City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call the North Coast City Council study session for Monday, June 8, 2026 to order. We've got some guests in the audience. Nice to have you with us. Thank you. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to our city administrator, Mr. Jim Clifford.

Thank you Mr. mayor, as is our count council practice on the state session night, we'll be doing an agenda review for the council meeting for next week. And we'll have department details from the department heads and then under mayor's matters, we'll have 2 focus items. 1st, being from edgefield county to talk about impact fees and a request that they're going to have for the city North against the council in the future. And then James sent will be giving a close out report on the. skip RIA and ARPA funded wastewater projects that were associated for the last several years. So we'll go through all those tonight. And with that, we'll go ahead and go right into the agenda review. Under old business under planning and development, we have ordinance number 2026 dash 11, change the corporate limits of the city of North Augusta by accepting the petition requesting annexation by the landowners and annexing plus or minus 2.48 acres of property located on the east point of Vista owned by SEC. Contracting 2nd reading I know this was discussed at the previous city council meeting and the previous study session. So I have nothing to add at this time, unless you have any specific questions in which case I've got. from the planning department who will be able to answer any of your questions. Okay, I think the most substantive thing that we're going to have on the agenda for considerations under new business and so we'll go into item number seven under parks and recreation which is ordinance number 2026-12 granting an easement on city property that includes summerfield park to demean energy south carolina for placement of facilities to serve north augusta middle school first reading so even though this is listed as a parks and rec item i know it doesn't necessarily show it in the council packet as clean as we like we have some additional photos that we're going to be showing The root cause of why this is before the City Council for consideration is because of the improvements to North Augusta Middle School. As you recall, North Augusta Middle School, the school district is going to build a concurrent building right next door to the current facility. They have some additional requirements associated with that, and that would involve an easement for Dominion Power that would affect Summerfield Park across the street. So even though this is a Parks and Rec item, just because it's affecting Summerfield Park, but the real so what of this is this is in direct support of the North Augusta Middle School project. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Rick Meyer.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'll try to make this clear as mud. I've got some good backup help with me tonight. I have Tilden Hildebrand, a professional engineer that's working for the school district, and Mr. Michael Jarrah with the Aiken School District, who's Director of Facilities Construction. Next slide, please. As Mr. Clifford mentioned, this is about North Augusta Middle School additions by the Aiken School District. And with this addition, they are required by South Carolina Department of Transportation to restripe Old Edgefield Road and to include turn lanes. So you're talking about widening Old Edgefield Road by approximately 12 to 15 feet. And with that, you have to have a request to grant an easement that goes on city property that includes summer field park to the minion energy. This will require the minion energy to move at least 5 power poles along the West side of old edgefield road. The poles are currently located between the sidewalk and Old Edgefield Road. When they relocate the poles, they'll be between the sidewalk and Summerfield Park fence, and that'll push the right-of-way into a portion of the park. There's only two power poles that really affect Summerfield Park, and if you look at this picture, you can see the new edge of pavement is the green line, and the new power line right-of-way is the blue line. And you can also see below the new school entrance and how that will look into the new North Augusta Middle School. Next slide, please. The new right-of-way will result in removal of two large oak trees in Summerfield Park. Superintendent Roy Kibler already has plans to replace both these trees on property that will be outside of the new power line right-of-way. Next slide. Here is the first oak tree removal. It's a large oak tree that's located near the pump house. It would be severely pruned and cut back and would cause damage to the tree and it's to our best interest, according to Roy, to just remove this tree. Next slide. There's the second tree down the fence line that you can see oak tree that we'll have to remove as well. Next slide. if you look you see the orange stakes that is the the right-of-way itself per dominion energy the fence that you're looking at in the summerfield park sign will not be impacted by this right-of-way next slide iron stakes here show you looking down uh the road that this doesn't run parallel to the fence it kind of winds out so you see there there's no impact at all as we as we go down the property next slide Here we have a little bit of impact. You have a guy wire coming from the relocation of the pole, be right next to the pump house. That'll be flagged in yellow and we'll obviously decide if we need to do anything else with that, but that's probably between the two oak trees, that's your greatest impact as far as the new easement. Next slide. That basically is it for what I have. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer, and that's why I have Tilden and Michael here to answer any questions.

What's the time frame?

I'm going to let these gentlemen answer that, if you would.

How long is it going to mess up the park as far as you're taking two big giant trees down? That second tree didn't bother me as much.

That first one's huge. So how long is it going to take those two trees down and have that? We have a lot of traffic.

I mean, what is that going to do for citizens who are using the park and all that kind of stuff?

Taking down the two trees will be done by a site contractor, and that can be done any time. Prior to the road widening. Oh, I'm Tilden Hildebrand. This is Michael Jarrah.

So those will be done first?

They can be done at any time prior to the road widening.

I really don't see that as a significant impact.

The poles themselves will be moved about 12 to 13 feet. This was all dictated by DOT. I think DOT maybe thought that the road was wide enough already and you just do some restriping. No, it's not.

Everything's spelled out in the arms manual as to how you have to do it.

As you come down the hill, there will be a left-turn lane into the new entrance. There will be a right-turn lane as you go up the hill. The city of North Augusta would not have to give up any actual property, only the easement. Dominion reconfigured the poles so that it's a three-phase line. Dominion reconfigured the poles so that the conductor would be vertical rather than be out on an arm, which saved four feet of easement. So they've been trying to minimize the impact. Over on the other side, the school district will actually have to give up some right-of-way due to the configuration of the widening. And I'm sure you guys are familiar with this, and I actually grew up right in this neighborhood here. The park, which was a former school, will be impacted by mainly two poles. There'll be a little bit more impact on the two lots that are down lower near the dry cleaner because there's a fiber optic line. so the poles will have to be a little bit farther behind the sidewalk um the poles probably rambling too much but um the poles will be moved two feet behind the sidewalk so if you wanted to look that'll give you a good idea where the poles are going to be and that's actually just into the park the property line right away is about right at the back of the sidewalk Thank you.

This may be a question for Dominion, but is underground power even a possibility rather than poles and cutting trees down?

