City Council - Regular Meeting

It's 5.30, we'll start the public power hour. We don't have anyone who has sent an email in saying they wanted to speak to us, which is kind of odd since we've been pretty backed up, it seems like, for a long while here. But anyway, we've got a couple citizens here, and if anybody would like to share, talk to us, this would be an opportunity. And this will be in live stream, so more people than just us will hear, so. If not, I'm going to sit here and see if anybody shows up that wants to.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Did you see his picture in the paper? The Augusta Link? Well, he definitely followed him. Same name, though. It's the same name.

Thank you.

Sir, come on down. You're sitting so polite, but I say, you know what? I just want to give you a chance. I hate for you not.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

If you would, just state your name and address for the record, sir.

My name is Charles Anderson. I live at 1837 Bunting Drive in Lynnhurst. Appreciate you council members and you mr. Mayor for letting me speak sir. I'll be brief There's ordinate when I first moved into Lindhurst I've lived there about three years everything was fine and after the storm came All the cleanups finished the area has just been neglected We've got junk cars and sit in the yards grass growing through the sidewalks. I have pictures there is a particular house that's been abandoned right in front of me and I put $100,000 in for my property. That, in turn, was going to benefit my neighbors, my neighborhood, and the city. But then this house abandoned in front of me, grass growing over the top of it. It's been that way since the storm. I haven't come back. I have a house directly behind me. It looks like a jungle. They've been told they built without a permit. Mr. Terriman made them tear it down. They rebuilt, and the contractor that rebuilt has pulled his permit. All construction has stopped. Their yard is a jungle. The door is now presently open. The house right next door to them, the grass is just like growing over the house.

I mean, it's terrible.

And then there's a house also on the corner of Robin and Oriole with a tree still on top of it that's abandoned. It's the whole neighborhood's going to you know where I really appreciate it if you know I've been dealing with mr. Timmerman. He's been very helpful doing what he can he said the grass and stuff is mr. Paradise's problem, but I just think that it shouldn't have to follow me to You know police these things that should be up to the city to police these things since it's such in a great vast of you know, violations.

So a couple things. Thank you very much. We have increased our code enforcement officers. And so here's what I need you to do for me. I'm very familiar with one of the houses. I think the first house you talked about, okay? Phillip is one of our code enforcement officers. So he has already opened that file and begun that process, okay? Just so you know is, and Jamie can correct me, but normally when we get a complaint like that, when we go out there, We, by law, send at least two letters, maybe three, and there's a certain time frame we have to do it, to the owner. And once that deadline of we don't get a response from those letters, then we go to bid and we hire a company to come and mitigate that. and we'll do what we need to do, and then we put that bill on the owner of the property, not the renter, but the owner on their tax bill. So I know of one. I don't know about those others. So if you don't mind, if you would either be – if you would give us the addresses that you can. My guess is Phillip, he went out there, he probably went ahead and has added to open those up, but you need to be aware of that, so we'll keep you updated. Okay. But I knew about the one. But there's other ones I'm not sure about. But we will look into it. But I will tell you, and this is a good thing . This is where we need citizens to help us. Because we've gone from one code enforcement to three people. So we've added code enforcement to it. But we do have a big city.

I understand that. I don't mind helping.

No. So the best thing you do is, if you don't mind, get her as many of those addresses as you can, and then we will make sure that all those are at least looked at and try to explain what's happening. Is that fair? Yes, sir.

Is the grass growing through the sidewalk? Is that the responsibility of the city? I mean, it looks, compared to other sidewalks in the neighborhood.

Yeah, I don't think. I'm not sure. I don't think it is, but I'll need to look into that. I can't answer that. I don't know if anybody in council knows. I don't know that.

But I'll tell you, there is a form with the code people that people, that's what I tell them to look online and fill that out and then they can jump on it for you. Besides calling, you know.

Yes, ma'am. I looked at the ordinances and it didn't mention sidewalks. Yeah. If they hamper safety or any kind of, you know.

