City Council - Regular Meeting

even more space for programs and organized activities to plan the future by not only our city staff but also our community partners. It's so exciting to be here today to sell

I'm going right there. It's yours. Thank you.

All right. Good evening. I'd like to call the May 14th, 2026 meeting of the Greenville City Council to order. I'm Mayor PJ Connelly if presiding over tonight's meeting. First, I'd like to call on Council Member Matt Scully for the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thank you, Mayor. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you for another beautiful spring day in Eastern North Carolina. Pray that we will that you will bless us tonight as we make decisions that impact our neighbors. Give us wisdom, grace, empathy, and courage to do what is right for the benefit of our whole community. We pray especially for the f for the family of our friend and colleague D. Alexander who lost her mother this past week after a battle with dementia. Pray that you will surround her and her family with love and support during this difficult time. And we thank you, God, for Miss Gloria J. Alexander and the love and legacy that she's left especially our friend Da. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, will you please call the role? Yes, sir. Mayor Connelly, here. Mayor Prom Foreman here. Council member Jones here. Council member Hardy here. Council member Scully here. Council member Robinson here. Council member Willis here. All right. Mayor Connley, you have a quorum. Thank you very much. We'll now move on to the approval of tonight's agenda. Mr. Manager, any recommended changes? Have no changes, Mayor. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Commission approved.

Second. All right. Motion been made by council member Hardy. Second by council member Skelly. Something for discussion. Which the two light uh number eight. Let's that'll be we'll we'll go over that. That's the public hearing. Oh, this you're good. So, I got a motion by council member Hardy. Second by council member Scully. All those in favor say I. Post say nay. Motion passes 6. All right. We'll move on to special recognitions. I know where you're going with that. That's right.

Like to ask Mr. to Billy Levy and his family to come forward. It is my honor to recognize Mr. Billy Levy for his retirement from the city of Greenville. And as I always do, I'd like to just give you a little bit of background about Billy. Uh Billy started his career with the city of Greenville July of 1996 and I'm still almost in high school as a refuge collector and retired as of May 1st. He worked as a team member in the sanitation division to provide refuge services to single and multif family residents. As a self-motivated and versatile professional, Billy's commitment to customer service and his deep connection with our residents have left an indelible mark on our community. His hard work and kindness will be missed. So tonight, we recognize Billy's 29 years and nine months of service to our community and wish him the best in retirement. You know, Billy, I will say that the service that you provide represents everything great about the city of Greenville. And I say it over and over again. We have the best employees in the world. But you have dedicated your life to serving the residents of our city. And there are thousands and thousands of families out there that you have affected over the years that they don't even know it, but

you have made their lives better. And on behalf of the city of Greenville, I just thank you for your commitment to the city of Greenville and thank you for your service. I always forget here. Let let me read this bad boy out. In recognition of 29 years and nine months of outstanding service, we extend our sincere appreciation to Billy T. Levy. This the says the first day of May. That was his actual retirement day. This the first day of May 2026 from PJ Connley, mayor and Michael W. Cowin, city manager. CONGRATULATIONS.

Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing with me.

Valerie, thank you.

I was sitting there thinking when we said when we said 96, I didn't even got into high school yet. Oh my gosh. I'm not going to say how old I am. You just 20 years in your law firm at that point, right? Yeah, pretty much. All right. 10.

All right. We'll move on now to the public comment period. The public comment period is a period reserved for comments by the public. Items that were are scheduled to be the subject of a public hearing conducted at this meeting or another meeting during the same week shall not be discussed. A total of 30 minutes is allocated with each individual being allowed no more than 3 minutes. Individuals who registered with the city clerk to speak will speak in the order registered until the allotted 30 minutes expires. If time remains after all persons who have registered have spoken, individuals who did not register will have an opportunity to speak until the allotted 30 minutes expires. Madam clerk, our first speaker. Yes, sir. Miss Angeline Mitchell. Miss Mitchell, if you want to approach the public podium, you have three minutes. Address the mayor and counsel.

Yes, ma'am. Good evening.

Good evening, Miss Mitchell. My name is Angela Mitchell. As you well know, I am from Greenville, North Carolina. This is my home. So, that means I've been around quite some time. Nonetheless, I would like to have a debate or like some discussion as to why ICE is being questioned or that they would not like it to be here. And I did see the daily paper today stating that Miss Porsche Willis had misconceptions about it. So, I would like to understand and know why you have them and see what everybody else would like to say about ICE being into the community. I I don't need to go on 30 minutes right now, I don't think, because I would very much like to hear why that question was asked.

So, if I could just explain as far as public comment goes, this is really the time for the community to come and make their comments to the council. Um, there's not really like a u back and forth. we just received, but if you do want to hear from any council member specifically, then um we can make sure to provide you with their contact information if you want to reach out directly.

So, you know what? Thank you, Miss Mitchell, for being here. I will um make comment in regards to your question. Thank you. Um, in terms of ice, about a month ago, we had uh citizens to come and ask if we could replicate the Philadelphia bottle. And so my request was for our city manager to either bring it to us in a workshop or in a council meeting such as this to be able to talk about um if we could replicate that model, what that model looked like. And that's what they did. And so the so what you were privy to was the staff responding to that request, being able to provide the information and let us know what our ability was to be able to affect that issue in Greenville.

So at that meeting, the public was left out of that meeting. Is that correct? Not to my knowledge. No, that was just this Monday night. That was Okay. So that's when it was discussed. You're saying right. They did a public uh presentation to us.

Okay. Um so can I finish then saying a little bit about as to why I would like to see ICE in the city? Meaning there's a lot going on. I don't I think there's a lot of misconceptions about ICE. At least I think it is because there are a lot of illegal immigrants into this community and the city and basically everywhere else. And a lot of times there's a lot of crime going on. As I said, I'm from Greenville and there's been a lot of runovers even in the Old River area. I mean, even today they arrested three immigrants on drug charges. It's constantly what's going on is in the news. I don't know why it would even be questioned as to why they would come. I mean, if ICE can't do it, the police are surely not doing it. The police seems to be following and doing the sheriff's job. If they did their job correctly, you might not need ICE. Too much is going on. I am from Greenville and the police attacks are not reputable. So, ICE, I think, would get the job done. I view the situation with ICE in Minnesota. One of them I thought was granted with the young lady. Well, she didn't deserve to die. But nonetheless, her actions, what I saw were taunting. They showed her drive her truck right up to the ICE officers and whatever one of the officers asked her to get out of the truck or whatever, she drove off with two of them standing there. literally almost hit one of them and he took out his gun and shot her. The other one a nurse,

immigrant nurse. I didn't think he deserved it because the only thing I saw that he was doing was his camera out and that's time. Okay. Thank you, Miss Mitchell. Mitchell, thank you.

And I'll respond to um Angeline. Stop right there. You have a right to your opinion. Um, and each person on council uh also has a right to theirs. Um, but a lot of what we do is not necessarily based on a personal opinion, but the people that we're elected to serve. And so we really do appreciate you coming up and sharing your opinion, but um, respectfully respect other people's as well. Well, I do.

Okay. Just wanted to say that. And you and I can talk offline. I would love to talk to you offline. No, I think it needs to be publicly. You know, that's respect. Publicly heard. Thank you. Why private? Thank you, Miss Mitchell. We appreciate it. Madam Clerk, our next speaker, Mayor Connley, we do not have any additional registered speakers.

Anyone else would like to speak during the public comment period, please come forward, state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Seeing none, we'll close the public comment period. We'll move on to appointments, madam clerk. Yes, sir. Let me get my list. We've got quite a few. Smell that. All right. We'll start with the Environmental Advisory Commission. Council member Scully. Like to nominate Mr. Zach Nichols. Oh, I'm so sorry. Excuse me. He's for the MTC. I need to wait on that nomination. I'm so sorry.

All right. Yep. Not a problem. Sure. Um, Council Member Robinson like to hold. Okay. Sure. Thanks. Thank you very much. Uhhuh. Um, Council Member Jones. I would like to nominate Miss Deborah Goberg. I'll second that. All right. Motion's been made by Council Member Jones, second by Council Member Robinson. Uh all those in favor say I. Post say nay. Motion passes 6. Congratulations Miss Goldberg. Um next we have the firefighters relief fund committee. Um anyone on council is eligible to make a nomination to this board or we can continue.

Sounds like continue. Um next we have the historic preservation commission. Uh council member Hardy. I'd like to nominate Jackson Holder and Wy Hitchcock. I'd second that. All right. Motion's been made by Council Member Hardy, second by Council Member Robinson. All those in favor say I. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 6. Congratulations, Mr. Holder. Mr. Hock. Hock. Okay. Um, next we have the housing authority. Still have not heard from the residents council or from the housing authority about the resident commissioner. Um, next appointment is council member Hardy.

I to nominate Shemica Banks. Second. All right. Motion's been made by council member Hardy. Second by council member Jones. All those in favor say I. Oppos say nay. Motion passes 6. Congratulations Miss Jones. Okay. Next, Miss Thanks. Thanks. I told you I was tired. All right. Next. Um, Mayor Connley. Uh, continue. Okay. Um, Human Relations Council, Mayor Connley, continue. Okay. Multimmodal Transportation Commission. Um, Mayor Pam Foreman, continue. Okay. Um, Mayor Connley,

continue. Okay. Uh, Council Member Scully, Mr. Zach Nichols. Okay. All right. Second. Thank you. All right. Motion's been made by Council Member Scully, second by Council Member Jones. All those in favor say I. Those say I. Motion passes 6. Congratulations, Mr. Nichols. Right. Yes, sir. Um, next we have Council Member Hardy. Continue. Okay. All right. Um, Police Community Relations Committee. Council Member Robinson. Continue, please. Yes, sir. Um, Council Member Willis, I'd like to nominate Miss Tina Barnes. Okay.

A second. I'm sorry. Motion's made by Council Member Willis, second by Council Member Jones. All those in favor say I. Those oppos say nay. Motion passes 6. Mayor Thompson Barnes. Uh, continue. All right. Um and finally we have the recreation and parks commission. Mayor Pro Tim Foreman continue. Okay. Council member Hardy. I'd like to nominate Grant Humphre. Second. All right. Motion's been made by Council Member Hardy, second by Council Member Scully. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 6. And next we have um also recreation and parks um council member Robinson. Continue, please.

Okay. All right. Mayor Connley, that concludes the appointments to boards and commissions. All right. Now, we'll move on to appointments to the Invest Greenville board. So, we have just recently implemented a rotating schedule. Um, so the first seat that we have um expired July 2025. We're just catching that up and that is will be made by Mayor Connley. Okay. Do you have a nomination or continue that? I'm gonna continue that one. Okay. I need to talk to my colleagues first. All right. Additionally, just to catch up, we also need an assignment of a city council leaison to this board.

Continue. Okay. All right. And that concludes the appointments for tonight. Thank you very much. We'll now move on to new business. This is the policy of the public hearing adopted by the city council petitioner. A representative of the petitioner and a leader of those in opposition will have each have 10 minutes. Persons following them will have up to three minutes each with a total on each side no more than 30 minutes. Additionally, I want to remind those in attendance to extend the courtesy of persons speaking during the public hearing and of the city council during discussions. Comments made by members of the public are to occur only during the public hearing as allowed by the mayor in accordance with adopted policy of the city council. There should be no interruptions of speakers or council members including expressions of support or disagreements verbally or by applause as this is distracting and makes discussion difficult. We ask for your cooperation. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Our first public hearing.

Thank you, mayor. Item number four, ordinance to annex Hungates Commercial Park, portion of lot 6 involving 050 acres located along the eastern rightway of Hunggate Drive and 475 plus or minus feet south of Old Fire Tower Road. I now call forward our assistant director, Shante Gooby, for the presentation. Good evening. Good evening. which

okay this uh resoning is located in the southeastern southeastern quadrant of the city. Um it is more specifically located uh south of Old Fire Tower Roads to the west of County Home Road. What you see in green is the current city limits and the property is shown in red. This property is um located on the tiered growth map in a uh preferred growth area. Uh the property is located in the Fork Swamp Canal Watershed and if storm water rules apply, it will require 25-year detention. If the property is annexed, it will be in voting district number four. Um this property um is currently a parking lot. It is anticipated to stay a parking lot. They're just doing some other improvements in the property and have brought this uh before you to be annexed in. The estimated value of the property is almost $44,000. And then as always um this property is in the city's ETJ. And it's important to note under section six of GU's charter that the development can still be provided sanitary sewer if the uh if the annexation is denied. And I'll be glad to answer any questions. Any questions for Miss Kubby?

Thank you very much. Public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the African may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes.

Good evening. How y'all doing? Fine. Good. Thank you. I'm Stuart Serell. with surail land surveying. I'm here if there's any questions about the survey.

Thank you very much. Anyone else that like to speak on behalf of the application of the applica may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. See none. Public hearing is now closed. Open for board discussion or motion. Motion to approve. Second.

All right. Motion made by council Robinson. Second by council member Scully. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Say nay. Motion passes 6. On to item number five. Thank you, mayor. Item number five, ordinance to annex the towns at Davenport Farms phase one involving 4.9356 acres located north of Davenport Farm Road and the current terminina of Masters Lane. I'll again call forward our assistant director Shante Gooby for the presentation.

This property is located in the southwest quadrant of the city. Um, it is more specifically located at the two ends of Mast's Lane. Um, current city limits are shown in green. Subject property is shown in red. Um, the property is located in the Swift Creek wershed and if storm water rules apply, it will require 10-year detention. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not sure why it did that. Hold on. It's okay. We got a closer view. I know, right? I was having a squint anyway.

Hold on. There we go. Okay. I got to be careful. Um the property is located on the tier growth map in a uh primary service area. If the property is annexed will be located in voting district number five. It's anticipated to uh yield about 45 multif family units. Um it is almost 5 acres. Estimated value of the improvements is $9 million. And as always, um the property is located in the ETJ and under section six of GUC's charter, the development can still be provided sanitary sewer if the annexation is denied. I'll be glad to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Any questions for Miss Cooper?

Thank you. Public hearing is now open. Those speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. First person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. I preer board discussion or a motion. Motion to approve. Second.

All right. Motion's been made by Council Will. Second by Council Member Robinson. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Those oppos say nay. Motion passes 6. Move on to item number six. Thank you, mayor. Item number six, ordinance to annex Tucker Farms Reynolds LLC property involving 2.2000 2000 acres located along the west western rightaway of Charles Boulevard and between Terra Court and Exchange Drive. Can call forward assistant director Shante Gooby for the presentation.

This property is located in the southwest quadrant of the city. Uh it's more specifically located along Charles Boulevard um in front of uh Terara Court and the Landing Apartments. Again, existing city limits is shown in green. subject property is shown in red. This property is located in the Fork Swamp wershed and if storm water rules apply, it will require 25-year detention. The property is shown in a primary service area on the tiered growth map. Um if annexed, it'll be located in voting district number four, and it's anticipated to yield about 36 um multif family units. Again, it's just a little bit over two acres. The estimated value of those improvements is a little over $7 million. And again, the property is located in the ETJ and under section six of GUC's charter, the development can still be uh provided sanitary sewer if the annexation is denied and I'll be glad to answer any questions.

All right, any questions? We are just filled with questions tonight. This is a good thing.

Yes. All right. The public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Open for a board discussion or motion. Motion to approve. Second.

Motion is made by Council Member Robinson. Second by Council Member Willis. All those I'm sorry. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 6. Item number seven. Thank you, mayor. Item seven, ordinance to annex Helen Adams division lot one involving 2.074 acres located at the northwestern corner intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Highway and Witcher Road. Again, call for assistant director Shante Gooby for the presentation.

