City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] call this to order here on Monday uh Monday, October 20th. Uh our regularly scheduled uh second meeting of the month. Appreciate everybody being here and we have a robust agenda. Um I don't believe we have a close session at the end of this and so council unless Ron gets a text message and tells me between now and then that something has changed but uh we will move through our agenda as uh efficiently as possible but we do have a fair number of things that are going to be uh you know certainly worthy of some discussion. So with that we have called to order. We will begin with an invocation prior to a roll call. our fire chaplain, Archbishop Anthony Slater. If you'll come forward, do deliver an invitation and then we will uh uh join in the pledge.

Good evening everyone. Excuse my attire. We're going out with the young people tonight. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this moment that we can come together and seek your wisdom. Father, we thank you for this great city, Lord, and all the things that you're planning to do for us and for the constituents that are here. Father, bless this council as they continue to do your bidding and even ours, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam clerk, if you please conduct a roll call. Mayor Gayler, present. Mayor Pro Tim Jones, present. Councilman Boyette, present. Councilwoman Taylor, present. Councilwoman Matthews, present. Councilwoman Weeks, present.

Councilman White checked in early this evening and is under the weather. We wish him a very expedient recovery and look forward to um being back in communication with him very soon. So, with that, Mr. Mr. Livingston, are there any uh recommen recommendations to to change the agenda from staff? No. No, sir. Mr. Mayor. All right. Council, you've had an opportunity to see the agenda. Are there any requested changes from council? Hearing none. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? So moved. Second.

Motion has been made and properly seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Uh Miss is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. Miss gets uh when you can. All right. Please vote electronically. If you are able, give it a second. I'm missing a couple people.

All right. All in favor, please raise your hand. All oppose, same sign. We will get there moment. All right. Perfect. And if you would please publish the vote. I've been battling work with the AWS outage all over the world. So, I I won't blame that on that. All right, there we go. Well, it popped back up again. I'm still in favor of the agenda. All right, we will move forward with recognitions and presentations. We'll move to item 4.1, which is a retirement resolution for Robin Jones. If you would give me just a moment. Yes. Well, let me read it first and then we'll invite you to the podium and let you speak. Resolution expressing appreciation for services rendered by Robin Jones as an employee of the city of Goldsboro for more than 10 years. Whereas Robin Jones retires on November 1st, 2025 as an administrative assistant three with more than 10 years of service from the city of Goldsboro with the city of Goldsboro. And whereas Robin began her career on December 15th, 2014 as an administrative assistant 2 with the Goldsboro Police Department. And whereas Robin assumed the role of interim executive assistant on December 4th, 2019 and faithfully served in that capacity until the conclusion of her interim term on June 17th, 2020. And whereas on December 2nd uh 2020, Robin was promoted to administrative assistant three with the police department where she has served until her retirement. And whereas Robin has demonstrated exceptional dedication and efficiency in her service, earning their respect and admiration of her colleagues and the citizens of the city of Goldsboro. And whereas the mayor and city council of the city of Gsborough are desirous on behalf of themselves,

city employees, and the citizens of the city of Goldsboro of expressing to Robin Jones their deep appreciation and gratitude for the service rendered by her to the city over the years. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and city council of the city of Gsbor, North Carolina, that we express to Robin Jones our very best wishes for success, happiness, prosperity, and good faith in her future endeavors. This resolution shall be incorporated into the official minutes of the city of Goldsboro and shall be in full force in effect from and after this the 20th day of October 2025 council. This being a resolution that has been read in. We need an official vote. And so is there a motion to adopt the resolution as presented? So move, Mr. Mayor. All right. Is there a second? Second.

All right. Motion has been made and properly seconded to adopt the resolution as presented. Is there any debate? Hearing none, please cast your vote. should be electronically on your screen. Mo uh motion passes 60. The resolution is adopted. And so if Robin, if you would like to come forward and So, two different places. We've crossed paths now and you have successfully retired from both of them. Uh just in time for uh just in time for me to come back and say thank you. So, would you like to say any words or would you like for her to say any words or I have a feeling. Do you want you want to go first or you want All right. All right.

Okay. So, I can confidently say this to city manager, you mayor, and everybody with council sitting here as well as I'm sure with Sergeant Harper and the other majors and we even brought people up here from retirement. Um, this is a huge loss to the city. Uh she is tremendous uh to all of us. We are very needy at the agency and she does a lot of payroll and we make a lot of mistakes and Robin is always been welcoming, warm, she keeps us grounded. She's the nice one and uh she keeps us definitely in check. She spent half her career working for the city. She's spent the last 14 years working for us in operations. And we're not e we're not easy. We know we're not easy. Um, and this is just a terrible loss to all of us. So, we would like to vote no. I know I say that coming from the group.

Now, you realize this is just a vote to be nice about

I'm sorry, but her family is watching. They're they're watching and um and we they know as well. Well, you know how we feel about her, but we love her. She her husband's here with her and um and we love him too and they've just genuinely been good for us and for the city. Her sister served the city for years, Kim Dawson. Many of you know her and so they just are they're generally good people and she um deserves everything she gets in retirement and she's going to be truly missed by all of us. So, thank you for giving me a few minutes to to speak to everybody. I've offered the other two, but I know that they had the same thoughts and I don't know if they want to, but thank you. Thank you. ready to spend some time with my precious granddaughter. And that's all.

Thank you for the opportunity to to work here. And it's been a pleasure. If you would, who all would you like up here in pictures?

Would you mind holding the phone? We got multi-talented people around here.

Good to see

pretty much I see you. [Applause] All right, Mr. Livingston, we will move to item 4.2, employee of the quarter award.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to go down there and present it, please. [Music] This is the employee of the quarter award for fiscal year first quarter fiscal year 2526. It's been awarded to Tim Collier for outstanding achievement. I'm going to read this here. On May 21st, 2025, engineer Tim Collier shared a video from a fire department in the Netherlands featuring featuring mini fire trucks using in a fun community focused activity where children race by spraying water. The idea brought to the attention of the training division to explore the possibility of incorporating a similar activity into the upcoming third annual hook and ladder fire camp. This concept was very wellreceived. A few weeks later, engineer Collier followed up to check on the progress and when there were no updates, he took the initiative by suggesting direct contact with the department in the Netherlands to gather detailed information including materials, dimension, weight, hose size, length, and hose pressure. After obtaining the necessary specifications, he conducted further research to uh source equivalent materials domestically as the original materials were not readily available in the US. I guess he dealt with the supply chain issues and everything else. So that's pretty impressive. Despite several challenges, engineer Collier successfully designed and built a set of custom mini firet trucks that exceeded all expectations. His exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail turned a simple concept into a memorable and high quality addition to the fire camp. A project of this nature could have easily exceeded 3,000 in value when considering labor, materials, shipping, and other associated costs. Remarkably, engineer

Collier del dedicated personnel time to his days off to ensure the trucks were completed in time for the event. Since the camp, departments from across the state and the country have reached out to Engineer Collier, requesting more information, bringing positive attention to both the city of Goldsboro and its fire department. Engineer Collier's work ethic and accomplishments reflect well on himself and the city of Goldsboro. Awarded this day, October 20th, 2025. Congratulations. And um say a couple words. I guess we got didn't know who was going to nominate me for this. I didn't know why, but uh I thankful for it. It's always nice to be recognized by your peers. Um I tell the guys all the time that the city of Go, particularly the fire department, has been good to me and my family. And again, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you, Latoya, if you can get some pictures. Thanks again. There's a check in there, too. Of course, not see me. Matt, if you want to get one with family, don't forget. Definitely. Thank you, Mayor.

I'll step out of this picture if you want. That's a good way to kick off a meeting. I like it. Congratulations and thank you. And uh those trucks are pretty amazing. Um that's that's really creative. [Music] All right. Next we have I can tell. Um next we have item 4.3. Safety first on Halloween proclamation. uh simply to be read in the record. Safety first on Halloween proclamation. Whereas it is the desire and responsibility of the city council to promote the safety and welfare of the citizens of the city of Goldsboro. And whereas the the city council is concerned that our young citizens participate in the traditional Halloween trick-or- treat activities in a safe and orderly manner. And whereas the city council feels that the best method for promoting a safe and orderly Halloween is through a proclamation from the mayor setting forth guidelines for these activities. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Gsborough City Council does hereby declare October 31st, 2025 as safety first on Halloween and encourage all citizens of Goldsboro to promote and observe the following safety guidelines. Parents are asked to supervise the Halloween trick-or- treat activities of their children and to ensure that trick-or- treat activities are limited to children under the age of 16 years.

Trick-or- treat hours will be observed from 6 until 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 31st. Residents who wish to participate in trick-or- treat are asked to leave a porch light or other outdoor light on during these hours. Parents are asked to explain to children that homes with no outdoor light on are not participating and that these homes should be passed up during the activities. It is also recommended for the safety of our children that parental supervision be extended to include insistence that children do not consume any treats until closely examined by their parents. Parents should follow the rule of if in doubt throw it out where evidence of tampering with packaging or surfaces of consumable product may exist. These guidelines are set forth in the hope that all citizens of Goldsboro will enjoy a happy, safe, and orderly Halloween. And witness whereof, I have here to set my hand in a fix the seal of the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina this the 20th day of October, 2025. All right, Miss Guts, if you would please, we'll move into our public comment period. If anyone did not get to sign up, please do so quickly. And Miss Guts, as soon as you are able to retake your seat, just go ahead and kick us off. Our first speaker is Earl Artist.

Good evening everyone. Good evening, Mayor and the council. My name is Earl Artist and I live Give us just one Give us one second. We need to wait for the timer to come up. All right. Give us just one second. We'll get the timer going. I know that Apologies. I know that's a bit uncomfortable. Um if we need to, I will do a timer right here. There we go. Perfect. at your leisure.

Um, I'm here on with the concern about the uh trash pickup, yard debris and everything. The regular garbage pickup is all right, but the yard debris with the limbs and the grass and the leaves. Uh, we've had them to sit out in front of our house for two or three weeks before they were picked up. And uh, we make my neighbor and I, Mr. Scott, we make phone calls down there weekly and we always get the excuse that uh the they're broke down. Uh they don't have enough employees and everything. Uh so we were just wondering that they don't keep a regular time schedule on the pickup of this. I uh like to keep my yard neat and clean and and the neighborhood as as well. Uh, I don't want to put it out there and let it sit out there for two or three weeks. That that's I don't think that's right. And it seems like if everything is broke down or you don't have enough employee, seems like the only place you have enough employees is the people doing the billing. We get that bill every month, but we don't get the service. And I just like to know, is there a shortage or or what the problem might be? Yes sir. There uh Mr. Livson as we've already discussed at the first meeting in next month there will be a report from uh from the department head who is over leaf and limb because this become an issue all over the city. Uh so yes there will there will be a report at the next council meeting that'll be public and to council to explain what our solution is.

