City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] Oh god. Oh god. It is 4:00 on October 20th, 2025, and I officially open this meeting of the county city council. I welcome all of you. Thank you for being here. Uh, and we will move forward with the agenda as it is set forth. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? We'll begin. with an invocation and pledge of allegiance who led by council member Amanda Butler. Let us pray. God, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this opportunity to gather here together for the business of Conway. God, we thank you for the people who are here, the representatives as well as the city staff who are working diligently to provide as a great place to live to raise a family. God, we ask that as we consume this meeting and that we talk about the business of that you need to tr that you lead us in our decision making so that we can make the best decision for your people and we ask this in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen. Heat. Heat.

Please in case it is first a presentation of the month for October 2025 public Heat. Heat. earlier this year [Music] since our team has demonstrated outstanding dedication and passion all Long design are city projected so far this year. For about 7 months training, his work replaces skill and confidence with years of experience. His respectful and understanding attitude for city resident to provide excellent public service is Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. son and the one who's her son. to create awareness to protect lives. Reinforce breast cancer various stages of breast cancer and 2 million plus individuals diagnosed casually. Breast cancer awareness international campaign to support those diagnosis predicted this year. And whereas today women in the United States have a 12.5% chance of developing breast cancer.

Therefore, I know examinations and donate breast cancer research to further leve. I said my hand [Music] 2025 is also tested. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. You can get breast cancer and I So just for safety reason

she said one in the United States will So I'm challenge at least eight women in your life because now I'm losing Item 5 A. This first reading of ordinance CA 2025 111 L3B to resound approximately 12 apartment 2 and 15100 papers of property located at 1 G Street from Ory County General Residential District to the city of Collie Professional District upon annexation and to the city of Col. Miss Hugs.

Yes ma'am. The ordinance to annex the subject property was given first reading at the September 15th council meeting. The applicant is seeking to zone the property professional upon annexation. Is currently zone general residential under Ory County's jurisdiction. The city's future land use map identifies the property as low to medium density residential for R1. However, properties on either side of this subject property as well as across the street are zoned professional. Krill Street contains a mixture of uses including residential, medical, child care, and other office related uses. Currently, the property contains one single family dwelling which is permitted in the professional district and staff is not aware of any plans for the use of the property if the reszoning is granted. Planning Commission held a public hearing on the request of their October 2nd meeting and recommended approval of the professional district upon annexation and staff also recommends approval. Thank you so much. Is there a motion or are there questions? Mr. White, I move that we approve this appointment. Thank you. Uh yes, I'll send Mr. White's motion, please. We have a properly second motion to move forward with the first reading of this ordinance. Besides, I have one quick question. You wrote in your issue paper that um that typically professional is supposed to be a transition between uh like residential and upcoming um retail and such. Do we anticipate any of that coming in that area? It could be very well. Right now there is a single family dwelling on there and there is some property on both sides of it that are zoned professional. One of which I think the same applicant owns as well. I know several years ago he wanted to resone some property so that a laundromat could

be done there but that the professional district does not allow for that. Um, so yes, Professional is a very um more restrictive commercial district than say highway commercial or neighborhood commercial and it's in keeping with the other commercial uses that are also on street. Thank you so much. Any other questions or comments? I will call vote. All in favor of this first reading, please indicate accept. Motion carries unanimously. Item B is first reading ordinance ZA 2025 11103C to amend article 2 definitions, article 4 use tables and article 6 design standards of the city of Ka unified development ordinance regarding the requirements in subd districts of the Wakama Riverfront District. Miss Hooks, this proposed amendment is being presented for consideration in order to provide clarity and consistency within the Wakamal Riverfront zoning district. It would eliminate the subd districts of WRD which is currently split between WRD1 and WRD2. WRD1 is going to be your very light blue that you see on one side of Highway 501 business and WRD2 is more of your light green or almost teal um WRD2 on the other side. There's nothing in the UDO or the unified development ordinance that defines the parameters of WRD1 versus WRD2. And there's no definition provided that distinguishes between the two. Per the definition of Wakamar Riverfront District, the intent of the district is to provide for the physical, social, and economic development of the city's riverfront area. However, several of the properties that are zoned WRD do not have direct access to the riverfront. Article 6 provides a requirement for WRD1 district that all ground level floors of any building in WRD1 be

devoted to permitted uses outlined in the use tables aside from residential with residential uses permitted on upper floors only. And recently, the city acquired 224 acres that was zoned WRD2 upon annexation because many of the areas included in those parcels do not have direct access to the riverfront, such as property across Marina Drive and property on the other side of Highway 501 on New Road. However, with the city's riverfront being expanded by acquiring this acreage and in keeping with the intent of the Walk Riverfront District, the mixeduse component is necessary on areas with direct access to a future riverwalk to maintain public access and stimulate pedestrian activity. And as such, this amendment eliminates the subdists and instead proposes to include a requirement that properties to be developed that adjoin the riverwalk will contain a mixture of uses with ground level floors devoted to one or more of the perime of the permitted commercial uses in the district and restricting any residential proposed to the upper level floors. Uh the use tables in article 4 have also been revised as part of the amendment to reflect the change and there are other housekeeping changes that were included as part of the amendment. Planning commission held the public hearing at their October 2nd meeting and recommended approval and staff also recommends approval of the proposed amendment.