Um, this property is located in the northeast quadrant of the city. Um, it is more uh specifically located at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Highway, Richard Road. Um, this property currently already has a building on it. Again, current city limits is shown in green. Subject property is shown in red. Um, the property is located in the Johnson Mill Run Parker Creek watershed. And if storm water rules apply, it will require 25-year detention. The property is located in a preferred growth area on the tiered growth map. If annexed, it'll be located in voting district number one. Okay. Again, property already contains about a 7,400 square foot building. The estimated value almost $400,000. And again, property is located in the ETJ. Um, and it's important to note under section six GC charter, the development can still be served with sanitary sewer. If the annexation is denied, I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Any questions? I think is it is it three it becomes a streak? We're on number four I think. Don't jinx me. Yeah, mine is next.

All right, public hearing is now open. Those to speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Open for a board discussion or a motion. Motion to approve. Second.

I like it. The district one right in your district. I like it quick. All right. Uh motion's been made by council member Jones, second by council member Hardy. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Say nay. Motion passes 60. We shall move on to number eight.

Thank you, mayor. Item number eight, ordinance to annex Oxford Ridge phase 1 involving 13.00 acres located east of Frog Level Road and at the current terminus of Finn Court. Gang call for assistant director Shante Gooby for the presentation. Uh this property is in the southwest quadrant of the city. Um it is located west of Frog Level Road at the current terminus of Finn Court. Existing city limits are shown in green. Subject property is shown in red. The property is located in the Swift Creek WHED. If storm water rules apply, it will require 25-year detention. The property is located in a primary service area on the tiered growth map. If annexed, the property um If annexed, the property will be in voting district number two.

Okay. Um the property is anticipated to yield about 31 single family homes with estimated tax value at just a little over $9 million. And again, uh the property is in the ETJ under section six of GC's charter. The development can still be served with sanitary sewer if the annexation is denied. And I'll be glad to answer any questions. Here we go. Here goes the streak. So, um I um had community meetings yesterday and one of them was with uh that neighborhood.

Um the citizens there uh that I communicated with did not necessarily have opposition, but they did have some questions that I would like to even though I've started discussions about behind the scenes would like to um mention publicly. Um, one of which was, um, they have a retention pond that has been being managed on Finn Drive or not even on F Drive. It's behind, it's near F Drive. Okay. um that belongs to the Mill Creek um HO HOA is in their property area

and um they're wondering if the new neighborhood would be using the same retention pond uh because they've been maintaining it with the funds that they raise with their HOA. I can't see the subdivision in in my head how it's laid out. So, I'm not 100% sure because I see what looks like if you if you can tell two different what I believe are storm water ponds, right?

Um, so I can't tell you with 100% specificity, but I would say if they are sharing those, then they should have shared cost, meaning it shouldn't all be borne onto one neighborhood. Um because they they do have their storm water. That's right. And so that there should be some kind of proportion to cost share if they are sharing the pond. Can you and I have a conversation about that so that I can just get the information and be able to communicate it back to them? I will. I am not an expert, but I'll be happy to try to help you.

Okay. Um, in addition to that, uh, the biggest concern was if you think about, uh, Mil Creek, um, neighborhood and when you're coming off of Frog Level Road and you make a left onto Mil Creek Drive to go into the neighborhood, there's one entrance way in and one entrance way out. That neighborhood has been going through constant growth for the last several years. Um, and again, they're not opposing that, but all of the construction that is being had, they're having to access through that main drive, uh, which is Mills Creek Drive. Do you see on the map where I'm talking about?

I use my cursor. I'm not sure if it shows up. So, right off of Frog Level Road. So, I see Mil Creek Drive comes in. So, it ends in a cold. That's right. you go down, make that left to Megan and drive all the way back to Finn.

And so that was an established neighborhood and has been established for years. Um on Megan Drive, at the back of Megan Drive, they've already experienced uh a a huge amount of growth with new homes and now this new neighborhood. But where their concern is is there a way to gain access for construction without going through the entire neighborhood. Their concerns are related to safety. Um the time that construction starts in the morning. Uh, so is is there a way because if you think about the way that is, you can't see it from this map. Is uh once you go back up to Frog Level from Mil Creek Drive and make the right on Frog Level, you go up to the light and it's perpendicular to Dickinson. Mhm.

So, is there a way from is there a way for where Finn Court is and where this expansion is going to be that they could create some type of access that does not take it all the way through the neighborhood? The and I know that we cannot require that. I've already done my homework, but is there a way, and I'm saying this publicly just to let them know that we're having these discussions that we can talk to, and Michael, you can chime in if you want, that we can talk to the developer and see if that's possible. Yeah. Uh, Councilman Foreman, what I would say is we can take a look at the map

and see if some of that farmland if there would be a way to get back there. And if so, then we can have a conversation with the contractor. And like you said, the nail on the head, we can say that, hey, would you be interested in trying to acquire a construction easement to be able to access that property so as to not have to go through the the property? Yes, we we can have I'll have that conversation. Okay.

Could we could we look at looking at the map that's situated for us, the entrance way maybe from the north if you get I don't want us to figure out that route right here, but yes. Yes, we'll take that back and we'll we'll look at what some potentials routes are and then contact the contractor and some members of the community and see if we can have that conversation about a construction need. All right. Thank you. All right. Any other questions?

All right. Thank you very much. The public hearing is now open. Those speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. First person has two minutes. All others have three minutes. See no, the public hearing is now closed. I'm for board discussion or motion.

I do have a question. Uh, Mayor Proin Foreman, are you comfortable moving forward given the um what we've heard tonight? I I'm comfortable. Uh, I wanted to elevate what their concerns are because I think these concerns are being had there's so much expansion

going on around our community that the concerns are consistent with other neighborhoods. They they are concerned about safety um of their children, you know, with trucks driving through all the time. um as well as um the conditions of the roads and you know we know what happens there. Um just want to make sure that they're aware that we're going to do whatever it takes to have conversations to do what we can do legally because legally we cannot require it. But it seems reasonable and looking at uh mayor's map now, it seems reasonable that there would be able to be an easement identified at the back of the property there

um that leads out to the main road without going through their neighborhood repeatedly. Mhm. So hopefully the construction company would be willing to have that conversation and be a good neighbor and accommodate the citizens. So all right, motion to approve. Second. All right. Motion been made by Council Member Willis, second by Council Member Scully. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 6. Shall move on to item number nine.

Thank you, mayor. Item number nine, ordinance requested by Boviet USA Property LC to reszone 34.45 acres located at the northeastern corner of the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Highway and Silk Parkway from PIU planned unoffensive industry to IU unoffensive industry. Again, call forward our assistant director Shante Gooby for the presentation. Uh, this property is located in the northeast quadrant of the city. Again, um, it is located along Martin Luther King Jr. Highway. Sug Parkway is just to the south. Um, this property is also located in the recognized industrial area. Um, this property, as you can see, already has a building on it. So, this is the current location of one of the buildings for Bobette Solar. So this is a photograph from uh Sug Parkway looking to the north. So uh Martin Luther King Jr. Highway would be to your left and then we kind of did the reverse which is on the right hand side that would be S Parkway. Um this property is um again located in the industrial area and the change in zoning staff does not anticipate any change in intensity between the current and the proposed zoning as far as traffic is concerned. So a traffic report was not generated. The property is um almost 35 acres and the property again since it's already developed it already has its um storm water pond. So the watershed and that kind of stuff's already been taken care of because it's already built. And um under the current zoning, which is planned unoffensive industry, the property contains about 535,000 square ft. Again, it's being used for

manufacturing of solar panels. Staff doesn't anticipate a change in the use at all. But what the change really does is in changing from the current zoning to the proposed zoning, it actually is reducing the setbacks. Okay? And that's the real motive um for what they're trying to do. The representative of the of the company is here tonight. He can answer you some more specific questions, but it does sort of beg the question of why are you even doing this? So, I just wanted to um just go ahead and try to answer that question. The future land use plan does recommend um uh industrial and logistics in this area. Again, it's in the recognized industrial area. You have the future land use plan on the lefthand side. You have the current zoning on the right hand side. Um again, both of these are industrial zonings. uh staff recommends approval of the request and at the April 21st, 2026 planning and zoning commission meeting um the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval and I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Any questions? Hey, starting a new streak.

Yeah. All right, the public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. It will not be 10 minutes. Mayor Connley, members of council, my name is Tom Terrell. I'm with the law firm Fox Rothschild in the Greensboro office. I'm here tonight representing Bovette Solar. Shante is exactly correct. The first question in your mind might be if there is no change of use and if there is no increase in traffic, why on earth are you changing zoning districts? And it's purely because you have some arbitrary setback requirements in one district that you don't have in another and some different setbacks are needed in order to put the second building on the site. It is the most non-controversial zoning I probably uh will present to a board in a 10-year period. I would like to say uh Mayor Connley before I sit down, I said something similar uh at the uh planning commission, I get to many many jurisdictions in North Carolina, counties, cities, towns. I actually go into adjoining states. It caught me by surprise when I made my very first phone call to Greenville and somebody answered the phone and that was Shante. And every time I have spoken to her, she answers her phone directly. It is not common when you try to reach a planning department that somebody is accessible. Um, she replies very quickly to emails. Even I even have one of them that came in over a weekend. And I don't know if you're aware that this is uncommon service, but um uh while I'm standing here, I want to make sure you know it's

uncommon service and we need to protect this uh going forward. I do uh uh stand here further if you need answers to questions. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Hey, hey, how about that? That was pretty good, Shante. You didn't see the hund there. Is he going to do a Google review for you? That's a That's good. I like that. I like that. Very proud. All right. Anyone else that like to speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward? Please state your name for the record. You have three minutes.

See none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. First person that has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Open for board discussion or motion. Motion to approve. Second. All right. Motion's been made by council member Skully. Second by council member Jones. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Those oppos say nay. Motion passes 6. Shall move on to number 10. Last public hearing of the night and I can't wait to hear you read it.

Thank you, ma'am. Item number 10, ordinance requested by the community development services department to make various changes to the unified development ordinance UDO, including but not limited to updating the name of the planning and development services to community and development services and renaming neighborhood meeting to community engagement meeting. adding and or amending the following definitions. Alcohol beverage control, event center, micro brewery, and micro distillery. Updating and and reorganizing the table of uses in the table of permitted vegetation. Clarifying the parking requirements for recreation indoor skating rinks, pool halls, and the like. And golf course, par three, driving range, miniature golf, and the like. Deleting event center, mixed beverage permit as a use in the following zoning districts. M O M C H M UI O R I U I P I U and P I clarifying the number of security personnel required for bars bar 2022s micro distilleries and micro breweries if amplified entertainment after 11 p.m. is provided and updating the standards for shelter for homeless or abused persons, accessory sales, alcohol sales, micro distillery, and sidewalk requirements along existing public streets.

Okay. I'll now ask our assistant director, Shante Gooby, to come forward for the presentation. Can you read the uh zoning districts one more time? I know I probably screwed that up. I'm sorry. You did fine. I did that intentionally to give my

give myself a break between items, right? Um, so I'm going to give you a little bit of background and also I want to say we're not going to go through all of those things because most of them are very self-explanatory. Most of these are housekeeping items. Um, council adopted the UDO November of last year. It became effective March of this year. Again, most of these are more or less housekeeping items. Uh, our UDO is like this thick. and we're bound to as we're starting to use it find things that sort of don't make sense or was intended to be this way and not. Um but we still do it as a text amendment so that you will know as council and so that the public will know and so that's why we're bringing these things to you. Um really there's only four that I want to go through. Those are more of they need a little bit more of an explanation for why are you doing it. Um the first one that we're going to talk about um staff repeatedly uses the word uh alcohol establishments. And within alcohol establishments we have a bar a bar 2022 micro breweries uh micro distilleries. I think that covers it. So what a lot of one and two are is to basically have those uses have the same standards when we're talking about it. We recognize their different uses, but we also recognize um that there should be some some a common thread through them when we're talking about the different standards. Specifically with number two, security personnel. Um that's a cleanup, but we want all of them to have the same language because in a lot of ways they're very similar in nature. Um, number three, this is clarifying parking requirements um for those two uses, and I'll go into um why those got picked up. And then the last one, again, number four, an event center with a

mixed beverage permit for the event center itself. Um, we would like for that specific use to be allowed in the same zoning districts as alcohol establishments. So the first one again we're just treating micro breweries and micro distilleries uh to align with the standards of the other alcohol establishments. Micro distillery it's a it's an establishment where spiritus liquor is made on site. You can have onremise consumption but you can also buy it and take it with you. Um, and again, this one bullet here just talks about having um the different violations or the counts, if you will, having those similar to the rest of the alcohol establishments. Number two, this is one, this is one actually from staff. Um, I brought a text amendment a couple of months ago and we realized that the language that was in there didn't really make sense. And so, I promised you that I would bring this back and have it clarified. And so that's essentially what this is. So I'm showing you the red line text which is in your packet. So what you see in red with with strikethroughs that means it's disappearing and anything that is in red is new. And essentially what this does is this clarifies that uh an alcohol establishment that has amplified entertainment after 11 p.m. does have to have security personnel. And we've just cleaned up the ratio essentially so that anywhere up to 200 and I want to clear that's the occupancy not the number of people there that night is based on the occupancy um that they would have to have two security personnel. And the other thing that we've added for more clarity is that um if if the instances where you have uh two security personnel and you're downtown, the security personnel can stay inside the

building and work on getting people out. But if they have a private parking lot, then we would have one of the people in the parking lot again as traffic is dispersed. So, we just added that little um clarifier in there. This is the slide that's in your packet. This is the final version. This third one, this is again about clarifying the parking requirements. Um these are actually two different uses. So, you have indoor recreation. Think of a skating rink or something like that. And then we also have any kind of golf related use that we've pulled out. Um so in the top box of this one for in for indoor recreation um we currently have where you would have one space for every 200 square ft of activity. It had plus 10 spaces for waiting which is old language from our original zoning ordinance. And then we also had employee parking. And so what we did um was to clean that up and take out uh the plus 10 waiting for plus 10 spaces for waiting. And I'm going to explain to you why we did that. Um and then for anything related to golf, we have the existing language and then we have the new language. So, one of the things we did when we were doing the UDO was to try to update the parking standards and to try to limit extraneous parking spaces. Some of you were in those small groups and you right, you might remember we gave you the example of the chef store and how much parking they had under the old regulations and how when we modernized it, it brought it down to probably what was um a more reasonable amount of

parking. So that brings us to why we deleted the 10 spaces for waiting inside. that didn't seem to make sense that you would be waiting outside of a skate rink. Um, and so, um, what we did was, uh, I used, um, the ice skating place on Redbanks Road as an example. It's 20,000 square ft. I assume six employees. So, under our current standards, they would owe us 115 spaces. And if you've been in that parking lot, um that is almost double of what they have and probably don't need 115 spaces. So, under the new standards, they would uh owe us 54, which is about what they have now. This one is a little bit more complicated, and we never intended for it to be as complicated as it was. Um, I'm referring all the way back to the old zoning ordinance and the standards that we had. And so I looked at a golf course, standard 18hole course. I just assume six employees. And if you do the math, that will bring you to roughly 19 spaces. The other thing to remember is this is just the minimum number. They can do 25, they can do 35. This is just the minimum. When we did the UDO language, we swapped the numbers inadvertently that we didn't mean to do. So you'll see we went from one space for three T's to three spaces per T. So what that means is in that same example, when you do the math, they would have 67 parking spaces, which was never the intent. So, we're essentially

undoing those numbers and getting our count correctly. And we took out the 10 spaces for waiting. And again, under this scenario, nine spaces minimum, but they can do more than that. And then this is the last one. So, for the event center with a mixed beverage permit, this is what it currently looks like in our table of uses. You can see there were some additional districts that it was allowed in did require a special use permit. And so the new the text aim it will have the it will be allowed in the same district still with a special use permit as a bar. So we're just having those same districts mirror each other. So, in staff's opinion, um, this entire request is in compliance with the Horizon's plan and specifically policy 4.14. Support a positive business climate. Continue to market Gringville's excellent business climate. Where appropriate, provide flexibility in development regulations to ensure a business climate that encourages growth and expansion. Support business growth and retention through strategic public improvement. And the last one, ensure land regulations align with target industry needs. The PNZ at their April 21st meeting voted unanimously to recommend approval of the request, and I'll be glad to answer any questions.

