Board of Mayor & Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the meeting of the Hendersville Board of Mayor and alderman for Hendrisville, Tennessee. Uh tonight is April 28th. It's a few minutes after 7 p.m. We had to delay things a little bit to recognize our COO for his fifth anniversary with us, which is tomorrow. Um we're going to begin this meeting as we typically do. That's with a prayer followed by the pledge. And providing our prayer tonight is Aaron Allison. He's at Christ as Lord Church here in Hendersonville. Aaron, we appreciate you and everything that your church has been doing for four decades. Yes. Correct. Four decades. So, see, thank you so much.

Would you join me in prayer? God, we thank you for this wonderful city. We thank you for the citizens here and for the leadership that's gathered tonight. We pray for wisdom and strength so that our city could continue to prosper and that we could uh thrive under your leadership. Lord, we remember this night Jeremy Cook who uh sacrificially gave uh his kidney for someone else to have an extended life. And God be with both of these individuals. But we ask that you would strengthen Jeremy tonight as he recovers. And we thank you for a successful uh transplant. God, continue, God, to protect us from the storms. We thank you for the protection last night. We pray the same tonight. Continue to give strength, God, to our first responders and all nights and all days. We ask all of this. It's in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray. Amen.

Again, thank you again. That's Aaron Allison from Christ's Love Church here in Hendersonville. Appreciate you very, very much. Please join me for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you'all. [clears throat] You all received my proposed agenda in your packet. I'm going to entertain a motion that we approve that for tonight's meeting. We have a motion from Alderman Dixon.

I'm sorry, Alderman Goodwin. A second from Alderman Garton. Any discussion? Any proposed changes? Do want to point out that we have a consent agenda with three items there. We will be voting on those as a group. If somebody want to pull one out and discuss it and vote on it separately, now's the time to let us know that. Okay. All those in favor of the agenda that is presented to you, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Thank you all for that. Next round of presentations, we have a couple. The first one is a proclamation of National Day of Prayer. I'm going to go down there and introduce a couple folks. Want to come up here? So, I want to just introduce that's Aaron Allison. He's at Christ's Love Church. Jason Ba, where did Jason go? There we go. Uh Jason Klein right there and Joshua Strader. Um they have uh typically come about this time of year and they also uh were here several of them were here recently when I hosted the pastors for breakfast to talk about issues uh that affects them and affects us and I appreciate them being very very involved in our community. But let me read this. Whereas throughout the history of America, faith in the almighty God has been deeply rooted in the foundation and building of this great nation. The Lord has carried us through times of great crisis and celebration. And whereas in Hendersonville, the observance of the National Day of Prayer will be held on Thursday, May 7th, 2026 with the theme, glorify God among the nations, seeking him in all generations. This inspired by the verse in Chronicles 16:24, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. And whereas a national day of prayer has been part of our heritage since it was declared by the first Continental Congress in 1775 and a public law established in the United States Congress in 1952. And whereas leaders and citizens of our nation are afforded the privilege of prayer prayer affirming our spiritual legacy of instituting times and thank of thankfulness and renewed reliance on almighty God. May we

take time to pray for our nation and our neighbors. Now therefore, I Jamie Clary, mayor of the city of Hendersonville, do hereby proclaim May 7th, 2026 as a day of prayer throughout the city of Hendersonville. And I commend this observance to all of our citizens. Um I think that was it Jason or was it there? Joshua is going to speak and tell you a little bit more about what's going on. Thank you, Joshua.

Mayor, thank you so much for that proclamation and uh the opportunity to distinguish that day and the importance of prayer as we celebrate the 250th birthday of our nation this year. We're also celebrating the 75th uh anniversary of the National Day of Prayer, which is now an international observance. And here in Hendersonville, we will celebrate that together uh on the 7th, a week from Thursday at Community Church. We will be meeting from 7:30 to 8:30. That will be a free breakfast. We'll be done at 8:30 for those who have to get to work. Is a wonderful occasion for all people from all different churches and backgrounds to be under one banner of Christ as we unite our voices in prayer to seek God and to glorify him among the nations. So very thankful mayor. Thank you so much. [applause]

There you go. Thank you.

And where's Tiffany Kelly? So, this is a proclamation followed by a presentation. Um, I can probably best read this and have Tiffany explain her role here. Whereas Tennessee Kids Belong is dedicated to transforming the experience and outcomes of children in foster care by mobilizing communities across the state to become foster friendly. And whereas Tennessee Kids Belong is actively working to ensure that all 95 counties in Tennessee are recognized as foster friendly friendly communities. And whereas Tennessee Kids Belong empowers Tennessans to understand that regardless of one's occupation, skill set, or stage of life, every individual has a meaningful role to play in supporting children and families impacted by foster care. And whereas strong communities can provide every foster family with the wraparound support they need. And whereas we join together in commitment to ensuring that every child in foster care has a safe home, a supportive community, and a profound sense of belonging. Now therefore, I, Jamie Clary, mayor of the city of Hendersonville, do hereby proclaim the city of Hendersonville's ongoing commitment to being a foster friendly community and proclaim May 20126 is foster care appreciation month throughout the city of Hendersonville. And I encourage all our citizens to support Tennessee Kids Belong and state and take steps to become foster friendly. This is Tiffany Kelly and she's going to tell you a little bit more uh about her organization and what she does. Appreciate it, Tiffany. You get to keep that. Thank you.

I'll give you this. Good evening everyone. Uh like Mary Clary said, my name is Tiffany Kelly and I get to serve as the child welfare director for the Tennessee Kids Belong organization. We are a nonprofit. Um we are kind of in that macrolevel space where we are not necessarily boots on the ground meeting the emergent tangible needs, but we are about equipping and uh resourcing the leaders of the community to enhance the experience and change the outcomes for kids in foster care. And specifically, we do that um through family recruitment, community engagement, and being a coalition of change. And so, I have the pleasure today to uh acknowledge and share with you a clear, quick update um on the progress that Hendersonville is making to become a foster friendly city. So, most people ask, what does that mean um when you're talking about becoming a foster friendly community? Well, as you can see, uh, foster friendly communities are safe, welcoming spaces where individuals and organizations recognize and respond to the unique needs of our kids in foster care. And we do that um by envisioning a space and a community that uh there is a family for every child. That there are more than enough homes, more than enough families that are trained, approved, equipped, and ready to meet the needs of the kids that come into care. The outcome of that is meaning that we're going to reduce trauma of kids leaving our county. They grew up here. They're connected to people here. There's familiar faces. There's school systems, mentors, teachers that are supportive and investing in them. And when they don't have homes here, they're going outside of the county. And about 67% of kids in foster care, excuse me, 67% of kids in Sumar County are being placed outside of our area, which means we're adding

trauma by not having homes here that can meet their need. But while we need more homes, we recognize that it's irresponsible to recruit more foster families without simultaneously recruiting the support system needed to bolster their journey and to serve them well. So our goal and our efforts are inviting businesses and faith communities to be those safe spaces with trauma-informed uh education, equipping their family ministries, their kids pastors, their volunteers, uh VBS's, all their programming for kids that um they are safe and welcoming spaces um and know how to handle the needs of kids that have trauma backgrounds. And what we see from that is oftent times um and you guys probably hear this statistic that's floating around right now with governor's initiative um uh every child Tennessee but our foster families are burning out after that year uh after that year commitment um due to a lack of support. About 50% of families don't make it past that first year. So our goal is to build that support system to keep those quality supportive homes in it longer, which means that our kids are in stable homes and they are able to eliminate um additional moves and additional trauma as a result of that. So what does it look like to be a part of the support network and who can be? Um well, you're looking at faith partners. Um what that looks like is uh churches, our faith partners becoming a foster friendly faith community where they are becoming trauma aare. They're building support ministries whether it's wrapping around foster families and building wrap teams or maybe it's the closet as a source of tangible needs for them and maybe it's a parent night out once a month that is steadily ongoing there offering respit. Um, and again, other unique ways that we are seeing our

faith communities step up and utilize the resources that they already have and already do so well, but tailoring those types of resources and equipping them so that they can convert those and support our kinship and our foster families and businesses. Um, we have a foster friendly business program and an app where we invite businesses to be partners in that where they offer discounts on local goods and services. Again, families sometimes start the journey in of a day with two kids at breakfast and they'll end the at the dinner table with six kids. And the first things that go are the things that um kind of cost a lot. So, it's recreation. It's self-care. And those are the things that bring value to our communities. They bring value to our homes. I have a 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. and the value of going out to eat and teaching my daughter how to order for a menu, looking someone in the eye. Those are skill building. Those are attachments. Those are other individuals pouring into our community. Being a part of soccer programs, gymnastics, dance classes, those are things that really support and create um our holistic child. And we do not want foster families eliminating those um because of financial burden. Um so these are ways that businesses are supporting and you'll see civic engagement. So that is our um our mayor, our councilman, our alderman stepping in. Um you guys have been wonderful already engaged partners um advancing the cause, but from parks to libraries um to other nonprofits. We're not doing this alone. Tennessee Kids Belong is just um one of many in this area um that are caring partners that are really cultivating and equipping each other to be a better community and to serve families better. Um so as we see the community step up, we often see caring individuals and the goal and our hope is that those

individuals find their yes in this space. Um because not everybody should or could be a foster parent, but we all can do something and there is a space in the foster care work and world uh for everyone to do something. So benchmarks and so Mayor Mayor Clary and I sat down last year and we talked about what it would look like to make the city of Hendersonville foster friendly. And so this is an initiative that is across the state but there's metrics that are tied to this. Um and as you can see in order to have some consistency across the state um we put some numbers to this based on population size. So while they are different uh to scale in different communities um the goals are the same. So we are looking to have at least two opportunities to recruit more foster families. two events um to host uh foster friendly coalitions. Uh we've been in Hendersonville and in Sumar County for about three years um roundtabling with leaders. We meet monthly. Mayor Clary has joined us and been a part of those conversations. We invite any and everyone to be a part of those. It's a way to plug in, but it's also a way to collaborate, work smarter, not harder. Um utilize resources, fill gaps. Um, we don't need six churches on the same street all doing the same uh resource closet. But what if we had a church offering a parent night out once a month? What if we had the closet? What if we had another church doing rap teams? What if we had another church doing meal trains? Again, utilizing those resources well. And then our goal is that 5% of our foster families have RAP teams, designated individuals that are walking the journey with them so that that person doesn't have to ask for help in a situation or in a time where they oftentimes just don't know what they need. It's people showing up. Um

it's eliminating that well-intentioned friend that says, "Hey, let me know what you need. Call me if you need help." Those people aren't calling. they are in the throws of trauma and and and navigating the child welfare system. They need people just to show up and pour into them. So with RAP, that is a model that comes with our foster friendly faith communities. And so you will see our goal is to have 5% of our faith communities in this area in Hendersonville doing the work, showing up and serving and supporting, 10% of our business community um being foster friendly. We just added uh just love and nothing but cakes. Um they're offering birthday cakes and uh free coffees and buy one get ones so that foster mamas can meet at the at the uh coffee shop and just pour into another one another um or a special birthday cake on a day where um you know sometimes that's bittersweet in care and then our goal is that we want every single person to have our foster friendly app connecting them to the resources of the community. So Hendersonville has been a model of results. Um this is a powerful Hendersonville is a powerful example of the collaboration and action. We have pastors at the table, businesses, government, community leaders, individuals, all working from all sectors to create lifelong change and ministries that are sustainable. So where are we now as far as outcomes? Um you will see here um we've grown since August of 2025. We have nearly d more than doubled our foster friendly businesses. We have increased our foster friendly faith community. Um we are still grow I'm working with about five other churches right now to learn about what this looks like to do it well so that they can build that DNA and culture within their church. And then you'll see there's some more qualitative outcomes