All right. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. You that was our only speaker on the list. All right. With that, um, we'll move to our consent agenda. Let's see. Mr. Livingston, if you would please, sorry, I just refreshed my screen by mistake. Mr. Livingston, if you would please hear any remaining questions on our consent agenda.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have four items on our consent agenda, all of which have been discussed in the past. The last meeting, we t talked um somewhat in detail on the Goldsboro Union Station stabilization project. You'll also get an update on that tonight. There's a resolution there um in your packet. There's an ordinance establishing a grant project fund for the EPA Brownfields grant assessment that we received uh on behalf of the EPA. That's a $500,000 grant. And we have approval of minutes and then the department monthly reports. I'll take any questions if there's any questions at this time.

Perfect. Council, there's probably other things on this agenda that also could have been part of the consent agenda, but as as always, we want to make sure that we get a chance to see things first. And so, council, if there's a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented, then we'll move into the other items. So, moved. Motion's been made. Is there a second? Second. All right. Motion made and properly seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there any debate? Hearing none, please cast your vote. Are they popping up for you? I'll vote one. I don't. I don't have Councilwoman Matthews. Um, would you please conduct a roll call vote? Mayor Gayler.

Yes. Mayor Pro Tim Jones. Yes. Councilman Boyette. Yes. Councilwoman Taylor. Yes. Councilwoman Matthews. Councilwoman Weeks. Yes. All right, we'll move to item 7.1. Uh an update on something that I know is uh been reviewed by council a couple of different times over the years. Uh the saving union station effort, the funds that were attached to that uh last year this time and we have Miss Julie Mets here to speak. Mr. Livingston, would you like to kick us off with any comments or go straight to Miss Mets? We'll just go straight to Julie. There we go. Floor is yours.

Uh good evening, uh council and mayor. Um, I want to thank you for this time to allow the Saving Union Station team to share with you some recent updates um, related to Union Station and the Southeastern Passenger Rail Corridor Study. Um, it's been a while since we've been here. It's crazy that it was since November of 2023 um, when we were here to request your partnership to embark on a new effort and endeavor to save our historic landmark, Union Station, through a stabilization effort. Um it like I said it's been two years and so we felt like it was time to give you an update on our efforts. We expect that many who aren't involved in it on a daily basis don't think a lot has happened or occurred since that time, but I assure you it has and that's what we're here to do to share with that with you and to let you know that you're going to see some activity at 101 North Carolina Street very soon. Um, I think John Peacock, who is a new member of the Saving Union Station team, will be here momentarily. He's running a little late. And of course, Doug McGrath is a original member of the Saving Union Station team. Mark Metsler um is not able to be here today. And then there's myself. That's a small volunteer group, but we're mighty powerful when we put our will to be to our effort. So, that's the Saving Union Station team. Um before I share the recent updates on activities related to Union Station, I think it's probably beneficial to kind of recap a timeline of Union Station um for those of you that might not be as um up to date about it or have been involved in it. Um the concept and construction go ahead if you want to Oh, I have the thing. Very good. The flicker. Uh the concept and construction of the station began in 1906. The station was open to the public in June of 1909. Um, and with great fanfare, I might add, the mayor actually ordered all businesses to be

closed that day. There was a parade and that he wanted everybody involved in it. Um, I think I shared this tidbit with you in in 2023, but the station was constructed for a mere $72,000. Um, and and uh it seems uh insignificant at the time, but I'm sure at the time it was. The station was built for the joint use of the Atlantic Coastline, Norfolk Southern, and the Southern Railroad Companies, which is why it has the name Union Station. Later in 1968, unfortunately, the passenger rail service to and from Goldsboro was deceased and the and the building was decommissioned. David Perry who is a big supporter of the SEUS effort. Um his father Arthur purchased the building in 1972 for an incillary building to support Golds Goldsboro Builders which was located in the area at that time. Luckily also Gus's significance architecturally, culturally, socially, and its impact to eastern North Carolina earned its position on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Fast forward to 1999 when NC DO's rail division um conducted a study that was um expressed uh by the then North Carolina Board of Transportation Secretary Lindo Tippet. He had an objective to uh expand passenger rail to eastern North Carolina with the objective to connect Raleigh and Wilmington. Now, Lindo Tippet was from Fateville, North Carolina, which was one of the five routes that was being considered um that in a study that was being conducted um in 1999. Goldsboro was one of the routes in competition for this. Um it was found out in 2004 um through a draft release of the study. In fact, John Peacock was the president of the CHA chamber at the time and he read an article in the News

and Observer uh sharing that this study was being released and that the favored route was through Fyville. Um he was alarmed because he hadn't heard anything about it. He called me because I was a transportation planner for the city at the time to see if I had heard anything about it or had any participation in the study, which I did not. Neither did the mayor, neither did the manager, neither did the county. So, this caused alarm. Um John uh gathered some folks that were in in Goldsboro that had a lot of um a lot of knowledge of rail, including David Quick, um Sandy Korscham, and of course, Judge Charlie Gayler. And the the five of them drove to Raleigh to request um some information as to why the city wasn't included in this draft study and to understand um the numbers and the data that were behind it that got the favor to Fyville. Um needless to say, after years of meeting, we met every week. There's a group of us, the railroad task force, every Friday, um with the intention to lobby for a new study, um to gain involvement by the communities that were in it and also to make sure that the numbers that were being utilized were were adequate and correct. Um we won that fight. In 2004, the state conducted a new study and in 2005, a new report was released um which favored the Goldsboro path. Um the numbers um showed that it was more cost-effective, that we would have better passenger use, um the economic impact would be better. Um and so that was the 2005 study. Following that decision, uh David Perry decided to relocate uh Goldsboro Builders to its current home. Um and because of communication that we had with him, he understood that we had an interest in the building. Um and he notified us of the of his current uh future move. So therefore um NC DOT and the city of

Goldsboro entered into an agreement to stabilize the structure and secure the property through a state appropriation that we requested through then North Carolina Department of Transportation Board of Transformation Board of Transportation member Tom Betts. Um NC DOT acquired the property with these funds and work began. Once NC DOT exhausted the set of funds um by way of conducting an environmental study, uh a condition assessment of the historic finish analysis and prepared construction plans for some of the stabilization work. An amendment to the 2007 agreement was made to transition the property to the city of Goldsboro. In that agreement authorized by the city council, the city accepted responsibility of the property, its liability, and its maintenance. It also agreed to allow NC do uh a use of the space when passenger rail or expanded transit uses are needed. Um, but they are very uh open to how that is is is done when the time comes. It doesn't necessarily have to be of footprint in the building. If there is a use in the building, they only require space for um passengers um for waiting in a lobby as well as a ticketing booth which they anticipate to be only about 1100 square ft and the building is 12,63 foot. So it could be a small footprint in the building, but if there is a use in the building and it's 100% maximized, they are also open to building a new facility on the property within the 6.3 acres. Um, so that is part of the agreement that we have with NC DOT as of now. In 2010, the NC DOT partnership resulted in some federal highway administration funds to complete the stabilization work, removing asbestous and demolishing demolishing uh some of the non-historic incillary buildings that that um Goldsboro Goldsboro builders had built

to support their use. Um, I will note that this work was done understanding at the time that this was supposed to be a three to fiveyear band-aid. Um, we anticipated being able to com be competitive for what was an enhancement fund program um by USDOT. Uh, it was a it was we were by all parties involved a clear competitive um participant in that grant pro grant program. Unfortunately, by the time we got ownership of the building and had the construction plans and all of that, the program was defunded. Um, so our what we thought was going to be a fasttrack rehabilitation of Union Station that therefore was not as we now know. Um, next, there are a lot of benchmarks in this timeline related to GWTA, our transit system, and I won't go over these in detail, but I just do want to say that the importance of it to GUS is that GWTA followed Gus as the impetus and the vision to be a multimodal transportation hub at that six sixacre property. And so, the purpose was to create a seamless transportation, affordable transportation options for our community in the greater region. The actual construction of GWTA located at Union Station was enabled due to the Tiger grant that we received in 2013 as well as two previous grants that we had received before. Um, and also along with the county's financial commitment to D GWTA. So, they were a participant in this as well. We were also able to complete the construction of the parking lot and and some of the other um supportive uh facilities that you see on the property now that were intended to be used by both uses um at some point. In 2018, NC DOT found some additional funds to support a a roof replacement requiring a 50% match of the city. We worked this with the state historic preservation office. We had uh taken off

all the clay roof tiles in 2007 hoping to reuse them. Um but upon the time that we had the funds, we did a saturation test and found out that they only had a 5 to 10 year useful life. So therefore, it wasn't a good investment to put those back up. Um we worked with the state historic preservation office to find some that match the material and the profile. Um but because of their added expense, we were only able to fund the portion on the main portion of the building and not the two um incillary uh sides of the building until So that was done. The roof construction was completed in 2019 and that was really the last investment that was made to Union Station until recently which gets us to 2023. So as you know 2023 was a big year. Um the latter part of it, uh attention to Union Station and the North Carolina Southeastern Passenger Rail Route emerged again following the 2021 infrastructure bill that was uh a bipartisan bill, which is important to note um which guaranteed historical funding for rail as well as other transportation modes. During this year, an advocacy group called the Eastern Carolina Rail um was created and their mission is to keep the North Carolina Southeastern Passenger Rail Route in play to see it funded and constructed by working with NC DOT as well as elected officials up across and down the corridor between Wilmington and Raleigh. The Federal Rail Administration about the same time announced the um availability of $ 36 billion to study national preferred passenger rail routes. Um and they they uh invited each state to provide a priority list. Um our our southeastern rail was one of those two top priorities that the state um forwarded. The other one was the western route um to include Asheville. The destination would be Asheville.

