City Council - Regular Meeting

order. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

We'll observe a moment of silence. Thank you. Presentation a shared use path system master plan update and tag initiatives. Paul Schultz is the um chairman of our transportation advisory group. And before we start, I'm just going to come out with it. I have a head cold and if I start coughing, I'm going to have to leave the room because I'm really gross. It'll be very temporary and I'll be back and we can resume. So, I'm also forcing fluids. I'm not drinking beer. So, just just so you know.

You sure that's not vodka in there? Yeah, that's right. Good evening, Paul. Hi. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thanks for this opportunity. This is part of us as the Yeah, bring it in.

Bring it closer. This this is part of us as uh the the folks on tag uh fulfilling our uh requirements uh responsibilities per the ordinance to give an annual uh at least once a year update. So I uh would like to introduce the tag folks that are here tonight. Blake is going to talk to a few of these slides with me and then Heidi uh is is here. You don't have to stand up, you know. Anyway, and then Amanda Toronto said she'd make it, but she's got newborn challenges. So, okay. So, uh and then I'm sorry. Oh. Okay. So, a little bit of the agenda going to since there are a lot of folks that may not know what the transportation advisory group is. I'm going to go through a brief overview of that. Uh then we're going to talk about the ordinance updates that were made recently that uh TAG uh made recommendations towards uh the shared youth uh the shared uh use path plan updates for this year that we just completed uh an ongoing list of priorities and uh some actions in addition to the priorities. Okay. So u part of what TAG was set up to do was be an advisory group. I'm not going to read that, but anything uh related to citizen input and comment um concerns, advice, things like that. And we have opportunities for public comment and we also have a standing email distribution list and so anyone who sends us a note email uh we will get that and uh we can respond to it as needed. Uh again, we also take direct citizen input. Uh we do not have any binding authority on mayor, council, city staff, anything. We are just an advisory group uh again to solicit uh resident input uh dis discuss among the seven of us and uh make recommendations as necessary. uh and our focus is on

safety awareness, education, uh path paving and road paving conditions priorities and also uh ADA planning and just a call out to working with city staff to do promotion of awareness and uh safety. Uh so the recently the ordinances were updated and most of them focused on uh the transportation systems especially the shared use path system. Um and uh we had comments after those uh were enacted by mayor and council. And many of the residents in this community are passionate about the ordinances and what they say. And I suspect as all of you on uh council know, uh there are lots of good arguments for and against many things with many folks behind them being passionate about them. So, we put into the ordinances that pedestrians may travel on the left or right of the uh shared use path given uh path safety and conditions. And we got feedback on that. Uh folks who were strongly on we should always always be on the left or pedestrians should always always be on the right. Uh again being very passionate about that. Uh so it not surprising but I'm pleased with the engagement. Uh we went through the ordinance too and specified uh many micromobility uh vehicles. So that's anything from what a electric bicycle is to what an e-moto is to lots of other micromobility vehicles. We were uh questioned on why are we specifying those in detail? Why don't we just say nothing more than 20 miles an hour and don't drive dangerously. And it was from the for the sake of of uh ease of enforcement and judgments. uh we it was made sense to actually go through and specify microo mobility vehicles and in the future we may have to specify new

ones because it seems like new devices uh get electrified every day and people try to ride them. Uh so as part of the ordinance update uh enforcement is essential. Personally I've talked to code enforcement and I have asked about especially the enforcement of the electric motorcycles that are appearing on the paths and they are uh there's also a metric that the city is tracking to. They're taking uh some actions to enforce uh especially emoto. Uh and then uh we will take a look at the ordinances again later this year and plan uh some kind of it'll probably be a very small review since we were uh you know a very big one uh that came through last year and enacted this year. And next uh Blake is going to talk.

Thank you Paul. Um so our next slides here we talk a little bit about one of the tasks that we did accomplish so far this year which is an update to the path master plan. So this first slide that is here kind of shows some of the major major areas where we wanted to add things onto the master plan. Kind of our rationale for this is connectivity of the existing system where there gaps where you know it's difficult to get from point A to point B on the system as well as extending the system as the city grows. Uh so some of the locations on here, you know, you have, for example, the uh shake rag behind Blair Lane. That's an area where there is a potential safety concern. There used to be speed bumps on that path at one point. It is a very steep hill. So if we can identify an alternative to that that would be safer, not as not as heavy of a slope, then that would potentially be a better option. Uh to be clear, we're not we we are not advocating for getting rid of a path that already exists until there is something potentially elsewhere in place so that you know folks would not lose connectivity that currently exists. A couple other examples of connectivity are both around state route 74 on the south side near Brilin, the west side of 74 closed near closed left less traveled. Uh the first one of those the southside near Brillin there is technically connectivity there from me field or from the recreation fields at the pack to mefield but you have to go all the way back up cross through the nature area on like the wooden bridge and then come down the other side all the way around take a tunnel it's very far out of the way for the second one of this on state route 74 near closed less travel there's actually that's one of the few places in the city that does not have any path access on that side of of state route 74. Um, of course we recognize a lot of these ones, State Route 74, State Route 54, things like that are going to require partnership with other entities such as G DOT. Um, so it is important to also realize that the Pathmaster plan, it's a it's a wish list, right? It's what the city would

want to see in the future. Uh, none none of it that's on there, just because we recommend adding it on there doesn't mean that there's money available to go build it today. Doesn't mean that we have the approval from DOT to go build it today. A lot of the decisions on what from the path master plan actually gets implemented comes from from you sitting up there at the council. Our idea is just to kind of give you the the shopping list in a sense that you can then go prioritize and pull things off of as funding and and permits and things like that allow. Uh couple of the other ones that are on here near McDuff Parkway. Uh that's actually an existing gravel path, but it's probably in Georgia Power rightway. There's electric poles around there. people use it, but it's, you know, technically not on the path system, so maybe we should see if we can get it up to standards and and included. Um, and then a couple other little connections uh just to extend some connectivity. One near Peach Tree Parkway to Waterwood Bin. There's an existing crossing, but you have to go out of your way to get to it back through a neighborhood. It's near near the Walgreens. Um, and so I I personally have seen a lot of people just cut across Petree Parkway there because it's much faster to just cut across than it is to find your way through that neighborhood to the approved crossing. And of course, we want to reduce crossings of Peach Tree Parkway that aren't authorized because that's, you know, 40 mph zone, four lanes. It's big big potential for uh for impact. And the last one on the list that we added was near Spear, it was Spear Road and Robinson Road. This is an area where uh those those folks don't have cart path access at the moment. they can use the roadway, but again, we think it'd be better to get them off the road onto a path. So, the other half of this is just some other addition additional notes from our process of going through the pathm plan update. Uh, two key things on here, hawk signals and a particular path in a neighborhood that we got some feedback on. On the hawk signals, we did add some to the pathm plan, both this year's

update and last year's update. Hawk signals are a bit interesting because they don't fall under the normal funding source that the city uses for paths because they're not cart path construction. They're Hawk signal construction. So they they're not funded by things such as impact fees to our knowledge because again the impact fees are for cart path construction and this is not a path, it's a signal. Um, they're also not necessarily included in the current SPLOS that has money for cart path construction and development for the the same reason. It's it's not a cart path, it's a signal. Um, of course, that is an option that could be used to fund it would be adding it to the splass, but that would be a couple years down the road. Uh, because, you know, we're already in the middle of the current cycle. We'd have to go on the next one. Um, so this is something where we heard some feedback from city staff and if this is something that the council thinks is important to get on there, uh, we think that this may be something that could potentially be added to a budget, a city general fund budget request in the future just to get it built quicker instead of having to wait for those other funding sources to come back around. Hawk signals are definitely one of the safest ways to have a crossing of the path signal because it actually stops traffic on the roadway and assigns right away aso as opposed to the current kind of carts go to the cars go which I mean it's in the ordinance but a lot of people like to wave folks on. Second big bullet point on here road. Uh this is one that has actually been on the master path plan since 2010. So it was on there way before tag even started. Um, but we got feedback from residents of that neighborhood that they didn't actually want a path along the main road. So, currently traffic goes through their neighborhood uh to get to that southside shopping center where the Publix and the Mexican Restaurant and Mike and Seas are. Um, so that's why it was on the plan originally was to give a direct connection that would pull traffic, pull cart traffic out of their neighborhood and put it on the through route. Um, but they said that they they didn't want

that. They prefer the privacy. They prefer not cutting down so many trees. So the consensus that the the tag group came to was we're going to leave it in the master path plan because it is something that could be useful in the future, but we're going to dep prioritize it since that's not something that those residents want at this time. We'll we'll recommend that that gets put somewhere else instead. But there is one lesson learned that we think we can take from this, which is not everybody wants to see more paths in their neighborhood. Um, and the flip side of that is enhancing our city communication on this to letting people know if there's a path near you that says it's going to be in development, like give us that feedback on it. So, if it's not something that your neighborhood supports, we're not putting something through there. And then residents are getting upset that there's there's all this traffic around them. And the reason that we say that is because it's been on the plan since 2010. So, you know, it's 15 years that it's been on the list of we're going to build a cart path here. And you know, we're only now getting feedback on it just because it's finally in the design and con, well, not construction, but the design phase of it. Um, so obviously it's better to get that feedback earlier. Turning away from the uh the master path plan update, the other topic I'm going to talk about is just some of our tag group priorities. Um, similar to what I was saying with the the path plan about this being a wish list, just because something's on here, this is the topics that we want to discuss in the tag group to kind of give you further recommendations throughout the year. This is what's on our radar from these these topics come from things that we've brought up internally, members of the tag group, things that city staff has asked us to discuss. But the point I want to make with that is just because something's on here doesn't mean that we are recommending that you do it. We're we're talk we're saying we want to discuss this in the tag group to come to a consensus and bring you a recommendation on it because I know some of the items on here might be uh interesting for discussion so to speak. Uh you can see them all on there but

just to kind of run through them. We talked about updating the city path brochure collaboration with the city staff. Now a lot of that has been done in terms of the actual like cards going out. Um, but there's still an online version of the rules that was recently updated and we think we can go back and, you know, maybe make some just slight edits to the online version to make it a little clearer. Uh, you know, not not major changes, I don't think, but just kind of second pair of eyes on it. Number two, offering optional safety training in schools and through the city outreach. Uh, the city does some of this already through the police department, but just want to give some recommendations about, you know, where are partnerships, where can we expand this, where can we get more of this? because I think we I think probably everyone in the city would agree that more and better safety training as resources allow is a good thing. Third one, uh enhancements to the Navigate Petri City app. It's in a pretty I think from my personal use of it, it's pretty good, but there's still a couple of little little hiccups on it. Things where it might tell you to take a road that you're not actually supposed to. Um and again just kind of crowdsourcing this out in a sense across the tag group members to give uh ideas for things that we can make that better. Number four, identify areas for interse intersection improvements. Again, this kind of is just a very broad topic, but falls under transportation rights. Areas where we think there are are risks and just options that might may improve them. Uh number five, removal of the unsafe paths. Uh like I said, we're not really advocating for removal of unsafe paths until there is something else in place. Um, but for the most part, that's been completed for this year through the master path plan update. And lastly, path reciprocity and integration with surrounding communities. Um, again, it's one of those things of just because it's on here doesn't mean we're necessarily recommending yes, go do it, but we want to we want to talk about the ideas, get consensus, what would be the path forward on there? Because, you know, transportation is about connectivity, right? And it's connectivity in the city. It's also connectivity beyond the city potentially. Um, so with that, I'll give it back to Paul.

All right. Thanks, Blake. I'll just go ahead and close it out. These are like the very near-term actions that we have. We've uh approved the paving plan. I think that's in the agenda tonight. You'll see it um ongoing. Uh one of the things I'd like to discuss next Tuesday in our meeting is uh and council has asked this uh in the past is do we require uh motorized cart insurance uh in Peach Tree City for people who have registered golf carts? Uh again, this is just we're going to talk about it. U not make a recommendation yet. Um Blake already mentioned the brochure and then some uh topics from uh city staff have been the village signage. So some of you may have seen uh village uh signs in the past for Brillin or Glenlock. Uh we're looking at bringing some of those back where they've have have deteriorated over the years. Uh we might want to actually go take a look at where we could put them. So, a field trip into the into see where we might uh put them and then some path signage for direction and wayfinding on the pass. And I think that's it. Questions?

Paul, could you share since we have everybody here tonight when and where the meetings are since they're open to the public? Sure. Uh second and fourth Tuesday right now, we're meeting over at the uh convention and visitors bureau at uh Shakerg. And then eventually once construction here in city hall gets completed, we'll start meeting back in the community room. So 2nd and 4th Tuesday 6:30 p.m. Everyone's welcome. We take public comments. Questions. Council, I have a comment. Yeah.

Um, sorry. Trying to make sure that that's on. Um, I just great presentation. I enjoyed it a lot. Just want to make a comment. that within this document the path system was referred to as the master shared use path plan two 2026 the multi-use path system sure path priorities right

the title pathm plan update and then path is used six more times on page five page six had path master plan update and then path just plain path is used two more times page seven had update city path brochure And then path is used three more times. And then on page eight, the term path was used three times. What I'm trying to make as far as a point is that I really think we need to have one singular unified official name for our path system so that we're not using all these different names all over the place. Okay. And I'll be talking about that later. Thank you. Perfect.

