County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

At this time, I ask everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We've got one change up in the agenda. clayton creek financials is what the title of it is and we'll put it on for information on number five motion to approve with amendments second any further discussion all in favor five okay moving on down to We've got a set of minutes to approve, 6-24-26. I trust everybody's looked over that. I'd like a motion to approve.

Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor? 5-0. Okay, public comment. If anyone has anything to say about our agenda, please come forward. Yep. Seeing no movement, we'll close public comment. Moving on down to the presentations board, we have Wainette Church and Janet Tompkins. Just come to the podium, Mary, please.

Okay. My name is Janet Tompkins, and I would like to thank you for your time. I'm not sure how much time we have, but I'm going to try to be quick. So Waynette and I are here tonight to be a voice for the animals of Allegheny County. And Waynette and I have been discussing this for quite some time, I would say a couple of years now, sharing incidents and sightings of animal cruelty and abuse in our county and in our community. So about a month ago, Waynette had shared a post on social media. animal cruelty is not being nosy it's being the only voice they have and she and I were both very kind of shocked to see over 400 responses so this is something that we found after she and I thought not only important to us but it's very important to the people of this county as well and I think it's something that maybe doesn't get talked about very often So, and we also found that out in the community when she and I talked and we shared our concerns, almost always we found other people had stories and concerns as well. So other individuals with incidents that they had seen or witnessed, and so that's what brings us here this evening to talk to the board. So it's my understanding, and obviously I'm a novice at this, that the Allegheny County is bound by the guidelines set forth by the state, if that understanding is correct, by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. And then in addition, our local animal control ordinance, which is, I guess, the Allegheny Animal Control Ordinance. So it's authorized by our commissioners and supervised by our county manager. And our animal control department is responsible for investigating cruelty, abuse, neglect, and record those results. And so for the purpose of this meeting, Gwinnett and I want to talk about Section 7 of the Allegheny Animal Control Ordinance, which is animal cruelty. I know you probably all have it and have read it, but if you'll just give me the liberty, I'd like to read just a few from the cruelty to animals section under our county ordinance. It shall be unlawful for any person to molest, torture, torment, deprive, of necessary sustenance, fully beat, immediately mutilate, kill, wound, injure, or abandon, or subject to conditions detrimental to its health or general welfare of any animal or to cause or procure such action, the worst torture and torment shall be held to include every act, omission of neglect, whereby unjustified with physical pain, suffering, or death is caused or permitted. The next paragraph, it shall be unlawful for any owner or keeper to fail to provide their animal proper shelter, protection from weather, sufficient wholesome food and water, and to keep his animals in good health and comfort, and the opportunity for vigorous daily exercise. Veterinary care shall also be provided. Owners who abandon their animals are guilty or punished by misdemeanor. And all investigations and related procedures of cruelty charge will be at the discretion of our animal control department. So I'd like to also add to those that there's the NACA, the National Animal Care and Control Association defines emotional and psychological abuse as part of its core cruelty guideline that includes social isolation such as being tied to a tree 100 or 150 feet from a home by itself. taunting, chronic neglect, social isolation, and depriving of social opportunities that provoke fear, distress, depression, and anxiety. And so a lot of times, I know I have called, and I know Wayne is going to speak to this too, and I'll try to be brief. And a lot of times we hear that our hands are tied. And I guess what we are here tonight is to try to get an understanding of what that means. when someone calls in a concern or complaint and it comes back with our hands are tied up and obviously there's an ordinance in place that it sounds seems to be there for the welfare of these animals. So that is why we're here and we were going to talk about that just a little bit and then maybe propose some things that we could do to improve the living conditions of some of our animals here in the county.

Yeah, I'm just, you know, like Janet said, you know, we've talked and we have just seen so many different things. We've talked to different people and, you know, you don't have to go on back roads to see these poor animals. You know, I live on Shawtown and I've called. I've called numerous times with inadequate shelter, no water, no shade. And I call and I don't know, it just seems like a bother. So I think we've got to be a voice. I think some people, I don't know, I think we just need to, the rules are there, the laws are there, Jen and I have read them, but I think they need to be enforced. They're not being enforced because I can call and either I've had a call back again or I spoke with someone and I'm like the fifth or sixth call. You know, so I don't know why nothing's being done. I don't know. They went to go visit a house. The dog was in the open, no shade. But they said they went to go visit and the dog, the scenario was okay. To me, that is inadequate shelter. know so i like janet said i think we need to get a plan we need to talk about i don't know if you all have a budget for situations like this um maybe we can propose that um it's get some voices being you know get people here and let's speak for these animals you know um it's been sad but i appreciate y'all's time and janet let's try to

Well, she and I talked about we just didn't want to come here and spout something off and maybe not have a plan or propose something, you know, something that we could do. So obviously, like I said, we're new to this, but we think that education is important. I don't know what type of education our animal control officers have received or are required to receive, but there are multiple agencies that will offer and provide education on what is the definition of animal cruelty? What does this look like? It's not just, like I said, not having food and water. There's emotional and psychological abuses as well. It covers animal cruelty laws within our state. So I think education would be very important. And also the connection between animal abuse and interpersonal violent crimes that happen which is something that I learned when I was trying to educate myself on this. A lot of times when animals are being abused, there's other crimes that are going on within the home, whether it be domestic violence or other types of crime that are taking place, but animals can be used as pawns. And I think that's something else that our, not just animal control, but our law enforcement should be aware of. So I would like to propose that we could maybe get some education, which I don't think is a large fee, I know they are charged for that. I know they can consider continuing education units for it, which would be something else that they could benefit from. Also, I would like to see if we could look at adding to the county ordinance a section that recognizes social isolation, chronic neglect, and depriving an animal There's one thing, you know, and everybody, and look, we understand, I understand that everybody thinks differently and they see things differently. And some people just don't know. And, you know, that's where I guess the education comes in. But there's one particular dog that I always think of that stands on his doghouse. He's in a small, I guess like a four by five, and he stands on his doghouse because that's where he sleeps and that's where he eats and that's where he uses the bathroom. So in order to get out of that, he'll lay on his doghouse and I can see him every day when I drive by there. And so I think that social isolation and to me, that's neglect. I think that needs to be reported and recognized. And I also wanted to understand there's also fines. I don't know how many fines are taken in, but on the ordinance, there are cruelty to animal fines. They're clearly stated. Like I said, I didn't look into that or how much money comes into the county from that or if it's even enforced. But I think that's another option. So yeah, that's just, those are just the concerns that we have. And we want to, I don't know, we just want to be better because every time I'm watching something or hearing something, I see more and more states advocating for animal rights. it's becoming more prevalent and people are recognizing it more. And so I think for our county to step up and recognize that could really make us look good because like the response of over 400 people, you know, our residents care. They care. But I think, you know, we just don't know what to do. And so that's why we're here. I thank you for your time. Thank you.

