City Council - Regular Meeting

Work on that.

Thank you.

Tonight, as we are just shy of a month away from our 250th anniversary as a country, we have visitors from the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, and a couple of naturalized citizens as well. And we've asked Laurie Ballou with the Daughters of the American Revolution to please give her invocation. We'll go through a couple things. Then I have a proclamation for you as well. Okay? Take off.

As a proud member of the Matthew Talbot chapter, Daughter of the American Revolution, I represent 60 patriotic, service-oriented women who have proven their lineage to a patriot of the American Revolution. Some of our members are here this evening. Thank you for inviting us to be with you today.

Thank you for being here.

Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, in a few days we will commemorate and celebrate our nation's 250th years of independence. We come before you today with hearts full of gratitude for the liberties, freedom, opportunities, and heritage we enjoy. Thank you for those who founded our country and penned the Declaration of Independence. Father, in this great milestone year, we ask for your continued wisdom, grace, and guidance. Please grant all leaders at every level of government the discernment needed to make wise decisions on our behalf. May they always be guided by your will for our country. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, Laura. I appreciate you coming in. I'd like to call this meeting to order of the City of Monroe City Council. It is June 9th, 2026, just a little bit past six o'clock. Let the record reflect, please, that all members of council are present with the exception of Ms. Malcolm tonight. I need a motion for the approval of the agenda, please. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Bradley. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms. Crawford. Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. Motion carries, that passes. Moving to the approval of the consent agenda. This is Downtown Development Authority Convention and Visitors Bureau and Planning Commission, along with Historic Preservation Commission meeting minutes from April. Call City Council meeting minutes and City Council minutes from May 5th and 12th. I need a motion for the approval of the consent agenda, please.

So moved, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Bradley. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Moving to public comments. I have one tonight signed up, and it's Sheriff Keith Brooks is the sheriff. Thank you, Sheriff. Appreciate your coming in.

Don't be so hesitant about it. Look, Mayor, Council, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak in here, but I come here humbly thanking you, thanking you for me, allowing me to work with the police department. Chief R.V. Watts and I grew up policing together. I had a mission when I got elected sheriff was to rebuild that relationship with the police department and the men and women of both the sheriff's office and the police department. And I think that we're well on our way to that. I believe, standing in front of you, I serve the same people you serve. And I want to thank you for your service and what you've chosen to do for the city of Monroe. Brought a gift for each one of y'all. It's a coin that I had made for the celebration of our 250th birthday from the Walton County Sheriff's Office from me to you. So I'm here to extend my hand out and say thank you. And if I can do anything for y'all, don't hesitate to ask. I will say this, that Chief Watts and I work hand in hand on a daily basis, and it's not uncommon for me to be in his office talking about things that I need and asking what he needs. So he's a good man. Y'all got a good department that tries to do the right thing every day. That's one of the things that I want my people to do is just do what's right. And you should be blessed to have a police department that works hard as they do. Thank you for allowing me to be here for a second.

And while you're passing those out, I want to tell everybody, Keith and I grew up together, played Packer football together, when that was the times when we only had one football team in the city of Monroe. And I can't think of a finer man. I also... I want to mention that his father and my father were in high school together. Another example of a class act and a very, very good man. Ox Brooks passed away last month, and you've had our prayers, Sheriff. And I appreciate your coming in. I guess I should say, does anybody have any questions for the Sheriff?

We're good.

I'm going to walk around a minute, then we'll move on to the next thing.

Mayor, I don't have a question for this sheriff, but I would love to say I think this is probably some of the best relationships that the sheriff and the police department has had in quite a while. Yes, sir. And I take my hat off to both of them. And, you know, the stronger law enforcement that we have, the better city and county that we have. So, like I say, my hat's off to the sheriff and to the chief of police for making this happen, and the deputies and the police department.

