City Council - Regular Meeting

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Thank you. Everybody ready? We'll go ahead and call the meeting order. We'll ask Tyler Cob to lead us in invocation night. Please stand up. I'd like to defer to uh Mr. Gillespie to do that, please.

Let us repeat the Lord's prayer together. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have the pledge of allegiance now. 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. Thank you. Let's see. All right. Uh can we have uh public comments at this time if anyone has anything to say? Public comments.

I just like to say um the upcoming election um we have a good council now. It's harder than a lot of people think, especially when new people go in, a lot of decisions to make and everybody doesn't agree. But this council is good. I've seen all grow together. And I I appreciate it. I'm thinking a lot of the citizens will and with the upcoming election, whoever goes in, I hope it continues to help together. And also I would like for y'all to please keep keep Phil Bonham in your prayers and his family right now.

Thank you. All right. And the next item will be the adoption of agenda for this meeting.

Make a motion to adopt the agenda for the meeting. Okay. I have a second. Second. All in favor? Thank you. Now we need to approve the minutes of motion with Travis. Second by bait is unanimous. Next I think on the agenda is going to be the approve of minutes for September 9th, 2025. Make a motion we approve the minutes from September 9th, 2025. I have a second. Second. All in favor?

Unanimous. Thank you. I didn't vote. Just I wasn't there for that meeting, so don't that's fine. Still count. Yes. Right. It's all right. And then the uh special And then special presentation. We had something. All right. Then the consent agenda. Need a motion to adopt the consent agenda. Make a motion we adopt the consent agenda. Second. Second.

All in favor? Thank you. Okay. Next thing will be the unfinished business consideration budget amendment number four fiscal year 2526.

Yeah. So um in the last meeting we had um we had added the two streets river garden and metal woods. Um during that time I did not know that those had already taken place for paving purposes. Uh set moving forward we have put a procedure in for better communication by doing some weekly reports throughout the department heads um weekly reports. again. So I'm up to date on all the information needed so we don't run into this issue again. But a budget amendment number four is to move the funds from the PAL bill fund balance to pay for the repairs paving the streets. Um this amount would be uh $32,000.

So it's 32,000 more than what we had appropriated before or is that included in the original appropriation that's in there? I mean was it additional above what we the bid was? No. So what we had So what we had done, we had taken to we had um we were going to do B Street. It's a gravel road currently. Current after we found out that B Street was never uh dedicated to the city, we pulled B Street off and we added two additional streets to that. All right. So you got a motion, a second, right? All in favor? I make a I make a motion. I thought you made a motion. Budget amendment number four. Excuse me. We had a motion to to approve the budget amendment. I have a second.

Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. Number six, new business, consideration of budget amendment number five, fiscal year 202526. Good evening, council. Um this budget amendment um was for the city of Ly police staff that went down to Lake Lure to assist. Um and we got grant funds for that um labor and mileage travel. And this budget amendment is to receive those grant funds.

That an was an increase of $4,29. Is that what it is? Yes, sir. That came from what was from the uhurricane disaster reimbursement grant by lean. All right. So we need a motion to to change that in the budget. My only question that is the the money going back to the police department or just into the general fund for it's going back to um the amount of money that was salaries is going back into salaries and then the travel and training is going back in the police travel and training. So it's all going back to the police

reimbursement what was used up there. Yes sir. I make a motion that we accept amendment number five. Second.

All any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. The next one's going to be next going to be a consideration of budget amendment number 6, 202526. Go ahead, Cheryl. Uh budget amendment number six um is to allocate POW bill interest income revenue to the POW bill expenditures. POW bill funds are restricted and the interest income revenue was not allocated to the expenditures in the fiscal year 2526 budget. This was an oversight by the city manager as this was his first budget. Uh this budget amendment is correct in the budget to ensure all POW bill funds are allocated and spent on POW bill allowable expenditures and to also ensure balance budget and compliance with state statute 159-8A. And I have that copy of that below in your paperwork. So I have a motion to uh change this.

Make a motion we accept budget amendment number six. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Now we're going to have a we going need a motion to go into public hearing for zoning text amendment article number eight. We need a motion to go into public hearing. Make a motion to go in public hearing. Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. We're now in public hearing. Anyone like to speak on this matter, just come up to the podium. Any citizen can come up and speak about it. Just state your name and address for the record. That's all. If anyone like to speak about this u zone and text amendment,

where is the amendment?

