City Council - Regular Meeting

call the regular meeting in the morton city council for june 1st 2026 to order i'll ask councilwoman molly mckay if she'll lead us in the pledge of allegiance if she'll please rise 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 I'd like to call the Reverend Andrew Quistnut from Bridge 42 to give us an invocation. Andrew, thank you for being here.

Absolutely. I want to thank you so much for allowing me to come and pray with you and over this time together. So let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for this opportunity to come into this place and see the things that are going on in our city. Lord, as I was reminded from the sermon that I got to preach yesterday, about all his leadership, the first thing that he was willing to do was humble himself before you and say, God, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom that comes from you, Lord. I pray, Lord Jesus, that the leaders in this room today will ask the same thing from you, Lord God. Lord, give them wisdom that comes from on high on how to lead this city well. Let them seek out your face. as they do the work that You have called them to, because You have appointed them for this time to do the work that they are going to be doing tonight. So we thank You for them, we thank You for the work that they're going to be doing, and we pray that all glory will go to You tonight. For it's in Your name that we pray. Amen.

Next, I'd like to introduce counsel. To my far right, Wendy Cato, Mayor Pro Tem, Chris Jernigan, City Council, Keith Risby, our City Attorney, I'm Ronnie Thompson, your Mayor, Sally Sandy, our City Manager, Butch McSwain, City Council, Molly McKay, City Council, Renee carswell our city clerk and our assistant clerk jessica loman and our interpreters for the deaf ernest williams iv and danette stillman bridges our first announcement is an update on burke alert calling janet janelle sigmund our public information officer janelle thank you

Thank you for giving me a moment to talk about this. I'm very excited. So last year, the city started looking for options for a mass notification system. And after a lot of research and a lot of conversations, we recently recently partnered with the Burke County to use the system that they already have in place called Burke Alert. So they have given us access to that system to use it for City of Morganton needs and I just wanted to kind of give a short overview of what that looks like and So, Burke Alert powered by Smart 911 is a free service that allows individuals to sign up for notifications sent from state and local authorities. Burke Alert keeps residents and travelers informed on potentially hazardous situations involving weather, traffic, and other emergencies. So if City of Morganton residents have already signed up for this previously, they can go back into their accounts and elect the new notification list for the City of Morganton. Those lists specifically say City of Morganton, and we've made three so far. One is for power outage alerts. So if that goes for electric, water, and compass cable, if anything happens, we can send out messages to people by text, email, phone calls things like that the second list is for road closures and traffic alerts so for example if Public Works has to shut down a road for some odd reason for an extended amount of time we can let people know about that and the third one is general public information so this is non emergency stuff maybe festival information or just general public knowledge and things like that So how to sign up for this? So on the City of Morganton's website, if you go to morgantonnc.gov, it pops up. I've got an alert on the website. It's going to pop up right there when you go to the page. A link to the press release that has all the explanation of how to sign up. It is free. It is very simple to do. And one thing I wanted to mention was it is voluntary. obviously but it is very important because this is the one way that we have access to our residents in a moment's notice you know if we need to send out anything so it is very important and i hope a lot of people um i'd like to do that and if you have any questions i'll try my best to answer them any questions great thank you sounds like a great service thank you

We have one proclamation, Parks and Recreation Month. I would like to read that notice and proclamation. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities throughout this country, including the city of Morganton, and as parks and recreation promote health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks, And whereas parks and recreations promote time spent in nature which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being, and whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles, And whereas parks and recreation programming and educational activities such as out of school time programming, youth sports, environmental education are critical to childhood development. And whereas parks and recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction. And whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our community resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the US House of Representatives has designated July as public and recreation month, now therefore be resolved by the city of morganton that july is recognized as park and recreation month in the city of morganton adopted this first day of june 2026 ronnie thompson mayor renee carswell city clerk unless councilman butch mcswain if he'll present that to brian fish brian will come forward

Ron, I think you know how meaningful it is to me to present this. I actually remember the first year, this is what was then the Parks and Recreation Society, now Association, initiated this. listening to the mayor read the things we fit all of that and it's a real compliment to you and your staff that it's uh it provides as much as we do and recovering somewhere in there that word needs to be in there but uh we all appreciate it thank you brown i just just want to thank you for uh

Supporting us, giving us the resources we need to do what we need to do. Thankful for the team I have. They wouldn't be done without them. They do a wonderful job doing as much as we've ever done as a department. So thankful to them and the work they've done on the facilities we have. I know we don't have Catawba Meadows in soccer yet, but if you ride by shuey or gene turner they they look the best they've looked in a while so we appreciate the recognition and then i would just say be on the lookout we're going to try to do something special for july for the parks and recreation month so just be on the lookout on social media and and we'll see if we can do something for the community during that month. And just thank you guys.

Brian, one question. I've got a couple already about the splash pads. I know they're not open now. Can you give us an update on splash pads?

There are existing drought restrictions, even with all the rain we've received in the last week. And so they're currently closed. But we will, as soon as we get the word and are able to, we will have those open. We've checked them to make sure everything is good to go so we don't open them and then we've got to shut them down to fix something. So they're good to go whenever we're giving the okay. Okay. Thank you. And the pool is open, so the outdoor pool is still available and open if they want to go to the pool.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Yes, sir. Thanks, Brian.

Okay, we have a recognition from the American Public Power Association, and it's a Diamond Safety Award of Excellence. I'm going to ask Chris Jernigan if he'll make that presentation to Tom McGee, our Director of Electric Services.

