Health, Welfare & Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

There we go. Having that roll of quarters on it. All right, hello. Welcome everybody this month H 2 of Y'all meeting um at 6:00 April 28th. I'll call this meeting to order. First of all, let's take a roll. We have everybody here. Um might look at your agenda. I'd like to swap uh 6A swap with A to C if you don't mind. We'll do rule fire first. Um motion to approve agenda with the swap of 6A and 6C. I'll make motion to approve it with the amended. I'll second. Motion by Mr. Moore, second by uh Dwight Miller. All in favor of that, say aye. Aye. Eyes have it. All right. Any public comments? Nobody. Being none, we'll move on to uh our minutes. We didn't get the minutes in uh or we'll have those in for next month. We skipped last month's meeting, so we'll have February's minutes. So, can I get a motion to approve that on approving those in our May meeting? I'll make the motion that we approve the minutes

I'll second. in in May. Motion by Mr. Moore, second by Mr. Duncan. All in favor of that approval of those minutes in May, say aye. Aye. Eyes have it. All right, moving on down to our business. Uh this uh We have a rule fire up first. You guys got anything for us? You got anything you want to go over? If you would, just come up to the podium, and state your name, and turn your microphone on. I'm Sammy Morton with New Union Fire Department, and this is Michael Hopkins, assistant chief with Summit Fire. Um we just wanted to it's getting to be budget time, and we'd heard some rhetoric about our budget maybe being cut, and we just want to be sure that that that's not a not a you know, a factor, and we want to be sure that we try to get I know there's been some smoke detector money discussed, and um you know, we've put in New Union as of last month, the last 12 months, I know we put in 22 households New Union had. Uh do you know how many y'all put

same number. Same number. Um I know North Coffee, they were up they had put in like 28 to 30. I talked to Greg. And I don't know about Hillsborough and Hickerson on there. But um you know, the smoke detectors have been saving lives. We've had several house fires that we went to, the people have gotten out, and we've heard the alarms going And now that we've got carbon monoxide I can't say it Carbon monoxide detectors.

Carbon monoxide detectors, we've got them coming. And the state has got something on their website, and they notify us also. I've got six pending, but I'm waiting on the detector detectors. Does the state pay for those?

The state pays for them, and ships them to us. And there'll be one carbon monoxide detector I think a few I think a few minutes ago this this committee that we approved to send it to budget and finance for a favorable This is just where we start, and Right. Yes. And we just trying to I know budget time's coming. Yeah. And uh I mean, um we sent it over there. Do y'all think you'll have any trouble with it? I I will say this that uh I I think people learned the other night in our budget and finance meeting cuz if a lot of people were thinking that it comes out of the general fund for you guys and it does not. It comes out of rural money only. It is the rural people doing something for the fire departments because you're doing something for us. You're coming to our homes and putting in that. Plus, it's getting you new equipment. So, I I'm going to fight real hard for y'all. Was that Is that Is that rural infrastructure money? Yeah, or it's rural Yeah, it's rural money. How do they apply? They send in a request or you guys just make them make it known and available They're available and they For the smoke detectors? Well, any of them Yeah, but they're on the web They We've got them on our website, I'm sure. All the county departments have a website. But do Do how do people the people that want want one? Does everybody want one? The ones that The ones that request it, yes. Okay, but everybody doesn't participate.

No, not everybody does cuz a lot of people we have to go and install them the first day and they don't want us to come in in the house. Originally, this was started for the underprivileged for the less fortunate people that could go buy smoke detectors for $30 and you start putting 10 or 12 in your house. It gets expensive. And generally, we put Of course, we put one in each bedroom and one in the common area and that's that's what the state requires, but home builders, they put them everywhere and everybody actually got to put them everywhere. A lot of people A lot of people got them already, I guess. When we go in, we we're taking old ones down and These have a 10-year life cycle. The battery in them is supposed to have a 10-year life cycle.

disturb it. Yeah. If you don't destroy it. I think If everybody asked for you to do that, you'd never get them all installed. No. Yeah, yeah.

