County Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to York County Council meeting tonight. We hope everybody's doing very well. Uh we want to start out tonight with the invocation and public um allegiance uh by Tommy Atkins. Tommy, it's all yours. Let us pray. Dear Lord, thank you for letting us gather here tonight. Lord, give us wisdom, strength, give us understanding. Lord, make us all be thankful for our blessings as we see what's going on in the world. Dear Lord, I pray that you help all the farmers and help folks to realize at least how drastic things really are. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Amen. 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.

All right. So, we have the oath of office tonight um from newly appointed Thank you, Karen. new newly appointed board and commission members. As I call your name, if you could please step forward, Radi Rahim estate for Bethl Lake Wy acquisition and preservation park district. I got Tom Simmons for Bethl Lake Wy Land Acquisition Preservation Park District. I got John Lman, Veterans Memorial Park Advisory Committee. And I've got Ashley Shiman for Board of Zoning Appeals. All right. And Laura will go ahead and swear you in. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Excellent. Thank you both. We appreciate your service. Thank you so much. All right. Tonight we have no appearances uh scheduled. Now we are going into public forum session. Uh each person will get two minutes. And again, if you could

just say your name and where you live. Uh do appreciate that. Thank you so much. And it's going to start off with I think Ku Patel. Yes. Come on.

Can you hear me? All right. Good evening, members of council and fellow residents. My name's Ku and I live in York. I just have a simple question for you. Do you sleep well at night? It's a simple question. You can just nod your head yes or no or you know, it's a simple question. Yeah, I'll take that as a yes. But you see these folks in the back here, they don't. their peace has been taken away. Right? And I'm standing here because our community is at a crossroads. We are currently watching 800 acres of rural York transform into QTS project Cobra right from $1 billion to potentially $8 billion investment that is in line to become a largest power consumer. And I understand, you know, this is gonna drive in a lot of tax revenue, but we cannot ignore the hidden costs, right? And hidden costs that residents in places like Virginia and Arizona are already paying. We're not just talking about the construction noise, but operational data centers that size run hundreds of cooling fans 24/7, right? and they're already experiencing window rattling jet engine like sounds that don't stop. And this is historical data. And this facility is projected to pull 600 megawws. And that's enough to power like half a million homes. in history and already historical data is available. 8 to$10 is already hiking uh residents power bills at places where there are data centers

and the environment is also on the line. So my question is there are no guarantees you know not against progress but why are data centers being built in residential area they need to be built where it's far away from residents thank you appreciate that thank you

thank you council thank you to uh council council member Audet for getting us started I apologize I was coming in from out of town um all right next is Brandon Langford Good evening, council. My name is Brandon Langford. I live in District 1 in Fort Mill. I'm here tonight because the people of this county have a right to speak, to be heard, and to hold their government accountable. That right includes naming the people responsible for for decisions. That's not disrespect. That is democracy. And the person responsible for how this government runs is the county manager. We've heard a lot from the county in the last few weeks, long responses, many pages, but the most important question still hasn't been answered. Where is the zoning approval for Silfab that the public could see, be notified of, and appeal? The county points to a zoning verification letter, but a letter is not the same as a formal approval. A letter does not give the public notice. A letter does not give neighbors a chance to appeal. That process exists for a reason. It protects families. It protects schools. It protects this community. Right now, that protection appears to be missing. And this is not just about one project. It is about whether the rules were followed. We've already seen what happens when they're not. In Stokes County, North Carolina, officials had to undo their own decision because the proper steps were not followed. They did not wait for a final court order. They acted when the problem became clear. You have that same responsibility. You don't have to wait. You don't have to pass this off to a courtroom. You are the governing body of this county. If the proper approval exists, show us. If it doesn't, then the process was broken. And if the process

was broken, then it must be fixed. Accountability starts at the top. If the county manager can't ensure that the law is followed, then this council must act. The people of this county are not asking for anything special. We're asking for the rules to be followed. We're asking for transparency. We're asking for accountability. We're asking for the law to be followed.

Thank you, sir. Uh once again, I will let folks know that Silab is subject to a number of litigation matters. The way that the council has been advised is to refrain from public comment on matters that pertain to litigation. Um but in order to ensure that there is transparency, the questions have all been posted. It's under the um county manager department website link. You can find the uh documentation related to Silfab that pertains to the public statements on that. Our next individual is Carol Herring. Good evening. Thank you for the chance to speak. I'm Carol Herring. I live in Rock Hill. I reported once before about the strategic planning committee and so I'm here tonight to tell you that the strategic planning committee of the York County Library Board announced that our community survey is on the library website. We have received about 200 responses so far. And we're excited about the information we will gain from the community involvement in this process. Even if you do not use the library regularly, you should have a say in how your taxes will be spent. And I'm here to encourage everyone to take the time to complete the survey. It will take you about five minutes. And paper copies are available in each of the library branches if you do prefer that format. The strategic planning committee has extended the final date to submit a survey to May 15, 2026 in order to allow some of our patrons who utilize the library through the outreach program to have access to the survey. While each community in York County deserves a brand new library, the library trustees will be working toward the best use of county funds to determine next steps. Each town has expressed a desire for new library, a larger library, more meeting space, and more programs. We would love to say yes to all of this, but choices must be made based on fiscal

responsibility and need. Some of our citizens have asked if we plan to hire a consultant, and the answer is yes. After the survey answers have been tabulated, we will be hiring a library consultant expert who will take what we've learned as a foundation to determine various needs for our county location, staffing needs, budget, and programs. I want to thank you for your support of this vital service to York County and remind you to fill out a survey before May 15. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Stacy Armstrong.

Thank you. Hi board. Stacy Armstrong, 1705 Wedgefield Drive. Um I had attended the um town hall and the the mention came up of the cost of the rateayer cost going up for water and electric for QTS. and it was somewhat of questionable as I got a paper from somewhere, wasn't sure if they could validate the authenticity. I do have that agent authorization form, but I also then dug deeper. I found the Public Service Commission of South Carolina's testimony for David um I'm sorry, for Matthew Nudson of Duke Energy Carolas. Under his sworn testimony, it tells that the current estimate cost to construct the proposed network upgrades to the DEEC transmission system to accommodate the request from central for continuing network integration transmission service is approximately 51.5 million. Just note that quote is capital quoted. Central is a wholesale transmission customer of DEEC and will be build monthly for DEEC's actual cost to construct network upgrades. Once upgrades are in service, DEEC is required by federal law to refund central 100% of its payments for the actual cost of the project and which in turn QTS is then refunded 100% for a what was staged 90% usage of that substation. Um I do have questions in here and I don't know if anyone on council knows but there's also mention of five acres plus of additional rightway needed. I don't know if that's just going to be eminent domained and we'll have any notice or if anyone can answer that, but if you could reach out to me if you can answer that question, I would appreciate it. Um, that's all I have other than if you could please update the FAQ sheet to include facts, the health information from QTS is circa 2016 on what are the health impacts and it only speaks to radiation that is from

the World Health Organization 2016 for a data center. They don't know how to find data. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Rebecca Si.

