Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our first city council meeting for the month of February. If you all do not have a printed off agenda, please feel free to use the QR code on the glass source of the rotunda here so you can follow along with us on your electronic devices. We're going to start with an opening prayer to be led by Pastor William Bambro from ATAP Ministries. And the pledge of allegiance will be done by Cadet Hannah Scarra from Warner Robbins High School Junior ROC. If everyone will please stand so that Pastor Vamro can start us off in prayer. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come tonight to have the meeting of the minds and we pray that you will have your way in this place that everything that we done decently and in order. And father, we just pray that their wisdom will come forth tonight. We give you praise, honor, and glory for that. And we count it all joy in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. 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. You may be seated. council. We're going to take a picture with the pastor who led us off in prayer and also Cadet Hannah Scarra for starting us with the pledge of allegiance. Praise to the Lord. Three, two, one. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Pastor Pamro, and thank you, Cadet Scarro, for starting us off today. I officially call today's meeting to order. So, we have an agenda in front of us. And at this point, we're going to call for an adoption of the agenda with the proper uh revisions, item 5 through 7. If I can have a motion. Mayor, I move to adopt the agenda with the removal of items five through seven only. Second, mayor. Motion by Councilman Lawrence, seconded by Councilman Mack. All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I.

Motion carries unanimously. On to announcements. We do have uh sitting in for us today in the clerk seat, Miss Amy McKenzie. She is the records clerk in the clerk's office. So, let's give her a warm welcome. Miss Mandy Stella is at conference, so that's why she is not here today. Now, it's time for proclamations, awards, and presentations. We have three proclamations that we will be uh presenting today. And that's going to be a proclamation for Arbor Day. One in honor of Black History Month, and another for the Huntington Middle School Future Business Leaders of America Week. If you are here to accept one of the three proclamations, you're free to come up and stand here in the middle of the floor while I read the proclamation and then present it to you with a picture to follow and you'll Okay. All right. So, we'll have we'll start with the Huntington Middle School Future Business Leaders of America Week and then when I go to the next proclamation, the group that's here for that proclamation will come forward. All right. So, we have in front of us some members of FBLA from Huntington Middle School. Thank you all for being here with us today. And I'm going to start with the proclamation for FBLA week. And that week is February the 8th

through the 14th, 2026. And it goes, whereas the Huntington Middle School Future Business Leaders of America are being recognized for their superior academic and scholastic achievements at the local, regional, and state levels, as well as for their implementation of a schoolwide well-dressed Wednesdays initiative. And whereas the members of Future Business Leaders of America at Huntington Middle School commit to serving their city and county through community service, leadership, and business. And whereas the Huntington Middle School FB has extended their dedication to helping expand the utilization of technology in Warner Robbins by serving alongside Mayor Londa Patrick in a volunteer position needed to ensure access of Smart 21. And whereas the Huntington Middle School chapter of FBLA will continue to exude excellence in the field of technology through building a solid foundation in computer science, business, leadership, and academic excellence. And whereas the Huntington Middle School chapter of FBLA promises to continue to support the city of Warner Robbins through chapter activities built around our four their four core objectives which are career development, leadership development, commut computer science and technology. And now therefore, be it proclaimed by myself on behalf of the city council and the citizens of Warner Robbins, do hereby proclaim the week of February the 8th through the 14th as Huntington Middle School FB week in the city of Warner Robbins. And I encourage everyone to recognize the level of service, dedication, and commitment and drive that are in the hands of our future business leaders standing here before us. So, please join me in giving a great

round of applause in celebration of FBLA week. Good evening. Evening.

My name is Franklin Shelley, president of the Huntington Middle School chapter of FBLA. And in on behalf of our chapter, we would extend like to extend our appreciation for this great proclamation. Good morning everyone. My name is Aiden Daniels and again I would like to thank all of you or the mayor for giving us this great proclamation. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. She's looking like, "What's going on? Thank you. All right. Next up is the Arbor Day Proclamation. All right, I'll wait for the flag to go up and then I will All right. Arbor Day. So it goes whereas in 1872 J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Architecture agriculture oops of agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day

was first observed with the planting of more than 1 million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cut heating and and cooling costs, moderate temperature. They clean our air, produce oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. And whereas the city of Wana Robbins has been recognized as a tree city USA by National Arbor Day Foundation for 35 consecutive years. And now therefore, be it proclaimed by myself on behalf of city council and the citizens of Warner Robbins, do hereby proclaim the week of February the 2nd, 2026 officially as Arbor Day. I urge all citizens to support efforts to care for our trees and woodlands and to support our city's community forestry program. and we encourage all citizens to plant trees to gladden the hearts and promote the well-being of present and future generations. So, let's give a round of applause for Arbor Day once more in the city of Warner Robbins. And to accept this proclamation is our director of community economic development, our assistant director, and also a member of Keep One Robins Beautiful. Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have a proclamation in honor of Black History Month, February 2026. Whereas each February, our community joins cities across the United States and the state of Georgia in celebrating Black History Month, a time to honor the rich heritage, achievements, and contributions of African-Americans whose vital role has helped shape our history, our nation, and the world. And whereas the history of African-Americans reflects a continued pursuit of freedom, opportunity, and equality. And the observance of Black History Month encourages reflection on the progress made toward liberty and justice for all while reminding us that our work to build stronger, more inclusive communities must continue. And whereas Georgia is proud to be home of an influential African-American leadership throughout our throughout sorry, let me say that over. Georgia is proud to be home to influ to influential African-American leaders, artists, athletes, and trailblazers. Among them, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Congressman John Lewis, Glattis Knight, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Otis Reading, Ray Charles, and countless others whose legacies continue to inspire throughout our state. And whereas Black History Month serves as an opportunity for the community to celebrate African-American culture and achievements, uplift historically underrepresented voices, and engage residents of all ages in learning and dialogue that strengthens community pride and connection. And whereas to preserve and build on this monumental progress for equality and freedom, we cannot rest on our laurels. Together, we must pledge to fight against injustice, prejudice,

intolerance, and racism, wherever it may be. In that collective effort, we can secure a safer, brighter Georgia and United States for our children. And whereas this commemoration calls upon all people to promote respect, understanding, and unity by learning from the past and committing to a more just and equitable future for all, regardless of race, creed, or background. And now therefore, be it proclaimed by myself on behalf of city council and the citizens of Warner Robbins, Georgia, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 officially as Black History Month in Warner Robbins. I encourage all residents to take part in recognizing the extraordinary impact of African-Americans and the need for continued efforts towards equality, justice, and unity. So, let's give a great round of applause for having Black History Month in our city once more.

All right, we have completed the proclamations, awards, and presentations. The next item our on our agenda is work session items. But before we go into our work session items, I would like to take uh the privilege of doing something that council and I find really important along with W Robbins Police Department and all of the members of the W Robbins City Government. We would like to stand up together, hold hands, and have a moment of silence for our officer who was recently injured on the call of duty, Miss Our Officer Matt Wall. So, if everyone will please stand, join hands with your neighbors if you wish, lock arms if you prefer, but let's just take some time and do this moment of silence um in his honor. Thank you. All right. Now, we're ready for our work session items. We have three things listed here. Um, first up is going to be about our agenda, which we do every meeting. And two specific items that will come up in work session is uh we'll we'll hear from the House and County Habitat for Humanity and from the Middle Georgia Regional Commission about our comprehensive plan. So, uh, I know we have some individuals that's here for a very exciting moment. And if you'd like, you can take a seat um as we go through these work items as session items as soon as we can so that we can get to uh the reason why many of you are here today. Mr. James Drinker, our city

administrator, will lead us off as we go through our work session items.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh we do have a very full uh work session. I want to move through it as quickly as possible. Um, probably the most uh notable item uh on tonight's agenda uh in terms of public interest is one of our uh land use cases. So, I would at this time like to ask uh Darren Curtis, our planning and zoning manager, to come forward uh for his uh presentation on uh our land used items. Um, I will have uh some additional comments on one of those items when he finishes uh his presentation and then we'll be glad to field questions. There he is.

All right. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, I will just uh begin with uh number eight, which is a motion for a uh revision to a uh planned development concept plan. This this item has uh if you'll remember, previously come before the city council and was approved uh most recently in November of last year. Uh the concept was presented to um to shift the previously approved uh version of the plan from a uh a town home uh product style development uh to a single family detach style development. Um, and the request that you have before you now is, uh, it seeks to revert that, uh, version of the plan back to the previously approved town home style development. Um, happy to answer questions about it. Um, but that is essentially the request,

Mr. Darren. And we did, uh, all of us council members did approve the town homes, right? And then we approved the single family initially and he wants to go back to the town homes. Correct. All right. Thank you, sir. Do we have an explanation as to why back? I would I would assume uh that it has something to do with the housing market. Um that's not typically um you know that's that's usually something that the petitioner may have an answer for. Um, we do have a representative present if you'd like. Okay.