They did look at that. Obviously, there's a cost difference. This is three-phase. But there's also some feeder lines that cross the road further up that would have to be underground power. not only on this side, but as they crossed the road. And it just snowballed in cost. They said they could get some sort of funds or something, but it was just way beyond. guess workable cost to do this and I think there's two crossings that would have to be put under old Edgefield Road underground and then come back up on the other side also that I guess a total of three if you count the school school has a new feed existing feed is a little bit lower down and goes goes underground everything on the school side will be underground but this area of five poles here And before the next meeting, we can get you some costs from Dominion as to how much that would be. It's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I would like to at least see a number, just if it's a possibility at all. do a couple things for us. The other thing I know about this particular area is it is a heavily used area to pick up kids, which will be greatly impacted.

And I don't know if the new school will be used for picking up kids anymore. When this is done, all the stacking will be on site. And this mess that they do in the afternoon of backing up. That would be great, yes. That would be great. That would be gone.

Well, now how are the parents are going to, because a lot of them do that because of the line going into the school. Now is the main entrance, is the new school going to be in the back, the entrance?

I wish we had an overall plan. The new school is actually going to be built down on the ball field.

Yeah, I know, but is that going to be the front entrance of the school versus where it is?

That will be the front entrance and the stacking, we've got a double stacking lane in front that provides more stacking than you currently have in the street and that's the main goal of the school district and DOT is to get those people out of the road Now when you say they'll be a lane for left turn

That won't be the driveway we're talking about now that we're using the left turn.

No, it's actually further down. It's a little bit further down.

Okay. And then also, you know, because we have some, we're going to redo some of Summerfield Park, but I don't know when that'll be. But that won't affect that anyway. Okay. And then number three, affordable car wash. Have you talked to him? Because he owns some of that vacant property right by his car wash. The school district doesn't own all that.

We have not talked to him. All right.

Well, you need to talk to him. I can't think of his last name, but he's Mike. He owns it. No, Bruce. Excuse me. Mike is brother. Bruce. Bruce. And why no, because when I put out my campaign signs, I said, I don't want to put it on Aiken County's property. And he said, no, Pat, that's my property. You can use it. So Bruce is affordable car wash. So please, please talk to him because he might be impacted a lot.

um okay okay we will and and the storm drain from the new campus is actually tied in to a storm drain that's near the corner of the school district property so we've got a pretty good handle on where that is um that used to be granny's pickup years ago i don't know whether you remember that little car wash used to be called granny's pickup and it was a little Yeah. But I don't think that he'll be impacted, but we certainly will talk to him.

There's a ton of walkers that come out of that school in the afternoon, too, little kids. They walk a couple blocks this way, a couple blocks that way. Is there a plan to keep them safe as well?

We actually coordinated, I think Cully's the one that brought it up, with planning and public safety as to where to put that crosswalk. It's actually very close to where it is now, but that's been coordinated also. actually i used to a long time ago i used to live in that neighborhood down there and i went to summerfield walked there then i and after i got out of some summerfield i walked to north augusta junior high well a lot of the children that walk live in gentry trailer park yeah uh-huh you know they come out and walk all the way uphill

What other questions for these gentlemen? Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, and I'm moving on to the last item for the agenda review under Tourism Resolution Number 2026-34, authorizing CPST for community center improvements. Carl Waldhauer is certainly prepared to talk about what those improvements are, but just to remind the council, this was in one of the items that we discussed at the off-site in Greenwood. We talked about the remaining capital project sales tax for funds, and this proposal is in line with council guidance from the off-site, which involves paving the parking lot, making some lighting improvements and pole replacements there in the community center. But I'll defer to Carl for any additional information about that. But the bids have all been received and we're prepared to move forward either through state contract or bids on the improvements to the community center.

And to go into your. Carl, give us a breakdown specifically. What are we going to be fixing again? Sure. All the lighting?

Yes, sir. We have some paving of the.

Exterior. I'm sorry? Exterior lighting.

Yes, sir. OK. It's lighting that's going to service Martinville Park, tennis courts, and community center, obviously. Paving for that same footprint. It's going to go all the way up to the old Department of Transportation building and circle all the way around by the lodge on the opposite side of the community center and cover all that in striping. We have some exterior paint in the community center. It's weathered. It's about time to give that a spruce up and repaint. Our parking lot pavement also came in under bid. And we're still staying within threshold. We were able to get a roof. That's allowable. And some kitchen equipment from 1986. We found some under state contract. This is all still, that $296,000 is still including a 12% contingency. So I feel very comfortable in putting that out there.

I mean, I think...

Everything, the lighting is so necessary. It's terrible. I mean, it really is embarrassing. And even it's dangerous. So that's huge.

Yes, sir. We're going to upgrade to LED, obviously. And the foot candles are going to go way up from where it is now.

Very good.

Do we have a commercial component, where if a commercial kitchen is needed to package something, the city rents the kitchen out?

Meaning equipment-wise? Yeah. Yeah, sure. So the South Carolina State Procurement Department has contracts where they have vendors where you can purchase them a state contract.

OK.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Carl. Yes, sir.

So barring additional questions, that concludes the agenda review. And we're going to go ahead and move into department details. I'll either let Kayla run it, or I can do it. And Kelly, you want to take a shot at it? All right.

Up first, we have Linda Williamson with Finance.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Finance Department detail update for our Cycle 1 customers. Our disconnection dates for their May balances is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, June 16th. The due date for their June 10th bills is currently July 6th. Our Cycle 2 customers, we had quite a few calls this week regarding the May 25th bills that people had not received them. So we further inquired with our printing company, who then inquired with the USPS and discovered they were missing from the Postal Service. So they have reprinted those bills for us and mailed them again without charging us for, I think this went out Friday. Due to that, we are going to move the late fees being assessed to June 29th. The due date on their printed bills is going to be June 19th, but we're going to not charge late fees until the 29th. And with that, their disconnection for their May balances will begin on Tuesday, July 7th. And I just wanted to notate in case we did get some information today that some people had received their bills on Saturday. So we may just have duplicate bills out there, but it's just one bill due.

Thank you.

I'm up next. If you look on the back of your department details, you will see our list of employment opportunities. I've had a very busy HR journalist getting this list down. So I'm very proud of her. And then next we have Tom Caesar with engineering and public works.

