Town Council - Regular Meeting

e reconvene and let them be on their way if that's okay with everyone I have a motion to adopt the agenda with with the changes I make that motion second all favor I thank you gr with don't have anyone on public comment all right um everyone had an opportunity to look over the minutes from our regular meeting held on December F motion adopt Mr Mayor second all right no no public hearings um we'll move on to you looked at me all right we'll move on to have Mr Mr TR come up front move on to his presentation I tried to get I tried to get Shane to do this and he can't talk well I don't know

how long I could talk but I want the picture thing for the computer to go Jeff this is this is difficult for me because come on in you're not even you're perfect time difficult for me I know you've been here with Judy and and Shane long you have me but absolute unbelievable job all here out to us youve done fantastic job you've always been the first one here and you've been pleasur to work with I want to present this presed to Jeff Tru and sincere appreciation for your dedication and loyal years of service to the town bful we hope that you enjoy your well deserved retirement 27 years that's that's a lot [Applause] [Laughter] Shane everybody probably something to say I appreciate I really want to miss everybody and so come back work part time maybe in the future if that works out real good I appreciate everything you all done it's been been a pleasure thank you for everything that you've done us especially not only what you've done years past but through this storm and everything you drastic app thank you very much glad up where we need to be we're getting be miss you will be Miss very much but I will tell you retirement's

not what it's all cracked up yes it is no weather when I get up in the board I look outside there snow I exactly right yeah but I really appreciate I appreciate each and every one of and I thank you thank you thank you Mr motion to recess I make it second e e

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e e e e we'll just continue to eat and we got it's working pretty good yeah yeah all right um we'll go on to item number six of Miss Haw day's

report okay project updates um Shane might have to help me on the west Interceptor cdbg project continuing with a finished date in March of this year that what you remember um next week on um the eth we'll be taking bids on the renovation of the old fire department building in North Main um that's the one we got the state grant for 1.8 million um talked with the architect today and he's handling that bidding process for us but he feels like there's going to be more than three bids so it should go on the first round um the County's going to be taking bids on the arpa funded project to rehab a portion of the pin Swan Place water treatment plant that got kicked a week we were going to do it on the 7th we got kicked till the 14th um withs R Nails the engineering firm handling that bidding process for the county they moved it because they had a had a contractor that had some interest but had some questions and they were hoping they hope they'll get three bids on the first time that if not it'll have to rebid in uh I think the shortest amount of time is like seven days um FEMA we're continuing to refine our damage inventory report it's due on February the 6 um we're working closely with our FEMA project manager um and the private consulting firm that the Cog has engaged to assist the communities in our region with um all the projects on our list um we've not received our assessments back from FEMA for the facility site site visits that were done in December 5th um but I think we'll be emailing them tomorrow to try to get a date on when we'll get those back uh we have uh procured Engineering Services uh for the permanent raw water intake Pump

Station um we're awaiting a contract from Mill on that and for um the flood damages at the waste water treatment plant and we're awaiting contract documents from withers's Ravenel on that project and we hope to have contracts on some of this emergency work that we've done figured out by the February meeting for you guys to to review um the FEMA uh Consultants are helping us get that ready um or advising us on that it's really the engineering firm that needs to get him ready um we received an additional $200,000 Grant from DQ to add to the $3 million Emergency Loan um that you guys accepted last month um and those funds can be used for technical assistance or engineering consultation we don't have a project um budget put together for a particular project for that funding we're kind of waiting to see what how it goes with f we think we can get some expedited funding for the temporary raw water so we don't want to borrow money when we can get grant money right off but we may need that money at some point just to help with our cash flow um you have a copy of the letter from our Town's insurance company they send a check an advanced check and the amount of $750,000 um to advance the damages on the damages they will they expect to cover they expect to cover more than that um and so and are going to talk with the FEMA consultant tomorrow about how we need to code that in our financial records um but but none of that they they didn't say that anything was specific to right and that's that's the

issue because FEMA will not you can't have a duplication of benefits so if FEMA's going to fund it you can't have benefits from somewhere else so we don't want to say we're put this money towards something thing and then FEMA come in and say well now we're not going to fund that you know so but but the Consultants think there's a way we can code this in our financial records so that when they finally do from the insurance company say we're giving you x amount for this x amount for that that we can move it around and it'll be okay um there is a $50,000 deductible and I think that was deducted from this Advanced payment based on the um the loss report that they sent and we will need somebody to execute that Russell or myself just saying we got the money and it's for the losses of the storm but they have on the sheet they're not determined it's not been determined yet which project it's going to so it's it's good to have the money but it's it's also good to be able to use it when you need it we don't but but you don't want to you don't want to want to use it and it mess you up from getting additional additional monies from they were saying that High Country the other night too that if you got help which that's not from a nonprofit but it would not hinder any way your other no if it's a nonprofit yeah some kind of nonprofit insance wouldn't beit no it they specifically exclude insurance payments from what they'll cover um but it just says to be determined you know the

