Council - Regular Meeting

Hey everybody. Are you able to see comments if they come through?

Okay.

Get your questionnaire. All right. We'll go ahead and get started. If everybody will take your seats and ask for dramatic effect for people at home. Yeah, everybody calm down. Everybody calm down. Everybody who's online, everybody who's here, thank y'all for coming out. Thank you for tuning in. This is officially the third town hall for District 1 for this year. So just thanks to everybody who's been a part of them. And we've got one more in October. think that's October 22nd 23rd somewhere around there but anyway just wanted to get for those of you who are here don't forget to sign in and I've got a questionnaire at the front as well oh there he is okay But we've got a questionnaire outside if you will grab that and then we had some handouts at the front One on recycling and one on code enforcement And then we also have the d1 map on the wall if you Don't know where you live Okay, so I've got Darren McGee here tonight. He is our director of finance, and I wanted to bring him up just to kind of talk on a few things. There have been just some decisions in the past few weeks, few months, where I get a lot of questions of, or I see a lot of comments. Northport's going bankrupt, right? We're going under. We're... We're not going to survive. And I just, I wanted everyone to hear it from the horse's mouth that we're not going bankrupt.

We're not going bankrupt.

Yeah. I wouldn't say that we've got plenty of money. He never wants me to say that we've got plenty of money.

I never want anybody to say that.

So the floor is yours.

yeah in general terms the city's in fine financial shape I mean it's like any of our homes or businesses you know there's never enough there's more needs than there is finances for anything and it always becomes about choices what you want to spend it on so the city's revenues doing fine it's slowed over the last few years like everything else in the world has we're still having you know Reasonable growth in the kind of the market that we've got nationally I think our local economy is Hanging in there pretty well in the war for maybe not some of our neighbors, but we're doing okay So yeah Nobody needs to be concerned about the city's financial position, okay It always comes down to what do you want to spend your money on? And everybody has their ideas of what they want or what the city should be doing it on. That's difficult. That's what these guys have to sort out on council and city administrator. yeah people should put it ease the city's finances are fine um we're still up you know in good financial shape um a lot of things going on we we we hope that a lot of things are about to break out we've got dirt moving in a couple places around here now which is encouraging to me there's always there's lots of chatter about growth and businesses and whatnot but uh So I hope that bodes well for our future and growth. I mean, that's where you come from. And I'm talking commercial. Residential is what brings commercial growth. I'm the finance guy. So I like to see that commercial stuff. That's what pays the bills, if you will. And so we're fine on that. So I don't want to go too far off on that unless you have specific things you want me to cover.

Anybody here have any questions? Anybody online have any questions?

Our city sales tax growth, that's probably the best thing to do through June, which is the last full month. We're up just under 3% year-to-year on sales tax growth. June was a little bit of a lag, and I'd say that's kind of the same case nationally. uh so it brought that down we were running a little bit higher than that through may uh so that's pretty good in my opinion i mean three three and a half percent on sales tax growth is pretty good um We get a portion of the county tax. Theirs is a little bit slower, which you would expect. They don't have quite as many businesses. So, yeah, and I'm pleased with that. That's more than we projected. If we could hold that at three plus percent for the whole year, I would be happy with that. And then hope that we would do that. And hopefully maybe more next year. We're gonna be optimistic, so. We're seeing strong business license year to date. We're up, you know, probably a couple hundred business license from last year. So those are encouraging things. You know, lots of folks opening businesses. A lot of them are small, you know, but we'll take them. We like it. So it's a good thing. It's all over the place. It's everything. It's home-based. It's retail. It's construction, contractors, you name it. There's some rentals, yeah. That's a growing market. It is. I don't know the growth rate on that. I think we've got about 120. About 150 short-term rental properties, and that is short-term. That's not permanent rental properties, which is a lot. Our university across the river there a lot to do with that I believe and They're pretty popular pretty well over here. Actually. I know if you live in a neighborhood there they can be issues from time to time but Yeah, they're pretty popular. They're continuing to grow the last two or three years. The last five years have grown quite a bit. They went from probably 15% of our lodging tax to over 50% is in short-term rentals.

And that was one of the issues that came up in the last town hall was short-term rentals, and so the council has addressed that, and we're currently trying to make sure that we're protecting ourselves, protecting our citizens, but at the same time not sacrificing too much of that lodging tax, so...

Right. And the courtyard is improving, but you have limited... It's filling a gap of hotel rooms is really what it is. A lot of people prefer those things. It's a traveler's choice, I guess. It's a pretty significant portion.

