City Council - Regular Meeting

again welcome to the regular meeting of the morton city council august 3rd 2026. this time we'll have the pledge of allegiance i'll ask councilman butch mcswain if it leads us to the pledge for 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.

Okay.

Again, I'd like to introduce counsel to my far right, Wendy Cato, Mayor Pro Tem. Excuse me, Daniel. If you'll please come forward, Daniel Gutierrez, and lead us in an invocation. I'm sorry, Daniel.

That's okay. Thank you for inviting me. Let's pray. Father God, we are gathered here today to honor you and to pray for every board member and for our Mayor, Ronnie Thompson, because they are about to take important decisions for the benefit of this great community. We ask you that you give them knowledge and wisdom, to do what is right and good for the old people that live in this community. Remind us that we are your children and that the greatest honor in life is to serve you and to honor you with our deeds and sound decisions. We ask you that you help us in Christ's sake. Amen.

Thank you, Daniel.

Thank you.

Now I'd like to introduce Council to my far right, Wendy Cato, Mayor Pro Tem, Chris Jernigan, City Council, Keith Rigsby, our City Attorney, I'm Ronnie Thompson, your Mayor, Sally Sandy, our City Manager, Butch McSwain, City Council, and Molly McKay, City Council, and Wendy, Renee Carswell, our City Clerk, and for the Deaf community, we have Ernest Williams III and Danette Stelman Bridges. Okay, under public access, I'm going to call on Chief Ryan Lander if he'll come forward for an announcement and a thank you, please.

Good evening.

As most of you know, if not everybody knows, two Sundays ago, we had our first homicide in several years. And about an hour ago, I found out that Sea Platoon that is in the back of the room was going to be here. Lieutenant Belanger decided to have their shift meeting here. And they were the shift that was working the early morning hours, came in Saturday night. This happened early Sunday morning. And I just felt it was appropriate to publicly recognize them because of how they performed. in one of the most stressful times, stressful incidents that an officer can be dispatched to. And they weren't dispatched. We had officers that were checking an open door in downtown Morganton, heard shots fired, radioed it out, and No matter how many times in my past I've told officers to split up and don't go the same direction, they did split up on their own and went in several different directions. There were five people that needed to be detained and a victim that needed CPR. They were able to successfully find that individual, our victim, while... One or two officers report for performing CPR. The rest of them were able to bring into custody the five people that including our main suspect in that this never happens like this. You can plan this out no matter how many times you want to, but for. It just never happens. And for this group to come together and to work together the way they did, it shows you the type of officers that we have at this agency, the type of professionalism that we have a tendency to display, and how much they do care about this community. And I think it's appropriate to give them a round of applause for how they did that. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Great job. Next on our announcements, I'll call on Brian Fish, if he'll come forward, Director of Parks and Recreation, for an announcement. Brian, I believe you have help with you tonight.

I do have help this evening. Thank you. Good evening, Council, City Manager. As we discussed at last meeting, July is Parks and Recreation Month, and Each year we try to do something to recognize the month and celebrate it. And this year, my excellent staff had a good idea of what they wanted to do for it. And I figured why not let them come in and let you know what they came up with and what the winning, it was a t-shirt contest. And let them explain it to you and let them give them some TV times because I know I get so much. But I brought Andrew Talent, our assistant director, and Amber Williams, our program supervisor, two great employees. So I'm going to let them fill you in.

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you, Brian. I'll try not to be as long-winded as Brian usually is. I keep it short and sweet. But as a department, we decided that we wanted to do something different this year for Parks and Rec Month and something that we could really initiate moving forward and really involve the community in it. From my understanding, it's not something that's been done in the past as far as any type of contest or anything related to parks and rec month other than the parks and rec staff so we decided after a lot of conversations and a lot of ideas thrown around that a t-shirt would be the best option for us moving forward to get the most community involvement and As Amber's showing around our t-shirt. So we decided to post it online, social media, and get it out there, right? And so the theme of it was, what does Morgan to Parks and Rec mean to you, right? So out of all the submissions that we had come in, we decided on three or four of them that we thought represented Morgan to Parks and Rec the best. So we went through the process, sent it to... the higher ups, as we can call it, to make sure that we're following all the right rules and there's nothing in there in the contest that shouldn't be, right? And so we finally decided on the design that Amber displayed here, and it really shows everything that Morganton has to offer. It's got pickleball, baseball, softball, playgrounds, playgrounds, fishing, table rock, and this is where you thrive is the theme on the shirt. Stephanie Moret was the design. Winner and we've got the original proof of her design as well So some of the stipulations on the t-shirt was it had to be an original and it couldn't be AI produced and so moving forward Her and her family were able to receive these shirts as part of their prize also a $50 recreation credit tour for a picnic shelter or a registration And these shirts will also be for sale at the rec department or online. They'll be $20 a piece. And they are the comfort colors material. So they are a very nice shirt. And like I said, we just appreciate the community involvement in allowing us to get the participation that we did, and we're hoping to move forward in the next few years in developing more and more participants on that.

And do I see somebody on an inner tube, it looks like, in the river. Is that Brian Fish on the inner tube?

If we could get him on one, that would be great. It's probably not him. It's Butch on the inner tube.

Okay, so anonymously, somebody's in the inner tube. Okay. Great job, Andrew, Brian. It's a great design.

That's awesome, guys.

Thank you so much. Okay, next on our agenda, an historic Morganton Festival update. Mackenzie McGinnis, if you'll come forward, then it's about that time.