That'd be a lot of people. Yeah, I have a lot of In New Union area, we got a lot of fortunate people that don't don't do that. But we also have a lot in Lakewood. And I'll go in there and we generally take a day and take three people or two people. And we don't ever go by ourselves. Just for Can you get as many as you need? Yes, but what they do is they send We get 120 at a time. Okay. And we keep a record of it and I've got a I hate to say I'm dumb on this, but I've got an individual that does all my ordering and takes care of all the record keeping and when we get down to 15, he orders more. Great. And uh So there's not a a limit. The state's providing them, right?

providing them. Unless the state runs out of them and then sometimes we as I know, they hadn't, but Well, 2 years ago, I think they they said we couldn't get them when the fair started. There was some little module that they couldn't Yeah. That was that supply demand supply deal. Yeah. It wasn't cuz the state wasn't willing to do it.

Yes, it was because there was they weren't on their shelf. I don't I haven't I mean I I Originally originally it was started I don't want to I don't toot my own horn, but we started this. I start I come up with this. And two in 2020, what it what it was was for when COVID was here, these guys couldn't get out and fund raise and they were they were really getting crushed cuz they they couldn't make any money cuz they couldn't fund raise. So we come up with that. And it took a lot Rosanne, I think you remember and I know you was on the committee. We followed hard to get it to budget finance to get it passed and we you know, it was pretty tough back then to get stuff passed, but I think since then everybody's likes it and I think the majority of the people want to keep it. They think we were all unanimous in in sponsoring it and want to keep it going. So

There there's one thing that I thought last year we had it we had approved that we that didn't get. You said that we need to bank it, be able to bank the money. And for some reason in budget finance this past year, we couldn't. And the reason we need to bank it is because like North Coffee needs a new fire station. They've been looking for land, try and if they have to use that money, you can only build so much and you can't make payments out of it. You can't go borrow money and make a payment on it. You have to use it for an equipment purchase.

You also can't really count on it. Yes, I get it. Yeah, we had [clears throat] a lot of trouble over the years getting stuff, getting it funded. And one thing with Mariana, the bookkeeping, I'll give her a credit. She's been real good about that going back and back paying, but if we allot it this year, it has to be spent this year and I don't know if we've come up with a way to roll it over. Okay. What I was if if we can, that would allow them to put like maybe two years credit, say hey, I can buy a piece of land with this and then in, you know, if if it proceeds on and do three years, maybe we can build a building. That is a five year, but that's a plan.

Yes. Yeah, we we never never was intended for the for for us to have any kind of say so on how the money was spent because we y'all know what you need. We don't know. Well, we we've bought we bought air packs and we've got turnout gear and we've got some that's coming. Our turnout gear is coming to the 10 year life cycle. And you know, we're going in two years we've got to replace eight more sets. So, you know, that's it just that's that's ours. Now, I've talked Michael, do you want to say anything? I don't want to I mean, it's it's allowed us to upgrade equipment. We wouldn't have been able to. I mean, the first year we replaced our cascade system was from 1976. And we were able to upgrade to a brand new system. To me, it's an investment in all of us and the rural people. It's rural money going back to rural people who take care of the rural bus. Yeah. Uh it's an investment. It's not just a gift. It's an investment in y'all's equipment to protect y'all who protect us. And you're getting the fire alarms and now the CO2 detectors. [music]

Yeah. As a as a bonus. So. We just this is the first step we've got to kind of go through and we just want to be sure Okay. everything is No, I don't know. We'll try real hard. Well, when we need to be a budget and finances quick. Uh not the 14th, but I will let you know. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Mhm. And I appreciate y'all. Mhm. Thank you.

Thank y'all. Anybody Anybody Donnie, you got anything? You're good? Okay. All right. All right, moving right along. Uh let's go down to uh our animal control report. Craig. Building's almost done. I need to go see it. Oh, I bet you are. January, February, March, April. Really nothing new going on with us. We're just like I said counting down the days waiting on the the big move to take place.

[snorts]

My understanding I think the inspections on the 6th that Aaron has to do and after that punch list I think we're good to go. Good. So, your adoption fees are close to $100? Yeah, we're $100 for adoption fee. Yeah. Craig, how about the uh the sign out on it? Have we decided on a sign? What kind of sign we're putting up or do we know anything? Nothing at all on that. If you don't If you don't mind when you whenever you do the sign, uh I like to like to have this committee involved in our sign. We've got a few We want to change the logo. It was kind of pulled off the internet years ago. Like on the side of the truck it's you can't tell what it is. It's it's so clustered and everything. We want to renew it.

do that, can we can we discuss logos and signs and stuff here?

