City Council - Regular Meeting

Danny Ricker to come up and lead us in the invocation, and then Clint Carter will lead us in the pledge. Do you know it?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Can everyone stand up, please?

Let us pray. Father, we thank you so much for us coming together today about your business to take care of our city, Lord. I ask you to give each one wisdom and knowledge. Help us to do your will, Lord, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

just kidding as far as the majors comments go I want to welcome we've got one of our members from leadership Greenville if you could stand up and introduce yourself and tell us what tell us what you do Thanks for coming in. We appreciate it. I want to say thanks to the number of organizations that helped us with the event on Friday. The Mossown Volunteer Fire Department had a flag down in front of their office or building that came out when the first plane had hit the World Trade Center. and then came on into town and GEA put one out in front of the health department. And that time was the second plane. And then down in front of the fire department, we had one there set up, is that correct? And that was the third. And then went on out to, I think it was about where the TCAT is and the Tuscaloosa Volunteer Fire Department had something at the fourth plane time. So I think it was good to have everyone involved. And thank you, Dwayne, and your group. And thank you, Alan, and your group. I think it was a fitting reminder. And then we had David Hawk speak in front of them. at noon, and he did a good job also. There was another great event on Friday, September 11th. This was a good thing. Matt and Claire Hensley had their son, Winston Porter Hensley, Hensley, Friday, and now son and wife are home, and things are going well. It's very loud at the house right now, very loud.

But, no, he's doing great. Claire's doing great. And just a thank you to everyone who reached out to us. We were showered with lots of text calls, e-mail, people checking in, and just another testament to what a great community we have. So we feel loved and excited. If you see him screaming in his bassinet down the street, just keep on walking by. Just keep on walking by. It's all good.

Congratulations. Thank you. Oktoberfest is going to go on this weekend at the down on Depot Street. That's from 6 to 11, 6 to 10. So if you enjoy beers, go down and see it. And then one other thing I'd like to talk about is, we've been having to work on some things where people have made, have painted bad things or written on signs in town or other things like that. So I want to ask everyone to try to be a good neighbor. Let's not put graffiti out. Uh, We've got three over in Harrison Hills, three stop signs that we're gonna have to replace because somebody had written on them and we tried to clean it off and we couldn't do it. We've also got some people that are not mowing their yards like we would like for them to do. So I'd like to invite or ask people to take care of their properties. Part of the reason we choose to live in a town is to live in a clean and neat environment, and we're not always doing that like we could or should. So I'll ask for your help there. And then the last thing is there's an ordinance against putting signs up on power poles. So don't put those signs up. If they're up, we will take them down. You can come pick them up if you choose, but if you haven't picked them up and reasonable amount of time they will go away so it's not a real good way of spending your dollars so I'll ask for your help on that too and that's my comments do you anybody here have anything they'd like to say yeah and medians in the pie bypass thank you Tim I need to take care of that too because we have to keep that mode Next thing's public comments, and we have one. Ms. Painter, Jancy Painter, wants to come up and make a couple of comments, and come on up. Three minutes. That's it.

He warned me. He knows I need it. 2026 is going to be another good year for Gifts for Kids. Got a lot of things going on.

We're going to be helping big kids this year.

We just completed in July our Christmas in July event over at the Square Shopping Center. And we had a lot of attendance and we had a lot of community organizations that came on site in order to help the people that are looking for help and we have a lot of help that's needing right now today i would like to ask captain alan shipley with the fire department and chief of police josh pierce would you come forward i have a presentation to you if that's okay chief shipley i'm sorry

Jancy, so they can hear you on our live stream. Oh, okay.

Stick it up here. On behalf of the Gifts for Kids Board of Directors, I would like to thank the Greenville Police Department and the Fire Department. and the officers who always eagerly support Gifts for Kids and our mission to serve the families of Greene County throughout the year. We are grateful that your continued acknowledgement of our mission to make a difference for the kids of Greene County, which is our future, has allowed Gifts for Kids to continue to bring awareness to the citizens of Greene County as we approach another Christmas season. This simple act of community partnership continues to help Gifts for Kids bring smiles and hope to the many local children. For more than three decades, Gifts for Kids has committed to making a difference in the lives of Greene County children, which is our future. Each Christmas, through the generosity of our community partners, we eagerly provide toys, pajamas, warm apparel, books, puzzles, games, stuffed animals, for the children ages 2 through 10 whose families are facing financial hardship. As we begin planning for this year's Christmas season, we would like to ask the fire department and the police department to consider continuing this partnership throughout the city. Your promotion for Gifts for Kids within our community we think will encourage continued community involvement. We believe that the Fire Department and Police Department's continued acknowledgement of the mission reflects the City of Greenville's commitment to supporting the many, many families you serve. Together today, we can provide hope to the families, create lasting memories for children, and remind our community that even a small act of kindness can have a tremendous impact. Gifts for Kids welcomes the opportunity to continue to receive your commitment to continue to pursue any new opportunities and or questions you may have. Thank you again. And I'd like to present to you this certificate of appreciation. And Alan. To pursue any new opportunities, thank you for accepting this certificate and for the support each of you show Gifts for Kids and the families of Greenville and Greene County. Together, we can truly make a difference in the lives of Greenville and Greene County children. With sincere appreciation, Jancy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Good job.

