Town Council - Regular Meeting

it's close enough to see I'd like to welcome everyone to our regular business meeting for the month of December welcome guest and staff and Council hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and everyone's able to stay warm it's getting cold out there hope everyone's warm everyone had a opportunity to look over the agenda motion to adopt Mr second all in favor anybody signed up no I need to sign this all right um everyone had opportunity to look over the minutes from the regular meeting on and closed session on November 7th and then the special meeting on the 22nd make a motion to approve those now second that all in favor thank all we don't have any public hearings Mr David Connor is here for a presentation of the military aircraft preservation Society thank you dve mayor members of council and Chiefs thank you for allowing me as speak tonight my name is Dave Connor I'm the operations director at map Museum in North Canton Ohio we're about 40 miles south of Cleveland and uh I was down here uh with the team uh in October a couple weeks after the storm hit and uh a friend of my son he's a a police officer just felt the need that hey we need to go down here to do something we kind of seen you know some video and stuff and I'm a

retired firefighter paramedic a Navy veteran and uh you know it was kind of a we managed to get this team spun up quick and we felt you know what we're really supposed to go down here and so we were down here uh we the chief was nice enough to fire chief let us uh stay at the uh fire station we set up a base camp there and uh we kind of did whatever was necessary especially up in the cane River area before I came down my executive director of the museum said hey um you know and oh before that the museum staff people uh donated a lot of money so that we could buy supplies and we were pretty specific we wanted to not bring things you didn't need so I tried to you know get as much Intel as I could so we brought generators and some chainsaws and and camping supplies and then uh we hooked up with a relief group uh at West Burnville Baptist and then we operated up in the cane River for about three weeks um and then I got to talk to Chief H quite a bit and uh you know we felt the need we we definitely need to come back we we wanted to do more so our Museum was having a benefit concert and the executive director was like you know we really need to do something for Burnsville so we decided that the proceeds would go to your town and everybody up there our Museum's made up about 90% veterans and you know once a veteran always a veteran and we said you know what our countrymen were in need and we really need to do something so the concert uh was a group called the flavor they were big in the 70s and 80s but in that area they're still well like so we got a really really great attendance and I have a check to present to you tonight in the amount of $ 7,578 so it was we didn't know how it was going to go like because I remember I talking to the

Chief and I said you know definitely want to try to do something to raise money he knew you were going to have some longterm issues um you know and again my executive director is like we don't want to just come down here drop supplies off and abandon you that's not our way and we kind of wanted to you know basically adopt the town I plan on coming back more I love the town um I've been doing some volunteer work this week um so I would like to present this check to you Mr Mayor first and foremost thank you for your service to this country um secondly thank you yeah when and please use that however you need for your ciens and your thank [Laughter] thank you so much thank you sir that's really cool all right he can you donate money unfortunately I just keep spending it so I'm glad we got got some more in um well go ahead and move on to miss Haw for the manager okay I'm going to brief updates on some of the projects we have going on D David you're welcome to stay you're you're more than welcome to to go too we

we understand yes yes um uh cdbg Western Interceptor sore lining project is uh I think we're getting one more extension so they can can they missed about six weeks up here um but they were back on site doing some work um repairing manholes we found new manholes and some manholes didn't didn't weather it well but most of the line that they already lined did well so weathered the storm pretty well um so that project be I can't remember on the extension chain March 120 days yeah I think something like that so that they could get wrapped up um the wastewater treatment uh not Wastewater the water treatment plant project is well underway um Carolina Specialties is up there I think they have most of their valve and piping work done and they've started uh moving dirt for the EQ Basin that's going to go in up there um and then we had on U November uh 26 we had vids vid openings or uh we're going to have a bid opening for the uh Main Street waterline Improvement project um that's bid under two contracts one was just for Main Street and the square that one did not have enough biders present so we're rebidding that on December the 12th um at 2 p.m. and then the the side streets that are involved in that project uh that was contract B that did have enough bids um it looks like Carolina Specialties will be the enough biders the Carolina Specialties will be the apparent low bidder but they will not U do the tabs and Ward until the Main