It is about that time. Good evening. Thank you for having me. It is almost time for the 44th annual Morganton Festival presented by UNC Health Blue Ridge. So the festival this year is September 11th and 12th. It's a week later, but that's because it's always the weekend after Labor Day, which is how that falls this year. So The times remain the same, Friday 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. Rides will open at 4 p.m. this year instead of 5 p.m. And on Saturday, it's 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. with rides opening right at 9 a.m. The festival will feature over 250 arts and craft vendors offering a diverse range of handcrafted goods as well as non-profit organizations and local businesses. downtown will be overflowing with festival food fair and we have a few new things this year i'm excited about we have your classic turkey legs hamburgers chicken on a stick and egg rolls that we all know and love but this year we're also adding cinnamon rolls pizza cones you'll have to figure out what that is there um and a few other things that are really exciting we have a mexican food truck that's going to be there so a little bit more range of food We will have roving entertainers throughout the downtown area and for our younger community members, the Litter Critter Station will provide an engaging and educational activity for elementary aged children in the kids zone per usual. We have again stated that all food vendors must display their menu for food pricing at the festival in response to the food pricing concerns from two years ago. This transparency greatly helped the issue last year and we did not receive as many complaints. Ticket prices for rides will again be around $3 per ride. And local talent will be showcased on the RE-MAX Southern Lifestyle Stage this year, which was previously called the Pepsi Stage that was on North Sterling Street that has now been moved to the patio space beside the Madness and King Street. So one big thing we're trying to do this year is add more entertainment throughout the day. So if you're there enjoying the vendors, enjoying the food, Maybe your kids are riding the rides, but you want something to sit in the shade and enjoy. So we're having not only local talent from our dance studios and the jam kids and organizations like that, but local musicians as well. We want to give them a space to be seen and appreciated. And so we have a stage full on Friday and Saturday of local musicians, duos, trios, and full bands that are performing the patio. And you can sit at the tables and enjoy the umbrellas. And then if you turn to King Street, that's where the dance groups will be. So they'll kind of go back and forth as it goes. And REMAX Southern Lifestyles is the sponsor for the stage this year. We will also have our main stage on Friday and Saturday. And those are the following. On Friday, we've got September, a tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire, which is a vibrant and dynamic tribute band that pays homage to the legendary sound and spirit of the iconic group Earth, Wind & Fire. And Purple Madness is America's number one Prince tribute show, bringing to life the electrifying energy, unmistakable style, and iconic sound of the legendary superstar. So we're going to have to get a dressing room because there will be costume changes. And on Saturday, again, with expanding more things to do at the festival and more things to enjoy, we have added a third musician to Saturday's music lineup. So starting at 5 o'clock, we'll have Johnny Mullinax on the main stage. He's an up-and-coming artist that claims wide-ranging influences from ACDC and the Ramones to John Coltrane in Parliament. Johnny calls his genre-bending sound a funky country bluegrass good time. You'll see a theme for this year's festival on Saturday. Next, we have Dirty Grass Soul performing after Johnny. They're from Shelby, North Carolina. Dirty Grass Soul has been entertaining audiences across the Carolinas and beyond since their formation in 2011. With a sound that draws much influence from traditional music of the North Carolina foothills, Dirty Grass Soul manages to bring new, refreshed, and re-energized sound sound to their music that falls somewhere between country, bluegrass, and southern rock and roll. And last, our main act is Eddie Ninevolt. Eddie is a character. Eddie plays a thrilling mix of southern soul, blues, rock, and funk. Three of his songs are on the radio, Halo, Life Moves Slow, and Saratoga, and he signed with Easy Eye Sound, a Nashville-based label. Eddie Ninevolt is sure to be an entertainer with lots of energy and talent. So this year we worked with with our amazing sound company, Codex Sound, and were able to get references for who he really thought would play well together along with these artist agents. So while they kind of all have that same bluesy, funky genre, they said that they will bring a great crowd, a diverse crowd that enjoys all their different sounds, but it will all be the same type of music that people will know and love. So we look forward to seeing everyone there for a weekend of unforgettable entertainment and celebration. And before I thank our sponsors, I do want to say that we are still recruiting volunteers for this amazing event. So if you are interested in volunteering, please contact our office and Casey will be happy to fill you in wherever you would like to volunteer. So lastly, thank you to our sponsors. This event would not be possible without their support. UNC Health Blue Ridge is the presenting sponsor. Case Farms, the North Carolina Education Lottery, Pepsi, Seren, Paramount Automotive, Sandstone Health and Rehabilitation, The Paper, Kix 103.3, The News Herald, Bigfoot Radio, Remax Southern Lifestyles, Sossaman Funeral Home and Crematory Center, United Carolina Beverages, Compass Extreme, Republic Services of NC, Atlantic Bay Mortgage, Law Offices of John W. Alexander, TWFG Jeff Kincaid Insurance, WNC Plumbing and Drain Services, Packaging Corporation of America, and Window World of Catawba Valley. So a long list that I'm very grateful for because we could not have this event without them, and we couldn't have it without all of you and our community. So we're really excited for this. It's going to be a great year, and we invite you all to come out.

Mackenzie, great, great presentation. Does staff, council have any questions for Mackenzie? Sound like it's all together.

We're ready. Okay, great. Thank you so much.

Next on our agenda, Certificate of Achievement for Excellence. And Jesse Parrish, our Assistant City Manager CFO, is going to make that presentation, I think. Thank you.

That is actually a presentation that we received from the National GFOA, the Government Finance Officers Association, right?

Yes. We submit our annual financial statements along with extra kind of supplementary data that we kind of go above and beyond that that program requires. We do that every year. And I think last year I said we can't count back how many years the city of Morganton has has received that award in financial excellence so it's a long-standing history um of just financial accuracy and reporting and excellence and benchmarking and so we have yet another year it's upwards of 40 i think is where we are at but it's been a long time probably just over 40 yeah

Well, that is great news. So thank you for that update. And you have a finance update for us?

I do, which I'd like to request next time. I don't go after McKenzie. My topic is not as fun. But, no, it's a great weekend. My kids, it's their favorite weekend of the year. Yeah, I just wanted to do a quick update. Again, having a lot of changes at the business office. One of them, with the investment in our new portal availability to be able to pay and have services, we have really taken a look at the amount of options we have to our customers on how to access, view, and pay their bills. And again, done a lot of work over the last couple months on what that looks like. So just as a reminder, and I have it with me tonight, and I have some out front, we've made copies for at the business office if anyone would like to tape or paper copy home, and it's on our website also. We offer a total of eight different payment options to view, access, pay your bill. In person, we offer an automated phone system where you don't talk to a person in our office. I'll call it that. Mail, Dropbox, DriveThru, our online payment portal, ACH, and automatic bank draft. There is a mixture of fee-associated or no fee-associated of those payment options. For history in COVID, with our inability to have people in person for a period of time, we added a ninth payment option, and that was what I'm going to call in person over the phone. So that's you calling a person in our business office, which is a total of four people serving 18,000 residents, to take a payment over the phone, which is a credit or debit card payment. So they are literally talking to a person, looking up their bill for them, writing down numbers typing it in hand or over the phone saying a receipt number it's an arduous process and we've carried that on since COVID and really feel like that's just taking up a lot of staff time and we have now that we have a new and improved portal in an online portal that that is becoming a process that staff wise we're just not really able to maintain So effective September 1st, soft September 1st. We're trying to get everyone time to change if that's their normal cost of payment. Please call the business office. We can walk them through whatever your new preferred payment would like to be. And that also gets us through our discount period. That's taxes. That ends August 31st. So I wanted to give a little bit of time, but we will not be offering that payment. starting September 1st as an option. Again, we have a list of the eight on our social media website. There's links to all of it. There's also attached to this that I have outside our bank draft form, which you can't really see, but... That's kind of your easiest, freest way. I don't want to call it set it and forget it. Definitely look at your bill. But it's an easy way for you not to have to have as much human contact and also for it not to be a reminder issue for you. So, again, happy to have any questions through the month that we're changing it. But I just wanted to give that update and some time to get used to that.

Any questions for Jesse, please? Great job. Many different ways to pay, correct?

Eight. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Next on our agenda is a drought update. Randy Smith, our Director of Water Resources, will come forward and tell us what are restrictions or what's going on with the drought.

I do have some pictures. I don't know if they can see my presentation or not. Very good. All right, good deal. So I know after we've received a few weeks, maybe a month's worth of steady rain, everybody wants to know about drought conditions, whether we're coming out of the drought stages or not. So I'm here tonight just to give a brief update to our drought situation. So who does determine that there is a drought? The Catawba Watery Drought Management Advisory Group is the ones that declares droughts in the Catawba Watery River Basin. It's where we take water from, along with 18 other water purveyors composed of Duke Energy, public water suppliers, and state and federal agencies. They implement the Low Inflow Protocol, to manage water use requiring voluntary or mandatory restrictions, reductions based on stream flows, lake reservoir levels, and data that is provided from the U.S. Drought Monitor. So this is where the Catawba Watery chain is, all the different reservoirs starting at Lake James and ending at Lake Watery, which then it goes to the ocean from Santee Cooper. So that's where it sits, just as a reference. So last August, as you can see, we started having some drought conditions and leading in through fall and into winter conditions continue to get worse. So it's not a recent thing. This drought has been continuing since last fall. As we came in to April the 16th, we declared a stage one. And in May, May 1st, stage two was declared. So after a few weeks, almost a month worth of decent rain, basically, you know, average rain, the conditions have improved. However, we are still in stage two. And here's the most recent data. So as you see, things have improved very nicely. But please remember, as of a year ago, this was what our conditions looked like. This is a regional timeline. And again, you can see how well we have progressed, especially parts of the Deep South. It's improved quite a bit. So it makes everybody think, why are we still in stage two LIP? The conditions in the Catawba-Watery River Basin continue to support the low inflow protocol for a stage two. Reservoir storage index trigger has increased in the past few weeks. It is currently at 88.5% of the target. The three-month average that the U.S. Drought Monitor uses is at a 1.52%. So both of these items support stage one. While the reservoir storage and drought monitor both support stage one, the overall LIP stage cannot be reduced until all three of these triggers entered into this reduced stage. And the limiting factor is the six month average streamflow trigger. And it is 43.5%, which is actually increased by 3% over the last week and a half or so. And anyways, so that condition actually indicates that we need to be in a stage three. So it averages in a sense to the stage two where we are now and have been as of May the first. And stream flow is crucial because it sustains the reservoirs long term. So again, it's a six month rolling average. So it takes a long time to get into the drought, but it takes a long time to get back out. And if anybody's been by any you know, rivers or streams in the last few months, you've seen how skinny, you know, they are. So I'm glad to see that those levels are increasing, but it's going to take probably a couple more months, even at moderate rainfall, to get back into hopefully a stage one. So we were lucky not to go into the stage three, truthfully. So the stage two requirements. In effect, to reduce water consumption by 10%, that is the goal of Stage 2, the City of Morganton Water Shortage Response Plan states that customers must limit the amount of water used on your lawns and landscaping. Only water between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. and refrain from unnecessary outdoor use of drinking water for washing impervious surfaces such as driveways and sidewalks. And just some recommendations for water reduction. Check faucets and toilets for drips. Even a small leak can waste thousands of gallons each month. Reduce your shower times. Use dishwashers and washing machines only for full loads. So if you do hand wash dishes, please fill a basin rather than running the tap continuously. And keep a pitcher of water in the fridge instead of running the tap for cold water. For outdoor conservation measures, water lawns and gardens only in early morning or late in evenings to prevent evaporation. Shut off outdoor spigots when a hose is connected to prevent attached accessories from leaking. Use a broom to clean driveways, sidewalks, and patios. Apply mulch around plants to keep moisture in the soil. and catch sour water, warm-up water, and vegetable rinse water in buckets and use it on plants for watering. And use pool covers to drastically reduce water loss through evaporation. And again, we do appreciate your continued conservation and support through this drought. Thank you.