Good evening. Two items. First up is you'll notice over the next couple weeks will be streets and drains will be installing some new wayfinding signage downtown. Particularly the first signs will be installed near the intersection of Center Street and Georgia Avenue. One of the sign panels is actually installed now, but there's no no signs on it and yet. The other one will be installed across the street at that same intersection. But these signs will have placards mounted on them that will provide direction arrows to primarily riverfront, Riverside Village venues, such as the stadium and other places of interest, as well as the new public safety headquarters complex. Part of this also, there will be a new Welcome to North Augusta. We call it a gateway sign. It is going to be installed at the nose of the island down here when you come across the bridge from Georgia.

It will be the first median there at the nose of that island.

That gateway sign will greet visitors to the city. We are waiting for a DOT encroachment permit for that sign. We will have that installed as soon as we receive that permit. I guess I can mention that this initial, these initial signs are being funded through a grant that was secured by Assistant Administrator McCauley. So that's how we're paying for these new wayfinding signs. And then secondly, streets and drains crews will also be working down at Riverside Village near the intersection of Center Street and Rissy Avenue. They'll be installing a new power center meter center, which will provide permanent power to the Center Street median down there. Since the tree lights were installed a while back, we've been basically borrowing through a temporary range of power from Crowne Plaza So we're now working with Dominion Energy to get a permanent city meter installed down there, which will provide lighting power as well as some other potential uses down there.

Next, we have Cully Baker with Planning and Development.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. We have a Planning Commission meeting coming up next Wednesday, June 17th.

Next is James Sutton with Public Services.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This week, meter readers will be reading the Cycle 2 Routes 100 through 114, a total of 5,488 meters. And water production technicians will be traveling throughout the water distribution system this week, collecting samples for water quality testing.

Next is Chief Johnson with Public Safety.

Good evening.

As you can see on your sheet there, once summer started, the school resource officers, when they got out for summer, they immediately began patrolling the Greenway and Brick Palm Park so that they would have it. They even started that on the half days. So they've been out there. If you've seen them, you'll see them on the Polaris and also on a bicycle patrol in that area. So they can do that. And also next week, Public Safety will be hosting the Police Chiefs Association up at our new headquarters. They're quarterly training. That will be taking place on June 18th. Thank you.

Next is Rick Meyer with Parks and Recreation.

the activity center is hosting the antonio grant basketball camp monday through thursday this week we are also hosting the south carolina high school league boys basketball event friday through sunday in all six gyms you'll have high schools from all over the state of south carolina so we should have some out of town guests staying and eating in our our restaurants um Our 8-and-under and 12-and-under all-star baseball teams won the Braves Country State Championship in Aiken this past weekend. Both teams have qualified for the national tournament in Cobb County, Georgia, June 27th through 28th. activity center improvements as you know the track mentioned before is been completed we have ordered new cardio and exercise equipment and the refinishing of gym floors and automation of basketball goals scheduled for after the Nike event so that's scheduled for August and that's the same timeline for the cardio exercise equipment Activity Center Gem 2 is a polling location tomorrow for North Acosta Precinct number 67. And lastly, the Creighton Park update. Playground equipment is scheduled to be on site by August 1st with three weeks to install, depending on the weather, of course. And right now we're looking at a September ribbon-cutting event. That's all I have. Thank you.

Last, we have Carl Waldhauer with Tourism.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Tomorrow, Community Center will be hosting voting for South Carolina State Primaries Precinct 25 tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. As you all know, we've been hosting the early voting, so just making sure everybody knows that you report to your precincts tomorrow. Cultural Arts Council will be hosting Music in the Park this Thursday with DeVille's performing, and that's Muddenfield Park at 7 p.m. And lastly, just want to put another plug in there for our amazing race event coming up on July 18th. We've had about a half dozen teams sign up so far, and we've got, register your team on Explore North Augusta app or on our website, explorenorthaugusta.com, for teams of two to five folks.

That concludes the department details. We'll go ahead and move into our focus items. And so this evening, Edgefield County wanted to make a presentation. So I wanted to give you at least a little bit of a lead into what Administrator Cadell and Commissioner Mooney may have to say. So as you recall, the City of North Augusta entered into an arrangement with Tischler-Bice to do an impact fee analysis. And at the end of the day, the Council opted to add impact fees that largely supported Parks and Recreation, although there were some utility impact fees associated with the residential here in the sea limits of North Augusta. Edgefield County is likewise considering an impact fee for Edgefield County, but their purpose is different. Edgefield County impact fees would not be a double tax, so to speak. It would be for a different requirement, which is really for an EMS station to cover the south edge of Edgefield County, closer to exit one and near the kind of the Merriweather District. And so I believe the Edgefield County request is going to be the ability of North Augusta to collect impact fees on their behalf. So if there's a house that's built in Edgefield County, they're going to assess impact fees for that. But if that Edgefield County impact fee falls within the city limits of North Augusta, then the city of North Augusta actually has to collect that impact fee on their behalf and then give it to Edgefield County because those permits are run through the city of North Augusta, not through Edgefield County. And so I believe that's the root of the ask or the discussion that's going to be here tonight. But I will defer to Administrator Cadell, a former North Augusta employee and now county administrator. So, David, if you'd like to come on down and pitch to the council.

Mayor, Council, I appreciate the opportunity to be able to address you tonight. I'm so happy to see a lot of faces that are familiar to me and had a great experience working here for 20 some odd years. So Jim sort of gave up my introduction, but essentially I'm here to let you know that soon Edgefield County Council request that north augusta county council north augusta city council approve an ordinance to collect an impact fee on new construction within the edgefield county portions of north augusta for the purposes of the construction of a new emergency medical services substation so an ambulance substation So you have in front of you our impact fee study. I would like to ask that you consider this a draft document as your decision whether or not to participate will affect the data tables in this document. So you've just gone through this process. And you're aware of what impact fees are. But I just want to give a few comments about it for the public that may be watching. An impact fee is a fee collected on new construction to fund projects in areas of rapid growth where that growth is putting strain on facilities or services. Just a few rules. The fee must be proportional to the project it is collected for. That means it can't be a percentage-based fee based on the cost of a house. Everyone needs to pay a similar amount towards the capital project that you're funding. The fee may apply to capital expenditures only, not for operations, not for salaries, not for personnel. The project funded by the fee must be to the direct benefit of those paying the fee. For example, a project paid for from a fee collected in the Meriwether and North Augusta area cannot have an equal benefit to an area of Edgefield County outside of this area. It may have an incidental benefit. We may build a substation in this area funded by this area and an ambulance may have to support a call in another part of the county. But the primary focus must be within the area where the fee is collected. So the primary need is an emergency medical services EMS substation in the North Augusta, Merriweather, and County Line areas. These are the fastest growing areas of Edgefield County. This project will cost approximately $1 million, not counting land acquisition, design, and engineering. Just want to give you a few words about the current state of EMS because I know the bulk of your city is in Aiken County, and you may not think about Edgefield County EMS a lot, but Edgefield County EMS is responsible for serving your citizens within Edgefield County. Right now, we have two 24-hour ambulances stationed in our main station, which is just outside of the town of Edgefield on the Johnston side. We have a third 24-hour ambulance stationed at the Merriweather Fire Department on Martintown Road.