We'll see what exactly it is. Is it somebody's branch growing over? Absolutely. Did the grass grow up from the yard underneath? We'll look into it. If you don't mind doing that for me, we'll get on, I promise. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much, Charles.

1837. 1837. 1837. 1837. 1837. 1837. 1837.

You know, Charles, what we are seeing finally in some neighborhoods like Hammond Hill is for some of these houses are finally that have trees that have been on there for over a year. And not all situations, but I know for a number of situations, the insurance company finally is stepping up. So we're seeing houses that you and I would say, my god, that tree's been in there since Helene, literally. But we're starting to see those now being taken off. So it's been a long process. We've been asked about that. So, and as a matter of fact, and I'm sure we've done this in the Lynnhurst area, but I do know in the Hammond Hill area, we went around and I think found like there were 22 houses that, situations like that. So, but we'll look into it, okay? Thank you, appreciate it. I'll say this before we end. For citizens who may not know, council, we're required in December to post all our meeting schedule a year out. So sometimes we get asked situations like, gee, there's no one here at the public power hour. Why did y'all change your time? We don't have the ability to do that. We have to stick to that, unless it's an emergency call session. And then there's 24 hours, right? So there are those situations. But just so folks know, it's not something we can just pick and choose. Oh, gee, we know I emailed Jamie. Let's don't show up tonight.

Charles Anderson, Charles might decide to come.

So anyway, that is now 10 till 6. I'm going to close out the public power hour, and we'll be starting our city council meeting sharp at 6. Thank you all.

Good evening.

I'd like to call the City of North Augusta City Council meeting for June 1st, 2026 to order. Welcome. Good to see everybody. Thank y'all for being here. You're welcome to join me in prayer. Dear God, I ask for discernment for this council. I ask that we have a servant heart as we do the work of this city. I ask that we are purposeful in our actions. that we listen to our citizens and each other, and that we strive to honor you in our decisions. Amen. If able, please 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,

All right, we're going to move into our roll call, starting from my left.

John Felak. Robert Freitas.

Pat Carpenter.

Britton Williams. Kevin Toole. David Buck. Dennis Friarico.

