City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the City of Roswell Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, July 13th, 2026. I am Mayor Mary Robichaux and I would like to introduce my colleagues and council members present. We have Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member Sarah Beeson. Councilmember Allen Sells, Councilmember Christine Hall, Councilmember Jennifer Phillippe, Councilmember Erin Brumley, and Councilmember Chris Zack. I will now turn it over to City Administrator Randy Knighton to explain how the meeting is run. Mr. Knighton.

Thank you, Mayor Robichaux, and good evening, everyone. In accordance with Section Chapter 3.70 of the City Code, the City Council shall hold regular public meetings. The purpose of these City Council meetings are for the public to participate and speak on items which constitute formal decisions by the elected body. These items are listed on the published agenda, which can be accessed via the City website prior to the meeting and also back at the rear of the room. We ask that everyone here, if you would like to speak on an item, we have comment cards. We have Ms. Karen Zittimer from our communications department at the back with those comment cards. If you would fill those out and designate which item you would like to speak, we'll make sure that those are provided to the city clerk and they will be addressed in the order in which they are received. We look forward to having a very successful evening this evening. We would also ask that if you have any electronic devices that you would silence those at this time thank you again for being here uh... you are an essential component of everything that is roswell and certainly uh... the decision-making process mayor robichaux thank you we would now like to invite pastor jay street from roswell community church to deliver the invocation thank you mayor

It is a real privilege to be here tonight.

Just thank you for the honor. May we pray? Heavenly Father, you have blessed this nation beyond measure and have blessed us to be born in this time and then be in this place for your purposes. You have blessed us with the gift of this city, the city of Roswell, and for that we are very grateful. In your word, we are instructed to seek the prosperity of the city and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its prosperity will be your prosperity. So to that end, we pray for your blessing on the mayor and city council and other leaders tonight for wisdom and strength and encouragement as they lead the city. I pray that you would give them peace during challenging times, wisdom and discernment when the path ahead is unclear Valor in times when unpopular choices have to be made for the greater good. Strength to shoulder the load of responsibility and comfort in times of loneliness that only leaders know. We also pray for the staff and all the departments and the men and women who work so hard to make the city a very special place to be. We pray for their protection, wisdom, unity, and peace. We pray for our police, our fire and emergency services who protect us all. And as we look around this room and outside these windows, we pray for the flourishing of our families and our friends and our neighbors and confidence that as we seek the prosperity of this city, we might enjoy prosperity in return. And Lord, above all, may we grow in love one for another, just as you have loved us so. We pray now that the proceedings of this evening be guided by your wisdom and your love for the flourishing of all who live and work and play here. Thank you, gracious Lord, for your goodness and for shedding your grace upon this city. And we pray this in your mighty name. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to invite Sarah Gillespie, our school board member for Roswell, up to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Mayor Prokosho. Thank you, council members.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So as I get ready to start the mayor's report, we're gonna have quite a few, we have a few appointments that we'll be voting on for different of our commissions. But I also do wanna take a minute to remind everyone about our upcoming budget workshops. The first one will be Wednesday, July 15th at Roswell Area Park at the Bill Johnson Community Activities Building. from seven to five p.m. The second one will be Saturday, July 18th at East Roswell Park Recreation Center from nine to 11 a.m. And again, I'm sorry? I have five to seven. I'm sorry, what did I say? I'm sorry, five to seven, sorry, dyslexia here. So I apologize, it is five to seven p.m., apologize. The budget survey is actually now live, so again, please scan the QR code on the flyer outside the council chambers, and for those of you visiting us from home, you can visit our finance page on the city website and click the link to please give us your information about the budgeting information for Roswell. With that, the first item on the mayor's report is an announcement of the reappointment of Nate Porter to the Roswell Housing Authority. I do not believe Nate is here. This is one position. It does not require a vote. It is an appointment by the mayor. The next is going to be a reappointment of Ron Jackson to the Historic Preservation Commission. So does council have any comments or questions regarding this reappointment? I will ask you if you have questions. Any comments? Do I hear a motion? Motion from Council Member Beeson. Do I have a second? Council Member Jennifer from Council Member Phillippe. All in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously. Today's not going to be a good day. Sorry. The next appointment is Tom Hamblin to the Design Review Board. Again, does Council have any comments or questions regarding this appointment? Do I hear a motion? Motion from Council Member Hall. Do I have a second? Second from Council Member Brumley. All in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously. The next appointment is Joe Zerkas for the Design Review Board. Does Council have any comments or questions regarding this appointment? Do I hear a motion? Council Member Zack, do I have a second? Council Member Brumley, all in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously. And the next appointment is Patrick Caffrey, to the Downtown Development Authority. Does council have any comments or questions regarding this appointment? Do I have a motion? Council Member Hall, do I have a second? Council Member Phillippe. All in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously. At this time, all those who have been appointed either are reappointed. If you would join me in front, we will issue the oath of office, and you will be signing some forms.