It takes a whole thing. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. I agree. And chief and sheriff, thank you and your teams for working together. I think every day that we get stronger, we get stronger as an entire community. I appreciate you being here.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Moving to public presentations, I have a proclamation for the American 250, Daughters of the American Revolution. Ladies, would you like to come up, please? This is a proclamation of America 250, the city of Monroe, Georgia, whereas on July 4th, 2026, our nation will commemorate the semi-quincentennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and whereas the journey toward this historic milestone is an opportunity to reflect on our nation's past, honor the contribution of all Americans, and look ahead to the future generations who will carry forward the ideals of democracy and individual liberty that make the United States a unique nation in the world community. And whereas the great state of Georgia was founded by the Revolutionary War generation and their children and is one of the first original 13 British colonies in America established in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, and with the Georgia Patriots having fought in 11 battles and skirmishes during the Revolution, and whereas from the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party in 2023 until the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 2033, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, being members linearly descended from patriots of these American Revolutionary events, will be promoting, honoring, and celebrating the history and birth of our nation by completing projects in unique, local, and impactful ways, and whereas Matthew Talbot Daughters will be highlighting our nation's rich diversity by honoring the men and women who achieved American independence as these patriots, believing in the noble cause of liberty fought valiantly to establish a new nation, and whereas the Georgia State Society and the Matthew Talbot Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in Monroe, Georgia have helped to promote America 250 within our state and in our local community so as to better inform the general public about the events which led to the founding of our nation, Therefore, be it resolved that I, John Stuart Howard, Mayor of the City of Monroe, Georgia, commend this commemoration to all our Walton County, Georgia, residents and witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused this seal of the great City of Monroe, Georgia, to be affixed this ninth day of June, 2026. Mayor John Howard. Thank you, ladies. I so appreciate your being here. You know, they used to wear T-shirts and cute little skirts back in the day. And I'm so glad to see you, Susan.

She knew it was coming.

Now, gentlemen, sons of the American Revolution, could you come forward, please?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Jimmy Norton. I currently serve as president of the George Walton chapter of the Sons of American Revolution. I'm joined here tonight with my other compatriots, our past president, Tom Chamberlain, our vice president, Rusty Horton. Much like our counterparts within the DAR, we involve ourselves in education and historic preservation tied to the founding principles of our nation. That, this chapter, we'd like to present this body with a small reminder of our semi-quincentennial, and it will read as follows. if you'll indulge me. That's beautiful. In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, we extend our sincere gratitude for your commitment to upholding the principles of our nation's Constitution. Your dedication to liberty, justice, and the rule of law reflects the values upon which America was founded. Your service honors the legacy of the American Revolution and strengthens our constitutional republic. Thank you for your leadership and continued efforts to protect the freedoms that we cherish. declared by the George Walton chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, July 4, 2026. If I may.

Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would all come forward. I have a couple of other ladies that you need to meet. Anita, Liliana. Liliana. One of the cool parts about all of us in this room who were born here, we were born citizens, probably to the absolute best country in the history of this world. We have Panita Bukosa, who is the owner of Taiwan On, and Liliana McMain, who have both gone through the courses, the classes, the work to become naturalized citizens. Ladies, ladies and gentlemen, Pretty awesome group, and we celebrate you and thank you. Now, if you would, kind of scoot y'all together and kneel if necessary. The one that I always dread is that when it's turned around and I see both these chins right here. If you would, Susan, can you scoot in a little bit more? Okay, one, two, three, five, five. Thank you so much. I appreciate your being here. Thank you. Now I'm going to give a minute before we go to the next thing so you don't have to sit through it all. So thank you again for being here. Bye-bye, y'all. Stephanie and Noxy, you want to come forward, please? We're almost ready. Thanks, Bill. Stephanie, do you need to be set up computer?

They have everything, so as soon as they put it up,

Okay, I think Mike's heading back there right now. Now, I have always said Calabrese.

That's right.

Okay. I got reprimanded the other day saying that I was saying it wrong, and I figured I'd ask you. Stephanie Calabrese, who lives on Walton Street, we've been friends for, I guess, 20 years now, and Noxy LaRue, who was born a friend of my family, and we've known them... the Roberts family forever and ever and ever, have put together the Wish You Were Here exhibit that was in Chad Draper's building just down from La Boheme. And I think it was open for three weeks?

Three months.

Three months, okay. And it's video, photograph, and words from the public. And if you would like to go ahead and give us your presentation, you've got five minutes.

Okay, perfect. So yes, we were so excited to do this exhibition. I'll give you just a quick overview. The exhibition ran downtown Monroe from January through March. The concept was to basically allow visitors to come through, experience the past, present, and future of Monroe, and to consider all the contributions of all the people who've moved through our community. The first piece was a collection of black and white photographs documenting Monroe from 2015 that I made. The photo next to it is the color image 10 years later. So it gave visitors an opportunity to see the changes that are happening in our community. A lot of times we move through the town and we don't see it as it happens in progress, but being able to look at a 10 year difference was an interesting way for people to think about the evolution of our community. Reflect presented maps of downtown Monroe from 100 years ago, so people could see the evolution of the community from 100 years. We also had yearbooks from the 1968, 1969 year, which was an important timeframe in Monroe because it was the integration of our schools and the start of George Walton Academy. So visitors had an opportunity to experience the people who moved through our town at that time. I also created a short 13-minute film, which was a compilation of interviews sourced from about 50 interviews from residents of Monroe. And that piece really gave a sense of the influence of agriculture, faith, and the sense of community that's always been important here. It also talked about some of the challenging points in our past, taking us through segregation, through the integration of schools. It was a good overview of the history of Monroe.

