Town Council - Regular Meeting

regular business meeting for the month of June. Welcome to guests and staff. Hope everyone's had a good month. Everyone had an opportunity to look over the agenda. Mr. Mayor, there's one item I'd like to add under my update, and that is consideration of a um agreement with um BLE engineers on the building renovation. They're going to be doing some inspections that Ronnie can't do. I think there's about three of them. Um and so I I'd like to get approval on that um if we can tonight. And that's not on there. We have a a motion to adopt with with the change. I make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? I public comment, Mr. Danny Macintosh. Oh, there it is. The topic town. The town. Great town. Uh I do have an announcement on May 1st and that is that the board of equalization review property tax included [Applause] without mean to a lot of people tell uh I want to take a minute or two to talk about the new Ray Hotel and Amanda and James Keith Sharon and I were asked to participate in their open house and so we became dosent. I didn't really know what that was. You looked around. I

was But we all went to training and training was about an hour, an hour and a half with Amanda, showing us around, you know, what they had done, what they do, questions, answer, all that. But to take in the totality of that project in that time frame and get to see the work that's been done, all the work they put into the rooms, which it's not now. It's not four bedrooms and one bathroom. No, it's a lot different than that now. And to see how they have themed basically each room with something local and they have put those uh in those rooms that match that theme. It's a history museum in in addition to being in the hotel. It's just amazing what they've done. But then that gives me pause to think about what could have happened had they not chosen to do that project. You know, I don't even know what the future of the hotel would. But they came and you know you take a little divine intervention when you get it you know and they've come to Burville and it's just amazing what they've done and they're just enthusiastic about it and so I'm looking forward to see what the future holds for that. It certainly is a show that it is and I just I just can't say say enough good about it certainly impresses me. So if you get an opportunity how many opportunities you get to look in individual rooms. You get an opportunity to to see some of that. It's amazing. Thank you all for your hard

work. I know this is being budget. Thank you, Dan. All right, Miss Lucy Doll. Thanks. I have missed y'all last month. Light pollution. We've missed you. Really sorry you said that. ready. Um, uh, quickly I have three items. I only wrote down two and I remembered the third one. I want to thank you all, everybody who supported the Thomas Wolf Festival. It was a lot of fun. Ron Powell provided music that drew people who were happy to find there was something else to do because the garden deli and the snap dragon were closed. Um, and we raised $324, no 364 for the Yansy Humane Society and uh, six dogs got adopted. Four from Yansy and two from uh, Mitchell and hopefully we'll improve on that next year. Um, the second thing is um, and I I meant I think I emailed Niles, maybe I didn't. There are I live in a neighborhood on Summit Street where there's a rentals and the property owners themselves don't know basic municipal rules like don't park within I think it's 15 uh feet of a fire hydrant. Is that right? Oh 10 to 15. I'm not sure exactly. Okay. Well, these people they rent to just anybody and they're anybodyies are people who we really don't want in the neighborhood, but I'm not trying to get rid of them. I want them to not park near a fire hydrant in case my house catches on fire. And so I was wondering if we can paint stripes or something on either side of fire hydrants and say no parking. So that's that's just a thought. It's really needed where I live. Um and the third thing, last but not least, is the a quality of life issue, which I'm sure most of you had heard before, maybe not Russell. I I

think it's been a while since I complained about this. And that is the extraordinarily bright unshaded not downwardfacing street light that is on the corner of my property on the south corner. Um it lights up my entire property uh the house, the the yard, even the backyard. Um it discourages fireflies. It discourages bats which eat mosquitoes. Um, overlighting confuses birds, especially when light is reflected off of windows. Uh, street lights, overbite street lights also cause um, drivers and pedestrians pupils to contract, making actually harder to see. Um, and people like me who rock on their front porches of an evening are likely to be more aware of strangers. We're not inside watching TV. We're kind of like unofficial neighborhood watch people. Um, and I've actually found a few people that um had to to be addressed because of this. Um, so my personal experience over the past year proves the effectiveness of this unofficial neighborhood watch. So, please shade, lower, and or remove that light that is um between is on the corner of properties between my house 61 Summit and 55 Summit. Thank you. You are truly back, Lucy. Thank you. All right, wraps up our public comment section. Um move on to the consideration of minutes. Everyone had an opportunity to look over the May 1st and May 22nd the special meeting on May 22nd and the regular meeting on May 1st. Motion to adopt. Mr. Mayor

second. All in favor? Motion carries. Chad, public hearings. Miss uh Liz Crowder. Yeah. Thank you, sir. With the budget presentation. Okay. Well, you know, we're we're going to adopt the 25 26 fiscal year budget. Um the highlights are that we've got a lot going on other than the budget. So, it's it's pretty low key this year. Um our tax rate is exceptionally high. I mean, it's over 99%. So we collection rate. Yeah. The collection rate. So we thank our collection collection rate. We thank our our um was I gonna say our um Miss Hensley probably for just beating the hell out of these people to pay but our citizens for paying. Um we're looking at two and a half% coal. The um the one big thing that we had um was workers comp and liability was going up for every department and retirement contribution went up as well as it tends to you know go every year. Um in the water sewer side the water treatment plant chemicals are up over 75,000 due to the river turbidity and the cleaning in the water in the rivers. Um, we're hoping to fill and open it on the utility crew as well as some other positions. Um, and the water, you know, has taken on a new lead service payment which is about 50,000. Um, I mean, the water has water and sewer's definitely taken on more expenses just due to the storm and what it's just costing to do everything right now. Um, we still have four ARPA