All right, council. Anything else? I don't want to get too much into the weeds, but I did have a question. Is the the Hawk light that you're looking at at Robinson Road by Booth, is that in conjunction with the bridge that would connect the two schools? Is that where y'all would look at that or I mean, you may not know that right now. I'm sure it's something we would see in the future as well.

So, yes, the the bridge and the hawk would be likely at different times. Uh but the hawk signal, there just has to be a place somewhere near Booth where there's good positioning to gather as many as much traffic from the west side of Robinson to cross it to go to the east. So that's not highly specific. Um one of the things we talk about when we do the master plan update is once the once something is put on the map, that doesn't mean that's exactly where it's going to go. So again, when the the engineers take a look at flows, patterns where carts are coming from, then they make a decision on the the precise location of something. So even today, if you see a path on the left hand side of a street, it might actually end up being built on the right hand side. That's just the nature of a master plan. It's a long-term vision.

Um might be built something things on it might be built next year. They might not be built for 10 years. Okay. Um, thank you for the presentation and thank you for everybody on the transportation advisory group for your volunteer um, service that you give to our city. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. PCH, anything Mr. Holland? Yeah, just one comment. Nicely done. Oh, thank you. Thanks very much. Presentation B, drone contest winner Harold Leightton. Good evening, madame mayor and council. Bring it in closer.

Get this squared away. So, I'm actually going to let Michelle do this tonight. So, Michelle Johnson, assistant recreation special events. I'll have to stand on my tippy toes.

Good evening, mayor and council and residents. I'm excited to um tell you a little bit about a contest we did for Peach Tree City this year for our Fourth of July um drone show that will be new for us. We had a contest for ages 12 and up and it was an art contest and it was to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. So, we had I think it was close to 18 applicants and we took a view and and we passed them on to mayor and council and they had an opportunity to vote on the cont contestants. Um, and so you're seeing some of the artwork today and we do have our winner here today and that artist's um picture will be featured as one of our slides for one of the drones. Um, so, um, but you can see we had some great interpretations for what they think is the 250th. We had a couple artists, um, interpretations that they wanted their names in lights. So, it was really exciting. And when I say that when the emails came in, as staff, we were truly excited to get the youth involved in this activity and really looking forward to supporting our new artists. So I'm going to give an opportunity to introduce I did call um our the mother of um Anish Mara Maray was that correct?

So I'm going to introduce him and then we want to give a huge congratulations to him. He is 10 years old and he is from Brillin Elementary. Good job. So, we've got some exciting things happening for the Fourth of July and we invite everybody out there um with our drone show and our fireworks. And it looks like we're probably going to be able to open up Drake Field. We're going to put the fireworks out on a barge. So, we're going to have lots of space for everybody to come out and we'll get to see your beautiful picture up in lights on the drones. So, congratulations again. I have I I have one question. Which of the of the submitts was Anisha's winning submitt?

Could you put that up? I do have to say it was the first entry that we got. So, you want to come up and talk about it? You want to come up? Tell them which one was it? Could you put it up on the screen? Come on. Tell them. Okay.

There it is. There it is. This is America's 250th birthday. And this is also the year that Aremis 2 had took um a full trip around the moon and back. And it hasn't been done in over over 50 years. 53.

Perfect. Thank you. And so thanks to the successful mission, we wanted to honor it for our 4th of July and it happened on the two 250th birthday. So what you on top of the 250? It's a the top of the peach for peach tree really nice. celebration with the 250th with the peach on top of it. So, excellent job. Thank you, Anish. Thank you so much.

That's the That's the fun part of our job. It's awesome.

Thanks very much. Presentation C. Kadran Pool permanent structure and required renovations. Harold Leighton. Let's hear about how we can keep this wonderful facility for the decades to come. do my best. So, with me tonight, I have uh Brandon Fairbanks with WM2A Architects and I also have Craig Blakeley um who is also working with us on this project as well. Um they are the professionals in this industry and so you know they're here tonight to answer any questions as well. So tonight I want to kind of give an overview of where we are in the process, what we've done over the past few years to get here and kind of the direction to, you know, see which direction we're going to continue to move forward with or if we're going to chart a new course. So

and Harold, since there are so many people in the room, just pull that microphone right up and and speak up. Sorry. Yes. So, you know, tonight, you know, let's take off and dive in and let's let's start with it.

So, in May of 2021, the city conducted a community survey to assess future needs for replacement of of the air supported structure. Um, and as you can see, these were our responses that we had. We had a total of 824 responses. um you know and they ranged from should property taxes be increased um should services not be offered and you know there's a lot of different things that went into that metric. Um and we had 824 respondents and you can see that you know a lot of people wanted user fees increase to sustain the programs. Um you know so that were that was something that went into consideration back in 2021. Um, in fall of 20 2022, um, the city evaluated the pool and the structure as a potential splice project by a citizen advisory group. Ultimately, that citizen advisory group chose not to do the project because of the anticipated cost of it. Um, they acknowledged that we had a lot of repairs that need to be made in the near future, but they just wanted to can down the road a little bit longer as well. Um, in summer of 2023, staff init initiated research to determine what the realistic cost of replacing the air support structure would be. Um, you know, we kind of move forward from that timeline. So in January of 24 um the Kedron pool enclosure was identified as a priority capital improvement project um and you know presented during a retreat as the city's you know long-term facility needs discussion in January of 25 when the recreation master plan was officially adopted. This assessment identified the need for that our facility was significantly aging and the wear of the existing structure was so bad that we needed to look into

replacing it immediately. Um, so it had looked at the long-term value of what it would take to build another aquatic center and the recommendation of that was at that time to build a 55 to 65,000 square foot facility at a different location with a 50 meter pool, dive well, and expanded, you know, our programming year round as well. We were looking at at least a $30 million cost estimate of this project in 2024. All right. In April of 2025, we reached out to a lot of consultants and one of them was actually a rise in structures, which is the manufacturer of the bubble itself. And we went ahead and received cost estimates of what building structures over our current facility would look like. It was at that council meeting that we ultimately decided that we were going to move forward with a sprung structure as our basis of design um by council. And then in June of 2025, we consulted with WM2A, Brandon Matthysse. Sorry, I know it's small. Um, you know, to start looking into what this project would ultimately look like. In August of 2025, we met with the local local high school booster representatives and community stakeholders to discuss ongoing facility concerns, operational challenges, and potential long-term solutions at Kedron. Um, and also in that same month, an engineering review determined that the existing bubble grade beam was insufficient to support a new structure that we would have to tear that grade beam completely out of the pool deck in order and repour concrete and a foundation to support the structure. All right. In September of 2025, we received a professional fee proposal from WM2A um to start the process of design and

concept. Um and then in December of 2025, the engineering and design fee was actually approved by council and we decided to go forward with this concept study. So, in also in December of 2025, there was communication with the Faget County Board of Education representatives regarding uh community concerns and things that were being said about our pool and what we were going to do about swim teams. We addressed those and told them that we where we were in this process at that time that we were still awaiting a concept. We have not even begun a design yet. We are still waiting awaiting on concepts. Then in January of 26 at council retreat, I presented four different concepts for you that were used um from our field trip to Jefferson as well as to Dynamo Swim because those two facilities have sprung structures on their over their pools. Then we started the you know of what does this pool what is it possibly going to look like? Where do we go from here? Where do we get to? All right. So, now I'm I'm going back to our initial um council meeting where I presented all four of the structures. This is the Horizon air supported structure that we have had here at Kedran. The life expectancy of that structure is 12 to 15 years that this current bubble was there in 2012 was the first year we had it. Um, we've had sever several issues with it um throughout the history of this bubble and it's come to the end of its life. This was at the time roughly a $2 million replacement and we were going to be looking at replacing this every 12 to 15 years in the future. Another two

million and it increases exponentially every time we look at it. All right, so that's what option one was. Option two was a an open air building that was presented and again it was an aluminum building with a translucent roof. Um you know the warranty wasn't what we were looking for on this. Um this budget price did not include you know a lot of things. So ultimately we chose not to choose this project. Option three was also a Dinoadome which was another structure brand that we could use. warranty was a little bit better. The budgetary quoted price was $2.55 million at that time, but that did not include any of the civil work, site prep, electrical, HVAC, anything. That was simply a building. Option four that we initially said, hey, this is the direction we want to proceed with is a sprung structure that was originally quoted at 1.6 to2 million for the structure. um you know has an the warranty and the life cycle from anywhere from 30 to 50 years. Um and the nice thing about this structure is it could actually be built anywhere from 18 to 28 days once the facility arrived on site. So with the speed of this made this you know a great choice for us. So, at the time of this presentation, we also had several issues that, you know, we needed to to address at Kedron. We currently have five layers of plaster and tile on the pools, both of them. Um, because of that, we've had water leaks around some of the lights that we've had to address. We were leaking two inches of water out of the large pool per day. Um, you know, it was very, it's a lot of

water. Um, so you know, tile and plaster, you get about seven to 10 years out of that. Looking at if we were just to go in and retile and replaster, we're looking anywhere from half a million to $700,000 to chip out five layers of tile, replplaster all that just to do that. and at looking at a 35 year old pool with all all of our current plumbing and electrical needs. Um that's something do we really want to spend that much money and then possibly have an issue with plumbing months to years down the road underneath that structure. Um also the mechanical and control systems for the pool are at their end of their life cycle. They're 20 to 30 years old themselves. Um, and we also have had some health code concerns up there recently that we need to address. Um, we've got several um, pieces of our pool deck that need to be replaced as well because of cracks and stump to, you know, could be injuries to feet and toes. And then we also have an issue with, you know, entering the pool unrestricted from the building. Fire egress says the doors have to open out at all times so people can exit the building in case of fire. Pool egress wants everything to open from the pool out so that kids can't just walk onto the pool deck unabated and get into the water. Um so those are some things that you know obviously we need to address. Fast forward to January of this year where I presented the the concepts um you know at council retreat. This was option A. Um, option A was essentially trying to build two structures over the current two pools that we have. Um, we later found out that this is not feasible because of, let me see if I can point to this.

All right. right here along this building where we have our mechanical rooms. As close as the grade beam is to that area, building code would not permit us to build a structure that close to our current existing building because we would not be able to open the doors to our mechanical rooms for that facility. So therefore, this became an option that we couldn't use because we can't cover that sufficiently with a sprung structure or any structure. Option B stemmed from our field trip to Jefferson, Georgia. Several of the thing the features that we noticed up there at Jefferson like the zero entry ramps for handicap ADA accessibility. Um, you know, everyone loved those and wanted to try to introduce those into the project. Again, we would not be a be able to build the structure over that small pool to begin with, but then we would have to tear out at least one wall to reconstruct that ramp into the side of the wall and you would ultimately lose square footage of your pool on both sides of that. Also on the large pool in order to meet ADA accessibility to have a zero entry ramp we would have to have much more room or we would have to extend and have a double layer ramp so that the slope and to get the total need of length per drop for to meet ADA accessibility. So this was kind of something that we had to address you know moving forward with that due to the depth of the pool. So this ultimately would, you know, toss this pro this concept out as well. This is a letter from Brandon Fairbanks that stated all the reasons why we, you know, those first two concepts wouldn't work at our current location.

So then we move to option C1. And C1 and C2 are very similar. Um the only difference in both of these is we've moved the instructional pool in front of where the existing main pool is. Now this would allow us to do, you know, a ramp into the instructional pool because that would maintain the same depth as what the current instructional pool is. So we would have the linear footage to get that ramp in there in that space. Um, the only difference is this concept had the ramp starting on the top of the pool deck on this side of the pool, which is where the air structure inflator currently is. So, people would have to come into the facility, they would then walk onto the pool tech pool deck, and then they would have to completely walk around the pool. Just didn't seem access accessible friendly to have to completely go around the pool deck. So option C2 is is the similar concept, but now patrons would be able to enter the building, come out onto the pool deck, and they would be able to immediately go into the instructional pool ramp and would help with accessibility instead of having to walk completely around the pool. So these decisions are ultimately why, you know, we felt that this was the best concept to move forward with at the time that was presented by WM2A. Um this carries a price tag of $5.2 million just to do um and this would upgrade all of our plumbing and electrical and our pool deck um concrete work that minus the structure itself. This would also provide we I know that we've had there's been a couple discussions about well what do we do with this concrete area right here. So

at Kedron currently there's nowhere if if you want to have a birthday party at the pool. Currently you have to set up you have to ren reserve a room which is room three. All right. So that's the room that we allow people to come in and have food and beverages and parties in. So currently you have to reserve that room and the pool to or and utilize the pool, but you have to go inside the pool or inside the building all the way down the hallway to room three. So, this would allow us to have an area that could be used as a birthday party area or a sund deck that would use the existing building and the connection between the sprung structure and the building to have a secluded area where people could lay out in sun without having to worry about people coming through the parking lot for security concerns. Um, that would be secluded away, you know, for safety. Option four is the construction of the similar 25 meter pool, but this would be at a ve at a different location chosen at a later date that was presented. Cost of this would be anywhere between 15 to 20 million estimated in 2024. Um, so, um, Spalding County, you know, built a similar facility to this back in 2020, mid2024, and their final construction cost was 11.6 to12 million for this facility. So, in summary, we know the bubble's at the end of its life cycle. um putting it back up is not safe for us. It's, you know, it can't go back up again. Um we've had some issues with the inflator, you know, and technically

there's a lot of funding that we have to go into that. We know that we have to address the plaster and tile concerns that we have um to renovate those. You know, we feel that replacing the temporary bubble with a permanent enclosed structure obviously will give the citizens, you know, a beautiful place in the future for years to come to swim, to have a great time to have swim meets, you know, to do all the things that they're currently doing hopefully at a better level. Um, you know, better climate, humidity control, air quality control will be addressed with this. Um, we'll put air dehumidifying systems and air air filtration systems in this. It will be heated and cooled. It'll have garage doors on the side of it that we can open up in the spring and fall to let some natural air come through. Um, you know, it's it's it's going to be a beautiful thing. Um, so, you know, obviously we're looking at, you know, doing the best job that we can for the citizens of this city and we feel that right now we're this is where we're at. So, with that, I've got the professionals here. I'm ready for your questions.