All right, item four, approval of minutes. Are there any corrections, deletions, or additions to the regular city council meeting minutes of May 18, 2026, or the special call study session minutes of May 26, 2026? Hearing none, they stand approved as distributed. Thank you. Okay. You know, this is the first time that we've had people tell us they're going to come for us to give them a proclamation. They aren't here yet. So I think I'm just going to read these from the dais. So if you will bear with me. The first one is National Garden Week. Whereas gardeners have a passion for nurturing the beauty and resources of the earth through the planting of seeds, the care of all plants and the riches of their efforts, and whereas gardeners work to preserve our country's traditional spirit of independence and initiative through innovation and hard work, and whereas gardeners advocate the importance of all creatures sharing our world and their roles in the balance of productive ecology, and whereas gardening serves as a challenging and productive activity for all citizens, those just learning as well as those having years of experience, And whereas gardening promotes a healthy lifestyle that lasts a lifetime, helps reduce stress from other areas of our life, and teaches that rewards come from diligent efforts. And whereas the North Augusta Council of Garden Clubs enriches our city by maintaining Billy's Butterfly Garden, providing a scholarship for a North Augusta area high school senior, and sponsoring campers for Camp Wildwood, Now, therefore, I, Britton S. Williams, mayor of the city of Northchester, South Carolina, do hereby proclaim the week of June the 7th through 13th of 2026 as National Garden Week. This is a great group of three or four different clubs. And the other thing they do is, y'all seen yard of the month signs? And if anyone out there watching, if you are interested in nominating somebody for Yard of the Month, there's a process. Dorothy Rotan is the contact. But if you would just reach out to, you could reach out to email me or Jamie Paul or City Clerk, and we can get you in touch. But anyway, they do an amazing job, our garden club. So I hate that they are not here, but very thankful for those folks for that. This next proclamation is scoliosis early detection awareness. Let me read you about this. Whereas scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of the spine, is a condition which affect an estimated six to nine million people in the United States, and whereas primary onset of scoliosis is between ages 10 to 15, with females being five times more likely to require treatment, And scoliosis can cause pain, reduced respiratory function, and limited mobility in otherwise healthy children. And approximately one in six children diagnosed with this disease will eventually require active medical treatment. Whereas screening programs allow for early detection for treatment opportunities, which may alleviate the worst effects of the condition, which is no known cure or cause. And whereas raising public awareness of scoliosis is vital, helping children, parents, and health care providers understand, diagnose, and treat this disease and reduce the pain and suffering of those it affects. Now, therefore, I, Britton S. Williams, Mayor of the City of North Augusta, South Carolina, do hereby claim June 2026 as Scoliosis Early Detection Awareness Month. And I don't know on council, for our older council members and our newer folks, I don't know if we did last year when y'all had been elected at that time, but the young lady's name is Elizabeth Hawkins. And it's one thing to say you're an advocate. It's another one to really do it. She was diagnosed with scoliosis age 10. The first proclamation I read was in 2021. So this is our sixth time we've given this to her. And at that point in 2021, she was leaving Aiken Tech. She was transferring to Clemson, got her degree. But she was the one 13 years ago that lobbied the governor of South Carolina and made this be a month in, say, South Carolina for scoliosis awareness. So here you're talking about a young lady at that time would have been in her late teens, you know, 19, 20, and she is lobbying. And so the reason we have this month is because of Elizabeth Hawkins, which is amazing. And she has started a number of state groups to help be with folks. And she would tell you that early detection is the key. Screening is the key there. So anyway, Elizabeth, not sure where you are. But thank you for your service and what you're doing with this disease. And we're very thankful for your leadership in this cause. All right. So we're going to move into business. All right, first is old business. We have one item, election. Ordinance number 2026-10, affirming an agreement between the City of North Augusta and the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Aiken County. Do I have a motion to approve this ordinance on second reading? So moved. Second. Ms. Carpenter was first, and I think Mr. Freitas was second. Thank you. Anything you'd like to share about this, Mr. Clifford?

Mr. Mayor and Council, since I was absent last week and JD did such a great job of running the study session, I'm going to defer all commentary from the staff to JD for the old items and new items here this evening.

OK.

Thank you, Jim. Mayor and Council, this is just what the title reads. It approves Aiken County Board to take total responsibility of the city election held on November 3, 2026. And it authorizes the agreement that is attached behind the resolution as exhibit A. Very good.

All right. We've talked about this for a lot, so it's been on this agenda forever. But any questions for Mr. McCauley? Just one comment.

Yeah. And that is, after being involved in a lot of elections, I agree that we have to do this. But I did not agree with the way they came up with the cost of it.

I think it was, it was not fair to us.

They ended up charging us a percentage of the cost of the entire election, which I believe was 17%, which is the population that we have in the county. We have 17% of the population of Aiken County. They charged us 17% of the election costs, which I didn't think was right. I called the election chairman and, and asked her how she came up with the number. And I asked her if we had not changed the election to coincide with the general election, what would the election have cost the city? She said nothing. I said, why are we paying 17% of the whole election? We're paying 17% of everybody's election, which I didn't think was fair. I understand that. I understand the cost of it. I would just, uh, as we move forward, In future years, I'd like to have at least a discussion point with them about the overall cost.

We did have a discussion. Yes. It's on the record now. So we're good. All right. Thank you. Anybody have any other comments? Any citizen comments?

Any council discussion beyond that?