we really appreciate it let's make a plan let's you know let's make a plan you know uh janet and i are right here and you know 400 people in sparta with responses and it was unbelievable that you will have the support in the back of this you know we can get together a plan a budget something you know so thank you we appreciate you guys coming forward

i'm not sure it was about five or six years ago that we started the animal ordinance and i was on part of that committee and i think it's been what five years now something like that but it may be time to go back and look at and see if we need to upgrade some of the some of what we have into it now i know david speicher gives a report every month on the animal control how many miles we drive how many animals have been quarantined and how many have been trapped and taken to the vets so we at the time i think we had a pretty good ordinance like i say it may be time to go back and look at possibly adding some stuff to it and i think that county manager and david and and possibly some people from the community might want to be in on some of those discussions that that we can upgrade do some do some different things I do know that when we first started we sent several several of our employees to different training exercises that they had there are certain rules and regulations and about whether we can carry firearms or not and if we have to have police to escort us and I know that wasn't too many years ago that we wound up in court for about two or three years just dealing with one set of animals and as it turned out it was quite expensive to the the Twin Oaks veterinarian and to the county so there again it may be time to look at a few different changes the county certainly takes animal cruelty seriously

we can get into that later but uh we take our call serious mr chairman mr chairman this is really important to me what you all are talking about so i would invite you all to come and meet with david and i and we'll get we'll get deeper into this and david really is committed to to the safety of the animals in the county and so i'd like you to hear a little bit more about what is going on but also find out more about what's possible for us to do because and i appreciate you all taking the time to come and talk to us so let's meet soon and i'm the county manager you might not know who i am but okay nice to meet you garrison thank you all for coming tonight i appreciate you being here um i think one

recommendation that i would have maybe we could add this to one of our next work sessions where everybody can come and add some input and we can talk this through a little bit more in depth after you folks have had a chance to meet with our county manager mr spicer maybe we can add this and turn it into a work session and evaluate how effective these ordinances are and see what we can do to to make it better for the animals so thank you for being here maybe we can do that in the future Absolutely.

Bill, I'd like to say something. What are you talking about? Just cats and dogs or talking about goats, pigs, chickens, cows? I mean, it's hard to keep a bunch of cows and show them.

I know, and that's different. But, you know, just when you're going down the road and you just see these dogs, and we're not zoning in just on the dogs, but you see that a lot.

Dogs are usually out where you can't see them, whereas cattle in the field, you can't see them as easily. Dogs, you can drive anywhere in this county and see the living conditions that they're in. tries to run from it. It's out in the open. And so, which like I said, that that's why we're here because it kept being out in the open to where it really began to bother us. And so that's why we went. And then, and then in addition, I wanted to educate myself on, you know, how is this handled? You know, what's the protocol? Because it seems like to me, oftentimes when they would go that, you know, I would always hear, well, we can't do anything. And I didn't, and maybe when we meet, we can discuss that. I don't know what, I don't know what that means. And so, but I think, I think there's something that can be done. I just, maybe, like I said, with some additional education, I don't know how often they receive, you know, I'm sure it's a very delicate situation too. Nobody's denying that going to someone's home. With their animals and, you know, discussing their animals, I'm sure is very touchy. So no one is denying that. But I was just trying to understand how it is handled also. Because it doesn't seem to be. There was another situation. I don't know if people are probably familiar with it. There were some multiple dogs left in a trailer that had been left. and abandoned. And, you know, just, but all this is public knowledge. So I'm not saying anything that nobody hasn't seen. When you do social media, we see everything. So, but that was something else that I had seen. Everybody has a story. Like I said, I could go back there and talk to people and they say, oh yes, I've seen those. So anyway, we know that's going on.

we're just trying to understand it and try to try to do better as a county sure yeah yeah my question is probably directed at david but what is the specific process that is in place right now like if there is a report um you know of a abused animal what what is the process

We go out to investigate and we look at all of the living conditions, everything that has to do with those animals. We give them an opportunity to correct those things. and then we go back out and check again and of course animal control has to approve if they have to build a shelter if they have to build a lot if they have to whatever they have to do for that animal animal control officers have to approve that so they go back out and they check on the living conditions sometimes they do what they say they'll do we had there was one not long ago that it was the understanding that as long as they had a house and access and it does say that in there adequate shelter so a house with access to fresh water not just water that's sit there for days and days and be fed but adequate shelter also could be interpreted as needing shelter from the sun shelter from the rain you know we would go out and check on one over here across the river and it would be snowing and the dog would be on laying on his dog house that's just where he wanted to lay um he had a fine dog house and it could be big area for him to run in but you know that's where he wanted to be he was on top of his snoopy i guess but um we go back out we check if they do nothing we give them a warning if we go back and we go back and check again and then there is fines that we impose and we have fined several people in allegheny county some pay them some don't so we're working we've been working towards and we have gotten in place if they don't pay their fines then we get to put that in their a tax bill or something, but we've got to come up with a plan, but some pay, some, some won't even pay their taxes. Some, you know, some people just ain't going to pay nothing.

Do you have authority to remove the animals or is that something the Sheriff's Department has to do?

It takes a process and you have to have law enforcement involved. You have to have a magistrate involved. The magistrate has to issue the warrant. Then you're able to go and seize the animals. The ones that Bobby was referring to, it took us about three months. it to be able to get a warrant to go get those animals those animals was in in a court case that court case lasted for a year and a half almost two years and that's one that's the ones that wind up costing the taxpayers of this county forty thousand dollars so that of course that's not budgeted for there's not a budget for that kind of stuff so with that we do have fines we do issue fines some pay some don't and we have been after the animals and do get them the best thing is if someone would just surrender their animals it costs them less money and then we take them to the shelter and they adopt them to somebody that would be more able maybe to take care of them some people love their animals they're just not they're just not able to take care of them as as they should so there's there's different situations and you have to weigh them all out

so there's a there's a decent start about how we how we uh uh deal with abused animals it but like like the ladies said there's probably things we can look in to make it better but i do see you know we have x amount of staff and some of those folks animal control works over at landfill right no everybody works everybody that does animal control is our maintenance employees yes so so we don't really we don't have we don't have a for say animal control person yes so that's the other thing and that's that's one of our steep hurdles you know so Anyway, but thank you for bringing it to our attention. And I, I just, I personally, I want to know how the process worked. Cause I've never really, I knew when I first became commissioner, we were talking about the, how many animals did we take and put in that shelter? Seven. Seven animals that we paid for, for how many years? Year and a half.