And then we had a portion of the exhibit where people could come, whoever was visiting the exhibit would come and put a pin on the map that kind of showed us where everybody was coming from and it kind of gave us a good data point collection of where everyone's coming from. And then we had a second portion where we had these three questions that we posed about Monroe's past, present and future and what are people's hopes and dreams for the future of Monroe. In all of those postcards and all of those pins, we gathered that there were about 176 map pins over the course of the first three months, majority of people coming from Walton County and Monroe, with a couple other friends and family and people in the general metro Atlanta as well. they came to visit. And of all of those people, we had about 253 postcards. About 81 filled out the first question, 75 had filled out the second question, and 80 of the third question. And these are the kind of the general results of what we had gained from all of those.

So the first was, what from the past do you want to preserve and carry forward? So it gave people an opportunity to really reflect. About 57% were nostalgic, which makes sense. About 28% were hopeful. And some of the key observations were that historic preservation was extremely important to people who came to the exhibit. People also mentioned that Carver High School, sort of the legacy of our black community, was an important thing for us to do a better job of remembering in our past. Community togetherness was a consistent anchor. A little bit of anxiety about the future growth and Monroe changing, our strong community spirit. But overall it was nostalgic and we do have booklets we'll share with you all so that you can go through all the details of these results too. But these are some of the postcards. All of the postcards and all of this exists on the website as well so you can take your time and go through everything.

The second set of question is, what do you love most about Monroe today? And people had an opportunity to kind of think about the present. Within that, one of them, this was like a big emotional peak for the whole exhibit. People were really talking about how much they loved the sense of community and togetherness and how local spaces as well, secondary to that, are able to bring the people together in that way.

And downtown revitalization, that was a big one as well, as far as the strength of Monroe today. And then looking forward, we asked people, what do you hope Monroe looks and feels like in 10 years? 64% of these people were very hopeful, 10% critical, 16% cautious. And I think it's because People love our community today so much. They know that growth is inevitable. But some of the things that are important, number one is diversity, inclusion, and inclusiveness so that everyone feels welcome in our community came through on all three of these questions, but was strongest here in looking forward. This kind of anti-growth, anti-sprawl voice came in as well. And affordability was one of the things that started becoming mentioning as people think in the future. They may live here and love Monroe today, but some people had questions, can I afford to live here 10 years from now? Parking was also named pretty consistently as a challenge moving forward. And that sort of tension of preserving the small town community feel, but also welcoming and making people feel more inclusive in our community. A couple of key cross-section. The through line being that people are the anchor, that for sure is the strongest part that people value in the community. This concept of everyone wanting to feel like they belong in the community, we're not just all made the same way, we don't have the same backgrounds, and so appreciating that diversity amongst us was important. We talked about the small town tension, we talked about affordability. I want to jump to recommendations because we had a few thoughts of things. How do you compile all this community data and think about what can you do with this? We appreciate so much all of you in your contribution to this community. Your job is not easy. You have to listen to a lot of people and make decisions and I respect that and we appreciate your commitment to our community. One, it would be awesome to think about a commission for a Carver High School preservation study. Obviously that school is no longer present but that area is still very important to people in our black community and our community as a whole. So I think something can be done there and really sort of reaching out to members of our black community to help shape what that looks like. What is that commemoration? What should that be like? Development of an inclusive housing and affordability plan with people really being concerned. Can I afford to live in Monroe? When we look at the history of Monroe, many of our people who live in Monroe are descendants of enslaved people. And so a lot of these people still live in Monroe, didn't have the opportunity to leave, to find different homes. And so I think it's important that we have space and affordable places for everyone to remain in our community. So we think that's important. Parking definitely was a concern from people, so establishing some kind of a parking task force. You may be doing some of these things already, but that seemed to be an important one. Maybe a belonging and welcoming advisory committee, someone who could really be focused on, of the events we're doing, what can we do to make sure that everyone feels welcome at these events from a diverse perspective? And that's it. So we have books for you all. You can go through, study all of this. All of the postcards are on the website.

You'll find that in the booklet as well.

