Town Council - Regular Meeting

like to welcome everyone to our regular business meeting for the month of February just now getting started we're waiting on the Public Works director and fire chief but think they're on the way we'll go ahead and get started hope everyone made it through the cold spell okay hopefully that's the last one how you doing it's going to snow next Thursday I can do noow just not zero everyone had an opportunity to look over the agenda yeah motion to adopt Mr Mayor now second all favor thank you no one signed up public comment there on the but all right so everyone had an opportunity to look over the minutes from the January second meeting any questions or comments on those I make a motion toop second all in favor all right that leads us to Miss Sharon glasby with her audit presentation welcome Sharon well as you can see I've learned to use PowerPoint but I don't know how to do it on the computer yet so by next year but they say a picture is worth a thousand words so maybe I can convince my audit presentation a little bit by these pictures um but I do thank you guys for having us again through your Auditors we we always enjoyed the relationship and we we've seen the town going through a lot of a lot of change

and a lot of different things over the years we ating and it's it's all ended up very positively from audit perspective so we we appreciate your confidence in us um if you will flip to this first page of your your audit summary I just decided with with another client that this was easier than going through 100 pages and flipping back and forth so I I created this little little PowerPoint but um wanted to make sure that we thank Leslie for all her work and and the finance staff cooperation in completing the audit certainly couldn't do without without them uh we did Issue a clean opinion on all the opinions we issue three opinions for your audit and that is your general audit your federal funding and your state funding and all of those were clean opinions we had no findings uh no material weaknesses and no non-compliance findings so those are the those are the buzzwords that local government commission looks for when we send in the audit they want to see if we noted any non we've noted any material weakness and we did not so it was it was an unmodified opinion report um I always like to stack up how one year looks against the other so that's why I did a couple of these graphs as you can see on this third page back the general fund revenues everything looks very consistent um the uh everything's just neck and neck except for the other column here and the other revenues they went up because of investment earnings the your Investments of the the percentage of earnings was higher so so everything that is lumped into other and that is um let me see that's your miscellaneous small items and some of the other licenses and fees that are

not here broken down but you can see that went up about $60,000 and 40,000 of that was investment earnings so so it was a a wise decision to move your funding the way you did to earn more earn more money um if you'll flip one more page you can see what makes up these revenues and and the the biggest piece of your pie chart here most people just think that ad Borum tax is is all that matters to a town and accounting but you can see of course your biggest Revenue comes from your grants and restrictions on some of your inflows and those grants include um sales tax that that's considered a grant fire department Revenue po Bill basically anything that comes from the North Carolina Department of Revenue is in this green section so um and there again all those were were very consistent flipping one more page we have the general fund expenditures and you can see Public Safety of course we expect will take the most money the most money in the budget to run because of the different functions and services it provides that you can see here again everything is very consistent the only thing that varied a lot on this graph is public works and that went from 532,000 in 2023 to just 206,000 and that was because you had a large Paving project in 2023 that didn't recur in 202 so that's why it looks like you spent so much less money in 24 and keeping in mind a lot of these will vary because of that Capital outlay because one year you have a project and one year you don't so if you see see variances in the expenses the way governmental accounting works it it will be a part of

your expenses of flipping one more page Public Safety is is there again the uh the biggest area that we have here um there was a a small variance in the general government expenses between one year and another and that was finishing up work on the elevator so just a few things everything stayed very consistent with this audit except for just a few things that the interest income the uh Paving project and the the elevator everything else was was very very standard the next page is your general fund summary and that tells you you have for the past three years in fund balance that is available for you to decide how to spend the darker column is the total fund balance and again we're only talking about general fund we don't have anything with water and sewer on on these financial statements but you can see that your general fund fund balance that is available has grown over the past three years as has your total fund balance so so three three good years as far as management Financial and flipping back to this next page this is where we start to look at the water and sewer fund the water and sewer fund is to be operated as a business entity so you do want it to actually you want it to make a profit so you can put back money for future projects when things start to break down but uh also just as a general rule you want it to at least break even so you can see here we have some some pretty big jums the water and sewer fund we have the cash went from 2023 at 1.3 million up to 2024 3.6 million we've got jumps in the unrestricted net position the operating income the change in net position the