All right, any questions? I've got a couple. Sorry. Um, could we go back to the uh security for alcohol establishments? Um, generally I think this is really good, but what I'm concerned about is small businesses that are trying to increase business by having like an open mic night. For example, Uptown Brewery has an open mic night, which is sometimes pretty low attendance. They're just trying to get people in there, have a good time, provide people an opportunity to play music, but that is amplified music. And I

I don't believe that they would be able to afford to have two professional security guards, nor would I believe it necessary for small open mic night. So I'm just wondering if we have any kind of flexibility for situations like that.

That certainly is a discussion of council. That's certainly something that we would, you know, that that we as staff would certainly entertain. Unfortunately, we don't have the ability, I'll say ability, um, to somehow make security personnel, whatever that amount is, commensurate with who's there at night. You know, we don't have a measuring stick um that says, well, I only have 25 people tonight. They don't really need anyone. And as always, we are making regul regulations for everyone and not one specific. I completely understand with what you're saying. And so we're kind of that juggling act between um having businesses, having some security um for the people who were there, but also for people who were not there. Um and and trying to weigh that. and it's it's not an easy it's not an easy task. However, staff is always open to having more conversations and is there a way to kind of balance that um a little bit more and I know that we have talked about alcohol establishments the whole group of them ad nauseium um but there's certainly always time that we can go back and revisit it. Yeah, I I think that would be important because I think there are other small businesses like that that would be harmed by this. Um, and I understand what you're saying. It's very difficult to you don't want to pick favorites. That's not the right thing to do. Um, but there is certainly a different character between a busy club and a open mic night at a brewery. said, um, I would just like to to think more about how we can differentiate

between those two things so we're not eliminating a revenue source and a community engagement opportunity for small businesses. So, so Council Member Scully, are you are you requesting us to come back with more information related to this? I agree with Council Member Scully. I don't really know what this would change for the other clubs and bars downtown other than, you know, your micro breweries. Um, so yeah, I I I do think that it would hurt um you know, your pit street um and your micro breweries like that. So I I think we should uh get some more information on that. Okay.

Um thank you. Um and then um the um I just wanted to learn a little bit more about the types of districts that were eliminated from the um entertainment establishment or sorry the um event center. The event center. Thank you.

Oops. Okay. So, let me let me show you the red line. And the the difference here, if this helps, is that this is for an event center that the event center holds the mixed beverage permit. So, it is not in the case of where you can get one-time mixed beverage permits if you're renting a center. This is for when the event center has a mixed beverage permit 24/7 essentially. And so we can't we didn't pick based on size, meaning uh 800 square f feet is much different than 3,000 square feet. So we've we've we've attached it to the use. And so in doing that, it's very much in the nature of a of a bar or alcohol establishment. So that was our reasoning because the other way to look at it potentially is is then it just becomes a de facto bar by a different name. That was our reasoning.

That makes sense. All right. Do you mind just going through those different um uses just for the public and for my help? Uh just explain the um those different districts that were eliminated.

The different districts. Sure. So the very first one is very tiny I realize, but I was trying to put one row on there. So the first S that you see is MO. So that's medical office. That is in the medical district. Matter of fact, anytime in our zoning in the table of uses, if you see an M, that is those are districts set aside for the medical district only. So, you should not see uh a medical office zoning on Fire Tower Road. Okay? You would just have an office zoning for a doctor's office. So, that's why we took uh MO out, MCH, medical heavy commercial. So again, that was over in the medical area. We struck that uh mixeduse institutional. So that would be along the lines of we only have uh one area that's that zoning and it's it's went by a couple of different names. It's the one south of 10th Street west of of Evans and the the name leaves me right now. Um but that is the kind of of that's the zoning district. The other one, office residential, office multif family. So that's why we pulled that. And then the other ones at the end, those last four, those are all industrial uses. So think industrial area.

Thank you for the explanation. Sure. I don't have any further questions. Thank you, Mary. All right. Any other questions? I uh if you can go back to the parking, any particular one or from the beginning? Um I can't remember the screen. Um actually the skating rink one would be good. Okay. Uh so as it relates to the parking I I definitely understand what the goal is. Uh how does that correlate with occupancy? So the size of the building regulates occupancy,

right? So the more people, the bigger the building, and you still use the same multiplier, which is you're dividing it by 400 square feet of active space. So using that using the skating rink, for an example, their occupancy could far exceed what the park parking requirements are. Um we're just going on the fact that we know that or assume that most of the time people are not at full occupancy. Sure. Um and I'm saying this because there has been some public I think we've all gotten emails about this. Uh and then the um golf course par three driving range miniature golf and the like. Um I just want to elevate publicly um because we've had conversations behind the scenes that the citizens have not been privy to um because there is a concern that this was brought up um in support of a particular v venture in the community and you guys know I'm come from the keep it real corman and name names it's a um sorry your fun part um just want to elevate publicly that the conversation has been had uh before that was being um talked about and without that being considered. And just want to give you a chance to bring clarity to uh the fact that this was not done in support of any particular venture

for citizens. As I said, this was meant to be a large omnibus, if you will, text amendment. That's right. So instead of bringing you 10 little ordinances a couple at a month, like a little breadcrumb trail, I tried to make it as condense, and it was one of those where I looked at it and I thought, "This doesn't sound right. If I do the math in my head, there's no way that makes sense." And went back to the old zoning ordinance, which, you know, no longer applies. And I realized literally that we had gotten our numbers crisscrossed. And so that's why we're here to fix it just like some of the other ones. Nothing more. Yeah.

In the keep it real corner, it was an error. That's right. And but I want I want citizens to be able to hear that because you know the um the perception sometimes can develop just because of timing. Yes. You know that something is another way. Yes, ma'am. And so it's just correcting a mistake. And it's also important to note that these, as you did, these are minimum numbers, minimum standards. So, sure, a developer or business owner could go above these numbers if they saw fit for their type of business, but these are are minimum standards, which um I think is important to keep those low, provide as many opportunities for business as possible.

All right. Any other comments? I have a question. Could you go back to the security requirements for the bars? Sure. And and what uh Council Member Scully was talking about, did did I if I read this correctly, that number does not apply until 11:00 and thereafter. That's right. We're only talking after 11 and only if you have amplified entertainment. So, not at noon while people are maybe having lunch and a beer. We're talking security personnel only on premises. if you have amplified entertainment after 11:00.

So if you close at midnight, that's 1 hour. I know that generally that kind of business would stay open till 2, but we're not talking around the clock just because they open their doors. Can I ask a question about why that time was chosen that 11 or after? Is that because there's a perception that at that time perhaps there's more alcohol consumed and perhaps maybe more of a need for security or what can you elaborate on why that time period is stated? Sure. Um our thought was I remember being a student I did not come down before 11:00 right that's when most students show up. So we were looking at when people are are here.

Hey,

I was wild, right? Um and we were also looking at the fact that it is alcohol. And then just the fact that typically um on a when you're look, let's just say we're looking at downtown for instance, then that's when you would have sort of a larger group of people similar activity, right? about the time things probably kick up and then they're probably going to end around 2 o'clock. So, the reasoning was the timing meaning it's not 9:00. Maybe families are still enjoying themselves um or you know just some adults going out as opposed to when we start getting a little later. And um I think you asked me another part and I may have forgotten it.

I think you you covered it while 11 o'clock was really chosen. And I and I would add that you know we we have h we have had a lot of conversations about alcohol establishment a lot and I think I've said in the past that you know it's important to establish a benchmark but that does not mean that the benchmark has to uh arbitrarily stay that way. We can continue to evaluate that's just like we had talked about let's get this passed and then bring back more information and then have consideration of council. the bar 2022. We've already amended that once since it was originally established and we'll continue to look at this and evaluate to see if changes need to be made. Thank you for clarifying.

Is there currently a security requirement outside of amplified noise for just um bars and clubs? No. Okay. So starting at 11 would be the only and if you have amplified noise would be the only time the city would regulate the number of security personnel that you would need to have. That's correct. Yes. Is there a reason we went from one to two in the in the lower number? We took away that lower threshold. We got ourselves crossed up with ratios,

but then we also looked at um obviously if you're downtown, most businesses do not have their own private parking lot. Those are city parking lots and those are policed by Greenville police. But we also had to look at it that these uh uses, let's say, let's just say micro brewery for instance, could be at the mall. Um, it could be an out parcel. Um, and again, it's applying only at night. And what would be an appropriate way of again after 11 um, vacating the building and then also getting people out of the parking lot. Sometimes there's more disruption in the parking lot than there actually is inside of the building. So that's again where we're trying to regulate not overregulate but also try to put in some practical safety procedures as part and again you know we were looking at these kinds of uses and their I guess I would say their similar activities.

Who who would enforce this? Uh typically we run on a complaint basis, right? Um so I would think that um if someone called me up the next day and asked me about this. Um you know, we would we would see if we could find out. We would talk to the manager. Hey, I'm not sure if you know. We want to make you aware of this. Um but the other thing just to remember is is this does not go back in time. This this does not um uh what's the word I'm looking for? Apply.

All right. It doesn't apply to previous uses. If this is approved tonight, it only applies for new businesses that start out today and go forward. So, they don't That's exactly right. So, this isn't something that if you've been doing this for 5 years, you suddenly have a change. And and you know, even though I'm accounting, I hate to do math on the fly, but uh so we're talking 11 to two, that's three hours time. You know, at $50 an hour, that's what 300 bucks. I know. Come on.

Okay. Um any other questions, comments? Thank you very much. Public hearing is now open. Those speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Good. I know that was good. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. First person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Open for a board discussion or a motion.

Motion to approve item number 10 with all the various changes, modifications, deletions, and additions. Is that vague enough? Um would you would you like a little bit more direction or would you like any more? I mean I see it there's quite a bit of discuss approve as as presented. What what modifications are we are we making to this? I guess that would be the question for the motion. The only one that I noted was um the piece about the security personnel bringing that back, but approve everything else. That would be the Is that the understanding of the motion?

Yes. In light of council member Skull's concerns, yes, that that would be my motion to approve everything and to bring back the one about the number of officers uh for further comment and maybe education. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, Council Member Robinson. I think we could also do some uh public outreach to business owners just to see what their thoughts are as well. Wasn't mind as part of that. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. So, anybody want to make a second that motion? Second. Okay. Uh any other discussion, comments before we take a vote? Staff got a clear understanding of what the request is or what the motion is, I should say. Yes. Okay.

All right. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 6. How about that? We have finished up our public hearings. All right. Now we'll move on to the other items of business. Item number 11. Thank you, mayor. Item number 11, presentation of the proposed fiscal year 2026 2027 operating budgets for the Pit Greenville Convention and Visitors Authority, Shepard Memorial Library, and the Greenville Utilities Commission. We will begin tonight's presentations with the Greenville uh Convention and Visitors Authority. And I'll now call forward our president of the CBB, Andrew Schmidt, for the presentation.

This is this is the moment of the night where we start to lose all of our crowd as they present. They're gone. Good evening. Good evening.

Yeah, we're going to wait for the prop presentation to come up here in a second. Get There we go. All right. Um thank you for letting me be here. I'm Andrew Schmidt. I'm president and CEO of Visit Greenville NC and play Greenville NC sports. Um, also have Rachel Whitten, vice president of sales and services with us this evening. And I'm going to take about 10 minutes and just talk a little bit about our proposed budget. Um, you should have our budget in your packet. You should have some budget highlights in your packet as well. Um, and at the end I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, just as a reminder, we're here to create a positive economic impact for Greenville Pit County. And once we bring those people here for whether it's conventions, meetings, family reunions, sports tournaments, want to make sure that they have a a unique experience while they're here. Um, studies show that if you have a positive experience in a destination, you're 80% likely to return. And that's what we want. Um, I know you guys have seen this slide quite a bit during my tenure as CEO. Um, but just as a reminder for those at home, lots of benefits to the travel and tourism industry. It's a clean money revenue source. It's a different type of money that comes in. uh creates a positive local impact, supports our small businesses, creates jobs, retains jobs, uh destination exposure, that's one of my favorites, getting people here that have never been here before. Uh so they can see all the great things happening in Greenville. Elevates destination profile um fuels growth of hospital, hospitality related businesses we have seen downtown and also community pride and resident involvement. Um our 2024 numbers, 2025 numbers are not here yet. Uh but in 2024 we generated $320 million in travel and tourism expenditures. Um that's a record for us. Um over 2100 people employed by the travel and tourism industry. You can see the state and local taxes generated as well as savings for residents. So each resident paid $123 less in taxes um because of the travel and tourism dollars that came in. Um also as a reminder, those dollars go to a lot of different places when they come into the community. Um, you can see food and

beverage, transportation, lodging, recreation, and retail. So, those travel and tourism dollars really do support a variety of small businesses. And just the the history, the last three years, we've set records. In 2022, we set a record at 20 279 million. Uh, 2023 was 310 million and 2024 was 320 million. So, we continue to set records and increase travel and tourism expenditures into our area. Um, this year's budget is crafted with a 3% increase in mind. And when I forecast our budgets and and try to calculate, I always look at some research and I wanted to share that research with you. Uh, briefly, we look at three different things. We look at uh, hotel travel trends and we try to get a baseline of a couple years up to three years to look at. And if you look at 2026, um, supply and this is across the United States and we kind of look at what we think is going to happen in Greenville and Pit County. Supply is is forecast to increase. demands increased. Occupancy uh looks to be stable. And then there's two down at the bottom, ADR, which is average daily rate, and RevPar, which is revenue per available room. All slight increases. And we're seeing the same thing here. Um so that's good news for us to see those trends in a positive direction, and that makes us feel comfortable with forecasting an increase in occupy tax. Um we look at the meetings and conventions industry. We have a great convention center here. Um and they are getting full for 2027 already, and that's a great sign. And we talked to a lot of our local meeting planners and statewide meeting planners, but national meeting planners also feel that the health of the meetings and conventions industry is very very healthy. Um so they're very optimistic about not only holding meetings, but having attendees attend meetings. So um that's something that we look at as well. And of course the sports travel trends. Um that's a lot that we've been talking about here with our sports complex coming online. Um it is such a hot market. It's unbelievable how hot this market is. Um look at the the 2025

number. Um the forecast was 42.7 billion with a B. Um economic impact through youth, senior and adult amateur travel. Uh this is not professional sports. This is just youth travel and and adult amateur and senior travel. Um they forecasted 42.7 billion for 2025. Takes a while for us to get our numbers, but we have the 2024 numbers. 2024 numbers were 47.1 billion. So, we eclipsed uh even the forecast for 2025 and almost reach the 2026 uh numbers. So, we're excited about the sports complex. We really feel like that's going to make a difference locally here um for our travel and tourism industry. All right, so let's talk about our budget this year. Um here are our revenue sources. We are funded by the hotel motel octi tax. Um those are the individuals that stay in our hotels and motel. Um we are funded by Airbnb and OTC which is online travel company reservations. Um, quick point about the Airbnbs. Um, we as the sports complex comes online, we feel like Airbnb and be use will actually increase here because the sports market has a lot of support travelers. It's not just the athlete that comes, especially in in the youth sports. Um, and if you have a whole family and grandmother, grandpa, people like that, they're looking at houses now so everybody can stay together. So, we'll probably likely see an increase in Airbnb usage once the sports complex comes online. Um, we do have money that we get from Capital Reserve that supports our sports commission efforts and Lil World Series and we are going to be using some fund balance this year as well. Um, as I said, we presented our budget with a 3% increase. Currently, if you look at Occasy Tax right now, it's at 2.65. So, we're not at 3%. Um, we had a tough time the last two weeks of January and the first week of February. We had winter weather events that canceled pretty much everything for three weeks. So, we're a little bit behind. However, our spring looks incredibly strong. We still have three months of revenue to collect and um all of our hotels are doing extremely well. April is a great month. May is an incredible month and we

feel June is going to be a good month, too. Um so, we do see us going above that 3% threshold. Um we also know that the Airbnbs and online travel companies are continuing to increase the amount that they contribute as well. Um, we have a new hotel property opening uh in the medical district. That's a home two suites uh either very late 2026 or early 2027. Won't have a huge impact on our numbers, but we'll have four or five months that I think we'll gain revenue from an extra hotel. Uh, so that'll help as well. And then I have a little asterct in there. Our ARPA funding is exhausted. So in 2022, Pit County gave us $600,000 because of the pandemic. I chose to string that out in four years with $150,000 in our budget from the ARPA funds uh each year and we have used all of that as at the end of this fiscal year. So if you do some math and you're looking at our budget, you see a 3% increase, you see a little bit more from capital reserve, but our overall budget's only going up $40,000 and that's why because we don't have that influx of ARPA funds for this year. Um so budget details 2627 budget is set at $2,265,000 623 and a penny. Um oxy tax is responsible for 1.770 of that. Capital reserve has been increased for uh the next couple years specifically to support the sports complex. Um we'll use some fund balance. I do have an asterk on the fund balance. We're using $120,000 fund balance at 3%. But every percent that we go over that fund balance is about $18,000. Just under $18,000. So we end up at 4% 5% 6% that fund balance is going to go down dramatically. Um so we don't anticipate using all that. But when you have to have your budget with three months of revenue left, that's what we do as a placeholder. Um we are responsible for giving 1% of our 3% to the Greenwood Convention Center. And that number keeps going up uh pretty healthily every year. And so this year's payment to Greenville Convention Center will be just under $600,000.