That's your primary service.

We just added the new addition of a fourth daytime only ambulance stationed at County Line Fire Department.

That is in proximity to North Augusta on Highway 25.

We have two QRVs. Those are quick response vehicles. Those are SUVs with some medical equipment that are generally driven by a supervisor. If ambulances are on other calls, that at least gets help to you quickly. We just began operation of our own EMT school to increase staffing. Staffing is a perpetual issue with emergency medical services, so we established our own school with certification through the state fire department.

We graduate our first class this month of six EMTs.

Three years ago, county council made EMS their top priority in the county's five-year strategic plan. Council followed up last year by increasing tax millage to add the fourth ambulance, to increase staffing for that fourth ambulance and another QRV, and to build a new headquarters. Since that time, Council has approved a new main EMS station on US 25 South between Trenton and North Augusta in front of the Generac plant. We expect that to go into architecture towards the end of summer. We established the fourth ambulance on a 12-hour shift, a daytime shift in January. It will go 24 hours once the headquarters is built. And an additional QRV. And all staff required have been funded by council. Our next need will be the substation in the Meriwether area to house the ambulance currently at the fire department, and a second in the future, which will likely be needed within a few years, probably about the time the station gets built. This will give us three stations with ambulances in the Meriwether-North Augusta area, the US-25 South corridor, and near the town of Edgefield, up from one station currently

and rented space in a fire department.

We are laser focused on doing everything we can to put ambulances in the best possible locations to improve patient outcomes by decreasing response time. And that's what it's all about. The faster our EMS service can get to you, the better your potential outcomes. So the proposed fee. The proposed fee is $1,600 on new residential and commercial construction in the County Line Fire District, Merriweather Fire District, and the Edgefield County portion of North Augusta, initially to be used for construction of this substation.

Likely, we would transition to ambulance replacement after that.

These three areas of Edgefield County represent 83% of all new construction within the county.

North Augusta represents 19% of all construction in Edgefield County.

With North Augusta's participation, this fee could generate about $400,000 per year. So with the project cost, with design and engineering, with land acquisition, and with inflation, that's about a three-year turnaround to build a substation. On behalf of Edgefield County Council, I'm here to request that North Augusta City Council consider approving This fee, when it comes to you for consideration. But I'm happy to answer any questions.

What hospital would Edgefield County go to? Aiken, Augusta, Edgefield County Hospital?

That answer, as always, it depends on several factors. Number one, it depends on the issue with the patient. If it is a burn issue, doctors. A heart issue, a stroke issue. It depends on who specializes in that. But then the patient and their family also have input on that. Where is their doctor affiliated?

Basically, these fees are going to...

go right back to the area they're being taken from to supply EMS services in that area of North Augusta.

That is correct. The fee would specifically go to the construction of an actual brick and mortar station that would serve the residents in the Edgefield County portion of North Augusta, Merriweather, and County Line, which is the 25 corridor.

Where's that location? Where would the location be?

That remains to be seen. We are about to undergo a study there, but it should be centrally located, and more importantly, according to our EMS director, near arterial roads to get to each area quickly.

Maybe just two questions. One, why did y'all decide or why did the county settle on a flat fee versus some sort of graduated fee or something that's more proportional, I guess, to the size of the project? And two, what are the repercussions or what is the impact, I guess, if the city of North Augusta does not vote in favor of this?

What happens? I'll tackle the first question because it's easier. So my assistant administrator... wrote this document. I was in agreement with him that a percentage fee or proportional fee is fair. A lot of people are flat tax type people. I think some can pay a little more. That is not how impact fees are done in South Carolina. We could not find a municipality or a county that had a true structural fee on a percentage.

And that is because of the word proportional in state law.

Your house could be worth $600,000 and your house could be worth $60,000. The calls are pretty much the same. So what you pay has to be proportional to what someone else pays. There is precedent to charge based on a square footage with the reasoning that occupancy could be greater in a larger square footage home. But Edgefield County just doesn't have a huge diversity of housing. Most housing is in the 1,500 to 3,500 square foot range. We don't have tiny home communities. We don't have 12,000 square foot homes. So price isn't homogenous, but home size is pretty much. We would just ask you to strongly consider this because this is for the benefit of your residents. I'm not prepared to say that we would be more than disappointed. But we would just ask that y'all recognize the need, strongly consider it, study it. And I believe when you read the documents, and we'll continue to share materials with you that you'll believe it's fair.

Mr. Cadell, could you review those percentages again for me?

I didn't get all of it. There was 83% of the... 83% of the new homes and businesses that are constructed in Edgefield County are constructed in County Line Fire District, Merriweather Fire District, and the city of North Augusta portion of Edgefield County. North Augusta's portion is 19% of total construction in Edgefield County. This is based on the last three-year average, and that is the window that we're required to look at in the study.

So 83% of the construction in Edgefield County is close to us. Yes. And 19% of the Edgefield County construction actually belongs in the North Augusta section.

That is correct. And upper 40s for Merriweather and about your percentage.

And you had given a number of, I believe, $1,900. $1,600. $1,600. Yes.

And $400,000.

Is that coming from the North Augusta section or is that coming from the whole Edgefield County section?

That is coming from County Line Fire District, Merriweather Fire District, and the Edgefield County portion of North Augusta. North Augusta's dollar amount is around $73,000 of that $400,000.

Okay. Yes.

And again, that's based on the average of construction in the last three years. It can vary depending on if you build more town homes in one area.

Where is the closest, maybe Mr. Clifford or... Chief Johnson, you know this. Where is the closest EMS facility to that area of Edgefield County at now?

The closest one to that area is the Merriweather Fire Station he was referencing on Martintown Road. That Edgefield County operates.

