City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

It's 530 on September 14. Roughly give or take a day or a few minutes. I appreciate everyone being able to be here. This being our our only regularly scheduled meeting in the month of September. We do have a number of things to work through this evening as you would expect. It's not a terribly long agenda, but the things that are on there are certainly important. And then we do have some matters for closed session that the council will be asked to stick around and help work through. So with that, We will go ahead and get started in our traditional fashion. An invocation to this evening from our police chaplain, Father Wiley, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Father Wiley.

Let us pray. Gracious, loving, and almighty God, we give you thanks for the abundant blessings of this life. We thank you for gathering us together here this evening. Father, we thank you for this city and its leaders and all its residents and all who visit this place. Father, we ask that you pour your spirit upon us this evening. Calm our hearts and calm our minds. Help us to focus on the business at hand and help us to make decisions that are in the best interest of all those who work, play, and visit here. And Father, we ask that you send us forth from this place renewed with a sense of community for the place that we all love and call home. All this we ask in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mayor Gaylor. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Weeks. Present. Councilman Boyette.

Present.

Councilwoman Taylor. Present. Councilwoman Matthews. Present. Councilman White.

Present. All right. All president accounted for. Much appreciate your attendance, Councilwoman Jones. We continue to think about you and look forward to your safe return as soon as possible. Next, let's move forward with an adoption of the agenda. I had a request to swap 4.3 and 4.8, no amendment to them, just simply swap the order. Is there anything else, Mr. Livingston, was there anything from staff, any additions or changes? No, sir, Mr. Mayor. Perfect. And Mr. Boyette, you just a second ago asked if we could adjust something. What was that question? The item... I think we're going to, since there may be some actual business to come from that one, if it's all right with council, let's leave that one where it is. But we're going to get down to it pretty quickly, I think. So with that, the only recommended change from me is the swap of 4.3 and 4.8, if that's OK with council. Council, any other recommended or requested changes? Hearing none, would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda with the modification of swapping 4-3 and 4-8. So moved, Mr. Mayor. Motion to be made and properly seconded. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we will vote. Ms. Getsch, do you want us to vote electronically? Yes, sir. Just one second. Give us just a second.

Can you tell me who did the motion in second, please?

The motion was made by Councilman Boyette and seconded by Pro Temwix.

Mr. Mayor, I'm currently offline, but I'm working through it.

Okay, we'll work through that one. And I'll tell you what, all in favor, please raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes. That way we're all able to vote consistently. Perfect. Thank you, everybody. All right, we have an agenda. Let's begin with introduction of a new staff member, Mr. Livingston.

Thank you, Mayor has been our practice. We try to introduce our new department has significant hires to the city council get a little face time I have Kelly and Williams here to introduce our new community development and relations manager.

Good evening, mayor, council, community. It is my pleasure to introduce Maggie Carnegie. I think she might be going on two weeks now in office. And she comes to us from the city of Durham. She was about three years at the city of Durham. She comes with a lot of HUD program experience. So that will be really helpful to us as we navigate our home and CDBG monies going forward. She has jumped right in along with Crystal Fuller as a valued member of our community development team and looking at our programs and also already has some great ideas as to how we move forward. So I'll allow her to tell you a little bit more about herself.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council, fellow city staff, and City of Goldsboro residents. As was shared, my name is Maggie Carnegie, and I am the new Community Development and Relations Manager for the Development Services Department. To this role, I bring 11 years of experience in the human and public services sector. Most recently, as was shared, I was serving in an acting assistant director role with the City of Durham's Housing and Neighborhood Services Department. This consisted of overseeing a division of 12 staff, $108 million in funding to include four entitlement grants from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a portfolio of over 400 loans, 50 plus contracts, and compliance monitoring for 2,600 affordable rental housing units. Additionally, I have served in the United States Army Reserve for 12 years as a human resources officer. This included one deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. My husband, Zach, my dog Scooter, cats Biscuit and Gravy, and I have come to Goldsboro to be closer to my sister and brother-in-law, who reside in Grantham, and my mother, who lives in Wilson. I am excited to administer the city's Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnerships Program funding, as well as oversee minimum housing compliance in support of the city of Goldsboro and Goldsboro's residents. I appreciate the warm welcome I've already received so far and look forward to building strong partnerships throughout our community. Together, we can continue strengthening Goldsboro's neighborhoods and expanding opportunities for all who call this city home. Thank you for the opportunity to serve, and I look forward to the work ahead. Thank you.

Council, any comments or questions? This is a complex department that receives a lot of different buckets of money. Councilman?

Yes, I just want to say thank you for your service and your deployment. I am a fellow dirt chore as well.

Thank you, Council Member White.

Wonderful. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your service. We look forward to working with you and we'll we'll get into week three and four when they get there. So take it one day at a time.

Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Mr. Livingston, if we can move to item four to our employee and supervisor of the year awards.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to read this, and I'm not going to go down in front because Terry's unfortunately not able to be here this evening. She's had some challenges with her family, and she's taking care of them. So we wish her the best there. But this award is, as you mentioned, the Outstanding Supervisor or Employee of the Year Award. It's been awarded to Terry Weber. For outstanding achievement, Terry is a shining example of what it means to be an outstanding employee for the city of Goldsboro. She consistently demonstrates professionalism, integrity, and a calm, solutions-oriented approach in everything she does. No matter what the situation, Terry handles departmental challenges with grace and composure, creating a positive and productive environment for those around her. one of terry's greatest strengths is her willingness to provide support across all areas of the city and the goldsboro team she regularly goes out of her way to assist others never hesitating to step in when to help others as needed she does so with a positive attitude and a genuine smile which not only makes her approachable but also fosters strong collaboration across city departments a standard example of her dedication and her assistance with budget related matters Recognizing the complexity and importance of this task, Terri immediately took initiative and approached it with confidence and determination. What could have been an overwhelming and time-consuming responsibility was handled seamlessly due to her efforts. She went above and beyond expectations by carefully assisting me with overseeing, reviewing, and ensuring all the necessary details were accurate and properly completed. Her work made the process straightforward and efficient, ultimately allowing for smooth and timely submittal. Her ability to take ownership of assisting with such critical tasks and helping me to execute the task with precision speaks volumes about her reliability and expertise. Terry's strong work ethic, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence make her an invaluable member of the team. She consistently contributes in ways that elevate not only her own work, but also success across all areas of the City of Goldsboro team. I'm incredibly thankful for her dedication, her positive spirit, and support she provides to those around her. Terri is truly a phenomenal teammate and deserves recognition as Employee of the Year. and terry's work ethic and accomplishments reflect well on herself in the city of goldsboro awarded this day september 14 2026 and she says she regrets not being here but she really appreciates this award we do have dre here as our supervisor to accept the award on her behalf andre i'm sure you'd like to make some comments as well

Well, I would like to say that Terry is a valuable, great asset to the finance department, to the city of Goldsboro. We communicate daily. She is always at work. She is a dedicated, hardworking employee. And so I appreciate all that she have done for the finance department. I appreciate for all that she have done for the city of Goldsboro and for all the departments because she is a team player. She will get the job done. And so I appreciate all that she have done. Thank you.

Trey, I think we're going to try to take a picture and we'll Photoshop Terry in there later.

We were going to get a picture with her and you during the day.

We'll do it for real then, yes sir. Okay, next we have Supervisor of the Year Award for 2526. This has been awarded to Joshua Shockley. For outstanding achievement, Joshua Shockley is highly deserving of recognition as supervisor of the year for this exceptional leadership, operational excellence, and commitment to outstanding customer service at the Goldsboro Event Center. Joshua consistently delivers superior customer service in alignment with the city's mission and ensures the facility remains clean, functional, and welcoming for all renters, city departments, and the public. He effectively manages all daily administrative operations, including bookkeeping, tours, contracts, fee collection, vendor coordination, supply ordering, and permit maintenance, while maintaining accurate records and documentation. He oversees the successful execution of events by ensuring proper staffing, safety protocols, and operational procedures are in place. Joshua regularly serves as a manager on duty and remains on call as needed, demonstrating reliability and accountability. He conducts pre-event walkthroughs, provides logistical guidance to clients and service providers, and completes post-event evaluations to support continuous improvement. Joshua excels in client relations, clearly communicating city policies and facility capabilities while proactively resolving renter concerns and handling emergency situations professionally. He supervises, trains, and schedules part-time event staff, fosters a positive team environment, and provides performance recommendations to the director. He also assists with budgeting and operational planning. Additionally, Joshua builds strong relationships with vendors and community partners, supports economic development and tourism, collaborates with city departments on special projects, and oversees facility maintenance in coordination with Parks and Recreation and Public Works, among others. Joshua takes ownership of Goldsboro Event Center with strong dedication, leadership, and professionalism, which makes him an outstanding candidate for Supervisor of the Year. Joshua's work ethic and accomplishments reflect well on himself and the city of Goldsboro. Awarded this day, September 14, 2026. I do believe Joshua is here, and we will certainly go down and get pictures with him.

Just real quick, just wanted to say thank you to all of the city of Goldsboro. I can't name just the council, the mayor, the city manager. It's the entire city of Goldsboro that helps me do my job. Finance with funding different projects, public works with the facility issues that we have all the time. But most importantly, my biggest thing that I've tried to work on this year is our community involvement and our community relationships. We've built a strong relationship with many fraternities and sororities this year. Councilman White with Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi. The Chamber of Commerce this year is something that I've worked really big on with our Sundays on the Lawn, which begins October 4th. as well as building relationship with community supporting schools. There's a lot of things that we've got planned for this upcoming year, as well as the upcoming years. So I just want to say thank you for everyone who's in that involvement with me and the event center. Thank you to council for believing in me and trusting in me and building an event center that comes within with a whole lot of character. So thank you.

Thank you, Joshua. I will say he does take personal pride in the facility, and he goes as far as going on the weekends to paint himself. So he's very, very dedicated, and we're very lucky to have him. Thanks again.

congratulations to those selected and above all thank you and to those who are watching and thinking okay well now now I have an example of what sorts of things that that I can do to even further contribute to my department in my city those are examples you know go and talk to folks then you know we highlight these things because we're highlighting behaviors and we're not just highlighting people we're highlighting behaviors and the things that have just continue to recur and there's so many deserving people and Yeah, keep doing good things. Everybody really appreciate everyone that puts in their time and and their efforts All right. Now we will move to item 4.8. You'll remember we switched for three and four eight This one is the US Air Force's birthday proclamation I think a bit appropriate here in the city of Goldsboro So whereas on August 1st, 1907, the United States Army Signal Corps created an aeronautical division to take charge of all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines, and all kindred subjects. And whereas the National Security Act of 1947 established the United States Air Force as its own separate and equal branch of the armed forces, on September 18, 1947, creating the Air National Guard as a reserve component of the United States Air Force. And whereas the North Carolina Air National Guard can trace its origins back to March 15, 1948, with the establishment of the 156th Fighter Squadron. And whereas North Carolina has nearly 10,000 men and women proudly serving our nation as airmen in either active duty or reserve status or in the Air National Guard. And whereas North Carolina is the proud home to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, Pope Army Airfield in Fayetteville, and the North Carolina Air National Guard bases in New London and Charlotte. Whereas the United States Air Force and Air National Guard play a critical role in defending our nation's skies and ensuring our continued freedom. And whereas the city of Goldsboro is honored to be the home of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and is thankful to the active duty personnel, the active duty personnel, reservists, families, and veterans that call Goldsboro home. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Goldsboro City Council does hereby recognize and celebrate September 18, 2026 as the United States Air Force's birthday in the city of Goldsboro and commend its observance to all citizens. And witness whereof, I have herein to set my hand and fix the seal of the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina, this the 14th day of September 2026. That is a fun one to be able to do in a city where that it just hits a little bit different, doesn't it? So and and goes without saying, please remember, we do have a lot of our neighbors currently downrange. And so if you live next to an Air Force family, make sure you're reaching out to them every now and then because they're, they're heavy, they are shouldering a heavy burden right now as so many of our men and women in uniform have to do from time to time. Next, we will move to item 4.4, community supporting schools presentation. I believe I saw Ms. Bennett. Come on up.