only thing that is is pretty consistent here at the bottom total revenues and that's just total revenues from your water and sewer department so what is happening here is the water department gets all these different Grant funds and they are restricted as to you so if your cash is sitting there higher at one point it's just because you didn't spend some of that grant money at that point it's not that you have this huge Surplus uh turning one more page I I was just absolutely amazed when I came to do the audit this past time because I thought you had a lot of projects going on in 2023 but when I opened 2024 I said I don't know how they they are doing this because if you count these bullets here there are eight different projects that are going on one of those is in the general fund but all the rest are in the water and sewer fund so if you think of this your finance office has to keep regular books just like they do every day for the general fund and the water and sore fund and then they have these eight many sets of books many funds that require their own total accounting so it it added a whole lot of work it adds a whole lot of work when you have to administer these grants but of course it's it's worth it because you're improving your town but it it is very a lot of work and that works fixing to double wait for25 no I figured okay and this last page that I I have done a print out for is just your tax collection rates and you can see your property valuations were very close between 23 and 24 as far as the the overall valuations and your collection rate actually improved between 23 and 24 it went 98 6 which is an excellent rate to 99.32 so I understand that this year may be a little bit different with everything that's happen but but you have been maintaining a really good

collection rate so that is the 85 pages in a nutshell I I didn't mention the one reason for the big variances in that water fund when I said the numbers were all over the place one thing is those those extra grants that come in and they vary from year to year but the other thing is these studies on the other post-employment health benefits and the retirement benefits because we have to put journal entries into that water and sewer fund to reflect what these studies are telling us you might owe in the future and it it's honestly it's like they're throwing a dark sometimes we'll we'll adjust it upward 300,000 then we have to adjust it downward 300,000 so so it's not real money that's going in and out it's just projections for how much you might owe and the actuaries have different variables every year that they put in that and and try to come up with something accurate so that causes a lot of variation in the numbers for your water fund yeah we have pretty big liability at this point yeah on it yeah yeah but we are on the p as you go and right now we're it's not a terrible amount for the ones the retirees we have right we're doing okay yeah the theory with these studies is if everybody walked out at point x what would you owe so that's work on every does anyone have any questions on this I love this that's good well I decided two things it would summarize and it would take the focus off of me something to look at as always Sharon thank you thank you for all you do for us you've always done a fantastic job you have any questions just don't retire before 2026 we're definitely going to have to

have you next year thank you very much you're you're more than welcome to to leave if you you got to get get back so Tim Cook uper he actually he forgot are you I'm proud of it yes me too thank you Sharon all right moving on um item number six the manager update turn it over to miss Haw day okay um our cdb cdbg West Interceptor project continues to move along work crews are continuing to rehab manholes they'll do some limited pipe bursting um in some places and additional lining of lateral lines anything I'm forgetting Shan the third one'll be putting that line in behind McDonald's yes they'll be putting in a new line a larger line behind McDonald's we've had several change orders but we were very much under budget and with cdbg anything you don't spend there's a a penalty so we're trying to get that down as low as we can I I think we're we still have some admin money that can pay that penalty off um but so we're we're getting close um and we expect the project in total to be finished late spring um the water treatment plant I think we're waiting for better weather to pour the concrete on the EQ Basin they're just not W to get started and then have a cold patch but um that project is is moving along I believe most of the piping modifications have they been done most of that has been done to the plant I mean there's some of course after the equalization yeah done