And we just appreciate the opportunity to share the experience and the community input with you all.

Thank you, Stephanie. The exhibit was beautiful.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Are there any questions? I'm sorry, Stephanie, before you sit. Are there any questions for Stephanie or Noxy? Anybody want to know where Noxy's from? She doesn't sound like she's from around here. Since nobody piped up, she's from South Africa. Margie Roberts, I think many of you know Big Roy and Suzanne. This is their granddaughter, Margie's daughter.

And I guess one last thought, whoever you want to hand it to.

All of this was just a personal project, self-funded. There is no dollars coming in from anyone to do this work for the community. So there's no influences coming. you know, from any specific party.

Well, it's put together really well, and thank you so much for coming in.

Thank you.

Okay, moving to business items. City Administrator update, Mr. Probst.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. So just a couple of updates here. I got an email. from Chad Harris at Tucker Door. His family has run Tucker Door for a long time. They are doing a major expansion and doing a groundbreaking ceremony on June 17th at 10 a.m. Should any of you want to go and celebrate with them. And as you know, part of that facility is not in the city limits, but the new part, the expansion will be. So we greatly welcome that expansion into our city, multi-million dollar expansion. State Route 11 at 78, I've been talking about this for years and we're still working on that. Trying to get that traffic signal approved through the DOT. We're one step closer. We went back and did a new data collection on traffic analysis and even hired somebody to take some drone imagery of the chaos up there on a daily basis. And so submitted all that to the District One office At a high level, they have approved it to go on to what's called the Traffic Management Center in Atlanta. And that will be sent to them by the end of this week from our engineers. And hopefully we'll get the blessing on that and then we can move on with the design and engineering and eventual installation of that traffic signal. Who knew so much would go into just one traffic signal, but here we are. And that is really all I have. If anybody has any special district concerns, you can put them out there later or get with me sometime after the meeting or thereafter, and I'll be happy to help any way I can.

Any questions for Mr. Probst? The only one I have, Tucker Door Groundbreaking, is 10 o'clock on Thursday the 17th?

10 a.m. the 17th, yeah.

Okay. Mr. Bailey, Assistant City Administrator Report. Thank you, sir.

Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program Phase 2 is complete and was submitted about a week and a half, I think, prior to the deadline of May 30th. So now we kind of wait. There were no issues that were found in the environmental studies, whatnot. So hopefully I get to come back to you guys August, September with an agreement from the state so that we can get that process started. And then we've got two years to build it. And I've got an item at the end of the agenda tonight related to that. I did want to mention Waste and Recycling Workers Week is next week. It always lands on the week that is June 17th. So it'll land between the dates of June 15th to June 19th. That's always a big week for us celebrating our waste recycling workers, all of public works, everybody that that participates in that world. It's a very dangerous job, a very kind of, I don't want to say unnoticed, but kind of one of those that you don't necessarily always see, but is definitely a strong industry and takes a lot of effort to do it as well as we do. So Danny, good job. Guys, we'll do some fun stuff next week for sure. I also wanted to mention that the Georgia Main Street Association, the program, recognized the city of Monroe's downtown as downtown of the month for June of 26, so that was a good honor to receive the month of June. We have lunch on the lawn coming tomorrow. Hopefully it does not rain. It starts at 1130 at the courthouse. And then our Broad Street Bash, which is a bit of a new event. It's a little bit of a Kind of a mesh of we've always had the Bloom's Flower Festival mid-June. We brought back crepe myrtle last year, and then because we have America's 250 this year rolling into July 4th week, we're going to do something a little bit different this Saturday that'll be mostly tied to our downtown businesses putting things on. So be sure from the hours of 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. 2 p.m. if you're around, come to town, explore. Lots of sales, lots of vendors. Anyway, I'll be glad to take any questions.

Are there any questions for Mr. Bailey? Thank you, Chris. Danny, your team is fantastic. We appreciate them not only next week, but all the time. And Sandy, is Sandy here? Okay, the lunch on the lawn. I hope you'll come. We have music, generally somebody playing a guitar and singing right in front of the courthouse. Just bring your own lunch, chairs or blanket, and have a picnic. Hometown Americana. I hope you'll come out and enjoy the day. Showing no old business, moving to new business. We have a couple of public hearings. We do have Quick Trip has asked to be tabled again. So I need a motion to table the conditional use 4451 and 4502, please. So moved. Motion to second. Ross Bradley, Julie Sams. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, motion carries. Let's try that again. All in favor to table signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. Both will be tabled until next month, we hope. That takes us to... New business, we will pass over the hardship variance and the conditional use variance. Moving to St. Albans parking lot lease. Mr. Probst.