Randy, thanks. Any questions from council?

It's just glad to have the understanding why we're still in drop to because of course the summer was hot and the pools were not the sprinkle pools were not working so i think that was one of our biggest issues for the kids yeah we will so and we've got it on here there will be no splash pads this year unfortunately we're not going to get out of this in time to to activate the splash pads so unfortunately the water from ours isn't

recycled. So that is what keeps us from opening up as opposed to the pools. And again, it's been 20 years almost since we've been in this deep of stage into the LIP.

I think it's appropriate since we're fighting the fact that Charlotte wants to take more water out. This drought is kind of giving us some up-to-date reasons why we want to continue to fight for that.

It definitely brings home some of our concerns. For sure.

Randy, thanks so much.

Thank you.

Next on our agenda is a proclamation for National Recovery Month, which is September 2026. I'd like to read that proclamation declaring September 2026 as National Recovery Month in the city of Morganton. Whereas behavioral health is an essential part of health and one's overall wellness, whereas treatment and prevention of mental health issues and or substance abuse, substance use disorder is necessary and treatment can be effective, and whereas overdoses and overdose facilities in Burke County have been a persistent issue and there's not been a corresponding increase in treatment rates or treatment facilities, and whereas preventing and overcoming substance use disorder is essential to achieving healthy lifestyles both physically and emotionally, and whereas we should endeavor to educate relatives and friends of people with substance use disorders so they will be able to assist with preventative measures, recognize the signs of a problem, and guide those in need to appropriate treatment and recovery support services, and whereas substance use disorder is a major public health problem that impacts society on multiple levels, and whereas the use of fentanyl and other dangerous opioids as well as substance being laced with potent sedatives is a significant problem in our community and other communities nationwide, and who has to help more people achieve and sustain long-term recovery, Burke Wellness Initiative and Burke Substance Abuse Network invites the City of Morganton residents to participate in activities which will be held to recognize National Recovery Month on Saturday, September 5, 2026, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Catawbas Meadows Park. Now for City Council of Morganton, North Carolina does hereby proclaim September 2026 as National Recovery Month in Morganton, North Carolina and call upon citizens, government agencies, public and private institutions, business and schools in the city of Morganton to increase awareness and understanding of substance use disorder and the need for appropriate and accessible services for all people with substance use disorder. Approves the third day of August 2026. Ronnie Thompson, Mayor. Renee Carswell, City Clerk. Do I have a motion to accept this proclamation?

So moved.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Resolution passes. Okay. Next, our upcoming events.

Is there anyone here?

Oh, oh. Is she here? Donna, if you'll come forward, please.

Oh, I think Dorian.

Oh, Dorian. I'm sorry.

Dorian, I am so sorry.

Molly's going to make that presentation. Thank you so much.

It's my pleasure to present this proclamation that the mayor just read into the record. The work that y'all do in the areas of substance use disorder and mental health is incredibly valuable. It impacts so many other families in this community. And having the opportunity for services and assistance is incredibly important. So thank you for your work.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Dorian, tell us what to expect at Catawba Meadows.

So our recovery rally, we're expecting to have at least 30 to 40 vendors show up. We're going to have multiple food trucks, free food on site, kids activities. That includes bounce houses. So that sounds fun. It's going to be a bunch of different agencies and small businesses that we can all get together to celebrate recovery activities. I've been living in Burke County my entire life, and I've seen what this county has done and the improvement we have made when it comes to substance abuse. And I have the honor to be able to work with the community and other agencies to make a positive impact and change and use my experience throughout my life to instead let that affect me, allow it to help other people. So I'm just glad to be able to set this recovery rally up. I hope it's nice weather. We don't get rained out this year. We'll see. Burke County is a mysterious place. But other than that, it's supposed to be good. It's free. All vendors are Welcome to come. It's free for them to attend. There's no charges this year. We're still obtaining sponsors, so I will not mention sponsors yet. The deadline for that is August 5th. But it is free, and it's free for everybody to attend. So if anybody's interested in setting up a booth there, you can always just call Burke Recovery and let us know. We're here for everybody.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Good luck.

It's September 5th. It'll be at Catawba Meadows Park. I know that's pretty close to the historic Morgan Festival. That's the only date we could pick. But like I said, hopefully it's going to be sunny and nice weather.

People can do both. That's great.

Thanks. Thank you.

Under upcoming events, Art in the Park in August and September of 2026, Irina Kudyukov will entitle Immigrant Inspiration. Its exhibition continues on the theme of America 250 for Art in the Hall this year. Irina brings to us an immigrant's perspective through her paintings. Come to the third Thursday of Art Crawl on September 17th to meet Irina. Our unified development ordinance community meeting will be Tuesday, August 11th at 5 p.m. here in council chambers. That's for people in the public to give input and tilt into the unified development ordinance. Our third Thursday art crawl will be Thursday, August 20th from 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock. Our Farmer's Market during the month of August. Our Farmer's Market will be every Saturday from 8 to 12 p.m. at 300 Beach Street and every Wednesday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 111 North Green Street. Our City of Morganton Blood Drive with the American Red Cross will be Friday, August 21st, 9 a.m. to 1.30 at City Hall Council Chambers. Again, the Historic Morganton Festival, September 11th and 12th. Our Kama Performing Arts Center, our Main Street Season Ticket Package are available for this week. August 10th, single tickets are available. One of my favorites, Play Music on the Porch Day. Saturday, August 29th, various times and locations will be posted. Under Parks and Recreation, again, mention the splash pads are closed. Under Public Safety, we have a National Night Out 2026 on August 11th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Courthouse Square. There'll be a fire truck show, canine demonstrations, food, a bounce house, a law enforcement car show, SWAT team demos, and face painting. And Coffee with a Cop will be at Chick-fil-A Thursday, August 20th, 26th, from 8.30 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. Sally, any other public announcements or...

I think that's got it right now.

Okay. Next thing on our agenda is changing city council meeting for September. I need a motion from council.

