City Council - Regular Meeting

I know. I can't come back. I can Bob's here. We can start now. Praise

that was horrible. your rules. I'm looking.

Yeah. Throw me like I was wondering if you was sitting over there trying to hide. uh on the YouTube.

Yeah.

All right. We good? Awesome. Hi everybody. Welcome to this April meeting. Um let Bobby get up here. Thank you, sir. Wonderful. Um I'm excited to call this April 14th, 2026 city council meeting to order and welcome everyone here and to all of you watching on our YouTube channel. Um, Pastor Chris How, can you come forward and give our invitation? Thank you so much for being here. Let's just Thank you.

like to work together.

Thank you so much, pastor. If you could stand if you're able for the pledge of allegiance. Ice flag of the republic stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all. Um at this time I would like to entertain a motion for the adoption of the agenda.

I make a motion we adopt the agenda as written. Uh, Madame Mayor, um, I'd like to request an item. I'd like to ask that the council to ask for the council to consider going into close session to discuss a personnel issue in accordance with NCGS section 143-318.11A6. I'd like to make a motion that we go into close session discuss the personnel issue in accordance with NCGS section 143-318.11A6. Second a motion. Okay.

Um is there any other I know you can't share a lot of context but is there any other context you want to share about this close session? No, not right now. Okay. All in favor? I. All opposed. Uh passed unanimous. Rene. Thank you. Sure. Um okay. So with the addition of the closed session, um I will entertain a motion for the adoption of the agenda. I make a motion we adopt the agenda with the addition. Second. All in favor?

I. All opposed. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. Um, all right. Let's kick off our proclamations with Denim Day. If my Crossroads um board and Chief Neil and Assistant Chief CIS can meet me. really long. All right. Thank you all for being here. I really appreciate it. This is a really important proclamation. And so this proclamation proclaiming um April 29th, 2026 as Denim Day, sexual assault awareness month in the city of Graham. Whereas April is nationally recognized as sexual assault awareness month, a time to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities on how to prevent it. And whereas sexual assault, excuse me, affects individuals of every age, gender, race, and socioeconomic background. And the impacts can have lasting physical, emotional, and psychological consequences for survivors, their families, and the community. And whereas Denim Day began as an international campaign to stand in solidarity with survivors and to challenge harmful myths and misconceptions about sexual violence. And whereas Denim Day serves as a visible demonstration of support for survivors and a commitment to fostering a culture of respect, consent, and accountability. And whereas raising awareness through education, advocacy, and community engagement plays a

critical role in preventing sexual vi violence and supporting survivors. And whereas communities are encouraged to wear denim as a symbol of protest against victim blaming and to promote conversations about consent, respect, and the importance of ending sexual violence. Now therefore, I, Mayor Chelsea Dicki, and the city Graham City Council do hereby proclaim April 29th, 2026 as Denim Day in recognition of sexual assault awareness month, and encourage all residents, employees, and community members to wear denim, support survivors, and participate in activities that promote awareness, prevention, and respect for all. This 14th day of April, we're going to take a picture, but I would love for you guys to tell the community and the council about the event on the 29th as well. So, hold this. Let's take our picture. gonna be modeling.

I will be a model. I am modeling denim on denim day, but you have to explain.

So, we have a our annual denim day dinner and fashion show at 6:30 to 8:30 on the n on the 29th. Um, and so we are excited for anybody to come. You do have to pay for a ticket. Um, but a little bit of history on Denim Day. It's an Italian Supreme Court decision. Uh, a rape conviction was overturned because the Italian Supreme Court said that she had to have been complicit, the 18-year-old had to have been complicit in her own rape because she was wearing jeans. And so on that in 1999 is when we established Denim Day. And so Crossroads has a fundraiser on that evening. So please go visit our website. We will have models. I believe the mayor of the city of Burlington is also going to be modeling and Elon and now the mayor of Graham. So, we're very excited if you all want to join us.

Okay. Crossroads um is an organization that was founded 50 years ago as Alamance Rape Crisis or Rape Crisis Alliance that became Alamance Rape Crisis. We also have a child advocacy center and we also have an anti-human trafficking program. Our agency covers Alamance, Caswell, and Person counties. Have a website. It's www.crossroadscares.org. So, two S's or like seven S's, but crossroadscares.org. Thank you. Thank you guys so much. Thanks for being here.

Thank you. All right, the second of three proclamations. Can I call Mr. Brian Faucet up here to receive our litter sweep? This proclamation proclaiming April 15th through the 25th, 2026 as litter sweep in the city of Graham. This is whereas the North Carolina Department of Transportation sponsors Litter Sweep, a bianual statewide litter removal initiative. And whereas volunteers and maintenance crews devote time during the sweep to safely remove litter from our roadways. And whereas all municipalities and citizens in Alamance County are invited to participate in litter sweep by New Leaf Society, a nonprofit organization that partners with local governments and NC DOT to improve the county's curb appeal. And whereas a local governments play an essential role in promoting clean communities through public works leadership and environmental stu stewardship. And whereas clean and beautiful outdoor spaces build a sense of belonging, enhance livability, and support economic development. And whereas spring is traditionally a time to celebrate nature and renewal. Now, therefore, I, Mayor Chelsea Dicki, and the Graham City Council, do hereby proclaim April 15 through 25th, 2026 as litter sweep in the city of Graham. Furthermore, I urge all residents to support efforts to protect and enhance the appearance of our city by reducing litter.

All right, last but certainly not least, we have Arbor Day. Will you join me up front in support? All right. This proclamation proclaiming April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Graham. Whereas in 1872, the Nebraska Board of Ar the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. Whereas trees can be a solution for combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling cost, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing oxygen, and providing habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable source that give us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance enhance the economic uh vitality of business areas and beautify our community. Now therefore, I, Mayor Chelsea Dei, and the Graham City Council proclaim April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Graham and challenge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands.

Yes, you Thank you.

Okay. All right. Now, we've got a very special recognition. If Jay Cook and Brian Faucet could join me up front. All right. So, this is pretty special because Jay Cook's a pretty special guy. Um, this is a recognition and appreciation honoring Jay Cook as a 2025 volunteer of the year by Graham Recreation and Parks and Graham City Council. This is for serving on the Graham Recreation and Parks Commission since 2002, serving as chair for 10 plus years. for co-founding and serving on the Graham Sports Hall of Fame since 2002, for co-founding and serving on the board of the Friends of Graham Recreation and Parks since 2016, for serving on numerous steering committees that directed the creation of master plans for the Graham Recreation and Parks Department, and for coaching countless youth in recreation and school leagues. The city of Graham thanks you for your effort and dedication to making Graham a better place to live and play. Thank you, Doug.

Do you want to say anything? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, if I could call Miss Patricia up, um, we will hear our audit presentation. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Council for allowing me to be here tonight to discuss the uh the audit for June 30th, 2025. Uh my name is Patricia Rhodess. I'm a partner with Stout Stewart, McGowan, and King in Burlington. I have Joey Perguson uh who works on the audit team with me and also uh Becky Ly from Kabaziku Loy is here tonight. Um we are the independent auditors uh for the uh city of Graham and it's independent auditors uh we like we work for the council. We work with the staff of the city uh on the audit but as auditors we work for the council. Um this is the 11th year of the arrangement with Becky Ly and Kabzekio Loy uh who they work with the city finance staff to streamline the year-end process and assist with the uh preparation of the financial statements. They also provide assistance during the year um on other accounting matters um and they know your systems and your processes. Um but the reason for this arrangement is as auditors um uh we cannot prepare the financial statements and do some of those services for you because that impairs our independence as independent auditors. Uh we have submitted the audit um to the local government commission uh but we have not gotten approval yet uh

so we can't officially release the financial statements. Uh but I can give you a presentation and and kind of tell you how things ended up. Um our audit opinion letter states that the preparation of the financial statements um is the responsibility of management and uh the expression of an opinion on the financial statements based on our audit is the responsibility of the auditor. Uh the financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted auditing um excuse me generally accepted accounting principles and the audit was performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. We are rendering an unmodified opinion which is the best and the cleanest opinion that can be received. Uh for the year ending June 30th 2025 uh there were a few changes to the statements from the prior year mainly due to the adoption of uh governmental accounting standards board pronouncement number 101 compensated absences and number 102 certain risk disclosures. Um, Gatsby 101 actually um uh changed the statements a fair amount because what happened is um uh sick leave was added to the calculation of compensated absences uh in the acrruel. Um and the city was already acrewing vacation leave but they added the sick leave. So that added an additional liability uh to the statement of net position for the city. Um so you can imagine that was a a fairly large number uh but it was a required uh adoption. Um when you get um when you actually get the audit report I invite you to look at the management discussion and analysis. Uh this is a good overall summary of a very large report um and and especially

the financial highlights. And I'm going to just touch on a few um uh tonight. Uh the net position for the city at June 30th, 2025 was 1,169 million uh and six $6,297. Um the net position actually increased during the year of $30,369,000. Um the general fund um uh the the available fund balance in the general fund was 13 million240,000. That's 62% of the total general fund expenditures for the fiscal year. And that's always kind of a talking point with a lot of municipalities on where you fall as far as your percentage of your available fund balance. So 62%'s fairly healthy. Um the city actually has a fund balance policy uh and they want that to stay uh at least 30%. Um so there's a potential for some fund balance to be used in the future if needed maybe uh for um some either purchases or projects in the future. So you're you're sitting in a a pretty good position at that 62%. Um and also um the debt decreased um by a little over $638,000 which is wonderful. You want your debt, you know, to to go down. And so that was a that was a um that was very encouraging. Um now we'll take a look at the slides now. Um and if you can we'll start with the uh the first slide is the general fund and this is on the budgetary basis. Um, and you can kind of, it's kind of hard to see, but I think with your handouts you might can see it a little bit better. Uh, the general fund revenues,

total revenues actually increased from the prior year a little over $1,700,000. Um, the tax revenue increase was a little over $620,000 and the sales tax revenue increased a little over $640,000. Um, the uh expenditures increased about a million three. Um and and there was actually an increase in the fund balance uh for the general fund of a million132. Um the tax collection rate remains high and uh it's at 98.39%. So that's a pretty healthy uh collection rate, but that's where you you want to be. As far as the water and sewer fund, um on the budgetary basis, uh the revenue increased a little over from the prior year a little over $2 million. Uh now if you remember there was a rate increase uh from the prior year of about 9.5%. And you have to you have to keep up in the water and sewer fund because that's a that's an enterprise fund. It's like a business. You're running it like a business and you got to realize um that you have infrastructure that you have to keep up to date and constantly make changes to that infrastructure. Um, so it's important to to to keep the rates uh where you know where you're um able to uh to in you know do the improvements to the infrastructure. Um the um expenses or expenditures increased modestly of about $330,000 from the prior year. Um and and you actually had um a revenues over expenditures in the water and sewer fund of almost $5.7 million. Uh the next slide is just some important balances, overall balances of the city and um and some ratios. And a couple of

ratios I want to um uh put your attention to is the operating expenses per day. Uh for the general fund uh to operate uh on a daily basis, uh the city needs $58,29. That's a lot. has a lot of money. Um, but it's a pretty good size city. So, you you want to keep that in mind that you you um um have to have to have enough cash to be able to to carry you know u the expenditures. Uh so the number of days available in cash and investments less any current liabilities is 230 days. Um in the water and sewer fund the operating expenses per day is $27,598. and the number of days available in cash um and less the liabilities is 467 days. Uh the overall cash uh for the for the city is a little a little over $40 million. That's cash and cash cash investments and restricted cash. And then and like I said earlier, the net position for the city is a little over $169 million. Uh there were a couple letters um there with uh with your report. Um the first letter is is a required disclosure uh and it's required by our professional standards uh to communicate things to the to the council and I'll just summarize the letter. Uh we had no problems performing our audit. We had no difficulties or disagreements with management during our audit. Uh the second letter is uh a management letter and we we consider internal control during our audit and we're required to report to the council any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that come to our attention during the audit. Uh we're reporting to you a

significant deficiency in the second letter. Um it's um the city expended 2,1001 8,274 and 30,113 more than the appropriated annual budget ordinance in three departments. Now, that's not a lot of money and I know the uh the manage I've talked to to Megan and the other members of the management and they've already addressed this matter and and the procedures have been put in place uh to prevent future occurrences and there were no prior year audit findings to uh to uh to be corrected. Um 2025 was an extremely busy year uh for the city. Uh there were many water and sewer capital projects that are still in progress at the or were at in progress at the end of the year. Um just to name some of them you know very well the wastewater treatment plant upgrade which hopefully will be um uh completed maybe by the calendar year uh this year. Uh, and then winding down is the B Boyd Creek pump station and the old fields outfall. And just getting started is the 10-in water line replacement. But I thank the council uh for allowing us to continue as the audit firm for the city. And I thank Megan and Aaron and all the finance staff uh for their cooperation during the audit. Uh, does anyone have any questions?

