City Council - Regular Meeting

council for september 14 2026 to order i'd like to ask chris jernigan if he'd lead us in the pledge to allegiance if you please rise

I'd like to call on Senior Pastor Ethan Cromer from Mount Home Baptist Church. If you'd lead us in an invocation, please. Ethan, thank you for being here.

Thank you for letting me. Let's pray. Jesus, we love you and thank you so much for today. God, I thank you for Morganton, North Carolina. And I thank you for folks who have willingly stepped up to help lead and help make decisions. And God, we love this place. We love our town. And Lord, thank you for the ability to gather here to talk about the things that will be discussed tonight. God, I pray for, just like I pray for in my church, unity. And God, we pray that a constructive conversation would be able to be had around this table and from the floor. And God, that you would do something that only you could do here in Morganton. God, we thank you for folks who have agreed to serve. And we just pray that you would give them discernment and wisdom that I believe comes from you. And Lord, we thank you for all of this. And we thank you for Morganton. And we pray that you would just continue to bless. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. Next, I'd like to introduce counsel to my far right, Wendy Cato, Mayor Pro Tem, Chris Jernigan, City Council, Keith Rigsby, our attorney, I'm Ronnie Thompson, your mayor, Sally Sandy, our city manager, Butch McSwain, City Council, Molly McKay, City Council, Renee Carswell, our clerk to the board, Jessica Lohman, our paralegal assistant clerk, and for the deaf community, Ernest Williams IV and Danette Stenwin-Bridges. We have several public announcements and advocacy issues. First, I will call on an update on our historic Morganton Festival. Mackenzie McGinnis, our main street manager, welcome. I know you're very tired. Hopefully you've rested.

I did rest a lot. Yes, I won't tell you how much, but it was a lot. I'm happy to report that we had an awesome year this year for the Morganton Festival. Even though it was a hot Friday, we had a big crowd on Friday, especially on the square Friday night. I'm not sure I've personally seen that many people on the square for a concert in my three years of doing this. So that definitely made my heart happy to see all those people makes it all worth it for sure. It was a really, really fun two bands. It only rained a little bit even though it was calling for rain all day on Saturday so we're really grateful for that for about two hours there when the first band started on and off but nothing that we couldn't handle. This year was great for rides and we're happy to see so many children and families out having a great time taking advantage of the ticket deals that we ran during limited times Friday and Saturday. We did that in an effort to make it more affordable especially for people that have multiple children to be able to come and enjoy the festival. In the Kids Zone, we also had the Litter Critter Station again, along with more rovers than last year, from jugglers to a balloon guy to stilt walkers and a kazoo cart. I personally stay away from the kazoo cart, but the kids love the kazoo cart. Our entertainment was strong, and I was so happy to see so many people on the square dancing and singing. Like I said, I don't think I've ever seen it as packed as it was Friday for September and Purple Madness. They were two concerts to remember. And Saturday, also three great concerts. We added that extra band and they were super talented, talent all around. And we drew a different crowd that loves that red dirt, bluegrass, funk music. And they were all super, super great to work with and super fun bands. We have received great feedback about the addition of the Remax Southern Lifestyle stage off of King Street. Not only did it bring people down West Union to support our local businesses and vendors on that street, but it gave local bands an opportunity to perform at the Morganton Festival. We know there's so much talent right here in Morganton, so it meant a lot to us to be able to incorporate that talent at the Morganton Festival. we had 29 food and drink vendors this year our goal this year was to diversify the food lineup and we were able to do that with the addition of a few new food vendors so i think we had a really full really good lineup for and something for everybody to enjoy we're thrilled with the amount of positive feedback that we receive from vendors and the community I've had lots of compliments from vendors that we have one of the most organized events they attend, and that's year after year, and that our volunteers are so kind and helpful, which they don't always see at every event, and that is feedback from them. Huge shout out to all of our staff and volunteers for everything you do and for always being so hospitable. They are the first people vendors interact with and therefore are huge representatives of the Morganton Festival and the city of Morganton in general. Well, the Morganton Festival is part of the nonprofit HMF Incorporated. It simply couldn't be done without the city of Morganton. So a big thank you to all of our city teams. I won't name them all, but I will say that our sanitation crews do an outstanding job keeping the festival clean throughout the entire time, making sure everyone's safe as those trucks come through. And the... Streets crews and recreation department that clean afterwards also do amazing. We've heard people say, wow, it doesn't look like there was a festival here, and that's always our goal. We're riding around making sure every sign is picked up and everything is cleaned up, and so they spend their evening doing that, or not even evening, their morning doing that after the festival. A huge thank you to all the HMF staff, volunteers, city departments, and students from local high schools. You are who make this event possible. Lastly, I want to thank our sponsors, especially UNC Health Blue Ridge. We could not do this event without them either. They are all so wonderful to work with. The Morganton Festival has become my favorite weekend of the year, even with the long hours and the hard work. It's truly so fun with our team to make magic happen in downtown Morganton. Casey and I both want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone that came out to attend the festival, helped work the festival, supported the festival, and we couldn't do it without you. Thank you.