I make a motion to approve the change in city council meeting from Monday, September 7th to Monday, September 14th.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Any discussion? This is because Labor Day holiday, we will do it on the 14th. So all in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have... Consideration of consent agenda, I believe, Sally.

We do. So consent agenda tonight has five individual items on there that we consider to be non-controversial and would ask you to approve those in one motion, unless, of course, you want something removed and done separately. For those of you viewing at home, that includes minutes from our regular meeting, which was on June 1st, And then our special budget meeting, which was held on June 22nd, 2026. It includes approval of a streetlight policy, an update to that policy. And then also adoption of a resolution allowing us to apply for a governor's highway safety program grant for traffic enforcement. and to approve the agreements and conditions that go with that. Also, adoption of a resolution that we need to adopt to assume part of Salem Fire Department's debt relative to an annexation that has occurred. And that calculation is in your materials. And then to adopt a resolution declaring delivery number four power transformer as surplus property. You know, we're in the process of updating that facility. And ultimately, we will not need that transformer. And we have taken bids and would like to authorize the sale of that for $20,000 to Balea Company.

Do any members of council wish to have any items removed from the consent agenda? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

I need a second.

Second.

Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. Sally, I missed the North Carolina Municipal Power Agency. Do we have an update?

But I don't think we have anything tonight.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next on our agenda is a public hearing in consideration of approval of a resolution to apply for a USDA equipment replacement grant.

And Ben's back.

And Ben Willis from our Western Piedmont Council of Governments. We're glad to have you back any time you're welcome to Morganton. Ben, can you give us an update?

We're trying. We're trying, yeah. My name is Ben Willis. I'm the Director for Community and Economic Development for Western Piedmont Council of Government, and we hopefully have found some more money for the city of Morganton, or we're going to at least try for it. I'm going to go through, this is just basically a public notice to talk about what this particular grant is that we're going after on behalf of the city. It is the desire of the City of Morganton City Council to secure a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development to obtain sufficient funds for improvements necessary for recovery from damage caused by Hurricane Helene. Specifically, this includes replacement of public works vehicles, Assets required by the city of Morgan may be encumbered by a grant agreement. The public is invited to attend the meeting for comment as on the proposed action. The city is requesting $200,000 of support through the Disaster Assistance Recovery Community Facilities Grant Program. To purchase one new public works vehicle, the city will contribute $25,000 towards the purchases for a total project cost of $225,000. The request and local match are based on current estimates for purchasing a replacement knuckle boom truck that meets the city's operational requirements. And so that is basically it. The COG is very fortunate to have hired a person who does USDA grants on behalf of the region. Several of the COGs were able to get a person. Our person happens to be Shelby Zeilander, who was a fellow with us anyway, and she kind of moved into this role. So she was able to hunt and seek down these different pots of money that we normally would not go after. So this is all Shelby Zeilander's work. She's worked really hard and worked closely with Rob Winkler to kind of get this to you. So a $225,000 boom truck for $25,000. I think it's a pretty good deal.

That's right.

So that's what we're trying for.

We certainly used the knuckle boom during the aftermath of Helene, whether that was, you know, help in cleaning up commercial areas, help in cleaning up the debris, our electric system that was stranded and thrown all around the streets. I mean, it definitely put some hours on it and some work. And this is much needed.

So we're appreciative. So we'll put our fingers across our fingers. We feel good about the potential of the application.

What's the wish of counsel?

Does he have to ask if anybody wants to speak?

Yeah.

Okay, so do I need to open for public hearing? Yeah.

Okay. Council is now open for public hearing to consider the approval of a resolution to apply for USD equipment replacement grant. Would anyone in the audience like to speak for or against?

Would anyone like to offer the $25,000 matching? No.

No takers either way. Okay. In that case, our public hearing is closed. What's the wish of counsel?

I'll enter a motion to approve a resolution to apply for the USDA Equipment Replacement Grant in the amount not to exceed $200,000 to be used to purchase a new knuckle boom truck for public works.

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. Ben, thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. And thank her for searching for money. Next on our agenda, a public hearing consideration of an alternate design request submitted by Thrive Church for landscaping at 2147 South Sterling Street. I'll call Wendy to the front for explanation and discussion.

All right. I am trying to log on to the laptop. The password is incorrect.

It's Randy's fault for bringing in another computer. There we go. Okay.

Speak to the man behind the wall. It's kind of like Oz. The man behind the curtain. The Wizard of Oz.

Okay. This, apologies, this is set up different to my laptop, so please bear with me through this. So this proposal is for an alternative design arrangement, as Mayor said, for Thrive Church. The subject site is an 8.25 acre site that accesses off of South Sterling Street. It will be familiar to people in the community as the former site of the pavilion roller skating rink for probably 40, 50 years on there. It has recently been purchased by Thrive Church, and the intention is to turn it into a church space, and they have been working on their development plans for that. Through that development plans, one of the zoning ordinance requirements is for what's called a building yard landscaping, that where parking is adjacent to a building, then you're supposed to put a certain amount of landscaping along that building frontage, And it would be a three foot wide or five foot wide landscaping buffer with two shrubs per 10 linear feet based on the large size of that building. The church has proposed instead to group that landscaping. So you can see this plan and my cursor. It should be that landscaping across the frontage here. Instead, they have proposed to put that landscaping in a grouping of five different landscape beds across the frontage. They have proposed the overall square footage proposed is about 400 square feet greater than what would have been required if they had done the linear measure. And they have also included, you can see here, trees in that, which the original requirement is just for shrubs. The intent of building yard landscaping is to create that buffer between buildings and parking areas for pedestrians entering and exiting buildings and to approve the appearance of building entrances. Because it's to create that buffer, they have proposed and around the pedestrian entrances to concentrate a greater area of landscaping around this entrance area here so in this instance the building is existing and there's an existing parking layout there there is also an existing you can see a portico here with an overhang if the parking is moved away from the building edge, then the cars are going to shift backwards and then the drive aisle is no longer going to line up underneath that portico. So I have a couple more images here that show that. That's a more zoomed in image. So this is where a car would be parked without the landscaping as the building has been. And you can see you can drive under, let people off there. If the landscaping is installed, and they have to move back, then that dry vial is not going to line up. And they're going to either have to take this off or readjust it and make it bigger and then reline and move. There's 80 some spaces that will have to be moved out. Exponentially across the parking lot of several aisles of parking. So again, they've proposed to put those Spaces in what is generally a parking space so they get a little bit bigger Here around the entrances so you can kind of see a zoomed in view there the additional plantings and The purpose of alternative design is to give an alternative That essentially meets the same intent of the ordinance. It's not to say I don't want to do it at all. That's a variance that we would take to Board of Adjustment rather than you, but this is to give you an option to say, to determine whether or not you think this still meets the intent of the ordinance and given the specific circumstances of that site.

Okay, we're going to need a public hearing, so...

And it was presented to P&Z on July 9th, as indicated in your materials, and received unanimous support.

So the public hearing is now open for people who would like to make comments for or against this alternate design request. If you'll come forward and identify yourself.

Hi, my name is Erica Miracle, and I am the children's pastor at Thrive Church. And Pastor Paul couldn't be here tonight, but I told him that I would speak. We just want to thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to present this request. We have worked—our request is pretty straightforward. After multiple revisions and a genuine effort to comply with the letter of the ordinance, We just reached a point where we believed that the alternate design process would be our better option. And so Wendy has done a great job presenting everything. We've met with Wendy multiple times, and I know she was tired of seeing us and getting our emails, but we were just trying to make sure that we did everything by the book as best we could. So we thank you guys. We hope that you guys see that we really are trying to keep the intent of everything. For these reasons, we respectfully ask that you would approve the alternate design plan. We believe that it satisfies the intent. Our goal is to bring the church to the community. Our goal is to reach out into the community. And we believe that by allowing us to move forward in this project, we can help serve our community better in this location.

Y'all were on Pete Britton Road, I believe, before, correct?