Thank you, Miss Hugs. Is there a motion? Mr. May I move that we approve first reading ordinance. Thank you. Is there a second? I second properly seconded motion to approve first reading of this ordinance. Are there questions or comments? Question. Yes, sir. Mr. Before anything can be done on this property, it would have to come before us to approve or disapprove. Yes, sir.

Anyone else? That's it. All in favor, please indicate such with the showing of your hand. The motion carries unanimously. Item C is first reading line of ZA 2025 11103D to amend article 2 definitions and article 13 administrative agencies and functions of the city of Cland unified development ordinance to establish provisions for requiring a development agreement for developments that involve a zoning map amendment andor annexation into the city of Colony. this house.

So, this was originally discussed at um this year's budget retreat and again at a workshop a few meetings ago. Uh one of the issues that staff researched over the past several months is whether the requirement for a development agreement existed in other localities and whether requiring a development agreement as a condition of annexation or resoning was in accordance with state law. The South Carolina Local Government Development Agreement Act expressly authorizes cities and counties to enter into such agreements with property owners, but these agreements must be voluntary. However, they may accompany zoning approvals and annexations. By adopting a development agreement through the statutory and public notice process, the right to attach development agreements to an annexation and/or a resoning is considered to be legally defensible. Staff emphasizes that such agreements must be voluntary between the city and the applicant and must be adopted in accordance with state law. Both parties must agree to the terms of the agreement. With the annexation of large tracks of land such as Warden and Station plan development or the Brook Haven plan development, council asks that staff prepare options for requiring development agreements for certain types of development. There are two threshold requirements according to state law. One, the property must contain a minimum of 25 acres of uplands or highlands, such as acreage above the 100-year flood plane. And two, the length of the agreement varies with the size of the property. For instance, properties up to 250 acres of upland is limited to an agreement term of 5 years. Property with 250 to,000 acres is limited to 10. Properties between 1,000 and 2,000 is limited to 20 years. The contents of the development agreement must include several items such as the property description, owners, duration of the agreement, permitted uses, public facilities, dedication of land for

public purpose, permits needed, and a schedule for completion of the development among several other items. There are two places in South Carolina that staff found that typically require development agreements as part of the approval of a planned development district and that was Hardyville and North Myrtle Beach. I have heard that North Myrtle Beach has started requiring them for all development, but I've not verified that. At the last council workshop, the issue was discussed, one of them being the threshold for requiring an agreement. The general consensus was any annexation and or reszoning of property that would permit residential uses and proposed to contain 150 lots or units. Additionally, the requirement only applied to properties seeking annexation into the city or proposed to be reszoned, not property already in the city and zoned for residential development as those properties already have byright development. Planning Commission considered the amendment at their October 2nd meeting and held the public hearing. Staff presented two options. the one that included a threshold of 150 lots or units on a minimum of 25 acres of upland or to leave the requirement up to council and instead under the applicability section of the ordinance state that council as a condition of annexation or resoning of a property may require the property owner and or developer to enter into a development agreement for any development whether residential or non-residential when it's determined that such an agreement is necessary to protect the public health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of Conway. Planning Commission's preference was to lower the threshold to 50 lots or units and to remove the standard for the property to contain 25 acres or propose to include that minimum number of lots or units. It was a valid concern because what we

don't want is to have someone who wishes to annex a large track that doesn't propose a residential development but maybe just wants to build one house for themselves. However, the issue with how it's worded now, it gives those who may seek annexation or resoning of property a way to get around the requirement for a development agreement. As illustrated in the slide, if they have 100 acres, they could divide the property in a way that keeps the number of lots or units under the threshold of 50. Or if there is a way it could be subdivided to where each track contains less than 25 acres of uplands, they could build a multifamily project containing more than 50 units regardless of the overall acreage as long as there's less than 25 acres of upland because that's the state minimum standard for requiring a development agreement. In this example, the parent track is split into 33.3 acres each. Each one avoiding the minimum threshold. But once all three are developed, you end up with 248 lots or units. And this conundrum is probably why there is nothing too specific in any ordinance across the state except for where it specified that a planned development district may be accompanied by a development agreement. Staff wanted to present these two options for consideration for first reading as well and included two separate ordinances. One that includes planning commission's recommendation and one that provides the more general language which gives council the discretion to require a development agreement for any project which meets the minimum standards for such an agreement. Um I also want to note the amendment is not timesensitive. So, if there is a desire to defer or there's information that staff would like council to or would like staff to look into further, um that is something that could be considered. But if council wishes to advance, um staff would recommend approval of first reading of

the version that gives council the discretion to require or not require a development agreement regardless of the number of lots or units proposed, whether it's residential or commercial in nature. Thank you, Miss Hudson. And I move that we do um approve is it first reading that we approve that scenario that allows council the option um to make that decision case by case. Is there a second? We have a question just I think this is great. I've been watching this for a long time. This is response. This should have been done 25 years ago. This should have done no recounting. This should not um this is a good thing. Um so just to be clear what I'm saying it's not a minimum is a minimum and this is what I understand is a minimum of 25 acres and or gives us discretion on top of that.