And one stat that I'll hit on... since april the last town hall that we had i've got 10 new business licenses and i just had them break those down so we've got two two new short-term rental licenses and so this is just since in the last three months um we've got four long-term rental business licenses an insurance office a retail merchant uh, professional services, and then a contractor. So we've, you know, and that's just in district one.

That's in district one in the last three months. So, um, I mean, we're still growing in businesses that sales tax growing. So I, again, North port, North port's healthy on the, on the revenue side, you know, expenses definitely going up and everything. So, um, but, um,

You got anything online? Everybody's good? Okay.

Yes, sir.

It is.

It's on the website. The budget's on the last 20 years' budget's on the website. If you go under... I forget the section it's under, but they're on the audits, and the audits and our approved budgets are on the website. I forget the tab that it's under, but I want to say, did you know that's not there? But yeah, they're there.

And with that, the website as a whole is under, it's not under construction yet, but it's a new design is coming where it's a little more user-friendly because some of those documents can kind of just get buried in there and it gets hard to find. But we're trying to make it a little more user-friendly so that if a citizen comes, they can pretty much find what they need to.

And just in fairness on a website, it's hard to get all the information that a CD produces online. where anybody the thing I want is right on the front page it's hard to do that you can't put everything right there so it's there yeah sometimes you have to click two or three times but for sure Yes, sir.

Okay.

And we're in our budget process for next year, so as soon as we get that passed, we'll put that out there too. We're in the weeds on all that right now, and we'll pass it in September and be ready by October 1. What's that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a tremendous help.

Yeah.

Anything else you got? No. Unless you want to go over any of the debt stuff. I'll touch on it briefly. The CD is not... Overly saturated in debt. I mean the city's not up to their eyeballs or anything. We have quite a bit of debt limit Open there's a couple buckets a day at 225 which is your standard streets and whatnot day at which you can you can borrow up to 20% of the city's appraised value and almost 400 almost 500 million dollars I think of appraised value within the city so that sets your debt limit that's by state statute section 225 that's streets that's infrastructure type things water and sewer schools and those type things know they are separate and you've got the 772 debt limit which is kind of your economic development so much bigger Pile of money that's more. It's 50% of it. So the city has plenty of borrowing capacity so our debt current debt does not give me concern so we have a number of items that will roll off over the next next few years so I think our debts in good shape you know 772 it's not just going out and issuing bonds I mean incentive agreements count as 772 debt so You know some of the recent things will show up on that but those those don't move the needle on that anyway, so our debt limit we're in good shape and Just so everybody knows debt is a necessary evil of the city I mean you cannot do the things you need to do with current cash you can't do it Can't do it at home. You can't most people can't buy their home with cash cities the same way you can't do big projects out of cash on hand so nobody likes that certainly I don't but it's a necessary you just have to be smart about it and invest wisely and I think the city has so yep and I thank you for bringing that up because I just wanted just because we have the capacity doesn't mean we

Absolutely not. Doesn't mean we go that far.

Just because you can don't mean you shouldn't.

That's right. That was the thing. When I saw the numbers, I see our debt and then I see our capacity. That made me feel a lot better in terms of No, I'm not expecting us to go all the way there, but it's just such a small percentage.

Our debt to income is a reasonable ratio. It's in a positive territory. So I don't think the city's in over its head by any means of debt. So we have a reasonable amount of debt for a city our size. Okay.

Okay.

Any other questions? Anybody online got questions? Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, sir. Another part of that that I wanted to talk about just for businesses in District 1. Coming online, of course, you've seen that Seven Brew will be here hopefully soon. They're going in between Checkers and Mark One Car Wash right there on that empty lot. And then we've got the River Run Retreat, which is on 30th across from Dogen Steel. There's a few empty lots right there. So that'll be a nice addition. It's meant to house baseball families and teams. I think it's, maybe it'll sleep 18 people or 24 people, something like that. But anyway, nice little development right there. We've got the Mission Express car wash, which is just right up here. across the road and then of course we got university beach down the way so those are the those are the developments that are on the horizon for district one so that's that's promising

Councilman, can I say one thing just to pitch the sales pitch here? Sure. I hope everybody realizes you can apply for any business license, building permits, all those things online. That is a convenience that every city does not have. Very few actually have that full process online. I would encourage everybody to take advantage of that. It's very easy. You can do all your applications and whatnot online. You're welcome to come in, call, whatever, get the help you need. But take advantage of that. It's pretty simple. Great. I'll put that pitch in.

Yes, that's right. That's right. Okay, so next up, we've got Holly Phillips with Engineering Department. I wanted to kind of touch on, that's something else that I do at the town halls is I just kind of touch on the projects that are going on and the ones that are grueling yet enriching our lives, right? It's all the orange cones and the orange barrels that will lead to just fantastic projects. So, Holly? Holly?

