City Council - workshop

Good evening.

I'd like to call the Northchester City Council study session for Monday, September 14, 2026 to order. It's great to see everybody. You know, there's a little excitement in the building. We haven't been here three weeks. It's like coming off a week in college football, you know. We're ready to get back into it again.

It's exciting. Good vibes going.

All right, at this time, I will turn this over to our Assistant City Administrator, Mr. JD McCauley, sir.

Yes, good evening, mayor and council. Got your backup quarterback this evening filling in for Mr. Clifford. He'll be joining us a little bit later this evening. So as we normally do, we go over our next week's council agenda, and then we'll have department details led by Ms. Barton, and then we'll go into some mayor's matters. We have three focus items to go over today. So going into the agenda for next week, For some proclamations, we have Constitutional Week, we have Stormwater Awareness Week, and recognition of the Eagle Scout project, which I know we've all been paying close attention to. It's been a great project for the city. More on that to come next week. Under New Business, we have Planning and Development. This is amending the maximum wall sign area allowable for multi-tenant properties. This is the first reading of this ordinance. And Mr. Paradise, if you have anything to add to this one, if you can come up to the podium for me and fill us in on the details on this, please.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. This was the request of the Board of Zoning Appeals. We had several variance requests out at Edgemont Square. And basically, the current code, you have 5% of the floor area in a shopping center or 1,000 square feet, whichever is less. What we ran into out there was a tenant space that had been subdivided, had new tenant spaces, but they had already used up their 1,000 square feet of signage. So they had to go to the BZA and get a variance for each one of the signs they wanted to put up. And looking at it, they asked the planning commission to look at it. Planning commission looked at it. And what they're recommending is do away with 1,000 square feet and basically take the wall sign, the square footage of the front wall of the business, and they can do 10% of that.

These are the signs on the business, not the street signs out the street?

Correct.

And what spearheaded? Edgemont, what did you say? Edgewood. Edgewood. OK, Edgemont. Sorry.

Edgewood. They were Rose's was. Yep. Typically, we would let them go back with the same size sign. But they split into three different tenant spaces, so we were kind of stuck.

OK. And everybody was fine with that with Planning Commission, no issues on their end?

Yes, sir. This was Planning Commission recommendation.

Any questions from Mr. Paradise on this?

um yeah uh tell me does this this does not affect the signage that's on the street correct okay that's a separate the freestanding sign it doesn't affect okay lately but um the one on the street will it have the new businesses yes ma'am in it okay okay great thanks tommy uh the next item on the agenda

is in P&D. This is going to, this is involved with the Georgia Avenue reconstruction of the bridge, the 13th Street Bridge. We have a guest tonight, Mr. Chris Ashley. He's from SEDOT's Engineering Design Contractor Colliers, and this is requesting temporary construction easements of multiple properties along the side of the bridge, and then also one parcel, a partial parcel, a partial, I'm sorry, a piece of a parcel, that we would be selling to SEDOT. Very small piece. So if I ask Mr. Ashley, he's here this evening. He's made the trip out. He's going to give a little update on the bridge project and how this fits in.

Very good. Welcome, Ms. Ashley.

Mr. Mayor, Council. My name's Chris Lexi. I'm with Collier's Engineering and Design in Columbia, South Carolina. We are working with GDOT on the bridge replacement. We're handling the right-of-way acquisition for the South Carolina tracks. There's eight parcels in total. As JD mentioned, one parcel has a small acquisition area and fee simple title as well as a temporary construction easement. The other seven parcels are all temporary construction easements. The project is currently in the final designs. The last update I got was that they're approximately 60% complete with the design phase. Right-of-way acquisition is underway. We sent out the initial contact letters to the city back in May, first week of May, I believe it was,

The project is scheduled for letting in winter of 2027.

So to go up for construction bid in 2027, that's typically 60, 90-day process to award the contract for the construction. The TCE duration for those parcels is a four-year temporary construction easement or when the project is complete, whichever of those occurs first. And the estimated construction duration is 24 months is what I was last told. And the traffic pattern states that one lane will remain open during the entire construction of the bridge. There'll be at least one lane open going both ways during construction.

Are there other easements on other people's property besides the city, or is it just all?

There are two others, but there's another agent in our office this time.

And this is on both sides of the bridge?

Yes, sir.

OK. Mr. Mayor, Parks and Rec and the Greenway team have met with Mr. Ashley, and we are coordinating what that will look like for that piece of the greenway that goes by the bridge, because that will be off limits during construction as well. So we'll have to reroute traffic through Riverside Village for the greenway trail. That little piece that's right there by the bridge will be impacted.

That piece running parallel to the bridge.

Yes.

And is the 015A the piece that we're selling, or what are we selling to?

Track number 8 is the one that has the acquisition area.

Oh, I was looking at the chart.

OK.

I got you. Thank you. Any questions for this gentleman?

OK. OK.

Moving along. Next item on the agenda is an update to our item number eight, engineering and public works. This is an update to a stormwater ordinance. It's amending our stormwater ordinance. I've asked Brian, our new engineering director, or director of public works, I should say, to give an update on this. We had an audit by SCDES, and they gave us some recommendations, and we need to update our ordinance.