projects going on and we have 18 to 19 FEMA projects, but it's, you know, they're not in here, but I'm just telling you where we're at. Um, we did finish the CDBGI out, so we're that's good to get that off her plate and have ongoing construction on the maintenance shed. And we're doing a water sewer increase as well of 7% as recommended by our engineers when they done the rate study. I have a motion to open the hearing. I make that motion. Second. All in favor? All right. Mr. Danny McIntosh is signed up to talk about the budget. Still think the public hearings ought to have. I guess the reason collection rates the high is that the county provided you with an acceptable set of assessed values. That's right. Right there, Dave. You're right. No, I really I know. I thank y'all for your work on the vision, but I know what it's like to get to this point here. And I can't even imagine what it's like to have as many additional projects that you have and then have hurricane that you had and all of that. I just appreciate all of you and all staff for doing such job. I think you're wrong. Thank you, David. And I just want to say one thing um in light of all this just

because this year's different than every other year, but you know, Leslie manages and is a great steward of our general operating budgets on both the water and sewer side and the general fund side. And you know, that's a $6.3 million budget that she manages dayto day. Um, and on top of that, she has well over just with the ARPA projects, well over and the CDBGI projects, well over $10 million in capital projects, another uh $2 million in building projects and then now the FEMA projects that she will have to do all the the financing and accounting for. So, um, I think she deserves a lot of credit for, uh, for putting up with us. I think she deserves a lot. It's a lot. Thank y'all. Many thanks, Leslie. You do a fantastic job. Thank you. Did you already Anyone else have anything they want to speak on? I think just reading Heather's budget message was really enlightening, even me, because to you really sat down and look at all that in one form, it's crazy. I mean, nobody thought going in when we seen all that money coming for the water and sewer projects and then here comes all that other money hopefully. But I think everybody should read your your message and I appreciate the work you do on it. Well, thank you. It's a joint effort by everybody. Well, and it it is a joint effort and Heather's exactly right. Leslie does a phenomenal job, but and and Danny's been here. He

knows he stated that, but it's hard enough to do it without a hurricane. This this made it 10 times harder. And this staff has done an unbelievable job. Can't thank y'all enough for what you've done, the whole staff. All right, we have a motion to close the hearing. I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? All right. Uh now we consider consideration of the fiscal year 2526 budget including fee and rate schedule. which will be if adopted tonight, it will not go in effect until July 1. And nothing's changed with the, you know, rate fees except the actual water, the other rating fees for permits and whatnot have stayed the same. Any discussion on that board? Do we have a motion to approve budget? I'll make that motion. I'll second that. All in favor? Motion carries. Ch. All right. That leads us to Miss Michelle CBGI. Close out. Yay. It's only been five years. It's pre-COVID. So, yeah, it is precoid. Oh my gosh. That's not as bad as when I when I did the the opening or when we applied because I only got one page, but it's a lot of numbers. So bear with me. I have still have to read them into the minutes. Yes, ma'am. Okay. The purpose of the public hearing is to give

opportunity for citizen input concerning the close out of the virtual CDBGI projects 16i 3154, 19 I 3649 and 20 I 360604 which was to this was the uh let me see if I can get this right. The uh main sewer interceptor west improvements. We've got one that's east. Yeah. This is the west. Um, and the the city CDBG program funds or CDBGI program provided funds to replace the main street sewer interceptor on the west side of town to the wastewater treatment plant. Uh, the town of Bersville received a total of $2.5 million in community development block grant infrastructure funds from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, DEQ, uh, to aid in the replacement of the main sewer interceptor on the west side of town. The project consisted of the installation of 1,659 linear feet of 80 inch line and 6,795 ft linear feet of 10in lines through a process called cured in cured in place pot where they just no digging. They just they replace the pot. They lined the pot basically 154 linear feet of 8 inch line through pot bursting where they actually went through and brand new pop burst the old one as they as they installed the new and and then 433 linear feet of the traditional uh dig and replace. In addition, 44 manholes were restored, two new two new manholes were installed, and then we ended up having to do a change order, and three additional manholes were restored or repaired after suffering damage from the hurricane. So, it's good that this was open. Uh the

CDBGI funding can only assist areas where at least 51% of the homes are considered low and or moderate income uh or less than 80% of Yansy County median income which for a twoerson household is about 37,450. The entire town of Burnsville Burnsville benefited from the project and the town is considered LMI for the most census for the most current US census data. Approximately 1500 people were assisted with the CDBGI funds with an estimated 835 or 55.67% residing in low and moderate income households. Okay. CDBG uh funds were spent amongst the three grants. We ended up when they first awarded it, the $2 million was split uh by DEEQ at the beginning so they could this was the last project awarded uh in that cycle and so they had to to to get some funding from a previous uh some previous funds. So uh from some 2016 funds, CDBG funds, the county or excuse me, the town received $125,400 and that was for planning and admin and uh administration which included the uh environmental review and the engineering report and I think we had to do some weird survey for the what was that endangered species um then uh FY20 funds 1,874,600 and that went for admin engineering and construction Well, when we opened the bids, we were under budget. So, we ended up having to apply for some more money and they had some older funds sitting there from the