Mackenzie, I'm going to ask a question on, I believe it was Avery Avenue. We had several young, extremely young firefighters playing with a hose. Do we know if we got any job applications from those?

Maybe in a few years.

Those young kids with that fire hose were just scary. Let me tell you, they were scary.

I saw some people walking by and thought that would be me walking by that fire hose.

That was it. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. It was a great festival. Thank you. Next, we have an update, Bethel Road Park, that everybody is anxious to hear from Brian Fish, our Director of Parks and Recreation. Brian, the crowds have been there, and how's the park coming along?

So, good evening, Council, Sally, Bethel Lake. I mean, Bethel Park is, I think all the work we've done these last 20 years has finally, we finally got it open and ready. I think Chad, he's got some photos of the park up for you. But as you can see, all that remains, in theory, are the new bathrooms down at the large parking lot. Those checking on those today should be done And I've got to be careful because I've given out some times and opening dates for some of our other parks, and I've been way off. But they're thinking December, 1st of December, the bathrooms will be complete and ready for use. And we've got a couple other things in the no-mow areas, the conservation easement areas of the park. Next week, we're going to plant 500 trees. And we're not going to plant them. But Trout Unlimited, along with Truist, they're going to come in, have the trees delivered, and they're going to spend a day planting all those trees. And they're smaller. I think they're about four-foot trees. So in 10 years or so, you'll see all of that. But if you look at the photos, the water has been very clear. We've had some pretty substantial amounts of rain the last two months. The park has held a million times better than it ever would have before we finished the stream restoration. Water gets out of the park, you're able to use it almost immediately. The mowing crew doesn't have to wait two weeks to get back in there, but it's been great. The pickleball courts, the footsaw courts stay packed. As you can see there, the playground, the shelter, all of that is used daily. There's all of our pickleballers and futsal players. We're really proud of the park. Like I said, it's been a long time coming. Once we finish the bathrooms, we can close out the last remaining grants that we had received money from. There may be a few things added in the park where the playground and the shelter is. There's room where we could in the future add another playground or another shelter. I don't think we can fit any more pickleball courts, unfortunately. But there's the image of the bathrooms. But it's wonderful. It's beautiful. It looks nothing like it did before. And obviously with that, the footprint changed. So we did have to, like the disc golf course, we couldn't fit back in there. You know, we hate that, but we can't put everything in one park. So hopefully over the next couple years, we may add a couple other things, but all in all, it's almost done. It looks great. It's heavily used, and it's been an experience.

It's been worth waiting for.

It has. Definitely worth the wait.

Brian, just to make sure I understood, there are 500 trees to be planted. Is that correct?

There will be 500 trees. Wow. They're going to drop them off the day before, so it may be 400 by the time they get there the next day. But as long as they're planted in Burke County, it will be okay. But yes, 500 trees are being donated, and the truest employees, if I'm not mistaken, from Charlotte are going to come down, spend the day, plant all 500, and... and get back out of there. So we're going to shut the park down for two days. I think that's September 21st and 22nd. We'll shut the park down so they can get in and do what they need to do, and then we'll open back up the day after. But it's a lot of trees.

Is that the second phase of the conservation piece that's there?

This just came along out of the blue. A gentleman had called with Trout Unlimited about an area where we could plant some trees in this county. and we thought Bethel Park would be a great spot.

So the park will be closed probably for those two days because any time the park's closed, I get some phone calls from pickleballers that you've closed my pickleball courts.

We've posted on social media that the park will be closed those two days. We do have courts at both rec centers at certain scheduled times, and we've still got Carbon City Park. I know we've kind of forgot about those, but those are still – much brand new also um so there are and there's some other places within burke county but i know we we like to stay local so okay thanks for all you did it really looks good yes it does thank you thank you i think we need to work the name perseverance into the name of the park

I'd say 20 years has been at the forefront of everybody in Parks and Recreation's mind, and Rob and you both have closed it out great.