No, you have to have the 25 acres of upland regardless. So you have to have that first. So, you can't require a development agreement if there's less than 25 acres of

That's where I got up. Here's my Thank you. Okay. Here's my question. If if I'm a developer and I'm coming in and there's uh uh 40 uh acres to be developed and I decide that I'm going to split that into you know two different developments and I'm going to name one of them Jordan states number one the states number two that I've just sort of weasled my way around that minimum threshold. What can we do to protect? You know, that would seem like a loophole, a reasonable loophole. That's not the spirit of what we're trying to do, right? So, how do we address that?

I don't really know if there's a simple answer on how to address that because it's state law and we can be more restrictive than state law. We can't be less restrictive than state law. So we would not be allowed to require a development agreement if they had 24 acres of up even if it's a 100 acre tract. You still have to have that 25 acres of upland. But my fear is that if you attach a number of units to it because there's nothing that says they have to give us a plan that shows how many lots they can do, then they can figure out a way to subdivide it. Because if it's over 5 acres or more in size, each tract, it's not technically subject to the major residential subdivision for every 5 acres or more track. So if they had 100 acres or whatever, they could split that into three evenlysized tracks and still avoid the threshold. So first and foremost, you have to have the acreage. And I can't see somebody wanting to come and do 150 lots on 25 acres. I'm sure it's possible, but you got to have roads, you got to have open space for so many things. So, I think that the intent of the ordinance will be met along with council's discretion. Is there so um is there a way to for council to restrict um any move in that any move in that direction if the the the property has recently been subdivided?

You know what I'm saying?

Cuz a lot of times they'll subdivide in Ory County's jurisdiction because that's not necessarily a trigger for annexation if they're not requesting city services. So that's already done for for comes into a city many times or could be done. Mr. Just one more question. Is there a way to sort of put out there that the city of Conway may be going in a certain direction? This direction may involve something something like this. We want to see developments coming in that have multiple uses i.e. commercial applications, spaces for retail, spaces for grocery store. You know, we talk about this ad for no other reason to alleviate traffic, you know, congestion and keeping people in their areas of forcing them on 501 or others. Right. Is there a way to put that out there where just came up with the culture street neighborhood most recently and it was I think I was one of people hey let's let's carve out some space here at the front of culture road to do you know some kind of commercial use. It didn't ultimately didn't make sense in that that that example. But going forward, you know, when when uh someone decides to sell their farm or their piece of property and they call a realtor, a commercial realtor or developer, and they say, "Well, you this is what I'm thinking." The first thing that comes to mind out of the mouth of that realtor, that developer is, "Well, yeah, we can do this, but this is sort of how you're going to have to do it." And the conversation is going to include commercial, retail, and residential as opposed to just getting the lots ready, selling the DR and walk away.

Right. And that's, you know, where our future land use maps really help us. So when somebody comes to the city and they know they're going to have to annex, whether it's by choice or whether because they have to, we can look at that and help determine what we feel based on future land use maps, what is a need in that area. And it may be an opportunity for us to look at planned development districts where it makes sense when they are choosing to annex into the city. So in those cases, if it's more than 25 acres of upland and it's it's a significant size track that shows multiple future land uses, then that might be an opportunity um for us to do something like that. And then even on um one that you guys discussed at workshop that included uh property on 701 South and Copperhead Road, while it's not a planned development that's proposed, they are um planning to carve out frontage on 701 South to have that commercial because if if the city's future land use map had extended that far, that is the designation that would have been assigned. So having that in place will certainly help.

Thank you. anyone else in looking at this I have 100% faith in the motives of the six people that and myself that sit up here right now when we look at this and we read um city council determines that such an agreement is necessary to protect the public health is there thinking down the road is there a and we you know we are speaking our intentions are to have like Um, Mr. Scfage said the the commercial and the multiple lands use is there a check and balance for future councils to carry that forward in this agreement? Well, I think again the comprehensive plan is one of your your your best tools that you could use because when we um when planning commission when council and staff is looking at what's the best use of a property that's seeking annexation or reszoning, that's the tools that we have in our toolbox to say this is what's best for that property. This is what staff is going to support. And you can always rely on the comprehensive plan to say this is what can be supported. And hopefully future staff will encourage that when annexations or resonance is is being conserved for property. Thank you. Hey, because we are growing so fast, you know, we need to make certain that whatever we do, we want to make certain that it's not going to affect the people that already whatever the growth is, we should be protecting our citizens that are here in our country grow.

