City Council - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] All right. I'll call the January 5th, 2026 council work session to order. I will recognize Mile recognize Mile Brazwell, city manager, to go over the items on the consent agenda. Thank you, mayor, members of council. Um, tonight on the consent agenda, you have 17 items. It'll probably take a few minutes for us to get through this. Um, the first item is the approval of the December 1st, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Uh, item B2 is the approval of the city council workshop meeting minutes from November 17, 2025. Item B3 is the close session minutes that have been distributed by our city clerk and at your table different color piece of paper. We'll take those up after the council meeting. Item B4 is um change of the city council rules of procedure. It's an amendment to change the workshop meeting time from 5:00 pm to 5:30 p.m. And the rules of procedure is included in the packet. It's part five types of meetings. Rule nine, regular meetings under a regular meeting schedule. So, what I plan to do on that is uh if you all approve it tonight, then I'll distribute um the rules and procedures to everybody later on this week, given that we changed the format, even though the the content's the same, the format's a little bit different than you've seen in the past. So, uh I'll distribute those later this week. Item B5 [clears throat]

is uh the approval to apply for the US DOT fiscal year 26 build grant opportunity and the build grant is better utilizing investments to leverage development um acronym for the [clears throat] build grant program. Um Belmont is located within a rural designated metropolitan statistical area and is therefore eligible for 100% federal funding. And so our uh plan department believes that um we have a very good opportunity to uh receive uh the grant. So the grant application opens or it opened on November 26 and the applications are due to the US DOT by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026. So our planning staff will be working with city departments um the vision zero task force and the vision vision zero advisory board uh developed to develop the grant. Um the project would incorporate a comprehensive improvements from Kataba Street, which would be the southern project limit, to I 85, the northern project limit with a particular emphasis on improving congestion, safety, and capacity at the intersections of Park Street and Wilkinson Boulevard and Park Street and Kataba Street. And so um you can apply for up to 25 million. We really don't know how much we'll apply for yet. We plan to engage an engineering firm to help us out uh to determine um the actual cost of the grant. So we'll we'll apply for that if you all approve. Item B6 is bulletproof vest grant application [clears throat] request from the police department. Uh there's two grants here. the North Carolina League of Municipalities um grant and the second grant is a federal grant through the Patrick Ley bulletproof vest partnership program. And so uh you can see in the summary of

action how u the grants are broken down for repayment [clears throat] for reimbursement uh for the bulletproof vest. So the police department would like to apply for both of those uh grants. Item B7 is the DUI enforcement grant for a current police officer that we have in this position. This is our third year continuation. So at this rate or at this uh at this year given we're in year three. The rate is 70% f federally funded and 30% local funded. Uh the applications are due to the governor's highway safety program by January 31st and we should receive response by June. If we do receive the grant, we'll have to come back to you all uh given that there will be a resolution that we need uh to have approved. Um the grant uh to the hold, let me read this. If if approved, the federal funding amount appropriated towards the grant is $45,756.98 and the total and the local cash appropriation is $19,610.14. Item B8 is the request from the police department to apply for another DUI enforcement uh position year one. Um this is for fiscal year 27. So in similar fashion, we would apply for the grant. If we receive it, we'd have to come back to you all. Uh and this would be funded in um next fiscal year. Down in the summary of actions, you can see that if um if we're awarded the grant, it shows like the years and federal [clears throat] percentage uh of the grant and then the local contribution. Uh there is a question here regarding given that this is from the North Carolina Highway Governor's Highway

Safety Program. Um how was the federal dollars included? Um so it's federal funds but the governor's highway administration program administers the grant funds. Uh consent item B9 is the request from the fire department to apply for the firefighters charitable foundation equipment grant. This is a 100% non-matching uh grant uh and it is for the fire department to replace their turnout turnout gear for firefighters. So they're asking permission to apply for that grant. Item B10 is the consideration and approval of a request by the police department to apply for the Edward Burn Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, also known as the JAG grant from the police department. You've seen those come through before. Um the police department is seeking approval to apply for this grant in the amount up to $50,000. It's a non-matching grant uh that recurs annually u by the Bureau of Justice. Uh if awarded, police chief intends to purchase a drone to assist with with providing instant aerial surveillance, enhancing officer safety, and improving situation awareness and street takeovers, police chases, search and rescue, uh using thermal zoom cameras for tracking and uh evidence gathering. the Jack Grant. Item B1 is a request uh to install banners uh on our light poles throughout downtown. Uh this request came to me from the U Gaston County uh director of communication. Um given that uh next July is America's 250th birthday, the county is partnering

with the town of Dallas to host a countywide parade. I believe on July 4th. And to help advertise the parade, the county request that the municipalities install these light pole banners downtown sometime between January and July. There's no cost for the banners due to the grant received by the county. Uh we do have our flag and banner policy. And I wrote in here, any exception for banners will be upon request by the city manager with final approval by city council. Uh that's a mistake on my part. I should have written that. Any exception for flags uh will be upon request for the city manager. Um given that inside your packet there is the um flag and banner policy and you can see that for banners on that second page which is page 64 in your packet. It doesn't really state there's a process to have uh banners approved. Um, and so the request is that you recommend or I'm recommending approval for u these banners and then if we need to um amend our flag and banner policy, then I would take that as direction from city council on that. Item uh B12 is a budget amendment to appropriate a portion of the mayor's salary to fund grant writing services. So, uh, Mayor Jordan has deferred his annual compensation and in request that it be applied towards grant writing. And so, we had a discussion, uh, with mayor and it was recommended to the mayor that his salary be applied towards an existing grant. We have, uh, in a contract within the fire department. Uh, they contract a company called Lexipole and um, as of right now, their PO to Lexipole is $6,000. Uh mayor's u salary of course is prrated given that uh he was sworn in in December and his salary goes to uh next

June. So you have seven months of his salary which is $8,956.50. And so we would use $6,000 to transfer from the salary line item to the fire department's uh professional services line item and that $6,000 amount. the remaining $2,900 approximately. U if we have other grant opportunities throughout the year that we contract, we would apply that $2,956 in another budget amendment at that time. Um so, you know, we just talked about the the US build grant that we're applying for. We'll probably have to have assistance from um an engineering firm so we could apply that $2,900 towards that in the future. So, I'll bring that back if that's the case. But for this one, it's $6,000 going to flexible.

And that would just be for fire fighting for fire department grants. Is that right? Correct. Yes.

Item B13 is um the fiscal year 2727 budget calendar. And you can see on page two, we've laid out our budget calendar starting tonight. adopts this budget calendar up to u when council approves the budget. Item B14 is a field use agreement between the Belmont Raiders Athletic Association uh and the city for the use of Davis Park. Um the Belmont Raiders Athletic Association uh uses the park currently for their for their football team. And so instead of uh us not having an agreement at all, we thought it'd be a good idea to to formalize what we're currently doing. And so a few of the highlights of the agreement, um it's a 5-year agreement. Um each year from August 1st to November 15th, they can use the field from 5:00 pm to 8:30 p.m. We do have insurance uh u coverage inside of the agreement, which has to uh be equal to or greater than what we currently have for our general liability insurance. We did put in there a cost sharing structure for the share of electricity costs while they're um while the lights are on during that period of time that they they agreed to pay for the electric. There's a few other things listed in there, but those are some of the highlights. Um staff did meet with U John Lewis and David McKenna. Both of those folks were excited that they actually have an agreement. Now, there's a map u also included inside the U packet. And I I failed to mention that there was various uh edits that came in uh uh from council members uh and the mayor. And so we shared those edits previously with you all um today. And so u included in