Council We'll we'll be um providing the council with with the audit report, the actual financial statement once we get the approval from the local government commission. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your work in this. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Moving right along. Our um City of Graham appearance commission is going to give a report. Um we've got boards and commissions um for the city of Graham and they annually come and give us a little little update of what they're working on. So can you introduce yourselves and share a little bit?

My name is Clark Bowwin. I'm the chairperson of the parents commission tree board and I have with me tonight the vice chair Cheryl Ray.

All right. Good evening. Um this is our first time giving a presentation. A little intimidating, but we'll do our best. Um so, um mayor and members of council, um thanks for the opportunity to give you all an update from the appearance commission and tree board. Um we do represent we are a board of five individuals, two of us here this evening, um and are appointed by you all as an advisory board to the council. The mission is to promote, plan, encourage beautifification efforts throughout the city of Graham, engaging both residents and businesses and enhancing overall appearance of our community. So with this, the commission leads several initiatives aiming at recognizing and supporting beautifification efforts um throughout um the city of Graham downtown mainly but throughout um throughout our our jurisdiction. We honor residents and businesses owners through our residential and business beautifification grants awards that we put on and we'll talk a little bit more about those in a minute. um making sure they're making meaningful effort and beautifification to their building to their properties to enhance our appearance. We also um administer the business grant program which is a matching funds to local businesses. You guys appropriate those dollars annually in the budget and we um are the entity that con gets to administer those those dollars um to those that apply for that for exterior improvements that contribute to the visual appeal of our city. So, highlights from the past year. Over the past year, we roughly spent about $15,000 right under um which is what was um approved in the budget to do those business um improvement grants or beautifification grants throughout the city. These are considered matching funds. So, the individual business owner does have to match dollar for dollar for

what we are awarding them. And the um maximum per project is $5,000. Um, so we were able to do um several upgrades this year. Um, you can think back to the hotel um the mural um on one of the buildings downtown that says hotel. Those were dollars spent to make that mural um more sustained. Think of facade enhancements, maybe window improvements, awning improvements, those kind of things um or where the dollars go or just overall appearance of the front entrance of a building. Additionally, um, holiday business window decoration contest. I don't know if it has a better name than that. Maybe, maybe.

Um, so every year we do, um, coordinate, sometimes we'll work with other partners. So, think back to Alamiance Arts in the Peanut Exhibit. We worked with downtown to kind of carry that image and brand through. So this past year we worked with businesses through the internal um PR department here with the city of Graham um to basically recognize them to get into the spirit for the holiday season for small businesses. So Witz Custard was our first place winner. Um Things Above was our second place and SkidS 2 was the third place. So um those are some things that we are working on. Additionally, back to those residential awards. So, we have had a little bit of change, but ultimately this has been a program the city has done for many years. I'm looking at Bonnie because she used to be on our board. So, shout out to her um with that where basically anyone could nominate a resident house that they love. They thought it looked attractive or the the owner could nominate um for us to vote and basically recognize them. We are going to be shifting that. So, um, our citizens will be getting information in the coming I think May 1st is when we're launching it that it's going to be a self-nomination. So, um, clearly if you have, um, your property wants to be recognized, you take extra work in, um, consideration to what you're planting and how you're keeping it beautiful, we certainly invite you to, um, submit your um, photos um to the social media page. There'll be a jot form. More information to come on the social media page for Facebook, etc., Instagram and next door. So, those are some things that we work on. A sign can go on the yard. It's a great recognition just to show pride. Um, we have partnered with city staff. So, we work really closely with our parks and rec department as well as our public works department to um work on several events that you'll hear about with Arbor Day, but also downtown beautifification. So, the planters downtown, our city does a wonderful job at keeping those planted and thriving

and beautiful. um in color um for our downtown during the summer months. So last year we worked with them a little bit more on adding a little bit more um burst of color, a little bit more full um and they certainly accommodated and it looked beautiful throughout the season. One of the next pieces that we do you heard about earlier was Arbor Day. So we are the entity through the treeboard relationship. this year is the number 45 um that city of Graham has been a treeboard um conservacious um conservationist um recogn recognition. So last year in April we typically choose Arbor Day to do the celebration on um as a Tree City USA community. That's one of the entities or one of the events we must do. So last year we did um partner with the city and the parks and recck department to plant a tree um at the Graham Rec Center in honor of a former city employee. It was a big event. We had a choir. We had um um sapling tree saplings to give out, coffee, other things. So it's a great event. You'll hear more about that um event for this year in a little bit. Um but that is um another in another project that this board works on. some of the upcoming goals that we have. Um, and these can always change. We look for um influence from you all what you want to see happen in our our city, but some of these are going to be um certainly organizing a citywide litter cleanup in the fall. Um we couldn't make the spring one work because we have Arbor Day that we're planning, but the um the state does do it twice a year. So, we're looking at fall initiate initiating partnerships with the New Leaf Society. Those are early stages, but just how we can partner with them. um potentially to beautify our city a little bit more. Um exploring opportunities to become a B city USA. So native plants and planting native species is part of what um this commission should be um working towards um and sustaining in our area. So BC USA

is right up the line with that. Um improving and streamlining that residential appearance award nomination process which the city staff is working great on. and then certainly reviving a little bit more robust with the business appearance awards. So, those are some short-term goals. Long-term goals are going to be implementing maybe potentially wayfinding signs, which is a long-term goal, but we're starting to work through that. Expanding city branding through flags on um just for a city appearance and brand image. And then also some um lots of feedback on installing planters throughout the city that may be hanging and stuff um to give it a little bit more um pop of color and more appearance. But with that said, that marks our um our update and I'll turn it over to CW for the election.

Thank you so much, Cheryl. You you did a great job in describing and letting this board see what we do. It actually came to life to me. Um, as I sit on the board, we take challenges throughout the city and we want the city and the community to know that they are always welcome to be involved. Please come out to our meetings. We meet the first Monday of every month at 6 pm right here in this same place. Um, with having said that, we would like to also add to the upcoming events. We'd like to extend an invitation at this time to the city council and the community members to join us in the upcoming Arubber Day celebration which will be held the last Friday of the month which is April 24th, 2026. And we will be meeting promptly at 10:00 a.m. and until about 11. Um that is located at 10:10 Town Branch Road. anyone needing any special um information, you can go online on our website and we will have it posted there. But we look to see all of you there. Aubber day is a very important uh part of our um board celebration and we join forces with the Graham Recreation Department. So we have multiple people in on all different facets of the city that we work towards getting this goal of keeping trees very vibrant in Graham. Trees play a very important part of our environment and we hope to see you there. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you guys so much. Uh council, did you guys have any questions or comments for the appearance commission? Uh no, just thank y'all for what you what you do. I know it's hard work. Sometimes it's thankless work and you guys are volunteer and thank thank you for all the time that you donate to this because we really do appreciate it. Yeah. I'd like to ask Patricia a question. Would it be possible when you do the um the individual homes maybe you could you could separate the city and and have like one in this area, one in this area, one in this area. Something like that. have a battle of the neighborhoods.

So that's certainly an idea. So we'll work with city staff and yeah, it's a great recommendation. Those kind of recommendations we love to hear. So you guys are much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys.

All right, moving on to our consent agenda. Um, we do have A through Q, so hang in there with me for a minute. Um, with the consent agenda includes approving mi meeting minutes from the March meeting, closing the 100 block of East Elm Street for a Christian concert on April 25th, approve the water service contract with the town of Green Level, approve an agreement supporting Alamance County installing a water line through Swepenville. Transfer excess asphalt millings to the county landfill. apply for funding to make additional reli uh reliability improvements to the Graham Meban water treatment plant, convert 3.88 acres at Graham Regional Park into a future fire station site, and buy 10.2 replacement acres on North Gym Miner Road to offset the lost recreation land. Um, honor retiring Sergeant Crystal Sharp O'Neal with a badge and service sidearm for 25 years in the force. Purchase a new sanitation truck to replace a 2007 model. Ordering it by July 1 saves us money ahead of upcoming emissions regulation changes. Um, add 60,000 to the garage department budget to cover cost for two winter storms, a retirement, higher fuel prices, and unexpected repairs. Add $38,000 to the sanitation department budget for higher fuel costs, unexpected repairs, and increased chart cost. Add $15,279 to purchase buoys for the Graham Eb, and Lake. Add $82,530 for professional and contracted services in the non-EP departmental budget. That's engineering reviews and GIS cost. add $10,000 for professional services related to the updating the land development plan. Add $3,81

um total $2,460 of those of a sponsor banner for parks and recck facilities and $1,341 for marketing materials and photo archival supplies for the historical museum. add $36,612 from surplus vehicle auction proceeds to the police department's equipment budget and add $410,893 in FEMA reimbursement funds to the utility funds related in uh tropical storm Shantel. Do you have any

that was okay? I will say first of all I have one edit to a um the minutes reflected that um Pastor Josh from Trail Head had the invocation and we had Jane Albbright give the invocation. Um so that's the only edit to the consent agenda item that I had. Do you guys have any items you want to pull out or any edits? I just had one question on item L uh with the buoys, the $15,279 for the purchase of buoys for the Graham Meban Lake. I think I had asked Aaron, I'd asked you earlier, is that being split between us and Mebban or or are we putting that whole bill in? Is it 30,000 and they're paying half and we're paying half or is it 15,000 and we're paying all of it? If you'd like, um, I can jump in and answer this for you. 15 is the total price. Usually at the end of the year, there's a settlement, uh, a settle up of sorts between us and Mebban because you have the budgeted amounts and then you end up with the actual at the end of the year. So, it wasn't included in the proposal, the budget estimates we gave them leading into this fiscal year, but we do a look back at the conclusion of the fiscal year to make sure that the numbers we anticipated we were going to spend were spent and if there were any overages, they're addressed. Okay.

But the 15 is the total. Any other items? Yeah, I um I just wanted to see if um staff could explain him what those uh expenditures are.

So I can jump on this one here. Um so that covers our engineering review fees which is split between the general fund and water and sewer fund. um the portion the uh $34,430 is for the portion on the general fund side. Uh those those funds are really difficult to predict on how much we'll end up spending throughout the year because depending on the level of plan review that we have through throughout the year, it could be high, it could be low. Um we've had a lot of activity which required a lot of uh review. Um so that amount based on what we've been paying monthly um is what we anticipate to be able to cover to the end of the year. Uh the other amount is for the contracted services which goes towards our GIS services with uh the city of Burlington. Um I think that that cost was um based on a contract amount that wasn't reflecting what the new because we went to a new contract. So it does show in this what that amount's going to be. U we were using a older number but this would cover us to the end of the year as well.

Thank you Erin. Any other comments? And I entertain a motion. Madam Mayor, Madame Mayor, I make a motion we approve the agenda as written wi with the one comment for the for the correct minutes. Yep. Yes, ma'am. Have a second. Second. All in favor? I

All opposed? Pass unanimously. All right, skipping right ahead. Old business act of funding. Megan, can I recognize you for this? Absolutely. As you recall, at last month's meeting, Peter Murphy came before city council and did a presentation. And as a part of that presentation, he requested city council consider $6,500 in funding from the city of Graham. That is brought back before you tonight. I will ask that um city council consider other funding requests from outside organizations. um some similar to ACT, some maybe not so much, but Link Transit has also made a budget request of the city of Graham in the amount of $22,000 and the United Way has requested budget funds anywhere from 10 to $15,000 because they are similarly situated to act. I did want to bring those budget requests to your attention. It is not something that the city has um funded in the past, but we will obviously fund anything lawful that city council directs us to do.