FY from the FY19 cycle. So, and the count and the town got uh 500,000 uh additional dollars for just construction. So, I'm having to report and do everything on three different grants for one project. So Chad knows he's the he's the one submitting all those reports separately. Uh like I said, the original project was two $2 million split between the two grants and then the additional uh and then 2024 we got the $500,000 for to complete the project. Okay, here's some more numbers. Uh, of this FY16 money, $30,500 was spent in planning, which is in the engineering report and environmental review, $94,900 in admin. Then from the 20 funds, $9,549.50 towards admin. Um, oh, uh, 262, $98.75 in engineering, 1,151,58 in construction, and 500,000 in construction from the FY19 for a total grand total of $2,48,66.25 25 spent for the entire project for everything. So of that two million uh or $2.5 million award, there's actually money left over. So 44 451,393.75 remain. These funds will be deobligated to be used for future funds. Kind of like what the town got with that extra money. It goes into a pot. So when somebody needs a little extra, it's

there. That was a lot. Not not for you. That was pretty good. I didn't have this. Can you not just keep our name on that money? I wish I wish. I got a feeling I got feel. with the CDBG money if there was anything in that project area kind of like now they did let us do you know some uh two of the manholes that were damaged during Helen because I'd already done the environmental review on that area right and if it had been outside that that's the problem with the CDBG funds you can't just move it somewhere else which would have been nice that that almost four $450,000 would have been nice to use for sure for something else but Leslie's got a thing or two. All right. Thank you, Michelle. You have a motion to open the public hearing. Motion, Mr. Mayor. I'll second. All in favor? I. All right. Public comment. Mr. Danny Mintosh on the CDBGI three CDBGI projects. Danny, you wonder why that we reached out to you when you missed Yeah. two meetings. Try to be brief. I She's another one. I can't imagine what it be like to be in her shoes in this here. She comes from I say she comes from I live in Avery County so I didn't have to it's still quite a uh but I'm thankful to see this happen that that old line certain has served us well since 1964 when he came up through our front yard. I was 18, eight years old and

selling ice water to the construction workers. My mom's snuff glasses humor me on that. that at at any rate that that was uh was quite a project in the town of B at that time and I'm thankful for the the foresight and ambition of people who sort of came along before us to get here and I'm thankful we got opportunity to repair that I remember all that well when you sign up here you have to whether you're for or against something here I'm thank you Danny Anyone else have any comment from the board? Have a motion to close the hearing. I make that motion. Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Michelle, if you want, you feel free to go on if you I mean, I think you you you probably have you'll have to make a motion to close out the grant. Yeah. Oh, we do. Sorry. Okay. Where's that? Is it just make a motion to close out? You want them do they need to do all three of them separate? They don't have to. I mean, you So, just need to make a motion to close out the grant for the CDBGI projects. And I'll read them off. 16- I or is that one? I -3154, 19- I-3649, and 20- I 360604. I make a motion to close all three. Second. All in favor? I that good. Okay. And you're obviously you're welcome to stay, but I know you got a long drive, so thank you for all you do for us. Thank you, Michelle.

All right, we have no presentations. So, we'll move on to Miss Hockaday with the manager's report. FEMA, we've had a a little bit a little bit of a break from our weekly meetings with them. We our next one I think's on the 11th, next Wednesday. Wednesdays are usually FEMA days all day. Um, our projects are hanging out there. A lot of these smaller projects have been obligated. I think Leslie provided you guys with a sheet. Um, and what obligation means is that FEMA has said, "All right, this is the amount of money that you're going to get for this." Um, and then it it flows from them. 75 Well, it depends on when in what time frame that the project was done. Some of the emergency work was under 100%, some of the emergency work was under 9010. Now we're down to 7525 a split between the federal pay and the state pay. We're lucky in North Carolina that they they pay that 7 that 25%. In other states like Tennessee, which got hit pretty hard, the local government has to bear that amount. So we're extremely extremely lucky in that respect. But the obligated amount means the feds have said okay. And now the money is flowing down to the state and then the state goes through their process and eventually we get some of the funding. I think we have gotten two payments on the regular um projects and then on our uh temporary raw water system which was an expedited project we received that large large amount of money which represents approximately 50% of what we're owed. Um, but we were able to finally get the the construction company at least paid something um on that. So, that's good.

Um, and the rest of them we're just they're in various stages of development with FEMA and we get daily um requests for information, send them back more information as it moves through all of their different cues. Um Leslie went to a Helen the disaster finance meeting at the land of Skycog um in Asheville on Tuesday. Um they talked about some disaster funding and also disaster planning. Those are things that will probably all be coming up soon. Um I we both went um since our last meeting to High Country Council of Government had a um session with Department of Environmental Quality, DQ um the EPA. Who else was there? The economic devel uh EDA. Yeah, the US EDA to talk about some funding that's going to be coming down. Um, in particular to us, I think the Helen disaster relief funding that's going to come from EPA down to DQ might be something we'll we'll look at really hard, try to come up with some projects outside of what is covered by FEMA, but could be impactful for providing some resilience for our water and sewer system. Of course, this is all water and sewer money um going forward because we just need more water and sewer projects. Um so, um that's kind of where FEMA stands right now. Um I have in the FEMA realm a couple of contracts um that I've been back and forth with these entities um making changes. The first one is HGA. that is