Hey, Tom. Hey, thank you, sir. Proud to present the Safety Award of Excellence to the Power Department. It says here for Meritorious achievement in developing exceptional programs that promote safe work practices and create a culture of safety within the organization. And it's for Group C, which is systems with 30,000 to 59,999 worker hours of exposure. That's a lot of exposure to a lot of dangerous stuff. I know it feels good to be the new man coming in and have such a great staff and work. So we're already winning such a great award as that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Tom, would you like to say something, please? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Honored to accept this award on behalf of the men and women of the Electric Department. The award really belongs to our crews and staff who show up every day with a commitment to do the job the right way, and obviously with, most importantly, doing it safely. The goal for the electric department is simple, to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective power to our customers. Safety comes first because our work's demanding, technical, and often dangerous. Reliability matters because our customers depend on us every hour of every day. And cost-effectiveness carries significant weight because we know how important affordable electric service is to the families, businesses, and industries that we serve. We are proud that Morganton continues to have some of the lowest, if not the lowest, electric rates in the state of North Carolina, while still maintaining a strong, reliable system and a culture that puts safety first. On behalf of the Electric Department, thank you for this recognition and for your continued support of our employees and the work they do for the city of Morganton. Thank you.

Thank you, Tom. We have some upcoming events in downtown City Hall. Art in the Park on June and July is going to be the Foothill Painters. It's called the American Flag. This exhibition continues on the theme of America 250 for Art in the Hall this year. The Foothill Painters theme, the American Flag, is a multifaceted Art display of interpretations of the U.S. flag. The Farmers Market during the month of June and July. Farmers Market will be every Saturday 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 300 Beach Street and every Wednesday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 111 North Green Street. Our art crawl is Thursday, June 18th from 5 to 7. Come meet the Foothill Painters. TGIF is every Friday in June and July, except July 3rd from 6 p.m. to 10 on the courthouse lawn. Under Parks and Recreation, College Street Recreation Pool is now open and the splash pads are closed. They're currently accepting registrations for swim lessons, tennis lessons, and summer camp. You can call 438-5350. Under public safety, we have coffee with a cop at Canal Coffee on Wednesday, June 10th from 8.30 to 9.30 a.m. Sally, Power Agency number one, any update?

Nothing at this time.

Under our consent agenda, I believe we have eight items. Could you cover those, please? Yes.

I'd be glad to. We do have eight items and I would ask that you do those in a single motion unless you want something discussed separately. For those viewing from home, that includes minutes from the May 4th council meeting, appointment of the tax collector and the deputy tax collector, and ordering them to, directing them to collect taxes. Award of a contract to replace actuators to the Perkinson Company at the water treatment plant in an amount not to exceed $178,350. And then award of a contract to Charles R. Underwood, again at the water plant, for removal and installation of six new air release valves in an amount not to exceed $46,586.40. the annual tree trimming contract for electric that will become effective July 1. And this is awarded to Davey Tree Company and at an hourly rate of $137.56 for a total amount of work throughout the year to not exceed $285,000. resolution approving us conveying personal property to the town of Drexel. We are surplusing two trucks and they are able to use those and we have negotiated a price with them of $19,000. And then a budget amendment recognizing the proceeds from the sale of 112 West Union Street. And then transferring those proceeds to the Capital Reserve Fund. And that is in the amount of $424,974. and then finally a budget amendment transferring cdbg funds to the general fund in an amount of 150 000 to pay for the cdbg share of the storm drain project that we completed on concord street to any uh any minimum council wish to have any items removed from the consent agenda if not i'll take a motion to so moved okay uh do i have a second second okay molly

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Okay, next is the presentation we've all been waiting for, our proposed budget for 26-27.

I know you've been waiting a whole year. I know you're excited. We have.

We've been real excited.