I have three Bibles and I don't know if that was your choice.

Do you have someone you would like to hold it or do you want to hold it yourself?

Okay.

This is for my state house. We are doing... Look at this, very talented. We are going to do this on group, so I'm going to, when I ask you to state your name, please just state your name. So, I, please state your name. Solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the, I'm sorry, repeat after me. I'm sorry, this is my first time doing this. So, you state your name. Solemnly swear or affirm That I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Georgia. And that I will in all respects observe the provisions of the Charter and ordinances of the City of Roswell. And I will well and truly perform the duties of the office

of if you could please state your.

And that I will to the utmost of my skill and ability endeavor to promote the interest and property of said city without fear, favor, or affection. So help me God. We're going to sign. We do have some forms you will each sign. And then if you don't mind, we'd love to have a picture with all of council. Okay.

Okay. Ron.

Ron.

Thank you for your willingness to serve. Can we take a couple of pictures with council? I know.

Yeah, I want to do it. Karen, I've got a story.

Yeah, I want up here or in front so we can go around the CEO. Over the last week, and I didn't share one.

Here, I think she grabbed the, oh, she wanted one. Okay, let's go.

I feel like the extra stuff just doesn't give some differentiation.

Okay, squeeze in a little bit over this way. You guys are good.

Just keep moving over a little bit more. A little bit more.

Keep going, Meg. A little bit closer.

Yeah, close that gap.

Oh, that would be fine. Sure, sure. Absolutely. Okay. All right. And look over here.

Congratulations.

Next is the consent agenda. City Clerk Long, would you read the consent agenda? Are there any speakers for it?

Yes, Mayor, we have one speaker, Courtney Rosier, for item number two, approval of a resolution to apply for and accept a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Good evening. I thought it important this evening to point out an item on the consent agenda and say the name Nancy Jackson. As the Roswell 365 event material for a presentation during this year's Roots Festival says, Nancy Jackson's story is an amazing true story of a woman who gave up her family and everything she knew to fight for her freedom. At the age of 22, this courageous woman risked her life to stand up for her rights and to set a precedent that created a path for other enslaved people to become free. I encourage council members to follow the grant to ensure this performance work comes to fruition and to also do what they can to ensure Nancy Jackson's story of successfully suing James Stephen Bullock for her freedom is as prominent as the Teddy Roosevelt visit to Bullock Hall. Here's an observation from John Mills, who led the repair of Nancy Jackson's gravestone and visited Bullock Hall last year with descendants of William Jackson, Nancy Jackson's brother, who was enslaved at Bullock Hall. Visiting the Bullock Mansion in Georgia, I learned they tell the story of the elegance of the Bullock family and Teddy Roosevelt's visit to see where his mother was raised. Nancy is not important in their intent. Thank you to the council for approving the resolution to apply and accept for the grant. Thank you to the historic and cultural affairs team, especially Jenny Goldman, for hearing such requests and being intentional in bringing this important freedom story forward, while as the agenda narrative says, uncovering additional stories that reflect the complexities of the American experience and the enduring significance of freedom, citizenship, and individual rights. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers?

There are no other speakers for the consent agenda.