That's right. We rent space in that unit, two bedrooms and a bay for the ambulance. There's no expansion room. We need to build a facility that can hold two functioning ambulances and a spare. And, of course, bedroom facilities because these crews work 24-hour shifts.

And that's up Martintown Road. That's right. And would you anticipate this up Highway 25?

I really would not. I would think Murrah, Mealing, Martintown, and that area, because our main station will be constructed in front of Generac on Highway 25. And it should begin construction next year.

And then where's the closest Aiken County EMS station? Is that in the city of North Augusta?

The closest Aiken County station that responds to us is the one that's where the magistrate's office is there in Belvedere. Oh, yeah.

Mr. Clifford, I know the Stanley Martin development off Martintown Road, but what other areas are planned for development that are in Edgefield County that's going to be within the city limits?

So I defer to Administrator Cadell about how they came up with the $73,000 amount for the city. However, we have a number of ongoing developments that are in Edgefield County. So you've got Martintown Ridge, which is a Stanley Martin facility. Depending on the timeline associated with Edgefield County's actions and a potential city of North Augusta action, you may be able to catch kind of the tail end of that development because they've already started to build there. I would say that Gregory Landing is largely complete. I think they might have just a handful of homes that they'll be doing out there in Phase 3, which is a Keystone property. But you also have a large tract out there, which we call the Bagot Tract, which is off Gregory Lake Road. It's west of the Country Club property. And so that has gone through multiple permutations through the planning department as far as what that could potentially be from a residential perspective. So I think that's the next step. large, if you would, development that could end up in Edgefield County. That's all in the Edgefield County District. And we've also had discussions with various developers about an adjacent piece of property that fronts Murrow Road that's not currently in the city, but is certainly up for discussion because they would have a requirement for wastewater from the city of North Augusta. so there's not a whole lot of ongoing development that's going that are edgefield county projects right now but i think there's a number of future developments that are certainly in dialogue with the planning department if i could i would like to add something on timing from edgefield county standpoint that that does not need to affect your decision making or your time frame we have had first reading

That passed unanimously. We'll have second reading first Tuesday of July, third reading first Tuesday of August, and we intend to implement this should it pass all three readings in the Meriwether and County Line fire districts. And then we would hope North Augusta would come along with us.

Are you planning 100% of the impact fees to go to the EMS?

100% until it is paid for and covered. And the way an impact fee works in sort of a shared situation, should North Augusta come alongside of us, you can only charge an impact fee for something that is on the capital improvement plan. Edgefield County passed a plan with our recent budget. We're on a... different fiscal year. We just passed our budget. That summary is in the back of that impact fee document. So every year you can change the capital improvement plan to add new projects, take projects off. If a situation came about where the next project up benefited, let's say, the far edge of county line away from North Augusta, then North Augusta would obviously stop collecting the fee for that project. We're asking North Augusta to collect the fee for this EMS station. And then as projects in the future come up, you would have to decide whether to participate in that. If the county, Edgefield County North Augusta, partnered on a recreation facility, maybe you would want to consider continuing with the fee for that. But that would be purely your decision.

Phase 22 and 23, we have the Calipers Improvement Plan excerpt. We've got EMS number one, star part two, all the way down to seven, recreation suite water. Those aren't the order of things. If the EMS gets completed, that then... impact fee will go toward those, or this is just separate?

Right, they're in no particular order. For example, I believe the EMS station that you referenced as number one is actually the headquarters in front of Generac, item number four is the ambulance station, Merriweather substation.

I think John Felix's question is important just because if this all go to EMS, but a big chunk of our impact fees are parks and recreation. So the last thing we wanted must have been parks and recreation. Edgefield's doing all parks and recreation, too.

I understand that completely.

This would be EMS, okay, and then we would have a decision to decide if we continue once y'all got it built and these continue.

That's correct.

And again, what I would anticipate is likely, and this is not in the capital improvement plan, but likely around the time we purchased a substation, built a substation, paid it off, it will probably be time for Edgefield County to add a fifth ambulance because growth is so strong here. An ambulance, an emergency vehicle, is an allowable purchase under an impact fee.

So we may ask North Augusta to then continue a year to help add that additional ambulance.

And again, that's in your purview. And you can limit this through your ordinance in any way you see fit. OK.

Very good.

Any other questions for Mr. Cadellas?

what happens what would be the harm to North Augusta Mr. Clifford I don't know if there'd be a harm councilman I know that in the previous discussion we had it about impact fees you know the home builders are gonna object to adding impact fees and then they're gonna say that that cost is gonna be passed along to the consumers so any impact fees are added to the baseline cost of a home so that would be the the harm if you will of adding any impact fee uh but i think the the good at least in this case outweighs it and to administrator cadell's point about your roles as a council you have the ability to put guard rails on those funds uh and certainly within an ordinance that the city would craft in support of edgefield county if it gets to that would be uh you could limit that specifically to ems services to make sure there was no money that would go to like an expansion if you will of impact fees for parks and rec if you didn't want to do that and you can always revisit that at a later date but there's There are controls that you can put in place through the ordinance that you would pass as a city council here. But to your original question, Councilwoman, the harm would be additional costs to homes.

In Edgefield County.

That are in the city limits of North Augusta.

Yes, city limits, but Edgefield County.

That is correct.

So mainly we'd just be collecting the money through North Augusta.

So we'd be a pass-through? Because that's how you collect the fees is it goes through your building standards and planning department. And so anything built in the city limits of North Augusta comes through our staff. It does not go through the county staff directly. So you have to be a willing participant for us to be a pass-through, if you will, for us to collect on behalf of the county.

And that's not a heavy lift for our administration at all to do that, right?

Not based on the size of Edge Hill County inside North Augusta now.

Any other questions? Thank you, sir. Thank you. It was great to be here. We'll see you always. Thanks, Dave.

All right, and now, as they say, for the main event, the James Sutton Show. I've asked James to give an update here to the council as a closeout. James and his staff have done yeoman's work with support from Linda's staff over in finance. to make this a reality. I know it's not seen by most of the citizens of the town, but I would tell you that decisions that this council and previous councils have made in regards to infrastructure spending have been well spent. And so James is going to give you an update today about what was actually accomplished with the ARPA funds along with the RIA skip grant that was granted to the city of North Augusta. And in essence, it touches every single resident in the city of North Augusta. And so with that, I'll turn it over to James.