Year and a half. Yeah.

Yeah. It was like thousands of dollars because the judge would not allow them to be adopted. Right. so you get stuck in that situation which is to me it's common sense you know they're they they basically in some ways abandoned a dog abused their animals and the judge still wouldn't let us do anything with animals because it was still in court so yeah it's there's a lot of sticklers about it

Right. There's little, I mean, there's details, you know, behind the process. You know, last week I called and these German shepherds, three of them, just in a small area, and the house was gone. I was like, wow, and the house was gone. And the dogs were out there, and the big buckets, they were, you know, over, of course. So I called, and I didn't realize that the house had burnt down. So the gentleman that I spoke with, evidently he knew that, so I took it as probably I wasn't the first caller, that the house is gone and the dogs are still there. You know, I mean, you know, cases like that, it is hard to distinguish, you know, and it may be where they had neighbors were, I don't know. But I think as our part, we need to call attention to it. But I'm excited about everybody getting together, doing a plan, and getting some things in motion. Yeah.

Bobby's got another question.

David, are you giving your report tonight on the animals, how many miles you traveled this month?

No, but I have it with me.

I didn't know if y'all wanted to stay and listen to what David had.

and is our animal control ordinance on the internet yes so i mean i have to copy all the other things so i wasn't aware there wasn't actually an animal control department but so we were wondering in the heat you know dogs die from heat strokes all the time and um it's very common actually and also common for them to starve to death there's a new law actually in the state it's called duke's law was found tethered to a tree and his companion dog was dead next to him, his star ship. And so it's called Duke's Law and it's something that the state is looking at now. But yeah, so that's the other thing. I was curious, so they're only there if there's a call made. So there's no one really scouting, riding around looking for these conditions. It's only made apparent if somebody calls.

so I'll give you an example I'll start in March so I'll give you three months so in March we ran a total of we had 79 hours 22 calls 471 miles in April we had 105 hours 23 calls and 543 miles And in May we had 58 hours, 17 calls and 445 miles traveled. so they're traveling the the they're traveling the roads and and you're right when we get a call then we go but otherwise these guys are fixing brakes on patrol cars putting tires on ambulances unstopping commodes they're they're doing their maintenance jobs so they really they're not able time doesn't allow for for us just to go out and

just scout but we do go and every call gets tension can you speak to what when people do call is there one primary concern that people have or Is there something that stands out to you that is of greater concern to people in the county?

The biggest majority of calls we get is animals running at large. They're on somebody's property and they don't want them there. Animal cruelty or the possibility thereof is the two biggest things. We do have some where there's feral cats and things on property where we do a lot of tracking. So they're trapped, they're taken to the animal shelter, and then that's where they get adopted out. So, you know, but most of them is run at large or abuse.

So we don't have an animal control department, which is obviously a budget issue. I'm assuming that's why we're a problem. Is that fair to say?

well we've got an animal control we've got a department and we've got a budget we just don't have certified enforcement officers we send ours to school there's an annual conference that they go to and sometimes we do online classes but they they do go to classes and they do get education uh on the different aspects of that animal cruelty animal fighting rabies those type things but um and we do have a budget however there you know it's it's not a real large budget and it's not solely for that purpose like you said it's maintenance for the county well it is it is it's an animal control budget and it's to buy is to buy traps and and make sure our vehicle is in good running order you know we're they're driving on a 97 model you know we don't have a new model pickup but it serves a purpose like you said they have other responsibilities other than just taking care of their animals indeed indeed yeah they've given the the dogs that bite somebody handle a little bit it did yes if it's a dog bite if and if it's attacked somebody then of course we We investigate that to make sure that they've had their rabies shots. If they can prove that they've had their vaccinations, then the owners can quarantine those animals at home. But to have to be quarantined, it has to be isolation and it has to be for 10 days. If you can't prove that you've got your rabies vaccination, then we collect those dogs and we take them to the shelter to be quarantined for the 10 days. and then the animals have to be vaccinated before they can be returned to the owners at the owner's expense. So that is a little bit different. I've got a question, Dave.

If a dog running it loose on your property and you shoot it, there's nothing you can do about it.

Well, there's a little bit on that too. Now, if it's in your livestock, the law, the state law allows you to dispatch that animal in a humane manner. If it's in your livestock, not just running through your yard. Now, if it attacks you, absolutely. Absolutely. Or it shows aggression towards you and you fear for your life, absolutely. That's allowed and that's allowed by state law.

okay we'll certainly get a workshop date set and let you ladies know okay sounds good thank you we appreciate you thank you thank you okay moving on down to section b general business for information tony shepard glade creek fire department chairman

Of course, I'm Tony Shepard. I'm the new chair of the Black Creek Fire Department Board, and this is our new chief, John Bennett. So I want John to talk first, because he's going to talk about where our ISO rankings are for dropping people's insurance first, and then I'm going to get into where we've proceeded to set aside the requirements that y'all

good as uh tony's mentioned i am the chief of the voluntary fire department and i come up tonight to give y'all an update on something we've been working very hard at very very hard at and that is our iso rating we're currently in 9s as are most departments in the county and we are in the later stages of getting ready for our inspection our packets are in our water points are inspected certified certified 28 water points for lake creek community that's through soil and water here for the county they go out with us spend a day we go around each one we'll tell water to flow how long the flow and how many gallons you can get out of it it's a pretty big task uh where we're at on that right now is we're fixing to start marking all of our water points and as i said our packet is into the state so it may be 30 days and they come and inspect you maybe two months but we are waiting on the inspection as soon as we get signed up that's the whole thing we're at so we also have a free plan all of our commercial buildings within our fire district which helps you on your rate and what that is you just have a plan for every big commercial building that you have in your district so those are done those are in packets in training hours are in quits in And momentarily, the water points will be in. So then we will just be waiting on the inspection. And they'll come out and they'll do a water haul. And we'll go around your stuff. And they'll say, this is where you dropped. So we are in the finishing stages. So I wish I could give you a timeline. Like I said, maybe a month, maybe two months. It just depends on how quick that gets in. is you i got a question for you is your water points pretty spread out over your district or you got a bunch and congregate in one area and very little over here we spread them out we try to have one every mile and a half so with that mile and a half you can go a mile and a half for each one and your turnaround time and your field time and you're back to the same type of swamp shore yeah we take uh we take water supply pretty seriously because you know that's all we have

Oh yeah.

We don't have any fire hydrants or anything like that. We do have one at Cumberland that operates off a water tire but you know we only use it for fires on parkway and stuff like that. We'll try to have a water point every mile.