Yes. So good evening, Mayor and Council. As JD stated, we had a audit from DES that is supposed to be once every five years. And they requested two changes to the ordinance. You may notice there are three. We are requesting the other one. The two they requested, the first one in Section 14-170 is just a typo. It's referring to the wrong section, so we need to clean that up. And then the other one they requested is in Section 14-70.2. They asked for a little bit of clarification, just confirming when a permit is required. So you can see the language that was added there. And then the final one is... Currently, the ordinance writes that stormwater has 10 days to review and approve any stormwater plans that come in. Otherwise, they're automatically approved. And that is just a very, very, very tight timeline. And it also causes a significant amount of confusion with people who submit plans, because planning and development's review timeline is 30 days. So they'll get comments back after 10 days from stormwater and think, oh, these are the only comments I'm getting. And then 20 days later, they'll get all the rest of the comments from planning. So we're trying to streamline that process, make it a little bit easier for everybody else, and kind of just clean that up. So those are the three changes that are requested via the ordinance update.

Any questions for O'Brien?

It can can those reviews be done at the same time? Yes, OK, so. Your request is then for 30 days for each other.

Right, it would just so stormwater would have right so stormwater would have the same 30 days that everyone under the planning and development process has and that is 30 working days, not calendar days.

Correct 6 weeks. Correct.

Any other questions from Brian?

JD, this was done as a Department of Environmental Services audit. This was recommended because of that?

Yes, sir.

Were there any other recommendations? Yes. Through that audit?

Yes.

Multiple?

Yes.

Is this something that we're going to be stringing through council meetings over the foreseeable future?

No, this should be the only thing. Everything else was kind of internal policies slash training type stuff.

Did they do water testing and things like that?

That was part of it. They did not do the water testing, but they reviewed our water testing policies and had some comments on them.

So any other thing that we should put out there for the constituency and the citizens?

Not that I know of off the top of my head. I know it was a very thorough audit, and we did very well as far as I can tell. But there's definitely, I mean, with a thorough audit, there are a lot of thorough questions that we're responding to, and DES accepted our responses to those questions. Okay.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

All right, next up on the agenda is another item from planning and development. This is kind of a routine action, but it's accepting of a deed of dedication for the final phase of rushing waters, phase three. I know Mr. Paradise is available for questions if you guys have any specific questions on this, but this is just, again, accepting of a deed of dedication for streets, sanitary sewer, storm water collection, and fire suppression systems, and associated easements and rights of way, along with the maintenance guarantee and letter of credit. think we're good okay great Barney no questions we'll move on to public services this is a resolution authorizing on-call engineering services for I'm sorry contract services for various water and wastewater utility improvement projects this went out for bid and turnip seed engineering was the winning bidder for that item and they were awarded the contract and they will James and his crew will move forward with awarding that contract if approved by mayor and council

If you have any questions, Mr. Is this one that we go out to like every five years? Have we done this before?

Is this a new one or first time we've done this? I can't.

Right, exactly. And we normally do it for like a period of time, right? For a year, okay. Yep, I thought we'd done that before. Thank you. Okay. Any questions?

Any questions on this one? OK, hearing none, we'll move on to item number 11. This is actually a part of the focus item. This is this evening, so we're going to skip this item on the agenda review. We'll come back to it in more depth on the focus item. And then item 12 and 13, I'm going to defer to you, Mr. Mayor, as these are appointments to the accommodations tax advisory committee, as well as the replacement on the stadium advisory board. I'll defer to you, Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind.

We're just going to be replacing Brian to take Tom Ziezer's place on the stadium accommodations since he's retired. And if you all should know, Marian Bigger is retired from the Arts and Heritage Center. And our committee has a representative for that department. So it's going to be Adina Berry, who is the new director.

So we'll go finalize that next week.

Excellent. Excellent.

Okay. And I believe that it concludes the review of the agenda. So I'll turn it over to Ms. Jamie Barton for our department details.

Thank you, J.D. Good evening, Mayor and Council. First up for department details is Finance Director Linda Williamson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Finance updates tonight are our Cycle 1 customers. Their disconnection date for their August balances is scheduled for Tuesday, September 22nd. The due date for their September bills is October 5th. For our Cycle 2 customers, the due date for their August 25 bills is September 18, and the disconnection date for their August balances will begin Wednesday, October 7. And just to add to my details for tonight, the delinquent tax bills, they were sent certified letters last week on the 8th. If they have any questions, the contact information for the tax clerk is in that letter, so they just need to contact her and she can answer any of those questions. And we are scheduling the yard postings for the week of September 21st for all those unpaid properties.

That's all I have for tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Human Resources Manager Kayla Ferguson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'd like to highlight that since our last study session, we've had four new hires. Next week, we have a confirmed three and a potential seven new hires. And if you look on the back of your department details, you'll see our list of employment opportunities.

Thanks, Kaylee.

Thank you.

Next up is Engineering and Public Works Director Brian Malek.

Good evening again. I'd like to highlight that next week, as you saw in the proclamations portion of the agenda, is Stormwater Awareness Week. The Stormwater Department will be putting on a variety of events to raise awareness. If you'd like further information, you can check the city's social media channels. They'll be posted there. I'd like to highlight that Streets and Drains assisted SCDOT in replacing a broken pipe over there at Lake Avenue near Pine Grove. That was one that, you know, it is not our pipe, but Plate had been sitting there for about eight months and DOT wasn't addressing it, so we were able to work with them and kind of get it done for... Citizens. They also did a little bit of a parking realignment down in Riverside Village. They added some spaces. Now that those apartments are built, we saw some opportunities to sneak one or two more in. And then we painted some yellow curb to obviously indicate no parking. They are also working on some sinkhole repairs on Campbellton Drive and one on Swallow Lake Drive near the new construction project. It's not a result of the new construction project out there. It just happens to be next door. And then finally, just for some information, the Jackson Park Apartments, four of their seven apartment buildings have been issued certificates of occupancy. So I believe they're starting to move people in.

Yeah, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Planning and Development Director Tommy Paradise.