All right.

It's yours.

I will give you all kind of a rundown on a couple of our main projects. Our MLK project, we're making great progress on that, and it's a 360-day working contract. We're about 93% complete. That's by a billing percentage. If you have been out there recently, you'll have seen all of the pavement and curb and gutter and all of the things going in. We are still working on installing conduit and pole bases for the lighting from Valley Hills Drive to Snows Mill Avenue. And once that gets complete, then they'll be able to go and do that. grading inside and all of that and open that intersection back up um we are expecting that project to be complete by the end of the year maybe a little sooner um but it's they're coming along pretty well on that one um main avenue may i say that i think we should have the biggest celebration ever when mlk is completed I think it's quite an accomplishment. Yes. Since this one has been going on since well before my time. Right. So yeah, I'm excited about that one being completed.

I am too. That was my way of getting across town. I am so excited.

Yeah, I'm ready for it to open back up. We'll get a few less phone calls. Yes. Main Avenue, another one we get a lot of phone calls on, lots of cones. The notice to proceed was issued in January of this year. That is a 230-day working day contract. Estimated completion is May of 2027. We have finished the conduit for the private utilities from 5th to 10th. And so now we're in the process of getting those private utilities moved into the conduit. So we're waiting on, you know, Alabama Power, Comcast, AT&T will all move everything underground from 5th to 10th. Once those utility companies are completed, then the contractor will be able to come in and build that section of road. So it doesn't look like we're making a lot of progress down there right now, but all of the progress is underground now. So all of that conduit that's in there from 5th to 10th makes way for those utility companies to come in and move all of their stuff in. It's not a whole lot of progress you can see, but we are making substantial progress on that. So I'm pleased with where we are right now, and hopefully those private utilities can come in and get to work quickly. Did you want me to leave room for questions on each one of these, or do you want me to wait until the end and ask questions at the end?

Keep it going.

Okay, I'll keep it going.

We good online? Okay.

All right, Fifth Street is our next one. The preliminary design on that has been completed. The final design is substantially complete. The environmental document was approved December of 2025. We're expecting right-of-way acquisition to be authorized either this month or next. And we're expecting that acquisition of right-of-way to take approximately six months to one year. Um, and then the construction phase will obviously follow right away acquisition. Um, and this is another smaller project, but one that we're excited about nonetheless, our Rose Boulevard crosswalks up at Frankie Thomas trace and wildcat drive. Um, Our public works department built the crosswalks, we had striping completed, and we contracted with Aldot to put in the pedestrian signals. So Aldot is in the process of installing all of those head signals, and we're expecting that one to be completed soon. Ready in time for school, hopefully.

Yes, yeah, that's a great project. And that was the one that stemmed from the student project.

I believe that's correct.

Who came in and petitioned council to make it safer. Yes. I believe that's what it was. I'm going to say it. That's what it was. I think it was.

Yeah. But I'm happy to take any questions or concerns or anything.

Anybody got questions, concerns? Anybody online? Everybody happy online?

Sweet.

All right.