Take this one, Mayor. Okay.

So before you for action tonight is a parking lot lease between the city and St. Albans Episcopal Church of Monroe. This is a five-year lease. It's going to open up some more parking for downtown for the citizens with a couple of limitations that it's not open during church hours on Sunday and Wednesday night. So I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Donnie or Logan? I'll entertain a motion.

I was going to ask, will it resume to be free parking or is it going to continue to be a paid parking?

It'll be free parking. We're not in the paid parking business. Good thing.

Amen. I'll comment about that in a minute.

Okay. I'll make a motion.

I'll second.

Tyler and David, motion and second. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed like so. Motion carries. Mr. Dickinson, did you want to say something about that?

I just want to say that the last couple of weeks at the 105, when I have good-sized audiences, I've been asking people how they feel about these paid parking lots that are popping up in Monroe versus free parking. And I get a pretty much a standing ovation when I say I'm a proponent of keeping free parking and not getting into this. And I tell people, you know, if you go to Decatur, like to Eddie's Attic, which I go to some. The parking costs almost as much as the ticket to get into the show. We don't want to ever get into that, not as a city. And I would encourage these business folks who are doing these little pop-up paid lots, don't do that. People hate that.

I will walk a mile in the rain. Yeah. Before I pay $3 to park.

Amen. Before you pay $75 to park. Either one. Um, yes, I think we're all in agreement, David. Thank you. Uh, fiscal year 2025 audited financials. Beth, are we ready for that?

Yes.

Okay. Uh, an annual comp financial report.

He's here.

Yeah. Ms. Thompson. Okay.

I didn't know if you understood me. Um, so yeah, well, there's this with, um, Malden and Jenkins is here. Um, We engage with Malden and Jenkins annually for our external audit. They conduct the city of Monroe's financial internal controls and operating efficiency audit, and he will go over the fiscal year 2025.

I heard you had a nice time in traffic today. Thank you, Will, for coming in.

Managed to make up a little bit of time.

From Atlanta? Yes. So I can guess the bottle up was at Panola, but another bottleneck?

Mainly getting through downtown Connector. And then once I got headed east, it wasn't too bad.

You're like a Saturday Night Live episode. Thank you.