Good evening again, Mayor and Council. We have the Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night. I attended the Arts NPO Governing Documents Committee where they're redrafting the documents for the committee. We had a manufactured home that was installed on Carolina Springs Spur without a permit and code enforcement, I'm happy to say, has got it removed from the city. Two signed review approvals. We had a certificate of zoning compliance. Three letters of zoning compliance, four letters of zoning compliance was issued. 77 addresses were assigned. And from code enforcement, and remember, this has been three weeks. 20 new cases, 22 cases closed, eight abandoned vehicles towed, four lots cleaned up that the owners would not clean up, 42 illegal signs removed, 24 landscape inspections passed, and six failures on the landscape inspections.

Seventy-seven addresses assigned, what is that?

Those are new addresses for subdivisions. Oh, assigned. Yes.

I'm sorry. Thank you.

Now, Tommy. Yes, ma'am. The illegal install manufactured home.

Yes, ma'am.

Where did they go? I mean.

Last I heard, it was back on the mobile home sales lot, and that's a whole different can of worms. They moved it into the city with no permit from the county. And we told them it had to go. So I don't know what is going on between the lady that purchased it and her mortgage company and the salespeople. That's a civil thing that we're not really involved in, but I'm sure there's something going on there because she does have an attorney involved.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Tommy. Next up is Public Services Director James Sutton.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Happy to announce that utilities completed the 800 feet of water line to the new Riverview Park Miracle League restroom facilities. The water service was activated today, so the restroom facilities, whenever they get to CO, should be ready to go. Very nice facility. It's very impressive if you hadn't seen it. Next, property maintenance crews will be working along the Greenway Trail between the amphitheater and the boat landing this week off of Hammonds Ferry, removing some of the overgrowth vegetation to further enhance the riverfront. And finally, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services is offering free voluntary drinking water testing for lead for the schools and child care facilities that are connected to our water system. More or less, the purpose in it is is to identify if any of the schools have any type of lead pipe fixtures that would cause a detectable level of lead in these facilities' water. Water production staff is going to be assisting the schools. They're preparing some educational material. They're going to deliver to the schools and also help them aid in the testing program. Again, this is voluntary, but we feel like the schools in our areas will participate in the child care facilities. In the event they don't, they have to sign a waiver to the city. In 2027, we're going to have to report this information to Environmental Service by November 1st. along with a list of all the schools and daycare facilities. But just to give you some kind of background on the lead testing, environmental services send a list to the city with the addresses that we go out and test and inspect every three years. We had about 30 that we're doing now, but prior test results The active limit for lead through the state is 10 parts per billion. The testable levels we detected coming from customers' homes, not the city's, is 1.7 parts per billion, which you kind of compare to a few drops of ink or some kind of dye into an Olympic-sized swimming pool. So that's the comparison between that. But there's no good level to lead. So zero is our goal. to reach with our customers and work with them to our limitations to make sure that we can help them any way we can.

James, who did you say would contact the schools about the

In all probability, our superintendent of water production will be contacted.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, because I just want to be sure everybody knows that.

Oh, they will. Yes, ma'am.

And I presume that includes Belvedere. I'm sure they're on site. Oh, yes, ma'am.

It does include Belvedere.

I'm still waiting on my resource officer right now.

Yes, ma'am. It's just not the public schools. We've got some private schools as well that's going to be serviced.

And number two, on Facebook, I'm constantly seeing, why is my water brown? I mean, has anybody seen all those that, you know, be clear today, tomorrow brown. So is there a reason we can say why?

Well, I can tell you this much, Ms. Pat, about Facebook. Well, what we really need from our operator, well, no, I'd like to say what I have to say, you know, please allow me an opportunity. The customers, we recommend they call us. I know the relief on Facebook's great. There's good communication there. But I'm constantly run up to by our staff. I'm not a Facebooker. They want to report what they see. And I get that. There's a lot of negative things on there about our staff that's really not true. But with that being said, back to the discolored water. We had a major water main break on Buena Vista. And when we have an 8-inch water main that splits like that one did, All the water wants to go to that point. It starts draining the tanks, the velocity of the water picks up in the main, and it causes a large disturbance throughout the system. Once that line is isolated, our crews go out and they clean up the area and make sure that they get as much debris as far as the sediments, the scale that gets detached from the pipe system itself out. Customers, we have had some calls. We will respond to the calls. It's not always on the time that they get there. I like customer service being provided within four hours. Calls like this are to be provided on the same day service. So if the customers will call in, 803-441-4240, we will clear your water up. We'll come out, test it, and get you back in service, get you some clean water.

Thank you, James. Great job.

Thank you. Next up is Public Safety Chief Johnson.

Good evening. Last week we started our next round of the Citizens Academy. It's a 10-week program. They start after Labor Day and it ends up they graduate just before Thanksgiving. And also this week we have another class coming up for training for the CPR for the four-minute city so that hopefully we can get some more AEDs scattered about the city in order to help out in case someone has a medical emergency. Yes, sir.

While Chief is up here, three Aiken County sheriffs contacted me the other day that they're coming, and I'm sure he would go back to Facebook, James, but it's been on Facebook, these stickers, if you have a special need child in your house, they post that on the door. Let's say you had a fire and the mother was unconscious and no one knew the special need was in there. And so they're looking for funding for that. That's why I'm in with them. But I think it's a good idea. And like put it maybe on your car if you're in a car wreck. that the police would know that special needs.

Yes, ma'am.

You know, I didn't know. Are you all connected with that, or is it just Aiken County?

No, ma'am, that's the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. But one of the things I will tell you about the special needs, they have a new autism tag that you can get through the SCDMV that lets you officers and anybody else know someone in the car may have autism.