Thank you. Uh, before we get too far away from what we just saw, was C2. Were there bleachers in there? Yes, that had the accessibility that we could add bleachers in there as well. And yes, we can do that. Temperature and humidity controlled. Yes. Was there some uh I'm trying to remember our field trip to Jefferson. Was there daylight? It was beautifully lit, but I can't remember if there was daylight in there. So, there is a translucent ceiling tiles. They are not completely clear, but they do allow a lot of natural light to come through. Yes.

Thank you. So, what we're going to do is have a council question and answer and discussion with uh with Harold and with uh Brandon and with Craig so that we can get satisfaction that all our questions are answered and kind of formulate our thoughts. Then we will move to public comment. We want to hear from you all. Uh but once public comment is completed, we're going to circle back again because at the end of the evening, our job is to give direction to the city manager so that he and staff can figure out how to move forward. That's not a vote. We're not going to vote tonight. But it's sometimes you spend a whole lot of time on something that council later comes back and says, "Ah, we don't want to do that. We we don't want to waste staff time." So tonight, our goal is to give some kind of direction as a city council uh to our city manager so that he can move forward and bring us something to vote on very soon, but that won't be tonight. All right. So with that, council questions for Harold and Brandon and Craig. And just so everybody knows, we got in a bus in December, uh all of us, five of us and staff, and we went to uh Sprung Structure facility in um Jefferson, Georgia. It was very new and very beautiful. They are very happy with it. I think it was a a real good project and a real good installation. Uh WM2A was the architect on that one. Correct. And correct.

Yes. No, no, no, they were not. Oh, excuse me. Design consultants. Thank you for that. Uh same day we also went to Shambbley. We saw another facility that we didn't like nearly as well. And so, uh, with that, council, I'll open it up for questions and comments for Harold and for our experts questions. Um, for the option that you're suggesting, what is the potential start finish time?

So, the potential start for this project is we are currently looking to start the design whenever we take a vote and we vote to move forward. We are Preliminary looking at quarter four of this year to be the start of this project. What what part? Construction or No. Yeah, that would be the construction part would be quarter 4. Yes. And then the estimated timeline. So the estimated timeline on this project is 10 to 12 months.

Um is Glenlock a possible um option for people Could we heat that to make it usable? I have received a quote from United Pools um to at what we could do to possibly heat Glenlock. Um Glenlock is a 25 yard pool that we could put four lanes in. Um and yes, we do have a quote to do that. It's $50,000. So would we bring that up to the same temperature, 89 degrees or something like that to The goal would be swim teams. The goal would be to get that pool to 84 8. Okay. Doesn't quite get up. 84 to 88 I believe is the temperature that range that they want us in. Thank you.

And and with that it could be used year round and it would stay uncovered. Is that correct? Yes, we would have to use thermal blankets at night to cover it due to it being an outdoor pool. But yes, with the heaters and thermal blankets we feel that we can get it there. That's all I have for right now. Okay. M. Um Harold I know one of the big considerations that we've also looked at is you know the cost of operating and you know as you increase the size of the pool you increase the size of the cost of operation right

um and I've we've got the numbers from fiscal year 2025 and just you know I guess kind of so everybody in this room understands exactly you know pools are not free to operate you know it's it's kind kind of like the old saying of, you know, a boat is a hole in the water that you throw your money into and a pool kind of sort of matches a boat. And so the issue is that in fiscal year 2025, although we collected some revenue for pool use from swim teams, etc., the pool operated at a $226,000 revenue deficit.

Yes. So that's, you know, a big concern for a lot of people that I've spoken to because if we build a bigger pool, then we will have a bigger deficit or we have to significantly raise all of the rates.

And so there's a balance there somehow. And you know, the tolerance for some people is, you know, they they don't want it to cost us any more than it's costing us now. Correct. So, so there's that. So, that's kind of just a comment to throw out there. Um, and and I'm I'm sure you've heard more than enough comments from people going along just like we have. So, uh I don't know what other questions to ask this. That's right. We'll have time for more. It'll come up. Mr. Polich,

thank you. Thanks, Herald team, for looking into this. Um Laura answered or asked some of the questions I had. Can you talk I saw an email earlier about air circulation and kind of concern of the smell of chlorine being captured in this facility. Can you describe how this structure kind of helps with that because I don't remember smelling any when we when we visited Jefferson which was astonishing.

Yes. So when we toured Jefferson um Benton Morris does a phenomenal job up there. He's the director of parks and wreck up at Jefferson Georgia. Um their pool has a filtration system. when we actually or an air quality filtration system and a dehumidification system when we toured that facility. Um they actually had a leak that a water leak that they were looking for. So they actually had to turn off their air purification system and their dehumidification system for three days and we were there on our third day and there was no chlorine odor at that facility at that time. Um, so with currently what we have at the bubble, which if you go in there at any time, you know, you do smell the chlorine even though we're a salt system pool. Um, you know, the salt reacts with bodies as they're in the water and, you know, breaks down. That's what it's supposed to do. Um, so yes, this structure would help mitigate that smell and that odor and would highly improve our air quality.

Thank you. and and I know the proposed sund deck and I heard some feedback of um what else could we do with that space and you know personally I'd love to see some more toddler area maybe a do you think there's an opportunity to put in splash pad obviously be additional cost but some sort of air I know for my four and two-year-old we probably venture that way right um but is that something we've is that still an option here that we can amend and make a few tweaks and but I do love your idea of a vent area. Have we explored whether we can move that event area in a different space or repave something? Is that something we've we've explored totally?

We have not up to this point because we were trying to get this done but we are so in the infasy stages of concepts that there's a lot that we can do with this and you know the experts will tell you they haven't even really begun the design other than presenting the four these four concepts to us. So yes, if that's something that council would like to see, we can certainly get numbers. We can, you know, try to throw a concept together and get something to you so that you could make a decision on that as well. Great. And I I'll hold the rest of the questions until after comment. Okay, Mr. Holland.

Yeah, I have a few things. First of all, nicely done. I like the presentation. your team has done a you know you've uncovered a lot of stuff that uh you know it's the unintended consequences I talk about all the time when you start digging into something like a pool that's 30 years old right now that's the cost once you start uncovering it it could be a lot more oh you might get away with this

but two two a couple of things first of all on the chemistry side for the uh chlorine and I worked in that industry and I can tell you that there's new technology which does not use chlorine or salt that can be used in this that will give you no chloramine smell which is what you're talking about when the biology and the chlorine you know skin cells and things get together they give you that smell well that can be eliminated with the new technology it's uh you're going to need to look into that but that's a totally different topic I just wanted to follow up on what Michael had brought up

really I'm looking at option D if you can pop that up on the screen yes sir And I'm not going to get too deep into it right now, but I I really really can I say really one more time liked that 50 meter pool that we saw up in Jefferson and I would love to have the city have one. So with that in mind, uh you know, I think it needs to be discussed and the consensus has to be had here on city council for that because that's not a cheap date, correct? To put in a 50 meter pool. So my thoughts are if you really want to put a 50 meter pool, it's got to be done on the Kedran site, move it away into another location, someplace there, because you don't want to put it in another part of the city. you want to put it up here where all the other swimming pools are and leave the pools as as uh Councilwoman Johnson said, leave the pools heated up and you know whether it's uh uh uh Glenlock or even at Kedran, leave it heated up while you're building the new uh the new facility, which would be a 50 meter pool. But this is all just conjecture on my part. So, I don't want to get into it all too deep right now, but I like the idea of not not sidelining it at this early time. Let's see if we can afford put a 50 meter pal in. Now, here's the issue. It does cost a lot of money and it's going to be very expensive. So that would mean to me that we take it out and put it in a general obligation bond, send it out to the city, let the voters vote on whether they want to put in and spend the money to put in a really worldclass pool here in Peace Tree City. To me, that would then give validation. Should we get the bond approved, we

would get validation that that the people of this city would want us to move in that direction. Vice versa, we get it turned down. We still have these options, which are excellent options that you have here. You've laid them out very nicely. That might have to be, I'll call it, plan B if we do not get approval from the voters that under a general obligation bond. So, that's just a couple of ideas that I'd like to throw out for our council and for comments from uh the uh citizens and of course from you Harold and your your whole team. Yes. Okay. Back to me. Sure.

Okay. That was really confusing Clint. So, you you're proposing that a larger pool be built. Yes. Where? Right. I said at Kedan. I think I said that. Right. At Kedron. And you're saying to keep the current pool at Kedron functional? Yes. Keep it functional, heat it up, let it go through the winter just like the one down at Glenlock. But in order to do that pool at that cost and Harold, with the prices that are on option ABC, D, whatever.

The the price that's on there is just for the pool. Does that include the sprung structure also? for A, B, C, and D. We did quote those with the structure as well. So, at option C2 that we're looking at, it's a $7.8 million price tag. Um, we've got a Palasio um cost estimate included with this, and that was a number that we've just received from them. Um, of what building that in quarter C2 and quarter four of this year will be a $7.8 million price tag. Any quarter subsequently after that, we would be looking at a 1.6 6% compounding, you know, increase

and can you uh explain what Palasio, what are you referring to with Palio? Sure. And actually, Brandon would pro would be great to answer that.

So, Palasio Collaborative is an entity out of South Carolina that we've worked with. They are essentially professional cost estimators. So, in our industry, you've got the designers, you've got the contractors. Um, and you know, we can have a a preliminary concept for a design and bring it to a contractor. And once in a while they're happy to give us a price on a project if they think there's a great chance that they win that project. Uh, many times they'll tell us they're too busy, and most of the time they are. So, we like to partner with Palasio because they are plugged in. Excuse me. apologies to all of the up-to-date pricing for all different kinds of project types. So, we sat down with them and talked them through the C2 scheme because that was what we were currently moving forward with. They generated a detailed cost proposal and then from there myself, Craig, Harold and a specialty pool contractor out of the Atlanta area uh had a meeting and further revised that budget based on historical data from projects we've uh worked on in the past um and just other climate uh related elements in the construction field right now.

Thank you. So, they're cost estimators. They are professionals. Yes. They don't design, they don't build, but it is their job to look at the numbers. Okay. Thank you. Uh, one more thing I I want to be sure to mention is when we had our retreat in January, we all settled on C2. Could you go back to that one slide? The C2 slide is what we came away with. So any uh thumbnail estimates since that time have been focused on C2 because that's that's what we all talked about in January. Anybody? Okay. Who else? Anybody else?

Okay. A another question related but kind of distant and it's not really for you guys. It's more for anybody who can answer this one. If, as Clint suggested, we go for a pool that costs so much more and it has to go out for a geo bond, how what's the time delay on putting that in front of the voters and then and and getting a response on that because that's not an instantaneous thing. We have to put paperwork into our legislators to get it on the ballot, don't we? Yep. We can't hear you.

Is that better? Yeah, just speak up.

So, there are two methods that uh council could call for a special election if because there is a statewide uh general election in November. If you want the actual question to be on the same ballot as that uh general election, you would have to call it 90 days prior to the election date. And if it is a separate but on the same day, which a separate ballot, you would have to call it at least 29 days. So to give you exact timeline, uh the the 90 days would be by August 5th, but we would not recommend you waiting till the last uh day to do that. And um the 29 days is on October 5th. Early voting starts about October 13th, which means the ballots will already be printed. But because it's separate, those 29 days would allow us to create our own ballot, but I still would not recommend that because they would have to be um there's a process that needs to be done and October 5th is just not enough time to get it in time for the October 13th start of advanced voting. And and I think we need to be aware that even if even if some amazing thing happened and this year a bond referendum was issued and it was approved by voters then there is a I'd say two and a half year time frame for design and implementation. We'd be looking at

right 28 29 20. Yeah. 20 probably 2029. And can I do you have a comment on Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, we're a year and a half into this already and we're just a concept phase. So, I've got one more.