Street project is rebid um had pre-bid meeting this week on the pin swamp wastewater treatment plant project that was the arpa project that the C's uh uh arpa money is funding um and it went well was pretty well attended it was a virtual pre-bid but there were quite a few contractors online so we hope that we get enough on January the 7th um to bid that on the first go round which would be refreshing um then we had a pre-bid meeting yesterday on the uh North Main uh old fire department renovation there was a lot of contractors at that I think there was probably General Contractors I think we had eight or nine and then some subcontractors as well so um I think everybody had a good walk through so we hope that when that bids on um January the 8th we have enough have enough there to go the first round also um but that that looks promising um the next thing I have is we entered into right after the storm uh realizing we were going to be short Manpower and and equipment to be able to um deal with some of the water leaks and braks and zor lines that were broken and Unearthed entered into an emergency repair contract with u brightland indust development Industries um and you guys have received a copy of that initial um contract we also had um an amendment a recent amendment to it because they were

with us how many weeks Shane five five or six at least five so you know we made the initial contract was a fairly small amount this will be um increasing it I think we have received all our invoices from them that of course will be something we submit to FEMA for reimbursement um but we signed the First Amendment um last week right before Thanksgiving um and so I have a resolution that I just need action on uh to ratify the contract documents including the Amendments for the emergency repair we really couldn't have gotten a lot of things done that we did we still got a few things out there that we're chasing uh I'll let I'll let Shane talk about that in his presentation I put that on him but um uh just need you guys to pass motion to ratify the resolution or to adopt the resolution to ratify the contract I make that motion second all in fav okay the next thing I have is a Personnel policy update a resolution on that um we have lost a couple of people due to retirement and then one member of our crew um has left us uh that you guys are aware of um and we were looking had some um individuals who were either retired or had you know some experience that would want to come back on a temporary basis our Personnel policy did not have in the job description appendix a description for a temporary employee which would be an employee under North Carolina law that works less than 11

months um and so we um we have drafted I guess an amendment to the policy to include a description of a temporary employee um you know they would not be uh entitled to leave time or retirement or insurance or anything like that it would purely be a contract basis it just opens up another Avenue for us to get some additional help in situations like this one or if we were to have special events or something like that um or if we just had a gap where we had some people retire and weren't able to get those things filled quickly would open up a little bit more latitude for us to be able to get people in positions any questions on that I have a motion to update the Personnel policy as stated by make that motion second the last thing I have is the the tax report um Jackie prepared that um I think you can see from 2014 to 2023 the total in personal property and real property that is still outstanding is about 8 $8,000 um we have one property that was a actual request from the taxpayer to foreclose there was a lot of Errors involved and they said we can't get everybody together pay these taxes they were several years behind many years behind um but it went through foreclosure I think it's in the upset bid period And I actually thought we had already been paid out um but um I Got a notification today still in upset bid period but so that may bring that that total down a little bit further um I

think collections are going well despite everything Jackie tells me for for um for this year's taxes that's the only thing I have unless you guys have some questions thank you head right Mr Chad Fox the clerk's update thank you um I just have a couple quick updates the first one being the Christmas break this Saturday uh they want you all to meet the blue fitness center at 11:30 to get ready um actually starts at 1 and we'll try to all get on the same page over tomorrow and communicate get some details out about getting together Russell's offer to drive for us so I think we've got that worked out and ry's offered to sit in the back of the truck throw candy yeah right make sure those minutes reflect they're going to help me in the back TR cuz this NE stand to get up the other item is the High Country Council government's banquet's been rescheduled March 7th so if anybody's interested get up with me and we'll see about getting into it that's all I have thank you Chad yep all right Mr Shane Dale with public works thank you Mr marer uh I guess one of the first things is our the sewer plant's actually doing pretty decent right now we're still having issues with belt press and we're trying to rectify them now with electricians and everybody that's been working on that trying to get a couple more Motors to go on it uh and then the water scenario we have more leaks it just keeps popping up and some of them we're trying to track down like the one at Glen Raven apparently it's running in in between the layers asphal we I've had Keith buff that used