Yeah, it's always an adventure. But yes, thank you for having me this evening. Thank you, Beth. So as Beth mentioned, my name is Will Derzis. I'm a director with Malden and Jenkins. I've been working with the city on its audit for probably close to about 10 years now. Beth is distributing financial packets, which include a draft, final version and draft format of the city's annual comprehensive financial report, its financial statements, an auditor's discussion and analysis, a draft of the management letter, which includes a comment, and then a draft of the city's compliance reports. I will mention, though, while it does have a draft watermark on all this version, this is, in effect, the final numbers, the final version, and I'm just waiting for our processing department to put the stamp on the final reports, and then we will issue those to management. But my presentation this evening will be based off of the auditor's discussion and analysis. So without further ado, I'll get it kicked off. On page two, this discusses a little bit more about Alden and Jenkins, our government profile. We're in eight different states with 19 different offices now, as well as the engagement team leaders, which includes myself, Trey Scott, who is an engagement quality control reviewer, or a partner in another office, performed our EQR for this year. On page three, you can read just a little bit more additional information, some other industries, some other services Malden and Jenkins provides. On page four, the auditor's report, the independent auditor's report, has significance to the readers of the financial statements. So ultimately, the financial statements are responsibility of management, and our role as external auditors is to express an opinion on those statements as to whether or not the statements provide a reasonable rather than absolute assurance about the results of fiscal year 2025. I am pleased to share we did issue an unmodified report, which can be interpreted as a clean opinion. And again, that just means the respective statements present fairly the financial position and results of operations for the year. Page five discusses a little bit more about the ACFER. The city's finance team goes above and beyond the minimum state reporting requirements. And so an ACFER includes an expanded introductory section financial section, including management's discussion and analysis, as well as a statistical section providing some other information about the city, demographic, operating, that type of thing. All right, moving on to page seven. I'll just touch on kind of the highlights, the overview of the financial statements. So the city's government-wide, it's pretty much everything rolled up together in one format. The government-wide statements as of December 31st report total assets of about $259 million, liabilities of about $81 million, resulting in net position or you can think of as equity or retained earnings of about $177 million. It's worth noting the majority of that, about $140 million, is comprised of the city's capital and fixed assets, roads, bridges, buildings, machinery and equipment, reduced by any amount that is being financed with existing bonds, notes, loans, other debt. Restricted net position, those are amounts restricted by legal parties, grant agencies, external third-party restrictions. That's about 10 million, and the end result is that the unrestricted, which is generally considered available to be spent, unrestricted total government-wide net position of the city is about 27 million at the end of 2025. Page eight, you can see a graphic depiction, a pie chart of the general fund. That's the primary operating fund of the city. As you know, property tax is the number one revenue recorded within the general fund, followed by sales tax and then other tax, including business and franchise. Total revenue for the general fund for 2025 is about $17.1 million. And then the following page, page 9, you can see the same visual depiction for the expenditures of the general fund, which were about $21 million for the year. Public safety makes up about 50% of that, a little over 50% of that total, followed by general government services and then public works. On page 10, some more graphs, a depiction of the revenues, expenditures, and then transfers to and from other funds. For the general fund for the past five years, the revenues and expenditures, they go about hand in hand. The city has reported positive changes in fund balance or equity of the general fund for the past five years. Although some of that is subsidized with transfers from the utilities for the results of the utility operations. And that was about 3 million for 2025. And then page 11. This discloses that the city's available fund balance at the end of the year makes up about 40% of its expenditures. a little under half of a year is available in the city's savings account, basically, or could cover about 148 days if no new revenue is brought in. A healthy benchmark says about 75 to 90 days, about 17%, so 148 or 40% is a strong financial metric. Page 12 discloses some additional information specifically to the business type activities. This includes the city's utilities, gas, sanitation, electric, water, sewer. I won't go over all the financial highlights there, but on page 13, one thing that is worth noting that we pay attention to in the financial reporting world is the cash flows produced by the city's business type activities. And for this year, There was positive cash flows from operations of about 12 million, an increase from the prior year of 10 million, and both of those numbers are considered very strong. Page 14, this just discloses the footnotes that accompany the financial statements. They provide a little bit more background and narrative. And then moving on to page 16, or excuse me, 17, just some additional required communications I have to tell you as governance of the city. During the course of our audit, we had no difficulties dealing with management. We encountered no disagreements with management over the practice or application of any significant accounting principles or management judgments or estimates, anything like that. Upon conclusion of our audit, we requested certain written representations from management. We received those with no issue. On page 18, there were some adjustments proposed and ultimately posted to the city's general ledger. We had no past adjustments, meaning that all proposed journal entries were posted. Page 19 discloses one item we noted in the management letter, as a recommendation for management. So I'm happy to share there were no findings, no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies for the year, but there was one item we did encounter for management's recommendation related to its reporting on the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. There were some awards and expenditures that had been omitted in the prior years, which we realized this year. It was determined that didn't have any impact on the prior year statements in any way, no material adjustment or anything like that. But we do recommend management continue to implement a bit of a more robust reconciliation and review process for its federal awards and its expenditures of federal awards, including cross-departmental review and then proactive monitoring for projects that span several different years. That tends to be where some of these things get missed on multi-year projects. Lastly, page 20, this just discloses new upcoming GASB standards. GASB is the standard setting body for the city for its accounting treatment For its audits, they keep us very busy, and I always recommend, even if you're not involved in the process, it's a good idea to at least read up on these and have a general knowledge of what may be upcoming in the future that may apply, may not apply to the city. But with that being said, that concludes my presentation for the evening, and I'm happy to take any questions anyone might have on anything.

If there's any questions, we'll... That's a lot of information. I think we can probably all get through this in a couple of weeks, read line for line, but so far this is really good. Thank you for coming in. I'll entertain a motion to accept the report as provided. Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Is there a second? Second. We'll give that one to Ms. Sams. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed like signed. Motion carries. Moving to 2026 local road assistance administration funds. Mr. Bailey.

I'll take that. Mr. Steele will take that one.

Caught me off guard there. All right. You're good. You're good. Made the note it should be Chris. It should have been Jeremiah.