that is the the edits for uh the field use agreement. The next item is the probably the biggest item we have in here is item. It's uh consider request to amend the city of Belmont Municipal Code Title 11 business regulations. Um given that they uh manage most of the uh the codes that are inside this document. Um our code is no longer in alignment with current legal requirements, best practices or operational procedures. And the police department did a great job to go through and provide edits uh to all those chapters u in the code. And probably the best thing for me to do is to to go to the actual uh ordinance that's written and it's um included inside your packet, but it it it really has it's it's has a a good breakdown of what uh the police department has recommended regarding these chapters. And I'll just go through and read some of the wherehouses. So if I'm on an ordinance amending city of Belmont Municipal Code Title 11 business regulations and I'm going down to the fourth whereas so whereas chapter 110 is where this thing starts. Chapter 110. The privilege license tax has been removed pursuant to House Bill 1050 part 12 effective July 1st, 2015, which repeal both county and municipal authority to levy a local privilege license tax, thereby eliminating the city city's authority to require businesses within the city limits to

apply for to comply with a privilege [clears throat] license tax. And whereas chapter 113, massage parlors, health health salons, and related businesses, has been removed to comply with House Bill 1050, article 36 of the North Carolina Massage and Body Work Therapy Practice Act and North Carolina General Statute 90-622 reflecting the transfer of licensing and regulatory authority to the North Carolina Board of Massage and Body Work Therapy effective November 2019. 19. And whereas chapter 114 taxi cabs and chapter 115 cable communications have been removed as they're outdated and no longer aligned with current legal requirements, regulatory frameworks, best practices or operational procedures at the state and local level. And whereas chapter 112 amusements has been amended to comply with the House Bill [clears throat] 1050, House Bill 999, North Carolina General Statute 168-181, and North Carolina General Statute 14- 317 as the prior ordinance was outdated and no longer align with current legal or operational standards. And whereas city council has further determined that certain remaining chapters within title 11 require no changes as follows. Chapter 111 advertising for which no changes are necessary. Chapter 116 adult establishments for which no changes are necessary. And chapter 117 towing and business towing and storage businesses for which no changes are made at this time. Uh I did get a question about the the chapters that would be removed. Uh I'm recommending that these still remain

inside the code and that way we can qualify that um you all made these amendments to the code effective on today's date. So I would recommend that we still keep those chapters that that don't have anything in there but we still have uh the amended dates. So that is um agenda item B15. There are edits. There are edits to the ordinance and the chapter 112.

Correct. So, Jim provided some edits to chapter 112 and provided u changes to the ordinance. And the changes to the ordinance is what I read out just now. Agenda item B16 is the consideration approval of recommendation to remove a board member from the downtown Belmont Development Association. Um the DBDA voted unanimous unanimously on December 17th, 2025 to recommend the removal of a board member from u for non-attendants from the main street WDA boards. The bylaws are included along with u the draft meeting minutes from uh December 17th, 2025 when that um recommendation was made. You can find that find that in item uh 6A which addresses the items discussion the motion and approval. And item B17 is the acceptance of streets in the MLAN Southshore 2A phase 2A- map 5 neighborhood. There was a few edits that uh u that Jim had provided regarding the um the map and the actual agenda item. So, I'm just going to go to our city engineers um I think changes. Um it so I'm going to read out um from the map the streets to be accepted and where they're from and where they go to. So, the streets to be accepted is Sanderling Place which is 1,350 ft and it goes from Lake drive to the culde-sac in

the other street to be accepted is B Ridge [clears throat] Road approximately 600 ft from Sanderling Place to 7-Eleven B Ridge Road and the third street to be accepted is Willow Bank Lane which is approximately 200 feet 250 ft from Sanderling Place to 1013 Willow Bank. And that is the end of the agenda, consent agenda. So I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you, Miles. I appreciate you running us through that. [cough] All right. Are there any questions or comments on the consent agenda?

I do. I have a question on B5. So maybe just a little bit more context. So, we talked about consulting with an engineering group or a firm to potentially look at projects, but could we not look at the projects because when I read through that, it sounds like this is true roadway improvements. Could we not use some of the projects that we had on the bond that didn't pass or even parts of South Point Road that may be or need additional purposes? I think we could spend that $25 million pretty quickly.

So, just kind of curious there. Well, similar to what the SS4A grant we we just received, um you have to base a grant to have uh justification and so to have uh good detailed estimates um we prefer to have professional engineer to help us out given that uh some of the work with past Ganet Fleming when they did the uh transportation bond they studied I recall that they studied um the Park Street Kener intersection in depth. So, we probably have a pretty good cost [clears throat] estimate for that. But, as you go down, you know, towards um Highway 74, there's various other improvements that that need to be made. So, that's what staff was recommending to me that that we uh consult with a company to help us out to make our uh grant application stronger. So, I guess help me understand, are they going to look at what's rated the worst from NC DO's perspective to go through and pick these projects or how is that going to work out? Right? Because again, the reason why I'm bringing this up is

when we applied for this grant that we just received, which is amazing, $25 million. We originally going to go for what, 10 to 15 million, and then we as council said, "No, let's get our projects together and go for the full 25." We were awarded the full 25. I think about all the projects that we have out here. Just look down the O's list, right? Um that have been dep prioritized year-over-year. I mean, I think we could fill those pretty quickly with the SS4A grant. Um we went towards that. Uh I think we presented like various options to to you all to say, you know, should we go with the $19 million, the $22 million, and you all of course said, let's go for the $25 million. Yeah.

I don't know if we have enough. I mean, this is probably a good um Possibly a good thing that we could talk about at a different meeting given that this is what staff told me um is that you know it's based on um some of the things that were included with the vision zero program and the project addresses the project area addresses the city's three most dangerous corridors Wilkinson Park and Kataba and for the top 10 most dangerous intersections park Wilkinson Park Kataba Park Holly Park in Browntown. So, um they've kind of identified the area. That's the thing that we need to u

to engineer around to engineer like that's good. That's good. Yeah. To to engineer around to give us a better cost estimate for those projects. So, if we've already have the the plans and the vision zero and those other documents that is the is the foundation for it and you've got that already laid out. The next thing is to say, you know, how much does that cost? that gives us like a a really good application to go towards the grant. Um so that's that's why we would probably recommend to have a firm to help us out. We don't we don't know how much even the the cost for the the firm would be. Um uh and so we would have to if that would be a budget amendment, we'd have to bring that back to you all at a later date for when when do we need to make a decisions beyond that?

Well, the application is due 24th. Yeah, February 24th. So that would be coming up um either at the workshop or the February meeting. Okay. Only thing about the South Point Road improvements too is you know if we get to a point where the the conditioned improvements are able to be installed you know that there would be some overlap there um because it's not like we're going to get those improvements in any other on any other artery. So if we don't you know what I mean? So if you use those dollars that as an example. I mean, that's a good point. Sure.

Um because I know the safety concerns been brought up in North Belmont as well with some of the higher traffic coming from the industrial warehouses and stuff. I just, you know, I think this last round, not to leave anything on the table, right? I mean, it's particularly when the NPO came to me, I brought up a couple months ago, and they said, "Why did we not apply for a certain grant that they had, right, the rise grant or something like that, and Mount Holly got the full reward?" I mean, we got to make sure that we're coming after all of these grants so that we can try to keep up with our infrastructure lacking in the community. So, which I know we're doing, but I just want to make that vocal again as we head into this round.

Yeah. If we can apply for up to 25 million and the engineers determined that these projects I just called out, those those quarters are only, you know, 10 million. Then we'll know we need to pick up another project. We need to pick up another project to get to. Are you going to do last time? Are you presenting us with options? We can about Okay. If that's what you all would like, we could do that. I'd say shoot with I mean obviously I would like for us to go for the full amount no matter we'll have but you know there's some project we could probably pick up that we can always use $25 million. Yeah, the timing of it would would be my only concern given that, you know, we hadn't we don't have a firm engaged this time.