Absolutely. And I thank you for bringing this to our attention and I saw those developers right where they need to be healed. But anyone else I believe we have a second motion. All in favor please indicate so your hand so much. Next on the agenda is public input. This is an opportunity for people who signed up to speak to this council on almost any subject. Uh the exception would be that it has to do with an individual employee. Um 3 minutes are allotted. Um the last I ask that um the one person who signed up for the day that you speak directly into the mic please so that people in the rear of the of the chambers and online can actually hear you and and be reminded that um public is not interactual. We won't we won't talk about it unless there's some information just to pass. Um I believe Jimmy um if you sign up for please begin with your name and address city council work [Music] in my beautiful I'm sorry of Eddie, Chad, Jane, and myself. It's been 137 days. We hadn't heard anything from y'all.

We haven't. But one good thing about it is council meeting before and after that gold said that y'all have a workshop executive session and y'all had some still had work. It's exciting tonight that I see on the podium thing right here. I looked at it on Wednesday and said y'all have another workshop. These individuals I talk about, somebody went up to them and told them says, "Hey, you get Medicare. It's free." It's not free. It's not free. And I hope y'all know it's not free. And these people cannot afford this type of insurance. They don't have insurance. They going to go to hospital or grand. They going to see they don't have Medicare. If they have an operation they need to do, they going to send them to N USC. They go to the back of the line. I go to Americ's butt for the last 37 days, but uh I think it's necessary to be coming and bring it to your attention. Bring it to the attention. You see, back whenever they did this right here, they were scared they were going to go into a deficit. They did 17 years later. You don't run out of a deficit. My goodness, you got $3,000 worth of stuff inside this building right here right now. Help these employees some way or another. They're your employees still. They they still got CD from their home somewhere. You know, they they still got it. So, in the end this year, trick or treat. I hope this is not a trick and I hope we get a treat out of this when

it's all over with. So, thank you. Maybe you won't see me back, but please let us know that we don't have about seven more days for them to make a decision. Okay? They prayed about it. I prayed about it. I've had tears come in my eyes praying for myself and for them. Please. Thank you, Mr. H. Item eight is we do have others who have signed up for public input that I did not pick up from downstairs. I apologize. Um, Kathy Russell, if you're still with us. Kathy Russell. Also, Teresa Sapida, if I mispronounced your name, please correct me. Teresa Sapida or Sepedia. If neither of those is present, we will close both at this time. I don't think we do. We need Thank you so much. Seven is the city administrator. Anyway, the mayor's youth council has had two meetings so far this school year. Skyler Platt was elected as the third junior mayor. Uh we look forward to having the entire youth council one of our future council meetings want to give you an update on that. We do have visitor data for Halloween through Friday of last week. We are up 46.2% over the year year-over-year. Uh that does include the rain out last Saturday and Sunday from two weekends ago. Uh it does not include this past Saturday which saw the most people in our downtown and I I I would rather guess

the history of Conway. Um we expect by the end of the show we have at least 30,000 people maybe more. Um because of that, um obviously having them do it for the first time means we have some issues to work out before we do it again this upcoming weekend. Uh we're working on those plans now. Uh Chief Longary and I wrote around today making some traffic updates, improvements that we'll see implemented this weekend. Um hopefully to to better manage the the huge amount of traffic and and parking. Um both of those things should be taken care of well at least addressed by Thursday. Um, in addition to the traffic issues, we have had numerous reports of restaurants running out of food and 3 plus hour wait times of people leaving Halloween hungry. So, we're adding a few more food trucks this weekend to help address the demand. We don't want any to leave Halloween for any reason. Um, and we are also working on our Christmas planning and building. Uh, while we doubt we'll see the same numbers for Christmas, we hope we do, but we doubt we will. Um, we do expect there to be an uptick this year. Um, we've heard from a lot of the out of town visitors that are coming for Halloween that they're coming back to see Halloween Christmas. So, we're uh we're working on the bar raising again for for that. Um, this week, I don't want to spend too much time on Halloween, but this week we do have some great events coming up. Um, we have the opera at the First Methodist Church. Chamber of Commerce has a confessional wrestling is on Sunday. The UFO festival is on Saturday. Monster National Park is on Saturday. And there are countless numbers of trunk or treats and fall festivals coming up this weekend as well. Please say what time the coffin race is. It is 11 to 4. 11 to 4 on street. Don't be late. That's going to be fun. That's going to be a long race.

The citizens academy is this Wednesday. Um it is the last one. This one we're going to meet with with Timmy and his folks and they're going to learn about all the holiday decorations in addition to all the other things hospitality beautifification do. And my my guess is the number one question will be where we store everything cuz that's the number one question we always get. Um so that'll be the question that gets answered I'm sure. Um, a reminder that the City of Halloween game at Coastal is the 30th against Marshall and we expect it to be a pretty um, special Halloween version of Coastal Football in the city of Halloween. Uh, the next day on Halloween, in addition to being Halloween, there's a home football game at high school and we're going to bring Halloween to the high school as well. Um there we've got pumpkins in the trees leading into the stadium already and we're going to they're going to do a trunk or treat and some other things before the game. Um Coastal Homecoming parade is Friday, November 7th at 400 p.m. downtown. That is a Friday afternoon 400 p.m. That's different than usual. So make plans for that. We will have transportation for council ride and that parade. It'll either be the historic fire truck and if it's not running it'll be something else that is as spectacular as well. Um, we have three things on the agenda tonight for executive session. We have no workshops tonight. I would recommend moving into the other room for executive session just because there's several items over and before I sit down and if there's any questions, I'll answer them. But we do have department heads. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for um the reassurance of some effort towards traffic. Saturday was just insane. It was um you know I got a lot of feedback yesterday and not from the Halloween haters just from people who said we got to figure something out and I said I ran it on Monday night you beat me to it. Uh so thank you. And um one other thing and