Tyler. Uh so on September 2nd the planning board in discussion about article 8 of the LDO the planning board recommended to the city council to set this public hearing. The proposed text amendments were for two districts in in the uh town. One is the RMST which is the residential main street transition and the other one is the SFR4 which is single family residence 4. Uh the proposed changes for that for the SFR4 is increasing the minimum lot sizes uh from 7,800 to 8,725. Um and for the RMST, the minimum lot size is 5,000 and proposed movement to 8,000 square ft for minimum lot sizes.

So both of them be 8,000 square ft. Okay, one of them is going to the SFR4 will be 8725 and RMST will be 8,000. Planning board also recommends changbacks for the RMST were the rear setbacks were five, they're planning to go to four and the RMST front setbacks are 20. They're going from 12 to 20. Which one goes to 20? RMST, residential main street transition.

If I need to get up, are there any restrictions other than the lot size, minimum lot? I'd recommend I'd recommend you get up there and tell us your name and address, please public hearing. So, anyone like to speak can? Name's Ed Jackson. I'm just interested in the details of this text amendment. I'm not saying yay or nay at this point. I just Yes. interested in the detail.

So, no. So no changes other than the the lot size and the setbacks on the RF SFR4 again which the minimum lot size currently is 7,800 proposed change is 8720 and the minimum rear setback is five the proposed change is four and then the RMST minimum lot size is 5,000 proposed change is 8,000 the front setbacks from on the street right away is currently 12. The proposed change is 20.

So, so the the 7,800 foot lot size is like 7,800. Is that what you have or be like 102 by 60? What's the width of the lots and the depth of the lots? I mean, no. Just as long as it has a 7,800 ft, they can do it. Well, they have to make the minimum lot width is 50. Yeah, it's not changing as far as on the width of the bed. That's awful small item. It is even sounds reasonable. Only question is the HB42. Did we figure out the language that they took out?

Well, I think that's still very up for, you know, gray area discussion somewhat. This this came from the zoning board, correct? Yeah, we y'all brought attent to their attention. They went back and was on the board, looked at it and was come back to us and this is public hearing tonight where we can have people speak at the public hearing if they like and then once everyone gets through speaking, we can close it and vote on you. Anyone else like to speak on this matter? Any questions whatsoever? If not, I need a motion to close the public hearing.

Do you have any I'm sorry. Anybody have questions? No, I was going to motion a motion public hearing. Have a second. Second. Any discussion? Anything? Anyone? Okay. No discussion. All in favor? No one opposed. Unanimous. Thank you. You got to advertise for a public board member for the zoning board.

Hold one second. Mr. Mayor, you typically with a text amendment, you'll also do a consistency statement as part of your motion. So that's part that's attorney, isn't it? Yeah. So part B, you'll have a a second. Yeah. You you'll take care of that, right? Is that just stated? No, the board will take care needs to make in addition to the motion to approve. Then there needs to be a second motion that the approval Sorry, I'm making a consistency motion. I'm sorry. Was that a motion to approve? Yes, it's unanimous. That was just a motion to close. Close. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. I jumped ahead of that. Yeah, that's I I apologize. I thought that was too Now we need a motion to approve then. Was it consistent? We're discussion. I I I That's all right. Forgive me.

That's all right. Just need a motion to uh to approve the uh public hearing of the zoning text amendment article number eight if the council so chooses. I make a motion to approve. Have a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. And I make a motion to I guess you just need a motion to for consistency with L's LDO and development ordinances. You have a motion to do that. Have a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you.

Trying I'm trying to hang on. multiple motions. You could I guess you can write them down, correct? That's good. That's what I would do anyway. Got two records. But that's all right. You got it. Yes, sir. Thank you. city manager report. I got I got one more 60D. Oh, I'm sorry.

We have We need to uh advertise for a planning board uh member. Um we h we currently have six members right now on the board. We have one vacancy in order to fill this position in a timely manner. Staff will begin advertising the open seat. Uh once the advertisements uh with this advertisement will be uh the board's responsibility, eligibility requirements, and instructions for submitting an application. Once the application period has closed, we'll bring the submitted applicants to the city council for review and appointment consideration. Just there don't need to vote on that. Just just letting y'all know that we need to advertise for a planning board member.