Good afternoon, and thank you so much for allowing me to come in and speak. I want to refresh your memories just a moment. Two years ago, the mayor asked me if I would come in and I would share some good news about things that were happening with programming for youth in the city. And so I came in and I discussed all of the programming that we had, and I focused on the central attendance area schools, which at that time we were serving Carver Heights Elementary, Dillard Middle, and we were at Goldsboro High School at that time. And at the end of that presentation, the council asked me if we would go into North Drive Elementary, with that being the feeder school that feeds into Carver Heights and then into Dillard. We were asked if we would set up a reading buddy program just like the ones that we were doing at Carver Heights and at Brogden Primary and at Carver Elementary in Mount Olive. And we did just that. So for the past two years, we have had an amazing program. We have grown the program from year one to year two. This past year, I had two staff members, two dedicated staff members who were reading specialists. They served over 116 students weekly with volunteers coming into the school. Now, with volunteers, volunteers work with us at their leisure. They like to come in during the mornings, during their lunchtime. Many businesses give them time off at lunch so that they can come in and serve students. And the way this program works is we have a dedicated 30-minute block of time, and each reading buddy serves one student. Let me tell you, we had one dedicated volunteer, a retired educator, that came either two or three days a week to serve children. And that, of course, helped us to increase the number that we could serve. This year, we've had to make a very difficult decision, and this was not made lightly. Mayor Gaylor and I had numerous conversations. I was in constant contact with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent and the school leadership at North Drive. This year, North Drive is a low-performing school for the third year. They are working hard, and they will come out of that low-performing status, I have no doubt. But because they are low-performing, the Department of Public Instruction has put mandates into place, especially with K-2 schools. And so this is what has to happen in a K-2 low-performing school. There will be 120 minutes of uninterrupted reading strategies daily. 90 minutes of that time is core instruction. And then the other 30 minutes is a little bit more selective. But everything that they do is focused intervention. And this is something that they are being guided by through the State Department. So because of that, we started reaching out to our volunteers when we found out what a difficult year it was going to be for scheduling. We can't pull out children in the morning. We cannot pull them out during their math electives because if children are struggling in reading, many times they're struggling in math. We cannot pull them out of their electives. Kids need art, music, PE. We cannot pull them out of those times. So because of those specific interventions, we made the difficult decision to pull out of North Drive Now, as a community partner who values what you have done and who is a good steward of the money that you have entrusted us with, I had to share that with Mayor Gaylor, and I needed to come and share that with you as well. In good faith, I cannot send two staff members to a school where we cannot fully implement and execute a program the way we need to do it. It's nobody's fault. There is no ill will. Everybody understands that we are doing what we need to do, and North Drive is doing what they are mandated to do. So with that said, we are still serving at Carver Heights and at Dillard, which both of those are in the central attendance area. Last year, we served with two staff members at Carver Heights over 101 students a week. And I think Councilwoman Matthews is still serving at that school. and has been a long-time volunteer there. At Dillard Middle, we have Dr. Earl Moore and Ms. Mary Kay James. They have a fabulous mentoring program. Every Wednesday, it's kind of like Business Wednesday, they bring in business leaders and leaders from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base to talk to groups of students. Last year, they served over 116 students throughout the year through these special programs. Now that's in addition to the other things that Earl and Mary Kay were doing. So Community Supporting Schools wanted to share this with you, and I leave it with you. It would be your decision if you want to consider funding Carver Heights or Dillard Middle, that's up to you. The two staff members that I had at North Drive, I am putting at Meadow Lane this year. That is in the city, but it's not considered central attendance. However, There are many students at Meadow Lane who need the additional support that have transferred out of the central attendance area to Meadow Lane. And to tell you which students we serve, we typically serve what we call the bubble children, the bubble students. They are students that are right on the cusp of going from a level one to a level two. They just need a push to get from one to two, or from level two to three, or three to four. So they're in that bubble. They're almost there, and they just need to be pushed over that edge a little bit. Those are the children that we typically serve. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time at North Drive. Yes, we would consider when they get out from under these state mandates, we would definitely consider going back. We built many great relationships with staff at that school, and we would have no problem going back to serve there. But through our many discussions with the mayor and with the superintendent, we needed to bring you up to speed with what we were having to do at North Drive.

So, counsel, this presentation obviously is an FYI presentation. We want to make sure that everyone is fully aware. The allocation of dollars very much can continue to do its thing if that's the will of counsel. If counsel would prefer to adjust that, then we can put something in a new business and talk about it in just a little bit. My recommendation is keep the program specialists in place, keep them on your payroll, and then be able to go back into North Drive as soon as that door reopens.

When that lifts.

Right, exactly, exactly. I mean, they're going to do what they need to do to look after those students and to be able to increase their outcomes. My recommendation to council would be, allow the community supporting schools to continue doing its thing, use the money where you need to use it within the city of Goldsboro, serving the city of Goldsboro kids, and then hopefully next year or year after, we're right back in North Drive.

And we would like that very much. All of the above.

Council, are there any objection, questions, comments? Yes, please.

I'm not necessarily opposed to that, Mr. Mayor. I love the program and love being a part of the program. My question or concern is, and I guess the sucky part is that individuals would have to lose their jobs currently. Is that what would be happening?

Well, we will compensate for that.

Okay.

I am not going to have any staff member that was planning to have a job with me. My board is not going to let them go without their job. That's good news.

Okay. So that kind of leads me to my next point. If that money can be kind of earmarked when the program starts again for North Drive, I would love to see that continue. But I'm wondering if in the interim that money can be added to what we do for UCAN, which could still help benefit residents across the city who are having hardships with different things. So that money could be earmarked so when the program is back up and running, we continue to do business as usual. But until then, could we use that money to continue serving the people in Goldsboro?

I'll put my microphone back on. I see. I was expecting Brad to pop around that corner any second. So if we want to do any sort of changes, then we need to put it in the form of a motion in a few minutes. But we'll continue the discussion until then.

Yes, sir. So are we saying that we'll flex the money to Meadow Lane?

My board will find the funding to pay for Meadow Lane unless the city council chooses to send that funding to Dillard or Carver Heights or if you chose Meadow Lane. That's totally in your hands. I'm not going to direct any money anywhere unless I'm told to do it.

All right. So with that being said, Mr. Mayor, I would love to see the money staying in the Central Attendance District because they're the ones who are struggling the most.

Which would be Carver Heights or Dillard?

Dillard, right. So I'm in agreement with flexing the money and the resources to help those students get to where they need to be. I do understand that Carver Heights, my frat brother, has brought Carver up to a D from an F to a D. He's done an amazing job. Yes, he has. So we do celebrate that, but there's still a lot of work to be done at Carver and Dillard. So I would like to see us flex the money to Dillard and Carver and keep it in the central attendance district.

So I guess my question to you, Ms. Bennett, is if we do that, does that add additional staff, which would add additional volunteers, which means additional kids get helped?

If you choose to fund Carver Heights or Dillard, I have two staff members already in place. So what would happen is I would just use that funding to pay their salaries, which ends up freeing up CSS monies that I would spend at Meadow Lane. I mean, that would be the trade-off on my end. But yes, that would allow us, because what we're going to do now is shift those volunteers that we had at North Drive. We're going to try to pull them in at Carver Heights or Dillard or Meadow Lane. It's always like putting a puzzle together.

So, Council, if there's a motion to be made to either direct it to the extent that extra resources could be placed at Carver Heights or Dillard, then the money could be used for those sorts of things. I think it does need to be allocated. You don't want it to just be moving things around. I think it does need to go. towards enhancement in some way if that can be documented. But if that's the will of council, I think that's a fantastic option. And if you see that it's not an option, then don't invoice us for it. I mean, we have a good relationship. I know you're not going to use the funding inappropriately.

Which is why I needed to share with you the North Drive situation. I could have left two staff members there. But we would not have had the level of program that you ask for or that we expect to have. And that was not what we wanted to do.

So is there a motion? Yes, ma'am.

I'm sorry. I thought I liked the button with not having to hold it, but I don't know. So just for clarity for me and Ms. Bennett, I hope you know my heart and know that I do support this program. I absolutely love it. But what I'm hearing is, and correct me if I'm wrong, we are not going to add additional services and programs. What we're going to do is we're going to cover the existing services staff's salaries, which would allow you guys to go and start a new program in Middle Lane.

Well, that's in essence what would be happening. The money that the council has given us has always covered salary. I have always covered the incentives, the books, the materials, the everything else. So that, in essence, that's what it's doing. It's freeing up and moving that money around

Given that I am at least hearing the consideration of doing something different, is there a motion that we want to do now, or do we want to amend the agenda, give everyone time to think, and then put this under new business later this evening to the extent that Ms. Bennett can stick around?

I don't want to monopolize her time, but I do think I want just a few more minutes to marinate on this because I'm What I thought I was doing was putting extra resources at Carver Heights or Dillard within the central attendance district. But actually, in essence, it's what Councilman Matthews just said, that we're paying the salaries to free up money for Meadow Lane. Right. And so I just want to marinate on that just for a second. Understood. Because it doesn't change the position. It just changes who's paying the salaries. Right.

And these are still Goldsburg kids. Yes. I do want to be real clear on that. They are still Goldsburg kids. I don't want anyone watching this to think, well, what about us? No. These are still Goldsboro kids, but I certainly respect the fact this was intended to be a presentation, and now we're getting into a piece of new business. Sure. And so, Council, if it's okay, I would like to amend the agenda and add an item under new business, item 9.4. If you are not able to stick around this evening, then we can table that and bring it back in our next meeting under new business. It's up to you.

I can stay tonight. Okay.

All right, then let's go ahead and do that. Counsel, can I have a motion to amend the agenda to add item 9.4, a financial discussion regarding CIS? So moved. All right, motion is made and properly seconded by Councilman White. Is there any debate? Hearing none, Ms. Getz, do you want us to vote by show of hands? I got you. Oh, there we go.

I'm voting in the affirmative.

All votes have been tallied. We've amended the agenda to add a 9.4. Hang out for a little bit, and we'll get right back to you as soon as we can.

That's perfectly fine. And let me just say, I respect whatever decision you make, but I have to be honest and I have to be transparent. When we added the positions at North Drive, that was two additional positions. So I am always looking for my funding sources And I will find funding to pay for Medellin, but I have to be honest about how I have to handle our finances because that's two people that I'm paying for at a new school now.

And these are still Goldsboro kids. Very much. I think we need to marinate on this for a little bit, and then we'll come back to the conversation here at an appropriate time.

And again, thank you for the past two years, and thank you for the support that you have always given us.

Perfect.