I guess this is more of a question or something to ponder. Uh I know we're not ready for this now, but at some point in the future, uh we got to get a hold of control traffic lights. And I know we have none now. And so it's either you do it or you don't do it. You don't just take one or two, right? We got to have the people trained to do it. We got to have the resources and funding to do it. But I just I would love to see the city get to a place where we control Main Street traffic lights, where we control Third Avenue lights, where we just have control over and and not for purposes of Halloween, but just general stuff. You know, as you know, Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Main Street are all state roads. That means the intersections are fully state roads. The only way really to be able to get the control of the lights would be to be able to get control of some of the side roads as well. Um certainly we we've been trying to get Third Avenue in the city system, take it out of the state and federal system. It is all those are numbered roads as well, numbered highways. So 378 is Third Avenue, 905 is 4th Avenue. Actually 701 is part of 4th Avenue as well, I believe. And um uh Main Street of course is 71 and 50. um until we're able to do something with that, those are always going to be in state control. I believe um we some of the things we've talked about today that are going to make you very happy, but we're we're actually going to limit left turns off of Main Street um Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So, if you're coming into town, you can't turn left. If you're coming from from coming from the beach, you got to go right or straight. Um and we're hoping that will help a lot of the congestion and backup from just people can't make the turn. Well, and there's no reason anyone coming off the bridge needs to turn left on the third. There's no reason for us to have an arrow, right? People say, "Well, the lights are out of scene. Lights are out of scene." When you trim that arrow, you don't trip that you have congestion when people go under the

bridge and they want to. That's why I know it's a it's a it's a big task. It's all but I think, you know, it's so important in the future test case if nothing else. Yeah. Yeah. Um any other um the crosswalks we have this little um stands like in the middle of the street. Is there any way we can put a flashing light on top of those like a yellow light something like that so that people can know there's a traffic crossing or pedestrian crossing there. We can see if we can get those we just got those signs in last week. So we'll see if we can add those to them. Sure. And I will say um I do think there is a great improvement of the pedestrian um walkways down there and I have been complaining not complaining encouraging uh better better protection of our pedestrians. Uh it still does concern me if you're pulling out of this parking lot and it's dark. You've got uh people traveling by the water department. You've also got people trying to cross the valley or the alley. Yeah. You've got people going multiple different ways. You're in a car. Um so what we're trying to do is implement a change and gauge the results, make sure it's better, not worse. exchange and see better. So last week uh we closed Second Avenue and driving around

this parking lot Thursday, Saturday, Sundays um for event handling and That's helped tremendously too. It um frees a lot of people to circulate and trying to find a parking place through that parking lot and then become a conflict point on on the second avenue. Um hopefully some of this works on Main Street. We're also going to close one half of Fifth Avenue to make sure there's room for two cars to pass. We're going to close 6th Avenue between Main Street and Laurel Street so that um it's local traffic only. We're not you can't use that as a cut through also for seventh. Um what we saw on Saturday night moving on Friday on Saturday was vehicles turning off main street and parking on six on both sides of the street and turn off both sides of the street and then there wasn't room for one car to get through safely let alone two pass the vehicles up on the side streets and that creat it's real because cars will make the turn not be able to make the intersection and walk into you got to back up. We could have we could have 75 officers downtown at every intersection and still not have enough people in the right spots because they're going to just shift the problem from one to the next. So try these implementations of of improvements and then we'll go to the next one. Maybe we can find links for the sign. That's an easy one. You have anything that designates the county parking lot for overflow? Like there are a lot of people from out downtown that were out of towners. They didn't know where to park. Is there any way we can let them know to park on? I know it was full most of the time, but we don't generally advertise the county as a county as an acceptable place to park because lot to do that with and um I believe it is a parking lot because it's it is public. We don't want to push people there. Um

what we are doing instead to add additional parking is we we're going to move some things around Marina Drive closed right now for celebration lights. We're going to maneuver some things around add some Marina Drive probably a couple hundred cars can fit there if we do it right and then create some traffic flow issues off of Marina Drive to allow traffic going out of town to get people out but not let them come in. it. We got a system working out, but that whole department right there and it'll actually encourage people to go to the county department. And could we not have a convers have we not had a conversation with the county about using the lots?