actual cast value of the property at the time of the loss um and so they haven't they just keep putting to be determined and they tell Chad that they're working on it um the adjuster does but hopefully we will be able to to figure out what goes where and then we'll know what the request from pay um next thing I have is the appropriate technology use policy better known it when Chad first told me about this a couple month well three or four months ago he said there's a lot of chatter on the clerk's list sir about this for I was like we're not going to is this like live streaming I guess I was thinking this can't be like for real you know and then I went to the uh School of government had a legislative update to tell us about all of last year's laws that became effective as of yesterday and sure enough it was real and every public entity from the Council of State all the state agencies all the universities community colleges anybody that is Affiliated in any way with and of course local governments has to have one of these policies so we look through our employee handbook and we have something along the lines that we've updated because they want you to be specific about what it covers and it also covers elected officials appointed board members um if you are using a device that is for elected officials and appointed board members you're using a device that is provided by the town either through b or whatever you cannot you cannot be on one of those sites oh God if you are an

employee if you are an employee you not only can't be on your device on the but you can't be on our Network meaning you can't use your own device so we're going to have to share share this happy news with everybody and they are have set up a state office where every one of these entities is going to have to make a report you they told us you did not have to police this but if it came to your attention you need to document it and send the report to this state office which is then going to make a bigger report to the general assembly just put it on Facebook near I know I know I know so anyway Russ it was brought to your attention it it was so so there you go there you go l Russell don't know how to turn a computer on no no I was talking about the one it was brought to your ATT yeah oh yeah so I need y'all to adopt this B and we'll get it on the books uh and then you know it was asked the question was asked in the in the update like what's what are we doing to elected officials and censorship is the only thing that can be done you have to be censored by your board but apparently this has been a problem somewhere oh you know it happen do I have an a motion to adopt the appropriate technology use policy I make that motion second I'll second it all in favor about it all the time because we just having the best time with we charged Chad with letting everybody know motion carries yeah okay um let's see the next thing we have is

the North Carolina League of municipality's bium legislative goals discussion so I was actually on this legislative policy commission um as were I don't know a lot of other Municipal um either appointed members or or elected officials we um huh we about Le that word bu oh that's right that's what it is so over the course of the last three or four months the league wants their their Lobby and Wing wants to put together policy directives that are I guess come from or approved by all the municipalities that they represent um and I went to I guess maybe two weeks before the storm I went to the one one live session that they had for the West in Asheville and then we had two more that were um Zoom sessions with everybody and they came up with 16 different directives and they want you all to number one appoint somebody to go on their website and click the ones you want to see carried forward in the next long session which will start I guess start this month and then number two they want you to um I guess kind of Rank 10 you get 10 you to choose 10 um I have my wish list I guess but it's really up to you guys and I think Chad this went out everybody didn't it yeah so last time I think you guys did appoint me to just go on and cast the vote you need one member to go go on and cast the vote on January 17th

um I'll make that motion or if one of yall want to come in and do it I agree Jud okay so in looking at these goal statements obviously I think the number one thing that affects any of the and it was interesting because the larger municipalities have very different objectives than what the smaller ones do but there are much more smaller ones in the state than there are large ones so I feel like it's it's kind of a good mix and the small municipalities were well represented um to establish long-term funding streams um to adequately adequately address water sewer storm water transportation and other infrastructure needs and that could include sidewalks roads those sorts of things too um because we do have you know aging infrastructure that needs to be replaced and it's it's part of Economic Development to have that stuff going on I know people say this is all we've done but it was what was broke when we started and and what will continue to be broken um on and off so you know I kind of had that as number one um and then number two they finally agreed to put on the list um some advocacy for raising the current po Bill funding which is what we get from do every year it's based on your population we have about 11 miles of City roads that we have to maintain and they send us about 60 Grand a year that doesn't go very far in Paving or maintenance or snow removal snow removal all that has to be included in that so I thought that was a pretty high priority um expanding C in funding for Local Economic Development which could include

Downtown Development you know I know one thing that has been on the list of a lot of people is to to do some Downtown Development um and it's just hard to find Grant funds for that so that that was I thought would be a high priority for us um expand funding opportunities for disaster resiliency and Recovery efforts recovery efforts I wasn't so so much in agreement with because there's a lot of there's always Federal money but resiliency um and particularly for small communities when a the majority of your storm water infrastructure is either on private property or do controlled there's not a whole lot of opportunities to just fund the things that we actually have on our streets um so that was one that that caught my attention that I thought was good um create incentives to encourage the development of diverse housing options housing is a big issue everywhere um and there's really no Statewide incentives for that whereas we have the economic development statute that would allow us to give incentives or the county to give incentives for for a company that was coming but there's no incentives for developers who maybe want to build housing you know and it and it's extreme ex L costly to build housing in our terrain um so that was that was another one um provide resources to rehabilitate or purchase wied properties um that's a little bit lower down I guess on the priority list but it's it's it's something to consider you know if you had an area that just became abandoned and didn't have any kind of where you could provide some incentives to bring in business of

