not, we'll close that public hearing and move to the last second reading of an amendment to zoning ordinance 7-7.9 height of structures in I-1 industrial districts. Anyone to speak on that? If not, we'll close that public hearing

at this time. I would like to call the meeting, regular council meeting for January for the town of Batesburg, Leville to order. Um, is Miss Marilyn here? All right. Like to call on Pastor Tommy Knox if he would to give us our invocation. Let's pray. Father God, we just thank you for the opportunity to come together as concerned and responsible citizens and mayor and council and city government, town government. Lord, we just submit to your will and and to your blessing. Lord, we just thank you that we can come together and peacefully do your bidding, Lord. Let the word says and let us follow it that everything we do, we should do as unto the Lord. and we thank you for this opportunity and may you be glorified by it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Amen. [clears throat] All right. I'd like to get everyone to stand if you're able and ask Councilman Bo Turner to lead us in the pledge to the flag.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. At this time, I would like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda for tonight. So move.

We have a motion and a second to approve the agenda for tonight. It's now open for discussion. There's no discussion. We'll vote. District one, yes. District three, District three votes yes. District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight, yes. And the mayor votes yes. All right. This time I'd like to get a motion to adopt the amendments of the last meeting.

Make a motion to adopt. Second. We have a motion and a second that we adopt the meetings the minutes from the last meeting which was December the 8th 20 of 20 2025. It's now open for discussion. There's no discussion. We'll vote. District one. Yes. District three. District three votes yes. District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight,

yes. And the mayor votes yes. Motion carries. All right. At this time, I would like to call town manager Jay Hendris up to do some award presentations for some town employees and staff.

Thank you very much. So, uh, tonight we want to recognize the employee of the year, which is Teddy Higgins. Teddy, if you can come on up. We're going to have all of you up here at one time. So, uh, Teddy, uh, is with our water department. Our rookie of the year, Andrew Body, is our utility director. Our team player of the year, Scott Perry. Scott is our code enforcement officer. And then the department of the year is not really a department, but it's uh, the town hall. And so several of us are here tonight representing the town hall as well. Uh just a couple words about each of them. Teddy Higgins uh served in the United States Air Force. He was a chemistry teacher, retired as a teacher uh and then came to work for us about eight years ago and has worked as a water plant operator since that time doing a myriad of duties. Um with the water plant closing, we we finally allowed him to retire this year at the end of December. We forced him to stick around, but Teddy also has a part-time job as Santa. So, Santa duties have slowed down a little bit recently, but um but [clears throat] Teddy has been a wonderful person to have, very professional and a great person and was selected from uh multiple candidates as the employee of the year for 2025 for the town of Batesburg, Leville. You can you can applaud if you'd like. [applause] The second person is Andrew Body. Andrew came to us in January from the town of Manetta. Uh he he had many many hats there with us. He just has one really big hat as utility director. Um so this year he walked right into the middle of the water project. So he helped guide us through uh the phase one phase two. We completed that on time and on budget. Uh he's also been instrumental in uh multiple grants. He's helped facilitate CDBG grants. We've also received a couple of grants on his watch as well as helping with the North Fork Commerce Park. Uh so he got thrown to the wolves

and in one one year has done tremendously for us. So rookie of the year is Andrew Body. And then our team player of the year went to Scott Perry. Scott has again the hat of code enforcement officer doesn't sound like a lot but he does so many things. Uh assisting in every facet of town hall. Uh if you need something done, Scott's the guy that we lean on for those jobs. Uh he will go out and assist the street department as needed. He will assist the water department guys as needed. Uh there's not been a time when Scott just said, "No, I don't feel like it today." Scott's always been the team player that stepped up and has always been professional and does a great job uh representing the town of Batesburg. So, our team player of the year went to Scott Perry. And then town hall this year uh working through uh the software updates from the staff turnover. We've had a lot of turnover. It hit me a few weeks ago and for those of you that know me, I still think I'm young, but I'm learning that I'm not the young guy anymore. Uh I actually am the most senior person in the town hall. Not necessarily the oldest, but I've been in town hall since 2019, and I am the the last man standing. So, uh we've had a lot of turnover in town hall, but our our staff is doing a great job. Uh this year, Lisa moved up to finance and town clerk. Becky has joined us as our planning director after Patricia's retirement, and Lisa joined or moved over after Judy's retirement. Cricket has rolled into the um assistant town manager role. So they've done a great job stepping up. So the department of the year was our town hall staff. So congrat [applause] would you like to get a picture of the mayor with the three?

Yeah. [clears throat] Hug. [laughter] What about Becky? I don't know about the hug. [laughter] Jay, what about Becky representing the town hall? Becky, you want to get up there and represent town hall? Add some class to that picture. That's all I do. [laughter] Amen. Thank y'all.

Thank you all. [applause] Congratulations to all of y'all. All right, next regular council meeting is February the 9th of 2026. We do have a work session on January the 26th at 7:00 right here. All right. Council committee reports. Call on Councilman Joe Montgomery for the Central Midlands COG. Uh Mr. Mayor, I have nothing to report. They did not meet in December due to Christmas. Um we meet again next this not this Thursday but week after follow week. So, I will have you report it.

All right. Thank you. Call on Councilman Bo Turner, who represents us on the Environmental Planning Advisory Committee. Uh, Mr. Mayor, the Environmental Planning Committee did not meet this month. And I'll call on myself to say that the Joint Municipal Water Sewer Commission first meeting will be Wednesday night. So, I have not attended one to have a report there myself. All right. At this time, I'll get Mr. Mike Taylor, the Chamber of Commerce update.