Rebecca Sichi. I live in the Allison Acres neighborhood in Rock Hill. Unlike many meetings, typically I have my family with me, my husband's with me, my child's with me. Many of you guys have probably even met her in some capacity at the meetings. Um, this meeting is unique. We're at a point that we're wearing out. Our house needs to get done. We've got construction going on on it. It's been going on for a long time and we've been sacrificing our time to prioritize this focus. So now my husband is at home finishing our floor to only prepare our house to be put on the market in the future. As you guys addressed that nobody tends to leave because of this data center and because of the choices you've made in the past. Please understand this is something that is coming in our future. We recognize that. We understand there's impact to that as well. This is also unique. Our cons our construction consistently goes on not only in our house trying to make it the dreamhouse that we hoped for that we'd be living in for a number of years to come as well as the construction in our backyard. Not because we chose to put that there, but because you guys chose to approve a data center to be literally less than a quarter of a mile from our house. We go to sleep at night with the intent and hope that we're going to be able to get a good night's rest, no matter what our careers have provided us to the night prior. But instead, we're woken up by backup alarms, heavy equipment, graders, and lift lifts building or building lifts using moving steel of some nature at the site, not at steel fab, but at the site to build these 80oot structures that you also approved for. It was never really our reality before. Before we would go go to bed at night with the windows wide open and just hear the animals outside. Instead, now we go to bed hearing all the construction because there's absolutely no limits to this is what it appears. Additionally, I'd like you to make sure

that you understand that recently there was an FAQ put out on behalf of the data center guidance that was there. We voyed it and found out that ultimately this information came from QTS. It didn't even come from the county. We're asking you guys to provide that insight. Thank you, ma'am. Um, for purposes of just making clarification to the the data center location is was an industrial site zoned that way for 30 years and so there is there are by uses that exist with that. But I I appreciate the the comments from the community about um the the matters that are before council when it comes to the um the data center discussion. Brad Sims.

Hey Brad Sims, 727 Unity Creek and Hickor Grove. Good evening, council. I appreciate the time and the work that has gone in preparing the proposed budget presented at the last workshop. I know it's no small task and I want to acknowledge the county manager and staff for laying out a comprehensive plan. In a county management form of government, the manager proposes the budget, but it is the council's responsibility to review, question, and ultimately ensure what is approved reflects both our needs and taxpayers ability to support it. In that role, there's also responsibility to evaluate risk. Every line item in a budget carries trade-offs. Whether that's financial risk to taxpayers, operational risk and substantive services, or the long-term impact of commitments we make today. There's a lot being asked for in this budget. Some of it may be necessary, but not all of it is equally urgent or carries the same level of risk if delayed or adjusted. I would encourage the council to work collaboratively with the county manager, not to just approve a budget, but to refine it, to identify where costs can be reduced, where projects can be phased, and where efficiencies can be found, while carefully weighing the risk of both action and inaction. The people of this county are already feeling pressure through increased property taxes, increased insurance, and frankly, increased everyday costs. They expect our leaders to be good stewards of their money. This isn't about cutting for cutting for the sake of cutting. It's about prioritizing. It's about making sure every dollar spent delivers real value to the people you serve. Good governance isn't just about funding priorities. It's about managing risk responsibly. And I believe this council has an opportunity to do both by delivering a budget that is thoughtful, sustainable, and respectful to the taxpayers who fund it. Council, thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. That concludes our public forum session and we do appreciate individuals coming out to speak and to address the council. Um do we have a motion on consent agenda? Motion to approve. Second.

Motion and a second to approve consent agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Consent agenda is approved. We do not have any public hearing items tonight. We do have one item in old business. council to give second reading of an ordinance to amend chapter 70 by adding new section 70.11 of the York County Code of Ordinances as it relates to the regulation of golf carts operating on and within the county public roadways within the Baxter Village traditional neighborhood district to hold a public hearing and to provide for other matters related there too. Is there anything from management before we take a motion?

Thanks, Madam Chair. Uh this this item's coming back to y'all. We've we've had first reading. We we had public hearing as well. I thought it would be best if council member Odette just shared some of the the back and forth that he's had with the HOA.

Yeah. So um again the extensive review by the HOA um by the president there they they went back analyze what the impact would be to the area um and they found that this is a really great opportunity not only for the Backaxter area but again with the restaurants that are there and everything. I think it's really a a win-win situation for the whole area. Um, so again, we're excited to bring it back for uh the second reading and we can go ahead and uh you know, looking forward to getting it passed form. So, thank you. Right. Nothing else from management.

I I think just reminding everybody this this came through a committee uh and a committee reviewed it and then it came to y'all for first reading. This is in relation to uh the state changing the law and so TA K based on the law was um made additional changes beyond what the state law had set forward. Uh and so I think Baxter wanted to match what TK did as a lot of their folks go between the two. And so that's where this is coming from. If you were going to go beyond what the state law is, you had to come up with your own ordinance and that's what this was done. I thought the committee put in a lot of hard work, thoughtfully crafted the ordinance, uh, and, uh, I think it's in front of you all, uh, for second reading at this point.

All right. Thank you, sir. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Yeah, I'd like to make an amendment to apply this to the entire county, all the unincorporated area. All right. So, um, the main motion has been, uh, supplemented with an amendment. The amendment, as I understand it, would be to apply the golf cart ordinance countywide. Is there a second? I'll second it for discussion purposes. All right. So, we have a second on the amendment. Yeah. Since you made the amendment, I would normally, you know, allow the the motion maker, excuse me, I'm g eat my mic, right, to speak.