Pretty lucky to be able to do that in this drought. There's a lot of little creeks that's barely trickling.

That was actually a little bit of

is knee deep. Yep.

And so we almost had to back up the punt, but every one of them ended up getting past it.

Well, good.

Flowing a minimum of 400 gallons.

That's good. I commend Gladen Creek for you guys doing that. You're the first in the county, I think, to start to lowering your rating like that.

And it is. It's a job.

Oh, it is. Yeah, I know some others are working on it, but you all about to cross the finish line.

Yeah, we're almost there.

Yeah.

I look forward to it. And as we got our substation passed, then every homeowner within Glade Creek Fire District will receive that benefit.

That's the good part about it also is your community is going to see the effects of that and their lower premiums.

And when we do get lowered, you know, we'll probably come back up. say, hey, your fire department lowered its rate. You only owe us half of what you paid us last year. So a lot of times, you know, when you do get your rating, you will have to call your insurance company and say, hey, my fire department come down to a five or six, and then they have to give you that benefit. They're not going to call you and say, hey, your fire department, you know, they've done pretty good. They got the rating down. Just give us half of what you got us last year. They're not going to do that.

Certainly got to ask for it.

anybody got any questions it is there what's the status on burning now is there a fire band or a bit better a forester service department but as far as letting fire departments know i have no knowledge of a burn ban or anything like that i highly discourage it you know i can't sit up there and tell you i'll go burn you know because it's dry but if you do be careful i mean if you're having trouble give us a call yeah i've just noticed several people out burning big i guess stumps and christmas trees and there is nothing right now that says you can't burn for my knowledge like i said that'd be a better question follow up with the forestry rangers office and find out for sure okay hey do y'all go across the state line there on edmonds road and get water from the galax fire hydrant we can in certain situations we have permission to use two fire hydrants the first two on the right on the edmonds road which it actually bumped down to the second and third because that first one's out of order now. But we do have written permission from the rest of the county to use it if we need to.

Just not anytime, just if you really need it.

Well, if you're in that area or something.

Yeah, okay.

You know, if we're out on Charlottetown Road, we're not going to go that way. But if we, like Jeff Johnson's house, you know, on 18th, when it burned, that's where we got our water. It's much easier in the middle of the night than setting up in the middle of the road and that curb and everything.

and we didn't end up needing okay anybody else we appreciate you john all right now we'll get to the board stuff all right as far as the second procedures for the agreement home procedure for research on how our bills have been done and how our receipts are done everything that all the paperwork did go in on the june the 30th of this year from the board meetings yet, and we'd like one year of having all the receipts in too. So we're there, they've got plenty to, RFC has got plenty to get started on for sure. So we'll get the rest of it to them here shortly and get it loaded to the board where they can look at it. We have implemented a bookkeeping form of using QuickBooks accounting, and with that we've also implemented a PO system that is going to be designed for every purchase to have a code to it so that we keep it and do our bookkeeping much better than what they've done in the past. I actually built the PO system from a PO system I use at work and have adapted it to be just for the fire department. So if we have a, we buy a part for truck 701 from Car Quest, it's got a the ball port water is used for, all that kind of stuff. So that is all implemented as of July 1st. We have three trucks that have no odometer working on them and we've ordered wheel odometers for those so that we can keep up with mileage on them. So we've also implemented a fuel program so that all the trucks have an individual card in them And when they go to somewhere to buy fuel, they put the car in, it's got a driver's number, and only certain people from the fire department are drivers of each truck. And then they enter a driver's number and they have to enter a thomb ring before they're allowed to purchase any fuel whatsoever. And I'm sure that the county probably uses that with the ambulances and all that kind of stuff too, so y'all are frequent on that. We have issues about the truck and the house. that the fire department owns the truck is now sold it is no longer a piece of equipment for the fire department it's been taken off the insurance and all that and the house has been a really long working job because during the process of us having to acquire the house it was mentioned that the well might be tamed and we have had about a four and a half month process on getting water test for a triple f or pfsa's which are horrible chemicals that are in firefighting and we did we did get the water uh test back on june the 30th that week sometime and the water is clear so the house can't go one mark and we're not going to be reliable for it anyway so now finally we are seeing the end result of a lot of things we're working on and the end result of seeing letting you guys know that we have got a different group in charge not just in the fire department but on the board and we are striving to make that place a lot better than it had been so you guys have any questions

I got some. Okay. The pickup. How much did you get out of it?

Well, what I've done, I went to Scenic, and we went to, well, I know we've done CarMax, but we've done two dealerships, CarMax, and then looked it up online. And I can't remember what the other dealership was. Both the car dealers said if we hadn't set it on our lot, it would sell for $7,000, $8,000. It's very rough. CarMax said that they would get four of them. Tradian, Edwards said it was four. Kelly Blue Book on the internet said it was seven to nine. We sold it for $8,000.

On this house here you got. So you're going to put it on the market. And you know the tax, they would give $200,000 for it when they bought it.

No, they borrowed $200,000 on it, but a part of that was paid for attorney fees during the court case.

So I guess the taxpayer is supposed to take the attorney fees and all?

No, not at all. The attorney fees are on the loan, but the loan is being paid by the general fund for that.

Well, it is right now, but the taxpayer did pay on the first four years before you got out there.

Yes.

So the taxpayer is going to have to get reimbursed for some of the money that got wasted on that.

Is that what you guys feel when we sell it? Yes.

What took so long to get the audit receipts in?

That would be a question for Robert's tax law.

Well, he says in your bylaws right here, page four, section four, that the treasurer keeps all receipts. Where's your receipts kept at?

They're kept in Denver, North Carolina with our accountant.

So who's the treasurer?

Well, the board has a treasurer.

It says the board treasurer should keep them all.

Well, the accountant has been keeping them.

so these bylaws from 12 still in effect right now because you have probably not from 12 because there was another set rewrote in uh 19 or 20 somewhere i think well these are the ones y'all give the county here so so we all give us ones outdated i have no clue i know but i mean it sounds like if you got something from 16.

who is the chief accountable to the board of directors is the old chief on the board of directors for a temporary transition period he is but that's going to change at this probably this next meeting too because the house the night that i chair of the board we had three board members to walk away for me to be put in to take over because the president stepped out the chairman stepped down you had to have four or five people we only had four people there after the three walked up for transitional reasons from david to john curz we put david on the board to Get us where we can have a quorum one so we can elect him. I mean, we can vote him in as chief. Two to have a quorum so they can vote me in as the presidential chair. And we had to do what we had to do to stay in quorum to be able to do this. And now that we're to a point where we can sell the house, there's still more changes.