Thank you, sir. Mayor and council, you recall back in 2022, you approved over $13 million for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements. Those projects are now complete. They all just completed within a three or four month window of each other this year. I'd like to go ahead and present those to you, and we can close the project file out completely. Moving next, the first primary project is one of the most critical components that are located in the distribution system. It's located as Clay Street Pump Station that was upgraded. It's located in a mid-level system. Martintown is located off Martintown Road, and it's bordered by Interstate I-20, I-520, Claremont Drive, and it also borders the high-level system from Muskaga Lake Road to the north side of I-20, and the low-level system from Martintown on the south side down to Savannah River. The station was originally constructed in 1974 and then upgraded in 1988. Like I indicated the station Primarily gets this water from water treatment plant Treatment plant pumps the water up the hill Clay Street filling up the below ground 1 million gallon gallon storage tank That service area serves off of Clay Street 44,162 residential customers next slide As I indicated, the original station, the 1974 duplex pump station in your lower left corner was constructed in 1974. The top right triplex pump station was in 1988. Those pumps range at full flow anywhere from 1,200 to 1,900 gallons per minute, and duplex station was manually controlled with minimal automated controls on the 1988 station. What happened to that station is high maintenance, extreme, highly cost to repair and maintain. As of today, those stations no longer exist. They've been decommissioned and recycled.

Next slide.

All right, so in the middle is our grand building that we have. It's an enclosure. It protects all of our equipment. We have the pumps to the left image and motors. They're high efficiency pumps, high efficiency motors, put in to perform. They have variable speed frequencies on the controls that ramp up and ramp down as the water demand is used in the system that provides for efficiency and energy savings. We should see a little bit of a lower cost on that. I know there may be a little increase. It may wind up balancing out with the climate control building that houses the electrical components and the pumps and motors. because the other stations were out in the weather, although weatherproof, they were not climate controlled. The electrical on the right is housed also in the control building, and it's got all the automated features and electrical components that the other stations didn't have, so we've got a good, modern, updated building. Next slide. To the left, all the piping, valves, and fittings on site. were originally cast iron. They were all replaced, mainly during the night hours. to prevent water service interruption throughout the system for the customers to continue having their service. And to the right is the images, the standby generator. It's on site, it's automated. Power goes off for some reason on that site from Dominion Electric, that standby automatically cuts on. So we're not gonna lose any time in between our staff getting up there to automatically cut it on manually to restore service. Next. addition to the site is access controls, perimeter fencing that's more stout, more controlled access from unauthorized people from entering the facility, and plus the CCTV security cameras and other items that are on site. Next. So the benefits of that project, as you see on the right, that display is what the operators see at the water treatment plant. That way they can automatically control that pump station from the water treatment plant. Those two elevated tanks there, Smithfield and Five Notch Road, and also, I don't see it, but Observatory's on there as well, they can see the tank levels and know that if there's a pump not running, it needs to be running, They can activate one pump, two pumps, or three pumps to go along with system demand. We also got efficiency of the stations increased because of the high efficiency motors and pumps, as I indicated. You can sleep a little bit better at night knowing that station's upgraded and our customers will have good, continued service for years to come. Next slide. The funding sources for this project is approved by Council's American Recovery Protection Act Fund for $3.1 million. The Rural Infrastructure Authority, RIA, is $500,000, and also our own North Augusta Utility Construction Fund of $1.54. Total funding for the project was $5,163,632. Total project expense was $5,029,864.04. We went under budget on that project, over $133,000. That funding is going to be going back to North Augusta Utility Construction Fund. Next slide. All right, here's a good one. This is another one of our main improvement projects, wastewater infrastructure improvements. included the inspection, repair, replacement, rehabilitation of aged, deteriorated clay pipes and brick manholes in the wastewater collection system. Next. As you can see in the map on the right, the lines represent the interceptor. The interceptor ran, basically just about encompassed two-thirds of the city. It starts in the middle of the Rapid Subdivision, travels along parallel to the river, up Riverside Boulevard, Buena Vista, Atomic Road, crosses Martintown over to Edgefield, down through Crescent Subdivision, over to Woonrath Court, right below the operations facility. That line there with arterial lines that connect to those interceptor lines, there's 10,463 customers that are served by that interceptor. They are the largest pipes in our collection system that range from 15, 18, and 21 inch. Next. Prior to going into the rehabilitation of the pipe system, we had to do an evaluation to see exactly what it was gonna take to get the system rehabilitated and what method was gonna be used to renew these pipes. The lines were originally hydraulically cleaned, They were closed circuit televised and inspected internally. And then they were ranked by condition. So like the cracked pipe may have had a rating of three, collapsed pipe a five, which is bad. And then a shattered pipe could have been a two, fractured pipe a one. So once all that information was compiled related to the pipe condition, then we was able to make a decision on the best control method to renew this pipe system. Next. So the method chosen was cured-in-place pipe. You'll hear a lot of people term it CIPP. Basically, it's a lining of a pipe. It's a pipe inside of a pipe. So we do have a video I'd like to show you. SAK Construction is one of our contractors who performed a couple of projects for us. It's a little brief video, kind of give you an insight on the cured-in-place process.

SAK's no-dig, cured-in-place pipe technology is a quick and cost-effective approach to rehabilitating sewer and water pipes. Aging underground piping systems typically look like this and can be filled with roots, broken pipe, and other debris that impede flow. We use a high-pressure water jitter to clean the pipe in order to first evaluate, then line the pipe. After the host pipe has been cleaned, we run a specialized closed circuit camera through the line looking for anything that could impede the installation of the CIPP liner. We will also identify all live service connections. In preparation for the CIPP liner installation, we will vacuum impregnate the liner with our thermal setting resin at our wet out facility. This is the component that will later make the liner rigid like a typical PVC pipe. Our CIPP liner cures under heat, so our freshly prepared liner tube is transported to the job site via refrigerated truck to ensure it's kept malleable prior to its installation. At the job site, the host pipe is first bypassed so there are no service interruptions. Then our installation equipment is set up and the CIPP liner is installed using air, as shown here. or water pressure to conform to the inside of the host pipe. This process is much like turning a sock inside out. Once the CIPP liner is completely inverted into the host pipe, hot water or steam is cycled through it, which causes the thermal setting resin to cure into a rigid state. Once the CIPP liner has fully cured, water or steam are continuously cycled through for a specified period of time and then allowed to gradually cool down to achieve an optimal finished product. After the specified cool down period, the pressure is released and the ends of the liner are cut inside the manholes. After the line has been opened at both ends, a robotic cutter is deployed to open all the service connections from inside the pipe. This alleviates the need to dig to restore service. The newly lined section is re-inspected by a specialized closed circuit camera across its entire length. Our experienced crews perform this final inspection to ensure proper installation and to verify that the lateral connections have been properly restored.