So, they would have to do all that work and then uh if it if it goes past the first February meeting, then you won't you won't hear unless it's a special meeting because it would I was about to say, could we not do a special meeting though? It's up to you all. I mean, I think that's something that because we don't have engineered drawings. Do we have them for parking Kataba? They're high level. They don't really know all the details, but the rest of that corridor to 85, we really don't have much on, right? So, if we're identifying these and maybe they come in under 25 million and we get the full amount,

do they do we we only get what we the projects that we said that this would be allocated to and if it doesn't equal 25 and we forfeit the rest or how does that if we say we only need you know 20 but I'm sure your I mean, they're identifying projects they're going to soak up. Oh, most. Yeah. But I mean, we just think about what was the intersection of Kataba and Park right there. I mean, that was a pretty That was like 10 million,

right? I mean, there you go. 10 million right there. So, I mean, that's an artery we know we need to improve, which is our most dangerous intersection other than down the road probably. So, I mean, there's 10 million right there that we know of. We just got an estimate as of a couple months ago from the Crescent development, right? What we can do is uh work as hard as we can to get to the February 5th meeting to have a presentation on February 5th. If we can't make that date, then I'll have to you talk to the mayor about set a special meeting that before the 24th.

Sounds good. Any other comments or questions on the consent agenda? I have one real quick. Um, Miles, on uh B15 with the municipal code changes, are we fairly confident that those changes, and I reviewed it, and I don't think so, um, are are not going to impact any of our existing businesses? Now, as far as I know, they won't impact any um, but I would defer to the police department um, who actually work on this document. if you if you want to have Lindsay Jagger, she's here, so she'd like to come up and speak to that. Sure.

Seems like most of that applied to just new licenses, right? I think so. And I'm fairly confident. I mean, I've read through it. I know we all have. Um, but just second eyes. Sure. Good evening everybody. Good evening. So the um changes that were made to this particular title um they were changed to match what's in general statutes. So anything that's in that I've changed in this code directly matches what's already in statute. So it shouldn't have any kind of effect on any of our current businesses. Right. If anything, it's removing provisions that seem to apply to them but are no longer enforceable or or relevant.

Correct. Yes. Thank you. Go ahead. One other item. Sure. Um Miles, I know you normally take direction in other business, but you mentioned on the item B11 that if you wanted us to give you direction on potential policy change for the flag policy. Is if you want to take that now or wait till other business. Uh can I take it now? Okay.

I had a thought on the uh budget [clears throat] calendar. So I know traditionally our practice has been to do the public hearing the same meeting more or less that we adopt the budget. I know some cities have a practice about doing ahead of that. The idea being that if you can solicit public input earlier in the process, you can actually act on it. It's very difficult at the meeting where you're voting on the budget to do anything substant substantive uh with any kind of public comment uh we received. So I'm wondering if there's any appetite potentially moving that public hearing up. Um I was kind of looking at the calendar maybe doing it at the main meeting when Miles does the first presentation of the balance budget might be an opportunity to do that if we're interested in going that route. I wouldn't be opposed to it. I mean,

adding additional transparency and more leeway for the council to make those types of decisions because it does always feel like we come to the 11th hour with a lot of the changes. Yeah. Yeah. I hate people coming up here and saying, "Oh, you should have thought of this." And it's like, "Well, you know, the cake's already baked." So, we're saying move the public hearing to May 4th. Yeah. So, do the public hearing on the budget at the May 4th meeting. Um and then we just have the regular kind of debate and adoption of the budget for a second. Let me think for a minute. So if we have because it has to be approved by the July for the unless you get a continuation of the budget which you don't want to do. No.

So that gives you two or a full month after the approval until we meet for the next regular body right meeting. There's a workshop after that May 4th meeting too. So right we wanted to do significant, but then that just means that the budget has to be prepared earlier in its final draft. Well, while I'm talking about doing is just because I know we have to have the public hearing on the budget by law. So, just having that part of the process earlier in our process. Yes. I think what he's saying is you don't have to vote on it the same day that you have the

to be able to come. So we could still I mean I think the point is that if we had it in May then there would be time to make changes based on any public comment that was received. Right? So uh I don't think it would put any additional uh burden on the city because you got to present that to us that at that meeting anyway. it just we'd have a public hearing comment on it and take both council feedback and any public feedback we might receive and then present the final budget for a vote in June as I understand the proposal. Yeah, which makes total sense. Yeah, I think that makes

So what are we proposing? Moving the June 1st public hearing two. What was the date again? May 4th. May 4th. Miles, does that work for you? Think so. Uh, I was thinking about like looking at the days ahead of that in April. So, we're presenting at the workshop, the budget. It's like a budget workshop on the 20th and then we the first time the public would actually hear the the budget, we'd be presenting it right before then. the same day you would present the budget because it's just a workshop. We wouldn't have the budget prepared yet

and then and to have the public hearing the same day that we present it to you all. That's the first time the public hears it. You know what I'm saying? So, would it make sense to have Well, but I would assume that it would be in the agenda packet for for everyone to review. My thought was is that it it wouldn't necessarily be like there's not necessarily going to be any new information presented at that meeting. It's just kind of the formal presentation of it. We can make

which you'd have to do anyway to put in the agenda packet for the meeting. So I I don't again I don't think it necessarily entails additional work but you know I'm you're the boss. So, um you uh you let us know [clears throat] if that works. But the intent is to have the public to hear it to hear at the same time that we present it. Well, I think the intent was to allow the uh an actual opportunity to respond should there be any public feedback

that if we were to have the hearing in June like we normally do, well, we have the hearing and then the next item is to immediately vote on the budget. So, any feedback back that was received, there'd be an issue with incorporating it or delaying the vote until we're up against the June 30th deadline. So I think the idea would be to provide time to it if as you know as I understand and and my experience has been in the past I I have a feeling there might be some council feedback and changes that would need to be made uh to the budget based on what's presented in May. And so why not receive any public comment at that time too and fold any uh feedback uh into what's presented for the final vote in June as I understand it.

Okay. So then that raises the question parks can we make that change leave it in the consent agenda or do we need to pull this from the we can you just uh vote to approve the consent agenda when we get to the regular meeting. Um, let's see. So, uh, I just wanted to make sure, uh, with the field use agreement, which was, um, uh, B 14 14 that the changes to item two, section 2C were incorporated because I I do think that's uh, important.

They were, I believe, I'm looking at the clerk now. I think those items were changed and they're on the actual agenda. All right. So that's just to clarify that that the the original draft said that the the field use apply they could the B raiders could use the field from August 1st 2026 until November 15 2030 which is actually every day for over four years and the actual intent is that they use it from August 1st November 15 each year of the agreement. So that's why [laughter] Um, good catch. Have a lawyer. Every once in a while. Um, [laughter] never said that.

We're going to discuss this. Uh, this was So, which one's that one? Set out. Well, it has to do with um the time changing the um workshop time resolution for the meeting uh dates for 2026 because um when we passed it I guess last month it was it said the workshop's going to be at 5:00 and the resolution needs to show that they're going to be at 5:30. So I I I'd assume you would put this here um right now the clerk. Yes. What's going on? What? What? Yes. All right. But we have to I mean it has to be on some sort of agenda.

It's on the consent agenda, but it's it's not on the consent agenda. Oh, no. This is uh No, that was changing the rules. This is changing the resolution of the meeting dates for 2026, which we passed last month. Yeah. I apologize. I didn't realize this was on your table, but this would have needed to come before we actually had the actual consent. adopted, right? This is like B18. So, this is a new item, not even on the consent agenda. So, we just add it.