Thank you. Thank you. And we'll be back with you in just a little bit. Okay. All right, now we have, give me just a second to reorganize. Next, we'll move to item 4.5, Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation. Whereas each year from the 15th of September to the 15th of October, National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated throughout the United States. And whereas Hispanics comprise roughly 11.4% of the population of the state of North Carolina as of June 2024, and have both an integral and necessary community in our state. And whereas Hispanics comprise 12.7% of the population of Wayne County as of 2022. And whereas the city of Goldsboro openly welcomes and supports its distinct cultural diversity. And whereas we are further inspired by the economic, social, and cultural contributions of the Hispanic community within the city of Goldsboro and Wayne County. And whereas we understand that although this national recognition lasts each year for one month, we work endlessly to create a more socially inclusive and diverse society with equality for all populations. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Goldsboro City Council does hereby recognize and celebrate September 15th through October 15th, 2026 as Suspended Heritage Month in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and extend best wishes to all our communities as they hold appropriate ceremonies to commemorate this observance. And witness whereof, I appear to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina, to be affixed as the 14th day of September 2026. And this evening, accepting tonight's proclamation on behalf of the Hispanic and Latino community is NC FIELD, which stands for North Carolina Focus on Increasing Education, Leadership, and Dignity. NC Field is a grassroots nonprofit created by farm workers and their allies for farm workers. Rooted in eastern North Carolina, this organization works alongside agricultural workers and their families to increase access to resources, build community leadership, and ensure rural voices are heard and valued. Please join us in welcoming Vidal as he accepts the proclamation on behalf of NC Field.

Good evening mayor and members of city council.

When we talk about Hispanic Heritage Month, we are not only talking about where we come from.

Hablamos de quienes somos, de lo que aportamos, y del futuro que estamos construyendo juntos aquí en Goldsboro.

We are talking about who we are, what we contribute, and the future we are building together here in Goldsboro.

En nombre de SFIL y de la comunidad hispana y latina, gracias por este reconocimiento.

On behalf of NC Field and our Hispanic and Latino community, thank you for this recognition.

Today, Hispanics and Latinos make up more than 12% of North Carolina's population and approximately 16% of Wayne County.

but we are much more than that number.

Somos trabajadores agrícolas, dueños de negocios, estudiantes, padres y madres, vecinos y líderes.

We are farm workers helping feed this country. We are business owners, students, parents, neighbors, and community leaders.

Trabajamos aquí, formamos nuestras familias, y aquí llegamos a esta Carolina del Norte

We work here, raise our families here, and call Eastern North Carolina our home.

That is why this recognition matters to us. It reminds us that our culture, our stories, and our contributions are part of Goldsboro. That this month is more than a celebration, that it is a reminder of who we are building together the future of this city and that it is a bright future. Thank you.

May Hispanic Heritage Month be more than a celebration. May it remind us that we are building the future of the city together and may it be a bright one. Thank you.

Next, we will read into the record item 4.6 is a Constitution Week proclamation requested by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Whereas September 17, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention, and whereas it is fitting and proper to officially recognize this magnificent document and the anniversary of its creation, as well as the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion, And whereas Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designating September 17 through 23 as Constitution Week. And whereas the David Williams chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution does hereby acknowledge and commemorate the official recognition being given to this magnificent document on its anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will be observed during Constitution Week. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Goldsboro City Council does hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as Constitution Week in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals that the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through the guardian of our liberties, remembering that lost rights may never be regained. And witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina, to be affixed, this the 14th day of September, 2026. Next, we have a few guests present who I believe will be coming forward to receive copies of this one. Those of you may already know, we had a very busy weekend in the city of Goldsboro. A number of different events, and I'm not going to steal anyone's thunder for closing comments. I'll just simply say, if you were a volunteer or a participant or a planner in any way of any of the multitude of events that happened this weekend, thank you. Because you made it a very busy schedule, four years truly, and a really positive weekend for the city. A big one, of course, was done in honor of first responders and our military. So without any further ado, we will move to item 4.7, First Responders Month Proclamation. And I do believe we have some guests present to come forward and receive. So first responders appreciation month proclamation, whereas first responders protect and aid the public in the event of an emergency. And whereas first responders include 911 operators and dispatchers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical service technicians, search and rescue teams, and other roles in the public safety sector, both professional and volunteer. And whereas first responders are our primary and best defense against all emergencies that threaten our communities. And whereas first responders show courage and selfless concern for others as they carry out their duties. And whereas first responders risk their own safety to protect others. And whereas first responders are highly trained, specialized workers who contribute their excellent skills for the public good. many first responders provide this service voluntarily for no pay and whereas first responders maintain safety and order in times of crisis volunteer in our communities and schools and are a vital part of the city of goldsboro and wayne county now therefore be it proclaimed the goldsboro city council does hereby recognize september 2026 as first responders appreciation month in north carolina in north carolina and commemor and commend its observance to all citizens And witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and affix the seal of the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina. This is the 14th day of September, 2026. And I believe we have guests present. We have our sheriff, Mr. Larry Pierce. We have our chief of police, Mr. Michael West. We have our chief of our fire department, Mr. Ron Stempion. I believe we have three members of Wayne County EMS that were able to join us. I'll let them introduce themselves in just a minute. But it's a distinct privilege. Gentlemen, if you'd join me. And ma'am, if you'd join me in the podium. Figure it out. If you would allow each person just to simply introduce themselves, say which agency they represent. I think most people probably know everyone up here, but I think it would be a good thing to do.

Good evening, Michael West, Devilsville Police Department, Chief of Police.

Alex Westbrook, Paramedic, Wayne County EMS.

Good morning, I'm Sheriff Larry Pierce.

Ron Stampion, Fire Chief, City of Goldsboro.

My name is Angie Barnes and I've had 25 years of proud service with Wayne County EMS.

Tyler Santafort, Wayne County EMS Paramedic.

I'm Taylor Grantham, Paramedic with Wayne County EMS.

Thank you so much.

You got us?

How do you want us to go? Thank you.

That's a distinct treat to get to recognize folks. There's so many people that answer the phone whenever you have an emergency. You think about, from the moment you pick up the phone and dial 911, you have a dispatcher. And then you have the EMS that's rolling to you. You have the fire or the police that's rolling to you. Then you also look inside our city of Goldsboro and folks that you don't even think about it, but who are the folks with chainsaws that are out cutting up trees after hurricanes? And all of those folks that are getting up in the middle of the night to go and work on things and um folks that are working on power lines and the rain and the wind and so just remember that there's a lot of sweat that goes into making civilized life easy for the rest of us and so don't ever forget to be grateful all right next we will move to new item 4.8 a presentation from miss goldsboro

Good evening, council members. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is Hayden Pearson. And last November, I had the honor of being awarded the title of Miss Goldsboro 2026. And what an honor it has been to be able to represent this community. I've loved every single second of it. This past June, I was able to compete at Miss North Carolina and out of out of 50 contestants I placed in the top 11 as one of the youngest contestants. And to be able to wear Goldsboro across my chest and have that happen is just a dream that I've had ever since I was five years old. And I'm so incredibly blessed to say that my dreams have come true through the Miss America opportunity. But what even more of an honor it is to serve Goldsboro and my work with red balloon project through goldsboro also i'm the executive director of a non-profit organization that celebrates critically ill children and provides them birthday celebrations if their family was not able to provide them one due to medical bills or whatever the reason may be i try my best to give them a day that they'll never forget and through my work in goldsboro this year i am proud to say that i have hit so many wayne county elementary schools had children illustrate the illustrations for book that I wrote so incredibly awesome to say that as Miss Goldsboro I've written a book and given back to the Wayne County community as My reign is coming up very shortly. And I will pass on the title to a new Miss Goldsboro. I just want to say thank you for everything that you've done in this community. You've made it so special. And from my time in Goldsboro, just five years old, being a star in the Miss America opportunity, I can say that I'm a product of what Goldsboro can do for young girls who have big dreams. And I'm very thankful to be here. So thank you.

Thank you for what you're doing. Congratulations. And we look forward to seeing you at each of your next stops. I have no doubt that there will be future contestants and future competitions. We look forward to seeing you.

Thank you.

Congratulations and thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Next, we'll roll into section five of our agenda. Just as a quick reminder on logistics, you do not need to be signed up to speak at a public hearing. You do need to be signed up to speak at the public comment period. If you are here to speak on that and haven't yet, the list is right outside the door. But the public hearing part that you do not need to be on the list for is time to move into. So Mr. Livingston, I'll hand it over to you for item 5.1.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have planning staff. I'm not sure that Kenny's and Mr. Talton's giving the brief on RZ02-26.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Evening.

Mr. Mayor, may I approach you with these additional supplemental document?

How many different do we have copies all along or do we need to pass them?

Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. I've got seven here. Yeah, if you don't mind, you can share them or feel free to.

Do you need one for your presentation that you can reference? All right.

I can help with that.

The two of us are shared so that we're not totally eating up the the desk space. Thank you.

Thank you. We inadvertently left that out of your packet, and I apologize for that. But I think it will help to make things a little clearer for you as we go through this rezoning request. Before we deny it again, you do have a straight rezoning. This is not a conditional zoning. This zoning request will be by Ms. Angelita Marsh-Rowe. The property is located on the north side of East Ash Street between Barrow Court and Malloy Street. The information permitted tonight will give you some information as to, again, the zoning districts that she is looking at proposing for the property. Your decision will be based off of our staff report, comments from the public, the comprehensive land use plan, and current surrounding zoning patterns for the property itself. The property is characterized as approximately 0.47 acres. The owner is Miss Angelita Morris Road. She is also the applicant. The current zoning is residential 16. The proposed zoning is general business. The land use designation is commercial. The applicant's requesting a change of zone for the subject property from residential 16 to general businesses. All permitted uses within the general business zoning district shall be considered as potential uses for this property. Before you tonight, before we go any further, the maps I presented to you are the property in question. You'll see the highlighted section and just to the east of the property is the second piece of this one parcel that she is proposing to leave as residential 16 and the part to the left that's been highlighted. This is the parcel portion of that she wants to rezone to general business. Here's the current zoning map for the property. You'll notice general business is located to the west and the east of the property. To the south of the property will be neighborhood business conditional zoning districts, office and institutional zoning district. And to the north, you'll see some shopping center zoning district. We just discussed what is currently the zoning surrounding the property. So the general business proposed zoning district is established to accommodate the widest range of uses, providing general goods and services to the community. The district is intended to promote high quality, accessible development, serving the needs of the community and surrounding area. There is no minimum lot size. Again, the existing property is zoned as R16. It is established to accommodate low density single family residential uses. and to prohibit all activities of a commercial nature except certain home occupations. It discourages any use that would substantially interfere with the development, use, and enjoyment of single-family dwellings, and that would be detrimental to the quiet residential nature of the district. The minimum lot size is 16,000 square feet. Here's our comprehensive land use plan, which shows the majority of the area surrounding the property is zoned as commercial. across the street to the south of the property is property which has been designated as office and institutional. The city's land use plan locates this, again, within the commercial land use designation. This was given based off proximity to existing major transportation corridors and commercial development. The designation encourages infield development at existing commercial sites. The general business zoning district is identified as a corresponding zoning district for the commercial land use designation. Before we go on the staff again, the status recommendation, I want to just to point out again, this is a straight rezoning, not a conditional rezoning. Again, the information that we have in front of us, what we want to do is just we want the council to consider all the uses in the general business zoning district. At this time, the owner of the property, the applicant, Miss Morris Road, does not have any proposed or specific use for the property. If you've been down East Ash Street, you'll notice that there's been some outside exterior improvements being made to the property, and that's just for preventing the elements of the weather from entering the building, just the protection of the property. Keep in mind that if the property is rezoned to general business, that it will undergo a technical review committee review and it will be required to meet all of our site development regulations going forward. At this time, staff is recommending approval of the rezoning request from residential 16 to general business based on the following. that the proposed rezoning and the range of uses permitted in the requested zoning district are compatible with the surrounding zoning patterns and land uses. The proposed rezoning is compatible with the City of Goldsboro's comprehensive land use plan and accompanying land use map. city or other service providers will be able to provide sufficient public safety service meet transportation and utility utility demands to the subject property while maintaining sufficient levels of surface to existing developments and lastly that the proposed rezoning will not impair or improve the health safety and general aware of the welfare of the public As you know, with the public hearing, we have posted the property, showing passerbys that the property is being considered for rezoning. We also have advertised this in the local newspaper. And we have sent letters to adjacent property owners within 100 feet of the subject property. At this time, I'm not aware of any public opposition to this rezoning request. At their meeting on July 27th, the Planning Commission voted to adopt the consistency statement and recommended approval of the rezoning request. Now council shall vote to adopt the recommendation for approval and consistency statement that the Planning Commission has provided. You shall also vote to adopt the approval ordinance with the inclusion of the consistency statement, or council shall vote to deny with the inclusion of inconsistency statement that deems this rezoning request to be inconsistent. Council may continue the public hearing to a date if they determine that further discussion is needed. Mayor, without further question, do I have any questions from city council?