So the house is going on the market pretty soon. You don't know what you're going to be asking for it.

real estate agents has said that needs to be priced in the lower two hundreds.

I just like to see the taxpayers, what money, you know, one, all that we done done. And we've seen some misappropriate funds on there. And it says in your minutes right there too, the treasurer's supposed to sign the check and somebody else. And I know last time that didn't happen.

Well now, As of, say, 70 days ago, when I was board chair, it had been transferred that I'm responsible and Tina's responsible for signing all checks. He does get a bank card so that he can make quick purchases and stuff like that, but all that's approved through our general fund only. He don't have any forced regular money in fire tax right now, but he has no access to the fire tax. So all the business bookkeeping is done by the board. one more question do y'all not think $200,000 a year you couldn't run that fire department on tax money mostly yes I didn't know last year they had a problem with it I know you wasn't there and you know there's gonna be a lot of changes and I'm probably not a very happy person to be known in the electric file but it'll be all right okay anybody else yeah

i really like what i see what you're trying to do um this is definitely going in the right direction so i appreciate your help and your work with this this is pretty big um i think we're going to get to a place that where we're you know they're they're either we're going to have to possibly grip grip on maybe a trial basis or something to see if your system will work and will work you know, would be approve what we would see in reports like, okay, this is working. We see your ledgers. You see your QuickBooks reports. The only way we're going to be able to see that is if you do it. You start using and paying your own bills. And I know, you know, we still, I know there's a process, there's some past stuff, as Greg was talking about, still got to get that worked out. But I think we're into a new budget year, so we need to start figure out a way to where either we can agree upon a trial basis for two or three months to see if that system will work and it has to be what i foresee is um you know sure you all have the general fund you have the other monies and stuff what we're all interested in is how specifically every penny of the fire tax is spent so um

i don't know how we do that but i think it's we're we're getting closer to doing that bragging on your staff april's been a great teacher for me on the fire tax stuff and how to get the w-9s and this is covered this is not covered and all that stuff so that's helped me a bunch uh also i went to a and made them go to a Chief 101 class that was offered by Surrey Community College. And they, 90% of everything they talked about in that class, if y'all are interested, you can sign up and go. But it's about how to run a non-profit fire department. And just to be telling you about how the day went, at the end of the day, they passed out a package that said, any of these fire chiefs that are new, this is the package you need to learn. It was nine pages. I got it for John Curtis. Then he said, hey, you board directors, here's a package I need to get through. What I got was 49 pages. And it's got a lot of eye-opening stuff in it about the taxes and the laws and all that good kind of stuff. So we're getting there. I'm still, you know, I'm a work in progress. I'm a learner. So I am 70, 80 days in. Give me 180, I might be a whole lot better off. But thank you guys for your time.

i just uh more of a statement i know that that you've been doing a lot of the purchasing out at high meadows and that you have this form that you you're able to track everything absolutely and i think you know you're transitioning that to the glade creek and i think that that's going to be a way

that we can track things and like several mentioned at some point we're going to have to test it to be sure but you've had a lot of experience doing this before i mean and how many of us i run four buildings for one for the building the clubhouse one for the roads one for every one of the golf carts that are on the fleet and one for all the maintenance buildings and that's a vo system adapted for the fire department from that

Now, will that, the system you've incorporated, will that also apply to the money that you raise privately, like your upcoming events? But you'll still have a purchase order where you can track stuff.

Absolutely.

But I think the public needs to know that there's two different funds that the fire department has. the county tax money that's that's one thing but what you raise privately you can spend that ever how you want to yes absolutely but we will also have a track record for that too thank you that's it thank you I got one more question you know do you understand what the tax pay the tax money you get this is to be spent on right yeah what is it supposed to be spent on

anything maintaining the trucks and equipment for the fire department. Not for them to go out and eat a supper or anything like that. We do have money for meals, but that is like say that they've been on a road trip. I understand that. We can't go out and buy a t-shirt for fire department.

Or a house.

Or a house or whatever.

Okay, we appreciate you.

We've got one more little thing that he wants to present. Alright.

it is fireman relief fund time to turn over and one of the fires needs to come off and one needs to go home so it's been taken off tommy smith because he's no longer on our board and just adding it just went from ex-board president to new board president that works all right to help with accountability but i'll get that road up and uh

i'll get that to you bill that's all we need just that road up and we'll take care of it next week all right thank you thank you thank you thank you okay moving on down to item two melissa rector

Was there any major changes from this current one compared to your previous one?

It's just the oral, when it comes to oral collections.

What's the change?

It's just the words of it. It's basically all it was.

Okay.

If it started on 13...

so you're just changing the language you're not changing the policy i guess since this is what we're talking about my follow-up question would be what circumstances would would an allegheny in motion employee be required to submit to an oil drug test is it just at random or it's the federal government okay

What do we need to put this off for a couple of weeks and I like the part that's been changed for us when we take it back up in two weeks. Could you do that? Let me just highlight the changes in yellow or something. If there's no time sensitive, that's your right. Let's do that. And that way everybody will understand. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, Mary Rector. place this will be located out off of lake valley drive all the property owners uh accepted along the road to be named have signed the petition and are all in agreement everybody's happy all right so we don't vote on that tonight we'll do that in two weeks okay we appreciate it thank you okay mr bill shepley yes mr chairman um the uh

Amy Lucas, the County Extension Director and also the Extension Agent for 4-H Youth Development has sent you all a, I think it's in your packets, but a request to utilize funds for out-of-state travel. And so if it's okay with you, I'd like to just read that. Go right ahead. Okay. This is from Amy. I am writing to formally request authorization to utilize a portion of our existing funding from the professional development budget line to offset the travel costs for county employees who will be chaperoning and leading 13 Allegheny County youth during our upcoming annual teen camp from August 4th to the 8th. This year, our teen camp program represents a unique high impact opportunity. We will be traveling to Maine to participate in the collaborative exchange with Maine Extension and several other partner agencies and agricultural producers. This once in a lifetime trip is designed to provide 13 local youth with exposure to diverse environments, specialized educational programming, regional agriculture and leadership development opportunities. We estimate the total requirement from the county to be approximately $1,500. This funding will specifically cover the professional expenses of the three county employees facilitating the trip. We will be flying to Portland, Maine, and then renting vans to transport the youth. Thank you for your consideration. And then on the second page is an itinerary of things that

okay bob has got a question the uh insurance wise or how's that covered by north carolina state university or is it who covers the insurance that's a good question something goes wrong i don't know i don't think we know the answer to that right this second oh unless you know yeah