um with all of these things that are happening is collaboration. We're breaking down borders and and walls within churches. We're we're eliminating the siloed efforts within foster the foster care community. And we're seeing families feeling more confident to step into this work and also to share their stories. They feel seen and supported and ultimately that is what we want for them in this community. So, where are we now with Hendersonville? We're almost there. We're on the downhill slide. So, you'll see we've had hit hit the metrics for several of them. We're close on a few of them. Um, but we still have work to do. We still have um some partners to connect with and some opportunities for engagement from our community. So, what does that look like for you guys? Um, and for our community, we want to share the app with every foster family. a foster family that gets approved in this community in Hendersonville, the first thing we want on their f fingertips is you got approved, download this app. There are resources and supports here to carry you through and bolster your journey and serve you so you can serve the kids well. We want to recruit more foster families. We want to host opportunities to lean in and allow families and individuals and our our community to say yes, whatever that might look like. So my ask is can we do a citywide community event where we say let's come together as the city of Hendersonville and we need more families. We need more partners. We mean more yeses in this space to serve and support and wrap around families that are doing this. And then recruit more foster friendly businesses. So we I mentioned we were almost there. We're at 65 businesses. We need 75. We're 10 businesses shy from hitting that metric of being a foster friendly business community. So, who do you know? Who what makes sense? Um what business are you thinking of right now that says, "Hey,

they would get this. They would get on board. This makes sense. These are the families that they want to get behind." And then ultimately connecting us, myself, with local faith partners that might have an interest in engaging in learning more and becoming a foster friendly faith community. So, um, what that looks like now is you can scan and learn more or connect in individuals to me, but, um, every step along the way strengthens our community and strengthens our families and the kids that are in care and ultimately says to them, you matter in the season of the most challenging life that you're carrying right now. You are worth us stepping up and providing a support system and caring for the families that are saying yes to you. Thank you.

Does anybody have any questions for Tiffany? Thank you, Tiffany. Appreciate it. [applause]

So, I failed to have a signup sheet out there for the public hearing that you have. And this is a public hearing to hear comments on planet services for a request by Cornerstone Church, Hendersonville, and Tennessee District Council Assemblies of God to annex 22.38 acres into the city limits and to reszone the property to office. The property is located on the north side of Route 386 east of Stop30 Road as identified on Sunray County Tax Map 145, partial 044.0000, also 044.00001 and tax map 14548.03. Um, I think we have some people who signed up under citizen comments and you're still welcome to speak during citizen comments. I think we have some people might have signed up during citizen comments that want to speak on this hearing. So, let me know if that's the case. Dear Lyn Ferris, did you want to speak on the hearing or in citizen comments?

Yes, I would like. Okay. Okay. So, give me a second here. Uh, David Kger. Uh, yes. Same as well. Okay. Uh, uh, Jeremy. Yes. Okay. Okay. Um, I think it's Gunner Franks. Yes. Okay. On Cornerstone Church. Okay. Uh, Greg Wilson. Yep. Okay. Uh, Zack Williams. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, was there anybody who didn't sign up for a public hearing? Jeff.

Okay. Anybody else that did not sign up that would like to speak about Cornerstone Church in the in the uh annexation? So, we have the same rules for public hearings as we do for our citizen comments. So, so let me read the read those. Speakers must must identify themselves by name and address. Public comment shall be limited to 5 minutes per individual which time is not transferable to other speakers. All comments are to be directed to the residing officer, not to alderman, city staff, or other members of the public. Comments must address issues, not individuals or personalities. Personal attacks shall not be tolerated. Comments may support or oppose particular issues or measures, but the motives of those with different views shall not be questioned or attacked. Malicious comments will not be allowed. Speeches for against particular candidates running for public office shall not be allowed. Uh Daryl Ferris.

My name is Daryl Ferris. I live at 109 Alisa Drive. Um, when I first heard about this, I was a little bit shocked because I've never known uh the city limits to be extended. I've been in meetings here where they were wanting to have uh like a church and a school included in for the fire department. But this was something entirely different. I've made I've got gave each of you a copy of the deed. This occurred two years ago when actually the church in uh Madison, the mother church is the one that proceeded to buy this property and open this up for I guess a branch here. My feelings toward it is of course all churches are exempt from paying property taxes. So, with the amount of money that they've spent at that church to buy this property, which is like um a million and a half, and I'm familiar with the church in um Madison. I had friends that went to church there. It's a very profitable church there. About I don't know several years ago, they tore down the smaller part of the church and they started building cottages, which they have built on that property there. Um, I'm wondering if that's not the intentions of this location up here and the fact that they're not paying property taxes, of course, but those of us that pay our property taxes, we depend on the public services for our city and they're going to be getting things for free basically that we are paying our taxes for. So, I really am opposed to this. I think it's wrong to extend the city limits just for that. When there's a lot of other developments right up the road there on that same road that have built homes, those people

are not asking to be extended into the city limits in their county. I had a friend that lived in one of these houses. So therefore, I'm strictly against it. And I know those of you who have your constituents, I'm sure they're against it, too. You probably might be hearing from this, I don't know, but I'm pleading with you to not vote to extend the city limits because this will be a beginning of other things to occur, I'm sure. Thank you, Chair Lyn. Thank you. Next, we've got David Kger, Huntington, please.

Hey, good evening. Uh, David Kger, 146 Huntington Place, uh, within the Winrest neighborhood. So this annexation would be almost directly behind where my property is. And what we're really looking to do is just simply keep what is already a residential zoning as residential zoning. So we're not looking for anything different, but just to maintain what we currently have. We really would like to keep a buffer zone kind of behind us in terms of not in getting invaded by essentially office space. And I understand that there would be a debate as to whether or not that's commercial, but it is office space and that's a bit vague in what that's going to look like and what can be done. So, in terms of keeping green space, kind of keeping our neighborhood a true neighborhood, we already have two businesses at the front of the Winest neighborhood. And now we're going to be flanked on the back by potentially other offices. So, I won't call them businesses, but essentially that's what we're looking at. So, we're taking something that's potentially residential. We're going to potentially pave it over, lose that green space, lose that buffer, and we're going to take the residential neighborhood and turn it into something that isn't. we actually have a chance to potentially maintain this, create a new nice neighborhood behind us rather than just simply office buildings this time. So that's really what what we're asking at this point is just kind of preserve what we already have rather than reszoning something that's really kind of questionable the motivation. I I'm not sure why we need to to turn this into offices versus keeping it residential.

Thank you, David. Thank you. Um Jeremy Oel, um Kingdom Way. Jeremy, if you want to correct me on your last name, feel free. feels good. Okay.

Thank you. Um I'm the pastor of Cornerstone Nashville in oversight of Cornerstone Hendersonville. I live at 105 Hford Court uh here in Hendersonville. Uh and I could speak to questions that maybe have been posed about Cornerstone. uh but uh we acquired the property uh about a year year and a half ago and we just are looking into the future and what is possible uh to build the church but we also as you mentioned have 22 acres of land not all of which do we feel is needed strictly for the church and so we're doing due diligence to figure out what is the best path forward for building the church we're obviously close to Hendersonville we're a part of of the city. Uh, and we've had conversations with leadership with the planning commission uh, regarding the zoning for um, whether it would be residential or office. And we just received the recommendation of office as it pertains to uh, just the desired direction of the city if we were to be in the city as potential future development or growth. Um, we don't have any intentions of developing the property beyond what we would do uh for church purposes uh if the church grew and we needed to expand the building or extend parking. Uh, but we don't have any intentions beyond that as far as our own personal development.

Jeremy, thank you. Thank you.

Uh, Gunnar Franks, Kingdom Way. Gunner Franks. I'm the pastor of Cornerstone Hendersonville. I live at uh 102 Cross Creek Court here in Hendersonville. Uh we uh my wife and I grew up in Hendersonville. I'm a Hendersonville graduate. Uh and it was our dream to come back here and plant a church in our city, our hometown. Uh we actually got married in the building. It's a special property to us. It means a lot to us. Uh and while we won't necessarily pay taxes because we're a church, uh I want to be a pastor. I want to be a church that makes as much community impact as possible. Uh right now we've had multiple Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce events uh that have been hosted at our building uh that we've not charged a dime for uh because we just want people of Hendersonville in our property uh in our space because we feel like God has gifted it to us for this kind of use. Uh I also uh currently right now we have a group of officers that are probably still there right now practicing jiu-jitsu. uh we offer that for free, the building to them for free as well. Uh if you ask several officers uh that are on the night shift, they meet at our property often to practice commercial building clearing. Uh so bu clearing buildings like this uh for safety protocols. Uh we don't charge them for that as well. And so we're we want to be a church that makes an impact uh with as much as we do. We want to serve the community. Uh we serve at events like the Freedom Fest. We ran golf carts. Uh, and so we just want to make as much impact as possible. Uh, and so we want to be into the city because we want to be a city church. Uh, and I love Hendersonville and our church, I believe, loves Hendersonville as well. So,

thank you. Uh, Greg Wilson, Kingdom Way.

Greg Wilson. I uh live at uh 158 Sex anyway up in Gallatin actually, but uh been part of Cornerstone Church since 1994 and been part of uh planting some churches. As a matter of fact, I helped Mr. Allison over there, Pastor Ellison, uh helped with his church and was on staff there for a little while. But my job is to come back and plant a new guy. And so when I first heard Gunnar preach, I thought, God, you're gonna do something special. And so the heart of he just described the heart of what the church is about. It's not about building buildings, not about, you know, a lot of the things that people perceive as what's going on, but it's it's it's about meeting the community. I'm involved in the community. I know several of you because of that. And uh uh with our he's offered space for our theater company. They're having a big celebration this coming Saturday for our theater company. They they're just it's a it's a giving. It's a giving. It's a giving. It's a giving. And nowadays, that's what we need most. And that's why I believe in this man and and in this man. And so, uh, I just wanted to say I'm putting my all my all my cards in because these guys are the real deal. Thank you.

Thank you, Greg. Uh, Zach Williams, Pino Drive.

[clears throat]

Zach Williams. Um, live at 133 Pinnoke Drive here in Hendersonville. Born and raised in Hendersonville. Uh, also a member of Cornerstone. Um, I I won't speak to the heart of the church because I think that's already been said a couple of times now. But the practicality of it, uh, being in the city limits means you have more control over it, which I think is an important piece to somebody that lives here in the city and wants to have more control over it. I'm a taxpayer and inside the city limits. Um, but also the practicality of it. I know if I'm there and I dial 911, the emergency services are coming all the same. Um, so whether they're paying the property taxes or not, they are going to still get the use of those said property taxes and pro property or city funding, what do you call it? Police departments, fire. Yeah, exactly. Services. Um, so I I I think from the practicality side of it for city of Hendrisville to actually have more control over it makes a lot more sense in my uh dumb brain not being in the government. Um, but I see that for as a taxpayer. So, I just wanted to put that out there from a practical side in my in my mind that we're going to be able to see the city of Hersville have more control over a situation than it does right now. So, thank you.

Appreciate that. Zack Jeff Anderson's way.