Yeah, council, any comments or questions for staff at this time? If not, then following our practice and being consistent with our past performance, what we'll do now, if the applicant is here, we'll invite the applicant up to be able to come fill in any holes that they want to make sure get filled in, make sure we're all aware of what it is we're talking about. And then if there's any questions, we'll hear them. If not, then we'll open the public hearing and allow members of the public to come forward and ask questions as well. Is there any questions for Mr. Towton? Hearing none, is the applicant here?

I was going to tell you, Mayor, the applicant's son, Mr. Sergio Sanchez, is acting on his mother's behalf tonight. He has been informed of the public hearing. We just did not hear from him as if he were going to be in attendance or not. So at this time, I don't think anybody's here to represent the family. That's fine.

I'll just ask, is there anyone here representing the real? All right, perfect. No. All right, so with that, not hearing any questions from staff, let's open the public hearing. This is a public hearing for item 5.1 on our agenda, RZ 0226. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak? Second call, anyone wishing to come forward and speak on RZ 0226, item 5.1? Third and final call, anyone wishing to come forward and speak on RZ 226, item 5.1 on our agenda? All right, we will close the public hearing. Council, we see that there was no public input in the last few seconds, so have there been any additional questions that have come up? Hearing none, we'll either adopt a motion to approve, including the consistency statement, or a motion to the contrary, or a motion to table.

Mr. Mayor, I'd make a motion that we approve this item along with the consistency statement as approved by planning and presented.

All right. Motions have been made. Is there a second? Second. Motions have been made and properly seconded to approve, including the consistency statement. Is there any debate on that motion? Hearing none, please vote electronically if possible. If anyone has any issues, just write. Yes, sir. Would you state your vote for the record?

Affirmative.

Affirmative. All right. All right, all votes haven't been cast. Motion passes. RZ 0226 is approved. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tom. Excuse me. All right. Next, we will move into our public comment period. If you wish to speak and have not yet done so, please approach the clerk and be included on the signup list. Get back to my agenda.

Miss gets our first speaker is Phyllis Merritt James.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. I'm standing here on behalf of Linda Alves and Marcus Lewis and the Community Relations and Development Committee, which is CCRD. We are continuing to be involved in community outreach and support as previously shared in our presentation in August. September is National Recovery Month as well as Suicide Awareness Month. The national theme is Recovery Happens Together. Key focus areas for this year are connection and community, highlighting how meaningful relationships with family, peers, employers, and local communities build resilience and hope, whole person care, which emphasizes that mental well-being and substance use recovery are deeply connected, and multiple pathways, which reinforces that recovery is not a one-size-fits-all and honors diverse evidence-based journeys. In that vein, we are having the first annual Recovery Month celebration at The Hub downtown Goldsboro this Saturday, September the 19th from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. There will be speakers, vendors, music, entertainment, and free food for a day of encouragement, connection, and resources for individuals, families, and our community. Mental health crisis, substance abuse, social issues, as well as grief and suicide. We also thank you and request that you continue to honor your prior financial commitments to this commission to support our initiatives for this community as agreed upon in February of this year's, such as the gun violence, recovery month, community roundtables, and the MLK luncheon, to name a few. We really would appreciate that. We meet the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. here in the answer room at City Hall. We invite your presence and your input and the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor, our next speaker is David Elliott. Okay, thank you. Our next speaker will be Nicole Walton.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. It's been a while, but good to see everyone. I initially came to, because I also, as a member of CCRD, came to support my member, well, support the commission in asking that, you know, you guys have been super in supporting CCRD and that we continue with funding. that we're able to do the things that we plan to do throughout the rest of this year, along with next year's MLK. But on the other side of that, on my way over, I was listening in on the meeting and what was being spoken about. community supported schools and you know they're possibly not getting the person or needing the person community supporting schools and awesome awesome awesome tool resource for our community and our children in our schools um i was once a part of that so i know miss bennett works hard she continues to work hard for the kids and the students um but i just want to throw in a little um throw in just a little slide regardless i know you guys will meet again on um which way you're going to go but whatever way you go i just want to put a plug in if that money is not used for salary and i don't know where that money is coming from Because if I maybe didn't get it right, but my understanding is that it will be used for a position. If that position is not within the school systems or whatever is needed, just be mindful and just remember there's also other resources, there are other programs out there that are supporting kids in the communities that that money can go towards. A lot of things happen in schools. A lot of things happen outside schools. There are amazing programs, and I'm not just tooting my horn, but R-Secure is one, that supports the children outside of the school. Because at the end of the day, they have to go home. They have to return to where they came from. And a lot of times, we don't know what they return to. But that's where Arts2Q kicks in because we cover those kids from the time that they leave school to the time that it's about time for them to go home and go to bed. Providing a safe place. We're providing real life skills. It's not just a production. It's not even about production, but it's about building character, resilience. These kids read music. They count beats. They just, you know, it's life skills. So I'm just saying, if there's extra money or if you don't, excuse me, choose to use that money, consider other programs outside of the school. Because not only ArtSecute, there are amazing programs that support that space in between leaving schools where they're protected from the time that they get home and whatever may happen. Thank you for your time. Just considerations.

Thank you. Mayor, that was our last speaker.

Really good, really good comments as always. All right, we will move into our consent agenda section seven. Mr. Livingston, if you would still hear any remaining questions and once all questions are heard would entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented.

Specialist thank you Mister mayor, we have a few items on the consent agenda fairly consider routine in nature such as minutes. Mending RC BG home and special revenue funds those things are in your packet. Resolution approving official depository is where we're dealing with our investment bankers and our idle funds that were best thing we need to make sure that all our depository is the PNC bankers listed. There's a change order in here for a large project that we're doing with AC Schultes that I'll be happy to discuss with you. It's essentially we're putting meters out and doing the work at night so it won't impact the citizens. And this will also help us get the job done faster. And that'll help save some money as well. But mostly done at night so that we'll have less impact to the customers and we can measure what's going on with our meters and our SCADA system. and also the standard monthly reports. We generally do the consent agenda as one motion, but I'll be happy to separate any of those out if there's any further discussion that's needed.

Council, are there any remaining questions? I know we've had opportunities to speak already, but are there any remaining questions on the consent agenda items? Hearing no, I entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented.

So moved. Second.

Motion made and properly seconded to adopt the consent agenda as presented. Is there any debate?

No debate, but I do have a comment.

Yes, sir. Please.

I'm fine with the city manager executing all the things that we just said. Only thing I ask is that we be kept abreast of what's going on, because we can lose sight of it, and then we can't speak to it educationally. We don't know. We don't have any oversight, and it doesn't come before the county. So I just ask that we be intentional about making sure that we know what's going on as far as things are going on. And I'm not saying that he hasn't in the past. I just want to put that out in the atmosphere that we need to be sure that the council is brought in on just what's going on.

Completely fair. And that is actually why, to your point, that is why these things, once you get over a certain threshold, end up on the consent agenda, even if it's for the manager to approve instead of me. That's certainly well received, especially given the context of LGC operations over the last several months across the state. Was there any further comment or debate? Hearing none, please vote electronically if possible. That can represent a roll call vote. All right, all votes being tallied, consent agenda is adopted as presented. All right, another one that has been discussed a few different times, a resolution authorizing city manager to enter into an agreement to resurface tennis courts at Herman Park. Mr. Livingston, if you would just remind everybody what it is.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We were asked to get some quotes. The Parks and Recreation, Ms. Brown, did a good presentation on the condition of our courts, and she's here to kind of go over some of the bids that we've received and wanting to move forward in the spring of next year with resurfacing, making some repairs, I would say, to our existing facilities, our tennis courts at Herman Park. All right.

Good evening, everyone. How are you doing?

Good.

Good. Well, I'm here before you this evening, as the manager said, to discuss the Herman Park tennis courts. As we had discussed before, the courts are in need of repair, so we did go out and seek costs for what's called crack repair and resurfacing. And we got three bids and each of the companies that we reached out to, they were actually recommended by the North Carolina USTA Association because we had a previous conversation with them and they sent me a list of companies and they're like, these are the companies that know what our standards are, know what courts should be like. And so we reached out, like I said, to three of the companies that they had sent me the list they had provided me. And I shared with them, like, you know, what was going on with the tennis courts and asked them, you know, can you let us know if crack repair and resurfacing is an option or do we need to do something else? All three companies were like, oh, no, no, no, your foundation's solid, you know, your base is solid, you're good with doing what's called a crack repair and resurfacing. One of the things that they did bring up that we had not done previously is we should be resurfacing our courts every five years. When we had the courts done in 2013, they had not been resurfaced every five years. And we can all do math, 2026 minus 2013, that's 13 years. So we missed two resurfaces. But with all that said, going forward, we, again, got three quotes, and they ranged from 147,000 to 252,000. Ironically enough, the one that's $147,000 is actually closest to us. The company's based out of Smithfield because we had a company from like Charlotte. So that may have had something to do with it, but they're all giving us the same warranty. They're all doing the same applicable method as far as how they're going to do the courts. And so with that, I'm here before you this evening to see if you will give us permission to move forward with getting the 10 courts of Herman Park resurfaced. And again, as the city manager said, this would not be something that's done this fall. We're looking at 2027, like spring, summer of 2027 before these courts would get done.

And just being clear, the lowest quote, the 147 is the one that is in the resolution that's being requested.

Correct. Correct.

All right, council. I know there I know there's questions. And this is a it's a big project that wasn't really scheduled when we lost a major travel and tourism event because of the courts. Obviously, it came back up and reared his ugly head. So we got into the conversation. Are there any comments, questions or is there a motion to adopt or reject?

Mr. Mayor, I have one question. Please. Could you explain, please, I had asked a question last week and it was approached very, very professionally. I did find out that there are some grants available for it, but I wanted someone to explain for the people that I had been speaking with in my district concerning the grants that are available as well.