course I think Commerce does that already so but if they gave local government some type of funding stream to do that that might be nice um again they're pushing to adequately fund regionalized Water and Sewer Solutions I always thought it would be because theq will give you free $50,000 just to do a study I always thought that that would be a good thing to look at it doesn't mean you're going to connect two systems but when you're talking about about where could we locate a system that like a water treatment facility that another County or Community could also access and you'd have sort of like East CH District that sort of thing could be beneficial for the future depending on where growth is um support technical assistant programs to assist M municipalities with securing or or maintaining grants or other necessary Municipal resources um we get a lot of that from the Cog but I know the Cog received a big Grant from the legislature through the disaster relief recovery funding to be able to hire outside Consultants to come in and help us I don't know how many of the communities are taking advantage of it but we certainly are um because a lot of what we do um a lot of the funding we get will depend on checking the right boxes filling out the forms the right way doing everything we need to um to ensure that so I think that's that's important that they keep funding that um address the needs of a changing Municipal Workforce through State assistance that supports employee retention including training and recruitment that's going to be a big issue coming up I mean we see we've got how many Li oh my gosh the quarter of us

is going at one time pretty much couple years each other and just finding replacements for people I know but finding replacements for people is a big deal you know um we don't have a etj so I didn't think that was a big one you know I don't think our Municipal elected off officials really do anything to determine election formats it's a state thing but they definitely put that in there and then provide um local Revenue options Beyond property tax right now we don't have you know if you wanted to do a quarter Cent I'm not saying weever going to do this but a quarter Cent sales tax that was earmarked for something specific like you know sidewalks or lighting or parking or whatever you know we're not allowed to do that without a local bill um and counties can do that so it would be something that they could give to to municipalities that would be a little bit a little bit of help so um you guys have looked through those if you've got um particular things that list didn't change much from last year not that much not that much it's I think we're pretty solid about um you know the guys over in Leno were really yelling about this regulatory comp apparently they took over they took over a small municipality's water system at some point because they were going bust incorporated into their system and now I guess dot is going to be widening 321 and now they want Lenor to play to remove all this old infrastructure and put it somewhere else and so they they had some issues about that but that

didn't really and then this Orphan Road program um you know requiring the state to improve those roads before the towns assume responsibility for maintenance I don't really think we've got that much those are more like subdivision streets and things like that um I don't think the annexation petition threshold really really affects us either um so I thought those those 10 that I mentioned were the ones that were more in line would have something to do with us I like those so um if y'all are good with that you know I guess just a motion for us to cast that vote that way by 7 well we made a motion for you to do it so all right I just want you to be well informed Mr Mayor okay okay no I'm not GNA make you read them M no I I don't think all right then I have we're gonna move on I got the tax report um 2024 collections we're about at 76 76 and a half% right now you guys have that and that's that's pretty good um we should see a whole lot more in before the six because that's when penalties start piling on and then we again our uh the taxes that have been uncollected Ed in years 2014 through 2023 the total is about $8,000 most of it being really personal property um and there's one big one which I think is probably breads then when they went Bank bankrupt they ow us thaty

think that'll be something we probably don't yet and then the last thing I have um is the North Carolina attorney general's dog wood Awards I'd like for that to be in in the official record of this town these this award was created in 2017 by attorney general Josh Stein who will be our next Governor um and it's an award given to honor North Carolinians who are dedicated to keeping people safe healthy and happy in their communities the town of Burnsville is proud to acknowledge Mr Shane Dale Public Works director right as the town's first recipient of this prestigious State award all right and he's very deserving for all of his hard work and dedication to among other things tackling our enormous task of restoring water to town customers after Helen destroyed our raw water intake Pump Station so speech spee spee speech speech we won't make him talk too much but I did want some official uh record of that even though Mr Dale couldn't convince him to go pick up his award but uh we certainly could not do anything around without him definitely must it was deserved yes certainly was so that's all I got thank you Miss hackaday we'll move on to Mr Fox with the clerk's update thank you I have three items for you the first is uh to keep compliant on our cdbg project the West man Interceptor uh we do a semi annual self report where I need to read into the minutes that there have been no Section 504 Americans of disability acts complaints to the town during the last six months there have been no fair housing complaints to the town during the last six months and there have been

no limited English proficiency translation request in the last six months uh my second item is about planning board with uh jeie and Martin coming off the board and two of our alternates taking those spots we have a need for alternates and without any new applications Jeanie and Martin both were willing to do it um if you all are okay with that we can appoint them as alternates um and they would be in line to go back on the board as spots open up next year but those are the only two I have as as people interested any any discussion on that from anyone we need action on that yeah I just want to I'll second all in favor thank you I will let them know and the last thing I have is uh Jamie McMahan on the ABC board has turned in a letter of res Nation uh due to uh several things that have complicated his schedule he I think you all have a copy of his letter unfortunately yeah so we will need to find a a replacement for that vacancy in the upcoming weeks um so that's just yall are aware of the situation there'll be a vacancy on that board well I guess that'll allow you to go ahead and post that correct we can put that out there see what kind of Interest we can Dr up hope hopefully we'll have some interest and we can we can make a decision on that at our next yeah hopefully next