Can you speak more on the United Way? I know we received a letter from link, but I I haven't received anything from United. While you're looking that up, we'll start discussion if that's okay, Megan. Sure. Okay. Um, madame mayor, before we get started, let me state that I said as a member of the MO on the active group and probably should step aside for this um discussion. Okay. Do you do you have anything to gain through this vote?

Okay. I mean, it's up to you guys. Do y'all think he I don't think he I don't think he needs to I don't think you need to step down. I don't have an issue with you. Thank you, Honor Ricky.

Yeah. Um, thank you for that, but I we would love your support or your your insight. you you probably know more about this and and have more insights. Um, from meeting with Peter and hearing his presentation last time and seeing the impacts of our local residents and our local economy, um, with the 7,500 trips last year, 950 writers, um, I would like to propose that we do fund ACT. I think it's imperative for our community to be able to rely on some kind of transportation um and knowing that this 6,500 while it's not going to be a significant amount of money, it's going to go into leverage um is what he said last time to leverage state and federal grants. Is that right, Peter? Okay. Um so that's my position. Um, y'all have comments or thoughts?

I I also feel that it's very uh it's a great organization and I think it's something we should consider doing. I know we haven't done it in the past and the other two notwithstanding. Uh it doesn't really commit us to anything else. um it's not I know $6,500 is a lot, but um for what they're going to use it for and from your presentation you gave us last month, I thought it was really excellent. Uh and I think that the citizens of Graham would really benefit from it. Yes, money well spent. Yes, I agree. Money well spent.

Um if there's no other questions or comments, I could entertain a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the act of funding request. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimously. Thank you, Peter. Um, all right. We're moving on to number two in old business new downtown park update. Did you? I'm sorry. Yes, I would love to. I'm sorry, Megan. Yeah, it's called the VITA tax time program and that stands for the volunteer income tax assistance program funded by the United Way in the amount of $12,000. Have you forwarded that out to us? I have not. Can you send it to us and maybe we'll discuss it next month?

Okay. Is there is there a timeline on that request? Just budget. Okay. Fiscal year. Okay. Yeah, if you could send it to us, especially ahead of the May 20th meeting and also the link proposal. Sure. Yeah, thank you. The link when was sent out, the letter was um la last week. Um they're requesting 22,000. Okay. What was that number again? 22,000. But they

the letter was a lot more vague than anything that we've learned from ACT. there was no numbers or or impact associated with it. And they really want the 22,000 to serve as a um pilot project. They want us to give want us to give the money and then they want to like do a new program and so we don't know what the impact would be to our community. Um but we can discuss that at a later time. Certainly. We're going on to new downtown park update. Erin, can I recognize you for this?

All right. Thank you, mayor. Um just a quick update. Uh today the the bids were due for the design bill services for the proposed new park um off of West M Street. Uh they were due today at 2 p.m. Uh we did receive two bids. Because that did not meet the three bid threshold. We were unable to open those bids. Uh we did uh send a request to have that ad for readvertisement to the paper for the upcoming Thursday run. So we will have a another bid opening next week, next Thursday at 2:00 p.m. Um whether we have one, two, three, 100, we are able to open up whatever bids we receive on that particular day. So, just wanted to update council. Uh, not knowing whether we have any person in particular, uh, we did want you to know that the bid opening was today and we were, uh, required to readvertise and and move it till next Thursday.

Okay. Does this put us in a bond with the um, grant? Well, I mean, timing wise,

I mean, timing wise for for for staff in particular, we won't we want to have that money spent. So, um it doesn't it doesn't hurt us any more to wait until next week. um because we did have to have the soil testing done at the West AM location and we we wouldn't authorize anyone to move forward or or we wouldn't um ask that council authorize anyone to move forward until we had that reporting hand in which we should receive the end of this week, beginning of next week. So, the timeline sort of works out for that anyway.

Okay. Um, so I don't I don't think it's going to create any worse of a situation timelinewise for us moving forward with this. Just have any um heard anything about the extension?

Um, so I did hear back from the folks with the appropriations with the state that they they will be back in session I want to say next week. So, um, they said that hopefully they'll have an answer for us when they're back in session. So, um, I definitely would check back next week just to see if there, you know, was any movement on that. But they did say they would reach back out to us to let us know, uh, whether we were able to receive an extension or or not.

Thanks, Aaron. What I received from Amy Gayley's office was that they weren't issuing uh extensions without a new budget in place. Is that still correct? They're going to reach out to us if they pass a budget. Um so I spoke with I say her name was Carolyn. Carla Carly. Carly. Yeah. So that that's the one that I spoke with and she was you know with appropriation. So, I mean that that's who Amy had recommended that we speak with to sort of get an understanding on where we were with all of it. So, I'm just going off of what uh Carlos says.

Sure. Okay. Um I do want to state that we don't know what's in those bids. It could be $200,000. It could be a million dollars. Um, and we're kind of gambling with this grant money by pushing it out. Um, I would like to see us go ahead and reallocate this grant money to do an easy but needed project downtown. Aaron has suggested a a paving project with Burke just so that we don't lose the money, that we are able to utilize the money. Well, it's spent on a project that needs to be completed anyway. Um, and then we're not up against a clock and potentially losing this grant funds. Um, losing the grant funds does a couple of things. It doesn't um, well, we lose we lose the grant funds, but also then we don't look good to the state to receive more grant funds. Is that correct, Aaron?

Yeah, that that that's correct. But but I would say waiting and opening and then deciding if plan B to go forward with another project with something like a repaving that um because Burke has to make sure that we can actually get on a paving schedule to be able to do it. So there's there's that part of it as well. Um, it it it wouldn't make it any worse for us to wait until Thursday, but I would say at that point, depending on what's in the envelopes, a decision, if we're going to pivot, we are definitely up against it at that point to go one way or another. if if council chooses to pivot at that point, that would probably be the very last moment that we could. But today versus next Thursday doesn't make that big of a difference when it comes to that particular situation.

But we won't be able to meet next Thursday. We'll be that'll be push back because you have to vet the bids. Correct. But the conversations that could be had in between time, you know, we we kind of can do some preliminary conversations in between time. Okay. With the contractor. Okay. Any other questions? No. Okay. Well, we will potentially be planning. Do we need to plan this special meeting now? I wouldn't quite yet.

Okay. I uh let let us uh let us make sure that we get some bids in first, but either way um you'll be hearing from me next week. Okay. So, to the community TBD on a special meeting in the next Either way, we're going to have to have a special meeting. Okay. TBD on a special meeting. All right. Um are we okay to move on to public hearings? Yep. Okay. Um Aaron, can you kick us off with the ADU?

Thank you, mayor. Um, so a couple months ago, uh, a resident had approached the city council about a a potential amendment to our ordinance that would allow for accessory dwelling units. Currently, our ordinance does not speak to allowing those, so they're not allowed. Um staff did draft language addressing the accessory dwelling units and adding into our ordinance. Planning board recommended approval of the amendment with revisions of dropping the maximum square footage for the attached and detached ADUs from 1,600 to,200 square feet. uh require a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet for the ADU and to allow ADUs to be served off of existing private connections to the primary dwelling if capacity allowed. I did speak with our utilities department. Um there is a preference that there is one connection so it does match up with what the planning board recommended. Um staff would say that if council chooses to move forward with approval of the amendment for the ADUs that if you do want them to have that one connection that we have a fee schedule change to charge a uh a fee for their refues for their garbage and and recycling. Because if you have basically two living quarters and one garbage can and one recycling bin, we're going to have issues going forward. So I would say that there would need to be some amendment at some point to our fee schedule to address that so that we can look into into accounting for that. Otherwise, we are going to have future issues with that. Okay.

Thank you. Any questions from Aaron? Are we ready to open public hearing? question. We're not Okay. Um Okay. Does anybody want to speak on the ADU ordinance potential? Okay. All right. Um, it um all right. I need a motion to close the public hearing. I make a motion we close the public hearing. Second. All in favor?

I. All right. Council, what are we thinking?

Uh, I have some real reservations about this. We, you know, we discussed this once before a couple years ago and decided that ADUs would be best done on, you know, special requests to come before council. You know, there are ways that they could do these types of things without it being just permitted to basically pop one in a neighborhood somewhere. Um there were a lot of um concerns about how that would affect other homes in the area. You know, um I personally am still against this. I I don't think we should uh add this to our ordinance. Um I do understand there was a citizen that brought it forth. I would be okay with if we were to vote on it now, I'm going to say no. Um, I would be okay with, you know, tableabling it to next month. I understand he couldn't be here tonight. So, I would be fine with tableabling it to next month till he could be here if if you guys want to do that. Um, but right now, uh, my vote would be no. Bobby.

Well, the uh legislature is looking at the ADUs and I would be hesitant to approve one locally and then whatever the state come leg, you know, passes might be countered to what we propose. So, if they're looking into it, I think we should pause. Um, didn't Elon allow this? And then they turned around and m realized they made a huge mistake because they someone actually put some up and

was like this big horrendous looking beast comprised of these little dwelling units. I think they're they're great for what what they are, but I I'm I'm inclined to agree with with uh Bonnie and and Bobby about waiting to see what the state says. Um because I think they do have a purpose, but I don't know if maybe um the if anyone had looked at the the public notice that we were going to be talking about this. I think more of them would have would have showed up. Um, when you when you when I was on the planning and zoning board and you had these developers wanting to put, you know, as much as they could on one little spot on a a neighborhood that's been there for 50, 60 years, and the residents came out, they didn't want that. Um, I think with these dwelling units, we would run into that same issue where you you've got one little spot available in an existing neighborhood. And the, you know, they plop three or four of these dwelling units right there. And I mean, I I think they're awesome. I I really do. I mean, I I know um Roll Construction has put one up down the road here, and I think it's just the coolest thing in the world. But I don't know what the neighbors around there think. Um I I hate that nobody showed up because it would be really nice to hear hear from the you know residents. Um but I I am apt to just table it until we see what the state does. I'll say my piece I'm very opposed to this. I have been since it's been brought up to council. Um, I think it's

going to be a um it's going to tear up a lot of subdivisions. Um, and you know, we we can't let that happen any

um I will say that that like Jim, I I think that it's a great opportunity especially um for lower um socioeconomic. just gives a a more diverse opportunity for housing um if done right. I think that with as many people that have uh voiced it that we should table it for next month. So I would like to make a motion that we table this um for one month to see if we get people at a public hearing.

Madame Mayor, um I I did have a question. I don't know if Aaron you can answer this. what um what are the regulations where like say someone has a house and they want to put one of these on their extra part of their property um the as far as how is water handled water billing and stuff like that on on those types of units. So that that's where planning board was basically saying that it would be one connection and then you know the responsibility would be on the the primary residence as far as the bill. Um for for utilities it's it's cleaner only because you don't have multiple cuts in at one location. Mhm.

Um, so essentially it would just be uh you can't promise that the primary structure and uh ADU are related. Yeah. You know, you know, a lot of But you're talking they're going to be on one meter. Yes. Yeah. They'll be on the same same lines. Um that's what's proposed. Yeah. That um what I mean what about uh waste removal? I mean the the garbage and everything. Are they going to are they all relying on one blue bin or one green bin?

Um so that's where I was saying that I would ask that if council moves forward with it that we consider looking at a separate charge um staff position at cost for an extra um me extra blue bin and garbage bin. uh only because two residents is using one. I mean, one house can fill up a garbage can with no problem. Yeah. Um if you essentially expect two people, two different families to utilize one bin, it's going to fill up pretty quickly. What about um parking? Do that we do that we make any allowances for that?

