City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the City Council meeting of the City of Lenoir for Tuesday, June the 16th, 2026. Thank you for being with us. It was a great fun reception before our meeting tonight. Thank you all for being with us on the special leadership Lenoir night and the great class. Thank you for the class for being here. It's a very special time. As we get started tonight, there's a couple things I'd like to point out to you just to think about for a second. One, how about the Carolina Hurricanes? All right. That's amazing. That's great. 20 years since they won the Stanley Cup the last time, 2006. We're glad that they did. What a great – it's kind of hard to talk about hockey, you know, in western North Carolina. But, hey, it's a great sport. I enjoy seeing them when I'm in Raleigh several times with my family, and it's a great thing. So congratulations to that. Also, special congratulations to several of our local teams that we hadn't had a chance really to tell – one for South Caldwell, the ladies softball team. We're the state champions this year and we're excited for them. Second year in a row, by the way, for our ladies Spartans. The South Colwell baseball team was runner-up in the state championship this past year, came close. And our High Brighton women's soccer team was runner-up in the soccer as well, came close. I think it was one to nothing. It was a really close game there. And our community college, Colwell Community College softball team was the runner-up in the National Junior College World Series. and then their baseball team also was in the World Series for the second time, and they've only been in existence in baseball program at Caldwell Community College for about six, seven years, and they've been in the World Series twice. So really amazing, and we're very proud of all of our athletes here in Caldwell County. So I did want to make recognition to that as we move forward. So now we'll get started with our program as we always do. Please rise for our time of... prayer and then our pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Please salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I want to point out one other thing before we have our special recognition tonight with our class. Council Member Dillinger told me a few minutes ago, if it works out with the World Cup on July the 4th, the United States could be playing England on that day. If they both win and keep winning, they would be playing on the 4th of July in the World Cup. Wouldn't that be great? That would be special. So anyway, right now we have a special recognition tonight, and I'm going to bring our communications and public information director, Joshua Harris, and I'll join him there to present their certificates of achievement to the leadership Lenore graduates. Director Harris started the Lenoir Leadership Civic Learning Academy in March this year, and we'll recognize everyone tonight, and again, thank you, Joshua, for all that you did in putting that together.

So, I'll just turn it over. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Yeah, tonight we are going to recognize the first, I guess, inaugural graduating class of Leadership Lenoir. The city had a civic learning program, maybe... twelve thirteen years ago uh... but i thought today's climate i mean if we can increase civic learning and civic engagement and civic participation and try to get more people more knowledgeable about what actually happens in local government uh... the better for all of us in the better for our community so We started in March. We had about 12 classes on Monday nights from 5.30 to 7.30, 7.45, 8 o'clock. It kind of depended on how the quiz went and how the discussion went. The class, the students, they put in 24 hours of time sitting and learning about local government. So again, I really appreciate that from them because that's what it takes to learn. You have to be willing to invest your time. You have to be willing to read. You have to be willing to come to meetings. And at the end of the day, social media is not really going to tell you all the details about what happens and why decisions are made the way they are. You have to invest the time and you have to be motivated. So I appreciate the class doing that. Some of the topics we went over were local government, communication, planning, public safety, fire, water and sewer, streets and sanitation, parks and rec. We brought in the Council of Governments to do a session about all the services they provide. Several directly to citizens and then most of the rest to the various local governments in the COG. Main Street, historic preservation, and last but not least, the budget and finances and taxes and how we pay for these services. I'm going to go through, and as we call your name, I'm going to ask the class to come up and take their certificate. And then at the end, we'll do a group picture with counsel and the class. Thank you. All right. First on my list, Alicia Harshaw. And you're welcome to clap for everybody. And then you can get up. Yeah, then you can get a picture. Thank you. I'm not sure, Becky Gibbons? Becky Gibbons?

There you go.

Brian Hill.

Brian, congratulations. Thank you for your words, too. Appreciate it.

Cindy Covington, but she's not here this evening, I don't think.

No, she's not. I am going to turn it over.

Corey Harper. She said I spelled it wrong, just kidding.

Donna Phillips.

Isaiah Deskins.

Jerry Pitts, but she's not here this evening.

Also, Jody Bentley. She's not here. Jody, by the way, won, I think, the most number of the Cahoots games. Joy Walker. She's not here tonight. Juliet Fulmer.

Juliet, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for being a part of it.

You're welcome.

Maggie Halwa. You're going to have to teach me. Maggie. Maggie, everybody. Maggie.

I told him. I said, you're going to make me say that?

He had to do it.

Maggie Halewa. Maggie Halewa. Peter Lindbergh.

It's always a pleasure.

Thank you.

Becca Heights.

Thank you. Becca serves on our board as well.

Thank you.

Sarah Christos.

Most energetic of the class, most energetic.