Now we can just all hope that my voice holds out. It's that time again and we're going to talk a few minutes about the budget that we are presenting to you for our plan as we continue to move the city forward and as we start a new fiscal year July 1st. And Jesse is my technical help. So first of all, this year's budget that I'm presenting for your consideration is a little over $94 million. The current one, after a full year of budget amendments and working through things, is a little over $101,000. A little bit different. That gets skewed a lot, as you know, but capital projects and projects that carry over from year to year, and that just is what it is. Looking at about just under $20 million for citywide capital in the budget that you'll be considering. This is like a broken record. Same as last year. We are still suffering from effects of Hurricane Helene and we're going to talk a little bit more about those later. Contractor competition is still stiff, although we have seen some loosening of that and are receiving more bids now as we go out to bid and that is a good thing. Material lead times, price increases. To be honest with you, since COVID, prices haven't come down. They have just continued to climb. No different for us than it is for any of the rest of us at home. Western North Carolina tourism, visitor revenue. We're still suffering in Western North Carolina when it comes to this. And Morganton and Burke County are really no exception. I will say that last year we still had quite a few local businesses, a lot of closures. A lot of that, not all of it, some of it hasn't come back at all, a lot of that is better. And we are starting to see our water and sewer usage pick up. We've really reached pre-Haleen levels now and starting to see that to increase a little bit. I would say that one of the other things that is facing us that is scary is the legislation before the General Assembly on property taxes. So just to remind all you viewing at home and you guys, there are only two revenues in the general fund that this board controls. And that is your property tax rate and that is your solid waste user fee, your trash fee. Everything else is controlled by somebody else. You have really no say so over it at all. Property taxes fund 32% of our general fund budget. Yes, less than 50%. I know there's a perception that everybody pays their taxes and that we have all of this money and that everything gets paid for with that, but that simply is not true. I will tell you that in the budget that we're considering, the property tax revenue estimation is $12.6 million. Public safety's operations budget, no cars, no trucks, no equipment, the people and the things that they do is budgeted at $13,018,000 in the budget I'm presenting to you. So our property tax revenue does not pay for public safety operations. That's the best way I know how to explain what a big deal it is if the General Assembly decides that you don't get to decide for your community how to set your property taxes because your community elected you to do that. That is a threat to our budget and our ability to pay for services as we go forward. included in our general fund, our partnerships that we continue each year. I think the one worth mentioning here is, so our partnership with the COG, and we do an awful lot with them, and you're gonna hear from them. They're helping us with another grant proposal. The IBT, so as you all know, we're in the middle of the fight with Charlotte, who thinks that they deserve 30 million more gallons of water a day from our region that they don't want to treat and put back into the Catawba Basin because it's expensive for them. And in order to fight that as a region, we have all partnered together and are paying for attorneys, engineers, and a pr firm and our share of that next year for morganton alone is forty thousand two hundred and ten dollars fight worth fighting and something especially as we sit here in a drought that's still worth having something to say over so general fund is a little over 40 million uh again 5.2 million decreased from this year and that's largely in in capital differences The goal, continue to provide quality services, continue to invest in quality of life, still a big deal here. It makes Morganton the place that we all love and to attract new development and new people. So here's the same thing I've already said. The only thing new here with our Avaloran property tax is that we are recommending to keep the rate at 50 cents, which is the current rate, 50 cents per $100. And one cent on that tax rate generates $253,000. The downtown municipal service tax is recommended to stay at $0.12 per $100 and one cent on that generates $13,000 and we're looking to collect $163,500 next year from that and that pays for 16% of the Main Street expenditures. So other general fund revenues pay for the rest of that program. I'm not going to read all these to you. These were highlights that I included in the message dealing with capital purchases. They represent purchases and projects across all the departments in the general fund. I think two we will mention. One is resurfacing. That is in at $600,000 next year. That will not go far if we get to do that. We will try to put that off until the spring and couple it with the next year to be able to do more and hopefully by then we'll see fuel prices less which will make those dollars go further. The other one will be comma and we're going to talk about that later. in a little bit more detail. So one of the very frustrating things about Helene and all the funding that is available to try to help with what we're all going through and with other grant sources is there's a lot of money available state money federal money fema money all kinds of money it is just so hard to access it and the challenge is when they put all these rules and requirements and it can only be used for specific purposes the very purposes that we need it for which quite frankly is to rebuild our parks there's not money for that available yet at least none that we have found and we have certainly been asking However, they've opened up a pot of money that Comma is eligible to apply for, and that is because of the disaster funding, the disaster that we have this funding. So you know, two years ago, 23, three years ago, two or three years ago, we did the Comma Master Plan, and we looked at the things, the investment that we need to do over a period of years for Comma. This year, Comma's 40 years old. and she's done well and she's been great but like most things that are 40 she needs some work so we are looking at a grant opportunity that would pay for the project that you're seeing there the 6.1 million and would also pay some admin money on top of that that would allow us to use that money to pay for comma to not have to borrow money and obligate debt service and to hopefully free up some of our other money to help with some of the other expenses that we're having. Obviously, if we're not successful in this grant, then we'll be back at the drawing board and talking about how that project may or may not move forward right now. You'll see next, so these are our revenues. As always, sales taxes is the second winner behind Avalorum taxes. You will see that utility franchise tax and solid waste come in at about $1.8 million after that, and then they really kind of drop off. So these revenues make up 29% of the general fund. So these revenues are as large to us together as our Avalorum tax is. But our Avalorum tax is still pretty important. The general fund does require that we appropriate fund balance, which means using our savings to balance next year's planned expenditures with revenues that we are anticipating, and that is in an amount of $320,683. does not jeopardize your 35% fund balance policy. It's following another year of us being able to add some money to fund balance. And part of that again is projects that take multiple years to complete. So your expenditures, your finals don't catch up to you. And also because we've been pretty conservative because we're really trying to get Helene things done. So then we have our water funds. So now we'll go to utilities. Total budget proposed to you for water now for next year is $8.4 million. As I said, water, sewer, electric, we are seeing our usage back to pre-Haleen, which is awfully nice. And we're also starting to see some slight upticks and some natural growth in that, which is also nice. Proposing a rate increase only on volume, so only on what you use, not on fixed cost. 2.5% that would go into effect with the bills that would be generated August 1st. For a home using 5,000 gallons of water, that's less than a dollar a month. Our water rates are still super, super cheap. They're basically too cheap. That's just the reality of that with the investments that we're gonna need to make into our system. You saw the introduction of that at the workshop. Later this fall we'll have the full rate study and we'll start to work on that for next budget year and of course you'll be involved in that and we'll need to look at those rates and what they are, how they're structured and what happens with that. almost $2.2 million in capital, including our funding new housing development, the infrastructure piece of that, if we get any of those, line repairs and replacements, treatment plant repairs, and then also appropriating $159,000 to balance that budget. Wastewater, very similar story. 8.3 million, again, two and a half percent volume increase. Less than a dollar a month to average household. Rate study to come in the fall, taking a look at that. Two million in capital improvements and those are spread with some equipment and then some treatment plant and then some collection system improvements. again appropriating 136 000 to balance that budget electric fund 31 point almost 31.7 million dollars we are receiving a 2.6 percent wholesale rate increase we are coming off several years really about five years of either rate decreases or holding our rates the same That's pretty phenomenal because I don't know if you're keeping up nationally and you're looking to what's happening around us or you're listening to Duke that's asking for an 18% rate increase in all the things that are happening. Tom referred to it earlier. We are, in North Carolina, we have the lowest commercial rates and the second lowest residential rates of electric providers. City of Morganton, pretty low. pretty phenomenal and that is really great for our customers so we are having to look at what cost increases as we're needing to invest in the system we are passing along the 2.6 percent increase to our customers affects each rate class a little differently because each customer in those classes is a different type of electric customer to your average home is three dollars less than three dollars and fifty cents a month so You see there, we talked about true trimming earlier, right at $3 million in capital improvement, and you see we've got some new customer growth, some extensions we think that we're gonna need to invest in, working again on our direct burial upgrades, replacing old line that is buried in the ground conduit that needs reconducting, a bucket truck that we're financing, and then pole inspection and replacement are some of the highlights. planning to use a little over 45 000 in retained earnings to to make that budget balance last utility is compass and that is a 6.4 million dollar budget we're continuing to get more customers in our manager managed services we are starting to see a slight decline in our internet customers i can tell you hands down that is a result of all the federal dollars