Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

I'm going to amend one thing.

Mark, right? There it goes.

There it goes, yep.

I'd like to welcome everybody to the August 11th Public Safety Committee meeting. I'm Terry Goodwin, Chair, Ward 4, Alderman. Donald, Alderman, Ward 2.

Janet Garten, Alderman, Ward 5.

Joshua Morrison, Assistant Chief of Police. George Edwards, fire chief.

Casey Lamar, communication manager.

Mike Cook, IT manager.

Jim Jones, chief of police. Amy Gilley, parks director.

Do I have a motion to accept the agenda? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Before we do a motion to approve the June 9th meeting minutes, I had a phone call. Aye. With a misspelling of the name under public comments, it's Afton Skidmore. And they referred to her down here as a he. I'm going to just correct those two. Do I have a motion to accept those amendments? Yes. All in favor? Aye. Now motion to approve the June 9th minutes. Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion approved. No citizens comments. Ordinances and resolutions. We have resolution 2026-25 for the Parks Department to apply for the property conservation grant with PEP that they apply for every year or two. I have a motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Is there a deadline on that, Amy? At the end of the year, it's first come, first served. Oh, it is? Okay. That's why I think we're asking to waive the two-week rule tonight.

Okay.

And we're canceled. Public works is canceled for the end of the month, so that's why it's here. Okay. It would not be here.

Does anyone have any questions on it?

Could you include in the motion that you ask FOMA to waive the two-week rule?

I will. Thank you. So I would like to make a motion to approve 2026 25, and I would also like to approve waving the 2 week rule and send that to Obama with a positive recommendation. So, all in favor. Motion passes. And next thing we have is a discussion about start knob boat ramp. I will turn that over to you.

Appreciate that. Anybody who's lived in Hendersonville for more than 10 years knows that start knob is sometimes a place for folks to hang out and get away with things. It's a beautiful boat ramp. Probably 20 years ago or so, the Corps of Engineers extended the parking lot just because it's got a lot going on there. um one of the homeowners came to me he's lived there for about a year and said that he did not know what was going on in his backyard um he's uh he's run into uh couples back there um in their cars um he has run into kids drinking he's run into a lot of uh misdemeanor type activities um and it backs up right to his house there's another house pretty close to it as well our police officers do a great job of patrolling there but it's not always the highest priority. Um, so he is, uh, reached out Corp of engineers, talked to me and the Corp of engineers has offered to allow us to lease that property and put up a gate for the upper parking lot, just for the upper parking lot. The gate has to be open, um, during times that the boat ramp is open. Um, but they have offered that to, to, for us to lease. My question is, is that something we want to do? Um, it would certainly help with public safety. However, Police will probably tell you that it might just move everything to the lower parking lot. I told them that I would bring this to the board to at least get some discussion on it. I wish we could have more of a presence up there, but again, it's not our highest priority all the time. I'm just curious if you all have some other thoughts on what else we could do. And I appreciate Chief Morrison being here and Chief Jones because we've had some conversation.

Can we do some extra patrol for a few months? as they can and see if the man sees that it's reduced and then revisit it.

He's been very happy with their work up there, but I don't know. That's probably a question for you guys.

Well, so by contract during the spring, summer, and early fall, we patrol that for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and we're in there at least once every two hours from afternoon until basically the next morning overnight. Excuse me about every 2 hours we're in there and we encourage people to call us, you know, so during 2025, there are 217 late checks. And that's for all of 2025, but absent those late checks. We only received 13 calls for service up there and 3 were vehicle check calls 3 talks and officer had 2 parking complaints. A few other 1 of them was assist. So, in 2026, so far we've done, of course, the projects don't start till later in the year, but we've done had 44. Uh, like checks, um, and probably 7 other calls up there. So we try to stay in there as often as we can. Um, but that's 1 of our larger patrol sectors. And so, I mean, we can ask them to increase the patrols there as their time allows and see if it makes it in. And, you know, a lot of times when we encounter up there are people who are either launching a boat or fishing. And if they're fishing, there's no limitations on when they can be there. They can be there 24 hours a day to fish. And we've gotten calls before where they say, well, there's somebody up there and they park their car and they're down on the bank fishing. So. We can't we can't ask them to leave that core regulations if they're fishing or launching a boat. I don't mind at all. I simply increase patrols.

I think that would be easier than having to go lock and unlock.

I totally agree.

Why don't we try it, and we can revisit it, and you can kind of monitor the amount of calls, and if it increases, we can bring it back sooner.

We'll say this, since I've talked to Chief Jones about it like two months ago, the residents have been very pleased.

Let's do it a month or two, or if the resident notices an increase, we can bring it back sooner.

Anything else I just want on y'all's radar? You're the Public Safety Committee. I feel like I should bring this stuff to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else? Do I have a motion? I look into adjournment.

All in favor? Aye.