I'm sorry. The reason I started asking the questions is to put it in to a proper time frame because I'm sure there are people in this room who want to go for DE or F which we haven't even explored yet and which could potentially cost $30 million and be defeated at the referendum vote and we'd be back to square one. And so, you know, these are all factors that we have to consider as we're looking at every one of these options. You know, what can be done now? What's going to be a delay? Having a ballot in November and then starting the whole thing because, you know, just because you pass it as you're going to tax people for this and that's who would have to pay the Peach Tree City taxpayers would have to pay for this. And then you have to start collecting the revenue which means next tax year. And I mean, you know, it's not an instantaneous thing. So if you stand up and tell us you want to go for de or f or things that you haven't even seen here and we should build an entire niatorum with a dive well and everything, think about how many years it'll be before that becomes anywhere possible.

Just to have a a comment on that. I I think I was pretty clear. I just said a 50 meter pool. I didn't say natiatorum. I didn't say dive well. I didn't say any of those. And those cost a lot more money. But at the same time,

the one that really people want is what I use the the language of the swimmers. They want a long lane so that they can a long course. They don't want the short stuff. And I got that. But putting that just that pool without all the other extraneous stuff of dive wells and all of that kind of stuff. And we're not going to need to put, you know, uh, uh, changing rooms because we got those already at Kedron and they can use all of that. We try to keep the, uh, we try to keep the cost reasonable that it may pass under a general obligation bond. You put a niatorum out there on a GO bond, that's that's Harry Kerry. You're not good. That's just not going to pass. There's going to be too much resistance to spending whatever it is, $25 million, $30 million.

So my that's my comments. My one correction in regards to a bond and timing is that it would be instantane it would when you take the bond you get all the money up front. We would just be paying the we'd be paying the payments to pay it off. Okay. Thank you. And I'll add one more thing and that is

you're going to want that design to be in pretty good shape. I see that as being probably the more realistic issue from a timing standpoint because that's the only way you're going to get a real value. What you don't want to do is go out and have a a geo bond that's considered approved and then you're then getting into the design phase. You want to make sure you capture enough funding to cover whatever it's going to take to build what you're looking at based on the design that you already have. Correct. Correct. Oh, that's a great point. Yeah. All right. Anything else, Mr. Holland? I'm going to go this way. No, I think that's that's good. I'm sorry I confused you, Miss Brown. Sorry I confused you with my thinking. I don't think I was the only confused one. I was looking at everybody's faces lit. Mr. Polichek.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I know I want to get to public comment because I'm sure there's a lot of anxious parents with kids here that want to get back home before bedtime. Um on C2 and related to the 1.5% quarterly um ascending cost that comprehends every portion because you know permanent structures is different material. Is that 1.5% for the full 7.8 8 million or is that just the structure itself? Yes, it's 1 point it's 1.6% for the full 7.8 million. Yes.

Okay. Because I know one one thing I've I've been very engaged with the swim community. I've been meeting with folks is just the concerns and obviously we've all been receiving emails especially as it relates our competitive swimmers, you know, missing out on this season and there being limited options and that's something this council is going to have to decide. uh you know the cost benefit of delaying construction to a certain point let's say March and at what cost so that the swimmers only miss next winter instead of two seasons they only miss one and it gives them the extra 12 months to plan for uh alternatives. So that's just something that's going to need to be on our radar if we want.

Could you help me understand that the timing of the season? I don't understand. If we have a 10 to 12 month downtime, we're going to miss a year. We're going to miss one season. Is that wrong? No, you're you're 100% right. Whether it starts in

So currently the high school swim season, their actual season starts October and goes to first week or two of February. Um they do start practicing the month of September, sometimes end of August. That's when we're getting all the rosters in and getting triyouts done at Kedron right now currently. So, um you know, if you were delay until the end of March or till March and when high school swim season is complete, you're essentially moving into quarter two to start construction. So, you're already looking at that 1.6% increase. Correct. So, compounded. Yes. Thank you.

I mean I mean am I wrong? No matter when we start, if we start quarter four or if we delay it March, April, May of 27, it's it's a one year, it's a 12-month downtime. 10 to 12 month downtime. Everybody misses one season. Correct. Correct. And you know, again, the sprung structure we're talking about to build the structure is only 28 days to 30 days tops. We're looking at all the other things that we have to do to the pool deck,

to the pool itself, the plumbing, the electrical, all that, the pump room. That's what's going to take the majority of the time here. It's not just, oh, we got to build a building. That's a month. Um, it's literally we've got to do all this prep work, get everything done with a pool, then when all that's done, we build the structure. Yes. And making a lot of u um deconstruction before you start your construction.

Correct. Is that part of inclusive if inclusive of that 10 to 12 months having been in those kinds of situations on contracting? It never comes out on that. It's always another two or three or four months beyond that. And I'm just being what I've seen in in reality is that 10 to 12 got a little No, that that's doing everything right on time. We were talking about this and correct me if I'm wrong, Brandon, but we were discussing this earlier today and we feel that 12 months is the exact extreme case scenario. Okay. For everything, knock on wood.

Uh if I can just add the starting in October versus starting in March, I mean that that is a big not only you only miss one season versus two. And this is the feed. This was one solution I heard presented when I met with a group outside the the Kendrick Fieldhouse that provides an additional 12 months of planning for next season. And if we also consider heating lenlock pool as an alternative now you know there's going to be no perfect solution and there's gonna be a disruption and it's it's unfortunate that we are so limited on our aquatic capacity in this region and you don't find many cities this is why a lot of cities has have gone away from having an aquatic center but I as a kid growing up here I've seen how I've you know I I went to swam in that pool all the time had birthday parties there and everything. It's a it's valued in this community. We should protect it for the next generation of families. Um but there's going to be a disruption, but seeing if the city can just find a way to limit that

and it's going to be inconvenient. Um and if it's, you know, if there's going to be additional costs, we just have to look at it and just assess and and you know, come to a decision. But as as we hear public comment, please incorporate that and see if solutions for us to consider as well. Okay, thank you. Um, any last comment before we go to public comment?

U, my comment actually has to do with public comment and that is that I would I would like to make sure if you step up to the microphone to tell us what your opinion is, especially on this. There may be public comments about other things, but please identify what neighborhood you live in because I've had a lot of people talk to me about the fact that, you know, people who don't live in Peach Tree City have a lot of opinions about what Peach Tree City should spend their money on. And there's a little bit of a disagreement there as far as who should be telling whom what to what to buy and what to build. So, So, if you just tell your neighborhood or identify that you don't live in the city, you can be a swimmer and not live in the city. I got that. If you're a swimmer and you live in the city or if you have an interest in making a comment about what you think we should do, if you live in the city, I'd kind of like to know that. That's my comment.

All right. Uh let's move to public comment. How many comments do we have? 29.

Um I will say um we want to hear what you have to say. That's why we're here. Um, so far nobody has heard us say no. Nobody has heard us say we just need to let this pool go. It's too much money. Nobody's saying that. I think that we in Peach Tree City are fortunate to have a city council and especially a city manager and staff who are dedicated to doing the right thing by our city. And let's find a way to make sure that we preserve this wonderful facility for the next 30 years. Right now in city hall, we're remodeling. There's a half an inch of dust in my office right now. The roof people put this smelly stuff up there. It's terrible. People are working from home. We're all dispersed. The communication's not good. It's not fun right now. But we're going through a temporary period of pain at city hall so that we can build something when it's all done that we can all be proud of and we'll be glad that we went through it. So, uh, with that, uh, we'll start. I want to tell you that if you want to tell us that the Kedran facility is important and valuable, that it's meaningful to your family and your children or that swimming is important, uh that it builds character and discipline and competitiveness, I'd say I agree with you 100%. And we're there. We're already there. If if you want to tell us that, you still can. But I want you to know that we agree and we're there and we're really interested in talking about solutions here because what we have isn't going to work for another the bubble's gone. The facility itself isn't going to work for more than two more years. Uh so we have some big decisions to make and we're ready to make them. So with that, we'll start with the first speaker. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. We have not addressed if there are any agenda changes. Oh jeepers. Uh council, any agenda changes? No. Oh, good God. Thank you. Okay, public comment. First commenter, Jessica Summers. You have four minutes on the topic of your choice. And again, thank you for being here tonight. That's why we're here. Uh, hi, my name is Jessica Summers. Um, my nine-year-old swims year round at Kedran. I'm also a former division one swimmer and I help run the Highrove Hurricanes uh neighborhood swimming team. Where do you live? In High Grove.

High Grove. Okay. All right. I grew up in Muny, Indiana, which is in Delaware County. And after some research, I found Delaware County to be a great comparison to Fyet County. And as since they're a similar size and swimmers and residents from all over the county use Kedran, it seems like an appropriate comparison for the points I'd like to make. Delaware County has a projected population in 2026 of 113,000, while Faget counties is 125,000. Delaware County, however, um has a projected median household income of 58,000 as compared to FETS, which is nearly double at 112,000 with a and Delaware County has a 20% poverty rate, four times that of Fyet counties. In spite of being much more economically disadvantaged, Delaware County has seven indoor 25ard pools. Three at high schools, one at a middle school, one at a YMCA, and two at Ball State. In addition, there's a 50 meter city pool. Uh, as we talked about, that is an Olympic length pool. Swimmers in the summer train at this length, and our swimmers cannot, uh, which puts them at a great disadvantage. Um, Ball State also had a diving well, and every high school had a one-meter diving board. Um, so, as you can see, we had all the facilities we needed, which probably led to the fact that I became a division one swimmer. Um, as a pitiful comparison, Faget County has exactly one eightlane 25 yard pool, no 50 meter pool, and no diving facility. That means all five high school swim teams share Kedran pool, which greatly hinders their practice time. Um, I I heard from high school parents, we're looking at two to three practices a week, which I was practicing six days a week, two a day, several times a week. Um, this lack of space means we can't have middle school swim teams. That's how I started. Um, furthermore, swim teams can't compete in

diving, which is an Olympic and a high school and a college sport. Um, our our swimmers do not train train in a 50- meter pool. They can only visit 50 meter pools for competitions and they're completely unprepared because they haven't been training at that length. Um, and it is vastly different and any swimmer in this room can tell you that. Um, I'm going to make one more comparison as a part of proposing a solution. Um, as I said before, I was a college swimmer. I swam at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Um, Bowling Green is a small town, but it swells to about the size of Peach Tree City when the students are in session. Um, there's only one aquatic facility in Bowling Green, and that's at the university. uh the community, the college team, the one high school, and the year-round swim club all share that facility. They have a eight-lane, 50 meter pool that is divided into two 25-yard pools by the use of a floating bulkhead. Um I never in my time there ever felt like there was not adequate space for all of us to share that space. There was also a small therapy pool for aerobics, swim lessons, etc. Um, when it comes to the proposed upgrades, none of them except for D solve the fact that we just have one eightlane 25-yard pool in our community, no 50- meter pool, no diving facility. I propose that instead of basically putting lipstick on a pig with Kedran, we look at actually doing something that is going to be adequate for our community and our needs. Um, and in the meantime, I hope you are also able to please please consider our swimmers and finding some way that they continue to pra can continue to practice. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. We don't have time. We are not going to do that. I want to hear what you have to say and that's only

fair to let people speak. Next, please. Candace Shiveley. Sorry, but I'm a lot shorter than these people are. Okay. Um, my name is Candace Shiveley. I do live outside of the Peach Tree City limits. However, I spend a lot of time in pools in Peach Tree City. Start the timer, please. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Don't worry, I won't be anywhere near four minutes. I am very much into here to support swimmers of all ages. My background includes officiating for USA swimming, being a Red Cross water safety instructor, swimming miles and miles and miles on my own, and cheering on competitive swimmers for decades. I hope all who are involved here will also recognize that it is not only the competitive swimmers who are being displaced. There are a significant number of fitness swimmers in and around Peach Tree City who have used Kedran. Far more have used would have used if it opened early enough for them to go before work, but it doesn't open till 7:45. Um, taking away water from the fitness swimmers and these folks at any period of time is detrimental for their training and for their health. We have a lot of people in this community who swim for health and fitness is a very fleeting thing. existing alternative indoor facilities here in the local area. And believe me, I've been in them all. Um I'm excluding Trilith because of the high cost and the distance. Um these existing pools cannot handle the overflow. Excuse the pun. Um from Kedran swimmers who are displaced because I as they have been during the the bubble changeovers. Um there are two four-lane pools at local gyms that simply cannot handle the influx. I have been in both of them when that's going on during the three two or three weeks of in fall and spring of every year these two other pools have been crowded to the point of not being able to function properly. So any temporary solution to the short-term problem that we do have here it needs to deal with water availability for those who rely on swimming to maintain their cardio fitness and in fact to stay alive. Just ask my ask my cardiologist. Uh, in planning for both the short-term and the longer term aquatics facilities, I urged

Peace Tree City and the county, uh, oh, this means cooperating some, uh, to consider all the constituencies, both the more mature like me and the young people and even those little voices of little kiddos who are learn to swim age. And having been a water safety instructor, I can tell you they need this very much. And I I'm glad that you said what you did about um being in agreement with this. All of us will of course continue to cheer on the competitive swimmers because aquatics really are ageless. I do have one specific question technically about plan C2. Um, as someone who's been an official and also a water safety instructor, I notice that there is apparently in the diagram, granted it's hard to see, um, no deck space along the side of the pool, the the large pool between that and the instructional pool. In order to be a stroke and turn judge at a meet and you said you want to be able to have swim meets or to be able to coach kids who are in that pool that's eight lanes wide, you need an adequate walking space, a deck that's walkable between those two pools. It's a safety issue. You need to be able to have the lifeguards be able to walk that side of the pool. So you need to look at that design very carefully. Thank you. I'm done.