Does council have any comments regarding the consent agenda? Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Council Member Beeson. Do I have a second? Council Member Zack. All in favor, please raise your hand. Vote passes unanimously. Next is the regular agenda. City Clerk Long, please read the first item.

Yes, this item is approval of the FY2026 Mid-Year Budget Amendment presented by Director of Finance, Adam Novotny.

Mayor, council members, good evening. Nice to see you all. The item before you tonight is the 2026 mid-year budget amendment for your consideration, the purpose of which is to align the 2026 budget with operational needs identified or changed since adoption. For reference, the budget was adopted back in October of 2025, so a few things have changed since then. This item was passed by committee on the 23rd of June. There we go. Some additional items that are in the mid-year budget amendment for these kind of bucketed categories that we have before you, some public safety and emergency readiness, parks, recreation, and community, facilities and infrastructure, technology and operations, and personnel and administration. some of those items in further detail, some police staffing stabilization, inclement weather staffing and equipment from the weather incident we had back in January for the fire department, school zone flasher upgrades, some ADA accessibility improvements at public safety headquarters, Old Mill Park summer operations for staffing, Office 365 licensing, and a much needed grants manager position. The funding adjustments that fund this amendment are as follows. Sales tax revenue increase for dollars that we received in 2026 above what we had budgeted. Insurance premium tax revenue increase, which we have every reason to expect toward the tail end of this year. Some cultural arts revenue updates. some short-term rental revenue, IT fund balance for use of paying for the Microsoft 365 licenses, and then a bucket of others such as insurance claim dollars and some reimbursements we had from the move into public safety headquarters. The last item on there is actually a negative adjustment to revenue. As I said during committee, we were a victim of our own success with some of the school zone fine revenues doing as they should, just not with any revenue to accompany them. On here, this is the total budget impact for the funding usage and the funding sources being congruent with one another. The net impact to the budget is zero dollars overall. The budget remains in balance in accordance with state laws governing that. And then again, some of the items that are listed on the additional attachment on the agenda items. When you approve, if you should elect to approve the mid-year budget amendment, It again maintains some public safety staffing, restores some key operational services, addresses infrastructure and technology needs, recognizes updated revenues, and again, the budget is neutral and balanced for your consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. City Clerk Long, are there any speakers for this item?

One speaker, Roman Pierczak.

Good evening, everyone.

I have more question than comment. When I was reading one of your slides where it says finance and sales stock revenue increase and insurance premium revenue increase, can you explain to me please What do you mean insurance premium revenue increase? Because it's close to half a million dollars and sales tax is also $500,000. So can you explain to me what's the insurance premium and what are the total component or part of the component of sales tax revenue from where they are coming? The large amount, I don't ask if you could receive something, eight and a half thousand from whatever. But if you could explain to me what it is. Okay? Thank you. I may have question to your explanation. Okay.

So again, the sales tax revenue is money that is collected by the state and distributed based upon population. And so these are sales tax revenues that are largely impacted from county activity, not necessarily just at the city. There's a formula that goes into that. And then the insurance premium tax revenue is anytime that you have an insurance policy, there's a tax that you pay on the premium. As premiums go up or the amount insured goes up, there's an accompanying revenue. What we've done is essentially that comes in at the later end of The calendar year worked out a little differently when we were on a non calendar year fiscal year And what we've essentially done is set this projected number to what we almost exactly to what we received in 25 So we have every reasonable expectation that that would be the case in this year in 26 Thank you are there any other questions from the audience I

There are no other speakers. Does Council have any comments or questions regarding this item? Council Member Hall?

Thank you, Mayor. I'll reiterate, as I did in the committee meeting, that I'm very, very disappointed in this mid-year budget. So our budget was adopted in October, you know, really nine months ago, and we are six months into a $100 million general budget, $200 million total budget. And what we're really doing is just basically, it's a million one because 200,000 of that roughly is a journal entry as we discussed. This process needs to have been much more robust, open, transparent, and really looked into where we were on revenues, where we were against budget, where we were on expenses, six months into a budget, I mean, you're over and you're gonna be over and under in different areas. And we really, really didn't address that. The other thing is just looking at the mayor's office expenses of staffing is very concerning to me. during the previous administration four years staffing compensation packages were about 750,000. They're ballooned over to $2.1 million for the next four years and we're adding another administrative assistant there. So I cannot support this budget and that's why I'll be voting no.