I do have a small report, m Okay. Uh, when you begin the new year, you I think need to reflect on the past year. So, at this time, I certainly want to thank the uh business community and the town and everything for a successful year in 2025. Look forward to a a strong 26. Our first economic development committee meeting this year was last Thursday. Dr. Atkinson reported that the school district had a very successful year both academically and athletically. Um reading scores improved the third most in the state where the only district in the Midlands that did not have a school rated below average. A groundbait breaking ceremony was held at the regional for the regional uh Chris Center which will be built in Sluda County. This facility will allow the Batesburg, Leville, Ridge, and Slooh schools to provide courses that they were unable to provide. Now, uh Councilman Bighgam stated that is um that it now costs $1.5 million to pave uh a dirt road and $550,000 per mile to resurface a road. That's almost double what it was when he became a councilman 12 years ago. Uh council was considering uh bringing up the um penny sales tax for roads this year but is going to wait until November of 27 to do that. Um Garrett Dano, economic de uh development director for Lexon County stated that the pad at the largest portion in Batesburg leaves industrial park have been finalized and that um I think we have $2.1 million left over in state funding to go towards the spec building. They had approximately $400,000 left over from doing the pad that uh the bid came in lower. Uh there's also, as you're aware, two uh partials that have

been sold in there. So hopefully that money can come in for a spec building. It's my understanding the uh county council discuss this at a strategic uh economic planning meeting on January 24th. We have a ribbon cutting across the street Friday. I'm not exactly sure the time. I'm I'm working with Verizon on that. Hope some of y'all might be able to attend that. Our first major event of the year will be Taste of Town on Saturday, February the 21st. Uh far as community events this month, uh Batesburg Le Rotary Club's Oyster Roast is on Friday, January the 30th, 7:00 at Celebrations. That's a good event. So, I hope y'all could uh sp help sponsor that. Just a fact. On October the 19th, 1945, a group of businessmen met to discuss organizing a chamber of commerce. On March the 1st, 2026, we will celebrate our 80th anniversary. More information coming in the future. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Mike. All right. At this time, do we have any public comment on items on the agenda? Okay. Without any, we'll move on to unfinished business. At this time, I'd like to get a motion to approve second reading to annex property located on Line Street, Lexington County, TMS number 005900-08-00005. Saluti Saluda County tax map number of 183-00009-01-00003. Also, Saluda County tax map number 183- 09-01-00004 consisting of 20.05 acres and to be zoned R1 single family residential. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we accept this annexation.

Do we have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. Have a motion and a second to adopt second reading. It's now open for discussion. If there's no discussion, we'll vote. District one, yes. District three, district three votes, yes. District four is not here. District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight, yes. And the mayor vote chest. Motion carries.

Second that. All right. This I'd like to entertain a motion to approve second reading to reszone 532 West Columbia Avenue from C2 Office and in Institutional to C1 General Commercial Lexington County tax map number 0007027-07-00001. We have a motion. I'll make a motion.

I'll second a motion and a and a second that we M Mr. Mayor this Mr. Mayor just for clarity motion to approve to approve. Yes. [clears throat] Any discussion? If not, we'll vote. District one, yes. District three, the district three vote. Yes. District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight, yes.

And the mayor vote yes. The motion carries. Move on to the next item. Uh need a motion to approve the second reading to reszone 413 Hartley Street from C1 General Commercial to R3 multifamily residential Lexon County tax map number 007020-05-00004. We have a motion. Motion to approve. Is that you, Paul? Who who made that motion?

It's down there. I'm sorry. We have a second. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second to approve second reading on the 413 Hartley Street. It's now open for discussion. There's no discussion. We'll vote. District one, yes. District three, District three votes yes. District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight, yes.

And the mayor votes yes. That motion carries. All right. I need a motion to approve. Second reading to approve an ordinance providing for the acquisition and financing of water meter replacement and upgrade project and related equipment. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve an ordinance providing for the acquisition and financing of a water maker replacement and upgrade project and related equipment.

All right, second. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second that we approve second reading of the ordinance providing for the acquisition and finance of a water meter replacement equipment. It's now open for discussion at this point in time. We're going to Yes, sir. Uh you have on your dis uh some figures from today's uh I guess bid opening. Uh so we'll have we have Brent and Emily here. They uh represent the financial and the legal side on the the bond. I guess it's not really a bond attorney, but I'm not sure what your best title are, but I'll let you introduce yourself.

Brent, we can clarify that. Good evening, council. My name is Brent Roberts. I'm with Steel Nichols. serve as the town's placement agent, which means that we help you to structure the deal and then put it out for bids today. And then Emily Luther's with Parker Poe and serves as bond counsel to the town. We'll provide the legal opinions and the taxexempt opinion as well on if y'all choose to proceed with the lease purchase. Um, just a little bit of history. Last fall, we were contacted by the town uh wanted to talk about financing for the water meters and put together a plan of finance that was uh uh submitted to the to 25 banks and a bid package on December the 17th. Bids were taken today. Typically, you don't leave a bid package out for quite that long, but with the Christmas and New Year's holidays, we wanted to make sure that everybody had plenty of time to take a look at it. uh the results that we got today and I handed each one of y'all or or put it in your place is in this legal sized piece of paper and just to tell you real quick quickly what you're looking at and the the first page is going to be the one that says town of Batesburg Leville on the top large font there's a small uh box uh and you can see there it's it's outlined and it says listed in order of receipt and summarized very quickly there I think are some of the key points uh probably the most key points of the bids that came in and just going through them real quickly. Truest came in first with a bid of 4.15%. That's on a 10-year deal with a 20-year amortization. So, they advertised the deal and created a payment structure for the first 10 years as though it were a 20-year loan, but there's a bullet maturity in the 10th year, and we'll get into some of those details in a minute. First Bank submitted the next bid at 4.82%. 82%. That's a higher interest rate, but it's also for a 20-year term, and that's fixed for the entire term of that loan.