to be with North Carolina water up here with his listening devices for two different times one being the night of Thanksgiving trying to find maybe where it was coming from while everything was quiet at the plant not a lot of traffic on the road and we've still had no luck tracking it down but we did get one of those fixed and at uh the one on Long View we got it fixed today still have one on ABY Street to deal with and the other thing would be our temporary intake setup still having a few issues with it but I think it's just it is what it is dealing with those diesel pumps and temporary pumps is just the good thing about that is I think next week they begin the process of starting to put in our electric pumps so that's going to be a plus we hope all this starts working a little better then help anyway and as far as an update that's pretty well got it all covered I believe all thank you Shane for all you and your guys have been doing I know it's going to be a long road but it is we definitely appreciate all that you're doing I know what you're doing so all right Mr lesie thank you sir um well I sent out the budget versus actual the first of the week um I don't know if anybody had any questions next I had um hopefully FEMA is going to advance us half of what we're anticipating this temporary intake system to cast

and I was I was wondering if I could open a new account for the in the capital North Carolina capital Management in that tress thing that we're in because the interest is so much better than that so if it does actually work and they give us this whenever if I could open that have permission to then that would be good do you need a motion I do I make it okay all in favor all right next is the project ordinance on this brige loan that you guys approved last week that $3 million it's just it's just very vague but it's just the it's funded by the repayable bridge loan proceeds and the expenses are utility repairs and temporary water wine intake infrastructure it's just did you open up a separate account just for that or I hadn't for this one yet but I probably will need to do that too we haven't you know we we' sent the paper work in and we still have you know we have to wait until the engineer procurement is in place before we get actual projects and budgets that we can send to them and ask for proceeds if we do you know one of the things is this FEMA funding if that goes through I'd rather FEMA pay it's actually a reimbursement anyway isn't it it's all re everything is reimbursement yeah so it's not like ke is going to dump a big pot of M on us she probably won't have to do that to well I mean I've got I've got some I'm trying to think if there would be one but I don't really know um yeah let's see maybe it wouldn't hurt if you went ahead and approved me to open one in

case just in case I mean if you need it yeah right now we don't have but one account don't now no I know yeah I know what's one more as I say it's like yeah I'll make a motion to approve opening that account CU right now okay right now it's just right now the department out the big account so it's just it's just easier to keep up it is aitor likes it better yeah it's a whole lot cleaner okay and the next thing is actually this is just a line item did you do the project did they approve the project did you you approved they appr project they approved you to open okay I need you to approve project coordinates I make that motion sorry um the next thing is a line item transfer it's not really a an amendment it's just I forgot to put the fire department when I done those extra hurricane lines and so what I've done is added a hurricane relief and supplies line on the 10530 3500 and I increased it by1 000 and I decrease this additional principal on debt the 10530 5800 so you need a motion to approve that approve second and hopefully we'll get fam to pay for this but it's not we've got there well famous reimbursement too so we got pay to begin y thank you m lley Chief house turn it over to you sir thank mayor you have a report for the month you'll see we have calls months of

November bring us a total of 412 for the year majority of which consisted of motor vehicle accidents and we do are beginning to see a few structure fires pop up around the counten I expect we to see those pop out we're carrying our best we can we do still have some distribution going on it's fire department I still have heaters and propane and some fuel and stuff like that that are passing out people uh still have quite a bit of fuel still over there it's going fast though heating season got here so a lot of people are making use of that we did get in a small shipment of Christmas trees this morning so somebody donated two free Christmas trees for some people so we'll be offering those to people and the toy drives are showing up we already received two Trader loads last week got one coming in tomorrow and one on Saturday and we're working in the school system and some of the other entities in the county trying to get those to kids who may need those that support with some toys so we're going to try to get those out in the next week or so preparing for the Christmas parade of course that Saturday so we're lining up fire trucks and all the other fire trucks the county going to help chamber with that process of the Christmas parade the other issue I have is has to do with the firemen's Relief Fund we've been trying to get a point e for the fireman's relief board and that consists of two members elected by the fire department two members appointed by the town and one member that is selected by the offic State Fire Marshal and I need you to approve the two candidates for the