Well, this must be similar to that because they talk about autism.

Yeah, and it's similar. They used to have a program years ago that was Tot Finder, and you could put a sticker on your window where your child was in the house. Yeah, yeah. And it was reflective so that it could be seen.

I think that's a great idea, a real great idea.

Yes, ma'am.

So if anybody would like to donate toward it, just get in touch with Pat.

Thank you, Chief. Next up is Park and Recreation Director Rick Meyer.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I want to give you some updates on some projects that you've approved, starting with Creighton Park Phase 2 update, a project with used FEMA funds from Hurricane Helene and City of North Augusta A-Tax funds. A turf contractor is on site and installed most of the turf today, so we're getting close to that magic day. We still have to wait on a concrete curb. contractor to uh meeting with them in this in the morning so hopefully soon here i'll be able to project a a ribbon cutting day for us there i know and that zip line is going to be ready for everybody on council absolutely that's right y'all have to go first yeah in a way and jd now you might have to fight jd over who goes first yeah

Yeah, Rick, another thing I know, I went by the other day, I had time on my hands, so I was riding all over. Okay. I noticed, you know, the big slide, and I, not complain, but the kids who are six, five and six, couldn't get to it, but they were too big for the big one. I noticed they put a step up there. Did you notice that?

Just for you.

Just for you. Yeah, but I mean, I rode by, but it's gonna be beautiful.

Yeah.

That is just eye-opening when you ride by.

Yep.

And it's still working.

activity center improvements capital project sales tax for funds that you approved we're making progress there we have gym one two three four five are completed with gym floor resurfacing we'll finish six this week should be open by friday so that part of the project will be done new cardio equipment's already there tomorrow morning we get the new fitness equipment downstairs so we're excited about that And also today, Master Craft Pat is on site working on the automation of the basketball goals in gyms 3, 4, 5, and 6. You too, David.

People might not know this, but here's what we're doing.

No more hand cranks. If you're looking for where people are, all you have to do is go to Riverview Park in Lyonsville, because fall sports is in the second week of play, and it's busy down there Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Wednesdays are make-up days for weather cancellations.

And Miss Kayla now is a cheerleader coach.

There you go.

We're on the same team.

You recruited her.

Look at her. She's excited.

He's excited, Pat. Really excited.

this thursday the south carolina recreation and parks association lead class will be visiting north augusta mayor williams will welcome the class at 1 p.m this is young professionals from all over the state of south carolina they come in and they've been coming here for quite a while and there's a reason why they come here and you're a big part of that we appreciate support there riverview park tennis courts will host the walton options wheelchair tennis tournament this friday through sunday at riverview park we have an ecology camp scheduled for tuesday october the 6th at brick pond park this is during the fall break and it is for first through sixth graders registration available online or in person at the activity center and my final note for tonight is the riverview park And Summerfield Park Spash Paths will close on Monday, October 12th. Thank goodness you have worked this summer. Yes. Thank you.

Yeah, because you know, you still closed it on Labor Day.

Yes, no more.

And I think that's so hot.

Great job, Britt.

Thank you. And to close out Department Details is Tourism and Marketing Coordinator Jennifer Goldman.

welcome jian hello good evening um so i have an update for the community center projects i'm happy to tell you that the exterior paint and the parking lot lights are finished and installed this week we'll have the roof and boiler installation begin tomorrow we also have a new greenway maintenance form that is available on the city's website the explore north augusta website and the explore north augusta app This is to allow Greenway users to report anything they see that could be hazardous or needs a maintenance issue or anything like that. We also have our next event will be Twilight Tea Time on Friday, September 25th at 6 p.m. at the Sharon Jones Amphitheater. This is a glow-in-the-dark putt-putt free to the community, and the Mason jars will be playing that night. And then we also have Ironman right around the corner. So that's going to be Sunday, September 27th. You can start seeing an influx of visitors this weekend. They are fully sold out. About 3,000 athletes will be participating, so... Yes, ma'am.

Mm-hmm.

So that's all I have.

Great job, Jen. Thanks.

Oh, and this might be the mayor, too. You know the guy that came to us about the electric bike sitting up a rental? Mm-hmm. Now, a gentleman told me in our business the other day that electric bikes are on the Greenway riding. They are.

Oh, yeah.

So that can be done. I thought we said.

No, no, no. Good question. There are a lot of things being done on the Greenway that are not within the policy of the Greenway. So we are going to, the administration is working on putting that all in place for us to address in a study session. So, no.

But they're not supposed to be on there right now.

Yes, they are not supposed to.

Not using the electric. They can pedal.

Yeah, but he said they're actually electric.

Thank you. With that concludes department details, and I'll turn it back over to Mr. Clifford.

Oh, Jim Clifford's in the house.

We're here at Mayor's Matters.

I'll pick it up, Jim, while you get settled. We're at the Mayor's Matters Brick Pond Park Committee update. Jen, if you could introduce our guests. We have an update from the Brick Pond Park Committee.

Yes. Tonight we have Jeff and Janice here tonight. Jeff, I think are you the only one going to be reporting? They're going to give you an update on what they've been up to.

Welcome, Jeff. Good evening. Good to have you with us, sir. I know some of you. We're a new committee, Brick Pond Park Committee, under the North Augusta beautification. We had our first event back in April, April 18th, spring into Brick Pond Park. It was a success. We were able to promote it on local television with Cliff Bennett.

I forgot which network it was.