South State came in next at 4.12%. Also a 20-year deal, but it was also subject to two interest rate resets. So, the rate is fixed for the first 10 years, then it resets in the 10th year for the next five, and then in the 15th year, it resets for the final five years. And we'll talk about that in a minute, too. The next bid came in from Capital One. This is another traditional straightforward 20-year financing. The interest rates 4.99%. And then the final bid came in from Huntington. Huntington was a 4.19%, but that's only for a 10-year deal. So, there's a lot of different deals that we're looking at here. And really, what's the best deal for the town depends on what criteria you want to use. So to get into a little bit more detail, you can see where we've summarized the bids uh in the gray or in the green shaded boxes below with truest coming up first. Again, a rate of 4.15%. They've got some closing costs associated with it. This is a 20-year amortization with a 10-year bullet maturity. You can see the payment schedule there. It's about $213,000 annualized until you get to that 10th year when the full amount that's unpaid comes due at 1,960. The next bid was from First Bank. This is a traditional 20-year transaction at 4.82% modest out-of- pocket costs. You can see their amortization schedule is about $226,000 a year. That's higher than what you would have seen with Truist up above, but it's also fixed for the entire 20-year term. If you flip to the next page, South State came in at 412. It's also a 20-year transaction, but as you can see under the debt service column, we only know for sure what the cost is going to be on an annualized basis for the first 10 years. That's why I've marked years 11 through 15 and years 16 through 20, which are the two

interest rate resets as unknown. Won't know until market conditions at that point in time if we went with that. Capital One comes next at 4.99% [clears throat] straightforward traditional 20-year transaction annualized $229,567 a year. And then the final bid is Huntington at a 4.19%. You can see though because it's a 10-year deal, it's a considerably larger annual payment. So the qu I mean [clears throat] that that that's really kind of knocking out the the details in pretty quick order. The question for council, the question for the town is what's the highest priority that you've got? If it's certainty and your cost of funds for the next 20 years, we've got two bids that do that. If it's what we're paying during the first 10 years, you can go with a lower interest rate, but there could be some interest rate reset risk at the 10-year mark or a bullet maturity. So, it's it's there's really a wide swath of options here. And I think maybe the best thing to do if y'all are okay with it is open it up to discussion. So, we can kind of talk through what are the priorities for the town and maybe see if we can walk through some of these things and figure out what might be the best option.

So, we're in discussion so at this point. So, I would think that would be fine. And and before we do proceed though, I didn't know Emily, did you have anything you want to add or?

Yes. Hi there. Thank you for having us this evening. Um Emily Luther with Parker Poe. I think one of the things to keep in mind is the ordinance um authorizes the town manager to um accept the bid. So, while we can have discussion, if there's nothing that um is exactly what you want at this time, you may still move forward to approve a financing because there is additional latitude for the town manager to go back and negotiate with the banks if there are some further questions about any of these. Okay, mayor, if I may.

Yes, sir. Mr. Is there a reason we did not pursue bonding this acquisition? I I will defer to you on that one, Brent.

Sure. So, with the bonding of the transaction, it would have been the credit would have been limited only to the utility, a net revenue pledge on the utilities that typically tends to be a weaker credit than something that has the backing of the general fund. with an equipment lease purchase. It is an appropriation risk, but it's on the entire general fund or all legally available funds. So, it can be paid out of the utility system, but it can also be paid out of operating bills if the town chose to do that. Again, it's legal and and if I get out of my lane here, Emily will certainly step in.

Is that correct? Uh our attorney, uh we cannot mix funds. the enterprise fund can uh debts incurred in the enterprise fund cannot be paid out of the general fund. Is that a correct statement? If I may, uh just for point of clarification, the the lease purchase is not a debt of the utility fund. It is a debt of the general fund. And I just want to make sure if I misspoke there that I clarified that. That's

my question. uh our state law I believe specifies that you cannot mix funds. So how can we pay for something in the enterprise fund out of the general fund? Well, if I may, the the intent is for this to be paid by the enterprise fund. The the proceeds from this the savings from this would be paying for the the the loan or the lease purchase. An an additional point, when Brent said that this was subject to appropriation every year, that means that the town has to budget from whatever funds that are legally available, which may include either the enterprise fund or the general fund. So, it's wherever you budget it that you may appropriate the funds to pay the annual lease payment. Mr. Mayor, yes, sir.

Mr. gain. So, are you saying that we can use we can mix and match the funds depending on the budget year? Is that what you're saying? Yes, sir. So, every year you are appropriating the funds under the lease purchase. That's the nature of this kind of debt is it's not a pledge of any particular source of revenue. So, it's not a pledge of the enterprise fund. It's not a pledge of your general fund because it's not is it a debt of the general fund or is it a debt of the enterprise fund? It is not a debt of either because how's that possible?

Because it is subject to annual appropriation. And so obligations that are subject to annual appropriation under state law are not technically a debt because they are subject to the town budgeting them and appropriating funds every year. Essentially, the banks are um loaning money to you based on the um I guess moral obligation you would have to budget and appropriate funds every year because if you didn't, then that would risk your credit rating otherwise, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir.

All right. And and we're looking at the potential of having to go to a lease purchase uh for additional vehicles. What does this do to our credit long term if we the when we go for a lease purchase of vehicles should we do so? Uh this is technically not a debt but I assure you the lenders are going to look at what we have obligated and we are obligating this town and our rate payers I with both rate payers uh for $4 million. I mean, so

so we have a debt. So if I'm sitting there in uh Alan Risinger's position and I look at a loan uh and I look and I say, "Well, they already have $4.8 million uh in debt outstanding. What's their credit rating?" So what does this do to our credit rating? So from a finance perspective, while it is technically not a debt of the town or the utility system, we should be looking at as a debt for the very reasons that you're stating, there's an expectation of repayment by the banks.

They're they're they're renting us their money is what they're doing. You call it a lease, you call it a loan, there's an expectation of being repaid. With a lease purchase transaction, there is a purchase money security interest in the assets being financed. So when the town decides to go out later on, so there's two layers of security from a bank's perspective when it comes to looking at the town's credit. The first thing is is that what's being financed and what's the security interest. So if it's rolling stock, police cars, fire trucks, front loader, they're going to have a security interest in that in the event of non-payment, they'll take that asset right back and sell it to settle their loan off. They don't want to do that. They don't want to own any of those vehicles. They don't want that. And they know that you don't want to lose access to that equipment. The second thing that a bank is going to be looking at is just the overall credit quality of the town. And what that comes down to is it's taking a look at your audits and how you all have been performing. Are you budget to actual? Do you have in in any given year? And probably looking back three to five years. It's not just a snapshot in time. They're going to look for trends. Reserves. Do you have good reserves in place? You know, do you tend to be taking care of the assets and the equipment that you've got? It's really just a holistic approach to take a look at it. So, it's not just a question of, well, you finance some water meters. are you really going to be able to afford to do these cars or rolling stock, whatever it might be. That's absolutely one of the things they're going to be thinking about, but the two critical factors are what are you going to be financing going forward that they could take back if they needed to. And then also this historic look back on the overall finances of the town. But there is an absolute expectation they will be repaid on time and in full every time. So might not be a debt, but it's very appropriate to view it that way. But my concern is the interest rates that may be available to us on a lease purchase down the road having incurred this debt uh without B. You know my my real question is did we look at bonding this?