the consulting firm that um we're engaging with that is doing a lot of this. More than anything, we're to the point where we have to start looking ahead towards what close out's going to look like. Even though that might be years down the road, we have to make sure we've got all our documentation, all our ducks in a row so that that goes smooth. Um and that would be with the state. They're they're working on that. They're also working on pushing some of these projects that have kind of languished with FEMA um and and getting us closer um to to getting paid hopefully. Um I had been back and forth with their contracting department, made a lot of changes to the ones they initially sent me, and I just received a final draft at 5:30 this afternoon. um with the changes. It looks to be in order, but I haven't I haven't looked at it completely. What I'd like instead of having to call the special meeting next week to to do this, if you all are comfortable, let me finish the review of it and then just if it if it has all the changes in it that I suggested they make, then we can authorize the mayor to sign it outside of meeting if that works. If you got any heartburn about that, that's okay, too. But, you know, it's it saves us a meeting and I I think they've made every change that I wanted them to, but I'm not I won't be sure. Do you need a motion for that? Yeah. Yeah. Just a motion to authorize the mayor to sign the HGA consulting contract once the documents are finalized. I'll make that motion. No. Second. All in favor? The next one is consideration of a contract with GMC of North Carolina

Engineering Services. Um, and they are the engineering service that that got the award for the redundant raw water intake on Bolan's Creek. Um, that's going to be a huge a huge project. The way these contracts are set up with the engineers is there's a master agreement that lays out all the general conditions and then there will be task orders. And that's something that HGA has has said we should do because FEMA is versioning each of our large projects, our large infrastructure projects. And what that means is version is their term for phase. So what they're saying is we're going to look at what you need to get through this level of engineering and then what we you need to get through construction and then what you need to get through anything else that goes with that. But in in their mind or what they've told us is that it will allow the money to be obligated in lumps and phases and then we will get the money faster. If they obligated all as one large project, we could be waiting years and these are all reimbursement grants. We have to submit um reimbursement requests. So we would be fronting that money. So this is versioning is a way to get money for each stage of the project into our hands without having us front the money and wait a year or more to actually get any funding. Um so that said this contract is the master agreement between um the town and GMC Engineering and then there they will issue a task order about the work they're going to do in the first phase. We need a motion to approve my signature

for the GMC engineering for the master agreement agreement. And I make that motion. And our our just real quick, our procurement policy allows me as the manager to sign off on task orders. Um, but I wanted to also just bring that to your attention. And I I would like to get a motion included with that that that's okay with you guys. Have to have a meeting every time we get a task order. Second. All in favor? Uh okay. And I will point out all of these agreements have you know termination for com convenience or for cause clauses in them. So at any time something doesn't work out we we have the option to terminate. So um thank you. The next thing is again contracting ARPA. So we have our main street waterline projects that that project was split into two separate um projects. Um contract A is for Main Street and the square. Contract B takes care of some of the side streets, Shepard Way, um Glendale, some of th some of those. And so we have two sets of contracts because we have two different contractors. So TP Howard um is the main street part of the waterline um repair work and they I believe their start date is August the 23rd or the 24th. I can't remember. I'll have to look. But we need a a motion to authorize the mayor to go ahead and and execute those that contract for a

have a motion to approve that. I'll make the motion to approve it. I'll second. All in favor? Okay. And then on um contract B, which is the Glendale area and the Shepard Way area and the pump station's getting replaced up there. Some other good stuff going on. Um I would need the same thing. Let the mayor execute those agreements. I'll make that motion. I'll second that. And their work on contract B, I believe, is going to start June. End of June. End of June. Right there. End of this month. Yes. Um and so we will be getting Elaine, I know she's somewhere back there. We'll be we'll be getting with you as we get closer and we know scheduling um these projects will move they'll start at one point and they'll move along. so that you know we can let businesses know. We'll be putting out text messaging and and stuff on our website to let people know where work's going to be going on. Um these aren't small projects, but is that going to affect craft fair? I am hoping that no. Well, since the one in I don't think the Glendale one will because that's mainly on the the west side of town. It shouldn't affect 118 M. Is that different? 118 Maine is our current building renovation. Okay. That's a se that's another project. Sorry. No, you're all right. No, you're all right. Um and and I don't And then the main street and I think they're going to start on the east end. Did they say the east? I think so. He said he could do either way, but we'll try to work it out to where they're not up here in the square when Yeah. We gave them a list of all the square events that we have going on through the summer, but they're not starting until the end of August. Okay. So, they're Yeah. So, it shouldn't it shouldn't affect Craft Fair. And I don't

think there was any We looked and there was very there hardly wasn't anything other than Craft Fair that wasn't on a Saturday. And they won't be working on Saturdays. Okay. So, well, our load in was on Thursday. That's what from East. That's what concerns me. Yeah, they won't be there. They won't be there till the 23rd of August. Okay. All right. So, it shouldn't shouldn't affect it at all. Okay. Judy made that motion and bill seconded approval from my signature on contract B. All in favor of that. Okay. Um 118 North Main renovation. That's the renovation of the old Burnsville Fire Department into the new police department and public works department. Um that is right now we're still in the demo phases that this is the one that I do have the um agreement from uh Brundle Lammond's um engineering to do the special inspections and material testing. We want to make sure our concrete and that sort of stuff is right. Ronnie can do the majority of those. He sat down with the engineer. Um, and we put in the contract, I think it's up to $15,000, but we're thinking this is going to be more like $3,000. Um, unless something crazy happens, but it certainly won't exceed that amount. Um, and I just need approval for I don't know who this is set up for signature. I mean, I can sign it at that amount. Yeah, if you want to. I have a motion to approve that. He had their signature. I make that motion. Second. All in favor? Okay. Um the next thing is some upkeep in our um part of it goes on with with uh um