Any other comments or questions from council? Council Member Beeson.

Just from my perspective, this seems pretty standard in terms of how we've addressed mid-year budget amendments in the past. Obviously, you've addressed adjusted revenues based off of income. There's no way we'd be able to align for that. Also, my criticism of how we changed the budget process within the last administration, one of the key criticisms that I had made was that you would have a lame duck mayor and his administration worker that would be setting the budget for the incoming administration. So obviously you would be having different priorities that are going to be adjusted for based off an incoming administration. That said, I don't understand how we can really criticize the addition of administrative staff, specifically administrative assistants, and in some cases executive assistants, when the previous administration had budgets with COOC, FOs see all of the O's and you had no qualms with approving those in terms of the budget. Additionally, you were the same person who was telling us or urging us on council not even three months ago to dip into discrepancy or discretionary budgets and contingency funds to try to fix a pond in your neighborhood. So.

Council Member Beeson, please do not get into the personal issues.

I'm keeping it relevant to the voting record.

I ask again, please do not.

I can maintain my opinion, and I maintain my opinion on that.

Council Member Hall.

Thank you for bringing that up. That is, dredging has also been a priority in this administration, in the prior administrations, not so much so in this administration, and I was disappointed that we did not focus on stormwater management as part of this budget amendment.

Council Member Beeson.

If that was the case, it could have easily been amended in the previous administration's budget which was set for this year to increase the dredging budget. However, you approved that budget.

Any other comments or questions? May I have a motion? Council Member Beeson. May I have a second? Council Member Brumley. All in favor of the mid-year budget? Four, all opposed. Two, measure passes.

Thank you.

City Clerk Long, please read the second item on the regular agenda.

Item number 104.62, approval of a construction contract with Backbone Infrastructure LLC in the amount of $9,489,436 for the Riverside Road T-Splice project and budget amendment 3504-2200-06-2226 in the amount of $1,454,580 for the Fulton County Waterline IGA with a total project authorization of $10,721,901. And this is presented by Director of Transportation, Andy Flegar.

Thank you very much. So we've gone through the project, but just a little background. This project was adopted in 2019 as part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. It was approved by the voters to be part of the 2021 TSPLOS program. Open houses developing the concept happened in March of 2022. And through a series of about five meetings of the council, the final concept of what was gonna be built was approved October 24th, 2022. So what we're gonna build is an eight to 10 foot multi-use trail with pedestrian lighting on the south side of Riverside Road, a five foot sidewalk on the north side, a roundabout at River Lake Drive, a new traffic signal at Taman Drive. We'll have buffered bike lanes along the roadway and several pedestrian crossings across the corridor. The financial side, 11 bids were submitted or received. For this project for construction, Backbone Infrastructure was the lowest responsive responsible bidder. And with approval, we will move forward with awarding this contract for construction to Backbone Infrastructure.

Thank you. City Clerk Long, are there any speakers on this item?

Speaker, Jason Yowell.