So the uh the backstory on that is that you know we have worked with Parker Poe and Stiful on several other projects and so uh we continue that professional service with them and this was the recommendation moving forward was going with the lease purchase cuz essentially taking a loan out was my simple brain thought but this was the recommendation coming from from Stifel was to go with the lease purchase. Um, all of that, did I get a yes or no to whether or not we considered bonding this?

Yes, sir. We did consider bonding on the transaction, but in the case of a lease purchase, what the town has to identify in terms of a funding source in any given year is a dollar for dollar equivalent to what the debt service is. So, if the annualized debt service is $213,000, a lender is going to have the expectation of seeing $213,000 available to make the payment when it's sold as a revenue bond. the type of pledge that you're talking about, there has to be a coverage component in there. They're not looking dollar fordollar on debt service. They're going to want to see a multiple of net revenues available from the system to pay for the debt service on the bonds. Now, I haven't done a water and sewer bond for y'all, but in the case of the city of Colombia down the road, they're a double A credit.

They have they bring in twice the amount of net revenues for what they use to cover their debt service. So for every $100 worth of debt service they have, they produce $200 worth of revenues, your system didn't really look like it had that much potential. Didn't have that much leverage in it. Mr. Mayor, u and I will ask I'm not sure who to ask this question to, Jay or to y'all if y'all looked at the the money situation. What is our revenue versus the expense for this? Our income versus expense. Well, in terms of the it's really not an income versus expense analysis when it comes to the lease. It's y'all identifying the appropriate revenue sources in each one of your budgets and then appropriating from that.

What are we seeing as our revenue sources?

So, in the current budget, it's a little over $400,000 in the enterprise fund that we are putting in the reserve. So, we've already got adequate funds in our annual budget to cover this cost. The replacement of these meters will save money just as we discussed with the uh gentleman from uh Wegman. Uh we'll have cost savings with more efficient meters as well as uh no vehicles maintenance, the the savings on labor and stuff. So we'll see a significant amount of savings and revenue that will I anticipate this will pay for itself. We'll we'll budget it initially based off of that um reserve fund money, but um once we get it fully implemented later in the year, it will pay for itself, I believe.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? Mr. Mayor, what's the total payback? It looks to me like it's depending on which one we go with, it's uh 4,591,000. Yeah. Each each one in front of you has that total payback. Well, and again, well, some of them are unknown. Yeah, we don't know the total payback on all of them with that. Well, to make it easier for some of us, a balloon payment at the end that uh we don't know what that would be because it depends on interest rates when it's refinanced. It's in the bank's favor, not ours.

Mr. Mr. Mayor, if I may have a clarification on this ordinance, we're not actually beside determining an amount of money at this time. We are actually determining if we're giving the town manager the prerogative of selecting a lease purchase agreement based on his best judgment. And I recommend that we amend this ordinance to put a cap on that. Well, the cap is is the 2.9 million. I assume that's the caps are the cap of the interest rate that we would pay.

We got a little interest in finance. Haven't been a corporate materials manager for a number of years. Cap on this is going to be we're spending $4 million or $4.5 million. We're not spending $2,900,000. We're obligating our rateayers or our taxpayers uh if should the u non the general fund have to pay up. We're obligating $4.5 million. That is what that is what this council is being asked to spend. We're being asked for 20 years. All right. Should we go 20 years? All right. We're asking for payment for 20 years. That's in my mind that's $4,500,000. That's what this council is obligating the rateayers or the taxpayers of this community. Two, we're not [cough] we're [clears throat] not committing them to spend 2,900,000. All right. I mean, we're going to continue to after we pay that 2,900,000 uh dollars, we're still going to reach in their pocketbook and take out 213 or 225, whatever the annual the monthly payment is uh or annual payment is. So, you know, my viewpoint, you know, we need to put a cap on this uh [cough] because, you know, you're talking $4.9 million. I, you know, Well, the intent, you know, last month when I I I spoke with you was to bring these numbers to you. So, you had input and and guidance. You know, if you have a recommendation, I I'm all ears. Uh you know, the ordinance is written where it authorizes the town manager, but I gave you my word that I would bring these numbers to you, and that's why we we made sure that we had these for you tonight. uh you know there are different ways to

look at it and and certainly if you want to look at that longterm 4.5 that is certainly one option uh we could identify ways of paying these off early one of the things we had asked about was if there was prepayment penalties um and so there are some that have prepayment penalties early in the process uh but I believe the ones we have kind of looked at um which was 20 years at 4.82% 8 2% uh you know that one did not have any prepayment penalties. Uh if if the revenue from this project is significant, we can certainly make that decision to pay it off early and and save that long-term interest payment. Um you know, that is something that we will we'll certainly look at. The 20-year option doesn't obligate us to commit that full pot of money that we have for reserve right now. It gives us flexibility moving forward. But if we're able to generate revenue off of this, we would I would love to pay things down early, no doubt. Uh the only other uh significant debt we have is the revenue bond at the wastewater plant. Um the lease purchase pays off this year. Uh so we don't have a lot of uh long-term debt. It's just that $4 million loan at the wastewater plant. And then we do do intend to do lease purchase in the near future. Are you saying then that we do not have any obligations on forthcoming grants uh for money matching money?

Well, the is that a statement, sir? You're you're that those are your words, not my words. Total our total obligation against that reserve fund. That's not what I was saying. I'm I'm simply stating that I want to understand our finances and it's getting more difficult.

We bring everything to you. that we don't have any significant long-term debt other than the wastewater. Yes, there are some funds that are being expended for grants right now that are match funds, but uh the the revenue bond is the only long-term debt beyond I don't recall if it pays off in March. I believe is the last payment on the lease purchase for the vehicles from 5 years ago, but that is the only other outstanding debt at this time. Again, yes, there are things that we have payments for because, you know, we've got uh a water project that's going on with CDBG funds. We've got other CDBG grants that are coming, but those all come before council and you all have that information to understand what the grant funding is and what the the town's commitment is. So, you have all that information.