No worries. So what you have before you tonight is what I hope is becoming an annual gift from GDOT this year to the tune of $254,947.16. They use the LMA calculations, center lane miles, and give us a percentage of that to do road work with. It does not require a match, which is the best point of this money, although they get it back at some point or another through the year maybe with a delay of a traffic signal on Highway 11. So this year's project list consists of five or six streets. The main project is going to be on Vine Street. That will span from Pennell Road to the city limits at Alcove. It is going to require the bulk of this to about 200 grand to get it back restored to the condition that it needs to be. I'm going to use a little bit different treatment there on that street. I've never used it in the city. It's a permaflex OGI material that goes under the top layer, creates a little more density and a lot better ride, but with the truck traffic there, that extra density is going to come in handy because of so much truck traffic out there on that. So along with Vine Street, The only other street that we'll do an overlay on is Henson Drive. We'll go from Spring over to Carlwood with that. And then in the Gatewood subdivision, Gatewood Drive and Gatewood Way, Brookwood Way, Applewood Drive, we'll go in and do some extensive patching in there and prep for future overlay projects in that subdivision, as well as doing some deep patching on Ammons Bridge. So just seeking approval for that project list to spend that little bit over a quarter million dollars from the state.

Thank you, Jeremiah. I guess I need a motion to accept the $254,917.16 from the state. Mr. Mayor, for the record, I'd like to recuse myself from this vote. Thank you, Mr. Bradley. We have a recusal. I'll entertain a motion. So moved, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms. Brown. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed, like signed. Motion carries unanimously with one recusal. Moving to Social Circle IRU and proposed 40G to 100G upgrade. Mike. Thank you, Mayor. I don't know what that means. A lot of technical stuff, right?

So before you tonight, we got an IRU agreement that we're bringing before you with Acelicom, who's one of our providers. We've had several meetings with them over the past couple of months, and they want to lease eight fibers from us going down into the Social Circle area for some projects that they're working on. And so they've proposed to lease those fibers from us. It's about 20.3 route miles of fiber for about $2,000 a month. while that figure doesn't seem like a lot of money for eight miles of fiber, the trade-off there, they have agreed to upgrade our existing 40 gig connection. That's here in city hall. That's our main backhaul connection for all of our traffic to a hundred gig, 150% increase at no additional charge to us. So that would bring about a, about a, about a $5,000 a month value on top of that. So when, when the smoke clears, we'll, we'll, They'll be paying us $2,000, and we'll be getting an upgrade for our backhaul capacity for free. And so this IRU is really not going to cost the city any additional money from our perspective or standpoint. So our recommendation seemed to be a pretty good deal, so we're asking for the council to consider approval for that. I do want to note that it is still pending legal review. Legal has begun looking at it. They let us know it would not be finalized or finished by this meeting, but we want to just go ahead and get it on the agenda. So once legal review is done and if it passes, then we can move forward with that.

Okay, I'll need a motion to approve, assuming legal is satisfactory. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Bradley. Is there a second?

Second.

Ms. Crawford this time. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. Moving to the application of consumption of on-premise licensed beer and wine at the Coy House. Donnie, is that in order?

This application is in order, Mayor.

Okay. Is there any question for Donnie? Any comments? Anybody want to make a motion? Motion to approve by Ms. Sims. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Bradley. Is there any discussion? Second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Move to the application. Package license, beer and wine, Jacob and Jacob Food Mart, LLC. Donnie. This application is also in order, Mayor. Thank you. Sounds great. Are there any questions for Donnie? Wood, can I have a motion, please?

Motion to approve.

Thank you, Mr. Crawford. Is there a second? Second. Second. Give that one to Julie. She came in just under the wire. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. That passes. Moving to the CDBG grant writing administrative and related grant services for the Blaine Station project.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to table that to next month. I've spoken with Ms. Malcolm, and she really would like to be a part of that.

Thank you, Ms. Sams. Is there a motion and a second to table it? Let me write this down. Sams, Bradley. Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. That passes unanimously. Moving to Alcovee River Park. Engineering and construction plans, fee proposal. I have this, Mr. Bailey's.

Yes, sir.

I just don't want Jeremiah to pop up.

Yeah, you caught me off guard a minute ago. Okay, so having to jump a little bit here. This is what I mentioned in the opening report that we are seeking approval to essentially go ahead and start the work on our construction documents for the Alcovee River Park. It's for everything we will need to begin construction to essentially start bidding out the process once we assume that we receive full blessing of approval from the state to proceed in August or September. And this covers the property boundary survey, which we certainly need. Development of all construction documents, site, structural, electrical, utility, hydrology reports, geotechnical reports, permitting, and then bid documents if necessary, which I'm not sure we will need, but it is there, so. Essentially, the request is for $359,955, not to exceed, but I feel like it'll be approximately about $40,000 less once they continue to negotiate with a couple of the companies. So the request is for the $359,955.

That was lost funds? Lost funds?

Yes, sir.