It's also addressed. Yeah, it is. But you also have to remember that this is half a acre minimum or almost a halfacre minimum lot. So essentially you're probably going to have ample space for parking based on the um the amendment that was added by planning board to have that 20,000 square foot minimum for a lot. Yeah. I'm I'm just you know I'm I I think they're still just the coolest things. I I I would prefer we table it and learn a little more about it. And would they have separate addresses, Erin, or would they be the same since they're on the same uh water line and whatnot?

That's on on the ordinance, too. They would have to they'd be responsible for contacting to get a separate address. Yeah, because I I would think for 911 purposes for for sure. Um correct. Um I do have a motion on the table to table this. All in favor? May we ask a clarification?

So I don't need to close the public hearing. I need to recess the public hearing. Okay. I make a motion to reopen the public hearing. All in favor? All opposed? Passes unanimously. Now, I'm making a motion to table this until next month. Second. Do you mind giving the specific date? Is it May 12th?

It is. Okay. table until May 12th, regular city council meeting. Thank you. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Okay. All in favor? All opposed? Passes unanimously. Thank you guys. Thank you, Bob. Um, okay. Aaron, you're up a lot tonight. Can I recognize you for the future land use plan, please?

So, this is going to be very easy. Um staff are recommending that we table this item to the May 12th meeting as well. Uh we did reach out to the um the council of governments to see if we could have a representative that helped work on the plan to be present to help with the presentation to council. And if council would allow, we would like to table this until next month. Madam Mayor, I make a motion we table to next month. Second.

All in favor? I. All opposed? All right. Table till next month. All right. Um, sorry. Okay. Um, Aaron, can you talk a little bit about Wilton Drive, please?

Thank you again. Uh, so this is to approve a resolution to permanently close uh the unopened section of Wilton Drive. KC Reynolds LLC is requesting that the roadway abudding, they're laying on the east and west right away of Wooden Drive to be closed. Uh that that section is where the pavement ends and basically you have the unopened rightway space that goes from there to the next property. They're looking to have that part closed so that um it could revert to the adjoining property owners. Okay. What's the square footage of that? Oh, it's right there.

There we go. Okay. All right. At this time, council, are y'all okay if I open up? Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you. At this time, I would love to open to public hearing. So, whoever wants to come and speak at this, please. Your name and your address. We would love to hear from you. You get three minutes each. Thank you, ma'am. Thanks for being here. Not a problem. You might not like me being here in a little bit. Uh, name and address, please.

Kathy Ward, and I'm at 214 Aloha Drive in Graham. It's the corner lot from Aloha and Wilton. My driveway goes out on Wilton. We as a neighborhood are not quite understanding what you're talking about by permanently closing this road because we use this, you know, there's four houses that are on this road already. Can I Are we talking about a culde-sac down in the field? Is that what thinking about doing? Can I clarify real quick? Or Erin, can you clarify real quick?

So, it's it's basically a section that's not on the ground now. is uh it's basically on a a paper rightway section that they're looking to close so that the uh it'd be easy if I could show you. Give me one second. They can't go through Chandler Village. It's no roadway through there. They're not They're not trying to They're trying to close that unopen section out so it doesn't extend any further than the asphalt stops. Now,

it's a piece of grassy land. So, you're going to put five houses down there in the field with no extension of the road for anybody to get out of the field because my understanding was they were going to build five houses down there in that little tiny field. How are the how is traffic getting out of there?

Hold on one second. Wilton is a small road and we park on the side and I intend to continue parking on the side because I've been parking on the side of this road for 55 years. I'm old. It's hard to make me change. Exactly. I have one little driveway and three cars. I don't have room to do anything else. Thank you, Aaron. All right. So, it's easy it's easier for me to show you. So, these two parcels here are owned by KC Reynolds, right? This section here that's in between right here of Wilton Drive. Mhm.

This is the area they're closing. Uh you can see where the center line stops here. By closing, that's what we're not understanding. You're talking about the the pavement stops at the end of the road and they're not going to put any more road down there. Correct. It's it's not going to be public, right? It's not going to extend any further than it is already. So, this area right here that's not paid, which it is now, how do those five houses get out of that field if they're built down there? If you don't have a roadway to the through the rest of the field.

So, Chris Chris is here. Chris is here. I was going to say, can I can is council okay if I pause your three minutes for us to get a little bit of clarification. We're going to invite you guys up for some clarification and then I'll come back to you. I don't want to take away your three minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you, council. Name and address.

Kristen Fa. I represent Casey Reynolds. Um live on South Highway 62, Burlington. Um we we figured there'd be some confusion with this. So what everyone has seen we proposed for this neighborhood is the continuation of Wilton at the where the asphalt ends. We're going to put a turnaround. What we're talking about here is just um a process we have to go through with the council because it is right now currently a dedicated city rightway. It's a grassy saying and it's old. I'm not sure how old it's been there Erin. Forever.

Forever. So it can't go anywhere obviously because it can't go through Chandler Village. So we're asking for this to be removed. Uh it's just the back portion of it. The when we complete our T turnaround as we have proposed to the city and we have TRC approval, uh there will it'll be a continuation of the city street. So there will be part of a rideway around that front area. So that's how the houses will connect to the city street to get out. So when you finish the tea, are you handing those streets back to the city? Correct. Okay.

So we're giving over I'm saying it trying to clear it very clear the air. You're give we're giving over the land for you to do construction and put a T turnaround on there and then you're giving it back to us. So that T turnaround will be able to be used for all the Wilton Drive correct residents. Correct. Does that make sense to everybody? Did I say that clear enough? Um, okay. If there's Thank you. to to my knowledge, we were just made aware of this by the city. It's just a process because it's a right of way undeveloped. It's it's serving no purpose right now. Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay.

This public hearing is just for the Wilton Drive closure. Um, and I would love to to stay to this. um we can try to get those drawings at a at a later date. Um, does anybody else or do you have further questions that you'd like to to pose or does do others want to come up? Anita Hunter and I live at 216 Wilton Drive. And I might be dumb and I probably sound dumb, but I still don't understand what's gonna Okay, the Wilton Drive right now is a short little road and it dead end dead ends right there.

Are we talking about the rightway the the turnabout coming from Wilton Drive or are we talking about that Wilton Drive right there being completely closed? No, the the current asphalt is going to stay Wilton Drive. There's a little bit of grass area that the city's going to give to them. They're going to put a turnaround in there and then they're going to give it back to the city. So, Wilton Drive is gaining a turnaround instead of just a dead end. It does it make sense or you don't like it? We don't like it. Okay.

Through this last year and that little short road is tiny. I can't imagine it being, you know, going all these the houses going through this short little road. Um Jim Young was down there last year. He came and looked at it for us when we had this meeting last year concerning dwellings down there and he unders you. Jim, did you understand you know what what we're talking about? It's a narrow, small road. And Kathy, I mean, she doesn't have a choice but park on the road because she's on her driveway's on Wilton. It's a short little driveway. Always has been.

No other way to do it. And she has to park on the road and there's just really no area, no traffic to be able to go back and forth there on that little short road.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I think I think this uh aerial view is probably a better look of exactly what it looks like on the ground currently. Asphalt stops about right here. And we're talking about them taking this space here to extend Wilton and add that uh T turnaround to the back side of this to be able to service these two lots that are on both sides of that. So essentially that's that's what what they're doing and the development has already been approved.

So there the zoning for what they're trying to do is allowing them to do what they're wanting to do here is the issue of the extension of this rightway which they would be putting in not the city right

to serve these two uh properties. Well, at at the risk of me also sounding stupid, um, so if they're going to build houses down here at the end, I presume that's what what y'all are doing, right? Um, how is a T turnaround? I mean, if you're going to have multiple houses down there, how does how's that going to work exactly? How is that all going to hook up? I mean, how is that? I'm having trouble visualizing it as well. And I actually drove down there, and I'm still having trouble visualizing what how that is going to all work. If there's like four or five houses down there, are they going to are all their driveways going to connect to that T turnaround? I mean, where how do they get to the T turnaround? I mean, is that a stupid question? I mean, so all the driveways will connect to that one to that one T turnaround. Is that what you're saying? Because I'm I'm just trying to

Hold on, Bonnie. My mind around it. If you have more questions, let's get them up to the mic so that people on online. Do you have more questions for them? Well, that's those were my questions. I'm sorry. I just I'm just trying to understand and wrap my mind around exactly what what it is. Thank you, Miss Ania. So, you know what the problem is? is all the all the traffic coming down that little road. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, Madame Mayor. I think y'all are are missing the the bigger picture here. Um we're what we are doing is abandoning that right away. Once we abandon that right away, it goes to the property owners. That's all they're asking for. They're not asking for anything else but for us to abandon the rightway.

That's correct. I think the community is worried about what's going to happen with it and that's why we're exploring that. That's not part of the case. That's not what's on paper. That's what the community is worried about. So that's what's hearing hearing them out. Is there anybody else that wants to speak on this name and address please sir?

Chris F990 Highway 62 South. Yeah, we are doing the turnaround. Those other two lots will have frontage. We're giving a new water line. Water line is old cast water line. We're putting a fire hydrant up at the corner because there's no hydrant near there. We're giving all these upgrades to to get these five lots. The turnaround will be built to gram specs. The road that they're saying there is two gram specs. I measured it backto back curve. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. All right. Is there anybody else that would like to speak on this? Come on up. We'd love to hear from you. Get my three minutes. Sorry.

Yes, ma'am. Um, just so we are clear, that road is the only way that these four houses get in and out. Now, my yard has been tattooed and so has the road. I'm assuming they're going to have to tear this road up, put water and sewage lines down through there because there's no water and sewage lines in that field. We plowed that field up for a garden for years and years and years. So, what happens when they tear that road up to put water and sewage down through there? What do the four houses do that that are on that road? Um, Miss Cathy, can I get your contact information and we can chat a little bit more on this timeline after I talk to the house? Sure.

Okay, that would be awesome. I'll I'll get it off record so that the whole city doesn't have to I I don't care. Don't answer the phone during the day. Oh, okay. I'm ready. Miss Kathy, what's your number? 10,000 children. They don't like it when I'm on the phone. 336. Okay. 266. 266 9798. All right. It's a public number. I don't care who calls me. I may not answer if you call at the wrong time. Well, let me get some answers for you. I'll give you a call. We'll chat. We We have already been through this once. I remember I was here. stopped the the first nonsense they wanted to do down there.

Now the houses I understand somebody's going to build on that land. I just need to know how we're getting these cards in and out of this road because it is only one lane through there when you park on the side of the road. And we park on the side of the road and I don't have anywhere else to go unless you want me to park across Aloha and block it. I have no problem doing that. I need a police car down there to make people slow down. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. Sir, would you like to speak?

Name and address, please, sir.

Jim Lawler, 215 Wilton Drive, Graham. Uh, I have the same problem she has with people parking. If if people park on this side of the road and people park on this side of the road, you cannot get through there at all. And if people are going to be walking up and down this street, they're going to be walking through people's yards. They're not going to be they're not going to be able to walk down the street because of the traffic. and and that's my biggest concern is going to be us having access to get into our driveways and getting out when they park on the side of the road, I park on the side of the road, and if they park on this side and I park on this side, you're not going to see a car in between us. That the road just isn't wide enough for that. So, that's that's my biggest concern. And I know the one field that they want to put houses on, it floods and you get four or five inches of water down there when it rains because everything from the neighborhood drains down right through there and goes out into that field and it just floods. I don't know. And if they fill that up, then the water is not going to have any place to go except for into my yard. So that's that's my biggest concern besides the parking. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it.

Anybody else want to speak on this during public hearing? All right. I will entertain a motion to close public hearing. Should we close the public here? Anybody want a second? Second. All in favor? I I All right, council. What are you thinking? Bonnie, we're starting with you since you're sighing. Oh, I think we should start with you. With me? Yeah.

Okay. Um, the houses are going to get built down there and they need a way to connect. Um, I think that there's a lot of other issues that we need to deal with. Um, and I've written those down. And also, we need a driveway or a way for the cars to drive from these new houses to get on Wilton. And either the city of Graham pays for it or the developer pays for it. And that makes it an easier decision to give them this piece of property to build the turnaround. I think that we can still address a lot of these things, but with this these houses being built one way or the other, they need a way to drive their cars from Wilson and and the city of Graham would rather the developer pay for it. Is that fair to say?