We had a great turnout, music, vendors. We're going to try to build on that success for next spring. This coming Saturday, volunteers from Victory Baptist Church will be at the park, clean up as well as around the city. I think we're getting about a dozen volunteers there with grabbers and trash bags. My name's Jeff and my responsibility is the social media, Facebook and Instagram pages. We don't have a chair right now. Hope to settle that at our next meeting. So I'm up here by default. But I'll answer any questions. I do have a short statement because I believe this is our first time to appear before you. Our mission is to promote this 40 acres of restored wetland that is a jewel within walking distance of downtown, minutes by car or golf cart for the locals. It's a home to an abundance of wildlife, some permanent, some seasonal. It is a favorite for many birders, artists, photographers, dog walkers, and some people who just want to get a glimpse of an alligator. On our walks, my wife and I walk. I retired four years ago from Bridgestone. We walk every evening, Mr. White.

Excuse me.

We walk every evening, we run into people all the time. They could be from the CSRA, they could be from anywhere in the country, and we've world visitors, staying at the hotel, here for conferences, education, or whatever. And as the contributor to the social media pages for the park, I try to post images daily to help promote the park. One particular video of One of our two adult alligators crossing a walking path garnered over 60,000 views on Instagram and Facebook. If someone can tell me how algorithms work, I'll try to build on that. But we have, I guess, about 200 plus followers on Instagram. And you could do me a favor, people that are on social media, if you see an image from the park and hit like, make a comment, share it, that really helps. We have $23,000 in our coffers right now. And I guess our next official event will be spring into Brick Pond Park next April. And I'll answer any questions I can you may have.

I'm assuming y'all are in a process of trying to put together what next initiatives to do with that money as far as what that looks like. Y'all still working through what that looks like as far as education or whatever?

Yes. That'll be done at meetings. It's brought up and discussed.

Just for our citizens who are watching, Janice and Sandy and Tanya all were on a podcast we did back about two years ago. And it was real evident after that podcast, we all kind of realized that you had a lot of people real passionate about the brick ponds, but really everybody was kind of doing their own thing. So the genesis idea was, hey, let's put together a group that can strictly focus on the brick ponds and work with the city on that. And Jeff, we thank you for your leadership. Brian and Cheryl Wenzick have been very, the beautification have been a big part of that. And we felt it made sense to put y'all under them because they've done so well. But that event y'all had down there with the music was amazing. I know y'all got... already gotten a really nice donation from that so because it's a way for people to make a donation to something and get a tax benefit um and i will just tell our council you know when we started the beautification foundation the public safety foundation it took a while for those organizations to get going you just don't start something in six months turn around you know it took well over a year for the beautification foundation to kind of get their get grounded. Public safety actually took a little longer, but both those organizations are doing amazing things. So I would just tell you, Jeff, what y'all have done in a short period of time is fantastic. And if people want to join, if they want to be part of the Brick Pond Committee, what's the best way for them to reach out?

Right now we'd be reaching out on social media.

Through the Facebook page?

Yes, Facebook or Instagram.

okay perfect okay any questions for Jeff and by the way Tanya was a big factor of us just kicking off like we did I can't say enough yeah not a question but I want to thank you for what you do and a little bird told me that the river keepers may want to include us in the trash bash this year We may want to reach out to the river keepers.

Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. I'm about to go watch about 300 birds land in the middle of West Pond.

It's a fun time. It's a good time. Thank you, Jeff.

Appreciate it.

All yours, Mr. Clifford or J.D., whoever.

Sounds like JD's doing a good job, Gail.

All right. Next up, we have an update from our future PIO, James Sutton, the Pine View Water Overview. So he has a presentation that goes along with item number 11 on the agenda that we skipped over. So he'll cover both those items here. Thank you, JD.

Mayor and Council, thank you for letting me come back up. The city's had the opportunity to get Burgeon Contaminants Grant from the State Revolving Fund. It's for the Pinewood Estates Water Line Extension. Right now, Pinewood Estates is served off private wells.

Next slide.

Pinewood Estates is made up of 31 residential large single-family homes. It's in Aiken County, not the city. But however, it is partially bounded by the city limits. The area that's located is between Five Notch Road and Interstate I-20 and George Avenue. A better descriptive area would be below Pisgah, right at the red light, like you're going out towards Station 2, the first road to your left. It's made up of about five roadways, that opinion being the primary road, Shortleaf, Evergreen, Longleaf, and Spruce. The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services, by request, went and conducted water quality testing on several private residential wells in that area. five of the eight wells that it tested came back positive for detectable levels of PFAS. PFAS is sometimes referred to as forever chemicals. They break down. They migrate into the groundwater system. It's, I'm sure, extremely hard to get it out to clean that water. Its exposure for long periods of time can result in some health problems for the consumer. It's known as a group of chemicals that were installed in the 50s. The chemicals contained is more or less like a water repellent and some other agents for food wrappers, water and stain-resistant clothing, carpets, nonstick cookware, and so on and so forth. It's just a lot of chemicals that are involved with the PFAS. It causes a lot of contamination. It gets into the system by spills and also through the air.

Next slide.