Well, we may have that information, but have we ever looked at what that implies when we look at what the reserve fund is? Right. I don't think this council has ever sat down and addressed the fact that we what impact those obligations are against the reserve fund. We can have that as part of the budget discussion. That we're not ready to have that tonight in this setting, but we can have that as part of the budget discussion.

You know, c can I ask a question about this? We're being asked in in a 15minute I'm sorry. We're being asked in a 15minute or 20 minute uh part of the session here to uh determine, you know, give someone the authorization to spend $4.5 million or 4 whatever. All right. Then can I ask a question myself? Yes, sir. Sure. Um, the way I understand it, what we're voting on tonight was just going to we're going to agree to finance it. We're not agreeing on any one of these particular ones at this particular time. Well, we're we're giving you the authority to make that decision.

Will you come back to us before you make that decision so we can fully understand and give you input or are you not going to do Well, I I will defer to Brent. Uh, most of these have deadlines of very quick deadlines, very quick turnarounds. I will send you that information, I guess, after the fact, but that's something I hope that we were able to determine tonight and and walk out of this room with this is the plan moving forward. And unless there's a question that comes up that we need to to address with the bank tomorrow, I just if we don't decide it tonight, I just want to know when it's going to be decided and what information we're going to be given. If if we do not vote on it tonight, then these these numbers will basically be

some could some could and I think and again if you look at the summary sheet that I that I gave to you all under notes there's some points there with truest uh deadline last bullet point deadline for acceptance uh is February 12th there's a month with that one um formal commitment letter needs to be issued by that date with first bank last bullet point there under notes Deadline for acceptance is within five business days. So that's this Friday. Following to the next page with South State. [snorts] Thank you. Uh

January. That's the closing date. That's the closing date. Yeah. January 28th. Uh, well, January 28th is the closing date that the town has has targeted. That's not the deadline for acceptance of this bid. I apologize. It doesn't look like I put that in here.

Did I not put it in there? Okay. They might Yeah, they may South State may not have a deadline. Uh, I would find We need to go back and look at that. Um, under Capital One stated proposal deadline is today, but they uh I pointed that out to them and they clarified it and they said that they would give us a few days if the town wanted to to go with them. And then on the last one, deadline for written acceptance is uh tomorrow, January 13th. That's Huntington. So,

Mr. Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a suggestion. Um, with the information that you've given us here, if we do continue with this lease purchase, it looks like First Bank at the 4.82%. It's would be my suggestion to go with if that's what you know, you're kind of asking for what we thought. That would be my my thought on this looking at it. Um, if we go with the 10-year, it will save us, you know, a million dollars, but it also increases our monthly payment by 62%. So, I think keeping the monthly payment down by that much and extending it out the other 10 years would be our best bet. That's my suggestion.

I personally worry about myself. I worry about I don't like balloon Yeah, that one don't type loans where you don't know what's coming. I don't blame you. [clears throat] And the bank the bank's banking on interest rates going up. We're banking on interest rates going down, but ours is not likely to happen. The interest rates are likely to go up and the bank's counting on that so they can get more money. And that's they're trying to make it look good, but it's really not good for us unless you prepay that balloon off, right?

Which and some of them may have a penalty and not let us do that. And and sometimes there are are good ways there are good ways for an exit strategy on a balloon payment, but unless you all know you're going to have a million plus dollars sitting out there at the 10ear mark, the risk that you're talking about is exactly what the town's going to be exposing itself to.

Right. No, I I don't like that type of agreement. Even though anymore I had to buy my my bill in my shop when I moved over here. The only loan I could get was was a 15-year with a balloon. We are struggling to pay the balloon off so that at 15 years it's ours. But anyway, and our church is going through the same thing. Yeah. And we're struggling to pay that. So, I don't like those things because you really facing something you don't know what the future's going to bring, right? Yeah. I I agree with that. which is why that first bank it's

and I think on that one it also looks like that we can prepay without any penalties as well and and it's no balloons involved. Correct. I think that's our safest bet. Mr. Mayor, if I may for clarification. Yes, sir. Is is the council member recommending that we change this to a actual council selects the payment? Uh and the lender uh we change that ordinance from allowing the town manager to make that decision to council is going to make the decision and select first. No, that was just my suggestion to the town manager to use that

out of the groups that they that they've brought to us. Mr. Mayor, I would not advise amending the ordinance to include that language. I would leave it as is.

Well, if we amend the ordinance, would we have to have another reading to pass it if we change it? Because it's the second reading. If you amend it now, don't you have to come back and do it again? No, you could amend it tonight and vote on it tonight with the additional language, but I would not I would not advise amending the ordinance. I would advise leaving it as is and for council to just provide um uh suggestions on which um which uh a bid that that they felt was uh the way that that um they recommended for council to to for a manager to to go forward with. But if if we recommended something tonight likely to follow our recommendation.

Okay. Well, Mr. Mayor, again, I go back to my suggestion to council is that we amend the ordinance to put a cap on it. How you I do not wish to I do not wish to amend the ordinance to amend my motion at this point. Well, I'd like to ask a question. You, Mr. Oh, how would you cap it? How what would be your cap? What is the what? $4.5 million 4.6. Is it reasonable? I'm just simply saying the prerogative is to spend money. All right. Is rest

since that's the highest option [clears throat] and he wants to make this final tonight. I don't know why we would need a cap. Okay. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. We've hired our town manager to make these decisions for us. I think we should let him go about and do what he thinks. Has he made a decision down and move forward? Not yet. He had doesn't have the authority yet. Well, I'm just saying Jay, are you are you recommending a certain what

from consulting with uh bond attorney? Ray's not here tonight, but I spoke with Ray earlier. Uh the one that Kathy has recommended, the 4.82 A2 gives us no prepayment penalties, gives us that 20 year so we have the lower payment but offers that opportunity for us to pay it early if we would uh so desire which will save us in the long term as Councilman Hall has pointed out. So my recommendation would be the first bank at 4.82% for 20 years. Okay. And you said that the Texans are playing today.