Thank you. Next, please. Jamie Trost. I had a big speech about how important uh the pool is to my family, but I want to clarify that competitive swimming is year round. It's not just the high school season that was mentioned. Could you move closer to the microphone?

Can you tell us if you're what neighborh is year round? So, um, if we close in October for a year, that's going to shut my kids down from, um, short course season and long course season where we don't where we are in a longer pool. So, I also am just asking that we take some time to figure out a way for us to be able to continue swimming or just an alternative. Um because at this point we are faced with having to travel well we don't even know yet maybe an hour maybe not. Um so from the competitive side we go we have a longer se it's all the time we we don't take a break. So for us we are just looking for more time to sort this out. Thanks.

Thank you. Next please. Emerson trust. Hi, my name is Emerson Trist and I live in Step up closer.

Hi, my name is Emerson Trist and I live in Ketchron Hills. I am 12 years old and I and a Chattahuchi gold year round swimmer. I am here to tell you why we need a plan for the pool. The Ketchin Aquatic Center isn't just a pool. It is a second home for me, my family, and my friends. If the pool closes, my team won't be able to improve our swimming skills and technique. It is really hard to get back into shape when we take two weeks off from practice to put and take down the bubble. What will happen to all of our hard work if the pool closes for a year? Please help us find water to swim in before you close the pool. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Next, please.

Evan West apher. Hello, my name is Evan Wester. I am 12 years old and attend Booth Middle School. I live in Maple Shade and I am an active member of Boy Scout Troop 175, a musician and a swimmer. I come today to address a concern about the pool closure. We have heard that the pool facility is closing down for several months and this is a necessary public space um that is used to teach children to swim. I was taught to swim at the Ketron pool and I have become a year-round swimmer. It is used to do BSA swim tests so that children can go to go to scout camp safely. I have used this pool to do that test personally and um it is also used to train swimmers that compete at a statewide level. Not only that, but the community uses this space to hold birthday parties and to hold water aerobics classes. Each of the five Faget County high schools uses this one Kedgen pool to train in the early morning hours before the school day even begins. Athletes from Petri City have gone to college because of this pool as well. I cannot stress enough how much this community needs the pool to be closed for as little time as possible. We are relying on a solid plan that ensures that construction and renovations are done swiftly. My all-time dream is to swim at Georgia Tech. And without this pool, most will have to drive 60 minutes to the nearest usable pool with enough lanes to support us. Um, and I'm worried that people will abandon this sport and high school teams will struggle with the limited swimmers. We understand that work needs to be done to update this pool regardless, but I ask that we do so swiftly so that the community can return as soon as

possible. We need um a strict plan um an exact budget and um a short timeline. Um and please consider that the pool needs to be used year round in our community and assure that there is a roof or other winter friendly option. Think of the last time you've used this pool. If you've never been, I can guarantee that you know someone that swims here and uses this pool facility regularly. The impact of the closure is widespread and as a citizen of Petri City, I ask that we will attain a concrete plan that gets everything done and as little time as possible. Thank you all of you that have um put time into making our community a better place.

Thank you. Next, please. Briana Doden.

Hi, thank you for having us. My name is Brianna Dodge and I'm here tonight with my daughter Lily. Um I live in Kedran Hills and I've been in Peach Tree City for about 15 years now. Um she is uh a competitive swimmer and has been doing it since she was nine with uh the program when it was still SCAT. So we've been doing this for about five years. Uh she actually began swimming with our neighborhood summer swim team when she was just four. She and her sister continue to do that and we're about to start that in about a month. Um the championship meet that's held at the Kedron Pool is still a highlight of our summer every year and as you know last year it was noted that we had almost a thousand people there um just for that one event. Because of swimming, Lily has found a home and a second family. She has thrived in building confidence, stamina, courage, and strength as a swimmer. But more importantly, swimming has been an outlet for her energy, anxiety, stress, and everyday mental load that our children all carry in this time of their lives. More than we ever honestly, I feel like did. I am beyond grateful what for what this sport has given her and helped her become. Next year will be her freshman year of high school and she's been very excited about the prospect of swimming for her school. With this uncertainty that surrounds the future of the pool, it's a disappointment at the least to know that she might not have that same experience in high school. This pool has provided a home for thousands of people of all ages. The sport of swimming, whether competitively or for recreational purposes, is a necessity for so many of us that I want to make clear my position that it should be the highest importance to not only take care of the pool in its current state, but to prioritize these kids in finding access to pools as close as possible so that they may continue to take care of themselves and pursue their goals just like every baseball, football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, any other sport player that

does have the resources to do what they love and need to do. It's not enough to send our families over an hour away to other facilities, looking at placing heaters in the neighborhood pools like Glenlock or even funding some of these for our neighborhood pools to keep people uh local and not have the impact of what that's going to mean for working parents to haul their kids, you know, over an hour away. Um, looking at timelines of fixing the ketrum pool that minimizes the time away during the high school swim season, but also with our competitive season is also important. And even though my daughter would not benefit from a new facility being built in Faget County, as you noted, the timeline is many years down the lo road. Um, I believe that for the long-term future of this county and what this sport does bring and could positively bring for the future, I hope the consideration for building a new aquatic facility becomes a top and serious priority for this council. There are many more kids like my daughter that need this sport as part of their lives. I'm thankful for the time we've had and I am I hope that she is able to continue as she moves through her high school years. Thank you guys for your time.

Thank you. Next, please.

Angela Benson. Good evening. Uh my name is Angela Benson and I'm a Faget County parent. I do live in Whitewater Creek, uh a community volunteer and the mother of two competitive swimmers. My children swim year round with Chhattahuchi Gold and also participate in the summer league with the Whitewater Creek Sharks where I serve as the team administrator. Both of my children have been swimming competitively since they were 5 years old. Today they practice or compete four to five days a week, often traveling across the state. Swimming has helped shape who they are. It has built confidence, discipline, resilience, and lifelong friendships. And our family is far from alone. There are thousands of families throughout this community whose lives are positively impacted by access to an aquatic facility. Swimming teaches children accountability, teamwork, perseverance, and how to overcome challenges. A report from Swim England found that 89% of adolescent swimmers achieve better than typical grades in school. And research has linked regular swimming to improved cognitive performance, focus, and academic achievement. That is why so many families are deeply concerned about the proposed closure of Kedran for approximately 12 to 18 months. uh with no confirmed long-term plan for replacement access or future aquatic development. This closure will impact not only competitive swimmers, but also high school swim teams, children learning water safety, summer league athletes, adults who rely on the pool for exercise, and families throughout Faget County and beyond. For families like mine, this impact is deeply personal. If Kedran closes without a local solution in place, our children will face two difficult choices. either step away from a sport that's been central to their development for years or spend more than two hours in a car multiple days a week commuting to another facility outside of our community. That is two extra hours away from homework, family dinners, sleep,

school activities, and simply being kids. It creates emotional, academic, financial, and logistical strain for entire families trying to balance school, work, life, and um yeah, our message tonight is not that we oppose progress or necessary repairs. We understand maintenance is needed, but we're asking the city to pause before making major long-term investments at Kedran until broader conversations around long-term aquatic planning, partnerships, and future community needs can take place. Petri City has outgrown the current facility and there are successful examples of communities that have addressed similar challenges through collaboration and long-term vision. The Tommy Stalocker Aquatic Center in Warner Robbins was created through collaboration between the school district, county government, and surrounding cities to create a long-term aquatic solution for that region. Our family recently attended a swim meet there, and I had the opportunity to speak with an individual involved in the planning and financing of the facility. He shared how successful the aquatic center has been, not only for the community, but financially as well, generating significant revenue through meets and events that helped offset costs and pay down the facility much faster than expected. And if there is any question about whether there is a true need for an expanded aquatic facility in our county, I believe the overwhelming community response to the proposed Kedran closure has answered that question in a very powerful way. Families have spoken up because this facility matters deeply to this community. We respectfully encourage the city to engage the community, explore regional partnerships, and evaluate long-term aquatic solutions that reflect the needs of our growing community while also exploring ways to minimize disruption during any transition. This is not simply about a pool. It is about preserving opportunities for thousands of children and families. It is about protecting programs that build confidence, health, character, safety, and community. And it is about making thoughtful decisions today that reflect the needs of not only Petri City but Fyet County and for and Fyet County for

tomorrow. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, please. Lauren Benson.

Hi, my name is Lauren Benson and I am a 10-year-old fifth grader at Brilin Elementary School. For as long as I can remember, swimming has played a major role in my life. I started swimming competitively at the age of five and I have had the pleasure of swimming for both the Chattahuchi Gold and Whitewater Creek Shark Swim Team. And my journey in the water began when I was young. Although competitive swimming started when I was just 5 years old, I've loved the water since I was a baby, swimming has a very most impact on my life, especially when it comes to building my confidence, developing strong friendships and helping stay healthy and strong. At first, swimming was challenging, and I did not win many races. Over time, I've learned that working hard and not giving up makes me stronger. Each time I've achieved a personal best time or win a race, I feel proud. These times have taught me taught me to believe in myself, not just in the pool, but in other areas of my life as well. Swimming has helped me build strong friendships. My teammates are not just people I train with, but they have become some of my best friends. We cheer for each other, celebrate each other's accomplishments, and support one another's during tough times. I Being a part of a swim team makes me feel like I belong and truly fit in. Finally, swimming helps me stay

healthy and strong. Practicing four Four more days each week keeps my body active and my mind focused. After I finish swimming, I feel happy and energized. In conclusion, swimming has helped me build confidence, developing long friendships, and staying healthy. These are the reasons swimming makes so much to me, means so much to me, and why I am asking that you reconsider the and to close the kadine pool for 12 months. Thank you. Next, please. Jack Tro.

Hi, my name is Jack Trist and I'm 9 years old. I live in Ketron Hills. I swim for the Ketron Hills Cruisers swim team in the summer and Chattahuchi Gold year round. I swim in a group called Gold Advanced with about 20 swimmers. We aren't just friends in the water, but outside as well. I love swimming because you can swim when you are young or old. But if there's no pool, nobody can practice. I'm speaking on behalf of many Peach Tree City citizens. Please don't close the pool until we have another pool to practice in. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Next, please. Mlendon Tindle. Good evening. My name is Mlennon Tindle and I'm a rising freshman and competitive swimmer here in Petri City. I'd like to share what an indoor aquatic center would mean from the perspective of someone who would use it every day. For swimmers like me, water time isn't seasonal or even optional to be competitive. Swimming requires consistent year-round training, and right now that often means limited access to pool time or traveling outside the city just to practice. Balancing school work, early morning practices, and transportation is challenging, not just for student athletes, but for our families as well. During the winter months, when the bubble is over the pool, the air quality can become very poor. Many swimmers, myself included, have had to use inhalers because of the conditions inside the bubble. Beyond the clear health concerns, this environment makes it difficult to swim effectively and safely. It is also hard to grow and sustain the sport of swimming in our area without a reliable yearround aquatic facility. Summer swim is very popular in our community, but but retaining year-round swimmers is difficult due to the limited practice availability and the challenges associated with the bubble. This is especially hard for those of us who want to continue swimming through middle school, high school, and even college. Our high school teams rely solely on this one facility for morning and evening practices. Swimming is a sport that requires rigorous conditioning and twice a day practices are crucial. Unfortunately, our current facilities cannot consistently support that level of training, which leads to some students stop swimming altogether. In addition to this, during the summer,

we do not have access to long course training. A 50 meter pool is crucial to the development of swimmers times and just the swimmers development in general. It is 100% worth it for our swimmers to have the ability to train long course, even if this means that the project for a new facility takes longer. As a rising freshman, I was really looking forward to swimming for Stars Mill. and it is disappointing that the facility limitations may prevent students from continuing doing something they love. At the same time, I'm encouraged to see that the improvements to the bubble are finally being discussed and hopefully they will be carried through. Thank you for listening and for considering how these facilities impact students like me and everyone in Petri City.

Thank you. Next, please.

Ella Hinton. Hi, my name is Ella Hinton and I live in Summit Walk. I've been a competitive swimmer for a long time. Swimming is a huge part of my life. It's not just a sport to me. It's where I've made some of my best friends and learn how to work hard and push myself. My team is honestly like a second family. We spend so much time together at practice meets and team trips. This year, we got to go to the University of Tennessee together. And this summer we're going to the University of East Florida in Pensacola. Swimming has given me opportunities and experiences experiences I never would have had otherwise. Next year I'll be going to Stars Mill High School and I'm really excited to swim for the high school team. Swimming is also a sport where consistency really matters. I practice six days a week and being able to train regularly is really important for reaching goals and continuing to improve. I know the pool may need repairs, but I hope the city understands how important this practice is, how important this place is for me, so many swimmers and families. The pool is more than just a building. It's where our team and community come together. It's where we've grown up, made memories, supported each other, and spent so much of our time. I just hope decisions about the future of the pool are made with swimmers and families in mind.