It'd be a good idea to do that after the election because that that way the council the new council can seat someone that you know maybe could work better with. I don't know. I think you can advertise. Yeah, advertise. Yeah, go ahead and advertise. I think it's okay. We don't you don't need a motion to advertise. How long is it? We'll probably keep it up at least 30 days. Okay. All right. Okay. Now, we have the city manager report.

So, just a couple of quick updates. Um the clock the clock uh repair is scheduled for October 21st. Um all the parts ran. We're just waiting on the uh the company to come down and and make the repairs. Uh secondly, the roof at the rec center is complete. I did receive update on the public work site cost estimates um and the design. We should have those um on the 24th of October. Once I have that information, um I will present that at the next meeting for everybody to uh see and we'll go over. Um the just a reminder that the November meeting is moved to Monday because we we are closed on Tuesday for Veterans Day. I think we voted on that a couple of meetings ago. Uh just

what's the date for the November 11? It'd be November 10th. It's a Monday. Regular meeting to be November 10th. Thank you. Yep. Um have anything else?

Yep. A couple more. the uh the community center. We we had the uh seasonal inspection for the HVAC unit there. Um I am going to have to get quotes on that. It did have a a cracked heat exchanger on there. Uh so it's rusted out. So I'm going to obtain three quotes to get that repaired at the community center. Um as far as the wastewater treatment plant goes, we have got a preliminary design. And by all accounts, it looks like um from the decisions that have been made prior in prior meetings um we look like that we had made the right decision to keep our wastewater treatment plant from everything that um from all the information that we are receiving. Again, we do have some preliminary designs out there right now. Um as far as Herald ranking goes, they're 95% complete on the construction drawings. Um, so once I get all those, I will present those to you as well. Uh, and just one last thing, the treat walk is going to be October 23rd. That's a Thursday at 4 o'clock.

They still having they still having the trunk or treat at the ballpark? Recreation. They having trunk or treat at the ballpark. They haven't been there in a while. Yeah. The tree walks right here around the round. I know that that the guys assistant rec director came to the office and asked me not to have uh what I usually have at my house every year because they were going to have a trunk or treat things. I didn't know that. I've never known them to have a trunk or treat. That's what that what they're suggesting. Always been treat. Yeah. Right here. They started they start at the garage. I don't know his name. He came up and asked me if we wouldn't consider not having it so they could have the tree. That's why I was asking you. I don't know. Now, the treat the treat walk that we've had for the past several years is

it's on October the 23rd. You usually do yours Halloween, don't you? On a Thursday. I did hear talks um being at the festival that they're having trying to schedule a softball game that night, the Friday night where the softball players dress up in costumes. And there was discussion of before that game setting up a small trunk or treat out there. I don't I haven't heard anything firm, but I did hear that discussion. It be good to let the citizens know what what's going on. Have you heard anything as Andre? Not about a trunk or treatment. Nothing about the softball game that he's speaking about. It must not have been confirmed yet. Okay.

Yeah, it was just like a something that that we're thinking about. I didn't hear it from her. I heard it from I believe is it Justin? Public works. No, not public works. The her assistant. Oh, Kevin. Jeff. Oh, that's his name. Okay. You got Yeah, there's two different ones. Sound like a nice person. So, that's all I have. Okay. City attorney, do you have anything? Not tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Shane, do you have anything?

I don't. I'd just like to ditto what Candy said about Phil. Uh, I know Phil's going through a lot. Just definitely remember his kids, his wife, his family. make us. We all feel the same way. I know. I tell you, they're going through a lot. That's babies. Just got to pray, pray, pray, and they got to be there for them. You have anything else? That's it. Scott Ch.

No, I just want to reiterate I appreciate um Tyler bringing that up about the wastewater treatment plant that the council made a the numbers and what we've seen. It was a right decision for the city. Anything else? No, I'm good. Thanks,

Mr. Smith. Uh yes, as far as the wastewater treatment plant, the previous council were not given the decisions or the opportunities that the current council was given as far as being able to upgrade our plant and fix our plant. Um we were simply told that that plant could not be fixed. It needed to be turned over to Two Rivers and that was all we were left with. I was in a meeting Monday with Dwayne and a engineer and what he showed us was absolutely amazing. And yes, I I I apologize for going against that to begin with, but at the same time, we just simply weren't given that information or that option. And uh it absolutely was a good decision made by current council.