Closing out the year, a local advocacy group called Saving Union Station, US, uh was formed whose sole purpose was to save Union Station through a stabilization effort. Um, we presented a plan uh to you as well as the county um to raise funds to meet a $1.5 million budget which was derived from um input from the state uh rail division um to address the necessary immediate needs that the building has to protect its future. Um our plan was for each um government entity put in $375,000 and that we would raise the additional $750,000. And as you know, you all um approved that plan unanimously and we thank you very much and we've been working hard to get to that point to date. So 2024 um immediately upon that meeting, our team got together. We were down at the building in the property. We worked with a lot of friends within the community uh companies such as Alen Grading and TA Loving to find out what we needed to do immediately um to get we had some water runoff issues. Um and luckily I have to say thanks to uh landscape design Lauren and and uh Mark Metsler, they contributed donated about $40,000 worth of professional services uh materials and work to address those needs and to clean up the property. On June 4th, our SUS team held a saving Union Station day with the um intent to raise some awareness and rally support uh for Union Station and the Southeastern Passenger Rail Route. And in September, an independent study conducted by uh or conducted for NC DOT was released stating that the Southeastern passenger railroad route connecting Wilmington and Raleigh through Goldsboro passed the feasibility test, allowing this project to project to the federal level for

future funding. And in the fall of 2024, the city shared its readiness to begin applying its $375,000 to Union Station. So for the remainder of the year, this Union Station team members assisted the development of an RFQ to solicit a design builder team and began preparing an application for the North Carolina Department of Commerce for a grant to support the station building. Which gets us to now uh in 2025. It's been a busy year as well. the city and the sus uh team issued a phase one stabilization RFQ as you know soliciting a design builder team to stabilize Union Station. Um this was issued in January or January 2nd of this year and then shortly after the rural downtown economic development grant was due to which the SUS team prepared this application pro bono um and the DGDC provided the 5% required local match. The city was kept a breast of this effort and was supportive which was necessary to be eligible for the grant program since it requires that the grant monies flow through a local government entity. After the grant application was submitted to the department of commerce, uh it required um us to also apply for NEPA status and approval from the state historic preservation office. Uh the SUS team did this as well and there it appro was approved contingent upon the fact that the state historic preservation office is involved in all the design phases of the project. A team was selected to review responses to the RFQ. Members of the SAS team as well as the city and NC DOT rail were involved in that and an unanimous decision to engage further with TA loving was the result. On February 24th 4th, we learned that our grant application was awarded. We

received the maximum amount based on its um formula of of jobs retained. Um and we received 612,500. It was noted, I have to say in the in the letter that we received from the then um assistant secretary uh Kenny Flowers, it was noted that the unique and strong partnership among the state and local governments, nonprofit main street organization and the private sector played a significant role in the grtor's decision as well as the historical significance of the building. And finally, as just of a couple weeks ago, the city of Goldsboro staff, as you know, recommended council's approval to enter into a contract with TA Loving for phase one stabilization, which is on your which you just approved on the consent agenda just momentarily ago. So, what I want to go over just briefly what people can expect to see in phase one. Um, and then I also want to talk a little bit about current fundraising status, where we are with that, and share some recent state and federal updates related to the Southeastern Passenger Rail Route. And then in closing, I'm going to offer some uh recommended uh next steps. So, the design services phase one uh the majority of the phase one design and construction activities will be focused on weatherizing the building and the property and temporarily stabilizing several key structural elements. I'm not going to read everything that's going to be on the next two slides. I'm just going to summarize it for you. Um we had a kickoff meeting actually today um with TA Loving and a fence is going to be installed around the front perimeter of the of the property to protect it um by the close of November and you will begin to start seeing a lot of activity um on the property because we're going to be doing a lot of exploration to begin the design phase.

Also um since this is a design builder uh approach to a project we are um that we are undertaking in at least two different phases. Um there is a considerable amount of flexibility that's built into how we're approaching this project. Also the other thing that is requiring flexibility is that the building is you know it's historic. It's old. We don't know exactly what's what's going on with it structurally. So, we're going to have to be a little flexible in the and and it's going to affect the timeline and the priorities and the approach. Um, but we are confident we have the right design builder team with TA Loving. Um, the architect is Michael Graves Company who specializes in historic properties. Um, consultants Edwards, Cox Edwards, Mclaw Horn Engineering, and WH Prudin III. Um, contractor Manning Masonry and our friends of course at the state historic preservation office in the rail division. Um, a more comprehensive team meeting is planned for the first week of November and the design phase is scheduled to occur between then and March of 2026. However, as stated earlier, due to the complexity of the project, we'll do design in phases within phase one and we'll do work in phases within phase one. So, we'll do some design work and then as permitting for that design work is allowed, we'll start construction. So, it's going to be happening um consistently throughout that process. I'll give you a fundraising update. Um as you know, um $1.5 million is our goal. That's the budget that we need to do all the stabilization work. Um you all have um graciously applied your $375,000. That's what's in play right now um to do phase one. Um we have secured 612,500 from the grant. The DGDC's contribution through the 5% grant match required is

37,05. And then we have secured actually we secured a little bit more in the last week since I've submitted this, but around 11,100 in private donations. Um, of course, the Wayne County Commissioners have a commitment of $375,000 out there that we can't secure until the SUS team raises our 750. So, we're about $890,000 short. Um, as many of you are keenly aware, uh, we have lost some great community leaders recently, um, in a short amount of time, I might add. Um some of those um were dedicated a lot of their time and energy and passion and resources to seeing Union Station be saved and secure passenger rail through Goldsboro. Um including David Quick, Sandy Korscham, Al King, Chuck Allen, and most recently Jimmy Edmonson. I worked alongside each of them and knew their passion for this project. But I don't think any of these men had as much passion for both equations of the puzzle, and that is Union Station and the Southeastern Passenger Rail as much as Judge Charles Gayler. The SUS team is working to close that $89,000 gap in Charlie's honor. Once the funds are raised, sorry, we commit to planting a hackberry tree in the station's property to honor his name and all the work that he did. We are currently holding the remaining funds that we have secured to date, which is $661,100, until we can close out our $89,000 gap, um, and collect the county's portion. This approach will enable us to shorten the phases and hopefully only have two phases, which will help make the project run smoother, more efficiently, and more effectively. It's worth mentioning that the SUS team is not counting any of the inind value that we've contributed um to this match. Um between landscape design,

professional proono services that I've provided as well as just the general overall time that the SUS team has has provided, we're not we're not including this. If we had, we probably could close this gap, but we do hope to have the actual cash closed um by March of 2026. So logistically, I just want to say as a reminder for everybody involved um in this project, we have partners um that are important to us um near-term and long-term and due to the funding requirements, we have certain obligations to meet. This may add some time to the process and it will require a strategic approach to managing the grant and the project. We are at a point where this will require attention and a more constant um intentionality. Um, so I just share that because I think, you know, there's more things in play now. The Southeastern Passenger Rail Route is becoming active. I mean, this process, the progress is moving forward and I think it would be prudent for all of us to be aware of that and to be a little bit more intentional in how we move that forward. To give you just a brief NC DOT update, I talked to um the team there. Um, as you know, in September, uh, they completed this southeastern North Carolina passenger rail feasibility study. I just want to quote, if you haven't read it, I think it's important. Um, this is just an excerpt from the executive summary. The recommended route for the Raleigh to Wilmington service is the eastern route as opposed to the western route through Fagatville that connects Raleigh to Wilmington and passes through six counties. The route is approximately 135 or 134 miles long. Although the station locations have not been determined, cost estimates and ridership forecasts were prepared assuming the route would include stops in Wilmington, Goldsboro, Selma, Clayton, Raleigh, and two additional stops to be determined later. This route

will be pursued through the Federal Railroad Administration's corridor Identification and Development Program." End quote. This was an independent study conducted for NCDOT and it is the first step to getting into the Federal Rail Administration's corridor ID program which is akin to getting into a funding pipeline or a CIP. Step one of the corridor ID program develops a scope for the service development plan and is currently under review right now by NC DOT. Oops, sorry. Once approved internally, it will be forwarded to the Federal Rail Administration. Likely by the close of this month. Um with the government shutdown, this might affect the schedule. Um but if FRA is in agreement with the scope, the corridor ID process will go to step two, which is anticipated to cur to occur in early 2026. Step two is the actual development of the service plan. At this time, NC DOT will be required to obtain operating agreements um between CSX and the North Carolina Railroad Company and a funding agreement between uh the impacted local governments along the corridor. As I am have been told um just as recent as this past week by Jason Meyers, the local share is um 10% of an anticipated $6.5 million plan. The plan will take three years to complete and is hoped to be concluded in 2029. Now, this is a collective 10% share. So, all the local government entities along the corridor will be approached and asked to provide their portion of the fair share. I do not know how this will be formulated. Uh the NC DOT doesn't know either. Um, I suspect after some conversation, you know, being surprised that this happened so late because they want to have it

done in early 2026 and it's in the middle of a funding a budget cycle um that maybe the state will consider funding the match up front and working with local governments um to to to pay them back. I don't know. I just share that with you that there is going to be some as of now it looks like some local government match to fund this study. Um, so anyway, all states have the opportunity to participate in this program. Once it gets to this level and is approved, um, it really is just a matter of when their funding is available. Um, but again, this is a a national program. It's going to be very competitive to make your project a priority. And so, I just share that because it's going to take a lot of advocacy and partnership. Um here I just want to share I was contacted by you council member um Matthews and the mayor via uh county chair Barbara AOK regarding news of a recently uh reprogrammed uh federal grant through the federal rail administration. It's called um the uh federal state partnership for inner city passenger rail. It's a new program to support um efforts such as ours. I attended the webinar last week. Um, we are eligible. Union Station is eligible. I'm not sure how competitive we are. It's a new program. I didn't have a chance to ask questions about projects. Um, the state is applying for this grant. They haven't shared for which project. Um, and as long as the state cap that the federal government puts on each state, um, isn't matched out from their project, I'm sure that they would provide a letter of support if the city wanted to pursue this grant. Um, but that is all I know about that program at this time. But there are new funding sources available to help support this project. Um, which gets me to the kind of next steps. Um, there these are just