Hey, good evening, mayor and council. My name is Dylan Winggate with the Patriot Development Group. First of all, thank you all so much for hearing this this evening for me. I really do appreciate you and your time. Um so we did transfer back to the single family initially. We found after doing a little bit of research going back and looking a more quality option for the area would definitely be to bring the town homes back into play to provide a quality affordable option for the area. Um have done a you know a lot of different plan designs, a lot of different exterior elevations, but found that that was more suitable for our um land use of that site was to go back to the town homes to provide a better option for that side of town. Yes, sir. Do you have an idea of um on the range of what those property values will be as far as the town homes are concerned?

So, we're looking to do them potentially in the two low 200 range is where we're trying to be at. So, that's why we were trying to go back to the town homes because that was more attainable to do versus doing with the single family because we were able to make that um price-wise work out better for the town homes over the single family. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. move on. Yes.

Okay. All right. Um, next up is uh number nine. It's an ordinance for annexation um and the subsequent resoning. Uh, and in fact, numbers nine and 10 really kind of go together. Um, they're both for annexation and reszoning of property both on the north and south side of Duskmore Drive. Uh and that is uh specifically Dusour Drive where it meets Lake Joy Road. That's just north of the uh the movie theater uh for reference. Um the current zoning of each of these properties is R1 in the county's jurisdiction and the request seeks to annex both properties. um the northern of the two uh at the zoning of R2 and the southern part of this from uh R1 to R2 and C2. Um a little bit of context. Uh this this was presented to us uh in the fall of 2025. Um the the project and request was uh sort of stalled based on some feedback that was uh was given to the petitioner by the county commission and subsequently the landowner and designer uh tried to address uh concerns that the county had and and therefore submitted a new and revised request. And so that's what this is. Um rather than their initial attempt to reszone it to R3, they have instead opted to present an R2. Um just for quick reference, um an R1 uh residential lot in the city of Warner Robbins requires a minimum of 14,000 square foot in lot area. Uh this request would allow for a minimum lot

area of 10,000 square foot if approved. Um the the things to probably note as well is that uh in addition to the reduction in the zoning request, uh the petitioner has uh offered to install um safety measures including a deceleration lane on Lake Joy Road to enter into Duskore Drive. uh also to upgrade Duskmore Drive at the intersection to include a dedicated uh right turning lane. Um and then additionally uh restrict any commercial access from Duskore Drive uh to any of the commercial um parcels that are eventually created. And so the idea would be that any commercial access that is granted to this site be done uh via interparial connectivity with the adjacent property to the south. Um having said all that um I'm happy to answer questions.

Sure. Council members, this is the item I wanted to offer some additional context. Um so there have been a number of iterations of designs for this particular proposal um in terms of the mix of elements, the sizes of lots. At one point there was discussion of the potential realignment of Duskmore Drive. Um, and so first off, I I want to take a moment just to thank uh the applicant and uh our friends at the county commission and the staff at the county because there's been a lot of communication going on uh to try to arrive uh at the point we're at tonight. Most recently, there was a meeting that was held between representatives of the county, the city, uh and the developer. The purpose of that was to try to identify the various concerns that we were hearing from constituents uh as well as professional staff to get those onto onto the table and to try to resolve as many of those as we could so that we could come to uh a proposal the applicant could come to a proposal that addressed as many concerns as possible while still presenting an economically viable option for for them. uh we believe we have achieved the best possible mix. Um it is what you would refer to as a transitional zoning project in a lot of ways. Uh if you look at the project to the south uh it is a more dense project kind of steps down a little bit from what's existing at uh Lake Joy in 96 with the theater and all of that. You step into a slightly less dense mixeduse type of project. The front end of that along Lake Joy Road is commercial. Uh so you take the proposals that we're

hearing tonight. Uh the south side of Duskmore along Lake Joy is commercial uh to mirror and align uh with the commercial on the project that's already been approved to the south and provide that interparial access. That interparial access will allow the heavier traffic related to this project and to the project to the south to access uh Lake Joy Road via uh a new traffic signal uh at at the road there at Mua Church. Um there is also work underway uh to connect to the south uh a new connection that would go straight down to 96. So it somewhat isolates those heavier uses to ensure that they do not rely on Dustmore Drive for their access. The other thing that's been done is the residential product which was originally uh set at an R3. uh there was some concerns that that was a bit too intense and that we needed a better transition uh from those properties that are closer to the the commercial nodes and the R1 development of the Weatherbe uh which is existing uh behind it and so the R2 uh seemed the most appropriate. there are a lot of similarities and in fact the intensity of the R2 along the R1 lines is fairly similar uh to that R1 product that already exists back there. So there's been a lot of work done to find commonality of concern and interest and try to address what was being heard uh from our partners at the county as well uh as uh the residents in that area. Obviously with land use, you're trying to balance sometimes competing interests. Uh and that's the work that's

been done to get us to this point tonight. Uh and bring something forward that the county uh felt was agreeable uh and that we hope that uh better aligns uh with the vision in that area uh and and our zoning code. So with that, uh Darren and I are here. We'll be glad to answer questions. Um, I think we got a couple. Number one, I believe Mr. Winggate is in is paying for that traffic light to go at that intersection. Am I correct in saying that? Yes, sir.

All right. Question number two. Um, if we vote tonight to change the frontage of Mr. Randall's to C2, which he's asking, he is going to access Mr. Winggate's property at that traffic light, right? Not out on Dusore. Correct. Because the countyy's not giving them access to that, right? That is correct. Is that agreement in writing? I don't doubt, Mr. Windgate, for a minute. And I want to say that, but I'm saying, is this a handshake deal or is that in writing that those two have come to an agreement that that's going to take place?

Okay. At this time, that agreement is not in writing. Um, so It is stipulated uh in uh Mr. Windgate's uh zoning approvals. Um and it is a stipulation that is being recommended in this. It was a stipulation that the county placed as well. If you would like uh to place uh a condition that you you want a written agreement in place before issuance of a land disturbance permit uh for this project, um you could certainly do that. you would not be able to apply that to Mr. Windgate's project because that has already received approval, but you could attach a condition along those lines to this one. With that being said, on the number nine, which is the northwest side of the intersection that's requesting annexation, that that parcel will be forced to exit on Dusk. Is that correct?

Residential. The property on the north side of Dusore. Yes. Yes, sir. and and that's limited to residential use.

So with that being said, there's going to be a bountiful amount of traffic coming onto Dusmore. Is there any plans to widen Duskmore at that point? Because leaving coming in the morning is going to really be a big bottleneck there, especially if there's been a light placed at that intersection as he just mentioned, then traffic could potentially back up beyond Duskmore. So, um the the widening of Dusore Drive would be uh it's proposed at the intersection uh to add an additional turning lane uh for right turns is dedicated for right turns. Uh the existing uh lane on the right side would become the uh you know the dedicated left turn. Obviously, there's not an option to go straight across Lake Joyce. So, you've got a dedicated right and left turn lane. Um so that would be the extent to which Dusore is is proposed to be widened. Um I would just and as a quick snapshot uh for context point out that based on the city's interparial access ordinance uh connectivity is actually required uh at the city level. Um and then additionally housing county has an ordinance that uh does not grant um commercial access on residential streets. And so as far as the agreement aspect um you know I think from a regulation standpoint most of that's covered. And I think um what the county wanted to avoid was getting into a situation where uh if the city were to ever take over Dusore Drive then uh we would not you know as the city as our road uh allow commercial access. And so um you know I think as Mr. Drinker said that if we wanted to include that as a stipulation, I think that would be appropriate and um otherwise we uh we are prepared to you know in uh enact

that restriction in the plan review phase. Um so hope that answers. So I'm looking at the entire area in the Weatherbe. There's a lot of homes back there that's going to be that access Dusk more and then you're adding um extra homes and commercial on both sides of Duskmore.

So, I'm just looking at the potential bottleneck of traffic coming in and out of there with this new addition. And that's why I ask is it going to be widened at any point from the the parcel behind Mr. Randles to Lake Joy because it's a small road. So, the first thing I would remind you is that commercial will not use typically access onto Duskmore. That will be emergency access only. So, I'm talking about the residents. Yeah. So, it's only the residential units. 43. And there's 43 of of those. Um, which is a pretty minimal impact in terms of traffic.

I'm just curious, how long is that uh right turn going to be? Brian, can you answer? So, we're going to ask the applicant's engineer to come forward because he's going to have those those measurements. 150 ft.

Good evening. I'm Brian Braun with Access Engineering. Um, the dedicated right turn lane will have a minimum of 150 ft. Um, so there is a traffic study going to be part of that too. And if it needs to be longer, we will make it longer. Um, the road will be improved. We'll have sidewalks, curbon gutter. Um, so the drainage ditches will be taken out. Um so nice curb and gutter 26 feet wide um to meet the standard sidewalks along one side. So it'll be truly nice entryway vast improvement from what's there today. And sorry again the total number of units uh total number of houses that we're looking at in the residential portions. It'll be 43 total if you look at the north and the south side together. Yes sir. Yes sir. Just 43.

Mr. Lawson I believe had a question. I heard you mention the potential microphone. I'm sorry. Thank you guys. I heard you mentioned the potential access on 96 behind the theater between those apartments and all that. Is that is that something that's uh is that a for sure thing or something that we're shooting for? So, that's something that is actually being worked on. It is not a for sure thing at this time. Um we're working with the property owner and uh a developer uh on the rideway being uh donated to the city uh and then we would have to work out the details of road construction and the timing etc.

