Town Council - Special Meeting

Good evening. I would like to welcome everyone to the town of Lexton special call council work session this evening, March 23rd, 2026. Work sessions are less formal business meetings that enable council to obtain information regarding town issues from staff members and/or consultants. Citizens are encouraged to observe work sessions. However, they do not include public hearings. Council does not take an action vote on items during a work session other than the place the item on the next council meeting. I am Hazel Livingston, the mayor of town of Lexington. I would like to introduce my fellow council members. To my left is council member Ron Williams. Good evening. To his left is council member Todd Lau. Good evening.

To his left is council member Jenny Michaels. Hello. To my right is Mayor Pro Timron Todd KS. Hello. To his right is council member Gavin Smith. Good evening. And to his right is council member Will Allen. Good evening. Council member Allen will lead us with the invocation tonight.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Let's pray, y'all. Oh, heavenly father, thank you so much for all that you continue to do for us, Lord. All that you've done and all that you're going to do. With all the chaos in the world, Lord, it's so easy for us to lose sight of how much blessing you've given to us in this wonderful town of Lexington, this county of Lexington, and this state of South Carolina. Lord, you continue to shower us with blessings, and we are so thankful every single day. Lord, as we're up here to deliberate and to do the work for the town, I ask you to please bless each of my council members. Give us uh Holy Spirit wisdom so that we can protect the peace and prosperity of this town, Lord, and make the best decisions we can for our neighbors. We love you, Lord. We praise you. We bless you. And we pray all of this in Jesus holy name. Amen. Amen.

At this time, Council Member Smith will lead us in the pledge. I

pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I will now call the meeting to order. Council met in executive session. Prior to this meeting would we discuss the following matters. Discussion regarding West Columbia water litigation. Discussion regarding the agreement of a potential community event. Discussion of potential property acquisition for public parking. No vote was taken. Do I hear a motion to ratify? So moved.

Councilman Williams makes the motion. Do I hear a second? Second.

Mayor Prom K second it. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor raise your right hand. And it is unanimous. Are there any deletions of items from tonight's work session? If so, we won't have anything on here except for the budget. But we have one presentation tonight from planning and building director Jessica Libran. Good evening. Dominion um Dominion Energy met with us earlier in the year to let us know that they will be carrying out rightway maintenance within the municipal boundary of of Lexington throughout 2026. Um as you all know, trees and branches significantly contribute to powder out outages particularly during storms. To mitigate this issue, Dominion Energy regularly trims vegetation every four to five years in accordance with national industry standards. This maintenance is performed by the certified utility line clearance contractor. I believe it's Aspund Tree Company. I'm probably not saying that right. Um they commence trimming on the eastern edge of Lexington near 37820 area in January and they plan to begin trimming in the center of Lexington soon. Um, trimming is essential because vegetation growing too close to power lines can cause outages, create safety hazards, and damage electrical infrastructure. Trees planted directly beneath power lines may need to be pruned or removed. Proper clearances must be maintained around distribution lines and um, Dominion mandates a minimum safety zone around overhead lines. This is the um clearance guidelines that the trimming contractors will follow. Dominion requires a min a

minimum of 10 feet to the side of the outermost primary line for side clearance. A minimum of 20 ft above the primary line for overhang clearance. A minimum of 4 feet below the neutral wire for clearance on planted ornamentals. and volunteer brush under eight inches in diameter at breast height should be removed from rightway and vines must be cut from poles. Domingion has provided us with a map indicating the trimming areas within the town of Lexington. The red lines represent distribution lines. Black lines indicate transmission lines and the blue lines are lines outside of municipal limits that are also going un um undergoing trimming. Dominion manages approximately 37.9 miles of distribution lines and 3.6 miles of transmission lines within the town. Work will take place along various distribution corridors. Each crew will include a foreman to oversee operations and a general foreman to manage work groups. If customers have questions or concerns, Dominion representatives will be on hand to provide information about trimming and they will monitor the work to ensure it is conducted properly properly. The contractor will collaborate with Dominion to ensure that the work is completed effect um efficiently and on schedule and they are responsible for removing the trimming debris generated during the maintenance. Dominion um ensures that affected properties receive advanced notice. Customers that will be impacted by trimming will receive this postcard via mail or email um containing information about the trimming activities and resources for contacting Dominion with any trimming related inquiries. Following up trimming or treatments may take place as necessary. Residents can also request trimming through Dominion's online portal and view the tree trimming