Are there any questions for Chris? to the proposal of 300, anywhere from $313,955 to $353,955. I'll entertain a motion, please.

Move to approve.

Thank you, Mr. Dickinson. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. Motion carries. That passes unanimously. Moving to district items, Ms. Malcolm's not here. Ms. Crawford?

Nothing other than I want to thank everybody for the sidewalk repair in Gatewood. It was much needed.

And that actually leads to, with the approval of the extra funding for roads, I know a lot of times we approve things and it seems like a year, 18 months, 24 months later, do we have kind of Any guesstimate of timeline? So we're looking at a long time with global warming. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Mr. Bradley? No, sir, not this month. Ms. Sams?

Nothing at this time.

Ms. Brown?

Yes, I do have one thing, actually. So there is an event that's happening July 18th with the Shepherd's House. So they will be having their back to school event on July 18th at 710 Harris Street. So last year they gave away about 400 bags to kids in the community and so they will be doing it again. Their community partners this year are Monroe Area High, First AB Church, the Bookman of Monroe, and Walton Conservation District. Say that really fast. Yes, so, and I will be there as well.

Thank you. Is that George? Is that George? The Harris Street property?

No, he sold that property.

Oh.

This is the Reese.

Okay, Michael and Gloria.

Michael and Gloria Reese, yes.

Great folks. Okay, Shepherd's House, July 18th at 710 Harris Street. Yes. Thank you, Ms. Brown.

Mr. Gregory. I just want to say thanks for everything everybody's doing, and a couple of things have been relayed through conversation about issues in the district, and I know we're going to get those taken care of, so I appreciate it.

Yeah, and thank you, talking about that speed stuff. Mr. Thompson. Nothing to report. Anything in the egg?

Me ags busy. Nothing I can really talk about right now. Thank you. Mr. Dickinson?

Nothing from the district, but there is one thing I want to invite all of you to, all the city folks, council especially. June 19th is Juneteenth, and we're doing a special show at David's 105. It'll be the Higher Entertainment Band Those of you who know who they are, they're mostly from Social Circle, but not all of them. And their vocalist is a young woman named Kim Ivey. We call her the Queen of the 105. If you've never heard her, think Adele, Aretha Franklin, that kind of thing. So that show's gonna sell out. I would love to see all of you there.

And she is not just some local person who's pretty good. She's pretty well known. Oh, yeah, she is top notch.

And the band is. The drummer is Jamal Harge. And if you don't know Jamal, his brother was playing with Teddy Swims. I'm not sure he's still playing with him. My good friend from Monroe, Melvin Scudder, is the bass player. Melvin used to be in a professional funk band. And Sanchez Heard is the keyboard player.

Thank you. And I did fail to say this. We had sons and daughters of the American Revolution come in. We had our two naturalized citizens who've chosen us, right? That Juneteenth is another celebration of our freedom of the American people. That people fought and died for us to remain one strong nation. And I think each of us should or definitely counts himself very lucky to be a member of this great nation. So that's my report. Baltimore Crab Kings has a ribbon cutting on Thursday. That's two days from now. And if you haven't been, they are in the location of the former RJ Soul Food on Hammond. And the food is out of this world. I also talked to Bruce Williamson earlier. I've spoken with all the other mayors. I'm putting together a letter for our county commissioners and our team as well, just explaining the difference between the flexible local option sales tax, which is one penny that will go to offset general property tax throughout the county, and all that takes is an IGA with the county, that agreement, and we could put it on the ballot in November. The governor has called for a special session to address the L-host. The L-host is one penny sales tax that will go toward property relief for homestead properties only. Then once that property is fully funded, then it would the residual funds would go toward offsetting overall property tax for businesses, retail, commercial, industrial, and all the multifamily rentals as well. So those are the two options on the table. I've heard there's gonna be some kickback in this special session. So Elhos may not be something that can actually go on the ballot. I want the county commission to understand that You're talking millions of dollars left on the table if we don't get that on the ballot, and we all need tax relief. So I'm not going to choose one or the other. They're going to have to, but in the event one doesn't make it through the statehouse, we need that IGA to offset some of our property taxes. I know we're all... We're all tight, right? So just wanted to let you know, I'll be getting that out to you, I'm hoping by Friday, and I'll get it in their hands. But if you have any comments or questions or things that you know that I need to add, please let me know. That being said, I need a motion to adjourn, please. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Bradley. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr. Crawford. Is there any further discussion? Anybody want to stay around any longer?

All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye. All opposed, like so. Motion carries. That passes. Thank you, everybody. Happy 200th.