need to be done pop it in I think that's the biggest that's left um the pine swamp wastewater treatment plant which is the project we're partnering with the yansy county through some of their um arit ear Mark funding uh that project bid we only had one contractor show up for that bid it will rebid on the 11th uh at 2: p.m. we only expect one contractor to show up so I would imagine if he went home with his bid and added few dollars to it um so we'll see where that comes out uh the Main Street waterline which includes some some side streets on the east side and uh some work also on the West Side including uh the Shephard way Pump Station replacement um that bid it was uh a little bit above what we expected um but we are we put in a request to DEQ um so Helen disrupted some of the projects that we had up on the river and we think they're going to allow us um to move some funding around I had a good conversation with shotty eov who's the division of water infrastructure director last week in Asheville and he expected that we would be able to move some funding to cover that shortfall on that and we're hopeful maybe even increase a little bit of that project area but they're looking at that and we should know something I hope by next month um moving on to FEMA we are still working on our damage inventory um everyone in the in the region that had Helen damage received an additional 30-day extension to get their damage inventory in we do not not expect to use that full amount of time we're getting

closer to having all our damages assessed and cost estimates from Engineers um we were able to get pretty much everything other than the Redundant raw water um line some assessment done on that we did have sight inspectors which Russell will speak to later because he was with them in shame um Bakers Creek we've got an engineering proposal from Mill um for a cost up to $49,000 we we can exempt and don't have to go through formal procurement for anything under 50,000 we don't expect to get anywhere close to that this is mainly you know assessing where damages are in electrical and and um equipment out there they think the pumps were fine they're submersible pumps but the the entire Pump Station was underwater so they want Electric to be replaced and then the generator would need to be replaced so um they're going to do a proposed uh basically an assessment to give to feema uh FEMA's already done their site inspection on that but um we need to to I guess approve that contract um with Mill to do that work and that should be female reimbursable have a motion to approve that I'll make that motion I'll second all in favor you authorize Russell to to sign the contract I think it's set up in his name correct Check Yes okay um renovation project on uh North Main uh that did bid it bid higher than what we expected I think I sent you guys out that documentation and Leslie and I are

going to team up on this one um we have a recommendation from the project designer an architect um you know we are we do have a short fall we have already reached out to um our representatives in Raleigh to ask for some additional funding they're going to be looking into I think they're hopeful maybe that they can find some quicker than going through the budget project process but we have until that's the project we' received already $1.8 million on it and we have until June 3rd of 2026 to spend that money um so the project looks like it'll take about 10 months to finish we will have some type of funding in place to make up that shortfall either through the grant or lesbian and I have gone back through as you saw the fund balance is healthy and we also have some additional that is that counted in Thun M yeah we had something additional arpa money from several years back and got the first trunch of that that just came to to the local governments I think we have after Co I think we have about 200 yes 234,000 left with that that could be applied towards this project should that did not be coming forth from from Raleigh but we feel pretty good about and we've spoken with the engineers um since since the bid both Heather and myself and and Shane and Brian as well to see if there's anywhere that we could cut and there just doesn't seem to be anywhere that we can cut to you know to get to get to that point so and I will I will say $200,000 of this shortfall is for contingency a 10%

contingency so it bid about 20% higher which we can thank Helen for that as well um you know uh but but not not out of the ordinary from what we're seeing from what we're seeing so um we there may be some places to save some money but we fit the architect feels pretty confident about his um assessment of the work that has to be done and you know feels pretty confident that it's it's always best to have some contingency built in but that may be money that doesn't get spent so and so Leslie will want to talk to you about I'm gonna let her go ahead since we're on this page talk about the project ordinance update but first of all I would need y'all to basically um award the project and then we'll work on contracts with the um contractor which I should mention was Harper Contracting um they do good work they're working with the school systems right now doing their Renovations so they're here in the area highly [Laughter] qualified yeah I need a motion I need a motion to award it or y'all have any discussion question any questions on that Randy Denise any any questions on that I'm sure everybody looked at it in the email and I made the motion Judy made the motion all in favor motion now before I continue on I'll let Lesley talk about that the project ordinates so y'all don't have to go back and for yeah we'll we won't skip around okay I basically just updated the revenues the state Grant amount stayed the same in a million eight and the

local contribution this is the difference right here but as she said 476 yes 476 130 9996 of that is contingency so it may not have to all and then down here I updated the expenses the construction the Harper quote was a million 99 a mil 96,000 um this contingency is the 19600 and I've reduced these contracted services to actually what they're looking like they're going to be at this point and with construction admin with it to 8,530 that was there has shifted up here so but that that's where we are right now and this could be fund balance it could be we could get that funding and you know we do have this 230 and we made a request for 440 in we need a motion to approve that ordinance don't we motion to approve all in favor okay quick update on our insurance claim um had a conversation with the adjuster from the league today um I don't have anything in writing yet so I'm not going to be held exactly to these numbers it's been a little bit all over the place um but they think and this is subtracting out the $50,000 deductible which should be eligible for female reimbursement um 1.35 million in flood damage clim so that would primarily be Baker's Creek Pump Station and then the biggest part would be the blow room in the belt Press Room at the waste water treatment plant um and then we'll get another

14,700 on wind damage here at Town Hall which will go to roof repair I expect he told me that I would have a letter either into this week or first to next week but Chad and I have been there before we've been waiting for we get letters they already sent us an advance of $750,000 in a check and I told Leslie we're not depositing that till we because they wouldn't tell us what it was for and so when we initially talked to them they Chad and I talked to them after that you know they were saying well we think this this damage is in a flood way that we're not going to cover and this damage is in a flood way that we're not going to cover so um Ling on Brian as our flood plane administrator to pull up the Friz maps and we were able to send them documentation that what they were saying was in a flood plane or flood way and shouldn't be covered was not so I think that's what's LED them to finally come to this to say I said guys we're not getting anywhere near $750,000 if you're if you're you know excluding all this other stuff but um I think we're probably safe to go ahead and deposit that money which will be the first cash flow from any Source we have gotten since since the storm so that will be good um last thing I have of course is the tax report would you guys have that uh we continue to you know in talking to Jackie I don't think we're that far off from where we were um this time last year in our collections efforts um less than 1% Yeah well yeah less than 1% and there's there is um you know not any

that are huge to substantial it's kind of the usual characters um so I've got one item that we got a letter from the county um the vest property was reevaluate there was a technical mistake made I think they had had it listed as20 of an acre and it was actually 0.02 of an acre so they they um dropped their tax value down which of course then uh created an entitlement to a refund and I just need y'all to approve that I believe Jackie has leave me the amount it went from 94,000 down to ,000 in value so we are refunding most they had already paid we're refunding most of what they had paid on that particular I have a motion to approve the change in taxable value on the V property and to refund yeah we need one to refund make the second all in favor and the last thing I have is the resolution to advertise delinquent taxes we usually do that at our February meeting and uh they'll everybody will show up in the paper in March I have a motion to approve the advertisement of the delinquent taxes I'll make that motion second all favor thank you Miss Heather that all you that's all you have all right we'll move on to Mr Fox's update thank you my first item is the

vacancy on the ABC Board that um as of January 31st with J mm we need to uh nominate somebody from the applications and we received several of them to fill the remainder of his SE years we actually had seven I believe I think it all good applicants it appears I have a motion to that I make a motion uh to fill that with Harrison have a second I second all in favor any opposed motion carries thank you next just a quick update on the board of adjustments all the new members got sworn in and Heather and I were there for the first meeting on the kind of kick off the board on the 27th of January the new chair is Sydney laws and they set a regular schedule of quarterly meetings on the second Thursday uh starting in April which will be April 10th 4 so all that's in place and ready to move forward my next item is the annual events that kind of come up this time of year stuff that happens every year that we' the town is always sponsored of various stage usage and road closures the list was in the packet it's a little shorter this year because of First Friday markets have canel so there's only six events on that now several of has more than

one just need a motion if you all want to continue sponsoring those in that way I have a motion yeah I make that motion second all in favor so first Friday went totally away yep yep she she quit oh man that was a good event she did a good job with loaded the resturant up all right the last thing I have is a couple new requests for road closures uh the sheriff's department Camp funan want to do a road closure on Thursday June 19th and you may want to do these together or separate the other is Mary Main Street they're going to try to do a road closure this year if they can to make it safer is the camp fshine where the little guys ride their bikes around or is that a different thing what is Camp that's Lucy WIS Pati par Park I knew the name but I could not place exactly what it was it's it's a good thing for sure it is it is is that that's the same we they go up there the course they got the park they can't go events in different places I this is their so they got to move it every day they're not canceling they're just having they're moving it right here so and then that's going to be the bike night those people come they're having it right so that ties your bicycle motorcycle thing to yeah that's yeah it's on th yeah I'll make that most just approve both of those yes both of them I'll second All In

motion carries thank you that's all I have appreciate thank you very much all right we'll move on to our Public Works director Mr Shane Dale thank you Mr Mayor it has most definitely been an interesting month so far between all the nice lovely cold weather and water leaks we've had I guess you all notice the uh water conservation notice that we put out as of right now we're we're doing very well as far as tank levels I think our biggest concern overall was cold weather presented a lot of grief to not necessarily to our temporary electric pumps but just intake in general because there's so much ice in the river it was dropping our water levels causing us to lose ra water when we would do that we will be down for a period of time which if you're down you can't necessarily make any water if you're not bringing anything in so that that resulted in our tanks getting a little low or a lot low actually but we've got all that kind of situated tank levels are steadily increasing we're in pretty decent shape at this point time I think for the most part that's got about everything covered and our little trips with FEA to the Ines was kind of interesting also trip up there to show everybody the what was left of the Bowens Creek intakes which is not a el at this point did you get them up we did get them up there they never been yeah so I'll but into your report

just for a moment and then I'll let you pick up but just give everybody a little bit of an update I mean right here's a video that we have this this this is your Public Works directory going above and beyond with her tenis shoes with yeah so we had six individuals all six of them had tenis shoes on for the most part but um her it was a you were caring CP board one look at this he said a gentleman and for and for the public just so you know if you if you fall backwards right there it's about a 50 foot vertical drop into the creek so it it is very dangerous but um it's took a lot of work just to get them here um Brian actually went about three weeks ago and walked into the South Fork which is about a mile walk in just to take pictures um and it's it's very treacherous after Brian done that um we hired an excavator to go in there excavator spend a week just to get the road passable enough for a fourwheeler and uh then of course Shane and I were able to to take all six individuals from theme up there yesterday but it was a at Le at least we had good weather because if this would have been last week it wouldn't CU Shane Shane and I were up there last week with the engineers the week before and uh there was this much this much ice everywhere it's solid ice everywhere you went I mean you couldn't stand up so not not in the creek I'm talking in the roadways and everywhere so um it was it's very catastrophic up there and we're very hopeful that uh that FEMA sees fit to to give us the funding to rebuild these intakes back because they're they're very they're very critical um and this is our one and only

opportunity to get them to get them built back so again we we took them yesterday they done their reports they're going to send those reports to their superiors and hopefully we'll hear hear something back next week on whether or not we're going to move forward sorry to butt in Shane I just you're good you're good video question here how did you get her out carefully we just come right down through there and we got her back on six with her and off we went oh that was coming out that was coming back out oh yeah that was they had to get back they had to get up there it was interesting I mean she still telling them she may be there's two more that's probably going to be telling some Tales too well Shane and Heather both for for the last two or three weeks have been emailing them I'm saying guys just please know that this is very remote and very treacherous you know dress accordingly and um we were we were surprised yesterday with traction not cowboy boot when they got here but we we all made it up there and we're successful so it was it was interesting day it was thank you Shane you have anything else well the electric pumps are running good we've been running on them for about a month everything's running good not had any issues other than the air and ice and all that and cold the extreme cold weather so got any concerns about the electric pumps they're great they missed the beat so far you Raven well we didn't necessarily find Glen Raven we cut a piece of line out at Glen Raven it just don't go from this point to this point now so it's quick it's stopped I looked the day look like it came out from building I don't even know that water coming up now so I think we may have solved a few

different issues down there we got situ West fix down there behind Bo Jangles in Fr of the m and appar when we cut it back on it decided to down there from the French BR so that's next on the list how many of you have have the guys fixed in the past I guarantee a lot I would say we've fixed at least 8 to 10 I can I can and we' still got and I ain't going to sit here and say that we're done by no means because we still got that one down there to fix we've got another one out on K River and I'm sure there's other things that we don't know about but you know they still popping up and we'll get them we'll get situation those 8 to 10 are just what the Public Works crew has has fixed those numbers are substantially higher from just right after the storm when we had contractors in here obviously just over the cold weather period yeah yeah I think that's pretty much it thank you I don't know if we got anything else to put on TV do we Chad we don't have anything else to put on TV yeah I wish we had video of that I felt sorry for it he was broken I can imagine all right thank you Shane we move on to miss Leslie with that's a hard act to follow you go I know I mean I just now got a PowerPoint after I think probably 12 years of do this with her I mean in 22 years I've never had a PowerPoint for

this but that was much better um i s the budget versus actual um yeah yeah lots over time I mean this budget is just all the heck just this um I went to this meeting that's the Capital Management trust where we've made all of our interest money today in Asheville um it's basically like a regional finance officer meeting pretty much is what it is and I wanted to go just so I could hear what everybody else had to say and I told either by the time I got to Black Mountain at the end of the other table I was just like I think I just want to cry again it's it's just so many of them are just like us I mean it's just so bad that probably Us in Black Mountain was the worst that were there at the time um but lots of famous stories um and they were saying that um they were talking about the feds reducing the rate because they're Financial you know they do financial analysis and they said they did not think the feds would lower the rates anytime soon and that that was good for us because it keeps the air rate high on the earns part um I did have to take out 500,000 on the water side out of the Capital Management to be able to cover some payouts for the cbgi program because we're we're spread pretty thin on our cash flow um but hopefully we can get some new fam projects you know going um but overall people are just they were talking about colors they're talking about taxes just all kinds of stuff but everybody's just just about the same Che we're in um anybody have any questions on

this oh yeah it no I mean the one was just like the bullet thing yeah you can look at that one thing know where you're at um yes I want to close the oped small account that I have at UCB I pulled a 100,000 out we done the Capital Management trust and from both both sides from General and water we got 200,000 op saved right now and whatever interest it's made but I had left a little bit in in this UCB account to not close it just to see was and the service charges are just piting us up so it' just be better they charg like $13 a month I mean yeah paying a six cents interest and charging is $13 so yeah I'd just rather close that and just shift whatever else to down there I'll make that motion yeah all in favor um and when we do actually start getting some FEMA money I told Heather I'm probably going to do a budget amendment and have a 40 fund and try to run that out of the general chicken because all this juggling I mean I used to think when we had two to three projects it was a lot and that's the most we had had till all these and now it's got like eight whatever got books I not one more book so but that's my plan I think that's all I have thank you Miss lesy you're

welcome all right we'll move on to Chief Hal Niles I'm gonna go ahead and tell you up front Brian's got your beat yeah it's just much it's a much bigger it's only because his is bigger got a bigger heart Thank you Mr Mayor just uh on the report side you have our report the upth there and I will join with Shane here and say this has been unusual month we have had 54 calls this month and I don't ever remember us having that many will average about 34 and if you look at the report you'll see about 44% of those were fire alarms or structure fires and so if you saw the article that was in the paper I think it was last week about structure fires that joins right in with that seems to be a trend so uh just something to watch out for I think for us to pay attention I'm I'm thankful it's really less that small an amount as many small portable heaters and things that are out there being run in the community right now I think we are very fortunate to just be at that level on the operation signed up be glad to report to you that our trucks finally repaired I got call today we a to go pick it up our engine that's been in the shop for a month or so and so we'll get it back in service and we'll have all the other truck service mon or Tuesday they're coming over to service all them anual service an inspection and also we did get a donation of a 40 foot shipping container to put some of those fire department supplies that came in those donation that came in sitting all over the place over there hopeing I'll get those in that container and clean up around building B in the next little bit try to get some of that stuff out of the weather and that's about where we are

still have a good number showing up I've got four more applicants that makes a total of nine since the storm so that's encouraging people hospital hospital is still an operation they're planning on running it on Saturdays as long as they can they're looking at trying to find another location to to house it just to give a little bit more permanency so they're they're looking to move it at some point in time but right now it's still still in the museum over there and people are still coming get stuff out it EMS is also restocking out of some of it which is helping them as well so it's still still serving thank you Mr H yes sir move on to Chief banon for the police report thank you Mr May activity logs as well LGE C notic that uh the One update police wise uh Sergeant Chandler has applied applied for a grant from the Community Foundation uh which had some monies for things after the after the storm and received that Grant to be used toward a Vehicles we were able to purchase a brand new uh utility vehicle for use with FL weather or some of these storm events we pick that up this past week so that being completely completely free to the town regards to receed paid for that we'll have that available for crar and events along with B weather and those kinds of things um police wi that's really other operation uh zoning code enforcement FL

flood plane Administration we've uh uh I've had some more applications coming in these are more the normal applications not necessarily storm damage we had people started to doing some Remodel and those thank you brown all Mr Corbin I didn't for bu thank you thank you um for January we had 21 events um this month February we have 24 and for March we have 23 which is for the slow months doing pretty good um we have two concerts coming up one is called um hope after Helen is going to be a free show on February 16th at 4 pm um don't have a whole lot of information on it's going to be a Duo and Amy I believe are their names they're from Tennessee they play out in Nashville quite a bit uh they just decided to put on a free show for community and the other one is Dylan Wilson's the hillbilly ball that is on February 22nd at 7.m um and if you plan on attending I recommend getting tickets soon uh and we have a kitchening uh kitchen and cleaning giveaway a group out of um I believe it's Virginia is coming up to donate kitchen and cleaning supplies other than that that's all I really have we're staying quite busy thank you g thank you all right Council memb reports anyone have anything they'd like to report on just kind of for the rest of the board Brian and I had a conversation

down here as Rick and I were coming up tonight lady in the crosswalk at home place green Volkswagen never CS about so I ask him to kind of stake out the crosswalks because as we warm up we know what's going to happen before we get somebody C and the and the lady you know just kind of froze and and just kind of stared at the car but it ain't checked up yet don't come and sit up here and look out this window I well maybe maybe they do Henry Miller Bri that's up here with the radio and col least the amount of walking traffic and the amount of vehicle traffic has quadrupled in the last couple years and we all realize that I don't know what the what the fic is but it's it'll it'll make you sick to look out this window at any point during the day anyone else have anything they want to speak on I I would just like to say I know I say this every month every meeting I'm in I'd just like to reach out or say thanks to all the town employees a lot of people put a put the emphasis on these Public Works guys and uh they have done a phenomenal job and they're the ones that's out in the cold and um they've done a phenomenal job for us but this storm has put a workload on these other individuals that's unbelievable probably four times the amount of the regular work they still have a town to run so I just want to thank them for for what they and it and it's all the way through I mean you got Brian walking into the wed and you see the call volume that Niles has had and Corbin's I mean I can tell you cuz I get

phone calls every day on the Town Center that's not my job but I get them and what's happened with the Town Center since the storm has been astronomical the amount of people that are wanting to come and set up to donate and and cook and and it's it's amazing Chad and Leslie and Heather um again it's just a you you can see Heather's had to move her office um her her office looks worse than that one does I mean it's just the amount of paperwork is unbelievable with this but I just want to personally thank you guys for all that You' done and continue to do and I agree all right we don't have anybody from the chamber office Bill do you have anything to report on from high excuse me High Country doesn't meet on January too cold if there to meat yes yeah all right okay we got a close see um have a motion to enter into Clos session persu to North Carolina General statute 143 d318 point11 A6 to discuss town personnels I have a motion to enter into close session I make that motion second all favor