town which I believe are Randy Banks and Robert bird will be taking those two positions and I'll be submitting Ryan's name osm for approval for the for their from their office so if you could approve R Banks and Robert bird for appoin Council I'll make that motion to approve yeah I'll second all in favor thank you sir thank you all I thank you for all you've done this far too gief all right just a point information mayor I'm sorry uh the field hospital is still operating we drop back through three days a week this week that'll be Mondays Thursdays and Saturdays through the remainder of this month and then beginning in January we're going to they're going to operate every other Saturday so they're going to try to keep it going for a little bit longer if they're going months just to help out people who may need to be seen by somebody we need a little assistance with medicine and things so are those numbers still staying pretty stable yeah they're staying pretty good they saw about four 13 and 14 today so they're staying pretty steady they be very for like 9 or 10 14 15 St there somebody was hunting Navy lier last night on Facebook I said uh it will be open in the morning and they said well they might be dead by then and I said 911 might be appropriate but they do have they do have a lot of suppli they're Furnishing NE and and they're also Furnishing CPAP people donate seap machine so anybody that's in need those items are free there's a lot of insulin there that's free to people we need

assistance that's been it's been a very good thing that's for sure much it's been it's been much used for sure thank you Chief H oh Chief banon thank you Mr may I passed out our activity log as well uh the police department I can report that we're back to full staff uh we hired someone into our open position in Tyler stocking from the Department of Newland from he's got so he's going to be learning some over the next little bit and getting getting familiar with everything so if you see someone different driving a patrol car that you recognized before probably um beyond that uh we we do we also be participating in the Christmas Saturday forward to seeing everybody out there PL dress war and zoning and code enforcement wise again we've had some just our normal it's things are starting to get back more toward a normal cycle with permits being pulled and those kind of things on those kind of things I think all our anybody that's had stor Rel damage is probably already pulled those per for getting back to more of a normal s all thank you Chief all right moving on council member reports Corin I always do that I'm G put a star by his name or something can you highlight that Corin you have a report sorin we are sorry um for December we have uh 29 events this month um we as well we're having some toy drives December 6 and

21st we're having toy drives on both of those days uh tomorrow um the toy run will be from 1 p.m. to 700 p.m uh see this Saturday December 7 we have um uh the Christmas ornament crash show from 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. December 10th and 11th we have the hazard mitigation grant program which will be set up the town center U providing resources and information to the community December 13 um we have a Christmas holiday Show featuring Debbie Phillips and Daryl Mosley that will be at 700 pm. and then December 20th I think is also some form of toy drive they haven't given me a whole information it's um Savage Santa is what they're call um what a little bit I have learned they wanted they're really trying to go big or go home so more details will follow shortly that's mostly all I have we really packed for December good deal thank you Gordon thank you any council member have anything they'd like to report on um rtac met last month and um unfortunately YY County was one of the hardest hits for the road and bridges so they gave a they gave a list do is working really hard and they're really accomplishing a lot so I just brought a copy in case anybody wants a copy of the repairs and what's going on thank you Denise anyone else I don't know if this is the place of the time but one of our neighbors is awful upset because Creek's got mud in it behind him house and I think he's stopped to you about it Russ he stopped me down there in the road and want to know if we could clean the creek out for it and I said no we don't do the creeks

yeah that was yeah I know what you're talking so I just make him aware that we did bring before just nothing hand yeah I mean that's that's all on that's all on private property that that was put in by the land owner y all right anyone else Miss line thank you mayor council members staff good evening thanks for having me here again this evening I um just want to kind of bring you up to date on all the initiatives and the things that we've been working on first though I'm excited to introduce cat Bower she's our new programs manager and we brought her on in the midst of the uh whole hurricane recovery she's got two and a half years of experience with the chamber already as a volunteer so she pretty much hit the ground running and and has been just a huge huge help in getting us back on track and getting our businesses back on track as well um we have some fun stuff coming up as we heard tonight Christmas parade is Saturday at 1 o'clock I've ordered really nice weather so no rain this year um and we are really focused on our theme this year which is appach and Christmas and I don't think there's a better year for that theme than the one that we're having right now and just bringing some joy and and celebrating the resiliency that we have been seeing in our community and bringing our community together we have pushed that out on social media and done quite a bit of PR on both of the um both the parade and on Mary Main Street that's also coming up so we're hoping to see some good attendance and see attendance in the town and some traffic in the town around