Shay Rosenberger, she couldn't make it tonight. And to be fair, they've been coming to Monday night meetings for like three and a half months, so it's okay. Susan Gray. And Trina Patton, she's not here this evening. And then Shanna Oakley. All right, class, if you want to come up front, and we'll bring your certificates, and then we'll get a picture with council.

Do you want to be up front? Shorty's in the front. Everybody, let's get back against the dais. Get back to the dais. The dais. The dais. Oh, the dais. Yeah, might as well. I might tell you what to do with your hands. I've got arms, I can raise them.

All right. Thank y'all. Congratulations.

Thank y'all. Okay.

Okay, thank you again. Thank you, class. Appreciate you being here with us tonight. You're welcome to stay as long as you like. All right, we're going to move on then to tonight. We have a matter scheduled for a public hearing. This is an ordinance amendment. This is for the Historic Preservation Commission. We'll hold this hearing for the consideration of approval of the ordinance amendments following consideration at the May 11, 2026 Planning Board meeting. The Planning Board has served as the city's Historic Preservation Commission Commission the HPC since the commission was established in 2019 in accordance with North Carolina general statutes 160 D-303 subsection B which requires that at least three members have a demonstrated special interest or expertise in historic preservation or related fields such as history architecture or anthropology the proposed ordinance amendments would re-establish the HPC as a separate five-member board. Currently, five planning board members who meet the required qualifications are willing to continue serving on the re-established commission as submitted. So I will open the public hearing, and I will open it to first hear from our planning director, Hannah Williams, to talk about the establishment and how we're making the changes. Thank you, Hannah.

Yeah, absolutely. Really, that intro about covers it. These are just some amendments to change the structure of the commission from being, I guess, de facto planning board members to being an appointed board, and we do have five members that are willing to keep serving, so I'm gonna read their names for the record and the years that their term is up. John Arnaud, 2027, Ed Terry, 2027, Lucy McCarl, 2027, Kyle Case, 2029, and Sharon Bryant, 2028. So those are planning board members who are willing to serve as Historic Preservation Commission, and they all have that demonstrated special interest in historic preservation. So that really concludes my comments, unless you have any questions for me.

And we'll be adding, that takes care of it, yeah. That takes care of the board at that point, yeah, okay, thank you. All right, we're in the public hearing. Does anyone have any comments or questions of Hannah? at all. Anyone from the audience have any questions or anything they would like to ask according to this? Again, talk about just a quick second about the historic commission.

Sure, and I can say why we're doing this. Lenore is interested in getting a historic preservation status called certified local government and getting this status opens up some Funding opportunities that can help fund preservation studies and looking into ways of preserving our historic resources in Lenore. And part of becoming a certified local government is having a historic preservation commission with at least five members. where all the members, at least five of, there has to be at least five people on your commission, where all of them have the demonstrated special interest in those topics. And right now, we're not really eligible when our planning board serves that way, because not all of them have the demonstrated special interest. Right, okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else have any comments?

All right, I'll close the public hearing and turn it over to council for any action whenever you're ready. And or question if you have any questions.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move that the ordinance for the Historical Preservation Commission be approved.

Okay, we have a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Perkins that we approve the ordinance amendment for the Historic Preservation Commission as presented. If no other question, all in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you very much for that. Okay, we'll move on then to consent agenda items. Tonight, this consists of minutes of the city council meeting of Tuesday, June the 2nd, 2026. Item B is a budget ordinance amendment. This is a request for amendments to be made to the annual budget ordinance for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026 as submitted. Item C is a bid award, 2026 through 2028, asphalt resurfacing contract. Following review of the bid submitted for this contract, the recommendation is for awarding the contract to J.T. Russell & Sons Incorporated for a unit price of $140.75 per ton. for a two-year period. J.T. Russell & Sons is the lowest responsible bidder, is appropriately licensed in the state of North Carolina, and is adequately equipped to perform work of this nature. J.T. Russell & Sons Incorporated bid included the required bid security bond and an escalator clause for unit price adjustment based on liquid asphalt price fluctuation as submitted. Item D is an ordinance amendment as well. This is for flood damage prevention. This will be the first reading. The Emergency Management Division of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety reissued the non-coastal model flood damage prevention ordinance in March of 2026 with more details. More compliance with the FEMA slash National Flood Insurance Program and stronger enforcement mechanisms. Staff is recommending calling for a public hearing on July 21st, 2026 to consider an ordinance amendments relating to. Chapter 9, this is for flood damage prevention of the Lenoir Code of Ordinances as submitted. And item F, this is an authorizing resolution for the North Carolina Department of Commerce. We're considering to adopt the authorizing resolution for the North Carolina Department of Commerce building reuse grant submission for Project Pillar with the City of Lenoir serving as the former applicant As required by grant regulations, the local government 5% or $8,250 grant match requirement provided through the Colwell County Sales Tax Reinvestment Fund for this project as submitted. This is a building, of course, reuse grant. The grant request will be for $165,000. The company expects to create 37 new full-time jobs in Lenore as a result of the project, and the average salary for these positions is projected to be over almost $56,000, $55,727. Jesse Triven, of course, from the EDC is here with us if anyone has any questions about that. But that is the items A through E in the Consent agenda. So I'll turn it over to council for any question and or action whenever you're ready.

