City Council - Special Meeting

Good evening. Like to call the city of North Augusta City Council special called council meeting for February the 9th, 2026 to order. Um you are welcome to join me in prayer. Dear God, thank you for our blessings. We ask you to give us the guidance and discernment needed to make decisions for our community. Help us to listen to each other's perspective on all matters. Amen. If able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Okay, we got roll call starting from my left. John Felac,

Pat Carpenter, Britain Williams, Kevin Tulle, David Buck. Okay. All right. Um, we're going to move right in the new business engineering and public works resolution number 202611 authorizing the city of North Augusta to enter into a contract with TNT Lands Works LLC to perform the watershed tree cutting removal and disposal. Do I have a motion to approve this resolution? Second.

Miss Carpenter and I think Mr. Buck second it. Thank you. Uh, all right. Uh, Miss Clifford, anything you want to share about that?

What I'd like to do for the council members, this was not discussed in the study session. These two items are linked uh these two resolutions uh because they both have the same funding source. So, if you recall, we hosted uh elements of the uh NRCS, the Natural Resource Conservation Service uh headquartered in Washington DC along with their local field office out of Colombia uh and came and walked the ground here immediately after Hurricane Helen did an assessment and took a look at a number of areas. Uh and if you'll recall, one of the areas they looked at was uh formerly known as the Willowick Apartments. And what had happened there was the stream bed had moved uh because of the storm and actually eroded part of the parking lot and roadway there making it unstable. Uh and so one of the projects uh that is listed here is to um stabilize that bank and that's in the next resolution. But that was the reason why they came down here in the first place was to look at the storm damage and that's the place where we took them first to show them the most amount of uh damage to one specific site. In addition to that, the NRCS uh grants also cover uh waterway remediation as far as the uh trees and the debris that have come down from the the hurricane. And so we as a city have been very focused and had been focused on clearing out city properties and also clearing out the uh roadways to make sure that we had room for emergency vehicles and to get all the debris off. And you all were very familiar with how that works. But we still have some residual debris that's in the woods uh that's impacting the the waterways uh the creeks uh and you've had uh some citizens that have come to complain about uh the the debris that's in the the creek beds that's there. So, this resolution, the first resolution of the two, uh, authorizes us to move forward to start that project to remove some of the items out of the creek bed. There's

some, um, detailed wording in both of these resolutions, and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that. Uh, and Tom Zezer is here to backs stop any questions you might have about the specifics, but ultimately the grant timeline ex is is extended and only ends at the end of March of this year. And if and you're required to finish the work and close it out before the end of the grant period. From Tom Cesar's analysis, uh, we're not going to be able to start and finish a project at the Willowwick, you know, lift station or the apartment area and get that all flash to bang done by the end of March. But the, uh, remediation of the creek is certainly something that we can take that project, split it into two, uh, and get the first couple of sites knocked out within a 45day window and guarantee we can have that completed, uh, before the end of the grant timeline expires. Now, the city has an uh grant extension in uh that has to get approved up at the federal level in Washington DC. We've been told that we'll have word on that in the next couple of weeks whether the uh extension is approved or not. And so what you're going to see in the resolution the way that it's worded uh is such that if the grant is approved or the extension is approved that you're authorizing the city administrator to authorize uh the work all the way through. If we do not get a grant approval, then the only work that's authorized uh is for the first half of the remediation project within the waterways itself. So that's that's essentially what we're asking. This was a late uh ad. We got late word from NRCS that this was uh an option for us and so we wanted to make sure we got this here in front of the council so that if you opted to move forward we can at least start the stream remediation project uh in you know in very short order because uh this contractor is local and can mobilize and get get this going here you know sooner rather than later.

And just to clarify the the resolution that is on the table, this is the one that would be focused on um the various sites. Yeah. The watershed cut and remove. This is this is the one that we can get done without having to be uh

engine on the gran extension. We can get about half of it done, Mr. Mayor. So, the the full amount of the waterway remediation from a time perspective is going to go beyond the current grant timeline. Uh if we get the extension, we'll be able to finish out all the sites that are uh proposed, but if it's not extended that we only have enough time to do about half of the sites that are listed uh to go through so the end of March. So basically what we're proving is if we end up what we can do and then what when it if the grant gets extended then they don't have you don't have to come back to us. This will continue that on. Right. That's correct.

Okay. And also Mr. Mayor just as a reminder for the council this is a zero match grant. So ultimately there's no city funds that are uh tied to this. There's a lot of times when we deal with a federal grant you're talking you know 15 to 25% match on a lot of these. Uh but this is a zero grant match. if you don't mind because uh because can you kind of walk us through just to remind everybody because when we voted on this vote of resolution before that original was just to do the engineering site work and you know we're kind of cutting it close so maybe would be helpful for the folks watching kind of the time frame it kind of got us in this situation.

I'm gonna ask Tom Zer our director of public works since he's the one who's uh working this action to be able to talk more in depth. All right. Great. Right. So, I think the work you're describing is is subject of the next resolution primarily, but um but yeah, that site, the creek stabilization project um required a uh engineering work that was uh we we employed one of our contractual engineering firms to undertake that work and which they did. Uh that work though was work in a um a a waterway that is subject to Army Corps of Engineer jurisdiction. So this all this work that we've uh that was subsequently designed had to be go through a permitting process with the Army Corps of Engineer which that just has a uh fortunately it was all ended up being covered under what's called a nationwide permit which which helped but that still is a process that we had to go through and and await their confirmation that that work is covered under that nationwide permit. But that was just a um that timeline for that process was just something that could not be really forecast at the beginning of the grant.