Mr. Bear, can we um call for the question, please? Unless there's anything else. Question call for uh any anybody else before we vote. All right. So, everybody knows what we're voting on the second reading of the amendment of Nope, that's not the right one.

Yeah, here it is right here. [snorts] Second reading to approve an ordinance providing for the acquisition and financing of a water meter replacement upgrade project and related equipment. Everybody understands what we're voting on. Questions been called for. We'll now vote. I got to get my I got paper right so I can record it.

All right. District one. District one votes yes. District three. District three votes no. District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight. District 8 votes yes.

And the mayor votes yes. Motion carries. All right. [sighs] At this time, I need a motion. to approve second reading of the amendment to zoning ordinance 7-7.9 height of structures in I-1 industrial districts. Do we have a motion? So move

second. We have a motion and a second. It's now open for discussion. There's no discussion. We'll vote. District one, yes. District three, District three votes yes. [laughter] District five, yes. District six, yes. District seven, yes. District eight, yes.

And the mayor votes yes. All right, that takes us to new business. At this point in time, the mayor is recusing himself from this first thing. And I'm going to ask Mayor Prom Paul Wise to come up and take over. He can do it from his seat. Can I sit here and do it? Yeah.

What are we doing? All right. This item we're going into new business. The first item on the uh agenda is A is the resolution for JMWSC representative. Um do I need to read the resolution? Why we don't? If you'd like me to, I can read it or explain the why behind it. You can read it.

Um all right. So the resolution whereas the Bville Town Council wishes to appoint Mayor David W. Baltight Jr. as the town's member to the joint municipal water and sewer commission until further notice. And whereas the council duly assembled on January 12th, 2026, the town council officially appoints Mayor David W. Baltight Jr. as the town's member to the joint municipal water and sewer commission to represent the town of Batesburg Leisel until further notice. Now therefore, be resolved by Batesburg Town Council on this 12th day of January 2026. Just for clarity, this was voted on last month. uh joint municipal uh specifically said they needed a resolution, hence why this vote is being retaken today. Why why would they need a resolution?

Just go ahead. They they had a resolution from eight years ago. Let's let's keep it moving. Okay. Let's get let's get um a motion on the table and then we can have makeot motion for Mayor Balk Knight to be our joint water municipal representative. All right. Do I have a motion on the table? Do I have a second? I'll second that. All right. Thank you, Mr. Hall. We have a second. Um, now it's time for discussion, Mr. Chair, if I may. Yes. This resolution says uh does not specify that it's a two-year term. Uh, no, it does not. It just says until further notice. So council

tradition is it by tradition or do we have an ordinance that specifies each council approves a or select? Uh yes. So every two years council selects a new representative. If you choose to change it then you would need to do a resolution in two years or at that time. But this would be um it would be in standing until the mayor is no longer the representative. Uh, for example, uh, Mayor Scholes was from eight years ago and that was in force until he stepped down. But we reapproved each council reapproved it. That that does not change the fact the council has that perview every two years.

Uh, but if you make a change, the resolution would need to be updated in at that time. So Jay, again, Mr. K, you got the floor. Yep. Um why uh our our our ordinance has the effect of law. It it has more effective law than a resolution. I mean it's not a big deal to me, but I don't I feel like they're doing this for a reason. Well, and I don't know what that reason is, and I don't want to find out

if four years or 5 years or whatever why they needed a resolution when we've never needed a resolution to appoint anybody to anything before. Actually, there was a resolution from eight years ago. They they sent me the copy and that was what the resolution was written based off of was the one from eight years ago appointing uh Lancer as the representative. So, this was a request from joint municipal. Um whenever we advised them of of the change, it was uh oops, we need that in the resolution. So, yeah, that's why we're back today. Yep.

If I may, I think this just uh formalizes the um the action of council to appoint um its representative to the board. [snorts]

Okay. Is there any anybody else want to speak? Okay. We'll we'll call for the vote. Um council one district one votes yes. Council three, District three votes yes. Councilman five, yes. Councilman seven, yes. Councilman Nate, District 8 votes yes. And I'll vote yes as well. Thank you. It's been approved.

It's Scott. Can you get the mayor? Thank you. See team player over there. Is he sitting in the dark for real? He was. I thought he was outside in the cold. Yeah, I know. [laughter] Take a nap. We got to let Francis know how to handle you. Just sit you in the dark corner. Okay, got it. Yeah,

your business. All right. At this time, I like get a motion for approval of professional services contract with GHD to conduct capital improvement plan and analysis of utility impact fees. Do we have a motion? Salute. About a second. I'll second district one.

All right. We have a motion and a second to approve the professional services contract with G GHD to conduct capital improvement plan and analysis of utility impact fees. It's now open for discussion. Questions? There. No questions. We'll vote. District one. District one votes yes. District three. District three votes yes. District five. Yes. District six. Yes. District seven.

Yes. [clears throat] District eight. District eight vote. Yes. And the mayor vote chest. The motion carries. This time, Mr. Hendricks, we'd like to call you up for the manager's report. [cough] Okay. All right. That So, they want to see the manager's report. So, um All right. Good evening. Uh, I had thought we might get out in an hour, but it's not quite. You have playoff football tonight, right, Steve? I'm just saying we we stipulate to you all the numbers at the end of your report. All right. We've seen them and studied them.