that have passed through the state that are going to the investor-owned utilities the private utilities that are running the lines right through the middle of town and serving our customers even though they weren't supposed to do that with that so Nothing we can do about it. We've tried to fight it and you know I've preached about it. Looking at a marketing plan there. Have budgeted $75,000. That's something that we're going to have to start looking at in a different way as we provide this service. So we feel like we're going to need some advice and help to get that going. Still continuing fiber to the premise. and looking at a new bucket truck, capital over 600,000 and right at $28,000 in appropriated retained earnings to make that one work. Cemetery Trust Fund, $31,000, looking at slight increases based on market to the lot sales and the niche sales prices and appropriating nothing for that fund to balance. Then we have our Intergovernmental Service Fund, which is our IT, our warehouse, and our garage. And those are the funds that serve us. That budget is almost $4 million. IT, a little over $2 million. Very light capital, big contracted services. It's how we do our business now. Warehouse, a little over a million. Big News Air Transformers, they have kind of, I'm almost afraid to say this, they have kind of leveled out a little bit in pricing, one of the few things. That's a miracle from where we've been. We'll take it. And inventory reflects a slight increase because of pricing in our purchases of inventory in the warehouse. Our garage operation, about $900,000 budget. $80,000 in capital. That includes $60,000 for a generator at the garage facility. And then fuel purchases. So we have budgeted an increase in fuel purchases. Of course, we're going to have to monitor that. It may or may not be enough, depending on how long fuel prices stay where they are or if they climb more. We cannot do this business without people. They are our most important asset. Without them, all this other stuff we talked about wouldn't really matter. There is a 2 percent cost of living adjustment effective in July, the first full payroll in July, and a 2 percent merit increase effective first full payroll in March. that would be to employees who earn that based on their personnel evaluations. Health insurance cost, still employee portion of that, $66 a month. And then, this is pretty exciting for accountants folks. Look at there. ARPA. All funds spent done before the December 26th deadline, just under five million. We may actually not have to ever talk about this again at this moment, and that's pretty darn exciting. We've got fireworks and everything, and that's just a reminder, and we talked about this a little bit at the workshop too, of the projects that we did with that. I think it's important for our community to know we didn't use this to pay salaries. We used this money to invest in assets in our community, to invest in the things that our citizens use that they rely on and that they need. And I think that's pretty important. So, movie time. Okay. So remember February, right? The Olympics. And as we all know, the U.S. took home gold in men's and women's hockey. And that was a pretty big deal. And that just reminded me of Miracle. And yes, 25 years ago I used Miracle in a budget. But I got different quotes this time. I just couldn't get away from it. It was just in my head. So the coach of that team was Herb Brooks. And Herb had a lot of wisdom. And one of the things that Herb said were that great moments are born from great opportunity. In reference to the 1980 team and they took an opportunity and they made a great moment out of it. I really believe that our great moment and sometimes not a great moment is Helene. And I think we're in the midst of taking that opportunity and opportunity and making it a great moment. We're not quite there yet. We're working on it. And just to bring you up to date. So there were total 26 projects currently estimated at almost $60 million. Yes, that number has gone up since the last time we talked. 17 projects have been reimbursed for a little over $5 million. That work is completed. A lot of that was emergency work. Things that happened in the days following the storm and in the months there after. Three of our permanent projects have been obligated and are awaiting reimbursement and that's 4.6 million and that also includes the rec maintenance building which is 4.5 million of that. We still have six permanent work projects that we believe, with no bids, but with some engineering and some educated guesswork, that they total somewhere around $50 million. One of those is the boardwalk. It is under construction, somewhere around $3 million. The raw water intake, it is in design, in engineering and design. We believe that's gonna be somewhere around three, three and a half million. The weir at the water plant and basically the abutment wall and the railings and the appurtenances to that is what we're talking about. In engineering, early in engineering, we really don't know. We'll call it several million dollars right now is what we think. Silver Creek Pump Station, something that we will probably talk about from now until none of us exist. The damage that occurred in Helene to that project and where we are, we are getting closer to FEMA approving dollars that they would help us to put it back to the condition it was in and then to help us elevate electric and help mitigate for future storms. We're coming close to that and we think we're gonna ultimately come in around a million dollars. That's what we've asked them for and we're working on it. But we're not quite there yet. The big one, Catawba Meadows and the soccer complex. And everywhere I go, everybody asks. Every group I'm in, some people are very kind and patient, some people are very frustrated, some people want to know why it's taking so long, and some people want to know why we just can't fix it. So months back, you all approved a million and a half dollars that we are fronting, that we are asking FEMA for, that they have not approved. They have actually only approved 300,000 of a million and a half thus far. And we're in discussions to get a handle on what really needs to happen there and everything that needs to happen. Preliminary engineering says that we need to spend somewhere between $27 million and $30 million on those two parks. That's 15 fields and everything that goes with them. That is two concession stands, an office, shed, bathroom facilities, equipment storage. What am I missing? I'm missing something. and whatever other buildings were destroyed, that is giant. That is larger than the available fund balance that we have in the entire general fund. So if we spent every dollar that we have saved, we could not redo these parks at the current engineering estimates. Now, FEMA doesn't pay you upfront FEMA has looked at our preliminary engineering and their current response is a little over $3 million. That is 10%. That is unacceptable, number one. And they realize, our person, our PDMG, our assigned FEMA person, Ryan Germany, realizes that they've missed something on their end of this deal. a few things, I might say. And he is working with us and our engineers to try to get through this process. Now, the challenge is how do we pay for it, okay? Because once we sign that contract, folks, we have obligated our money, and I have to be able to pay for that. If I don't get any FEMA money, and I don't know what that answer is yet, Or I can borrow the money and we can pay it back at some interest rate. I can't borrow all of it probably at one time. We've talked to the local government commission. They would support us borrowing money on this project. I would like that to be a last resort. There are some other CDBGDR that we're gonna talk about for Coma. Some infrastructure money coming down later in the summer for that. We could possibly go through that process and do this. Now here's our challenge. for me to borrow money, the LGC requires that I have taken bids, I have contractor bids in hand, I know exactly what I'm gonna pay, I know what my bank bid is, I know what my debt service is gonna be, I have identified the revenues I'm gonna use to pay that debt service back. CDBGDR, which I wouldn't have to pay back, will not let me take bids. cannot take bids, can only use estimates, can't really know what I need to spend before I fill out the grant and ask for the money. See my dilemma? Pretty stressful. So, we are currently working to try to figure out how much we can accept risk wise and which of those paths is the right one to go down this means we're not moving forward yet means i'm no closer to having our people playing sports enjoying the park that they're paying for And that is frustrating. It is very frustrating for us. It is very depressing. That means I'm no closer to having sports promoters back in here, hosting tournaments, bringing people to our community, helping the overall economic recovery of our community. Not one day closer. So there's the dilemma. That's where we are with that. So stay tuned because we're gonna figure it out. We just don't have those answers yet. And I cannot say to you how much risk I think is fair for us to take yet and not put our financial stability in jeopardy. That's where that is. But we're gonna have an answer, and we're gonna get that done, and then that is gonna be the opportunity that creates a great moment for us, just like the 1980 men's hockey team. So this thing, all hundred and some pages of it, is our roadmap to keeping Morganton a city of choice. where people want to work, where they want to play, and where they want to live. And that's still important. It does balance our financial responsibility with rebuilding while giving us opportunity to continue moving forward. I believe it offers our services at reasonable cost. It continues investing in our community. We're still working on master plan goals in downtown and recreation, albeit small pieces at the time. We are finalizing our utilities master plans and our rate plans, and that's gonna be critical to how we move forward in those funds. So how is it that we do this? So I'm still on the hockey thing. And so you see the 2026 teams there, right? When they asked Herb how he did what he did in 1980, when they beat the Soviets, which was a big deal. And they went on to beat everybody else too. He said, with unselfish players who bought into a unified system. And I see that's how we work here. That is what we are. And that system has a lot of players on it. and you all are part of those players, our community, our employees, our department directors, it really is a team. And without that, and without all of us working together toward that and working on a similar mission, we're not going anywhere. Because what we're doing right now, it's hard damn work, folks. It is hard damn work. And our employees continue to carry the water for us. They continue to do the work, the department directors. I mean, when I said through this process, we got to move things around that you need to do now because we don't know how much money we need to borrow. We need to keep some borrowing. Nobody batted an eye. Nobody won. Nobody said no. Everybody said we got to do what we got to do. And I appreciate that more than I can say. obviously rob jesse kate worked really hard on all the details in this and there are a lot of details i hope we've given you and our community our road map to our future and i'm going to be quiet now and i would like to say it has been a pleasure to get to this point and we will have a public hearing June 22nd and hopefully adopt a budget.

