Board of Public Works - Regular Meeting

All right, there we go. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Charlestown Board of Public Works. Today is February 5th, 2026, and it is 10:01 a.m. We'll begin our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge algiance 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.

Thank you. Let the record show that all board members are present as well as court treasurer Donna Cooper and our attorney Perry McCall. Agenda that's been presented. I need to add one item at the front of the new business. So it become our new item A and everything else would bump down and that is recognition of city employee Too for years of service. So with that amended I would entertain a motion to approve that motion. Motion by Ernie Thompson second. Second by Maggie Dwy. All in favor say I. I.

I. Any opposed? That unanimous. We have our standing business which includes our prior meeting minutes from January 15, 2026. Our current claims and our payroll allowance docket from January 12th. I think that's supposed to be 2026, not five to February 1st, 2026. Motion to approve. Zack make that motion. Motion by Maggie Wild. Zach's trying to make a a phone call there. Second by Ernie Thompson. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Any public comments? I don't see any. So, we'll move straight into our new business. And I will turn it over to our clair treasurer, Donna Kumer, um to recognize one of our very long-term dedicated employees to stand up to do this. Um I'm just really proud to recognize Deborah for 26 years of outstanding service. her dedication, her loyalty, her um compassion that she has for the city, and it we're we've been together, most of us, for 20some years, not only Deborah and myself, but others, too. And and her dedication is just outstanding. Our perfect audits, and she's a strong team player, and I be honest, I don't know what I'd do without her. Deborah, you are um one of the best I've ever worked with and I thank you for everything that you've done and perfect audits. Um we've had perfect audits for years and and you are such a team player and I'm blessed to have you and I just want to recognize you for 26 years.

Thank you, Deborah. Love you so much. Are y'all standing there?

All right. Second to all of that. Deborah is outstanding. And anytime we've got a question upstairs, we know I usually just run down there. She's so patient with us. So, we thank you, Deborah. You're really wonderful. Glad to have you. All right. um move into some business so we can create some more invoices that Deborah has to process for us. Um I'll have Carrie Carrie you present Carrie Fashion gonna come up and present on several. Um yeah I'm doing Hannah's for her so bear with me as I've just seen this. So

um this one here is for Charles Town Ensembles. They are partnering with us for the musical camp that will take place June 8th through the 12th. We will do this one at the arts and enrichment building. But Rebecca and them, they are going to collect all the money. So, basically, this is just for us. We had her sign a contract because she's using our building. So, that's for that. Um, Hannah did have her do an insurance waiver as well, but we will not be collecting any money in this at all. Okay. This is just the approval of the use of the building, our partnership, but she's going to handle all the collection. That is correct. Yep. Yep. So, do we have a motion to approve? I'll make that motion. Motion by Ernie Thompson. I'll second. Second, Maggie Wild. Any questions for carries? All in favor say I. I. I. That is unanimous.

We have quite a bit going on with Charles Ensembles this year. Yeah, we do. This next one I know is going to be very weird, but this is a contract for um June of 2027, but we had to go ahead and get it approved. This will be um our headliner for uh Friday, June 18th, 2027 will be the Crashers. That's for Founders Day. That is for Founders. So, we do have their insurance their W9 and um the contract pair. You did get a chance to look at. Yeah, I looked at that. Yeah. So, this one was fine. We didn't have to do anything to this contract. Okay. The amount is um That's what I was looking for. That's the one I asked you if they sent insurance, did I?

Yeah. What did you say, Maggie? I'm sorry. I thought I saw 10,000. Yeah. 10,000. And yeah, 10,000. You know, just for for the record, this is they will not need a hotel because they are local. Right. So, we won't have anything with them. Well, and again, these are usually covered by sponsorships, correct? This isn't this doesn't come from one of our revenue funds. It's usually always And we won't obviously do an inquis to get them on the books. Yeah. All right. Do we have a motion to approve? Make that motion. Motion by Wild. Second. Second by Ernie Thompson. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. That is unanimous. And that's all I have. The rest is on me.