Multi-talented, huh?

Yes.

All right, we'll move on to unfinished business. Item 6.1 is consideration to approve the minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting held on September 1st, 2026. That was sent out last week and had a chance to review it. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. We have a motion from Mr. Hensley. Do I hear a second?

Second.

We have a second from Mr. Carter. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Those against, like sign. Motion carries. Item 6.2 is consideration of approval on second reading of an ordinance resigning four properties identified as Green County Tax Map 098C, Group A, Parcels 007.00, 012.00, and 08C. and tax mat 086, personal 110 from R1, low density residential, to M2, high impact use industrial. And since this is the second reading, there will also be a public hearing. Thank you, Mayor, for saving me from that tongue twister.

Oh, my goodness. So, yes, this is the second and final reading for rezoning these four properties that you see before you on the map on the screen from R1 single family residential to M2 high impact industrial. And the property owner, which is the Greenville Energy Authority, applied for this rezoning. Letters were sent to adjoining property owners, and there was never any objections. There was only one person that came into our office and just was curious about what the rezoning was. and we explained it to them that this rezoning is for the gea so that their facility and use of their facility is conforming with our zoning ordinance which using the facility in a industrial utilitarian operation fits the m2 zoning district and you can see to the south western corner where the lots are highlighted. In brown, that is the M2 zoning district. So some of those lots are partially zoned M2. So we are just, this rezoning will just pull that zoning district, the M2, all the way up to the northern eastern section. All the way around where the highlighted lots are in red. So, yes, this is a public hearing if there's anybody here to discuss the... Is there anybody that would like to come up and speak to this?

Seeing none, do I hear a motion to approve this? So moved. We have a motion by Mr. Hensley. Do I hear a second? I'll second it. We have a second by Mr. Bada, Coach Bada. Any further discussion?

Again, Mayor, I sit on that board, but I'm going to vote.

Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed against, like, sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Move on to item 6.3. It's consideration of a resolution authorizing the annexation of one parcel of land located along West Andrew Johnson Highway, identified as Green County Tax Map... 098c group a parcel 008.01 into the town of greenville by owner consent and adopting a plan of services for the annexed property again this is the second reading so it's a public hearing also i also want to say that um Mr. Schooley sent us a written copy of the resolution and also the plan of services that are going to be provided. And so go ahead and tell us what you're doing.

Okay, so yes, this is a resolution. So the August 18th City Council meeting, that resolution was first read and adopted for calling this public hearing for a final resolution. annexation of the property that was just mentioned into the town limits of Greenville. And so what this resolution details out is that 21 days prior to this meeting, letters were sent to the Greene County mayor, so the authority of the property, which is Greene County, the mayor, the three county commission members of that district, and then adjoining property owners to the property, And I spoke with the county mayor, the other day and he didn't have any objections and I never received any calls or comments from joining property owners. and this was published in the newspaper 21 days ahead of this meeting so this is also a public hearing for discussion so this this would annex the property into the town limits of greenville and the resolution also mentions EXHIBIT A, WHICH IS THE PLAN OF SERVICES THAT WERE ACCEPTED AT THE LAST MEETING, AND THIS WOULD BE THE ADOPTION AT THIS MEETING. AND IN THE PLAN OF SERVICES, THERE'S CONDITIONS THAT I REVIEWED THROUGH WITH THE TOWN ATTORNEY ON THE SERVICES OF THE UTILITIES TO THE PROPERTY THAT IT WOULD BE CONDITIONED UPON THE COMBINATION OF THIS parcel which there's a map on there the parcel with the adjoining one of the adjoining parcels that's under the same ownership of the gea that it joins a public right away um And then the recommendation in the plan of services is to have this zoned, annex this as zoned M2, high impact industrial. So this would also go along with the rezoning that we just previously mentioned.