recommended next steps from my perspective and that of the SUS team. Of course, we will uh continue to work to close our funding gap within the next five months and secure the $1.5 million needed to complete the entire scope. Um at that time we will work with our funding partners to implement phase two to complete the stabilization. Um we understand that the city is working to kind of receelebrate rail. You know I don't know if you remember but we used to have an event called derailbration to um celebrate the fact that we were slightly orary back in 1926 and uprooted the rail system that used to go through downtown on Center Street. um that event uh stopped in during my tenure. Um but there is because it's the 100th celebration of that event, there is something here that the city is is helping to help plan in April of 2026. Um we help we the SUS team will plan to be participant in that as much as we can to forward this project. Um and we're working with the team to to to do some kind of engagement opportunities with the rail division. But more on that to come. I think um since there are no immediate specific plans, I think this is the most important thing I want to impart. There are no specific plans for Union Station after stabilization. I mean the the focus was narrow. We intentionally to get it done um just so we had some opportunity for a future use. But I think the city needs to start actively thinking about what's next. Ask yourself questions like, do we have a use for it? Um, are we capable of rehabilitating it ourselves? Um, are we, if we are that, if we are able to get the grants that we need to rehabilitate it, are we capable of maintaining it? I mean, it's not a typical 1970s, 1990s property. It's going to be a little more um, you know, sensitive and it's going

to require a lot more attention. I think it's time to ask those questions and then also maybe consider an expression of interest exercise and document where you sit down and think about what you're maybe willing to do um from an incentive perspective. talk about putting that into a document much like we did with the the six properties that we sold to Patrick Riley and and and we had six buildings that equated into a $14 million private sector investment but put that into a document and just solicited it among the investment world to see if there is anybody that might be interested in it whether it's a partnership a full private sector investment for commercial use or a mixed use I don't know I just suspect that there are opportunities out there that we haven't we don't know about because we haven't shared that it's an opportunity to consider. Um, and I think it's prudent for us to do that as a next step. Um, so we're not back in the same position in 10 years. Um, we also encourage you to think about new tools that are out there. I mean, we have some great tools. The historic preservation tax credit program would apply to a private sector use for Union Station. We could also apply the landmark status, which we did in cooperation with the county for the Patrick Riley projects. Um, but there's this new program called CPACE. Um, it's it's fairly easy from what I understand. Um, my my not so deep dive into it, but um, for municipal governments really just requires a a ordinance uh, adopting that your willingness to participate in the state program. And there are basically investors that are providing a state fund that provides low long-term interests um for private sector investors that um that do renovations or new infill construction that are environmentally friendly. And that's essentially all I can tell you about it. But this would be another great tool to help not just Union Station but lots of other projects in Boltsboro and Wayne County. Um and lastly, I would just say,

you know, the Southeastern Passenger rail route is going to be longterm. It's going to be complex and I think um I just ask all of you to partner with those that you know that are along the route. Start communicating with them. Uh start advocating for the project. Um begin start to have constant regular communication with the rail division so you're aware of things as they come up because they're not necessarily great at sharing them with you as they go along the way. They're very great at planning and and forecasting uh future needs, but not necessarily communicating. So, I take it upon yourselves to to to be the to be the responsible party in doing that and knowing what's going on. So, if um I guess I just want to say, you know, I I'll close for questions, but before I do, I want to share a favorite quote that seems perfectly befitting now. It's an old Greek proverb. Um, a society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Uh, my impatient self keeps reminding me myself of this all the time. And so I want to share that. And I also just wanted to share, you know, there the SUS team, the everyday SUS team is is myself and Mark and Doug and now John. But we probably also wouldn't be here if it wasn't for David Perry, um, Adrienne Warl, and many others that were super supportive of us and gave us the confidence to move forward and I think yourselves as well. So, a big thank you to them. Any questions for me?

Thank you, Miss Spence. Council comments, questions. It's a lot to take in. I know there's a lot of information to be gathered about uh, CPACE and how exactly we can internal internalize some of these things into our own development programs. Council, what questions do we have for now?

Okay. Obviously, as questions come up later, uh, we can go through Matt, go through myself. We'll make sure they get answered. So, if you're like me, you'll think of them the second Miss Mets goes and sits down. So, don't hesitate to ask questions because this is a complicated thing. And, um, like any other onion, it's one layer. the tools that we develop here can be used and honed all over the city. You know, we've been talking about intentionality and being deliberate in what we want to do in other parts of town as well. And um I think this speaks to why we've moved forward with a development services manager, why we've moved s moved forward with trying to wrap our heads around how we can be deliberate and use different tools to drive development in different areas. And um as we're now reaching, you know, the conclusion of our second year, we've put a lot of things in place that next year this time, I think we're going to finally be really reaping some of those rewards. So anyway, that's enough of my very brief ramble there. Any other questions? Come popping heads. Seeing none,

I had one question. What is your time as far as raising the 89,000? When do you want to have that raised by? I hope to have that done by the close of March. That's my goal.

Council, anything else? All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. and safe travels back. Yes, ma'am. All right, we are still on old business. Let's go. 7.2, Mr. Livingston.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, you know, we have been experiencing growth as most of you aware in in Goldsboro and a lot more is coming along our way. And I really kind of wanted to take the opportunity to kind of give you an overview of some of that growth and how we track um what's called our flow tracking through our engineering department and uh just kind of capsulate what uh been going on the past few years and what we see coming down the road. Jonathan, good evening mayor and council. How are y'all doing?

Even um y here it is. So yeah, we just wanted to talk about flow tracking and um show you what our current conditions are. And I also wanted to show you what it look like on wet weather conditions as well. But sewer flow tracking happens after a project has gone through TRC, our technical review committee, our site plan review. Once it gets approval, at that point it goes into permit stage and the engineer will do their public water supply permits for their water sewer extensions and then they'll submit their flow tracking. So they'll submit their flow tracking into us. I'll fill it out. The only thing that they tell us is is how much um they're going to be using of our system. Um and you know that's it's a it's a standard form through the DEQ, the the Department of Envir environmental quality. And then once it's filled out, we get Matt to sign, the city manager, whoever to sign. Um, so I got with planning and these are a list of the developments that are kind of proposed, approved, and review, whatever the case is with the city right now. So the ones in red are the ones that I currently have flow tracking for. Uh, that that's allocated sewer capacity in our system. the ones in black, the bold letters, those are the ones that we do not. So there's 2519 total units. Of the 2519, I've got 1,024 that are not accounted for. And that's just because of the stage that they're at in the process. They just haven't they're not into the permit stage yet. So, I didn't know the total number of bedrooms, so I just assumed that most were going to be two and three bedrooms. So, I just took the average of that. And the state of North Carolina uses 75

gallons a day per bedroom. So, that equates to out of the 2 and a half bedrooms, that equates to 187 12 gallons per day, per bedroom. So, that's 192,000 gallons a day for the all the units, all,024 units. So then next we get into the flow tracking. And I know this is hard to to understand, but I did think ahead. And the numbers that I want y'all to look at are in red so I don't blind y'all with the pointer like I did last time. But

a little forward thinking there for you. But uh the two numbers I want you to look at are E and H. That's the numbers in red. So the 7.36 is what? Well, as of when I last week when I called Bert, that is what the plant was producing at the time. That's what we were treating at the time. 7.36 million gallons. So, if we plug in the 192,000 gallons per day that we have, that gets us at 68.87% sewer capacity of our 14.2 million. So, that's what our flow tracking sheet looks like. And it's actually, you know, that's a spreadsheet that we use and it spits the numbers out and then we just put them on a sheet. So these are the wet weather conditions. And again, you know, I know that's a lot of information, but on the left hand side, it's still the two numbers. So in July and August, we were at 8.75 million gallons that running through the plant that we were treating in the plant. So I just did a flat 9 million gallons and that gets us to 80.42% 42% if we had the um the development in there. And at the bottom, I just used 10, just another flat even number, and that puts us at 87.47%. So on this slide here, if you look back at 21 and 22, that was our really wet year for us, and we were at 11.3858 million gallons running through the plant. And if we add that in, if if if we had more wet weather like we did back then and we used 192,000 gallons, that puts us at 97.23% capacity of our plant, which is getting pretty catastrophic. So then I want to talk about the 8090 rule and where this all comes into play. So once we hit that 80% at that point, we have to reach out to the state and we have to give them you

know a plan. What is are we going to planning on expanding the plant? Are we looking at you know reducing INI through through projects or are we looking at implementing water conservation measures at 90% that's when we we have to obtain the necessary permits for expanding the plant and we also have to submit our final plans and specifications to the state. Um, you know, luckily for us, we do our permit. We're currently at 14.2 million gallons a day, but our permit does allow us to go to 17.6. So, I mean, we're we're in a good spot there with the permit, but we do have to turn in final plans and specifications if we ever get over to 90%. I know that was pretty quick and easy, and I kind of blew through that, but um, are there any questions? I'm gonna start with one that I'm going yield to council. Do you mind going back to maybe it was your third slide is one where you had a list of potential developments coming that one right there. Perfect.

So, as we know sometimes land gets uh land gets purchased and then it goes through zoning, it goes through a site plan, not necessarily to develop today, but to then have a package thing that you can sell off to a builder or something like that. Right. So, of these that you've chosen up here, um there are others that Yeah. of these up here, if you were to put a confidence number on some of these, where do you see these 24 months from now, how many of these do you actually see being stacked sticks with roofs? Um or is that kind of unfair to ask?

Yeah, I mean, I'm not I'm not really familiar. That's probably more of a planning question. Um cuz I I get involved when it actually So a lot of these are in review. Uh if it says approved and the site plan's been approved, they just haven't submitted flow tracking and I think we've got two of those up there. Um the inreview ones we I I've not seen them as part of TRC yet. I know that there's a meeting next week, so maybe they're going to be up there. Um the preliminary one at the very bottom, these these folks just came in here and they submitted us or or showed us a concept plan. So that is very very early stage. They still got to go through reszoning and the whole nine yards. Um so of all of them, I would definitely count probably the last one out. Um but you know, most places are wanting to build single family homes. We have seen some developments come in where they're looking at town homes. Like Hawthorne Trail, for example, you know, they wanted to build town homes. Well, they couldn't find a developer that wanted to to do town homes. So, now they've re they've redesigned the entire thing and and they're coming back with single family homes. So, it'll be over 300 single family homes out there. Um,

my understanding they're still looking for an actual building contract on that, but nonetheless, they're going to have a site plan approved that's turnkey, but hypothetically could end up on our system very quickly. So, we had a we had a meeting with them last week, week before last, and I think that they've pretty much secured everything. They're hoping to get started in spring of next year is what they're telling us. So, there you go. There you go. So, then can you talk to us? And then again, I promise I'm going to yield to council. the 8090 rule. Mhm.