Yep. Okay.

Absolutely. Now, I'm not discounting any of these other issues, and I think that we still have a lot to work through, but with this one, like Ricky was saying, this one puzzle piece, um I think that moving to allow Wilson to be um closed, permanently close that access is what I would recommend. I mean, I think the key point is, you know, whether I know the residents don't want those houses down there. I totally understand, but it is zoned for it and they can build them and it, you know, um that can't be stopped. Either way, it's going to happen. So, as the mayor stated, and this is I think the important point is somebody's going to pay for that turnaround. It's either going to be the city or it's they're offering to do it themselves if we will, you know, yield them the land to do it on. So, this is one of those I know it's not a win for you guys and I'm sorry. Um, but in terms of cost, you know, like like the mayor said, when a developer is saying, "Hey, we'll pay for this. We'll do it." Um, I don't think we have much of a choice.

Bobby, do you have anything, Ricky? Jim. Um, you know, I I won by like 14 votes and I'm willing to bet that all 14 of them came from that neighborhood. So, those are my people and I'm sticking with them. I I I mean, hey, Aaron, can you zoom in to where Chandler Place is at? Not that. There you go. So there's Can I Can I ask somebody a question? Yes.

Mr. Fast, have you have you explored any way of going through Chander Place to get to that property? The difference in elevation. Please, just for the mic's sake and for those tuning into YouTube. Well, when we come come to this, we had more people against us in Chandler Village, and I'd done that years ago that nobody wanted back then. And we had 12 or 15 people from Chandler Village that spoke against this because it was they say it was too dense. I mean, they're living in multif family. So, no, I'm not going to ask them the HOA from Chandler Village for way through there when I when I gave them the right away years ago. Yeah, I got it.

We should have went ahead and closed it then maybe. But it it's it's going to be it's going to be done. I'm going to be we got to take care of the water. We've done done the study. Yeah. I'm not I'm not knocking you. I I think you're doing everything you can. Um but at the same time, I still feel for these people because I have gone down there and you know, if there's two cars on that road, it's a city street back to back. We can go down there tomorrow morning, pull a tape. It's the same size as the other streets in there. When when was it built? When was that street put in? They just repaved it. I'm I mean when it that

it don't matter whether it was built. It's built the the w the width of that street is the same thing as the next street. What what I'm what I'm concerned about is there's you're not going to be putting the same kind of structure on those two spots. You're going to be putting more structures on those spots. Am I right? I didn't change the zoning at all. I'm I will say that this isn't like that that zoning's already done. Yeah, we're just trying to close this right away to give the city I mean the garbage truck, the fire truck, everything has to back down there if there's a call now. I mean I think the garbage truck backs down that road. There's no there's no turnaround. We're giving them a turnaround. So I got I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Okay.

Thank you. Um did you have a motion or something? You leaned up, Ricky. I'm make a motion we approve this um road closure. Okay. Do I have a second? I'm sorry. We've already closed public hearing. Thank you though. Do I have a second? I'll second. All in favor? I. All opposed. I So three to two. It passes. Sorry, it's symbolic, but I feel for him, too. So, yeah.

Just say that we're not a neighborhood that feels safe and supported anymore like you put in your letter. Thanks. Thank you. Um, okay. Megan, did you have a question? I'm sorry. Could Who was the clarification who voted for versus against? I Me and Bobby and Ricky voted for. Jim and Bonnie voted against. Okay. Um, new business, street closure, 911. Aaron.

All right. Thank you, mayor. Uh, so the 911 5K event was previously approved by city council. Uh, since then, the organizers have uh changed the route. Typically, whenever an event has been approved in the past, uh we usually have it on the consent agenda, but if there's a if it's a new um event or there's a change to the event in any way, we do put it back on the new business side so that council can um consider that new request. Um the request doesn't necessarily ask for council approval to close any streets because West Interstate Service Road and Maple are both NC DOT streets. What is asking for is that council approve support of the event so that that could be part of the application to NC DOT for the organizer to get approval from them.

Great. Thank you. Any questions from council? So, is it going to start at the police station like it usually does? Go all the way down Maple and then go down Interstate Service Road. Yes, I think that's how far Interstate Service Road. That's pretty far. Right here to my little man running right here. Yeah. Is it going up to the UK company? It goes It goes a good way down. I mean, I know we don't have the structure, but I think it's like a little bend right here. So, it goes down a little bit. I don't know what this route distance is. I mean, I know the city line and you run into Burlington

half hour. Okay. When you run into Burlington up there, I was just wondering. Yeah. So, I mean, essentially, you know, NC DOT would be the ones to have to sort of get the thumbs up on this route. Um, hearing what Brian was saying, you're probably looking at about a mile and a half out and back. So, that gives you your your three-ish miles for the the 5K. So, it's not just a like a oneway. I think it's a they're going to go down, turn around, come back. Yeah, I think they go down here, do a Uturn, and bring it back home. Thanks, Aaron.

Madam Mayor, I make a motion that we approve this road closure. Second. All in favor? I I all opposed. Unanimous. Okay. Um boards and commissions ordinance update. Erin, you needed a spotlight.

Okay. So, uh, council had asked, uh, that staff look into the Oregon Commission's ordinance that was approved back in 2019 by a task force that was commissioned by city council then to establish uh, rules and procedures for our city's volunteer boards and commissions. Um, what you have before you are some changes that based on conversation with that we heard with council that we wanted to be able to um reflect the additions of uh members needing to have their uh ethics guidelines signed as well as the background check which have been put in place by council. It just needs to be reflected in the the ordinance here. Um I did remove the treeboard Graham Historic Museum um language because those are already established in their locations. So it's we didn't want to have a situation where we have to make changes in two different locations. So they're already in their unique locations already. Um, so we just wanted to bring this back to council to show the the changes that have happened since 2019. Um, obviously if council has any other additions they would want to have done to it, you know, this is the time to do it as well.

Okay. Thank you. I'll have a chance to read through.

Uh, yes, ma'am. I had I had one uh one question about and th this isn't a change, but I'm proposing that maybe we need to change it. Earlier, you know, we presented an award to somebody for being uh on the on the board at the rec board for 10 years. Um, and if you look at item C, it says members shall be eligible to serve for not more than three consecutive full terms and then they may be eligible for reappointment following a 12-month hiatus after that, which would have cut his term, Mr. Cook's term short. And very often, you know, we have trouble getting people uh to apply for some some of these boards. So, I I wonder if maybe we're uh you know, cutting our nose off despite our face if we say, you know, you can't serve for more than three consecutive terms. So, that is my only concern with the verbiage. I don't have any issues with the additions for the ethics guides or the background checks or anything like that. And we've been doing actually doing that already anyway. Um I don't have any issues with anything else. That that was my one concern. Okay. I will say that y'all got a copy of this email. Um, but it's the boards and commissions applications. Um, and the deadline is more than a month away and we've got enough applicants to fill the vacancies for all of them except for two and one. We've got 10 applicants for one vacancy. And so I don't know if that could speak to an uptick of of community members. That's this time, but the past has been indicative has been not indicative of that is what I'm saying. Yes, I saw that, but that's this time. So, but do we really want to cut our nose off despite our face is what I'm saying?

Because that would have removed Mr. Cook, you know, he he wouldn't still be on that board that he just got an award for. So, and I know the museum board has trouble getting people. Uh, you know, there's there's a couple the rec board I think has trouble. They've had the same people for some time, you know. Um, I just don't want it to be where we can't let those people stay on if they're the only people that want to be on it. That's my concern. Okay. Other thoughts? I agree with Bonnie. I 100% agree with Bonnie.

Okay. Um there was one note that I wanted to bring up. Um for under two the concur current service an individual shall be eligible to serve on not more than two city boards. Do we want it to be two city boards or just one board at a time? I served on two boards. I thought I did a pretty good job. I I served on two different boards and you know I mean I don't you made them only serve on one. We never build the boards. Yeah. That might hurt us too if we say you can't serve on but one board at a time because we do have multiple people that serve on more than one board. So I don't

I've served on two boards. Yeah. All right. Are there any other comments or edits? No. Anybody want to make a motion? Oh, you get pointed at. Madame Mayor, I make a motion that we we do pass the uh boards and commissions rules with this exception, section two, item C. Members shall be able to serve for not more than three consecutive full terms. That we strike that sentence. and the following sentence about following a 12-month hiatus.

Renee, is that clear enough for you? Do I have a second? I second. Okay. All in favor? I I passes unanimously. Thank you, Aaron and Renee for your work on that. All right. Voting. Delegate Megan, do you have anything you want to say? Yeah, I certainly hate to steal um assistant city manager thunder here, but I'm on fire.

Take it. Every year the North Carolina League of Municipalities requests that the all cities who are attending, who are members, appoint a voting delegate. This is for their board elections. As you probably seen, they've sent out um requests for a slate of candidates. We have four out of the five council members who are attending. Council member Whitaker is the only one who's not able to attend. So, if you could kindly select amongst yourself who you would like to represent Graham as your voting delegate, we will submit that. The deadline was technically yesterday, but they know we're going to be bringing up the rear and and submitting who's going to be there for Graham. So, thank you, Megan. Do I have a recommendation?

I'll propose Jim Young. I'll second it. All right. All in favor? I. All opposed. All right. Jim, do us proud. All right. Um, if anybody would like to sign up for public comment, here is your last chance and then we will begin public comments. Anybody? Oh, no. You're doing good. I just I like the slow walk.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. All right, Miss Anita Hunter, I believe, left. Um, Jim also left. Ronnie Eley, thank you for being here, sir. That's all right. Name and address, please.

Uh, Ronnie Eley, 510 Menle Terrace, lifelong resident of Graham and not going anywhere. I would uh couple things and I don't know if I can speak to Aaron or not but I believe he said he only got two bids back for the park so far and you're requiring three maybe this is a respit I mean I wanted to ask for council maybe it's from on high those three that voted four apart that hundreds of Graham citizens do not want and you not saying anywhere the money to pay for it and again it was it the green or the blue plan the way I saw it and Aaron and answered. Um, I didn't see the movement of the bricks. I didn't see the movement of the bail. Uh, the zebo, the bail, what else? The clock. And so, if you're not moving these things and making a new sis park, I can't say that word. You're making a new Elm Street Park. It seems like hundreds of grand residents do not want. My suggestion, give the bricks back. One person's already said you wanted to sell the land. That's why you're doing this. Give it back. Don't build new park. don't go in debt for something that the mo majority of folks don't want. And uh you know, that's my thought on that. And maybe well, I shouldn't say that. Anyway, uh park. Oh, this is on this is on me. Uh I think last month we asked Aaron to check into the downtown banners. They're looking so poorly. uh with with May Arts Smire coming up if we can't afford to get them any biz in to replace those if that's what we want to do. My suggestion, can we at least get those down around the court square? It looks so bad and that would be all of them. Uh if the city can't afford it, uh loan me a truck at night, my wife will drive it. I'll get in the bucket and we'll get them down. I mean, it's that's something pretty simple. I know uh money seems to be an object around here, but that and uh I'm sure there's graphic design

places in these county in other counties that would love to help us out with this and uh and get uh get us back looking like we should. We were in Maven the other day and my wife pointed out how good they look and we know how Bruins look. So, we're in the middle. Why can't Graham, you know, uh get on ball with that? And thirdly, I think we asked last month too. I think you've asked, mayor, about the benches. has anything come back about that? Uh, talking with the shop owners that they were out in front of. Uh, and that's it. I appreciate it. Thank you, Ronnie. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, Eric Chrisman. Thanks for being here, sir. Name and address, please.

My name is Eric Chrisman. 208 Albright Avenue in Graham. Um, I like your public comment shirt. Thank you very much, Jim. Sir, I like your public comment shirt. Thank you. Oh, it is my cardio.