Yeah, so there are different grants available between USTA, the Southern Tennis Association, I believe even North Carolina USTA, and none of the grants... pay for the entire cost of getting the course done. But there's grant money that is out there that we can go after to help offset the costs. It's not something where, you know, I type it in today and I know tomorrow. So it is a process. So just like with other grants out there, I mean, we can go after them, but it's not a guarantee that we would get them. But also, of course, which, you know, we aren't planning to do anything different, but with the USTA grants, you know, they are just for, you know, USTA tennis courts. Can't put pickleball lines or anything like that down on the courts, which we weren't looking to do anyway. But it is a process, and I've actually started the process because it's like a three-step process where you register yourself and say, this is who we are, this is what we're looking to do. Ask for one of their consultants to reach out to you so you can talk through the process of what you want done. But it's different levels of grants they have where you can look to resurface the tennis court compared to you're looking to build new tennis courts. So it's different levels of grants as well.

If you are ultimately successful in getting one of those grants, that would be used to offset the 147 in this request, right? Yes. I think that was kind of what you were trying to get. Yes.

excuse me, when I was reviewing it this weekend, the 147, the only question I had was the resurfacing for the tennis hitting wall. Was that included, that $12,000 in the 147, or that's additional?

That's additional. So for each of the quotes, because we were with each of the vendors, each of the contractors, we were asking them, okay, This is what it's going to be for the 10 tennis courts. What if we redo the hitting wall? What's that cost? What if we do something else? So they were giving us different prices, but for all the costs, the hitting wall is not included. It's a separate cost.

Council, any other comments, questions? Is there a motion or a directive on how we'd like to move forward as a group?

Yes, sir. I'll make a motion that we allow to go forward with this, this action.

Second, Mr. Mayor.

All right, motion has been made and properly seconded to move forward and about the resolution as presented. Again, with the caveat that we are pursuing grants and those grant dollars would offset these dollars. And so this is the not to exceed, I guess, is the way to phrase that. So motion made properly second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll please vote electronically if possible. Or just stated for the record in the affirmative area. All right, all those being in the affirmative, we will move forward with item item a don't want resolutions adopted. Thank you so much for being Thank you all so much. And thank you for your work on this. All right, next, we'll go to item nine dot one guests from NCD ot appreciate you guys being here. I know waiting for a little bit of time. Apologies for that, but I know this has been something that's been very important to a manager in this council to be able to hear from you guys, given the volume of projects that's going on. So thank you, and please proceed. Mr. Livingston, is there any preface?

No, Mr. Mayor, only to say that this is our annual update. We do appreciate their time here and giving the council an update and asking the ability to ask questions. And thank you, Jennifer, and your staff for being here on this. I know it's a lot of time out of your day, but we really appreciate it.

Excellent. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. I'll be giving a quick overview to the Goldsboro MPO, or Metropolitan Planning Organization, as planners like to talk in acronyms. By way of introduction, I'm Roy Publico, Senior Planner for the City of Goldsboro, and I'm also the MPO Coordinator for the Goldsboro MPO. To date, there are 37 planning organizations in the state of North Carolina, 19 of which are MPOs and 18 of which are RPOs. MPOs have a minimum 50,000 population in the urbanized area and Goldsboro is indicated, arrow marks the spot. Looking at it more closely, you can see from the current slide within the yellow boundary area demarcates the MPO. Now, what is an MPO? Basically, the MPO was created basically to ensure that existing and future expenditures for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive, aka the 3C, planning process. So that's why MPOs were created. And some of the duties and responsibilities of an MPO What we typically do is we put together the UPWP or Unified Planning Work Program. That's the yearly budget. We also put together every four years, five years, the MTP or Metropolitan Transportation Plan or Long Range Plan. And we also do the Transportation Improvement Program or TIP. We just love those acronyms, like I stated earlier. And I'm proud to say that the Goldsboro MPO, we don't have to worry about air quality conformity. We're not under any CMAC, not getting on the bad list for air quality. And how are MPOs typically structured? They're typically structured, here what we have are two committees and the lead planning agency. And I'll start off with the TCC, or Technical Coordinating Committee, that basically consists of staff representatives. This is the current Goldsboro TCC list. You may recognize some of the names on here. And there's also the Transportation Advisory Committee, or TAC, which consists of local elected officials. It also includes the Board of Transportation Area Representative, and they're the ones that approve and adopt the various reports and things that go forward. The TCC makes recommendations to approve or deny, and the TAC approves or adopts them. And last but not least, we have the lead planning agency. It's usually the city or county. In this case, it's the city of Goldsboro, yours truly. One of the current things that I'm pretty excited to be working on as part of the MPO is the safety action plan. And it's basically based on a vision and commitment. And it's stakeholder fed. And it's also multimodal and focuses on short term needs and long term goals. Safety action plans, one of the main things that we're trying to achieve with a safety action plan is trying to achieve significant reduction in fatalities and serious injuries on the region's transportation system, which includes increasing awareness of transportation safety and risks and identifying needs and recommended safety improvements. Furthermore, I would say the top goals here for the Safety Action Plan would be to prevent deaths and serious injuries by establishing a clear commitment to eliminating severe crashes, as well as improving eligibility for federal funding, particularly Safe Streets and Roads for All, aka SS4A, implementation and demonstration grants. I understand it's a lot of information. Believe me, this is the condensed version. I can talk at length, but I'm sure you folks would like to hear from the NCDOT the projects that are currently going on in the city of Goldsboro. With that, I'd like to introduce Deputy Division Engineer Sam Lawhorn, as well as Division Engineer Matthew Clark.

Thank you, Roy. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Council members, appreciate the opportunity to share some updates. NCDOT projects in the Goldsboro, within the city limits of Goldsboro, within the planning organization, and we'll sprinkle in a couple in Wayne County so you have that awareness. I am Matt Clark, the division engineer for Division 4. One of six counties in Division 4 is Wayne. Sam Lawhorn will follow me and share some updates on safety projects, resurfacing bridge projects, maintenance activities. I'll focus on some of our capital improvement projects. First, beginning to look at projects under construction. Many will talk several times about Wayne Memorial Drive, and our first is a project that is now active in construction. This is a section of Wayne Memorial from New Hope going north to I-42, the bypass. Some updates there in widening this to a four lane section. I'll say this has been one of our key needs that we have seen in the Goldsboro area, especially with traffic exiting I-42 trying to enter Wayne Memorial Drive. At times it backs up down the ramp. That's a serious safety concern to DOT. So we'll be very thankful to see these improvements. Some updates on this, just to make you aware, the intersection there at Tommy's Road and the intersection at New Hope Road will remain as signalized intersections. There will be a reduced conflict intersection, so leftovers, at Best Avenue and Windsor Creek. Moving over to Berkeley Boulevard, section from New Hope Road extending to I-42 northward. Again, a four lane widening project. You see here a snapshot of that project where Tommy's Road is being realigned. You're beginning to see some work there as some water and sewer work began just last week. The contractor has shared with us that their main focus this fall and into early spring of next year will be building this new section of Tommy's Road and then transition to water and sewer work moving south into closer to downtown area of Goldsboro. Another project that has recently been awarded earlier this year is the improvements to replace the bridge, US 70 Business, there close to the bakery. And with that bridge replacement, to actually make some changes to Grantham Street, where it's a four-lane section now, it'd be upgraded to only a three-lane section. We've looked at traffic for the next 20 years and seen that this three-lane section will be sufficient. will allow us to add sidewalks and make this improvement. We have started slower than we would have hoped. Getting access from the railroad, we have some final right-of-way details to work through. And I've been told that as of last week, the contractor is still working to get the demolition plan for the bridge approved by the railroad. So I'm hopeful to see some significant work begin this fall. Hopping a little bit farther south, I wanted to mention a roundabout. Yes, sir.

I apologize. If you'll go back one slide for me real quick. That bridge, that's the one right there in front of Franklin Bacon, right?

Yes, sir. That's correct.

And that one right there, I see the completion date of November 20, 2028, but we are thinking that demo could still begin this fall, right? Yes, sir. How long are you expecting road closure there?

The this project is actually been designed so that the road will be closed, the duration of the construction is so tight, there wasn't a there wasn't a, it wasn't possible to maintain traffic while the bridge are being replaced without impacting the bakery.

Understood. That was that was my understanding as well. I know we're gonna have actually met the happened to be something with the plant manager, you know, earlier today. And so we're gonna have a conversation about how we can try and route traffic back around to avoid neighborhoods and things like that. But I just wanted to make sure that I was reading that correctly. So we're looking at probably 11, 12 months of closure right there, right? At a minimum, yes, sir. Okay, cool. Thank you. I just wanted to be real clear. Yes, thank you. Appreciate that.

Closer to Mount Olive, a safety project had multiple fatalities at this intersection. I wanted to mention this. Anytime the NCDOT has the ability to construct a roundabout, it is a much safer intersection and one that actually moves traffic much more efficiently than a signalized intersection. These are projects, this is a specific safety project, but if we have opportunities to incorporate roundabouts into larger projects, that's something we always strive to do. I'll transition to projects that are in the right-of-way phase now, some of which are very close to completion and some are just beginning. First looking at US 70 at North-Oast Forest Road. There's a lot going on on this screenshot here on this map. What you'll see as right-of-way is completed and as we begin construction next year is we will change the type of signalized intersection that is here. What you'll find, and we see this quite often in other parts of our division, this is one of the first signals that people encounter as they travel east for certain miles, and it surprises people. And that often brings crashes, some of which may be severe. So what you see is traffic will approach from Oak Forest to US 70, and instead of crossing straight over or making a left, all traffic will turn right. travel up a short distance and make a U-turn and a signalized U-turn. So that's what you see there. We're also reconfiguring the access so that North Oak Forest is the through route and access to the business park will actually be a movement that you take right off of Oak Forest there. I'll pause there. This is not a conventional type of intersection for this area, but it would be much safer. And while you won't have direct access across US 70, it will reduce the delay in the traffic signals. So traffic may actually, and I would expect it to function even better, even though it's a little bit longer route for drivers to take. Just a bit farther south here, U-4407, which are Ash Street improvements. This is a project that has been under design for some time, longer than what we would have hoped. Where it was originally scoped to extend all the way to Berkeley, it's been trimmed down some because of cost increases. You see the two roundabouts being constructed there. And so we're expecting this to bring safety improvements. I will mention that a multi-use path will be constructed and it will begin on the west side there at the connection between Greenwood Middle and Meadow Lane Elementary and travel to the east a good distance here. So hopefully that'll make it a little easier for individuals to walk to the schools. Back to us 13 north of town. This is a it's a long project, but it's distinct intersection improvements as you approach Green County. I won't go over it in detail, but you see the individual intersections that would be improved with some turn lanes and intersections reconnected to be more than 90 degree angle rather than skew that they are now hopeful that this will bring safety improvements and help traffic flow a little bit better. Back to Wayne Memorial for two others. This is a project from New Hope Road south to Country Day Road. Right now it's a five-lane section with a center turn lane. We are completing design and beginning right-of-way acquisition this fall. What you see there is a generalized photo of what this section will look like. Moving to a four lane section with bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides. Even though we're reducing the number of lanes, a four lane section with a raised median, it handles traffic more efficiently and we see safety improvements from it. I will mention, because there are a lot of intersections and I know there's questions about accessing the businesses, the hospitals there. So moving from north to south, there will be a left turn allowed at the Maxwell Center and at the northern driveway to Wayne Community College. Where the main driveway of Wayne Community College is, a signal will remain there. Going farther south to Cox Boulevard and the northern hospital driveway, there will be an ability to take lefts there. And then a signal will remain at the main hospital driveway. Going a bit farther south, there will be an ability to make leftovers at Medical Office Place and the southern hospital drive is where most people would access the emergency room. And then finally, a signalized intersection will remain at Country Day Road. And continuing that we're hopping back north of I-42, north of the bypass here, a smaller project. You see the price tag is only a few million there, but we will be widening Wayne Memorial Drive to a three-lane section from I-42 to Sawston Road. I'll mention one final project specifically that is in the planning and design phase. We are a few years away from right-of-way acquisition, but this is Miller's Chapel Road east of here, making improvements to a three-lane section. We don't have complete design yet, but that's what our goal is. We're working toward that. You see there construction. We're looking to fiscal year 2031. I don't have details on this, but I did want to mention, because I know it's important to the city, it's important to NCDOT, we continue to be focused on bringing US-117 up to future I-795. It's a costly project. As funding is available, that's something we're going to continue to push forward as quickly as we possibly can. I know there's, I've been back in Division IV for a year, and I've come to learn how important Ash Street is and making improvements to Ash Street. We're hopeful to see that score and be funded in either this cycle of our capital program or in future ones. That's something we'll put our energy toward. Roy's brought me up to speed on that pretty well. With that, I'll introduce Mr. Sam Lawhorn. I do have one question, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, please.