Okay, it is a public hearing. Is there anyone that would like to speak to this matter? Finding none. We've got a recommendation. Do I hear a motion to accept?

Motion to accept.

We have a motion from Mr. Carter. Do I hear a second? Second. A second from Mr. Botta. Pam, do you want to say that again?

I said it on the board, but I am going to vote. Okay.

Is there any further discussion? No. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those against, like sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Justin. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. We have four consent agenda items on item seven. Is there anyone that would like to pull any of these? Seeing no one, do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda items?

So moved.

We have a motion from Mr. Hensley. Do I hear a second?

Second.

I have a second from Mr. Carter. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed against, like, sign. Motion carries. Next to new business, item 8.1 is consideration to approve a bid for the Greenville-Green County Public Library exterior roof repairs. Hello, Erin. How are you?

I'm well. Good afternoon. And, Matt, I wanted to say congratulations. I did not know the baby had come. So congratulations. Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Now I'm distracted. So on the first agenda item 8.2, it's a request to approve the bid for the exterior repairs and the roof at the Greenville-Green County Public Library, which is a jointly owned building. You have the bid sheet in your packet. The winning bid was $137,848, so $137,848 from IDEL Construction. That includes work in addition to the roof. If you've looked at Jeff's bid that was in your packet, it includes also soffit and fascia repairs, some woodwork on the outside. They're going to do a bunch of restoration in addition to the roof that has been neglected and needs to be done so that our building can stay standing.

So so it's going to have to there's a. A membrane roof up there, that's got to be repaired.

Yes. And then... And then the rest of the roof. Yeah, this part of the roof.

Shingles, I think.

Yeah, shingles. With shingles, they do have to take the shingles off and the felt off down to the... I forgot what you call that. The what?

The deck.

The decking. And then repair or replace any decking that is rotten. There is confirmed rotten decking. So that all needs to be repaired. They're taking off the dormers and not replacing them to reduce cost.

And it was first. It's been leaking for about three years off and on.

We first had a leak in the library in August of 2023, and Public Works and Parks and Rec did some work on it. They thought that they had fixed it. It wasn't fixed. It kept leaking. The library never has a capital budget line item because we just get operating appropriation from you and from the county. um and it kind of got kicked down the road a little bit um so we're kind of in a um in a situation right now where it either needs to be done i mean it needs to be done or where the leak is is not a membrane roof is that correct no the leak is actually on the north side where one of the dormers is um and that's decking with shingles yes it's decking with it's not membrane correct well there's a flat part so that's what's leaking no not the flat part okay it just needs to be replaced

Decking and shingles or the membrane? Both.

They're both of an age where they need to be replaced. I mean, there is... It's gotten to the point where it is leaking on the shingle edges. In more than one area, we've only had water penetration into the building from that north side. But when PEP came to inspect it and other contractors went up to look at it, there is...

mold mildew and rotting wood in various areas around the library under the shingles i was prepared to table this laura's not here but she found out for me and you did you assure us that it's within our limits to withdrawal of our

I did find out we are sitting well above that threshold for the fund balance, so it won't put us below that minimum. We were at 22.5%. When budget happened, we have to stay above 20.

Make a motion we approve.

We have a motion for Mr. Teague. Do I hear a second? Second. We have a second for Mr. Hensley. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against, like sign. Motion carries. And I think you mentioned this, but it's going to be split 50-50 between the green.

Right, and actually the next agenda item addresses funding.

Never mind.

Item 8.2 is consideration of a resolution to approve an appropriation to the Greenville-Green County Public Library for exterior improvements.

Right. So I'm here on this agenda item to ask you for an appropriation to the library for $68,924, which is half of the amount of the repairs. The county budget committee approved that amount to appropriate to the library on the condition that the city put in their half. So... On Monday at the county commission meeting, if you approve to put in the 68, 924, then they can pass that resolution and we can have the full amount and get that work done before winter time. Because it really needs to be done. We've kind of been limping along with some facilities that aren't at peak for quite a while. So we need to get that done.

Okay, so we have a recommendation. Do I hear a motion to approve this resolution?

Motion to approve.

We have a motion from... Puddentame, ask me again, I'll tell you the same.

Mr. Hensley? We almost got it there. And do I hear a second?

We approved the bid. Just so I understand, 8.1, we approved the bid for the room, and then 8.2, we're approving the funds? Yes. Is that what I'm understanding?

Yes, yes. So we have a motion to approve from Mr. Hensley. Who are here is second.

I'll second.