the budget and then part of it procurement policy. Every year we have to reertify our micro purchase threshold. The federal microurchase threshold is at $10,000. That means that's the most you can spend on anything without any type of competitive bidding. Um but they the the federal statutes allow us to raise those levels to our state levels and we do that every year. And so this will probably be the third or the fourth year we've done it. Every time we have federal dollars we're spending, we raise it, make sure that we we're still in compliance. So I would need that to be I guess reuped basically. Have a motion to approve that. Yeah. The micro purchase threshold resolution. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Okay. Okay. Then the bonding resolution um the positions for that have to be bonded. Leslie as the finance director, myself as the tax um collector, and then the board or anybody handling over $100,000. We have a blanket $50,000 bond for that. Um Leslie's bond, we're up in this year to a million. The new statute requires it's either 10% of your annual budget or a million dollars. Every year we have to mess around with going back and saying, "Oh, it's up a little bit. It's down a little bit." It's just easier to have it at one. We don't think there's going to be any significant price difference in that. We just leave it at a million and and move on. If that's okay with you guys, I have a motion to approve that bonding resolution as well. I'll make that

motion. Um, all in favor? Sorry, got ahead of myself. Unif first agreement. I do not have that agreement back from them yet. So, that is on the public works department's uniforms. It's a very small annual amount that we pay. Um, we'll we'll just put that on for the next could table if y'all agree to table it until the July meeting. Will it not be on that threshold? You can do Well, I could I think what do we say it was? 9,000. It's like $9,000 a year. I'll make that motion that you sign it. Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll second it. Many more things we can get out of the way. You don't have to mess with that, right? Yeah. Okay. Tax report somewhere in here. You guys have the tax report. Um, obviously it's outstanding. Um, and but I will we have a couple on the delinquent list that are, you know, over that thousand mark and I I think um we'll go ahead and and submit their names for letters to the foreclosure attorneys. Um, and unless y'all have any questions about that pretty much all and that's 99% 99 over 99%. That's awesome. It is. Yeah, it is. Does anyone have anything for Miss Hawk? Just appreciate you much. Outstanding. Great job. I think Great job. I don't know if you want to do it now or or in the commissioner's thing, but that thing about all those DEQ guys are pretty impressive. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? Well, I mean, we can

discuss. It'll be very brief. We had the commissioner. No, he's the he's the secretary. Secretary of DQ was here and an entourage of at least a dozen folks. Yep. And to know them by name was pretty impressive and they knew us. One boy had actually taken one of my CPR classes at Altech. Oh, the the one was on the left side. Yeah. And so Chad especially knew had worked with that one boy a lot and and I think the secretary was impressed that that we knew people and they knew us and and he seemed to be comfortable with that and I don't know if you want to put anything else with that. I mean it was very informal and I guess I thought it'd be more facts and figure but he just want to say howdy. I think he was he just wanted to to well he wanted to go look but we got raised right and and you know he's obviously a new appointee but he was um since the last governor's election but he he just wanted to make face to face contact with us um and I will have to say this of all of everything federal state whatever the department of environmental quality has stepped up since and then he did say one thing kind of like what Russell was talking Uh he he knew where the new Ray was. Yeah. And was going to bring his wife up to stay and they had friends up here that they were going to come up and spend a weekend or two and I said, "Call us. Let us know you're in town." So, I mean, that's just one of them connections. It's Price. And he's worked in the highest levels of federal government, too, with the EPA. So, he he knows his stuff. That's for sure. Thank you, Miss Heather. We'll move on to Mr. Shane Dale with public works. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's been a busy month. Pretty well. A lot of water

leaks, sewer issues, and all kinds of good stuff. For the most part, we've got most of the water leaks situated. We've still got a couple of water issues out there that we're trying to figure out and deal with right now. But uh for the most part, all that is in pretty decent shape for the shape that it's in right now. Uh the two big things that I've got is consideration of pave paving agreement that we have currently in front of you. I'd like to get that passed so we get some of these potholes and all this stuff kind of situated. We have a motion. Motion to approve. I would be sure thrilled to make that motion. All our friends on Facebook will be glad to. There you go. This took a little while to get this situated, but but what they don't understand is when we dig hot water sewer to find something. It's hard to catch anything digging holes. All in favor? All right. The other thing would be a consideration of the South Main Sewer line repair agreement. Uh, basically what that is, sewer line, the sewer line's probably not been used in many years, truthfully, until the near has been back up in operation and it's getting ready to start being used a lot. And we've tried to do a fix ourselves and it's not worked out too well. We met with contractors and come up with a plan of putting a line down through there to solve this issue. If you all would give us approval for that, that would be wonderful. We get this kind of situated. I have a motion to approve. Motion to approve South Lane. Second