Um and so our net budget even though we have a 2.265 what we get at the CVB is 1675. Um so that is our our budget details. Um operations versus personnel we are always on a 2/3 one-ird model. So oneird of the funding is for personnel and two/3s for operations. Uh so we feel comfortable with that. Um so what is our budget going to accomplish uh in the upcoming year? I'm very very excited that we're going to be able to add on a sports sales and services specialist to help support the new sports complex. It is incredibly important that we're marketing now, which we're doing, but it's also incredibly important that when these tournament organizers try our complex for the first time, that not only they but their athletes and the families have a great experience. So, we're committed to doing that and that's uh we're excited to be able to add another person to help us out with that. Um, we're doing some cooperative marketing with the recreation and park staff, Don and his group. they've already gone to a few things with us to help us market the new complex. Um, so they're giving us information and how we can help sell and we're giving them information on how they can help sell. So, it's nice to have them alongside for that effort. Um, if you were at our travel and tourism week lunch and you saw just a little sneak peek of our new creative campaign. It's called be here now. And so, we'll be here now, we'll meet here now, we'll play here now. Um, and that's being fine-tuned, but we're very excited about that. Um and we'll have some strong and diverse advertising and marketing outreach with that new campaign. Uh so very excited about that. Um we want to continue to expand our advocacy uh efforts both locally and statewide. Um had the privilege uh over this last year to sit on four statewide boards and it makes a difference having that reputation uh that representation uh up on those statewide boards. So we want to continue doing that. So we're excited about that. And then just our program of work. Um I could spend an hour with any of you talking about our program of work. we go through it, I would invite you to come and learn about our program of work. Um, it is uh it's an excellent document that tells everyone how we go about accomplishing the goals that we

have for the next year and I'm happy to to talk through uh that. I didn't think you guys wanted to do that tonight. So, um, but happy to do that at any point, but that's set by our staff and our board of directors as well. And then just a little bit about the Greenville Convention Center. As I said before, we are required through the interlocal agreement um to give 1% of the occupancy tax receipts uh to GCC. And again, that budget uh for this next year is about 590,000. Um if they come in higher, if our if our numbers go 4% or 5% or 6% um they have the ability to go through a budget amendment and take that excess or they can take it and put it in their marketing reserve. So, they've got that option. Um, we generate a monthly check for the convention center based on their uh their expenditures for the past month and they do have to have their uh budget approved by our CBA board and I did want to take a moment and just recognize Matt and Les. Both of you guys have been serving on our board and we really appreciate the input. Um, Councilman Spilly, I think your last meeting was February, January, and then, uh, Councilman Robinson came in and has been a big help, um, especially as we are setting some direction with the sports complex. So, thank you to you both for all you've done for us at the CVA. So, um, very short presentation, not a lot to it, but happy to answer any questions that you guys might have.

Just have a comment. Andrew is going to retire. I was about to say that. That's true. And I'm heartbroken over that. I'm happy for you and your family. I saw the emotion at the lunchon and you know, you've done an awesome job for Thank you. for us and uh you know, I hate to see you go. I wish you stay, but I certainly understand it, but you've done an awesome awesome job. And having seen some of the new campaign advertising, it's it's really edgy and it's really trying to promote Greenville and and I'm excited about it. And if I remember correctly, are we're 26 out of a hundred counties. Is that right?

So out of all those 100 counties, we're 26 in expenditures. So that's excellent when you look at who is ahead of us and why they're ahead of us. Uh so with our comp set, our competitive set, we're we're right there with one and two. So I'll ditto that. Thank you very much for your service to our community. You've been an incredible asset and we're going to miss you a lot. Um so just thank you for your service, for your professionalism, and for the wonderful things. The growth that we've seen because of your leadership is just incredible. So thank you very much. We're in good shape. We've got a great staff. They really get the credit. It's who you surround yourself with. So, but I appreciate that. Somebody hired those guys. Um, so thank you for your leadership. You're awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yes, sir.

Any other questions that I can answer? I would also like to say congratulations to Andrew. You know, we for the last 10 years, we have been talking about a sports complex. Every time we would meet, it's you we're going to make it happen. We're going to make it happen. And I'm so happy for you that you're able to retire knowing that we we at least got the first phase going and there's a clear vision to the second phase. So great work for everything that you've done. Thank you. It will pay off, guys. There's no question about that. We expect to see you there when it when it gets ground. I'll take I'll do whatever you need. I'm happy to do that. So, thank you guys very much. Thank you.

I I'll also reiterate everything that they had said, too. And I'll I'll note that I've got two daughters that are involved in this in tribal sports and it's such a huge business and I'm I'm excited to be able to see us continue and bring this on uh in our community and I this last weekend we were in uh Walnut Creek up in um Raleigh and it was pretty neat to be able to see their their complex that they have. It's a beautiful complex. They've done a nice job maintaining it and they've got nine fields there and that thing was massive. I mean, it's a it's a massive complex. And to think that we're going to have 12 uh diamond fields in our proposed phase two of our sports complex is pretty neat. And I have a lot of people at every tournament that we go to ask, "When's Greenville is going to be done?" And I keep telling them, "It's going to be soon. It's going to be soon." So, I'm hoping that soon will be a reality or really soon. So, um I'm excited. Thank you for your leadership. Thanks for everything that you guys do and continue to promote uh tourism to our area. I think when I first got elected, you know, I didn't really understand all the different ways of driving income to our area and it's so important to know that we have a diversified economy that's not just heavily one sector and I think that tourism is going to continue to grow as time goes on and thank you for all the things that you've done over the years of of leading that organization

and thank you for your guys support. So, we appreciate that. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. All right. Our second budget presentation will be from Shepard Memorial Library. I'll now call forward our chairman of the Sheper Memorial Library, Rick Smiley, and our director of Shepher Memorial Library, Roman Larry, for the presentation. Um, you guys may have seen earlier this month, but the what it Business Daily published their power list, the 500 most powerful, I guess, people in North Carolina. And Andrew was one of a hand a handful of local uh local folks on that list. I thought we shouldn't let him get out of here without congratulating him on that. Well done. You were right above him, weren't you? No, I thought I saw that.

Um, I'm Rick Smiley. I am the chair of the Shepherd Memorial Library Board. Uh, I obviously have try not to darken y'all's doorsteps too often, but I, uh, rather than saying I'm glad to be back, let me just say I am deeply appreciative of all every single one of you that you guys come here and do this. I know what it takes. I know what it costs you. It's uh and it's in a time where it's not always easy to sleep at night of when you think about who your elected officials are and what they might be doing. I sleep great knowing that you guys are out here doing the work of the city. Thank you very very very much. Uh when I was doing the work you guys do, the most interesting and um rewarding part of it was to in fact work with Shepherd Memorial Library. It's an incredibly cool place. the work they do is noble and uh this the the value to the city and to the community is um is extraordinary and so uh I know several of you have been there um recently uh is I I love doing the work. I've been talking to the staff about the how cool city council is and when they heard we were going to be doing this presentation several of them decided to come and to see just how exciting it was to do this. Uh but the the most important of them, well the most prominent of them, the best dressed of them is uh Roman Liry. He is uh you guys saw him last year. He has been the director at Shepard now for a couple years. He's doing an extraordinary job and he is here to talk to you about our budget. Again, thank you so much for the work you do and thank you for your support of Shepherd Library.

Thank you. Good to see you again.

Good evening. Good evening.

Thank you. I am Roman Larry and I have the honor of serving as director of libraries for Shepard Memorial Library System. On behalf of myself, our staff and the board of trustees, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to share our budget presentation for fiscal year 2627. I would like to begin by sharing with you some interesting facts about SML from the 2425 fiscal year. Last year, 248,255 people visited library facilities. 47,776 people in Greenville and Pit County were active users of our libraries and bookmobile. Our patrons checked out 354,187 books. We provided 571 reading centered programs with 13,051 participants and our library staff answered 50,064 reference questions. For the upcoming fiscal year, we are requesting 1,574,44 from the city to support our general operations. This represents an increase of 4% over the prior fiscal year. This increase is intended to offset increases in costs due to inflation and matches the target from last year's budget request. In addition to this, we are presenting a capital request of $133,333 to start making facility improvements to the main library identified in our 10-year plan recently completed by the East Group. I will expand upon this presently. I will here draw your attention to the fact that in addition to the 4% we are requesting from the city of Greenville,

we are also requesting a matching 4% increase from Pit County as well as increases from the county to support the Bethl and Winterville branches. Other items of note here include a minor increase in anticipated desk receipts. You will see that we planned for a significant decrease in those revenues in our current year. That is because we stopped charging overdue fines for children's materials. This resulted in a predictable reduction in revenues, but it is the opinion of the board of trustees that increase in quality of service was worth the expense. You will also note a minor decrease in projected interest revenue. We anticipate this based on monies we have already applied and expect to continue utilizing from our reserve funds toward capital improvements. And speaking of capital improvements, I am happy to report that our long in the works HVAC project is now complete and the necessary renovation of our elevators is in progress. Thank you again for the generous and vital support that you provided to us on these projects. You will see here that in addition to the $133,333 we have requested from you, we are also asking 600, excuse me, $66,67 from Pit County, a total of $200,000 divided into the traditional 2/31-3 funding formula, followed by our two main local partners. With regard to personnel expenditures, you will note that we are budgeting a 4% market merit increase over last year. We typically follow the city's lead concerning the exact breakdown between

market and merit of that sum. And if our request is granted, that is our plan for the upcoming year. Operating expenditures. Here you will note a significant increase in the amount we have allocated to building maintenance. Again, this represents monies we intend to apply from our operational budget to phase one of our 10-year plan. It is also worth noting that this budget includes an almost 8% increase in funding for books. Finally, what is all this capital money going toward? Well, in addition to identifying the capital needs of the main library, the east group broke down the recommended projects into three phases ordered in terms of necessity to create the aforementioned 10-year plan to make needed repairs to the facility. It is our intention over the course of the next decade to not only address these various and sunundry structural improvements, but also to complete several high-profile publicfacing projects, including but not limited to a complete remodel of our public restrooms, a renewal of our parking lot, and an expansion of our children's area. It is our sincere hope that many, perhaps even most of these projects will be completed prior to our centennial in 2030. This upcoming fiscal year will inaugurate the beginning of this process, which will be long and expensive, but I promise you represents an investment that will pay dividends for many decades to come. Also, as I referenced earlier, I can assure you that the SML Board of Trustees is

prepared not only to seek financial support from various philanthropic entities to support these endeavors, but also to apply our own reserve funds to further this cause. The library needs your help to make all this happen. But we are more than a supplicant in this matter. We are your partner. And that is the conclusion of our presentation. As it states here, thank you. Seriously, thank you all for your ongoing support of library services to the citizens of Greenville and Pit County. And Rick will be glad to answer any questions you may have.

That's great. Thank you. You know, I So, this is I think my I think this is my 11th year sitting up here and one of the things I always enjoyed the most was getting the presentation about Shepard Memorial Library and talking about your budget and how well it's run and how efficient everything is over there and then I always knew that GU was right after. Thank you to my colleagues from GU uh Hey, you got all the accolades and then it all rolled downhill. Right, Tony?

Thank you for all that you do. We appreciate it. We appreciate how efficient you run the library. We appreciate the board and all that they do to continue to grow Shepard Memorial Library and getting kids engaged also reading at a young age and all the programs that you provide. It's it's instrumental to our city. So, thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Uh Mr. Larry, I had the opportunity to go to the Winterville branch today. Uh we returned some books and my daughter was so proud to whip out her own library card and check out her own books uh for u the next couple of weeks or so. So, um thank you for all that you do and I appreciate the the xnay on the late fees for the kids books. It was my pleasure. That helps.

I have I've had my Thank you. I've had my Energizer Bunny batteries in um over the last several months, so I haven't been able to get back over to visit you, but I'm coming. I'm looking forward to it. But I enjoy the fact that you um do your presentation in story format. I didn't know that. So, I I love your I love your voice when you're doing your presentation. It made me wanted to rest my chin on my hand. uh the inflictions in your voice at certain points and everything um made it sound like a good story. So, it is a good story. It's the best story. And I'm ready to tell it to all of you anytime.

Hey, Tony, that's all you got to do. That's right. Inflection. That's the word. So, um but I do appreciate all that you all do and look forward to continue to work with you to bring more to the community. Thank you. And we are appreciative of you. and expanding the basement. I also wanted to add, Mr. Liry, uh, the bookmobile has been able to go out to Fington Trace twice and so they really have enjoyed having the bookmobile come out and you and I talked about the accessibility um, them wanting to have a book club and so being able to have something that goes to them has really worked for that community. So, um, we're on the right track. Excellent. Mhm.

All right. And I'll just add just in case Rick and Roman were not watching our budget presentation on Monday night in the privacy of their own home. Um your request is uh included in our proposed budget as requested. Thank you. Look at that. Just good feeling all around. Telling you can't get any better than that. Would you like me to do yours, too? Hey, please, please read it. Please read it. He's bringing it. He's bringing it right. Thank you.

Well, with that being said, our next presentation is from Greenway Utilities Commission. I'll now call forward our general manager of Greenway Utilities, Tony Cannon, for the presentation. Excuse me just a second. Let me get ready. Hey, listen. This is 20 years for me following a hugfest. And seldom do I get the same accolades that we get from here. So take Hey, take notes. You got to your voice. Inflection. That was the word inflection. I'm here to talk with you about the Greenville Utilities budget. I love I can't do it.

I like it. I like it. I'll try, but I can't do it. No, thank you very much for letting us come over here and talk with you about our budget, about some of the challenges that we see and some of the opportunities that we see as well and how we propose to go about doing that. Uh we are one of two state chartered utilities. We're chartered by the general assembly of North Carolina. We started business in 1905. Today we serve about 176,000 connections here in Pit County and the surrounding counties where we sell wholesale uh water and other services to and we're up over 76,000 electric customers right now which makes us the 43rd largest public utility in the country and that's done with 518 employees. So we have tried to squeeze efficiencies everywhere we can. We have an eight member board. You appoint all eight members to the board. Thank you.