All right. Hearing none, I'm going to ask for a vote. All in favor? And that is unanimous. Very good. Thank you. Okay, we are now on new business. Planning Development Ordinance Number 2026-11 to change the corporate limits of the City of North Augusta by accepting the petition requesting annexation by the landowners and annexing plus or minus 2.48 acres of property located on East Buena Vista and owned by SEC Contracting LLC. Do we have a motion to approve this ordinance on first reading?

Second.

Goodness gracious. Carpenter and freighters are tag teaming over there. Okay.

Anything you'd like to share about this, Mr. McCauley? Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor and Council. Just to refresh your memory, this is a parcel that is part of the parcel is in the city limits. The remainder of it obviously is not why it's being annexed. It's off of Buena Vista, just down across the street from Ten Pennies, just to orient you. And this was approved by the Planning Commission. It's recommended to be brought into the city as a general commercial.

And this was asked by the owner, and I believe they're going to be moving their business over here.

That's correct.

Any questions for Mr. McCauley from council? Are there any citizen comments?

Any council discussion?

I think it fits in really nice with where we are there. More power to us. So anyway, all right. Hearing none, I'm going to ask for a vote. All in favor? And that is unanimous. Thank you very much. OK, item eight. Planning development, resolution number 2026-32, accepting, indeed, a dedication for the streets, sanitary sewer, stormwater collection, fire suppression systems, and associated easements and rights-of-way, along with a maintenance guarantee and letter of credit for the Hive, Section 2. Do I have a motion to approve this resolution?

So moved.

All right. Mr. Buck, thank you. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Carpenter? Second.

And anything you'd like to share about this, Mr. McCauley? Mayor and council, this is what we refer to as routine action. As you said, accepting the dedication for hive section two. There's nothing further to add. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. We do this on all our developments.

OK. Any questions for Mr. McCauley from council?

All right.

Any citizen comments? OK. Any council discussion? All right, here are none. I'm going to ask for a vote. All in favor?

And that is unanimous. Thank you very much.

All right. Item nine, engineering and public works. Resolution number 2026-33, authorizing a construction contract for the Creighton Park Site Improvements Project. Do we have a motion to approve this resolution? I move.

All right. Second. Mr. Tim Toole, second.

Mr. Bratica, thank you.

Okay, anything you'd like to share about this, Mr. McCauley? Yes, sir, Mayor and Council. This is a resolution that falls along with two previous resolutions. One was Resolution 2025-37, which was a tax grant from a previous year for Creighton Park, $50,000. And then a resolution you approved earlier this year, Resolution 2026-15, which appropriated the FEMA FEMA funds for recovery from Hurricane Helene for the park back to the park. So that is what gives us our budget for this project. And after further review, I misspoke last week about the contract award. The low bid that also has the required permits for the project is 6G Construction LLC. And this is a project not to exceed $148,500.

The tabulation sheet, item one and item two, is that broken down for any what that is?

It is, yes. One is the parking lot, which is the more expensive piece, and one is the sidewalk. We broke those into two separate projects.

Now is, and you might have explained this, and forgive me if you brought it up in the stay session. I missed it. That's a heck of a, that's not much cost, but anyway, that's good. Besides the parking, is the playground, some additional playground coming in built into that, embedded in that parking piece, or is that going to be a separate thing for us?

Oh, no, sir. The playground equipment is part of a cooperative purchasing agreement, and that was authorized through the FEMA resolution.

That's where that's coming from? Yes, sir.

We have already ordered that, and we're trying to time that so that the parking lot project and the Additions to the playground will happen about the same time. So the closure of the park will only be one long closure.

Yeah, I do not differentiate those two. This is strictly the parking and the sidewalk. Yes, sir. Perfect. OK. Very good. Those are my questions. Any questions for Mr. McCauley from council?

OK. Are there any citizen comments?

Any council discussion? I'll tell you what, this park has become quite a hit. I mean, when this gets paved, I know the Living History Park folks, y'all are going to be excited about it, I know. But I'll tell you, it's just amazing. And with the bathrooms that have been put down there, too, by North Coast Forward, I mean, it's a neat little park. So we get a lot of activity. All right, so no council discussion. I'm going to go ahead and ask for a vote. All in favor? And that is unanimous. Thank you all very much. And I'll turn this over now to administrative reports. Who's doing the administrative reports? I've got that tonight. OK.