meeting which which would only allow there to be a vacancy for basically eight days right okay well he says he will be effective January 31st or upon the election of a replacement to my SE as whichever Cur so you're right yeah but it' just be a few days yeah all right thank you Chad all right Mr Shane Dale can't talk I'll give you just a little bit the uh next week we're going to go back to trying to get our electric pumps installed got the ones at the river that is there we're still running on diesel right now uh wanted Field's got to be put in they're going to be here on Monday to start that process again providing weather everything holds up it's going to be cold but I think we're going to try to get that Electric in up there get it set we'll still be back on the diesel for a little while until they get everything plumbed in and situated but we should probably be down another eight or 10 hours on Monday if everything holds up but that's the report that I have right now everything else is we're still battling some leaks and other things that I holding together everything's do all right sorry Shane thank you hope hope you feel better I know definitely struggle with that for for a long time all right Miss Lesley thank you sir um i s budget versus actual last Friday um and there's just a couple of

the 6600 lines I need to clean up and move to that 8 12 Department the but other than that it's it's pretty good if anybody has any questions um and then next thing I need to move on to is the capital project ordinance and so now next month we're have this Capital project ordinance for the 750,000 so for the insurance so you know how it is it's just every every month is something different with them but the theq um expanded their funding and it's now 3,200,000 that they've allowed us is that right yeah but I think you're going to need to show that 200 is Grand cuz it's not rep repayable all right so going have to change it to anyway it'll be the same amount yeah yeah so it'll be grant instead of that but anyway we need to acknowledge that and I might just totally rework this and try to do the insurance in it next month might justy to do that because we've not we've not taken we've not drawn on any of those long yet so so it it seems I mean it would make it easier for me but yeah I guess we need to go ahead and approve this then next month can it again okay have a motion to approve the emergency brid bridge loan I make that motion second all in favor and last I've got a u budget amendment um you know last month the guy was here from that maps program or whatever and gave us that donation um we all talked about you know we'd like to keep the donation for it to go specifically but we couldn't actually run it through US ourself I had asked Sharon about it and she said that you have to give it to a nonprofit and you can have you know like specifics about your donation but you

had to rent it through a nonprofit you couldn't do it yourself so I'm just acknowledging there was this and another little check for like $75 so this is the total amount and I've got to I've already added the line and I already added the expense line but we've already paid this to that mountain strong nonprofit that had been established and now we do the same thing with his donated for him so I just need a motion to be able to me the budget to show in and out I make that motion a second second that all you have M Li thank you very much you're very welcome all right Chief pal thank Mr Mayor we do have a report for this month our fire calls ended up with 39 for the month of December up with 41 calls for the year I think that's the most we've ever had and so the big number event for this past month been mvas I think increase the traffic we've got so I expect that number going stay up for a while if we get some construction settle down stay vigilant with that the other thing Council needs to be aware of we do have an engine that is in the shop right now the gearbox on the pump went out on it and they're in the midst of replacing that so we're down one truck till they get that fixed and Shane took it over last Friday and they have a gearbox over there they're going to put on it and but we're still good purchase the other engine we got from PG last year which we fill in nicely since this was down it was good to have it there when when all

this happen so that's our status with equipment right now the field hospital is winding down somewhat and we finished out the this month with them being in operation three days a week and I they're having a meeting this coming Sunday to try to decide what they're going to do from here uh whether to do a couple of Saturdays a month every Saturday for a while there's still a lot of people using it a lot of people coming by that'll be 10 15 a day most of the time coming in so that's still still housed in the fire department for right now we still have quite a bit of fuel on sight got a lot of propane and some kerosene a lot of butan uh still got some fire equipment we're looking at trying to get a container unit from Woodland fire department they graciously offered to give us one if we can get it up here so we'll have some place to put some of this stuff in out weather that's what we're doing right now one or two thank you Chief h je M than Mr have December don't have a lot to report on back full STA and nothing really happening with the police depart noral calls operations um Zing code enforcement wise don't really have that much there either we've had some some permitting here and there most of it's been residential projects there's a couple commercial project out there that they' Ted me about but have not been submitt any

plans or anything like that to take for the plan board anything this thank you Mr several several reports of people walking around looking in people's sheds and stuff can we up the side road I can any particular places or had one right there bird and swiss or bird and Shephard and then the one at Samantha Phil her driveway at 4:30 in the morning not your neighbor yeah just see if the guys can make that was [Laughter] Bill that right I'll pass on thanks all right thank you Brian I guess we move on to council member report I was joking this time I swear you I've got it highlighted I can see it on his face [Music] Heather's Mr Corin the firstly uh Town Center again we're fully operational as we have been for last month um January of this year has 24 events it's only two more than last year but the events so far are larger um mostly last year was consis of smaller events for just a couple hours each day so hopefully a little bit more income with these events anyways um the bizarre picture that I've given you guys would be um of area C where Remax currently taking place um they're wanting to put in two to three cubicles in um the storage room for a