Uh, five of these are required to come from within the city. They have to be customers of Greenwood Utilities. They are appointed in a random order by council members and then appointed by the entire council. The city manager is a full voting member of our board per the charter. And then two members are nominated by the county commissioners. They must be residents of Pit County outside the city of Greenville, but customers of Greenville Utilities as well. U the charter does require some diverse backgrounds on there and I'm happy to say that we've got some really good commissioners right now with a very diverse background and they bring that to the table to do the business of these citizens and of our customers every single month. The board is responsible for the entire control, supervision and maintenance, operation, extension of the utilities and approving the rates. And then they hire me and I have the opportunity to work with a very professional staff that does an outstanding job day in and day out. And they're recognized not only here for what they do in Greenville and Pit County and North Carolina, but throughout the nation for what they do. And I'm I couldn't be more proud of the team that we have at Greenwood Utilities. And with that, I want to thank you for your support of our employees through the benefits and through the pay. So, thank you very much for what you do for the employees of the city and the employees of the utility. This is a map showing all of our service areas. The green and the center of the map is the corporate limits of Greenville. Uh, a lot of our customers are outside the corporate limits. Thus, that's why the county nominates a couple of folks to sit on our board. Uh but we serve wholesale water in Green County, most of Pit County. We serve retail services in Winterville, Aiden, Farmville, uh Stokes, now Bethl is actually part of our system. We took over the ownership of their system a few years ago and able to reduce their rates and get very competitive there. And we serve about 75% of Pit County, 75% of the customers

in Pit County with electricity. So we're are we're very much a rural provider. We're the largest rural water system in the in the county. I want to talk with you a little bit about what drives our budget. And of course, as always, and I'm going to ask Jeff McCauley, who is our CFO, to come up and go through the numbers with you in just a few minutes, but it's always purchase commodities. Uh purchase gas, purchase power, two main drivers of our budget. We're out in the market every day, multiple times a day, purchasing natural gas. We have to schedule that daily and balance it daily. Uh but we're also out and in in the electric markets as well. We purchase our power through the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency with a wholesale power supply contract. That contract runs through 2035 and all the power that we purchase comes through there with the exception of a small amount that we purchased from the Southeastern Power Administration which manages hydro dams. We went into a contract years ago with them. It's a very small percentage of our power. Really, all of the power that we purchase comes through the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency, and that comes from Duke Energy's generation and transmission. Infrastructure repair and replacement. I don't have to tell you guys, you're doing projects all the time. You know that the cost of putting infrastructure in has gone absolutely crazy. Right now, we go to buy a power station transformer, we're paying three times what we were paying 5 years ago, and it's taking three or four times as long to get it. It's we're still having some supply chain issues particularly on the power and the natural gas side. Uh but the cost are really hurting us as well. And I will tell you, you know, you can look around at communities around us who have not faced the challenges that they have to face and they've not made the investments that they have to to make because of various reasons. But when you get behind, the rate increases you have to have in order to keep up and to catch

up are monumental. We try to avoid that. We try to stay at the right place on the infrastructure curve. That right place continues to move. It continues to shift. When we talk with our economic development folks, they tell us that the number one thing that uh companies are looking for right now is speed to market. Speedtomarket labor. And one of the things that drives speed to market is energy availability. I will tell you with all certainty if we had not had available capacity that we could serve the needs for Bobette and for Nero, they would not be in green. We're not that good, but we do know that we have to have capacity available if we want to grow. And there's only two ways that we can prevent having to burden our customers. And it's growth and sufficiencies. We've taken a lot of efficiencies. We're doing a lot of work with the same number of employees that we've had for a long time. Growing is is the way that we want to do it. And that's why we invest in the in invest Greenville and that public private partnership. That's why we push so hard for that. That's also why we invest in our infrastructure and make sure that when these folks come calling and they're bringing opportunities for the citizens that live here in Greenville and in Pit County that we're not the holdup. We do not want Greenville Utilities to be the holdup. We want to have our stuff in place or in a place to where we can be to market as fast as they can. So you will see that you will see that we are building projects that add capacity that increase the footprint of the utility sum. That is to provide opportunities for the future. May not help us out today, may not help us out tomorrow, but I will promise you that these investments that we're making will be very good for this community years to come. debt service. Debt service continues to increase because we have to continue to invest in the system. We do, and Jeff's going to talk about this when he goes

over our long-term planning with you, but we strive very hard to have a balance between what we pay from cash and what we pay from debt. It's very important that the customers today pay their fair share, but that they're not burdening what we need for the future and that the customers in the future are paying their fair share as well. And we do that by by issuing debt to build infrastructure so that the users of that infrastructure are paying a fair share as we go forward. Regulatory compliance is another big area. We talked last year with you a little bit about POS and POS on the water system. We have found a way to deal with that. It's going to cost us about $2 million a year in ongoing maintenance cost on the water system. We're lucky. We're very lucky that we don't have to go in and do a large capital project. The new side of the plant that we did is operating extremely well in removing POS. What uh the old side of the plant, what we have discovered is that if we change out our filter media, we're able to do it through changing the filter media. So, we've got a program now where we're going to change two filters a year, every year going forward, and that will keep us in compliance with the detection limits on Pass. And then of course expanding the physical plants. Uh you've approved a lot of expansions here lately. We've expanded our water plant. We've expanded our electric plant by adding two points of delivery to our to our electric transmission system. We're replacing our poles. We're doing a lot of expansion on the system. Our LG plant just got expanded with new storage tanks that saved us almost $6 million during this coal spell that we had this last winter. These investments pay off. Some of it's longterm, some of it's a little quicker like we just saw with the LG plant. But we know we know that particularly on the electric side that there are some real cost drivers that we're going to have to deal with. Low growth being one of them. We were

talking just today where I think most of you actually had an opportunity to particip participate in our strategic planning that we're doing right now. We had a planning session today and we were talking about load growth. It used to be we would get really excited if we had a potential customer that could come in here that would be 3 to 5 megawws. That that was a great load. Right now we're looking at you got to have 50 megawatts out of the gate. You got to be able to go to 100 150 megawws. And this is for manufacturing facilities. I'm not talking about data facilities. Advanced manufacturing now uses a lot of electricity. So, we have to be prepared. We have to make those investments. We have to make that ahead of time. We have to make sure that there's adequate generation. We know what Duke has filed with North Carolina Utilities Commission. We've been following that closely for the last several years. And we know what that's going to do to our race. I'm going to show you that in just a few minutes. Uh we did make some headway this year with decarbonization. If you'll recall last year, I was talking with you about House Bill 951 and the interim goal that was in that that was really driving a lot of cost in the front years. Uh, working with our our partners in the general assembly, we were able to eliminate that 2030 requirement. The 2050 requirement for 100% reduction is still there. This gives us a little landing room that technology can develop. That time will allow us to see what's out there and really what the needs are as we move towards 2050, but there's still a cost associated with that. I've already talked about uh supply chain constraints and our friends earlier talked about the impacts of inflation. We've got inflation right now just like the city. We're getting hit really hard with fuel cost. uh when you run a fleet of 500 vehicles or a thousand vehicles, uh this really is a it's a it's a real cost when your costs throughout the year are double what you have budgeted. So, we're

we're feeling that love right there as well. We're not the only ones in this boat. I thought it was real important for you to see some of the headlines that have been in our newspaper, in our local papers, in our in our local news. It's not uh it's not just us. It is all of our uh utilities, utility friends that are in this situation. We're talking here mostly about electric, but trust me, it it's all for utilities. I'm going to show you a little bit of that. But look what has happened over the last 5 years. This is the average cost per kilowatt hour of electricity in the United States. It has gone from 14.92 cents in 2022, which is high. We're somewhere between 10 and 11 cents to 18 1.5 cents. 21% over 5 years. That seems like a lot. That is a lot. Based on what the demands are, I would say that we're going to see some of this some of this continue for the next several years because we've got to build the generation, the distribution system, and the transmission system to handle this. And consumption continues to go up. We we I just got through talking about this. You know, we're seeing it go up. What we're seeing right now, what we are seeing in the electric utility industry from 25 out through 30 is about three and a half% growth. That is unprecedented. But when you look at the data centers, when you look at electric vehicles, when you look at the electrification of the manufacturing processes, it takes a lot of power to do that. And if we want to stay competitive in the global economy, this country has to do that. We have to make the investments and we have to do it in a way that is the least painful to our customers and that is what becomes challenging sometimes. We expect based on the plan that Duke filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission that our wholesale cost will increase somewhere between 4 and a half

and 5% for the next four years and following that 2 to 4% per year, 2 and a half to three and a half% per year over the average all the way through 2038. So, we've got to be creative. We've got to come up with other ways to do things. One thing that will help us, as it says in this last slide right here, we have been in negotiations with Duke now for two years about this one utility. They're wanting to combine Duke Energy Progress with Duke Energy Carolina. They had to get approvals from both the North Carolina Utility Commission and the South Carolina Utility Commission. They received those on May 1st. So, they're marching down the road now to get to January of 27 where they will combine the utilities. The benefit to us is they're combining all of their dispatch generation. So right now we get gener we get electricity generated from Sharon Harris and Brunswick which were the legacy progress energy plants. That's what we get ours from. We get energy from some coal plants. We get energy from hydro and from uh solar. This will include all of Duke's hydro that they have, all of their nuclear that they have, many more nuclear plants. Duke has the now the largest nuclear fleet in the country that is really going to help us with base load power. So I'm not sure we're not sure yet exactly what the benefits of this will be to us because we're still negotiating with Duke about what that's going to look like, but we believe it has the opportunity to help us ease up on this 2 and a half to three and a half% per year that we're seeing on our wholesale power cost. More to come on that. We're not there yet. It's probably going to take a couple of years to get there, but we're working in that direction. uh knowing what the power agency has told us they're forecasting for the next four years. You can see that right there. This is the wholesale power cost increases that we're going to be getting from the power agency coming from Duke.

That doesn't translate percent for percent into our rates. So the 4 and a.5% that you see on 4126 which is reflected in our 27 budget here uh that's 1.9% to the base rate. That is what we have that is what we need to operate the system. That's the increase we're looking at in 27. That 4.5% translates into one and 1.9% next year on the energy and capacity cost which flows through our pers adjustment for a total of 3.8% 8% that it looks like it will impact the bills. Uh we have also had trueups that we've had to deal with. You've known about this as well. We've been very open with customers about what we're dealing with here. These roll on, they roll off. I wanted to give you an example of what this looks like using the riders that we have. So from July 1 of 25 to March of 26, our typical bill was $124.34. On April 1st, we had a purchase power adjustment of four and a half% which is a $1.74 that you see over there. Just above that, we had a new debt service release writer come on and it's 55 cents. I want to explain that to you. Jeff's going to talk about that a little bit. Mayor, you'll recall you and I had some discussions years ago about the rate stabilization fund and uh there was a certain mayor council member then that was not real happy with it, but it has worked. Uh so we had our rate stabilization fund which we knew we would use up until 2015. In 2015 2015 2025 uh in July of 2025 we had our debt roll off our defeasance debt that we had to issue in order to sell the assets back in 2015. We had to put some debt service reserve money out there. For us, it was

$5.7 million, I believe, is what we had out there. We got that money back in July of last year. We knew we were going to have another purchase power adjustment this year based on what the costs were in 24. So, we took half of that money, we got it in this year, we transferred half of that out to rate stabilization so that we could then use that money next year, $3.5 million to offset some of those uh true-ups that we that we had coming to get this as low as 55. And then also on a on at the end of March, March 31st of 26, rider 122 ended. That's worth $359. So, as of April 1st, the bills actually went down a $130 based on typical bill consumption. Uh, so they're working exactly the way we designed, the way they're supposed to work, and it's moving money in and moving money out so that we're able to better manage rates. Like I said, power is not the only one. I mentioned gasoline, but when you talk about prochemicals in general, it affects our cost of chemicals that we have to have at the water plant. These are the chemicals that we use at our water treatment plant. And you can see that the global chem chemical market for these particular chemicals uh has increased from 38.9 billion in 24 to 44.8 well 42.7 this year and you can see what the projection is going forward. That is an ongoing cost because we have to have these chemicals in order to treat the water to make it safe to consume. natural gas. Uh I mentioned the use of the rate stabilization fund in natural gas earlier when we got into our January to to February. Jeff's going to talk about that. You you approved our budget amendment so we wouldn't be in violation a couple of months ago on the natural gas side. Uh we purchased about $6 million more worth of gas in a period

this year than we had anticipated. We don't think we're going to have to go back and and get that back from our customers. where we're having some pretty good performance and we've really clamped down on expenditures towards the end of the year here uh to try and get to the end of the year so we don't have to use the entire $2.5 million out of rate stabilization which will allow us to build that back up quicker because we're going to have more spikes like this as demand for energy continues in this country. We can count on it. So we need to do everything we can to prepare for it. Moving on to our proposed budget. One thing we always do is we start with our mission statement. Uh we spent a lot of time on this mission statement the last several months and I think it's still very relevant and we'd want to provide safe utilities, the best reliable, best customer service at the lowest reasonable cost and we want to do it in an environmentally responsible manner. I don't think you're going to see a lot of change there, but it takes effort. It takes money to do this. So we are going to have to have some rate increases this year. Uh right now uh and we don't anticipate this changing. It looks like for electric customers about $2.34 would be the increase in the monthly bill. For water we're looking about $1.46, sewer $1.98, and gas 441. So for the 5,000 customers that we have that have all four utilities and I think that's about right. Out of 176,000 connections, 20,000 of them have all four utilities. out of that, uh, it's $10.19 for everyone has all four utilities. I don't know if you've been to McDonald's lately, but if you go and you buy a Big Mac meal at McDonald's, it's more than $10. Hopefully, your utility service is worth a little more

than a Big Mac meal uh per month, but I know it's challenge. Listen, we we rung our hands and

Mr. Ken and Mr. Robinson will tell you this is not something that we take lightly and we have been meeting with our finance committee and going through this since January. Uh we think we've turned over all the rocks we can. We're we're not we're not unlike any other business. Our costs continue to increase and the demand never slows down. So we have to we have to make sure that we're covering it. We have to make sure that we're reinvesting in the utility and that we have the money available in case there's emergencies. A hurricane used to cost us a couple of million dollars. We could we could do we could manage a hurricane like Irene. I think Irene was probably the most expensive hurricane we've had since I've been here as far as damage. Help me out. It was about $6 million 7 million for us to get through Irene. Today Irene would cost us probably $15 million. That's the order of magnitude for which things have increased. Our inventory, our standing inventory that we keep was $8 million. For years and years and years, it was $8 million. Right now, our inventory is running at $20 million. We have to have it. You would you would not let us be up here doing this budget presentation next year if we get into the summer and we don't have the materials and the people and the equipment that we need to get things done. And if we have not made the investments in the system so that our customers can continue with their way of life. So this is not easy. This is not fun. This is not what we want to do. Trust me, sometimes this is necessary. I'm going to ask Jeff to step up here and he's going to go through the numbers with you real quick and then I want to come back and talk with you about how we compared everybody as far as our rates.

