City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll call a couple city council meeting for Thursday, April 16th to order. May I have a roll call, please? Councilman Baji here. Councilman Walker here. Mayor Wheaten here. Vice Mayor Eldridge here. Councilman Gilbert here. Five present.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to ask those that wish to do so to stand for the invocation given tonight by Pastor Alec of Good News Community Church, followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thank you for having me here tonight. Just want to take a moment and thank you all so much for your service to our community and uh specifically uh thank you to our vice mayor and city manager for helping get some signage to keep uh the traffic slow uh right out there by tech recently for us. Thank you so much for keeping our community safe. We appreciate it. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for this beautiful day uh that you have made. And Lord, we are so thankful that we live in such a beautiful city um with incredible leaders who are here to guide and direct and lead us. God, we tonight as we come together uh we are reminded of uh the words of Jesus from Matthew 6. When asked how to pray, he reminds us to pray uh for your kingdom come and your will be done. So tonight, that is our prayer, Lord, that you would continue to lead, guide, and direct every decision that we make tonight. Give us good wisdom and help us to be a shining light. Lord, we we thank you for all the things that you've done will do through this great community. We pray all these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible. with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Pastor Lisset. Item three, consider approval of agenda as presented. Are there any changes? I have a motion. So, move second. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Baji. Any discussion from councel? Okay, vote on that.

All votes correct. Five. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 4 A. may consider appointments and reappointments to the public building authority. Mr. Mills,

mayor and council members, the terms of three members of the city of Kville public building authority will expire in May. First, the public building authority is overseas the chamber of commerce building held in Wesley Town Center. The public building authority was created in 2002. Members of the authority are appointed by the city manager uh nominated by the chief executive officer and the nomination or excuse me appointments confirmed by the city council. They also serve six-year terms. The members with terms expiring are Nelson Forester, Steve Copeland, and Connie Albright. Mr. Forester and Mr. Copeland have agreed to continue to serve if reappointed to serve terms expiring May of 2032. Um this would be Mr. Copeland's fifth term and Mr. Forers's third term, Connie has indicated she no longer wishes to serve on the authority and Amy new has nominated and I recommend for the appointment of Mrs. Susan Luna Hazelwood and she would replace Connie for a term also expiring in May of 2032. So I would respectfully request your ratification of my reappoint of Mr. Forester and Mr. Copelan and my appointment of Miss Luna Hazelward to the PBA for each serving terms expiring May of 32. Thank you. Do I have a motion?

Move to ratify. Second. Motion made by Councilman Walker, seconded by Councilman Gilbert. Any discussion from the council on this? Maybe our ratification. What? Our first ratification. Yeah, that's right. Turn up vote. We did it two years ago. Okay. Yeah. All right. We'll go ahead and vote on that. We got a motion in a second. All votes correct. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 4 B. Consider reappoints of representa representatives to the Putham County Tax Equalization Board. Mr. Mills, Mayor,

council members, the term of service for Mark McKinley as the city's representative on the Putnham County Board of Equalization has expired. The board of equalization here's appeals to local property assessments. Probably get several of those after reappraisal this year. So, um, we would, uh, the county property assessor, Steve Parish, has has contacted Mr. McKinley. He's agreed to continue to serve if reappointed and I would recommend for the reappoint of Mr. McKinley. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Vice Mayor Elders. Do you have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Gilbert. Uh any discussion from the public on this discussion from council. Okay, we'll vote on that.

Although it's correct. Five. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 5A. Consider approval of minutes of council meeting held on April 2nd, 2026. Is there a motion? So move. Motion made by Vice Mayor Elders. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Walker. Any discussion from the council on that? Okay. All vote.

All correct. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 5B. Consider on second and final reading ordinance 026304 reszoning property located on Boyd Ferris Road Tax Map 83 partial 57.00 00 from CI commercial industrial mixed use and RS20 single family residential to RS5 single family residential. Mr. Ward. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, we've had no changes to the ordinance since first reading. I've had no calls or comments. Recommend your approval on second and final reading. Thank you. Is there a motion? So move.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilman Baji. Any discussion from the public on this discussion from council? Okay. All vote. All votes correct 5. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 5C. Consider on second and final reading. Ordinance 0260305. Amendments to the official street map. Mr. Ward. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Again, no changes to the ordinance since first reading. We've had no cause or comments. I recommend approval on second and final reading. Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice Elders. Do I have a second? Second.

Second by Councilman Baji. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council. Okay, take a vote.