Thank you. Thank you. You have anything else? I'm good. You have anything? I ditto Phil. It's um just pray for Phil and his family.

Thank you. All right. Oh, mayor. Let's see. What are we down here at the boys club, girls club? They got a sign out there. It says L recreation center. When was it named L Recreation Center? It's never been named L recreation center. They got a sign says L recreation center. But the guy that donated all the money and the man that donated the land was Court Robinson donated land. Joe R. Hudson paid for the building as it sits today. He his his money paid for that place. So how could we ever leave the name Joe R. Hudson off of that building? It still could be Joe R. Hudson L recreational center. But that man paid for. We didn't have nothing in this town. Nothing for no one. But he he brought it upon himself to pay for it. And it should always be remembered as, you know, it could still be called JR Hudson Loyal Recreation Center, but put his name on there with it and never forget that gentleman because just like the land that we got for the ballpark was donated by Guilford Mills years and years ago. Nothing's been done for those people. But this is this was named Joe R. Hudson Boys Club. And since it went to the Boys and Girls Club, of course, it carried the same name. But I don't know how the council feels about it. But that would be my recommendation that we name it that because of what he has done for this city out of his own pocket with no federal money, no no borrowing money, nothing. He paid for it. and and and Shane's father, your dad, your and your family, your family know that that guy the recreation center we had was an old store building up here beside a neighbor store had a basketball goal hanging on the concrete wall and people like forever going you know getting concussions when you run into a concrete wall. So Joe come in there one day and says we got to do something about these kids going to kill themselves up here. So they they got together and spent the

money to do it and that was in like in the 70s somewhere that there but we need to I don't know how it's nothing wrong with going ahead and name it that that way we' have a name for the facility and they go ahead and put the stuff on the building if the council you know chose to do that but everyone here knows the history of that club. Would it would it be anything wrong with naming it that and have it forever? I would like to see more. I I don't know the history of Joe Hudson, all that, but I I would like to see how, you know, all that came about before I made that decision. These gentlemen, they're all

I don't know if anybody else is familiar, but I'm Everyone here is familiar, I guess. Did you ever get boys? I remember that. I mean I don't you remember the name was on the boys club Joe Joe R Hudson Salvation Army Boys Club correct you remember that too right? No sir. You don't remember that name on the boys? Candy does. It didn't have Joe Hudson's name on silence. Boys and girls. Joe R. Hudson. That's the I remember was Boys and Girls Club.

Yeah. We need to we need to we need to bring it up to the public then to let them you know we need to put it out there that we should never change the name of it from Joe R Hudson whatever cuz he donated the money. No t no getting grants or nothing like that. Court donated the land and he built the building. Thank God for him. And what I'm saying by the same we're still talking about this. You've already paid them for the uh floors in the gym, right? You still got holes in the floors around the doors out there. Did you ever have them come in and fix them? To my knowledge, there's no holes in the floors.

They're there. But anyway, you already paid them. And another thing we need to do, Dan Dy out there at the at the sewer plant. How crazy can this counter? Me, all of us. I'm talking about me me Larry as well. pay him $60,000 a year to operate that plant and pay an engineer out of his money and we sit up here on this council paying these thousands and thousands of dollars. We need that gentleman more than we need anybody in this room because he takes care of that sewer plant and he does a great job and never and never falter is always there. So I recommend that we give him a raise at least I'd say raise him to $72,000 a year. He's having to pay the engineer out there as well. And I don't see a thing wrong with raising his pay from $60,000 a year to $72,000 a year. He furnish his own fuel. He does. He's out there and he takes care of it. And everyone on this board knows what a great job he does. Correct. And to only make that much money is absolutely how can we sit here and say that's good. We can't. That's my recommendation. It raises pay. Do you do you agree, Tyler? You think his pay should be raised?

I mean, just being honest. I I mean, I don't know. You don't know? I don't know. You know, I think he's probably at what market rate it is right now. What's the market rate to run a sewer plant? I don't have that information right now. You couldn't get no one to run it for $100,000 a year. And that's the truth. It's like up here at Waste Management. You got a guy here, you paying $95,000 a year and don't even have a degree. And so, don't have an operator's license. But we pay him $95,000 a year. This guy is tremendous. And there's not a council member here that hadn't been down there that knows what a great job he does. He's out there. He keeps it clean and he fights for this city. How can we not give him a raise? That's my question. You you So you're saying you don't you don't know.