I know it started well before I got here. Rob's been pushing it along, and... And anybody that's been involved probably wanting to pull their hair out at times that's, you know, got hit by a couple hurricanes and slowed us down and some other things that have gone on. But we've made it almost to the end. And once we're done, we'll get out and let the public enjoy it and hopefully not have to close it too many times for a long time.

Amen. Thanks, Brian.

Next on our agenda is a recognition. I'm going to ask Tom McKee, Director of Electric Service, to come forward and tell us about a recognition. I'm going to ask Councilwoman Molly McKay to please make a presentation, please. Tom, you can explain what you're being recognized for, or the staff. Sure.

It's very exciting to get to present to the Morganton Public Power Group the Public Power Award of Excellence winner. This recognizes exceptional achievements in the areas of strengthening public power, provides superior power, and customer-centered innovation. Congratulations. Recognition well-deserved. Thank you. It's well-deserved.

Tom, would you like to explain, please? Sure.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. I'm very proud to accept these three Public Power Awards of Excellence on behalf of the City of Morganson Electric Department. We were recognized this year, as Councilwoman mentioned, in the areas of strengthened public power, provide superior power, and customer-centered innovation. Those awards represent a lot of the work our department has been doing, improving reliability, serving our customers better, communicating the value of public power, and continuing to look for ways to improve how we operate. I especially want to recognize Garrett Rowe, our Technical Services Supervisor, and Jennifer Rush, our Administrative Specialist. Garrett and Jennifer put a tremendous amount of work into the award application process, helping identify the projects and accomplishments we wanted to highlight, gathering information, documenting what we had achieved, and helping us tell Morganton's story effectively. Their work was a major part of the success of these submissions, and I want to make sure they receive credit for that. These awards really belong to the entire electric department. We have a talented group of employees who take a great deal of pride in serving this community, and the things recognized through these awards are the result of their work every day. We also appreciate the continued support of the city manager, council, and the community. Public Power works because it is local, and these awards are a nice recognition of what that local commitment can accomplish. Thank you.

Thank you. Congratulations again. Thanks. Okay, under announcements, I want to announce that hydrate testing will begin September 16th, 2026. So if your water is a little muddy because of hydrate testing, please let it run and it will clear. Next on the agenda is a proclamation for Constitution Week. I'm going to ask Sylvia Medford, a regent with the Daughters of the American Revolution, Quaker Methodist, to come forward, and Wendy, if she will present that proclamation. I'd like to read that proclamation. whereas September 17, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Commission, and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion. And whereas Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America, designated September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week, now, therefore, I, Ronnie Thompson, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Mayor of the City of Morganton, to hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through 23rd, 2026 as Constitution Week and urge all citizens to study the Constitution and reflect on the privilege of being an American with the rights and responsibilities that privilege involves. In witness thereof, I set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Morgan to be affixed this 14th day of September. Ronnie Thompson, Mayor. Renee Carswell, City Clerk. Wendy, if you'll make that presentation.

Of course, I think that everyone needs to go back and read the Constitution because it affixed each of us. So you can tell them again. And we're glad to be able to present this proclamation to you. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Appreciate it.

Sylvia, I know you can say a few words.

Yes, please.

Okay.

I would like to challenge you all during this week to read the Constitution and see what it means to you personally and to our country at this time. It's just as relevant now as it was in the 1700s because we have the ability to add amendments as our country changes and grows. I'd also like to invite you to, on this Thursday, the 17th, which is Constitution Day, to join us for Bells Across America. It was once called Bells for Freedom. It's called Bells Across America now. And neighborhoods all across the United States, people will be going out to ring bells. And if you're the only one in your neighborhood ringing your bell, that's fine. Just ring it nice and loud. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Sylvia, so much. Next, I'd like to inform the public about upcoming events. In downtown at City Hall, we have Art in the Park in September 2026. Irina Hadjikov has a presentation called Immigrant Inspiration. It continues on the theme of America's 250th... anniversary for art in the hall this year, and you need to come to the third Thursday Crawl on September 17th to meet this artist. We have third Thursday Art Crawl on Thursday the 17th from 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock. Our Farmer's Market is 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. An Acoma Performing Arts Center individual tickets are available for purchase Saturday, October 3rd at 7 o'clock. The Fabulous Equinox Orchestra is going to present. And on Thursday, October 29th at 7 p.m., Kevin Nealon will be performing. Okay, Sally. I think next is our public hearing.

Correct. It should be consent agenda.

Consent agenda. Sally, if you'll cover those items in the consent agenda, please.

Yes. I would like to ask first that you remove, consider removing item D. Staff would like more time to prepare the contract for that. And so if we could have a motion to remove that item.