Well, yeah, it's not on the it's not on any agenda. And so, that's why I was questioning where it should be added. Uh because it's it's here and um I'm assuming somebody wants us to act on it. So, it would need to be part of some agenda for for us to do that. Well, I apologize. it was laid on your desk. I didn't even realize it was going to be laid on your desk, but I would make the recommendation that we add agenda item B18 to the consent agenda

for your recommendation and approval. And it's uh the amendment to the 2026 council meeting dates. Um and it states the summary of action at the December 1st city council meeting. Council requests to change the start time for the city council workshops to 5:30 p.m. Do the change the resolution for the 20 2026 city council meeting dates needs to be amended. So there's an exhibit that has that uh change which amends the resolution. So mayor I would ask that this item becluded. Sure. Can I just add it?

When when Okay. So, is it I would So, we can make Can't we just make the motion to add item B18 and then the rest of it is modified? Right. So is that when we get to the consent agenda? So we don't need to make that motion when we set the agenda. Do it to add the item to the

All right. Okay. So before we set the agenda, I need to we need a motion to add B8. Okay. All right. Just making sure I'm got everything. Let the lawyer handle. All right. All right. With that said, Jim, are you good? We have any other questions on the consent agenda? No. All right. All right. Uh well that will conclude our work session. We might have set a record long. I'll call to order the regular meeting of the Belmont City Council January 5th, 2026. Uh I believe we have uh Ray Hardy here for our invocation tonight. Then after the invocation, if you'll please remain standing for our pledge of allegiance, we will be led by Mark Cinger.

Greetings friends. Thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of this. Thank you city council members, Mr. Mayor, for citizens, for police officers, for all those that do little and great things for our entire city. Deeply grateful for that. Let's pray together. Dear heavenly father, thank you so much for the gift of a free country, a free government, elected officials, people that care for one another, and especially this good city of Belmont. As the name implies, there's beautiful parts of it, and it's a a city on a hill that shines brightly. And so we ask that you would continue to give guidance and leadership to our police officers. Protect those who protect us, firefighters, to those that rescue us. Help us to lay out things in their lives in such a way so that we can rescue them from time to time. Father, we pray for those in city officials that are making decisions about planning and zoning and budgeting and water and and sewers and electricity. All these things are important. We do thank you, Father, for this great $25 million grant that's been granted. We also ask, Father, that you would give us wisdom about how we minister that. And thank you for great people like Miles and his staff that make it work so well together. Just bless them and give them wisdom. In your mighty name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Please face the flag and join in the pledge. 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. Thank you. All right. I understand that we have some recognitions and acknowledgements at this time.

[clears throat]

Good evening, mayor, council members, city manager, and members of the community. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight for an important, proud moment for our police department and for our city. This evening, we're going to welcome and formally swear in some of our newest police officers, as well as present some of our newly promoted police officers. Each of these individuals has completed and a demanding process that required commitment, integrity, and a genuine desire to serve others. The oath that they take tonight is more than a formality. It's a promise to uphold the law, protect the rights of all the people, and to serve the community with dignity, respect, and fairness. Kind of threw that in there as a mission statement. um that responsibility is not taken lightly and I am confident that these officers understand the trust our community places in them. I would also like to recognize the families of loved ones here tonight. Your support plays a critical role and the success and the well-being of these officers. We are grateful for the sacrifices that you are making and will make alongside of them. And for some family members who may be watching from home, thank you as well. On behalf of the police department, thank you the mayor and the city council and the manager for your continued support of public safety and for allowing us to share this moment with you. To our new officers, welcome to the department. Serve with honor, lead with integrity, and never forget that the badge represents service to others above yourself. So, at this time, I want to introduce the first officer, Officer Haley Pate. If you will please come forward here. Please welcome Officer Haley Pate to the Bone Police Department. She was born and raised in Lancaster, South Carolina, and graduated from Lancaster High School in 2021. In 2022, she completed her associates degree in criminal justice. And in 2024, she obtained her bachelor's degree in fire administration with fire investigation. She also tend attended York Technical College where she gained

state and national registry emergency medical technician. Officer completed BE at Gaston College in 2025. Officer Pate enjoys spending time with her three-year-old daughter. She also enjoys taking trips to the mountains and spending time with friends. Next, have Officer Jacob Taylor. Would you please come forward, Jacob? Please welcome Officer Jacob Taylor to the Belmont Police Department. He was born and raised in Gaston County and graduated from Forest View High School. Officer Taylor started his career in law enforcement with the Gaston County Sheriff's Office in 2023 where he served as a detention officer working in the jail. While working for the sheriff's office, he was given the title of title of field training officer. Officer Taylor was hired by the Belmont Police Department. We stolen in May of 2025 and was enrolled in basic law enforcement training at Gaston College, which he successfully completed in November of 2025. Officer Taylor enjoys fishing, riding ATVs, and working on restoring his Chevy Silverado and hiking. He also enjoys spending time with his family. He has been married to his wife Jaci for three years. Next have Officer Jansen Oriana. Please welcome Officer Jensen Oriana to the Bmont Police Department. He was born and raised in Wils County and graduated from Wils Early College High School. He then obtained his associates degree in criminal justice and completed B as the class president for Wils Community College. Officer Oriana has seven years of experience in law enforcement and looks forward to growing and succeeding his dreams here at the Bmont Police Department. We also stole him from a local agency. No pun intended. Sorry, had to do that. Officer Oriana enjoys weightlifting, gaming, and skateboarding. He also enjoys spending time with his family. He is happily married and has two beautiful boys, three and a year and a half old. At this time, I'd like to get the clerk to come forward and any members of your

family or who's going to hold the Bible for you. I Father, [laughter] I will never officert.

I will not personal.

[laughter] Well, well, Laura, didn't they need to put their hands in the Bible? Oh, we got to start a [laughter] hands. They need to put their hands in the Bible to I don't think so. They've already been in this symbolic. Okay, we're good. We're good. [laughter] We to wait till the end, Jim.

[clears throat] [laughter] It's initiation. Chief, is officer P interested in moonlighting with the fire department when you're not? She's already She already has a part-time job with the fire department um somewhere else. I thought about that. I was reading. I was like, "No, the fire department can't steal her." But [laughter] she may be interested here as well. I don't know. That's something for the fire chief and her to discuss. Congratulations. [applause] Take a picture.

Does the council want to come forward and get a picture? I'm going give them around this way. Stand like resource. Thank you. So, next I'd like to introduce the um one one one person that we um promoted Joel Kulis is not here tonight, but I'm going to go ahead and and go through with reading his stuff. But first and foremost, could you get can I get Michael Glover going forward? Corporal Michael Glover. Please uh please welcome newly appointed Corporal Michael Glover. Corporal Glover probably looks like a familiar face. He was born and raised in Belmont. He graduated from South Point High School.

He started his uh career at a as a volunteer firefighter in July of 1998 with New Hope Fire Department where he's still a member today. Corporal Glover began his full-time career as a firefighter with the Gastonia Fire Department in 2002. Glover became uh the city of Bmont firefighter in 2009 where he worked for the Belmont fire department. He made the rank of engineer and fire inspector and he transferred to the Belmont Police Department in July of 2022. And I'm not going to make any firemen police jokes and completed his BL training in at Gaston College. Uh Corporal Glover also works part-time with the North Carolina Forestry Service as a forestry fire equipment operator and he has been there since 2008. She is a dedicated individual to the community. Corporal Glover enjoys going to the beach and fishing. He also enjoys spending time with his 10-year-old son and his girlfriend and their golden retriever dog. Next, um, Corporal Kulish, Joel Kulish. He's not here, but I still like to read to you and introduce you to him, even though he's sick tonight. He couldn't attend with the the crud that's going around. Um, Corporal Kulish was born just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. He began his law enforcement career in 2012 with the Ron Oak City Police Department in Virginia while simultaneously serving in the US Army Reserve as a military police officer from 2017 and 2018. He deployed to Saudi Arabia where he served as a personal security officer for Colonel Matthew Hbert. Uh Corporal Kulish became the Belmont Police Department in September of 2024. He currently serves as a corporal and a kine handler for Adam Team. Outside of his professional life, Kulish is a diehard Ohio State's Buckeyes fan.