Correct. We are.

Okay, so you'll move the church over to this location.

Correct. We sold our church to another church, and we've continued to meet there until they've been so gracious and so good to us. But we are ready to get our project moving and have some space.

Thank you so much. Anyone else would like to speak? If not, public hearing is closed. What's the wish of counsel?

I make a motion to approve the alternative design proposal submitted by Thrive Church for amended building yard landscaping requirements for clustered landscaping with an additional 400 square feet of landscaping and a minimum of four trees at 2147 South Sterling Street.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Molly. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you all so much. Okay, next under new business, consideration of the preliminary plan approval for Latimer Lane, Clover Ridge subdivision. Wendy, I believe this is yours too?

Yes. So, this one is sideways. Let me turn this around. A preliminary plat has been submitted by Western Carolina Developers LLC for a subdivision off of Latimer Lane, to be colloquially known as Clover Ridge. Interestingly, a similar subdivision was approved back in the early 90s, which is why our lovely Burke GIS shows this road layout, but I will note that road layout has not actually been approved. Only these few lots in here that were subdivided back in the 90s. There's, I don't know, about 10 or 12 of those lots. And the original intent was this layout with a few other cul-de-sacs. The development did not proceed at that point. And so you have this vacant land to the north here. It's 17.37 acres. The application proposes to create 30 lots with the minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet. The original plan had much smaller lots there. So our minimum lot size now is 20,000 square feet. The proposal extends. This is the existing lots on Latimer Lane. And it extends Latimer Lane directly north, as had always been intended there, and then just gives one single loop road, which Burke County proposed to name Tyndall Circle, that would connect back into that main street. So it doesn't have those little extra cul-de-sac curlicues off the side there. The new roads proposed to be 50 feet in right of way width with 24 feet of pavement. Total length of the new streets is just over 2,000 linear feet. The streets meet all of the subdivision construction standards, as does the entirety of the development with the design of all utility water, sewer, stormwater, drainage, etc. That would be the responsibility of the city would be is has been designed to they have 90% construction plans at this point that do meet city standards. Additionally, they have requested to propose to pay the in lieu fee payment for the neighborhood recreation site. um, that payment is around $4,000 according to the calculation that is in the subdivision ordinance rather than having an extremely small acreage out here that would be a park at 20,000 square feet lots. It was felt that people could largely recreate on their own lot and then that in lieu fee would go towards recreation spaces for the remainder of the city. Again, this was presented at the July 9th Planning and Zoning Commission hearing and they unanimously supported

approval of the preliminary plat for the subdivision and to allow the in lieu fee payment for the streets okay um questions for wendy wendy what i'm what i'm going to show you this this has not been this is the original design correct uh yes i call the mickey mouse ears yes sir okay Okay. Questions for Wendy? P&Z have approved, is that correct?

Yes, they did. Recommendation for support.

And this action would just be consideration of the preliminary plat approval.

So the preliminary plat approval gives them right to commence works to construct on the site. There are three stages of approval for a subdivision plat. One is a sketch plat. Does this basically have any bearing? on what might be the subdivision ordinance at preliminary plat stage you're at 90 to 100 construction drawings because it gives you the right to go out and start commencing works on the site once all of the works are completed to city satisfaction and inspection and that would be all of the sewer lines put in all the water lines put in the road constructed to city standard then they can get the final plat and can actually have the subdivided lots themselves that goes to register of deeds gets registered and you can actually sell those lots so preliminary plat stage is where you do the construction work and then final plat stage is the city certifying that you have completed it to your designs that meet city standards so

Wendy, I'm sure you were present when the gentleman raised the question about traffic issues on St. Mary's Church Road. What consideration of any of that has been factored into the planning for this development?

St. Mary's Church Road would be what we consider a major collector road that collects traffic from all of those smaller streets. throughout there. I'm not aware of any issues on that. The average daily traffic on St. Mary's Church Road is about 1,800 cars right now. That's been the case since about 2020. Prior to 2020, the five years or so prior to that, it was actually higher than that at 2,100 cars a day. So that... Both of those are well within the boundaries of what would be expected for a road of this size. I would say it could go up to, you know, closer to 10,000 cars a day without needing any sort of improvements or warranting any sort of improvements under those standards. It is a rural cross, what we would consider more of a rural cross section. There are not sidewalks within that vicinity, not required to be so. under any of the requirements of the subdivision ordinance. It's no curb and gutter.

All right, thank you.

So there would be no sidewalks in this subdivision, correct?

There's no requirements for sidewalks in the subdivision. Should they choose to put them in, they could, but no. The requirements for sidewalks are basically that you're within 500 feet of, actually... Hold up here Requirements for sidewalks are if you had joined a major thoroughfare major minor thoroughfare there if you had adjoining an Extension of a street that has sidewalk on one or both sides within 500 feet of the boundary of the land to be subdivided right and I'd say the closest sidewalk to here is probably down on what's technically North Green Street in that area near the Walmart neighborhood market and so forth. in there or where it proposes that the subdivision itself was creating a community facility, a school, a recreation center, a swimming pool or something of that that you would expect people to walk to, or if there was a concentration of school, pedestrian traffic. And I don't think any of these kids are walking to Oak Hill, which is the closest primary school that you would have there. If at any point that did require, you could consider an in-lieu fee, but it's not required and wouldn't necessarily be suggested. Again, at the 20,000 square foot lot at 24 feet of pavement, there's pretty much substantial room. And 30 lots, there's not going to be that many cars per hour going through here that you shouldn't have ample room to get off the road.

Any other questions? How much of this is in the city limits, Wendy?

The whole thing. The whole thing. Okay.

What's the wish of council?

Motion to approve the preliminary subdivision plat for Western Carolina Developers LLC for a 30-lot subdivision off of Vladimir Lane, including two new city streets and all utility requirements, as well as the payment in lieu fee for neighborhood recreation space, as recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

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

Second.

Thank you, Chris. Any further discussions? All in favor say aye.

Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you, Wendy. Next, a consideration of a resolution of intent to enter into an economic development agreement for housing stimulus funding for Latimer Lane-Clover Ridge subdivision and a call for a public hearing. Sally?

Yeah, so the next two items, as referred to earlier, are actually... All you're doing tonight is calling for the public hearing and indicating that you do. have an intention to consider an economic development agreement. The first one is relative to the housing stimulus program that we set up that we have used now three different times since its origination. And it is where the city will actually fund part of the infrastructure development for water and sewer and for road work. If they're built to our standards, and we do believe that they are going to be built to our standards, the program says that we will do up to $5,000 for each lot for water, up to 25 lots, and $5,000 for sewer. up to each lot, up to 25 lots, and a total of $75,000 towards road construction. I can tell you that the original estimates, it's about $1.4 million for the infrastructure to go into here. Over $300,000 of that is road work. A little under $500,000 of that is sewer estimates, again, preliminary estimates. and water is $230,000, around $230,000. So tonight what you would be considering is a development agreement that you would consider in the future that would do that and then call for a public hearing since it would be an economic development incentive.

sally which uh sewer wastewater would this go to the new boss road sewer project that we that would be boss road right okay uh what's the wish of council

I make a motion to adopt a resolution of intent to enter into a development agreement for the housing stimulus program for site at 309 Latimer Lane, PN 1794175020, and 0 Latimer Lane, PN 1794175470, and to set a public hearing for Monday, September 14, 2026, at 6 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers to consider this action and to direct the city clerk to appropriately advertise such hearings.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Wendy. Any further discussion? So that will be the public hearing in September. Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next, a consideration of intent to enter into a development agreement with Burke County and Western Carolina developers for a subdivision development to be located on Latimer Lane and to call for a public hearing. Sally?