Okay. Thank you so much. Okay, so with that, one of the handouts that I wanted to go over was the recycling. We had a presentation in one of our work sessions just recently about Northport's recycling program. Well, it kind of led to a competition amongst councils or districts, right? It just kind of, so I need D1 to really rise up and win this competition. But basically what it is, right now, we've got what shows the customers per district, right? And right now, district one, is second to last with 27%. So we're 2% better than District 2 right now. So we've got to step it up, right? We've got to start recycling. So it's a little bit of a process to get signed up for curbside recycling. And I just wanted to explain the process because it was so difficult. You call 205- 333-3003, and you ask them for curbside recycling. That's it. So hopefully they will get inundated, which I don't think they're open tomorrow. Got to call Monday. So call Monday, get your curbside recycling. They don't take glass. But it's so nice. It's so nice to put your stuff out there for us. We put it out Sunday night, get home from work on Monday afternoon, all of it's gone. And I want to say too that, especially cardboard, cardboard's, it's good for Northport. If we can recycle as much cardboard as possible, it's just, it leads to Cardboard, big money. There's big money in cardboard recycling. So I just urge everyone to recycle as much as they can and get signed up for curbside. If you don't want to do curbside for whatever reason, we do have four drop-off locations. We've got the levee trailhead at Rice Mine, right there at the city limits. We've got the police department right down here. We've got Daystar Church on Watermelon Road and then Northport Intermediate School. So, but yeah, they came and told us all this about the recycling program and it's just, it's really just been around since 2018. And so we've had some pretty good success with it and just want to keep the momentum and just let everybody know that... We've got a really good recycling division within our public works. They're doing a great job. And like I said, it's really easy. Just call that number, call public works, and ask them to sign up. The other thing I wanted to touch on was code enforcement. We had a good presentation from Officer Sanders about what code enforcement looks like in Northport and he gave a lot of statistics. There was, let's see, I think there were Yeah, see, District 1, we were second as far as calls for code enforcement, so we've got to work on that. And Danny's district never has any calls. They just live in heaven and up there. But anyway, this also leads to the Northport Connect app. It's an easy app to get, Northport Connect, and that's how you can connect yourself to City Hall, to the staff, to the council, and it's got a place to report what's going on, right? If it's an abandoned car, broken in window, whatever it might be. Something that doesn't look right, doesn't feel right, doesn't seem right at all. Take a picture of it, put it on the app, and it goes straight to code enforcement and they deal with it accordingly. Typically it gets handled Really, it starts the process immediately, but within a week or two, stuff usually gets handled. They're pretty much on top of it, but they've got to figure out who needs to handle it. Is it PD or is it public works or is it engineering? So it's a way for things to get out. So if we've got... 30,000 people looking out for the city, making sure it looks good. Uh, then all of a sudden the city really starts looking good. Right. So I tell people, if you see something, say something, right. Use that, use that app to, it's a lot easier to use that app, post it than it is to call up here and try to figure out who needs to talk to who just put it in that app. And, uh, and document what you got. But I highly encourage to North Port Connect. That is the app. It's got the North Port logo on it. Let's see, let's see. I wanted to talk a little bit about 4th on May. We had a great celebration in downtown North Port. I got a report that there were about 2,500 people in the area that night in the direct area, so that doesn't really count all the people who were on the riverbanks down by River Run Park and down by Dreamland, but kind of in the area, participating at 4th on Main, about 2,500 people. So that was fantastic news. It was a great event. It was family-friendly. It was hot. It was real hot. But what do you expect, right? But I was real pleased with how many people came out, even as hot as it was. We had some great music, great food. The emcee was fantastic. But it was good. It was good. It was a good time. And I think that's one of those things where If you provide it for people and you have something for people to come out and enjoy, they'll do it. And that actually stemmed from our events committee back in January. that the mayor had called. He did an events committee, and that 4th of July celebration came from that. So that was pretty cool to see that transform into something. And it was big. We had a good time. Had the parade. The non-motorized parade was good. We had pretty good participation there. So anyway, just want to thank everybody who came out for that, and hopefully we'll do it again next year. So, all right. Questions? Concerns? Online? Everybody happy?

Man.

That's all I got. I just want to hit on the high points. Holly, thank you for being here. If you could get Main Avenue done by the end of the year, it would be amazing.

Yeah, we'll figure it out.

I mean, it's just some sidewalks and pavement. I mean, come on. It's going to be great. That's going to be fantastic. People don't realize how great it's going to be. I'm really excited. Yeah. Yeah. For everybody to see how that goes out.

phases.

This first phase is 5th to 10th and then we'll slowly move up to it all the way to 82.

And it's my understanding that the 5th to 10th is the most involved underground.

That's correct. We're taking the overhead utilities and moving those underground. That involves a lot more work. Right. And

not yet yeah and and it's my understanding that the the nice pretty street lights the street lamps they're going to go all the way up to twin manor that intersection is that right yeah so i mean it'll be it'll be great so

No, it's not Civitan. It's closer to... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's... No, no. It was originally, and then I think it got redesigned. That's correct.

And that's 10th where it's getting realigned, right?

Right.

Where that's happening, that's where the arch is. And it'll be kind of that gateway into historic downtown. It'll be fantastic. Sidewalks. All the good stuff. All right, everybody. Thank y'all for coming. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah, they're moving forward. Everything's on schedule as far as it can be. They submitted their construction documents that they were supposed to. It was, gosh. That's right, yeah. The beach club. The water park, all the lagoon, that's all part of phase one. That's still moving. That's right. That's right. Yep. All that's still moving forward. Sure is. Okay. We're getting done in time for dinner. So that's good. Well, yeah, and it's not fixed yet, but we're getting there. And if you're listening online and you're speeding through the summit, we know who you are. Right? We know. And I'll say that, right? Just slow down. Everybody slow down. Just slow down. There's no need. Yeah. If you want to speed, go get on the interstate. But, yeah, we're working on it. And if you've got issues in any of your neighborhoods, call me, text me, email me. We'll get it figured out some way or another. Everybody's always in a hurry to get it somewhere. Okay. I love it. Thank y'all for coming. Thanks to everybody online.