Thank you. Next, please. Jennifer Hinton. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Hinton. I'm a Peach Tree City reser. Sorry. Can you hear me now? And and can you help us understand your neighborhood or where you live? I live in the summit. Thank you. I'm in Peach Tree City. Um I'm a mom of two yearround swimmers who are 12 and 14 years old. When my girls were very little, we moved to Peach Tree City. I remember trying to find swim lessons. I'm sorry. It's okay. Take a deep breath and take your time. It's okay.

I realized very quickly how hard it was to find openings for swim lessons. Programs filled up fast, and we often ended up on weight list. One reason I signed them up for summer swim league was because I wanted them consistently in the water, becoming stronger, safer, and more confident swimmers. And that's really where their love for swimming begins. It's okay. Take your time.

Over the years, I've watched the swim community here grow tremendously, and I've seen firsthand how much demand there is for Kedron. It's a heavily shared community pool that serves year-round swim teams, high school swimmers, swim lessons, lab swimmers, fitness programs, and families from all over the area. The reality is that this facility has already been outgrown. Teams have weight list. Swim lessons fill up quickly. Lane space is limited because so many different groups rely on the same pool. What concerns me most is the impact a long closure could have on families like ours. My daughters are in the pool five to six days a week and there is no nearby facility that can realistically handle all the swimmers and teams that currently rely on Kedron. And honestly, no amount of advanced notice changes. Driving 45 minutes to an hour each way on top of school homework. Everything else just would not be realistic for many families, especially for high school swimmers trying to balance school and athletics. The level of disruption would have a significant impact on many children and families throughout this community. I understand that repairs may be necessary and I appreciate the city looking at ways to improve the situation. But for me, the biggest question is whether these major investments really match the long-term needs of a growing community that has already outgrown the current pool. If repairs are needed, I hope the city will carefully consider the timing, minimize disruption for families and student athletes, and continue exploring temporary options during construction, including possible use of Glenlock or partnerships with neighborhood pools. My hope is that this can be the start of a bigger conversation about the future of swimming in Peach Tree City in Faget County. Thank you. And I'm sorry I cried.

Not at all. That's passion we call that. Next, please. Michaela Richards.

Good evening. My name is Michaela Richards and I don't live in Peachree City, but I'm there six times a week. I'm 15 years old. I've been swimming since I was seven years old. And I currently swim for the Chattahuchi Gold Swim Team and Whitewater High School, both which rely on the Kedran facility. Swimming isn't just something I do, it's who I am. It's the sport I've grown up with, where I found my closest friends, and where I've learned discipline, resilience, and how to push myself every single day. It keeps me healthy, focused, and grounded. Closing the city pool for an extended time wouldn't just be an inconvenience. It would take something away from me and so many others in this community. These are the years that matter most and I work towards my goal of swimming in college. In swimming, there's no such thing as picking up where you left off. Time out of the water doesn't time out of the water doesn't just slow you down. It sets sets you back years. And that's time I can't get back. I also think about my parents and the parents of all swimmers who have who have invested so much time, energy, and money into supporting us. Early mornings, long practices, countless hours at Kedan. It's not fair to ask us to pause everything we've worked so hard for. We understand the need for repairs, and we support improving the facility, even building a brand new one. But we ask you to carefully consider the timeline and the real impact this has on families, athletes, and kids who rely on this pool every day. Please don't take away a year we can't replace because for us, that year could mean the difference between a dream achieved and a dream lost. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Nancy Moore. Good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak. Um, my name is Nancy Moore. Um, I have been a third I think I've lived in Peachree City 33 years. I've lived in Kedron Hills and currently live off Golf View Drive. I've been involved in swimming in this community for about 20 years. first as a parent, then as a summer swim team coordinator, and as assistant coach for Macintosh High School. Over the years, I've had the honor and privilege of watching many children grow up through swimming programs in our community. Many children begin with summer swimming when they're very young. Some continue into high school swimming and club swimming. Others simply gain confidence, friendships, discipline, and important life skills through being part of a swim team. Swimming is truly unique because it's a lifelong activity. It's one of the few sports you can participate from infancy through adulthood. More importantly, learning to swim is also critical safety skill that can one day save your life. I've seen firsthand how swimming positively impacts children and families in our community. It impacts them competitively, socially, emotionally, and physically. The joy of watching children swim and accomplish their grow goals is a true gift. I reminisce about swimmers like Daisy who started swimming as a young child, eventually made the commitment to club and high school swimming. Then she shared her time and talent with young kids as a coach because she wanted to give back and share her love of swimming with other young children in this community. I also reminisce about swimmers like Justin who participated in summer swimming and is now in the Marine Corps. He thanks his parents for keeping him summer swimming because of the positive impact it has on

his military training. He sent an email to his mom that said, "Thanks, Mom, for keeping me in swim. It keeps paying dividends. I got a room inspection passed because I beat all my platoon in a 25 meter freestyle." It concerns me that a 10 to 12 month closure of the Kedron pool would not simply inconvenience swimmers. It would interrupt the whole developmental cycle that introduces young swimmers to the sport and supports programs all the way through high school swimming and beyond. This issue is bigger than competitive swimming. It support it. Kedran supports lessons, recreational swimming, lap swimming, high school swimming, fitness programs, families that enjoy time in the pool year round, and also water safety education. I understand that repairs may be necessary, but I hope or not maybe are necessary. I hope the city will pause before making long-term investments without a broader conversations about the future swimming needs of our growing community. I hope also hope that every effort will make be made to minimize disrupt disruption, preserve community access during the repair process and continue exploring long-term solutions that better reflect how much our community has grown. I love sharing my love of swimming with the youth of our community and I sincerely hope we can all work together to provide facilities to support swimming today and the future.

Thank you. Next, please. Jessica Weeden. Good evening. My name is Jessica Weeden and I'm a Peach Tree City resident. My neighborhood is the Kedran area near Blue Smoke Park. I'm also a parent, educator, Girl Scout leader, for former lifeguard, and a passholder at Kedran Aquatics. I also hold a PhD in education and I've spent many years working with children through educational and summer programs. I'm speaking tonight both professionally and personally as a mother raising three young children here in this community. My oldest daughter is one of the youngest members on the Gold Swim team and my two younger children need swim lessons. Our family has directly benefited from Peach Tree City Swim programs and I'm so grateful for the instructors and staff who provide them. Access to swim lessons is becoming increasingly difficult for families. Right now, my son is weight listed for lessons at Kedran, and he was also weight listed during the last session. Swimming is not just recreation. It is a life-saving skill. Drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental death for children and the leading cause of death for young children. Formal swim lessons significantly reduce that risk. Sadly, children have drowned here in our own community and throughout our region. Those tragedies remind us that water safety is not optional in a town like Peach Tree City where children grow up surrounded by pools, lakes, and water access. That is why these facilities should be viewed not simply as amenities but as essential community infrastructure. The instructional pool at Kedran is especially important because it is warm, welcoming, and designed for young learners. As both an educator and former lifeguard, I know children learn best when they feel comfortable, safe, and confident enough to practice new skills. The warm instructional pool helps children build confidence and critical water safety skills. And importantly, it is the

largest warm instructional pool in the town, and it is available year round for families who need consistent access to swim instruction. I estimate that up to a thousand swim lessons may be provided by the city each year and the current weight lists clearly show that demand is even greater. I would love to see expanded lesson access in the future, including more daytime, weekend, summer, and private lesson opportunities. I support fixing and improving the Kedran Aquatics facility as soon as possible. I also hope the redesign balances instructional, recreational, and competitive community needs. Features such as a diving well or seasonal splash pad elements could help the facility better serve residents of different ages while keeping swim instruction and water safety as a central priority. But it is critical that this remain a year-round instructional pool and that disruptions be minimized as much as possible. If this pool is privatized, reduced, or no longer available for year-round instructional use, it will directly impact children's ability to learn how to swim. Families are already struggling to access lessons and reducing access even further would leave many children without opportunities to develop basic water safety skills during the years when those lessons matter most. This is not only about competitive swimming. It is about toddlers learning to float, young children overcoming fear of water, and families trying to keep their children safe. At the same time, our growing community needs additional long-term aquatic investments. I hope Peach Tree City will advocate regionally for a future countywide aquatic center that can expand year-round access for lessons, recreation, therapy, and competitive swimming. As Faget County continues to grow, we need both a thoughtfully improved Kedran aquatics facility that continues serving families year round, and a broader long-term vision for additional aquatic capacity in our region. Access to swim instruction and water safety education

saves lives. Kedran Aquatic Center is an affordable public safety resource that helps our residents learn safe water practices that protect the lives of our citizens, particularly our youngest residents. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, please. Lindsay Gentry.

Hello. Uh, thank you for hearing us out. Um, I'm been a Peach City resident twice. Grew up here, went to Macintosh. We didn't have any public pool. Well, we did, I'm sorry, no indoor. We had Pebble Pocket. We had Glenn Lock. Um, I never even thought about swimming year round, but then I moved back in 2012 when I had two young kids. And I now have a daughter who's a sophomore at Stars Mill. Um, she started swimming when she was just five years old. I'm in Wilshshire neighborhood, by the way. I'm sorry, Wilshshire Estates. So, I'm a Pri City resident. Um, she started swimming at 5 years old with the summer swim team. Fell in love with the sport. Um, kept going, was uh involved when it was pack or scat and then pack which is year round and now she's in her last two years of high school. She's about to turn 16 about to start driving and the thought of her having to drive to in the five in the morning to Jonesboro or Griffin just frankly as a parent I'm not real comfortable with that. So I'm hoping we can figure out some kind of short-term solution. I know we understand that the pool repairs have to be done. I'm voting. If I had a vote, I know I don't, but as a resident, I just want to say um I would love for a shorter term plan. Um the the long course that's great. I think that would be wonderful, but I would just hope that we would minimize the disruption as a lot of people have said. Um just hoping my you know, personally my daughter's last few years of swimming, you know, will be positive and that she doesn't have to drive so far with all the other things she has to balance. And um I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. the splash town uh the splash um splash pad down booster club treasure. So I understand the money. I'm voting for something that I hope would be maybe in the middle maybe a good compromise. Thank you. Next please. Claire Sharer. Hello. I am Claire Shar and I live in Summit Petri City.

I am part of the team Whitewater Creek Sharks and like my brother Cal I also started swimming finess free and I really enjoyed it. This upcoming fall I was looking forward to starting a year round club with a couple of my friends. The pool shutting down impacts me because without a pool to swim in I can't do what I truly en enjoy doing. When I heard that the pool was going to be closing and me and many others were not going to be able to swim at Kedan, I felt let down. For me, swimming is not an just an activity or a sport. I love swimming very much and I believe that many others feel the same. Though I don't have as much experience as others like Cal, I still can understand how important Kra is to many. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Cal Sharver.

Good evening. My name is Cal Shar and I'm 15 years old. I've been using Ketron's pool for as long as I can remember. I started swimming lessons when I was three. At seven, I joined summer swim and also started swimming year round club. This pool isn't just where we practice, it's where a lot of us grew up. I also live in the summit. Right now, I swim on three different teams: summer league, varsity, and a year-round club team. This year, as a freshman, I broke a 12-year-old school record and was named team MVP. Those are moments I'll never forget, and they wouldn't have happened without my coaches and consistent practice at Kendra. Swimming can also open doors for my future. It gives kids like me the chance to get into good colleges and even earn scholarships, opportunities that might not be possible without a place to train. The pool has taught me discipline, early mornings, late nights, and pushing through when I'm exhausted. It's taught me teamwork. Swimming might look like an individual's work, but it's not. Relays, cheering each other on, and being a part of something bigger. That's what makes it a team. It's taught me leadership, too. At 14, I started coaching younger swimmers and helping them grow, just like others have once helped me. And it's given me friendships, the kind built through hard work and shared goals. If this school closes for a long time and there's no nearby option, all three of my teams will struggle. Like many Petri City kids, I take my golf guard to practice. That won't be possible if we have to go to Griffin. Getting these getting there regular would be extremely difficult for a lot of us. That kind of disruption doesn't just affect practices. It affects progress. It could mean losing chances at scholarships, college teams, and even opportunities for our future. This isn't just about losing a pool for a bit of time. It's about losing opportunities, structure, and a community that helps kids grow into stronger, more confident people. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Ael Rose. Good evening, mayor and council. I'm Abriel. My husband and I have lived in Peach Tree City for 16 years. We have two properties in Peach Tree City that we pay taxes on. Both of our children started swim lessons at age three. You just heard from them. What began as a survival skill quickly grew into a love for the sport. And today, our children, now 11 and 15, both swim competitively. Because of their age difference, their practices and lessons are at different times. Since both my husband and I work, having a local pool has been essential to balancing swim with the rest of our family life. Homework, meals, transportation, and time together. This year, life became significantly easier when our oldest turned 15 and could begin traveling to practice on his golf cart. If the club is forced to move out of town for any significant period of time, I honestly do not know how we will manage transportation to Griffin on a daily basis. It would create major hardships for our family and the level of coaching and training that our club provides simply cannot be replaced locally. Many families we know have said that it will not be able to make the change work for them either. I respectfully ask that the council pause before moving forward with plans that would spend more than $7 million on a facility that will still be too small for the needs of our community. As a taxpaying citizen of Peach Tree City, I would love to see our city partner with Fagetville, Tyrone, and Fyet County to explore development of a 50 meter pool. Um, I mean, if we can do option D, we'll take that, too. But I think that there's other options for funding this pool and that if we put our heads together, we could make it happen. This type of pool would properly serve our swim community for decades to come. The possibility of a second facility would surely impact

the decisions that are currently being made on Kedran. For this reason, it feels more fiscally responsible to consider both projects before moving forward with either plan. Most importantly, we ask that you think creatively about ways to minimize the repair timeline and to work in partnership with our swim community when scheduling necessary repairs so that disruptions to programs and athletes are kept to a minimum. Um, also just on the question about the 12 months, um, the reason that we've asked to wait until the end of high school swim season is that often construction projects take longer than expected. And so that would create a buffer period before the next swim season. Losing one swim season for high school will be detrimental for some families. Losing two, I I can't even imagine. And so, um, we've delayed this project so long already that asking for a few more months so that these kids know that at least a second season will be safe um, would make a major impact on our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Carly Span.