Jesse, would you like to add anything please?

Honestly, I'll just echo Sally. I was going to say it really, I mean, this is a very large book. If you look at it, it has a lot of details. We do a lot of work here, and it really is a team process. We meet with department heads, you know, over and over again, and they, first of all, put a lot of effort into it. getting to the meeting and they take their time and effort and getting quotes and being as accurate as they can you know months out before we're going to spend but we we go back to them especially with the helene over again and we move and we tweak and they really are great to work with and it makes all of this come together so we couldn't do that without them and without their buy-in and obviously with your support we have a lot of work to do we're doing a lot of work i'm excited to to get started and uh thank you yeah thank you any questions

if anybody has 30 million dollars laying around that they'd like to let us use for a while or or donate to the cause we'll take it okay then i would like to call a public hearing on proposed budget on monday june 22nd 2026 at 6 p.m in council chambers

OK, Jesse, thanks so much. We have a public hearing scheduled for tonight. It's a public hearing and consideration of an annexation petition.

You can you call it or do you need it as a motion?

I think you need a motion in a second. I'll accept a motion. I'll make a motion. To call that hearing.

To call for public hearing on proposed budget on Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 6 p.m.

Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Butch. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you so much. The public hearing for property located at 317 and 319 Enola Road. I'll call on Keith Rigsby, our city attorney, to give us some information.

I just need to open the public hearing for us.

Public hearing is now open. Would anyone like to speak about the annexation petition submitted by Papas Properties located at 317 in Older Road and 319 in Older Road?