I'm not sure if they're going based on 4H, you know, with 4H is what, you know, because we're, we're covering the expense that we would have. And I think that what Amy is asking for is for employees to be covered, but the kids they're going for 4H, they're not going for Allegheny County. So I think anything that's happening with them is covered through the program that they're going under. So our employees are going, but I don't know on a trip, I'm not sure what our insurance covers.

you know when an employee is going on a trip and that's basically why they're coming to the board to ask for permission to go out of state they're going to be covered whatever this board decides they would be covered and of course with any of the vehicles that they're going to transport any of the children in or anything that's going to be covered under our insurance

but our personnel policy mandates that anybody that travels on a large trip out of state it has to be approved by the board and i think that very seldom we we have sent people out of the state but they've always asked for permission and then that gives them the coverage

of the insurance once the board approves that trip then that falls under our umbrella insurance correct but they're also going to have i'm sorry just like heather was explaining they're also going to have 4-h activity insurance that's going to be provided through the state also that's a nice trip

okay we got the information we'll take it up in two weeks they don't move that to the mid-month yeah yeah the trip's not too long i believe we read somewhere so we have to find out where the money is coming from out of the budget

There is enough money budgeted for cooperative extension under that professional expenses and development. We actually looked at that earlier today during our executive team meeting. They have $3,000 in that line, so this would take half of it.

Okay. So the money is there?

Yes.

Okay. We'll take it up in two weeks back on the agenda. Yeah, thank you. General business for action, Mr. Randy Murphy. Wait a minute. Back up. You've still got Glade Creek on there.

I think he combined that, though, didn't he?

I think so. I think we're good for now with the information they give us. We're still writing checks from here. Those are the fiscal year.

So I'm going to discuss something off again.

Okay.

Now, the audit was supposed to be back in July, which it ain't going to be. i did speak with miss april here a while ago and she said probably going to be january you know how long you're going to drag us out 10 year i mean here's another six months on this the people in glade creek wants to know where the money went for the other four year we got one year back with a misappropriate ninety thousand dollars and you know the two departments we sat down with back in february said it was enough on there then to do something so taxpayers deserve to know what's going on on this well i totally agree and we don't need to sweep it under the rug and don't need to give the money back to them to write their own stuff until this is took care of right do you want to address that heather anything that i mean we sure we're waiting on the audit of course and that's the key figure well the auditors can't finish their job until they're provided with the documentation and information and i think that's something that's been worked on and

you know, we're in a spot at this point where we have to rely on new people going in and figuring out, okay, where is all this stuff and providing it to the auditors. So, you know, I think that's taken a little bit more time and delayed things. I don't think anything's been intentional. I just think it's been, you have to go back now because this is now an additional four years to get that documentation and information. So, you know, us anticipating and saying, oh, well, we want it to be done by a specific time period. You know, there's no way for us to make sure that that's guaranteed that it's going to happen. So we're kind of subject to compliance, which I think is being done. So it's just going to take a little bit more time and what the time that the auditors are going to take, you know, we don't have anything to do with that either. So, I mean, uh, you know, we're kind of in a, in a position where we're trying to facilitate it, but you got two different parties, not us that are on one end, the fire department on the other end, it's the auditors. So, you know, we're kind of at each, each end trying to deal with the both ends and we're in the middle.

I think they said it was one year. They hadn't got turned in yet. Is that not right? You have it too turned in.

how soon can we get it to the auditor well we discussed it today so within the next couple days yeah we discussed that's why i sent it to them today so they'll have everything at that point yeah right right okay anything again i get the consensus of the board i had glade creek wrote in here to discuss the financial damn right in our check that we've done learned all this in the conversation we've done had so i make a suggestion we forgive

take that off is that okay with everybody do we need a motion to do that well you've talked about it even though it's a separate individual number i mean you've talked about financials so i think that's sufficient because it was only for information right that's right okay okay we're moving on then general business mr randy murphy

program or use the block program here uh i think i'll have you got a packet mark when i ran off um and i know one of the public institutions is funded because when i was presented to do this after um so um i had a meeting with their board last week

first year because they may need some equipment that needs to be purchased, whether it's shoulder pads or helmets or whatever that they'll have to assist me with. And then as far as next year, I can put in for a budget for the football program.

This is what I need to run off of and kind of get from there.

Okay. So you're not asking for the current year's budget to be amended? The one that was just passed, you're not asking for that budget to be amended?

No, not at all.

This is for 27-28. It says... Rule 1 is through the... okay okay or did i miss it no that's right that's right because it says it says there's enough funding to cover this year's football program with the current board right with the football board that's presently there okay what do you anticipate sorry it is on uh i think what do you anticipate what do you anticipate it costs difficult to say from the fact that

or we're going to have 50 kids out, or we're going to have 80 kids out. So, you know, that kind of point of, do I need X amount of shoulder pads? Do I need X amount of helmets?

You know, I can't really answer that until we get past a silent, when we do our silence. Okay. Bobby?

on the on the referee charges you've got a thousand dollars per home game how many home games are there that's a thousand dollars per night it says per home game how many how many night how many four so that's four thousand dollars

but when you say those four games you're talking about in one day right I think he's asking how many home games are in season so is that four times $1,200 okay any other questions and you've got that money in the budget Can I say, I'm not asking, Tony, for me being here, we're not asking, or I'm not asking money for us to go into county budget or anything like that. Because when we had this discussion last week, I told them, county has, there's zero money in there for our budget. We, that's zero. off of what they have.

So you're asking us, are you asking us to approve the football?

I need it approved, and I'll tell you one, guys. I was brought into this very late in the boat. The hospital, Zach Bennett and the football team will do a camp the last week of July. football season starts the very next week as far as practice goes. Nobody's fault as far as an interim goes, but we are on a pretty tight timeframe because we, and I say this with all due respect, I don't mean anything by it other than I don't know that we can continue on with this football program for this year.

if we cut it off for another reason because i'm not going to have time to do a registration and everything they're just you know there's not enough time involved with getting kids uh registered and and practice and all that kind of say something bill yes sir how much money are you asking for nothing well let's make a motion to approve it when you ask for no money

okay any other questions before we get into the motion of the approval you're asking us to absorb this program into the rec department right that's what i'm asking for yes sir all right just a comment i may suggest the next time you have your numbers exactly where they need to be instead of saying a thousand dollars and now you're saying 1200 possibly you need to err on the high end

Thank you sir. Thank you.

okay next tiffany ball your director of human resource there was a few things that needed to be corrected um the things in yellow they need to be removed and the things in blue and green Okay.