Is there a motion? I'll make the motion to remove item D for consideration at a later time.

I have a motion to have a second.

Second.

Thank you, Wendy. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

The motion passes.

Okay. That leaves us five items that I would ask you to approve in one motion and consider those to be non-controversial.

Okay.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

Thank you, Wendy. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Molly. Any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. The motion passes.

Okay.

Next up is our public hearing consideration, fiscal year 25 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report known as CAPER for community development block grant funds during the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. And is Jennifer, Jennifer is in the audience. If you'll come forward, Jennifer, and please give us some information. Excuse me, Jennifer. I'll open the public hearing. Now the public hearing is open, you may begin, Jennifer.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. So 2025, we had a successful year at the Community Development Block Grant. We received $212,470 from HUD. And one of the requirements that HUD has us do to have this public hearing on the CAPER is called the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. Basically just tells what we did in the year, the 2025 period. So some of the things we did, we provided... uh for local nonprofits with um funds so we gave house of refuge options in the meeting place and brighter house we gave options nine thousand dollars house of refuge five thousand the meeting place eight thousand and brighter house also eight thousand uh and they provided What we did with those activities were over 500 low and moderate income persons were helped with shelter, food services, food pantry, lots of food was bought, repairs, and a little bit of rental assistance. That would be just like the first month's rent. Our security deposit, that's the only thing we could do with that. We also had two small business loans. They were actually funded a little bit earlier in 2025. We provided $75,000 to the Madness, and we also provided $75,000 to the Town Tavern. And those two businesses ended up creating 21 jobs during that time period. And also we had CDBG funds were also assisted with one infrastructure project that was on West Concord Street of the storm drainage replacement. $150,000 were used in CDBG funds. And there's probably about over some of those shelters and things that we help provide, there was probably around 30 clients provided with homelessness assistance.

Okay. This is public hearing. Would anyone like to give any input for this discussion? If not, the public hearing will be closed.

Thank you.

Jennifer, thank you so much for doing it. I need a motion from council.

I make a motion to approve the Community Development Block Grant Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report for Fiscal Year 2025 as presented by Jennifer Cannon.

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. Thank you. Jennifer, thank you so much. Sally, I wanted to ask, did we have anything from a public power update?

Okay.

Okay, next on our agenda will be another public hearing for the approval of an economic development agreement with Western Carolina developers under the Housing Stimulus Program. I'll open that public hearing and call on our attorney, Keith, to give us some information.

Thank you. This item and the next agenda item involve items for consideration involving the same development project. With regard to this particular hearing we're talking about the city's single-family housing stimulus program There's been an application for those funds from the developer Western Carolina developers LLC for a subdivision to be Developed at Latimer Lane and Clover Ridge subdivision that's a area of about 15 acres and It will involve single family residential development with related utility and street infrastructure. The assistance that's requested in connection with the single family housing stimulus involves $5,000 for water and $5,000 for sewer for each lot up to 25 lots. So a total for $125,000 for water and $125,000 for sewer and then also $75,000 for street infrastructure. The developer has submitted estimates concerning the actual costs for the infrastructure, which are well in excess of the amounts that are requested and available through the application. And the reason for that point is to let you know that the stimulus monies cannot exceed the actual costs. And in this case, it does not. Procedurally, we're here for the public hearing because it involves an economic development incentive and a development agreement. You'll recall at the last meeting, you entered a resolution of intent to proceed with this and publish the required notice of public hearing in the newspaper. So approval by council of this application would authorize the city to enter into the development agreement. with the developer which would implement the terms of the program and govern certain aspects of the development. The structure of the documentation incorporates accountability through a security interest for the city and the property and through lot by lot repayment of the obligations that they are required to repay. Obviously this will address a real need in the city of Morganton. for housing will gain at least 25 and potentially up to 30 homes and corresponding utility and street infrastructure. City staff reports that the project appears to meet all program requirements and staff see no reason to object or oppose the application. We do have representatives, I believe, from the developer who would like to come and offer some information and answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you, Keith. I'll ask Kim to come forward and give us some more information, please. Thank you for being here.

Good evening. My name is Michael Brown with Western Carolina Developers. We appreciate the consideration here and Looking forward to this project. We do know that it's needed. We've built spec houses here for the past seven years, so we're very familiar with the needs and what people are looking for. These particular homes, we're going to be targeting upper 300s, lower 400s. So it's a neighborhood that's partially developed that was – supposed to be finished at the time that it was. I can't recall the year when it was originally done, but I think 12, 15 homes were built and the rest was left undeveloped. So it sat and sat and sat and we eventually acquired it and intend to develop the rest of it. 30 lots, again, single family, three bedroom, two bath, typical single family home. So if you have any questions for us, we're We're open. We also have contracts in the car. If anybody's interested in purchasing, we can go ahead and get you on one.