He enjoys spending time with his wife and their two children and being outdoors strength training and riding the family's horses and playing golf. Next, I'd like to introduce you to Sergeant Steven Haven Guffy. Please welcome newly appointed Sergeant Steven Haven Guffy. Sergeant Guffy was born and raised in McDville, North Carolina. as a graduate of Stuart Kramer High School, a first full senior class. He went on to complete BL in 2019 and began his law enforcement career with the Gastonia Police Department. He joined the Belmont Police Department in October 2020. Sergeant Guffy holds an associate degree in criminal justice from Ashworth College and is currently pursuing his bachelor's degree. Since 2021, he has served as a K9 handler with his partner, Bandit. He's recently earned his master K9 trainer certification, enabling him to train police K9 teams. And he also has been a member of the Gastonia Regional SWAT team for nearly three years. Outside of work, Sergeant Buffy and en enjoys spending time with his wife Harley and his one-year-old daughter Haley Grace or Hazel Grace and watching over Elmo. Watch Elmo. He watches Elmo with her. I've done a lot of that myself. [laughter] Growing up having two daughters, I understand completely. But um I'd like to present um them as their new promoted officers. Um they went through a grueling process of assessment centers to uh obtain their promotion and I appreciate their dedication to the agency and to the city. Um and for them to take the next step in their law enforcement career says a lot for their dedication to the community. And so uh congratulations on your recent promotion and and thank you for your service.

[applause]

And that concludes our presentation. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. All right. Well, let's see. Let's get back to the dance of getting this added on to the consent agenda. I will make a motion to set the agenda with the addition of item B18 to the consent agenda. Second. All right. Motion made by Jim, seconded by Alex. All in favor? I. Any opposed?

All right. Passes to add that as B18 to the consent agenda. So that will take us into um do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as modified specifically to uh see B13 which would add or amend the public hearing date to May 4th. So moved for the budget for the budget for the budget. Correct. So moved. Second. All right. Motion made by Charlie, seconded by Alex. All in favor?

Any opposed? All right. The consent agenda passes. All right. Well, that will take us into the regular agenda and to public comment. So, we do have someone signed up to speak here. Uh, Miss Amber Shields. If you want to come on up and I will go over the rules quickly while you're uh walking up here. Let's see. Uh each person signed up will speak to speak will have three minutes to make his or her remarks. Speaker will be acknowledged by the mayor in order in which the names appear on the signup sheet. Speaker will address the council from the podium and begin their remarks by stating their name and address. The public comment period is not intended to require the council to answer any impromptu questions. Speakers will address all comments to the council as a whole and not one individual commissioner. Discussion between speakers and members of the audience will not be allowed. Speakers will be civil and courteous in their language and presentation will refrain from personal attacks. Speakers shall not discuss any of the following matters which are close session matters including but not limited to matters within the attorney client privilege anticipated or pending litigation personnel contractual or property acquisition matters which are made confidential by law or matters which are subject to public hearing. Uh action on items brought up during public comment will be to the discretion of the council and may be referred to the city for city staff for further investigation. So Miss Shields, you have our full attention.

Uh hi, my name is Amber Shields. Uh I live at 2029 Street, which is literally a stones throw from here. Um and I apologize in advance if uh this has already been p part of past or previous agendas because I have been very busy with the holidays. Um but I did want to ensure that I brought this issue up to attention. Many Belmont residents utilize the Kataba River. It is one of Belmont's best attributes. You can catch Belmont residents utilizing the Kataba River from the little swimming hole down on South Point Road, launching kayaks at Kevin Loft and docking boats, and relaxing and playing in parks. Outside of recreational use, it's also our drinking water source. At the end of 2025, Charlotte City Council approved the reszoning of the large par parcel of land off of Morris Chapel Road, um, about two miles from where we are all sitting today. This land has been approved to create a 3 million square foot data center by digital realy. This will be the largest data warehouse in North Carolina. There is limited information online about whether or not this zoning is going to allow for them to pull and discharge water uh into and from the Kataba River. The environmental impacts are also not clear. Past data center issues have varied from high energy consumption to noise pollution, water pollution, and air pollution. For reference, large data centers can consume up to five million gallons per day of water. Some use different technologies for cooling, but the vast majority or are going to utilize water, especially with our within our region because it does get so hot here during the summer months. Our our water supply has already been strained at different times. Um we saw Helen, we've seen droughts. Um and at past council meetings, the water plant manager spoke on issues such as hydridity and how that affects our ability to pull water from the Kitaba River. Um, and for reference, discharging water into Kitaba River could potentially not just cause

pollutants, but it could also increase the overall turidity. This is directly upstream from where the city of Belmont pulls our drinking water. Uh, current proposals from the Charlotte from Charlotte Water already exists that has to pull an additional 30 million 30 million gallons of water from the Kataba River. This existed prior to the council approving this data warehouse. Uh with data centers popping up across the region, our water will continue to be consumed in large amounts. I'm here today to ask the council to dig deeper with our Charlotte neighbors to get a better understanding on how this data center will impact Belmont residents and if needed, partner with environmental groups and or join the conversation to fuel change to protect the water supply we all rely on. I'm also asking city council to get more involved in addressing the additional water usage proposals from the city of Charlotte.

Thank you. If I may. Sure. Um during my time as as [snorts]

uh Mayor Prom, I did have occasion to meet with the mayor of Charlotte Viles and talk about some some issues of uh mutual importance to to both jurisdictions and uh perhaps uh you might want to reach out and uh she you know I got a meeting with her and uh you know it was a good productive meeting so perhaps um uh that might be something uh you know in your new role introduce yourself as a new mayor and we could broach that as one area of concern for for Belmont.

Absolutely. Thank you Jim for that suggestion. All right, that will take us to agenda item C2, the Mloud Avenue traffic calming request. Have a chief joining us again. So, I stand before you today to talk about Mloud Avenue traffic common request. A resident HOA member from Hawthorne neighborhood reached out to staff in reference to traffic common measures from Mloud Avenue due to speeding and safety concerns. A three-way stop on Mloud Avenue at Hawthorne Park Avenue was suggested as a solution. Staff explained the traffic common policy to the resident. Mloud Avenue extends from Main Street downtown district to Kener Boulevard. This kind of just shows you a little map. Mloud is a primary residential street consisting of town homes and a few everyday residents. This is a picture of Mloud Avenue facing west of the location where the proposed uh traffic measures proposed. This is Mloud Avenue facing east. Let me go back for just a second. You can't really see that in this picture, but when I pulled this off Google Maps, our radar uh traffic radar sign is actually installed. The mobile one is actually installed up on the right if you look real close.

We're already involved in the traffic common measures out there as well. I enjoyed the sign coming in to my what was it? Speeding or you'll lose it or lose it [laughter] road. No, off of snow road. I was worried that the sign was going to get messed up by someone. General reminders over the holidays. It was a worry, but honestly, it was a good place.