little privacy and and there's two options they're looking at one is to buy pre-built cubicles that they can just put in there but they believe the cheaper option would be have somebody to come in frame up some walls and just to build cubicles in the rooms um with that being said we in our agreement with them there is no alteration of building however it's going to be between 16 to 24 you know concrete going into the walls probably wouldn't be a huge issue to put up in my opinion but I figured I'd bring it to you guys to see if you would allow them to alter the building in that way I mean are they needing it like soundproof or because I'm just looking at cubicles like those that you can just go out here and purchase that don't go all the way to the Cil correct it would be it would be six feet tall roughly six feet long and six feet wide so they I mean they need it to be basically soundproof they were kind of saying but again a cubicle in my opinion isn't soundproof I mean there's no ceiling above it just seems to me from a cost standpoint and well they would be paying for this we would I know but like I'm looking for from their standpoint it would be easier just to go buy the buy those dividers and and make cubicles what's left on that leas two and a half years um I believe so uh is e it's either April 26 or 27 I can't remember time I think it's 27 we would need to do an amendment I think to the lease um if we were going to allow them to make an alteration and it would probably need to be temporary I mean something that like you said would be removable yeah if we leased it to somebody else who wanted to use it as a storage area like it was

before rather than cubicles but I don't think we do anything per yeah and if you put a bunch of screws them all you're going to miss I would rather it be just free standing I'll second that if that's a motion yeah I'll make that motion okay so um you guys authorize me to amend the lease for them to allow them to put in free standing that's not an alteration to yeah it's really not an alteration to the building change okay thank you thank you that's all I really have because I didn't forget about you this time I mean [Laughter] I Council memb reports anyone have anything they want to report on I get kind of a little question all this stuff is still down that is it French BRS responsibility or is it the cable company's responsibility or who's supposed to get everything that's still down is Communications right so the reason that the poles haven't been removed or the or the wire is because those broken poles that are still upright the communications whether it's whether it's rising Z whoever it is hasn't moved they there's over to the new pole and that's not French broad's responsibility so it could be I mean it could be a long time before those things are removed and it's all Communications it's none of it's none of it uh power power because a lot of people afraid to cut the trees down because they're saying it's live wires and I said no there's no Live Wire there no no all the

live wires are off the ground I'm not saying that French Broad doesn't have some some wires down but and it is their poles but they can't remove them without without these uh communication Communications companies climbing and swapping theirs over to the new poles and I don't know if we can have any push or not but that end of Shepherd up there diners there's going to be a mess up there some high trucks going to go in there and tear all that out you get fixed fix yeah they'll fix it then I but I mean that's crazy we can't get them to go out there they've been promising us how many months we don't have internet at the at Baker Creek at the Shane has to go out there three times a day we do not run anything from the water plant at Baker Street Shane has to go three times and look at it so and we we've I mean he how many times have you been over there now a few times yeah we're looking at changing that out though we think we might have a plan to go with a different but it's yeah I don't know if the if the neighborhood has people who have that service they need to be Raising Cane with Zito like ra came yeah you can pull a rope but it's hard there's two poles in our front in our neighbor's yard and one of them French rods new wiring and the other is cable company is still yeah I mean there's there's hundreds of them across the county that that are the new ones are set right beside of the the broken one

but um just a couple things and and I was whispering to head Heather during shange report I apologize I I didn't want to say something out of place but I just wanted to kind of ask the board um moving forward with this bowling Creek if you know make sure no one has a problem with moving forward with the bowling Creek because Ronnie Ronnie and Brian access the uh the Watershed intake um one day this week and I mean it's it's very inaccessible my my thoughts and feelings are is this is the one and only opportunity that we will ever be able to fix this back if if if we can with you know FEMA allows us to do so and funds it but uh it's going to cost us a little bit of money whether it's change crew going up there with the excavator or or hiring someone to go in there and do a little bit of work to even access it where we can get FEMA up there I mean it's Brian can Brian can vouch for it it's a it's it's a long hard walk to get up there um and I just kind of want to is that is that the water sh yeah you know we've got the two we've got two intakes um this is the right hand side of the wed side um but I I just don't want to there's about six foot of the road left where it slid off I don't want to have Heather instruct our people to go up there and and and do stuff without you know without the board's approval on it but I just feel like that I mean it's free water if we can ever get it built back and get it funded to build it back it's free water that we could I think that's very important I would love to see that and we and we don't know that we'll get it funded but we're going to have to be able to get FEMA up there and I can

promise you that the the few that's here cannot get up there without some work yeah if if anything if we had that and anything ever happened to the main thing with some conservation we could run off that well yeah I mean and and and major flood events pure water prior to this I mean it could be a possibility that the the river Pump Station could be washed out and you still have gravity water from Bowling Creek obviously that wasn't the case with this one but hopefully we never see anything like this but I just want to I just I don't want to I kind of been pushing for them to go up there and and uh access it and we've we've had discussions with FEMA but I just wanted the board's I guess approval or disapproval if you don't think that that we need to to to do so I for one think it's very important that we have that I don't know what you think how much work to get access um I'd like to go up there did we ever have I mean you could you could take a truck up there pick up up there yeah now the last few years you take side side about yeah it's pretty rough I'll I'll go up and looked at it as well and we'll see if we can get it to we can at least get get them up there with us with a side to side where they can they can look at it but um only other thing I'd like to mention secondly is and I know that everyone here has probably spoken to Shane on it but I want I want you to know that uh a lot has been done at Glenn Raven trying to figure out what's going on with this with this water water leak you got it right we're we're going no we don't we have not found a leak I mean we we've called