We have a second from Mr. Bada. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against like sign. Motion carries.

As always, I appreciate your support of the librarian. The services that we provide to folks. And you were in there this afternoon, and I know you saw a lot of what we do.

I was going to say there's people that were – there are lots of kids, lots of people doing different sorts of things. And I was kind of surprised when a young man brought his whole tower computer in, and he's doing – I guess gaming or something down there.

Yeah, we're not quite sure what his story is, but he's been coming to the library and using our Wi-Fi. So it's something new every day, and we're always willing to help, and people do come to us to find social services.

Well, thank you for all you do.

Thank you.

Item 8.3 is an update from Historic Zoning Commission on their new resident welcome letter and informational documents. Mr. Young, you're going to come up and talk to us? I don't really want to. I'm joking.

We've been working on this document for a while. Thank you all. uh we would like to welcome residents to the district to head off any conflict in expectations that they might have regarding the historic overlay it's been an issue going back years we don't have a great mechanism we've discussed also having a trigger mechanism maybe a partnership with the county clerk where the transfer of a deed occurs within that overlay and someone in the town gets notified so we can send out a welcome letter that explains the historic overlay the benefits to someone moving into the district the stable real estate value the participation in the community the maintenance of the material culture the social history Also, the practical side of it is that it gives the town the certified local government clearance for grant funding down the road. So it's an important thing that hopefully that everyone can participate in and have pride in the community through. This is a letter that we'd send out to new residents.

We've also updated our...

administrative sort of guidelines of how someone navigates the process of getting a certificate of appropriateness to make changes and alterations to their property that's within the district. We tried to make it much more legible much more straightforward, easy to read, and hopefully a little bit more interesting to look at as well. So we're hoping to get this updated through you all, and then we can start utilizing these somehow, and we'll discuss the trigger mechanism at some other point. So thank you again for looking at it. I appreciate it. I know many of you have served on the board, so you all hopefully have some sympathy for this. Thank you. And thank you for our new member, too. It's nice to meet you, sir. Yes. Thank you.

One question. Yeah, or a comment. I don't know. I think some of the people had bought properties in there before they knew these things were there. Is it possible for the Historic Zoning Commission to provide this information to a real estate agent that has a property listed?

We are definitely in the process of doing that. That would be like step two. Once this gets approved, we would go and have meetings with independent realtors. We've tried to consider a mass meeting with realtors. It never has really worked out very well. So likely, I'll go to realtors and brokers mostly and get the information in front of them to update them on this. We still are lacking that trigger mechanism, though, of how we know that a property's changed hand within the historic overlay and we're not sure how to make that happen to initiate the sort of the the exchange so that we could send out information to a property owner because we want to avoid the conflict of someone coming in and not having the expectation aligned with you know the regulatory framework so we want to make sure that everyone understands what the process is so that there's no We don't need any more bad PR than we already have. So we're hopefully trying to kind of make this a little smoother. But to your point, we are definitely going to use this material to meet with realtors and use this as our first line of sort of defense.

Well, it needs to be in the hands of realtors to where somebody looking for a piece of property is going to know this before they sign.

Absolutely. And we can talk to the realtors again, too, about the guidelines, you know, in case they're not completely familiar with them. And we've got really good links now to the town website for all the guidelines. So it should be easy to find the information that's necessary.

Does anybody know, is there a Greenville-Green County Realtors Association? I bet there is, maybe. Okay, well, I'll see if I can do some research on that.

Thank you.

Because getting it out before is better than after. Absolutely. If nothing else, if they could just put the information in the house when it's being shown.

In their packet when it's being shown.

Okay, well, we have a recommendation from the Historic Zoning Commission. Do I hear a motion?

What exactly are we approving? That's what I didn't understand.

Okay.

Since the legislative body, you approve their rules of order. Basically, the legislative body has set up this commission anytime that they make modifications in this case, which is a clarification to their guidelines and their rules. It's always good procedure. It's just clarification of how they they're displayed from the previous forms. Always want to bring it to the legislative body for for review that for your knowledge. And so it's in the minutes that this has been basically in a consent approval has been given by by you, the town council.

Okay, so we don't need to vote. All right.

It needs to be in the minutes that nobody, you know, you had a chance to ask for any concerns or anything that you would have on these.

Thank you. Thanks, Noah.

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Tim. Item 8.4 is consideration of approving the recommendation to appoint Ms. Whitney Winter to the Greenville Energy Authority. Duane, you want to come up just a second?