So, there's uh there's two things to this. Um the first is is that you know if Baxter Village can use this for their neighborhood, why can't all of the neighborhoods use it? Why can't Paddler's Cove, the Landing, um Harper's uh Green, any of these neighborhoods in the Clover area, uh any of the places in Rock Hill, they're all legally allowed today to uh to drive on the streets and do all this. doesn't this is only allowing them to travel at night with proper headlights and tail lights and whatnot. This doesn't isn't stopping them from riding on the streets anyway during the day. So, all we're doing is giving the same opportunity that Baxter Village is getting to the rest of the county. Um the second part of that is that the uh the sheriff has expressed concern about being able to enforce the limits of this. Um so if this isn't applied to the entire unincorporated area, then the Baxter Village area needs to put up signs or delineations on the road so that his officers so the sheriff's officers know where to uh enforce the rule. Otherwise, you know, how do they know where where the limits of this zoning district is? So, to make it easy on everybody, it would be easier just to apply it to the entire county. And and one thing to add, Madam Chair, I think it would be good for the county attorney's office to weigh in, but if we were to expand it beyond the map that's attached to this agenda item, I think we'd probably want to do another public hearing, but I'll let our interimm county attorney speak to that. Yeah, I I concur with that. I believe the public hearing notice on this was specific to the the Baxter village area.

So, I would recommend another public hearing if we wanted to expand the scope of that. So, so is it legal's position that we can that the only thing to cure that would be to do another public hearing? It doesn't have to go back through committee. It doesn't have to do anything else but have another public hearing. No, I'm sorry. I was saying at a minimum, you would need to have another public hearing. If we're talking about taking what's in this ordinance and applying it to the entire county, the recommendation would be yes, that as part of that, it goes back to the committee, goes through a public hearing, same way this ordinance was done.

What would remind me what was the what was the committee's recommendation out of committee? it it was fully supported to to make it for Baxter. Okay. As a committee member, let me just say that I did request this in committee to be applied to the entire unincorporated area and was told by staff that no, we could not make that change in committee that it had to be made by the full uh committee. So, or the full council. So, I did not push that in committee.

I just want to make sure that we that we get clear. This is second reading, but I want I do want to make sure that we get clear feedback from legal as to what the process would be to try to change this midstream aside from a public hearing. If if it's legally proper to come this way, if if council members been informed that this is the way to do it, then that's we still have another reading if if we need to understand this the ramifications.

Yes. So I I would say that we would delay then so that I could have an opportunity to review that and review what the what the committee decided and what their recommendations were coming out. But but standing here now what we have is an ordinance. We held a public hearing on that ordinance and that was related to um Baxter Village specifically. Understood. And I I'm just asking questions for process. I have some other questions about the amendment but I'm gonna let other council speak. Good.

Well, I seconded the motion because this has come up now, I think, three times, uh, since we've been talking about Baxter Village. And I understand Baxter Village is an unincorporated neighborhood in York County. Uh, but I, too, asked the question, why wouldn't it apply to all of unincorporated York County so that we handle it all the same instead of singling out Baxter Village? And if that means we need to go back to committee and and I do so, let me ask a question, I guess, to committee members. Was it discussed when your thought was brought up in committee? Was it considered?

It was told to uh that it couldn't be changed because committee had been given the specific master. Okay. And that if it needed to be changed, it had to come before the full council. Okay. I I'll wrap up and just say it seems to me it would make sense for it to apply to all of York County, not just Baxter Village. So maybe sending it back to committee and have another public hearing would resolve this. Mr. Rody. Um, sorry. Going down the line.

I'm not I'm not doubting what uh Councilman Linton is saying. I would like to get the minutes from that meeting that he's speaking of to make sure that, you know, we're verifying that part. And this has come up several times in this setting. I'm not sure if it got a second, but it wasn't accepted once or twice, and now it's coming up again. My question to staff and this council would be since the state has passed a law that allows it, why are we doing anything else to add to it, why can't we just have the blanket state policy that governs it all?

Sure. No, no, great question. The the blanket state law is what's in effect currently.

If you want to go above what the state outlines in their law, you have to pass your own ordinances, which is what TK did. And so when it was sent to committee, it was sent specific to Baxter. And what staff's always going to say in committee is that if you want to broaden the scope, all of council has to agree to send that broaden scope back to committee. I think that's where it looks kind of fuzzy with us doing something specifically for Baxter TK. I say let's be hands off and let the state law, whatever it is, govern for everybody. Um, I don't particularly like the law itself anyway because I know we had a tragic situation in in Rock Hill with a teenager got killed on the golf cart. And that's the first thing that comes to mind when this law got passed is I don't want to be supporting anything that puts our kids and our youth in harm's way because we see a ton of kids driving golf carts through neighborhoods, but then when they come out of their neighborhoods and getting on whatever street they're going to get on, that's a really unsafe act because we have a lot of distracted drivers and I'm sure all of us has been at the whether it's at the red light or driving. We're responding to texts. We're making phone calls and putting more people in harm's way on golf carts. There's no protection on a golf cart. Yeah, you got on a seat belt, but think about the protection of a golf cart versus a car, SUV, truck. I don't like the law itself. So, I'm not going to support really anything that makes way for more tragic situations on our roads. And I can only imagine the thought and the push behind the golf carts on the on the roads. If you think about Hilton Head, you think about the beaches, you think about campgrounds and places like that, that's probably appropriate because they're not out on the main thorough affairs and being at risk. I could see if this was Hilton Head or we're at the beach and people moving going between neighborhoods. But when

you start putting them things out on m on the roads, we're asking for more situations like what we saw in Rock Hill. And as as tragic as it is, we should learn from those tragic situations, not invite more opportunities to see more of them. So, I don't even like the state law. I'm not a state legislator, but that doesn't mean I have to like what they're doing, but I'm certainly not going to enhance and make it even more unsafe for more people to do it. You know, the state has their say. We have our say, and I say, let's be hands off. Let's don't even do anything. And when something happens by this council making it more permissible I think at night or whatever they're asking for and something happens I don't want that to be on my conscience. You know someone asks us do we sleep well at night. I don't think I would sleep well putting something in place enhancing it above and beyond what the state has done and something happens to somebody's kid, somebody's parent, somebody's loved one. So I'm not going to support the amendment. I don't even want to support doing it just for Baxter Village and TK. I think what the state has done, if the state wanted to to to make it I think this is covering like Nike situations. I don't want to be a part of that. I want to make sure that we're doing things to make things safer and not more accessible to more tragedy that to impact this community because when some something like that happens whether you live in Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Clover, Tig K, York, it weighs on you and to know that we can possibly help prevent something like this from happening, that's where I'm going to side at. So, I'm not going to support the the ordinance or the amendment. So there was a reason for the the delay in the process here and and the reason for that was that the board and the the of TGA or excuse me of Baxter went forth and and review the entire process and