All votes correct. Five. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. On to the consent agenda. 6 A, consider approval to purchase two police pursuit vehicles utilizing the statewide contract number 209. 6B, consider approval of purchase and installation of vehicle emergency response equipment utilizing statewide contract number 202. 6 C, consider approval to purchase bulk deicing salt utilizing statewide contract number 507, contract ID 66848. And 6 D, consider committing to purchase one side load sanitation truck in fiscal year 2627 to lock in price. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda? Move. Motion made by Vice Mayor Elders. Do you have a second? Second.

Second by Councilman Baji. Any discussion from the council on the consent agenda? Okay. All vote. All votes correct. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. And on to our only single item of new business 7 A. Consider authorizing the city manager to enter to a contract not to exceed 200,000 for repair of the surfacing of the heart of the city playground and utilizing source while purchasing cooperative. Mr. McDonald.

Hello. Trying to find my slide up there. Mayor and council, as you all know, the heart of the city playground opened in 2015 in Dogwood Park and has been enjoyed by many families and children throughout those 10 years. But after 10 years of work of use, the playground is reaching some of its uh some of the parts of the playground is reaching end of life and need to be repaired. For example, we replaced parts of the slides recently. We just recently replaced the rope tower climbing structure and we're in the process of repairing some swings and the horizontal ladders. So, we've got parts ordered to repair those. However, one of the biggest problems areas right now is the uh the surfacing. As you can see in those pictures up there, what exists now is poured in and place rubber and uh due to exposure and its age. It's be it's beginning to create bigger problems than we can correct with just patching. The patches are not permanent and they can be pulled up by the children who are playing there. So, the solution we're proposing is the installation of a Forever Lawn grass service on top of the port in place surface. Not only does this Forever Lawn keep us from having to remove the rubber surface, it makes the installation go faster and cheaper. Another added benefit of the Forever Lawn is a Tool infill, which will lower the surface temperature of the play area up to 10° throughout the summer. And that's been a a complaint of that area quite a bit. So, what I'm here tonight to ask you to do is to allow the city manager to sign a contract with recreational concepts. They're local here to Cookville, and commit to the expenditure for the project not to exceed $200,000. This would include the material installation and a 5% contingency for the project. The costs shown here are fixed and are come from the Sourcewell statewide contract. The reason we're coming to you now is so that we can get on the installer schedule. The repair will require the playground to be shut down completely and we'd like to complete that work in September after

kids have gone back to school. So, if approved, we plan to close the day after Labor Day and be closed for four to six weeks for the install. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, but request your approval. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Councilman Baji, seconded by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the public on this discussion from council? We've actually been somehow we've been at the park two day actually three days in a row including today and it does it needs a little it needs a little work. So I'm excited that uh we're getting this done because it's going to just improve that so much more. Yes sir. So thank you. Any comments? Any other comments? All right then. Support maintenance.

It doesn't it needs some maintenance. We will vote on maintenance. How's that? We got a motion in a second. So excuse me. We'll go ahead and vote. All votes correct. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the agenda portion of our meeting. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to the council on any non-aggenda items? Seeing none, anything from the council, actually. Yep. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. You're fine. Just say your name. Uh, city or county and three minutesish.

Montana Chambers. I am a citizen of the Putham County uh place Pton County. Um, in light of recent events of some attendance of coun some city council members, um, I want to make it clear, uh, I do not want to vote for a candidate to tell me what they personally believe. I vote for them to represent the people they serve. Their job is to not impose their personal convictions, but to carry out the public will within the limits of the office. We should draw a line between representative and a ruler. A representative is supposed to act as an agent of the public, not as a preacher, philosopher, or a parent. That is why a candidate talking too much about the personal beliefs can feel backwards. A candidate's personal beliefs are their own business. What matters to me is whether they will govern according to the will of the people rather than treating office as a vehicle for their own ideology. Let me make it very clear. I am have no offense about Christianity. I respected in a lot of ways. I just have deep concerns about blending the lines between your religion and our politics.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak to council? Seeing none, any comments from the council?

I've got just make an announcement. Um we are here in a couple of here in a couple of weeks. We are going to have the 75th annual National Day of Prayer uh that we've done forever. And so it'll be on the south lawn of Putnham County Courthouse on Thursday, May 7th. There will be praise and worship. It will begin around 11:30 and then the prayer service will begin at noon and end around 1:00 p.m. So everybody's welcome. Uh it's a great thing that we do in this community and I appreciate everything that we do in this community regarding that. And if it does rain, it will be held at the third floor of the commission chamber. So, just wanted to make that announcement and love to see you there, pastor, and anybody else and love to see everybody there. So, look forward to it.

Yeah, it'll be great. Thank you. Any other comments from councel? All right, meeting is adjourned.