Next slide. Like I indicated, we did a ranking of the pipe conditions and we did locate some pipes that were collapsed that they did not qualify for the CIPP lining. We utilized city crews to make those repairs. So you can see those in the images up. Those are 18 inch pipes. They were collapsed and they went back in and splashed in those collapse with a ductile iron pipe. Next slide. So overall on the interceptors, there was 28,049 linear feet of clay pipe that was renewed with CIPP liners. The top images that are before are the same locations out of the CCTV videos as the after at the bottom. You can see the big difference with the before and after of the quality of how those pipes look. The CIPP as well also has a 50-plus year lifespan expectancy. It's like clay, 60 years, 50 years, when you push it to 100 years. And we've had some clay pipes in our system for 70, 80 years. So we hope to get more than 50-plus years out of it. Next. We also rehabilitated all of the manholes that are located along the pipe segments of the interceptor. Those are access points for cleaning inspections and such that utility technicians use to unstop waste waters to inspect the pipes and such. The problem with a lot of the brick manholes were missing bricks. The bottom trough that the flow goes through, the concrete was cracked. Some of it was missing. Mortar joints were missing and had failed. And that picture on the left is before. It's hard to see, but at the angle, they have to be taken without going down into confined space. And after completed, renewed, rehabilitated manholes on the right side. Another benefit that we had was there's a lot of cast iron manhole framing covers that are located throughout the easement area along the Greenway Trail and the wooded areas. And in order to get rid of those so we could secure those manholes to prevent somebody from authorized entry, because we've had those manhole frame and covers stolen in the past, or the metal cells. We got those frame and covers that are lockable so that nobody can get into them. They work real well. Next. In the same, we had the point repairs where there was one location in one of the mains that was collapsed. Unfortunately, we had run across some of the mains in the same pipe segments between manhole to manhole where we had multiple collapses that were in there. So we had to wind up, contractor had to wind up replacing those pipe segments. One of the pipe segments that was crushed was underneath the Atomic Road right at Seymour Drive. And they were able to go in and pipe burst that section of pipe without excavating and pull that new HDPE pipeline through there. The next one is the one that's in the image to the left. It was 18-inch corrugated. It's an aerial line that sits down below the Greenway Trail. It was also damaged severely during the Hurricane Helena event by trees falling on it. And that pipeline was replaced with the pipe on the right, still 18-inch pipe. It was good, solid pipe. It's been coated. It won't rust. That's going to last a real long time. The remaining one was down in the creek along Riverside Boulevard down below the dog pen in between there and the butterfly garden. Next. All right, then we stop there for a minute. That was supposed to pretty much be the ending of our funding with the interceptors. So as we went out for bids, we found out the load bid and the work involved. We had a $7.6 million grant through RIA, the South Carolina Infrastructure Improvement Program. This project here coming in a little over $5 million. With change orders, we recently closed it out at $4.91 million. That left us a good portion of funds to work with. Well, we'd already, in the prior years, done some utility analysis of some other aged pipes in the Cressland and Landhurst subdivisions, so we had our data ready to go. And our administrator, Mr. Clifford, managed to talk with The people at the Grant Place in Columbia was able to extend those funds and enter into these neighborhoods to rehabilitate manholes and the pipes as well. Next. I'll be brief. Similar to the Interceptors, same work, same project style, just a different size pipe. It was all 8-inch pipe. It served about 1,900 customers plus. We managed to get 33,957 feet of clay pipe renewed. The project went well and 131 brick manholes were rehabilitated as well. Again, you can see the before and after images up top of the pipe and the manholes. Contracts did good quality work. After we got out for bids for that, there was still money left on the grant. And another approach to the grant, they were very willing to work with North Augusta. They approved another major pipeline. It's 15-inch clay of an industrial park. Got the bids open on that. And another contractor actually, SAK Construction, did that one as well. They relined 9,243 feet of 15-inch pipe. But over the past, some of the manholes have been pulled out, brick manholes, and they've been replaced with precast manholes. So we didn't have to do any manhole rehabilitation across that property from Revco Drive to Annenberg Road just down near TTX and Dust Industries. Next. So overall, between all of the CIPP projects, manhole rehabilitation, that's 71,249 linear feet of CIPP pipe, clay pipe renew, 283 brick manholes, and 1,078 feet of pipe replaced and six-point repairs. Well, it was a very good job. Next. A lot of the improved benefits across all the projects I just discussed is the water flow. A lot of times where it hit the clay pipes, collapsed, kicked up, offset, it will slow the water down. Debris picking up on it, backing up some of the water, slowing the velocity of the water down. This pipe here, the coefficient is real smooth, and it's gonna flow. It increased up the velocity, so it's moving on to the wastewater treatment plant. Also, it would improve the structural strength of the manholes in the pipe. Restored all of that. Eliminating groundwater intrusion, root intrusion. That's a reliable system. Got 50 years operations. And coming from a utility guy, you can sleep better at night knowing that you got infrastructure down on that river. Some of those pipes are the most, they carry over two million gallons a day. When they fail, they're costly, and it's not a good thing. Next. Yep, all right, so when we finished that one, we still had money. So we moved on into the final phase. We was able to go to the oldest lift station that we have in our wastewater collection system, which is the Carolina Springs lift station. It's located off Carolina Springs Road. It's back behind the Crestland Subdivision. That station was constructed in 1953. Surely it's had some pumps and motors rebuilt, replaced. Serves about 921 customers. also the Monticello State's subdivision. It was an underground dry pit station when we started with outdated parts, hard access where the pumps were located and make repairs in the pits of the pipes. Next. As you see on the left, the motors were sitting inside the building. The pumps were sitting underneath the motors underneath the building in a 16-foot deep dry pit. The picture to your right is the new pump station. Got new pumps, motors, and the far picture to the right, it's got an on-site diesel pump that'll be used for emergencies during power outages as well. It automatically comes on as the power goes out. Wastewater's not gonna back up. It's gonna continue pumping and flowing. Next. That's a picture of the dry pit. Kinda gives you a feel of what we was working with there. All the pipes, it was pretty much a tangled spider web of pipes inside that pit. And if they had a leak, staff had to get into a confined space and make the repairs, making it a long, tedious process. Also, the pumps were below those pipes. And to pull those, you had to disassemble just about the whole pipe gallery just to get the pumps out. And the man weight that was sitting up inside the building was like a three by three square. So we got the wet well pipe on the right side. And I say wet well, Mr. Caesar did a good job designing some of this. We converted that dry pit that you see on the left where the pipes are. It's over on the right side, and that's the wet well. So basically, the dry pit was converted to a wet well pit that includes your suction and your pulse main pipes that's on the right with your floats that control the pumps. Next. We also had an open pit channel on site. The open pit channels there to draw air in. Also, it had a bar screen to capture foreign large debris that staff cleans off that can go into the pump system and damage the pumps. we went in and put a cast concrete top over top of it lockable hatches to keep unauthorized access to the proper closed and uh put air valves on those as well you can see them on the end that piece of pvc pipe sort of draw fresh air into the system next we also work with dominion electric the original electric supply to the pump station was aerial above the ground and They were willing to go in and put it underground which helped us is on the right You can see where they tie it on to next to the pad so aerial wiring there would have been very difficult Costly for us and it would it would have caused us a little bit of sight problems so With electrical, we got new communication system, electrical controls, and new wiring. So, next. And you can see on the left, new fencing, and on the right, it's got a new fencing and a landscaping. Big improvement, there's a house right next door. Customers, they work with us, the owners, they were very pleased and satisfied with the outcome of this project. Next. Benefits to this project here as well were automated control upgrades. We did get an increase on the flow rate from 325 to 403 gallons per minute. We got an on-site diesel pump for emergency use, lower operating costs on electrical, and it's reliable operations. Another good fact is our guys and ladies don't have to go into a confined space entry to make repairs any further at that list station. Next. The wastewater infrastructure rehabilitation project funding and cost. ARCA, 1.254 million. RIA, the skip improvement program grant was 7.656. Total grant funding was 8.911. Total project expenses 8.365. It was under budget $545,000. Well, that's not coming back to us. State's gonna send that back to the federal treasury. Basically, if you look at it in a good way, your tax money's gonna go back, hopefully for some good use. Next. So, in closing, the total construction cost for everything we discovered was $13,395,187.53.