We started doing work under the assumption that we had already hit the 80% rule at some point of going and getting going and getting plans drawn up, going ahead and getting a uh a vendor in place. Can you talk a little bit about that so folks understand that we're not waiting until we hit the 80%. We already have started doing some work. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes. So we we have we have done some work not only through you know um in the budget we did INI we got a INI line item and we've done other various projects but we've also um do doing a design build on our wastewater plant and we're working through that process now we've got the preliminary design services done and I think you know they're coming up shortly and they're going to be talking about the next step which is the basis of design report and that's going to get more into the weeds of of the equipment and and what we need there and upgrade and that kind of stuff. So, we we are in the process. We are, you know, I'm not trying to steal too much of their thunder, but we are, you know, we're having some issues on the funding side, but we, you know, but that that's honestly because Bert and his crowd's doing a good job at the plant, which is good, but it kind of hurts us at the end of the day, which also, you know,

don't give him ideas. I know. I know. But it it does kind of hurt us at the end of the day. But, you know, our plan is running smooth and it is, you know, because of Bur and those guys. But, um, but again, we're in a drought right now, right?

So, you know, we have done a lot to mitigate INI. Uh, we've done a lot with Mount Olive Pickle out there around that. We got rid of some problem pipes out there, but we just haven't had the wet weather to see how well that's working. Um, but we we we've seen a difference and you know, just between the what we're doing at the plant, working on that stuff and and our INI projects, we're we're we're not going to making a dent in it, but we just have to keep moving forward cuz Goldsboro is definitely growing. You know, I think, you know, like Matt was saying, the last census, you know, we we've saw we saw some growth and and I mean, that's going to continue to go. I mean, there's 2500 units. That's a lot for us. Well, and that's such a frustrating fact because you you look at the 2000 census, the 2010 census, and the 2000 the 2020 census that showed a population decline, but then you can go and look at your water utilization. You can look at your water water accounts and you can see that that simply was not true. So, that's a a frustrating data point to have to argue away consistently. Yeah.

And one thing I'd like to point out, mayor, is that we did a planned expansion about 3 MGD in 20 uh 2000. So 25 years ago, and at that point, we did have a higher population, but we did a large deanexation in that somewhere around that time period. I know exactly when. So exactly right, the utility customers haven't gone down population inside the city limits, but those folks are still on our water and sewer. So, you know, as time has gone on, you know, we've had added customers and um so and unfortunately our system continues to age and the need for expansion continues to grow. But 25 years ago was it was quite a while ago for an expansion. So, you know, we're definitely due one. It's the troublesome thing for me is that back then it was 30 million. Now, it's three to four times higher than that just due to inflation and the cost of things. So, I think the the main purpose of Mr. Livingston placing this, you know, this presentation the the way that it is is to help council see the numbers, the very real world numbers of where we are right now. Help council understand the the necessity, not the urgency, certainly not the emergency, but the necessity of continuing this conversation around plant expansion, which I think then leads into item 7.3. So, with that, I'm going to finally stop talking. Council, what questions do you have for uh John?

There's one other comment I'd like to make, too, because it wasn't touched on that much because we focused on residential, but we're also getting quite a bit of commercial, too. And the need for economic development is something for this region. Um, in order for us to grow and and create the, you know, bring the jobs here, we're going to have to have the ability to bring workers here, which means we need sewer treatment capabilities. Yes, sir.

I was just going to make a comment to to that effect. Um not necessarily a question towards uh Mr. Perry. Um I I think that this was again, I've said this before, it was just absolutely imperative that we have the right folks at the wheel um when it comes to managing our infrastructure and our needs going forward. And I, as I've said several times, I have complete confidence in our staff and our manager in that regard. It's good news to know that this um expansion we're talking about that's on the horizon is uh is is fixing to happen and is already moving. The wheels are turning with that. But it's also encouraging to know that we have another three and a half, three, three and a half that can come right along behind that. And as since we're being forward thinking and and get staying ahead of this one, I have complete confidence with the folks that we have at wheel that we'll be in line and and be able to provide the next one. And that next one of course will be able to happen right at our existing uh facility now which will certainly move us forward from in a capacity standpoint as long as we do the right things and stay ahead of it because as manager just pointed out. Um, you know, yes, we're we're seeing some residential growth and we know that that's a result of um folks that are looking of convenience to be able to commute west a lot of times for um to be able to live here and and commute to to Raleigh and those areas to to work. But as the manager just mentioned and I've said this numerous times, economic development and and that interest in this area is absolutely happening and we have to be in a

position to be able to do that to get that development whenever some some other folks haven't properly planned. We are and and I I was in a meeting this morning regarding economic development and and you know we've had some good announcements here uh this year if everybody's kept up in the news the last couple of weeks. There's been some good announcements around us. We got a auto uh parts manufacturer relocating from California to Green County. We've had too a couple of announcements in in Lenor County. Um, so we've had ours the last few months, but the phone is absolutely ringing in Wayne County and the folks that are the ones taking those phone calls and handling the requests for information say it is just rock and roll. Like the phone is ringing. The interest is there. Um, particularly international interest in this area. So, we had to have the right folks at the wheel and have our ducks in a row to be able to capitalize on that. And I have complete confidence in in the direction that we're headed and the folks that's got us pointing that direction. I just wanted to say that because that economic development and that side of uh the need for utilities is is direly important as is that residential. It takes you got to have both. Council, if there's uh any other questions, we'll hear them. Otherwise, let's move to 7.3, which rolls straight into this conversation. Mr. Livingston, is there anything further or would you like to talk us lead us into 7.3?

No sir, we're we're ready. We've got our consultants here to give I feel like Jonathan just laid down a pretty good uh pretty good intro and now we have Bert to finish out the intro. So,

yeah. Thanks, Jonathan. I appreciate it. Um my thunder is gone, so uh that's that's all right. Uh I I got to say that uh it's not just me, it's that staff that takes care of that facility. Uh and like you said, we do such a great job that we kind of hinder ourselves. So um we will always continue to do that great job no matter what the conditions are. Um but I'm here to today to uh introduce the uh design build team. You've met them before. Uh Crowder and Hazen. They're going to give you an update of where we're at and where we're going in the next steps of our design build. So, I'd like to introduce uh Colin Beck from Hazen representing both both Crowder and Hazen.

Mayor Council, good evening. Hope everybody's doing well. Um so, Bert, thanks for the introduction. Um it's good to see everybody again. The last time uh we were here was in uh June um talking about we were wrapping up some of the early start services. Um and I promise I'll be brief but plenty if anybody has any questions I'm happy to answer any questions. Um really just three slides here with the top three bullet points estimated schedule and budget what's the next step and then just a quick um update on funding assistance. So um so as mentioned um you know I guess when we won were awarded this project in April of last year 2024 really the first four milestones on here uh were part of a phase one that we've broken out into separate milestones uh due to budget constraints and to a desire to talk more about the purpose and need of the project. Um, so with the funds that were available, we did get some early start services done. Um, with the exception of two tasks under there that we're waiting for some work to be completed by other consultants before we wrap those up. Um, the next milestone would be basis of design, survey, and geotech. Uh, that will take about a year. We would then move into the design uh design to 75% and permitting that would take about a year and a half. um a guaranteed maximum price development and approval that's the GMP about uh six months and then construction would take about three years um the the uh one of the main takeaways from this slide is that all of that you know from the time of notice to proceed on the basis of design report will take about six years right so um when we talk about the planning and the need for um more capacity that capacity three 3.4 form MGD won't be available for six years from when we get the notice to proceed on the basis of design report. Um so you know it takes a while

to design and construct uh these facilities. Um but um the uh so the next to talk a little about bit about the next step the basis of design report and cost estimate um what that'll consist of this step will have uh survey and geotech uh that's a major component um to this milestone um we need to get survey um on all the entire site um and geotech tells us what's uh under in the subsurface to inform the major design component components and early on identify any risks that we may encounter in the project. Um, you know, as Jonathan mentioned in the basis of design, we're going to work a lot with uh Bert and Jonathan and the team um to make to establish layouts. So, we're going to advance the design to about 15%. um establishing layouts and preferred technologies uh through our own experience as a consulting firm doing this many times and but specifically uh through discussions with staff and their preferences on technology and what what Goldsboro specifically needs at your plant. Um by completing that basis of design uh that'll allow us to provide a cost estimate. So uh this will be the first uh construction cost estimate provided by the Crowder Hazen design build team. Um and and we'll provide that cost estimate in such a way that we can prioritize uh different components of the plant that you know is essential or non-essential and um if if uh budget requires um we can have those discussions about what what we need to prioritize if if we can't get it all done. Um, and then funding assistance, uh, we'll talk about, um, on the next slide. Um, at the board retreat, and maybe we I think we touched on it a little bit in June. Really for this project, the two main methods of getting funding assistance would be direct

appropriations. Um, but other than that, it would be the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality uh, Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Those are low interest loans. Um and um certainly happy to answer any more questions on that. We talked about a little bit before how it's very competitive particularly for plant expansion type projects. Um we have submitted an application four times in the spring and fall of uh 2024 and 2025. Um and we are still awaiting the results from the fall 2025 uh submitt. Um but the other three rounds uh there was no funding awarded. Um and there was quite a pretty big gap in two of those rounds. One round was a little bit closer. Um but um you know that's we we're still um we're still attempting to submit those. Um and we are going to work you know there's um as I mentioned some of those studies going on with some of the other consultants the merger and regionalization feasibility. Um we're going to be looking in and having some discussions with DEEQ to figure out if there's any way that those mergers and regalizations um can add points to the application to see if we can get some funding uh in the in the ter in terms of low interest loans. So um so you know we again we we were really wrapping up those early start services when we came to last talk to you guys in June. Um since then you know we've been speaking to Matt, Kelly, Bert, Jonathan and team. um about what the basis of design next step would consist of. We have submitted a scope and a fee and so um the next step would just be to decide um you know when it would be appropriate possibility to get started on that.

