City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the February 23rd meeting of the Aken City Council. If you're inclined, please rise for the invocation followed by the pledge. Almighty God, our heavenly father, send down upon those who hold office in the city of Achen the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Captain Dodd, would you come forward and lead us in the pledge? Sorry, it's coming from the back. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. As the meeting begins, I will review the guidelines. Meetings are public forums in which many opinions are expressed and the business of the city must be conducted. As such, discipline, honorable and professional decorum is paramount. Courteous and respectful communication is required. There should be no disruptions from the floor while council members or members of the public are speaking. Anyone wishing to speak must be recognized so that we can retain order as we conduct the business of the city and all comments can be put into the public record. During public hearings, all questions and statements from the public shall be directed to the chair. If you wish to speak, raise your hand and I will recognize you. Please approach the podium and state your name and address. In order to allow an opportunity for everyone who wishes to address council, speakers should limit their comments to the subject being discussed. Each speaker will be given five minutes to address an issue and may only address an issue once unless questions from council are posed to the speaker. During the non-aggenda public comment section, each speaker has three minutes and can only speak once. We now move to additions and deletions to the agenda. I recognize mayor prom cabroll for this agenda item.

Madame mayor, there are no deletions or additions. And with that, I move that we accept the agenda as it is printed. Thank you. She moved for the made the motion. Is there a second, please? A second. Councilwoman Morgan made the second. All those in favor? All those in favor? Thank you. The minutes were provided to council for review prior to the meeting. Is there a motion for approval of the minutes? So move, madame mayor. Councilwoman Bro made the motion and I need a second. I second.

Uh from Councilwoman Diggs. Any comments or changes? All those in favor? Thank you. Now we open the floor to public comments and non-aggenda items. Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker and for a total of 30 minutes.

Yes, sir. Good evening.

Good evening, council. Um, my name is Lex Perry, pastor of C4 Impact, addresses 1526 South Boundary Avenue Southeast. Um, I just wanted to uh state that we always do every couple of weeks kind of give you an update of how things are going. We do have a full house um but where we're currently located on on Greenville Street as well as the house that we have uh in the Hatchaway Bridge Road. Um that is going to be an ongoing thing. Obviously, we have a list of people waiting um to find housing. Um all of you are aware of that as well. Uh, one of the things I wanted to bring attention to tonight is that fact that we know that the masters are coming and one of the things that happens every season is that uh those uh who are homeless living in the hotels, rest, you know, hotels and motel and so forth can get priced out. I'm not saying it happens to everybody, but they can. And so uh when they are priced out, it can exacerbate the issue that we're currently dealing with. So, um, we obviously want to try to work on, um, some type of solution for that. There is no easy solution, obviously. Um, I'm hoping that we can open up a conversation with you. Um, maybe we can set up a meeting to sit down and talk about these things. We do have, um, committees and so forth that we have, um, addressing this, you know, within the community, you know, um, organizations coming together, the faith community coming together to talk about these things. But your input is important as well because um having your support in how we address these issues when it comes to a facility, a building or whatever the case may be um because we have to think about the safety uh of the individuals that we're trying to house as well. Um what exasper what makes it more difficult? Of course, you're talking about the insurance, the liability, all those things that come into play. And I think it sometimes make it difficult for churches to get involved as well. And I know it's easy to kind of point the finger of saying, "Well, why isn't the church doing this or the faith community doing that?" Uh,

I would say for anybody who has that comment uh to come and join us some days and uh or to travel out with Pastor Kurt um you know, out there and and see exactly what's going on and you start to see the complexity of of the issue that we're dealing with, whether it be um mental health issues. Um we always like to put up the the drug or alcohol and things like that. Those things are are are just symptoms of what's the real problem that we have uh in the city. Uh but we have we have enough resources here in Aken. We have people who are willing to do the work to be on the front line to actually come and volunteer. We do have it. But what we need to do is to come together strategically and put these resources into play um so that we can so we can help those individuals out of the cycle that they're in and to move forward. Um, I will continue to come up here and to share and update as we go. We are a lot of things that are that we got working. Um, but we still need more. We we do need more help from you. We do need more help from the community uh to address this. Uh, but please think about the the masters coming up and understand that what you do see on the street now could definitely be exasperated during that time because a lot of people are going to be added to uh those who are out on the street.

Thank you so much. Anyone [applause] else? Yes, sir. Good evening. [clears throat]

Good evening, Madame Mayor, City Council. Kurt Johnson, 114, Brewster Way, Aken. Um, one of the things that I've been studying over the last year is people. We've got a lot of people out there that um are in situations that they mostly put upon themselves. I've also been looking at solutions. I came from a bigger city. It was almost a million people and the homelessness is really out of hand there. And the way they handled it was just keep throwing money at the problem. Well, uh I was very impressed recently by seeing something that San Francisco did which really threw me for a loop. the mayor there signed a law and to um it's what they call reset. It's rapid enforcement support evaluation and triage. People will be arrested on the street if they look intoxicated, if they're they look like they're high, loitering, any of these things. You could even go into the woods and if you find somebody in the woods and there's trash there, pick them up because we want these people to get the help they need. They're not getting the help by by us just moving them along. We've got to do more than that. Um we talk to them. We try to get them into uh different help places. Akin Barnwell, uh Aken Center, Courage Center, they all work with us. But that's just a part of it. We need the community to come together. I get a lot of emails and text and other things about how we're just enabling these people. I don't want to enable, never have. And we're showing that we're able to get people into housing. We're

able to get people to rehabs. We're able to get people their ID so they get a job. And they're looking at us for that. for those purposes. So, we're showing compassion, but we're also showing accountability. And I think that's the biggest thing for this community to have is accountability. It's on your part, it's on my part, and it's on their part as well. So, um that's pretty much where I'm at today. Yes, ma'am. I've got a question. Um, you said some of those in those situations can be arrested or should be.