Good evening everybody. Jeff Anderson, 124 Way here in Hendersonville. Uh actually in the Windrest neighborhood as several of us here. Uh I think I'd like to first start off by saying it's nothing We're not questioning the church as a church as a whole. As Christians, I think we all want the best for all of our Christian brotherhood. But I do wonder if if we're chang I'm up here regarding the resoning. If we're going to be changing it to office, are you more likely to recruit people for your church from an office or from homes? So, if I was building a church and I wanted some new people coming to the neighborhood, I might recruit them to come to my church. So, that's a possible marketing point from the church's standpoint from my opinion. Uh, another thing is, do we really need more office space in Hendersonville? I believe we do have enough at this point to where we wouldn't have to reszone to find more. Uh, lastly, young lady right here spoke about the cottagestown homes in Madison, I believe it was. In my experience, you kind of got my gears going on that one. In my experience, a lot of those properties, a maybe a first-time home buyer buys it, maybe a single first-time home buyer buys it and they end up renting out rooms to other adults who require vehicles. So you could have two or three adults who each have their own vehicle and those properties are not intended to have that many vehicles per property and that does put a stress on infrastructure as well. Lastly, that buffer zone that people are speaking of, it's threequarters of a football field. It's not very much. We shouldn't we shouldn't be tapping into that, you know, and and reszoning. And that's my my two cents on that. Thank you all for your time.

Appreciate it, Jeff. Thank you. That's the last question we have on the public hearing. And what I'll do is when we get to citizen comments, I'll ask those folks if they want to speak again since they did sign up on the sheet for citizen comments. But right now, I'm going to entertain a motion that we approve the minutes from our April 14th meeting that were provided to you in your packet. We have a motion from Alderman Al. Okay, we have a motion for Alderman Skidmore and a second from Alderman Ward. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Now, we're on to citizen comments and we have seven people who signed up. All seven of you all spoke. So, I'm just going to ask in general. Any of y'all who spoke just a second ago, would you like to speak in citizen comments again? Okay. Okay. So, I'll just go down the list and call. The rules are the same. Okay. [laughter] So, um Jeremy, right? Yes. Go ahead.

Uh I just want to speak to the cottages. That's not accurate. We don't have cottages on our Madison property. So, we just have a church there. So, just wanted to make that known. Appreciate that. Thank you. Um, dear Lyn, do you want to speak? Yes, sir. I think it's fine what the church wants to do for its members and so forth. That's what Christian groups do. Does it mean if this doesn't pass, they're not going to do those things. That's I I don't know.

I know. I know [laughter] you're I know, mayor. But my point is this. They're they're uh telling everything they're going to do, but if this doesn't pass, does that mean they just give up on the community and the people and what they're doing now? No, that's not true. So, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Uh David Kger, do you want to speak again? Yes.

So, I think for me, I have more of a question because several spoke about the annexation, you know, coming into the city limits. perfectly fine with that. It's the reasoning that is a concern. In particular, if this property was sold off at some point and now we've reszoned it to office, whoever purchased that property could now kind of have an an open door to build, you know, office buildings three stories high, whatever they may want to back there. So, again, just trying to preserve that residential neighborhood. No concern if they come into the city limits. This is simply please keep it as residential. Totally agree with what Jeff said as well. If you're a church, office buildings aren't going to provide you, you know, with potentially more persons coming into the church at that point, more membership. I really think a community and a thriving community that actually adds on to ours adjacently is more of a positive direction to go than simply building office buildings this time in particular with a giant question mark, you know, what gets built there and who who uses it for their purpose later on. Thank you,

David. Thank you. Uh Gunner, you want to take another five? There we go. Okay. I just want to speak to the zoning. The reason we did the resoning, uh we met with Keith Free and the planning commission multiple times on what the best use would be. Uh and actually the the commercial office uh zoning that we're looking for is the lower density uh which would not allow any threetory offices or hotels or anything to be built like that. Uh, and as far as building a neighborhood, um, you know, we, uh, statistics show us people will drive by 20 churches to get to their church. Uh, so neighborhoods necessarily don't benefit the church. Uh, but we want to benefit the city. I've got two small girls, uh, Lucy and Lola. They they run me wild. Uh, and I would be blessed to not have to drive to White House to take them to daycare every day. Uh, and so under that zoning, daycare is an opportunity that can be built there. Uh there's a brand new neighborhood being built right there next to us uh with a lot of young families. I drive through it every day and pray over those houses as I'm driving through it. Uh and that's what I see is a lot of young families. And so something like that uh would benefit the city, would benefit the citizens of the city. And there's currently nothing under the uh county zoning that would prevent us from building the office space as it is right now. So thank you,

Governor. Thank you. Uh Greg Wilson, do you want to speak again? Okay. Zack Williams, would you like to speak again? I'll take this one. Okay. [laughter] [clears throat]

Uh, Zach Williams, 133 Penoke. I don't know if I can say that again. Uh, I before I opened my own business, I was actually the membership director with the Henel Chamber of Commerce. And one of the consistent problems that we had with new businesses coming in, uh, was frankly there wasn't enough office space. There is a I think there's a lot of commercial realators out there that would also argue that mer that narrative out there as well. It's very important to have that and I think more office space inside of Hendersonville where we're getting more out of city drivers coming in spending their money here in the tax area for us would actually be more beneficial than them moving here and growing in here personally to get those out of city tax dollars inside of our city. So, I know that from a firsthand experience of seeing that with a lot of businesses trying to open up and not being able, especially after the 23 tornado took out one of the largest areas of what we would call old Hendersonville over there. Um, but still, uh, something that I think is important that the office space actually comes because there's so many businesses that we have been trying to get in here that don't have enough spaces to open up and as a person who owns a business trying to find office space for myself, it was also difficult uh, to find that. So, uh, just wanted to put those two cents in there. Thank you,

Zach. Thank you, Jeff Anderson. You want another five minutes? Maybe 10 seconds. You shook your head. You shook your head no and then you got up. I was thinking no.

Um, in my opinion, as a business, I've owned multiple businesses in my life. Uh, it's never finding the office space. It's justifying the cost of the office space. If if we had zero office space available at this time and no business could come in, then I'd concede. But I don't think that's the case. We live in an incredible city. Uh you can go 10 miles west and get a lot cheaper office space. People want to be in Hendersonville for a reason. We understand that. But people have invested half a million plus in most of the homes in our area. Uh because we want to live in a city of fellow residents. We don't want to live in a downtown full of businesses area. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeff. So, next on our agenda are the three items under our consent agenda. The first is resolution 2026-15. This is a resolution to designate and rename a geographic location along Sanders Greenway at 155 to 157 Sanders Fair Road as Point Amen in recognition of its historical significance to the tenness to Tennessee and American music. The next item is resolution 2026-11. This is a resolution of the city of Hendrisville, Tennessee, requesting that the Nashville Electric Service Board of Directors include a representative this from the city of Hendersonville, Tennessee. And the other item is resolution 2026-12. This is a resolution amending the city of Hendersonville ADA transition plan to address digital accessibility requirements under title two of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Do I have a motion? We have a motion from Alderman Goodwin

and a second from Alderman Garden. Alderman Robertson, uh, isn't it appropriate that we're looking at, uh, naming a location point Amen with all the preachers in there? [laughter] Amen. Amen. Yeah. So, uh, I'd like to ask, uh, mayor, do we there is there a date for the dedication of the of point Amen? And if it is, do we know what that is? There is a date, but we don't have a time yet. Um, I'll send that out to everybody in the next Thank I just wanted to make okay um make that in the record. Okay. Any other discussion of those three items?

All those in favor of resolution 2026-15, 202611, and 202612, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. Those pass unanimously. Thank you all. Now we're on to resolution 2026-13. This is a resolution on the proposed plan of services for property being annexed located at 1 at 1402 and 1410 Kingdom Way FK/ A1402 and 1410 Stop 30 Road in Hendrisville, Tennessee, north of Highway 386, also known as Vietnam Veterans Boulevard. We have a motion from Alderman Robertson and a second from Alderman Burgdorf. Um Keith, can you help us out here?

Um and probably Lance as well. Um, ju I didn't hear anybody object to the plan of services. Um, I also didn't hear much objection to the annexation. I think we're going to get caught up into some weeds is probably the the zoning designation. Yeah. Um, in order to annex something, Keith, we have to provide a plan of services. Is that correct? Yes, mayor. That's correct. Okay. Um, and this plan of services is similar to the services that we are providing to property right next door to it. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Okay. We're not providing this property anything greater than what we're providing other property nearby.

No. And because of the proximity of where it's at, uh, we're not looking for the need to actually extend any service uh, because it's so close. That makes sense. The state of Tennessee requires that we annex property that we have to provide a plan of services. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Okay. Any other questions for Keith? any so any other uh discussion or concerns or motions on this item? Alderman Collins?

Um I just want to say that I have no objection to the annexation. My concerns will come for the reasoning. Um, for me personally, I understand the argument that as a tax-free entity, it doesn't make sense for us to annex them, but I can't have on my conscious the possibility that a church incurs a tragic event or a fire or anything of that nature and that their response is delayed when they are right there. And I This is like such a far-fetched worst case scenario, but let's say there was a fire, it could easily spread to the Windrest neighborhood. If the delay, if there's a significant delay because of the volunteer fire department service. So, I feel like it is in the best interest of Windrest to have the land annexed. Thank you.

Thank you, Alman Collins. Alman Sassy, thank you. Um, so I was looking at the map this we're only speaking on the annexation itself, right? Not on the actual zoning or are we combining? Yeah, I mean I think speaking on the annexation are fine. I think speaking on the plan of service is fine, but the zoning we need to wait till we get to the next item. Yeah. Okay.

Uh, looking at the map for this particular area, it's completely surrounded by the city of Hendersonville. It's basically like a hole right in the middle of our city. you can't get anywhere without going through the city if you go in any direction. Um, which to me doesn't make any sense. Uh, so for that for that reason among other reasons, I am in support of the annexation. I'll save the rest of my comments for later. Thank you. Alman Sassy, thank you. Alman Garza, uh, yes, a question for Keith. Yeah. No matter what goes there, there'll still be a buffering effect between them and what the neighborhood at Windrest. Would there not be?

Yeah. There's a there's that piece of property that's directly behind there uh that backs up to Windrest that isn't Windrest, but it's it's kind of a a buffer piece that goes up through there to a larger piece. I don't know. It's probably likeund maybe 125, 150 feet uh wide. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Alman Garza, thank you, Keith. Thank you. Any other discussion on this item? Uh, Alman Brook, thank you, Mayor. U speaking on to Alderman Garza's question, is that who owns that piece of property? Is that separate from the subdivision or is it uh is it the subdivision that owns that property? And do you have a plan for it to be be developed?

No. Uh that that isn't owned by the subdivision. I think that's just an individual owner. Okay. It owns really a bigger farm up through there. Uh and then that all is zoned SR1 uh just like Windrest is zoned. And uh there's no plan that we're aware of. I believe eventually I believe eventually it will uh that will develop uh back behind there and probably will develop residentially. Okay. Probably sing single family would Okay. Unless something else got approved, but but probably would be single family homes.

Okay. Thank you, Alman Bergdor. Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor of resolution 2016-13, please say I. Those those I'm sorry, 2026-13, please say I.

Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Thank you. Can you stay nearby, please? Now, we're on to first reading ordinance 2026-06. An ordinance reszoning 22.38 acres of property located at 1402 and 1410 Kingdom Way F-K A 1402 and 1410 Stop 30 Road, Hendersonville, Tennessee, north of Highway 386, also known as Vietnam Veterans Boulevard. We have a motion. We have a motion from Alderman Goodwin and a second from Alderman Garden. Um Keith, if you can help us out a little bit here.