Okay, hearing no public comment, what I would say is that the council has become familiar with this through the last meeting where we called for this public hearing and got the background on the petition that was filed. The petition was certified by the clerk and basically what that means is it was reviewed. and it was determined to be sufficient that all the property owners involved had signed off on it and that it was, in fact, contiguous to the city limits and was therefore eligible to be considered for annexation. Again, hearing no public comment, now council is... deciding whether to approve the voluntary annexation request and whether to adopt the annexation ordinance. Again, this does comply with the statutory requirements. The petitioners here is a group that's acquiring the property from the current owners. They are represented by attorneys out of Hickory. Mr. Huffman, their attorney, was planning to be here tonight but had an urgent issue come up that caused him not to be able to attend. But they have been working closely with us and providing us with the information we need, including a survey related to mapping out the area that would be annexed if you approve it. And so, again, this meets all of the requirements and just ask counsel to decide whether they want to move forward with it.

I'll close the public hearing. What's the wish of council?

Motion to approve the voluntary annexation petition and request submitted by Pappas Properties Development LLC, the current property owners for property located at 317 Enola Road and 319 Enola Road, and to adopt the annexation ordinance extending the corporate limits of the City of Morganton.

Thank you, Wendy. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next is a public hearing to receive input in the development of the CDBGDR, which is North Carolina Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Application for the Coma Renovation Project. I'll call on a good friend from our Western Piedmont Council of Government, Ben Willis. Ben, thank you for being here.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council, for having me. I was here a few weeks ago, and we did our first public hearing discussing how we were going to try to take advantage of the CDBG disaster recovery funds. And that first public hearing, if you recall, was basically an all-encompassing, said, hey, we're going to apply for CDBG funds, whether they're in this pot, this pot, or this pot. pot as available and this is called the commercial revitalization pot and we have a good project as miss sandy suggested in their budget transit presentation with Comma and so this is the second this will be our the second public hearing that we do now is project specific so hopefully in the future you see me again or one of our staff and will be another project that we'll be presenting for you that will be under the same. This one, this particular pot of funds is specifically for commercial revitalization and I'm going to read this so we can get all our information correct to you just to kind of give you some more background. The purpose of this, the city of Morganton is holding a second public hearing to discuss a community development block grant, CDBG-DR for disaster recovery, request to submit to North Carolina Department of Commerce. This is a requirement of the CDBG program in order to receive citizen input on any proposed projects using federal funding. 100% of the CDBG-DR funds will benefit low and moderate income persons. The scope of this project, In conjunction with the City's 2023 Master Plan, this project will renovate Kama Performing Arts Center, which will include auditorium renovations, back of house renovations, performance system upgrades, back of house building extension, and ADA compliant front doors. Also, Council, I gave you an updated sheet that talks about a budget modification, and I need this to be reflected in the minutes. There has been a change to the proposed project budget since the advertisement for this public hearing was published. Please let the minutes reflect that the change for the project application budget as follows. Total project cost is $6,728,134. There is a project development cost that we're basically a 10% that we could do to help develop the project. That's where the additional funds. Construction costs will be $6,116,486. The total project cost, again, is $6,728,134.

We didn't know that that was going to be available until Friday afternoon.

Friday. We found out Friday that we were able to add that. So this is a good, as Ms. Sandy so elegantly said, this is a fun time to be alive in Western North Carolina. And so we are all learning as we go. And we're trying to take advantage of as much opportunity to bring as much of these funds to not only the city of Morganton, to Western North Carolina as possible. This will be one of the first applications in for the entire west if we get it through. So we're trying to learn. And our friends in Raleigh who are helping us develop these application processes and everything are right along there with us. They want these projects to be funded. So now we're checking boxes and making sure we do it all together. Anyway, we need to open for the public hearing for citizen comment. That's okay.

Okay, we have a public hearing for the any input for the community develop up grant disaster recovery plan. Anyone like to speak for the comma project?

Correct for the.

If not.

public hearing is closed what's the wish of council i'll make a motion to approve a resolution authorizing western piedmont council of governments to submit a formal application for the comma renovation project to the nc department of commerce division of community revitalization for the amount of six million seven hundred twenty eight thousand one hundred and thirty four dollars

Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Wendy. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. I need a second motion, please.

I make a motion to approve the citizen participation plan and resolution in the anti-displacement plan as required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you. Molly, any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Can't wait to accept that. Yes. Ben, thank you so much.

Can I ask you just something, Ben? Yes, ma'am. As the state has been looking at this project, have their inclination to fund this been of positive nature?

I think we write good applications. We're working very closely with staff. And this coming together, they have really come up with a pre-application process where we work really closely with the folks. And so they're just as intimate with the project as we move along and build this thing. And so it's positive. I never make any promises about grants.

No, I wasn't.

looking for that but we but we feel good about the application um we've got a lot of experience in the room and a lot of experience um back at the cog to be able to help get this across but but none of us are really experiencing disaster recovery work so we're trying to apply what we know about cdbg to a disaster recovery type of thing and it's just which is weird It is weird. It is. But we're going to go after it. I mean, there are other funds that we're going to try to go after that are going to open up in July, and you will see me again probably in another couple months, and we're going to go after everything they throw at us, and hopefully we'll catch some.

And again, this opportunity, because this first funding, has to support revitalization and the recovery of your commercial district. So it has to be for something that supports, you know, visitors, tourism, use of restaurants, use of hotels, all of those kinds of things, small businesses. You know, for us, the dance groups, the dance companies here that make a living with that, having a facility to be able to use, all of those kinds of things.

Chair Stephanie Sharp In the next round, would the fields be applicable to this?

We think. We're working through that with them now.

So I think there's enough data to support what it means to the businesses.

Because this next round, next round doesn't have really much to do with businesses. Next round is all about public infrastructure. Oh, okay.

And parks and recs are?

And parks and recs were listed.

So we're going to see. But, yeah, it's good. We look forward to hopefully bringing good news, and we'll keep trying. Thank you, Ben.