So same concept. Burke County was the recipient of some repurposed state legislative appropriation that was going to go to Conley Springs. for housing development that fell through and couldn't be used. And so Burke County received the funding and is partnering. I think they've also got an agreement going with Valdez now to try to also defray some of the infrastructure costs, right, to help developers to pull a trigger to do a single-family housing subdivision. So our developers have been to Burke County to ask for some of this funding. Again, it goes toward the public infrastructure, the water, the sewer, and the road work. And Burke County has indicated they are willing to enter into a three-party agreement, which would be between the city, Burke County, and the developers. And it would set up how this program is going to work and the funding that the county would then pass through us to the developers. Again, economic development incentive requires a public hearing, and so we are scheduling this public hearing for the 14th as well. We're asking you to consider that, and the county is also doing the same for a September public hearing.

So the county will have to approve such a resolution also?

They will have to do a resolution, actually the development agreement, right? Their intent to do it ultimately will have the development agreement, and they will hold a public hearing as well.

Any questions for Sally? What's the wish of council?

I'll make a motion to approve the resolution of intent to enter into a development agreement with Burke County and Western Carolina Developers, LLC, for a subdivision development to be located on Latimer Lane, the Clover Ridge subdivision, and to call for a public hearing. Thank you, Butch. I have a motion to have a second. Second.

Thank you, Wendy. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next is consideration for an ordinance. I'm not going to read it all, but basically for the operation, equipment, and enforcement of electric-assisted bicycles, personal conveyance vehicles, and other motorized devices on sidewalks, greenways, multi-use paths, and in parks. I'll call on Brian Fish, Director of Recreation for Morganton, to lead us off with help from our city attorney.

I'll get us started on the easy stuff, but over the last several months, we've had quite a few discussions on how to put out guidance on what is allowed and what is not allowed over the last few years. been on the Greenway around downtown. In a lot of cities and towns, they're dealing with the e-scooters, the e-bikes that are coming about for people to use, and we wanted to make sure we went ahead and got on it. If you've been out, you've probably already seen them. They've been on the Greenway for a little while now. We wanted to take time to make sure we... We talked through this to make sure we're doing what we think is right. They are, we're referring to the e-bikes are the ones that are pedal assist. If you're on YouTube or Instagram, the e-moto or not sure what you want to call them, but there were some of those at the skate park this past week. And you could see how fast and how they could be dangerous if they're comfortable. come flying down the greenway or down a sidewalk, and you have a pedestrian that may be on their phone not paying attention, a child that's on a bicycle with training wheels and cuts over in front of one of these, it could be dangerous. So we've set out what we're going to allow. and some of those are based on how fast the vehicle will go. We've also set out some safety measures. We see a lot of the e-scooters around the rec center and downtown, and you've got these 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds flying not just on sidewalks but in streets, and they're not wearing helmets or any other protective gear. So we're trying to set out to let people know what they should and should not be doing on the Greenway in our parks. We do this, we've already do this in some of our parks, Bethel Park, or not Bethel Park, Freedom Park, for example. Bicycles are not allowed in that park. It's one of the few places in our parks that you can go walk, run, and you don't have somebody flying by on your bike. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. People will ride right by the signs and just keep on going. But we try to give people an opportunity to do, you know, to walk without having to worry about that. So this will limit some of what's allowed on the Greenway. And, you know, the parks that already don't allow bicycles or scooters, obviously those those will remain the same. But I think Keith can get a little more in-depth on what that will look like, but we felt we needed to do something, and this is what we came up with.

Keith, I know you've worked on it for weeks and weeks and weeks. Give us some highlights, please, or what you'd like to discuss.

I learned a lot about e-bikes. So it has been a somewhat lengthy process and has been on the agenda before, and we asked for more time to tweak it. There was developing legislation. in Raleigh that was going to affect it, so we thought it was best to delay and see what developed with that. And sure enough, House Bill 1094 did pass, and it does specifically authorize municipalities to regulate the operation of e-bikes on multi-use paths and sidewalks. And it also set forth or does set forth a three-tier classification system for e-bikes based on motor engagement and maximum assist speed of the e-bike. So we have revised earlier drafts to take all that into consideration and try to be in compliance with law. We set forth definitions. various modes of transportation within the ordinance, including not only the e-bikes, but motor-driven bicycles, mopeds, and what are called personal conveyance vehicles, which would include like stand-up scooters, skateboards, hoverboards, and other similar devices. So we've tried to be as comprehensive as we can, realizing that you can't plan for everything. We hope this ordinance strikes a good balance between differing ideas and thoughts on what should be done. Obviously, there are differing thoughts and ideas on what should be done, but we hope this strikes a good balance. The ordinance does outlaw or prohibit Class 3 e-bikes, which are the ones that go up to 28 miles an hour, the faster ones, so those would not be allowed on sidewalks, greenways, or parks or other multi-use paths. The Class 1 and 2 e-bikes will be allowed on the greenway and certain park paths as well as on sidewalks outside the central business district and downtown social district but those are regulated in in certain respects as i'll get into in just a second again no bikes e-bikes or pcvs are allowed to be operated on sidewalks within the cbd or social district boundaries those devices would have to be pushed or carried by the operator in those specific areas outside of the cbd and social district areas those devices can be operated on the sidewalk subject to regulation and of course some of the regulations that will apply are that You've got to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians, provide an audible signal before passing, not exceed 15 miles per hour, and operate in single file and stay to the right except on passing. Those are some of the highlights. There are some other regulations concerning helmets and lighting and so forth, but I think that gives you a pretty good summary of what's involved.

So the first citation will be, as I read it, $100, second $200, and the third $500. And it could include impoundment, is that correct?

Yeah, there's some enforcement provisions there. I'm sure some discretion will be used at first in getting the word out to people and making sure people know. But, yeah, there are some enforcement mechanisms which we intend to apply.

Concerns, questions for Brian or Keith?

Is there any kind of public marketing campaign on what's going to be allowed and what's not and, you know, what is required?

I think that'll be a part of it. We'll start, we'll obviously signage, try to sign people to death. And then just reminding, because it's going to be, you know, it's bicycles. The areas they can and cannot, it's where we have signs and If we don't say anything, they'll just keep doing it. So we'll have to let the community know what they should be looking for, what they can and cannot use. So that'll be a process.

It'd be good, Janelle, to do some public announcements on the things, yeah.

Any other questions? What's the wish of council?

I'll make a motion to adopt an ordinance. amending Part 7, Chapter 1, Article K, and Part 8, Chapter 10 of the Code of Ordinance of the City of Morganton to regulate the operation equipment and enforcement of electric assisted bicycles, personal conveyance vehicles, and other motorized devices on sidewalks, greenways, multi-use paths, and in parks pursuant to state statutory authority.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Thank you, Wendy. Any further discussion?

Yeah, I was waiting. I didn't know what the appropriate time was, but the discussion, I think, is the time. First, I'd like to compliment Public Safety and their legal department. This is an incredible document, and it represents a lot of work, and I understand that. I have to set the stage a little bit for me in that I was in school in the 60s in Parks and Recreation Administration. Through the 70s, greenways were really starting to boom, and the whole theory behind them was for people to be able to get out, exercise, enjoy nature in a good, safe environment. I am very concerned about allowing anything motorized on greenways. We have plenty of bike lanes in town. I understand fully the enforcement part of this, and I think it's going to be a fall on parks and rec and public safety, but I just simply can't. because of my background and 60 years of thinking like this that I just can't support the idea of motorized vehicles on greenways other than ADA compliant reasons and we do have them so at the vote I will not be able to support this and it's strictly because of the greenway issue not any of the enforcement or the other things that are said I think this was a fantastic prepared document

Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a second? We had a second. Any further discussion?

I'll just say that I've been downtown many times when I'm seeing these scooters flying up and down the sidewalks. I actually saw one catch the leash of a puppy one night, and it's just so dangerous how fast they're riding those scooters around. It's time to do something to fix that.

Any other comments? Anybody else who lives downtown would like to speak?