I I think they would say yes, but they probably do it quietly. So, we have not I mean, I think we just use the parking lots. I think everybody uses parking lots. I don't think it's history at all. I don't think so either, but I also don't. So, um we're next year. I think we'll probably have to look at trolling people in from offsite which is exciting but also another thing to be able to logistical world six. We have a couple um like all-terrain vehicles for more more work level thing. Um we would have to make sure our insurance allows us to do that with our golf carts to become passenger service. I don't know that it will. Um it'd be easier if another like nonprofit did that sort of thing. We have to partner with them and run that. Yeah. They were they they were parking in the library museum and walking up here. But Miss Helms triggered my memory on something about people being out of town. I did run into a guy and he said there had been a lizard man sighting in here. You know what I'm talking about. Has there been a lizard man? Yes. I used to have t-shirts and I scared a little.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor Council. Y um we've completed several city projects here recently. We've paid the parking area at Smith Jones pool, paid the dog parking lot, um splash pad, uh town green, phase 3, holiday alley, recreation center parking lots. Um, and I'd like to thank other departments. Um, Robert, um, Timmy, um, Rob, uh, coently everybody out because we couldn't do it's a it's a group effort. Um, Bradley, um, as you can see, his his landscaping is beautiful. It's amazing. Um, so I'd like to thank them too. Uh, personally, um, we're going to start on the road reconstruction of University Plaza here in a few weeks. We've performed 525 inspections on storm water and erosion control. Performed 109 plane reviews. We've installed 2,170 ft of storm p. The mcken outfall score grant project is underway. Um they've been clearing the land um and should start um early to mid November. So it'll start taking shape November time frame. um the Pine and Bay Street uh also grants that we received. Um all the camera washing's been done. Um they should be uh installing pipe and upgrading what's in the dirt now um here the next couple weeks as well. So that'll add to uh some of our congestion as well, I imagine. But it's a good um we were very fortunate here recently. Um there was some leftover skip funds and they reached back out to the city and um

asked if we had any more projects. So we kind of sent them our 5-year capital improvement list and um we're able to get that bid out. And just some of those projects, the large ones, it's the park view redesign storm water upgrades, storm water improvements in Rose Haven, storm water upgrades at Boundary and 701. So fingers crossed it won't flood anymore. um ditch maintenance of the canal on 16th Avenue, storm improvements at Blue Bell Lane and Woody and store improvements at Graham and Long Road. There's some other smaller projects throughout the city that's all throughout outskirts downtown everything. Um we're also fortunate and received another storm water grant from the rural infrastructure authority for large street between third and fourth Avenue. So there'll be some improvements going on there first of the year time frame. I'm waiting on DOT permits and and that time frame right now. But that concludes my report and I'd be happy to answer any questions. So Brandon, you had quite a list. How long did it take you to do those? I don't think you ever said in what period of time you did all of what you did the projects about since January, February, February. cuz I'm sitting here thinking surely he didn't do all that in a month 6 to 8 months. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. That's right. U main street now where the father's place is northern is northern street.

Yes. Yes, sir. We need to do something with that street. Is that not all street cities? It needs to it needs to be widened and also just just look at that street. We can take a look at it. Thank you. Um we've not been out the uh resurfacing list, so maybe something we can add to that. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anyone else? We thank you. Thank you so much. Miss Helms, I may be mistaken, but I do believe for council that we start with you. Well, okay.

I did go to a birthday party Saturday and we rode the pedal p which was a really cool thing. I think um he said his business hadn't been as good as he had wanted. I don't know if it's traffic flow or maybe not being able to have alcohol, but I I said I would bring it up at the at um counseling. But it was fun. It wasn't It was a short little trip, but it was actually a good time. Um again, I appreciate all the visitors. uh was downtown myself Saturday and I should have charged but I drove I had people from downtown to the marina to the scary part of Adam's fun show that I don't like the clowns but I did it cuz cuz it was the right thing to do but um I did meet a lot of people from Mount Pleasant Wilmington. Um, a lady said she brought her her daughter here cuz she said that she was scared to death of Halloween and the the ball skeletons. That really helped her a lot. And over I love Halloween now. So that's that's a positive. But I do appreciate all the hard work that all our staff puts in. I know that traffic is a bear right now, especially with the haunted walk that I think that went real well. But maybe we can make those officers around. But um I the volunteers that we have for Halloween I hope show up for Christmas cuz I want every holiday to just feed off the other one. So um thanks for all the hard work for the city. That's all I have. Thank you. Um I just have a couple of things tonight. Um I just want to make sure that you know everything downtown looks absolutely amazing. The Riverwalk is great. Um, I just want to make sure that it's accessible to all of our citizens, even our citizens with disabilities. Um, so is there I just Are

we following the ADA guidelines? Want to make sure that everything is accessible and things for individuals who may use motorized vehicles. Yes, we are. And we're upgrading those areas that we that we found deficiencies. Um, last year we redid the sidewalks on Laur Street that found be a little too narrow. I think we spent about $250,000 to wing them to make them um accessible um on both both sides of the street were not accessible, one was one was not. So we spent that money to do that. Um in addition, the the tunnel of roads holiday alley um last year was a mulch pathway. We added the the um the pavement to make it accessible. Um and as we continue these um improvements everywhere, we always try to add accessibility where we can.