Um I basically I'm disappointed in in the actions of the board last meeting. Um one of the council members challenged the mayor and wanted you to go on record as to to your activities. Um I challenged the senior board members to go on record to say that they are not in collusion with each other. Um it's already been pretty well established that they're having illegal gatherings according to LMS. Maybe not illegal, but in the spirit of the law, illegal. Um, you've lost the confidence of the people in Graham with your activities. Um, you really should be ashamed of yourself. Um, that that the people don't trust what you could do. People don't trust what you are doing. To be so hellbent to get rid of the park. I want somebody's assurance that there's not some quidd proquo involved in this activity that that you were for it. Now you're against it. You've always been against it. But but the that the three senior members have have you cannot you can try to assure ensure that the citizens of Graham that you're doing what's best for them. But we don't believe you that that we the citizens of Graham think that you are in collusion with each other, inclusion with the former administration to do something nefarious with the parkland and and you have lost confidence in the cities and and I still think you should resign. Thank you.

Thank you, Eric. Uh Chris

Chris F990 Highway 62. I give half my life to this town and the fire department and we've done a lot of subdivisions and stuff that made Graham look good. I am very disappointed in a couple of the council members tonight. This was supposed to be a rubber stamp. We're trying to we're trying to do something nice here and what way we understood it we were going to get it was just a formality I've done I tried to get something else passed that went through so this was just a formality I'm putting a fire hydrant in because we had we burn a house down years ago because there was no water in there close I'm giving them new water line I just I'm very disappointed in the two council members that voted against something that should You You're doing something. You He just said it. This is supposed You're supposed to be looking out for the city. This is This isn't looking out for the city. This is nuts. And I just I just wanted to let you know how disappointed I am and upset cuz we have done good. I mean, you go down everywhere in Graham, the people in Chandler Village were happy because we done Lace. I mean, it's just it's just frustrating that y'all that you get a couple and they didn't know they didn't know what was going on. And that's that's not their fault. That is not their fault. But we thought this was just going to be a little simple task tonight. And it turned out I've never been disrespected like I did in the last year's meeting as I was trying to get five houses done. I mean, we've been hundreds, not thousands of lots. So, thank y'all for the three that made a little sense tonight.

Thank you, Chris. All right, that is the end of public comment. Oh, thank you for letting me know. Is there is there another piece of paper I'm missing? Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Oh, we found it. Thank you guys for saying something. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for doing the honors. All right, Keith, you're up first. Thanks for being patient. Y'all were the first on the list. I was on the first one to sign. I know. I thought, well, all right. Name and address.

604 Tri Water Court and Graham. People come up here, they're a little disappointed. I'm very disappointed because there's a safety issue at Graham High School. I think the city should get involved. But I've asked people to get involved. Nothing's been done in my opinion, nothing's going to be done by the city. So, I'm going to take the next step. So, I'm just going to instead of asking the police department or whoever in the city for help with something, I'll just call the state troopers like I did the last time. I'm tired of the speeding. I'm tired of they park on both sides road when they pick up kids. You're supposed to. So the travel lane now becomes what? The center turn lane. There's no markings on the road. There's no school markings on the road on each end. There's one sign on each end of the road. There's two schools. We got a problem. I think someone should look into this. And I'm tired of the speed. And if, like I say, if our police department doesn't have enough people to go over there once in a while and say, "Hey, here's a make a presence." The last time the state troopers did it, they handed out 12 tickets in one hour. So don't tell me people are not speeding. It's a safety issue. The parking on both sides of the roads is a safety issue. I have not been able to get nothing out of the school system, which if you can get anything out of them, let me know. I'll be right there with you. Something needs to be done about it. It's a safety issue. You talk about safety, this has been a safety issue over there for years. not having a sidewalk down Elm Street so the kids can walk to school. They're walking on the highway, both sides. What this is, that's not the first time I've said this. Now, you want to talk about respecting people. I've been to this meeting for years. I can remember when there was two people that sat in this audience. That man

right there and me. So, I feel disrespected and I would just like someone to take a look. If you can't, let me know because you know what? There's other we have other options, but I don't think I should have to use those options. We have a grand police department for a reason. I'm not asking you to come over there and set every day. We have an SRO that does that. But if he's not if you're not going to enforce the school speed limit, then how is that being safe in our city? We have two schools there. There's not one school like over here at the middle school and you've got 400 signs, flashing signs. You got nothing over there. It's a safety issue. I wish someone would look at it and address it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Keith. All right, Jeff. Last but not least, name and address, please.

Jeff Bennis, 1407 East Gilbert Street. Before I speak on the subject that uh I I signed up for, make a quick comment on the Wilton uh street thing. I don't live on Wilton, but that's just another example of the city council not listening to the citizens who live on Wilton. All right? If if one of you guys lived on Wilton, you might have a different opinion. All right? But you basically told those people who have been living there, one lady lives there for 55 years, well, we can't do anything about it. It's already been zoned. Right? Well, you voted on the zoning, right? She's been there 55 years. You're going to put five houses down there. This is where they live. That's their community. All right? And you're just saying tough luck. Can't do anything about it. You ought to think about that because the community is watching. Like me, him, who else is here? They're watching what you guys are doing. All right. The reason the subject I signed up for as a member of the community of of Graham community, I'd like a clarification regarding the guidelines for public comments. We already know the time has been cut from four to three minutes. We already know that it's scheduled at the end of the meeting. But what about once public comment is done and gets reopened again? All right. What happens then? All right. Will it re reopened if anyone just raises their hand tonight? A woman back there raised her hand and she was told, "Hey, it's closed. You can't talk anymore." Pardon? Then last last meeting though when the former mayor raised her hand. All right, Mr. Chin right away. Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Go ahead and talk. Right. What's the deal? Well, then the city council says, "Hey, if she can talk, everyone else can talk." So, what what are the guidelines now? There's public comments. Is it closed or can it be reopened depending on who you are? All right. I'm not the former mayor. Will you recognize me if I have a comment? All right. So,

my question is, what are the guidelines? What's the rules? And what happens the next time the former mayor comes in here and raises her hand? We going to recognize her. All right. That that's my question, and I'd like an answer tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. I appreciate it. Um, okay. Move on to city staff. No, no, nothing. Just no. Okay. Um Bob, Brian, y'all got anything?

Uh your mic, please. Sir,

you can just grab that one over there if you want. at the uh the public comment period. It is in the rules I believe adopted at the last meeting are are you know contained in in that uh in in the rules that you adopted and and I I think you know providing you know Mr. Bennett a copy of that you know he he asked a question and uh I think it'd be a matter you know staff giving him a copy of it so he'll know I think he was also asking a little bit of uh what council will allow outside of that, but yes, we can absolutely give you a copy of that.

Well, well, you very well could have, but you know, the basic rule were really contained and I I think that would be the starting point. Yeah. And with respect, you know, to you know, closing a public comment, uh that's entirely up to this body. In other words, if you wanted to recognize somebody, uh, I I I feel like that you have that discretion and if there's any question about it, then you could vote on it and make that determination whether or not you' be willing to hear somebody. And we did make that motion.

I'm sorry. In regards to the maya, the former mayor, we made the motion to reopen the public comment and other folks came up and spoke as well. I mean, when I we made the motion, you guys, we're getting off topic a little bit. I mean, but that's in regards to public comments. Sure. We closed, but then the motion was made to reopen and we approved to be reopened and it allowed other people to speak as well. We did. Um, is that all for you guys? Okay, Aaron, what you got? Staff comments.

All right. Thank you. Uh, just have one. Um staff, we've we've received uh several comments from concerns from uh citizens pertaining to um garbage cans and issues with u some being left out for extended amounts of time. U some overflowing um things along that line. Sorry, can you clarify? Are these downtown or are these residential? These are around town. So, uh residential.

Okay. Uh the issue that we have is that our ordinance speaks to the appropriate behaviors when you have your cans, but whenever we had House Bill 300, the penalty section was sort of stricken from what we can actually enforce. Um, so if I was just requesting if it's okay with council, I was going to work with our public works director and bring back penalties for that section because currently it tells you not to do anything, but there's no uh penalty if you decide you're not going to uh do anything about what's being asked of you. So, if it's okay with council consensus wise, I was like I'd like to bring something back to you guys.

Yes, you got my Yes. Is it going to be on the agenda then or for next month? Um, if I can get it all worked up, I hope to bring it to you guys next month for the May meeting. Erin, do you want to speak on benches and parking, too?

Uh, give me one second. So, we looked at placement from past bench locations. Um, give me one second. And speaking with uh Berg and going over the areas, uh there are seven locations that we're proposing to put the benches, one in each uh corner of the quadrants. uh one on West AM, one on North Main and the 100 block, and then one on the 200 block. So that would be seven locations. Uh we we do have I want to say nine, but we typically don't put all of them out at one time. Uh we generally keep one or two back in in the event that anything happens with the benches that are out. So if council would like for the benches to be placed back out, these are the recommended locations from staff. Okay.

Were the business owners contacted? No. I think we should ask

because I'd heard before, for example, that there used to be a bench in front of the museum and folks would get off the link bus and they would sit in those benches all day. And the coffee depot owner shortened his hours because of that. Do we have any authority or Right. We could put some on around the courthouse. So, you're talking about this area here? Mhm. Yes. Go ahead.

Yeah. Um the only concern I have with uh Councilman Chen's uh request is that some of these are located not in not directly in one business frontage. So when you're saying asking permission of the business owners, are we talking the general area businesses that are in that that space? Yes. Um yeah, the sidewalks are also the city right ofways. So yeah, these are these are all seen right away, right? So I don't know if we've asked permission for the planters and things too that have gone out. No. So

well, not so much asking permission, but just we owe them of the opportunity, you know, state their if they're Can we just can we get it on the agenda and then have a public hearing about it? Ask for public input. council's pleasure. I I would put forth for a motion that we put it on next month's agenda with the public input. Second. All in favor? I.

All opposed? I um I believe that benches are something that should be in the downtown. We have seating all around our downtown. Um, and this would only add to the vibrancy. Um, Erin, did you want to talk about parking as well? So, you were a no vote. I was a no vote. Correct. It was 4 to one.

I can jump in on the the um parking issue. We sent an online survey and had employees visit businesses downtown to ascertain whether they were interested in two-hour parking or 4-hour parking or we gave them an other option. Between the two methods, um, looks like 20 respondents said 4 hours, 14 said u, I'm sorry. Yeah, 14 said two. One person said split the difference at three. And then we sort of had a combination of other responses of um have it metered parking, have it QR code parking where they pay, have some 15 or 30 minute parking spots in front of certain businesses and have a mix between two and four. I will say if there is any sort of a change, we would have to order new signage, roughly $1,500, and order new um ticket books for the PD that specify right now that if it's in excess of two hours, then that's what they're getting the penalty for. So,

I had talked to a couple of the business owners and really liked the idea of a couple because some of our businesses downtown are high turnovers. Um, and so having some spaces that are 30 minutes in front of the very strategic businesses and then having the rest of them be four hours. Um, so I I'm still very much in favor of maybe having our staff do a study of where the 30 minutes need to be, but changing it to 4 hours. If I were a business owner, I would want parking spaces to turn over and you say give somebody an opportunity to park their car there for four hours. That means potentially I miss out on or sales.

It really depends on what kind of business you are because some of our businesses are complaining because their customers are getting tickets while they're in their shops. So, they're almost losing patrons because they're getting ticketed. So, it it does very much depend on what kind of business you have.

Yeah, I think it should just stay two-hour parking. Four hours is like nuts. Um, you know, I don't have a business downtown, but I have a business. And there's there's a few business I could say would probably be a little mad if they were high turnover and there was four-hour parking right there and somebody was parked there. You're just going to be steaming at that car the whole time. Um, I just, you know, I'm I'm I don't see the point in changing it at all. I'm just keeping it the way it is. I I agree with you, Jim. I think it should stay like it is. If you let it go to four hours, there's going to be so many employees in the downtown businesses. They'll park for 4 hours and all they got to do is move a couple spaces down and their four hours meter starts again. That's a full eight hour day.

Bonnie, did you I did not.