When this was being approved, I was on the Roswell Transportation Commission, and we were tasked with meeting with the bicycle people to come up with an accommodation. And in the meeting, Nathan Sears from the bicycle group put down a rendering that indicated bicycle paths that were segregated from the roadway with landscape strip. I immediately said, that's it. Because what we were going to have were six foot bicycle lanes separated from the roadway by six foot landscape strips that would also act as bioswales to clean the water. Now, this road profile is the same 44 feet that ours would have been, except you're putting in at great expense just an absolutely unnecessary sidewalk and curb and gutter on the north side of the road. This will take stormwater directly into the river without any treatment. It means we're increasing pollution. We're increasing impervious surface, so we're increasing floodwater in the river corridor. The other thing is that when you have a bicycle lane, and these bicycle lanes, you keep hearing buffered. But that buffer is a two-foot striped piece of asphalt attached to the roadway, attached to the bike lanes, which are really only four feet. When you have bicycle lanes attached to the roadway, you are doubling the cost of that asphalt that you're putting down because it is built at a different spec. It has to be built at the roadway spec. So a third of your asphalt, you're paying double. You're also spending a great deal of money on curb and gutter and not thinking about, well, how is that really going to be used? Because no one's walking on that side of the street. They're going to cross the street onto the multipurpose path. If you're looking for an emergency landing strip or you're looking to increase truck traffic or induce higher speeds on that corridor, this is a great road profile. The more you push the roadway out, the faster the cars go because the more desensitized they become to their actual speed. Same thing with trucks. They love... to have that extra margin. Makes them feel very comfortable. So if these are the things that you want, this isn't the road profile that you want to do. Originally, I think the concept plan had three roundabouts. I was adamantly against all of them, except for the one that remains. That's a good thing, because the only place that makes any sense for a roundabout in that corridor is at Riverside Park. The environmental consequences, the visual impact is going to be stunning. It's going to look awful. I mean, that is a big unbroken bit of pavement, adding to the five foot sidewalk separated from the roadway by two foot curb and gutter and a two foot beauty strip, it's just a massive amount of impervious surface that will be a visual blight in an area where we're spending a lot of money to enhance the usability of the park. If you think that a six foot bicycle lane is somehow less functional for the bicycle people than a four foot bicycle lane with striping that still is right up against the roadway, well, you know, you're entitled to your opinion, but I heartily disagree. For the last six months, all I've seen is the Wilson agenda being passed without any question. This is an opportunity, and I urge you to defer approving this contract until you can do some further study, meet with the contractor, and determine if the alternative that we had recommended will, in fact, be feasible. within the budget. I think it will. Now, Kurt Wilson turned to, when I spoke about this, when the contract for the design work was being let out, I spoke against it. Kurt asked the acting transportation director at the time, what he thought would cost more and he goes, oh, well, their plan would cost more. Oh yeah, this is from a guy whose group was responsible for a 300% increase on Oxbow Road from six million to 18 million. I would really not take their word for what relative costs are. Please defer this, thank you. Thank you, sir.

Are there any other speakers on this item?