I think we've got two or three that we like, so I can pull those together and bring those to the next meeting. And that's my biggest thing being identified when we're Mhm. when we're out and about. It's the way it's made like you have to be right up on it to be able to say, "Hey, that's animal control." So And I know I know with some of the uh uh the private donors Mhm. that has been a big part of this. I mean, there's a few things we can we can without, you know, giving them putting their names on it, there's some things we can do, I think. Yeah. With the logo to incorporate them because they've been big in and in this. So What we're going through right now, um we're getting sponsors for like the kennels on the adoptable side. So, like we have yearly fees. It's $100 a year. We've got a plaque made. You get your name up there and then we have um a lifetime basically. They get a lifetime sponsorship for a thousand and we've had four people so far that That's wonderful.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, within one day after posting that, every spot was filled and people were kind of upset like So, we're coming up with other ways to incorporate that like maybe some brick walkways and having grave bricks and Yeah. stuff like that. They are are will always be there.

are just over to the side just having a little uh like a something where they can write some names up there or something. Like a plaque or something. Yeah, we had a We've got a few walls we were looking at. Maybe do paw prints and you can line those across the There's a lot of people wanting to sponsor stuff. So, we're going to come up with different ways as as we get going over there. How many do you have right now? As far as dogs. Oh, right now we're 40s or 50s right now, probably. I figured it'd be more than that. We've busted our butts here lately. We got the numbers down, but it's trying to creep back up on us, but We've got to Let's try to hold them down there. and stuff like that. Let's try to see if we we can't let's try to work on that the next couple months coming to some kind of decision on that kind of stuff before uh before we have turnover with the next elect you know the election is coming up I think September 1st it'd be a new thing. So, I think this this committee has has really done a lot for this thing. So, I mean Yeah, as far as far as like the logo and stuff I can I can have something for the next meeting. We We've kind of got that narrowed down to a few that we like. Just That'd be okay with y'all? I'm good for 4 months. And then we've also uh We're wanting to do like a 24-hour microchip scanning station. Some other counties are doing it right now like somebody finds a dog after hours. They don't have to wait for the vet to open the next day or us or anything. And there's actually a concrete pad that's already on the property out there that's outside of the gate. So, we're wanting to put that thing there permanent and which [snorts] we'll need to name it and everything and that and that's where the brick walkway because there's a little bit of dirt you have to cross to get to that concrete pad. So, maybe what that could be our first little brick walkway there.

That's a good idea. So, it would identify the dog and the owner. Yeah, yeah. They can They can come up and scan it without waiting on Well, the next day for the vet and everything. So, We've actually we're set up for two of them. I just haven't found a good spot to put the the second one. Okay. You know, several years ago they kind of frowned on letting volunteer volunteers come in and help out. Will they be able to do that? Yeah. Yeah, we just um I guess the proper way would be to get with the county attorney and draw us up a form liability waiver for

Yeah. people to sign it. We'll have to get in that building and we'll have to relearn everything all over again and get all that ironed out before we Yeah. But it would be a good thing. Yeah. But we're already looking at other other animal controls and stuff and how they do their program. So, we're already looking into some of that stuff. I think people would like to help. Oh, yeah. Oh, we've we've got all kinds of people reaching out to us.