I was going to say, having almost been run over when I stepped out my front door, I think this is certainly something we need to look at for the safety of all our citizens. And I think it's important, too, that we have the enforcement mechanism and the safety equipment for the riders. Of course, the person like me who would have been run over would have had and not had any safety equipment on. We'd have just been splattered on the sidewalk. So I think this is something that has been well thought out, and I certainly understand the concerns about the greenway, but I think we need to move forward with this for the safety of the city as a whole and our residents. Okay.

Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay. Motion passes. Next on our agenda.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next is consideration of a resolution endorsing the City of Morganton's Emergency Electric Get Alert Program. Call on Tom McKee for some information. Tom, thank you so much.

Yes. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. The item before you is our emergency electric grid overload alert plan framework for the city of Morganson Electric Department. The purpose of this plan is to make sure the city is prepared if the regional electric grid becomes stressed and Duke Energy Carolina's or electric cities issues in an emergency, an energy emergency alert or related operating instruction. Federal reliability standards by FERC and NERC require the industry to have emergency operating and load shed plans. This is not a Morganton-only issue. When an alert level is issued, it is not issued to a single electric system, such as the City of Morganton, but rather to all utilities under the specific regional operator, including all municipal, electric co-ops, and Duke Energy, who are within the specific operating transmission area. These types of alerts are used across the United States when electric demand is high, generation is limited, or the transmission system is under stress. In our area, Duke Energy Carolinas serves as the regional operator that may issue these alerts or instructions. Other regions have similar grid operators, such as PJM, MISO, ERCOT in Texas, KAISO in California, Southwest Power Pool, and many more. Electric generation is not unlimited. At any given moment, the regional grid has a finite amount of available generation, transmission capacity, and operating reserves. When customer demand approaches that available capacity, especially during extreme heat or cold, the grid operator may issue alerts and ask utilities to reduce demand to help maintain reliability. The long-term solution is to widen the gap between peak demand and available supply. That is why the industry is investing in new generation, transmission improvements, battery storage, demand response programs, and supplemental power contracts. Locally, Duke Energy is advancing plans for new natural gas generation in Davie County, and NCMPA 1, Electricities, is actively seeking additional long-term capacity and energy resources. Our grid alert plan does not solve the regional capacity issue by itself, but it gives Morganton a responsible and organized way to respond if those tight grid conditions occur before additional resources are available. It is important to emphasize that receiving an alert does not automatically mean rolling blackouts. Temporary rotating outages would only be used as a last resort measure if the grid emergency reaches that level or if we are specifically directed to reduce firm load. The plan also establishes communication steps for city leadership, public safety, water and sewer operations, critical facilities, large customers, and the public. It allows us to respond quickly, document our actions, and restore normal operations in an orderly way. What we are asking council to approve this evening is the overall framework. The detailed operating procedures and technical steps would remain internal administrative documents that staff can update as conditions change. Staff recommends approval of the framework by resolution and authorization for the city manager and electric service director or their designees to maintain and implement the related internal operating procedures.

Tom, thanks so much. Any questions for Tom?

Okay, I need a motion to approve a resolution. I'll make a motion to approve a resolution which endorses the emergency electric grid alert plan framework and adopt the emergency electric grid overload alert plan as submitted.

Thank you, Butch. I have a motion. I have a second.

Second.

Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor of the resolution, say aye.

Aye. Opposed?

Motion passes. I need a second motion.

I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager and electric services director to implement and update the plan as needed.

Thank you, Molly. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Wendy, thanks so much. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Tom, thanks so much. It's a very detailed plan, so thank you for all the work. Next, we have consideration of a lease agreement with Vulcan Construction Materials. I believe, Keith, you're going to help us with that. That's right.

First, I'd like to say, I believe Denise Hallett is here from Vulcan Materials, along with a guest as well. Glad you all are here. If anybody has any questions at the end, we can direct those to Denise. What this concerns is, of course, we own a large tract of land 1,000 by Narden Road, which consists of about 157 acres. That's where our wastewater treatment plant is and skeet range. Both are located there. Vulcan Construction Materials is our neighbor. They have land adjoining that large tract. And Vulcan contacted us a few months back to start discussions about leasing a small portion of the city property, an area that is comprised of about two and a half acres, slightly under two and a half acres. Vulcan, excuse me, desires to have this property as additional area for the outer perimeter of their property for parking needs, material storage, and some buffer area that's required by their permitting. After review of this and discussions with staff here and with Vulcan, we reached what we believe are fair and agreeable terms for the lease agreement. You've got a copy of that proposed lease agreement in your materials. The terms of the rental compensation are addressed in paragraph 2 on page 1, and that consists of an annual supply of an amount of stone and also a discounted rate for purchase of stone above that amount. The lease also provides for the city to have continuing access through a road located on Vulcan property, which allows us access to city assets on our property.

Okay, questions for Keith?

I like the bartering system. It's a win-win for everyone.

And I will say that we have had a very good working relationship for a very long time. And we're appreciative of that.

Okay, what's the wish of council?

Motion to approve a lease agreement with Vulcan for a portion of the city-owned property located at 1000 Vine Arden Road. for an initial term of five years and with automatic renewal for successive five-year terms with Vulcan agreeing to provide the city 50 tons of stone annually at no cost and giving the city a 25% discount for the purchase of all additional stone.

Thank you, Wendy. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. Yes, Vulcan, thank you all so much for showing. Next is consideration of award of a contract for monitoring the demolition of two damaged buildings. I'll call on Rob Winkler. Yes, to give us information. Rob, thank you for being here.

Thank you. get to the... So the city, after a... A lengthy discussion with FEMA on this process. We decided that we needed to put out an RFP, a request for proposals to engage with firms that could support us in what FEMA requires as monitoring of buildings or taking down of buildings in areas where there could be some historical artifacts. So with this process, we selected our lowest responsive responsible bidder, archaeological firm, and they are going to agree to monitor the teardown of the buildings that FEMA requires. They will monitor during the process, make sure that if at any time anything, once of the removal of the building, anything shows or anything is found, they will pause and we will take that back to FEMA.

We received six bids, and the lowest bid, TRC Companies, is out of Asheville. They are experienced at doing this work and have all the certifications that FEMA requires, and their bid amount is $12,500. We're asking for you to approve a $1,500 contingency that, of course, staff would control and not use, but that is if we have to go extra days, if we got into it and it took longer than anticipated.

What's the wish of counsel?

I make a motion to award a contract to TRC Companies Incorporated of Asheville, North Carolina in the amount of $12,500 for the archaeological monitoring of the demolishing of two damaged buildings at Catawba Meadows Park and to allow the mayor and or city manager to execute all agreements regarding this contract.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Butch. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye.

Aye. I need a second motion, please. I'll make a motion to authorize a contingency of 12% in the amount of $1,500 and to allow staff to manage such contingency.

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

Second.

Thank you, Chris. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you, Rob.

And let me say one more thing. So FEMA will be reimbursing us for this cost. They have indicated that. This is one we're not going to have to argue over.

But they did not let us know this was required before we began the process of... Before we awarded to the contractor.

That would be correct. So this has delayed our project. And has probably cost our building to be more expensive than the original quote because of the time that has gone by.

I think it'll be interesting to see if they turn up anything down in that area building too. That's getting down there close to where they found things at the Indian Village on the other side of the ballpark. We hope they do not.

There's really going to be very little ground disturbance, right? Because the only thing that is happening is the pad that is sitting on is going to be gone.

We're not replacing anything there. No.

Neither of these locations which was part of the frustration and after a year and a half working with them on the project we got the

Okay, next on our agenda.

We're good now.

Next on our agenda is consideration of a contract for engineering services for the Rocky Ford Greenway Extension Project. Rob, are you going to do it, or Brian?

That's Brian. Come on up, Brian.

Let's share. Brian?