How does that impact them getting a job because that would make them have a criminal record? Not necessarily. Not nec. They would. Now, the way that this program works is the rapid enforcement is they arrest them, but they don't take them to jail. They got a they got a opportunity to go through the support evaluation, okay, uh part of this and once they get through that, if they want to go to the rehab and get help, then they can do that. If they don't, you put them in jail. I mean, that's that's what I'm talking about. This is the accountability on both sides. We want to help them, but they got to be willing to help themselves,

right? Anything else? I have a question. Is was that like the curt a homeless court where they pick them up? No, ma'am. It's not court. No, ma'am. This is a whole different thing that that San Francisco is trying to work on. They just started the pilot program. What they do is they see people out on the street, uh maybe they're just loitering. They pick them up and they they'll be able to tell if they're high or if they're drunk or any of these other things, but they take them to a place where they can be evaluated. Right.

Okay. They've got the option, we can take you to jail or we can take you to get you evaluated. And it's not even the hospital. We're keeping a hospital out of it for right now because that's just a catchall. But this is something that that I'm seeing how we could use that here. It's an intervention type.

It's it's very much an intervention type. Uh and like I said, a lot of them might not want to do it, but if they keep on getting arrested for the small things, it's like Giuliani said back in the day, broken broken windows. If you just keep on letting them break the windows, they're going to move up into other crimes. So, we want to capture them when they're still able to do something. Thank you for all that you guys do. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Okay. [applause] Is there anyone else would like to speak during this time? Okay. Uh if not, I will move on to the approval of the consent agenda. Um before I ask Mr. Beenbo to uh read the titles of the items, um I'm going to mention that um or state that Councilman Msina is going to recuse himself from this because of one of the items on the consent agenda a consent agenda which is the um city of Aken to accept a waterline easement from Woodside Plantation Property Owners Association. Thank you, M. Thank you, Mr. Beanbo.

Thank you. Um we have the following items. uh for consideration on the consent agenda. We received no uh comments uh or or any uh notifications prior to 7:00 either electronically or or submitting a slip to the clerk asking anything be re removed. So the items for consideration are an ordinance authorizing the city of Aken to grant a quick claim deed to Beasley Development Corporate Company, Inc., A resolution ex authorizing the acceptance of a deed of dedication for the village of Woodside. A resolution authorizing the acceptance of a deed of dedication from SE Aken LLC and a resolution authorizing the city to accept a waterline easement agreement from Woodside Plantation Property Owners Association Incorporated. Those are your consent agenda items for consideration this evening. Madame Mayor and Council,

thank you. Is there a motion to uh approve these? I so move. Councilwoman Diggs made the motion and a second I need from second. Uh Councilman Waldo. Uh there's no comment on the cons consent agenda, so we will go straight to a vote. All those in favor? Thank you. All right. And Councilman Msina is abstaining from the vote or recusing himself. Thank you. [snorts] We now have approval and discussion of appointees to various city boards, committees, and commissions. Mr. Beville,

thank you. We have the following uh for consideration this evening. We have the appointment of Kevin Pthik to the community development committee, the reappoint of Peggy Pinland to the accommodations tax committee, and the reappoint of William Price to the senior commission. Madame Mayor, thank you. I need a motion to um accept this approval. So move, Madam Mayor. Councilman Waldo. Second. And Councilman Councilwoman, sorry, William.

Okay. Oh, [clears throat] um, Councilwoman Price recused herself because of the vote is for the senior commission is her husband, Mr. Price. And the second from Councilwoman Morgan. Wow. Are there any comments from the public? Comments from council. I can say that I'm delighted with these two appointees. All those in favor? Thank you. Unanimous. You want to call unanimous with her.

Yes. And with uh Councilwoman Price recusing herself from the vote. The final item under old business. Oh. Oh, sorry. I missed that as always. Yes. Are there any nominations for the uh any of these boards or commissions? Nope. I'd like to make one quick comment, Madame Mayor, if you don't mind. Of course. Um, we have Mr. Chaz Miller here tonight. Chaz, can you stand for us on our energy environmental? He was just appointed last week. So, let's welcome Chaz tonight to our meeting. [applause] Thank you, Chad.

Okay. The final item under old business is second reading and public hearing of an ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget. Mr. Bebo.

Thank you. It is an ordinance amending the budget of the city of Aken for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 for the general fund. Following budget adjustments are being recommended, $200,000 approved by uh approved by city council for the legal fees paid to the plaintiffs in the Blake at Al versus City of Aken lawsuit. Second is a bud budget adjustment to pay $85,000 towards the balance of the Federal Small Business Administration mortgage. The board of the Center for the African-American History, Art, and Culture uh uh received in 2016. Repayments are current and payoff would remove the building's collateralized status um and enable the board to devote their fundraisings uh for capital improvements and other improvements at the center. and then a budget adjustment to account for revenue of $182,284 for the Aken Center for Medical Supply and for medical supplies to the Department of Public Safety. That is through uh monies received from the South Carolina opioid recovery fund which are received from uh class action lawsuits filed around the country for to manufacturers of uh opioids. And finally, a budget adjustment to account for a $40,000 grant match for the grant we received from the Shipo, the South Carolina Historic Preservation Office. And this is uh before you for second reading this evening, Madame Mayor.

Thank you. Is there a motion to accept this? Madame Mayor, [clears throat] I move that we uh pass these budget adjustments. Thank you. That will be from Councilwoman Br. I second.