Thank you, Tony. And uh good evening everyone. Hope everybody's doing well. Uh Greenway Utilities uh recommended budget for fiscal year 2627 is approximately $330 million. On the revenue side of the house, charges for services represent over $316 million of our revenue. On the expenditure side of the house, purchase power and purchase gas, our largest budgetary expenditure over 50% followed by operations, capital outlay, debt service, and turnover to the city. At the end of the fiscal year, we're projected to have a positive fund equity of approximately $650,000. Uh all four funds are balanced, and as you can see, our margins are really tight. Our key performance indicators continue to remain solid uh supporting our strong doubleA credit ratings. The reason that's important is it helps us market our bonds. It uh provides us low interest rates on the borrowings for the investments and infrastructure which lower the debt service payments and also help keep our rates low as possible for our customers. This next slide provides a snapshot of the electric rate stabilization fund, provides a little bit of historical information, and also a forecast through 2031, which is our 5-year long-term forecast. As you'll see, in fiscal year 2120, 2122 from fiscal year 2425, we actually utilize $14.1 million of the rate stabilization fund to help keep our rates low for our customers. As Tony mentioned earlier, uh we do have a uh full a fuel service charge and we're actually uh transferring out $3.5 million to the electric rate stabilization fund this year. So that's why you see the increase to 14.5. Next fiscal year coming, we're using

$3.5 million to offset the fuel search charge that we have to pay in that fiscal year. Once again, the rate stabilization fund is performing as designed, mitigating rate spikes and helping to keep our rates low for our customers. This is a similar uh illustration of the gas rate stabilization fund. And the cross-hatch gray area that you see beginning in uh 2425, that is where we may have to use appropriated uh rate stabilization transfer back down to the gas rate to the gas fund. But right now, as Tony mentioned, we're currently monitoring that and if we don't have to use it, we won't. But we have it in place once again to keep our rates low for our customers and not have to pass that spike we had in the winter on rates. Key provisions in our proposed budget include the annual turnover to the city. Uh we're continuing to support economic development as a sustaining member with the investing greenville and we're supporting the city's energy efficiency partnership. Additionally, we're also making substantial investments in infrastructure which are necessary to maintain the reliability and sustainability of our systems. We're also making sure that we're taking care of our most valuable asset, our employees. Uh we have a funding of 3.25% merit market adjustment, a 1% increase in the 401k contribution, and continuation of health and dental benefits. All three of these items were approved by the GUC board of commissioners and the city council. Additionally, we're also uh providing funding for succession planning. As we have retirements, we want to make sure that we uh take advantage and have that knowledge transfer to ensure that we

have smooth operations and reliable operations uh when somebody retires. Uh we'll now transition over to our long-term uh financial forecast. In preparing the long-term financial forecast, we use conservative assumptions especially on the revenue side of the house because we want to make sure that our revenues cover the anticipated budgetary expenditures. Additionally, we also want to make sure that our key performance indicators still support those doublea credit ratings. Uh this next slide has a lot of information on it. Uh we'll focus on the areas highlighted in green. As you can see over the five-year period, we have a projected surplus over those five years. Once again, those margins are really tight. However, our key performance indicators continue to main to remain sound supporting that doubleA credit ratings. And we also do have moderate rate increases forecasted for all five years. those uh rate adjustments are necessary to maintain the reliability and sustainability of the systems. The long-term forecast also supports our 5-year capital improvement plan. It's currently uh $295 million and as Tony mentioned previously, we have a delicate balance there where we're funding it through debt and also cash. This is a listing of our largest 10 capital projects. Uh they total $139 million and represent 47% of the 5-year capital improvement plan. These are the capital improvement projects scheduled to be adopted with the 2627 budget. They total $19.8 million and they provide uh renewables

and replacements. They increase capacity. They help increase efficiencies and they also support economic development and Tony will now provide a little bit more information. I don't think what happened this last winter escaped any of us as far as cost and uh the challenges that we faced in the winter. But what we wanted to show you was, you know, if you lived in Raleigh or Fagatville during January, our average consumption in January, our average consumption for electric is normally 1,000 kilowatt hours a month. In January, we were fairly mild at the first of the month and then it got cold and our consumption went up from 1,000 to,214. So if you were in Raleigh, that 1214 kilwatt hours would cost you $184.37. And these are published rates. We pulled these published rates. Fateville $154.77 and in Greenville $14723. February was a little worse. Actually, February was a lot worse. That was the highest bill personally I've ever had. Uh was my f February bill. $229 in Raleigh, $189 in Fable, and $183 in Greenville. So, our citizens fared better than they would have if they had lived in one of those neighboring communities. Same on the gas side, except Raleigh. Uh, Raleigh is now served by a company called Inbridge Gas. It's formerly uh PSNC of North Carolina. I don't know if you guys remember PSNC. It was a family-owned company in North Carolina and had very competitive rates. But, uh, here again, we are in very good shape. Uh when it comes to our comparisons, looking at the 15 largest municipalities in North Carolina, you can see that our

current and our proposed rates are slightly above Gastonia and Concord. I will tell you that we have talked to the managers in Gastonia and Concord and they're both going to have to have rate increases uh with their budgets this year as well. When you look at big box grocery stores or a Walmart or something like that, we're at the we're at the very bottom there. And on pharmaceutical manufacturing companies here again right now it's showing our proposed rate a little bit higher than Concord and Fable. We know that that's likely going to change. I wanted to show you this chart. I can't think of anything in my life except long distance charges that are cheaper now than they were 15 years ago. When you look at our electric bills, just our electric cost, that that's what we get beat up on more than anything else. I don't care if it's a customer that don't even have electricity with us. They like to complain about it. In 2011, January 1st of 2011, the bill was $124. $125.54. Our proposed rate for January 1st of this year is $125.38. It's based on a thousand kilowatt hours. I'm open to hear what else has gone like that over the last 15 years, but I just can't think of it. It's a lot of luck, but it's a lot of good work as well. We were able to sell the assets in 2015, and you'll see there we reduced rates three times from 2015. The first two reductions were not the full reduction that we got in 2015. We wanted to build the rate stabilization fund with a goal. Mr. Mayor, I said five years. Remember I sat up here and I told you if we if you let us do the rate stabilization fund, we can make it five years without having to have a rate increase. You can see what we did there.

It worked exactly as we designed it and we knew that it would the last few years would be a big draw down headed into 2025 when the defeasence debt rolled off. We planned that the entire time. So a little bit of luck and a little bit of planning go a long way, but it worked as designed. So, I'm I'm pretty proud of that. The guys have worked really hard on this budget. The team has, and I'm really pleased with what they've done. I I like I said earlier, I can't brag about our team enough. I work with a solid group of professionals and they do their best for their customers and for our customers and for our citizens every single day. I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have. You will at your next meeting. Uh, I think the public hearing is at the next meeting and maybe review of the budget at the next meeting, but also you'll have our budget amendments. We typically do our budget amendments once a year. This year, we had to step out of that for the gas because if we had waited until this May meeting to do our gas, we would have been in violation of our budget ordinance, which would have been an audit violation, and we don't want that. So, uh, we ask you to do that then. We'll probably clean a lot of that up with our revenues, but we should be in compliance. I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have about the budget or anything else regarding Greenville Utilities.

Hey, that was a good point regarding Greenville Utilities. I was gonna ask you something else. Yeah, you can ask me anything. Trying to give you an answer. I was trying to think of something. I think TVs might have been cheaper back then. You can buy TVs pretty cheap now. Oh, TVs are way cheaper now. It took me a while to think of something though. Thank you, Mr. Canon for your presentation.

Um the slide that you showed of the other um utility companies that have um Yes. that provide utilities. Uhu. Yeah. Do they have uh programs for uh lowincome families that we could model after to help um low-income families be able to uh subsidize or pay their bills? Any kind of help with um utilities that we could model after. Thank you for asking that because I did I had him pull some information together for me on that and the answer is probably.

Okay. But we have several programs in place and I wanted to give you some of the results of what our programs have done over this last heating season. Uh through the Department of Social Services, who is our partner that we deal with mostly when it comes to helping folks who need help. Uh we paid there were department of social services 300 uh 3,899 accounts paid in the total of $752,659 through the low income energy assistance program heating energy assistance program sah it's a federal program we help 2510 customers in the amount of $919,400 and then through other organiz izations such as Catholic Charities, Anointed Ones, uh several others. We've got a dozen of them here. 244 payments totaling 50 almost $56,000. $55,94 in the last three months. Outside of that funding, we issue extensions and we do payment plans for customers. And uh we typically will do a certain number of year per year for a customer. This year we decided it this is too difficult. In the winter we're going to do more. So for the last 3 months uh we did 5,23 extensions totaling $1.7 million. And for the last tw 12 months, May of 25 through April of 26, 17,43 extensions totaling nearly $5 million, 4.95 million. In addition, we did payment arrangements. So the last 3 months, we did 1,790 payment arrangements totaling $35,000. Within the last 12 months, we had 6,080 payment arrangements totaling $79,253.

Outside of that, uh, we had 264 individuals contribute to our neighborto neighbor program with the largest contribution coming from First Presbyterian. All of this was administered by DSS. Rainbow Utilities put $20,000 in it for a total of $42,492. Do you have like a quota that you aim to meet yearly or is it on a need basis as the needs come in? It it depends a lot on the funding that's available. Uh we can do extensions and payment plans through the utility.

The funding has to be available through these other organizations. And I will tell you right now, it's really important. And I have written letters within the last week. The president's budget does not include low income heated heating energy assistance program. That's not unusual. It's typically not included in a first round of a budget. utilities like us. I know Duke Duke does it. Uh Progress used to do it. Dominion will. A lot of the municipalities do that. We we we put on the pretty hard grassroots effort there to make sure that that gets put back in the budget because we just have, as I just told you, we depend on that. Our customers depend on that too much.

Okay. Um, what more do you feel like Greenwood Utilities can do to help individuals who find themselves in those uh situations or those spaces where they're not able to afford their utilities bills as things tend to creep up or I'm not sure. Uh, we try to keep people from getting too far in the hole. Okay. Um it's it's easy to say, okay, and I will tell you, you know, our our bad debt runs around 600,000 a year in that neighborhood. Bad debt bad debts, but we write it off.

A lot of that's offset through some of the programs that the state has that we participate in, through some of the payment plans that we set up. We we can we can mitigate some of that. I'm not sure what else we can do, but we're more than willing to take a look at it. One of the focus groups that we brought together uh for this strategic planning was folks who who help with some of the lower income folks who struggle sometimes.

We've all been there. I mean, it's not we we've all had to ask for a helping hand at some point. There's no shame in ever doing that. One of the things that I think we should and will do going forward is meet on a more regular basis with those organizations because they do bring fresh ideas. Council member Foreman had an employee that was there that was very active in those discussions and I think that I think we realized they may need a little more than what we're doing and I think they realized we're doing a whole lot more than what they thought we were doing. So, uh, we're certainly open to ideas. What we can't do and what we have to be real careful about is subsidizing customers or letting them get too far behind.

Um, we've had we've already met and had some conversations. Um, I'm going to reiterate some of that just so that we can talk about it

um, publicly. um you know that my biggest concern has been the rate increase and um um to just kind of elevate everything. Uh I want to go over the who, what, when, where, how, and the why. Um so we know who. There's all of the people that you serve around the county. Um and that was demonstrated in the map that you showed us in your presentation. Um the what is the rate increase? Um the when when will it go when when is that proposed to go into effect? July one.

July one. Um I know that we've talked about where we feel like the impact will be hit the most and uh if you can go back to the slide or someone go back to the slide where the rate increase is um the average of the total of all the rate increases um come to about $10.19 per month. But we know that the section and I we talk about it regularly that about 25% of our community make $25,000 or less. And the section of our community that tends to take the brunt of any increases are, you know, the lower income in uh in West Greenville, South Greenville, and some north of the river. Uh partly because homes are less energy efficient. Um, so even though that average is um $10.19, that would be more um for because it is an average, that would be more for a certain segment of our population. And um even though the city's in experiencing inflation and GU is experiencing inflation, every single one of our citizens are experiencing inflation. So, you know, um food is higher, uh utilities are higher because we had an increase last year. Um man, when I went and put gas in my car the other day, I was like, why wasn't a ham sandwich? Um and so, you know, being hit with all of these things and and another rate increase, every every penny counts. Um I want to talk about again how it compares to the how it compares to other municipalities

um surrounding us and um going back to that slide because uh you know that that I know that the rate increase we're experiencing is less than what is being experienced. um around us and um it is because we didn't kick the can down the road, right, like some others did.

Right. Right. Um and um explaining why getting to the why the increase is happening. Um if you can talk a little bit about the the the fact that uh Duke is charging you all more and I don't want to take take that over. Um, I just, you know, we've gone through a lot of information. So, if we could just kind of put what I know the meat of what people really, really want to hear in that who, what, when, where, how, and, why conversation. And so,

I think I tried to cover most of that. I'm I went back to this slide. This is our wholesale power cost on this very top line right here. What we know we're going to be having the increases. And that's the translation on the very bottom line down there, including what we see as base rate increases for things such as capital improvements, interest rates, investments, vehicles, fuel, chemicals, all of that is in that is in our base rate. So that's the total impact including everything that we are forecasting right now. As I mentioned, I think there will be opportunities with one utility when Duke combines Duke Energy Progress, Duke Energy Carolas

for us to get some benefit for our customers and hopefully impact this rate trajectory. This is not sustainable. Believe me, we we've had a lot of these discussions. This is not something that we can fix that you can fix as a council or we can fix as a utility. It is something that we have to fix as an industry and as a nation to make sure that it's affordable, but also make sure that we're not getting left behind. That that is it. It's a balancing act. I I don't envy your position at all. You know, you guys are having to deal with police, fire, public works. You're you're dealing with a utility of your own in storm water. None of that's getting cheaper. It's all getting more difficult. And it's all getting more necessary for us to remain competitive and be be something that people want to come to.

And now and I think it's important that from that chart right there to understand that you can if you decide not to quote unquote pass it along in any given year. It doesn't go away. It just gets shift to the next year. Right? So the the further you go is you're going to we call it a funding cliff. At some point in time, you're gonna fall off the funding cliff because that's going to compound. And at some point in time, the rubber is going to have to hit the road. It does. Yeah. Because you got to invest in your capital because if you don't invest in your capital, you're going to have inefficient systems in the future as well. And we won't be taking advantage of the technology that's out there.

And so what you're saying is that you're you're having increments of increase so that you do not have to hit people really really hard at one time. Put that in layman's terms. We spend a tremendous amount of time. Everybody at home's going to get a headache for me flipping by so fast. I apologize. We spend a tremendous amount of time on this long-term planning. We're showing you some summary sheets here.

We go out, you're you're seeing five years, we go 10 years out. Now, granted, what you see from 2031 to 2045, that's going to move and change a whole lot. It's why we don't show it to you. That that changes all the time. But we need to know order of magnitude so that we don't get to 2032 and have to spend a hundred million dollars on a water plant and not have planned for that for the last six years.

That we we did that when we did the last water plant expansion. We met with the council and with our board five years ahead of when we started the water plant expansion and we laid out a plan. We've got to spend this money. We have to expand the plant which thank goodness we did. we would be beyond our 80% now if we hadn't. We had to expand that plant, but we knew we didn't want the burden to be all on the customers that we had then. We wanted some of that burden to be out in the future. So, we came up with a 10 a 10-year plan and we we communicated that to council and we communicated that to the board. We don't we try the reason we do this and the reason we spend the time and energy we do on this. We're all customers, too. Most of our employees, 95% of our employees are customers of Greenville Utilities. They don't want to be hit with surprises. We don't want to be hit with surprises. I will tell you, I was here in 2008 when we had we were uh part owners in Sharon Harris, Brunswick, the Roxboro coal plant, and the Mayo coal plant. We were we were minority owners with power agency in those plants. And in we passed our budget in June of 2008. And in August of 2008, we had a 14.5% wholesale power cost increase that we had to pass along immediately because we hadn't had the opportunity to plan for it. One of the things I really like about the contract that we have now is Duke has to give us a forward look for five years. They they can't they can't just give us one year at a time. We get firm numbers one year at a time, but they give us projections for that so we can have a full plan because we have to plan for those customers that have all four utilities. We can't plan for only electric or only gas or only water. We can't do that. We we have to plan for all four utilities.

I had community meetings yesterday and um this was a topic of conversation for each one. Um, one of the questions were uh was uh how far GU is in the black and you know we discussed that some on Monday and um I didn't remember the exact number but I knew it was somewhere around $800,000 after you guys had um let me see taking care of all of your expenses. I think this year Jeff we're looking at about $650,000 right? We're projecting around 650,000 after we have replenished our rate stabilization fund and funded our capital plan

and of course paid debt service what we keep. You and I talked about this the other day when we talked. We're sending more money over here than we're keeping over there. And that's the charter. That's it was intended to be that way because we knew that we were going to have ups and downs. And that's why it's based on assets and not based on profit. We base that turnover on assets so it can be calculated. It can be known. We know next year you're getting $8.8 million. We pay that over time to you and it helps helps offset about 8% on the tax rate.