The Sacramento Department of Environmental Services received a $9.8 million EPA grant to support the PFAS testing and cleanup efforts for the removal and to provide people with good, clean drinking water that they could depend on without it having any of these poisonous agents in it. The city has been awarded a $799,986 grant. It covers the contract administration, engineering design, and also contracting service to install the pipe system. The city's water distribution system was looked at to make sure we could accommodate it. There's just a few customers over there. We anticipate 3,000 or 4,000 gallons a day of usage. If that, maybe a little bit more, it's not going to be any impact to our water distribution system whatsoever as a result of adding these 31 customers. Overall, the project will include about 5,300 feet of water line. There will be a bore underneath the five notch road. The roadway will not be cut. They'll tunnel underneath it, put casing in, slide a new pipe system through it. Most of the work will be done along the county roadways. The state roadway being five notch, we'll get permits for that and then deal with the county to obtain whatever permits we need from the county to extend the line along the right of way in that area. And we'll extend 31 service lines off of the main, set the valve. The property owners, at some point, there's no requirement for any of them to connect onto it. There's no legalities, no fines. They can continue on getting served off of their wills if they so choose. This grant is specifically where they are having the opportunity to be provided safe water, and that's what it's all about. We'll also add fire hydrants to that service area as well, because there's currently no fire protection in that area. Again, the water line extension specifically is for providing safe water to the residents of Pine View Estates. In addition to that, as we looked at the project, We're also gonna have the opportunity to eliminate a dead-end water line that's currently on the hive property that was under development along Knob Cone. So the water line, when it connects up to Five Notch, it'll ultimately tie onto the line that dead-ends into the hive. And what that'll do is it'll improve the water quality, reinforce the system in the event of outages, whatever, reverse the water. The line breaks over there to the right. We'll be able to bring it back over to the left. It'll also improve fire flow within that five-notch Martintown area along Novcom as well. All right, we're looking at about a 24-month timeline for the project. If the City Council chooses to approve it tonight, we will start with administration moving forward to get this project off the ground and make contact with SRF, the State Revolving Fund people, the engineering firm, and get everything set up for our administrator to get some paperwork done in conjunction with our city attorney. But the first initial step will be the preliminary engineering report that will get into the design after that. There will be a public hearing related to this water line permitting, bidding, construction, and activation of the new system, hopefully within the 24-month period.

Now, James, that Pineview, those are houses that are already there.

That's correct. Yes, ma'am, they're large. Yes, ma'am, they have. They're very large lots.

So, no mandatory requirement to connect. They can choose if they want to. That's correct. And I'm assuming if they do decide to connect, that would be, they'd be part of the city? It'd be, could they be annexing it?

Yeah, yeah, they will, well, if they're contiguous to the city limits, border those limits, then yes, annexation agreement will be required. If they're not, then they will be required to sign an annexation agreement or annex into the city.

The $799, is that going to cover the whole project, or are we going to have to come out of pocket or anything?

No, sir. The estimate we have, you know, we're dealing with inflation and everything else, but we're going to make that number work one way or another.

Mr. Sutton, what if you have a homeowner in the middle of that group that wants the water but all around them does not? Can we annex just one property with nothing else around it?

If they're not bordering city limits, no, sir. Then we cannot. It has to be. No, sir. I believe, unless Mr. Zier corrects me, they will be required to sign an annexation agreement. And they will be required to pay for meter set as well.

In order for us to annex it, it has to be contiguous. It has to touch the city. There's a 75% where if you get a number of the property owners who would sign, you could bring in somebody that doesn't desire to come in, quite frankly. But generally what we do, they would sign the annexation agreement saying if they ever become contiguous to the city, we could then bring them in.

Oh.

If they are annexed into the city, will they be required to be on city sewage as well?

Not at this time, Mr. Felak. The wastewater service is just not available. It's behind a pinion, and we do have a couple homes in that area that are off a pinion who are inside the city. They are connected to our water and wastewater system, but it would require an extension up there to serve that property.

Have we talked to the homeowners there? Is there interest?

We've had some interest in prior years. There will be a homeowner come down that wants to get off the well. They'll fill out an application. What's been the stopping and the bottleneck point for those property owners is the extension and the cost just to serve them. It's just affordability because we run up an estimate and it's tens of thousands of dollars and homeowners individually just can't. consume that cost.

Like all homeowners, it would be the homeowner's responsibility to make that connection from their house to the water system.

Yes, sir, that's correct. And again, if council approves this tonight, then we're going to generate letters to all the property owners, and they'll also be invited to a public hearing that is required as part of this grant. We're going to detail everything related to what we propose to do.

Will we put a valve on each property?

On the service line, there will be a valve and a meter box, and it will be locked. Whenever they come in and pay for the service meter, we'll install the meter and unlock the service. That will also be required to have city inspectors inspect the work as well.

Any other questions for James? Good job, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, James. Next on our focus item list is an update that Mr. Clifford had been working on with Director Malik about Pretty Run Creek. So, Brian, take it away.