So with the Wayne Memorial... Yeah, thank you. With the Wayne Memorial work going on right there at Tommy's Road, not Tommy's Road, but right there at Wayne Country Day, which is the entrance to our emergency room, just a little bit forward. How long do we anticipate that once you start construction there? Because it will be some impediments and some impediment to the flow of traffic. How long do we plan for that to be?

I would, just based on the length of project and type, I would say that's probably a 36-month project. Based on that facility, though, I don't think we would impede traffic other than maybe a couple of nightly closures at a few driveways, just install larger driveway tiles, do some concrete work. We'll work very closely with the hospital, and I know they have internal circulation behind that. to make sure that emergency services, especially EMS, are aware of the access that is allowed, especially during construction time. So good question. Thank you.

Thank you.

And going back to the NPO, just for a second, we skipped over the slide, but the representatives from the city of Goldsboro that are on the NPO, myself as mayor, Councilman White, I believe, is the voting delegate, and then Councilman Boyette is actually the alternate on that. Is that right, Roy?

That's correct. I failed to flash out the screen.

No, you didn't fail anything. I was just pointing it out there that these are things that come up a lot, and we do oftentimes debate over U-turns versus left hands and things like that. I personally am not a fan of U-turns, but that's only because of what we saw on Wayne and Worrell Drive where there was the lack of bulb outs, and then we created a bit of an issue there prior to any of us in these chairs, including y'all. But... I think that we're trying to be a little more intentional and a little more aware of how things are being designed on these projects.

Anyway, not to hijack the time, but please go ahead. So I just want to cover more of the resurfacing safety and bridge placement projects, basically projects that don't go through the STEP, through ROY. These are projects that's internal to DOT. A lot of them are funded through maintenance funds, which is the highway trust funds, but kind of more smaller, low-scale projects, but still very impactful projects. The first one, just Wayne County in total, is the next five years we have 339, approximately 339 miles of resurfacing planned in Wayne County, resurfacing. And that is 46 million. That includes pavement and preservation. Preservation could be as, you know, filling cracks like y'all talk about tennis courts or, you know, doing a smaller, thinner lift of asphalt or maybe some chip seal and some more rural roads, nothing in the city limits, but... Those are some projects that upcoming and this is the map of all those and if you would get back to that slide for me And then I'm gonna meet my microphone again.

Okay, pretend them on teams for a second here. I'll go back on mute So these numbers right here, this is just state DOT stuff for those of you watching at home This is not including what the city is doing for the city streets. That's above and beyond again these What DOT is talking, DOT is talking about DOT-maintained streets. When the city of Goldsboro is talking about its dollars that it's spending, it's talking about city-maintained streets. And if you don't know the difference yet, shoot us an email. We'll explain it another day or give you a map. But those numbers right there are DOT-specific. All the city stuff is a totally different set of roads. There's a lot of paving, so I guess invest in asphalt is the moral of the story.

Yes, absolutely. And most of the ones inside city limits that we would repay for the busy busier a bit You know roads most of the city roads are the more smaller Residential roads stuff, but there's a map of Oliver Wayne County You can see it's kind of sprawled all through if y'all got questions on any particular road. I can find it for you I don't have it available, but we can definitely find the resurfacing plan A few of the safety projects. The first type of safety project that's the biggest push is the rumbles and marking strips. Have you all probably seen through those and some of the roads they're installing them? And the purpose behind these is to prevent runoffs. We're seeing a great decrease of these when we install them, people ring off the side of the road. Everybody's on the phone now not paying attention. We also put them in the center line when we spend a lot of crossovers and head-ons. So the few of these that are coming up, New Hope Road between 13 and Veston. You've got NC 185 between NC 111 and Alton Bridge Road. You have NC 55 from North County all the way to Mount Olive, which is in the Mount Olive area. And then we also have US 13 from West Rose Street to Robert Barrel Road. So All of those, three of those are starting now, are ongoing, and the U.S. 13 is coming. FY is next year, so that's about a year off for us to start it. Always stops too. These are some more that are coming and signal improvements. So the first one is just a signal improvement. It's here with 795 ends. You get the 581 connector, that's what it's called, that street. We're just putting in some be prepared to stop flashers to kind of keep everybody's attention. Just like Matt was talking about earlier, you come from the interstate to a signal, it catches you all surprised. So we're trying to put these with a flash ahead and kind of get people's attention. And then we got some signal revisions there on US-13 at US-70, the westbound ramps there at US-13. And then we got an always stop going in at NC-55 and NC-403 out towards the county, part of the county. A few other safety projects too. This is one I know that's been an issue here in the past. Arlington Bridge Road at Bill Lane Boulevard where 581 kind of comes in and bears off there at the store. We've seen a lot of crash history so we were able to get it funded to come in and put a signal here in a left turn lane. So there is a right turn lane that kind of bears off. We're going to remove that right turn lane, use that pavement to make the left turn lane. Because the left's where you get run in the back. The right, you can continue moving. You stop at the left so we don't see you running right to your back. So there's where we plan on moving that. Construction started on it. Jennifer's office is actually handling it for us. And then once it's done, we'll get the signal installed. And then one of these other projects, too, is kind of here. This is school projects. Some are here in the city. Some are outside. But what these are, these are all completed here recently by Jennifer's office. But these are projects that we come in and we have queuing, backing out. Parents are backing out into the roadway, which is a very dangerous situation. They're sitting there, stopping on the side of the road on a 55-mile-an-hour corridor. Somebody runs in the back of them and says, a bad situation. So these three schools, Charles B. Aycock, Eastern, and Southern Lane were all, we went in and made some improvements inside of those that we could store more people and keep them off the roads. So, and then lastly, there's some Bridger projects. Some of these are outside city limits, but some of them are close by Stevens Mill Road, which is, you know, down Ash Street. That one's coming in FY29, and that will involve a closure for a while. Coming through there, you have Noram over Buck Swamp Road, which is FY28, so next calendar year. And then the Davis Mill Road over Acocks Swamp. It's actually started, but will be completed in June. So that's the high-level projects on the small stuff. I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has anything.

I do have a question. So when it comes to resurfacing the roads that's inside the city limits, have we considered putting bike lanes on the roads as we resurface them?

So it's something that we can look at on the market plan if there's room, but we have to keep the lane width standard too. We can't go to substandard lane widths to be able to install bike lanes.

So giving your answer, is there any way that we can begin to talk about establishing bike lanes on the roads?

So if it don't require widening, it's something we can look at. If it requires widening, that's going to have to probably be a STIP project. Because if you, especially widening a city, you're looking at moving drainage, you're looking at moving utilities, it becomes a very expensive project very quickly. But if you've got a certain situation, you know, definitely let us know and we can look into it.

That being said, to the Councilman's point, we have seen the drawings from the 2018 project that was the Astrick Corridor that did include bus pull-offs and bike lanes and pedestrian walkways, and so that one, to the Councilman's point, was designed, if it were to ever get funded, if it were to ever be a thing, again, this is a project that originated before any of us, but if it were to be funded, that would be a very pedestrian-friendly boulevard-style rebuild that would be Pretty transformative for that east-west corridor in the city.

And that's a good example. That's the project. We can't afford to do that with resurfacing funds. I mean, we're limited on what we can and can't do with that. That's more of a state-level project just for the amount of costs, you know, it entails.

Councilman, I saw your hand.

Thank you. Quick question. So with the repaving and the, I call them the bumpy, what do you call it? The rumble strips. The rumble strips. A lot of people complain about it being dark on some of those rows. So do you guys still do the reflectors that be on the, or reflective paints or something? We do.

It's like a thermoplastic, you know. that they put down in it, and it goes up and in there. And actually, when you put those down, it kind of helps sometimes reflect because the curves kind of make it look like little bumps through there. So now when they first put them down, they go down with paint until we can get the thermal contractor there. And any road where we surface first gets paint, you can't see it at all. But it's just because we've got to wait time to get the contractor to get there to put that plastic down, that thicker plastic.

With the ones that you listed, will you guys be including that?

Absolutely, yes. And most of them are going to be six-inch wider markings, which is brighter, too.

I should have probably made some notes. I had a couple of different things I wanted to talk about. Ironically, with the rumble strips, when I was on the way to this meeting tonight, somebody, an inattentive driver, drifted out of... on the coming up ashtray into the oncoming lane of traffic and opposite direction folks had to go around them. I can't. I can't believe I witnessed that. I was unbelievable with the inattentive driving. But a couple of things. So how often are we updating the bike and ped plan to Councilman White's point? Because that would be where that stuff's going to be housed at, right?

Okay, all right.

Yes, very MPO specific. The question was, again, how often are we updating or, yeah. As necessary, if there are concerns, then I guess we could introduce them at the next TCC, TAC meeting.

So- Sure, sure. When was the last time you presented a blanket plan to-

Oh, two years ago, two years ago, because it was adopted in November of 2024. So I want to get a little bit specific to your question.

Well, it's not been 10 years.

Well, that was my point, because with Councilman White's concerns, I mean, that's always a valid concern. But I'm like, we've got a bike and ped plan. And I do not recall seeing it either in some time. So

As Mr. Bayer made reference to, as a lot of it was before all of us were here.

Maybe if you could have that for our TAC next time, next meeting, so folks can see it just from an update standpoint. Like the pedestrian plan, sure. That's it for your part. Thanks.

Thank you.

The next question that I had was back to the 6204, the Arrington Bridge and improvement for safety that's going on with Bill Lane and Arrington Bridge. That's fabulous news that that's on here because I guess I mistakenly heard that that slipped out of the funding cycle.

So the STIP project slipped out. which was the whole quarter. So we pursued safety funds for just that intersection, just to fix it.

Oh, that's fabulous news then. And to that note, thank you to you personally and all of your staff and Jennifer and everybody involved for being attentive to safety and projects. And in particular, thank you to things that's been able to be completed in my district this year after a decade or so on a couple of them. so that was my main question was about that that particular one and then because i haven't seen the map in a while last question so when the oak forest road improvement is done and you can no longer come up oak forest road take a left going westbound on 70 when you take a right instead to go down and come back When you go down and come back, because I haven't seen a map in a while, is that going to be factored into part of the new intersection that will be benefiting Park East? Like, will you have to go that far down to come back the other way, or is there going to be something before then?