they looked at existing and what currently is going on and currently golf carts are driving everywhere across Baxter and and what they identified in this was this was actually giving structure to it. Okay. What I mean by that is that they're when they're crossing one, they were crossing the roads at certain point points along Sutton Road. Now they can only cross in one location. Okay. There's actual structure that they can cross at Market Street. Before they could cross other places and that was more dangerous than actually doing and moving forward with this and actually giving it structure where they're isolating it to one crossing. Um, there's been a lot of thought around this thing and I'm, you know, again, I have concerns about this and that's why I don't think we should open this up to the county. I think when you have a place like unincorporated areas such as this that's isolated that has golf carts around the area, we could put some teeth to it and give them some structure and this would work just like TK did. When you start pushing it out the entire county, I think that opens up a whole different conversation. So, I think we need to keep it structurally sound. give what they're doing at Baxter more teeth and keeping it isolated to one crossing and allowing enforcement to actually identify that and understand that. So again, that's why I'm supporting it. Um I'm not supporting moving it to the the to the rest of the county. I think that if you if you choose to move forward, we can look at that at another time, but again, this is isolated just to backster. So thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank Excuse me. I think the fact that Baxter is its own little community and I'm just if this continues on I might would ask Baxter to actually give us the the road that they're interested in and I think I know where it is but downtown Baxter is where I'm thinking that they want to have these golf carts. uh if we put it out for the whole county, we are opening up a can of worms because there is so much out there. Um kids are already over the top, especially in our community with golf carts. So, we need to um think about the broad scope of what this would look like going to the whole county. Now, if you look in the executive summary, it says that um Baxter, it's public streets within the Baxter community. So, does that mean that you're saying that you want this for the whole county, but one of your Lake Wy communities? I'm sorry, I can't think of a name right now. you would have to put out there all the different communities and that to make sure that they're going to keep those golf carts within that community because that's what this is saying because they have very specific uh rules and regulations as it refers to Baxter Village traditional neighborhood district. So they have an overlay. Baxter has an overlay. And within their community, that's what they're talking about. If

this goes out to the whole county, are all those neighborhoods going to agree that they're going to keep those golf carts within their community? I don't know. Would they? But Baxter is Baxter. I mean, you can't help that they have an overlay and that they have specific regulations within that overlay. That's all I got to say.

Well, I can only imagine kids running through crossings and everything else. But last time we spoke about this, I mean, I told you, I mean, my young ones, they driving 100 horsepower tractors and down the road, and I'm about half scared every time they take off on one of them. And I surely ain't wanting to see them in no golf cart. I I don't think it would be wise. I don't I don't even care that even Baxter's doing it because I don't know exactly what the state has stated. I know I think it's got something to do with how many miles an hour something can run or

I mean and were they credit in the insurance part of it? I mean what what covers that? Right. Do you know John? So, the law the law says that you have to be over 16, you have to have a valid driver's license, and you have to have liability insurance if you're driving a golf cart. So, it that's the state law that's on the books right there.

So, I have some questions because I'm I haven't been following I didn't realize that there was going to be this much discussion on it. I haven't been following it trust trusted when it came out of the committee that I remember there being some of this discussion but I just so I'm clear what exactly you're telling me that it is currently allowed golf carts are allowed where so the the the change that this ordinance was seeking to do was to give access to driving golf carts at night so there's a limit in the state law to to which is prohibiting driving golf carts it's dark

just just so I have in my head though what what is allowed by state law currently you're allowed to drive it where golf carts during the daytime where yeah 35 miles per hour anywhere where there's a 35 mph posted speed limit anywhere that's what it allows now all right and so this proposal would be to allow Baxter simply to extend I guess those are daylight hours dusted on so this proposal would allow allow it for what periods of time? I mean, any time of the night time frames. Yeah, I don't think it gives an ending time. I think it's just after after dark

and the additional requirements are that you have to have lighting. That's the only change and seat belts, right? But I think that's that's in the state law as it is, too. And I'd let staff jump in if I'm speaking out of turn. Some some comments were made by some folks up here, at least one, that the sheriff has spoken out against us supporting this. Is that something that we have do we have any feedback? So, I I think the sheriff gave feedback to y'all at potentially the last meeting we talked about or at the committee meeting. I I do know he shared he was concerned about just the ability to enforce the law

if it I I think y'all ask the sheriff what he thinks. Okay. Did he have that concern with Baxter specifically or countywide? I wouldn't want to speak for him, but if Okay. Yeah.

Um, so I I guess in my mind, um, I I typically like for us to move forward. It's hard enough to get to galvanize and to pass things and to get things through council with the scopes that we give them. And to me, the scope has has been put for Baxter. I'm not opposed to entertaining any other um areas, but to me, Baxter is a little bit different because it is a planned development in the unincorporated areas. We can't control anything inside the municipalities. But in the unincorporated areas, there are a few um developments that have both a commercial and residential. And one of the things that I know had been um suggested is that not every neighborhood needs to be driving golf carts at night. Um I I do have concerns about a countywide um ordinance, but I think when it comes to a PD um where there are additional protocols and protections. I'm I'm not opposed to allowing second reading personally to move forward with Baxter. I do not support the countywide at this point because it sounds like um at a minimum making it countywide makes it problematic. Um I I do still want before three third reading if it makes it to third reading to hear back from the sheriff to get some feedback from him um to determine what protocols are in place. But this is a different situation where you have commercial connected to residential and those residences go to u visit those businesses within a very small area. Does that help with traffic congestion? Does that help with um the purpose and intent of the of the piece? But I mean clearly if this makes it to third reading I still have some additional questions um to ask as it specifically relates to Baxter. So, where we are

right now in this process is that uh the amendment is to uh move uh this to expand this ordinance to automatically apply to allow nighttime driving with golf carts throughout the county. And um that so we will vote on the amendment first and then we will go back to the main motion. So um all those in favor of the amendment say I. I. Those opposed. opposed.

All right. So, the amendment fails uh six to one. We're now back to the main motion which allows us to have some additional discussion if council wants to do that. I think most everybody said their piece, but certainly it's open for discussion. I only want to say I guess some animals are more equal than others.

Anybody else? I guess the good news is what what is in the Baxter uh language for us to consider is something that we could use with future developments that that have this request as well because there are some there's specific language language in here specific to Baxter need to be specific to other areas too right true

yeah and that's you know having the fact that it's you know backter isn't over I think this again as as it started in TUK and they they originated the the ordinance I think that this is offering us an ability to examine it on a smaller scale to identify what what would work in a certain situation etc. Again, this has given them some teeth, some um ability to enforce what's already currently going on there because again they have golf cards across there. So, it is widely supported by the board. Um and again, I am supporting it tonight. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Um, I don't view this as treating one better or the better than the other. I feel like you have to take each um situation fact specific and I don't know that this would prohibit any other neighborhoods from requesting um uh the same treatment if they wanted to have that happen. At the same time, I recognize the concerns and um this is second reading. So, at this point, um I will support this at second reading pending getting some additional information from the sheriff and and from others. That's at least where I stand. So, we are back to the main motion, which is to approve second reading for the Baxter um subdivision nighttime driving. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? No. Opposed? Motion carries the two. Was it was a no. Okay. All right. Motion carries 5 to two. Um, all right. We do now move to uh our new business, which is the fiscal year 27 county manager budget presentation.