Is that is are we dealing with a single parcel? It is a single parcel. Yes. So that that makes it a little easier. Correct. And they are they are in discussions. Yes, very much so. Uh, in fact, there's been some documentation that has been uh going back and forth and and uh city attorney Mai uh is helping us review some documents. Very good. That that to me is is a big deal um for both really, you know, that especially that one development we've already approved. Um and now the the Dustmore development would would it have partial access to the current approved development? Would it have access? I know you said that. Understanding the question.

Uh th this requested the property the subject property we're discussing right now does not have connectivity to the uh parcel to the south. So the the the residential other than walkable.

Correct. The residential on the north uh and and does not have access. It it would be isolated and would have to rely on Dust and Lake Joy. Um, we're looking at, you know, the the south side of Dus more that commercial, uh, and and some of that would would have access. Well, and I just want to mention this too, the the the red light at Bula Church will be a tremendous benefit, not just to Dustmore and Bula Church, but those subdivisions down the down Lake Joy. There's times a day where they can't even pull out. And I know this red light will will help a great deal for even way way further down the road there. So hopefully, you know, that's going to be a big help to everybody. Last question on this. Hypothetically, if that agreement does not come into play, what's the workaround? If you don't get the access to 96, what's the workaround? Because it looks like we're putting the cart before the horse. If that does not happen, what's the workaround

for the secondary access down to 96? We would have to look at at um available opportunities. I will say that one, I don't like to deal in speculation and hypotheticals in a public setting, right? That that that never goes well. Uh it gets rumors started and so I'm always cautious about that. That's right. I will say that there has been a lot of work placed into the effort to secure that property. uh so that that access uh can be given um there's been a lot of good progress uh and we feel positive u but at this time it's not guaranteed and yes Darren

a a quick answer is also that um the extent to which we've approved anything at this point is uh a concept and so at the time at which they submit uh formal uh civil plans design plans. Um the the project would not meet fire code without a secondary access and so sort of uh if we don't get that access then they would be forced to redesign. Thank you so much. my question.

And I do want to also um add when it comes to that the uh access point on to 96, the owner who owns that property right now, he is adamant about it happening and giving the right of way to the city. So that means you have buyin by the property owner who owns that area, uh the developer that's working on the project, the city of Warner Robbins as well. Um, so we're working the legalities to make that happen. Um, but, uh, though we don't like to work on speculation and the attorney in me always wants to see it on paper anyway. Um, I've been in the meetings. I've heard the conversations. Attorney M has been doing the work. Um, if there is some something happens and this doesn't go through, I'd be extremely surprised. Um because the most important piece of the puzzle is the property owner and they're the ones that approached us with taking that right away.

One more point too. I just want to uh make sure I heard correctly. You said it was a total number of 40. How many houses? 43. And how many on the north side? It's less than 43 though. Correct. Right. So it's not even really 43 that's going to really access Desour. Right. So there's 17. There's 17 I believe 17 on the south on the south side of Dusore and the remainder on the north and the only ones that are obligated to use that's going to be obligated to use Dustmore are the ones on the north right correctly. That's not correct. So all all 43 housing units would use.

So the commercial property the the ones on the south side they cannot exit out through the commercial side. So the the commercial properties on the south side would be limited to using the adjacent development um to the south through the signal. Um they would no commercial access will be established along Dusore Drive. So the the houses on the south side they cannot use the commercial. Okay. Correct. Right.

Thank you guys. Y'all always do a great job at explaining that. We appreciate it

to the fullest. And I want to thank both of the developers too for working with each other um to make this happen. Also want to thank the community back there from the Weatherbe. I know that their voices have been heard. I know you kind of sometimes got to settle on a on a happy medium between that. But I'll give Charles Randall um a lot of credit for listening and continue to listen and listen more until come to this conclusion. So, thank you. Okay, if there's no other questions on that, we'll move on. There are a couple of other items that I do want to call your attention to. The first of those is actually uh the last item on tonight's agenda, which is the intergovernmental agreement with Peach County. uh that is for uh their T-slast or transportation special purpose local option sales tax. Uh that uh agreement calls for a referendum on May 19th uh to reinstitute a 1% uh sales tax that does already exist. It's not a new tax. It's a renewal of an existing uh program. Uh if approved by voters, uh the collection of the tax would renew effective October 1st, 2026. The distribution of uh proceeds is based on a prorat a share of the road mileage. That is what has been in place. Um there is a total of 324.6 miles road miles within Peach County. Uh of that 5.9 miles is uh what is in the city of Warner Robbins. So our proratish share is 1.82% 82% um call it about $500,000 over the the life of the T-spot. So, it's not a lot of money. Um you know, the other thing you'll notice in that IGA that may grab

your attention, uh there is a section in there that references a uh a bond issue. So, uh, Fort Valley, Byron, and Peach County, obviously, they have the lion share of proceeds. They want to come together and and issue bonds and then use the uh T-splas proceeds that they receive uh to repay those bonds. Because our share is so small, it does not make financial sense for us to do a bond. by the time we paid the bond fees and the interest rates and everything else, you're eating up a good chunk of money that you could use for actual transportation projects. So, for the Peach County Tesla, we will do a uh kind of the trickle down method, for lack of a better term. Uh those of us who remember the late 80s may not like that phrase, but uh it's effective. Um so, I want to call your attention to that. Um, let's see. Outside of that, we do have a few items on the consent agenda. Um, one of which is renewing our agreement with Hston County uh, Family Connections to serve as their fiscal agent. Uh, there's not a cost to us of doing that. We basically grants come in, we distribute the funds, uh, and our repository for records. Um, we have the IG with the Hston County Board of Education for the use of McConnell Talbert Stadium uh for our July 4th festivities as under the same terms that they've given it uh to us in the past. That's something that they like to do uh for the Warner Robbins community and we appreciate their partnership. Also related to Fourth of July is a production contract with RCS Productions. RCS has been working with us for a few years now. We

did go through a bid process. Um, but RCS was the uh is the recommended vendor. Uh, that is a $67,500 contract. Um, includes lighting, sound, stage, talent acquisition, and a number of other things. Basically, everything except for the actual purchase and, uh, production of the fireworks. Uh, everything else flows through RCS Productions. Uh, they've done very well for the city of Warner Robbins uh, in the past. We have no doubt that they will again. Uh we have a contract renewal with uh Amentum Technologies which is Manatron or VCS tax. Um this is a $14,352 uh upgrade to the software. Um we are not we will not quite have our tax portion implementation uh for Tyler Technologies in time for the upcoming tax year. You will recall there were significant issues uh with this year's uh tax digest uh because the county software and our software did not talk and it's because we were on a legacy system which was fine until the county upgraded their system which we were not expecting. So this will keep that from happening again. So, this is that 14,000 is money very well spent and something that uh in in my opinion we very much need to do. Uh other purchasing items, we have an $11,997 uh bid to Mid Georgia Industrial Sales. That's for hand tools for our public works department. That's an estimated cost throughout the year. So, uh tools break, tools get lost, we have to replace them. Uh MCCI Laserfish uh is a $98,518 contract. Laserfish is uh a records management tool. Um if you if you want

to watch Miss McKenzie cry take Laserfish away because I don't know how we would respond to open records requests and manage our electronic records. Um so that is an annual software subscription and licensing renewal. Uh finally, we have a utility solutions and automation uh purchase at $366,32.50. This uh this may sound somewhat familiar to you. We had actually uh brought this forward earlier um and um uh gained approval for mechanical meters. U this actually substitutes it. It would do away with that. This is for um uh non- mechanical uh what's the proper term? Lost it. Ultrasonic meters. Um this is a newer technology. You may may recall that we did a uh pilot project using ultrasonic meters um with some of our larger commercial uh customers. This is the direction that we're moving all of our meters to. It's lower maintenance. uh it is more exact information and better ability to track data so that we can look at usage, we can look at trends etc. Um it also lets us uh turn water on, turn water off as new customers come and go uh and do that remotely instead of having to send crews out. So it's much more efficient uh as well as being lower maintenance. Those items are all on your consent agenda. Um, are there if there are no questions about that, I'll keep rolling.

Quick question. Quick question. Sure. You triggered something when you said lost tools. That's a big thing being an aircraft mechanic. Is there a tool control system in place to help mitigate that?

Um, so yes, we we always track and and are looking for um you know, are there crews that are losing tools with a frequency? And you know, Mr. Clifton, our our public works director, as you know, uh he he is watching that. Um you know, but again, tools break, things do happen. Um and so we will never have a situation where I you know, we we're at a 100% retention uh on hand tools on some of our larger sites. But we do we do monitor that where we see trends, we jump on that uh to minimize All right. So, we have a couple of other items on tonight's agenda. The first um you may recall uh back uh over a year ago now uh we did community grants uh through uh leveraging some of our ARPA funds. The largest of those was with Habitat for Humanity and that was about $87,500. Uh so tonight uh Bill Gogggins and and uh I believe he brought a sidekick uh so he brought support uh from Housing County Habitat for Humanity. Uh we invited him to come and share with you what they have been doing with that money and the progress that they've made uh because they're doing great things out there. Uh so we wanted them to be able to come and talk with you about that. So Bill, you got it. We're building excitement.