And Councilman Waldo. Um, Councilman Waldo, second. Uh, comments from the public, comments from council. All those in favor? Thank you. It's unanimous. We now move to new business. The first item is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance approving a development agreement with Sycamore Aken LLC for infrastructure for the Home Two Suites Hotel development on Oak Grove Road. Mr. Beenville. Thank you. This is an ordinance authorizing the city of Aken to enter into an development agreement with Sycamore Investment Group LLC. These individuals are developing the parcel on Oak Grove Road uh for a Hampton Inn, home to Suites Hotel. This water system extension will extend the service onto the newly developed Tribute Parkway. Uh this uh will allow for the design, permit, and installation of the water line. Uh then it will be dedicated uh the water lines to the city and grant any necessary easements for maintaining or improving the system. The cost is uh expected to be $158,668 with an invest excuse me a reimbursement for expenses to the developer not to exceed $104,720.88 using CPST4. The developer will respond be responsible for the remaining balance of $53,947.12 and any cost overruns. Uh this will be null and void if council doesn't grant approval and all approvals necessary for construction and completion of the project are not completed by May 31, 2026. This is part there is a waterline work um along uh um the extension of South

Centennial. Um and Sycamore Aken um has approved these utility plans uh that we have. Uh they would install that section of the water line and pick up at the fire hydrant near Ginger Lane and extend the 12-in water line to their access road for the hotel. And uh this is before council for first reading uh this evening and consideration. Madame Mayor, thank you. Do we have a motion for this uh first reading? Councilwoman, I'm sorry I didn't have my speaker on. Councilwoman Price made the motion and I need a second from

second. Councilman Waldo. Um, are there any comments from the public? Yes, sir. Good evening to you. Uh, my name is Ashai Patel. Address is 7875 Georgetown Circle, Swany, Georgia 300024. I'm here representing the developers at Sikaragen. Just wanted to introduce myself and see if the council had any questions regarding this. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

Thank you. Uh any comments uh from the council? All right. All those in favor, please. Thank you. The next item is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to annex 104 Small Ridge Street and zone it residential single family RS10. Mr. Beenbo.

Thank you. This is an ordinance to annex property located at 104 Small Ridge Street South and zone the same RS10 residential single family. It's approximately a fifth of an acre. It is uh located in the Silver Bluff Estate subdivision. Those present at the planning commission's February 10th meeting unanimously voted to annex and zone residential single family RS10 and it is before council for first reading this evening.

So move madam mayor. Second, madam.

The next item under new business is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to annex one partridge court and zone it residential single family RS15. Mr. Bean, thank you. It is an ordinance to annex property located at one partridge court and zone the same RS-15 residential single family. This is approximately an acre and 300s and is located in the Brier Cliff subdivision. Those present at the planning commission's February 10th meeting unanimously recommended zoning, excuse me, annexing and zone it RS15. It's before you for first reading. Thank you. Is there a motion for this? I so move, Madame Mayor. Councilwoman Brol made the motion.

A second, Madame Mayor. Councilwoman Councilwoman Morgan, second the motion. Any comments from the public? [clears throat] Comments from council. All those in favor. Thank you. Unanimous. Now we have first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to annex 1116 Conger Drive and zone it residential single family RS15. Mr. Been Bo,

I'm so sorry. It's just a statement. Unfortunately, the largest zone that we have. So,

so my concern is an acre. We really should have a zone that is RS 40, RS30, whatever. uh I'm looking for the future to maybe address this. Um my concern is that uh with an acre of property and you land is at zoned at 15,000 square feet, if your house burns down or gets too old, you could knock it down and build two or three homes there and that would be quite a shock to the neighborhood. Uh which we try to avoid. So we looking in the to the future for the UDO changes. We really should be looking for, you know, allowances for larger lots RS30, RS40, U besides the horse district and other areas. Just sorry, sorry to be so late.

No, it's a good comment.

Point. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Uh um I will repeat the next one. Now we have first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to annex 1116 Conger Drive and zone it residential single family. Mr. Thank you. This is an ordinance to annex 1116 Conger Drive South and to zone the same residential single family RS-15. This is approximately half an acre. Uh the planning commission at their February 10th meeting uh those present unanimously recommended zoning uh at RS15 and annexing it into the city. And it is before you for first reading this evening, madame mayor and councel. Thank you. Is there a motion for this Conger Drive?

Um, I moved. Thank you, Councilwoman Morgan and a second. Second from Councilwoman Waldo. Any comments from the public? Comments from council. Madame Mayor, this similar comment. Um, okay. The all the lots in that area are over a half acre or larger. uh again by zoning this R 20 20,000 square feet is not appropriate. So again looking to the future we should have a zone for that. Thank you. Thank you. Uh all those in favor. Thank you.

The next item under new business is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance designate 431 Dupri Place Southwest as a non-contributing structure. Mr. being built.

Thank you. This is an ordinance to designate property located at 431 Dupri Place Southwest as a non-contributing historic structure. The applicants and owners have recommended a non-contributing have, excuse me, have requested a non-contributing historic designation be applied to their property at this address. Uh the plan is to replace windows and the and the garage door to convert the garage into a laundry and mudroom. This is located within the overlay district, specifically historic district 1, and is zoned single family stable or RSS. This property does not have an Aken historic resource survey card, DRB staff, and the HAF president historic Aken Foundation president reviewed the historic survey done in 2010 and the 1989 historic survey, the historic district designation application, and other documents. They were unable to discover a designated a designation status assigned to this property. The DRB held a public hearing to consider the goldsmith's application. After the public hearing, DRB made a recommendation to the planning commission for approval of the application. The planning commission held a public hearing and those present voted unanimously to recommend the approval of the application. And now it is on to city council for consideration at first reading and public hearing of this ordinance to designate the property at 431 DER Place Southwest as non-contributing within the historic district. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a motion to um accept this ordinance? So move, madame mayor. Councilwoman Price made the motion. I second. Councilwoman Price uh Diggs second the motion. Comments from the public, comments from councel. All those in favor? Did you want to say something?

I I did want to say this. This this is where near in where where I live. This was a very difficult process for these people. uh they're they could not find the designation for this house and they have had to been threatened with a stop work order. They were had to stop until it was finished. They had to go back in front of DRB planning commission and now us. What they did find we when they looked we thought there had been something way back. You know how you can't remember the years, but we found that they had indeed been before the DRB and were considered non-contributing. And the point I'm trying to make is that we can use the computer ability for us to look and see how properties have been treated in the past and they found it. And I applaud them for their patience with the city because they literally have had to stop their work and go through three months of of difficulty trying to remodel a house lovingly so. And I just wanted that to be yes.

Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Sounds like we need to offer them a job. [laughter] I love that. Thank you. Um, so, uh, where was I? All those in favor? Thank you. It's unanimous. Got another item. The final item under new business is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance approving the imposition of sewer capacity impact fees. Mr. Beenbo,

thank you. It is an ordinance approving the imposition of sewer capacity impact fees and other matters related there too. Uh since the late 1970s, we've sent our sanitary sewer waste to a treatment plant operated by the public service authority of Aken County, an entity governed by Aken County. The plant is located on the Savannah River between North Augusta and Beach Island. We are one of the many users of this facility um and one of the largest users along with the city of North Augusta. Um other users uh it's a multicount uh jurisdiction send their uh sanitary sewer waste there. Uh users in Edgefield County and Saluda County for example as well as a number of utility districts and industrial plants. Uh recently the costs for the treatment and upgrade have substantially risen and Aken County Council passed a rate increase for new capacity. Now what does this mean? This is basically the cost to develop has gone up uh from the sewer standpoint and I'm sure it has for other parts of development as well. Um it was a very substantial increase. I think we were paying 48 cents per unit and it went up to now it's 1089 $1089 all in one swoop. Uh again this does not impact the this this fee is again for new development that needs to be planned and uh go through the approval process. This is not an impact on current users of the system i.e. if you're an existing home owner or property owner or business this

fee does not apply to you. and uh dis the uh disposition of your uh sanitary sewer waste. So this increase necessitated a capacity impact fee ordinance which lays out how the city will calculate, collect and administer sewer impact fees for new development uh redevelopment or changes in use of wastewater flow. um that we went to the county and we asked for 2.5 million uh additional gallons of capacity. That is not unusual. We uh have regularly done that over the last 50 years. Uh in 2012, we participated in a financing mechanism for along with other users uh for the county to increase capacity. Um so uh this time we are treating this impact fee as a pass through. Uh to um uh we wanted to have an ordinance designed that would meet the requirements of the impact fee law of the state of South Carolina and align our fee program with the cost of purchasing additional wastewater treatment capacity from the PSA. A key feature of this ordinance is that it maintains a clear distinction between development inside Akens corporate limits and developments outside the corporate limits. Projects inside the city limits will be able to have the fee collected at the building permit stage for new connections and for any redevelopment or change that increases wastewater demand. Capacity letters for incity projects may be issued after plan approval, engineering analysis, and confirmation of available sewer capacity with the fee collected at the building permit stage. This approach supports a quote growth pays for growth unquote model by using impact fee

revenue to fund s future capacity purchases uh for projects outside the city limits. this existing approach uh of paying for the capacity upfront prior to the issuance of a capacity letter will remain in place. This limits the city's exposure to projects that may or may not advance to construction and reflects the ability the our limited ability to control fee collection timing at the building permit stage when permits are issued by the county. Again, this is for outside city projects only. This these capacity requests will continue to follow the city's established wastewater development agreement documentation and engineeringbased flow calculations already in place. Finally, this uh 1089 per gallon fee uh was established in our capacity agreement with this county in June of 2025. And again, I want to emphasize it does recommend or represent a significant increase in our historic capacity purchase cost and reinforces the need for a transparent and equitable recovery mechanism for capacity associated with new growth. Uh so we had a work session about this uh right after the turn of the calendar in January and now we are here for our first reading and public hearing. One of the things we had to do was we wanted to make sure because we have revenue bonds uh on our system uh our water and sewer system uh which is sort of treated collectively from a financing standpoint. We wanted to have this ordinance run through bond council to make sure uh it was not impacting our disclosures and related documentation for uh uh the borrowing that we've done

for the new water plan and improvements and and maintenance of our system. So, this is here for a public hearing and uh first reading and also I want to go ahead and ask since he's in the way back of the room uh engineering utilities director Thomas Parrot to make his way to the front um if he needs or feels compelled to add any comments or fields questions from council. Thank you. Thank you and thank you very much for the very nicely detailed explanation and reading of the agenda item. Uh is there a motion? Madame Mayor, I so move. And I also want to thank Mr. Parrot for his very wellthoughtout explanation he included in our packet. Thank you very much. That's my motion.

Thank you. That's from uh Councilman Brol made the motion. Second. Second from Councilman Councilman Waldo. Uh any comments from the public? Yes, sir.

Good evening to you.

Good evening. My name is Kevin Pthik. Um I own a business in the city at 115 Hearthstone Drive and just wanted to give some commentary. [clears throat] um maybe not so much on this specific ordinance, but just in in in general on this uh topic. Um first off, I think you all did a great job with the ordinance. I really do think that from a perspective of protecting the city's interests and your constituents that um the county's kind of thrust a difficult situation on on the city to have to pass along expenses that um I feel like you should have had a lot more notice and and been able to uh have more input, but that that wasn't really allowed. And so you've taken a situation, a tough situation, and I think you've passed it on appropriately. I think some of the options you might have had would have been to um try to require capacity and larger purchased amounts, but the fact that you're allowing it to be passed along at the time of the building permit is really uh helpful because I think you're going to find that most developers, and this would apply to a lot of other impact fees that might come along, they can pass those fees along. they just have a very difficult time if they're thrown on them at the very front of the project to handle them. So, I think the way you handled it is is is very good. Um, and so again, it's not really so much in this ordinance, but but on the topic of the noncount or the non-ontiguous or non-inity projects. Um, where the county had requested a required 5,000galon increments to be purchased. Um, you're passing along what you're receiving. But I think that one thing that happens is when you purchase those 5,000gallon increments, you might not I mean you they're applying to a particular project. Uh they might not be able to use all of those. You know, they have to purchase in five gallons. Maybe they only need seven, you know, lots, right? Well, that means they've purchased for seven lots, but there's 11 more they can't do anything with. You'll be able to still utilize those because you've you've purchased that from the county, but they won't be. And that really constitutes um an exaction, I believe, which could create a legal challenge.