Yes, madame chair, county council. Uh, tonight uh I I hand over uh my recommended budget for FY27 to y'all. Uh I'm excited to do that. This is the first year we've had a digital budget book. So, everybody here in the audience, but also watching from home, you can go to our website right now. Uh, and if you scroll to the bottom of our website, uh, where we have different, uh, news information. And thanks, Karen, for scrolling to the bottom, you can see a link to the budget. If you click on that, you'll get to this landing page, and you'll see a link to the FY27 recommended budget. And you can uh, take a look at this at home. Uh but but council, we're very thankful uh for you all investing uh in in us as staff and our ability to share a budget like this with our whole community from from day one of the handoff. Uh so with that, we also printed it for y'all for county council in case you you wanted the paper version, but please remember if the paper version looks weird, it's because this is a digital budget book. It's designed to be digital. So it's not going to look great printed out. So, I would always encourage you to go uh to the website first. So, thank you. And if you go there, you'll you'll be able to click through all the different sections of the budget book, all 300 pages. Uh and this will continue to grow as y'all work on the budget. And so, what I would uh remind everybody of is at the next meeting, May 4th, that is county council's first reading of the budget. So, as manager, I'm committed to getting it to council early enough so y'all can take a look at it and understand everything that's in there. Though, we've been talking about it in the last uh couple um budget uh workshops. This is your first time to see it on paper. So, you all have the time to do that before first reading. Then, we have our on the 12th we have our next budget workshop and that's also the public hearing. So, I'd encourage the encourage the public to come on May 12th to

provide feedback on the recommended budget. uh and then followed up in those next two council meetings, our second and third reading. Uh so I wanted to make sure to highlight that it's important to remember uh for everybody here that over the last decade uh York County has sustained high growth uh impacting life for all residents and the county stands stands ready to meet the challenge of ensuring rightsiz government services to accommodate changes to the county's population in our business portfolio. To ensure the highest level of public service, the county m must invest in its people and plan for the future, which I know this recommended budget does. There is no better time than now to commit to continued uh improvement of government services. Every single member of your county team, whether that be the council, management, and staff, we all believe that achieving excellence happens through profess professionalism, resulting in better quality of life for the residents we serve. So throughout this 27 budget, there is a focus on planning for future growth and investing in infrastructure improvements to address the growth that is already here. We're committed to protecting residents by enhancing the county's partnership with our 16 municipal tax district and volunteer fire departments, some of which are here tonight, and funding emergency equipment used to serve the community. At the heart of everything we achieve is the staff who make up our workforce. York County plans to offer a three and a half% merit-based salary increase for staff. We've talked about this in different workshops. We're we're we're intent on ensuring job classifi class classifications are appropriate and we know we need to add to our dedicated team and we're asking for 22 new positions in FY27. We're building a culture of collaboration,

excellent customer service, and creativity among our staff. The time is now for all of us to elevate our community to greater heights while delivering highquality services that our residents rely on. Establishing the annual budget is one of the most important tasks we accomplish in service to our citizens in a given year. With that, I want to thank our staff that has worked really hard on this. Uh Trish Stardup, our budget director, Emily Drummond, our budget and grants manager, Becky Esper, our interim finance director, and Beth Zamorski, uh our con controller. Uh those four have put in so much time to this budget. Uh they've worked with me tirelessly to get it to this point and I'm eternally thankful for their hard work. We believe this budget aligns uh resources to community priorities while ensuring accountability. And and how do we do that? Well, we do that with the the strategic plan that y'all as council work so hard to develop. and we connect how do we think about funding that strategic plan one year at a time and that's what this budget seeks to do. The budget totals $560 million 109 million of that is general fund related uh and that represents our commitment to providing effective and responsive services for our residents. It reflects our dedication to supporting and empowering our employees and investing in infrastructure and maintenance life cycle needs. Uh for FY27 in this recommended budget, there is not a millage rate increase for general fund and that's general fund operations, general fund sheriff and general fund solicitor. However, there are two mill rate increases and we talked a little bit about those at the workshop that we just had. uh and those increases are to sustainably meet the needs of our residents. Uh the capital projects

reserve fund millillage is recommended to increase 6 mills and that adjustment will help uh fund county roads, update current infrastructure and preserve existing capital, our HVACs, our roofs, our floors uh of the public's buildings. Our rural fire funding is also requested an increase of 1 mil and that's in order to invest and build a sustainable countywide fire service aligned with our one York fire vision and the county's safe community priority. Additionally, as we talked about the last workshop, there are recommended utility rate increases for FY27, and those rates are due to an increase in operational costs and making sure we have money to fund future capital projects that our infrastructure is requiring. We'll talk more about those increased rates at our May 12th workshop, I'm sure, and they're outlined in the budget document. We remain committed to responsible financial stewardship, strong partnerships with our stakeholders, and initiatives that reflect the values and aspirations of our council and staff. I'm so thankful for the hard work our staff has put into this, our department department directors, uh our assistant county managers. We created a CIP team for the first time, cross departmental teams that looked at the type of projects we need to do to be successful. uh and provides key services to our our residents. The work the county undertakes in FY27 will have a generational impact for years to come. The annual budget provides the resources to implement our strategic plan one fiscal year at a time. The time is now to make the investments necessary to meet the needs of our fast growing county in support of

our citizens and ensure our continued success. And with that, I hand off the FY27 recommended budget to y'all, and I look forward to continuing to work on it next month and a half.

Thank you, Josh. So, we appreciate the work that's been done. Um, we've just been presented with, and this is the first time that council's been presented with the budget um proposal. It's 200 pages long, and we're just now seeing it. And this is not uh first reading. Council's not taking any action on this. I want the community to understand that this is simply the opportunity for the county manager to share some remarks about it. This is available um on the website and uh I I would like to point out the the timeline and just confirm that with you Josh. So um first reading of this budget where council will be as is being asked to um debate this and talk about this is May 4th at the council meeting. Um then we have the public hearing which has been set for May 12th. Um that does not carry a reading but is a public hearing for the community for us to hear from the community on May 12th. Um

which is also the council workshop. Yep. Which coincides with that second reading uh is set for May 18. Uh and third reading is for June 1st. Uh, is that still our current? Okay, that is correct. I I certainly this is this is not an action item for council, but if council wants to make any comments before we close out the discussion on this or ask that's fine.