So I've heard a couple of different times that Mr. Sherman and his team part of the way that they operate at a very high very professional level is hurting us in our ability to go out and fun and fund raise in this particular case. So I'm interpreting that is because generally speaking the the systems that are the worst off are at the front of the line for funding. So the fact that we're doing our job and trying to be responsible and be ahead of this thing is making us less competitive for some of these kind of bailout programs. Right. That's right. And there's there's even one specific component to the application um that you are awarded points for notice of violations uh within the past year and you all have not in the past year had a notice of violation because the points

and we're not going to let it get to that point either. But that does mean that potentially we end up having to do this thing at a higher cost because we're doing it the right way. That's well, you know, welcome to government, right? So,

good to know. Good to know. Council comments, questions. Um, you know, Mr. Livingston, I know you are going to have an item that you have to bring to council in the future. U, what do we need to know? Well, you know, the first thing I'd like to say is that we we appreciate Hazen and sort of being here because what they've done with us is they said and one of the reasons why we selected them is they said, "We will build the plant the way you feel like it needs to be built. We're not going to overengineer anything." And this is where the rubber is going to start hitting the road, so to speak, uh, as we as they do their basis of design report, we review those uh features for that for the new expansion. Um, so that that's the next phase. It's 1.9 million for that which we look to our utility reserves to fund that with and move them forward and starting that next phase so that we know a little bit more concretely what what we're looking at as far as an ultimate uh goal is and funding is what that's going to look like.

Council comments, questions, all kind of bleeds together, doesn't it? It's the same basic components of the same presentation, but this way you're hearing from you each expert in the chain. Any comments, questions? Hearing none. Thank you. And we'll be uh on an agenda in the future or I guess in a couple weeks or a couple months. Um next 30 days, mayor. Okay. Right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh, how many minutes roughly? 510.

510. All right, perfect. Let's go ahead and and do that. Let's go ahead and move to 7.4 and then at the conclusion of 7.4, we're not going to rush through it, but at the conclusion of 7.4, then we'll recess for uh quick restroom breaks, things like that. We always break at that 90 minute mark. So, but again, do not hurry. If it's 20 minutes, it's 20 minutes. I want to make sure that we get to hear this. This is interesting work that you're doing. Do I need to keep just keep going?

Oh, there we go. Okay. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh, tonight I'll be providing you an update on the city's ongoing efforts to modernize our utility billing, accounts receivable, cash collections, debt collections, and tax and business licensing systems. This is a major undertaking for the the city finance department. Um, and one of the major reasons that we are undertaking a project of this magnitude is because the software that was purchased back in 2018 has proven insufficient for the city's needs. So, the goal of the project is to modernize our revenue collection functions and lay a solid foundation for growth. Um, we are working within a $175,000 budget for both software and related equipment. Because of limited staff capacity and budget, uh we are working with two vendors that we already work with, Springbrook and Numo, formerly Avenue. Their familiarity with our systems should lower the cost and shorten the implementation time because they are familiar with our data. Avenue being the parent of Banner which is our accounting system software and Springbrook is the parent of QS1 which um is our utility billing accounts receivable and collections. So talking about some historical context, um council will recall that, you know, we we've talked a little bit about this software transitions take a lot of planning. They take months of planning and they do take even longer to implement. Um when I came aboard in January of 2019, the city was just two months into the new software. The implementation had been rushed and the result was widespread confusion with account numbers, billing and payments making local newspapers and television

news in a negative way. U we don't want to repeat that. Okay. Um at this time we are approaching this in a phased deliberate and coordinated manner so we don't repeat those same mistakes. Again talking about the vendors just this is very very high level overview with the Springbrook software the we prefer that for the utility billing interface portion. Um I do have serious concerns about the backend uh accounting integration. Um we looked at the Avenue NUMO which their product is called fund works rev and tax and business licenses. three different products. They have a very strong back-end accounting and integration capabilities and customization capabilities as well. The RevQ actually modernizes our pass through collections into an actual online portal. Uh right now what we do is we have paper files. We prepare word document letters to send out pass notices. um we work paperless and what we're trying to do is modernize that and that gives us the ability to integrate um via email, text, phone calls. It allows us to expand our ability um to give customers more options and ways of paying and managing their accounts as well. This also supports occupancy tax and business registrations. uh with occupancy tax, we just depend on our hotels to turn in their reports every single month. We don't have the ability to be able to bill them. We don't have the ability for them to be able to go online and report their occupancy tax or pay it electronically as well. um business registrations. We have significant challenges with the system um that we use now intergov um

with no means to be able to track the business registrations. And so we we're trying to bring all of these things that probably should have been addressed a number of years ago, but we're trying to bring them into a modern modern day era. And you know, one thing with the utility building, it is really not suited to a city of our size. Although they do offer customization, um I just didn't feel like the city of Goldsboro needed to be the guinea pig. So although I I think they could eventually improve their product the way it stands right now, I don't believe it is sufficient. So in thinking about that, it's becoming pretty evident that we need to look at this from a hybrid approach. Um, just remember that if I picked one software, if my group and I picked one software, it's still going to take a length of time to do this. Now, we're talking about two software vendors that we have to knit the processes together. So, just keep in mind that, you know, that's probably what we're going to have to do because I'm trying to work within the budget that I've been given, 175,000, which is really not a lot of money in terms of software upgrade and implementation. Um, you know, we're looking at time constraints, we're looking at staffing constraints. So, we have to kind of work within the money and the people and the capacity um that we have. the vendors. I've spoken with both of them. I mean, I've had so many demos. I've had so many meetings with these folks. Um, and everybody is willing to work together. I've spoke with the IT director today and, uh, he is on board as well. So, we've got cooperation from all groups. When we talk about the implementation timeline for the account receivable and

cash collections, it's usually about a six to eightmonth time frame. Utility billing is generally 12 to 18 months and it's one of those things that kind of just depends but probably more along the lines of 18 months than it is uh to 12. Um the hybridization of the model is going to take maybe a little bit longer. We we don't know because they're really talking about four groups that have to work together to make all of this work. as well. Uh we are scheduling a vendor meeting at the end of this month so that all four groups can get together, talk um and try to come up with a plan and the goal is to bring a contract recommendation um well actually we we can enter into a contract. So the idea is to have a contract done sometime in November. This is a service. So we're not uh we don't have other procurement like we do with formal bids. So uh at that point we would like to sign by November which starts that clock ticking of the 6 to 8 months the 12 to 18 months. So for council I mean just understand this is a very large complex project but it is also necessary uh it will modernize critical revenue functions. It will improve the customer experience and address longstanding system limitations. Um it you know with council's support um we will intend to do this carefully and correctly and we want to avoid the problems that we had in the past and to position the city for future growth. That was one of the caveats I said this system had to be expandable in case the city became part of a larger regionalization effort. So we had to be able to do tiered billing, tiered rate systems, things of that nature. And so both partners have said yes that is not a problem. We will be able to do that.

Um again the the one thing that might drag some of the time frame out is your staffing capacity. So you know in finance there is a a small group of us that will actually work to do the development the planning and the implementation. on IT side, we have nobody dedicated to that because their staff is very it it's it's already parcled out. So, you know, we may run into problems where, you know, the IT director has to aortion some of that staff. So, we may work for a little bit and then have to stall for a little bit if he has issues um getting coordinating the work. So, I mean, it's just something for the council to be aware of. um you know we don't want to rush it but we also have to work within the time constraints that we have and the staffing that we have as well. Um and I think the solution that we've come up with I think it's a reasonable compromise considering the amount of staffing that we have and the budget within reason and I think this is reasonable in terms of the budget for the city of Goldsboro. So I I think it's a good compromise, but uh at any rate, pretty much just wanted to give you that high level overview so you would be aware of kind of where we are, you know, in this process. And um I'll take any questions if anybody has any. So, council, a lot of this started uh by a very good question from council of what can we do during our budget setting sessions back a few months ago back when we were saying how can we get this to where that we can do tiered billing for our utility users for our water users. And the goal of council was let's give our department head the ability to go out and find the software that that she needs to be able to do this the right way. And at first

it was maybe we can be able to get this done in six or eight months. And then as I understand it when you started kind of peeling back the layers looking at the software that was currently in place it simply did not make sense for you to scale up what was there knowing that we're also having a regionalization conversation. That is absolutely right. And just to tag on to that, the QS1 software, they don't even sell it anymore. They do support it. So what that tells you is the the population of their current clients on QS1 is going to get less and less and at some point we're going to be forced. So we want to take the proactive step and replace the software with something that will grow with us instead of waiting till the we don't want to wait till the last minute. This is too crucial a function. And when you talk about it is at least 30% of the city's revenues, we cannot we we can't we have to take it very seriously. So that's what we're trying to do.

So council, the downside to this reality is that you know we all had the stated objective of hoping that we could switch to a tiered billing model maybe in Q well calendar year Q1 next year something like that. the time frame that Miss Gwyn has discussed here as I heard it was 12 to 18 months from from go ahead basically. So you're looking at you know a year and a half before you could really turn on something like that. So, I don't know that this is really a request of council for a decision to be made or anything like that, but if Miss Gwyn is to go out and get a a a more developed, a more mature software suite to be able to do the things that we're asking, does it make sense to just do something small knowing that then we're going to have to replace that very quickly as part of this regionalization effort, or does it make sense to go ahead and hand her the keys to be able to do the thing that we need to do and modernize our system so we can do both. And Mr. Livingston, if I'm opening the floor to a a conversation that I I didn't really mean to, then then so be it. But I think that we do have to have the conversation around the timetable and what is the worst case scenario look like? And when we get into our utility rate discussion in the spring, you know, does that just mean that we simply need to temper what we do? You know, what is your expectation? Well, interestingly, mayor, we had Katherine and I some other department has had that discussion and you know, what was the need, you know, with the constraints of 175 and so I don't know what the answer is in terms of the other softwares that are out there that might be more, you know, useful to us, for lack of a better term. Uh, but, you know, we could certainly go back and look at those, too. But if we're looking at what we've got right now, the 175 and and we're shopping in that bargain bin, for lack of a better word, it doesn't

sound right. Still, it's $175,000. But we can look at other programs and other and see what those the implementation would be like if if you think that's something you'd want to pursue.