Yes. Um what that first step was uh the plan of services is like step one of the annexation. Uh then at the next Bulma meeting this will be on the agenda. The annexation will be on there. This is separate. Uh this is um uh to do with reszoning the property uh once uh and if it is annexed into the city. Uh currently the property is zoned residential out in the county. And then what they're requesting is they're requesting office uh zoning. Uh the office zoning actually complies with our future land use plan. So in addition to our zoning or zoning uh map, we have a map that says uh future land use plan that says, hey, this is the kind of uses and the types of zoning that we want to see in the future in different growth areas. Uh and in this particular area uh it's in the regional I believe it's in the regional activity center uh which in this specific area uh includes office. So residential isn't uh in that uh if they were wanting to do residential they would have had to request a change to the future land use plan uh in order to do residential. Uh so office the office they're requesting uh church is a conditional use permit in office. So if office was granted the church would come into the city under office zoning uh and it would just be basically immediately grandfathered in uh as as a uh as a as a place of worship. So that use is allowed but it's conditioning allowed. Uh and I think that's uh I think that's about it. I think just to correct what I think was said a little bit earlier, uh there are some height requirements. It's not limited to just one or two stories. I think there's 45 foot height require

height limitation on buildings, but up against residentially zoned property, then that comes down a little bit where you can't get right up on the property line. So there there's some different nuances with that. So Keith, when they came in requesting uh annexation, I assume that you told them we have to assign a zoning use that's in our zoning code. That's correct. Okay. We can't allow the zoning co the zoning use that's in the county zoning code because it provides different uses than ours. Is that

Yes. And uh I'll just uh the the conversations that we had uh and we had several uh when they were looking at this really from the get-go from the discussions they had they had with me uh was the church just wanted to come into the city. They really didn't necessarily have a a strong desire for a particular zone. One thing they did say and they made it very clear they did not want to do anything residentially. They didn't want homes on the site. So they now or in the future. So they really that's one thing they didn't make clear. Uh so uh the best fit really was office uh because uh because with commercial or anything else uh then you would have had to you would have had to change the future land use plan.

So what you most likely did was you looked at the future land use plan and then told them this is the zoning designation you need in Hendersonville if you're going to be annexed in Hendersonville. Yeah. Is that without having to ex ask for a bunch of extra. Okay. Exactly. Which then it would be against the future land use plan and especially they weren't really doing want to do residential but if they were wanting to do residential then you can imagine that would be challenging because then you're going to change the future land use plan and then you know [clears throat] what would be before you this evening would be something that's residential. Uh you know so within that within that particular area and if they did not seek annexation they could build build residential. Yes. Okay. under the count under the county

under the county county county guidelines and they could also build office that I'm not they may have had those discussions with the county. I'm not I'm not for sure. I know that the buildings that they have uh are uh if they're

if they're not permitted uses their grandfather the grandfathered in. I I might just explain just for a little bit of history on it. this particular site, the the the building in front and the church behind it, all of that used to be in our planning region. So, if everybody maybe not familiar, just a few up till a few years ago, we had a planning region where basically we dictated the zoning outside the city limits for areas that we might uh annex into the future. Uh but then uh the county retracted that back the authority back and so then uh we don't have that authority anymore. So, we used to actually have zoning on on that on that property, and I think it conformed with uh with uh for the church use and the office use at that time.

If we don't pass this, um could we still annex the property?

Well, the the applicant has really tied the the initial request for annexation to that zoning classification. That doesn't mean and it may be something Lance can weigh in. If if there is an if there is a change from office to something else then and there and the church is agreeable to it and it works for them and it's something that you all want. More than likely that would have to then go probably go back to the planning commission because now it's it's a different it's a different zone that the planning commission has not uh had opportunity to to comment on. So, it would probably send it back

if if that was was the case. Okay. No, I mean, I concur. It would we wouldn't be able the city wouldn't be able to do it unilaterally. You would still need owner consent. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um I've got some more questions, but I'll I'll um I'll think on those for a second. Alderman Goodwin Keith, I have a question for you. Normally I'm opposed to reszoning when people buy it. I feel like they know what they're buying. But in this case, I have a concern. And my question is, and I want to just make sure I understand it correctly. If we don't approve this reszoning, the county can approve whatever they want and the city would lose complete control over what goes there. That's correct.

Okay. I will be supporting this reasoning for that reason so we can have control. Goodwin. Thank you, Alman Collins. Um, I have one question for you. It's that, um, a member of your staff indicated to me that through aerial something, the [clears throat] distance at the narrower point between Windrest and this property was estimated at 250, but I believe you just said one. Yeah, I I did not do a measurement on that, but if one of my staff said that, that's that's the that's the amount. I just wanted to make sure that would that does not sound I told people it was 250.

No, that's fine. That's fine. I did not do a measurement. I just kind of looked at it, but if if they measured it, that's that's that would be right.

Okay. Um that's all the questions I have for you, Director Free. Um I just wanted to say that generally speaking, the neighborhoods on Saundersville Road don't want more housing. Um, however, Windrest is different um and distinct from a lot of the neighborhoods on Saundersville Road. And um they feel I mean I think a lot of the people in that neighborhood feel like they've been mistreated by the city, including myself from time to time. And um they already have offices in the nursery in the front and then they're bordered on one side by the bypass. And if we resone to office and then the Galloway property asks to be reszoned to office as well, we would have less ground to deny that. and they have the of course not all of them but the vast majority of them have indicated to me that they really want residential behind them. So whereas absolutely the majority of Saundersville Road does not want more residential Windrest is distinct and they are distr distinct partially because of their location right next to 386. They bear the brunt of the exit 8 issues and um [clears throat] [laughter] I understand that it will take a lot more rigomearo to go through the process again but I am not going to be able to support office in this

particular instance. Thank you alderman Collins. Thank you Alman Evans. Just a clarification. So, when we're talking about the office and I'm I'm sorry I'm probably being very um um Yeah, I'm just kind of filling that blank. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah, thank I know, right? Um but when you're talking about this and in an office, um in my mind, I'm v envisioning something much it's much like those offices, those office suites that are on Saundersville Road.

That's in my mind I'm thinking that. So, I'd like to ask or find out, and maybe the church doesn't know, but are these offices going to be for sale? Are they are they going to be renting? Is is the church going to um own these properties and then they're just going to rent them out? Because to me, that makes a a difference. And and the reason I ask it that way is because I'm kind of confused with the way it is right now. It's zon residential. If the church is going to have a church there and that land stays as it is, they can still have the church.

I I don't really understand the need for um there must be something else there that as far as them wanting to have it the zoning change so they can do the offices. Are they wanting to add more? And I don't really understand and agree with the whatever you're saying about the fact that you know our regional and making this office or whatever.

In my mind if if the church is going to have a church there does it really matter whether it's um residential versus it gets a reasonzoning for the office. So, we might suspend the rules here, but Keith may so [clears throat] maybe the I think the question we're getting to is we were the one who suggest our staff is one who suggested office. That wasn't their that wasn't the applicant's intention. Is that correct? And so yeah, I and you'd have you'd have to have to applicants on kind of where they're coming from, why they want

Well, I I'll suspend the rules, but you but you're right, uh, mayor, the fact that the the office, the planning department made that suggestion to them, at least that's what I'm hearing. Yes. So, why do we make that why did we make that offer to them when it could just stay as residential? Because I think the whole thing I'm hanging up on here is that I'm fine with the church being there and for it growing and for them adding on to the church, but my concern is having some part of this being a business and that it being sold and and that that become more um not just office but office with maybe potential some commercial, I don't know. But right,

why did the why did the planning department come to them saying this needs to be office? Well, one of the first things that that they and they can they can state it for themselves, but one of the first things that they stated is they didn't want any residential now or in the future. So, they didn't want any opportunity for any future

opportunity for future residential. And then uh from the city's perspective, the future land use plan that the planning comm the planning commission adopts that that states, you know, has the boundaries of when they're re making recommendations on reszonings said that that should be office. But I still go back to the fact that just because if the church is going to own it and they don't want residential, they have the say about whether they're not going to put residential. If they own all that land, what's the I mean And that's something that's something they would have to but again but again my question

uh director free is the fact that okay well the church is going to own the land. If they don't want residential they're not going to put residential there. So I don't understand the and and maybe that was the overlay as far as what we want in the regional plan. But I I just I kind of see don't see the the need and the confusion there for the change of the resoning when they still get to do what they want to do in far as far as having the church. Again, my problem is and the hangup I'm having with this is the office space and that there are businesses going to be on that property beyond just the church. Right.

Gunner, do one of you all want to answer this? Um, so we're going to suspend the rules to to hear from some folks answer this question. I really just want to answer the question. Okay. Um, I don't want to get into debate and not really long long statements. Um, I will cut you off. Yeah. Okay. You're fine. So Mark, you want to ask you? Go ahead. Uh um so so my question is what's the thought of the church as far as what's the reasoning by having an office space there that um I'm assuming it's not going to be something that the church will have offices there. It's office space that you're either going to want to sell to other entities or that you're going to rent to others.

Uh yeah, we're uh we're in the people business, not the development business. So, we would, if it's advantageous for our people, uh, portion some of that off to sell, uh, and in our meetings with the planning commission, uh, the having to zone annex in and reszone or to, uh, residential would have to make a change to the future land use plan for Hendersonville just seemed like a whole lot of hoops to jump through. And this would be the more I mean, the easier route uh, to get into the city. uh and it fit the city's plan and what the city's wanting as well as what the church is looking to do as well.

So, if I may, I'm just going to kind of summarize what I think. So, I think that the the church has this land and there's a big there's a portion of the land that ultimately you're not going to need and you want the opportunity to sell it um to others. My concern is that we're we're talking about this as something for the church. the church wants a piece of this that they that they would like to sell off and and and make some money for the church. And I get that. But then my concern is it's the what if. What what who are we going to sell that to? Who are you going to sell that to? And are you going to have um do you have the um you know, is it going to be a business that the church would like to have as neighbors? Are you going to have that, you know, that discretion? So that's that's some of my concern. and and as a person who uh represents the war that this kind of butts up to, um I'm concerned about okay well what do we open the gates for here as far as office or business or whatever and does that open the floodgates for what is going to happen across the the road on stop 30.

Yes, sir. Yeah, you you're my alderman. So, [laughter] uh, we we, uh, yeah, we would not sell to just any anybody that makes an offer. And we currently don't have anybody that's made an offer or we're looking at buying. This could be something, you know, 10 years down the road. Uh, we're just looking at something that would be most advantageous for our people and that's going to best serve our people. Uh, and so that's what that's what we would do. Uh, we we would not work with anybody that would degrade the name of our church or the name of our God or degrade our city. Uh, and so as a resident of your um your ward, um, you know, things like a selling to a daycare that would benefit young families, that would be something that would be in our best interest as a church, but me also as a dad. Uh, and so stuff like that, I don't know if that fully answers your question or not, but uh, yeah, we're we don't currently have any plans to sell it next week. Um, and so we're we're just kind of sitting on it and we'll see what the Lord brings us.

Alderman Evans, thank you. Al Robertson. Thank you. Governor Keith, uh, is it the G Galloway land? Yes, that's correct. That's next to that. Is that in our uh future land use and transportation plan? Is that land in it as well? Yes. Yes. Um, and we've had no inquiries about that property that that you can speak of as far as developing it or No, it would have to be annexed too, correct? No, it's already in. It's in the city. Okay. Now, you're talking about the property directly behind it next to Windrest. Yeah. And yeah, that's correct.

This 250 foot buffer. Yeah. It's a big piece. It's a big piece of property. Yeah. Yeah. Behind there. So what would be allowed under this zoning, this business class zoning? What would be allowed under the office that they're requesting? Yes.

Of course, all the things you can kind of imagine with office, uh but then also uh personal services. So, could be a hair salon, could be a daycare, could be adult daycare, uh could be um could be a hotel, uh could be could be independent living, uh could be um could be a dry cleaner. There's limit there's limits on uh couldn't be a restaurant unless it was associated with a office complex. So, if you had an office complex, then you could maybe have a uh a restaurant or a small retail. Uh but generally, retail would not be uh would not be allowed there.