All right. So just to get started, a little bit of scoping. I want to be clear that this is just Pretty Run Creek. This is not, you know, the city has a number of other creeks and streams that go to the Savannah River, but that was not the scope of this presentation. Um, so on the 1st slide here, you'll see a map of pre run. It starts up there near 5 notch road, um, comes down dove street. Goes down past the new. Um, of course, both subdivision comes down through the rapid some of the older subdivisions and eventually goes into the Savannah river. So as you may be aware, this is the only stream in the city that is under a total maximum daily load, or TMDL, with SCDES. That TMDL is for E. coli. There was some testing done in the past prior to 2020 that determined that it's mostly animal matter. Um, it is fairly wooded as you can see, you know, runs through some undeveloped. Areas in the city currently, so that's pretty common. Um, something to be expected and then here in the, and you can see the green lines are all the tributaries of pretty run. Um, and I wanted to note that. Department of public work staff has put eyes pretty much. On the whole blue section, we've walked all of Pretty Run since the hurricane, so we think we have a pretty good idea of what damage needs to be cleaned up, which is what I'll be talking about for the rest of the presentation. We have not walked every tributary, nor have we walked every drainage ditch that goes into every tributary. That just gets to be a very time-intensive task, and we haven't had the time to do that. So that's the scope. So moving on to the next slide, we'll see there were three areas that we cleaned up under the NRCS grant last year that I'm sure Tom told you all about as it was going on. The first one up there by Forest Bluff, the second one off Socastee Drive, and then the third one at that stop sign in the Rapids right at the bottom of the hill on the corner. And then through our walking of Pretty Run Creek, we found the next three areas that we think still have some damage that needs to be cleaned up on the next slide. There's one up at the top at Dove Street. The second one kind of in the middle of the stretch near Martintown Road off Flamingo Drive. And then the third one in the Rapids, which is off Brookgreen Court. So I'll go into each of those in detail, and I've got some pictures of what the damage is there. So if we can move to the next slide. The one at the top at Dove Street. On the next slide, we'll have some of the things that are impacted. So there are about eight residential properties along this stretch, and it's also adjacent to Cameron Cove Apartments. We've received complaints from two residential properties that currently flood pretty much any time it rains due to these blockages. um and as you see there it affects eight houses has the potential to impact the apartments as well we've only heard from these two residents um so you know we haven't been out there in the middle of a rain to see exactly what's flooding those are just the calls we've gotten there's about 12 trees blocking the creek there could be more it's kind of tough to get to with all the residences fences in the back and there is a city-owned sewer that is under the creek so it's not an immediate danger because all the trees are above So here you can see a couple photos of what some of that damage looks like. On the left at 528 Dove Street, you can see a large tree that's right over the creek. And then on the right, it looks okay, but if you look in the background, you can see some large trees falling and blocked over there. So basically in larger rains, that creek will start flowing and encounter these trees and kind of get backed up. This is, sorry, just for another second, this is the headwaters of Pretty Run, so it is not always wet. It is dry when it's not raining back there. So the next area we'll talk about is off 1800 Flamingo. You can see here it's in the middle of the run. On the next slide, you see it is adjacent to the Greenway. There's just about three down trees here. There is city-owned sewer under the creek as well, and there is aerial sewer downstream. In addition to it, the Greenway is adjacent to this parcel. So there are potential impacts for flooding there, and there is a culvert under the greenway that could be damaged if any of these trees become dislodged and float downstream and hit that. So I guess I sort of skipped over it, but in the Department of Engineering Public Works' opinion that this is the priority list, the same one, two, three as the first one at Dove Street we feel is the most important given that it's actively currently flooding homes. This one is the second priority mostly because of the Greenway. That would cut off a major amenity here in North Augusta if it was damaged. So then moving on to the pictures here, you can see the three trees that are blocking it on the left there. And on the right is just kind of an example of what causes that flooding. In some of these rains, we get a lot of debris that smaller twigs, leaves, pine straw, you know, stuff like that that gets blocked up and caught by these trees. And that's also what causes flooding to the adjacent properties is water has a much harder time passing through this than it does just the three trees. Um, so moving on to the file priority, which is down here at the rapids. Um, if you go to the next slide, it is 1800 book for you court. Um, again, there are sorry, 18. There's about three trees blocking the creek there. We cleaned up the adjacent area under the NRCS grant that does have some aerial sewer as well as underground sewer. But that's generally the only city infrastructure that we're particularly worried about here. The culvert under the Rapids Road is quite large. So I think any of these, if some of these became dislodged, they might be able to float right on through that culvert. Could not, but it's also a little farther away from this. We have received some complaints that the stream banks are overtopping in flood events, but it hasn't affected any structures in the area. It's just a few yards. So the final slide has a few pictures there. There they are. Those are the three trees there on the left and there on the right. You can see that the house is kind of up the bank there in good ways. So even in some of the more significant rain events we've had since the hurricane, we haven't really experienced any flooding there. At least haven't heard any reports of any flooding. So some bigger picture here, we currently have the cleanup of these three sites out for bid. Those bids will be open Friday. And then at a future council study session or meeting, Mr. Clifford will come up with some funding opportunities based on those bids about cleaning up and we'll you know take direction from the council on which sites to do based on those bid prices another side note is most of this is private property the only property the city owns is that greenway property and the adjacent parcel there so something to consider you know we are That was all I had. I did forget to add a question slide. Sorry, but that's right.

And also, I think, you know, Kelly had advised the staff and just want to make sure I'm not putting words in Kelly's mouth either that, you know, the city certainly can do this, but it is not required to. So as we look at the hurricane, I mean, we went through the whole FEMA guide about, you know, acts of God and for sure and things that happen. You know, if a if a tree came off of city property and onto a private property. Even a creek in the back of a private property, then that is the city's requirement to adjudicate, which I believe we've done with the female dollars that we had. But this is debris that has come off a private property into. You know, a creek way that's through a private property, so not saying the city council can't opt to do this, but I'm just telling you that based on the legal advice we received the date, it is not a requirement for the city to do so. But based on the city council guidance from the study session previous that Brian and his team have gone through and laid out what we see what the problem statement is. And I'm glad he did. full review of the pre-run creek. So this wasn't just one area where I know we've had a number of complaints, but to look at the problem in its totality. And until we get the actual costing data on Friday, I won't be prepared until we have the information to tell you what that cost is, and then also a recommendation for a funding source of how we're gonna meet that need. I know that the NRCS grant doing three other sites, that amount was a little over $400,000, I believe,

Yeah. That grant also included more than just those three sites.

Sure. It had those three sites, but it also had the Willowick Apartments. But I'm just telling you from a scope perspective, this could be a low-cost item or this could be several hundreds of thousands of dollars. And until I actually have that costing data, I'm not going to be prepared to make a recommendation to City Council on funding sources until we have that information.

Question. Is the removal of those trees part of the bid, or is it cutting the trees to get them out of the creek and leaving them in place?