In hearing this, I was thinking about the history of Azalea Road. And because a Catholic priest was from Connecticut, he envisioned the idea of rowing. So he formed a rowing organization out of St. Andrew's Catholic Church. What would follow would be Atlanta Junior rowing further down by the kudzu mounted on the north side of Azalea Drive. And they were storing boats along the road. Now the city wanting involvement in Parks and Recreation from the old apartments known as Beau Ravage, apartments that became condos on Azalea Drive, they had a community clubhouse on the river, and the city acquired that clubhouse. And as you notice, there are now storage facilities in that parking lot for Atlanta Junior Rowing, and St. Andrews has built their rowing storage on their property. Georgia Tech and Georgia State share rowing boats with the high schoolers rowing. I have a daughter, two daughters, one did rowing camp, the second one decided to row in middle school, and I thought, great, get off the cell phone and get in the water. And when she went to University of Miami, she saw they had a rowing team, And I said, call the coach and see if you can be a coxswain. I got 20% discount on tuition. And she traveled with the team. And what's interesting, rowing is a much more popular sport in northeastern universities where we have larger rivers. And when the south rows, University of Louisville has a team, Ohio State has a team. But you see the Virginia regatta boat lengths ahead of the Georgia and Florida boats. rowing teams, so it is a grown sport, and we could have wonderful rowing events, possibly, more homeopathic to the community, but when you see that winding Azalea Road, and I have walked my bicycle up 120, you know, riding a bicycle from Holcomb Bridge to Dogwood to Azalea, and you see that sidewalk we placed on 120 on the Bullock Hall side, and you never see pedestrians there. When you were curving that rock wall, the Beaurevage Apartments, their sign was mounted, nailed into rocks on that north side of the road. And I don't know if you remember Steve Bashey, who lives in that house with a red tin roof. He heard a crash, and when he rescued someone from a burning car, has a gastrointestinal prosthetic. I recognize his facial profile, his eyes, nose, and mouth in the Kroger on 120. I said, Steve, what happened to you? And he raised his shirt. So it is a dangerous road, not just at nighttime. There are residents with curb cuts for condominiums. Those children might want to go and cross the park. Someone could be pushing a stroller. If you're on a sidewalk on the north side and a car is going by fast, they're not ready to recognize pedestrians. So you really need to think, where will the sidewalk be used? When older people or bikers want to bike, they're more likely going to be close to the river. Years ago, you could see different accents of the community. I could walk down Grimes Bridge Road, look down Meadow Road, and see the city dome. When I moved here in 1990, people told me about the bonds to build a new city hall. There's beautiful experiences of watching horses across at Hunt Cliff, at Azalea Park. where they have horses. There's so many beautiful attributes that people are more likely wanting to walk along the park than along the Kudzu Mountains. Then you have the maintenance. I had to do my own work when we didn't have a city horticulturist with dead trees on Grimesbridge Road. And I had to go on Facebook because the Seventh-day Adventist Church doesn't have a Facebook web page. to get their dead trees cut down because my neighbors across the street didn't like it bending their fences. So we have dead trees along sidewalks. The community at 1180, the stucco town, I mean condos on Grimes Bridge had a dead, the river birch for a few years. No one was handling it. So when you're walking around trees on a sidewalk and a limb could break and the city isn't reinforcing the dead tree ordinances for pedestrian safety, that's a hazard. high demand of maintaining the greenery on that north side of Azalea Drive, where on the south side you have the view of the river, you have the cool breeze, and it's more captivating walk than walking around those curves where people can go fast. And so I really believe a sidewalk on the north side is not a desirable or a highly used pathway, just like the one on 120 by Bullock and the pizza restaurant. You don't see people walking up and down that sidewalk. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers? No other speakers. Does Council have any comments or questions regarding this item? Council Member Sells?

So I think I'm hearing what Mr. Parts is saying, and I'm pretty clear what Mr. Jowell is saying. So could you answer some of these questions? In particular, I wrote down three things. One is the width issue, which I have always been told that the width of the road is a clear indicator, clear corollary to the speed of travel. So could you address that? And then the second, you know, minor point I think in the grand scheme of things is the depth of the pavement so it's more expensive. I get that. If it's part of the road, it's gonna be part of the road, it's gonna be the same depth as the road, but if you could address that. And then Mr. Park's issue about the north side of the, this north side construction and what that will mean. Can you please address those three things?

So as far as the width of the road, curb to curb, yes, it's going to be a larger road. The lanes, the travel lanes in the inside are going to be fairly small. The bulk of the rest of the pavement is a barrier and then the bike lanes. And what you're going to see on the surface inside the curb lines are the bike riders that are out there. riding their 40, 70 miles on their road bikes that are currently riding in the traffic lanes right now. So we're going to separate them out. Yes, it's going to be a little wider. It'll be a little more expensive. It would be full pavement, full depth pavement. But the visual effect of the buffers is going to be fairly narrow lanes like we have now. There's only two lanes of traffic for there. For the sidewalk on the north side, the intent there is if you're just walking along, you're coming from the north side where the residential is, and you're trying to get to the river, you can walk down that sidewalk to get to one of the pedestrian crossings we have to get over to the multi-use trail to get to to get to the parks that we have along the river. So some people, if they're just out for a walk, maybe they don't want to cross and walk on the multi-use trail on the riverside, or they can just use it to get to a safer place to cross that road.