What What about an athletic field or any anything like that? It's possible. Yeah. A training could could maybe do an athletic training facility. I'm not sure necessarily about an outdoor, but definitely I think an indoor uh would be that'd be a personal service. So that would be allowed, but the I'm not for sure about the the track or the field.

Um, okay. I'm I'm going to ask the church some questions. I uh in your experience uh what would be the traffic impact uh of office compared to if this is residential? Uh generally speaking and it depends on it depends on the intensity of office. So that can really range. Uh generally speaking uh residential um uh is way lower of a traffic generator uh than office or commercial or even even a church. Uh so generally residentially is a lot less. So, uh, Pastor Gunner again and just wait, Keith. Uh, in our deliberations, if the applicant agrees, we can restrict certain buildings from commercial from the zoning. Correct?

No, we cannot. Not in this instance. So what they're what they're requesting is straight zoning. So if it was a planned development, uh then we could do all kinds of things. We could limit uses, add uses, and limit the kinds specific kinds of uses. But this is just this is just straight zoning. It's not a uh it's not a plan development. But even if they voluntarily agreed No. to that would be and Lance can probably address it, but that would be there's a word for it. exaction.

That'd be an exaction uh through straight zoning and that's that's not legally allowed even if they wanted to do it. Uh we couldn't codify that uh to hold them to it. Okay. Well, that I don't think I need the church then. I was I was going to try to do a little negotiating here.

I do appre I do appreciate that. Uh um yeah, I I I'm going I'm going to support this uh uh because I I trust the church. I trust that that they're going to do what's best for the church and what's best for the church is best for the community. So, uh you know, my father being a pastor, retired pastor, past pastor, I'm just going to go I'm going to trust the church on this and think that they will. Now, uh, if there is a, uh, further development of this after it's reszoned, it will not come back to us. Correct.

Uh, that's correct. If it's one of those allowed uses, there would just be site plans and plats and all that just would go to the uh to the planning commission. And if if it is developed, uh, Keith, what kind of buffer would you expect uh, a setback from the from the Callaway Galloway property? I think strip 20 ft. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I think I think it would uh it would depend on the specific office related use. Uh but typically that would be a type C buffer I believe. Uh that would be about 20 ft. But that can be reduced if you're doing a wall and fencing and things like that.

I don't want to reduce it. I want to increase it. So increase it. Huh? Can we increase it? No. Not not in the if it was a planned development, we certainly could. Uh but in this instance with it straight zoning, it would just be you know what our zoning ordinance. Uh so it' be 20 feet plus the 250 ft. Yes. And probably we we would also require some kind of tree vegetation or something. Oh yeah. To protect Yeah. to to to provide even more of a screen. Correct.

Yeah. There'd be an evergreen screen there. And I will confirm uh from the uh alderman earlier about the 250 ft. Uh I fine folks in the booth back here. They did just go ahead and measure that and it is two it is 250.23 okay feet that distance. I just want to confirm that. So we're looking at an additional 20 ft buffer plus some kind of vegetation evergreen within that buffer within that 20 foot. Okay. Not outside of it but within that 20 foot. Okay. That that's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Alman Robertson. Uh thank you. Alman Collins. press your button next, but Alderman Sassy hasn't spoken yet, so we're going to go to Alderman Sassy.

Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, Alderman Collins. [laughter] Um, Keith, I'm glad you didn't go far. Yeah, I got questions for you. Um so at the location of well first of all let me ask you what what's the density on this for this off if we accept this office zoning what would be the density of how many how many square feet or how many what would we be looking at there at this location? We haven't we haven't looked at that. Uh so I we know what it is based on that dens uh based on that zoning right or

Yeah. So the um is the church church 10,000 square feet roughly? I think it is. Yeah. Roughly I think roughly the church is 10,000 square feet. So um you can imagine with that balance of that that other uh acreage uh that doesn't have things on it.

Okay. That doesn't have anything on it. uh then um you know could be I' I'd hate to say exactly but uh it could be it could be quite a bit you know especially if you went up but what's going to dictate really the the square footage is going to be the parking so the parking requirements are going to then limit the square foot of any commercial of commercial development can the parking be with within that 250 ft buffer that we were just talking about no No. So, it's all green space. That's all that's all green space within within there. Okay.

So, but we do have diff we do have different um things on the setbacks and the height and and all those different things that would would control that. Uh but um but probably, you know, thinking about they're they're not proposing they have a plan for that, but I think somebody mentioned the office condos offers road. You kind of see how that that is and and uh you know something of that size could certainly you know fit within fit within this acreage. Okay. And you said it was a height it was height restricted to because it's near residential

uh just in general office is limited to 45 ft in height. But if it's adjacent to residential, which this would be, uh then uh there's some further things on how close it is to the property line, uh then then we have a measurement that we do. So if you're doing a taller, but if you're doing the whole 45 ft, you might not be able to do it right up against the property line. You've got to you've got to get away from the property line.

So would that be on in addition to the 250 or is that is that what you is that what the 250 includes? Now it would be to the edge of that 250. So you know you'd have this property the 250 ft and then Windrest and then uh that measurement of however you calculate the height would be on the church side. Uh not that in between but just right there on the church's okay boundary. Yeah. Not up against Windrest. And um one more question for you. Could a private school go there? I'd have to look at that. Um I didn't I'd have to look at that to see

because we all know restaurants not going there. We can't keep restaurants open in some areas and it's a horrible location for restaurants. Uh let me look just real quick. I can answer that. I believe real quick is coming. Let me give you that back. Thank you, sir. Uh, I'd have to look uh on the educational things. I'm thinking that it would be, but I want to look at it before I give you that. But I can sit down. I I'll get that. Yeah, let me know when you find that out. Um, that was all the questions I had. You know, I'm I'm really leaning towards approving this. And here's why.

You look at Stop 30 Road, you got Hendersonville, Hendersonville, and then it's this little strip that's not Hendersonville. So, they're going to be using, and like I mentioned before, it's surrounded by Hendersonville. Whatever goes here is going to be using city services no matter what. You mentioned earlier, you know, uh about fire protection. We take care of people. We don't I know,

you know, if there's a fire and we're the closest, we're going to respond. We always do. That's just being good stewards to our neighbors. Um, so I'm really that that really doesn't deter me at all in my decision- making here. Um, but what does what the thing I do need to take into account is how this affects our existing residents, the people who we live and talk to every day, right? This is right there. We We need to control this property. [snorts] We need to honestly all that property. It's it's surrounded by Hendersonville. I would prefer it be in Hendersonville, but that's not the case currently. Um, and this makes sense to me. I hear we hear every day, you know, too many too many homes, too many residents. Our schools are full to the max. We can't we we're we're maxed out. We can't can't take another home in Andersonville. And I know that we we have the capacity for like another 10,000 residents based on just our current land uh available. residential availability of land. Um, but we've I I don't know about you, I was elected by my constituents because they said enough is enough. We can't handle it anymore. Um, traffic's atrocious. Our schools are overcrowded. Um, and uh, do whatever you can to reduce the this growth of the city. This is one way that I think that we can really make a difference and take some control of of our neighboring properties. That just makes sense to us. So, I'm I'm pretty confident I'm going to support this, but still still considering. That's all I have to say. Thanks,

Alderman Sassy. Thank you, Alderman Collins. Um, Director Free, I do have a question for you. And then, um, so if this were zoned SR1, how many homes would fit on this property? 22 22 60 20,000. So it's 20 22 acres would be the balance of that or say 20 acres. Uh so that'd be no more than three. So three

probably justif in there it'd probably be maybe 45 or 50 would fit in there. 45 or 50 homes under county zoning. No, under our under under if it was S. You said SR1. Yeah, that's our that's our that's what the Galloway farm is zoned, right? is SR1. SR1. The the county zoning is um um R R1 R A R R R there's somebody

rural res it's rural residential uh and uh I think they they may have checked into it but uh I think it's typically about one one lot an acre. So that would be I guess 20. So you could yield at least double that if you came into the city. So help me understand your answer, Keith. Is it we left it in the county with RR zoning, they could build 20 houses on it.

Yeah, if it was all acre lots, but it's probably a lot le a little bit less because they'd have to have a road. So it'd probably be probably they'd net maybe 14 or 15 homes, maybe. Does that include the the part that the church is on and the parking lot for the church or just the I think it's mostly the balance. I think it's okay. It's a little under 20 acres that kind of unused balance. But then this includes um keep in mind this this includes the church property, but it also includes the office the different a different church office that's in the front which is separate. These are two totally separate

entities. Yeah. So Okay. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. And then um Gunner, isn't that your first name? Okay, Pastor Franks, could I ask you a question? Um, I understand that you were led to the zoning of office. Um, if it were zoned residential, would you is that a deal breaker? I mean, does that make this would and maybe you can't I don't know if I have the authority to speak on talking to your board. Yeah. But um

yeah, we just had no we just had no desire to do residential based on the recommendation with the planning commission because everybody in Hendersville is concerned with the over building of homes. And so we felt like this was the best use of the land to help meet that need and help kind of curve and correct that. Uh and so this we felt like this would be the low density of of office commercial use.

Thank you. I I completely understand where you're coming from. Um, I just want to I appreciate your time. I just want to reiterate that Windrest is and they're really special part of the ward because of their geography. It and they've there's other things they have this tumultuous history with the city. [snorts] It's been rough. um things like nobody even could understand who owned the marquee sign to their neighborhood, who was supposed to maintain it, back and forth and back and forth. Oh, we've had a time. Um they do not want to have an increased risk of that 250 ft. And I'm probably the one who spoke of it as a buffer. It's a third property. It's not a buffer. It's somebody else's property at some point. Well, they don't have any intention to develop it now, but at some point in time, everything is going to get developed. So, that will be developed. And the possibility of making it easier for that to be office is more risk than this than the Windrest community wants to take. not wanting residential as a general rule. I certainly prefer um commercial property tax over residential property tax. That's as a rule. That is all true. However, if your neighborhood were bordered on two sides by office and one side by the bypass, I think that's a significant I don't know that that h is the case

anywhere else in the city and creating that here does not seem appropriate to me. over 45 or 50 homes. So, I just I urge you to consider the opinions of the people that live in Windrest, the investment that they made in their homes. The expectation has changed over time. Um, but now we have control over it potentially and it could be residential, which is what they are asking for. And I will [clears throat] say that while there's only u four people from Wingrest here tonight, I do think a lot of people intended to come but for the weather. So, um I think they'll be here next week or next time. Thank you,

Alderman Collins. Thank you, Alderman Evans. I just we have some uh there's some discrepancies in in some things that we have been shared. So, I just want to make sure we're clear. So, we're talking about 22.4 acres is what we're talking about. Correct. roughly. Yes. All right. And of that 22.4 acres, how much of it does the church own? Because you mentioned something about there's a different church in the front of that property? What is that church and how much of that land do they own?

That's right. Yeah. I believe and the church can can tell me if it's different but I believe that front uh portion uh I believe that is maybe a little less than two acres maybe maybe a little over but I think a little bit less than two and then the balance of it that the church that's here this evening uh is uh is about 22 the 22.4 is the part that's in blue it does not include the front property that No, it it does include it. Yeah. So the 22 22.38 is is everything.

We're talking about two different things. Um so the blue area includes 22.4 and there is a church to the left of that that is not included in the 22.4 I believe. No, I think that's all included in the the total of both properties. Both properties are 22.3.

