City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

I'd like to call the City of North Augusta special call study session for Tuesday, May 26, 2026 to order. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to our Assistant City Administrator, Mr. J.D. McCauley.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm standing in for Jim Clifford, City Administrator, this evening. You have what we call the best of the rest. We'll do what we usually do on the study sessions. We're going to go into agenda review for next week's Council meeting. So we'll start with that, and that's in your packets if you'll turn to the first page there. We have two... proclamations, ones for the National Garden Week, which Mayor Williams, you're a lifetime member of, from what I remember. And then scoliosis, if I could say it right, scoliosis early detection awareness month. Then we move into old business. This is the second reading of the election ordinance from an agreement between us and, or City of North Augusta and Aiken County, which I will defer to Jamie Paul, since Kelly Zier is not in attendance this evening. So Jamie, if you could give us some background on this.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. At the last council meeting, Attorney Zier stated that the item is a procedural matter. The city has determined that the Board of Election and Voter Registration of Agin County will hand-bill the entire general election, and the county has already approved the agreement that's embedded within the ordinance, and the procedure now requires council to approve the same agreement on the second reading.

I apologize.

Okay. Any in a... There are any questions?

Thank you, Mrs. Barton. Moving on to the next agenda item, 7, 8, and 9 are bundled. They were tabled on February 2 of this year. At the request of the developer, they were asked to be brought onto this agenda. However, we had a late breaking request on Friday for them to be moved to the July 6 agenda. So they would be taken off of our agenda for next week. So 789 will not be on the agenda next week. So we move on to item number 10 if there's no questions or comments.

I do want to just respond a little bit. I guess this is really, and I'll talk to Robert when he gets here. I just wanted to kind of ask council two things. Please be aware of what is posted before our meetings. If you see something in the packet that you believe is worthy to alert our citizens to attend the study session, I think that's great. What I would ask you is just make a simple post along the lines of, just got my packet. Looks like we'll be discussing about annexation or zoning or whatever it may be. Have a number of questions. I look forward to asking at the study session. And I know I want to be able to learn those myself so I can answer your questions.

I think this is very important for you to attend or at least watch live stream.

That's really all we need to post for folks. And part of that, there's a reason why when Jamie posts on Friday night, we don't put the attachments. So all the stuff you and I get, We get it Friday night. There's a reason why we don't give it to our citizens, because we want the seven of us to be able to review it over the weekend, have our own question, and then when JD or Jim presents to us, we all get it at the same time. okay so you know there's not any need for you know to get that out so hopefully that makes sense the last thing i would say if kelly was here because he's told me this several times i know tommy knows it i just want to also remind council please be very careful about your personal opinions when it comes to us making decisions about annexations and rezoning okay that's not the same thing as hey we're gonna buy a trolley or we're gonna buy a road We've got to be very careful that when it comes to annexations, rezoning, as a council, we make our decisions, yay or nay, based off our code, based off our policy, because we don't want to open ourselves up to lawsuits.

We can't personalize that.

So we can't pick winners and losers. When we make a decision, we have to make it based off of the merits that are presented to us about sewer capacity or whatever it may be, but not for the fact that, hey, we don't like this particular developer, we don't like this builder, this situation. We just open ourselves up. So I'm saying that. Kelly's not here, but he would tell you that if he was here.

And Tommy, you're correct on that, right? You know you've heard it as well.

So with that being said, All yours. Great.

So barring any objections, 789 is going to slide to the July 6 agenda, which we will talk about at the June 29 study session. So moving on to item 10 on the agenda is planning and development. I'm going to ask Mr. Paradise to come up to answer any questions about this. But this is an annexation for a property located on East Buena Vista Avenue. It was approved unanimously by the Planning Commission week and that item has been added to your agenda there been requested to come into the city at General Commercial but again I'm going to defer to our subject matter expert Mr. Paradise

Yes, Mr. Mayor and council. This is parcel number 0071610-016 on East Buena Vista. First, there's a typo in the staff report where it says 0.4 acres. It's actually 2.48 acres. There were three parcels there that were combined. We didn't pick that up in the staff report. We made the error in the staff report. A portion, a tip of this property is already in the city. And it's contiguous. The comprehensive plan calls for this area to be mixed use. And it's contiguous to other general commercial in the city. In fact, looking at the zoning map, everything on that side of Metz Drive that fronts East Buena Vista is zoned general commercial.