Well, first I'll ask council if they have any questions for Michael. Any questions for Michael?

When do you plan on beginning the the build, and are you doing just a certain number at a time?

We'll start, we'll probably do it in a couple phases. We'll likely, and again, this is assuming everything comes together, we also have a grant being considered by the county that's going to help as well. Because it's a lot of, the infrastructure is where all the cost is, obviously. So, we as soon as we have approval i think the meeting is this thursday with the county we know that we have approval we'll we'll start digging and the houses you know we don't want to start building because we're going to go and make a big mess so until we get the mess a little more cleaned up matt what do you think how many months three to four. He's better to answer that question than us. And we partner with Mimosa Development. That's Matt Kratz. He'll be building all the houses.

Okay, thank you so much. It is public hearing. People like to speak for or against the project. It's your turn to speak. Hearing none, public hearing is now closed. What's the wish of council?

I'll make a motion to award to Western Carolina Developers LLC loans under the Single-Family Housing Stimulus Program in the amount of $125,000 for extension of water services... $125,000 for the extension of sanitary sewer services and $75,000 for new streets for a project to construct 25 single-family homes at 309 Latimer Lane and 0 Latimer Lane to enter into an economic development agreement with Western Carolina Developers, LLC, governing such loans and the terms under which part of those loans may be converted

to grants and further authorizing the mayor and city manager to execute any necessary documents butch thank you so much and if anybody's wondering all those numbers were dollars okay i have a motion to have a second second thank you wendy any discussion and just that this is already in our budget this this is some some correct information that we've already had in with the application

the money is in the current budget yeah these are the funds that we budgeted for this program for this year part of those monies any other questions

All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Michael, Matt, good luck. Thank you so much.

Thanks, sir.

Next on our agenda is a public hearing consideration of a development agreement with Burke County and Western Carolina Developers for a subdivision. Keith? Another public hearing, and again, it's for the consideration and approval of an agreement between Burke County and Western Carolina developers.

That's correct. As Mr. Brown just alluded to, there's another piece to this in terms of money. This money here would come from the county. Obviously, the county's got to approve it as well, but what's in play here is what I'll call a three-party development agreement between the county and the city and Western Carolina developers. This will involve utilizing a repurposed state legislative appropriation, which went to the county for local housing infrastructure. So this money is available. And under the proposed three-party development agreement, $300,000 would be allocated toward, again, utility infrastructure improvements associated with the Clover Ridge subdivision. The developer has submitted, as you know, the formal request for infrastructure cost estimates through the single-family housing stimulus program. And procedurally, council is asked to consider through this public hearing and also approval of the development agreement with the county and with the developer and also a memorandum of understanding between the county and the city as to how to administer that. Again, as we said before, this project addresses a housing need in Morganton with the addition of 25 to 30 homes and related utility and infrastructure. And we'd like to thank the county for their willingness and assistance to provide the funding for this project.

Okay, it is a public hearing. Would anyone like to speak for or against this issue? Seeing no one approach, public hearing is now closed. What's the wish of council?

I'll make a motion to approve the development agreement with Burke County and Western Carolina Developers LLC for a subdivision development to be located at Latimer Lane, Clover Ridge subdivision.

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

Second.

Thank you, Wendy. Any discussion?

This is a great partnership with the county.

Hearing none, all in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Okay, we'll go into new business. Consideration of an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company to install some transverse conductors and one fiber optic cable. So I'll call on Sally for this, please.

always interesting when you're working with the railroad so what we have learned is that we have some electric work to do over at the new bridge at Walmart bridge 99 as we affectionately call it the bridge that may never get complete but in order to do that we are having to use the railroad right-of-way and we had to sign an agreement with them anyone who's ever dealt with them It is not simple, it is not quick, and it is definitely not cheap. So for us, we are given these rights after we pay a license fee of $44,625, and that gives us the license to be there for 20 years at such point as I guess we'll have to do another license fee. So just asking for your approval for that.