So you can see my concern. We don't [laughter] so we don't have a consensus about what we're even talking about here. Because part of what my concern is that we were talking about I don't even know how much acreage we're talking about. We've got another church that's here. You've and and what I want to ask about the church that Cornerstone owns. What's the square footage of the church and then or and is it church and then I guess educational classrooms and that kind of thing? How is it 10,000 square feet? I'm sorry. I'm not sure. Hold on. Gunar, do you want to try that one? Somebody needs to know that. It's somewhere in that ballpark. Okay.

And then that's not a church. That's actually an office space next to us. That's the Assemblies of God. Okay. Yep. But still need to have that question answered, Director Free, as far as whether that's included in the 22.4. So, the reason I'm asking these questions, Director Free, is because you're talking about if it stays as residential, you could build 20 or whatever homes, how many ever homes you're you're talking about, right? But that's assuming that the church doesn't have a a presence there because they have to have the church property. They have to have parking and all that. So

if if the church if the church in the back so the front is roughly about 1.9 and then the balance of the 22.38 is this church property, the big the big squareish. So 20 acres. Yeah. 20 acres. Okay. And then that 20 acres, if it was zoned SR1 and brought into the city and zoned SR1 and you got rid of the church and you just developed it all residentially, you could do uh you could do around 40 homes, maybe about 43. Okay, that's what it would be. That's clear. You we didn't make that very clear. So that would mean if you were going to have it residential, then the church would not exist there any longer to have the 45 homes. Yeah. If you kept the church,

then you're going to look at it and if you just took 10 acres, then it just be half that. So, it' be maybe 20. Okay. 22 homes. Okay. Roughly if you kept the church. Okay. That's why that makes sense.

Yeah. I was trying to get that [clears throat] clear because it was the numbers weren't weren't weren't meshing with me. Okay. Um, so it, and I don't know if maybe Gunner or if somebody has this this answer, but how much of this 20 acres roughly that's left is the church going to to keep as far as their ministry and what they're doing there, maybe for potential growth, for whatever. How much of it are they keeping? And then how much of those 20 acres are you potentially thinking that you're going to sell for office space? If we were to parcel some off, it would only be somewhere around 15 of the acres. So 15 of 20. Yeah. So that's

So we would keep all of our existing uh where our building already is, all the parking uh and then a and a very sizable chunk that runs the whole length of the interstate or bypass. So if I'm So we're talking about 15.4 acres here then is what you're thinking you want to sell off as for office. Yes. You can see the fence line right there. And if you trace that fence line all the way to the end of our property, that's what we would keep to protect the bypass, anything getting built against that. I'm sorry. Then that would be 32.

So here's here's my uh there's a I had no problem with the resoning. I mean, I'm sorry, with the um annexation of this. My problem all along has been the reasonzoning. I just didn't see the need in that. And this is in my mind, and I'm sorry to say this, this just makes it worse for me is because you're talking about 75% of your property you want to sell off to as an office. Um, and I'm cons and because we don't know what that could be, what that would do to that area. That that's where I have a concern and so I'm not going to support this. Sorry, Alderman Evans. Thank you. Keith, yes, they could sell off that property right now under county zoning. Is that correct? That's correct.

Thank you. And mayor, I did have an answer to okay to alderman Sassy's question earlier. So on the question about the schools, so like um elementary and high school is allowed but only under a conditional use permit, but a vocational school or a college or something like that, that is a permitted use. So on the answer that question, thank you. I appreciate that. Any other questions? Any other discussions? Keith, help us with the process here, please. So, if we pass this on first reading, two weeks from now, we have the annexation ordinance. Is that correct?

Correct. You'll have the annexation ordinance. Uh, and then right after that, you'll have the second reading of this of this resoning. If this resoning um failed this evening, then the whole thing just stops. Okay? So then uh you know you've app approved the plan of services but you haven't taken action you know to annex the property and if the um um if the reasonzoning does not pass then that just stops the whole thing. We have to pass the plan of services we have to pass the resoning and we have to pass the ordinance to annex all of them for it to actually take effect. That's correct. And which would happen at the next meeting if it made it through this meeting.

Gotcha. Okay. Jason Jason ready for us? Oh, I'm sorry. Alderman Burgor, thank [clears throat] you. Um, my question stems to the whatifs. If this uh ordinance, if the petitioner would like to pull the ordinance tonight and revisit that with planning, is that something they could do? No. Who are you asking? Anyone? The mayor. [laughter] Well, technically they don't. I mean, it's it's it's our motion. It's not

their motion. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Clary. Yeah. Thank you. Um Okay. Thank you. That was all. I was wondering if there was another classification that might suit uh our needs and their needs better. Uh but I think um that's all I wanted to propose. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Al Brooker. Jason, ready for us?

So, we're voting on item five and it's ordinance 2026-06. This is to reszone 22.38 acres. Um from uh we need really it's to zone because if we bring it if we annex it, it doesn't have a city zoning designation. Um, if we choose not to annex it two weeks from now, then it stays in the county with the current zoning that it has. Um, we can't bring it in. We can't annex it without placing a zoning designation. All of our property in city of Hendrisville has zoning. So, we have to put a zoning designation on there. So, uh, press the green button if you're in favor of ordinance 2026-06. Press the one red one if you're opposed. Who we missing? Oh, we got everybody. Hold on just a second, Jason. So, that passes nine to two. Voting in favor, Alderman Burgdorf, Skidmore, Ward, Sassy, Garza, myself, Alderman Goodwin, Garton, Robertson, and voting against Alman Evans and Alderman Collins. Okay, thank you, Jason. So, next item we have is ordinance and this so this will come up, Keith, am I correct? This will come up in two weeks with the annexation ordinance.

Uh, it'll be in a month from now. Okay. So, we'll pass. So we if we pass first reading in two weeks of the annexation ordinance, then we have both of these four weeks from now. Now this is the way this works. The way this works is the plan of services that you did this evening. That's step one of the annexation. Step two is the meeting a month from now. Okay. Uh to approve the annexation and then the resoning. So we don't deal with any of these two weeks from now. No. Okay. Okay. Appreciate I think it's the May the 26. Is that the Does that sound right? I think I think it is. Okay. Okay. Okay. You all are welcome to contact the city hall. Alderman Evans. Does that make sense? Yeah. Was wondering because I've not not ever done this before, but is there a public hearing? There will be.

Oh, yeah. And go ahead. And I might just know recognize as well there's been publication. We've sent notices to to everybody and so um all that all the the public around those all those areas that we they've been notified. So, we've we've kept people in touch. Alman Sassy, a question about the process. Yeah. Um, so we just voted on this on first reading and we still we have one more reading of of this particular ordinance, but the annexation is going to require two readings as well. No, the annexation just requires one reading.

No. and Lance could probably cl maybe clarify, but on annexation it's confusing because the state uh the state statutes call it a resolution. So that's actually um the reasonzoning is an ordinance, but the plan of services is a resolution as well as the final annexation is a is a resolution. You're still you're still touching it twice. So it's kind of like we normally would do. We would touch an ordinance twice. Uh, so you're touching it touching it twice, but it's just it's called a it's called something a little bit different. I mean, we've never I've never done the annexation before. Yeah, it it is very it is very uh very very confusing. It is. Thanks.

Thank you, Keith. So, next item we have is reading resolution 2026-03. This is an ordinance amending has Hendersonville municipal code title 2 chapter 2 board of parks and recreation title 2 chapter 4 regarding golf course commission title 8 chapter 2 regarding the beer board and the 2024 zoning ordinance to allow compensation for members of certain certain boards. I so moved. Do we have a second? Second.

We have a second from Alderman Garza. Um what probably help as far as the explanation is that is if you turn to page 63 we've got a chart there um that shows in green the boards that we have that make final decisions. Um in white are the boards and committees that make recommendations and most of those recommendations end with us and the board of man alderman make final decisions. Among those boards and committees and commissions that make final decisions, beer board, ourselves, uh, BCA, golf course commission, parks board, planning commission, storm water appeals. Um, if you look all the way to the right, you see which ones are compensated, um, of those ones that I just read that make decisions that make final decisions, really set policy for the city. Um, beer board makes final decisions but is not compensated. Bulma, obviously we are. Uh BZA makes final decisions not compensated. Um golf course commission makes final decisions not compensated. Parks board makes final decisions not compensated. Planning commission makes final decisions and makes recommendations. They are compensated. Storm water appeals board they make decisions final decisions and they are compensated. So what I'm trying to do is get our code um consistent. Um and you see before that and I won't read through all that. you see before the type of decisions that those four outliers, the type of decisions that they make and the outliers are the beer board, the board of zoning appeals, the golf course commission, and the parks board. And so what I want to do is I want to hand these out and this will give you an idea of the folks who are on those committees and that are serving for us. And believe me, these folks did not come forward and ask to be compensated. Um, I want consistency in the way that we treat our our board members right now. And I also want to to raise the expectations, especially with training. I'll get to that in just a second. Searching C is the parks board

uh members Jeremiah Bennett, Thomas Golden, Milan Helman, Ken Hess, Bob Mononttoya, Bubba Perry, Mike Pike, Jimmy Head, Joe Rather. The beer board currently is Michael Kra now, Larry Fina, Rick Fox, Andrew Kesmar, Timothy Manion, Dave Mum, David Pigna. Current golf course commiti commission is Danny Bell, uh Todd Burnham, Chris Fairman, Rob Planger, and Corey Langford. And the current municipal board of zoning appeals is Don Ames, Brian Ray, Dale Duel, Tyrone Jay, and Nick Ivy. I am not asking us to appropriate money to pay them. I'm just trying to get our code um consistent so that all the committees and commissions that make decisions on our behalf that they can be paid. Uh we talked a little bit last night as far as the the the budget, that's what it would take for us actually decide to pay them. I'm hoping to get our code consistent so that the committees, commissions, boards that make final decisions that they they can be paid. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that. Um, obviously those of you here last night, you saw how tight things are. Um, coming up with what the right amount of compensation would really depend on how much training I feel like they that they should have. And I'll tell you, especially with a board, well, board of zoning appeals and beer board, um, there are a lot of legalities that go into what they're doing on our behalf. And I think they should be trained more. It's hard to force a volunteer to go through four or eight hours of training when we're also forcing them to come on a volunteer basis to city hall uh typically once a month. Um same thing with parks board. Um and uh to me, same thing with golf course commission. Um there's one other thing I was going to mention to you. um if I come forward with a request in the budget to pay them, I will also bring at

that time what I expect the training to be. Um it's [snorts] it's hard for me to just say that these folks should be paid for decision that they're making if they haven't been trained to make those decisions. And so you'll hear more about that then. Again, this is not appropriate any money. This is just bringing our code uh into consistency. Alderman Sassy. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question for you uh if that's okay. Sure. So, last night during our workshop, it was proposed during on one of the slides, there was actually a line item showing that if approved

uh that it would cost $17,000 for this uh for the for six months. So, why would that be presented to us if there wasn't the intention to immediately start paying these boards? Well, it was presented to you because I wanted to be upfront. And you notice on the top of that page, it said other possible expenses. Um, so it wasn't presented as something that was in the budget, nor were the other two items on that sheet.

Okay. Uh, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, I'm [sighs] we've been through this down this road before and my position hasn't changed. I'm a believer that these citizens serve on a board be because they love our city and um they're volunteering for our city. You start paying them, they no longer become volunteers. uh and then there is a financial component that could be used potentially against him. I'm not saying that this mayor this mayor's administration or this uh Bulma would do that, but it could happen in future administration as well. These citizens do it out of the goodness of their heart because they love our city and because they think it's the right thing to do. they want to have an impact in our city. Um, paying them changes that. Uh, and so as as before, I I just can't support it for that reason. Thank you.