All right. Um the next one was Backyard Classics insurance liability. So the Backyard Classics um wants to have their car show on the square. The difference is that because the city had to move Founders Day up because of the dates for the 4 fair. We're having to move ours up because 4 fair basically is locked in for five years to be in conflict with Founders Week because of their new ride vendor. and we saw a significant impact on that this past year, 2025. So, we just made the decision since they can't move, we made the decision to bump oursel a week and kind of feed into the fair. So, it's kind of a two-eek thing. I guess it's our own version of playing thunder over Charle Town, which is kind of a two-eek festival around here going straight off of Founders Week into um the 4 fair. Um, and Backyard Classics wants to keep their date though on their traditional date and not do it the same day as Founders Day. So, they want to use the city square. That would be Carrie. Do you have that date right off the top of your head?

627. It says Yep. So, 627. Um, no, that shouldn't be right. That's not right. That's not right. Oh, it says at the bottom says, "Regard the 28th annual partial to be held at 890 Main Street on June

June 27th, 2026." Yes. Sorry. Yes, you're correct. June 27th. That is correct. Um, sorry, my bad. Um, and so we agreed that, you know, we would block off the square for them for that event even though we're not having a major event. But in order for us to do that, since it is a public park space, we asked them to provide a certificate of insurance and submit a request. So, what they've requested is just the same footprint that they've used in the past for their car show where we block off traffic um on the square itself from the morning hours, usually about 7:00 a.m. until about 2 or 3 p.m. So, um that's what this is about. And we just wanted to get board approval for them to have that event um and have the certificate on file. There's no money changing hands. They don't pay anything and we're not collecting any money from them. It's just the approval of the use of the space. So, we have a motion to make that approval.

I'll make that motion. Motion by Thompson. I'll second. Second Maggie Wild. And then I know we've had trouble with some of these other certificate insurance that have us correctly. Three or four girls. Um, okay. Do you see anything else that needs to be Yeah, it if you look on the certificate of insurance, it's got the policy date um June 21st and it expires on June 21st, 2026. So, they need to set that for the date. The event is on June 27th. Okay. Carrie, can you get them to amend that? Contact them. So, on the policy effective date and policy expiration date, it needs to be the 27th, not the 21st.

Okay, we'll do. So, we'll approve pending that change um on that certificate of insurance. All in favor say I. I. I. That is unanimous. Um and then Tony, did you want to explain this vacated request?

Yeah. Up in the up off Old Thompson Street, they're doing the Jennings Groves uh complexes up there and the east side of Thompson Street. there. What used to be next to the old Pleasant Ridge School back when they in I guess it was the 50s. There was easements plotted in there apparently a 60oot easement and a 10ft easement. Nobody really knew they were there. They're not on the GIS or anything like that, but as Harold Hart was doing the research for he did find what he thought was that it's it he's got it where it's shown it. So it it don't have any any utilities in it. it don't uh it's all if they vacated it's all going to the same person. So hearing the board at work would be the best place to get that thing vacated. That's what we normally would do when there's nothing no sale no problems. So they're just asking that have officially vacated.

So there's nothing in there that we would need to worry about. I checked with uh him. Okay. To provide anything. So do we have a motion to approve that vacate request? I'll make that motion. Motion by Maggie W. Second. Second by Thompson. Perry see any issues with that? What are we What are we thinking? It's It's the old It's some of the old project up on the east end. It's just ground. Nobody knew it was there. It's not on our GIS. It's not on GIS or anything, but they're just want some official saying that we don't have anything there.

I mean, probably purposes of title search, you in the future, you may want to do something that moralizes the action of the board of public works. So it can be recorded. Yeah. Does it show that we own the title or anything? No. It doesn't doesn't say. So we're just making something we don't. I guess we're just acknowledging that we don't own it. Right. Something old. Maybe I own it. Let's go this route. Yeah. That's all. That's all we can figure out. You can see where it comes up. Uh some of the I understand when the road comes up off the side.

It extends over. Now we we we can see that part but then it stops there and I thought maybe that was just where Ernie used to skip school now was so we don't actually show that we own any title to it. There's no parcel attached to it. There's no we just want to we just want a formal acknowledgement from the board that we don't Yeah. something to the fact that if the that we vacate any interest that we may have in this particular project. Okay. That's fine. Yeah. That's normally what we would do is something if we split off if half it was a half and half deal where it goes to joint property owners then it goes but we don't even own any part of this that goes to the council.