people in world we've been down there at midnight we had last the last time we had Glenn Raven shut down at uh at 10:00 all their operation and shut it down for an hour so we could listen and I say we it's the guy from Hickory that that's what he does I mean he's the best of the best but um you know it's it's a top priority for us but at you just can't go down there and start digging across four lanes of traffic when you don't know where it's at so um we we've got a kind of a different plan I say we Ronnie and and Shane have have a different plan in the morning to to hopefully go down there and maybe maybe shut a couple of valves off and see if we can we can eliminate some of our some of our questions so I just knew you was going to say we we found it no if if we' have found it i' have said that first thing but uh um it is you know it's it's it's it's definitely a priority and with the winter months you know do has been working with us and they've had a lot going on obviously with the storm but I hate that they're having to s that down there but if we knew where it was we' we'd go down there and fix it tonight but we just don't know where it's coming from and a lot of a lot of people don't understand we got water lines on both sides of the road and they just think that it's broken right here and it's coming up there that's not that's not the case with this with it especially with that new road there's multiple layers of asphalt down there and water can get in between those two layers of asphalt and it can run from here to roses before it ever comes up so if it was across you know Main Street or 197 a two lane road we'd shut it down and cut it in two and find it but that's not the case with with a four lane as me as much traffic as we have all the way to all them dump trucks has got so I just I'm sure that you're hearing it in the community but it is a priority from

for Shane and and his crew so and for Brian and Niles I mean I know every it's on everyone's mind so especially with it happening in winter time so we're they're trying their best and we will figure it out oh all does anybody have anything else can council members have anything else M all right well thank you everybody for allowing me to be here tonight I'm just going to update you on some of our recent activities and also share some of our plans for 2025 first I'd like to highlight the Christmas parade Mary Main Street events those celebrations were great successes draw drew large crowds and brought some much needed energy to our downtown after everything we've experienced the Christmas parade showcased the inredible Community Spirit of our residents and Mary Main Street gave locals and visitors a chance to enjoy holiday shopping and F of entertainment and beautiful decorations are Santa estimates he had between 300 and 350 children on his lap in the two hour stretch we had a tired Santa by the end of it and we gave out a little over 400 presents to kids from Zer to 18 at The Visitors Center so that was exciting for us both of these events were sized as ways for folks to come in not just for the event but to come in Burnsville enjoy the entire day do some shopping have dinner or lunch and and experience not just the the event itself but the charm of yansy County and Burnsville and we seem to accomplish that and best of all we showed everybody that our businesses are back and open and ready for visitors so that's excited um this year in advance in addition to our annual events we are excited to announce the chambers sort of

transitioning ourselves into an event planning organization with our major attractions Mount Mitchell the Parkway and hiking trails down after the storm it's really significantly impacted the foot traffic that we're seeing in downtown Burnsville that we really need to make sure we get back to keep this economy for so we are actively working on a what we're calling a new our new initiative Saturdays on the Square our goal is for something to be happening in Burnsville every single weekend not necessarily always on the Square and not necessarily chamber events every weekend but something that we can promote every weekend is happening in Burnsville so people aren't asking if if something's happening in Burnsville this weekend but what's happening in Burnsville that we can go do and and participate in downtown so that's one of the things we're doing we hope to partner with local organizations new Ray um Home Place Parkway Playhouse music performers that sort of thing to just generate some excitement in downtown and keep people coming to our businesses and um restaurants we're also hoping to create some unique events like we'd like to do an Easter egg hunt on This Town Square on Palm Sunday for the kids so we want to continue to do some things that will be really family oriented as well um and we figure that you know if we can continue these events we'll keep at least downtown vibrant and people will start to see what's opening up around us to as they continue to um visit downtown Burnsville as I have more details our special events committee is meeting on Monday and our board meeting is the following Monday but I'll come back to Heather and the council if we have something that needs to be discussed or approved by you we hope to see all of you on January 22nd in our members luncheon our own Miss Heather over there is going to give us a town Town update we'll also be featuring County and

chamber updates as well as a brief present from Advent Health on the new facility that's going to be going up in waville so we'll have that it's a great opportunity to just do some networking and stay informed on what's happening in the area looking ahead we're already planning for Mount Mitchell crafts fair in August we're in the process of finalizing the applications for our craft vendors release for our craft vendors that usually go out on January 1st but we're hoping to do some changes this year that's kind of delayed that by a few days but we're hoping to grow this um event even a little more than we already have to that end we're considering adding a third day to the mountain to the Mount Mitchell crft we've always done Friday Saturday but we're looking we looked at Sunday several of our vendors asked for a three-day event rather than two the issue with Sunday is we have the churches on the Square that that would just disrupt too much so what we'd like to do is add Thursday July 31st and a Thursday Friday Saturday event instead of Friday Saturday Sunday we think that would give bigger opportunity for people to come in Burnsville more interaction people staying here people visiting here what we would do is just kind of move the whole process up by a day so we would Mark the streets on Tuesday and then close on Wednesday afternoon to do the load in for the crafts fair um and open it Thursday morning at 9:00 a. to open 9 to5 that day like we do the other two days we think it would have the change would have a positive economic impact and we would really appreciate the council's um support as we move forward with that planning specifically tonight we are requesting from the council approval for the additional Day downtown as well as requesting a do street closure for that day as well is there is there any way a lane