Motion to approve. Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor? Thank you. Okay, Ms. Abraham, CFO. You just get up there and do your thing.

well the first thing i'm going to need your help with chair osborne so the first thing we have is the fire services contract that was presented for just for information at the last meeting i do have the copy that was highlighted where the changes occurred and updated from the meeting with our fire commission with fire departments so if anybody has any questions about that i do have the highlighted sections of that i will point out that when it went to our county attorney she did reword section 11 to automatically renew each year instead of having to do this every year so whatever is fit in place will automatically renew every year and then if there's updates that need

it'll just come back to the board at that point i think it's a good plan later renew automatically and if we've got changes to make you do it but if we don't we don't have to go through all this you know okay need a motion second any discussion

okay so the first thing that we have for finance is just covering utilities phone and internet and security expenses and we have that money in the unappropriated fund balance basically the money that we have put aside for emergencies for the year that will cover those costs okay i make a motion that be approved line item transfer you for utilities got a motion second in the discussion all in favor 5-0 okay uh the next one is just some um projects and promotion money that needs to be covered in the county manager's budget ask for a motion we'll make a motion to approve second motion the second all in favor 5-0 okay the third one is the excavator that is actually being funded with the osbm grant we just need to move the money out of the construction line to the equipment line to cover the full cost of that new excavator and it has already been bought and the guys are actually using it at the transfer station make a motion to approve the line up and transfer for the excavator got a motion here a second second

any discussion on paper I might say them guys are enjoying that they're proud of that new piece of equipment they're happy with their group they are doing a good job the third one is actually just some corrections to longevity and hospital insurance

and a supply line one supply line in that mix you know we budget on the fiscal year and sometimes fiscal year doesn't turn out exactly right so we always have these adjustments at the end of the year so that's what you have before you okay make a motion approved second motion second any discussion all in favor okay and then the last one is just a transfer for dss

transfer now to telephone expense to auto expense that's for a motion motion to approve second any discussion all in favor 5-0 thank you thank you very much all right county manager mr bill shepard thank you mr chairman um we've got several things i wanted to point out uh i'd like to begin by sharing some very positive news about our july 2nd celebration commemorating the 250th anniversary of America's independence. The event was an overwhelming success. We welcomed more than 300 people to the parking lot of the county administration building, and it was wonderful to see so many families, friends, and neighbors come together to celebrate our nation's history and the strong sense of community that makes Allegheny County a special place to call home. Events like this don't happen by accident. They require vision, planning, and a tremendous amount of hard work. I want to extend a special thank you to Tony Williams, Miranda Rupp, and Wes Breniger for their dedication and effort in bringing this event to life. They did an outstanding job. I also want to recognize the many volunteers, county employees, and community partners who contributed behind the scenes. Your willingness to serve, and work together is greatly appreciated, and the success of this event belongs to all of you. On another topic, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to this board, along with April Rita, Bill Osborne, and Timmy Evans for the tremendous amount of time and effort invested over the past several months in developing this year's budget. A great deal of thoughtful discussion, careful planning, and difficult decisions went into producing a budget that reflects the priorities of our county while maintaining fiscal responsibility. Now that the budget has been adopted, our work is really just beginning. It's time to transform this budget from numbers on paper into meaningful action that improves the quality of life for the people of Allegheny County. One of our highest priorities is continuing to identify funding opportunities to renovate and modernize our transfer station. This facility has faithfully served our citizens for approximately 30 years and remains one of the most critical pieces of county infrastructure. As our community continues to grow and our needs evolve, we must ensure that this essential service is upgraded to serve not only today's residents, but the next generation of Allegheny County families. Another exciting priority is continuing our efforts to build two to four new ball fields for the children and families of our county. Recreation is about much more than sports. It provides opportunities for our youth to develop teamwork, leadership, discipline, and lifelong friendships. It also creates spaces where families gather and communities grow stronger. Our partnership with the Allegheny County School System has been instrumental in moving this project forward. And I believe that by working together, we can accomplish something that will benefit our citizens for decades to come. We're also excited about another opportunity that has the potential to enrich our community in a different way. Plans to upgrade the elementary school auditorium into a venue capable of hosting concerts, plays and other performances will significantly expand the cultural and entertainment opportunities available to our citizens. This project represents another example of what can be achieved when organizations work together towards a common vision. When you look at these projects collectively, they tell an important story. They represent investments in our infrastructure, investments in our children, investments in our families and investments in the future of Allegheny County. I truly believe our county stands at the threshold of exciting new opportunities. We have momentum. We have strong partnerships. We have dedicated employees, committed elected officials and citizens who care deeply about their community. As we move forward, we'll continue seeking grant funding and other resources to help turn these ideas into reality. We will remain committed to being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars while pursuing projects that make a lasting difference for future generations. The future of Allegheny County is bright. Great things are not just possible, they're within our reach. I invite our citizens to continue this journey with us. Stay engaged, share your ideas, support these efforts, and help us build an even stronger Allegheny County for our children and grandchildren thank you for your continued support your partnership and your commitment to making allegheny county the very best it can be that's all i have to add all right thank you sir yes thank you commissioner comments i guess we'll start with mr wagner

you mr chairman and thank you mr shepley for that uh for that update um i agree with that uh for a while there the uh the future does look bright i'm excited about our vision uh for the future i'm excited about the ball field project moving forward um got a lot of good stuff going on i hope everybody had a good fourth and uh safe holiday and that's all i got okay thank you guys bobby uh

i would like to talk about the july the fourth we had a great great parade a lot of people turned out uh it wasn't as hot as we expected there's a little bit of clouds and a little bit of wind so that really helped and uh i think everybody appreciated all the floats and people that participated uh and like uh we were talking about our event here on Thursday and I believe we served over 350 hot dogs. Uh, there was a lot of people, a lot of adults and a lot of children. We were, I was tickled to see all the children that turned out. And then, uh, we had a good flag burning at the end of the ceremony that we were able to, uh, properly dispose of the U.S. flag and I appreciate all the organizations that helped with that. About the animal control, I think that one thing that might be helpful when David gives his report, if he could track and tell us how many people have called in that month before if he's had 10 complaints or if he's had 100 complaints and then how many that they were able to investigate so that would give us a way to track you know the complaints that are coming in and be sure the public knows that we're checking on all these as fast as we can uh i just remember that We've also had the state veterinarian come up here when there's been some bad trouble about three or four years ago. And they spent several days up here going through some of the cattle problems we've had. And we've also rescued several boroughs at times that were not properly taken care of. and those were removed from the owner and they were adopted by other people once once the veterinarian had done the work and the county employees had done their work capturing and transporting these animals so I think just to be very open if we know if we've had x number of complaints and then how many we've investigated and i'm not sure i think for david that we have on our website what the policy is for transportation for people from allegheny to a different hospital uh i know last month there was apparently some mix up from what some people at the hospital may have been telling some patients and I just want to be sure that that that policy is on the on our website so people can understand it I don't know if David would have a minute to address that or