waterline. All in favor? Thank you, Shane. Miss Leslie with finance. Back to me. Okay. I have the audit contract for this this fiscal year that we're in. Um, no, I'm sorry. Is that right? No, we're still in it. Yeah. Sorry about that. Okay. We got 25 days left. Yeah, we do. Okay. It's from Sharon and she's increasing her fee $1,750, but after after she does this year, it'll probably go more. She sees off because she has to do a separate audit for each of these grants. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a lot. Yeah. But the contract is for $23,500. So, she's a steal. Yeah, she is. And and she's easy to work with, so that's good. We have a motion to approve that contract with Sharon. Motion. Yeah. Second. All in favor? All right. I didn't send out your budget versus actual because we're going to have to talk a lot about it tonight and it's just kind of a hot mess. I mean, really, it is. Um, may the minute Yeah. Yeah. I think the the water overtime was twice what it's supposed to be. So, So, um I'm just cleaning up. Um the bottom lines are not terrible, but I am just trying to clean it up so it looks a little better. Um okay, if you'll look at these little, you know, the budget amendment here, FEMA actually has paid us for the police and their vehicles, which was 27136. Um I moved I'll skip on down here so you

can see that what the police the 10510206 longevity and Christmas bonus. You know, we've increased it a little this year. So, I up that 1,20 510,700 auto maintenance and repair. I know he's always hit hard. The police department is so up that 7,400 just to cover where it's in the hole. Um fuel 10510701. You can never have enough money in there, I don't think. So I up 7282 because it's like 10 the whole round three but we probably have to have another load of gas to be honest before the end of this 25 days but um and then since this was money that come forward directly to that department and have been spent out of that department I increased this special separation the 10510 by 1,029 because I'm going to try to move that out into a separate account you know for when we have others to start drawing out of that. Um, and then I done the state citations. I just increased it because it's already over budget just because they've written more citations. So, I increased it by 8,300 and I increased it down here as well, that last line. Okay. The next to last line, the 104207401, I decreased it by 19732 and it's going to fund all all these things since the 410 and 420. The tech maintenance and software John forgot to bill for last fiscal year pretty much. A lot of a lot of it. But anyway, longevity and Christmas bonus. I don't know if you remember, but with them those big bonuses for the hurricane work um it came out of there. one of them or one of them did and two of them I think to be honest and then we just you know

increased the Christmas bonuses as well. Um and that's the general fund side of it. But the revenues look good. I mean on the general fund it's great just cleaning it up a little bit make it look better. On the water side honestly I was looking at again today I really think we're just going to be short 71,000 from everything. The water is going to be okay. It's line. The sewer is going to lose 26, but like we didn't really have any more tap fees or anything, you know, that's different. And we lost some money like on late fees and, you know, but and the east sewer district was one that was hit pretty hard, you know, because there not very much revenue coming from that anymore. And um but so there's money in in the bottom line, you know, it's pretty much good, but I don't want to get a budget violation. And so I'm allowing or I'm increasing and amending it for the fund balance, the 33990000 84,946. And I did try to decrease some expenses, but I'll go I'll go through it with you. The water overtime I'm increasing by 35 581. The 0205 the longevity I'm just increasing that for the difference in the Christmas bonus on that side. Um fuel and I'm increasing that by $3,04. And then I'm actually decreasing this capital outlay that we carried over and that's just 20,000. So, I just tried to take it from where I thought that it would be okay to move it out, you know, to decrease those lines if I could since our expense lines. And then on the sewer salary sewer, let me see. I don't have anything

there. Overtime is 3815203. And that one's just it's not as bad as the one side was the water side. So, I've increased it 11,900. Um the 3815 0600 the longevity 2300 um then 38151400 wastewater supplies and material I bumped it up $7,500 and then 38151401 wastewater compost and supplies. So we have to use that more now and we will continue to use it. Yeah. Till it gets better. Um, what was that number in the uh message? 75% increase. Well, at the time I wrote it, it was 69. Now it's up to 75%. Yeah. Yeah. And it's getting ready to be more because they've got a $6,000 order for water treatment, don't you? No, that one was for Okay. All right. Um, but yeah, the water is the water. We're gonna we're gonna budget 75,000 more because that's probably what's going to take and we hope to get by with that, but we'll see. Um, this is a line we had just had that hurricane relief and I had actually paid it out, but I just hadn't amended the amount that last one that 8156600. And then on this third page is where I actually just lowered the expenditures. Uh we've been lucky with this as far as gravel and you know pretty much gravel isn't it Shane where we actually just could get it from we borrowed some gravel. Yeah. So we done all right with that for people who could get it. Okay. So that's these first two and so I've reduced the water side by 20 and the sewer one by

10. And then on the 815400, that's health insurance. And we've we've lost one employee, so I've decreased it by 15,000. He's been gone before the 13, but we hadn't replaced it. So it's a total of [Music] $149,946 for the water well for the water and the sewer. And the um the general fund side is 55,168. And I don't mean to confuse you, but you take all these and go down. And that's just the subtotal is the 35. 200,000. Yeah. And hopefully we won't have to use the thumb balance on the water sewer side, but I just want to have that cushion in case we I don't want to get a budget violation. So, we have a motion to approve the budget amendment. I'll make that motion. All in favor? Thank you, Leslie. You're very welcome. Chief H. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You do have our report from that number calls. And again, MBA seem to be taking this uh being a large part of what we're into just because sheer traffic numbers that are out there, I think. So, we we had several of those this month. We ended up 48 calls for the month, 10 of those or 14 of those were mutual aid, and we're at 250 for the year already. At this rate, we'll break 500 this year. It keeps going. We are looking to do our our 100th anniversary celebration, but we're probably going to do that sometime midfall just to give us