So we did have another opening that came up with Sarah Webster's resignation from our board, and our board did go through the process of reviewing four candidates. All four existing board members got a chance to speak to those candidates, and this is the recommendation that they've made is for Ms. Whitney Winter to be our new board member to replace Sarah Webster's seat.

Can you tell everyone what Whitney does and who she is?

She's actually local. She's the president of Mecco Corporation. So it does bring kind of that manufacturing side into our board. Kind of keeps that mix. We've got a banker. We've got one retired person. So it kind of keeps that mix in there. It's someone we haven't had really in the past to represent that manufacturing sector. So, yeah, she's been the president. I'm not sure how many years out there now, but several years. And a member of the partnership also, so she's the chair of the partnership board at this time.

Yes. And you said you did speak to all of the applicants?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Yeah, all four board members got a chance to individually meet with those folks, yes.

Okay, we have a recommendation. Do I hear a motion to approve?

Motion.

We have a motion from Mr. Carter. Do I hear a second?

Second.

I have a second from Mr. Hensley.

Again, I sit on the GEA board, but I will be voting. Okay.

Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those against, like, sign. Motion carries. Thank you all. Item 8.5 is consideration of two reappointments and two appointments as alternates to the standard review board. Hello, Mr. C.

Hello, Mayor. Yes, this board is our standard review board. It's our unsafe structures board. We have not met in, I guess it's close to three years now. And the reasons behind that were, one was COVID, everything that came down with that. There was a, I guess you'd say a moratorium on evictions at that time, which I received very vague information Notification that we were not to be removing any residential structures while that moratorium was in place, which never did receive anything that said that the moratorium was removed. And on top of that, we had some. things that came to light on our ability to collect our liens on the expenses that were put against the titles for the demolitions that we have somewhat been able to work out or at least clarify, but there's still a little bit of ground to cover there. But the standard review board is a board that reviews dilapidated structures and evaluates those for demolition or can give us an order to close them up, board them up, secure them. It goes through a process of notification and different, it's a long process, counsel, with, we have to identify a title, the title, the persons of interest, Some of these, the last one that we tore down, which would have been early summer of 2022, which had been in the pipeline for about four years. Some of these things take a long time for us to get them down just to go through to check all the legal boxes to make sure we're doing the right thing. But these candidates, they're required to have the ability to evaluate structures based on damage, defect, deficiency, dilapidation, increased hazard, I have spoken to each one of these applicants. Two of them, as the agenda states, are reappointments. And then Jamie Height, he is a commercial contractor, residential contractor. And I also spoke to Ms.

Crystal Martin.

and explain to her the role and the difficult nature sometimes of what this board handles, and she was willing to serve. She has the skills and the ability, I feel like, that will bring a fresh perspective into this board. So we have one board member whose term is still current, and that's Mr. Brett Pergerson. The members that I'm asking for reappointment would be Mr. Mike Ideal, reappointing Mr. Dave Wright. The two new alternates would be Crystal Martin and Jamie Height. Those were the only four applications that we did receive for the board. Our ordinance, our rules of order state that we have to have five members with a quorum being of three. So I recommend each one of the candidates to be named to the standard review board. I don't know if we have to do them one by one or we can do them all.

I make a motion that we approve all the candidates. Brent Ferguson, Dave Wright. Brett's okay right now. Oh, okay. I thought he was up in May of next year. Okay, I'm sorry. The reappointments and the new is Martin and Hyatt. Is that correct?

And I made that clear. Could we say that Mike and Dave are reappointments and the other two are new appointments? And one other question. You say that these are alternates?

They're alternates. And the way that works is, I guess the best example I could give is when you have planning commission, Five is a quorum on planning commission because there's nine members. But if the other members show up, they participate in vote. So that's the way this board works also. So there are alternates that... ensure that we have a quorum each time we meet. But if they show up and let's say there are all five members there, they would all participate in the meeting and have a vote. Now, myself as the building official, I'm considered a quasi-member of the board because I testify and give information to them, but I don't have a vote on that. That's how that works. It's not where I would schedule a meeting and let's say I get something from one of the members and they say, well, I'm not going to be there. Everybody that can be there would be there.

So an alternate's a member?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

All right. Well, we have a motion from Mr. Teague. Do I hear a second?

I'll second. Second.

Second for mr. Bottas there any further questions All those in favor say aye Those against like sign motion carries Thank You Bert Mr. T has made a motion to adjourn do I hear a second second second for mr. Hensley any further discussion All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against, like, sign. Motion carries. Next, I'll call to order the beer board. Got the wrong paper out.

Where are y'all going? We're not through yet. No public comments?

Okay.