U, all right. Just a couple of reminders. Uh, town holidays. We have Martin Luther King holiday on the 19th. So, next Monday will be a town holiday. Uh, fortunately for Becky who stepped out, uh, no planning commission meeting that night. There were no items to address. Uh reminder, special election is February 17th. Um one announcement, uh we do have the police chief job posted. Uh we posted that position last week. It closes on the 30th. Um there's a few other jobs that we're posting, too, but that's the the one that everybody's probably going to pay the most attention to. Um reminder, uh I think I've spoken with all of you. Hometown Legislative Action Day and the Municipal Elected Officials Institute are January 20th and 21st. So that's next week. So, I think we got you all signed up for something. Uh, you may not have been able to do both dates, but I think we got you taken care of. Thank you to Lisa for that. Um, event updates. U kind of the quiet time on the event planning side, but we do have March 21st set for spring clean B&L. Uh, we will be partnering with Keep the Midlands Beautiful, Goodwill and Waste Management on this event, which will include paper shredding, electronics, and tire recycling. So, if you need to shred some documents, you can come. Uh, the plan I I don't I need to follow up with Keep the Mills Beautiful. They were working to have the parking lot at Goodwill as the site for all of the the drop offs. Um, we will also be doing litter pickup during that same time. Usually 9 to 12 is our target goal. Uh, we'll be pushing that information out soon to recruit volunteers. We'd love to have uh council volunteers. We typically have a lot of churches, civic groups, and some school groups that help out with this. So, um, looking for that on March 21st. Uh, project updates, water project is essentially over. The water was turned on to the town on December the 10th. Uh, everything was permitted. Everything went smooth with the the, uh, the turn

on. Uh, this valve to system 2 will be turned will be open this week. Um, Andrew wanted to meet with some of the, uh, the HOA at Harborwatch specifically to make sure they understood what was going on. So, we're we're going to have that this week. Uh, the next step will be the decommissioning of the water treatment plant of raw water pumping stations to meet the skip funding requirements. Um, we have also received and it was at your seat notification from dees the consent order has been closed. Only took 12 years. We're good. So, um, park restrooms are nearly complete. Dominion will be underground in power this week at College Park. They were supposed to do it today, but I'm not 100% sure if they did or not. So, electricity should be set up on site uh this week. Uh the painting is all done, including the train depot, which turned out very nice. 15 years was a pretty good paint job. It needed it. Um the parking lot, we're still waiting on the trees. The they have been ordered um for trees that size, which are going to be about 18 16 to 18 feet. Apparently, they dig it and then they kind of put it in the bag and they monitor it for a few weeks to make sure that it doesn't die before they send them out. So, I'm learning something new, but those should be installed in February. Um, CDBG grant updates. Uh, we are waiting the reimbursement from the firetruck grant that has been submitted. Uh, and once that is received, that one will be closed out. Uh, we're awaiting the final dees permitting on the water lines on Maple and North Peach Tree Streets. Uh the work has also been completed on the South Oak Street uh sewer repair. Uh so all the work's done, just finishing up the permitting and some uh final touches. Um then we'll be submitting that reimbursement and close out as well. Uh we're also nearing the completion on the water valve study, assessment study. So uh we should be closing all of those out in spring.

Um, we did receive notification last week from dees that uh also is at your desk uh from DES that we are one of six recipients for the dam repair assistance grant program affectionately called the dam grant around town hall. Uh so we are the recipient of that. That is uh that project will assist in uh making some improvements to the town pond dam including the spillway design and some tree removal. The award mount was $264,690.90 which was the highest amount of the six. Uh details are a little thin right now as we just got that notification on Thursday. Uh so we'll receive when we get all that we'll share that with you. Uh this is not a full implementation. A lot of this is going to be the engineering on that spillway. Uh town financial and budget updates. Uh general fund checking $173,690.78. Uh the general fund Elgip is $686,274.93. Again, remind you that this is the time of the year when the big checks start to come in from property taxes. So that that number should start ticking up in February and March. Uh the utility fund checking account $246,338. Already have enough in there for that first payment on AMI. Does it? Nobody. Nothing. No. There we go. All right. Thank you. All right. Elgip utility we have 3,387,699.80 in the investment. Uh victim's assistance has a balance of $10,26958. 1% account at the fire department is $42,16.13. Police department donations $19,5357. The capital improvement project and impact fee account is at $919. Excuse me. $919,89910. Municipal court, $58,443.36. H tax, we are at $316,970.74

and the Elgip Hax is at $979,333.50 and we are nearly closed out on on the park restroom project. So, we're doing pretty good on that balance. Does anybody have any questions about any of the projects? Mr. Mayor, if I may. Always just look to the right. Sorry. I'm sorry. No, no, I'm fine. Stop sign in the Pine Street parking lot. Yes, sir. U I did have a conversation with the contractor about that. Uh I believe we're going to replace that ourselves instead of have him. The base was sheared off when it was hit. So, that will that will be an US thing. So, do you have an estimated timeline?

I do not. When will the December financials be available? I I I need to get with Lee on that. Um I I don't know that. She'll probably have that for me tomorrow, but she's efficient. And last but not least, uh our ladder truck will be in service approximately.

It should be in service in the next Well, it should be back in the next week or so. Uh the fire department has aerial operations training class for the fire academy scheduled uh starting next week and the anticipation is that it will be back for the skills session. So it it will probably not be placed into service at that point but it will be back and available for training uh as we discussed previously the training the the requirements will involve fire academy certification and then the in-house training class. So, we're several months from it being in service, but it should be back in town next week is what Chief Fry is telling me.

Yeah. With the number of delays pressing, but are are we staying within our allocated what the allocation that this council approved as [clears throat] far as financials for that fire truck? Uh, I need to verify. There was one thing that did break or become disabled after the fact. So, that is probably going to raise that up. But um everything else was in budget until the the computer module on the pump went out and that that has been the biggest delay was getting that ordered. So I something that broke after we acquired the truck and was not needed to be

well that should be charged against the general operating well your decision but against the general operating cost per se and not against that project. Yeah, the project itself is is under is And last but least, will you please hard copy your financials report to council? Okay, I can email that. Anybody else? I do have a silly question. Who picked There are no silly questions. Well, I may change my mind. It is. And there's there there's nothing in the change. Who picked the colors for the the depot?

Yes. Uh, I mean, I guess I get to take that bullet for that one. Uh, okay. We were we were shooting for red and and there was a couple different red options, so I should defer to my wife on all color options. Was it too bright? I I'll agree. Defer to your wife and I'll leave it right there. [laughter] Anybody else? It's not terrible. All right. Thank you. All right. We have no items for executive session. Is that correct? Yes. All right. So, it's no need to go there. All right. Potential agenda items for next month's meeting. Mr. Mayor.