You don't know if he's worth that or not. I'm not saying he's worth it or not worth it. Well, what I'm simply saying is if he's getting paid market rate, then that's What is the market rate? I told you I don't have that. That's right. But you do know you're paying $95,000 for a public works director. You do know that, right? I do know that. And don't you think that's exceedingly labor for what? When you got a guy down there, it saves you sewing your water every night. What?

I was asking all be quiet because I'm trying to listen to you also. On that note, if you can, mayor, I I see where you're going with this, but that sounds like something that you can go and speak to Tyler about and then bring it in front of the board with the with the numbers with the with the numbers of what Mr. Dartery works about works his hourly his hourly week and things that he does down there. That way, it can bring it back in front of the board and we can make the decision to go up $12,000. what you're asking. But I mean, you're you're you're I'm not

you're beating around a dead horse. You're beating around the bush trying to get to the what you want. And it's not you he's not going to give you the answer because he don't know the answer exactly what the market rate and all that other stuff what you're asking for. So, as I I'm asking you if you could just move on to something else. And and these are comments, mayor comments, council comments. This is not a time for us to be making motions and seconds. Well, if I recommend it, you can vote against or vote for it. That's all he do. I've already talked with him about this about that. His salary needs to be raised up. And how much time do you need to make an assessment as to what this gentleman's worth? That's a question. That's not a vote. How much time do you need? I mean, you called me about it today and and asked me about it.

I talked to you about it yesterday while we were at the Yesterday, today. What? Well, I mean, yeah, but I mean,

you called me today about it. the money that that gentleman we pay him for the job that he does, you know, stealing's against the law. I think that's stealing. That man's worth more money. You know that this you're just setting that chair. You can vote on bring it up when you want to, but at least you know and the public knows what we're paying a guy to operate our sewer plants and pay another and pay an engineer out there out of his money. We got to answer to the public. But anyway, and I have another thing too here. the state ordinance for our water, our water runoff. I have a copy of it. The thing we have, it's on our uh is what you go by is for developing property. You don't have an ordinance, a storm water ordinance. You have what to uh take care of like a subdivision or something like that. But the state of North Carolina, you pay the fees and you require this. We you're required to hire someone to take this. When will we have a when we have an ordinance written where this council can look at it when we have that?

We can look at we can look at adopting and looking at we could just go ahead and adopt the state ordinance and be done with but you did you have you sent any of the council members any of this stuff? No.

And I'm I'm just now getting familiar with you know as you as we get older and we get wiser and we see things that's going on in this city. That's a blessing to have someone to take care of these problems because we have a mammoth amount of part of problems. I I'm sure she's Miss Dumont has talked to you about it, right? And uh and when she needs help out there when something's wrong and she needs the employees to go out there and help her you need to have someone 5 hours a week, 10 hours a week or something when you got stuff out here that's catastrophic and you know and it's like another thing too. I'm glad you brought this up Tom. Whenever we we had the mammoth leak, we had that on Ridge Street. This is this is what happened. No one notified the public works director. They sent him a text in the middle of the night and then the people didn't come down until the next morning had had every every fire hydrant in Ly was wide open running water down to the middle of the town. But we have to have better things in order. I'm sure you have I guess the public works directors talked to you about this.

Yeah. And just just for clarification purposes, um he's the one that got the the leak stopped. Yeah. After he got to work that morning. That's right. And no one notified him in the middle of the night. They sent him a tax. He's asleep. And that has that has been We got to have a better That has been addressed.

That's all I'm talking about. I just want a better deal. And citizens deserve. We're losing 4 million gallons of water a month. And then you have something that catastrophic and they don't even know how many just like down at the store plant yesterday. We don't know. You don't know what we got. You don't know how much you're using. You say you got two me to run into one. We got a lot of things we got to correct. But you can I got faith in you. I still do. And I'm not here to chew you out. I'm here to help you cuz I live here, too. I pay water bills and everyone in this room does. But you're the leader. Anyway, that's all I have tonight. The next thing the next thing on the agenda is I guess you want to go into close session. Is that what this You want close session? Y'all need a motion to go and close that if that's what you want to do. You need to make a motion.

Have to give that pursuing NCGS. I guess make a motion go into close session. do reference or something.