Yeah. So, I just want to start out by saying um you know the layout on this thing and line it as it's broken down into line items. Um I do I do want to applaud the team. they've done a very nice job with that. So, nice work. Um, you know, there's a lot there's again, as I go through these things, I do have questions um that I'm noting. Um, I think I'm going to save those questions. Um, well, actually, you know what? Let me bring out one question for you on this thing, but this was kind of um as I look at the opportunity for in-house resurfacing of our roads, which is a big deal. um that allows us to save um approximately about 400,000 per mile on on paving roads. It's a big deal. Um so it's a great opportunity. I I noticed as you extended the budget on this thing, you extended it out to 3032 on the costing of that. Can you explain that for just a second? So, so with with the repaving question being about in-house repaving, uh, I'll let our term assistant county manager Eric Retit share.

Uh, well, we extended it out because we have a commitment to do $4 million a year up until 32. Um, a portion of that will be the in-house paving versus contracted paving on what we have the capacity to do. Okay. Um, I don't know if you have an additional question related to that. No, I you know the extension out to I you know again I think what we're doing with that I think is is great. I think it's an opportunity to save the taxpayers some some serious money when it comes to paying. I was just curious on on the extension out to 3032 on this thing but I you know again I understand the opportunity and I understand there's equipment involved too. So yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you sir. Mhm.

And I'm going to save the rest of my questions for our workshop. Thank you. Any other discussion? I I know that I'm sorry. Yeah,

I was just going to say um you know going through the the budget process for the last 15 16 years. I know the time my staff puts in it, I know the effort from department heads to county managers to assistants. Um I don't want people to think that we take this budget approval process lightly. Um, some people get down into the weeds, as we call it. Some people get down to the nuts and bolts. Some people stay at the 30,000 uh foot level. Um, you know, when I first got on council, um, I went to the county manager and I was asking about line items that was in real people's terms like 10, $20,000 saying, "What about this? What about that?" And I was told at that point being on council, unless you're moving the needle with the big ticket items, some of the smaller things, you can spend your spend too much time looking at the small numbers. And after that, we looked at doing stuff with insuranceances and pensions and things that makes a difference in your tax rate. Because if we go in and cut out $10,000 out of this department, $5,000 out of that department, it's not moving your millage. It's not lowering your tax rate. And some of that can be seen as being nitpicky with certain departments. And we don't have a lot of time to go through and question $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, which we want to be good stewards of every single penny. But how realistic is that when you're spending $560 million? So just watch when we have our public hearing on the budgets. I've probably seen if we have five people here to speak on our budget, that's a crowd. We'll be set to spend $560 million and it won't be no more than five people come here to speak on it publicly.

but they'll question a $10,000 move that we make or $20,000 move that we spend or an expense that we spend. So, I've learned over the years, unless we're moving the needle to make a difference to the taxpayers, I'm not the council member to go through and check the box for 5,000, check the box for 10,000. Cuz can you imagine doing that for $560 million? We don't have the time to do it, you know. So, it's easy for people to say, "Why did you spend this?" and say, "Well, what did we spend?" "Oh, it was $20,000." No, I I wouldn't wasn't too sure about that one. So, don't say that we're not taking these budget meetings and I think we have probably six or seven budget meetings lined up. So, just the time commitment alone to show up at these budget meetings, show up at these retreats, show up and ask questions, and every county manager can attest to it. I don't get down into those kind of expenses. If we're talking about funding retirement, we're talking about funding insuranceances, we're talking about funding new positions, whether it's the sheriff department, public works, administration, accounting, those add up. Training adds up. We want to make sure that our employees are well trained, well equipped, know what they're doing, and those expenses can get pretty pretty hefty when you're talking about we got about,00 employees throughout this county. So training is important. So some of those things that we're going to look at those, but please don't come here and and beat us up over minor expenses. And I say that very lightly because every dollar, every dime counts, but we're looking at spending $560 million. So please, ma'am, please, sir, when we're going through this process, if there's something that you're wanting us to do, definitely put that on the table, but don't come kick us about a 20,000 or $30,000 spend that's in this

budget, cuz I'll be the first to probably tell you, I didn't know that was in there cuz I'm not going to look at anything till it hits a certain level. And if we're going to take it out, let's take it out because it's going to move the needle. It's going to move the millillage. if we're going to add something, let's make sure we're not adding stuff that's going to move the millillage. So, let's And that's that's something I've learned and I'm I love to share my experiences because I had to learn that. I had to be told and taught that. And you don't get that just walking in off the street and you're one, two, or three. It's something that that you It's like It's like wine. It's an acquired taste. It's an acquired knowledge point that you get to that you say, "Hey, I'm not going to I can't spend this much time because the budget's too big to to question the little the little things. Not to say that we're not concerned about the little spins, but you don't have the time to go through um the big book." And and our budget books over the years have gotten gotten smaller, more digital, but I remember those budget books used to be like three three Old Testament Bible stacked on top of each other. And no, you couldn't read all that. You couldn't go through every line by line. You just don't have the time to do it and it doesn't make sense to do it. So that's my little my little tidbit on the budget and I know our staff works diligently every single year. We start budget process probably October. Start looking at stuff in about October to get this ready for us March and April. It's not a quick fix. It's not a overnight. Only thing overnight we probably can do is ship it overnight, but we can't do it overnight. So, I know um I know you know people concerned about the taxes. This council is very conservative when it comes to taxes. And so I asked the county manager a little over a month

ago, you can put it up. I wanted to know what was the county's portion of a tax bill. You know, we send out that bill every year. It has York Countyy's name on it. So if it's increasing, it's not increasing because York County's increasing it. And so what we did, what I asked the county manager to do was to pull up and he did it starting in 2010. The county portion of your tax bill on a $300,000 home was $97 in 2010. In 2025, the tax portion that the county collects is $955. Where else can you go and live for 15 years in the county's portion only gone up what's that? $45

$48. We are a conservative council. We take care of the taxpayers's dollars. And I think this example right here exemplifies it. It shows it on paper. It shows it on your bill. So, if your tax bill on a $300,000 house has gone up $1,500, $1,000, it's not because York County has increased those taxes. Your municipality is increasing taxes. Your school boards are increasing taxes. But the proof's in the pudding. And I'm glad I asked this question because I had no idea, but I knew we've kept these taxes low every single year. And when people come up and say, "My tax bill, you're raising my taxes." I say, "First thing, look at the county's portion. Pull out those bills. compare year to year to see what we're charging you. Pull out those bills year to year. Look what the school districts are charging, what the municipalities are charging. But it's right here. And I wish we could mail this out with a nice smiley face, scratchy sniff sticker on it that we used to get in elementary school cuz it would smell like the the sweetest thing you can put on a piece of paper. That's nothing. We've kept your taxes low. So, when you have a concern about your property taxes being increased, call your mayors, call your school boards, call your city council members. You can call us and thank us, I would hope, but we won't get those calls. But I wanted to share that that this is proof that we're doing all we can to keep your taxes low and we have kept them low. And I'm I'm proud to say I'm part of this group that votes how we vote on our millillage, whether it's a tick up or tick down. We roll our millage back every single chance that we can to keep taxes low. But there's going to come a time that we're going to have to start adding some things because we got some major projects and stuff coming up. So, I just wanted to share that to enlighten people at home and the audience. We won't get to thank yous, but I wanted y'all to know where we're at and what we've done over the last 15

years. And I think this this sums it up real nice for us.