Hi, my name is Carly Span. I live in the Wilshshire Estates. I am one of the year- round coaches for Chattahuchi Gold. I am a community coach for Whitewater High School and I am heavily involved in the summer league. Um uh these athletes train year round. They give up weekends, holidays, and time with friends all to pursue pursue goals that deeply care about. Some are chasing state cuts, sectional cuts, national standards, college opportunities, scholarships, and simply trying to become the best versions of themselves. Swimming is not a sport where you can take a year off and easily return to where you were. Progress in this sport is built through consistency over months and years. And once that training is interrupted, it can set athletes back in ways that are incredibly difficult to recover from physically and mentally. What con uh what concerns so many of us is not just the renovations themselves because we understand improvements are important. The concern is shutting down the facility for potentially 12 months without a realistic backup plan for people who rely on this every single day. Right now, our swimmers do not have another accessible year-round option. asking families to suddenly travel long distances every day and completely pause their training um are enormous burdens on them and could realistically end some athletes competitive careers and opportunities altogether. I under I understand concerns about the financial cost and maintaining and renovations of the new pool facility, but I think it's important to look not only at what the pool costs, but also what the pool could become if properly invested in and utilized to its full potential. Right now, this facility, Kedran, is limited in what it can host and offer. A stronger updated facility could create opportunities for larger swim meets that bring teams, family, and renov renov into the community. It could expand

summer league comm community summer league programs, host water polo, artistic swimming, dive meets, and become a true year-round aquatic center that serves for many people. Pools like this are not just expenses, but they are community investments. They create opportunities for the youth development, health, fitness, local events, tourism and programs that bring people together. The issue is not whether there is value in the pool. The value is already there. The question is whether we are willing to maximize its potential and support the people who already dedicate so much to it. If this facility is going to undergo major renovations, then this is the opportunity to think bigger about what we can provide for this community for the years to come. So tonight, I ask that while you're making these decisions, the council truly considers the people behind them. If the pool must close, what concrete plan is in place to support the athletes and the community members who de depend on it? And how can we prevent years of hard work and opportunity from being lost in the process? These swimmers have dedicated years of their lives to this sport and its facility. We support improving the pool. We just ask that the people whose lives revolve around it are considered in the process. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Mary plant. While Mary comes up, there are four seats available up here in the front row. For those who are still standing, there are seats over over here. Thank you, Mary.

Good evening. I'm Mary Plant. I have lived in the Stony Brook subdivision for 31 years. So, for 31 years, my husband and I have paid our fair share of taxes. Thank you for this opportunity to address you. I've had the pleasure of speaking two prior times and since I ran over my minutes the prior occasion, I have written out my comments this time. One of my favorite statistics that indicates how desperately we need a new larger aquatics facility on the south side of Atlanta is the number of registered competitive swimmers. The counties on the immediate north side of Atlanta have a combined 2600 USA swimming registered athletes, while the counties immediately on the south side only have 310. One person and 1,000 are registered USA swimming athletes on the north side of Atlanta, while only one and 2500 are registered to swim competitively on the south side. If we had the equal ratio as North Side, that would mean our swim team down here would be 750 athletes. No one can convince me that this huge disparity and the number of young people who choose to swim competitively is anything other than the lack of pool space and opportunity. The specific population that I'd like to represent today is our master swimmers. The struggle for water time is the same for us. When I returned to swimming 18 months ago, I learned that the local M's program only offered practice from 7 to 8:30 p.m. three nights a week. There is no ability to run a a before work practice like most master swimmers would prefer or an earlier evening practice because of the lack of the pool space. An aquatic center would be able to provide before work, midday, and evening

lap swimming options for swimmers, triathletes, and those seniors who have come to understand the huge benefits of swimming laps for better health. Pastry City was built on a special vision. We honor our founding fathers like Floyd Far who understood that recreation is essential to a thriving community. You, our current leaders, are elected to be fiscally responsible, but you are also elected to continue the vision and invest in infrastructure that serves the local community for generations to come. You cannot tell me that other recreational facilities run in the black. I'm sure that many of them do run in the red and the aquatics community is asking for the same consideration. In addition though, our mayor made a phone call that I asked her to make and she can confirm that building the right aquatics facility can actually generate money, more money than the cost of running it. So please, Peace Tree City Council, I urge you to help make a budgetneutral aquatic center a reality that could be enjoyed by all citizens from the early morning hours to late evening and that could offer learn to swim programs, competitive swimming programs, masters and triathlete training opportunities, and of course expand the very popular water aerobics for the older generation. The right aquatic center would serve all age groups and people with all types of physical abilities while being budget neutral. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Lauren Broom.

My name is Lauren Broom. I am a Peach Tree City resident. I've lived here since 1999. I started swimming when I was six years old competitively. I started coaching when I was in college. Uh when I came to Peach Tree City in 99, I was swimming on the M's swim team and on and off through the years. And I have coached the Kedran Hills Cruisers for 24 summers. It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. And for these children who I've watched go from three years old to 18 years old, it's really about everybody has mentioned discipline and and knowing each other and uh character, but really it's about relationship. A pool community, a water community is about relationship. Most importantly, in this disconnected world, I think we need to fight to keep our community connected and swimming is one of the greatest ways to do it. Um, I have, as I said, I've watched kids go from three to 18 on the same team, my team. Now, I have returning early early swimmer many, many years ago. He's returning with his son to swim on our swim team. That's community. That's being connected and that's what we need. I would like to share as as we were all talking about we don't want that pool closed for so long. This is a little wild, but I just happened to think of it. I went to a training camp in Canada many summers and it was freezing cold up there and we went to the pool bundled up. We got out of the pool bundled up.

So I'm wondering could we figure out some way to keep the Ketan pool open, heated, some sort of way to do it year round. maybe some sort of temporary structure while everything else is being uh looked at, budgeted, and figured out because what I'm hearing is nobody wants that pool closed for 12 to 18 months. So, just food for thought, keep that pool open. You can be I I also slept in a cold air dorm with open windows in at school in Indiana with snow on the blankets. So it it's not going to kill you.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please. Susan Walton.

Hi again. I'm Susan Walton. I live in Wilshshire Estates and I've lived in Faget County in Wilshshire for the past 19 years. Um, I have been a competitive swimmer, a parent of compet competitive swimmers, a lifeguard, a water aerobics instructor, a swim instructor for all levels, infant through adult, and a swim coach. Um, I coached at Macintosh High School swim team the one season that the Ped K Pedran pool was closed. Feel free to talk to me about that if you want to know what that was like. And for the past 17 years, I've coached the Wilshshire Wahoo summer swim team. My daughters both swam for Stars Mill High School. My oldest lifeguarded and my youngest taught swimming lessons to children with special needs in the Kadan pool. So swimming has impacted my family in so many positive ways. But the reason I continue coaching summer swim team year after year is because I see how much safer around water children become when they have consistent access to a pool and swimming instruction. Swimming is unique because it's not only a sport, it's also a critical safety skill. As mentioned earlier, according to the CDC, drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1 through four, and it remains one of the top causes of unintentional death for children and adults. Summer swimming programs and beginner lessons such as those offered at Kadran help children gain confidence in the water and learn life-saving skills. I have seen some of our beginners grow into competitive swimmers. Some of them don't, I'm going to be honest. Um, but all of them become safer around the water. All of them. That is why maintaining community access to swimming lessons and pools is critical. When people ask me for swimming lesson recommendation in the area, which happens all the time, I struggle to know where to send them because every place

in this town, including Kedran, seems to fill up as soon as it is opened. So, I appreciate the city's efforts to address the needs of the Kedan pool as I would love to see expanded access to learn to swim programs for our community. As you move forward with making decisions regarding Kedan, I simply ask that every effort be made to minimize disruption to pool access and to preserve community access to swimming programs during any extended closure. Drowning prevention is in your hands. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. James Clifton, James Clifton, Fielding Ridge Precinct. Like many families in Peach Tree City, my family is concerned about the extended closure of the Kedron pool. Any extended closure disrupts both competitive and recreational swimming opportunities. The community feels blindsided by the recent announcement. Transparency is critical for effective governance. Peach Tree City has known about these issues for a long time, but has kicked the can down the road without coming up with an effective solution that ensures our swimmers are not displaced for an extended period of time. There are several options moving forward for both the pool and enclosure. The biggest problem we face is that none of the options appear to prevent a lengthy pool closure. If that is the case, it needs to be clearly communicated to the high school swim teams and competitive swim families so that they can make alternative arrangements. Now, better yet, the city should prioritize establishing local accommodations during construction. Another issue is the funding of the Kedran pool repair. I was shocked while listening to the audio from the Kennesaw retreat to hear that millions of dollars were set aside for other recreation projects, but none were set aside for the pool. In the audio recording, council sounded very reluctant to even address the Kedron pool issue. We need to change that and make it a priority. We need to focus on maintaining our existing facilities before we agree to commit to new projects. The various options for the pool repair and enclosure have dramatically different prices. If we push for a larger, more expensive project, the funding for it will be put

to a public vote as a bond referendum. Peaceree city voters historically reject standalone votes for recreation bonds. This was acknowledged by the city clerk when discussing funding options for the pool at the Kennissol Retreat. Peach Tree City is currently sitting on approximately $30 million in surplus funds that came from the taxpayers. If there currently isn't funding for the pool, a reasonable solution would be to fund the repairs from the surplus. Last, there have been recent discussions of a county swim facility. The problem is that a county facility would be years away and doesn't address the immediate need of swim families. Anyone pitching a county pool as a solution to the current problem is giving false hope. If a county pool was a possibility, it should have been packaged with the $20 million recreation infrastructure project on Red Wine Road near Fagatville. If Peach Tree City discussed that option when Faget County put together the Red Wine Road recreation facility proposal, the public needs to know the substance and outcome of those discussions. This whole problem could have been avoided with effective communication, strategic long-term planning, and proactive maintenance budgeting. The people of Peach Tree City and Faget County deserve that going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Timothy Patrick.

Hello. I am from the Wood Creek neighborhood. I just had some questions in regards to the proposals that were going on for the C2 option. Is that a new larger pool or is it fixing the existing pool? We will answer those questions. Keep up with your question. We'll answer them when we circle back then afterwards. Okay. And then what would be the timing just to if it is just to fix the pool, what is the timing to fix that pool? Thanks. We'll cover that again. And then what would be the cost to add heating to that pool? If we're going to do it for Glenlock and it's a fourlane pool, doubling that size around 100k would probably be my guess. But why isn't that considered as an option? Okay.

Um and then also if number of people have spoken about having a community facility um a larger swim facility for the county itself. How have you guys been communicating with the board of education with um the Fateville city council to see what funding can be done and what can be done so that it takes the burden off the Peach Tree City but it still provides a facility for our 300 high school swimmers. So, and then when would we can we actually expect a decision from the council and from the recreations department as to what's going to be done so that we can plan accordingly? Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take we'll take those under uh conversation when we circle back. Appreciate it. Next, please. Joan Brennan. My name is Joan Brennan. I live in Kedan Hills. I'm a senior recreational swimmer. Swimming is one of the best exercises for overall health and its benefits are especially important for seniors. Numerous studies have shown that swimming increases lung capacity, heart health, and circulatory function and helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Swimming reduces the risk of embolism and stroke, reduces stress and anxiety, and helps you sleep better. Swimming can help seniors retain muscle mass with lower risk of injury and joint pain. It also increases flexibility, range of motion and decreases fall risk. Last but not least, swimming improves immune system function and increases proteins the brain and spinal cord are needed to maintain cognition and memory. Please consider options to expedite completion of the project. One option would be to work two eight-hour shifts. That would enable the contractor to complete 16 hours of work per day at all straight time labor rates. Ideally, the Keteran Aquatic Center could be expanded to serve young swimmers, competition swimming, and seniors yearround. It would be a worthwhile use of funds to

preserve and expand a facility that provides important health benefits and water safety for all ages. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please. Keith Larson.