And then I have one last question. Are and this came from conversations with citizens. Are there any future um efforts being thought about to um for alternative services or sources um other than other than just Duke because you know that seems to have a level of monopoly um for alternative sources to help mitigate. I I will tell you that our contract with Duke runs through 2035. Uhhuh. So we can't get out of this contract until 2035. We have to give Duke notice in 2029 if we want out in 2035. Okay.

So, we are now going through we're working with a group called Burns and McDonald. Greenville Utilities is working with Burns and McDonald. The power agencies is working with a group called GDS Associates. Uh similar to what we did when we did the asset sale. Remember we we had our own consultants look at is this best for Greenville Utilities or do we need to get out of power agency altogether? We're we're looking at that again. We're looking at that again to make sure that there's not something out there that's better than what we got. It

It's going to be hard to be better than what we got because this contract right here has saved saved our customers over this last 10 years over a billion dollars. It's going to be hard to beat that. But we know that there are some fallacies moving forward with it that either Duke's going to have to tighten up and get better or we're going to have to look for some other sources. So, we're evaluating building our own generation, what other contracts are available out there. We've got a team that has been working on that for some time because we have to give that notice so far ahead. I just want citizens to hear that.

I I will say though that, you know, I hate I hate when anything goes up. We've seen we've seen just about everything has gone up in just every industry. And you know just just from my past experience and in my major I mean a normal inflationary year is between two and a half and 3%. That's what we used to use in the budget. That's that's what's typical but we're we're nowhere near those type of numbers. Right now spec specifically over the last three to five years it's not been close to that. I think they just said the projections just came out. I think it was either early late last week or earlier this week. can't remember when it was, but I think we we're at the highest rate of inflation since 2023,

not including energy and food. That's what blows my mind.

Right. Right. And so, um, based off of the level of service that GU offers, I think you guys are right in line with where you're offering a high quality of service for an affordable rate, which I believe is your mission, right? you know, and I'm fortunate enough to have other electric providers that I deal with. And the quality of service that U offers is incredible compared to some of those. And the fact that the reliability of the service, the electric service, we've had sporadic outages every once in a while, but the speed that you're able to bring them back up is pretty incredible. and some of the technology that you guys have invested in while also managing those rates over the years is pretty astounding, right? I mean, I think that being able to understand how important it is to be able to keep those rates stable for so many years like you had showed in some of the graphs, but also built the infrastructure to be able to support the growth that Eastern North Carolina is seeing is pretty awesome, you know, and I think that not a lot of communities can say that they have a utility provider that can do that. And I've always said this, you know, as a community, you're either growing or you're dying. That's right.

And Greenville is very fortunate to be growing right now. And one of the important things that we've talked about and one of the reasons that like you had mentioned uh invest invest Greenville in the organization, the formation of it was to be able to recruit businesses and recruit people to our area to be able to extand uh the number of people that are live in our area. and you guys have had the for forethought to be able to invest in it so we can have the growth and see the growth that we're seeing right now and also be able to pass on lower rates because the amount of consumption that's taking place from that growth that we're seeing. So, um I don't want anybody not to to see that that you guys have done a really good job.

Well, I appreciate that. It's we have a good team and a good board. You know, you know, it starts with the board just like you know with you guys. starts with the board and and I'm glad that our charter says these are the kind of folks you need on your board because it gives us a wide breadth of experience and expertise that we can draw from as a staff. We can bring options to the board and and we can tell them what the engineering and the math the the physical solution is and then the board takes that and puts it with their experiences and their wisdom to then deal with everything else to make that decision because it's not always a decision bas based on math and engineering as we all know

right and and nobody wants anything to go up right none of us want as it goes up and as we continue to pay more we talked about fuel costs the margins get thinner and thinner center in every single industry, right? I think most people just look at it from when you fill up at the gas station, it's just costing you more there. Well, all your produce that comes from the grocery store gets delivered, you know, and those trucks are using that fuel. The longer this goes on and the higher the elevated costs are,

everything that we purchase is going to get more expensive and those margins are going to get thinner. And the fact that you're able to forecast and keep those rates to the increases that you have is pretty remarkable. you know, it's it it it's a team effort and uh you know, we just have to be careful. We we got to be so careful because it is a balancing act. We we had a long discussion today because we we we say lowest reasonable rates in our mission. That is in there. Lowest reasonable rates. Well, then in our values, it says competitively speaking, low reasonable rates. I said, well, wait a minute. Do we really want to say that? We we do want to be low. We want to be competitive. But we have to take in we have to keep in mind that affordability because the demographics in Greenville are not like the demographics in Raleigh or Charlotte and we really have to concentrate on that. So, uh, Council Member Willis, if there are ideas on ways that we can help customers, then then we're going to reach out. We're going to find out what those are. And we have been doing that. I don't want you to think we haven't. And I don't

and I and I and I think the numbers speak for themselves that I I tell our people all the time, whatever you can do to help a customer, you do it because it is no benefit to them and it's no benefit to us for that meter to be off, right? But I mean, it's just exceptionally hard. This is probably the hardest conversation for me. Um it actually really hurts because I serve the most vulnerable of our citizens and um housing and food insecurity because of all of these things that we've talked about are at all-time high and uh like I said earlier every penny every dollar counts and u so it just makes it super diff difficult

and you know on perspective you know uh it's even more troublesome and and worrisome when you're not just getting hit with that maybe $10 a month, but the fuel to go to work or trying to go to that's more expensive. The food you buy, your grocery store is more expensive. Uh your medical care, it's it's all across the board that a lot of our constituents are getting hit. So, it's not like one thing's bothering. It's a whole wrath of things. But having been involved now and seeing how everything works, you know, uh if we look at like the cost of timber and stuff like that to build houses, how much has gone up, sometimes double and triple and gas prices, but for your leadership and your staff and your board, uh I'd hate to see what our rates would be at this point. Uh you know, and the future to see that stabilization program and and what you've done to try and lessen the burden on those, particularly those who are less able to pay the bills. and then uh provide the quality of service. I mean it's it's outstanding and you know sometimes we don't understand what we really have until we know the metrics of it compare ourselves to other people but excellent because but for your style of planning and your staff and the board has carried it on to look down the road not now because there's a lot of people who look today and don't look down the road next year or even five or 10 years like you guys are doing sometimes 20 and 30 years. It has saved our citizens a ton of money on this rate increase and it still hurts mind you but it does I look and say what if we had not done the stabilization I know you guys if I remember you buy the futures you're kind of hedging and you made some really good decisions if I remember about the price of gas buying it what six months did it or something

we we layer in for two years

right and you made some really good investments which saved our citizens a bunch of money but I want to end by saying this which is this is what you don't always hear that somebody in my neighborhood that lived in one of the older houses that apparently when they put the wires the power hours in the ground they they didn't cover them up when the houses were built back then or something and the power went out on the one house utilities are out there like 1:00 in the morning and had it fixed upon a call within like an hour and they were so impressed and they said whoever runs that show please tell them I said thank you so that's what I'm doing now saying thank you on behalf of that that particular neighbor because they were like that's crazy that they do that that good. And that that's what we see. We've had the benefit of if there's a power outage, it's right back on almost immediately. And that goes again back to the service that uh your utilities people do. And know they're top-notch. They've always said that, which again, I'm I'm get award after award, but I appreciate everything you and your staff and the employees do and the board has done to try and direct us and keep us because if not, there's no telling what rate we would be paying at this point.

Thank you. Thank you for your efforts and also trying to serve us with those other benefits to help low-inccome people that are having struggles because I know you care about those too. And I one of the things we we had it in here. I think we skipped over it, but I wanted to make sure Jeff may have mentioned it. We do partner with the city $150,000 a year on energy efficiency. We started doing that right after you took over, I think, or maybe that's right. And that that will pay dividends long term, but that's that's additional money that we can We spend more money than anybody to try to get people to spend less money with us. I don't know if that's a good business model or not. I was about to say that sounds like a terrible business model. Do any of our um rehab programs have utility focus? I mean, I'm sure that

that's why yes, that's what he's saying. Is that part of the program? That was what I was going to mention just elevate that and say any information about that. And I would encourage the citizens, you know, if they want to learn more about what we're doing, we have a treasure trove of information on our website. We've got eight years worth of comprehensive annual financial plans that include our audit. We have 10 years worth of monthly financial statements out there. We have 10 years worth of agendas and minutes and meeting materials. It's all out there and if anybody wants to see it, I encourage them to go look at it. It's there for the taking. So, uh, we're always here to answer questions if you guys have them.

You know, in several months ago, uh, Council Member, uh, Robinson gave out his cell phone number. If you'd like to do that right now so you can answer questions directly. I have Les's number. I'll give it out. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you, Tony. And I'll give yours out likewise. Thank you all so much.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. All right, last item of the night, number 12, presentation of proposed 202627 budget for Pit Greenville Airport Authority. We have the uh vice chair of the Pit Greenville Airport, Michael Overton, to answer any questions you may have. Hello, city council. My name is Michael Overton. I'm a vice chair of the Pit Greenville Airport Board and promised Michael I'd keep you guys less than an hour tonight. So, we'll get you started, right? Um, had to have a chance to sit down with most of you and go through the airport. I'm just going to hit a few highlights and a few really quick announcements before we get going. In case you have not heard, uh, Bill Hopper has announced his retirement. His last day with us will be June 30th of this year. And also tonight uh in the chamber we have Brandon Craft who is our new executive director would love for you uh after this meeting if you have a chance to introduce yourself to him. Brandon does have intents over the next few weeks sit down with each of you one by one understand your concerns the airport and ways we can improve it because that is our goal. Um so just a few really quick highlights. um Pig Ramble airport right now we have 65 based aircraft uh producing somewhere around 1.1 million in total tax revenue uh for the airport um so we we really have kind of our three business centers if you want to look at it that way we have our commercial service which everyone's really familiar with American Airlines you have your based aircraft the people who own an airplane and want to keep it and then our third one are those who fly in get fuel and leave that's really how we're going to kind of look going forward uh at the airport of how do we increase those independent revenue centers based aircraft is really

big. We want to have incentive packages to recruit more aircraft to Greenville. Uh the result of that generally would be full hangers means more hanger rent, more fuel and then for you and the county more tax revenue. Um so that's something we're working on there. Uh we are also actively working to recruit additional airlines for the airport. Um as most of you are aware in 2020 we had five. Postcoid we dropped to three. Before 2020 the airport generally was revenue neutral or even slightly profitable. We have been in an operating loss since that time. Understanding um that that is not a sustainable model for us. We are actively going out to try to recruit additional aircraft and also understand the economic impact. Uh if you look at the economic impact of pick Greenville airport right now, uh it is somewhere around 1,200 jobs that is in your packet and also produces um over $234 million in economic impact for our area. Uh we've done some really quick studies that if we brought two additional aircraft in, it could bring potentially another $90 million in economic impact. So whatever you give is not a dollar for-dollar return. It is a significant return economically for our area. uh and that is something that would help the uh commercial side because right now almost 88% of the passengers that fly out of Raleigh. So we have an 88% leakage rate. 8.8 out of 10 people daily go to Raleigh. And so it's important for us to to get them here. It's also important for Invest Greenville that we have a strong airport because as they're trying to recruit to bring in additional businesses. They want to know, those businesses want to know where are you going, what areas are you serving because that is important for their executives and employees to go through. Um, let's do that. Airport Capital improvement program. We've got over $33 million over the next 5 years with 0% local match. So, that's great. That's usually state or federal funding that's supplying that. Um, so a lot of

projects going on and then Brandon as part of his goal here is to really work on our repair and replacement plans as well as our capital improvement plans. Uh, because we have we have a lot going on at home to to make a repair for an FAA run for overseas airport is a whole lot more expensive than making repair for any other government thing which we all know is a lot more expensive than doing it oursel. So very important that we have uh compliance in those areas and and are staying on top of of what we do have. Um so that's really kind of just a very quick summary. Our our ask tonight is that you would approve the budget as proposed with appropriation for the airport. I am here to answer any questions for you, but also to thank you for the support you've given. uh sitting down one by one with you to talk about the airport, let you know of all the things we do have going on to improve it, but also hearing your voices to make sure we're addressing any concerns you have. So, any questions? I said an hour. Come on, that's like three minutes. No, I mean I I I'll say that uh you know I've been very frustrated with I guess the airport over the years and I guess the lack of of change and I felt like it was an underutilized asset for our community. We've always talked about the importance of having good quality service over there and my hope is as we move forward that that will change that it will be an economic driver that really makes a significant impact not only for the citizens of Greenville but also for our business community. And you know, I I I know that a lot of people know that uh the city manager and myself and our lobbyists um were up in Raleigh having conversations with some of our legislators looking at additional funding to be able to help recruit and be able to uh bring another

uh commercial airline to our area to be able to offer services because you know as well as I know throughout the industries in our community and and even industries that we're trying to recruit, they want additional commercial services, right? They want to be able to have the ability to fly right into Greenville. And to me, it's it's not a good selling feature that we tell people that they can get in their car and drive an hour and a half up to Raleigh and load on a a flight there and go there. Why would they just not locate in Raleigh or somewhere around it? Well, of course, Wake County's got 1.3 million people in it, and it's probably expanding um out of control, but we've got to find ways that we can be able to bring turn assets in our community into true assets and actually utilize them. And I think that there's a lot of potential with the airport. It doesn't have to be some type of regional airport that has, you know, 15 different flights that are flying out there. That's that's never going to be that way, right? It was never designed to be that way. But there's ways for us to be able to maximize what the airport can do for our community and to be able to provide commercial airline services. You know, the other thing it'll be is it'll be a it'll be a task, but I think that with uh Invest Greenville's uh help, they'll be able to help market the the airport and really bring customers back there. You know, we want people to be able to fly out of the the airport, but we also have to show that we've got a good quality product. And I know you have some new board members. You got a new executive director. I'm excited to be able to see some changes take place over there because we really need the success of PGV uh for Greenville to continue to grow in the direction that it is because there's a lot of great things that are happening around us. But we need we need Pit Greenville Airport to be one of those assets that helps take us to the next level. Mr. Mayor, I can assure you that's how we feel as a board. Um that's why we are making the changes we're making and and the investments in the time that we've been in this um doing what we've been doing we can honestly say probably has

not been working. Um so what we have to do is is change. Um I think Brandon's leadership, his experience, you'll find can bring a new light to the airport. Um I think he feels we actually have a really good crew there and a lot of uh opportunity. But uh to keep doing what we're doing is not acceptable to us. um you know with the the operating losses we've had is not acceptable to us nor is it sustainable long term to Greenville airport I mean again that was a a report done by NC State University for the department of transportation department of aviation within the DOT I mean we have a significant economic impact for our area however our economic impact out of the 10 commercial airports is 10th that's not acceptable to me when when Jacksonville's economic impact is greater for their areas than ours is That's not acceptable to me. So, we know that we have the opportunity to grow uh to be an asset for the community. We know uh from a commercial standpoint that we have to bring in additional aircraft that will help economically for our area as well as just the people uh that are in our area flying in and out on a daily basis. And I heard today someone who used to fly pre2020 had agreement all the time because if you miss one flight, there was another one a couple hours later. Now, if you miss one flight, you're going to sit there half a day. Mhm.

And uh that has made it challenging. So we've got to work really hard with American. Um we control what we can control, right?