We're building excitement.

Wherever you are. Yeah, it is.

Uh, thank you, James. I'd also like to thank uh mayor, council members, and city staff. As uh James mentioned earlier, we received $87,000 uh about a year ago. And um I want to give some updates on that and maybe tell you just a little bit about Hston County Habitat for Humanity and how we have been uh good stewards of uh this uh wonderful city funding. Um we'd like to thank everyone here for the confidence that you've placed in us. Uh we'd also like to thank our uh community and economic development partners. um the permitting and uh building inspections office, uh public works, and our uh storm water department and uh our uh CDBG office. So, um we've gotten so much support from the city through all departments and the the partnership has gone on for over 20 years and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about that. Um, I'm going to tell you just a little bit about if you don't know about Habitat for Humanity or how the program works. U, we qualify homeowners through a very thorough selection process. It's based on a need for housing, ability to pay, a willingness to partner, and and we require an educational program that goes along with every Habitat homeowner. Uh we require sweat equity of 200 to 400 hours. Uh in turn, the Habitat homeowners will receive a 0% mortgage and be able to purchase a brand new home with a $1,000 down payment.

And payments run upward of 5 to 7900 per month including escrow. Uh we hold those notes ourselves and uh we sell by appraisal value, but uh we make sure they're affordable, keeping uh their monthly payment at 29% or less of their gross income. And we do have down payment assistance programs that we use to u serve low to moderate income citizens in Warner Robbins. So, we've got we were founded in 1991. Uh, currently 88 homes built uh or under construction. Um, we we use funds from our mortgage income uh the city of Orner Robbins. We have a wonderful restore on the corner of Fagen Mill and Moody Road. You can donate and shop there. Um, we apply for grants. We have special events. many gift and kind donors including the city of Warner Robbins. Uh local donors, some of you may be here tonight and we have over a thousand volunteers uh visits each year and I want to go back to uh where we are with the ARPA funding. So, for $87,000, we're going to com we're going to partially fund six homes on the left, and those are on Orchard Way. And Orchard Way, uh, if you're not familiar, it's the uh redeveloped uh area. Used to be called Oldtown in the old days. So, it's across from the Dairy Queen behind uh the old uh U-Haul facility. So, we have over 40 homes over there. And uh so those are partially funded. Uh

some of them are completed and some in progress. And then we have some fully funded homes. So we're going to fully fund five homes for the $87,000. So I want to make sure everybody knows that you're getting a lot of bang for your buck with these city funds. Um, this is a map of Welston Villas, the when I mentioned Oldtown. So, we've still have some vacant lots there. Those lots u we've uh recently purchased them all from the U economic development authority. And so we'll do a minimum three to four each year uh in Welston Villas. That's where the homes are located. Those would be on the partially uh funded homes. I'm going to let you uh meet a few of the homeowners. U this is uh Billy Sparks. Billy Sparks attended the Warner Robbins High School. He played football at uh Fort Valley State University. He served in the US Army. He currently works as a correctional officer in Mon and um he was living in substandard housing. Uh he has a wife and u three or two children that he adopted and another one. So he's just a really great partner family. You can be proud of the funds that you're u allocating to us. Um, I'm not going to tell the whole family story for all nine homes uh this year, but I just want to kind of run through them. Uh, the Banks family,

uh, mom and one, you can see the Habitat home there. They typically run. Um, we have two bedroomedroom, threebedroom, fourbedroom. They they'll run from 800 ft² up to about 1,250 ft. uh the Wicker family. She uh these are all local residents. These are your neighbors. These are the people in your community doing um essential work in your community and may not be able to afford homes. And as we say at Habitat, it's not a handout because these homes are not given away. They're they're u interest free mortgages. So, it's a hand it's a hand up. It is not a handout. So, I say that over and over. Uh she works at Central Georgia Tech um taking care of the children over there in the daycare. We use a lot of volunteer labor with each home. There's a picture there. We're presenting the keys to the home to her and her family. It's a 20-year note. Her payment may be $7 or $800 a month. And if you know anything about what's going on in uh trying to purchase a home or even rent a home in our wonderful city, that that's a pretty good deal because you just can't find anything anymore. Um 2011 Orchard Way will be uh um closing on that here within the next few weeks. Uh single dad and two um getting close to closing here. We've got the driveway poured and saw out front. Jones family. Daniel's family uh slab poured under construction. Um we actually have a home uh on Beatatric Drive and it's over by the Cam Campbell Homes. It butts up to the uh

the old Pearl Stevens school in the back there. And we found the family through uh Union Grove Baptist Church and they have a transitional home program and they put folks in their transitional home and work with them on their credit and savings and uh then they feed us wonderful habitat families that we can put in habitat homes. So we had a nice little infill lot there on Beatatric. We'll be closing on that real soon. Just getting the CO and doing the punch out work. Um, we have four lots on Tiffany Lane. So, if you drive uh up uh Carl Vincent a little ways and you get in the Centerville area, you're going to make a right on Tiffany Lane. It's an older subdivision and we put homes in there to match the homes that are currently there so we don't upset the current homeowners. So, these will have garages. And, uh, this is the Taylor family. Uh he he's a veteran. So we do build for one or two veterans each year. I believe they work at Amazon Fulfilling. So you got a mom, dad, and four. Uh the Ashley family will be on Tiffany Lane. So we've got progress there. We started framing for the Garvin family on Tiffany Lane and started framing for the Boyd family on Tiffany Lane. And then we do one we do one house in Perry every year. This is a Robersonson family. Uh she works at uh Brown's eye care center and uh lives in Perry and have a home in Perry behind the high school over in the Oldfield neighborhood. And

yeah, I I would want Yeah, James wanted me to say that was just an add-on. That was not the ARPA funding. So you want to refer back to the earlier chart. Thank you, James. Yeah, we all get ourselves in a little bit of trouble here, James. And uh again, uh I just want to thank uh the city of Warner Robbins. We've spent uh over half of the the funding and uh we're well on our way to spending down the rest of the funding. And uh we want to thank you for uh helping us in our shared mission of providing affordable housing to this residents and citizens of Warner Robbins. Are there any questions from our mayor and council?

Yes. I have a question. Yes. It's not a question. It's a statement. Thank you so much for all that you do. what a tremendous valuable asset to our community and all these families you've already helped and the ones you're going to help in the future. So, thank you to you and your big team of people. I know it's just not you. I know you have a great team of folks and we are so grateful and blessed to have you as a part of it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilman Lawson. Uh it does take a team and we just want to thank the city of Warner Robbins for supporting us in all the ways they can for the last 20 years. Thank you. Thank you,

Mayor and Council. I will point out that while Jeremy's swapping things around here, I will point out that um there is a copy of House and County uh Habitat's uh annual report. Uh I encourage you to take a look at that. There's a lot of good information. Uh what Bill presented tonight just really is the tip of the iceberg for what they're doing. They've been a a great partner uh as we are trying to uh increase home ownership in the community um especially uh for for you know those those hardworking folks out there uh who may otherwise not be able to afford to. So we're really appreciative. Final item on tonight's uh work session and this is a biggie. Um, so you know, often times we're we're asked as land use cases happen, as different things are evolving within the community and people are going, "Where did that come from? Why are they doing this?" Right? Well, the answer to that is the comprehensive plan. Every five years in Georgia, communities are required by law uh to update their comprehensive plan. And the comprehensive plan looks at a number of things. I'm not going to steal the thunder of our presenter uh but um looks at all aspects of the way our community grows, develops and sustains itself from economic development and transportation to housing and cultural uh preservation and many things in between. The core to a good uh comprehensive plan is public engagement. The state has certain requirements for public engagement as as we go through a cont comprehensive plan process. This year, one of the things we've really stressed with our partners at the regional commission who who help guide us through this process of this

joint comprehensive plan that we do with the county and our sister cities is that we want to up the game. We want to set a new standard for engaging the public, for drawing out the public's ideas and gaining participation because ultimately it is the public's community. A community is not a collection of buildings. It's a collection of people. It's a collection of the things that provide for a great quality of life. And the best way to get there is for the people themselves to guide that process. And so we're really putting a lot of stress on that. Um, Greg probably won't talk too much about a lot of that uh tonight. Uh, but we will step beyond the usual, hey, come to city hall to this public uh gathering because how many of you really wanted to be at city hall tonight? Let's be honest, right? Not that many. Um, and that's typical. So, we want to Okay, we got one. All right. Um, so we're going to be doing more. We're going to be doing online surveys. We're going to do be doing popups in the community where we're going out uh to where people already are to get opinions. We're going to be doing intercept surveys in a lot of different ways to get people to engage with us and share their thoughts and ideas because us asking them to come to us is not effective. It has to be a multi-layered approach. So to the community as we launch this comprehensive plan update, please, I beg of you, be part of it. Don't be somebody that sits at home and then becomes a keyboard warrior down the road when you don't like what happened and you weren't part of shaping the community that you were a part of. So with that, uh, I would like to introduce Greg Boyy, uh, one of our big partners from the Middle Georgia Regional Commission. Greg,