I'll let the rest of the board speak on this but is there any way to delay that decision when do you have to send that out and the reason I'm asking I would like to I'd like to speak to some of these businesses uh because it obviously affects some of them I mean sure I know that it affects them positively but there's some that it probably affects negatively I mean with the extra day sure I understand I I would like to get the applications we typically put them out on the first so people are already aware we don't have them out yet but what I'd like to do is delay that to January 15th and just put up on our website that the applications we're doing some changes for to crash the applications will go live January 15th instead of the first which we obviously missed yesterday because I really want to get it in front of our board meeting or in front of our board at that meeting it's on I think the 13th as well so yeah I mean we can definitely delay it chat would we have I mean pay correct me if I'm wrong but would would we have time to hold a special meeting and let us maybe have have a few days to to have those discussions and to think about it and have a special meeting before the 15 just to just to approve that or could I me I mean and again I'm just speaking but I think it's a good idea yeah I do I just know with that long road closure and and obviously we would involve we would involve the police chief in that as well along with Niles and Shane I mean those guys do a lot of work abely to make it happen have you had any contact lay with the courthouse and the court system uh the county courthouse no I am not because does that I didn't even it would be an impact I mean if they have I mean they're normal operations

but if they're having Court during those those dates um yeah that's a good point and they need parking and all that kind of stuff um and that schedule I know the next six months has already been set but I'm not sure about those particular dates okay I can definitely check maybe maybe you check with them and come back to us and if it may not even be an option once you check with them but if it is then let us know and and we'll we'll get together and and talk about it at a special meeting and and make a decision at that point absolutely is that okay with the y'all are meeting on the 13th your meeting is on the 13 oh yes sorry I thought you meant them our board meetings that is that a Monday that was so what what time do y'all meet we meet at new okay well I I would need to move probably my if you want a decision from this board before them we probably need to move the meeting I have with you at 10:00 a.m. I'm on that date some other time we could have have it that morning prior have a special meeting that morning I don't know Randy you need to look at your schedule the 13 I don't Havey don't have a schedule I that's right ain't nobody here got one well yeah Denise Denise has a schedule Judy has a schedule yeah let me look at all those days are full of what doctor a miss them no um Church gets over I mean we looked at that it's over by noon but the problem is that the Baptist Church uses mostly the square to park we couldn't do that no I would not I mean I the first thing I said was can

we bust them from Rose's art lot like we do the vendors and then I said you know what that we just don't want to mess with that that's I mean not the the transportation we don't want to mess with the church's schedule so that's not the point is to dis church service and I and I can see I can see the three days um because obviously you've not been here very long but you'll see that it rains that weekend of the crow fa no itn't because I ordered good weather last year so the additional day I it it is it is it it could be very beneficial we just have to see that it doesn't negatively affect you know anything from from police to to to the businesses and app probably got a big Courthouse ISS she was is one of the bigger ones well she she's checking into that she's going to check into that and let us know oh we had a sidebar going over here you need to need to talk with the the Clerk of Court's office as well as the county manager because they would have the SK they probably won't have the schedule for August but if there's a way to to give them a heads up about those days I I appreciate you mentioning it I hav even thought about that um you do sort of run into I don't know how but you have Wednesday night services as well shutting the square down on Wednesday the same parking issue with churches if they having wednes Services yeah probably need to talk to them about what they do about that Wednesdays and Sundays are a big thing that's definitely and you know we have the issue I don't know how much longer Samaritan pers is going to be occupying the Methodist Church in that parking area not there they're already gone we had that conversation today though and the last thing we want to do is start a parking more between the Methodist and Baptist Church seriously it was like we don't want to get them with each other as a result of what we're doing that's why we

just no it's a great event I mean it's our big event but but we obviously have to respect oh my gosh yeah our vendors we got really good response to our vendor survey last year we pretty proactive fill it out and one of the things I said was we for all the the setup and breakdown we have to do for this event three days would really be preferable to two because they kind of get set up they get foot traffic going through there and then they start you know soft closing on Saturday afternoon and there's just not that much time in between but you know if we can't do it this year I mean if something stops at this year maybe we can look at doing it next year too we I mean obviously Corbin would be involved in this too because I mean the Town Center on that additional day if you if you you probably don't B people that far setting up with them in with the Quilters anyways right on that on that Friday but but if we move it back a day like to make sure that you didn't have someone know the the Quilters take up that entire time Wednesday Thursday they're in there setting up typically anyways okay good just if you don't Car Lane just kind of do your portion with the county and get back with Heather and if everything's good there then we'll would that would that Monday work for but I can would it work for you think so Bill I can talk would that Monday 13th would that be okay I mean I know Denise proba minutes oh I will if I don't soly okay well so then you want you want to direct Chad to call a special meeting for uh Monday 1th at 10 10:30 what's good for let's wait till we hear from her