That's great. They have been for years. Yep. Yep. Okay. Any more questions for Craig? Craig, anything else? No, that's it. Okay. All right, we appreciate it. All right, let's move it down the list. Let's go to uh 6C. That'll be Mr. Morris with Real Water. Give us an update, please. Well, Dwight and the several people came to the Manchester Water Department meeting and uh first of all, I want to thank the whole county commission for going along with us appropriating $36,000 for J. E. Sartain Road and that would have been a 4-in waterline. Uh Manchester City now decides that it needs to be a 6-in waterline which will cost roughly $72,000 uh and uh that's about where we're at with that. One of the owners of the property down there has said that he would pay for right at a quarter of a mile of the of the pipeline if Manchester City would give him the taps. So, that's where we stand on that right now. Uh I think everybody with the election and stuff coming on and everything, I think everybody needs to realize that most of our pipes, especially in my area, are 4-in water lines. And I'm getting a lot of calls or complaints of low water pressure, no water, cloudy water when it when the pipes shift and and burst and stuff. One day, it's going to have to be redeveloped, and I don't know I know the county will not have the money to pay for that pipe. It's going to mean digging up a 4-in pipe and going probably to an 8-in or a 10-in pipe with all the development that's coming. 6-in I don't think would a 6-in suffice that much subdivisions. [clears throat] Yeah,

I don't know how much you're talking about. It'll carry quite a bit. Bit of water, okay. But what I'm concerned about and have been in the past, and even though we've talked about it more and more, I've had more people comment and say, "Well, if they're going to be able to do that, [clears throat] I know other people that need the same problem." And I don't think we're going to be able to do that. just keep on doing that. And once you start it, it just gets carried away. We offered the 36,000, but my big concern is when the houses like now on Urban Farms and Norton Road and out Oak Hill Road, those people their water pressure is so low or the volume is so small.

Oh, I'm not doubting any of that. And that probably will continue for the next 10 years cuz I don't see Manchester having the money to borrow because you would have to borrow the money and dig that pipe back up and lay a 6-in down to replace it, would you know it? Well, I've been in favor of say 2-in line for these people in particular. Just add a meter. Wouldn't have cost that much money. They could have gotten water. And whenever Manchester wanted to develop that or do whatever with it, it's no cost to them to begin with. That's that's all

All they had to do was lay more lines. Mhm. It's an A1. Yeah, I don't think that would affect it. It's A1 out there. Yeah. But they'll never get So, I understand why they don't want to spend that much money for that few of customers, but I was in the business. It's just something you need to be doing if you're in the business. On on a lifetime replacement though, how long does a pipe stay in the ground? Well, we've gone through so many stages that uh was all uh galvanized, which was not a good thing cuz it's going to rust. Well, these are the

Then we were going to cast iron, we've gone to plastic, we've gone to different things. So, I don't really I can't tell you how many Would a Would that schedule 40 pipe last 30 years though? Uh-uh. Well, the pipe will typically last a long time. The earth moves, things break, and you can fix that. You don't have to replace the whole line. But replacing the whole line would give more water volume and pressure out there. Sure. And the more houses that you build on these 4-in water lines, it depletes the pressure, correct?

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so the more that we do out in there without getting our infrastructure set right, will hurt the people who are buying the homes and the people who are Well, it's just like what you said. Mhm. [clears throat] People that are already there. Yeah. People are stuck, unfortunately, in some locations in problems. All right. And I don't know how we're going to be able to address all that. water discussion. So, where I swung and I struck. I'm not out, but I have strike one on me. Well, we I mean, we come to a consensus on $36,000, so I mean, we did

Well, and and Mr. Kenneth McMahan has been very gracious about stepping forward and and talking about paying for part of it if we can work out a deal with Manchester City. I said, it could have been done if Manchester would just let people have water. It's not their system. Once that meter sits there and that line's run after that, it's not their problem. Roseann, maybe you talk maybe you talk War Trace into coming up there and catching them on the backside. I don't think they're I don't think they're in the business to do that. Ask anybody who's got War Trace water. Yeah, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. All right. Anything else, Mr. Moore? Is that all you have? That's all you got? All right. Any new business? Anybody got anything to bring up? Okay. All right. Let's set a time and date for our next meeting. That will be our May meeting. Let's look at uh Tuesday night, the 26th, May 26th. 6:00 p.m. That good with you, Roseann, on the 6th?

so. Okay. Good for you, Jackie? May the 26th. That's the day after Memorial Day. Yep. Okay. All righty. That being said, anybody else have anything else? If not, I'll ask for a meeting for uh motion for adjournment. I'll make a motion. I second. Mr. Duncan with a motion, Roseann with a second. All in favor of adjournment, say aye. Aye. All right. So have it. Thanks for coming, everyone. I'll see you in the month of May.