Okay. And that includes the riverwalk. Yeah, the riverwalk is there is a stairway in the middle. There is no way to get over the railroad trestle without a stairway. There was not a way to make it accessible in the middle. It meets code because both ends are accessible. The middle part of it doesn't have to be there to be accessible. It's not ideal. We agree it was the only way to make it to be able to connect from one side to the other. When we own the railroad tracks, there might be a way to go back in and and retrofit it to make it better, but we do not own the railroad tracks yet. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Sure. Um, and last, um, I was at Smith Jones on Saturday, um, and there was a little concern, um, where Smith Jones Park is, which, I know it's not a city park, but, I think at one point there were cameras there that are no longer there. And I wanted to ask about cameras that would possibly be over at the Smith Jones Park side. um if that's something that we could do, something that we can negotiate, something just so that you know the city side is right there, the Smith Jones Park um is right there. Just making sure that people are safe when they're in that area um and that we have cameras that are able to kind of monitor what's going on. We we do have cameras on the city portion, the city side of it, and I think they face multiple directions. Um, putting c our cameras on private property though is is a is a tricky thing. Um, but we can use them on private pool or public pools in the area where we can and make sure that we've got coverage. I know we did have um some cameras internal to the park and that was something we can't do any longer, but we can try to have some on the periphery if there's areas that are dead that we can make up.

Okay. So, we could do that. That'd be that'd be awesome.

That's all for me. Thank you. Mr. White, I saw that pill. Is that what it's called? This afternoon as I was coming in. Um, could we use that for the Christmas tree? The motor isn't strong enough to to navigate it. So, you have to pedal. Scratch. That's all, Mr. Go. That's all. That's all. Um I keep up the great work. Um I'm reminded of uh you know, I'm one of these people that uh plays it safe most of the time. And that's just how I was raised. And it's really uncomfortable for me to step outside of my comfort zone. But I recognize that we grow outside of our comfort zone. Uh and and staff over the last few years has certainly pushed us out, you know, right, wrong, and different has certainly pushed us outside of our comfort zone. Uh and we've seen tremendous successes um with that. Uh and and we're learning and growing through those successes. and and I'm reminded by you know the budget retreat uh this past uh this past year the challenges that a community there faced for a period of time where there was this this uh this motivation to to to do something new to grow and um and I know that to be true. Um, you gave us a a book uh a a few months back and I' I've read it twice now. Uh, performative outrage. Uh, highly recommend it. Um, easy to read. You can sit down and read it an hour and a half. But anyway, um, so thank you staff, thank you

colleagues. I think we've got the best colleagues in the world. Um, I was talking to someone over the weekend and they said, you know, there just doesn't seem to be much drama out of council. And I said, "Well, that's because we all get along." Well, we don't always agree, nor should we. Um, but we we work so well together and staff, you're a big part of that. So, I I appreciate y'all um and and all of you pushing me outside of my comfort zone. I'm certainly, I think, a hopefully a better person because of it. So, thank you for what you do. And that's all I got tonight. Thank you, sir. Thank you, man.

Thank you. Um, it's been touched on obviously a number of times tonight already, but Saturday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday, all day. Let's just put it that way. Um, was absolutely insane downtown. Um, it is, uh, it's mindboggling to see. Um, you know, and and I've heard from a number of business owners, um, you restaurant owners, uh, your your your, as my kids call, your sweet treat spots, um, that are that are setting record numbers, um, right now. And, you know, for them to be able to generate revenue right now to get them through the the the drier months of first part of the year is is a great thing to see. So, you know, is it inconvenient at times? I I I got stuck in that traffic Saturday. I I get it. Hour round trip to drop my daughter off from my house to to to back, but um you know, knowing that that they're in generating revenue right now, so that they're not um dipping into their personal pockets come January to make payroll um means a lot for them right now. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Hardway.

Uh thank you so much. Again, I have spent many hours just sitting on a like a table at one location or a chair at one location and just meeting people and talking to people and watching. And you know, I think one of the things that I'm so proud of this city for is everybody's coming by with smiles on their face. They're enjoying themselves. They're from literally all over the country. Um talked with a lady and but she goes, "We heard this. We heard about Halloween South Carolina on the TV station in Cleveland and that so they decided not to go to Salem. They decided to come to our city of Halloween. Um tremendous people. I also hope that um council we will or and staff we will look at um uh Antos Pizzeria who just won the a world title in Italy that maybe we can uh get him here to print pron to congratulate him on his world title of his pizza. That is pretty amazing. um Chef uh Darren, our South Carolina ambassador, Chef Darren Smith, also helped helped him in that process. So, you know, it's so great to see the comm the the friendly competition among restaurants, but also the competition, the partners working together to make make each other better. Um, also theater of the public starts their Wizard of Oz uh this weekend. Uh, and the performing festival, the children's festival was very well attended. Also, uh, one of my, this was sent to me right before meeting and I just want to take a moment to read this. U, this was somebody snapped this off the very Facebook. Sorry, but this was a comment. Pay attention to the leadership in Conway. true civic