thank you very much, Mayor and Council. Thank you, Mr. Drinker, for the introduction. Uh, thank you as well to Miss Hogan with uh, economic and community development for all of her support uh, in the planning process as well. Uh, I'm joined by several of our team members here. uh if they will uh stand up and wave. Uh we've got uh Mr. Alex Smith, uh Miss Cammy Sanchez, and Miss Kirstston Lero. You will see all of their friendly smiling faces throughout the community. Uh and the first thing they're actually going to do for y'all right now is pass around some sign-in sheets so that we can capture your your name and email address so that we can keep you up to date with what's going on with the plan. Because uh as Mr. Drinker so eloquently put it, uh this is not a oneandone. We want to continue hearing from you. We want to be able to send you a draft document at the end that you can look over and share your comments with us on uh so that we can make sure that we are reflecting the needs of the community uh in this comprehensive plan because this is your comprehensive plan for the city of Warner Robbins. Uh and this one is being done in partnership with uh Hston County and the city of Centerville as well. Um what is a comprehensive plan? uh is this is your policy document that helps to guide the direction that the community is going to be traveling in over the next 5, 10, and 20 years. Uh every community in the state is required to do this on a 5-year cycle. Um that that does not mean that every community really uh puts the same amount of effort and energy into it. Uh which is why we really want to be here today as just the starting point of this conversation. Um so while it's required hopefully this is also something um that we find is beneficial to communities and that it allows you to identify uh the needs that exist and really go into detail. This helps support those funding

opportunities that then come down the road later on because what's better than having an item that you put into a plan and say we need to do this. Well, it's actually doing it and the best way to do it is when somebody else will pay for it also. Um, so that is why these these work program documents are so vital and important to a community. Um, what goes into a comprehensive plan? Well, there are there are a few basic elements, and you may hear us talk about this uh some as we continue throughout the planning process, but we want to make sure that we start with a broad community vision and goals statement. We want to know broadly speaking the direction that we're going. That allows us then to go to some more specific needs and opportunities that you may identify within your community. and then getting to a short-term community work program uh which is hopefully the most vital tool that uh the mayor council and senior uh city leadership can have at their disposal to help with identifying their priorities for the next 5 years and what they intend to be doing and checking off the list. Um, Warner Robbins has a strong track record of doing this, uh, and is one of only a handful of communities in the state of Georgia that has been designated as a plan first community. Uh, meaning that the city of Warner Robbins not only makes a plan, but follows it. So, give yourselves a round of applause for that. And what good would those goals and and needs and opportunities and plan items be if they didn't fall into categories and topics that we would talk about? Um because all of our goals have to be specific to something. Uh we aren't just saying we want Warner Robbins to be great. How do we want it to be great? Well, we're going to talk about workforce and economic development as

part of this planning process, housing, natural and cultural resources, the arts and recreation. We'll talk about public safety and health, transportation, broadband, intergovernmental coordination, infrastructure, capital improvements, and land use. Um, in our preliminary meetings we've had with uh city staff, we believe that this will be uh probably the most ambitious and detailed plan that the city has undertaken to date. Uh, and so we are very excited to be your partner in this process. Uh, the Middle Georgia Regional Commission helps cities and counties all throughout our 11ount region. Um, but we are middle Georgians at heart and we enjoy planning for Middle Georgia. Um, a brief overview of the timeline. Uh, we are here in the early phases. Uh, we did our first, uh, town hall meeting over at the county commission building. Uh, on January 20th, we are here today for a public meeting and then we've got another public hearing tomorrow at the county and another public hearing tomorrow night in Centerville. Um, so we're going to be down here a lot. Um, but then we will be reaching out to you to complete an online survey. We'll be asking for your input there. As Mr. Drinker said, we will be at community events, popups throughout uh the city and the county so that we can continue to hear from you about the topics that are of interest. We'll work with uh staff and uh the plan implementers, those nonprofit partners who will be responsible for actually doing the plan once it's on paper. Um, and that will happen primarily through the April to June time frame roughly. Uh and once we get past uh Fourth of July there, that's when we're going to go into uh heavy duty writing mode and following up with uh the mayor and council to really refine that community work program so that by around the October time frame, we've got a draft based off of everything that you've told us from earlier in the year that you can then

look at, review, uh and then revise as necessary for us as the as the scribes for your plan. Um the last thing I'll note is that these plans are required to be approved and reviewed uh by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. So that would happen at the end of this planning process and we would come back to you uh and would be required to have the plan updated and adopted fully uh by February 28th of 2027. So this is the kickoff of a year-long process. Again, how can you uh participate? We'll do town halls specifically related to the plan throughout the process, additional community events, and the online survey. If you uh fill out that sign-in sheet and share your email with us, you will be emailed about all of these events and activities as they are upcoming. Um, we also invite you to email or reach out to anybody on our team directly if you have additional thoughts, comments, or want to share anything about the planning process. Um, and the last thing that we will actually provide you with here, um, is a QR code because we couldn't waste this opportunity to get some feedback. So, if you want to take your phones out right now, take a nice scan of of that QR code, you'll see the first question that we're going to ask you. And this is not the only question. Um, but this is your opportunity to just give us a nice open-ended response on the top issues that you think we need to make sure that we are talking about during this planning process. Um, so that is your your first opportunity for engagement, but surely will not be your last. Um, so with that and while folks are are still up there and scanning the QR code, um, I'll ask uh if mayor and council have any questions, thoughts, or comments that they would like to share about the planning process.

I have a question. Yes. Um, what are some opportunities for our boards to stay engaged with the specific areas of expertise? Um, also, uh, well, that's more of a suggestion, but are there ways that our boards can participate in this in this process?

Absolutely. I'm glad you asked that question. So, uh, when we have any meeting that touches on a topic area relevant to that board, they will be on that list of of folks that we engage with. Um and if we can't find a convenient time that works uh for them in a in a different schedule, we will go to their board meeting. Um so however we can get in front of them the better. So of course when we talk about economic and workforce development, engage Warner Robbins has to be at the table. Uh when we talk about the quality of our uh natural environment and uh the cleanliness of the city, keep Warner Robbins beautiful is a key partner in that process. Um and and those are just a couple of examples. We want to be sure that we engage with them inviting them to come to meetings. Um but if necessary, we are happy to go to any of their meetings as well.

And also um are there any new elements that we're going to be um looking to implement this year that we haven't before when it comes to the planning?

Great question. Um so a few things I'll note. Um, one is a component on the plan that's called arts and recreation. Uh, and so when we did this plan the last time, that was a more general look at all of the community facilities that might be out there. Uh, but we did not have a targeted section to talk about the arts and recreation. uh and that actually aligns with uh the uh policy that the council has made of making sure that arts are really integrated into the recreational programming that we have within the community. Um so that's an example of this plan being responsive to uh what the direction that you have already set is. Um, the other thing I'll note, uh, is there is a capital improvements element that's going to be included with this plan to really talk about what that investment looks like. Um, and this is something in talking with Mr. drinker has been a uh priority of his in terms of helping to make sure that the city is planning ahead as as much as possible in regards to those big expenditures uh that are going to come up sometimes on a regular basis and sometimes on a slightly irregular basis. um to help make sure that the city is being the best steward of those taxpayer dollars that you can be and looking ahead not just at the next budgetary cycle but the one after that and the one after that and the one after that so that we can uh be thinking more strategically about those major investments in the long run too. So those are just a couple examples

and uh thank you Miss Kate Hogan for the great questions. Now, uh my question, uh is there any uh and this may be a stupid question, but I'm I'm not afraid to ask stupid questions because I don't know what I don't know, and that's why I learn. Uh but would there be any mention of transportation, complete streets, transit that'll come through this uh process?

Absolutely. Transportation is a key element of the plan. Um it's actually one of the topics that uh we here in Warner Robbins are required to talk about uh because of our status here as a uh metropolitan planning organization um with the uh team that is uh over at rats the Warner Robbins area transportation study. Um so we will rely heavily on the plan document that they have already produced. Um I believe uh that policy committee adopted that in the October of last year. So it will build off of that plan that is already established. We don't have to duplicate work. Um but we will definitely talk about that in more detail and especially uh if there's anything that uh you would like us to address particularly related to something like transit that is absolutely something that we would work into the planning process.

Thank you. And for the record before people start speculating, uh I'm more interested into the ondemand Yes. uh app type shuttle service. Thank you. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you so much. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Boy. To you and your team. Thank you, Madame Mayor. That does conclude all the items on tonight's work session.

Thank you so much. All right. Thank you guys for hanging in there with us. I know this was a long one, but we had to take care of city business in these settings. Um, and now we're going to get back to the agenda. I do want to request a motion to amend our agenda to remove executive session uh for this topic of pending litigation. We will revisit this at a later date. Mayor, I move to amend the agenda to remove the item pinninging litigation uh for executive session. I'll second that. Mayor motion by Councilman Lawson, seconded by Councilman Bib. All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand.