Thank you, Alman Sassy. Alman Brook. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this. Um, what we're looking at is the last time we it was brought forward, um, it was pulled, uh, based upon some concerns. I bring I appreciate you bringing take I fixing it. Uh you said you want to tweak it. Uh can you identify what tweaks you made in this one versus the last one? So the one that went through committee before um actually had the amount of compensation uh at that time. So I took out that compensation uh to show how focused I was on the consistency of other boards that make final decision as well as my focus on training. That's how it's different.

All right. Great. Are the uh staff are the staff I'm sorry are they will be staffed once we pay them but no um are the volunteers being p uh trained now some of them are receiving training. Yeah, some of them are. Um, but for the most part, no. No training. Is it not required? Similar to this board, there's no requirement to be trained. Okay. All right. Um, just so is the is it are we looking at a carrot and a stick situation here? Are you encouraging training by um encourage uh wanting to offer the option for payment?

No, I haven't decided what the training would be at this point. I'm just trying to bring this into consistency with the other decision- making. Have we consulted in task regarding some of these um options? No, we consulted our city attorney. The I'm sorry. We consulted our city attorney.

Our city attorney. Okay. All right. Thanks. Um, I've did a little I've did a little research. Um, one of the things I did note when I did look at the local cities that are paying uh or that are not paying, I should say, it's the most of those in Sar County are not paying their boards. um BZA, parks board, beer board, some of these are and um Portland um and the city to the north. I won't mention the name. Good idea.

Okay, good. [laughter] Um then they go over to Wilson County [snorts and clears throat] and see that based upon what I found, the BZA is unpaid, the beer board's unpaid, and the parks and greenways board is unpaid. Then just for kicks, I go to um Metro Nashville and the board of zoning and appeals serves without comp compensation. It's in the charter uh based upon they don't want any conflict of interest or any appearance of conflict of interest in any way, shape or form because they are dealing with a lot of uh people's livelihoods. Let's be quite honest. Um, so that to me, if we're going to practice a standard, um, then the standard across the Middle Tennessee community is unpaid volunteers. And if you pay volunteers, they're no longer volunteers. Um the other other piece of it is if you want to continue to pay if you want to begin to pay volunteers there's only one um as far as I know I could be wrong but the what I found was in Williamson County Brentwood is mostly unpaid. They're they're unpaid. Um but Franklin um they had some stipens uh but they have many boards that were volunteers so and that's okay. So, but the overall trend in Middle Tennessee among municipalities and I would dare say some counties as well, county governments as well, is to allow the volunteers to be volunteers and serve as volunteers, giving of their time, efforts, and energy. And you know, I dare say that many of them that already serve would be happy

to um take on any further training that was presented because if they're going to go ahead and leave their house at dinnertime and come up here and sit in a chair and do the work for the city and the community and their cohorts, I'm sure I'm I'm certain they would be willing to take on any other task that training would require because that would only make their job better. it would only make them serve better. It would only make them more efficient at their job. I don't think what um I'm going to just um leave that there. And um not only that, but there's the monetary aspect of it and then there's the HR aspect. If if some people take the money and some people don't take the money, then what kind of division is that going to create among our boards? I know we want to present unity. Um but uh and for these reasons and and a couple others, I'm I'm going to have to continue to um oppose this. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Bergd. I do want to bring your attention to page 57. Um if people still want to be volunteers, they can be volunteers. No, no doubt. I did read that. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm surprised you said that [laughter] we I mean gave the impression that we're forcing these people to take money. You said force. Yeah, you said force. I think the term you used was force them to take training. That was some terminology you used I believe. I could be wrong though. Okay. So I'm going to answer your question here. So in section 2-205 compensation if desired of voting memory opt out receiving and pay they can still continue to be a volunteer if they wish. Absolutely. So superb. Okay. I appreciate acknowledge. Thank you very much sir. Alderman Evans.

Um and maybe we don't know this but just from a history standpoint anybody have any idea as far as the planning commission when did we start paying them? any it was actually when I was on there in 2002 since I was on there as an alderman the alderman doesn't get paid but I think it was 2002 2003 the planning commission okay and then storm water appeals Alden Robertson it's about about five years ago okay so about five years ago and what was the reason why we decided storm water appeals at that time to to start was there similar thought or uh they spending more time than other committees or why uh Yeah. You want me to answer? Yeah, I think so.

Okay. Cuz I I proposed it. Uh and I think we're wrong here. I think that they are required to do training that. Yeah. That Storm Appeals is when they come. So, this is wrong. As needed, they they do have to do training. Sorry about that. Okay. Uh and and also uh I anticipated well first of all for us to be able to find companies for for violating our uh ordinances storm water ordinances we had to have due process. Okay.

And we had no due process. We had nobody that could appeal the staff decision to a citizen board. So in order to find we had to have an appeals board and they had they had to do training. So I I I just thought that it was reasonable since they do training to have to compensate. Uh now now uh and I was going to bring this up. I I don't I don't think the storm water appeals board meets much. So you know uh Storm water appeals doesn't

I don't think they have I don't think that they I'm not Is Stephen here? Stephen here. So we can check. Well, Jesse, do you know if they've met? But I think I might be the Alman Alman Robertson. Can you hold on one second? Let's go back to Alman Evans. Yeah, that didn't finish. Okay. I think I might even be the staff and uh liaison on that. So the answer would be no. Nobody's appealed. Nobody's appealed to staff

cuz but um here the other question I had is and I know it's not we're not talk in the grand scheme of things. We're talking about $65 million budget. And I think when you're talking about what you're proposing here is $34,000 a year. And so is that what we're talking about? We're talking about roughly a hundred dollars a month per month. If we if everyone received a $100 per month and we based it on them just being a member, not necessarily coming to a meeting, it would be $34,000. That's not what that's not what I'm proposing. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean, that's that's that's how the math works. That would be that would be the maximum that I would propose. Okay.

Um, so, you know, I've been back and forth on this. I know we're not talking about a whole whole lot of money and but that did It did come to my mind yesterday when we were talking about all the different things and the cuts we're having to make in the budget and you know we're again I'm keying in and focusing on taking care of our most valuable asset and that's our employees that's our team members and and while I appreciate these volunteers and I I call them team members too uh I just can't see that we need to be adding any amount um and this is insignificant adding any amount to um to the budget when we have some other needs that we need to be taken care of. And um and I I tend to agree with what's been said about the fact that um people want to serve their city. They're they're willing to to put the time in to do the training that they need to be able to volunteer. I I and I know that's not what we're doing, but I don't think we need to entice them by giving them some um some small amount. So, I'm going to vote against this as well.

Alman Evans, thank you, Alman Robertson.

So, the only the only uh glaring uh outlier in the in the graph on page 63 is BZA. Uh BZA does do training equal to what the planning commission does. they are required to do that. Uh all of the well as well as the storm water. Uh so um you know I I I'm willing to to support some compensation if they have to have training. I I would also like to limit compensation to actual monthly meetings. Some some of these committees not not the majority of them but some of them don't meet every month. And so I, you know, I mayor, I can't support the the the the uh your and I understand your passion for it, but I can't understand this this ordinance as it is without some revisions. I I don't know what kind of training that the golf commission would do to make them better better committee members. Uh yeah, putting lessons or something like that. I don't know. Uh so so I I can't support it in the present form. If if you'd withdraw it, I'll be glad to to limit it to only those that have training, but but not not those that are not required to have training. So as as it's drafted, I I can't support it either. Alderman Robertson. Um, uh, so keep in mind that I'm not proposing, uh, that we spend any money right now. I'm just trying to make these

consistent. Um, I think that you bring up a good point that we have some of these that I don't feel need to get paid their full amount if they don't meet. I agree with that. Um, but like I said, that's not what I'm proposing right now. Um, but it sounds like you would feel better if we had some some verbiage in here about that. That would also apply to storm water appeals. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that possibly we revise that as well. Uh, and and and that it would only be limited to those that have training, not the ones that don't have training.

Yeah. And we and I think that maybe we specify in some verbiage here how many hours that training, what type of that training would be, and it wouldn't be uh putting training. Um, but uh if you'd like for me to withdraw it and then we can work on something next couple weeks. Well, that's up to you. Okay. Will you work with me? Sure. We do that. Okay. Sure. Okay. Do you all want to speak on this or do you all want to Well, okay. Hold on. Uh, actually, Alderman Ward was next. Oh, is that it? Okay.

You were getting ready to pull it. I turned it off. Alman Gar, go ahead. Uh I everybody's making some great points here and I agree with the volunteer thing, but when training what it requires, I mean I know people in the beer board and they're shutting businesses down and they have to do that by knowing some part of the law that allows that. But if I read this ordinance correctly, it's not saying you're going to compensate them. They want to be allowed to compensate them. And so I think I I think the mistake we made on this was putting a dollar amount to it. Um because if we got some board members over there getting paid, we do um and we have some that don't that are also making decisions. I think there should be some consistency in that. And right now just it's an ordinance saying let's get more consistent. It's I know there's money involved, but right now that's not what this ordinance is about.

Alman Garza, thank you. Alman Ward, thank you. Um, I think volunteers are volunteers and that's why they volunteer. Um, as far as the compensation goes for training, maybe we should compensate for training and not the being on the board. Okay. And if it were rearranged to that if I had to go do 10 hours training, I would kind of throw out something that would be not to exceed a $100 or more a budget number, but pay for my compensate me for the time I spend training, but not the time I spend on the board. That's the volunteer position. I like this. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Okay. Uh Alman Burgdorf.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Um I have wholeheartedly support um Alderman Ward's approach to that uh 100%. Thank you Alderman Ward Chad. Uh so I'm the only person who is the uh sponsor this so I'm going to withdraw it at that time at this time. Um and now we're under reports. Um brief committee reports. Chairman Skidmore public works. U thank you mayor. It's really interesting tonight. I didn't say one thing this whole meeting. [laughter] We waited for you.

I know it. But what was so great was I was really it was this was you know I know you can this shows you how magnificent my life is. Tonight was a really interesting night and the the comments that were made for this board were outstanding. whether you were for something or against. And it really over the years I've been on this board made me think, you know, because some of these you look up you you can read, yeah, I'm either for this or I'm not. And that's you know you but you do you still have an open mind and and uh but tonight was a very excellent night and I can't you know it just reiterates the point that this I'm so proud of this board that I've served with because uh I've served literally with every board since 87 except one

and uh this by far I mean I And I and I have great relationship with all those well I shouldn't say a great relationship with some of those board members but uh I had a we were cordial but uh with everybody here on the board tonight I have a great relationship with and I just want to tell you how much I appreciated tonight. Um uh so we should take advantage of this by saying no report from [laughter] from public works. Chairman Skidmore, thank you. Uh Chairman Sassy, um finance committee.

That report brought a tear to my eye. [laughter]

Beautiful report. Um yeah, we uh we had a great report or a great meeting today. The bulk of it was discussing um the AFT, the um uh facilities tax from the county. So we were discussing a recent letter we received from the county. Uh watch the watch the video if you're interested. Um and uh we had good news across the board financially. Our sales tax last month was was up by a hundred thous $100,000 over last year. Uh the state share is up $32,000. Hotel was was up over last year. I mean our investments are still uh collecting uh decent interest as well. Uh comparable to last year, maybe a little bit less than last year, but it's really not that much. Of course, um we're we haven't we're not done spending this year, so that's going to go down as well. But, uh overall, just a great report. And I want to tell you that our city, even though that our budget is it's tight and we're trying to, you know, we're working hard to uh pinch those pennies and do what we can for our staff uh while still maintaining the services that our that our residents expect. Your city is in a healthy financial position. And so I'm happy to hear that and I'll do everything I can as your chair to maintain that. Thank you,

Chairman Sassy. Thank you. Next, we have our Bulma report from our CE COO, almost five years COO, Jesse Echo.