Okay. All right. So do I have we've got a motion by Maggie Wild to approve that a statement that we don't own this parcel and I have no right to Ernie makes the second. All in favor say I. I. I. That is unanimous and if we need to do something else with that we will do it. But I don't know how we doing a title search on something that doesn't even have a parcel number. So, um, all right. Good deal. Uh, Brian, did you want to explain the Sure. the small town big trees grant?

Yeah, we we received the a $5,000 grant from DNR. It's a federal grant money, small town big trees. Uh, so this is to plant a bunch of trees in the city of Charles Town. And most of the trees will go from our tree audit. Some places we noticed on city properties that needed trees included Charles Central League Park, Canobyl Park, Greenway Park, City Square, and the Family Activities Park. So the grant call out request for quotes was about 28 trees because with the grant they want more mature trees as possible, not to worry about the seedlings. They want these trees to really take off. Um the part of the grant was uh because through fally funded had to get a minimum of three quotes. So, I just want to write the quotes in front of the board. Uh, so River Farm Nursery was $3,000, but they only submitted 22 trees. Uh, Dan Christian Excavating was 7,196 for 28 trees. Grandland Nursery was $5,775 for 28. Lincoln Springs Tree Farms was 4,500 for the 28 trees. And then McCoy's nursery was $7,829.76. So just my recommendation will be the Lincoln Springs Tree Farm. That would be under bud a little bit. Uh I'm sure I could probably negotiate with them to get a couple extra trees to round us up to the 5,000.

So I have a question on the Lincoln Springs Tree Farms at the um that's the one you're recommending. Yeah, because I what I reached out for was I gave them species that we requested and they were able to substitutes so long as they're any of the native trees. Okay. So, those substitutions, you're okay with those substitutions? Yes. Yes. Which they're pretty similar to the substitutions that Grant Line submitted as well. I think grand might have had they don't have it broken down between Yeah, they had five trees that had weren't initially what we requested about those.

Okay. And then we're we have a match component on this, but we're using our volunteer work and um are they allowing us to use some of the trees that we're planting for the commons as part of that match as well? Okay, great. So the recommendation is that we go with Lincoln Springs Tree Farms another $4,500. So um so do we have a motion on that? Motion by Ry Thompson. Second. Second by Maggie Wild. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. Thank you Brian for getting a good number of quotes on that. That's much appreciated. Um and then the last thing we have are some sanitation charge offs. one actually $20.52. I get a motion for that. I'll make a motion. Motion by Maggie Wild.

I'll second. Secondary Thompson. All in favor say I. I. I. That is unanimous. That is all I had. Um Harry, unless you need anything else from us. Uh the only thing that came up recently was we had the down service at the session during the Christmas Spectrum. Um, I reached out finally, I told Brian finally to Spectrum through email and asked them to be aware of this and that we have a possible plan for damages. Um, that we would like to apply it toward future service if they didn't want to pay. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, I haven't got a response. I don't And I think I copied you in the email maybe.

Yes, you did. Um, but anyway, that's pretty much that that issue and hopefully we can get so to fill fill the board in completely. There was a night down in concessions where we were December 7th. Yeah, December busy night and they were not able to process credit cards because there was a spectrum outage and it wasn't a spectrum outage around. It was just at our concession stand and one of the workers told our staff that it was because of um damage to a pole down there like so we asked Carrie to follow

well they put they pulled the video security camera saw the day of that somebody was on the pole and then shortly thereafter the service goes out technician comes back and it was an issue at the pole and fixes it and then we're all good again. So yeah we think it was an issue at the pole that they caused, right? We think they caused whatever problem it was. So that they had to turn away several people that night who didn't have cash. Um and so we lost revenue. And so the question for Carrie was can we request that they reimburse us? And it may be that they end up reimbursing through credit to our bill or whatever, but which doesn't help Carrie because it doesn't go into her revenue fund, but at least it overall gives some acknowledgement and money back to the city from that loss of outage. So that's it.

All right. Did you need anything else from us besides signatures? No, I think everything's great. All right. I forgot to say this at the beginning, but let the record officially show that this meeting was live stream production multimedia. With that, need a motion to adjurnn. I'll make that motion. Motion Marie Thompson. Second. Second by Maggie Wild. All in favor say I. I. We are returned.