yes sir yeah we do we do have that on our website so our transport policy is on the website some of those times that transports was delayed or wasn't able to be done we had trucks both our ambulances out of the county on a couple of the occasions so we didn't have any ambulances available in allegheny county which poses an issue for citizens in allegheny county is we take both our ambulances out then we have to rely on rescue squad and the rescue squad is faithful to help us with that and so they're they run our medical calls within the county while we're gone but those some of that mix-up was that that we did have two trucks out of the county but that policy is on our website so that people can see that and able to study on that and part of that is

when we go to transfer somebody we have to have a hospital that's willing to take them yes and sometimes other hospitals winston elkin or wherever are full and so we can't transport until we have a hospital that's willing to take them but am i correct that the transportation is a responsibility of the hospital yes sir that's correct it's not the responsibility of the county but it's the responsibility of the hospital yes sir to get that transportation worked out because they can coordinate with these other other locations if they have a bed available yes sir okay thank you i'd just like to say one thing about

hospitals that they do have the ability to call in Baptist out of Winston or other ambulances but the problem that is there's four or five hours a lot of times to get a I know this just happened there a couple weeks ago it's four or five hour maybe six hour wait to get an ambulance up here to take them people down the road we need to look at that we really need to look at that great I just want to thank Janet and Waynette for coming up here and at least y'all observe what's going on in the county

we appreciate that a bunch even though you're from downtown glade creek but we still appreciate it yeah i just wanted to uh

just add to what mr shepley was talking about the staff on thursday when they set up the deal up here in the parking lot which was really a cool thing and um i want to thank them again all of them that put all their effort and work into that and Also, it's a pretty big honor to have still a World War II hero that's turning 100 this year, I believe, Mr. Luther Marlow, which I consider him a walk in the history book, which it was an honor to have him. And thank everybody for that. And I wanted to, we had a, we had three or four people that's got some years in it at the working for the county and one of them was our building inspection mr travis dalton's got 19 years nick hawks is 18 years which i'm still mad at him for talking me into this job and he left so anyway yeah nick and uh of course uh we got randall williams is 18 years and then tony williams with 22 years which surprised me because i've worked with the building inspection department up here for 35 years now and um it's incredible i watched her as a family and her kids grow up and our daughter grow up and stuff but point is i want to i know that all of our county employees are important and i don't want to really point out one that's more important other but i do have um i've worked with those folks i've seen that place start out with one inspector no secretary and they run a tight ship and we see it in their budgets every year and they do a fantastic job and and even with tony's went through some family things over the last couple years and she's still been able to pull it off and i just wanted to say thank them uh you know very much for what they they their sacrifice they've done the county and then um the last but not least i know we're working on the dss schedule transition uh far as i mean david and stacy i just want the county to know we are working on that and we are keeping the pedal to the metal to where we get some kind of dates so people can figure out what what they do next where they go and all that stuff but other than that that's all i got thanks thank you i guess next big event out at the fire grounds is the fearless convention

I believe that's coming up the 16th and 17th. Hope there'll be a good event out there. Parade was a huge parade and a very nice parade. That's one of the better ones I've seen in a long time. It was really good. And I don't know who come up with the plan for the courthouse for the lights up there, but that's about as pretty as you'll see coming through there in the dark.

It's really pretty.

Sure is. Uh, I got to brag on her hospital just a little bit. I had some major sickness here 10 days or so ago and, and I was taken over there and they got right on top of my problem and sent me on down the road. They got me stabilized and prevented heart attack right there. And I just appreciate that crab from bottom of my heart. And I just think we all should look at participating more. They've got that specialty clinic over there and you got these specialists that comes up from Winston and And just look into it. It's all I'm asking people to do. We ain't got a hospital. We in major trouble, you know. Okay, the July 4th, or the second celebration down at last Thursday over here, that was a cool deal right there. A lot of people there got the chance to meet the McDonald's folks. They came through there, and that was who all these ladies was, thought they'd done a good job, and all the planning that went with it, done a good job. That's about it for me. Let's get the workshop lined up pretty soon.

You just mentioned what hit me that I hadn't said is that one of the things that happened at the event that we had here on Thursday was the new owners of the McDonald's that's coming into town came to the event and we had a chance to meet them and they were really excited about coming here and they're the first impression they made with people was very warm. I would say, I mean, they were, they were very much, they had already done their research about the area. Um, so we're excited to have them coming in. So they're going to break ground on July 20th and that their plan is to open the McDonald's in January.

Yeah. Real nice folks to talk to.

Are they going to keep the same building or is it going to tear it down?

They said the back part of it had deteriorated a whole lot.

and that they needed to just tear the whole thing down okay appreciate that sue do you got anything about the sweet the clean sweep trash deal i don't want to put you on the spot if you do come on up and tell us a little bit about it if you don't it we'll do it next time i thought it was a big success it was a little bit successful we had a whole lot of participation

Saturdays. The one coming up this coming Saturday is to pick up some of the river where we had Colleen who came through. There was a lot of stuff that ended up in the river that's not normally in the river, whether it was bales of hay or refrigerators. So we need to get some of those things out. That'll be this Saturday. And then we'll be doing another trash pickup in September. it will be the second weekend in September so we don't interfere with Labor Day and we don't interfere with the Heritage Festival so we're hoping that each individual will pick up some trash and make a difference because it does make a difference what's the date on the flea market slipped my mind the flea market will be the last full weekend in july which is july wait a minute i don't have my phone last full weekend 24th 25th and 26th july same weekend as a rodeo yeah yeah it is because that's why they're not going to be able to have um and places there went from like $20 to $200. So we're having other places that were found because that was not suffocating. You can't afford that. You can't make that much money to be able to afford that kind of cost. So we're looking forward to it. I didn't bring those figures with me, I'm sorry. But it makes a tremendous difference in the traffic that comes through from Whitfall to Harmony. And it helps a lot of the people to get the school closed for the kids to get rid of last year's so it's a good event it is a good event and uh the county and the people in the county do support it very well and it helps the restaurants and other things too it's amazing where people come from just to see this thing oh yeah it really is it is watch the uh the tags on the cars it's interesting thank you all so much for what you do appreciate it thank you appreciate you anybody got anything else heather will you i know lisa does

no more ado let's have a motion to adjourn so moved thank everybody for coming out appreciate you guys for coming