All right.

So James, I'm going to summarize. So what we just heard was basically under your leadership, your team, assistance with directors or administration, we got over $13 million between federal money and grants, not a single taxpayer dollar that came from any property tax from citizens. And out of that, we touched every citizen in some form or fashion, whether it was water or sewer, both projects came in under budget which allowed us to add about four or five more projects with that at the end of the day we still are having to give some money back to the grant that they wouldn't let us spend it which we could have yeah so i will just be real frank When I hear people talk about the city of North Augusta is not putting infrastructure, when you hear people say that, you challenge them. What exactly are you talking about? Because for the last four years, we just put $13 million in the water and sewer and other projects. There's not many communities in it that cost a single taxpayer dollar. So when you hear people say, we are not putting money in infrastructure, you make them tell you what they're expecting. Because when it comes to water and sewer, they can't say that. I commend this council. I commend this administration. But really, we've said it many times. Folks who are running this city, our directors like James Sutton, Tom Zisa, Linda, across the board are the best of the best. And I think for our citizens, you ought to be proud of what they're doing. Because this is just, James, I can't tell you, man. I'm on fire. I'm proud of you.

I appreciate that, Mayor and Council, but there's one thing I'd like to point out if I could take a second. Our utility superintendent, Ryan Metz, is here tonight. He's played a big part in inspections and oversight on these projects. He's done exceptionally well with his staff and also keeping things going in our system. This stuff here, we didn't contract any of the project out as far as the oversight of the projects engineers none of the above all our city staff took care of it and i think that also led to that savings that's left over as well is it true ryan said he wasn't going to shave till he got finished so now he'll shave yeah well he can go ahead and shave after the night yeah I appreciate y'all hearing that. Hope all is well. Hope you're satisfied with the projects.

Do you have any questions? I do have one quick question. The CIPP lining that was put into the wastewater, those are connecting and the robot that went in and poked the holes in was connected to houses. That's correct. Yes, sir. So how far back were houses putting clay pipe in to take their wastewater from their house? into the city system. Oh, since day one.

Since day one. Yeah, I mean, since they started constructing homes.

Sure. Yeah, I've replaced them before in Reynolds. So is there a risk of those roots coming into the clay pipes from the house to our system of getting back into our system?

Well, you drive a good point. There's always that risk. There is.

And is there anything a homeowner can do, or can we go back in these pipes and clean those out, or who's... whose responsibility?

Well, typically the homeowners own, you know, a lot of them don't understand they are responsible and own that lateral line from the home all the way to that main. Right. If it's under the roadway, you know, the homeowner's not going to be able to go out there and excavate up the road. Well, we call it assistance. We replace the lateral line from the main to the right-of-way for the homeowner. You've got a plumbing company or homeowners that are replacing their own lateral line, The mains in their front yard or the rear yard or the property, they're responsible for that line all the way until it tees off into our main. And we will cut a new tee into the line for them to connect to when they replace their plumbing or put a saddle on the main to make sure everything's good and watertight because the plumbing is inspected by Mr. Caesar's building standards inspectors as well.

So if a homeowner has a problem with his wastewater not getting in and backing up into his house, at this point it's almost 98% the homeowner's problem. There's not going to be a clog in our system, not going to be a root clog in our system that's preventing that.

No, sir, not in the rehabilitated parts of the system. That's right.

Very good.

Mr. Mayor and Council, that's all we have from the staff this evening. I'll turn it back to you.

Just one more positive note. Just a big shout out to the YMCA. Had a great grand opening. I thank our teams from Council and Chief and Public Safety for participating. A great asset to our community. And I'm just really proud of the YMCA, choosing North Augusta to reinvest in it. So anyway, y'all have a great day. Good evening. Take care. We stand adjourned.