Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Charlestown common council. It's March 2nd, 2026, 6:30 p.m. and this meeting is being livereamed by Under Production Multimedia. We'll begin our meeting as is our custom with our pledge of allegiance. Everyone please join to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Um on the agenda, Donnie Walker was unable to be with us due to a scheduled conflict tonight. So, uh, Councilman Ronnie Blevens will lead our invocation.

Dear heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for everything you've done for us. We thank you, Lord, for the blessings, Lord, you bestowed upon us. Dear God, we ask, heavenly father, for the wisdom, the guidance, heavenly father, Lord, that we make the decisions for the city with always uh the citizens uh best interest at heart. Dear God, we ask heavenly father that you'll just be with our troops, heavenly father, and that you'll be with the city of Charles Town. We ask this in your name. Amen. Thank you. We'll have a roll call. Bo Burton here. Ronnie Glenn here. Shannon Elder here. Brian Hester here. Chuck Deon

here. My third record show there is a quorum. Mayor Hodson is present as well as deputy court treasurer Deborah Miles and both of our attorneys, Mr. Wilder and Mr. McCall. We have an agenda that's been provided. Entertain a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. Motion by Ronnie Leven. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on the agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That do you need you need me help you? Yes. No. Pause. I had it up in

the Yeah. right there.

Okay, back to business. Thank you. All right. So, the agenda is approved. Uh we have our minutes from February 2nd. Our current claims in our favorable allowance from January 26 to February 22nd. Need a motion to approve. Make a motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. Second. Second by Ronnie Levens. Any questions on those items? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Is anyone signed up for public comment this evening? Okay. You'll come forward and just state your name and address. Hello. Hello. I'm Tina Davenport live at 103 Chris Court.

It is on one of the one of the streets that is no parking ever to be had on it. What was the address again?

103 Chris that stack has been there almost 50 years. houses. There's four were built in 78 and 79. I've been in mine since 88. There's not been a problem with parking out there. There's not been a problem with snow plows coming in. If vehicles are there and we know something's coming, they're usually moved. We've had emergencies out there and three houses have been on fire. All three homes were saved with no problems. I don't know what the problem is. Four families, three families have been there over 25 years and I've been there over 35 years because the sack gets long. There's only four homes. There's very little traffic on that road at all. So, I'm going to fight for leave my street alone. And that's Chris Courtesac. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Haven Court. Were there any other public comments hearing? None, we'll move through the agenda. Our legislative youth adviser was unable to be with us. She's uh she was ill and and wanted to spare us her germs and we appreciate that and we wish her a speedy recovery. I have no specific comments other than just to remind the council that um we will be sending out notifications regularly from events, but we do have the event calendar up on the website. So, I just want to make sure everybody stays plugged in. And if for some reason you haven't signed up for one of the um email notifications, just let Brian Smith know and he can make sure that you get those email notifications whenever there's an event coming up just to keep you informed.

Um any council comments? Uh a couple things on the youth side. I know boys basketball start sectional tomorrow night in Madison. Uh so good luck to them. Um and uh congratulations to Eastern and Bordon both for winning state championships. Bordon was a backto-back. So that's a lot right here in Clark County and just outside of Clark County, but um and then the middle school I think they're going to DC next week. So I wish them a safe trip.

Good deal. Any other comments from council members? Okay, we'll move on. No public hearing tonight. Old business. So, the item of old business is the ordinance 20261, your parking ordinance. Um, this is the second and final reading of this ordinance. It was passed on first reading at your January 5th meeting. It's gone through a couple of edits based off of feedback that we received from the public and throughout the process and now you have the final version in front of you. Tommy Jackson is here if you have any questions for him. He and specifically Councilman Chuck Deon have worked extensively um to iron out some of the issues with that, but we just need to get it on the table. You have any discussion with you?

Um I know I we're talking about right. Uh we can get a motion. Make a motion. Shannon Elder makes the motion. Second. Ronnie 11 seconds. Open for discussion.

All right. Um, one of the things I talked about just to kind of fill you in was the uh the violations and fines. Uh, I don't know if I guess I have an old one, but they went down from like a There you go. Um it went from I think it was 10 to 100 and we took it down to a warning on the first time letter the second time and then a 25 and a 50. So not where we're trying to go out and charge everybody. I know there was a lot of things made about the grass. We talked about it. Uh I think we talked about certain streets as well. Um, I know I think I I did mention Chris Court as well and asked about it and you said it was a very small street, very hard to turn in there and

both that one is another one and Danny Drive, the next one down.