He asks for a lot of TV time tonight. He does. He likes that TV time.

I got a face for radio. He's got a face for TV. Okay. So, yes, this process, the Rocky Ford Greenway extension is part of our Burke River Trails extension that's going to run from our existing Rocky Ford area under Highway 18 Bridge and on through all the way down. parallel to the greenway. So with this, we reached out, there was some engineering that, um, the city, uh, D and D is doing quite a bit of this in house, but there are certain things that we could not do. So we reached out to wildlands engineering, um, to, uh, to write us up a proposal for, um, jurisdictional determination, regulatory permitting, uh, permit, uh, submittal, and to encompass a no rise floodplain study of this property area. Um, And part of this is going to be working with Army Corps of Engineers. Anytime you're doing trail or work near the river, there's special permitting. And we just felt like we did not have the capacity to do this in-house. So they have submitted us a quote in the amount of $28,623, not to exceed that amount. If during the process the work is not needed, it will not be fully spent. And Where Brian comes into this is we're going to take it out of his recreation CIP.

Did you know that?

No, you didn't. But there may be a possibility that this can be reimbursed with a Great Trails state grant as well. So hopefully we can. try to incorporate that for reimbursement.

So, Rob, part of that is jurisdictional determination, part of it's regulatory permitting, and the other is design support services. Those are the three main components.

Well, and the no-rise. The no-rise.

The engineers doing the no-rise certificate.

And council will notice the map that they've conveniently given to us so you can see the route it will take. What's the wish of council?

Hold on. Before, I will say... We did receive the Great Trail State Grant for this. It will also include some work on the mountain bike trail. We'll extend that. We'll add two bridges there near the advanced section, if I'm not mistaken, kind of where the advanced and intermediate connect. So there will be some work on the mountain bike trail also to make it even deadlier than it already is.

All right. That's money from the Great Trail Straight Grant, not what this is asking for.

This is engineering.

This is engineering for permitting and for the trail work, yes. I'm glad Brian got to say something. Well, you're welcome.

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to award a contract to Wildlands Engineering of Charlotte, North Carolina in the amount of $28,623 for the engineering support services for jurisdictional determination and regulatory permitting for the Rocky Ford Greenway Extension Project and to allow the mayor and or city manager to execute all agreements regarding the contract.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Any discussion? I hope to learn what a no-rise floodplain is.

During the construction or during the planning of this, I'd like to know what that is.

It's expensive engineering. I can imagine. It sounds expensive.

I bet you're going to have a special class.

I'm going to need it because I don't understand no rise. If we had no rise, we wouldn't have had the flood.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Motion passes.

Okay. Thank you, Rob and Brian. Next is consideration of award of a contract for off-duty employment services for Morganton Department of Public Safety. I'll call Chief Ryan Lander forward to give us some information.

It's his second TV time tonight.

Yeah, I had a good run. I was able to put together several consecutive months of not having to come up to this lectern and speak in front of you, and that streak got blown out of the water tonight. So, yes, I come up here to seek your approval to enter into public safety, to enter into a contract with a company called Extra Duty Solutions, which is an off-duty management company. So before I get into talking about extra duty solutions and what they could do for us and what they provide, I want to give you a little historical background of how we've been managing our off duty employment. So up to this point, one typically supervisor manages this program at Public Safety. So if a company wants to hire an officer or a couple officers, they'll make contact with that supervisor. The supervisor will find out the dates, the times, the location, so forth and so on. And if it's just a one-day employment, multiple days, then that supervisor will go into Microsoft Word and create an off duty employment form. And then we put it on a bulletin board and then we wait for officers to sign up for it. When the officer signs up for it, there is an in-house form that the officers have to take to that employer and have them sign. That form says that if anything were to happen to that officer, if that officer gets hurt, that they are responsible for the damages. OK, so we always wondered up to this point, well, what would happen if an officer did get hurt? I'd imagine lawsuits are going to be involved because that person, as we know, medical bills can get quite expensive. Is it under the city with workers' comp? Did they go after that off-duty employer? Well, sometime around the first of the year, there was a court case of Lassiter versus Robeson County. An officer with Robeson County was working off-duty for a construction company on a highway or an interstate, got hit by another vehicle. Robeson County, from my understanding, they didn't want to pay. The construction company didn't want to pay. It went all the way up to the North Carolina Supreme Court, and they said that even though that officer was being paid through that construction company, the department still had control of the officer. And what they mean by control is they still provided training for the officer, provided uniforms, weapons, car. So in that respect, then it falls back on the county government or municipality where with extra duty solutions they will end up managing our off-duty program there'll be a link that will be put up on our website that they can click on there's a phone number that they can call and actually talk to a person and line up exactly what they want then with extra duty solutions they actually provide up to $22 million in liability insurance and over a million dollars in workers' comp insurance. So if our workers' comp insurance didn't pick up something, then Extra Duty Solutions would pick that up. If there was a general liability claim, Extra Duty Solutions would pick that up and not fall back upon the city. So the way this would look, a company contacts Extra Duty Solutions, sets it up. Then Extra Duty Solutions provides a username and password to a portal that they have that each officer will have access to. They also have an app. So then they'll push out that Extra Duty job To the officers and it becomes first come first serve of who wants to sign up for it. If nobody signs up for it, then we can set the parameters to where they'll contact the Sheriff's Department and see if anybody in the Sheriff's Department is interested in filling that off duty. So what we have also done over the past 30 days is Assistant Chief Bowman and Captain Johnson. They've gone around to our typical off-duty employers, the hospital, the churches in town, Morgan and Housing Authority, and told them about extra duty solutions and what we're thinking about doing, and nobody had a problem with doing this. Because they understand when they looked at our form and that they could possibly be liable for it, and then this company would provide all this insurance, then it was kind of a no-brainer for them. I'm also asking for the hourly rate to go up to $50 per hour. So obviously, Extra Duty Solutions is going to be charging a fee. They charge 10% on top of what your hourly rate is. And that's for the general liability insurance, the insurance up to $22 million. and then them managing the program, and then it's an extra 5% to add on the workers' compensation. So I thought it would be best, and my recommendation would be was to go up to $50, $43.50 for the officer, $6.50 would go to Extra Duty Solutions for all of that. Just so you know, that is still kind of the market rate in this area for hiring an off-duty officer. We have one neighboring agency that is over $81 right now to hire an officer per hour. And with all of what I just mentioned, I got the blessing of Russ and HR, and Mr. Rigsby up here has read the contract and approved of the contract.

Okay, questions for Chief? Any questions?

Can you tell me the history of that company? I mean, how did you?

They have been around for a while, and they have, I believe at this time, around 350 law enforcement agencies nationwide. They have over, I think, 60 in North Carolina. Hickory's with them, Marion's with them, Boone is with them, Hendersonville's with them, and Lenore's with them. So it's gaining a lot of momentum. It almost seems like a no-brainer with the services that they provide and the coverage that they provide to the officers and to kind of have an umbrella over the city as well.

Any other questions? Chief, so when an officer is doing this through that company, they're still wearing our uniform? Yes, sir. Correct.

What's the wish of counsel?

A motion to award a contract with Extra Duty Solutions to perform off-duty management for Morganton Department of Public Safety for an administrative insurance fee of $6.50 per officer and to authorize the mayor and or city manager to execute said documents and any other necessary documents.

Thank you, Wendy. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. We have a motion. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. I need a second motion, please.

I'll make a motion to amend the schedule of fees and charges to $50 an hour for off-duty officer pay.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Butch. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next on our agenda is consideration of appointment to the Recreation Advisory Commission. This is a City Council appointment. What's the wish of Council?

Motion to reappoint Michael Lowther to Recreation Advisory Commission for a three-year term expiring on June 30th, 2029.

Thank you, Wendy. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Do we have anything else to come before council?

I think that's enough.

That's enough?

That's a lot.

In that case, we are adjourned.