Just to follow up one bit on the width issue, separation the buffer is going to simply be stripes or is there going to be some kinetic diff uh... it's going to be it will be stripes okay so so from a visual perspective do you find that changes speed when it's just simply stripes versus looking at for instance willis springs or places like that where we striped have we seen any reduction in speed if you squeeze in the lane striping and people see a ten foot lane eleven foot lane and not fourteen feet of pavement it does do that

You can go down some roads. If you're going through larger residential areas that were built a long time ago with a big wide road, if you just paint stripes in and have kind of throw away the pavement on the outside, there is a visual impact of making it squeeze a little bit. At the end of the day, if we still have issues, there's nothing that would stop us from going there and putting some additional knockdown barriers along those to reinforce that sizing.

Okay. Yeah, I have not found that to be the case in terms of the slowing down in Horseshoe Bend where they've striped. I mean, there's still, Steeplechase is still the Autobahn. So, yeah. Okay, thank you for those answers.

Council Member Phillippe.

Can you tell us a little bit about what it would mean if we did defer this item? What does that mean for the city in terms of cost, time, what happens to the project?

If we're looking at going back and redoing what the public and the council decided was a concept for what this road looks like four years ago, we're basically going back four years. All of the design work, if we're going to change the profile even a little bit, not a little bit, if you do a change to what the road is, we will have to go back, redesign it all. That is, we have already gone through right-of-way acquisitions for the road that we need. We have cleared all of the local and federal environmental permitting, showing that what we're doing with the water, the stormwater, is acceptable. All of the utility plans and agreements are gonna have to be reworked. Fulton County is ready to replace their water line. That will all have to be redone. Basically, we're gonna rewind the clock, throw away the entire design, the cost of it. It was basically going to be starting over, and four years from now, with a new concept, with a new set of plans, and a new bid from a contractor for construction.

And I know you weren't here at the time, but are you familiar with the plans that were referenced with this more environmentally friendly type of structure?

I was not until recently.

Okay, so you don't have any information about that being evaluated or what happened at that time?

I do not know. I would assume that all of that was evaluated as part of the concepts, the workshops with the public, and then between the five meetings with the council of here's the different things, this is the concept we're going to go with. Okay.

Council Member Beeson.

Given the current design, Is there a potential option for protected bike lanes in the future of modifications later to be able to protect the bike lanes? Yes.

Yes.

Okay. So if there are safety issues moving forward.

There are barriers. I mean, knockdown posts we can put down. I think you've seen in the city of Atlanta, they're like plastic. But there are ways to take that striping and make it more permanent or more solid.

Yeah. Bollards. Yes. Okay. Got it. Okay. That addresses my concerns. Thank you.

Council Member Sells, and then Council.

Appreciate those answers. And also, you weren't here, but I'm looking for Watson, but he's not here. But, you know, we did look at the stormwater issues and address those as well. Maybe if someone else remembers that conversation from that time, I'm pretty confident that he was consulted on that, and there was a good, fair amount of discussion about that.

Council Member Sack.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm kind of curious on the Sidewalk on the north side because the more I hear about it the more I kind of agree that I don't Know how much it would be used and I'm kind of curious Could you would it be possible to break out what that cost would be and would it be possible to have that? Evaluated as removal and design or is that part of the whole package?

This point is part of the whole package But I really do feel that with the housing, with residential on that side, I think there will be people that are trying to get down to the river that for the span between the traffic signal with crosswalks, the pedestrian crossings that are gonna be signalized to let them safely cross. If you don't have anything over there, they're walking in the weeds looking for a place to jump across that road.

Council Member Hall.

Thank you, and I just want to remind everybody that this is, all of these elements were put together to work together. This is not a a la carte, you know, let me grab this and let me grab this. This is an entire design that incorporates all of these elements, and just to address the sidewalk on the north side, a sidewalk doesn't accommodate multimodal, transportation like a multi-use trail does. So there may be people, they could be older, they could be younger, that don't wanna be on a multi-modal trail and they will go to the north side and walk on the north side. Also, all the people coming down from Grimes Bridge and coming down that, I think that's Dogwood, I mean, as you had mentioned, they'll have access on the north side and they can cross over to the multi-use trail. So this is not a, let's just, you know, a la carte this, this is an entire concept that was made to work together with a lot of stakeholder input, a lot of resident input, and we're here, I mean, basically approving the construction contract. I mean, four years of work, so just like to remind folks that. Council Member Beeson.