What's the wish of counsel?

motion to enter into an agreement with north fork southern railroad railway to install and construct three aerial transverse conductors and install one new 60-count fiber optic cable onto two new wood poles outside of norfolk southern's right-of-way west of west fleming drive and morganton heights boulevard intersection subject to final review and approval by the city manager and city attorney thank you wendy i have a motion to have a second second thank you molly any discussion all in favor say aye aye any opposed the motion passes

next is consideration of award of a contract for engineering design for the drinking water resiliency improvements project randy if you'll give us some update on that please sir good evening mr mayor and council so i'm here to uh present for your consideration and award of contract for engineering services for the drinking water resiliency improvements project So this drinking water resiliency project is a result of rescinding the original interconnect project that had been scheduled and the city reapplied to reappropriate the state revolving funds and were awarded a little over $8 million under a Hurricane Helene supplemental appropriation for drinking water resiliency projects. So these projects are meant to support projects that strengthen infrastructure and resiliency. The city identified drinking water resiliency projects based on current planned capital improvement projects or identified in recent master plan. This project include chemical feed systems modifications and upgrades, new SCADA systems at the water treatment facility, water booster stations and storage tanks, permanent standby generators at each water storage tank that currently lacks auxiliary power, and permanent standby generators at four water booster stations. So the city solicited proposals for qualified firms from July 8, 2026 through August 6, 2026, and we received proposals from four firms. And staff systematically reviewed these proposals and determined the most qualified firm for the RFQ to be McGill and would recommend approving the provided agreement for engineering services for the Drinking Water Resiliency Improvements Project.

Randy, one point I'd like to point out that this is going to install permanent backup generators at each of the 10 existing water tanks and four existing booster pumps that currently lack permanent on-site emergency power. So if we do have another problem, it will have emergency power so people can get water and a backup storage, right?

Correct.

Okay. Okay.

That's the plan.

Yep, that is the plan. And these have been previously identified and this project has come along at a perfect time to be able to reconcile those issues.

What's the wish of council?

I'll make a motion to award a contract for engineering services for the Drinking Water Resiliency Improvements Project in an amount not to exceed $1,100,000 to McGill Associates PA and to authorize the mayor and or city manager to execute said contract and other necessary documents.

Thank you, Molly. Motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Randy, thanks so much.

I greatly appreciate it.

And I'd point out, too, that R.J. Mosley is here tonight with McGill.

R.J., thank you. Okay. We have something brand new, of course, consideration of budget amendments for Hurricane Helene. I'll call on Sally to give us some information.

It's been a while, right? We've been trying to save them up. We could probably talk about it every time, but anyway. So a little bit. We want to do two budget amendments, and we're doing the budget amendments for a very good reason, because we've actually received money. And so now that we have received some reimbursement from FEMA... We can take the money that we originally set aside out of our electric and our Compass Fund to fund the expenses that we were having. Now that we've been reimbursed for some of those things, we can move that money back into the fund. So the budget amendments are really good news. $320,000 is going back into Compass and $1 million back into electric. And then the first budget amendment, which is the $2,280,012, is just the rigmarole math that we have to go through because accounting for this requires two capital projects funds and the other funds, and you just have to trust us on that one. So we ask at the end that you approve both of those, or we can do that now. And then I also want to give just a little bit of an update on where we stand because it's been a while since we've done that as well. You can approve those one at the time if you want. The first one for the $2.2 million and the second one for $1.3 million.

What's the wish of counsel? Receiving money.

Excuse me.

I'm sorry, Wendy. You can have turn.

I apologize.

I'll make a motion to adopt a budget amendment in the amount of $2,280,000.12 to accept and transfer FEMA project reimbursement proceeds to the Helene CPF Capital Project Fund.

Thank you, Butch. I have a motion to have a second. Second. Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passed. Please, Wendy. I need another motion.

Motion to approve a budget amendment in the amount of $1,320,000 to receive FEMA funding reimbursement and transfer from Helene Bond into the Helene Project Fund.

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

Aye.

If you oppose, the motion passes.

That felt good, didn't it? Yes.

Okay, next on our agenda.

We're not done yet. I'm giving you a FEMA update.

Oh, a FEMA update. Excuse me, Sally. Please continue.