Madam Chair, I'll piggyback on what Councilman Rody just shared. So, I'm really thankful that we have a strong physically um responsible, I'll say, county manager and we have a staff that's extremely capable to help us put together this 200page document. When I joined council in 2023, one thing that was pretty important for me was for this council and the county to establish a strategic plan. And when you go to the the book, you turn to page nine, you go on our website, you can read about the strategic plan. You can read what's in this plan. What Councilman Rody just said, I think it's critically important that York County has run extremely lean for years. Um, and I'd say over the last two years, maybe being a native Rockillian and live in York County all my life, I've paid attention to what's going on with county, city, and school district and state government. Um, sometimes when you when you run lean, you tend to overlook the needs that you have short-term and long term. And I think some of that's taking place here in York County, but that's why we worked on the strategic plan to put together a vision for what we need to do so that we can actually deal with the items we need to deal with. Our county manager mentioned our fire department. We have a volunteer fire department system right now. That that's going to change over time, but there's an expense to doing that. It's a significant expense. You got to budget for it. So, there are a lot of items in our strategic plan that we're going to have to plan for whether it's this year, next year, or some other year, but it's coming. And you can't put them all off because then it's going to hit you all at one time, right? It's like maintaining your home. You have to keep your home maintained. If you don't, it's going to cave in on you. Either you're going to be dealing with a significant expense to deal with the expenses associated with your house. With all that said, at the county workshop, um, we were given an agency request report. Last year, there were nine agencies. We allocated $646,000. $646,286.

This year, it's going the recommendation is $621,286. Couple things about this that I think we need to think about. Number one, someone unrelated to this because accommodation tax and H tax doesn't apply to this, but I think we need to pay close attention to where we're investing the accommodation t tax and H tax to generate more hospitality dollars um and more guests to York County. So, however, we need to invest that money properly. But this is kind of the same way. There are nine entities that that we're contributing to. What what's the formula to determine how much money we're giving to each one of these entities? How do we determine who makes the list? There only nine on the list. I'm not suggesting there should be 15, 20, or 30. I'm just saying how do we come up with a list? So, how what's the formula? How do we come up with a list on this list? Safe passage is cut $25,000 from 125 to 100 there's I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but how did we make that decision? Where does the money come from to support our agencies here in York County? Because there are plenty of great agencies here in York County. We have a discretionary allocation that we can make and all of us make discretionary allocations. $30,000 a piece for that matter a year we can allocate to not for profits here in this community that do significant things that make this a better place to live. But but in our budget there's additional allocation. So how are we going to figure out where that comes from? Well, if there's no opposition to this, I'd like for us to consider this as a council. I would like for us to consider we're talking about and the state's talking about incentive monies to businesses coming into York County, right? So, we're at a bit of a disadvantage here when we compare ourselves tax- wise to North Carolina and Georgia. So, we almost have to offer incentive money to the companies, the types of companies we want. But one thing I shared with our economic development director was that it might

behoove us to improve our expectation in communicating what we're looking for out of these companies coming into our county. What type of corporate partner do we want them to be? This is from the beginning before we start start we before we start talking about incentive money. We're talking about what type of corporate partner we want. We've talked about the types of wages. We talked about the types of jobs, the types of tax impact because we just heard a minute ago, we don't get a lot of the tax impact. School districts get the most, municipalities come in second, we come in third. So, I'd like to suggest that we partner up ED and community development. And our economic development department actually works on some language that tells a story about what we're expecting from these businesses coming into York County. We want them to be good corporate partners and I could see a day where every business that operates and I'm saying definitely incentives are given at a certain level and it's a significant level and up right so these are companies that can afford this that they contribute to a fund and that fund ultimately one day it'll take time but that fund will help support these agencies that do significant work here in York County. That would be my suggestion. So there's no opposition. Um, I'd like for either the economic development board or not the committee, not the county council committee, the board or either the economic development director to work on this and come back with a suggestion for us to consider. If there's no opposition,

well, this isn't an action item. This is receipt of information from the county manager. So, I think I think what may need to happen is the if you're suggesting that the board do it, then it would probably need to emanate from the I'll bring it up at the end. I got some things to bring up at the end. I'll bring it up then. Thank you.

Any other discussion? So, we've got our homework cut out for us. I'm going to read these 200 pages. I can't swear I agree with with um Council Member Rody that I think our council works very hard to be conservative. I think it's our we've been presented with the budget. It's our job now to to dig our our um hands into it and I do appreciate all of the work. I do think that this is a much easier document to digest um at least for the community and I encourage everyone who's here, anyone who's listening to take a look at that budget document. Um look in there, ask questions, give feedback to us as council. Um, I am one of those though that gets in the weeds and so I can't promise that I'm not going to ask for the line item budget because that's what I've always had for so long and that's what I'm used to seeing. So I think at some point when I after I've started looking at this if I have additional questions um I may ask for that. I understand if if one of us asks for it, it's kind of like a trigger for everybody to get one, which is fine. But um I I I'm one of those that rolls up my sleeves and and digs in into it, especially if this doesn't have all my questions. we have a we have a very limited amount of time um before a first reading and so um I'm going to usually I usually do it on the weekends and then while I'm don't have my other job but um I'm I'm excited about taking a look at this. I again encourage the community to take a look at the document online and to give feedback to your council member representative. um this is the most important thing that we do and and it is right that a lot of times it's a little disappointing to not have folks come out to the public hearing and and give some feedback to the community and you get that stuff after the fact. So I I I'll say it one last time. They say it takes three times to hear something.

So I ask um that that you take a look at it that you are thoughtful about it and that you provide some feedback to your council members as well. Um, thank you Josh for providing that information. We do not have any uh any other business tonight. Uh, no committee and reports and no citizen concerns. Any council member new non-aggenda comments before we go into executive session?