It may not be used as general commercial, but it is general commercial.

The applicant is planning on relocating his contracting business. He's a licensed general contractor that wants to build his office building there.

That's almost the land, the front of it is right past the bottom of the hill next to the, no, 10 pence on the left is on the right of the bar.

Correct. It's past the bar, and the bar is not included in the annex. Exactly.

It's not a wide frontage piece, but it goes back where the space is. It opens up.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Paradise. That, barring any questions about number 10, we'll move on to number 11, which is also in planning and development. This is a kind of routine action. It's an accepting deed of dedication for Hive, Section 2. So if you have any questions about this, it is for sanitary sewer, stormwater collection, fire suppression systems that were installed for Hive, Section 2. If there's any questions, we can ask Mr. Paradise to come back up and answer any specifics. No questions? Comments? OK. Great. Moving on to item number 12. This is Engineering and Public Works. This is the contract award for part of Creighton Park phase two, which you approved previously. But this is the award for contract for the parking lot and sidewalk improvements. And good news is that we were able to open bids, or Mr. Zeser was able to open bids this afternoon. And Kendrick's Construction was the lowest bid. So that will be a resolution that is included in your packets. And just of note, that parking lot will be a pervious surface. And if you want to see an example of that, it's in Newell Dental's parking lot just up off Martintown Road. He has an example of the type of parking lot that was specified. And that is to be completed by July 31st of this year per the RFP.

And we'll have the resolution and all the information about that for packet next Friday.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And can I ask, Tom, which side's the sidewalk going to be on toward the living history of Pine Grove? Because you remember, that was one of the streets we were going to do sidewalks. I don't know if you remember, Mr. Turnell, he begged for sidewalks on that side, Pine Grove.

The sidewalk that's referenced in this project is a sidewalk that extends from the new parking lot. It's going to extend through Creighton Park up to the corner of West Spring Grove and Lake Avenue. It's a sidewalk to connect the parking lot up towards the Living History Park.

Okay, good.

Okay, barring any questions, that concludes the agenda review, and then we will move into department details, and Jamie will take it from here.

Thank you. First up will be finance director, Linda Williamson.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. Our Cycle 2 customers will have a disconnection for their April balances beginning on Tuesday, June 2nd. The due date for their May 25th bills will be June 19th. Cycle 1 customers, their May 10th bills are going to be due on June 4th, and the disconnection for their May balances is scheduled to begin Wednesday, June 17th. That's all I have tonight.

Thank you. Next is Human Resource Manager Kayla Ferguson.

Good evening.

If you look on the back of your department details, you will see our list of open employment opportunities.

Kayla, maybe you can't say. Are there any applications for the animal control shelter assistance yet? I know it's cut off dates June 2nd, which is around the corner.

We've had several.

So they are? Yeah. Okay, good.

Thank you. Next up is Engineering and Public Works Director Tom Cesar.

Good evening. First item is, as requested, we have made some plans to install some new sign that replaced some existing signs at operations facility to increase the visibility of the animal control facility attached to your This thing are some photographs of the existing signs and what's proposed to be to replace those signs just to provide some way finding for. Visitors trying to locate that facility. Within our operations facility complex. There will be some, it's not shown on these sheets here, but there will be some additional, an additional sign put on the building itself, a larger, more visible sign. It'll be similar to these here that's shown. It'll just help make that office more visible from across the parking lot.

Tom, is that on like, is it Wormrath or? What's the other street? I mean, it's on that street or you have to turn into Clay Pit and see the sign?

Yeah, these signs are existing signs that are ones on Clay Pit Road up near the entrance to the operations facility.

But we don't have anything on the main road there.