So we're going to start with a couple weeks ago. there was a headline that said, official, Helene recovery could take 25 years. So I just want to start with that. And in a lot of ways, that's probably very, very true. We are coming up on the two-year anniversary, and it seems in some ways like it's been 20 years, and then some days like it was yesterday. Wanted to give you all and our community in a nutshell basically where we are in this process so we had a total of 26 projects and those projects are on what we call our FEMA damage inventory report which is a number that changes a lot And so that number is now $54.5 million. And that is the number based on what we've spent that has been approved that we are trying to get reimbursed for, what we have in varying states of design and bidding. and what our engineers are estimating it will cost, and some of them in what we actually have in real cost that are in the process of being spent that we'll get reimbursed for. At least we hope. 19 have received reimbursement. And so a lot of those were our early projects, our response to the storm in the days after, the weeks after, and then several months after that, emergency response. Some of it to our lift stations, our sewer plant, clearing the streets, debris removal, electric restoration, emergency work at water plant, sewer plant, compass system, some of the stuff that's happened at recreation and that kind of thing. that's 5.2 million dollars and so we have received to date 5.2 million dollars and this is just FEMA not insurance not any of the other stuff we have two projects that are in what we are calling final engineering which means that we've awarded engineering contracts and the outside engineers are currently working on on getting that to the point that then we can take that to bid so that we would then have a contractor, a project schedule, and hopefully some concurrence with FEMA on how much of that they're approving to pay us back for. And those two projects are the Rocky Fort Greenway, which is the end of the Greenway near Grace Ridge, that has been very undermined in the storm and in the time afterwards, I might add. And then the raw water intake at the water plant. And that's the pump house and all the appliances that go with it. We have one, and we'll talk about this in a minute, in what we call Final FEMA Review. And these are our parks. We're going to come back to that. We have four projects that have been obligated, and the state has them on the list. FEMA obligated them, the state has approved them, and they are ready to release funds to us when we spend it and we turn in the reimbursements. Because remember, we've got to spend the money first, then we turn it in, and then they send us the money back. And that's a little over $9 million. Those four projects are the three that are under construction currently. Silver Creek Lift Station, yes, we'll talk about it forever, and the Recreation Maintenance Building, which our schedule got hung up by FEMA and some archaeological work. things that had to be done a different way to satisfy their needs. That is underway. You should see the demolition starting probably next week. Brian talked about that at Catawba Meadows of the old maintenance, what's left of the old maintenance facility, and then the nursery maintenance building that we still use down by the water. And then in the next few weeks, you should start to see site work at the new site where the new rec maintenance building is going to be constructed. And that is kind of to the side of the softball field is what I'm going to say. That's the best description I have. And then there is the boardwalk, which is under construction and looking very good, I might add. We have product on site, which will ultimately be our boardwalk surface. which will be the pbc the plastic material that we were able to use in this project more resilient giving us you know more opportunities later to to miss damage happening if we have bad weather that product has been on site we are currently waiting for steel some of the steel has been delivered there is still more to come and there's process and of course we're very anxious and would like for that to be here but we are probably the next two to three weeks out from getting that and then you should start to see that going in and then the overlayment and then ultimately we'll be able to get that project complete

It'll be a Christmas present for all of us.

That would be a beautiful Christmas present. And then the other project is the weir at the water plant. So that is the dam that is in the water. The part that's in the water in the river was not damaged, but the abutment wall and the gates and the stuff next to that have been. The engineering is done on that. That is out for bids. FEMA has agreed preliminarily to a little over half a million dollars to help pay for that project. And we are hoping we take bids late September. Last week of September, they'll be in. So we hope we're in that amount. And then that's the construction piece, and then there's engineering with that, too. So it's somewhere around $600,000, $700,000 for that total. So hopefully we'll be awarding a contract at our October council meeting and getting on with that project and we can move it up to the ones we've been reimbursed and are complete. So that leaves the parks. And I know we keep talking about this, but I think it's important because our community misses it. Our region misses it and Western North Carolina miss our parks. And we can't seem to get far enough along to get them started. And I know folks are wondering why that is. So a couple of things. We have done extensive engineering work with our consulting engineer. And as we look at those two parks, we are looking at almost $33 million in reconstruction costs and engineering costs for that. And that is a very large number. As we said before, FEMA is reviewing the detail of that currently and they have not come back to us with their evaluation of what is fair and reasonable for those costs to occur. and what they are willing to support. We ask the question every week. Rob sends his email every week. Instead of send me the money now, he wants to know, send me the answer to what you're going to pay for. Every week we're told it's still in review. We have made the decision, because we cannot really accept a $33 million exposure without answers, as to what sources of funding we're going to have, other than ourselves, to pay for that. But we have made the decision, and our engineers are currently working, on pulling out the buildings. So the bathrooms, the concession areas, and the buildings at both the soccer complex, and that includes the bathrooms that are along the greenway behind the soccer field, And I know people who are walking the Greenway now, they want bathrooms. I hear it all the time. And then at Catawba Meadows, the maintenance area building in there, the storage facility that we have, the offices that are in there, and then the concession area. So we've made the decision to pull those out, and we are putting together a bid package so that we can let that hit the streets before the fields, because the fields are where the big dollars are. The buildings are estimated around, both parks, around $5 million. That's a little more manageable in us being able to take that risk on, and we still have our cash flow loan, some of the money from that, from the state treasurer's office. And so we are hoping in the next couple of months to go out to bid with that, and then over the winter be able to award a contract and to get those buildings restored and back in use. It's our goal that by then, we've heard from FEMA, and that we know what they are going to do, and we know if we have a funding gap. Now we feel like we may end up with a funding gap. We may be lucky, and we may not, but we may. So the next item on your agenda is for you to give us permission, and the COG has been helping us, and Shelby is here tonight, to put together a grant, and that is for CDBGDR, which is disaster monies that the state is sitting on. They're competitive money. And it is for public infrastructure. The maximum you can ask for is $15 million. And we would like permission to apply for $15 million to go toward the parks. And we're hoping, and it's a little tricky, the timing on all of this, because what FEMA would like is to drag out an answer and then they give you an answer and you go. What CDBGDR wants is they want FEMA to have turned you down and you have an identified gap, which we don't have just yet. But we don't want to miss our opportunity and we don't want to not get in the pipeline. So we're asking to turn the grant in and we're asking to go through the process and then figure out when we get all of our answers how much CDBGDR money we need, if any. hopefully fill our gap to finish the parks and be able to do our field work and restore all of those. What's the turnaround for this grant? So it is September 16th is at the deadline so two days from today it is due and they've been doing wonderful work helping us with all of that and then probably it'll be like December when we would hear from that and Maybe early next year.