I'm going to read this off my script here so it's easy for Jamie, because I give her a hard copy of what I Talk about, um, so Mr mayor council, I have 2 updates for this evening. So the 1st, the mayor had asked me to discuss the for sale signs. On Martin town road for the portion of bluegrass. Place the master developer is marking the sale of the commercial and professional tracks. of the project. And since this is part of a planned development, the buyer, if any, would be required to build within the rules of that planned development. Any major changes in use would be required to come to City Council for approval. So you're used to seeing things in planning that are called general commercial or thoroughfare commercial or industrial. And because this is a P&E, the rules are somewhat different. But you have a commercial component that's on fronting martin town road then you have the mexican restaurant and then you have a professional component professional component being closer towards the public's and the shopping center up that way and so intent being that the professional would be spaces for doctors and dentists and professional folks to be operating their general commercial could be any number of different Business opportunities as yet to be determined. So whoever, if that property is sold to a different organization, they are still bound by the rules of that plan development. So, for example, if they said, hey, we want to just build houses here instead, they couldn't go do that without coming first to city council and petition city council directly for a change for a major modification to that site plan. So just wanted you all to know that's in play there, and we see that with a number of developers where they will buy a large track and then sub that out to other companies for different areas, the Hive being a great example of you've got Stanley Martin running the residential, you've got a different group running the multifamily, and then you've got McKnight doing the commercial on the Hive side. So that's a... Pretty typical what you're going to see, but the benefit of having a planned development is that those rules are locked by the city council when that action passes. So that's what any player that comes to the table is going to have to abide by. I'll pause for any questions.

Is anything going to be built there now or have they got to sell it to people to do what you just said?

My understanding, Councilwoman, is that they've marketed at least two portions of the property. To refresh your memory, on Bluegrass, you've got If you work from the Martintown Road side of things and move your way across, oh, correction, the East Buena Vista side of things and move your way over to Martintown, you would have attached single families or townhomes. Then you have detached single family. Those are all closer to Metz Drive. And then on the other side of the road from them, they'd have the apartments, the multifamily. And then as you get closer to Martintown, you've got senior living apartments. And then you get the last two portions, which are professional and commercial.

Right now there's, you said he's got two interests.

He's got at least two, I didn't say interested, but he's marketing two parcels at a minimum for sale.

And I know people have been talking about the clear cutting because I thought this was going to be something that would go up immediately.

Well, they're still putting infrastructure.

And that was sitting there with all that.

Well, if you look at the construction site, Councilwoman, they've had to put in the stormwater apparatus, which goes below ground. They're putting curb and gutter in now. And so we're going to have to get those and some of the roadways in before you see anything that would be involving vertical construction.

But was there any reason to take down every tree right there on Martintown Road? I mean, I wanted the bluegrass to be a success. But now look at that. It's just sitting there with everything gone. I mean, I don't know. We can't do anything. The trees are gone now.

I know that there is some discussion through the Planning Commission about adding tree buffers on certain projects, or at least in the future. But as far as what's going on with bluegrass, they're operating within the rules that they were bound to abide by. So the second thing that I'll put out there is there's also some construction you're going to see on East Buena Vista over by the city lot, and that was the lot there at the corner. And so that's Hawks Vista, which is a Maybaum project, which is – single-family attached townhomes. We're going to go up the ridge and then overlook the golf course there. And so the city has leased for a period of 90 days the city lots that are next door to allow them to move some of the trees and some of the other debris off the site. We're doing that. For two reasons. One is because they're going to pay us, they are paying us to do that. And the second reason is because I will also not cause problems on East Point of Vista from a traffic perspective, because if we didn't lease the lot to them, we were going to have to have partial road closures as a large construction apparatus. We're going to be operating and dragging things off that lot. So I thought that was overly overall beneficial to our citizens to keep a free flow of traffic on East Point of Vista. And so we've allowed them at a price to lease the city property.