No, we've applied for an encroachment permit. That's going to require permitting through DOT. So we've applied for a permit, though the exact... sign that we propose has not yet been determined that may be a more um more larger directional sign similar to the one that's in here it'll it'll identify all the city facilities that are on clay but we are going to have what we are going to have

Put on warm wrap? Yes, that's what you're saying. Yeah, we're going to apply for a permit. But you've got to wait. Yeah, but right now, this is all we can do as a city is this. Yeah, that's what everybody understands.

These signs are in production and will be installed as soon as we get them.

Yeah, okay, good. Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

And then secondly, we have an ongoing drainage project at Woodlawn and Crestview Drive. That project was in kind of a vulnerable state and was inundated with flood water last night and caused a pretty major sediment plume impact offsite. And just wanted to let you know that city crews did respond first thing this morning and start clearing that road until the contractor could get on site. He resumed cleaning, and there's still a lot of additional work, but that's certainly ongoing. We'll stay on top of that until it's completed.

Now, wait, one more question, because, you know, I'm over at the ball field. Because I understand today some people said Riverview Park, I presume ABC, Rick, or wait a minute, yeah, ABC, was almost underwater. Would this problem help Riverview Park? Because I know it's in the same area. No, this ongoing project has no... All games got canceled because the fields are unplayable.

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

And exciting news, the Board of Zoning Appeals will be meeting next Tuesday evening.

Thank you. Next up is Public Service Director James Sutton.

Mayor and Council, good evening. Property maintenance is scheduled to start Wednesday between the hours of 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., spraying for mosquitoes in the areas of East Buena Vista, Stanton Drive, down to the river in that little corridor area. The product that we're using this year is an environmentally friendly product. It's not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. It's made of essential oils. It's got cedar, rosemary, lemongrass, and some other friendly products mixed with it. So it's a lot of sand. Hadn't got it from the manufacturer. It doesn't hurt the pollinators. It's a less... damaging product, if you will, when it comes to the environment. Used by a lot of government agencies. But we have a form on the website. It's under the property maintenance page. Customers, residents can go on and they can write a form and have their properties removed from the spray zone. Or we have a lot of customers who want additional spraying and we have a lot of requests for that. They'll be out continuing that on a weekly basis up until October the 28th. Questions?

That's great. Can we just maybe put that on our social media? That's a good thing. Yes, I realize that.

Good stuff. I'm sorry.

Our staff's on notice to upload some first thing in the morning.

We get asked every year about, is he going to kill the pollinators? So this is good. Yeah.

Well, James, I want you to do a study on some of us that grew up in North Augusta back in the 60s that we would chase a mosquito truck right on it and it blowing. I mean, so, and that was not environmental safe, but look, we're still here.

Never know.

Moving along, one important announcement I have. I'd like to thank Director of Public Works, Tom Zeser, and his Streets and Drains crews who did an exceptional job preparing the grading and the curb and gutter installation at the sanitation building site. They've got it ready for asphalt, and we have a contractor scheduled to start this week with the paving. So that's a great project, and another one going to be closed this week.

Thank you, James.

Thank you. Next up is Public Safety Chief Johnson.

Good evening.

Starting this coming Friday, we will be doing our year three assessment for CALEA, where an outside person comes in and inspects all of our files that we've kept. They do 25% each year for four years. So we'll be starting that on Friday, and they'll be going through all next week, looking at a certain set of them. Also, we met with Parks and Recs, and we've been in talks with engineering as well in reference to the placing of a microchip station at the Palmetto Parkway trailhead to make sure we get that in a good location. And we've been in talk with FONA, who's going to get that constructed to make sure we get it in the right place. And also, public safety will be participating in Splash Day this Friday at Riverview Park. Can you write me a note for work so I can come to Splash Day? um i'll tell you what you can look at the facebook post to see if that works for you thank you chief are there food there friday for the children the hot dogs and all that yes and i don't want to steal all the rick's thunder that rick talks next is park and recreation director rick meyer hot dogs and cooks mr pat three hot dogs and cooks