Ben, thank you and the Council of Governments for all you do.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr.

Okay. Next is consideration of a resolution decreasing the speed limit on a portion of Kirksey Drive. I'll call on Wendy Smith for some details, please.

yes so ncdot is proposing to shortly make some changes to the intersection of kirksey drive and amherst road the city owns the portion of amherst between east union and kirksey the other three legs are all controlled by dot so amherst as it continues on and all of kirksey drive Currently, the intersection is controlled by stop signs on Amherst and Kirksey is free flowing. Due to past serious injury accidents at this location, DOT is proposing to make this a four-way stop by adding stop signs on Kirksey Drive. To facilitate that change, DOT is proposing to reduce the speed limit on Kirksey from East Union to roughly Vine Arden, like .01 before you get there, whatever, from 45 miles per hour to 40 miles per hour. with warning, associated warning signs about the stop sign change, et cetera. So DOT has asked for the city to concur with the speed limit reduction, 45 to 40 in that section. And I stress once again that this is a DOT change. The city's had discussions about alternatives, but.

Okay. What's the wish of council? But you look like you've got a question.

Well, I was gonna wait till the discussion part, but.

motion to approve a resolution concurring with a north carolina department of transportation to repeal the existing 45 miles per hour decreasing the speed limit to 40 miles per hour and authorizing the city clerk to prepare and sign the certification of municipal declaration to repeal speed limit and request concurrence form provided by the north carolina department of transportation thank you we have a motion to have a second

Second.

Chris, thanks.

Butch? Yeah, I got to watch my facial expression, I guess. I didn't mean to come out. You sounded like y'all, we had offered or the city had offered some alternatives and they were just not, they were considered but not taken in or what?

I'm not sure they're necessarily feasible for that location. There are serious injury crashes. DOT has a certain set of standards related to that. Probably the only solution from my armchair traffic engineer perspective would be a ginormous roundabout, and that would be very costly. A lot of infrastructure change, probably property takings and things on that corner, so that's Probably not feasible. I yeah, I can understand that from a planners perspective. It's a bypass and the point of the bypass is not to stop. But we also just seem to take care of people.

It seemed to me odd to just reduce the speed limit five miles per hour.

And put up stop signs.

And put up stop signs, which people are going to be not used to anyway. That's correct. And I just wondered, as opposed to a stop light, as opposed to 35 miles per hour, and all of that's going to be an enforcement issue, I understand. I don't know how our staff feels about that.

So the city, the DOT just asked for the stop signs initially in their discussions, and Our discussion as staff was particularly as you come from East Union and you come around that curve, if all of a sudden there's now a stop sign, and you can get up to 50 really quick there, you're supposed to be going 45, that should they look at reducing the speed limit on the section from East Union to Kirksey, or sorry, to Amherst, to say 35? Mm-hmm. They did their studies with the appropriate traffic analysis tools and came back with a suggestion or recommendation request to us to reduce it to 40. the segment not only from east union to amherst but also on the other side to vineyard there are traffic models that show what should be appropriate for different locations and we trust that they have utilized those and this is their best recommendation to us the reality is even if we don't concur they can still do it yeah yeah and they will and we have asked them this time to tell us when they put the signs up so that we can enforce them instead of the public telling us later and they're putting the stop signs that we're just being asked to reduce the speed limit yes to get to the stops yeah that's what it sounds like to concur with them and then our ordinance will get changed so that they can enforce the stop signs any further questions ask us about that part yet there may be a second part to this any more discussion

All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next is, thank you, Wendy. Next is consideration of a memorandum of agreement regarding design and construction of the Morganton-Weir Portage Access Area on the Catawba River and approval of a budget amendment. Call on Brian to come forward from recreation to give us some information.

Thank you again. So this project's been in the works for a little while. We were given some money to make improvements and the area we're talking about is above the weir on the Cobb property. there's been an easement for for a while for anyone coming down the river to take out and put back in below the weir and so we're looking to improve that area we were held up during hurricane helene that damaged the area just like it did everything else we've worked with the electric department cleaning out the area a lot of debris a lot of trees and the the plan is to It's almost like a concrete pad that they would build and slide into the river. So when people are coming down, they can safely get out of the stream and walk past the weir and get in below. it's there's a safety concern is the biggest thing we so we're asking for the property owner we're looking to amend the current easement and add about 50 feet to accommodate the location of the the new takeout and put in. So we are in the final stages. We've got almost all of the signatures for that amendment to the easement. And then we will, I've contacted the state who we're working with to ask what the timeline is for when we have the paperwork signed, when they can actually do the work. They will come in on the property and put those in. So we're approaching the finish line. Elizabeth and Gary Cobb have been, thus far, have been great to work with and accommodating, so we're waiting on a couple more signatures for that, the new amended easement, and then hopefully sometime later this year we can get that started and get that completed.

And Duke Energy has provided the funding, correct?

Yes, sir. And if I'm not mistaken, the funds were in the amount of about $139,000?

$139,600, and that was back in 2004 when we did the relicensing agreement, and Duke set aside funding for recreation projects along the Catawba chain. And this is like our third attempt at trying to get a project done with NC Wildlife, Duke, and everybody else, and I think we may have finally hit one.

Yes. What's the wish of council? Mr. Mayor, having canoed that with one of our staff members, who I would say that I wish it had been there then, I would like a motion to approve a memorandum of agreement authorizing the NC Wildlife Resources Commission to improve public access at the Morganton Weir Portage and to approve a budget amendment transferring $139,600 to the water fund.

Thank you, Birch. I have a motion and I have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes.