Motion carries unanimously. All right. Now we're on to topic uh item number two which is a formal public comments portion of our meeting where you all receive an opportunity to approach the podium to state any question, concern, comment you have about one of the numbered agenda items. So if you have something to share about agenda item number 3 to 111 as revised, you have your opportunity. If you would like to make a general question, make a comment or cons or or voice a concern, you will have another opportunity for the general comments at the close of the agenda item numbers. So right now, if you have any comment you'd like to make about one of the numbered agenda items only, you can approach the podium. Be sure to state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes on the clock. Please note that council and I are listening to you, though we may not respond to you. The floor is now open. Going once, going twice. The door is now closed. Thank you. On to item number three, which is the consent agenda to be discussed by Councilman Bib.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. And I'm not going to read them. I think Mr. uh, Drinker did a great job of explaining it. So, I make a motion that we approve this consent agenda. Second. Second. Motion by Councilman Bib, seconded by Councilman Lawren. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I

motion carries unanimously. And you look very handsome today, Councilman Bib. He's not typically in a blazer unless he has something special. So, I just wanted to make that comment to him. The others, the ones that's wearing blazers, they mostly wear them. So, no offense to my other brothers, but I had to mention how handsome you look today, sir. Barry, he's got on bulldog socks. He's going to wear some. But I went out and bought a couple for I got a couple for Christmas and I thought I'd style them and wear them. Well, good job.

I think I got the hint from my wife. So, yeah, I was going to say good job to her because I know she's the reason. All right, on to item number four, which is a resolution for employee promotions to be discussed by Councilman Holmes.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. We do have a motion to approve a resolution for employee promotions to be approved as follows. Kevin Thomas promoted from utility locate crew leader grade 16 utility department to damage prevention specialist supervisor grade 17 utility department to be effective February 2nd 2026. Justin Mullis promoted from fire lieutenant, grade 18 fire department to training and safety officer, grade 20 fire department to be effective February 2nd, 2026. Daniel Sandival promoted from fire fire engineer grade 16 fire department to fire lieutenant grade 18 fire department to be effective February 2nd, 2026. Eric Hower promoted from firefighter grade 14 fire department to fire driver engineering engineer grade 16 fire department to be effective February 2026. I move for the adoption.

I second. Motion by Councilman Holmes, seconded by Councilman Curtis. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand.

I. Motion carries unanimously. If we have any of the uh individuals who just received their promotion, we do ask if you can come forward so that we can properly congratulate you. All right, looks like we have the individuals who received a promotion from the WR Robbins Fire Department. Um, but we do still congratulate the uh individual from the utility department who received a promotion as well. All right. Now, we've come to the point in our agenda where we have the fire department promotion pinning for the three individuals who stand here um before us. Chief,

thank you. I'd like to thank mayor and council for allowing us to recognize hardworking individuals in this forum. Also, I'd like to thank the citizens for your constant support. Uh at this point, Chief Dixon will be taking over and I'll be assisting with the pinning. Good afternoon everyone. I say I'm Chief Dixon. I'm deputy chief of operations with Warner Rob Fire Department. It's my great honor and pleasure to get to announce to you and say our latest promotions. We're proud to announce the promotion of firefighter Eric Howell to the rank of driver engineer. Through his constant performance, dedication to the fire service, and commitment to our community, engineer Howell has earned this well-deserved promotion. Congratulations, Engineer Howell, on earning your promotion as driver engineer with the Warner Robbins Fire Department.

I was told they may want to explain what those positions are. say with a engineer how I say his position as a firefighter was just that and so he was he would ride the back of the truck and was one of the ones responsible for carrying hose and putting out the fire and so with his recent promotion he now gets to drive the fire truck and make sure that everybody gets there safely and efficiently and say so that is a huge responsibility is now bestowed upon him Daniel Sandival and say we're proud to announce permission of engineer Daniel Sandaval to the rank of fire lieutenant and say Lieutenant Sandaval has shown outstanding dedication, strong work ethic, and a genuine commitment to both the department and our community that he serves. He has earned this promotion through dedication, hard work, and continued learning and a passion for helping other people. We're excited to see Lieutenant Sandaval take this new leadership role and know that he will continue to make a positive impact on our department and community. Please join us in in congratulating Lieutenant Sandaval on this well-deserved promotion. as a lieutenant and say one of his primary responsibilities is making sure that the engineer knows where he's going and say gets there efficiently but also say keeping track and control of say the station and the activities and say that happen throughout the day and say and as the lieutenant being first on scene say he kind of sets up the fire scenes or emergency scenes to make sure that they operate with success. Last but not least, and I am very pleased to announce the promotion of Lieutenant Justin Mullis to the rank of captain. Captain Mullis has constantly demonstrated exceptional leadership, professional, and dedication to the members of the Warner Robbins Fire Department and the community that we serve. Throughout his career, Captain Mullis has shown a strong commitment to training, ensuring operational

readiness, and being a mentor to others. Captain Mullis say will be assigned to our training division as a training safety officer where I'm confident that he will continue to ensure that and promote the highest of standard service leadership and professional professionalism and said that we strive to achieve. Please join me in congratulating Captain Mullis on a well-deserved promotion. Captain Mullis's position is kind of new to our department. And say in the training division, we have what's called training safety officers. And so they're assigned to each shift and they're responsible for the training for that particular shift in conjunction throughout the whole department. Also, the other duties that he is assigned is the health and safety and say of those shifts. And so he responds to any emergency scenes that deem necessary and he kind of oversees the safety aspect of it. making sure that everybody is wearing their gear appropriately and properly addresses any issues that may come up. So, he has got a great task ahead of him. So, at this time, I would like to have uh Chief Albert Wright and Chief uh Jason Mock and say provide the uh badges and helmets and say as family members come up to actually pin and say our recipients.

Family members, please come forward. You can you can get in 3 2 1 All right, chief. Chiefs, you want to get in the picture with the every Yeah, y'all stay. You all stay back. Okay. and members of the fire department, we'll come up and join. Let's Let's get council first cuz

they're down here. You guys round up to come in next.

Yeah, I know. app. Three, two, one. Fireel. Stay there. Brother, I was just asking about How are you?

Congratulations. as usual. Yeah,

thank you so much. And the uh let's see, Mr. Kevin Thomas who received the promotion in utilities. He's not here because he's repairing a water mane off of Rose Hill Drive, but he's listening. So, you guys do me a favor and give a really big round of applause for Kevin and give him a thumbs up. Congratulations, Kevin. All right, that was fun. Now, down to the rest of the business. Moving on to item number eight as the revised agenda did remove five, six, and seven. So item number eight is a motion for a PDR conceptual revision to be discussed by Councilman Curtis.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. I make a motion to approve the request for the PDR conception revision Southland Station Town Homes to revert to the most recent version of this plan to the previous approved version consisting of 150 town homes. I second that motion by Councilman Curtis, seconded by Councilman Holmes. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I

motion carries unanimously. Item number nine is an ordinance for annexation to be discussed by Councilman Mack. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve the ordinance for annexation requested by Charles Randall for annexation of property including all rightways totaling 8.5 8.75 acres located at the northwest side of the intersection of Lake Joy Road and Duskmore Road also known as tax parcel 00051036 alpha000000 and I'd like to wave the second reading. I'll second that. Mayor

motion by Councilman Mack waving the second reading. Seconded by Councilman Bib. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Mayor, I'd also like to make a motion to approve the resoning request for the same property from R1 single family residential district and county to R2 single family residential district city. I'll second that. Mayor motion by Councilman Mack, seconded by Councilman Bib. Any discussion?

Again, I just want to say thank you to uh Mr. Randall for um listening to the community. Uh, I I I it goes without saying and I really appreciate that he has listened to the community back there and really worked real hard to make this go through. Thank you, Councilman. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item number 10 is an or is an ordinance for annexation to be discussed by Councilman Bib.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I make a motion to approve the ordinance for the annexation requested by Charles Randall for the annexation of the property, including all rightaways totaling 7.45 four five acres located at the southwest side of the intersection at Lake Joy Road and Dusore Drive, also known as tax parcel 0000 510 36B 000 and I would like to wave the separate second reading.

Motion by Councilman Bib waving the second reading seconded by Councilman Lawren. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I motion carries unanimously. Second part. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I make a motion to approve the resoning request for the same property from R2 single family residential district county for 5.15 acres on the west portion of the property and C2 commercial district city for 2.3 acres on the east portion of the property facing Lake Joy Road. And I'll second that. Mayor

motion by Councilman Bib, seconded by Councilman Mack. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I motion carries unanimously. Now, item number 11 is a resolution for an intergovernmental agreement to be discussed by Councilman Holmes.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I have before us a motion to approve resolution to authorize Mayor Ronda W. Patrick to execute the attached intergovernmental agreement with the Peach County Board of Commissioners County. The city of Byron, Byron, the city of Fort Valley, Fort Valley, the city of Perry, Perry, and the city of Warner Robbins, Warner Robbins, to set forth an agreement on mutual promises and understandings for the T-splot referendum to be held on May 19th, 2026. I move for the adoption. I second.