uh right now we got a splash day every day it rains uh but we're we're excited to announce the activity center track open this morning at 6 00 a.m so we're glad to get that one done and then move on to the next projects for the activity center greenway team with some help with the other maintenance employees got 107 hometown hero banners up for memorial weekend Proud of that. South Carolina Parks, Recreation, and Tourism and the National Park Service will visit us this Friday. They're coming to take a look at their investments in Riverview Park and the Sharon Jones Amphitheater, and they're also coming to look at some potential new grant projects for us. Again, Splash Day is Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Riverview Park. We appreciate public safety providing the big splash with the fire truck. Spring sports, we are finishing up this week. Tournaments, a lot of our leagues are done, but we've got to finish up volleyball, 8-under, 10-under baseball, and 10-under softball tournaments this week. And the last thing I have is next Monday is our annual True North Church cross-training camp that usually brings in about 250, 300 kids. Any questions?

Yeah, Rick, I got a quick question for you. I noticed at Hammond Park on my way in today, there's a new precast stone. Circular landscaped area there. I don't know if that's part of it.

That's streets and drains doing that work for us.

It's beautiful. Yeah. I can't wait to get some flowers in there, maybe some rosemary that'll take care of that mosquito problem. Yeah. Again, thanks to Tom Zeser and his crew for that work. It looks really, really nice there.

Thank you. And closing out department details is tourism manager Carl Waldhauer.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Early voting started today at the community center for statewide primaries. Polls will be open from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday through June 5th. I talked to poll workers before I left today. They're a little bit north of 420 voters came through. Music in the Park continues this Thursday with Keith Gregory performing at Savannah River Brass Works on June 4th. And those performances are held at Muddenfield Park on Thursdays starting at 7 o'clock. And lastly, Explore North Gusto will host a concert this Saturday at Sharon Jones Amphitheater with FJ, a tribute to Foreigner and Journey, performing. And that starts at 7.30 p.m. and is always free to the public.

That's going to be packed, I bet.

Yeah, we've got a good response so far with it.

Tom Petty was good.

We had a great, great crowd for that one. With that, I'll turn it back over to you.

Mr. Mayor, that concludes our agenda review and department details, and I return it back to you as we do not have a focus item for this evening.

I only got one thing. I wanted to let people know we're trying to promote it early. Jack Land Jubilee this year is going to be a week early. It's going to be October the 24th. Is that correct, October 24th? And the artist for Friday night, which is our Christian music night, is going to be awesome. The artist's gentleman name is Torin Wells. He's a young guy. He has a great lot of ties. He has hip-hop R&B ties. He's toured with Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie back in the day. Started his own Christian solo career in 2016. He's won 10 Grammy Award nominations, six number ones on the Christian chart, seven Dove Awards, Billboard Music Award nomination, over 1.1 billion streams. His hits are known, Take It All Back, God's Not Done With You. My understanding is he, for this guy, he does a great concert, so I'm We're very excited about that. So that's on Friday night. And then on Saturday, for all you country guys, you're gonna love this, Chris Jansen, small town kid from Missouri, dream big, one big, and probably lives American dreams. His latest album is Wild Horses. He's a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He's amassed over two billion global streams along with numerous gold and multiple platinum awards. They include five number one hits on the country charts, including Buy Me a Boat, Fix a Drink, Good Vibes, Holding Her, and Done. And he's been awarded twice for the prestigious Top Ten Songs I Wish I'd Written Award, received the ACM Award, iHeartRadio Country Music of the Year Award. So I think those are going to be good concerts Friday and Saturday night. Chris Hansen. Jansen. Anyway, what I was told was people who follow country know who this guy is. He's been at the guitar pool a couple times, Carl. So anyway, we'll get that out the way we can pass that, right? It'll be on EMA. It'll be on Explore North Augusta, and then we need to pass that around to people. All right, with that being said.

Mayor, can I just clarify one thing that is on Facebook about our agenda packet? We do get an agenda packet on Friday. We come the next Monday for the study session. The administrator or assistant goes through everything with us, and we have a whole week. before we vote on it. Because the way it was posted, we get it on Friday and vote on it on Monday. And I just want the citizens to know that is not what happens. Thank you.

All right.

With that being said, we stand adjourned. Thank y'all.