And I want to be clear, I'm not suggesting that the plan that you've proposed is flawed. I just simply want to make sure that everyone's on the same page and expectations are managed that most likely there is not a path forward under this plan for being able to go to a variable rate structure in the spring or even in the middle of next fiscal year. So again, that's just putting it all out there, making sure that all of us are on the same page of exactly why this conversation is coming forward and what the ramifications of it are. Well, one thing this will do is it's it's it's sort of just the tiered race are just one feature of it. What's really going to happen here is it's going to

I don't want to say revolutionize, but it's going to greatly um expand our capabilities and and create internal controls, better a management of our revenue system than we have by leaps and bounds. So, it's doing a lot of things for us and it's getting the job done that that Katherine needs. And that was my question to her. Was is this what is this good enough or or do we need to ask for more? And she said it was good enough. But you know, I mean, is that accurate?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, because we if if it's like, well, Katherine, we want to scrap it and let's look. Well, I mean looking and developing could take a year and then add on top of that another 12 to 18 months and the price tag could go up five times, 10 times and and is that reasonable for the city of Goldsboro and for our revenue stream? Maybe, maybe not. that that's really, you know, council I I'm I'm telling you that I believe that I can make this work and I believe that it will be a solution that will I hope be able to work for 10 to 15 years. You know, a lot of that depends on the growth of the city um on how things change. How does the merger regionalization, how does that impact the city? Um I I do have a I have a confidence level in the proposed uh solutions if as long as we can shake hands with it that it will work for us. So you and again you have to look at the cost factor of it you know because I said to the group I said well we would have been better off to stay with the software that we had prior to 2018 and just paid the half million dollar upgrade cost but that was not an option. You know that was taken off the table. So they had to go and find something that was cheaper that they could implement. So

yes sir. Um, I'm encouraged that we're moving in this direction because I I don't I don't want a finance director to ever have to be in a position that that you had to arrive in and what you've had to undertake to get us where we're at. And I'm encouraged that we'll be able to get what what we need for the money that's been allocated. But I would also like to say in as this unfolds, don't hesitate, at least that's my opinion, don't hesitate to come back and say, "Hey, I've run into this or that and I think we should do this if it's a dollar or two more or whatever." I mean, I we need to get this done and and get it right. Um I it seemed like it was a couple of managers ago that that if I remember correct someone said that either the software system we have now or the one before that was actually meant to be implemented into a school system. Is is that true?

There is illusion owns banner and colleague and colleague is also the ERP for the education systems both the community college system and the UNCC system. It's it's a a very robust platform, but yeah, Illusian now it's a different company, but Illusion used to own both of them. So that's that's that's what that's from. That is absolutely true, but it's a slightly different variation of the thing.

So the software that we have is for local governments. It is used by other towns like uh Newburn, Kinston. So it it it is a platform and it works. Um we probably only really use maybe 35 40% of it. there is much more that we could use out of it. But again, you've got to have people capacity in order to be able to implement those things. So, what I've done is I've put those things like employee selfservice and that that type of thing for the banner system. We had to push that to the side because this needed to come to the forefront and we needed to deal with the utility billing AR and the cash collection system. So, that's what we're putting forward. even though it means that we'll we won't be doing what we had hoped to do in the spring, I think that it's the right plan and it fits within the budget that was allocated, right? So, I I I think we have to go with your expertise. You know, I've certainly never I've certainly never sourced out local government ERP systems. So, if if you and Matt and Kelly and your team, you know, believe that it's an appropriate option, then I think y'all have to be the ones that tell us.

Yeah, I I I think we are. And you know, like I said, given the chance, we'll work through it. If we encounter other problems, then of course we will certainly, you know, keep council updated and provide you an update to kind of let you know may when major milestones are hit and what we expect to happen. And then also too, just bear in mind with rates, it's not like property tax rates, they can be changed at any time. So it could be if we implemented it in December, you know, a year from now that you can say in January, I want to lower rates and I want to go on a tiered rate structure. That is absolutely possible at that point. So don't feel like you're locked into a budgetary process because the rates can be changed.

Council, any other comments, questions? All right, Miss Gwen, thank you. if I'm not mistaken, you're you're still uh stuck because you're on new business as well. But uh council and uh and friends, we will take just a quick 5m minute recess. Um we got we'll readjourn at 7:15 that clock

to it. It is uh we're on new business item 8.1 a sponsorship for a Veterans Day parade. Mr. Lewis, if you have anything to add, otherwise we'll go ahead in uh I have nothing. Perfect. We'll

go ahead and invite our guests to the podium. Good evening, council members, mayor. I'd like to come here. First, I want to say thank you for all the years we've done this parade for quite a few years here in Goldsboro. Um, and every year you guys have been phenomenal support coming out supporting, sitting on the review stand with us. Um, and we we greatly appreciate that and hope that happens again this year. Uh what we're coming here today to do is ask for sponsorship again from you guys this year as we've done in the years past. Uh we're asking for the $400 fee for the application fee to be waved as well as your guys' support for our or our Veterans Day parade that we're having on November 11th.

Before we uh put to a vote, can you tell us just a little bit the parade, what time, where to be, all the other fun stuff. Remember that this is also a good opportunity for the newspaper to pick up on cues as well. So tell us what we need to know.

Absolutely. So it's November 11th. Uh the parade will start at 11:11. The review stand is going to be a little bit different from this year from last. Uh we're going to be right out side right by the police station. Um still going to be on Center Street. So the re the the parade will come all the way up here to about City Hall where they'll turn back to keep us off a street so we don't have to shut down Ash Street for the for the state. Um so we're asking for us to do that. It'll probably be what about 30 minutes is usually what the parade will run. Um, we ask that all of our applications have some sort of patriotic theme to it. Um, but we don't charge an entry fee for this. We don't charge anything for anybody to come out and see it. It's just a event that we'd like to put on for the city uh and support our veterans in Wayne County and Goldsboro. So council per our policies the uh manager as this is a recurring event uh under policy the manager can approve the street closure can approve that piece of it. However for there to be an actual sponsorship that has to come before council. So with that council any additional questions or is there a motion to approve a $400 uh in kind sponsorship in the form of a fee waiver?

So that was the only sponsorship he was asking for was just the inind gift. Yes ma'am. So moved. Second. All right. Motion's been made and properly seconded uh to approve a fee waiver as an inind contribution and sponsorship for the the 2025 Veterans Day parade. Uh all in favor, is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll cast our votes whenever they are able to pop up. And I let mine go to sleep, so mine's not going to pop up. I vote in favor. All right. All votes being cast uh six nothing. It's unanimous vote. Gentlemen, ma'am, thank y'all so much for what you're doing. We look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks. I have I have a question. I have one question for you.

Do you um incur any other expenses other than that um by hosting the parade downtown in Golday? Uh we do we do have some expenses that very minimal. We do uh we you know we get some u donuts for our volunteers. We also get when we go and paint the chalk on the roads, um our programs that we print off um but for that it's not a ton of of money for that. It's just absorbed into our budget that we use u to provide these events to the to the city and the county and for the veterans. Thank you for all you did. Thank you for your support.

Council, any other comments, questions? Perfect. Y'all be safe. Have a good night. Thank y'all. We'll have a World War II veteran this year as our grand marker. Good. Thirsten Quinn is his name. He lives in Seven Springs. He'll turn 100 in December. So, we're hoping if the weather cooperates, I've got a friend of mine has a 48 Harley with a sidec car. And we're hoping he's very excited about getting in that thing for the parade. So, hopefully pray for good weather. I don't want to miss that.

All right, council. Um, other pieces of the new business, item 8.2, three, and four actually do uh are requests for votes. They're not just for information only. Uh, Mr. Livingston, would you please uh any sort of brief or intro on 8.2? Uh, no, Mayor, it's just our land leases are up and Katherine, finance has taken this matter and bid them out and there in your packet, you have those lease proposals uh before you. And if there's any specific questions about that, it it does provide, as her memo suggests, a good area for buffer around the base in some cases and and a lot of these areas are non-buildable uh piece of parcels of land. So,

and this is something I alluded to this at the top of the meeting that there are certain items that probably could have been on consent agenda. This is one that um prior councils have approved routinely, but because it's the first time that we have seen it, I felt it was appropriate to put it under new business. So, Miss Glenn, at your uh when you're ready.

So, Matt pretty much covered most of it. I think the the biggest difference is finance is now handling farm leases. We went from three years to five years with one additional three-year extension. And that goes by statute because if it goes more than 10 years, we have to record it like it's a sale of property. So, we wanted to stay under that. But, as you can see from what you looked at, I mean, the prices did not change. I think there was like a couple dollar price for the most part. We're talking about $25,000 a year in farm lease. The property can't be used for anything else but that. It's in that Seymour Johnson buffer. It's in the flood plane. Um, so at any rate, I we split the money, the majority of it, we split it with the county. So about $12,000 goes to the county for their portion of what we collect. So, um, I think it's pretty straightforward. It it kind of relieves some of the staff burden by going to a five-year with a three-year extension. So, but if you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them. Council, is everyone clear on exactly where these tracks are? Are we everyone good?

All right, perfect. Just making sure. So, council will entertain a motion to approve the resolution approving the farm leases as presented. So, move by our motion has been made and properly seconded. Uh, is there Council Boy, would you be a second? All right, Counciloman Weeks. Council Boyette is a second. Uh, is there any debate? Hearing none, please cast your vote electronically if possible. All right, that is all voting in favor. U unanimous passage. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a good evening. You as well. You too.

All right, next we have a contract award. Again, this is something that probably could have been consent, but again, wanting to make sure that everyone is aware of all these different projects that are going on. Uh Mr. uh Mr. Perry, if you come back up, unless Mr. Leon, unless you have a brief that you want to interact. No, it's fine. I just want one thing. I do want to say this is a very important project because not to have these lines metered has been a significant situation for the city of Goldsboro and now this is going to help alleviate a lot of where we're missing revenues. So that's why we prioritize this project the way we did. It's going to be a revenue generator for us. And is part of your brief explaining where these are and the purpose. Perfect. Yep.

Go for it.