One of the the biggest things that we can do right now, one of the biggest focus areas that we've told Brandon he's got to work on is our customer service. We've got to deliver the best product in the best way that we can. But we can't control American completely. We can't control TSA completely. However, that doesn't mean we can't open communication lines with them to work on improving the customer service across the board. And again, that is just one area of the business. And the other areas you really don't hear about because it really doesn't impact the public, but it has a massive impact on the airport itself are those private planes because that's what pays the tax dollars to you. But the best ones are the transient planes. They're the people that fly into Greenville. They're here for a few hours. They pay landing fees. They buy fuel and they're gone. They're not a burden to the airport. They're a profit for the airport. We've got to do a better job of recruiting those people. Stop in Greenville, fill your plane up, get something to eat at Parker's barbecue while you're here. Whatever it takes uh to get them to come to Greenville, to visit our airport to make an impression on them so that they'll come back. So, those are all the areas we're going to work on. Yeah,

I was going to mention Mr. Overton, the customer service that you just mentioned, um as just something that we can control and something that we can improve on pretty easily, I feel like. Um, I know there's some good stuff like the coffee we're offering at the at the gate, stuff like that, but just making it a place that we that people want to be that tells a story about what Greenville is, who Greenville is. Um, the exciting things that we have happening here to tell that story. Um, I loved your idea about having a barbecue restaurant there because barbecue is our thing. And you mentioned my hometown, um, near Pinehurst, the Carthage airport, they have Pick and Pig. Absolutely. which is a which is an attraction for the um the daily flyers like you're saying that will come in have lunch fill up and go somewhere else. I think if we had something like that that would be so cool for our our regular um commercial flyers but also to attract and just just provide a higher level of service, something that's interesting that people talk about that make it unique. Um I think would would go a long way. Um,

well, I think some of what you just said had to do with my presentation last Monday at the economic um, uh, breakfast that Invest Greenville had and and part of what I want to see the airport do because it is one of the first things people see if they've ever come to Greenville is to tell the story. Who is Greenville and what do we have to offer? Uh, the history, the the education, the arts, um, the food, all those things that we have here that are so special that people don't know about, a lot of people that live here don't know about. So tell that story and make an impression. Yeah, honestly it's kind of like a morg right now. We were going to change that. That's not acceptable. Um it's the reality. I think most of you would agree. But the beauty is we have a lot of opportunity and we plan to take advantage of it.

And the biggest selling feature is that it's easy. It's it's it it you know it's really convenient to go and drive five minutes and when you get back home you drive five minutes home. Um, but to just capitalize that and make it even better with customer service, um, making it easy, even even easier to get it out. Um, and then having stuff to do while you're there, um, I think would be really great. And I know you have a lot of plans in place, but I just want to encourage you and say I'm excited about that.

Well, mayor, just to uh jump on what you just said. I mean, Invest Greenwood has come alongside us. Um, they're working on a business center inside the terminal right now. Has hasn't started, but the plans are working on. We have a breastfeeding pod uh that we're working on trying to get funding for. Hopefully, we'll have that in maybe by the fall. Working with ECU to try to do a kids play area. So, there are small things we can do. They're also buying new televisions for the terminal. Um but then we want to work with uh Invest Greenville and Maria Satira's uh trying to set up a marketing committee so that we can really be focused on the marketing butts and seats is what I like to say. That's probably not a perfect to say in public,

but um we need people to fly there. They need to understand what we have in our own community. Um we we've got to increase it to see the long-term success of the airport. We have to succeed.

And I think I agree with you too when you said it's not just Pickeringville airport, right? When it comes down to commercial services and one of the things that we had discussed when we were up there talking to legislators was the need for competition, right? You know, we know how important it is to have competition. I use the example when we were up there, we were talking to one of the legislators how important it was for us to be able to recruit Metronet to our area because we had one show in in in town and they were offering a not an adequate service um to put it I guess properly. Um and now we've got Metronet which is now T-Mobile. Um we have Optimum and we've got Bright Speed that are all being offered. And guess what? The quality of service is a lot better than it was before. The number of complaints that I used to get about the previous service, the previous name that it was under um was unbelievable. I mean, that was probably the number one complaint more than potholes. I was getting more calls about that. I was like, I it's completely out of my control. But that's how important it is to be able to have competition. And I think being able to get another airline to PGB is going to be incredibly important to not only be able to help out with the service that's already there, but also it's going to build some rapport with the people that have been burnt for years of having bad quality and bad experiences with the commercial airline service that's being offered right now. So my hope is is that we'll be able to recruit another commercial airline to be able to come here and offer good service and also improve the services that are currently being offered. I just want to say, Michael, you you and I know this and Dan out there that the airport when we talked Danny into being chair, you know, when he was retired and Dan and I have known each other for over five decades and um a lot of challenges and I know that the two of y'all have put in an untold number, probably hundreds of hours of your personal time into this project and um there are a lot

of challenges and I've been very vocal about my frustrations about it, but uh you know, I remember Brandon sitting out there. I have a probably a benefit of most of it. I've known Brandon for a very long time. And I will tell this council hands down with no reservations, he is a leader. Number one, number two, he has a unique ability to surround himself with people that understand the vision and have the motivation. And I will tell you third, even though he and I could be on opposite sides of the spectrum sometimes, that uh he has a focus and a commitment to making whatever he's involved in being the best that there is. And he and I had breakfast one morning. It was a black watch like 7:30 in the morning talking about, you know, his interest and what our interests were. And you know, we all understand we can't make this airport the biggest, but hands down, we can make it one of the best in the state. And I know Brandon shares that vision and uh he's got 120% commitment and I'm bragging on him now because I mean he doesn't know I'm going to say any of this stuff but I'm it's like a challenge but it's not just a challenge because I know his character. He will make that airport a physical showpiece and he will with his team that he chooses and people he gets behind to work with him. He's going to make it a reputation and character builder so that it's going to be known across the state as one of the best in the state and he understands the PR game and all that stuff. So, I'm excited to see him. I'm so excited for him. I'm excited for his family because they're getting him back around here again. And and uh I know he's going to do great things and this airport is is going to be a gamecher. Uh and he's going to turn it around. And thanks Michael and and Dan, y'all's leadership and that efforts. It's going to it's going to be turned around. It's going to be great. And uh I'm I'm looking forward to to bragging some more on Brandon because I've known him personally. I guarantee you this man has nothing but 120% speed. And that's the way he is. He's competitive and so it's his challenge. He wants to make this the

best. So I'm excited to see him come in and be on board and start doing his thing and exercising all those skill sets that he has. So I'm proud to see you, Brandon. I look forward to seeing you soon again. And one last thing, Mr. Robinson, you will be very happy to know that hopefully in the next 60 days, we will be selecting a new parking vendor to replace our antiquated 15-y old parking system. That was one of the things that he has been complaining about since I've been on the board, and we're finally to the point of getting that done. Good. Michael again, thank you so much, sir. Any other questions? No questions, just comment. Um, we've had some conversations. Um, and a lot of the challenges or perceived weaknesses, uh, what is optimistic is that they're actually opportunities. That's right.

And um, and I see you all taking advantage of the opportunities. Thank you. Hey, wonderful job. We appreciate it. All right. Thank you all. Dan, thank you too. Brandon, thank you for coming on board. Look forward to seeing you soon. Well, we got through the regular business. Now, the most important part of the meeting. I tell you what, I actually thought we were going to go to about 11:00, so I didn't. Anything else you want to talk about? Got any other plans? So, I I'll just say um make a bet on this.

Our assistant city manager D. Alexander did lose her mom at the end of last week. And uh it's tough to to lose parents. It is. You lose a party self and lost both mine and miss them every day, but uh we know that she had a great mom because uh she she raised her and her sister and we know what kind of character that she has. So, we just need to continue to lift her up and pray for her and be there for her uh when she comes back and just let her know we're thinking about her and we love her. That's all I got. Very nice, Reverend McGurt.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Quickly, I'll just echo what Michael said. Condolences to today and her entire family. Um God's grace to her and also congratulations to Andrew Schmidt um on his retirement. great leader and an even nicer person. That's us all. The most anticipated city clerk's report. I will echo the sentiments of our city manager and city attorney. Just thoughts and prayers with DA and her family.

Very nice. Let's start with Council Member Scully. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I would just echo those comments as well and continue to pray for DA and her family. Uh, no further comments. Hey, I like that. Let's go with council member Hardy.

Uh, yesterday we had the ribbon cutting of our live burn training facility. Uh, it was my first ribbon cutting on council. It was a pretty special moment and that is that facility is a huge addition to district 3 and to the city. Uh, I think it's also a great investment to the public safety and the training of our firefighters and I'm excited to see the impact that it has on our department and then departments across the region. And then uh Council Member Robinson kind of stole some of my comments at the end of the uh PGV uh airport presentation. But I just want to say that while I've not been on the board very long, um I will say that I do commend uh the board there for going above and beyond what regular board members should and really do put into um into the work that they do on uh certain commissions. Um, and I'm really excited to see this airport move in the right direction. I'm already seeing it now and I'm really excited to uh meet Brandon Craft and get to work with him.

Very nice. Council member Jones.

Good evening. Good evening. I do want to um also um send my um heartfelt condolences to um D. I do understand um even though everybody loss is different, I do understand the loss of parents. I'm also want to say congratulations to Mr. Billy Levy on his retirement from public works and congratulations to all those that were um selected to serve on a board and commission. I know I was excited when I was elected or or chosen to serve on a board. But just know that you also have a direct way that you influence local government outside of um being elected official. You also stand out because you advise city council, you shape policy recommendation, you review projects, and you represent community interest. So, make sure you do it and do it with pride. Y'all have a great night.

Very nice. Very nice. Council Willis.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, congratulations to Mr. Billy Levy. Also, um, it's National Police Week. So, thank you to all of our law enforcement that serve, excuse me, that serve our city day in and day out. And this past Wednesday night, um, the Citizen Planning Academy, uh, started up. And so, um, so excited for them to be able to have that opportunity. Um, and since it was brought up, uh, during public comment about the presentation on Monday, um, I had an opportunity to speak about that, uh, Monday evening in the comments. Um, and I stand by those comments. Um, I think we can't in good faith and good conscience sit here and um and say that there haven't been issues with um the implementation of ICE policies within our country. Um, here in Greenville, like I said, our goal and what I think it should be is that we have a certain spirit that makes everyone feel safe. And at the very rumor of ICE being uh in our city or um in our county, the fact that there are families that don't go to school or there are people that don't go to work because they are fearful of being swept up in a um implementation under the guise of um of rooting out criminals. Not to say that they don't, but that we cannot say that they have there have not been egregious errors and that people haven't lost their lives in the implementation of ICE policies. Um, like I said, I think that everyone deserves dignity and respect and we can implement policies at the highest level while still maintaining a certain level of respect for all people. and I do not feel like that's been done in the implementation of ICE policies. Um, so I

I respect everyone's opinion and everyone's perspective. Um, but I don't think like I said in good faith and conscience we can say that there have not been severe tragic uh consequences to the implementation of those policies. That's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Robinson.

Go. Good. Billy Levy, congratulations, man. Three almost three decades of service. That that speaks volumes about uh him, his character, but also speaks volumes about the work environment in which he comes to work in. And so, Billy, thank you so much for dedicating your life for three decades almost, and for your wife to sharing uh you with us. Also, um Brian Fischer, many of you, I call him Fish. He's a police officer. He just retired today after 30 years of service. Brian is the epim of police officer. I mean, he is a number one. Uh, I've done thousands of cases with him. He's worked behind the scenes. He's worked on a national level. Always been the low-key guy that does great things and never wants any accolades. So, Brian, I hope you're watching and man, congratulations to you and your family. I'm super proud of you. I'm glad you stayed around and I look forward to seeing you in some other endeavors as I'm sure I will to hope you're watching us today. You're in our thoughts and prayers. I promise you that. And I think you should take great comfort that I am sure your mom is in heaven right now smiling big at her legacy. And I'm absolutely a thousand% comfortable that she's smiling big at that legacy in her new home. So take great comfort in that as you should. Um, we talk about partnerships with our county commissioners and our city council members and private people and I had the benefit yesterday to attend uh another one of those at Pit Community College to open up the Greenville Toyota welding technology building. I hope many of you have had a chance to meet Craig and his family. If you've not, uh, this man has, uh, has an open heart that seems to have no limit. He keeps giving and giving and giving. So he was a major uh contributing factor in this welding technology building along with the Golden Leaf Foundation uh the county commissioners and also the Pit County Board of Commissioners. And I want to illustrate a couple of things about this

facility. It is the largest welding technology facility in the entire state and we need workforce development and that's what this facility does. It has over a 100 building uh booths to weld in. It has robotic welding. It has outdoor stuff. I think Michael, tell me if I'm not correct. 37,000 square feet.

And so, uh, again, the public and partner private ships are doing that because that's an amazing that our local community college has the the biggest welding program in the entire state and we need those people in high demand. So, if you're thinking about something, thinking maybe college is not quite right for you, please go look at Pit Community College. They the welding is amazing program and uh people make great careers out of it. So, congratulations to them. Um, next I want to echo uh what Council Member Hardy said about a live burning training facility. I said this already on social media. Uh, we've got the best firefighters and EMS workers. And when we have the best, we have to give them the best, the best tools and resources so they continue to improve. And that was a great step. A lot of times we speak words of affirmation about what we want to do. But I'm so happy that this city council doesn't speak the words only. they take action and I really believe looking at that uh yesterday up there with the mayor on the top looking out across the grounds that were not quite developed yet that my hope and wish is that this is going to be a live burning train facility not just for our officers men and women but for eastern North Carolina. So again it helps put us on the map. So congratulations to all those who serve us and I think what over 700 hours already committed in this facility. So, we all know that when uh when an officer comes to to a scene of an accident or a crime, you don't want the fourth or fifth best. You want the number one. When the man's coming or the woman's coming to your house because you've had a medical emergency, we all have to admit, we don't want the fourth or fifth best. We want the number one. And then finally, house is on fire, you've left a grease on stove or something. We want the best. And I believe our men and women in this department and the leadership uh they that's what they are aspiring to be. and this city council's given them the tools and resources. I'm super proud about that. Uh I want to echo council member Willis's comment about National Police Week. It's all this week. Uh if you see a police

officer, just take the time and step out and say thank you to them. And you don't they you say they may say for what? Just say for doing your job because when we're uh inside the AC, they're outside in the heat. We're in the warmth, they're in the cold. When we're celebrating with our families during holidays, they're out there on the streets protecting us as well as our firefighters. Amen. So, just take the time to walk up to one and say, "Hey, I appreciate what you do. I really cuz that goes a long ways when you say thank you." And just take the time to do that. Uh, which is this is kind of a a milestone that's really interesting. Many of you may remember that in ' 07, unfortunately, Officer Jason Campbell lost his life in the line of duty. And uh, tragic event and I mean, well loved by everybody. Well, just this week, his daughter, which used to run around the police department, is now a sworn police officer with the group police department. So, Ashley, if you're looking on, congratulations to you. Just like D, I am sure your dad is looking down and smiling big at the legacy of his daughter. So, congratulations to you. And we always remember your dad. Um, next we talk about economic development. I'm sorry to be so long- winded, but Mr. Beast Games. Uh Jimmy Donaldson, Mama Beast, as I call all that crowd. Thank you so much for being committed to Greenville. What? 800 people involved in that I believe if I understand. Uh 700 meals are served. What? Last night, Michael through through uh Villa Birdie. That's amazing economic impact. I think there's only a few hotel rooms left that they haven't occupied.

They're probably all gone. Probably all gone. And and and so uh you know, thank you for that uh to the whole crowd that because that's what it's about. Uh, finally, Andrew Smith. I mean, I was there to see this kind of send off. He's done wonderful things. Again, I can't say enough, Andrew, just in my short time of getting involved with everything with you. Um, thank you so much. And you were a great leader and you keep moving forward. And I think with that, mayor, with my brief comments, I think I'm concluded. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor Pim. I concur with the other things that have been elevated.

Likewise, uh, condolences to Da and her family. Uh, we'll keep you in your thoughts and prayers. With that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All right. Motion has been made by Councelor Robinson, second by Council Member Scully. All those in favor say I. Say nay. Motion passes 6. Enjoy your weekend.