Yes, please. I'll go ahead and kick us off right quick. Then what I just said a second ago about the agencies that request monies from our budget. Um, I'd like to refer this consideration to the economic development board. Let's just say I think that would be a good place for it to sit to consider establishing language when a company comes to York County and they're looking for us to give them an incentive. Part of our communication to them is our expectation before we even get into discussion of incentives is our expectation of them being a great corporate partner and actually outline how that could take place. um with the intent of hopefully securing money from companies coming into York County to help fund the agencies that operate in York County that we're going to allocate monies towards.

I would as as I'm evaluating how to send that to the board, we are in the mi I don't know that the board's going to be able to get they have other assignments. I'm not sure is the board going to be able to get back to us. Are you expecting them to get back with us before we Not at all. This would be for next year's budget, but we need to work on it now. I don't I don't have any issue with assigning the board um that as long as they're they're able to complete the task they've already already been assigned without pushing that forward. Um any does anybody have any objection to that?

I have an issue until we get some more some more detailed information on what exactly is taking place with this and how that would work and what we're asking from these businesses. Um, I would really like to know more and since it's not related to this budget, I would really like to have uh till the next meeting. Okay. To to at least

Well, why don't we do this? Why why don't we add to the unless we can solve the issue between now and the next council meeting. Why don't we add this as as a discussion item on the next council agenda since there's some questions about it and then we can have some discussion about it collectively before we send it. So that way maybe we'll have some parameters for the board to consider. All right, one followup then. So, we're talking about the potential of moving the economic development director and his staff out of the library. Could happen in this upcoming budget year. So, not for budget year 2627, just like the last request. I should have said 2728. You're planning for that. So 2728 I'd like to ask that our economic development director begin to explore and when he's ready to come to council or to economic development committee and give us a report on what options he might have to collaborate with other um complimentary agencies here in York County to actually um have a new location for economic development. I'll leave it at that. So, we're just asking that he go and start his due diligence now for next budget year. So, we'll have information in due time that we can consider. Gives him plenty of runway because some of the entities that conversations already been had with, they're in leases. They they have to make some adjustments and this gives them plenty of time to do that.

Well, and we can provide an update on that as we as we get further into this. I mean, currently in the recommended budget, there's no money for rent. So, if they were to move out, we have limited options, but we're happy to give council any updates we have. We're working hard. I know our assistant county manager, Tom Couch, is working hard with Mitch and his team to make sure if they do move out, they have a good place to be, and it's a long-term place. But I think there's always the option for a short-term solution until you can get to the long-term solution. So, you know, we as staff are prepared to identify that, make sure they have a good place to call home. Would that not be covered under the building services study that we're going to that's proposed in this budget?

We have we have lots of questions about that. Are we going to I don't what I what I don't want to do and I'm happy to have this discussion. I think we should have this discussion. I'm trying to figure out the right time to have it. So is a question has been asked about ED and we already know that there's going to be a request. that's been brought out to several of the council members during this budget cycle to consider um the expansion at least one expansion of library. I guess Josh before we move there how do you propose what do you think is the best approach to to address that? I mean do you all have information that you want to share with us at our next at the workshops?

I think we talk about it at the workshop. Yes. Look, Eric and I have talked about the potential needs, but a facility space study would identify the exact needs of of the economic development office in the future. So, that's one thing we we could decide is to wait for the completion of that study. Uh, we have some current spaces that we could upfit for the short term. Uh, but I think what we haven't been able to identify is a great long-term home. There's options, but those long-term homes aren't going to be ready next year. So, I think that's that's the struggle. But that doesn't mean we can't figure something out. But we we do want to make sure it's thoughtful and that it's a good space and it's and it's going to make our team successful in the work they do.

I think if if if you're planning on addressing that at the workshop to some extent, then let we'll wait for that. Um I'll go ahead and tell you since we're piggybacking that space needs assessment something I'm going to have lots of questions about. Just giving you a lot of warning. I'm gonna ask and I welcome questions. I can't wait to read about it. All right. Does anybody else have any council member newage in the comments?

We've had several the last at the last several meetings we've had people come up and express concern about the construction the noise from the the data center. I know several years ago we put in an ordinance that set times that construction could be done. I like for um us to get a copy of that and make everybody even in the planning and zoning aware of those times because if they're out there before the crack of dawn or out there past dark doing construction and they're in violation. I'm not sure anybody said that, but I do know we put some measures in place to protect homeowners and surrounding communities when there's construction going on that they can't be beaten and banging before a certain time and it can't be beaten and banging after a certain time. So, I would like for whether that come from Jonathan or county manager to send that back out to us reminding us what it is and if we need to have it posted on the website so citizens can see that's in that area who has those concerns because it is disturbing if you know construction is going on before hours of operation should be allowed. I think that would help us understand if they're operating within what we've this council has set, then there's no issue. But if citizens can come and say, "Hey, I saw on the website you're not supposed to be doing construction at 6:00 a.m., whatever that whatever that time is, then that we want to make sure that someone's out there making sure that they're not violating those construction hours because we do want to make sure that they're both going to have to coexist. We don't want any riff more riff raff to happen than we've permitted through our ordinance. So,

right, just Josh, do you mind sending up sending council um some feedback within the next week before our next council meeting so that we can understand what um what the parameters are that exist so that we can understand it ourselves and also share it with the community? Yes, I can. And the and the main difference is the allowed decibel level at night. So, you can uh do work at night, but the decibel level is different. But I'll send all that out this week. All right. Anyone else? Yeah. Just I we have some first responders here and I just want to say thank you to fire, police, EMS for what you all do 247. I tell you what, safety first and we appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I have my little strawberry earrings on. We have this wonderful annual strawberry festival in Fort Mill. As we parttook of some strawberries tonight, our strawberries in Fort Mill are bigger, juicier, and tastier. Okay. So, so we need for you guys to come out and uh partake the first weekend in May. We have all kinds of activities that are happening now. We crowned our queens this past weekend. Um, they're not only cute, they go from cute to beautiful.

So, and all ranges in between. So, I hope you come out and visit with us. All right. Anyone else? It's hope for rain. All right. Do we have a motion for executive session? Yes, we have two items. Uh, receipt of legal advice. uh general litigation update and then we have herselone matter, contractual matter, interim county attorney. Second motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none, we'll go into executive session.

We have exited executives executive session. No action was taken. Do we have any motions? Yeah. One motion to authorize interim county attorney contract as discussed in executive session. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. Y'all had motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor say I. We are adjourned.