Uh, yeah, Danny Drive. So, I did ask about those two, but I did work with Tony and I appreciate that. So, wanted to help me out there. So, some of the some of the changes, if you look through the ordinance, um the street parking, instead of listing out the full number of streets, they put a blanket statement in there that you can't block the road more than 12 feet at any time, anywhere on any city street. They've got to be able to access 12 feet of passageway. And we verified with the fire department that that is the width that they would need to get through and that has the largest apparatus. So that is um one thing that changed um the parking on see I think the alleyways all that stayed the same. Oh there was some clarification of where to park in relation to an intersection. There was a couple different measurements being used there. So that was straightened up. We also made it clear that the note that this is a 72-hour period. So, one of the feedback, some of the feedback we received was that people were concerned about having a party at their house or a yard sale and you know, if they're block if they're parking on the street in a place where they're not supposed to, how does that affect it? None of that. You can still have those events. This doesn't affect for 72 hours. So, there's um that was put in there. Um, of course, the on the grass they put it change it. So there was a lot of feedback on not being able to park in the grass or on the yard or private property. And so it was amended to say that it can't become a nuisance. So if the ruts if if you're parking in the grass to the point where it's creating deep ruts that create a bed for mosquitoes or if you have a vehicle that's leaking um oil excessively, those kinds of things that leeches into the soil, that becomes a nuisance. But in general, parking on the grass is not a problem. Um and then the list of streets was significantly amended as well. Um cut

down from the original list and clarify some of the streets that were on that original list. Um they went back and worked with the police department and the fire department to amend that where some of them it's just on one side of the street or from certain areas of the street where previously it had the whole street listed. So that that list has been amended significantly as well. So those I think that what Chuck said with the fines. I think that's pretty much the comprehensive changes. Additional discussion or feedback on that.

Is there is there any bill process on this lady who's talking about our street? Is there any bill process for maybe doing a double check or anything on seeing if those streets can be removed? Are we going to do anything like that? I'll defer to to Tony on this just because he's done extensive checking in on this and we've also talked about this is this list has been confirmed by the police department and the fire department and so um I don't want to speak out of turn on that on their behalf.

Danny and uh both Danny and Chris Cork have been an issue with the fire department for a long time. Those are the first two streets and the only street that actually gave us that said, "Hey, be steep. We can't we can't get in there." Because what'll happen is somebody will park on this side, somebody will park on this side. It's hard getting in there. Yeah, they they've had fires and put out, but it's hard for them to get in there. The trucks are getting different sizes now, a lot of bigger ones. So, that's that's two streets for sure they've asked us to take care of. And there what it is is they were put in there with a 40ft radius. and the the radius was supposed to be 80 ft, but they were put in there a long time ago and they were just kind of slammed in there. So, that's what happened to that, but it's always been an issue. I've been doing CO for a long time. That's where the issues have been as far as parking. You know, understand frustration, but you know, we got to we got to look at the health and safety of it,

but this still doesn't affect their ability if they're having guests over or if they're having a party or a can still park on this region because it doesn't affect within that 72-hour period. Correct. Correct. That's how we tried to to fix it and make things better. And as far as uh you know Chuck was talking about the fines, we also put in there that we're not trying to hurt people. And so we put we put in a a paragraph there that talks about, hey, give us a call. You know, we'll figure out what your situation is and and try to work with you.

And that's been our that's usually our protocol from the beginning. So in any code enforcement action whether it's tall grass or parking our general approach is what is the softest level of notification can we provide to bring people into compliance and encourage them and often if there is extenduating mitigating circumstance we document that and we can give them some time. For instance, there was an issue in the city a while back where we had somebody who was parking an RV for a while on the road and it was creating kind of a a problem and we reached out to that family. It was just a temporary situation. They just they were waiting for their storage unit for that RV to open. So, we were able to work with them in that situation to put some cones out to say, "Hey, you know, this is a traffic hazard." And then they took care of it. So, um that's our method the entire time. Thank you, Tommy.