It was It was good. Um, we did some research. Staff reviewed the traffic common request and determined Mloud Avenue does qualify under our current adopted traffic common policy. Police staff conducted a speeds study on Mloud Avenue. Staff from the police department public works and a planning department evaluated the results of the study and based on the results there are a moderate number of motorist speeding. It was determined that a high volume of of traffic utilizes Mloud as a cut through. The results of the study August 18th, 2025 through August 22nd, 2025. The speed limit on Mloud is 25 miles an hour. There are 17,66 vehicles that traveled on Mloud during this time period. The average speed was 28 miles an hour with 85% of the vehicles were traveling at 35 or slower. And the max speed was 57 miles an hour approaching the instrument and 100 miles an hour. And we're sure that this was a possible interference. There was actually when we went to radar school many years ago for me that there was a tree that actually picked up by radar going 100 miles an hour. So call it the speeding tree, but we're positive this is interference. So no one was going that fast. We could be wrong though. Out of out of all the vehicles and 6,217 vehicles did exceed the posted speed limit by more than 10 miles an hour. The action plan, a site visit was conducted and determined that stop signs at both intersections with Hawthorne Park Avenue would be the most cost-effective way to address the existing speeding and safety concerns. Staff developed a sketch plan of the proposed locations of the stop signs. This is a site plan which is included in your pack of all the locations. There was actually some existing signs in place coming off of Hawthorne Park Avenue. and then the proposed signs. The action plan staff coordinated with

the requester to fulfill a petition which is a component of the traffic common policy. The petition was circulated by a board member of the chair of the HOA and the results of the petition. 26 residents live on Mloud Avenue and town homes. 23 residents signed in favor of stop signs. One resident opposed stop signs and two they were unable to contact two residents. projected cost estimates six ops at 6345 each and I won't go through every single one of these but the total cost was $9,576 that's the projected cost estimate there were some other uh things that we discussed that like the the tables speed tables that were more uh costly than this and some other options that were more costly. So this was the most most viable and most efficient I think that we recommended. It's a staff's recommendation for the city council to approve the project as presented. And the next step if approved is to install dually erected signs at designated in locations. And duly erected just simply means it's erected and it has a a stamp on the back of it that says when it was erected. That way it makes it official that it's a dy erected sign. Same thing.

You can't have people just put up stop signs on their own. Exactly. They have to mean something. Ensure compliance is met through proper and efficient police measures, including educational outreach. That's something if approved, we always do. You'll see that we put the signs up. We um notify through social media in all kinds of different ways. And we also, you've probably seen it on Oak Street when we put stop signs there. We put the orange flags big public works does that for us to just give it something else um a way for people to understand and know that there's a new rule or rule of law to uh to follow and we educate the public. You know, we don't just automatically put up a stop sign or a speed measure um traffic common measure and then go write people tickets. That's not how we operate.

That is how they operate in my hometown, but that's Sorry, Jim. Welcome to North Carolina. Are there any questions? Yes. Um, so looking at your drawing, the proposed I see the two flashing stop signs, but then there's two red dots there that excuse me, don't have any sort of notation. Let me look. Are we proposing adding additional stop signs there as well? I'm assuming so because that's what the legend says. Yes. So whether you're traveling I guess that would be what east or west on Mloud essentially the distance between those two entrances on Hawthorne Park and Mloud.

I mean what is that? It's not even 100 yards, right? That's not far. But we're proposing two stops in that short stretch there. So whether you're traveling east or west on Mloud, you're talking about a stop at the first Hawthorne and yes and then another one at the second. Yes, we're talking maybe not far off. I'll go back to the picture and I think you can possibly see it. It's not a really good picture, but what's the the line of thinking to have two of them right there?

It seems kind of logical, but the distance between them seems By the way, kind of two reasons. And so in order to do that, sovenue crossed out there. really can't try to help. It's not 500 ft.

Um I mean it's not 300 feet. I would imagine that. And did you say that there is already an existing crosswalk over Mloud at both of those intersections at Hawthorne Park? I'm sorry. Running parallel on Mloud or going across Mloud,

right? But they're going across Hawthorne Pank Park. They're not going to cross Mloud at both of those.

That push back could be worse than oak tree personally, but I mean I understand the logic behind it that it's hard to do one without the other. Yeah. So, and there was really no good way to like I can't put it in the middle, right? Because there's you know, stop already occurring. It's kind of part of hard the way the neighborhood is laid out. Could you just pull one of them out like basically instead of having two pedestrian crossings? I mean, they're basically right next to each other. Don't really need two. You can just have one pull out the other one and then you have one set of stops.

But how much You really got there traffic or traffic in general? Traffic in general was 16 something,0006. Well, I'm not I'm talking about like from say from Hawthorne Park on the Mloud and vice versa. Like not traveling just traversing Mloud. I'm talking about like I will say that there's not as many people coming through the neighborhood through Hawthorne Park from RL Stoa. There are people who go through that neighborhood to get to the other location because of the left turn and the traffic volume and going south or I guess that would be west

on Kenir trying to make that left turn onto Mloud. So there are people who go through there but as far as how many we haven't studied that I'd be happy to study it and get back to you though it would be this closest one right here the cut through just depends on how you go into the neighborhood and where it leads you as to which one of these uh egresses you come out at. I I mean, we've got existing stop signs there at at the intersection of both of those entrances already. I just don't know that I can get on board with two stops. Based on speed data, obviously, I think we need one three-way stop there for sure, but I don't know that we need two such a short distance,

right?

Is there anything shorter like a full speed? Like could you just do like speed bumps instead of the That would wreck my car. [laughter] They're not for every kind of same concept. We talked about doing rumble strips. Anybody that lives near them,

but they've helped. They But they've helped. We had to put them fully across. They help a lot more. Yeah. Right. So, are you saying people drive around? They did. Yeah. Yeah. No, they did. I saw that. But you see where that bumpout is right there? Right after or before the parallel parking. Could you not Could we not put something right there? And then you're not running into the parallel parking issue, right? I Isn't that too close to

It would I think the if you're not in you're not on board with both intersections having stop signs, I think you just need to decide which one you feel like um has the most traffic or most important as people stopping. But I will say that if you don't have two two locations with the stop signs just because of the layout, you're going to have to cross the road whether it's Hawthorne Park or Mloud, you're going to have to cross the road twice. Like Jake's right. If you come from the Kener side and you have a crosswalk that's available to you, you only have to cross the road one time to get across the street to the other side. Um whereas if you don't have the crosswalks, you have to cross, you know, you have to cross the Hawthorne Park Avenue and then cross the road. So, you cross the road twice versus once. And so, I think that's less dangerous because there's less trips across the street. Um, but I think it just really comes down to what you're in favor of is which one of the intersections um that you would like to follow through with the proposal is. So your if you go back to your list of proposed improvements there, it was a crosswalk across Mloud at each of these entrances. Is that correct?

Yes. And again, if that distance between those two entrances is I'd love to have the measurements on that. I mean, I bet it's it may be 300 feet. So why do you need two crosswalks within 300 feet to go across the cloud? Why not just force people just for safety? Why not just but if it's that short a distance, why not just make them use one or the other? You know, put in one place and that's where have people have to cross. That's that's okay with me. It's just a safety factor. It's just more safe only have to cross road one time because, you know, I'm thinking that that would eliminate the need for at least one of those stop signs on the cloud.

You know what I mean? If we just had like kind of like Mark was saying, I think if you just chose one of those two intersections at Hawthorne Park, put your crosswalk and your stop sign there and the other one is left as is.

It's entirely up to you guys to figure out what um at this point is u moving forward. Just the fact that you're willing to discuss it and move forward with the process even at one. We could always see how that works out to see if we need to come back and readress it later to see if we need to add the additional ones to make it even more safe. That is an option. Um just need to decide which intersection if you're willing to move forward with the process for um placing these traffic cal measures in place. My vote would be to have just one and it be the on this diagram the one to the left closest to downtown. That way the crosswalk is close to downtown. You're talking about this one?

Yes, sir. And to kind of capture like if I live at Hawthorne, you still can. Yeah. You just walk down and then hit the cross because if you're walking down downtown, what's what's causing you to go ahead and cross the road earlier, right? You can just walk all the way down if you're going in the same direction that Do you have an opinion on which of those entrances may have more foot traffic or overall traffic? Is it the one closer to downtown? Probably.