I'm not saying it will, but it could. And so I would just consider that you might you might consider that portion of of how it's currently being done to determine whether there might be some something that's a rough proportionality test under the constitution, but it's is there anything you can do that might allow that? And then the only other thing I would comment trying to watch my time is I I did have a client who had a property that was in the county um and subject to the original requirements but then as as everything got thrown upon you um they were not able to uh to benefit from what the the people in the county uh I mean in the city

uh received and so they were required at that point in time to have to to pay a a big fee upfront. And I think there there maybe could have or should have been some consideration for a grandfathering in that instance because it's it's not something that's going to happen in the future. I think the policy you've established is a really good one for the future and on all on all the developments and I see my time's up but I thank you for you have five minutes actually. Okay. Well, that that's it really for for what I had to say if there's any any questions or anything like that, but I just give some consideration maybe to the exaction side of of how things are processed um on the 5,000galon increments. And um that was it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Anyone else like say something? Uh any comments from council? Mayor. Yes. I

my only concern is I think I agree with Mr. Path that the policy is written is well conceived. I how are we going to implement it? I think what my concern is is having a way for us to measure what we're doing. what are when we had the work session there was an attempt to kind of say well we're not sure if we're at the limit or not or whether we're going to be we had lots of discussion about what we really had available and I know they were working on it they were going to look at what projects and developments were out there when we looked at it before we only dealt with developments we didn't deal with commercial andor school capacities that are were involved My request is that could we have a better detailed list of what are incity outcity projects and where they are in regards to how they're going to be implemented with this new

Mr. Mr. Parrot would you like to address that

and that then we can deal with those the ones that Mr. Pathic had talked about because some of these developers are doing it in increments and and they're they've gotten because of the increase of 2100% that occurred midy year last year. Half of them are in the the sweet spot of the 48 cents and they've only they thought it was going to be fine and now they're back up to 2100% increase. That is a big deal. And I I think we all want to be fair. And the way to do that is to to measure effectively. It's not the devil's in the details. God's in the details. And I think it behooves us all to prevent misunderstanding to request that kind of measurement. And I I hope

Would you like to address that for us? Thank you so much. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you.

All right. I'm going to talk through a couple of them. Um we can definitely look at the 5,000 guidelines. The reason why we put it that way is because that's the way it was presented to us from the county. Um the grandfather aspect. So in theory it sounds good and I get what and the understanding of it is but um nobody paid for it before. So nobody paid the 48 cents. So, what that means is um if we were to say, "Oh, yes, you already had capacity, but um you're going to get a grandfather time in and we start um being able to do what this ordinance is trying to do to not stifle growth, we will run out of capacity because we won't be able to collect anything until those come because we're talking about some of these developments, you know, 18 24 months before they actually have homes in the ground. So that's that's really the reason why and again I mean everybody unfortunately it's not always fair. It's not always easy but you know being able to start collecting on it now is the only way that we're going to continue to to be able to provide services in the future. Um as far as the measurements I hear you understand. Um we do know how much we have. We have 410,000 gallons of capacity currently. We don't know all the projects and we can't know this. Um, planning knows this as well as anybody sent on commission. Things change, requests change, projects change. You've all seen them come in with, you know, 240 and they go down to 170 or conversely. So, it's really hard to predict. We really try to do the best that we can. Um, could we do better? Yes, we'll continue to try to improve on that is what we do. But um and as far as commercial, again, um it's really hard to predict. Um there are some some

commercial aspects that are coming in that are huge space-wise, but they aren't going to have any use. You know, they're not using um utilities in the same way as somebody who had a large space and had um a um restaurant or some other high use. So, a lot of those things are hard to predict until they actually occupy the space. So,

and I I appreciate it's hard to tell and I know it changes, but I think if we had a baseline that says the because we have a development system in the city and that you could you could know there's a flowchart of what what we can have and what's pending. Yes, ma'am. that that could be better for all of us because I don't knowing how they do change because and then we are looking at uh the time frame because I know we're going to have some caps on and time frame status on some of these permits or what do you well not permits but how long people can keep the

Yes, ma'am. So it will be um a 12-month thing and it was actually that way before. So, if if somebody was to get capacity um and and we give them capacity, but they never got a permit, we're it gets really technical quickly. Um it does as soon as they actually get that capacity, they have 12 months to get their permit. If they don't get a permit to operate from SEDDS, then um

it expires. Now, if they get a permit from SEDDS, they have three years to utilize that capacity. We cannot do anything with it. can't take it away from them. It's permitted and allocated to them. Now, after that three years, um we can resend the permit or ask SEDS to cancel. They haven't done what they said they were going to do and then we get the capacity back. Um we we again we've been trying to provide at least quarterly updates about what we know that's coming in from the engineering side um that we get from planning and try to do our best prediction of that. Um, if you'd like to see something more, we can definitely look at

Well, it's almost like we need what we discussed in the work session, a managed compliant system for uh for this type of thing. I I I just think it makes sense for us to have a better grip on it. I know that it's technical and it and they they come in. I'm not like Pete does, but that things change and you wait and you do. But if you have a flowheet and a chart that is that handles these things, then we know what we have. Yes, ma'am.

And I just think that's better than trying to uh especially with the increase and that we might get capacity, we might at some juncture. We need to manage that and the only way to do that is to be able to look at it and share it effectively. Yes, ma'am. And that's that's the intent of this is to get that capacity, right? And I applaud what you've done. I just was concerned about how not just what we're doing, but how we're doing it.