Did you want to? Um, I'm sorry. I I think you some some of the business owners that I've talked to um face to face um basically told me that um they would not want someone parking in front of their business for four hours. Now, I'm not saying it wouldn't be advantageous for some businesses. Maybe it would. Um, you know, with the theater, you go to see a movie, if that movie is over two hours, you're going to be you're going to be ticketed. So, so I get that. I I'm I'm not overall in favor of changing it to four hours for for everything. Um, I would be uh agreeable to if we wanted the staff to look into certain areas where we might want to extend certain spaces beyond the two hours. But I think just to make it a foul swoop four hours would be unwise if that.

Yeah, I think it it would definitely need to have those 30 minutes. So I think there there are well I don't know about 30 minute spaces but I mean I'm just saying that um because you know you go somewhere to eat at a restaurant most mo I think most of us and I I'm downtown a lot um you know at Mexam and Sutton's I frequent those um I'm usually in and out within an hour or so um you know but Mexam has their own parking lot so it doesn't really matter for them but um I just I think it depends on the business largely, but I I think the majority of them would be opposed to 4-hour parking in front of their establishment because they want they want people to go in and out, you know, they want people to come in and leave, come in and leave, come in and leave, you know, spend that money. So, um, but as I said, I wouldn't be opposed to, you know, if we we wanted the staff to look into c certain areas where we might do a couple of spaces that way or something here or there, but I wouldn't want to do all of them four hours.

That's just my opinion.

There's u seven spots around the courthouse that are painted reserved. I I don't see why though we we couldn't, you know, talk to the county and maybe have a a you know, reserved until 400 pm when there's nobody there. They have one judge that goes to that courthouse. He parks between the statue and the courthouse. The rest of them are private vehicles from the deputies who happen to have a huge parking lot and some of them need the cardio. They need to walk. Um, but we that's seven parking spots that nobody parks there the whole weekend when nobody's there doing any kind of county business. So maybe we could talk to the county and say, "Hey, you know, we put the bill for the signage, you know, after four or six parking for everybody." And I mean, that's seven spots. It's not It's not much, but you know, if you're

seven, you pretty much circle until you're all in. But it it's just an idea. Yeah, Erin, it sounds like we're not ready to make a decision, but we'll keep working on this parking stuff, but I appreciate both of y'all um getting the survey out. Um I believe two staff went down on a Monday and so I think there were we could have gone down on like a different day, too, which I will I'll go down and and help talk to people as well. Um but anything else from staff? Okay, Jim, you want to kick us off? Um, council comments.

I do have um some comments. Um the gentleman that spoke um you're 100% correct. Um and while you know the motion was made u when the former mayor came up, uh we also had an individual here prior to that. I think it was in February's meeting when uh he had been here all night and he wanted to speak and we I I made the motion that we allow him to speak and it was voted down. I think um what we need to do if if we're going to do that, if we're going to make considerations and make motions like that, we need to be consistent. Um regardless of who it is that comes up here. Um, you know, I I when it happened at the last meeting, you know, I just I couldn't believe it because I knew, you know, exactly what was what was going through my head was when we when Daniel wanted to speak and it it does it doesn't like make us look very very good. Um, and we should be consistent and and we either allow it every time or we don't allow it at all. And you know, I know that when we don't allow it and people are in the back raising their hands or laughing or giggling or grunting, whatever. Um, we just have to use that gavvel and we either don't let him speak or we open it back up and let him speak. But we've got to be consistent on that. We can't I mean, he he was 100% correct. We We've got to be consistent in that if we do it. Um u the gentleman that I spoke to you last meeting, no HRC uh meeting about the traffic. This was the time that I had I was going to bring it up. Um but I did want to ask is that um what road is that? Because I don't think you ever

Okay. Is it's Is it a state controlled road? A DOT road. Okay. School prepared school. That might we be why the highway patrol was able to do so much? Yeah. Yeah. But I I I told you I would bring it up and you beat me to it. Jim, I think the next step in that is just to direct Megan and Aaron to have our police

patrol. Um, and um, one more thing, um, Aaron brought up about the trash and stuff and not just people leaving their receptacles out. I think it probably happens a lot when there's a holiday and people don't realize that trash isn't being picked up, so they leave it out there all weekend. Um, or week, however long it, you know, it takes for the holiday to whatever the garbage schedule is. Um but uh I don't know if anybody here has driven down Ivy Road, but it looks like um a a dump truck, a garbage truck has just dumped its entire load along Ivy Road. And uh I would like to look at um increasing the fines for littering and u maybe ask the you know police department to go out there and we catch some people you know they pay out their butt to because they littered and maybe we can at least curb it a little bit. And I I know I don't I don't want to make it seem like we're ask we're asking the police to do everything. Um unfortunately that's they're the ones that would have to do it. Um, and I know they can't be out there every day, but just every once in a while, um, we catch one or two people, maybe, you know, the message will get heard, but if they have a stout stout fine, they think about it twice. Um, and I have one more thing. Uh, let's see here. Make sure I get it worded right. I'd like to request that a motion be placed on the next meeting's consent agenda to officially recognize Junth as a holiday for the city of Graham. This will give the staff necessary time to prepare and set up this recognition. Junth symbolizes symbolizes freedom and the end of slavery and formally acknowledging it will show our commitment to honoring this important part of our nation's history. So, I'd like to uh put that on next month's consent.

Unless we want to go ahead and make a motion and vote on it now. Do do you mind if I hop in because that was one of mine and I was actually going to Well, I beat you to it. You did? I'm so excited. Um my request was that we make it a city holiday, that we add it to our city list. Yeah, I Megan about that earlier. So, yeah, that that's part of it. Um, so yes, I would I would entertain a motion if that's something that we want to do. Now, we shouldn't vote on it tonight. It should be done. We'll do it at the next meeting. That's what I mean. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Can we put it on as new business, Megan? It can go on either new business or I believe his motion requested consent agenda. I will just

say new business. Yeah, we just need to give staff the time to prepare. Be new business. Yeah, it would be a personnel policy revision to add that to the schedule of holidays. Okay. Thank you, Megan. I'm good with that. Thank you, Jim. Anything else? That was your last. No.

Oh, okay. Ricky, what do you got? I I have one thing I I would like to ask uh for this council's u consent that we from here on out um use our advertising dollars to advertise with the Times News because there are three they ever they publish three days a week uh versus the one and you know we a lot of times we get caught having to wait for the one day for everything Is this instead of the Alamance news? Instead of the Alamance news. Yes. Do you have anything to add?

I don't. Okay. Okay. Um, are you entertaining any comments on that? Not at this time. Uh, so you're not making a decision about it either? We're not making a decision. Okay. Thank you. I'd like to speak on it time. That will if we if the rest of council also wants to talk about it, it will be placed on a new business. Yes. Does the rest of council want to talk? Jim, will that be eligible for a hearing? I will talk to you afterwards. We can't do the back and forth right now. I want to be sure it's a public hearing so that I think your general is not

Tom. I'm sorry we can't do the back and forth. I will talk to you afterwards. Um but Do you have I'm sorry. Bonnie's turn. It's It's Bobb's actually. If Ricky's I was going in and in. Oh, we changed it up. We changed it up.

All right. Okay. I I just wanted to uh piggy back on the House Bill 300 thing uh that removed all the criminal offenses from all North Carolina ordinances. Uh I had spoken with the police chief about this u when the lady's dog got attacked about a month ago. Uh, she had her dog on a leash and another dog was loose, attacked it, jerked a leash out of her hand. I believe she got bitten and unfortunately the dog passed away and they couldn't charge the individual with any criminal charges even though it was not the first offense. Um, so I would really like to I I believe Megan that the chief talked to you and gave you some verbiage on that as well that we could because we can add individually we can add criminal penalties back to the ordinances we think should have them like like Aaron had just said. Um, so I would like to get that particular one for sure if if it it's okay with you guys on the agenda next month to change that one because, you know, I hear of it all too many times and it was very sad and uh it it destroyed that woman. So, and there's just no excuse for that. Um, so if I could just get a consent to from you guys just for specifically to bring that one up next month and get that fixed to start with. And I know we need to look at all of them, but specifically that one.

Um, yeah, we have a Yeah,

okay. Um, I also want to read a statement real quickly and I'll try to get through it as quickly as I can. Uh last month, for the first time in four years on this council, I was accused of being disrespectful, of making faces, and I was lectured about honor. Let me be clear, I do not need a lecture on honor. I spent 25 years in the United States Air Force living it. I carried it in uniform, in service, and how I conduct myself every day. So, if I unintentionally offended anyone, I do apologize. That was not my intent. But what we are seeing now goes far beyond a facial expression. And let's be honest about something. This chamber is not free of expressions. People react, people talk, people laugh, sigh and show frustration during meetings. It happens in this room. It happens on this deis. It happens during difficult discussions. What matters is not a momentary reaction but how we conduct ourselves overall. What we are seeing now is a shift away from facts towards narratives. The park issue did not begin last month. It did not begin last year. It has been discussed since 2016. Warnings were given. Opportunities were missed. And now that action is required, the conversation has been overtaken not by facts, but by noise. And much of that noise is coming from social media. A place where speculation spreads faster than truth. Where assumptions are treated like evidence, where people attack from behind a screen and are rewarded for being the loudest, not the

most accurate. That environment does not inform, it inflames. And when that same tone begins to show up in media coverage, we got a serious problem. Because the role of the media is not to amplify outrage. It is not to shape narratives through tone, implication, or selective framing. It is to inform the public fairly and consistently. But when coverage repeatedly singles out one individual, when it leans on implication instead of fact, when it drifts from reporting into storytelling, people notice. I've been on the receiving end of that pattern, not just recently, but going back years when details about my personal life that were irrelevant to my service were made public without my consent. That was not necessary. that did not serve this community and it did not build trust. At the same time, we've seen public positions have shifted that have shifted and some shifted quickly. Jerry Peterman told me he he supported relocating the park and even had ideas to expand the original vision, but now he criticizes it. Jane Albbright told Mr. Compton she supported his idea of moving the park. Now she opposes it. Griffith Mccclure stood in these chambers and asked us to just keep the park downtown. And now he criticizes us for doing exactly that. Now that's their right. It's your right. It's my right. It's everybody's right to change their mind. But let's not pretend the public conversation has been consistent or grounded in facts. And I will say this clearly based on communications that have been seen. It is apparent that our current mayor is not acting independently, but is relying

heavily on input from Griffin Mccclure. When I say I've spoken with people on both sides of this issue, I mean it. I have had those conversations face to face. Not everything happens online. Not everything comes in a text message. and the absence of a digital record does not make those conversations any less real or any less factual. But somehow that was turned into an accusation that I was being dishonest. That is not accountability. That's an attempt to discredit. Now I understand that public service comes with scrutiny and I accept that. I accepted it when I accepted this this job. But scrutiny must come with fairness. It must come with consistency and it must be grounded in truth, not driven by narrative. Right now, fairness is being drowned out. Drowned out by headlines, drowned out by commentary, drowned out by a cycle that rewards conflict over accuracy. And that is not good for this council. It is not good for this city. And it's not good for the people we serve. I will continue to do my job as I always have with integrity and care. I will continue to stand on my record, but I will not be defined by narratives that do not reflect reality. We don't all have to agree, but we do have to be honest and we do have to be fair with one another. Thank you is all.

Thanks, Bonnie. Shotty, you got anything?

Nope. All right. All right. Um I have a couple things. Um we approved this our procedures um last month and then uh Renee and I found under rule 16 the order of business um it has our agenda not how we usually do it. And so changing it back to how we Rene, you want me to just read it out how we usually do it? Okay. Pledge and invocation, adoption of agenda, recognitions, presentations, proclamations, approval of consent agenda, and approval of previous meeting minutes. in that um old business, public hearing and then new business, public comments, admin reports, council reports. Got it. Um so just moving it back around to how we actually operate. Um that was the first thing. Um the DOT truck route for downtown. I talked to Aaron. Um we have log trucks and other semis that come through our downtown. Um it's a safety issue. It's also an aesthetic issue. I talked to Aaron about it. He said that council needs a consensus. Um and then he could go to DOT. This is not rerouting the interstate. That's what Eden did and that's a problem. This is only telling the big trucks that their GPS route will take them a different way. Um, is that something that council would like staff to look into?