That's been the challenging part basically is because of that issue that

Yeah. And then also all of our plans uh ultimately had to go to the NRCS for uh review and approval before we could proceed with bidding bidding process. During their initial review, they requested some additional uh subsurface geotechnical exploration. And so that was also work that was not uh anticipated by our engineering consultant. And so that required a a a subcontract to do that subsurface exploration and go through the reporting and everything associated with that. Added time to the project.

Very good. Yeah. And we and we did not feel uh because that work the the creek stabilization was as Mr. Clifford said was the primary impetus for bringing uh NRCS to our city. And so we did not feel comfortable proceeding with this debris cleanup until we knew uh that that project that we would be fully funded to complete that work. So that's why we did not proceed with the debris clearing. earlier.

So from a priorities perspective, the the Willowick bank stabilization was the the priority project. And so what we didn't know until we went through the full bidding process is we didn't want to go out and use up all the NRCS money to do waterway cleanup and have no money left over to do the Willowick Bank stabilization. So we wanted to have those both go out to bid at the same time. The good news is we had a lot of biders. Uh and because because of that and we had competitive pricing u if we get extended on the grant, both those jobs can be completed fully uh based on the contract pricing that we've received.

That form you sent us is that lists what the sites are? Do we have an idea what our various sites are going to be that you think we can do yet or has that not been determined? Yeah. Yeah, the sites are known. They were identified in the in the grant agreement. Okay. see that? No. What's in the packet is the the bidding tabulation from the the contractors, but we can certainly provide a list to the council on which sites are going to be act. We're going to get asked about it. That's good. Thank you.

Yeah, Mr. Zizer, the um the property that the work is being done on, who owns the property, is that a private land owner? Is it Willowick? Is it the city? Uh that particular project um is uh there's three property owners. It's the uh the the apartments are now called Palmetto. Yeah. Savannah. Anyway, I'm sorry. Okay. It's not an individual like Tom.

No, no, that's a that's a corporation. uh the city owns uh actually the bulk of the property is owned by the city of North Augusta and then there is a an individual property owner that owns a very small portion and both those adjacent property owners we have secured rights of entry and construction eas I recall someone coming to a meeting and discussing the fact that a lot of the trees that were down were that's that's the work that's being contemplated by this resolution that's also So, a combination of private property owners and the city of North August. The creek bed that has moved, are we moving the creek bed back to where it was or did we?

Yes, we are restoring it to its um its uh historic channel. Mother Nature will agree with

and that was that was the reason uh even though nature removed shifted the channel that was a lot of the reason why we had to go through the permitting with the core of engineer because we were essentially having to fill the what's now a floodway to shift the creek back and so we were techly now filling into waters of the United That's that's the natural process corrosion. Yes. And and there's a parking area as well. Is that asphalted

the road the roadway? Fortunately, the the apartment essentially has um has a single entrance, but at this location, which we will have to close the roadway for the duration of this work, they do have a way for emergency vehicles as well as resident access.

Quick question. So, if we don't get the extension, what's the plan? If we don't get the extension, we get uh three of the six sites for the waterway cleared and then we'll have to figure out what plan B is or we'll have to put together a whole new grant proposal uh through the NRCS or NRC and see what see what comes. Any other questions for them? Okay. Um All right. We'll just say it for the record. We don't have any citizens here tonight because we're expecting to have this. But um at this point any council discussion I hear none I ask for a vote. All in favor that's unanimous. Y okay. Item five on a new business engineering public works resolution number 20226-12 authorizing the city of North Gusa to enter into a contract with 6G construction LLC to perform the Willow Creek Drive stream bank stabilization. Do I have a motion to approve this resolution?

Move.

All right, Mr. Buck. Is there a second? Miss Carpenter. Thank you. Um uh just Mr. Clifford and Tom have already talked about that. So unless there's any other questions from council and we have no citizens here so I'm going to go ahead and ask for a vote all in favor and again that's unanimous. Thank you. Um, all right. So, before I get to item six, two things. I did want to officially from the dis uh John Felac is replacing David McGee on the arts subcommittee for South Carolina. That's the August regional transportation committee and uh he went his first meeting on Monday and is going to add a lot to that uh group. So, uh John, thank you for serving on that. And uh I want to give a big thanks to our Councilman David Buck. Uh David found out that we have I would think the oldest living World War II veteran still in North Augusta. He lives on Curtis Drive, but um Dave was able to get information. So we was a council who's ever able uh we will be going to Mr. Tom Arnold's house tomorrow to read a proclamation to give to him. he's 100 years old and to celebrate his service to this country as a as a veteran. So, it's going to be a neat thing. So, Madam Council, if you're able to uh join David and I, uh that would be great. And David, thank you for spearheading that, sir.

Yeah. And thank you all for your support. That's awesome. Uh the paper. Um he was that's one the article.

Yeah, sounds good. Okay, we're going to move right into u item six, legal executive session. Request the city attorney in compliance with section 30-4-70A2. The city attorney request an executive session for the purpose of discussion negotiations incident to propose contractual arrangements and proposed sale or purchase of property. The receipt of legal advice with a legal advice relates to a pending threatened or potential claim or other matters covered by the attorney client privilege. Settlement of legal claims or the position of the public agency in any other adversary situations involved in the assertation against the agency of a claim. Discussion is specifically related to Riverside Village. Um, do I have a motion to go into executive session? Uh, as Miss Carpenter, do I have a second?

Second. Uh, Mr. Buck. Okay. Uh, all in favor? That is unanimous. And we will not be returning back to city council. So, uh, thanks so much and have a good evening. We stand a journ.