Mr. Mayor, in your reading, you said former applicant. I think it's the formal.

Formal? I'm sorry. You would catch me. Thank you.

I just didn't want somebody to think it was past tense.

I appreciate that. Any questions at all concerning that? All right. I'll entertain a motion whenever you're ready for the consent agenda item as presented.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that the consent agenda items A through E be approved as presented.

Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Stevens that we approve the consent agenda items A through E as presented. No other question. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed. Thank you very much. Jesse, thank you for being with us. Thank you for working on this. We appreciate it very much. All right, next is any requests and petitions of any citizens. If there's anyone that would like to address the council tonight, this is your time to do so. I think most everybody we may have talked to or heard from at some point, and staff is here, of course, but anyone else, you're welcome to at this time. All right, seeing no one, we'll move on. We do not have any reports of our boards and commissions this evening, so we'll move on to the reports and recommendations of the city manager, Mr. Hildebrand.

Mayor, council, we have a couple items tonight for information. The first, the city's hosting the Juneteenth celebration at the downtown stage on Friday, June 19th. That'll be held from four o'clock to nine o'clock. The event is free to the public. I know they have a website with all the events listed you can go to to find out what time people are performing on stage. The Appalachian Rhythm Clogging and Dance Studio will perform a rhythm rewind pop-up recital on Saturday, June 20th from 10 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. on the downtown stage. Council has a committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, June 23rd, 8.30 a.m. That's 3rd floor City Hall. The Foothills Regional Airport Authority will meet on Wednesday, June 25th at noon, and I think that's going to be held at the Hickory Aviation Museum, if I'm correct. I think it is, yes. City offices are gonna be closed for the Observance Independence Day. That'll be on Friday, July 3rd. Then on Friday, July 4th, what we have in the fireworks event, that's gonna be held at 9.30 p.m. at Lenore Optimist Park. Lenore Business Advisory Board will not be meeting on July 9th due to the fact on the 10th we begin the Blackberry Festival. The NC Blackberry Festival will be held on Friday, July 10th, and Saturday, July 11th at Downtown Lenoir. It's open from 5 o'clock to 9 o'clock on Friday, and then from 9 to 9 on Saturday. On Friday night, there will be a concert on the stage with Scarlett Darling. That's going to be held from 7 to 10, again on the stage downtown. Then on Saturday, July 11th at 7 a.m., there's the Crack of Dawn Dash, which is a run during the Blackberry Festival. The City-County Service Committee will meet on Monday, July 13th at noon. That's going to be held at the Civic Center. I think that has been canceled as well, so let me go back and back that up. There will not be a City-County Service meeting in July. Planned Board meeting will be on Monday, July 13th at 530, and that will be held in these chambers. And then the Friday Night Live concert featuring Wild Canyon will be held on Friday, July 24th from 7 to 10 on the downtown stage. I think that's all for the events that I know of coming up in the next few weeks. Any questions?

Any questions, Mr. Hildenbrand or any of our staff of anything that's coming up? Brenda, anything to add to any of those things happening at all? Okay, good. I figured it was all on here. Just want to make sure. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we'll move on then to report and recommendation to our city attorney, Mr. Rohrer.

No, sir.

Okay, thank you for that. I do have one for you for our boards, as we did most of our boards at our last meeting. I had one other seat open. We had a seat open on the Recreation Board, and I would like to recommend to the council tonight, to your consideration, Mr. Emanuel Byers. For that seat on there, Mr. Harper and I have talked with him, and he is willing to be a part of that. He is involved in our recreation program with family and other things, and we think he would be a really good fit for the open seat that we have on the recreation board. So I'll bring that to you all. We'll bring it up in our next meeting for approval, but just wanted to put that out there to you for that. Any recommendations from any of our council members or reports? Coming up.

There's going to be a Learn, Grow, Share event at Unity Park Friday from 5 to 7.

Okay.

So there will be a cooking demonstration. We'll be touring the garden.

What kind of cooking are we talking about here?

We're going to have some special people show up to cook. It won't be me. And then also, aren't they asking for volunteers for the Blackberry Festival? We probably should mention that.

I think we're always looking. I'll open that to Brenda and Ashley.

Yes, and I actually sent a link to all of our leadership, some more graduates. Joshua's going to share that. And we have sent it internally to all of our boards right now, asking everyone to sign up by Friday.

Perfect. Thank you, Brenda.

Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you. And that's Friday at the Garden. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that. Anything else? Come before us. on that. So hearing nothing else to come here tonight. Thank you. It's been a great meeting. Appreciate everyone being here. Thanks for the class group. Joshua, thank you again for your work with that. So we stand adjourned.