the events as well shopping people dining people you know frequenting our retailers and our restaurants that really need that support and help to bring this economy back Mary Main Street is coming up on Friday December 13th it's going to run from 5:30 to 8:30 we're going to have our carriage rides around town square that's already beautifully decorated thanks to Shane's people out there and lit up and have all the GRE out it looks gorgeous um we also will be having carollers circulating throughout downtown in a live nativity scene in the Town Square this year it's usually in town center but it was busy so they' moved that out to the square um local children again will be lighting the Christmas tree and the uh Church on the Square First Baptist Church is doing meet us at the manger which is that collection of nativity scenes from all over the world it's just such a fabulous thing to see Santa is going to be in the pocket Park from 5:30 to 8:30 our hours are different this year we're running from 5:30 to 8:30 hoping to get it over early enough that some people may go on into the restaurants before their Kitchen close and and enjoy those restaurants but we're going to have Santa in the pocket park next to the chamber this year visiting with kids we're also going to have a free gift for any child from zero to 18 years old age appropriate um that we'll be handing out right now the uh Visitors Center looks kind of like Santa's Workshop blew up in it I don't know how many presents we have already but the donations have just poured in and are continuing to come in for the gifts so it's been really really supportive just to see that come into our group but we're hoping to really make it a a magical experience for the kids and and a nice time for the families to come together and just enjoy the holiday season a little bit additionally we have moved our annual members luncheon That was supposed to

have been in October to January 22nd it's going to be at Town Center it's will start it'll be catered at um at the Town Center by Pig and grits so we hope to see as many of you there as we can possibly have at that and our annual Gala that we typically have in January has been moved to March I think that's going to be a permanent move because we were having so many issues with weather in January especially at night that we decided moving it back to the spring might be a good idea so outside of that I just want to thank you each and every one of you staff and coun for everything You' continued to do through this recovery process and Cat and I end up crying almost every day like I'm about to do tonight and i i s her about the last council meeting and said at least we won't shed as many tears as we did like the last one and then you did your amazing presentation and it was like oh my gosh here we go again but I just want you to know that without all of your support we couldn't be getting through this and the Chamber certainly couldn't be delivering the events and the things that we're doing to try to bring some joy and some recovery of just sold to this town and bring some people in we're working really hard to get visitors back in in a fashion that our town can support that and our retailers and restaurants can support that but get some foot traffic through here to get the economy stimulated so thank you to all of you for that and if you have any questions I'm happy to answer do you have any kind of numbers on like airb and Maes you know we don't yet I know they're starting to reopen um it's I know some of the airbnbs have flipped to longer term rentals to accommodate some of our folks that don't have homes anymore so we're still in the process I think after the first of the year we'll be getting a better handle on how many people are reopening their short-term rental so that we have some idea of lodging I know FMA has left and I'm sure

you're aware has left the um New Ray and I think also country and so at least our lodging is starting to come back downtown which is really helping I know Terell house is closed right now but it's typical for them to be closed during the winter time so we're hoping to start seeing some stays at least some overnight trips and that sort of thing into that people can enjoy some time in burn and just enjoy the winter here but definitely are keeping an eye on that I'm just excited that every single business has reopened in downtown which is not typical after a disaster like this we learned early on that it's an average of 40% CL business closures after this size of disaster so having all those businesses open downtown just is really heartwarming I hope now we just it's up to us to get the traffic here to keep them open keep those doors open so but I appreciate your question as soon as we have some numbers I'll bring them back to you does anyone else have anything for Lane thank you sir thank you very much build do you have anything to report on from High Country no they had people from FEMA there talking and then the the change of the banquet thing and the lady from FEMA just kept saying you know that if you're not approved in the beginning keep trying and keep trying and the puzzle will fit so that was about about meeting it there all right sounds good um next regular business meeting is after the first of the year hopeful everyone has a blessed Christmas and New Year stays warm the Lane's going to change the

weather for Saturday he she's almost up thank you El 1% chance of raining 50° so it' be that'd be a beautiful Christmas pray would be that's what it said around 50° that's what I'm have a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion second