City Council - Regular Meeting

So, okay

All right. Good evening everyone. It is 6:01 p.m. on October the 14th. This is our regular uh Spencer Board of Order meeting for the month of October and we are officially called to order. We have all board members present. It's good to see everyone tonight. We will begin with an invitation uh by Mr. right with clear hearts and minds. Um Lord, we come to you as humbly as we know how. We thank you for this day to conduct the business of the town of Spencer here with the staff, workers, most importantly the residents. Bless this board as we make the decisions for the betterment of the town. Your name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Muhammad. Please rise for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. All right, board members, you have your agenda this evening before you. Uh we'll check and see if there are any uh requests for additions or deletions at this time. Anything from staff? No, sir.

All right. I would uh ask the board if we could um as item nine uh have a brief update from Scott Shelton with the Rowan EDC who's with us this evening and then we would get the update from um snow benefits. All right. And if the board is agreeable to that and there are no further additions or deletions, we'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda this evening. Mr. Chair, I move to adopt the agenda. Okay. Motion by Miss Sledge. Second. Second by Mr. Comet. All in favor?

All opposed. And the agenda for tonight is set. We will move on. We have one recognition this evening. I'll turn the floor over to Alderman Miller for a recognition on our national night out.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This past Tuesday evening, the town of Spencer experienced two exciting events in our new town park. The fifth annual National Night celebration was a community building campaign to promote police and community partnerships for a safer community. Thanks to Chief Michael File and his police force, as well as the Royan County Sheriff's Department for spearheading this event. There are also many public safety displays, educational activities, inflatable amusements, hay rides, and plenty of free food. The dedication of our new town hall or town park was a culmination of many years of planning and hard work by many individuals and groups. The vision of transforming empty parking lot into a beautiful green space became a reality. This new park reflects the past history of Spencer. It also shows the commitment of revitalization of our downtown area. Our park will help draw visitors into our town for future support and growth. It's also a center for many upcoming events to bring excitement to Spencer's future. This was truly a community effort from many individuals and organizations. It was an exciting night for the people of Spencer.

Thank you, Mr. Miller. All right. Any other recognitions this evening that we need to make?

All right. Just a reminder, as a recognition, um we have our Rowan County Creek Week that's going on this week and it'll be uh culminating on Saturday with our annual Race to the River festivities and so we'll be putting the park back into action um on Saturday. So, we hope folks can come out and join us for that. All right, we will move on to a public hearing. This is for um the uh CDBG NR grant that is will receive um comments on the fiscal year 2025 community development block grant for neighborhood revitalization. Uh if you'll remember, we have uh previously uh been going through this program. Um, and it's been a real benefit to our community and we are looking forward to hopefully um, uh, applying for a another grant to follow onto what we have been doing. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Harris.

Thank you very much. Um, so before we actually hold the public hearing, I wanted to take this opportunity to present the draft application both to the board and to the public who may want to weigh in on it. Um, so as you said, tonight we're going to hold the second of two required public hearings for the town's proposed application for $950,000 uh additional dollars in community development block grant neighborhood revitalization funds. At the first public hearing, which took place last week at your pre-agenda meeting, the board invited citizens to provide their input on the town's overall housing, community development, and economic development needs. That hearing was basically the public's opportunity to weigh in on how these funds should be used for the next uh three-year cycle. Um and as Peter mentioned uh in mystead, I I'm apologize I was not able to be here last week. Um these funds can only be used for certain eligible activities. Um, so the funds must be used to address the needs of low and moderate income households and they are primarily intended to support housing rehabilitation efforts specifically to address serious needs including health, safety, and structural deficiencies in Spencer's older homes. Um, as I understand it, we only received one comment last week uh from a member of the public who spoke in support of the application for advancing the town's historic preservation goals. and I believe that was Leslie Talbot. Um, therefore, tonight we are ready to present our draft application and to invite additional public input. So, what I'm going to do now is present uh the draft application which includes the scope, priorities, the budget, and the expected outcomes. Um, now I will say the actual application itself is like a 100 pages. So, if we wanted to avoid that, I figured I'd just give you a summary right now. um and basically hit the highlights for you and the public

who may want to weigh in. Uh so what our proposal is is to request, like I said, $950,000 to continue our successful scattered site housing rehabilitation program that we began in 2020. These funds will be used for LMI households with uh to make necessary home repairs focusing especially on safety, health, and livability. The draft plan proposes repairing about 10 additional homes in Spencer. Um our goal is to focus on uh these major um the major failure points in homes that that could potentially displace these households. So we're trying to really hit those areas that can extend the life cycle of the home by an additional 20 30 years plus. Our proposal is to select beneficiaries from our existing weight list. Meaning we are not planning on reopening the application uh cycle unless and until all beneficiaries on the existing weight list are uh basically gone through. So I want to pause here and explain what I mean by that. Um when we first went through our 2020 cycle, we went through a grand sort of public invitation process where we provided the uh program guidelines, the application form to the public. We had a multi-month application cycle which culminated in a fixed deadline and at that deadline we reviewed all the applications that were submitted uh which were more than 20 at that time. Then we reviewed all the applications and by we I specifically mean the housing selection committee and then they uh ranked those applications based on a objective scoring system that was developed. So to give you the real basic version of that, uh each application was

ranked according to the need of the household including income, the physical condition of the home, any special characteristics of the household such as uh disabled family members. There was a whole uh rank uh a whole uh list of criteria that was used to score, rank and prioritize the application. and the housing selection committee, which is a required um procedural body through this grant, uh adopted and affirmed that weight list. And because the wait list is so long, we uh we've barely made a dent. I mean, we've we've helped several households on that wait list, but because the need is so much more than the actual funding that's available, we basically don't necessarily need to reopen the application cycle. The goal is to actually continue working on with the existing weight list. And I will tell you the housing selection committee did meet earlier this afternoon and they uh voted to reaffirm the existing weight list. Um so there's no need to take any additional action on that. Um, so anyone who's listening, we are not planning on reopening the application cycle because the wait list is still currently uh quite long and we want to help those who went through the process, applied, were verified, qualified and who who are just basically waiting to be matched up with additional funds. Uh so the key points from the draft that I want to re uh emphasize uh so as I said we want to do approximately 10 additional owner occupied substantial rehabilitation projects. All of the households will be drawn from the town's existing weight list. The rehabilitation work will address major health, safety, and energy efficiency needs such as roofs, HVAC, plumbing, electrical as well as accessibility modifications um especially for seniors or people with

disabilities. Um only around 10% of the grant fund will be used for administrative purposes with the balance of that fund being used directly for construction and eligible project costs. We will also use a portion of the funds for temporary relocation assistance for households who need to be moved during construction. As we know with uh these substantial rehab projects, they are very expensive and we're basically doing we're renovating the entire house and in most cases the house becomes a construction site. So we need to temporarily relocate that household. So, some portion of the budget will be used for temporary relocation assistance and 100% of the funds will be used to benefit low and moderate income households meeting the program's national objective. So, that's pretty much the basics of it. Um, and I can answer any additional questions you have. Um, but again, the purpose of tonight's hearing is for the the public to weigh in on the draft that I just presented. Um, and any additional comments that we received will be submitted in writing to the Department of Commerce, um, and will be included as part of the application record. Um, so following tonight's hearing, we will be submitting the application by a deadline on October 29th, which is just about two weeks away. So, unless you have any additional comments, I'll turn it back over to the uh, mayor to do the public hearing.

Great. Thanks, K. Uh, just one question for you. I know you mentioned the the wait list being so long. Approximately how long is that? How many how many applications do we have on the wait list? So we have about 15 eligible households on the wait list and so we have plenty of additional we we believe we'll be able to connect that 950,000 to people who are currently on the wait list. And do you go back and vet those applications that were submitted?

Correct. So all information and data that we use has to be current within the past 12 months. So what we will do, we will go back to these households to re-qualify them. We will check their income, check if any major circumstances have changed, and we'll have to document that for the record. If they become ineligible, we'll simply have to provide that information to them in writing um and move on to the next person. Thank you.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Harris. We will uh now open the public hearing and again this is to receive comments on the fiscal year 2025 community development block grant neighborhood right revitalization application. And so we do not have anyone's um signed up to speak for this public hearing this evening. And uh so we'll ask and just make sure I know a few folks have come in um after we began. So, is there any uh anyone interested in speaking specifically on this public hearing matter? Okay. Hearing none, we will enter that into the record. And with that board, uh we will entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So, move motion by Mer.

Second.

Second by Miss Moody. Any further discussion? All in favor? Right. All opposed. And public hearing is now closed. Kyle, thank you very much for all your work on this and important part of uh what we're doing here in town to help make sure that we're helping to make uh folks lives better and have better living conditions and also working to improve some of our uh historical uh properties in town. All right, board. The next thing is public comment and so we will um open public comment this evening. As a reminder, speakers are given three minutes to speak. Uh we have one individual signed up to speak a public comment this evening and that is Leslie Talbot. And so Leslie, if you'll come up and we do have a timer to help you out, but uh the floor is yours.

Thank you. Um I'm not speaking as a town person tonight. I'm speaking as chair of the historic preservation commission. Uh we don't have currently have a liazison between you and the board, the board and ourselves actually. Um, so I'd like to give you an update on our current activities. We are not just an organization that meets on the third Monday of the month and says no to people's applications. We do a lot more than that and I'd like to bring you up to date and maybe get some of you engaged to help me be more successful with our presentation to the to the community. Um, currently what we're working on is we're currently reviewing our standards looking to increase ease of use. Uh, we're going to um I'm going to use a term everybody laughs at because I'm old. Hyperlink where you can say I want to go to chapter 3 and you push chapter 3, it takes you there. I want to look at doors, you push the word doors, it takes you, you can drill into the standards more easily than scanning through page 92 pages of documentation. But that's the first thing we want to do. We're going to add a glossery. What's a corbal? Nobody knows. I do, but nobody else does. So, we're going to give a glossery when people start talking about uh historic terms in terms of architecture so that we can what's a setback. We can help people be more informed and and make better decisions. Uh we're also going to add a section on acceptable modern substitute material for historic uh i.e. porch floors. You have to report replace them every two years. And so we're going to help you find acceptable material that we accept and you can make it a minor work. You don't have to come before the board to get it approved. We're going to streamline the minor works process. Um we're also building a history class called the history of Spencer and we're having a lot of fun

doing it. We're learning a lot ourselves and we hope to share it with the group when we have the class comi completed. We're continuing to develop the necessary steps for the certified local government. We started when we expanded our HBC. Oh, I got 51 seconds. It's not going to work. Uh the HBC, we're going ahead with the the standards. We're going to meet the criteria and we're going to ask you to help us because that will allow us to get preservation act of 1966 grant money to preserve more historic homes in the district. We have one outstanding issue. Three years ago, we put we approved historic signs to go on the street signs. We're still waiting for Hargood to provide them. I need your help. Three years is totally unacceptable, especially when I've seen them here in town putting up other signages. Um, I don't mean to say we were first on the list, but we were close. And we need them because it will help us preserve our historic district so people don't say, "I didn't know I was tearing down a historic house. So, thank you.

Thank you, Miss. Sure, you can. Lesie, who who was the sign company? I think is the name of the company. Peter knows I've been working. So, all of our other signage is a different company. Most of your signage for your for the town of Spencer. However, Hargood had done a really beautiful job with the historic uh sign toppers in Spencer uh Salsbury. If you look, you said historic district.

We went, we used the same template. We thought it was going to be easy. And suddenly they said, "Oh, yes, we'll get back to you. Oh yes, we'll get back to you." And Peter, I'm I went to Peter already. And I'm just saying, Peter, we need to continue to push because it's been three years. We allocated money. I don't have that money anymore. I don't know if you carried it over in the budget. We will look into it. I would appreciate your help. Thank you. I should say any other questions. I don't think you all have it. Thanks, Leslie. Thank you for the update. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm planning on Monday. Thank you.

And board, that is an important note. We need to check and we'll confirm with the upcoming election and since we'll have some some new folks every uh every time we do that, you know, we shuffle up a little bit on our liaison to various boards and uh community groups and things like that. So we'll be able to make sure that uh you do have a liaison from the board that's uh that's active in your group.

Yeah, absolutely. All right board, that is the end of public comment this evening. We'll now move to the consent agenda. So you have the consent agenda before you. Um is there any reason to pull any items for further discussion? And if not, we'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda before you. Make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. Second. Okay. There's a motion by Mr. Miller, second by Mayor Prom. All in favor?

Great. All opposed. Consent agenda is approved unanimously tonight. We will now move to item nine. We're going to get a brief update from Scott Shelton with Gerland EDC. Thanks for being with us tonight, Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, board members, for allowing me to give you this brief update on EDC's activities. uh so far this year. Uh it's hard to believe, but the year is about threequarters of the way over. It is hard for me to believe at least. Um but it's been a good year so far for the EDC. Um overall activity level is is really high. Uh we've had 104 qualified projects so far this year and that's when we have, you know, a building or a site or a program or a service that may help company locate or expand in Rowan County. Again, 104 so far this year. uh we had 106 for all of 2024. So it's been a lot a lot of things going and a lot of activity and and the vast majority of these projects have been in the manufacturing sector for the last several years. uh distribution have been gaining ground on manufacturing and almost neck and neck there for a while but for this year I would if I had a number I'd say at least 90% of them are manufacturing leads which I think speaks to a lot of things going on uh in the news regarding tariffs and some other concerns but that has driven activity level up very high for manufacturing which is good for all of us and of course our uh major announcement this year was of course Jable's announcement of a new manufacturing facility in the former Gildan yarns building near Granite Corey it's probably our largest manuacture mfacturing announcement in several decades. Uh nearly 1,200 jobs over the next five years, average pay of 62,000 and about 500 million of new investment in the county. Um it's also allowing us to meet our our 2025 organizational goals for jobs and investment in one fell swoop and given us a nice head start on our um five-year campaign that we announced earlier this year, the Ford Rowan 2 campaign for our private sector fundraising arm. Uh, our most recent announcement was, as you may have read, CMC Anchor Systems announced a new facility in East Spencer in the new Rooster Farms property. It's a small announcement, but still they all add up. We'll hit singles all day. You don't

have to all be home runs, but 30 new jobs and a million of capex. And again, it's nice to see a new tenant in one of these, you know, shiny buildings in East Spencer. So happy for town Spencer to be succeeding. And that's why we want to have product in Spencer. Got to have product get businesses here. And uh related to that, of course, we continue to work with the town and Salmon and NC Railroad on the former finishing company site. As the board's aware, they had a site visit here to Spencer back in August, and that was part of the application process for what they call a build ready sites grant uh to go toward the site work and engineer design on maybe rehabing that property. And we're hoping we'll have an announcement soon on that grant status from NC Railroad. Um, regarding some other events from the EDC, back on the 17th, there was a community job fair held at the Rowan Community Center, the old mall. That was well attended by job seekers and employers. I think it went really well. Hoping to have another one here soon. Um, also we hired a new marketing and communications person. Her name is Michaela Smith. A very bright, energetic, smart young lady. I think you'll all enjoy her and she's very eager to learn more about the community. Uh, she comes to us from Harrisburg, but has a lot of good ideas. does and you of course being a young person knows all the social media and stuff we're not you know really aware of and we need somebody to do that so we're we're happy she's here. Um I would help and my my space page hasn't been updated in several years so kind of behind the times on that so I'm glad we have her there. Um and then a couple of events coming up. Um of course October is manufacturing month in Rowan County. So on the 22nd we're going to have our um I guess it's the second maybe the third year of the women in manufacturing panel that's going to be held at the Salsbury Business Center on Main Street in downtown Salsbury. So there's going to be a lot of female leaders in manufacturing speaking including those from HKLE Hexagodon Agility and Milspec manufacturing. And also on October 30th, our annual manufacturing appreciation lunchon will

be held at the Crystal Peel Crystal Peeler Lounge on Kataba Colleg's campus. And some of the panelists for that will be representatives from Hexagon Agility, Daimler, and Snyder Electric. And then finally, uh we're going to be having our annual holiday event for our investor that includes town dispensary. That's going to be coming up in December. Working on a date on that uh here in the next few weeks. Hope to have information for you soon regarding that and we'll get that out to you as soon as we can. And then just includes in closing, I want to appreciate or express our appreciation as always to the town of Spencer for your continued investment in EDC's goals and objectives. Again, I think things are really moving forward in Rowan County. We want to see everybody share in that growth and we're dedicated to doing so and we'll do what we can to see that growth come to Spencer. Scott, thank you very much. I know y'all been very busy in Northern Iran County with Spencer, Annie, Spencer, so thanks for all that y'all were doing to try and propel us forward. Any questions for Scott while he's here tonight?

Scott, um I know that the Department of Commerce was doing a rapid response down at uh PCA. Any thoughts on that?

Well, we were um kind of blindsided like everybody else. We are going to close in. Uh it was sad to see. It's been reported here for years. Um but uh I mean again with the organizations in place such as the chamber, the the commer commerce's rapid response team, we hope to have these folks up and going soon. The good thing too is if there is a good thing for something like this happening, it's not at a time where there's a down cycle in the economy where there's no openings here. There's plenty around here, I think, and certainly try to have some vents geared toward those folks to get them up and going. And in regards to the building itself, um haven't been in there in a while. I'm not sure what shape it's in, but it is, you know, a building. And again, we've got to have product to have businesses here. So, um, once the organization figures out what they want to do with that property, we'll be ready to help them market it and and try to get somebody in there as soon as possible. So, uh, yeah, again, it's if there's ever a time for something like this to happen, it is now because again, we're in a good spot as far as being a demand for, you know, sites in Rowland County and also employees.

Thank you. Other questions? All right, thanks so much, Scott. Thanks again. Appreciate everything. All right, next on our agenda, we will invite Eddie Snow forward from uh Snow Benefits Group for uh information on our renewal rates for 2025 and 2026.

Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks, board, for letting me present this to you. I've already met with Anna and Peter and we've we've gone over this information with them. Um, this year was sort of a good news bad news sort of year. We have been on this current plan for probably over 25 years. Uh, it is a grandfather plan. When the Affordable Care Act came out, I think it was 2008. um they allowed these grandfather plans to stay on the books and every year we have our fingers crossed that they're going to allow us to continue to do that. The good news is they're going to allow us to do that for another year. The bad news is this will be the last year. So, as we're going through this and we're looking at some of the alternate plans that we've quoted, uh, I'm not going to go into great detail because it doesn't make any sense to do them as long as this plan's available. But when you're looking at what you're going to be faced with moving forward, some of these numbers in these alternate plans are are some of the numbers that you're probably likely going to see next year. Um, so in the packet that I I put out, the first one, Town of Spencer, it says your December one renewal, and you see to renew the current plan that you've been on, there's a 7.9% increase. And you may say, well, where did that come from? I went over this again with with Peter and Anna, but 1.1% of that is aging of your employees. So in this older grandfathered plan, your aging of employees go in five-year age brackets. The new ACA is every year. This is an old This is an older plan, so it's fiveyear age brackets. So luckily, we didn't have a bunch of people jumping

from 50 to 55, you know, for 49 to 50 in that. So, uh, actually not bad, 1.1%. This plan also is underwritten based on the health of your employees. So they can rate this plan, but they have standard rates to go into the state and then they can rate this plan at a discount of a 75 or they can give you sort of a penalty based on your health of your to 1.25. You're at a 86 and it's going to a 87. So you're on the discount side of that and that's been a trend for the last few years. You know, we had some rate decreases in years past, which is unheard of these days, but because it was a grandfathered plan and you guys have just, you know, through people retiring and hiring newer, younger people, you know, we've got younger, healthier people on the plan now. And that's that's been trending in your favor. Uh so going from a 086 to a 87 that was 1.2% 2% of the increase trend which is this medical inflation. That's the cost of drugs going up, the cost of doctor visits going up, just the cost of medical inflation in general is trend and that's 7.5% on this plan. Again, that's for these grandfathered plans. The affordable care act plans that I'm giving the renewals to right now are 9.4% on the trend. So again, the trend is lower on these grandfathered plans than on the ACA plans.

Location factor is a zero. The Blue Cross rates every county in the state differently based on u the county you're in and the deals they've cut with doctors and hospitals in that area. That's a zero. So that's good. And in changing other factors, that's something because if you're adding up what I gave you, you're over your renewal. So, you're wondering how do we get back to the 7.9? They're giving you a a minus 1.8% in the change in other factors. So, that's how we get to the 7.9. If you'll look at the next page, um, these are alternates. These are all newer ACA compliant plans, and you see they're quite a bit more expensive than the plan you're on. Um, these are all Blue Cross. If you look over at the next page, Etna did give us a quote. Uh, and you can look at those. Again, they're considerably higher than your renewal. And then United Healthcare based on them us sharing with them what your renewal was on your current grandfather plan, they declined the quote uh just because they're not competitive. just like you see the Etna and even the ACA blue. So that's where we're at. Don't be discouraged by that. There's some things happening in the market that I hope will again play to your advantage. One thing that unfortunately happened is the League of Municipalities, you know, used to offer a plan that's gone away and every year we quoted them and they were fairly competitive. So we uh unfortunately lost that alternate uh for now. The other thing though, there's a

lot of a lot of movement in the market in level premium partially self-funded plans. So we're going to be looking hard at that. Um, what that does is allow small I was going to say companies, but small towns like yourself to even in the ACA world be rated based on the health of your group because you've got a healthy group. If we do it self-funded, then we get the benefit of you having a healthy group and it's underwritten based on your employees. So, that's something that we'll look at next year renewal. The other thing is, as some of you may know, they've made an announcement about it. We don't have rates yet, but the Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, and there will be a Chamber of Commerce plan starting in January. They're teasing us that the rates are going to look really good. We don't know yet. They haven't been approved fully by the state yet. as I see what they look like starting in January, you know, we'll we'll come to you and let you know what that's looking at. But that's an alternative as well. Uh so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I hate this is going away because it's served you guys well for a long time. It's giving you a really good plan and and the hybrid part of it that we're doing with the high deductible and then cost sharing that with your employees. We'll still do that. I, you know, we'll look at it and make sure it's still the right thing to do, but that's still something we do. We just do it with the ACA compliant plan. So, that may not, that part of it may not be going away, but the underlying insurance that we're using is going away after next year. So, I've got some other

stuff. Is there any questions on the medical before I move to the other

board? Any questions? Everybody's favorite subject, right? Um, the next thing is life insurance. You guys provide life insurance for all your employees. That's staying the same for another year. So, that's that's in this package, the first page. Um, so life insurance is staying the same. The dental is going up slightly, $2.14. uh for an employee only, but most of the time we're seeing dental rates in the 35 and $40 range. So, this is still really good rate at 32. Uh so, our suggestion would be stick with that for another year. We'll look at it next year. And then below you can see the vision and the vision current vision rates. Right now, most of the companies we're looking at are in the six and seven range. This is at 4.84 for the new year. So it went up 32 cents. So our suggestion would be stay with that again. And one reason to stay with equitable for another year as well is I know it was important to have an EAP program, employee assistance program for you guys. And Equitable if you do business with them will provide that for free. So that will continue uh with this renewal for another year. Any questions on that?

Any questions on dental, vision, and life insurance? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Lee.

All right. Next items on our agenda are to consider approving the group insurance renewal rates for 2025 to 2026. You've heard the uh proposed rates. Uh so good news for this year. Uh we'll have to figure out the the plan for next year. Um but we will entertain a motion at this point in time forward to approve our insurance renewal rates for 2025 to 2026. I motion that we move to accept the current rates for the renewal for the insurance. Okay. Second

motion by Mr. Muhammad, second by Miss Sledge. All in favor? All right. All opposed. And those are approved. Thank you all. The next item is to consider adopting ordinance 25-11.4 04 to appropriate $2,500 for a bike lane striping. Mr. Black, Mr. Mayor, members of the board, uh last month's meeting you heard the presentation on possibility of doing bike lanes on Whitehead and up Jefferson and also in the future doing them continuing out Salsbury Avenue and US Highway 29. After that meeting, I contacted NC DOT spec specifically about the Whitehead Jefferson project. Uh they advised that they have already left the contract for the resurfacing of that road. So that kicked us into high gear to try to meet their deadlines. Once they left the contract for paving, they no longer have control on when it gets done. They they let a group of roads to a contractor and it's up to that contractor to do them in the most efficient schedule they can. So, we contacted u a consultant, Kimley Horn, who worked with us on this striking project out here. Uh we negotiated with them concerning the price. Started at about $10,000 and got them down to about $5,000. So, I think we accomplished the goal on that. Um and they are ready to go to work. What we're coming to you tonight with is a request to appropriate the money. Part of it will come from our I believe it's our contracted services line item in the budget and then part of it's actually coming from the money we have raised over the last couple of years for our payment in lie of for sidewalks. Uh since I got here we have collected over

$50,000 into that fund. Uh 38,000 of that came in the last calendar year. So there's a fair amount of funds coming in with that program. uh that program is set up and allows us to use those funds for projects of this type. So, we're asking to for you to allow us to use those funds. And I believe that's all you need to know unless you have questions. Okay. Order. Any questions for Mr. B on the item? Is this 2500 the cost of design or is this implementation and design? The cost of implementation is free. Okay. The cost of the design is what we have to come up with.

DOT's program when they do repaving projects is basically they are open knowing that those roads are going to have to be restriped. Uh they're open to considering different striping patterns. Uh but it's on the local municipality to have the restriping plan done. And and just as a reminder, what we'll be asking for is from Third Street all the way up Whitehead to the intersection of Jefferson and then Jefferson up to Yadkin doing bike lanes on both sides and two travel lanes. And then in front of the high school, we'll have a center turn lane to people to access the parking lot. Uh we're also asking for three stried crosswalks for safety of children getting across to the school. And then for the rest of Whitehead, put in the share arrows for the bikes to ride along with the traffic. Although that's a law. I'm not sure why people need to be reminded, but it's it's a little reminder. All right. Any other questions, board? If not, we'll accept a motion to adopt ordinance 25-11.4.

So move There's a motion by Miss Moody. Second.

Second by Mayor Proton. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? All opposed? And that's approved unanimously. The next item is to consider adopting ordinance 25-11.005 005 to accept $11,857 for a safety first grant from the North Oak Southern Railroad and authorizing town manager to execute the grant agreement. We're going to talk to this one and I I don't see Chief File here tonight, but I see Lieutenant Leonard. Uh in case there's any uh questions on the specs of the of the equipment, perhaps he could describe that. But yes, this is a grant that uh as our meeting cycle was happening last month, we had received short notice of an opportunity and then since then we've gotten the successful news of a grant award. So this is approximately $12,000 that would allow uh funding for a a unmanned aerial system or a drone for public safety purposes. And

yeah, actually will allow us to buy a drone uh better than what we had originally picked out. Um, it'll have plenty battery life. I think about five hours flight time. Uh, pretty large drone. We, uh, we kind of got the grant. You know, one of our part-time officers works for North Southern full-time. And, uh, he brought it to our attention. Hey, they want me to ask y'all about this. There's a grant available. There's some grant money out there. So, Chief put in work and, uh, submitted the grant and they pretty quick turnaround. They, uh, definitely were on board with it. U we, we, uh, like the fact that we could use it to surveil their their property and, uh, and everything. So, it's going it's going to provide us with a very nice grant with some with a very nice drone with some uh fleer capabilities and and everything. So, very good. That's exciting.

Very much appreciate y'all applying for that and congrats on getting it. Absolutely. Thank you. For any questions and if there aren't any, we will entertain a motion to adopt ordinance 25-11. 55. Move. Motion by Mayor Proto.

Second. Second by Miss Sledge. Any discussion? All in favor? Right. All opposed? This approved unanimously. The next item, we'll welcome Mr. Blunt back to consider adopting ordinance 25-9 amending the town's official zoning map dated September 10th, 2024. Reszoning Rowing County GIS system parcel number 048042 located at 2038 US highway 29 from IND which is industrial DSR zoning classification. Mayor, members of the board, you saw this presentation uh at your pre-agenda meeting before the public hearing. Um we'll show it again tonight for the viewing public at home. Uh I will point out that uh we did properly notify the surrounding property owners and advertise for the public hearing. We held the neighborhood meeting. This has been before the planning board. Planning board approved or recommended approval unanimously. Uh as the mayor stated, this is a reasonzoning request taking a piece of property and that's the basic location of it. Uh that is currently a small car dealership. And I'll zoom in a little closer so you can see what it looks like. I would say that's what it looks like now, but it's it's basically wound down and is almost out of operation. There's just a few cars on the lot at this time. Uh went by there today to pick up the zoning sign. Uh a new owner wants to purchase this property. They're not buying the business because you can't transfer an automobile dealership license from one person to another. So he actually has to start a new business there, but he wants to run it as basically what it has been, a small automobile dealership. In the process of doing that, we suggested that he get it reszoned to the proper zoning classification, which is BSR,

uh, one for a few more pictures for the viewing public's benefit. Um, the only problem we've ever had with this property is the current owner tended to park cars out in the road right away,

which is illegal and against our zoning ordinance. Once we contacted him and explained that to him, he was good about backing it up. The new owner is aware of that restriction and he has agreed that he will keep an eye on that and not violate that requirement. I just wanted to point out for your benefit, the the town did a study of this area back in 2023, zoning study of the US Highway 29 Salsbury Avenue corridor. And in the process of doing that, we recognized that while almost all that property was owned industrial, there were a lot of existing uses that didn't match that, which made all of those people on those properties non-conforming uses based on our zoning ordinance. Instead of allowing that to continue, uh what we have suggested is this, that these properties needed to be reszoned primarily to what their current use is. Although once we worked through this process, we had a few people that had fairly large lots with just a house on it and we were suggesting reszoning those to a residential classification. They said, "No, we prefer to be reszoning to a commercial because we want to sell our property, make a lot of money, and see somebody put something commercial there." So, we will work with those owners as they come to us to to accomplish their goals and our goals. Uh, just wanted to point out that this particular property we're looking at tonight, the recommendation in 2023 was to reszone it to the BSR, which is what's being asked of you tonight. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Right. Thank you, Mr. Blunt. Board, questions.

So, we'll just be reszoning this one property that others come to us, we will consider those. After the study, we had thoughts of coming to you with a group reszoning recommendation. Uh but then we started hearing from various people wanting to reszone their properties. So if we had initiated it, we would have had to cover all the cost of the reszoning as individual property owners request it. We let them cover the cost of it. So it's saving the town a little bit of money. And one of those properties is obviously an industrial use, which is PCA. And I know it's a sad moment when a big business closes in in a town like ours. Uh but keep in mind that we now have an available builder, 14,000 square feet. They've got a 14 acres of undeveloped property. Uh the tax value is fairly low on the building as it sits right now. So it might be an opportunity for something good to happen to our community. Thank you, Mr. Blunt. Any other questions for

No, but I love his hot news. You always see another picture. Who else to think about? I appreciate that. All right. If there are no further questions for, we will consider a motion to adopt ordinance 25-9 that would amend the town zoning map to change this property from IND industrial to uh VSSR. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the staff's recommendation as presented to reszone parcel 048042 located at 2038 US Highway 29 from IND to the VSSR zoning classification.

All right, there's a motion by Miss Sledge, a second by Mr. Muhammad. Any further discussion? All right, hearing none, we will vote. All in favor? All right. All opposed. And that is approved unanimously. And there's a suggested motion for statement of consistency.

Correct. We'll entertain that as well. I move to adopt a statement of consistency and reasonleness stating that we find this reasonzoning is consistent in general with the town's comprehensive land use plan for requirements in North Carolina general statutes 160D-605A said plan stating specifically this is a strip of mixed development on both sides along North Sultry Avenue US Highway 29 from about 1625 the old way station site to about 2175 Yadkin Baptist Church road that is currently zoned industrial IND for industrial development. These are relatively small lots that over time will likely transition to retail uses, especially if the surrounding properties are developed into industrial uses and an NC finishing property is developed into some sort of mixeduse development. We would suggest reszoning this to an appropriate commercial zoning classification C29 to promote commercial development over time. End quote. This resoning is consistent with the town's card of study of this area completed in July of 2023. We further find this resoning to be reasonable in all ways as prescribed by the North Carolina General Statutes 160D 605. This resoning will be beneficial to the citizens of the town of Spencer.

All right, board. There's a motion for the statement of consistency and reasonleness before you. Is there a second? Second. All right. Second by Miss Moody. All in favor. All right. All opposed. And that is approved as well. All right. So, we will move now to item 14. Let's consider adopting resolution 25-08. And actually, the next three items will be Mr. Harris related to the CDBG grant that we heard the public hearing on earlier today. Mr. Harris,

thank you very much. So, I'm actually going to speak on yes, the next three items, which are items 14, 15, and 16. Um, these are really just housekeeping items. They are um required for us to uh basically check these off of the list so we can apply for those grant funds. Um so the first uh well the CDBG grant program guidelines do require the governing board to take certain actions prior to submitting the application to ensure full compliance. Three of these resolutions are being presented to the board for consideration together. These resolutions authorize the application reaffirm the existing compliance policies that we've been following for the past several years and they also reconfirm the housing selection committee. So resolution 25-08, this is the resolution that will actually authorize the town to submit the application for $950,000. The author uh the resolution also designates the mayor as the town's official representative to execute the documents, which is the case with our current 2020 grant. And the resolution also authorizes the town manager and the grants administrator to oversee the day-to-day administration of the grant. And then resolution 25 uh-09. This resolution affirms, well, it reaffirms all of the compliance P plans that y'all previously adopted under the 2020 grant. This includes but is not limited to the citizen participation plan, fair housing plan, language access plan, the procurement policies and procedures, and the conflicts of interest policy, including all of the other plans which are in our compliance manual. Uh resolution 25-09 also declares that all of those policies are current, controlling, and applicable for the 2025

grant application unless otherwise amended by the board at a later time. Then finally, resolution 25 uh-10 uh reconfirms the housing selection committee which was originally appointed in 2020. It clarifies that those members will remain active for the 2025 uh program unless they resign or are replaced by board action. Uh that final resolution although also confirms that committee's responsibility for overseeing the housing distribution plan and for maintaining the weight list. I will point out as I mentioned earlier that the housing selection committee actually did already meet uh earlier this afternoon given that we are still currently in our 2020 grant cycle. Um that would they would basically expire unless you reauthorize them. So what they did at their earlier meeting today, they reaffirmed the weight list. They readopted uh their bylaws. They all said that they're willing to serve for an additional um grant cycle. Um, and they also actually adopted what's called the housing selection plan, which is basically it's a short three-page document explaining their roles and responsibilities for the next three-year period. So, the same way I'm approaching you to authorize these three resolutions for compliance purposes. I also had the committee meet earlier today to do all that they need to do for compliance purposes. So, we're pretty much good to go. uh once you authorize these three resolutions uh we will have met our minimum thresholds for um applying for the grant. So I would recommend adoption of all three resolutions to m maintain compliance with state and federal requirements and to ensure timely submission of the grant application. Do you all have any questions about any of these three resolutions

or any questions for Mr. Harris? How many people are serving on that selection committee?

So, y'all originally appointed six members. Of that, five are still serving. So, the current members are Rob Nance, Carla Rose, Bob Bish, um Annie Bates, and Sam Morgan. Uh Ed Hall was a uh he served right up until September when uh different complications in his life um he decided to go ahead and resign from that committee. But we still currently have five of the original members. Now, there's nothing to prevent y'all from appointing new members if you chose to do so. It's not really necessary. Um the committee really only meets about once a year at this point whenever they need to for compliance purposes. Um but there's nothing to prevent you from appointing additional members if you chose to do so.

Other questions? Okay. All right, board. So, we can actually do this in one fell swoop. I will entertain a motion to adopt resolution 25-08, 25- 09, and 25-10. So, move. Motion by Miss Moody. Is there a second? Second by Mayor Prom. All in favor. All right. All opposed. And those resolutions are approved unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Harris.

Thank you, Kyle. Next is item 17. I'll invite Mr. Blunt forward again to present a proposed water and sewer extension policy for SRU funding. Thank you, Mayor. Um, this was brought to you again last month. Uh, you and the planning board had suggested some modifications to the uh policy that we had presented. The most important item on that list of things you'd asked for was increasing the maximum for an individual project from I think I had suggested $5,000 up to the total maximum of the allocation from SRU each year, which is $50,000. I don't think we're going to have any $50,000 projects come in the door, but it's possible what we will plan to do and and I included in your package uh actually a a draft of the application form. Uh so we will start uh letting people know as they bring projects to us if they have water and sewer problems that this fund is available. They will fill out that application form, meet with staff, explain their needs, show us their estimates. After we vet all that information, we will bring it to you with a recommendation on how much money should be appropriated. uh all of it has to be approved by SRU and they have certain standards as far as the reasoning behind the extension uh either being an economic development project uh extending into a neighborhood where it would serve multiple pieces of property or also actually connecting some of their loops where things are deadended. Now if they can bring a loop around and connect it back it helps with the pressure and flows through their piping system. So, what we would like you to do is give us your blessing to get started with this policy. If we get it started and run into problems, we'll come back to you and ask you to revise it. But at this point, we we would like to get it started. Be glad to answer any

questions. Thank you, Mr. B. Board. Any questions? All right. Hearing none, is there a motion for approval of the water extension, water and sewer extension policy application for SRU funding? Move that we accept the extension for the water and sewer policy application for SRU funding. Motion by Mr. Muhamad.

Second by Mayor Pro Tim. She's on it tonight. All right. All in favor? All right. All opposed. This approved unanimously. Thank you. Mr. Bunt will roll right into your planning department report. Before I give you my normal three-word summary, uh I go out and check our current projects about once a week. see what's going on. I'm happy to announce that the structural steel has arrived on site for the truck stop project. Y

so it looks like the building itself will get built fairly soon. Uh also a few other items of good news. The dance studio property with the sinkhole is now under new ownership. That ownership is moving ahead with cleaning up the site, fixing the sinkhole, repairing the building, and has plans to renovate the building for retail use. Uh the corner building at 700 South Salsbury Avenue, that's the corner of Salsbury Avenue and 7th Street, the uh white painted block brick building is under new ownership and that owner is considering renovation into a professional office building for his for his company. Uh 500504 South Ary Avenue, a little choo choo shop. Um they are moving ahead with repair of the HDAC systems. They have created several uh possible floor plans for the renovation for either retail or restaurant use. Uh so they are moving ahead starting to spend money on that project. Other good news, you might have noticed in the 100 block of Third Street, the property behind the post office has been graded and cleared. Uh that property owner is planning to build two houses on that property. He's currently working with SRU to resolve some problems with water and sewer connection issues. Um Hawkins Meadows, the developer was in last week to finalize the subdivision and get the performance bonds approved. Uh I've gotten a lot of calls from bonding companies, insurance companies, funding companies, banks, etc. So that project should be moving into construction almost immediately. And finally, I got a out of the blue call from another property owner on Longs Road that wants to be annexed into municipal limits on Spencer because he lives on the property now and wants to

sell it for commercial use and feels like that would be a benefit to him. And unless you have questions on those projects, you have my report and I'll be glad to answer any of those questions. All right, any questions? board. I got a question on the truck side. Any any decision on the sewer a decision on that building?

I'm meeting with SRU next week and that would be one of the topics on that list um of things for us to discuss. They they originally planned to connect to a line that was going to run from the Johnson Development Industrial Building on the north side of Long Fair Road. that would have come down Mont Clair to a sewer connection at the end of Mont Clair. Since that project was delayed, uh it was either going to be the truck stop burying the total cost of that line or they have the option if water and sewer is not available, our ordinance allows them to use a septic system. Uh it is doubtful that that that kind of operation generates a lot of sewer. They have a lot of bathrooms for 200 and some parking places. They have a full service restaurant, etc. So, it's doubtful they will go in that direction, but they're struggling with SRU as to the cost of the extension down Montlair. At this point, they've gone too far to stop. So, I don't think that'll stop the project, but they haven't advanced it to a solution yet.

Yeah. But I understand if we can resolve the sewer system as far as they go, that will speed up some development besides that on Long. Is that my understanding? Well, it won't speed it up, but it'll give it some It will make it available. Again, the Johnson development was a 350,000 foot industrial building on the north side of Longferry Road,

and they were going to start sewer at that building, run it down Longferry, and then turn and go down Mont Clair. Um, so they had resolved that they they've actually got that permitted with the city of Salsbury planned and permitted. So if the truck stop required to do their own work, they're also required to build the pipe big enough to handle that Johnson development project in the near future. So that's probably what's running up the cost somewhat, although not a great deal of difference. And then more projects on that side of the highway. Yes, that line could be integral. The uh Rooer property on the corner there

would also like to tap into that line and the person I just mentioned on the annexation would also tap into that one. So, yes, it's it's a critical issue. Okay. Thank you. Um I noticed that you had u approved some plans for Will Creek. Was that how's that moving along?

Uh it continues to move along. uh their site plan, the review process. We've been working with them through that. Uh we have approved the site plan, the final iteration of the site plan with the exception of the possible addition of another uh fire hydrant that we're working with at the moment. And then the next step would be the actual construction plans for the site. And those should be coming in I would think within the next month or two. So

you have any idea when construction will start? uh based on their original schedule. I'm trying to think back now. U I'm drawing a blank, but I think it was sometime in the summer of 26 was when they planned on being under full construction. It's a fairly although it's a big building, it's a fairly simple it's it's a rectangular building, three stories tall, steel frame, glass skin. So those type of buildings go up fairly quick. Any other questions? Yes. I just have a comment because I heard something nice about you today, M. I stopped.

You want to talk to my wife or my business? Is he getting chickens? I don't know about that. But uh I stopped at Business Connections up here in Spencer. It's in the uh building that's been refurbished. And I think that man is the owner of the new Stepping Out if I'm not if I'm not incorrect. I'm pretty sure that's right.

But I about fell over. I thought Business Connections had moved and I used it pretty frequently because as you know I don't have computers and printers and all that and I thought they had moved or left our town and Luke said no mama they just moved on the other end. So I went in and the building looked marvelous. It it's just like total metamorphosis. This is right beside the car wash up there. The next time you go by there, stop, just take a look at it. And if you have anything that needs to be done at Business Connections, I mean, he's investing a lot of money in our town. It's wonderful to see someone that not only started a business there, kept it, and is developing it. And a large part of that is because of you and the help that you give these people. So, thank you very, very much. And I will mention that Duke Brown, the owner of that building, plans to build an addition on the back of that building to expand that building. So, it's moving ahead.

I mean, good to hear. All right. Thank you, Mr. Blunt. All right. Next is our code enforcement report.

Good evening again. Good evening. I think you had the standard uh report in front of you. code enforcement chief left everything with me so didn't really highlight anything particular that stood out but u you see it shows 26 voluntary abatements for this month which puts him at 294 voluntary abatements for the year um currently got 16 open cases and two that he's closed this month might not be very good answering questions about code enforcement but I can do the best I can have any okay any questions on code enforcement for the Were those signs the ones that we scooped your poop that were taken up?

Yeah. Well, I do know that uh Preston backed in here the other day and had a truckload. Um so he had pulled up a bunch of signs that were on the rightway, you know, wherever the situation was with that. But he had pulled up a bunch of those. I've actually been seeing those signs all over Salt. And I'm intrigued. I think that's the new we buy ugly houses. Yeah, I actually alert him of it. I was out riding around one day and I saw one down here at Library Park and I called him. I said, "Hey, have you all these signs that say we scoop for poop?" You know, and he's like, "No." I said, "So, he wound up with a bunch of them." I think by the time it was all said and done. So, I think there actually is a company that provides that service for They do. I got a scooper.

Must be lucrative. They bought a lot of signs. Maybe they were cheaper by All right, board. Any other questions on code enforcement? If not, we'll move to the police report.

And same with police report. I think you have the standard monthly report. Um had a total of 2314 events this month. Um again, he didn't highlight anything that that stood out. Uh there is no um he wanted me to remind you there is no A team report for this month because a team has just gone back into service. I can tell you that since going back into service though, there will be good numbers for next month because they've been very active. Uh I've actually been on several calls with myself. um where they they're they're doing what we've asked them to do. So, they're back in full swing. So, Aluro is off of light duty and they're good to go. Very good. Any uh any other questions on police? All right. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Fire department reports you planning.

Mayor and board. How are you this afternoon? Good. you have my prepared report before you. Um I did want to add the addition uh on the consent agenda you approved the surplus of the E1. Um and so we are thrilled that that is going to rowing Cabaris where it will continue to be used to um create the next generation of firemen through their fire academy program. So anything other than that I will answer any questions you may have. All right board any questions?

What is D752? That is our 2008 CA grave. Staff went out about a week and a half ago, smelled something, realized the batteries were boiling in the bay, and we're about 500°. So, we are awaiting quotes to replace the batteries, but fortunately, we have a brand new engine, so not really need it right now. So, fingers crossed, knock on wood. All right. Any other questions for you? I was just curious how your open house went. I couldn't make it, but interested in how You know, I think success is different for everybody.

Something me and Peter have talked about that my my ruler that I use to measure success is often probably a little larger than it should be. But um we probably had 15 people come by, which that's good is the largest number we've seen thus far. So I'm I'm enthusiastic that next year will maybe be a little better. Realize we probably need to, you know, invest in some banners and advertisement far beyond social media. So stepping stone a little more each year. Well, thank you for doing that. Absolutely. I usually come, but I have another commitment on Saturday morning. Couldn't get there. I understand. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

All right. Next is our public works report. Mr. Taylor, good evening, Mayor members of the board.

Good evening. Um, a lot of time this month is just spent on regular services. We're doubling up between leaves and mowing. So, it kind of throws us into a a Tizzy for a little bit and if the warm weather stays, we'll keep mowing. So, we'll we'll see how that works out. But the leaf pack is running full operational. Um, just a reminder, please don't stack it in the curbs for thunderstorms to wash them into the storm. So, um, that's the only reminder. Everybody else is doing pretty good. are stacking them up on the curbs where they need to be. Um, just keep them out of the curb lines for that. Uh, the mulch giveaway last weekend, uh, or weekend before last, sorry. Um, probably the lowest one we've had in a long time. We had actually four deliveries and one resident to come get it. So, it was a busy weekend. A lot of things going on. U, everything at Dan Nicholas was going on. So, um, we'll just chalk it up to that and and keep on. But, uh, I did put the fee schedule so we have plenty. If anyone wants it now, we've got plenty. We can we can get it to you.

Does that go outside of town residents as well? They can come get it. I can't I don't deliver out of town. So, if some an outside special resident want Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Yeah. Anybody that wants to come get it, we'll we'll make arrangements to get it loaded for them. Not a problem. Um, we did the sidewalk uh replacement project with this past month. We did finish it up and clean that corner up and added both uh ADA ramps on both sides. So, that that corner has been completely redone. Uh, a lot of school kids use that corner. Um, so we got it back up to where it needed to be. Uh, we are hosting a work day uh at the high school tomorrow. Uh we will be there from 8 till 3 or 8 until whenever we get that part done. Uh we broke it into two pieces. Uh the first part is going to be the cleaning, cutting, that kind of stuff while the kids are out of school. Uh because we're going to be making a lot of racket in the in the courtyard. So, and then the Friday following that will be with a lot of the students hauling the mulch in. Um so we can do that during their their normal time. So, if you can join us, please come. Um, then of course we'll have the race to the river on Saturday and then just a small update on the CCAP. We did receive the reimbursement for the 75%. Um, so we're still lacking the 25, but the live state will go in in November. Well, depending on weather, could be December depending on how cool it is. Um, but at that point, then we'll receive the other 25%. And I will answer any questions. Oh, one more thing. U before the next board meeting, it will turn into winter wonderland. So, I just wanted to get you a heads up because Halloween will be on Friday. We will be putting up Christmas lights on Monday.

So, it'll switch over from Halloween to Polar Express pretty quick. Pretty quick. So, that week it will change. By next board meeting, we will be full Christmas spirit, I guess. Very good. Oh my god. So, I'll answer any questions that you may have. I know it's hard to believe, isn't it? Yeah, feels like we just took them down. Thank you, Mr. Taylor Board. Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. This is Can Finance Report. Don't sound so excited. We are. We're thrilled. We hope you're as optimistic as Mr. Blunt is over there.

I know, right? I'm sorry. I'm not. Um, so I wanted to explain a little bit about the electronic payments um, resolution that we that you guys had a question come up from the auditor regarding um, our credit card transactions and a couple of other things. So that's why we went ahead and got that put on. We got that done this month. Um, it may come up again in the audit, but just wanted to make you aware and I will the procurement the procurement card policy. I will update that and have it ready for you on next month just to um throw a line in there about pre- audit that our pre our department heads are responsible for pre- audit. basically watching their um their budget alongside with me so that our pre- audit certification is corrected. In other words, pre- audit means I have to sign every transaction that comes across and I can't be there for every credit card transaction. So, we throw that on the department head because they have the authority to use that card if that to explain that. And um you'll see our sales and use tax. We're at 2.7 uh% from the two as of the October dispersement. Um the first two pages, first three pages are reports that I have put together trying to bring together Southern Software and Black Mountain Software with our numbers. um my incumbrances on my expenditures uh those are incorrect and I just noticed that um by reviewing it for the meeting. But this last the last two pages that you receive that you have in your packet for the finance is a financial summary

report that comes out of Black Mountain. And so that's how your report is going to look from here on out with the exception there's going to be a couple more columns that has the budget in there. As of right now, our budget has not been mapped into the new software for 2526. We are working on that. They have the numbers where they're inputting that and we should have the up to date by next month. So that's this is how your reports are going to look from here on out. It'll have your um fund 10 and then go into individual funds. And you'll notice that we have several project funds on the back on the for me it's on the back but it's the last page. Nothing is standing out at the moment because we're so new into the new year. So is there any if there any if you have any questions I will answer those. Um, one of the things that I liked about the other report was that it showed us the percentage like you date. Is that going to be something?

It will be, but because the budget is not within the software right now, it should be there next month. We should have that in there and you should see the full report. So, I did not want to confuse you because I took the budget that's in there is last year's budget and your percentages and your budget numbers are all wrong. So, I just wanted to make sure that you guys see what is going what is coming and you'll have that budget and the percentage will be on there. That's helpful for me to see kind of where are just at a glance. For sure. Yeah.

And I'm hoping that I mean I to me it's to me it's easier to look at these two pages instead of the 19 pages that we had before, you know, to see where are where everybody is. And it's just by department. It's not necessarily line by line. board. Any other questions or comments, observations? Okay, thank you. Thank you. All right. Next is our active living monthly report. Miss Ward,

good evening. Um, so, uh, you have the full report. Um, in your packets. Uh, but I wanted to give a couple of highlights. Um, so the parks and recreation advisory board had their regular meeting. It was on October 1st this month because that was the first Wednesday. Um, and some things that we discussed, uh, the chair, Bob Pendergrass, and myself, we were able to attend the outdoor economy conference in Cherokee, uh, in September. Um, and that was because of the town's core uh, strategic plan. uh the NC Department of Commerce is reimbursing the town for our uh you know registration, travel, all of that. Um and so we were able to get a lot of uh you know networking connections and uh information from that. Um vice chair Dion Dixon has been organizing Race to the River. Um volunteers are still needed for the event. Um, so I can help if you know anyone put in touch with her. Um, and her information I believe is on the website too on the the web page about the race to the river which has the whole um the brochure and the outline of events. Um and then some other topics that were discussed included um marketing of natural resources uh the landscaper touching up the town park uh prior to the events which we just had um because that's still under warranty. um the potential for a fishing policy, the Chicken Springs Dam, Cardiff grants and uh grant

money for the Town Park archway and sign as well as the 8th Street Ballpark um was discussed uh and several of you were there, but the formal dedication of the Spencer Town Park and National Night Out was on October 7th, which is already discussed earlier. And um fire station up at the house was on October 11th. Um and as another reminder, Race the River is this Saturday, October 18th from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. And this year it's not just the race, there's kind of like a festival thing afterward in the park. Um and then trunk or treat will be on October 31st from 5:30 to 7:30. Um, and the Spencer's holiday caravan parade will be on Wednesday, November 26th, uh, in the evening. They also need volunteers for their event. Um, and of course, Winterfest will be the first weekend in December right after that. Um, and then you have the library report from uh, librarian McCra. Author Pepper Basham visited uh the library to share her literary journey uh from writing stories as a child to publishing more than 20 books while raising five children and teaching as a speech pathologist. She shared her stories of rejection and success. Many library patrons have read her wide variety of genres and enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions, purchase and get books signed and enjoy refreshments. Very good. Thank you, Mrs. Ward. Any questions on the active living report? All right. Thanks so much. Next is our town manager report, Mr. Frenzies. All right. Well, good evening everybody and thanks to our uh team for getting excited in

this time of year when the events seem to be uh coming with a a lot of frequency. It's uh that's part of what makes it so fun is there's plenty to do. Uh the Joel mentioned the event uh at the high school, the cleanup in the courtyards and and if there are anybody anybody in the community who would like to help out and particularly with that date on Friday, October 24th, they should reach out to Crystal McCrae at at the high school to to be sure to uh go through the proper volunteer volunteer sign up process. So just wanted to mention that our United Way campaign in Rowan County is underway. Um and our team here has over the last se few years we've been increasing our participation in that. So we're hopeful that we'll continue to to trend in that direction. It's it's uh something we uh take pride in as uh as public servants to be able to give back uh to help the critical uh needs in our community through this United Way campaign. So appreciate everybody who's who's getting involved with that. And as a as a reminder uh whether you work for the town of Spencer or not, u the United Way has a really neat incentive with this each year with the partnership with all the car dealerships. If you if you donate or pledge $78 or more, you can be entered to win uh $25,000 towards a new car. And Joel almost did it. He was a finalist uh a couple years back. And and so it's it's proof that your name can be drawn. And uh so another reminder about our schedule next month. Uh we have our municipal election coming up. Election day is the 4th. I believe early voting is uh upon us uh here very quickly and um but election day for the municipal election will be the fourth. Uh

Spencer's town hall is a polling place for that. Of course, uh we're going to have a change to our meeting schedule that was adopted, you know, about almost a year ago. So, our pre-aggenda will be on Thursday, November 13th, and the regular meeting will be Tuesday, November 18th, which is the third Tuesday instead of the second. So, uh following the election, of course, then we'll look towards December having the transition on our board uh in the organizational meeting for 2026. So, if there's any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Cranzy. Support. Any questions on the manager report? All right. Thank you very much. We'll move forward with uh comments and requests from the board. We'll start with Mr. Miller. He's updating his calendar. I'm updating my calendar with all of our community event.

He's not going to miss anything. uh comments about uh last Tuesday night. Uh very proud of our town. Uh comments was um very good comments from many many different groups of people that it was done properly, done professionally and that's something I think is a reflection on a town manager. Uh I think everybody was proud. I was proud to be a small part of that uh of that team as far as that goes and I think everybody's excited about that and also glad to see our town manager has moved back into Rowan County. Me too.

All right, Miss Smoothie. Um, I just wanted to thank not only the town manager, but also our town works, public works, and our police department for National Night Out. Um, I ended up missing the whole park dedication because I was working my day job on the back side of the stage, but I heard it was lovely. Um, and I just I know that it's a wonderful but long evening. And as I was packing up our therapy dog, I saw all of our town staff getting to work breaking everything down. And so I I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into that. Um and just wanted to do a shout out that I think we need to have dunking booths that more of our I really thought it brought a sense of only if you volunteer for

dunk some people. So that was really great. Really? Yes. You want to be first? Sure. But um other than that, just a reminder to make sure you either take part in early voting or election day because it's so important. Thank you, Missy. Mr. How? Yeah. Um so, uh uh based on the schedule, um the third Tuesday next month, that will probably be in a planning board meeting um in Davidson County. So, I uh this may well be my last

Tuesday meeting. Um, so, uh, I just want to say that I I it has been a lot of fun. I appreciate, um, sitting beside you guys, sitting up here and doing this. It's been a real pleasure. I've learned a lot. Um, it's been humbling. Uh, I think everything we've done has been fantastic. I thought back over four years. I I I don't really regret or would change my mind on anything that we've done. I think we've done the right thing, you know, near unanimously. um staff, you guys are fantastic. Um you know, it's so easy to be a keyboard warrior, but when you're sitting up here and you actually have to make a decision that impacts someone's life, um it's a little bit harder sometimes. Um so, it's it's definitely been a a learning experience. I I I will cherish it and appreciate it. Um you know, I'll say when I came on four years ago, I I don't know that I I realize all the things are already going on. So, so much what we've accomplished together in four years has really nothing to do with me. You were already doing it, but we got it across the finish line or we've got some things that are are moving toward the finish line. So, um I I'm proud to be a part of that whatever small part that played. Um, you know, I think, uh, for Solo, when I first moved to Spencer in 2010, I was a student, you know, here in the 90s, but but when I lived here, um, Spencer was a a a place that, you know, I had, you know, people I knew say, "You live over there? I mean, you guys have like gun battles in the streets or something?" I mean, and and I I I'm not joking. I actually got that question. Um, I had people in other parts of the county who would wrinkle their nose when they found out where I went to school. Um, and that actually happened to my face. So, that's not a that's not an online rumor. I actually saw it with my own eyes. So, I don't think we're like that anymore. Not that we ever were, but I think everyone else knows what we are. Um, and I think that's a credit to to

what you guys have done and what staff has done, both past and present. um and and what people um you know they bring their time and their talents and their money either you know in their personal lives and their business lives and they they've come here and they've taken a chance and they're being rewarded. Um and I think that's only going to continue. I think what is in the future is um is something that if you had put it on a poster board for people who lived here in the over the 20s or 30s, they might have said, "Yeah, that that sounds about right." But I think after that it would be, "Wow, we're gonna we're gonna get there. That's cool. So, um, you know, keep it up. Well done. Um, you know, I'll say I think one of the reasons this has worked so well and one of the reasons that people from the outside have taken notice is, um, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but we don't have a party affiliation with our offices. Um, and I think that's important that it stays that way. Raleigh, if you're listening, don't change that. Um, keep that out of this

here. Um because it has nothing to do with running a town of 3,500 people. True. Um it's about making people's lives better, which is what this is supposed to be about. And um you know, the funny thing about writing left, if you put a a checklist of what one wants and what the other wants, they would probably align 80% of the time. But it's about getting past the yelling and the fingerpointing and the name calling. You're actually getting something done.

So this is what we've been able to do um together. So, I really appreciate the opportunity. Um, I'm not going to be far away. I'm just down the street. Um, we'll still be in advance. Um, you guys have my number, text me, call me, come come by and we'll grill some steaks and talk, whatever you want to do. But, I I again, I really appreciate it. And, uh, and thank you again for letting me share with you. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks for

being a part of this crazy crazy group and, uh, joining us for the ride and thanks for all that you have uh, done for us over the last four years. Appreciate it. we will miss you greatly, but uh understand uh given everything you have going on. You're a busy fellow. Um but thanks for for what you've done for for the town and for the board. Appreciate you. All right, Miss Sledge.

Well, um I want to acknowledge Mr. Mr. How because we have uh I have enjoyed having the opportunity to work with him, too. And I told him I may call him from time to time to get his input. You know, Jay, you're okay. But I mean, you know, just okay. You're the high price lawyer. This guy's, you know, cheap. Don't get Jay started on price. You haven't seen my rate.

Oh my woke him up. I I do I do want to uh mention a couple of things. Um I we attended um the uh planning board meeting last night and it happens on the second Tuesday I mean the second Monday of each month and at the same time they have the table 10 down here at Fleming Street and um I haven't missed one of those yet. U Mr. Blunt has managed to keep the planning board meeting short enough that we can't we can get there before 8 o'clock. So, um, I want to encourage all of you to take advantage of that. It's it's a beautiful way that they're helping this community. Um, it's a situation where there's a full menu there and if you can pay what you can or if you can't pay, that's okay, too.

Uh, and pay some of us pay able to pay more. So, um, last night it was um, Mexican feast and it really was a feast. So, um it take make a note of the second Monday of each month and and help to support that community table. Um I was also able this uh this month to attend the awards presentation for the uh Central and um that was in Gastonia last week. So um I represented you there. We were not an award winner this year, but we were in the past. So that was a good thing. Um, election day. Um, early voting is out at the new at the at the new town mall, which is New Town Mall.

The Rowan Community Center community, the old Salsbury Mall, the old West End Plaza. Yeah.

A lot of construction, I understand, out there. And so they said if you go up Statesville Boulevard and come in by Arby's, that's going to be the best way to get in there for early voting. And that starts on the 16th. And then of course we'll continue. There's one Saturday, one Sunday this year. And then here on November the 4th, um, Winterfest. Oh my gosh. Miss Crist and I are responsible for volunteers. So, um, I'm getting the record of all the names of people who are here. And, um, Mr. How, I'm counting on all your family, too, because you got a bunch of volunteers in that one. But um we're getting volunteers to help with that. Um it's a lot of fun. It's um first Thursday, first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in December. Um you can go to the U website and get more information. And I believe the schedule of events is now available for you to take a look at. It's a lot of fun. Um it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. And you will leave, no matter what the weather is, you will leave with a warm feeling in your heart about what we've been able to accomplish here. This small team of volunteers will have raised somewhere close to $100,000 to put this on. And every event for the kids is free. There's no charge for admission to come in. Uh we'll have entertainment going on the whole the whole weekend. Um, we'll do ugly shirts for the kids and gingerbread houses for the kids and games that the kids will play and every child will get a gift. And um, Terry Hess house is is our charity partner for this year. So, Miss Moody's going to be there and Chelsea Frances is going to be there and I they tell me they have their ducks in a row.

Bigger question is, is Murphy going to be there? I mean, yes. He does tend to sleep a lot. be under the table probably asleep. But we we have I think last year we had about 80 individuals who were volunteers. Some of them from our community, some of them from all over everywhere. And um you know, we can sure use you. We can find a spot for you. Whatever you can give us, whether it's an hour or two hours or

all three days of the weekend. But it's going to be wonderful. It'll be in our new park, so that's going to be different. And we have um we have places for people to direct for parking. We have people who will help with cleaning toilets or or cleaning up the food court. So whatever you can give us, we'll take it and I look forward to seeing all of you. We're doing trick or treat. We'll be involved with the parade. So there's lots of places for volunteers. There's something going on all the time at Spencer these days. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Muhammad.

Wow. First of all, I just want to say it's a pleasure to be up here to serve the town. Mr. How, you will be missed. Um, we've enjoyed you and we know you'll still be there and volunteering as Madam Sled stated. So, with that being said, um, thankful for the the staff, the public works, police department, fire department, um with the national night out event and as all the woman Moody had to do her duty for her first shift job. I believe I was wearing two hats as well myself. But um the event seemed to be very successful and you know I just want to say again and if I'm saying something wrong stop me but it's very important to make sure that the public keeps firearms secure and there are a lot of different agencies that were out um educating residents and youth about that because that's very important.

And also too it's good seeing that the event was safe and seemed like we had various people that were um volunteering to be dumped in that tank. So, that seemed to be a very good highlight. And you know, food, there was a plenty of food. Um Chief Lannon, he was up pretty high out there. I was going to say I was helmet. I was hoping somebody would recognize him.

I I spotted him. I spotted him and you know, I was just like, "What is he doing up there?" And then when the presentation was given, it made sense. But, you know, I I can say, you know, I'm pretty sure that took a lot of heart to get up there. But, however, with that being said, you know, excited about the things that we have done here in the town. Looking forward to the future and more residents getting involved, coming out, coming out to the meetings, speaking to the staff, speaking, you know, that addressing their concerns. We have public comment here. you all are allowed a three minute time to speak and we'll address those concerns as you all know. Also too, make sure that you vote early and if not on election day, vote. Your votes matter. Your votes count. We appreciate all the residents here. We appreciate all the staff and department heads and of course all the constituents up here that are present here serving and we look forward to continue to serve this town and continue to make it better.

Thank you, Mr. Mohammed. Mayor Pum.

Okay, I want to u wrap it up, but I'm going to be pretty uh quick tonight. I want to reemphasize the table 10 on the second Monday. I did go last night and it was wonderful. It's a great chance to interact and meet new people in your community and it's just a really nice thing that Fleming uh B Flooming Street Bakery and Pinocchios are doing together. So try to support that 5 to 8 on second Monday. Um I've been to a lot of events in Spencer and I've never been any prouder than I was at our uh national night out and at our park dedication. And for me that's saying a lot cuz I have been to almost everything since I was a little girl and it was just wonderful. It was perfect. And I'm sure that uh trunk or treat, the parade and Winterfest will cap off the year and make it just perfect. And that's all thanks to our staff, our volunteers, our citizens and community. Uh, I'm real proud that our town stepped up and we're going to go over and get the cleanup started at North Rowan. That was a request that Mrs. How made at our last meeting and I met with the principal and Crystal McCrae the next week and we got all that lined up and in contact and and something is happening and that's pretty in government that's fast. That happened within a month. And I want to finally say that I've had the pleasure of working with Mr. House twice. He worked with me at Northland Middle School as our band teacher and he was outstanding there. And then he came and told me he was going to law school and education's loss was uh laws game. and it has been a pleasure working with you and I know

that your future in Spencer is not over. That's all I'm going to say. We'll let you take a rest and I look forward to working again with uh Rasheed and Aaron who are running again with our new board member who will be coming on. Go vote. Even if we just have three seats open and three candidates, it's important for these candidates to know they are supported. So, please go vote. It'll be good practice for the next election coming up. Yeah. Every election.

All right. Well, everyone, thank you so much. Uh my comments are going to be even briefer because y'all said it all tonight. So, I appreciate you doing that. We've reached the end of our agenda. Uh, is there a reason to go into executive session this evening? All right. Well, then we will entertain a motion for adjournment. Mr. How to adjourn. Motion by Mr. How to adjurnn. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Muhammad. All in favor? All opposed? We stand adjourn. Thank you all.