after she has discussion because it may not even be oh okay how far in advance do we have to post we have to have post it 48 hours maybe by early th we don't want well she may you may are you going to try to go over tomorrow I absolutely will be there yeah of course so if if everything's good there both of them tomorrow hope if everything's good there we'll go ahead and post that meeting and we'll have it the morning before your meeting thank you guys I really appreciate your support not just for this but for everything you guys do for our businesses and and everyone in this town so thank you for everything how just while you're up there how how in discussion that you've had with the businesses or how are the business is doing I mean I know it October was obviously and that's that's a big yeah challenging I can tell you that just at the visitors center our annual um visitor visitation rates were down by 12% but really given the fact that we were three months almost out of you know pocket I surprised it wasn't more than 12% um I think they most felt like they did fairly well through that month of December and and pointed out that the events really did help because people did come in and it also generated the pr generated um foot traffic even if it wasn't to the events or on the event day because people saw it that Burnsville was open we have a new PR person with the chamber that um is on the travel and tourism side and she's really do she's out of Asheville really doing a good job at getting us in front of the right people and we're really focused right now on Regional trying to draw people in for day trips or maybe overnight trips the new Rays back open um and that's really exciting I when I say back open they had FEMA people in there for the

most part and so Carolina Country in up until December so them being open for business to the general public has really helped too because at least there's somewhere for some people to stay if they come into town right um they some of them indicated to me Claudia um Dennis indicated that the Mary Main Street this year was the best Mary Main Street they've ever had and Claudia had both and the um Downtown Mountain Time open so I know some are still struggling I'm just so proud of all of them we literally have 100% back open and that to me is I can tell you that sitting in on a zoom call with Chuck Edwards he told me that not told me told us the Chamber Executives but it really struck me that after disaster like this it is average 40% of your businesses closed after size of a disaster and I immediately got off that call and said guys we can't have 40% of our businesses closed especially downtown we'll be a ghost town yeah so that's when we started doing you know trip or treat Main Street and I'm not saying it's us I just started saying what can we do that's going to get people down here I think the challenge right now is going to be January February March when it's slow season anyway Y and that's why I'm trying to find some things that we can promote whether it's music at home place or it's music at you know newray or it's just something going on whatever we can find so people know that we don't shut down in the middle of winter which a lot of the touristy type towns a lot of their businesses do we don't so I want people to realize we're open 100% of the time 100% of our businesses but I do know there's some out there that are still challenged so we're doing what we can and and really trying to focus we're as the chamber the first I we're not going to just focus on members if we can't

keep this economy going our members will suffer too so our we've really spread ourselves to to supporting the town and our businesses in town some of them just don't have the money to be chamber members right now we'd rather see them Focus that money on their businesses paying us dues so we're going to be okay because if they overcome this and and and are prosperous because of they will become members I assure you I I hope so and I mean we'd like to see that but first step has to be that becoming prosperous FR and I know that there's some exciting things happening in Burnsville that will eventually bring business to downtown into yansy County too that as it evolves that if we can keep everybody open at least keep the doors open so some of the second home people get here and the summer people get here I think that's going to be our biggest challenge when people say what can we do to help Burnsville right now they means I said come spend money because if you can come shop or have a dinner or you know have a drink somewhere at least it's money in our business's pocket so sure but so far most of what I've heard's been pretty positive so if we can get through these next three months I think okay I know where I work over at wnc Bridge Foundation I told them about the glass blowing Place yeah they came over visited and they ordered all the uh volunteers and the board members a piece of art GL from there see and it was like awesome Midsummer and they were at a rush to get it through by the time they the order was F wow that's we have and we have some people I just keep calling angels on Earth that helped you know throughout this entire process in various ways one of them that's done so much from literally the Davis hit went to um he has a GoFundMe page that he's been raising money to

what wherever the help's needed and whatever it is he needs to bring in and he went over to hear class too and ordered a big art piece sculpture that he put out for online auction to raise money so I mean it's just that sort of thing helps so tremendously it just does and I don't know if I recorded this before but mire um gave us when they found out what we were doing with the gifts for the kids for Christmas they gave us $15,000 to go at our downtown any local businesses or retailers to buy gift cards to buy merchandise to buy whatever we could to contribute to that I mean that was extraordinary because that put $15,000 in our downtown business Pockets you know so those people out there truly are angels on my so anyway thank you very much just just get up we her tomorrow I okay awesome thank you very much El of course thank you Bill do you have anything to report from High Country yeah we had uh the last meeting we had a very long and sometimes heated meeting at the other night we had uh lots of Representatives there from government cater Ral he was there representing District 47 Dudley green representative representative Ray picket representative Blair Edwards Justin Summers uh for Ted Bud Rebecca pal for Virginia Fox and Tommy laer who praised Our Town manager from Chuck Edwards and Drew Christie from Roy Cooper's office and they all seem to be working hard to get this disaster bills passed for for Western North

Carolina I will say Governor Stein today is his first act um um uh did five executive orders for Recovery that I think will be helpful and replacing Drew in the governor's Western office will be Holly Jones so I will have her contact information Drew sent that to us so I just want y'all to know thank anything else bill from they all seem to be working together doing what they can for that all right have in closed session uh next regular meeting is February 6th 6: PM anybody else have anything don't I have a motion toour I make that motion second favor thank you guys so much excuse me we