I don't want to guess at which one it is. I would assume that it's the intersection you're looking at currently, but I don't know the real true answer to that. I'd like to study it if um if you want to move forward with it, I'd like to go back and and revisit it and at least put the stealth stat at both locations for a week period and I could come back with some conclusive facts. I'm a facts guy, so I don't want to guesstimate. Um so if that's something you want to do, continue on both sides all the way downtown, right? [clears throat] Well, there is no sidewalk. There's no sidewalk north side. Yeah. So, actually, as it is, there really isn't any reason to cross the street anyway. But

you're talking about at the second location? Well, just like I mean if if I if I'm in Hawthorne, there's really no reason for me to cross the street unless I want to Until you're saying until you get to Main Street. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, well, there's not even a sidewalk. It just dead ends. Yeah. Yeah. Like you'd be in the road. Oh, you're talking about in this picture. Yeah. Like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Yeah. You turn up and go behind. Basically, it runs along the front of that Imperial property and then just stops stops at airline, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

With um with the assistance of Tiffany with planning and zoning, she's let me know that the distance between the two intersections is 197 ft. However, we're on to something because all the walkways in the neighborhood come down to this particular intersection, which is the closest intersection to Main Street. if you're if that helps you with your decision.

I have some other questions uh you know just to make sure that we're complying with all aspects of the traffic calming policy to get to where we are at this point because that was sort of um conclusory uh that that it complies. So, I just want to make sure that that um you know, I' I've looked at our traffic calming policy and uh there are a number of requirements in section 2G of that policy, including that the uh street in question have no more than two lanes and is not a primary emergency services route. Does the street comply with all of the requirements in 2G?

Yes. Okay. Um, and so you we got a petition uh in our agenda packet. Is that the petition referenced in section three of the policy? Then it is. Okay. And uh is it your opinion that traditional law enforcement activities are not feasible in reducing speeding on the street in accordance with section 4B of the policy? Yes, sir. All right. And um so we've seen this this sketch plan um on the slide. Has that sketch plan been approved by the HOA pursuant to section 5A of the policy?

Okay. Okay. Um, and my other question would then be it's a sort of a weird street in that I think you mentioned there's the town houses which are all part of Hawthorne but there are towards the end closer to Maine several residences that are not I would assume part of Hawthorne. Is that correct? It is.

Um, how does that factor into all of this? Um, are are those owners taken into account? Are they uh solicited for this petition? Are they included in the numbers in terms of like the 75%. I'm just curious because I'm not sure that we've seen a situation where you've got a street that's partly in uh an HOA and then partly there's independent non-HOA homeowners on the same street.

Give me one second. Sure. I'm reading. Yeah. I don't think they were okay.

Maybe on the effective they would be on street. Well, he's talking about the houses that Andrew Limeberger built few years ago. Well, those the front Mloud around Bryant and you know that area they would be affected by this. They are on the cloud.

Yeah. I'm just not sure because policy doesn't really say. Yeah. So, the petition I'm reading just I guess what the what they were petitioning for was quote for a three-way stop sign at the intersection of Hawthorne Park Avenue and Mloud Avenue as a means to help. Doesn't say two stop sign, two three-way stop signs, just says eight. So, if I'm a resident, you know, maybe they're thinking we're going to add one. Do they know we're proposing adding two? There there's been conversation back and forth with the with the HOA,

right? But if you don't go to the HOA meetings and you just get this petition and it says we're proposing adding a stop sign, a three-way stop sign at the intersection of Hall and Mloud. I understand what you're saying. You know what I mean? I wasn't a part of that process, so I don't know the answer to to that. I understand what you're saying. I just I don't know if there's any appetite for putting two two signs there, but I mean I wouldn't be opposed to one if we can work it out, you know, the way that works for everybody. I think it's a great effort to move forward with uh slowing people down on the street and

certainly basis to see if we need to move forward with any other things. I mean, we've studied this and these is this is best case scenario. So, I mean, I think anything at this point helps move us in the right direction. So,

I have a question about the use of the the flashing uh stop signs. Can you walk me through that? Is that something that is shown to be more effective? I mean, we have on the drawing it showed there was a notice of a stop coming up on both ends as you come in. It's kind of a straight street. Um so, I don't think that people would have a hard time seeing a regular sign as opposed to a flashing. I only ask because of the cost. Well, there's if you'll look at the picture, um there's it's a very shady area. Um there's a lot of trees and this picture don't really do it justice for how the streets laid out. Kind of like a hill on each side with a sag and this is not quite at the sag.

But that was a recommendation that I proposed because um I have a long history with this street when it was four lanes instead of the way it is now with the town homes were there. was all meal houses and um I'm just familiar with this location and I run radar there a long long time ago, 28 years ago probably. And so I just think that if we put some measures in place, anything that we can do to um heighten the visibility to make sure people, you know, know that there's a stop sign there because you're going downhill in both directions when you approach this. You might start going back uphill to depending on where you're going to put the sign. Um, anything like that would help and it would definitely help with pedestrian crossing because you see the stop sign blinking ahead, it notifies you not only you have to stop and you have least uh least amount of people running the stop sign and it is something that's uh just just seems to be safer in this location because of how u the streets laid out with all the trees and shadowing effect on the roadway where you have the trees and depending on which way the sun is facing well it kind of shades everything out. run into that um with some crosswalks on South New Hope Road down by Botanical Gardens or the neighborhood um you may be familiar with. We've ran into that there. So just having that high maintain the visibility of that there's a stop sign um because of the street layout was the reason I recommended that.

Okay. I hope that helps. Yes. Thank you. And that is a really high pedestrian traffic area too. Yes. I would like to know if we do one intersection Right.

Do those flash constantly or they triggered? Yes, they're triggered. It's actually um it's usually solar that's electricity it goes to it. You could hard wire it from a pole if you needed to, but they do make the solar ones as well.

Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Discussions.

Personally, I think based on the speed data, it would behoove us to put something there. I don't know about both intersections. I think the one in the picture here would be the best one to put something Just my thought. We kind of trial an error to Oak Street, right? The first intersections were put there from the initial request and then there were some additional stop signs put further up the hill, right? So maybe we we went over pretty well. Yeah. [laughter] Well, you know, if I mean that's a debate, right? They still want speed bumps and rumble strips on top of that, right? But

um I don't think it does harm just to doing it at that main intersection. Right there is the trial to see what happens and if the additional is needed. So, do we need to defer this though to let them do some additional research they mentioned or or we supposed to pick this time? I think we have enough speed data to determine we need to do something. Yeah. Right. I like Alex's idea we start here. Don't we need to have a hard recommendation from them about where to place? Yeah. And the bud the budget amendment why to come back anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

I think based on uh the Hawthorne Avenue petition, given that you have those residents that were already contacted, you have a majority there and they're talking about just a one three-way stop. I think you're I think you're good on that side of it. What gets me is the point that we didn't contact the other residents that are not part of the HOA that are that are facing Mloud.

So, I think my recommendation would be that we have our staff sketch up what we propose like the one stop at this intersection that you all are talking about and then um talk to those homeowners that are located that we did not contact at all. I think that would be a better effort than us just installing something initially and then having a lot of push back that we didn't contact those citizens on street. Are we adding a to Mark's point, are we adding a crosswalk there as well? It doesn't have to be. I mean, for me, I think that this is more of like a traffic calming measure to put stop signs in so people stop. We slow cars down.

The benefit of having uh a stop sign is that we can have actual crosswalk. So, that's we could include a crosswalk, but I don't think it's necessary to Mark's coming to Mark's point with the sidewalk ending here at Airline and why crosswalk to nowhere right when property's developed in the future then at that point I think the developer probably needs to put crosswalks in and probably other things in this in these areas but for right now be a condition

yeah could be a condition correct so I don't I don't think that that necessarily needs to be there I think this is me just speaking kind out of the police department of public works but if we just had like that threeway stop there We show that on a piece of paper. We show that to the to the folks there and then we um bring that back to you all given that it's a it's going to be a budget amendment needs to be changed anyway because we're factoring the budget amendment based on like two stops and those number of signs and that striping and everything else. So at that point we have more data to to provide to you all the comment the feedback from the public and an accurate cost.