yeah and just as another clarification it's the lot across from the old public safety headquarters so if you remember where we had all our wood chips and debris that lot and i hope you said we are just leasing because that's one lot piece i don't you know we were going to sell at one time and thought it was going to be sold and i don't know what happened but that piece should never leave the city's hands

This is strictly just for a very specific purpose. Kelly's here, looked over the agreement, and this is not a lease-to-buy option. This is for a 90-day window for them to do some clearing operations, and then we'll have the use of the lot back.

Very good. Thank you.

That's all I have for administrative reports tonight.

Okay.

We're at item 11, presentations, communication, and recognition of visitors. This is an opportunity for citizens who want to speak to mayor and council regarding matters not listed on this agenda. And the same folks are here at the public power hour, so I'm going to give you a chance because maybe you thought of something during this time. Is there anybody here in the audience that wanted to come in front of city council? OK. Just got a few announcements. Just want to reiterate again, if you're on, please download Explore North Augusta. And if you're on social media, I would ask Council. Tourism has put out the Jack O'Lan Jubilee video. It's awesome. It shows Torin Wells, who will be the Christian artist for Friday night. And then Chris Jansen, who's an up-and-coming huge country star right now, he'll be on Saturday. So again, it's going to be a great, great night. Also want to let folks know about the Explore North Augusta's Amazing Race. So if you've ever seen the TV show, The Amazing Race, we're doing that here in North Augusta. Registration started May the 11th. It's going all the way to June the 19th. So we've got about 18 more days. The event will be on July the 18th from 930 to 2. Limit is free. Five people per team. At least one of your members need to be 16 or older, because you've got to have a valid driver's license, because there will be transportation involved. But I will tell you, the tourism team have done an amazing job of where you will be traveling and going and doing and riddles and clues and history and different merchants, whatever. So it's going to be awesome. So it's a family thing if you want to do it. So I'll hit that. And then we are so excited. I've had two compliments about the YMCA, their new location, Mr. McCauley. Two folks said, man, that's a great location for their record. And it is. But June the 6th, this Saturday from 10 to 2, the Family Wise had a soft opening, but they're having their first free community block party and grand opening. So there's going to be a lot of local performances. There'll be a fitness class, food trucks, kid zone. And the thing for citizens, we will have a celebrity pickleball tournament. So we've got two groups of teens for the city of North Augusta. We have got the dynamic Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Toole. We have Mr. Robert Freitas. He's fast as a rabbit on those courts. And then John Felec controls the net like nobody you've ever seen. And their own Sabrina King for HR is going to keep these three guys in check. At the Y. And then we are talking about stop, drop, and dink. And no better than our own Chief Junior Johnson is going to be leading Mitch McRod and Justin Russo. So three of them are going to cause some serious trouble. So it's going to be a great fun time from 10 to 2 on June the 6th. I would just tell everybody, if you've got available, come out to the Family Y. It's going to be a good laugh and a lot of fun. Anything for council around the home?

No, and I want to brag on our mayor. No, I have been, I coached all-stars a good bit. And I got fortunate to be the all-star coach for 7 and 8. On June 20th, we will host the state tournament in North Augusta. And that's people coming all over. And this is the, we had a packet sent to us, which has never happened. And that was a welcoming letter from Mayor Williams. And I want to tell everybody, in all my years coaching Britain, that has never been. And these people coming in, they'll see what a great mayor we have.

Well, Pat, that's very kind. And that's really our tourism, because I wrote the letter five years ago. It's the first time we've sent it out. And I think I'm serious about that.

So anyway, that's what happens when you get focused with tourism. Thank you, guys.

Alright, thank you all for being here. We stand and enjoy and have a good evening.