leaders from the mayor to the council bettering their community without concerning without concern of lining their pockets. And I think that is that is so such a noble statement. Uh early voting started today so make sure you get out and vote. Thank you everyone for a great month. Thank you Miss Hardwick. I don't um maybe I do mention it as a brag, but I spent the last week in Salt Lake City and one of the things that um I did was tour a tiny housing project. Um there exists in Salt Lake City um a group that has worked for now decades to do better by the unsheltered. starts with transitional shelter that includes services, uh, mental health services, some um, medical services, more training on how to get a job, how to keep a job, how to manage money, how to sort of get started all over again with the way we live. Um, there is um, some movement um, around us that is going to include us at some point. um looking at a local shelter and I want us to start preparing for what happens beyond a shelter. Um the reality is that housing costs and rental costs are not going to decrease. They're going to continue to skyrocket. Uh in this particular setting, a 350 ft home is built to um occupy up to two adults. the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. Um, they're built in a community. So, all the fronts of the houses are facing a center. There's there's green

space. There's a tiny porch with one chair on the porch. Um, for the purpose of having people sit out and if somebody should throw away a piece of paper, um, the other neighbors are going to say, "That's not the way we live here." There is, um, there is um, uh, opportunity for employment close by. There's a clinic where uh sort of a one-stop shop where uh various professionals come in to meet the needs of the people who are there. It is, you know, they're they're light years ahead of us, but at the same time, I really want us to start thinking about how we're going to get to that place that Larry White has been trying to take us for decades. I'm not stealing your thunder. I'm just I'm just I'm climbing on I'm just climbing on your train.

Thank you. Um I just think that uh you know just in terms of planning we need to look forward to where in our area are we going to be the least um restricted by nimbies and caves and and you know those fashions that would have difficulty accepting this kind of thing near their home. Um it's really going to be we need to start planning. We need to look ahead. Um, also while I was there, um, I mentioned I wore my, uh, Halloween earrings wherever I went, and every chance I got, I'd walk up to a stranger and say, "Well, have you, do you like Halloween?" And, and that started the conversation. This one young woman said, "You know, I was at this conference last year, and a woman said something about Halloween, and I forget what state." I said, "That was me, and it's Halloween, South Carolina. Write it down." So, I gave her a card, but um I'm hoping that even more people will get here by the end of the month, Adam. And a lot of promises for next year. Um I'd just like to echo what everybody said about how enormous uh this transition to Halloween South Carolina has been for our community. And I'm going to read just two testimonials that I just think are are worthwhile. I think they say all uh this one begins with giving me too much credit but and I'll skip that part but it says that we have transformed and grown conway lifting an entire community with family in town from Kansas City. I thought last night, meaning um Sunday night, would be a quieter time to walk around Halloween City, but it was full of families. Our uncle said it was better than the Kansas City Plaza at Christmas. While others are bickering

about what to do in their cities, we are getting it done. And most of you have seen this um letter to Well, this was not an editorial. Yes, it was. This was a letter to the editor um or independent. Loris man enjoys visiting the city of Halloween. I read with amusement and sadness the letter to the editor from a person I will not name who has lived in Conway with her family for over 30 years. I do not live in Conway, but I do not disagree one bit with her on how beautiful, charming, and friendly the city is. I love going there all the time to eat, walk around, and shop. The Riverwalk is such a peaceful and relaxing area. I've always respected everyone's opinion and viewpoint on issues on what one may think or want to say. That is what people and neighbors should do. For about 6 weeks out of the year, the city is dressed up for Halloween. So many many people not only from Conway itself but from all over the state and surrounding areas can have some joy for a moment in time. Friends and neighbors might see someone who they haven't seen in a while walking downtown looking at Halloween setups. It seems Halloween is being celebrated with decorations and lights even more than Christmas lately. Why not just take a step back and enjoy the sights, sounds, and the people with all the hate, violence, and crime in the news of late? It does make me feel happy to see families with children, grown-ups holding hands, and just people in general admiring everything and enjoying themselves. Sometimes a city or other venues need to spend money to bring in additional revenue into a community with visitors eating at various restaurants, patronizing drinking establishments,

shopping at all the stores available in Conway. I believe the city government leaders thought long and hard on planning and getting this project to where it is today. I am sure all the other people who come to come to see Halloween City are glad that they did. Thanks to everyone who helps plan this event each year, setting up everything. And I do hope that they get to see the joy and happiness they brought to everyone during this time of the year. Thank you, Conway. Those are my words. Uh that is all I have for this evening and we will now uh go into executive session for the purposes of a discussion on a contractual matter incident to retirees health insurance pursuant to South Carolina code section 3470 A2. a discussion of an economic development opportunity named project smoke stacks pursuant to South Carolina code section 347A5 and C to review a cont contractual terms with AT&T for lease of space on the gardener Lacy water tower pursuant to South Carolina code section 34782. Um we will reconvene from ex executive session if any um decisions are to be made and um adjourn. After that time we will entertain a motion to go into executive session. Mr. Gold moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Miss Helms. We have a properly session seconded motion to go into executive session. All in favor show your hand. And the the motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much for being here.