So good evening again. Um, so this project has been in the work for a little while. Uh, we we did the sewer meters portion, which is Seymour Johnson and Fork Township. Um, and then we ended up adding two water meters at the water at the at the water plant, excuse me. Um, a 16in and a 20 in. Burke tried to put that out, didn't get any biders on it. So, we the project grew and we put all that together in a package and submitted it and we did get uh we did get one bid. Um the bid came in at 1.1 million, a little over. Um and there's a lot of numbers here, so I'm going to have to read through them because I can't remember all of this stuff, but our original budget we had was for $650,000. And you know, again, that was a two-year-old number. So you you can see construction cost inflation uh in real numbers. So we work with at AC Shelties. They are the the contractor who who bid the project and they actually reduce cost for us for by $17,980. Um so we we saved there. So that brought the new bid price down to 1.1 uh a little over 1.1 million 1.15. So, the collarbest water loop project was a was a project that was in engineers budget in the utility fund. Uh, and I think there was $55,000 in there uh to do that project. So, after talking with Matt, Kelly, and Bert, uh we're actually our utility crews are going to do that project inhouse. Um I'm not sure if anybody's familiar with the area, but there's a thousand foot run on Kyler Best out there at Glendis Point. Um that needs to be tied in to help with help boost the water pressure out there. So they're going to be able our guys are going to be able to do that in house and that's going to save us some money there. So uh staff put together estimated cost of

that was $170,000. So we deducted that from the 505 and got 335,000 for that. and that brought our total, our budget total up to $985,440. Um, and then we talked to Matt and Catherine a little more and they were able to get some utility fund reserves for to cover the rest of the $166,000. So, you know, as Matt alluded, uh, this project would would help us from a from a billing standpoint, but also on the Seymour Johnson side, you know, we're talking about capacity. You've heard about capacity tonight. So Seymour Johnson has a bulk capacity from the city of 1.15 1.5 million gallons per day. So we have to allocate that no matter what regardless of whether they use it or not. So the purpose of putting this meter in is hopefully maybe in the future there's an avenue for us to get some of that capacity back since they're tearing down on base housing. Um because they're they're definitely not using that. But we get we'll have good concrete numbers to hopefully get some of that capacity back. It's still not going to get us where we need to be at the end, but at least we'll, you know, that'll kind of loosen our collar a little bit. I guess you

capacity, not actual. Correct. That's right. Actual flow.

That's right. That's right. We we honestly there's a me there. There is a meter on Seymour Johnson on their base, but it's not it's not accurate. It's it's it's a meter, you know. I'm I'm not going to get all into particulars, but it can get a lot of trash and debris on it and just not read correctly. Um, so that that's the purpose of putting these meters in. Um, that and billing from Fork Township on, you know, on the billing from them. We just get, you know, we rely on what they send us. Um, and and, you know, that's not really a great practice for us. So, you know, we we'd like to get something a little more concrete than than that, but you know, not saying that they're doing anything nefarious, but you know, you never know. But anyway, so you know, it's our recommendation to, you know, approve the contract for AC Shelties for 1.151929.

And of that, just to just to restate, how much of that is coming out of the utility fund? Um, no, this is general fund. This is all utility fund. Yeah. No general fund at all. No, it's all utility fund. All right. But what's the amount that's actually going to have to come out of the utility fund? So out of the reserves will be 166,489,000. But again, we had a couple project the 650 was already coming out of utility fund and then we had that 505 for the Kyler Best waterline was coming out of there as well. Do we have a pardon the abundance of questions here, but the

work that we're now going to be doing inhouse, those folks would have been doing other jobs those days that they're now going to be doing that job. Do we have any estimate estimation of how long it's going to take them and how much of their time is going to be consumed doing that project? We're doing both public utilities and public works crews and it, you know, they're saying they can do that in a matter of a week or so. There's there they they estimated three weeks. Three. Yep. Okay. All right. Now, you know, you got to look at the area, too. So, you you've got there is one apartment complex they're going to be going in front of, but once they get past that, probably 400 ft. The next 600 is in wide open field. So, it it it's it should move pretty quickly.

I agree with the decision and I trust the judgment. I'm just also acknowledging if you get into this thing, you get a lot of snow, you get adverse weather, next thing you know, 3 weeks becomes five weeks and now you've got other projects in the city that are backing up. So, all I'm all I'm saying is from my perspective, and I'm only one vote in this room, is if you see that you're getting bogged down and other projects are falling behind, come back to us and say we've got to contract something else out. We cannot We've already had conversation tonight about leaf and limb pickup, for example. We can't let other things fall behind. And

and and just to clarify that they are wanting to start in the spring of next year because we still got to go through the permit process ourself. Um I got my surveyor is going out there in house and he's going to survey it. We got to do a water extension permit. Um so there's a process for that. You know, probably a 12-week turnaround. So, you know, their their busy time is their leak season is January, February when it's really cold. So they're wanting to get into maybe April and May before they start this. So, you know, they're getting on the back side of the leak season and getting out of that. And then, you know, they'll be focused more on taps and stuff like that. So, we're really good at digging things up, putting things in the holes. We're good at that. We excelled in that.

Fair enough. Council comments, questions. All right. The resolution as presented. Is there a motion to approve the resolution as presented? So moved. Motions have been made. Is there a second? Second. Motions are made and properly seconded. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. Please vote electronically. [Music] All right. All being all having voted in favor. Motion passes unanimously. The resolution is approved. Thank you'all again. All right, Mr. Livingston. Item 8.4.

Thank you, Mayor. Item 8.4 Four is an approval of license agreement with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office. Um essentially they're wanting to put some of their license plate reader cameras on the city's property on Arrington Bridge Road um near the wastewater treatment plant area. Um this is something that we will also benefit us because we will be able to uh utilize that data and um this helps them you know respond to reported you know stolen vehicles or other issues that police issues or other missing people's things like that. So it's it's good to have those coverages throughout the city. And is there any sort is there any any payment changing hands or is this purely we get access to the data they get access to our spots and everyone

yeah we hopefully works together pretty well and we do keeping it simple that was the idea here council comments questions hearing none is there a motion to approve the resolution as presented so moved all right motion has been made is there a second second

all right motion been made and properly seconded is there any debate hearing. None. We'll call the vote. Please vote electronically. All right. All have voted in favor. Uh motion passes unanimously. I appreciate that. All right. That concludes all of our business items for the evening. Uh Mr. Livingston, uh if you would please deliver your report.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple items. Uh we're meeting the administrative staff's meeting with department heads under department work programs which we're threequarters of the way through with that. We're having to kind of go back to them with some questions about some things, but that's a document we want to provide the city council. Uh just so you kind of get an idea of the um the depth of some of the projects that we're doing and just aware of them. On the uh assistant city manager update, we're down to five candidates. We were putting them through an assessment center. Uh that will be happening over the next few weeks. It hasn't started yet. It'll not start till like like the first few weeks of November. Um we're also doing a website update with the city. We're doing that inhouse. Um we hope to have an unveiling of that sometime in December. Um so that's been a ongoing task that we're working on. Um and then next week uh there's the ADC conference. So, I'll be out of the office uh with with you, Mayor, and and Councilman uh White as well uh getting giving an update to the American Defense Communities about what's happening on our base, particularly with the school system and the school there. That's it for me.

Thank you, Mr. Lever. All right. So, with that, we will move to uh mayor and council member comments. It's the second meeting of the month. Yeah, it is the second meeting of the month. And so we will begin with the council woman from district 5. Miss Weeks, the floor is yours.

I only have one thing. I just wanted to say what an incredible time we all had at the um night to shine over at First Baptist Church. And as usual, our mayor Pro Tim and our mayor were first class in their representation of the city. Um the talent was incredible, incredible talent. So, thank you guys so much for coming to our um previous meeting and inviting everyone and it was just so amazing. And Mayor Prom and Mayor, I just wanted to commend you both for always just representing us with such great class. Mutual. Thank you, Councilwoman.

Um yes, I just received this flyer, so I wanted to share it publicly. Um, this is free college application week and our local Wayne County H.B.CU Alliance is hosting a H.B.CU college fair at WA Foster Center on this Thursday from 4 to 7. So, I don't know if we the city can share it or definitely put it on our social media platform so that people are aware. It is for middle and high school students and their families. State mayor. Thank you for the floor is yours.

Yes. Uh, I would like to say I truly enjoyed the 41st reunion in my district at North End. It was a wonderful event and the mayor was there as well earlier and we did celebrate the individuals that were 80 plus years old and there were some that were not able to be there. So those that were not able to be there, if you do hear this online, congratulations. 80 years is a wonder. It's a blessing to live 80 and then 80 plus. Um also the national night out um it was really great. We had 66 vendors. Um and at our table we had about 25 youth to commit to being drug-free. So and pledged to be drug free. So I was very very happy about that. Um, there will be a special presentation by the Dosboro Police Department at Dylan Academy Charter School. Uh, it's will be on West Elm Street. That's tomorrow night at uh 6:00 p. p.m. And I know we talked about the 106th anniversary at uh St. James and that was a wonderful event and um we had uh our mayor and city councilman White were there. But I'm bringing this up again is because you know each year or ever how many years they do uh nominate another pastor and Pastor Elliott was nominated to remain at St. James. So congratulations uh to him. St. James is of course in my district and uh they've done some wonderful things as long as well as the other churches in the community but

we're talking about St. James right now. And um so I'm thinking that that's it. And as always, I appreciate um the city council as well as our city employees and our clerks. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman's. Um I was just going to remind everyone about the um community relations and mayor. I'm sorry. It's okay. But Mayor Pro Tim took care of that for us. So that's all I have for tonight. Councilman Forier.

Okay. I acknowledge uh the national night out was certainly a success. And we'll also um like to congratulate the winners of awards at the DGDC's annual dinner that we had since the last uh meeting. That was a wonderful event. Thank you to everyone that uh was a part of that and helped put it together. And again, congratulations to all of our winners. That's all, Mr. Mayor.

Perfect. It has been a very busy uh a very busy uh role as mayor in the last the last couple of weeks, as as been alluded to, I'm not going to duplicate. I'll just simply say that to all the different folks that you know hold these wonderful events in the fall right after summer. As everyone's, you know, back in the swing of things, it's a really good time to be in GSA. It's a really really good time to be out meeting people whether it's going to a community event in the park or a you know government adjacent organization that's you know committed to improving our quality of life here in the city or later this week if I'm not this this week or next week the development alliance has their uh their you know evening events as well. So it's just fantastic to be here and um Dillard Academy tomorrow night. I'm really excited to be there for that. Chief Weston and Police Department obviously are going to be there to have some have some discussions. And as always, be safe on Halloween. Have some fun. Maybe say boo. Knock on some doors. Get some candy. But above all, be safe. Listen to your mom and dad and try to have a little bit of fun. So with that, Mr. Lawrence, still no close.

No close. All right. Council, entertain a motion to adjurnn. Yes, I move. All right. Motion's been made and properly seconded. Motion made and properly seconded. Is there any debate hearing? None. I will call the vote. All in favor, please raise your hand. All oppose, same son. Seeing none, motion passes. We stand adjourned.