Yeah. And I do think too we're going to be in a sit a circumstance uh where the um PSA we will see regular meaning at least annual increases. they won't be I don't believe they'll be 2100% every year but um I believe we will see more regular appropriate from a you know good management standpoint of uh of of operations uh increase because the cost of these things only goes up it might stay level but it doesn't really go down um so we will see this 1089 is just more of a snapshot and uh it'll be I suspect higher after July 1st and July 1st of 27 it'll be even higher. Uh how much higher I don't know yet but um but I do think that's the new normal. I think gone are the days where in the past we would get a rate increase and it would be so small we would just absorb it and not pass it on. I mean it would be tiny. Uh and again uh I I just think uh it's being done in a way that uh I think accurately reflects the cost of them doing business. I

I spoke to a uh developer the other day and uh they were talking about the fees and how high they are. um almost to the point where he sound a little discouraged and I hope that doesn't mean that he decides not to go through with the project but yeah he he's very concerned about it.

I'd also like to make sure I know Thomas is doing this to make sure we have capacity for the existing projects that we have already approved. uh on board. Um that 410,000 gallons uh gallons per day at 300 gallons uh per home, it's only 1,367 new homes can be serviced by that. And that kind of gets back to uh a report I think Barbara mentioned is uh a project development status report that highlights all the developments that have been approved. But I think a critical column is the sanitary sewer allocation when they get their permit even have the expiration date the three-year expiration date so we can track it uh besides building permits and cos on that list but I think it's important for us to know where they are extremely important for you to know uh where they are uh in in that stage. Uh so we have could be 5,000 more homes that have been approved. I'm not sure how they fit in uh to the century sewer aspect of the project.

Well, Madame Mayor, we have covered I thought in the past the homes that are in the pipeline and the status of those homes with the process and we can separate. Am I correct or yes? And we can separate those homes in terms of the status and where they are. Now you and I know oftent times or many of us know that often times something happens and that development may move totally off the list and that is how you keep monitoring where we are. Am I right? Correct Stuart.

Yes. I mean, I know uh we did uh we participated in an audit uh back when when the county began doing kind of a deep dive into their circumstance and there were projects that they had us on the books for that went away uh some time ago. So again, um but yes, we I believe we have a a handle for the um on that, but like um like Thomas said and you kind of emphasized, trying to determine ultimately how many units will ultimately be developed is somewhat uh like uh a shot in the dark, I guess,

in some instances. Yes. And to I guess make sure I'm getting your point correctly, but I mean we do we do track all of those um residentials and we do put them against I do know when my permits expire. I do know when my letter of credits up. We we we do track all of those things. All that's happening. Um you know, if you guys want to see that, we're more than happy to share it. It's just um another another thing for us to do and we have no problem doing it. Um, but you know, again, it comes down to just just knowing, especially on the commercial side, it it it really is hard to predict like um what what's going to be what. So, and we can only do our best on those things. Yes.

And and isn't there also the the question or or concept that now on some of these plans you can put sewer capacity on it on a project where we never listed it before but you can say what you they contemplate on a on the development. Yes ma'am. We we make them do that on the front end. Um, but I mean we can see it on the be nice to have a a development status report that shows all this. I mean that's that makes life well a lot easier for us up here to take a look at it. I got Yeah. So we know you're doing it

when we do the So that is I guess one thing potentially we could highlight uh as council uh I guess at some point in the approval process by um and again that's something we can look at. I don't want to commit to something that we may not be able to do, but if we could put uh a status uh with with that information you're asking about as part of planning commission documents and uh council documents, that's something we could if if we can do it. Um and I just don't know if how if we can. Again, we want to be consistent. If we can do that pretty much for all those applications, we could certainly continue to do that. And again, this would be for the new uh new developments, new commercial, new industry uh or any major upgrades.

Right. Yep. Got it.

Thank you, Mr. Parrot. And also I wanted to thank Mr. Pik for understanding uh the situation that we are in. This was nothing that we wanted or perceived happening and that's why Mr. Beanbo called it a pass through. Uh we would not have done that and it would have been nice to had more than one week's notice about this, but this is the situation we're in. And you brought up very good points and Mr. Perro takes all this very seriously and I'm sure what what he said he knows down to the gallon how much we have and at some point it will make a difference. But having been a planning commissioner and Mr. Msina has also that there are lots of developments that don't ever come to fruition and even when they do it's several years before they are at total buildout. If you look at Woodside it started in the 80s and so we're still building. So I want uh you know just to keep all of this in our mind when we're going forward and looking at all of this and I want to thank all of you for bringing up good points. Thank you. Thank you all. Um after great discussion is there a uh any all those in favor of the first reading? Thank you. It is unanimous. We will now move on to petitions and requests. First item is a resolution approving a capital project sales tax 5 revenue recipient agreement with Aken County. Mr. Beenville.

Thank you. It is uh a resolution authorizing the city of Aken to enter into a capital project sales tax 5 revenue recipient agreement with Aken County. Uh this is uh the result of a successfully uh passed referendum in November 2024. Uh countywide referendum, a comfortable majority of voters approved CPST5. Our estimated uh receipts is going to be just shy of 79.7 million. The county adopted an ordinance in July of 2024 that requires municipalities like the city of Aken must enter into a revenue recipient agreement with the county to ensure proper transfer of funds to the city's finance department. They are remitted on a reimbursement basis. back before CPST4, we would get a quarterly check of our allocated receipts uh before projects were going. Uh but the uh starting with CPST4, they began uh having an agreement such as this. Starting May 1st, the capital project sales tax 5 receipts will begin. Essentially, how it will work is CPST4 will sunset at midnight or 11:59 p.m. on April 30th. And then starting May 1st, they will begin uh those 1% sales tax for CPST will go to round five. As per the agreement, as has been the case for at least capital project sales tax rounds two, three, and four, and perhaps one, but I know for two, three, and four, these eight small

municipalities will collect their monies first. that typically will take uh the bulk of this calendar year. Uh but by the end of the calendar year, we should be able to start receiving CPST5 funds uh reimbured to us. And we have reviewed this uh document that uh the county has sent us and uh recommend council's consideration tonight in the form of a resolution. Madame Mayor and councel, thank you. Do I have a motion to accept this resolution? So move, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Waldo. Second it.