All right. It's a million-dollar question. Could that be done by workshop on the 20th or does that need to p be pushed to February? Because if we're going to postpone, do a motion postpone, we need a specific date. Uh, let's push it back to the February. I'm afraid that we would have enough time to do all that 5th. February 5th. I'd prefer to have more time than try to rush. We got to talk to property owners. And the way I'm reading the sketch, um, it also looks like for one of the property owners that we need to talk to, we're also planning on putting a stop ahead sign in their yard. Imagine they probably would like to have a heads up about that before, too. Yeah, we probably give them a heads up on it, but it's probably city right away at that point. Yeah. Oh, that's true.

Okay. Yeah. was like right in the middle of the paral. So So you need a um motion to postpone to move. Would that be C2 and three? Yes. To the regular meeting on February the 4th. 5th. 5th. No, not the fifth. That's what I think it's the third. It's actually February 2nd. All right. Less time. All right. February 2nd. Yep. Make that motion. Second.

All right. So, motion made by Jason, seconded by Alex. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Right. That is moved. So, that was a move to move both of those items. Both the items are moved to the February meeting. February. Do that both at the same time. All right. Very good. All right. Thank you all. Uh that moves us on to other business. Alex, I'll start with you.

Yeah. Um well, first of all, as we've all posted on social media, I mean, big thanks to our staff and all departments involved with this $25 million grant we were just awarded by the federal government. So, thank you all for everything. Miles, thank you for the coordination. Please, you know, extend our our as much as gratitude as we can to the team that did nothing. Um big thanks of course all to uh everyone who work first responders public works over our holidays. We really appreciate everything y'all done to keep us safe during that and looking at all the uh updates that we get from miles. Everything seems to be going good. So we appreciate that. Just the only other thing I really have two things I'm sure Jason's going to bring it up but I'd also entertain updating the flag and banner policy so that they're all in one and the same to make it easier. Um but secondly, I just wanted to let you all know I did not get the chairmanship or vice chairmanship of NPO, but I was appointed as the sole delegate to the joint legislative um priorities council. So basically I'll be the representative for Gaston Cleveland Lincoln when we start meeting with the Charlotte and Meckllinburgg. So we have our first meeting coming up January 29th. So, just as a heads up there,

Charlie,

uh, Alice kind of, uh, said everything I was going to say. Hats off to all those involved with the grant. That was that was terrific job. Um, I know there was a lot of people that had a hand in that. So, thank you very much for that. And, um, I hope everybody had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Quanza, whatever you celebrated. And, uh, happy 2026 everybody. Uh, I'll just echo what's already been said about the grant. It's a big big win for us. It was a lot of work. Uh, so thank you for everyone who was a part of that. Um, and also just uh I know we're already kind of through December, but but we did a really nice job with Christmas festivities,

festivals, and parades and everything else that goes on around here. the lights. I know public works puts quite a lot of work into making the town look nice and um so thank you for that. Um you know it's always got a lot of it's always nice to hear people kind of talk about how nice Belmont uh looks during the holidays. So that's always you can start asking for more lights again as you did what four years. Oh yeah that's right. I gota be careful with that because uh you know sometimes you get what you wish for [laughter] but uh Yeah, that's

uh just a few quick items. This, as my colleagues have said, I do want to congratulate our planning team and everybody on the vision zero team for your rigorous work on the application for the grant. Obviously, a huge shot in the arm for us and we're excited about being able to work with you all to to allocate that uh to some much needed infrastructure planning. Um and also, as we saw tonight, I want to say we really appreciate all of our staff's work on the grant research that you all are doing. I know we the last 12 18 months we've tried to make a concerted push because there is there's a lot of money out there but you do have to go find it and it's a rigorous application process that we know you all have to go through and we really appreciate it because it there's only so much money to go around and u you know so we really appreciate your efforts there. Um also I've gotten a lot some compliments recently on the quality of our parks and recck fields. I want to commend uh Director Limeberger on his work there and his staff in public works. Um folks are really highly appreciative of the um the quality of the the fields and our facilities there. Um as was mentioned tonight, I was not aware of the data center that is apparently been approved over on the Charlotte Mechanburg side at Morris Chapel. um largest in the state and obviously that no doubt is is going to have some impact on you know multiple applications and uses for the Kataba River and the water that comes out of there. So I don't know if it's possible to maybe have a dialogue you know with our public works and engineering staff with our folks over there to just you know have some collaboration to examine what those effects may be you know currently as well as on a go forward basis. Um, and then lastly, um, I think all of us were kind of copied on some messaging from some folks in the North Belmont area. I think you alluded to this earlier about some of the impacts to those folks with especially around the Ocean area with some of the industrial projects that are going on, a lot of the heavy truck traffic that's uh, going on there. I don't know if any of these

grant dollars can potentially be allocated to some of that. Uh, but I would like to see us give some attention there to any, you know, whether it's calming measures or safety measures that might be able to consider being implemented. Thank you, Jim. Uh, I I want to start by saying I think we might have just set a new record since the only items on the regular agenda were C2 and C3, both of which we continued until February. We might have had an entire meeting without deciding anything. [laughter] efficiency that's government

be [laughter] be that as it may. Uh I I also want to thank um staff uh and everyone that was involved in the uh grant application for for safe streets for all. And we'll be hearing more about that I think at our uh January workshop the details because I know a lot of people have been asking about the details. But this is, you know, one of the most unabashedly positive uh developments and and just a a a huge uh uh coup for for this city and our efforts to uh improve uh pedestrian infrastructure as well as just overall infrastructure. So, um you know, well done everyone and we'll be hearing more details about that soon. Um I would imagine uh that uh the annual unity day celebration is is upcoming. I don't know uh the precise details.

19th 19th at uh 6:30 at the uh let's see Belmont for Square Church. Yeah, you stole it from me. I was going to do it. The battle of the the mayors. [laughter] So, uh the the only other thing I will say is that I uh will not be at the uh February 2nd uh regular meeting. So, um I'll be elsewhere. Very mysterious. Jim, I Yes, [clears throat] I'm going on a little trip. So, um I will not be Welld deserved, Jim. Mysterious. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. Call you can call you if you like. Uh, you might not get through. We may [laughter] need

We may need some edits for that. February. Well, I'll I'm I'm I'm I'll be able to do that. [laughter] Well, thank you for that. Thank you for never forgetting us here. I never forget. But my I'm sure my wife is going to require me to lock my phone away. Understandable. Understandable. Thank you, Jim. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. Um, I I'll just uh kind of again echo I think everyone has hit all the high points. Um, again, happy new year to everyone. Thank you to staff that put the time in over the holidays. I know your holidays are tighter than a lot of ours that we get to enjoy. So, thank you for being here and keeping our city functioning and our city moving for all of our residents. Um, the grant obviously has eaten up the majority of my head space for the last uh week or so since I've heard about it. Amazing amazing achievement for any municipality, any size municipality. Seventh largest grant awarded in the nation, which is um which is huge. And that's that is um not because of any small feat, but a tremendous amount of work that was put in by uh staff here and um and people that care to see those things happen. So, we thank you for that. We're going to spend some more time on that in our workshop. So, I don't want to go too far down that road, but I didn't want to forget it. Uh Jim uh stole my thunder unity day service is at the Belmont Four Square Church again. That's on the n January 19th from 6:30 to 7:30. Uh please join us there. Uh there will be a good time. Uh other than that, I appreciate everyone's time and I will entertain a motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion made by Alec, seconded by who was it? Jason. Uh so we are vote vote. All in favor? Any opposed? All right, we're Thank you. Go team.