Thank you. Thank you everyone for the card and uh I guess for the bless my heart book I got as well too. I'm not sure about that. Thank you Casey for organizing a lot of that. Uh and Bulma members, thank you for your input last night at the budget workshop. I know it's not maybe the highlight of your week to be at back-to-back meetings late at night, but thank you. it was helpful. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail with the report since it's the same report that we did at the last Bulma meeting. Um, a couple things I will highlight. If you go to page 73 of the report, uh, if you look at storm water projects, we're almost to our goal for the year. Uh, paving and lane miles, we're about halfway there, but we were uh, we've been paving um, we've been doing a lot of paving lately. The weather's been great. Saunders Ferry Road was paved today. It will probably be wrapped up uh this week. So that's great. Um so we will see this uh graph on page 73. This paving and lane miles. We'll really see a good jump in that next report. So uh just be on the lookout for that. Um we did collect our first impact fee. I think I mentioned that last night, but the city has collected its first residential impact fee for a new construction home. Uh and we will be starting city court here at city hall. So city court's going to start meeting here. We're going to do a pilot six month to see how it works out with parking in the parking lot. And if it works out okay, we might permanently implement city court here at city hall. So May 5th will be the first time we that'll be the first uh that'll be the start of our six-month pilot uh for doing city court here at city hall. And then a couple of events I wanted to highlight was that uh we have the arts festival that's coming up. That's going to be um next weekend. So that's going to be at Saunders Ferry Park. And then

kind of a lookout which we will have it in the report next uh next report that comes to you. But we're going to have the Isac's on May 25th uh Memorial Day. There's going to be free tickets online at hendersonvillejam.com. They may be online already. And then we'll have the touch a truck May 29th at Drakes Creek Park. So that'll be on your list of events. That comes out in your next packet. And that concludes my report for the evening. Thank you, Jesse. Any questions for Jesse? Alderman Collins. Question for Jesse. Go ahead.

Um Jesse, um Okay. So with Code Red, we all know that it operates with a polygon. So that only the people who are really in a bad trouble are going to get the warning. Did it work last night? It only worked for a small group of people. Okay.

So, Casey worked on that for several hours this morning. Uh what had happened is there was a transfer from code of red from one platform to another platform and to get everyone moved to the updated platform, they did a standard address for everyone in the city. um and it is being corrected, but it's not 100% yet. And then um Casey was able to work with them to update some of the um kind of data groups that are in there as well. Um so it hasn't code red has not functioned up to our expectations. Um and we're looking at alternatives for code red. Um, I just will take this opportunity to say that's why I couldn't figure out if it had worked or not because people in the same neighborhood, some got it, some didn't get it. I didn't get it, but I'm not sure I should have. Okay.

Um, because of the way the polygons work. Um, so since the data breach, we've they have moved to a new platform and for the last three weather events, it has not worked. And spring is a high-risisk time for our community. My kids used to call it blue tarp season. Um so um we've met and talked about this and I just want to publicly encourage you to move to Civic Plus and bring that inhouse to so that we control. Hey, Alderman Collins. This is an opportunity to ask Jesse some questions. If it's something needs to go to committee or something that's really outside the agenda, which at this point it sort of is, we would need to we would need to amend the agenda with a two-thirds vote.

Do you want to make that motion? Make a motion. Yes. A second. Okay. So, we have a motion, a second to add a discussion about uh code red. Is that is that properly describe what you want to discuss? Yes. Okay. So, we have a motion, a second from motion from Alderman Collins, a motion, and a second from Alderman Robertson. We need eight in favor. All those in favor, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. Okay, that passed unanimously. Alderman Collins, go ahead.

So, I just It's important that we be able to warn people when we're having severe weather. We're in the season for it. I know we're not going to be able to move to the platform that we Civic Plus that does our website before summer, say for example, during this storm season, but we do have storms year round. And um the bottom line for me is we cannot tell people we don't have tornado sirens because they're not as effective as code red while simultaneously not using code red which we're paying for. So let's get a program inhouse that we have control of and responsibility for. So the accountability is with us and we can control it and let's just do it. There's only one way we regret that decision and that could be a really big regret.

Thank thank you Alderman Collins. Anything else? Okay. So I want I want to let people know something here. Um, repeatedly before our meetings, typically a day before our meetings, I ask anybody who has a question for our staff to let the staff know what those questions are. I don't want our staff to be to uh be caught without the opportunity to prepare to answer questions. Uh, we had a time when we had some alderman that would play gotcha with with the staff. That is completely unfair. Um, I think questions like this should have been presented ahead of time so they could be prepared.

And I think that they that it should have been added to the agenda when we set the agenda earlier. Don't please don't get the impression that our staff is not doing every everything they can in this situation. I'll be very clear. This is the county's fault. Absolutely. Very clear.

Our staff has done everything they can and we don't own the license to it. So, we are at the mercy of the county. We have tried several times to have meetings with folks in the county. I think that needs to be said. Um, we are looking at what we can do to pull that out from under them. Without the staff that we have, this would be a much much worse situation, much worse. Um, and I think that um we will can have a more robust discussion about this in a public safety committee and I think that we our staff can be more prepared to discuss that at this time. Does anybody else have have anything else on this topic? Yes. Alderman Robertson, go ahead.

Uh, and and I would just recommend that the public safety committee look into this and take it up on the on their next agenda and do the leg work and bring back a recommendation and Alderman Collins can go to public safety and and you know, she evidently has researched this and has some good information about it. So if if the chairman of of public safety would agree, I I I think that's the proper way to address this. Appreciate that. Thank you, Albertson. Alderman Sassy on this topic. No. Okay. Uh anybody else on the discussion of code red? Alman Garz. Yeah, just it was last night, right?

That's that's I think that's what the question was, but we have had with other storm events now three that we would have preferred more warning had gone out and it didn't. I was really referring to that. I think she could have the agenda since happened last night. I I get that we could have amended that's why I said we could have amended the agenda earlier. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion on this? Okay. Alderman Collins go ahead. I just want to state that I did communicate with Jesse that I would have questions about this. We've met about it. I am not saying that our staff did anything wrong. I'm saying we need to gain more control over this. I appreciate that. Thank you. Alderman Sassy, did you have a question for Jesse on his report? Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. Um, first of all, just want to say thank you, Alderman Collins. Thank you, Mayor Clary. That was actually, I think, a very worthwhile conversation. Um, I got a lot out of it. So, I'm looking forward to uh to seeing this progress and learning more about it and seeing what we can do. Uh, because I agree with you. Um, it's it's uh failed too many times. I'm sorry. I'm not I'm going back to our topic. I said I didn't have anything to say about it. Um [clears throat] Jesse, I noticed on the very last page says we have four vacancies in fire, none in training. Uh what's the story behind that? Do we have any information?

Yeah, Chief Edwards is actually considering doing an another in-house training. Um it's a considerable amount of resources for them to do a training. So if they have one or two or three vacancies, they don't necessarily they're not going to pull a training together. They want to get a group of four, five, six together.

Um, so they did try some external recruitments which haven't really panned out real well. Uh, but they're thinking about putting another in-house recruitment class together to get those four vacancies filled. So we should probably see something on that coming pretty soon. Uh the preference from the group is definitely to do the in-house training over the state academy since they get trained so much better. It's quicker and when they go to the state academy and then they come back we have to train them anyway to to our method. So it's a bit of work on staff. So they try to you know create some efficiency and not just do one two or three at a time but get a group of ideally five. Is there, [sighs] and this may be a a convers a bigger conversation we need to have, but is there a way that we have potential firefighters in the wings? We have um uh younger individuals who have expressed interest and have taken the indiv the the uh the exams that are necessary and we find them as a fit and then they're just in a basically we put them on hold until we have positions open up or we can do a an in-house training and then we just we do that every time once we have so many positions available or we have um some lower-end firefighter positions who were mentoring to get up into a a true firefighter position. And so we've constantly got those back those uh incoming firefighters that are in the works. Is that something we've considered?

Yes, we actually keep a list. So when we do uh testing for firefighters, we keep a list. And so typically what happens is we want to select, you know, who who scored the best between the physical and the written. And so if we're going to pick, you know, say fire, five firefighters, whoever was number six, seven, and eight on the list, we keep that active list. And so when, you know, three months or six months later, we need to do another class, we'll then call number six, number seven, number eight, number nine. And sometimes they're available, sometimes they're not. But we do keep that list. And now because we can do external recruitments, we can also post for external recruitments for firefighters who are already certified. So uh we do keep an active list. They have tested with us. We know their score results. And when we get a group large enough to where it makes sense to do an in-house training, we reach back out to them. If we don't have a good enough pool of qualified candidates, we'll do another testing. But it's our hope that our list that we keep of all the qualified candidates is adequate for our next round of hires.

What if we had some sort of element though of a volunt like they could volunteer while being mentored where they came in once a once a week or once every other week and were kind of being trained as a volunteer within the fire department. So when that position did become available, they had a little bit of experience going into it and going into the training. So is that are we capable of doing that or does state law allow that? Uh I can look into it. Yeah, I mean we can look into that. We we do keep an active list so um we can you know I don't know if how readily people are going to volunteer and for how long. But um I'll ask chief about it and I can

Yeah, that's how they used to do it in Seattle where where I'm from is you know it's a big department of course but they had a lot of people who wanted to be firemen or firefighters and so they they would volunteer for some sometimes a year until there was a spot available for them to jump in and now they've got some experience made a lot easier transition and they could find out if they really enjoyed working as a fire firefighter as Well, so something to consider. I look forward to hearing about that. That's all I have. Thank you, Alman Sassy. Thank you. Alman Evans, question for Jesse? Uh, no. Um, do you want to make a [clears throat] motion to amend the agenda? I just want to say something.

Well, all right. I'll I'll say it a question to Jesse then. Um, well, I I'll say it this way. I have a question. It goes back to the to the um the code red situation. I was wanting to to bring that up while we were still talking about that. And I don't mean to belabor the that, but um it it came to my when we were just talking here that and you you said three times that three times it it's it's failed to to put that out there. My question is, as alderman of the city, maybe I missed something, but I don't think that I was aware that I mean, I knew that we had the there was the data breach, but I I've not I wasn't aware that we were continuing to have this issue and that that was that we were continuing to have I would have felt like that that should have been more of an update that we would have had and maybe it's been shared in in public safety, but that's an important thing for alderman to know about that kind of thing that uh because the code red is important. Um also I'm just going to say this and maybe it's out of out of order or whatever, but um those of us on Bulma, we do this as as a a part-time work and excuse me Evans. Okay, Alman Goodwin,

we have a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? That's the next item on the agenda. We have a second from uh Appreciate that uh Alderman Ward. All those in favor, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. Okay. Jason, help us out here. Or JP. So, the situation we're getting into, folks, is a legal situation with the state of Tennessee and what's on our agenda and what we can discuss. Okay. That's why I'm asking for motions to amend the agenda. Even that concerns me. JP, you ready for us? Okay.

I just JP, you need to take a just do it by hands. Okay. You could Okay. Those in favor of journeying, press the green button. Those opposed, press the red one. So that passes 8 to three. Those in favor, Alderman Burgdor, Skidmore, Ward, Garza, myself, Alderman Goodwin, Garton, Robertson. Those opposed, Alderman Evans, Colin, Cassie. We're ajourned. Thank you all. Have a good night.