Cutting the trees and removing them from blocking the flow path of the creek.

Would they be cut and moved to the side of the property or completely removed off-site?

A little of both. So portions that are over the creek will be cut and removed off-site. Unless they are mulched on-site, the only place in the bid we have said that is acceptable to mulch is onto city property. Otherwise, you know, the selected contractor can certainly work with the homeowner, and if they needed some mulch, then I'm sure they'd be happy to put it on their property. But for the purposes of the bid, we've said those need to be removed. But if a significant portion of the tree is outside of the creek, not going to remove the root ball and we can cut it on the side of the creek so that it will not fall into the creek and leave that on the property hopefully that was clear yes so what's the liability to the city if we're contracting with someone to go on to private property to remove the trees

But we have to have an arrangement. First of all, this has to be voluntary by the homeowners. This is not compulsory. So at the end of the day, if the homeowner does not want the city to remove those items of debris, then they can refuse access. It's not causing a public health or a public safety problem, so there's no life health safety requirement. So this is a voluntary aspect of the homeowner to allow us. So they have to basically sign a liability waiver to allow us to access the property.

So Pretty Run Creek is part of the stormwater system, though, correct? Correct. And the city holds the permit for the stormwater system, correct?

Yes.

So I'm trying to understand, does it not benefit the city for the stormwater system to be clear?

It is a benefit. Just as Mr. Clifford said, it's not a requirement. And so the stormwater permit generally covers construction activity. And there is, as we saw, there's some construction activity that discharges to this creek, but the majority of it is constructed already.

But if I'm a private property owner and this is part of the stormwater system, can I contract somebody to go down in the creek and dig it out?

If you had permission from the other private property owner and had that similar liability.

Unless the city does this, basically it's probably not going to get coordinated amongst homeowners to do it.

I would think not, no.

And if this is left to sit like this in a creek that's overload and has a lot of E. coli in it, does the damming help E. coli levels? Or do you think it would be E. coli levels would decrease if proper water flow was restored?

They would probably decrease if proper water flow is restored.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, very good.

This is what we ask. Thank you. And then we expect you, you know, we'll wait till you get back once you find the bids and give us some kind of strategy for us to discuss further. Thank you. Good job, Brian.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I came here just in time to tell you that's all I have from the staff this evening. And I know we have an executive schedule session scheduled. So, Mr. Mayor, I turn it back to you.

Okay. We got just four things I want to highlight. The Chamber of Commerce at the chamber breakfast this past Thursday did a first response, responders' breakfast, and I want to just personally, I want to call out, they awarded, they called a hero award to our public safety and fire and dispatch, and these awards were voted on by the actual peers of these individuals who work for the public safety. The A-Shift recipient was PSO Emily Ayers. B-Shift was Corporal Tyrone Tripp. C-Shift was PSO Ryan Dabbs. D-Shift was PSO Luke Josie. Traffic was Sergeant Justin Aubuchon. Investigator Walter Van Calla. School resource officer was PSO Jessica Johnson. Community action team was PSO Mitch McBride. Dispatch was Felicia Barfield. Station one firefighter Scott Satcher. Station 2 firefighter Kaylee Wingard, which is cool. She gets to work with her grandmother, who's at the fire station, which is really neat. Fire Station 3 is firefighter Gavin Burnbridge. And then our volunteer firefighter was Mark Pinkerton. And I tell you, what's interesting, what really got me excited, if you look at these folks, PSO Ayers was a 2019 graduate of North Augusta. I would tell you out of these, let's see, 12, 13, 14 people, five to six of these folks have all joined public safety in the last two years. So they're making a huge change. They're making a positive impact in this community. At end of the day, we hire public safety officers for one thing, and that is to protect the citizens of North Augusta. And we are doing that with our public safety. And Chief, I just commend you and your staff and your team. Well done. Well, glad to recognition. So I'm proud of them. A couple other things. Downtown Mustard Crawl will be September the 19th. So come on down and support your downtown businesses. Rod the trolley. I already mentioned the new executive director is Adina Berry. And then Serve Day. So Victory Baptist is doing Serve Day on this Saturday starting at 8 o'clock. It's not just for their congregation. It's for any citizens who want to participate. I've had several... Citizens, people reach out about it that I've sent to them. But it's going to be pretty amazing. You meet at 8 a.m. at Victory Parking. They're doing the Living History Park. They're going to do Somerville Park, Pat. They're doing the Brick Ponds. They're doing Billy's Butterfly Garden. They're going to the gardens, Section 8 apartments. Going to redo that whole apartment where they do all the crafts.

Remember when you did that? They're going to redo that. They got the builders doing that.

They're doing the greenway. They're going to kimono. They're redoing all of the kimono where the food and the clothes are. So just a shout out to Victory. If you want to participate, just show up at 8 o'clock at Victory Parking Lot. They give you coffee, biscuits, and they'll put you to work. But I think that's just a commend. And just to let people know, we will not be doing a trash bash. competition with Augusta this year because of this serve day. It's so close to the Georgia Carolina game. And they're gonna have so many people. They're expecting really 400 minimum to participate. So I think it's gonna be a great, great thing for our community. So anyway, the last thing I've got now is item four, executive session in compliance with section 30-4-70. The city attorney requests an executive session with the purpose of discussion specifically related to public safety facilities purchase, discussion specifically related to contractual arrangements. Is there a motion to go on executive session? That's Mr. Buck. Is there a second? Councilman Freitas. Councilman Freitas, second. Thank you. All in favor? That's unanimous, and we will not be coming back after that. Thank you all for being here. Have a good evening.