Yes, sir. Um, I'd like for us to discuss there. There are two. All right. With the planning commission and the appeals planning commission, you can appoint anybody to that to that, right? But the appeals board, you have to appoint somebody that's in your district. And so that that language I would like to change. I have somebody that's that was has been in my district for 11 years, but when we redistrict now of a sudden he's not eligible to to uh serve on appeals. So, I would and Dave, you can can we do that? Just um let's just change that wording from it has to live in your district to maybe has to live in the town limits. The the current the [clears throat] current ordinance um for the planning commission, it it does say that council can u elect anybody from the town that lives in the town. And the zoning board of appeals does specify that it has to come from the council's district. Um, obviously council has a right to amend its ordinance to have those two um boards the the eligibility for those two boards uh the same or or separately or or what it it probably would be better for it to be uh the same uh across the board going forward instead of having it separated. uh you know, I don't know the history on why it was changed or why it is what it is, but that would be a council's decision whether they wanted to amend the ordinance to uh change that language.

This be something to talk about at the next meeting. Okay. Would you all like to put that in the work? That probably the discussion. Oh, yeah. discussion if we if it's going to be a big discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And will we be discussing the other town ordinances that we have changes that need to be made? Is that coming in that? Not not in this particular one, but yes. Okay. Okay. You want to go ahead and address that now? Okay. When are we looking at at the other ordinances? Well, we hadn't it hadn't come up here yet, but we need to have a work session before we put it on the agenda in here. I would think

I'm shooting for March March. Okay. March process. [cough]

One thing that we before we change this and and do that. There's been some request that we explore a mor a moratorum on subdivision development for 6 months until we can get our impact fees settled and increasing in that. And is that something that we need to do in a work session or is that something that we need to put on an agenda the agenda? Because I would be very I would hate for us to have a subdivision approved without us addressing what's going on because we got it coming. We need to we need we need to be fast instead of waiting. We need to approach changing some of these things that are 40 years old because we don't have to look far to see that it's coming our way.

And I think it's important that we work on that.

Can you squeeze it in the 26? All right. So work session on the 26th is going to be the compensation classification study. We've also got department heads coming to just give a threeminut overview of their department for you. Uh we'll put in there about the uh planning zoning board of appeals. Um you we had the work session on on the possible moratorum 6 months ago. Uh I think that would definitely be a work session discussion since we have so much so many new council members. Um I would rather push that. I wouldn't want to try to do that in January. We've got a pretty that that compensation and classification study is going to take a while to go through. Um,

do you have a work session planned for February? I do. Uh, the goal is to have the impact study, impact fee study done and be able to present that at the February council meeting so that we can go ahead and discuss impact fees. This specifically dealing with water wastewater. I also would like to bring forth uh public safety and possibly even grant uh parks to discuss his impact fees as well. Um early early in February though we don't want this to well I mean it would be the regular work session be the fourth Tuesday. Yeah you know y'all meet it would be I mean it'll be after the meeting then. Yeah because the one before it is what I'm talking about for January on the 26th. I don't think you'll have any

Mr. Mayor, I don't know any restriction on the number of work sessions we have. You know, I am strongly [clears throat] in favor of multiple work in favor of one work session dedicated to this council sitting down and looking and drawing up a plan on the ordinances that this council would like to address. And then of course I would recommend a joint work session with uh the planning commission uh and get their particularly their input on zoning and so forth.

We have we have a lot of ordinances that we are aware of and that we are not enforcing and I I agree with that and and I'm well aware of that. That's why I want to try to get this moratorum on until we can discuss that. Do it for two weeks on the 26. It's up to him. I don't know. Yeah. D. Can we do it like uh two weeks after the 21 on the 26th? Gives you a breather, but it won't be two weeks would be the council meeting. So, it would have to be Well, I'm saying we can do it prior to I mean, we could do I guess February 2nd would be the the following week. That's fine. Um

first Monday. So David was recommending David Eperson, the attorney, was rep recommending we have planning commission here if we're going to talk about all the zoning stuff and going ahead and bringing the planning commission in on on that. So the second then is that what we're wanting to try to shoot for is February 2nd to do a work session. I'm fine with that. Yeah. All right. We can do February 2nd. We'll tackle zoning February 2nd. Okay. That's what Becky gets for leaving early, right? That's right. And Becky's going to be taking care of lunch in Naj. [cough and clears throat] All right.

Uh, can I also ask um what's the best place to get a full ordinance book? Not the best place, but the best way for [snorts] those that don't have The best way is on the website. Uh, if you if you pull up.org, uh, the the code, you can click on a quick link on the bottom right. Um, and then it's searchable. Uh, so you've got the whole breakdown on the left, but you can type in, you know, zoning and it can take you straight to the zoning section. I prefer the online version. Uh, printed is going to be really thick. Um, but online you can jump around and you can go straight to R1, R2, R1A, whatever. Okay.

Um, that would be my recommendation and I would certainly suggest y'all do some homework before you come that night so we don't have to kind of plot through it. Y'all can already have a plan. Mr. Hendrick, what's the date of the last codification of our ordinances? Is that 15? Uh, since then,

I mean, we put them on when you say codified, you're talking about the consolidation and put them on the website. I mean, that was maybe five years ago. Uh, we have sent updates. We send updates regularly. If I may address the council member, there is a book of ordinance that's maintained in the town hall. Uh, and they would looking at the website uh may be very misleading because we have enacted changes and amended ordinances over the last five years and they would not appear on the website. They are currently in the book.

They should we we send those in. Um, I sent in the animal control and I'm drawing a blank on the last one we made. We we've sent changes in in 2025. You're saying that they have been codified later than five years. According to the website, this tells me the online content was updated on February 29th, 2024. Okay. After that would be in the ordinance. I I need to follow up notified through November 13th of 23. I need to check with them because I think we've I know I sent several in recently, but So, thank you for that, Mr. Mayor. I move that we adjourn. If there's nothing else, you certainly may. Thank you, sir.

And we will second. Second motion. [laughter] A motion by Councilman Kaine and a second by Councilman Knox. And we motion to adjurnn is privileged. We will now vote. District one. Yes. District three. District three. Yes. District five. Yes. District six. Yes. District seven. Yes. District eight. Yes. And the mayor vote yes. We are adjourned.