And a second from Councilwoman Price. Comments from the public. Comments from council. Any comments from council? All those in favor? Thank you. The next item is a resolution authorizing the city of Aken to adopt the 2026 to 2031 major capital improvements program. Mr.

Thank you. We do have this uh before you. Um this is an annual exercise that is required by uh state code and the city code. Also um I want to note there were two very good questions asked at the planning commission and I do want to um answer them. One was about uh funding of paving of roads. We have citymaintained streets in the city of Aken. Uh monies for maintenance of roads comes from a mix of uh monies that is dispersed to the city by the county uh transportation committee as well as uh some bit of general fund revenues and other revenues uh for resurfacing and similar type improvements to city maintain roads. Obviously there uh vast majority of our road infrastructure is either if you add them together is either state or private mostly state uh and of course state monies uh through the gas collection of the gas tax and general assembly appropriations pays for paving there. Um so I hope that addressed that. The other issue was an expenditure, a proposed capital expenditure of uh over almost $8 million at the airport. That is uh not coming out of 100% city coffers. Actually, only 2 and a.5% of that projected cost would come from the city coffers. Uh this is a federal grant through the Federal Aviation Administration to convert the main runway to concrete, which is a more durable uh uh uh robust uh surface for a runway.

95% of the cost would be paid by the FAA, 2 and a half% by the state. So the city's only uh portion is two and a half% of the cost to do that. So again, we had to reflect all of the um project expenditures regardless of source of funds. So I know that was a question that came up during uh the planning commission and this list is before council for consideration this evening uh this approval. Madame Mayor,

thank you. Is there a motion for this? Madame Mayor, uh, I move that we pass this major capital improvements suggestions. And while I really, it's beneficial to me, always has been, there's a lot of work that goes into this for the explanation of the need for the project and the annual impact on the operating budget. There's tons of work and hours put in this and it's really appreciated. It makes it easy for us to understand why it's done. And you can see how things have been planned out because we're looking at five years and there's some huge costs here, but we're looking at infrastructure, the things that we really need. And this explains why we need it and where it's going to go. And so I'm happy to make that motion.

Thank you. She made uh Councilwoman Brell made the motion happily and a second from second Councilman Waldo as happily hopefully. Thank you very much. Are there any comments from the public? Comments from council

the mayor's just just again I echo the uh the work that was done to put this document together. I had to do it for for many many years. It's a lot of work and they do a great job. Um, I do have to emphasize the u uh the engineering uh item for pavement at $300,000. That's very very low. I think last time we talked about another project we talked about is about a million dollars a mile. So we're talking about a third of a mile. Uh I know that engineering and in their report stated that they're doing a uh a roadway evaluation program to prioritize what roads have to be done. And I've done that again in similar town in a similar situation. It was around $2 million a year. Uh but um uh it it it's something you don't want to put off because roads deteriorate very fast and you put that off and all of a sudden you're not million overlaying. You're totally reconstructing them at 10 times the cost. So I would emphasize more uh emphasis on uh on pavement uh and uh getting those roads in in better shape. is also a [snorts] your impression of the town. When you walk drive through a town and you see potholes all over the place or even patches of potholes, it just looks bad.

Uh so uh if roads can be milled and overlaid uh properly, the town looks better and it's a better uh for everyone. um few other items, but I think it's more of a work session item, which would which we I think maybe next year might be good to have some discussion on on various items. Everything costs more than you think it does. Uh and then when you see a number like a million dollars for this, a million dollars for that, and pretty soon it's real money. [clears throat] Well, to me it's real money. So, we should be uh having our department heads, which I know they do now, take a a hard hard line on what their what their estimates are. That's it.

Yeah. and and your point is well taken about the paving and I know one of the things we've talked about is I think when we one of the one of the items that uh we are looking at is as we move into the next fiscal year and work on our budget and um also understand it's an assessment year I think um some of the natural um natural uh additional growth that comes with a reassessment uh dedicating a portion of that money to paving because you are right. One of the things that has hurt us is we used to have a road maintenance fee

which was declared unconstitutional. That's still uh that fees I think that Supreme Court case was remanded back to a lower court. Uh but it is um yep finding that revenue to maintain the city maintain roads is uh something that I think we're all aware of and and that is a point excellent point well taken.

Also new philosophy we see North Augusta doing this is the impact fees. uh developers don't just have to improve their entrance if they have a substantial number of homes. Those cars are driving all over the place impacting the city roads and certainly no I from a staff perspective uh we would want council direction but we certainly don't have any options off the table.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Um, where was I? All those in favor of this project. Thank you. It's unanimous. Final item tonight is for council to approve the summary of New Horizons 2026. Mr. Be.

Yes. We have these uh uh coming off of the retreat and the thing u I I won't necessarily go through and read through all of them but um it we believe it reflects the immediate priorities, strategic priorities and uh ongoing priorities. Uh and again the bulletointed items are in no particular order of importance as are the ongoing items are in listed in no particular um import uh list of importance. So, um, council reviewed the mission and vision and core values reflected in our annual document which are attached to this memo. And we have these uh council asked that our mission, vision, and values be affirmed at a future council meeting and that came as a result of new horizons. So that will be an upcoming exercise for us as well and we will provide periodic updates on the above goals as appropriate throughout the fiscal year that's upcoming. Thank you.

Is there a motion to approve the summary of New Horizons? So move. Councilwoman Burl made the motion. I second. Councilwoman um Diggs second the motion. Any comments from the public? Comments from council. I'll just like to say I think the new horizon meeting we had with Matt was very beneficial. Uh we learned a lot in one day. Um so it was very informative. So thank you all and thank you Matt as well. Thank you.

Uh all those in favor. Thank you. We now open the floor to public comments on non-aggenda items. Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker and for a total of 30 minutes. Yes. Good evening, Teresa.