To reiterate Council Member Hall's point, This was an ongoing process that was several years long. I speak purely anecdotally from personal experience. I lived in River Mill condominiums for several years and I got to do the weed walk several times and almost had a heart attack when I stepped on a beheaded snake. Thankfully he was already dead, but it's a terrifying walk on that shoulder. There are several residences on that far side of the road that would be service for that area, but it also connects a separate section of the park that people often forget are there, which is the Vickery Creek section. which is where I was traversing trying to get back to my condo, it would connect Highway 9 and the whole river park system into that Vickery Creek park system where people often go hiking through those trails. Because right now there actually is no sidewalk along that area. And that also would allow for better connectivity into the downtown area for people who are using the river park section for recreation use. and tying them into the downtown area for economic benefit to the city. But lastly as well, I think what Council Member Sells was addressing, that there was a conversation, I apologize if I misquote it, but I could have sworn that when we had discussed including bioswales along the river area, both in Azalea and Riverside, that the issue was washout due to flooding, that the plants would not be maintained due to the level of flooding that had previously occurred, so they needed to be able to incorporate larger scale of draining and stormwater accommodations that the bioswells could not accommodate. If this is not the section of road that we were referring to in that conversation, I apologize in advance, but I am trying to address the question about the bioswelling because that is something that I've asked to incorporate in other road designs in the past, and I think significant flooding was something that GDOT pushed back on a number of times. Thank you.

Any other comments from council? May I have a motion? Council Member Beeson? May I have a second? Council Member Hall? All in favor?

Passes unanimously.

City Clerk Long, please read the last item on the regular agenda.

This is item number 10508, approval for the mayor or city administrator to sign an IGA between Fulton County and participating cities for use and distribution of 2026 transportation special purpose local option sales tax proceeds. Also presented by Director of Transportation, Andy Flegar.

So as promised, this is the last step of the 2026 T-SPLOST process. The list has been given to Fulton County. This is requesting permission to sign the intergovernment agreement with Fulton County where they will collect the sales tax and share it amongst the cities. Our portion based on population is 15.04% of the taxes collected.

City Clerk Long, are there any speakers for this item?

speakers for this item.

Does council have any questions or comments for this item?

Council Member Hall.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have one question and I think I know the answer, but I just want clarity on it. In our Tier 1 projects, we put an aggregate amount of $15 million in there for resurfacing, which I'm not supporting, but I'm going to support the TSPLOS. It's not I think that should be a general expense and not a special expense. But what is the guarantee that we will not use all $15 million in the first year, as we discussed in our committee meetings? We had indicated that we were going to just allocate $5 million at a maximum amount.

That is correct. And they're... I don't know what you have other than my word. But as we spend funds out of this amount, my understanding is it does come to the council for approval to use TSPLOS money for certain projects.

So the council could basically, the council at the time could basically say we don't want to allocate any towards repaving because we want to do it on this other priority item. Maybe there's another critical item, path item or something like that. So we have that flexibility.

I believe that's correct. Any project I move forward or the department moves forward and wants to spend the TSPLOS funding on, we will come to council, present it with the request to move money from the TSPLOS fundings to fund that project.

Okay, thank you.

Just for clarification, when we say move money from a T-Splot, it's to another T-Splot project. We cannot move it outside of those that if it is approved and we move forward with T-Splot 2026, it has to be one of the listed projects.

It has to be one of the listed projects, yes.

Any other questions or comments? May I have a motion? Council Member Phillippe, can I have a second? Council Member Zach, all in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously. Thank you, Andy. Next on the agenda is the City Attorney's Report. City Attorney Davidson, please read the item.

Thank you, Mayor. The only item I have is a recommendation to go into closure at 5.30 on Monday, July 27, 2026, to discuss personnel litigation and or real estate.

May I have a motion? No, I want to go. Council Member Phillippe, may I have a second? Council Member Zach, all in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously. Thank you. Being that there are no other items, this Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, July 13, 2026 is adjourned. I'm sorry, what?