a little more time for planning, let things settle a little bit more before we get into that. But we do want to we're getting a committee together to work on that. So, we'll we'll have something announced about that a little bit later. All right. attended a meeting last night with the US Forest Service and it's just to update you because I made a request to them kind of in the town's behalf to go in on Watershed Road and replace that bridge that's rotted out just to help us get access even if whatever we do up there with the intakes but for the benefit of the fire in this in the fire season this fall giving us a little better access. I also requested that they clean up that road. That is probably the only access we've got into the forest on that side of the mountain is that road up through there and they request also that they go ahead and clear out that hilis spot that we had up there years ago so they could land a helicopter up there. They have opened the uh Black Mountain Crest Trail from Bowling Creek all the way to Deep Gap. And along with that, they opened up the Forest Service land on the left side of the trail, but the right side is still closed on the Forest Service property. So if you get requests, those of you that will see people who wanting to hike, make sure they know to stay on the trail up through Bolins Creek because they will write you a citation if you get into a closed area. So let just let folks know that that trail is open for hiking and the forest on the left side's okay. Ray Mine, uh the area around Ray Mine on Ray Mine Road is still closed also. So, anybody that's going up there messing around needs to be careful that because their law enforcement condition is very busy right

now trying to keep people safe because all the trees down and slides and stuff in the forest. So hopefully that'll help us a little bit if we decide to go up here and do anything with the intakes if they'll upgra that road. I understand they have quite a bit of money that's been a loted to them for road repairs and so that was the reason I made that request to them and also to help us out too. Did they give you any type of update from Deep Deep Gap onto Mount Mitchell? Uh that part is still going to be closed the remainder of the year because the road is going to be closed, but that that's going to limit the amount of people you have on the trail. Access to the park is the problem right now. The park is still closed. The parkway is still closed. Uh you can get an ambulance to the park if we had to, but there's a terrible slide in the parkway and it's going to take somebody going ahead of ambulance to make sure that slide's still passable. Uh black the Black Mountain Campground will not be open. Everybody's asked about that. That's probably going to be good excuse me two years out before it's open. Thank you, Chief H. Chief McKenna. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That that is all you had, isn't it? Sorry, I was trying to cut you off while you ch. He's still uh do you have our activity reports? Uh we have much business as usual. One thing I want to remind everyone, the 19th we do have the square closure coming up for the camp fun shine closing ceremonies. That's a Thursday evening. Through that a while back just to remind everybody that that will be going on I think it's 5 to 10 that night. Um otherwise uh police department wise again we're fully staffed at the moment

and getting ready for all summer events and things I'm sure. Uh zoning wise, I don't really have any updates. We've had uh some permits uh come in and approved. They've all been mostly been residential, smaller things, not anything to bring forward design review or planning at this point. Thank you, Chief. I didn't skip you. Thank you. So, I've been here for a month or so. We've been very busy at the town center. We had 32 events um last month, 29 events this month, and uh July is still filling in right now. We only have 21 as of at the moment. Uh some of the upcoming events will be in concert. The Blue Ridge Roots Revival is coming up on the I'm sorry, I just lost it. On the 14th of June, we have Funshine, which I believe is also taking part on the square. Uh on the 19th of June, and then on the 20th of June, we have the Hard Times Benefit concert. Just some of our public events coming up. And on the agenda, I have been listed to talk about the marquee. Uh we're early early process of talking about getting a new marquee for the town center. Uh, I was expecting to have a little bit more information for that before this meeting, but I did not receive that information. So, as right now, we're just kind of looking into some options because our marquee is slowly falling apart. Okay, that's all I really have. Um, happy to answer any questions if you have any. Was a great event down there today. Yes, it was full. The um senior um resource fair, that's what we had today. It was

packed house. 30 30 or 40 vendors. I mean, it was it was great. They used every 47 rectangle tables that we have. Some more 30. Corbin, are you doing are you doing okay staff-wise down there towards you? Yeah, we got we um two of my guys left um at the beginning of May. So, I've got um two new well, three new employees. Um, and so they're all the three ones are obviously still fairly new, but yeah, we're doing all right at the moment. Good. Yes. It always looks very nice in there. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Council member reports. Anyone have anything they'd like to report on? Judy, report on something. I don't have a thing. Glad to see Lucy back. Yeah, I sound like a dang broken record. I know I have ever since the flood, but something's been on my mind since we've started this meeting. that's on my mind a lot. But, uh, the, uh, I'd like for the public and and, uh, the board, I know everyone's aware of, of how hard they've worked, but, uh, those three departments down there at the end of the table, they they have good leadership obviously, but, uh, you know, Shane's crew has, uh, you just you can't imagine how hard that they've worked in the last really just in well, I mean, since the flood, but in the last, everybody thinks that everything's good. Well, in the last month, it's it's been tough on his crew. If you see him out in public because all you guys are out a lot, thank his crew. Thank Niles's crew. Niles's crew is volunteers and they're working above beyond their normal scope. They're doing road closures for public works when we're closing down 19 and you know, Niles Niles hit on it. the the