project planned for 2026 on the website shown. Um they have Dominion has identified trees along North Lake Drive and Sunset Boulevard specifically in front of the Lexington Town Center that need to be removed. This is where Food Lion Books a million Big Air is located. Um these trees are in the right of way. The trees in this vicinity are located either directly within or close to the overhead power lines. We had our um landscape reviewer and certified arborist do some inspection of the trees, Shannon Smith, and he identified declining health and safety issues. Many of them exhibit a fungus or algae known as lychans. And while lychans not necessarily harmful to the tree, it does indicate that a tree is under stress or um in decline. He also noticed that several of these branches were showing signs of decay or rot, which is concerning because as you all know, they hang over the roadway, sidewalk, and parking lot in this area. Um, and that's from them being topped over the years. So, and they also have some falling bark at the base, which suggests rot or decay. As you all are probably aware, we do have a future transportation improvement plan in this corridor. Um, I believe it is planned to be advertised late this summer with construction starting early in 2027. This is just a little snapshot of that plan. It will require the removal of the four trees shown. Um, and Dominion's plan vegetation management will enable the removal of these trees before town construction begins. By allowing them to handle the tree removal, the town is ex

expected to save around $1,000 per tree. This strategy will reduce redundant efforts and speed up the corridor's readiness for future improvements. At this time, there are no plans to replace these trees in this corridor. However, we are in the process of obtaining a tree study through the trees for SC grant that we got from the SE Forestry Commission. Um, and we hope to use this study to help us identify suitable areas for planning replacement vegetation that will not interfere with the power lines.

Thank you, Jessica. Um, and moving forward, we are working with Dominion staff so that future projects are focusing on putting the right tree in the right place. um and they have provided us with severalformational brochures and documents that we can distribute as we plan projects in town and we are including them in discussion during the plan review process. Thank you for bringing this forward. Um and thank you Dominion for helping us out here with removing those trees ahead of time. We appreciate that and and for educating and working with y'all too when we move forward. Putting the right tree in the right place because seeing those trees gutted in the center was heartbreaking to me. It

um since I'm a tree lover. Um that was tough. But I do appreciate it. Anybody else have anything to say? Madame Mayor, I have a question.

Uh we we've talked about this in the past. I don't think officially at a council meeting before, but I personally would love to see many of the power lines, especially in the main street district or along some of our main thorough affairs, uh, put underground. Now, I know that there is a significant cost to that. Um, but I'm curious, and I believe I had spoke with you, attorney David, and I'm sorry if I'm wrong. I spoke with somebody um about could we evaluate our franchise agreement to require future power lines or when repairs are made to start putting those lines underground. I don't know what's possible there. But maybe if we started putting the lines underground and requiring those then we wouldn't have to worry about these trees hitting the power lines. So I'm not sure if there's anything that we could evaluate. If staff could just evaluate that, I'd like to see is there a way that we could start requiring them to put their lines underground when they make repairs or put new lines up, etc.

I I will say that new developments or large redevelopments are required to take their service lines underground during that time. So, that is part of our review process, but again, that's only for new or redevelopment,

right? Uh, and just to be clear, like the downtown district, a lot of our power lines are still above ground. Um, Dominion was great. I reached out to them. They gave me some estimates. Very expensive to put them underground. But I'm just curious that as time progresses, um, we've certainly seen Dominion invest along the coast in putting their lines underground. Naturally, we would understand why, but could we a ask them to do that here in Lexington or B is there a way to start requiring them to do some of that work? I'm not sure based on public service commission that we actually have the ser the the authority to do that, but I'm just curious if staff could evaluate what options we have. Thank you, Gavin. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to business items. Tonight's business item is from Lexington Police Chief Terrence Green. Mutual aid agreement with US Secret Service electronic and cyber crimes. Good afternoon, Mayor Council. The Lex Police Department is requesting approval to enter a mutual aid agreement with the United State Secret Service. This partnership will support efforts in the investigation and enforcement of electronic and cyber fraud related crimes. The proposed agreement was included in your meeting packet for your review.

Does anyone make a motion? Make a motion we put on the next meeting. Councilman Williams makes the motion. Do I hear a second? Second.

Councilman Michael seconds it. Is there any discussion or any questions? If not, all those in favor of putting it on the council meeting for April the 6, raise your right hand. And it is unanimous. That's all we have on this. Any questions from the public regarding the items listed on the agenda? Any questions from the news media? Any comments from staff or council on these items? Um, I do have an announcement. Stakeholder meetings will be held on March the 30th, 2026 regarding the town's sign ordinance as we gather input from the community to help guide updates. There will be three in-person sessions on that day, and many may have already received notice via email that went out last week. These sessions are drop-in style. So if you cannot attend a particular time, you're welcome to come at another session. For those unable to attend in person, a public survey will be available starting late evening on March the 30th, and we remain open for two weeks. We encourage citizens, business owners, and contractors to provide their input. Next, the annual wine walk will be held on May the 9th, 2026 from 4 to 7 on Main Street. Tickets are currently on sale. And finally, the spring kickoff concert at the Ice House Amphitheater will feature the Beach Band, The Catalinas, performing on April the 2nd, 2026 from 6:30 to 9:00. This concert kicks off the Ice House live concert series, and we hope everyone will come out to enjoy an evening of great music. For more information on these events, including ticket sales or survey details, please visit the town's website or follow our social media outlets or call town hall. That concludes the business for tonight's

special call work session. We'll take a brief pause before reconvening for the budget workshop meeting.