Good evening, ma madame mayor, county council. How are you guys doing? Eyes Teresa Callahan, 622 Washington Circle. Um, I have a question. [clears throat]

possibly that maybe you guys can fester over. I think I've asked before, but it's been quite some time. We're in an area of course where there's donut holes. And so my question tonight is, is it feasible that possibly you guys with the county could have a meeting together? And the reason I asked that question is because I have a question for county. You got three or four houses in city, two in county, yada yada yada. You don't know who who to who to call. So, I know I have to call PK or I have to go to county county council meetings, one of the two. Um, and that's a little annoying because you don't know, you don't know. So therefore, my suggestion would be if we could have a meeting together, especially for that area and the kind of area it is and the things that go on in the area, it's, you know, it's better certainly, but I think that would be helpful possibly. I don't know if that could be done. Um, it's just a question that I have.

Yeah. Uh if the goal would be to have a meeting with the appropriate representatives, um I think that could be done. Trying I guess a meeting with the two bodies. That's a different that's a probably a higher bar. I I certainly can't speak for council, but the but certainly not the c I couldn't speak for the county council, but certainly I think arranging a meeting with the representatives, the the Miss High Tower um and and appropriate counsel, Councilwoman Price. I think that could be done. Yeah, because I've had to have a PK and you know, and explains what what the the problem is. Um

it it would be similar to the meeting I think you were involved in several years ago with Mr. High Totower and [snorts] Miss Price when we were uh and I think with some code officials when we were looking at some nuisance properties and we addressed the ones that were ours and the county I think were going to address the ones that were theirs. Right. So it would be something akin to to that that we had some years ago. Yes. Got it. I did email Gary Bunker. Um, and he said he would reach out to um, Mayor Teddy.

I don't know if he if he's done so or not. Um, and say he would be happy to do something rather, you know, via email um, replying to me. So, okay,

that's of great concern. Um, and like I said, because of the donut holes, because the rules, you know, they they differ so so so quickly, you know, this person can do this, then you got two houses down, these people can't do this, etc. And it's it's a really big nuisance on that. And also with law enforcement, when they come, they get mixed up a lot of times on where to go. Um, every time I'm out of town, my neighbors are calling me. Um because you know they're scared to call the police pretty much and I have to ask them where exactly is it because so now what I do is I just call Marty sorry when I leave in um city and just tell them hey can y'all just look out you know because of the donut ho so you know where to go um where the problems are. Um I don't think we'll ever fix all the problems of course but um we're you know 80% there. I would definitely say um also so that's that one. Okay, that question because I have another question. Can I ask another question really really quick?

Well, let me do you mind if I respond to that? The policies in the county is quite different as you said than the city. In the city, we cannot force anyone to annex into the city. Secondly, the response time is very different when you're in the county and the city, right? So, we hear those problems. I know that our folks uh when I say our folks, the city,

they're on alert and if they if something happens, a a an emergency takes place, we can call them back and they will apologize and say, "Listen, we had an urgent uh more pressing matter, we will get back with it uh to you, but on and my neighbors Cassandra and those know that one side of our street Mhm. is in the city. The other side is in the county. We have an issue right now

that we're working on with that u drainage um uh Cassandra and it's being reviewed. So if anybody's asking you the question, it is being looked at again and that may happen. That will happen this week. It's so annoying. [laughter] But that is no one has um ignored that. It is being reviewed. But having said that, it's it's it's pretty much taxing to get the two together and understand I know

why we have a need in terms of not only safety uh given who's in the city, who's in the county, uh but and response time, uh but also those abandoned houses that are in the county as well. I've addressed some people that own those and they're supposed to get to it by this summer. Okay. Hopefully. Yeah. Thank you so much. And I won't ask the other question because I'm up. Yeah. Thank y'all so much and thank you for Thank you for all you guys do. Thank you. [applause] We'll continue this conversation. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any Yes, please come up.

[laughter]

give your name. Aenites. Uh, and I um Oh, excuse me. My name is Linda Prior Hunley and I'm a native Aenite. Okay.

Um, and we recently um participated in a subcommittee hearing in at the state house. It was on the 19th of February u for the house of uh the South Carolina House of Representatives municipal and public affairs subcommittee hearing. There are some very very smart wonderful people on this committee and I have prepared my notes that are based on some of the conservation voters of South Carolina's notes. I want you it's on concurrency. It sounds like the tool we have been looking for and it mutually benefits builders and communities and city governments. So, I think instead of my trying to read all of this to you all and thank you all. I'm so proud of this wonderful bright new [laughter] council. I'm going to give you all each my envelope.

Okay. Thank you, Linda. That's [laughter] okay. We'll I can get a copy.

[laughter]

It is. Wow. So, Linda, Lyn, is your is your phone number on it on this in case we have questions? Okay. Okay. [laughter]

Okay. Thank you. We're happy to witness your enthusiasm. [laughter] It's a strange.

Thank you. [laughter] I love it. Thank you. Thank you. very much. I think we need to clone her enthusiasm. What do you think? [laughter]

Thank you very much. You did just great. Uh, next we have items from the city manager this evening. Hopefully.

Um, yeah. Um, I I can provide a brief update from the new horizon's goals. Uh we did um or to to piggyback off of that, we did give our presentation today for the municipal achievement award and we pro um our project that we uh brought forward was the um Upper Shaws Creek Preserve Visav uh um with our water plant coming out of the ground. um the um positive benefits it's ha going to have and and is having with our um uh primary above groundwater source Shaw's Creek. So, we'll see how that goes. Maybe we'll win for the 23rd time since 1990.

Thank you. Um yeah, we've I've only done three out of four years, not 15 in a row. Roger reminds me regularly. I'm sure. Well, we have our fingers crossed. Um, is there a motion to adjourn our meeting this evening? I so move. Thank you. Councilwoman Diggs made the motion to adjourn the meeting and second, Madame Mayor. Second from Councilwoman Price. Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.