traffic accidents are astronomical just because the amount of people that are here and you know that affects Brian's crew and u if you see these guys out and about just thank them for all they're doing because I I'm telling you it's it's amazing what they're doing and nobody's complaining about it. So just uh [Applause] for shame some some of Shane's crew I I know for a fact I mean there they there was many days there that they were going on couple hours sleep so and they've not complained a bit about it. So if you see them out pat them on the back because they well deserve it. I promise you that. All right, we'll move on to Miss Elaine. Good evening, everybody. Well, I just have a short report. Over the past month, the chamber has been focused on economic recovery, community engagement, really supporting our members as we continue to navigate up this storm. I'm really encouraged by the momentum we're starting to see downtown and beyond. and just want to take a couple of minutes to share some of the highlights with you over the past month. Um, we've been celebrating a number of exciting business openings and transitions. I feel like I was running to a ribbon cutting almost every day, but what a wonderful thing to be doing. Flybook Gastro Pub, which was formerly of Spruce Pine. They were on lower prior to the storm, has reopened just across from the visitor center downtown. And they are already just seeing an amazing amount of business. We just watch every day people screaming in and out of there. Um, we also held ribbon cutings for the completely renovated uh, New Ray Hotel and their hotel restaurant opening along with an ownership transition in Plat Books and that was all last

weekend. Each of these businesses really bring energy and a lot of opportunity downtown and it's exciting to see the young group of entrepreneurs that have taken over Plot Hound stepping forward and seeing some younger folks on um on Main Street. Our visitor center obviously continues to be a welcoming hub and just yesterday we saw our highest traffic count through the visitors center since the storm. So we're really starting to see people come back to downtown. I think it reflects not only warmer weather we're having, but also a lot of the marketing push that's going out, letting people know how resilient Burnsville is and that we're here, we're open, we're strong, and we are definitely worth the trip to come into downtown Burnsville and Yansy County as a whole. We've been re ramping up our outreach through our weekly newsletters and social media, focusing on a lot of the community events that are out there, not just chamber events, but events across the entire community. lots of upcoming events. Um, this weekend for instance, we have the Tow River Arts uh studio tour. So, definitely one of those things not to mention. And the chamber's been working with town staff. Chad's been really helpful in completing our details for Stars, Stripes, and Sparklers, our old fourth our old fashioned Fourth of July. So, Chamber's going to be doing kind of some family oriented events prior to concert and then the um fireworks afterwards and the downtown retailers are going to be doing a sidewalk sale that day. So, we should be I mean, we always see lots of people downtown at 4th of July, but hopefully for the whole day. Um, of course, the 69th annual crafts fair is coming up and sooner than we can all imagine. Vendor turnout's been strong. We're expecting another great fair and I'm happy to say that Sam Sopranic, our new person who's over the crafts fair, is still hanging in there. Still has all of her hair. So, that's a good thing.

What kind of what kind of vendor numbers are you looking at? We have our our waiting list that we have every year and you're already exceeding. Okay. Yeah, we're already done with the selection process. I mean, we're seeing we always see a couple or three drop out just because they've had personal conflicts that have come up, but um I don't expect it to be any smaller than it has been in the past year. So, uh, working on doing a couple of new things that if we're able to work that out, I'll probably be bringing to you next month, just to update you on that. Um, tomorrow, the chamber is participating in a regionwide initiative that the chamber executives across western North Carolina scheduled a few weeks ago. We each held a ribbon, a communitywide ribbon cutting. Ours was last weekend in front of Awe Burn statue. And I would like to thank Councilman for being there and helping us with that ribbon cutting. I was really pleased to have you turn out. So, thank you for that. Um, all of that will go out as a collective push tomorrow on social media and we'll be flooding the social media at WNC Open for Business with photos and updates to really drive the message home that Western North Carolina is here. We didn't get wiped off the map and there are a lot of things to come and do in Western North Carolina. And finally, as we roll into summer, we continue to be continue committed to business growth and tourism support and promoting the local pride of being in Burnsville and Yansy County. I just want to say how grateful we are to each and every one of you, staff, all of our staff, all of our council for just being there to continue to support our mission and our businesses in downtown Burnsville. And that's my update. I'm happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, thank you so much for your time. Elaine and I actually talked about the ribbon cutting thing. It was not a

chamber event, but but it was a lot of people all over town and I think I think all the businesses we actually sat in front of app Java and there was nowhere to sit through there. Everybody was was in there and then a lot of people stayed. So, I think I think it was a lot of money turned hands. I can assure you it was. I talked to Claudia um cut today and she said it's it was one of the best weekends that they've had in a very long time. So, we're working hard to continue that momentum. Yeah. And I guess along those lines, kind of a feel for what you thought about the the traffic and the square itself. What do you mean how busy that was? The event they had. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was busy. I mean, again, you got to balance that with access to businesses and stuff because If you block off the square, then you're going to make other other areas even busier for people trying to park and get to them. I don't know what the answer is exactly. I don't know that we had any major issues. I think they had some volunteers out helping with some of the crosswalks and those kind of things, but I think that's certainly same thing that's going on. So, if Vince can think of those things ahead of time, having some volunteers to help out the crosswalks and things. Yeah. And I actually talked to her down here at the senior thing a minute ago and she said she wanted everybody to know she appreciated all our help. Thank you Elaine. Thank you sir. Bill, do you have anything to report on from high country? Mostly budgets and not the same. All right. I don't have any close

session. Anything anyone else has? Our next uh regular business meeting for July is on the 10th at 6 PM. Like to thank everybody for being here tonight. I have a motion to adjourn. Motion, Mr. Mayor. Second. I'm going to need a new pen.