There will be a U-turn bulb prior to reaching that connection to the Park East. Yes, sir. So it'll be much closer to that. Okay. We try to keep those within 700 to 1,000 feet, just as close as possible. Okay. That was all, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Lewis, there was a reason that we put this under new business. Was it to talk about the safety plan, the potential funding, or since?

No, I think we just, it's new because of the projects they're doing, and we wanted to hear about the latest and greatest.

Well, if there is no specific action item, then we will move on to item 9.1. Thank you all so much again. I know y'all spend a lot of time in Goldsboro either way, but usually not at 730 at night, at least not in this building. We meet in that room right over there every quarter. So thank you.

Mayor, if I may, I'd just like to also echo those comments. So we really do appreciate the relationship we have with NCDT. I've been in a lot of different areas where we don't have this kind of relationship and the projects we've done like the Royal Road realignment, their staff really kind of, you know, hit the ground running works really closely with the folks out there and they do that with every project and we're blessed to have them there look after us and we really do appreciate them being here tonight and the work that they do.

I've been asked to remind y'all to use your buttons when you talk. Please, thank you.

I'll be honest, that wasn't aimed at y'all. I'll just go ahead and let y'all know. Y'all caught a spare shot on that one. Sorry about that.

One more final thing I just thought about. So it wouldn't be a bad idea, I think, for Roy, if you would reach out to the chamber about that vacant position on the TCC, because I didn't realize that had never been filled, because that vacancy actually was my seat that I vacated when I got elected to office. The chamber has a appointee position for the TCC. And I didn't realize that position was still open. And I realize there's been transition at the chamber with leadership and stuff, but make them aware that that position's available for TCC.

All right, if there's nothing further, we are 27 minutes past our normal nature break window. So how about it's 725. Let's take a quick five minutes for nature breaks, or at least just standing up to see if your legs still work. My back is screaming at me. So I'm going to do that. We'll re we'll stand in recess until 730. We'll reconvene at 730. short break. But if we could come back to order, we do still have a couple things to work through. Mr. Livingston, item 9.2 on our agenda, I believe is something that's been discussed before in different pieces. Would you please walk us through item 9.2?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As the City Council is likely aware, we own a lot of property along John Street Corridor adjacent to the cemetery going towards Minnie Wheel Park. That property was gifted to the city several years ago, and we are in the process of trying to clean it up over the years. We've done Some cleanup on it. Just trying to set a good example for the city. We did some quotes to see what it would take to clean up the rest of the property, which is currently, in my opinion, a safety hazard and not just an eyesore, but a safety hazard. and so we did get some bids um and they're there for you in front of you this evening for consideration for us to move forward and go ahead and clean the property up so whatever's decided next on that property that we would be able to do so without having to take on the responsibility then it just gets us one step closer to whatever future it is we decide for that area

I'm not going to get us, get our hands up again. So, Council, I know this is something that it's the first time being presented in this specific way, but we've talked about other properties that needed demolition. This property, as stated, was gifted for expansion of the cemetery, as well as we could do some other things right there along John Street to promote some economic development. But step one, regardless, is going to be to demo the property Right now, Mr. Livingston did mention to me that we know that there have been some folks have been going in and out of these buildings. And in my opinion, it continues to be a liability for the city, a risk liability as well. And so it is my recommendation that we go ahead and authorize this request by the manager to be able to demo this property and get it cleaned off and safe and no longer a hazard for the public. Alright, so counsel, are there any remaining questions on this one, there's photos that are part of the agenda packet to make sure that everyone's exactly where we're talking about is the old cottonseed oil plant. If there are no remaining questions, or if there are being by all means, please bring them forward. If not, would entertain a motion to make sure I'm pulling up the right one. The file that is entitled resolution authorizing the city manager and city clerk to sign a contract with Allen Grading with the low bid, which is still $471,000. But again, work that would have to happen at some point anyway. Mr. Livingston, is there anything else that I'm missing on this one?

No, sir, Mr. Mayor.

All right. And the the money would be coming from which line items in the city budget.

So yes, you recall, we set aside some facility maintenance money and some money for these types of things. And we have our strategic reserves. So it would be coming from that pot of money.

All right, council questions. Yes, sir.

What's that going to do to that particular pot of money if we take that much out of just for the sake of asking?

And memory serves there was a about 2 between 2 to 3 million in that pot of money so it would reduce it to approximately 500,000. Thank you.

So I do know that this is first step in trying to get that cord or to be a some type of economic development on the South side. However, do we have any idea or is it going to sit there for An amount of time before we begin to try to engage in trying to figure out what what to do there. And then the follow-on is once we do the demolition, then there's the upkeep of trying to keep it beautified over there, some type of beautification. Because the train tracks over there, there's grass that's still like waist-high type deal. So I was wondering how we're going to get after that.

Thank you, Councilman White, to your questions there. This is something that I recommend that we have a future work session on so that we can talk about some of the plans for the cemetery expansion or how else we want to master plan that site. And to the other point about maintenance, having it cleaned up, it's going to make it easier to It's not easy to maintain that size of property, but it'll make it easier to maintain because there's, you know, not, you know, tons of brick laying around and other kinds of things that are impeding it, the management and maintenance of the property.

And then can we look at our ordinance for maintenance for our auto facilities and maintaining cars on their site?

Yes, sir. I've got that written down. I'll take a look at it.

So this is all just sitting around after work and just kind of looking at stuff and thinking about what you could do. This piece of property, again, it was given for the purposes of cemetery expansion. But with the consent of the donor, the land right there on South John Street, That is that that's prime for economic investment. That's prime and getting something moving quickly That's one of the reasons actually that I really support doing this because we need market ready dirt and this is a big intersection an important intersection in a part of town that we have all publicly stated we want to see investment and economic activity in and i'm glad to see us looking very seriously at city-owned properties that are in these parts of the city that need investment so council is there uh is there a motion to go one direction or another or table

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve this item and request as presented item nine dot two.

I said motion to made and properly seconded to adopt the resolution as presented. We will is there any further debate? Hearing none will vote electronically if possible. vote in the affirmative all right you too thank you all right all those being uh all those being uh cast in the affirmative we'll move forward with that that's a big project guys that's a really big project and with work that our our planning development team can come up with that's going to be that's going to be a good one so appreciate everyone's consideration on that All right, next, we'll move to item nine dot three, which if I'm not mistaken, is just the corresponding budget ordinance.

But it's that and a couple other ones we did tonight. And we have Dre here that can present those where I can present them.

Okay, for those of you couldn't see that there was just basically a game of rock, paper, scissors. Who wants to go?

Yeah, and I lost that one. Okay, so this is a budget amendment. The general fund is including the demolition contract that we just discussed for $472,000. Parks and Recreation, that's the $147,000 for the repair of the cracks and the overlay of the tennis courts. And again, this comes from the assigned facility maintenance and reserves. in whatever remaining areas in the budget we have where we can use other funds to take care of that. And I'll answer any questions if there are any.

Council, any remaining questions about the operating budget amendments to resolve each of the things we've already discussed this evening? Hearing none, is there a motion to adopt the budget ordinance, the ordinance to amend the operating budget as presented?

So moved.

Motion to be made. Is there a second? Second. Motion to be made and properly seconded to adopt the ordinance to amend as presented. Is there any further debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. Please vote electronically if possible. All right. All votes have been cast. Motion passes. All right. Now we are back to item 9.4. Council, I know that there's been ample opportunity while we're doing other things to kind of think in the background, but just to bring this one back full circle, we learned during one of the presentations earlier today that the opportunity to spend money allocated to community supporting schools at the North Drive location is no longer an option by no fault of anyone. It's just simply the nature of how they have to handle their operations this year. CUNY supporting schools directors come forward to ask for some guidance on what to do with those dollars. I'm sure each of us has a laundry list of things that we would like to do with those funds. Now it's time for us to decide if we are going to reallocate those funds, if we can earmark them to be spent inside the central businesses, central attendance area. I'll offer the caveat that the proposed plan from the director was to use the funds either at Meadow Lane or use them at Dillard or Carver Heights, which would then offset funds that would then be able to go and start a program at Meadow Lane. Again, Meadow Lane is Goldsboro Kids. Let's be real clear on that. I realize it's not part of the the old Goldsboro city school system or what's now referred to as a central attendance district. But these are Goldsboro kids and Seymour Johnson kids. And so, you know, this would certainly be an appropriate use of city dollars if we choose to do so. But I just want to make sure that we're real clear on where we're talking about doing this. So council, what is our next step in our discussion?

I know we had Ms. Bennett sit here in anticipation of a decision, but me personally, I've kind of said my say in what I think and how we should use that money, but I also think it's a huge decision to put on us right now to make right now. So me personally, I would like to table the issue and have a little bit more discussion about it personally if we can. Otherwise, my... Earlier thoughts still remain of how we should possibly use that money.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Are you interested in making that as a motion right now, or do you want to see how everyone else feels and then come back to it?

Well, if the council would like to proceed, then that's fine, too. It's just a suggestion. It would be helpful for me to have some more time to be intentional about this decision.

Understood. So are you making it in the form of a motion now?

Y'all want me to make it in the motion?

And I don't know why it is not user error. I want to go on record as saying the button is being pressed. So Bradley may need a little assistance. I probably don't know what it is.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a motion that we table the matters concerning community supporting schools funding allocation.

All right. Motion is made. Is there a second? All right, motion has been made and properly seconded to table item 9.4 to present the next available meeting, which I presume will be the first meeting in October. Is there any debate on the motion?

I do have another caveat. I would like for us to maybe actively be discussing amongst ourselves as well some ideas, too, so we don't just wait until the next meeting to discuss it again if we could maybe have some discussion. We know how we have to discuss matters amongst ourselves, so given that, but I would like for us to still have some discussion amongst ourselves so we can be prepared to make a decision at the next meeting.