Any other questions or conversation about that? Hearing none, I'll call a question. All in favor of approving ordinance 2026 one on the parking on second and final reading, please say I. I. Any opposed?

That unans um moving on to new business. So, I need to explain resolution 2026R2 is approving the 2026 comprehensive plan. I realized that you did that in your last meeting. The problem was we actually needed a resolution. So, when I notified the people that are doing the comp plan that you had approved it, they said, "Okay, can you send the resolution?" And there was a miscommunication that we didn't realize that it needed to be formally adopted in a resolution. So, um they sent over a sample and McCall worked that out. You have a copy of it. It adopts the comprehensive plan that you approved last time. And so I just need a motion and a vote to formally adopt that resolution. I'll make a motion. Motion by Chuck Eaton, second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on that?

Did they fix the changes that were Yes, they did. And we did confirm that they fixed those. They sent out the the link. We They sent that back out to everybody and we did confirm that they fixed those things. Okay. Yep. If nothing else, this gave us a chance to verify they did that so you can your conscience is clean when you vote on it that it's all done. Um, any other questions? All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? So, the next step of that is they'll be moving into the zoning map updates for the uh UDO and Tommy has been working with them on getting that steering committee established and I think they're going to start having those meetings soon. Um, we were kind of also waiting for this legislative session to wind down because there was some legislation on the table for a while that would have amended what we were able to do locally with our local controls. And now that that has settled and House Bill 101 is very different than it was in the beginning, we can move forward with that process. All right. Next up, a letter of recommendation for a zoning map change. Tony, did you want to explain the zoning change for that street

up on the street? This is Spring Street side. Spring Street side. Yeah, Spring Street side. Okay. We had done a uh a reszoning to plan unit development up there. And when they did that, there was a portion that actually didn't get included in the in the request. So, they were requesting that that also be included. That's what this is. The only property owners is the city. So that's why they they asked for that so they can get it all completed one.

I believe this was this was held at the Charles Advisory Plan Commission. Um a hearing was held um and the motion carried unanimously to make the the closing recommendation to the council. It is it is between Park and Thompson Street will change. Okay. It's there's nothing there now. There's one house there. There's one one house one house there. One house up there toward the top on the left. Right. If you go up the hill, take a left. All that land down left onto the dog park. Do we need a motion? Approve. I'll make a motion. Motion by Chuck De. Second. Second by Ronnie Leven. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you, Tony.

And then the last item of business we need to talk about are some meeting schedule amendments. Um due to some due to the fear of the lack of quorum with some members that have various appointments and things that must attend, we need to make amendments to our meeting schedule for the April and May sessions. So the proposed meeting date changes are April 7th and May 11th. Um April 7th is a Tuesday and the redevelopment commission meets at 6. So we just need to decide if this meeting will be at 6:30 or if it would be earlier. The redevelopment commission typically lasts about 30 to 45 minutes. Usually 30 minutes if a little bit less.

I would like to make that make it 5:30. Does that work for completely Google that? Okay. Okay. So, the April 7th meeting, I'm hearing a proposal to make it 5:30. And then the May 11th meeting falls on the same night that we have our disability advisory committee meeting at 5:00, our plan commission meeting at 6:30, and our board of zoning appeals at 7:30. I've talked to Tommy about this though, and he can bump those other meetings, the plan commission meeting and the board of zoning appeals. We just need to make sure that the disability advisory committee has a meeting at 5. And again, that usually lasts about five about 30 minutes. So it can be anywhere from time at 62 that way.

Okay. So the proposal is May 11th at 6 p.m. Does that work for everyone? Yep. All right. So I need a a vote. What you're voting on, I guess we'll do it as a motion. I need a motion to change the April meeting to April 7th at 5:30 and the May meeting to a to May 11th at 6 o'lock. I'll make a motion. Motion by Ronnie Levens. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. Any opposed?

All right. So, we will make sure that we get those properly advertised um as legally required those notices up. We'll send out an email reminder just so that everybody remembers to update their calendars with that. So, that'll be updated on the website. Everything will be updated on Yep. All right, that's all I had. So, unless the attorneys have anything for us, unless Deborah has something for us, everybody's long. All she wants from you is our signatures. Um, we just need a motion to return. I'll make a motion. Motion by Chuck, second by Shannon Elder. All in favor say I. That was unanimous. Turn be sure it's tight completely.