It's very important that we get the answer from FEMA.

It is. And the other challenge with the CDBG dollars is you're not allowed to start work. So even if you're still in the process and you're not allowed to start any work, hence why we're pulling out the buildings and taking that risk and hoping for any gap funding on the fields so that's where we are um it would be our goal that that you know by next year that we've got all of that resolved that we've got bids that we are working and that we are then restoring our athletic fields as well and that we can meet a planting season, planting season for soccer, baseball, softball, all of it, and then get our kids and other families back on our fields. We are told by our FEMA friends that sometimes we push very hard and that our expectation of getting back up and running especially when you've got new buildings from destroyed buildings and new facilities that that we ask an awful lot that the average time to see that start is six years and we're like well that's just absolutely unacceptable that answer does not compute and cannot be and and so we continue to push um and i hope in six years You know, we're back.

Yeah, we have to be. Sally, thanks so much. Pulling out the buildings, we can still request reimbursement for FEMA for those?

Oh, yes. So FEMA would be okay with us doing $33 million worth of work. we would just be accepting that total responsibility if, in the end, they didn't finance any of it for us. Now, that's not going to happen, okay? They're going to give us some dollars. The question really is how much. I mean, you're looking at 15 fields, and the estimated cost for them is... about a million dollars a field i mean that's just kind of where it falls out and then there's all the appurtenances and everything else that comes with that and that is to put them back into a condition of which they were before we had this slot and to remind people that these fields weren't just used by our local athletes

These fields were used by regional athletes that came in and spent money in our town and spent money in the hotels, and it was a real economic driver for us in Worthington.

And for our small businesses and our restaurants and folks, and direct response to that from recreation, we're probably losing about $350,000 a year. that we were collecting from those events, and that doesn't address the indirect benefit. And again, I'll say it, Western North Carolina, and this article was a lot about tourism in Western North Carolina and how it really isn't back, and we're starting to see those numbers take a downturn. It's hard to say we were lucky after the storm. We were lucky. But those numbers stayed pretty high because you had a lot of emergency workers. You had a lot of folks filling hotels where rooms were available. You've had a lot of FEMA workers. You've had a lot of folks in, electric workers, everybody. And that really kept numbers high. I think now we're starting to see as a region where we really are not back in how much work there is to be done.

Sally, thanks so much for that update. What's the wish of council?

I'd like a motion to call for public hearing number two to consider an application for the CDBGDR Community Infrastructure Program for Morganton Parks and Recreation Restoration Project.

Thank you, Chris. I have a motion to add a second.

Second.

Thank you, Molly. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. The motion passes. We have one add-on.

I can't wait until Butch accepts $33 million.

We might fight him for it.

We do have consideration of appointment to the Community Appearance Advisory Commission. This is a mayor appointment. C. David Gajuk has applied to seek an appointment. It's a mayor appointment, so I'm going to appoint C. David Gajuk to the Community Appearance Advisory Commission for a two-year term ending on June 30, 2028. Is there anything else to come before council? This meeting is adjourned.