May I change that for a second? Something's wrong with that. And I just looked at, so we are not moving that money to the water fund. Actually what we're doing is we're taking it out of fund balance, right? So Duke paid us the money. Yeah. And we've been holding it. So we are just appropriating this money for this project.

Butch, will you accept that amendment? Yes, if you'll tell me how to say it.

So I just think you can say approve a budget amendment transferring $139,600 from appropriated retained earnings or appropriated fund balance to the project.

Chris, you second. Will you accept that amendment? I do. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you, Sally.

Sorry. Good eye. I mean, I've read this I don't know how many times.

And that's a consideration of a memo of understanding between Western Mortgage and Department of Public Safety and Western Piedmont Community College. Israel, will you come give us a little information, please?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. I'll do just a real quick overview and then the why behind this MOU. But first, I do want to say that I have been an adjunct instructor at Western Piedmont Community College since 2001. I've seen Representative Brian Christie here from the college. He's here as well. Also, Dr. Welch here. We've had a great, from the city of Morganton, public safety has had a great, strong relationship Partnership with the college and them accommodating us over the years. I've always been a part of the training for the, what's that, 25 years. And they have accommodated us greatly with anything we needed for our training. We've tried to support them back as a department. and all of our folks as much as possible through the training programs that they have to support them as well through their FTEs for their funding. So the why for this MOU, we've always had a challenge. Ever since I've been in training, it's always been challenging at times, specifically for in-service training for us as a city. from an instructor's standpoint. And in regards to that, I know Mr. Christie back there has spent a lot of time asking and also writing and coming up with a plan on how can we make this more fluid and more efficient for us to provide this training at a more efficient cost. So the why. The proposed MOU that you probably have in front of you would allow designed MDPS employees to serve as adjunct instructors with Western Piedmont Community College while remaining in their regular employment capacity with the department. The arrangement helps address the challenges associated with instructors having to take leave from their work in order to teach and avoid concerns regarding dual compensation. This also allows the college to be compliant with their policies and and compensation of instructional hours. It also creates a more efficient system with both organizations by allowing qualified personnel to provide instruction during their normal work schedules. In addition to that, the benefit of the agreement also enables students to learn from the experienced staff internally who actively engage in the field and are familiar with the current departmental policies, procedures, and our operational procedures. Under the terms of this agreement, the Western Piedmont Community College will reimburse more compartmental public safety at a rate of $30 per instructional hour for the employee serving as an adjunct instructor. So with that and how that would look is we will take the hours and keep that up on our side as long as the college side as well. And every 30 days we will submit an invoice to Western Piedmont Community College. They remit payment within 30 days of that invoice. From an operational standpoint, this agreement also provides a greater flexibility for our department. Having instructors available during normal daytime hours enhances our ability to schedule training and instruction while maintaining staffing needs. It also improves our capacity to provide internal training opportunities to our own personnel in a more efficient manner. And I'm assuming you probably have either the synopsis and or the memorandum in front of you. For the sake of time, I won't read into that anymore. But on behalf of the leadership of the Department of Public Safety, we support this MOU and we'll be happy to answer any questions from this point forward if you have any, myself or also Brian Christie.

Any questions?

Pretty cut and dry.

What's the wish of counsel?

Motion to approve the memorandum of understanding between the Morganton Department of Public Safety and Western Piedmont Community College concerning the joint appointment of adjunct instructors for the Western Piedmont Community College law enforcement and or fire training programs.

Thank you, Wendy. I have a motion to have a second.

Second.

Thank you, Molly. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Good partnership. Next we have consideration of appointments to boards and commissions. We have cable commission. We have two terms expiring. What's the wish of council?

I make a motion to reappoint Leslie Cawthron and Erin Dene to the cable commission for three-year terms to expire on June 1, 2029.

Thank you so much, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Next consideration of appointments to the Community Appearance Advisory Commission. What's the wish of Council? Oh, I'm sorry, that's a mayor appointment, not not a Council. I am going to appoint Judith, Judith Till and Janice Branstrom to the Community Appearance Advisory Commission for three year terms and ending on June 30th, 2029. Thank you, Keith. Next is the Main Street Advisory Board. That's a mayoral appointment. And I'm going to appoint Ashley Booner, Pete Wallace, and Eddie McGypsy to the Main Street Advisory Board for a three-year term ending on June 20, 2029, and to appoint Damian Patton to a three-year term ending on June 30, 2029. Okay, our next appointments, our city council appointments to Planning and Zoning Commission. What's the motion of council?

a motion to reappoint Rick Lingerfeld and Aaron Kaiser to the Planning and Zoning Commission for three-year terms to expire on June 3rd, 2029, and to appoint Amy Jackson to a three-year term to expire on June 3rd, 2029, and to appoint Polly Ledbetter to a one-year term to expire on June 3rd, 2027. Thank you.

Thank you, Wendy. I have a motion to have a second. Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next is consideration of the Recreational Advisory Commission. That's a city council appointment. I need a motion, please. What's the wish of council?

Well, in our motion to reappoint Mike Hasson and Cindy Keener to the Recreational Advisory Commission for three-year terms expiring on June 30, 2029. Thank you, Butch.

I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. I need a second motion, please.

Motion to appoint Sonja Reed and Thomas Best as the Recreation Advisory Commission for three-year terms expiring June 30th, 2029.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. next is consideration of cultural arts commission that's the city council appointment what's the wish of council motion to reappoint leanne britain darren layton and nancy van oppen to continue serving on the cultural arts commission for three-year terms to expire on june 1st 2029. thank you wendy i have a motion to have a second second thank you molly any discussion all in favor say aye aye motion passes Is that it? I think that's it.

I just reached the back of my book.

Anything else to come before City Council? We'll reconvene for the budget hearing. We are adjourned.