Motion by Councilman Holmes, seconded by Councilman Curtis. Any discussion? I do want to make a quick comment uh in favor of this IGA for the Peach County Teslas, which is a transportation special purpose local option sales tax. That's what it means. Um but what Tesplas does is it helps us pay for transportation items such as roads. And does anyone know how much a road costs these days? An average road, if you're talking about a mile, two lanes, is roughly $5 million for one mile. That's a rough estimate, not considering any special circumstances. So when you see Tesla from Peach County, Hston County, wherever you may see in the future, if the good Lord allows us, just know a big chunk of the budget that these gentlemen have to work on, our city administrator, our directors, is going to go towards improving our roads. So when you see our staff out there working on roads through Elmig, which is money we get from the state to repair roads in our city, I just want you to appreciate how much those roads cost. And any assistance any city can receive to help pay for roads that helps all of us is a great thing. So just remember what I'm telling you, how important Teesploast is. Peach County, we we get a very small amount of the money. Um right now until we get our residences up in Peach County, we can get a larger share then. But as we stand now, we get about 500,000, which I think can pay for maybe a space for me and my son to stand on. Not much, but it still helps. Okay. Uh if we're talking about building a road, uh if we had it on house and county side, now we're talking about some major impact. So maybe one

day we'll be able to get a T-slast in Hston County. But I did want to take this privilege to kind of educate us in regular terms the importance of a teaslos and how beneficial it is and impactful it is inside of any community. Any further uh discussion? All those in favor please state I and raise your hand. I

motion carries unanimously. We have completed our agenda as revised. We have now made it to the citizen comments portion. So if you have any comment you'd like to make to council and I uh you have your opportunity to approach the podium. Please be sure to state your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes at the top of the rotunda to make your comments to complete your comments. And please note that council and I are listening to you even if we do not respond to you. The floor is now open. How you doing? Um Tim Bergle. I live at 202 Spanish Trail. Uh in about an hour or so, I'm going to be riding a bike right past Duskmore, uh Biola Truth Church Road, that area. And I was sitting on the edge of my seat while you are talking in pre-consil. And I I purposely did not bring this up uh as part of the agenda items because actually really support the vote that you all took. Um but in terms of design, the Bullet Church Road, Duskmore, and then the shopping center just north of Taco Bell, I I go through that area probably a h 100 times a week. It feels like whether I go through on a bike or most often I go through in a giant SUV. Um what you see is cars trying to make a left turn out of that shopping center. Yeah,

there shouldn't really be a left turn there.

So, and and the thing that I was sitting on the edge of my seat was is I was waiting for someone to say the word people. I was waiting for someone to say the word child or elderly or senior. But all we talked about was traffic, you know, deceleration lanes, acceleration lanes. We're not traffic, we're people. So, I want us to think about people when we build these things. So now you can only trust AI so much, right? So, but I'm I'm sitting in the back of the room there. I'm playing with my phone and I'm I'm looking at AI and I'm looking at peanutshaped roundabouts. And I'm pretty sure that a peanut shaped roundabout could fit in that space. Which would mean if you were coming out of that just north of Taco Bell, you would make a quick right turn and follow the roundabout around and go north. And that's how you would make a left turn. If you're coming out of Bula Church Road, you would make a right turn, go around, and go south. If you were coming out of Duskmore, you still could make a left turn if traffic was light. But if traffic was heavy, you could make a right turn and go down through the peanutshaped roundabout and then come back and go up north. If you were coming out of Abberorn Street, you would make a right turn up north, Lake Joy. But if you were going south, you could come out through Bullet Church Road. So, we need to think about those the width of the sidewalks and how people are going to interact with the space. Yeah, cars are important. I drive like 99% of the time, but when the weather's beautiful and it's been freezing outside and I want to get some fresh air or if I don't have the e economics to get out um on, you know, with a car, then those people should also have an opportunity to move safely throughout the city and throughout the urban area. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Burgle. So those peanut shaped uh roundabouts are are you telling me they're people friendly and walkability?

Those are the ones like I've seen at like interstate exits. They're kind of like that too, aren't they? There's one up around Mcdana. what what you're seeing around McD some of those areas in in metro Atlanta at interstate interchanges those are more diverging diamonds which is a little different um this is a little different from that but we can get into all that it they can be very beneficial thank you

just wanted to piggy back um in our traffic reports there's a there's a document called ice that um goes through all the different types of intersections. Um that's a requirement in all goot geo g entryways, but um I think the city has some of that requirements too in some of their traffic studies. Um in that document there's a spreadsheet and it goes in and you evaluate red lights, roundabouts, four-way stops, all the different types of intersections and it's graded out and that's how it's predicted um which intersection is best appropriate. So, just a little educational for y'all. Brian, name and address. Oh,

name and address. Brian Brawn. Um, 102 Ed U Bay Court. So, for educational purposes, you're telling me that the traffic if the study comes back and says, "Hey, the best use is a red light here. That's what the traffic study is doing." Correct. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm not saying that what he stated is incorrect. I'm just saying there is a a spreadsheet. There is a a reason why which intersection is chosen typically.

Thank you, Mr. Brian. Will there be any others? Going once. Going twice. The door is now closed. Thank you to everyone who voiced their uh concerns and shared some input with us. All right. Next is going to be council comments. And next up to go first is Councilman Lawrenson.

Well, thank you, Mayor. Um, it's been a pleasure to be with all of you here tonight. Very proud of the work we've we've accomplished and um looking forward to a great year. I know we're getting in our stride now into February. Um, and so just looking forward to all the great things we're going to be able to do together this year. Uh, and it was a it was a pleasure to to join hands and and to acknowledge the uh one of our police officers. um and that he's doing much better and that we we hope he's going to make a complete 100% recovery, but also want to keep the 31-year-old victim in our prayers, too. Um I'm not I haven't got an update on her, but um praying that that she's going to be okay and and just wondering and and praying often what is what does it come to when we have a a 20year-old young man that feels like they have to make a decision like that. Um, it's just mindboggling and I know it's it's uh it just going on all around us and it seems like it's increasing and um I'm going to tell you right now the only answer is is is Jesus. That's it. Um there's no other way and uh so just pray that you all know him and that you're sharing him with others and continue to be um the light that shines that that wins people to Christ. So thank you for all that. God bless.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Lawrenson. Councilman Lashley.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, again, to echo what Councilman Lawrenson just said, our constantly thinking and praying and hoping for a speedy recovery to our officer and the uh young lady that was also injured in the tragic events last week. I know if you there have been people that talk about the amount of crime and the murders and different things like that, but it is a unique crime that is being committed because the majority of our major crimes that have committ been committed in this community have been through domestic violence. and knowing your knowing your partner and knowing skills to where you can relieve tension and arguments without resorting to violence are key. Um, I was blessed to be raised in a family where we talk things out. We were teammates all the time. Um, I did get in trouble, but you know, hey, but that went on to my future with my current wife and how we handle our children now. and we result the results we get from talking with each other and not you know cuz it can get pretty heated when you're dealing with your family. But knowing that we come from a place of love all the time is the key. And you can't find that just out and about online or on on your phone or on social media or anything. You can find that in church. You can find that with support groups. And I think if you're going down that road where everything is mounting on top of you and you're at a point in your life where you feel like the only way out is violence, you need to call somebody. Call a pastor. Call anybody. Call any of the helplines. Get what's in you out by talking and not through violence. And that would solve the majority of our problems that we're having right now. Um it's just it's

heartbreaking to see it. We've had way too many domestic cases go on for the last year and a half. Whether it be young children or police officers or anybody, it needs to stop. Needs to stop now. Find God. Find a way out of it. Um, on a happier note, one last little uh cheer harrah thing. Uh, the Hston County girls cheer team was uh named the team of the year in the state of Georgia. That was through all cheer teams in the state of Georgia. Not just thank they did an awesome job. Those girls and the the coaches and the school and everything that they do to support are just amazing. The community service hours they put in. All of that goes into it. So you're talking to hundreds of cheer teams. That cheer team won team of uh team of the year. So congratulations again to them. It's a huge honor. Um, seeing the expressions on my daughters, both my daughters faces when they found out they won was it was unreal. I mean, that's a that's a huge, huge honor. And it's it's issued by the Georgia Cheer Coaches Association. So, it covers every single cheer team in the state of Georgia is up for that award. And they've won over every single school that has a cheer team. So, amazing honor for them. And uh just as much as it's an honor for me to serve you this city and the people here and again I I would like to uh thank James for the wonderful job tonight. Uh you and the staff and the county and the builders. The way y'all came together on that to work out real solutions that kept the residents of that neighborhood in mind is appreciated. Thank you so much. Thank y'all. Thank you, Councilman. Now to Councilman Holmes.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I would first like to say acknowledge the fact that all of us are concerned about the tragic incident that took place uh last week. I want to especially commend Chief Fiser for the outstanding job he did at the interview session. I was there, the mayor was out of town. I called her and I went over to the interview and Chief Fisher, thank you, Chief Molton and the DA for your comments. But most of the to express the fact that we are here for you. They are here for you. The city of Warner Robbins is in good hands when it come to public safety. We have some excellent people on the job. I'm sorry. I continue to pray for our officer as well as the young lady that was uh shot. Uh we're praying for each and every one of them. I want to thank you and as Chief uh Chief uh Councilman Lashley just said, find a way to talk talk more. find a way to talk more instead of fighting and shooting and cutting that we don't need to do that. Call on God. He's He'll hear you every time. And not during your time, but his time. Thank you, mayor, for the opportunity.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Curtis.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh it's it's been said, but I do want to reiterate u I ask that everyone keep officer Matt and uh all the individuals that was involved in the tragic uh incident that we had last week in your thoughts and in your prayers. Uh I just want to say congratulations to everyone on their promotions. Uh phenomenal. Y'all continue to do a great job for the city of Warner Robbins. I am always super excited about Habitat. Uh especially seeing them over there on U Tiffany. that's right down the street from where I live at and the fact that they're uh keeping the um the houses the same over there. So, you know, it's u that's that's phenomenal. So, um much love to Habitat. And also uh again, it is Black History Month. So, I would encourage each and every one of y'all to go out and learn something about black history. uh the accomplishments, the history that um the uh black community have contributed to this country because black history is American history. Thank you. Y'all have a great night.