I completely agree. This was originally an investment made by city council to try to move the needle on the lowest performing schools that were inside the city. the North Drive has certainly received a lot of effort and a lot of energy and we expect great things from them we expect that they're going to be able to rise to the occasion and I want to see community supporting community supporting schools back in North Drive as soon as possible. My personal stance is that we have assembled a program, we've assembled staff, and we did hear from the director earlier that the staff would not be let go, but nonetheless, the staff were budgeted for based on the expectation that they would be at North Drive. I'm going to be in support of tabling the motion, but I'm going ahead and getting out there where I feel on this. I believe that we should earmark the dollars to be spent inside the the central attendance area the low-performing schools if that means that this year she's offsetting funds you know so be it we can resolve that in next year's budget if if we see that we're still not able to get back in the North Drive but as it is I strongly support keeping the money with community supporting schools allowing them to continue doing their things Again, Meadow Lane families absolutely matter in the city of Goldsboro. Those kids absolutely matter in the city of Goldsboro and are also deserving of having a program over there too. So I'm in support of tabling this, but I wanted to go ahead and state for the record where I feel as well. All right, so motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further debate or conversation at this time? Hearing none, we'll vote on the motion to table electronically if possible. Okay, so motion to table passes. We will take this back up at the next available meeting. We'll work with you and your schedule to ensure that you're able to be present, obviously, at the next available meeting available for you and us. Thank you for being here this evening. So apologize that now, you know, here you are, you've been here, but Fortunately, it's not a 10 o'clock meeting, so, you know, it could be worse. But thank you for being here this evening, and thank you for your patience. And also, as you are continuing to think through, if you have a plan between now and our next time, we are obviously all ears, because you've been a fantastic partner, your whole organization, your board. Thank you for what you're doing. All right. All right, everyone. So with that, we have completed the stated business items on our agenda. We do have items for closed session. Before we get to that, we will hear our city manager's report and then we will be this is the first meeting of our our month. We'll begin with the Houseman White from District two for Councilmember comments. But first, Mr. Manager, your report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The council's been very aggressive and clear in conjunction with the citizen survey about what we needed to do investing with our public dollars. One of those strong investments was repaving some of the city streets. That project is now underway. I think if you get the chance to see what the work they've done out in Audubon, some of their other areas are looking really good. That first one is a little over a million dollars and the spring we're going to go out with a triple that number to do a lot more work in the city because there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Also and we're also in the you know not just the repaving but the bridge rebuilding process and Harris Street will be one of those streets that we're repaving along with repairing the bridge out there and just so you know we also have water leak underneath there too so everything comes in threes but we're on top of it and it's actually good that we find these areas and then we can it's a pretty substantial leak that's going on out there so we're looking to fix that in the next 30 days or so We are also along the same lines of utilities. We are underway with our water asset inventory assessment. So that's taking a closer look at all our inventory that we've got out there in the field and regarding our, not just the water plant, but our water lines and pump stations and things like that. That's going to help us understand our projected needs, also the condition of our current assets, which we have a fair understanding of, but we want to have a really good understanding so that we can update our CIP, our Capital Improvement Plan. The sewer asset inventory assessment is also wrapping up. Had some good discussions on that. I've talked to some of you all about this and looking at the big picture, as long as we continue to make strides in attacking our inflow and infiltration into our sewer system and the growth stays somewhat modest, as the projections say, we may not have to invest in a new treatment plant within the next five years. It might be 10 years off. It may be that we have to look at investing more in our water plant. So those are things that we're thinking about. That's why we're doing these plans, to get a better understanding of what our needs are. Also, wrapping up the audit and some good news there, we are going to close the year with about $3 million more into our general fund balance, and about the same with our utility fund as well. And you asked also about tiered rates. That's been implemented and seems to be going off without a hitch. So that's a good thing for those on fixed incomes, those who are trying to conserve water. So we're doing that as well. Just a couple items on the past weekend's events. I think we had a successful Freestyle Friday for the first time. A lot of people took advantage of that. I think a lot of the merchants had some very successful nights, particularly the restaurants that night. All of them said they had good crowds. We're thankful for that. And just along the lines of Freedom Fest, I think this was their sixth year, and they continue to refine this festival. It continues to gain in popularity. You know, I've been around a lot of festivals throughout my career, and I know what the purpose of them is from a Main Street perspective, and it's about economic impact and things like that. But I think our festival is special. In fact, I know it's special. We're not recognizing and I'm not trying to put other communities down just a flower or a plant. Those things are important too. Agriculture is very important for our economy. We're recognizing what I think is human sacrifice in the way of what our first responders do when they run into burning buildings or they get themselves in a situation when they're answering a domestic call or a military when they're responding or deploying overseas or downrange as we like to call it here. And I think that's unique. As a military host city, we're doing something really unique and special here, and I want the community and the city council to understand that that is a good thing that we're doing. And there's not really, I think, a higher calling there, honestly. Service above self, as the Rotary expression says. And that's what these public servants do, the first responders every day, and our military as well. And on that note, I would like to say that I thank you to the volunteers. The city staff worked very hard on this event and lots of the volunteers. Eric Orsenderf and Doug McGrath, who are some of the leaders on the Freedom Fest board, really put countless hours in. always tend to go out and look at the aftermath of these events and I expect to see trash everywhere well I'm gonna tell you something I drove around Sunday morning and I was expecting to see trash but our city was beautiful downtown and so that's a credit to you know the Parks and Recreation Public Works and the volunteers all making sure that everything looked good and had taken pride in their city so kudos to them and everybody involved in this But that's really all my report, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. All right, we'll move into Section 11, our Mayor and Councilman comments. We'll begin with Councilman Boyd. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I'll keep going, but not repeat the first part. I'd like to also say congratulations again to Ms. Terry Weber and Mr. Joshua Shockley for their awards as Employee of the Year and Supervisor of the Year, and also like to ask everyone to continue to keep Terry's parents and her family in your prayers. Ms. Weber's parents and grandparents and my parents and grandparents have been friends A long, long time. So continue to keep her family in your prayers. And as always, thank you to each and every one of our hardworking city employees. You're all valued and appreciated, and this city could not run without you. That's all, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Witt.

The count floor is yours.

Just a few things. I agree with everything Councilman Boyette said as well and then also I have a few. I want to wish Councilman Boyette a happy belated birthday as he just celebrated a birthday on the 11th. Also my sister, my older sister just turned 60 yesterday. I want to wish her a happy birthday as well. Then, let's see, I want to congratulate Councilwoman Matthews on her becoming the second Vice President of the North Carolina Black Elected Municipal, okay. Congratulations for that, that's a big thing. And then also, I want to remind everyone that on the 19th at the hub, the CCRD is hosting the recovery month celebration from 12 to three. So there'd be a lot of good things going on out there. And that's it for me.

Thank you for Jim for you.

I feel like you read the

I feel like you read my paper, but I also, the first thing I wrote down is I want to honor you tonight and just say congratulations on second vice president of board of directors for the North Carolina black elected municipal officials. I think I got it all in there. So congratulations. This city, we're very proud of you and we know that you will serve well and you will represent us well. We're proud of you. Also, happy belated birthday to you, sir. I know you're every bit of 39 years old, and so I want to congratulate you on that. And also to Councilwoman Hiawatha-Jones, I read that you received an achievement award also placed out by the State Employees Association of North Carolina. I think it was an impact award for outstanding achievement. So I want to congratulate you on that. And just let you know that we miss you. She called me last week. She was in great spirits. And I was sharing a concern that I was walking out with a decision to make for the city. And she said, well, let's just pray about it right now. So that's the type of councilwoman that she is. So I just want to let you know that we miss you tonight. I also wanted to honor a young man that sometimes you'll see him on my district on Way Memorial Drive. He's walking across the bridge. He even goes down to the First Church and on down Way Memorial Drive. He always has a vest on. And I found out his name is Clark Crutchfield. And what he does is he walks up and down Way Memorial Drive. to pick up trash and litter. And so I just want to say, look, you don't have to be sitting behind this microphone. Clark, I just want to tell you thank you so much that you are making a difference in our city. And that's for everybody. There are so many things that go on behind the scenes in our district that people don't know of. Thank you so much, Clark Crutchfield, for what you're doing. And then I'm excited about Recovery Month and also the events that are taking place at the Hub Saturday. I'm excited to be a guest speaker. And then I also wanted to honor the work that you do also with recovery. And so thank you so much for what you do for the Reentry Council. And that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to give, there's been a lot of accolades and recognitions and awards going out. And just wanted to shout out those individuals who may never see their name in the paper or on a plaque or on a trophy. So shout out to you and all the good work that you're doing to make our city better. It's appreciated and it does matter. So maybe you was reading my paper a little bit, Madam President. We were sharing notes. I also want to say that election season is upon us. It is steadily approaching. There are some candidates' forums that are coming up. So I just want to encourage everybody to get plugged in, get inside of those rooms because they're important, and you want to make sure that you are an informed decision maker when it's your turn to voice your opinion. And I just wanted to say a special, special I love you to District 4. Thank you.

Excellent. Councilman White, Fortress.

Yes, thank you. First of all, Freestyle Friday, I came down Friday evening and it was an awesome atmosphere. I really appreciated the diversity in the entertainment that was down. You had some acrobats and some jazz and you had karaoke going on, some artists. So it was a plethora of things to do down here and it was great. Everybody found their niche and they kind of hung around in that traffic circle or whatever. so it was great i i hope we're going to continue to do that moving forward i heard a lot of people asking are we going to continue that so that was great congratulations to our councilwoman um matthews uh she's been on the on the radar a lot uh she uh the second the second vice chair as i already mentioned she's a part of the best program voted best re-entry program at Wayne Community College. And so she's doing her thing. And then she also got the NAACP Humanitarian Award this weekend as well. So she's doing her thing. And then the last thing I will say is on my travels back from Fayetteville, I had the chance to talk to somebody who works for our school district. And he enlightened me on Our kids go to school and we expect them to be kids. But when they go home, they have adult problems. And some kids are not even eating in the evening time. One kid only ate because it was a pregame meal because he plays sports. So I will ask that we be very intentional when it comes to our supporting dollars. It is important that we prioritize the things that we say we want to support. That's all I have.

Thank you, sir. So I'm not going to echo and copy. We've got a phenomenal council up here that is bringing attention to very worthy things. I'll simply say these things, and to the extent that they copy, my bad. I have a birthday belated birthday. I realized that this Friday didn't quite hit the same for you because you don't really it's not a day that you're interested in buying yourself a cake, but look forward to hearing about the celebration that happened after the fact on a different day. So it was Sunday this time. There you go. Well, I'm glad you got some time with family to be able to do some stuff this weekend. Freestyle Friday. Freedom Fest, NAACP Freedom Gala, the Kobe White Family Foundation event over at the Y. If you couldn't find something to do this weekend, it ain't on us. This was a fantastic weekend in the city of Goldsboro. and the amount of work that is going, and I just listed the ones that I personally was invited to, and then had to balance schedules, and actually I didn't mention a couple because one of them was a surprise, but the amount of work that people put into And trying to grow their organizations and having events and having things for people to do, it is absolutely worthwhile. It is absolutely important. The DAR event, the Constitutional DAR event as well, add that one to the list I just said. People... cities are a collection of people and people who invest their time talents and treasure into the world around them are inevitably the ones that get remembered for leaving a legacy and leaving a mark and all i will say to all of you who put in your time talents and treasure this past weekend to plan events for every corner of this community thank you Whether you ever get a plaque, whether you ever get a note on Facebook or whatever else, thank you for what you're doing. You're making a huge difference because without you, we don't have a community. We just have a collection of streets and pipes. So thank you for what you're doing. For one final thing that didn't quite get mentioned yet, the Freedom Fest awards that went out. So there are all sorts of different art displays that get graded out, but then there is also an award this year that they did for Outstanding First Responder, and Mr. Nicky Garza, Goldsboro Police Department, was the recipient of that. He did not know why he was being asked to be there and to walk up on stage, and he found out at the last second, and I think he wanted to... Maybe, maybe get in my face a little bit about that. But it was worth it. Very well earned. Nikki, great guy do a wonderful job with the police department do a wonderful job with the community policing efforts. Please don't stop being who you are. So with that, I will stop and our next item is closed session matters. Mr. Lawrence, I know personnel I know potential litigation. What am I missing land acquisition?

That's all of them, and I appreciate you giving me a chance to push the button.

Happy to help. Happy to help. So, Counsel, if I could entertain a motion to go into closed session to discuss matters related to land property acquisition, personnel, and potential litigation.

So moved.

Most of them made improperly seconded to go into closed for the stated purposes. Having already closed my screens that I can't really vote by show of hands. Mr. All in favor, please vote by show of hands. All opposed. Seeing none motion passes. All right. So with that, we'll convene in the interim in just a moment. All right, we are back in open session at whatever time it is there being no further counsel. Mr. Livingston, we've completed our agenda. Perfect. With that, we'll entertain a motion to adjourn. That motion is made. Is there a second? It's been made and properly seconded to adjourn. That motion will vote by show of hands. All in favor? All opposed? Same sign as seen on motion passed and we stand