Talking about the property over This is just going around our downtown here around the square. Um, yeah, I'm I see the trucks. I'm in favor. I would be

um my father was a truck driver and he he drove for Associated Transport which is with Burlington and Alamance County that's that's history. Um I I do I do agree that that when they the way some of them come through is it's a nuisance. Um, but I I would probably I would would rather not get involved in that to to affect and I know it's just routing them around somewhere else. I I would rather not get into something that's going to affect the truck driver's income or their livelihood. I I'll go with what council wants to do. I just that's that's my opinion. It's only identifying another route that's and and Burke has already identified a couple routes that would work uh and be

see those routes. Sure. This is basically what we're we're we're not voting. Yeah, we're not No, we're asking staff to look into it. Look into it as a consensus.

What um what happened about the uh crematorium over here? The trucks were going down there. Did we get that handled? Um so Bird, myself, uh we met with the police chief as well. Um there there are two separate issues occurring at that location. Um are the are the trucks tearing the roads up there at Bruce Turning? They're not. So the concern for us of the trucks using that road to go back and forth, that's not a it's not creating a maintenance issue for the city. However, you know, if if we're looking at trying to not allow them to park on that road, then that's a that's a separate conversation of of of a traffic schedule change or are we saying that you we're limiting the um weight of the truck that use that row? The issue with that is that our police department, they don't have scales

and uh NCO uh the DMV folks are not going to they already say they're not going to enforce anything on a city street for weight. So that would have our folks having to do that which would require some heavy lifting to be to do that. Um, so we're still looking into it because it's two separate issues of whether the solution is going one way or another way, but neither one of them is clear as at this time. So, we're still studying it. Thank you. But you do have consensus to move forward on exploring DOT reroutes. Yeah, I

I just wanted to clarify that since we hopped off that topic. I I reach I will reach out to them and um I see what their response is to what can or can't be done and I bring it back for council.

Thank you so much. Um all right, next thing. Our um skateboard ordinance is very restrictive um to the point where it doesn't allow for wagons and possibly even strollers on our sidewalks. Um, this is just something that I'm asking consensus for staff to take a look at. Um, and bring it back because like you said, we're just figuring out what ordinances do and and don't work for us. Um, but our our ordinance is very restrictive. How does it restrict strollers or anything like that? It it specifically calls out skateboards not being allowed on the

sidewalk. motive device propelled or designated for human power, including but not limited to tricycles, scooters, skateboards, roller skates, rollerblades, sled, wagon. Um, so it it's very restrictive. And if you read some of like Burlington or or Mebban, it's a little bit more inclusive. Um, and it calls out the allowance of wheelchairs and things like that. um that I would like for them to look at. Well, that's kind of an ADA thing. I don't think anybody can can tell a wheelchair they can't be on the sidewalk. I would I would challenge anyone to do that. I wouldn't do it.

This is one of those things when you try begin identifying all the things you don't want versus but if it's not listed as on the restricted that means you can do You can use it. I mean, you It doesn't say baby strollers. It does say wagons. We have a lot of wagons during our parades. Those would all be illegal

on the sidewalks. on the sidewalks on the um any municipal building or park facility and also um public vehicular area. That this is all that I'm asking is that we give it to them and look at it and see if that's actually what we want it to say. I'm not saying we change it tonight. I'm saying we give it to give it to our staff. I'm just against overregulating.

I am absolutely with you and that's what I'm trying to not do is not overregulate. I want to be able to have ordinances that we stand by and that we can enforce and that they are not overregulating our people as as I don't mind it as long as we keep the bicycles and skateboards. Okay. Do I have a consensus that we can toss this to staff to look at? Yeah, sure.

Okay. Thank you guys. Um, okay. Um, Thursdays at 7 are coming up. I'm very excited. Um, I've also been talking to some of our police department. Um, we have a really fun environment at Thursdays at 7 and there is an understanding that there's alcohol there. Um, Jim, I am okay with the alcohol. I want it to be legal. Um, I don't want to put our officers or our community members in any kind of bind or or having I don't want people to have to look the other way. And I feel like that's what's happening now with the amount of alcohol that is understood to be consumed at Thursdays at 7. What I'm proposing is that we have a social district four Thursdays at 7 on that street so that we have a legal way for people to consume and a legal way for our police department to monitor this.

That makes sense for the for that area at that time. Yeah, I'm very opposed to it. I say we put it on the agenda and discuss it. Okay. Thank you. Could we let the public come and comment on that? Oh, we definitely need to do that. Yeah, I definitely think we should have a public hearing on something like that. That's pretty important. I don't have all the Baptist preachers here. Okay.

There's a a process by which general statute spells out if you determine that you want to implement a social district. Um, it's been a couple of weeks or couple of months since I looked at it, but there may be a public comment or public hearing as a part of that, but we would have to with statute on that. Is there anything we could do without enacting a social district that would allow it um in that area or or we just is it always just been they turned a blind eye and didn't pay? Well, I mean we we're doing it now with arts around the square. I know there's one formal council is always out there, right? Event driven. So, um, are you saying is there a way to hear from people

without doing Well, I know we could just ask people to speak on it, but, um, without going and saying it's a social district and we designated that, is there something else we could do that would allow that to happen in that area at that time? Somebody would have to pull a permit and similar to arts around the square and that is I don't think that we can put that on our parks and wreck department. Well, couldn't the city pull the permit and the city? But somebody has to be out there selling the alcohol. Yeah. Because you don't If we do a social district and you don't have to make a big deal that it's a social giving it away now, giving away

the alcohol the alcohol. Um I I understand that. Okay. No, not not to yuck your yum, but people are bying their alcohol that no, to my knowledge, no one is selling it. There's there's not a distributor out there. You just kind of take your cooler or whatever you shouldn't be doing that, right? And and my thing is I don't care if we drink or we don't drink, but we should be in providing the best situation for our police department to enforce what we are providing for them to enforce. Does seem like we might Why aren't they enforcing for something? Especially now since it's

out in the ether. Maybe we should start out outlawing um the coolers. Maybe we should outlaw the coolers. Point blank. Yeah, but if we do that, they can't stay hydrated and bring water and Yeah. I don't want to get into that, but I think this is maybe a bigger issue. Can we put it on new business for next month? Yes. Discuss it. Sure. Yes. To discuss it to discuss it as a potential social district. Is that just so we're cl clear on what we're going to advertise to the public? I don't know, buddy. I don't know about that word, those words. What would you like it to say?

I I mean, I don't see why it can't be uh event driven like Arts Around the Square. I mean, if you want to do it, you know, I don't I don't want people like wandering in and out of the bars, you know, with drink in hand. Um Brian, I'm not about that. coming up. Um, and just talking about the the process for alcohol at Arts Around the Square and if it's possible at Thursdays at 7.

I'll give it my best shot. Um, Arch around the square is specifically identified. the area in which folks can consume alcohol specifically identified by us based on site plan approved by you guys for that one particular day. All of that was born out of a request from a business to allow that. To my knowledge, that request has not been made for anything else other than Arch around the square. And I'll leave it there. Okay. Thank you, sir. How would you like it reflected on the agenda?

Well, I mean, um, designated alcoholic beverage area. We'll come. We just say Thursdays at 7. Uh, concert series discussion. Is that enough? The Thursday at 7. I was going to say, who sponsors it? Because really, I mean, we the city sponsor it. Okay.

It is technically a city event. As you'll recall, the the city council a number of probably two or three years ago approved a sponsorship policy. So, there are businesses who contribute to to this event and others. So, it while it is city sponsored, there are funds that come from other places that help fund the event. You can't you can't sugarcoat this. This is a social district ranking. And I mean that's what you're proposing. So can we put social district on the agenda? Sure. Thank you. Agenda would require

I I think we're moving to put it on the agenda and and talk about it then. Um okay, last thing. Half thing. I just want to say thanks to the parks and recreation. They did an incredible job and the commission to for the hall of fame. It was a really beautiful event. Um Now, last thing. Um, our banners downtown. And I liked Ronnie's comment about we're doing a really cool event downtown and maybe if we can't replace them by Arts Round Square, maybe we should take down the really faded banners. How many banners are there?

There are I should know this 50. Yeah, it's it's more than it's more than what's up that can be up. What was Do you know what the cost of them was? Well, hold on. I This is a whole big thing. This is my whole thing is banners. We have um our city staff that has a new logo that is ready to design and put banners up. We also have GABA that's also designing banners at the same time and nobody really knows um who's doing what. What's GABA?

The Graham Area Business Association. So the city staff owns the banners. They own the hardware. It's a city staff banner project. In the past, GABA has contributed funds. Um, but what we need to do to give staff clear direction on who is in charge or who has creative liberties um so that the city knows if they are doing it or if they are tasked to partner with GABA so that we can actually get banners up because right now nobody really knows what who's doing what.

Well, whoever pays the band picks the music. So, I would say whoever writes the biggest check gets to pick them. I will also say that the city of Graham just rebranded and so if we want to do something around our rebrand, maybe the city staff should hold that, but we need to decide one way or the other. So, we have a a method. It's it's always been a partnership, right, between uh the Graham Business Association and the city. Is that correct? Yes. the the last time it was um GABA in conjunction with the city of Graham. Okay.

Um it it funneled itself through the appearance commission. Um, but uh to the mayor's point, you know, we don't know, we don't know staff-wise, are we are we working with Gaba on the new iteration of the banners or are we, you know, are we still going through the appearance commission or, you know, I guess we just need to have a clear direction because if you know, we are putting the money into it, are we getting any money from GABA or or we I guess we just have to have an idea of what we're doing going forward. Sounds like we need to talk to the business association then.

Do we have an idea of what all the banners will cost us?

Generally, I mean, it's it's hard to put a number on it with today's money versus um yesterday a year's money. I would probably say, let's just say $20,000 would probably be a good number to sort of say would cover the the banners. I think we it's like 104ish that we purchased um the last time. And yes, we run through every one of those banners. Um to um his point, they get tattered pretty quickly after sitting up for a long time weathering after a while. A few of them got hit by by trucks or whatever at some point. So, we do have to replace them pretty frequently as well. I I don't see an issue of us the city taking that project over ourselves.

Yeah. But I do I do think we need to talk to the business association, see if they're willing to kick in and help. They they do have money. So, but we become the driving partner. So Jim and Bobby, what I'm hearing from Bonnie and Ricky is that we want Kaylee to drive the designs and then see if the GABA will kick in money, but we will Would those be approved by council, the appearance commission, or both? The appearance commission first. I would prefer it to be as counsel. Can we request that once appearance commission's worked on them that they will come before council? Yes, that we can do that. Okay.

And I think that's how they worked the last time. They ended up being before council at the very end. So, okay. So, council, what are we approving the the design? We're approving the design. They cannot I think that's staff issue. Let the staff pick that design. Well, it's already um at the appearance commission level and so if we want it just to be in the appearance commission's hands, I have no problem. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So,

so what you have from us is that Kaylee can design and then take before appearance commission and then appearance commission can make final edits and approve it from there and then it'll just come before us to get funded to to your point about so are we asking GABA anything on the you're asking GABA if they want to help kick in We we we should see if they want to, you know, help with the cost like they did last time. So,

all right. And that is all that I have. Jim, I'm going to rely on you to make a motion for close session because you've got the numbers in front of you. Okay. Um, I make a motion we go into close session to discuss a personal issue in accordance with NCGS section 143-318.11A6.

Second. All in favor? I. And yes, ma'am. Can I get a clarification that this is in fact a city employee that's to be discussed? It's a personnel issue. Well, the reason I'm asking is that only city personnel, city employees are covered, not the council, not consultants, not general personnel issued. That's what the statute says. And I since I didn't know it was coming up ahead of time, I didn't have a chance to ask you what was intended, but I would just like to be sure that it's restricted to those areas covered by the statute. I would I would defer to uh Bob.

Okay. Okay, let's go.

Yeah. Everybody here? Should we come out of public hearing? Second. We weren't in public hearing. We were in session. Close session. I'm sorry. Make a motion we come back into open session. Second. All in favor? I make a motion we adjourn. Second all