Thank you, Councilman. Now, Councilman Mack.

Thank you, uh Madame Mayor. Um, I'd like to also um contribute my my um gratitude to the Warren Robinson Police Department and um on top of the young man that was critically injured and the young lady, we also need to keep the rest of our public safety officers in our prayers as they go out in these streets every day um with a commitment to protect and serve this community the best that they can, operating a lot under the spirit of fear, especially when they're walking into an unknown situation. So, um, I just want to I just been praying for them and Chief Fischer as he keeps his team together in a, you know, after a situation like that. Um, and I just, you know, we talk a lot about uh, domestic violence. I've done a little research about it. I mean, it's it's never a good thing. So, I just think a lack of emotional intelligence or just being ignorant to emotional intelligence is why domestic violence occurs in most situations. So I took some notes and um basically man low and distorted emotional intelligence often shows up in abusive dynamics. Poor emotional regulation which promotes anger, jealousy or shame turns into control or violence. Low empathy and the inability or refusal to recognize the partner's pain. Eternalizing blame, you made me do this instead of accountability. the fear of vulnerability, control used as substitute for emotional safety, and most importantly, domestic violence is a choice, is not a is not a loss of control, but it but that low emotional intelligence never excuses the harm that it causes. So, and to our neighbors that may see something, call the police. Because a lot of our culture is like, I'm not getting in their business, but you're

you getting in somebody's business could save someone's life because a lot of times a neighbor has witnesses some type of um harm prior to that length of violence. So, so let's be engaged and be our brothers keepers, brothers and sisters keepers. If we see someone that needs help, let's call them out on that. Um, also I would like to um recognize a collaborative effort of the county, city, the developers and residents over there. as far as where Dustmore is concerned, that's been an ongoing situation. So, I'm glad we were able to um come together and mitigate those issues. But last but not least, I want to acknowledge the efforts of our public works department because we had a main water break on Saturday in those frigid temperatures and they were out there working in that cold while we were warm in our house. And they don't get enough recognition because can you imagine working on a main water break the way that wind was blowing, dealing with water, icy conditions, and they're out there in the elements. They deserve a great round of applause for their efforts. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Madame Mayor, may I Yes, Mr. Drinker. So, I do want to offer a point of clarification because I will shout out public works every day. The backbone of every city is public works. Um, you know, we talk about public safety a lot. Public safety can't get to the call if public works hasn't done their job. But the guys down in the hole repairing the the brake, that's our utility department. Um, so public works was out there controlling the streets, trying to clear the way so that utilities could get down in that hole and play in the water. So, just want to thank you for that correction. Call out utilities as well.

Thank you. All right. And lastly is Councilman Bib. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Definitely a team effort around the city. Amen. All right. First and foremost, I want to tell my wonderful mother, happy 844th birthday today. She is a groundhog's baby. And uh just to let y'all know that we got a groundhog here in Georgia for those of you who didn't know, his name is Boo. And uh he saw his shadow and we got six more weeks of winter. Huh? He didn't see a shadow. No, if you see the shadow, you go in, right?

Thank you. Thank you. I We'll work with him. The Bible says to be kind to the feeble-minded. So, we going to work on I'm just messing with you. Um, happy birthday, Mom. Um, she is a Brit. She is my British side of the family and uh my h of my mom's side of the family. all reside in England. And so, happy birthday to my beautiful mother. Want to remind the community again, we can't say this enough, until April 1st comes around, homestead your home. If it is not done, please look into that. Go out and homestead your home. I have been on a rampage through work and everywhere that I go in this community. I ask people, "Hey, is your home homesteaded?" cuz go do it. It's going to mean a great break for you. So get out and homestead. And I challenge everybody. Ask your neighbors. Ask your friends. Baby, Pooky, Ray, Sean, Taquila, all of them. Tell them homestead your home. I'm telling you. I want to say congratulations on the promotions to the fire department. Um you guys do a phenomenal job. You make us proud and we can tell that you guys are proud and the brother and sisterhood that you guys have in the fire department, the police department. and it is un uh matched when it comes to uh y'all's brotherhood and sisterhood that you guys have with each other as you as you do that. So, um I stand at all and uh are amazed that your your um work that you do and that you put your life on the line every day and we appreciate that and uh thank you for that. I also want to give a shout out to the code enforcement who has also been moved over to the police department and they don't get enough call out because they deal with the public just as much as anything else and want to uh say thank you to the

code enforcement and the job that you guys are doing and what we what we've asked you guys to do. I see changes happening and I want to thank you for that. Habitat to humanity, keep up the great work. Keep putting people uh in homes and get them off the street. It is wonderful and tearjerking to see that and I appreciate that. Uh, mayor, this past week you were honored up in Atlanta. I couldn't be there, but I heard you had a couple representatives drive up there to support you. Uh, partners in progress and want to say congratulations on your award and what you continue to do and how you continue to lead the council and this city and what's going on and we thoroughly appreciate you. Keep up the good work. You got all the support in the world. um, Black History Month. Here's an interesting fact. I challenge you to go look up black inventors and you would be amazed at the things that the black community has invented that we use today. It is a lot. There are a lot out there. So, that's a good challenge. If you want to look up something in black history, look up inventors and see all the inventions that have uh, been invented by the black community. Last but not least to Mr. Ut, thank you for your service. Sorry this happened to you. The Bible says that we the spirit warth against the flesh and the flesh warth against the spirit and these two are contrary to each other and every day all of us have to make a conscious effort to wake up and not serve evil but to do good. And I say that even Christians, we have to make a conscious decision every day to put on our armor of God and walk with him. The moment we give the devil a foothold is the moment we start making mistakes in our life.

And this was nothing but pure evil. You got to know your enemy and know who you're fighting. You can say and call it whatever it was, but it was evil. And it was an act of evil. And we don't have to get there. The Bible says that a prayer of a righteous man and woman availth much. And it means a lot to intercede to God and ask him to protect, to watch over, and to keep us all safe. And that's for your family, your neighbors, your community, and everything that goes on. God is definitely in control no matter what happens. Men, get in touch with your emotions. We are the worst. the worst about acknowledging our emotions

because we want to be prideful people and we think that's all whatever. But you'll ask somebody to acknowledge their emotions or even name an emotion as they talk about it. They can't do it. But it's a part of life and it's a part of all of us. It's not just women but we are emotional creatures also. And knowing that we have to make a conscient conscious effort like everybody has said up here to acknowledge that emotion and not let the emotions get the best of us but to control that motion and to be thoughtful with it. And I want to tell my community, I don't care what you say online about me. I don't give a rip what you write. I'm just going to give you a clue. I don't read it because I ain't online. I ain't on your Facebook accounts. I ain't all your accounts. I don't care what you say. But I'm always going to put him first. And I'm always going to tell you that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And through him, and only through him, can you can come to salvation. And if you would like to know that, would love to tell you about him because it's the greatest decision you'll ever you'll ever make in your life. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, Councilman. And I will uh make a quick comment, a couple quick comments. One, um thank you to all my brothers for their comments. I will not uh restate anything that they stated. U we stand connected, so what they say, I say. Um for the comments that were made today, we did lose one of our personnel over in building and inspections department. Um, so keep him and his family in prayers. Um, and that happened over the weekend, I do believe. Uh, so Councilman, if you didn't know, we we did lose one of our staff members. Another another comment I do want to make for us to remember that this year is the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Um, so the city is going to have a lot of events that's going to come forward in celebration of our 250th birthday. It's a it's a blessing to be able to be here as we celebrate that milestone. Um, but I do want to leave us with um stating one quote in honor of Black History Month and then one in honor of our nation. If you'll just bear with me. Um, we all know for Black History, one of the most influential members that most people know by name is the individual who had a national holiday named after him, the great late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And in his quote, I know it by heart, but I'll mess it up in this setting. So, I always like to look to make sure I don't embarrass myself. He makes a quote uh that is one of his most famous, and it is, darkness cannot cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. So that is the quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Let's keep that in mind with the state of our nation and the struggles and

challenges we're facing that we will overcome as long as we do it together. And lastly, in support of our nation, our country, uh it is of thee, I will say. Remember, we are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, let's be united as one because at the end of the day, we are all connected and this is our country. No matter what we believe or our personal passions, we are still proud to be Americans. So with that, I wish you all a good night. Thank you for being here. We'll see you next meeting. And the meeting is adjourned.