Good evening, Mayor. Keith Larson. I live in Sandown Creek, Beachree City. First, I want to say I'm a lifelong swimmer, age group, high school, and competitive division one. So, I I respect and hear everything that people are saying about the needs and the importance and criticality of being able to swim and having our kids learn how to be safe swimmers. Uh, but then I hear and think about the bigger issue. Peach Tree City represents 40% of the population in Faget County. Why is not the Faget County Board of Report? They can spend $2 million on five on each on five high school afterturf fields, but they can't spend a dime on a pool. I think we're asking the wrong question and that that this audience need this is a strategic opportunity for the community to come together and present. We need pools to educate our kids how to be safe swimmers and to give them the opportunity to be competitive swimmers. It's not solely on the backs of Peach Tree City to support a countywide academic swimming program. So that's and and I know from my experience all the swim clubs, we had a matrix of swim activities. They were not just the the municipal pool. They were every high school. They were every country club. They were every fitness center. And so that's where you went to learn to swim. So we're going to need to energize a new network while the pool shut down for a year. That's a hard stop. We have no choice, but the people need to be flexible and consider those opportunities. Um, shifting gears, I want to say thank you Peach Tree City for your support for National Bike Month and Bike Safety Month. And this is very important because just like they're

swimming, everyone's getting out riding a a bicycle. What people like to focus Peach Tree City with golf carts. Yes, we have 14,000 golf carts, but over 25,000 bicycles and every resident is a pedestrian. So, we all have different modes and needs. We need to do those safely. So, I want to encourage people to ride safely. Have your kids wear helmets on whatever they're riding. Protect their heads. We have an epidemic in our nation of people being hurt seriously on the new emotos. And we're hearing it not from the police because many of these people are not reporting their crashes to the police. We're hearing it from the insurance industry. 1,800% increase in ebike crashes in the last three years and almost all of them are emoting in Faget County. They are happening in Peach Tree City. Parents are reporting from the emergency room that the nurses there are saying, "Yeah, we see it all the time from Peach Tree City. Broken arms, broken teeth, you name it." And some of the kids are not wearing helmets. And so, we're going we having lifechanging injuries. So, we need to encourage our parents not to buy these things and to get them off the pass and to protect others. Um, finally, uh, I want to encourage active participation in the county transportation plan update. We got open house next Tuesday and there's online surveys. This is about streets as well as paths. So, every resident should be participating. And then finally, I want to highlight the Gin Branch Trails Progress. This is going immaculately well and I looking forward to our opening ceremony in National Trail Day, the first Saturday in June, which will be the one year uh one-year anniversary of our start of the project, which started with a trail cleanup. We've cleaned up two tons of trash out of there, build a mile and a

quarter of trail and other great facilities. So, we're looking forward to that. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please. Tori Lane. For the rec for the record, it's Terry Lane. Uh, and could you move that microphone up and then just tell us where you live? Thank you so much.

You can start the clock now. Uh Terry Lane from Everton subdivision, retired, 65 years old, lived in Peach Tree City for four years, got a son and daughter-in-law, two grandkids that live off of Battery Way. Uh all my life, grew up around pools. Um I'm I got to admit I'm a little frustrated the fact that uh Faget County only has one indoor facility. Uh considering important how important swimming is to uh the community. Uh just hard to believe that. Uh uh wanted to uh first of all say a shout out to all the young folks that came out. Uh it's it's good to see that their uh their voices are are out there. And uh now I'm I'm going to speak on behalf of the other end of the spectrum, the senior citizens. Uh my wife and I are part of the water water aerobics at the Kedran pool. And not only is it good exercise and good fellowship, but it helps with physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being of the senior citizens. Um, I just hope that you guys hear everybody make make a decision, make it quick. Let's get it done. And, uh, if if I had a vote, I would probably go with plan D. So, uh, and, uh, somebody brought up the fact that get the, uh, the county involved. I don't know what the relationship is with the city council in Faget County, but it seems like Faget County could step up to the plate and help out.

Thank you. Next, please. There are no further speakers. No more speakers. Oh my goodness. Two and a half hours. All right. At this time, we'll bring uh Harold Harold Leighton back up. A bathroom break. Okay. We're going to take five minutes. It's 5 till 9. We will convene at nine o'clock. And and don't leave. We're going to continue talking about pools.

Yeah, we have to talk. Now's the Now's the rubber hits the road. Yeah. No, I feel like jetlagged. I'm not sleeping. I've been up since Thank you. Appreciate it.

I just want to say thank you. comments and everything.

I've got more. I only watch this. This is all what I said. But I'd really That's what I'm going to talk about. Some people expend ever done.

attention.

All right, we lost a few. Thank you. Harold will be back in the room in one minute. Council, do you want to start with general comments? When Harold comes back, we can we can answer some of the questions that we heard from our citizens. Um, anybody want to start with general comments before we answer some technical questions? Um, I think we should start with some of the issues with regard to coming up with some sort of a partnership with Faget County and the schools. The discussions have actually occurred and that does not seem to have any traction with either the Faget County schools or with the Faget County commissioners. The issue is you everybody's coming here to tell us what we should do. I think you need to take your arguments to the school board and you need to take your arguments to the fate county commissioners meetings and push them. They're building a brand new recreation facility on Red Wine Road. They chose to not include a pool. They don't want to pay for it. The school board pays us $18,000. That's all for their swimmers to swim in our pools. Why would they want to get involved with us with a huge dollar amount project when they're only paying us $18,000 a year for them to swim? We either have to raise the price exponentially to get their attention or the swimmers need to go and say, "You need a pool. You need to do better for us. We're doing the best we can. We're only 40% of the population of the county and we're being asked to carry the whole burden and that's not fair. Take some of this argument to the others. Get them to cooperate with us. We'd like to cooperate with them. They won't. Okay. With that, a couple questions came up. One, can we start with the space on 2C, the space between uh the two pools in terms of deck space?

Yes, ma'am. Talk about that, please. Yes, ma'am. So obviously we're still in concept phase right now. Wait a minute. Could we please put up the um slide for 2C again? Keep our head in the game. Sorry, Harold. C2, not too. Okay. All right.

Thank you. Um, so yes, so on this we are still in the concept phase and Brandon would like to elaborate a little bit more on this, but with that obviously we can work with our design as we're going through that process to make whatever adjustments we need.

Yes. I just want to note that this this current um C2 that you see in front of you was the first iteration of this um this design. There was another iteration that followed that actually did include separation of the two pools via some deck space. Um it started at a code minimum for that distance. I think it was somewhere between six and 8 feet. And then obviously as the design progresses through there would be plenty of time to have the discussion for what would be needed on a surplus for judges, coaches and anybody else at the like.

Okay, thank you. What about uh the question came up, you heard it too. Timing. I think the gentleman is gone now who had a question about timing. Can you just review again? If we made a decision next meeting in May, then design starts and can you run me through how the clock works? Sure.

So, I would estimate that design time is anywhere between 14 and 16 weeks. Um, that's got some limited time built in for council review at some intermediate stages. And then from there when permit documents are ready they would go out to review by both the local authority having jurisdiction as well as the health department for their reviews. Those take an average of 30 days each. They can run concurrently. Uh sometimes that goes upwards of 60 days instead of 30. And then from that point, um, typically concurrently to those reviews, uh, the project will be put out to bid. Since it's a public project, it would put out to bid, um, for local contractors. The bids are typically advertised for 30 days or so before they're collected. And then from there, contract negotiation negotiations with the contractor. And then from there, they would estimate what their uh, projected timeline is for the uh, construction itself. Yeah, but what what what is it? So, if we made a decision the end of May, we're looking at what five months at a minimum before construction starts. And then again, ballpark, the ballpark for now has been 10 to 12 months. Uh a construction professional would be able to answer that more accurately than I would, but also more accurately when they have a full set of documents. Okay. So, back to Q4, fourth quarter as you said earlier, right?

Essentially, yes. Okay. I didn't quite hear your portion of that, which is the design and concept and layouts and all the iterations that got to go through. I didn't get a quite a good answer at the end about the roughly about the amount of time it's going to take. So the estimated design time uh that I believe was in the proposal that was submitted was between 14 and 16 weeks. 14 and 16 weeks.

And that would include that includes a certain certain amount of uh schematic and conceptual discussion to alter the plan to massage it to get it to where everybody's comfortable with it before we go ahead full steam to finish all of the architectural engineering components. Um, should we get 75% of the way down the road and somebody wants to make a major change, obviously that's going to affect our timeline from the design end. What I heard was five months, 20 weeks. Yes.

When you add in all the things and things that are not going to go quite the way you plan, you got to add a little bit more to that. So, you're looking at five months just for the concept, design, engineering, putting plans together before you even go and send them out for bid. Did I hear that right? my words up. I put a little bit more time than you did. Yes, you did add a little bit more than myself. I I estimated for five months to include um average permitting time. Okay. Thank you. Other questions?

Yeah, I want to make sure. I guess I didn't speak well the first time. Sorry, Mr. Brown. Uh I I I've really I'm a proponent for the 50 meter pool. I can tell you that very clearly. And I want that on the record, but I find that it's how do you do a 50 meter pool in our city and not shut down the one that you've got? Well, I'd like Harold to maybe answer a couple of questions and I'll go on with some of this. Uh if we decide that we want to build a 50 meter pool and we put it to the side someplace in the property of Kedran the Kedran uh complex and uh we want to heat up the pool and we want to leave it for at least the time it takes to build that new place. Let's say it's 24 months, two years. So we have to heat that pool up for the I feel bad for the the people who are going to go there. It's going to be outside. It's going to be 30°. They jump in an 80 degree pool, then get out and they're going to freeze their butts off. So, that's okay. But at least they've got a pool that they can practice in. Can that pool withstand two years of, and I'm just guessing at those numbers, two years of heating in the wintertime and use by the citizens during the time when we're constructing, assuming we go that way, constructing a 50 meter complex. Can it handle it?

Yes. Obviously, this past year we have put in a brand new boiler system on that pool at Kedan. Um that pool can go very high. We've had it up to 92 93 degrees. Um you know, just trying some things out at limited capacity of what we what the maximum is on that. Um you know, so yes, we can heat that water up. Okay. So that's the water. You'd lose some water, too, because I know you got leaks around the the the electrical lights and things like that. So, you're going to be losing some water. So, you got the We've fixed We've remitted We've repaired all that.

You repaired those. Okay. So, really, you're not going to get water loss. You'll put a cover on it at night when no one's there. Keep some of the heat in there. So, you can limp along should we decide to go with a different contra a different construction and build a 50 meter pool. You can still keep this thing running. so we don't lose what we heard tonight, which is people are going to literally not be able to swim. And that's going to either take them out of swimming or they're going to be putting four hours a day and driving around to go to places where they can learn and continue to do their their swimming. So, my thoughts are leave the pool without any cover on it, the one that we have now. Heat it up. do whatever little repairs you can do, but keep it open further, whatever it times, whatever time it takes to build a new 50 meter pool. The question is, is that now incorporates the people with WM2A again for, you know, not only doing the one we're doing now to fix that, but now we need a 50 meter pool. So, let's just take it to the next step. The next step on this is that yes, we agree somehow we agree here that yes, we're going to put a 50 meter pool in and yeah, it's going to cost a lot of money and that's where we bring in maybe a a bonding or whether it's whether it's general obligation bond or whether it's revenue bond or whatever to help pay for that. Plus, we've got reserves to pay for it. But now that we've got it all constructed and got it, you know, we got a bond in place, we can go ahead and build it. Am I looking at two years as a reasonable amount of time to build, you know, design, engineer, bid, build, and get it get it approved in two years? Does that sound reasonable? Brandon,

are you talking about from the I'm talking the 50 meter pool when the the funds are acquired for Yes. Once we get the drop that green flag to you to go. Are we looking at two years? That's just me. I would expect longer than two years. Say again. I would expect longer than two years for the design of a brand new facility. Design and build longer than two years. Build site acquisition all the all the additional site work that would be required. Right. That's that site would be at Kedan.

Okay. Thank you. That's a good good answer. And once that's all if we get that it takes three years. I'm going to throw that out just for conversation. We then now have to spend more money and fix what you've been saying is C2. fixed that one and now we've got ourselves literally a complex here to service not only Peach Tree City but service the whole of Fyet County and maybe even Kawita County. But it brings up the point that Councilwoman Brown brought up. Somebody's got to help pay for this and the board of education needs to step up to the plate

and they we that's going to be something I think this council and also the city manager are going to have to get involved in to say look you've been paying what what was the number uh Councilman Brown $18,000

$18,000 I just had someone come up here and said you guys are crazy we can probably you should be charging like 70 to $100,000 a year for those schools to come in here. That's a that's five times what we're getting now. That doesn't mitigate the cost of all the money that we're going to be putting in, but it sure does go and puts the uh uh you know, puts at least helps us out in the maintenance side of this. So, I I'm I'm I can't speak any more uh clearly than I think that we need to look at this both now and in the future, putting a lot of money into this both in a 50 meter pool and fixing it and keeping the people and all the teams swimming in a hot water tub for a couple of years. And if it can last that long, at least you've now got a reasonable engineering solution to really complex issue here that we have with all of these different designs and with all the things that we heard today. So, with that, Madame Mayor, I'm going to shut up and let somebody else talk. Uh, anybody want to go next? Uh, I'll jump in on Clint's issue. Um, the problem is you could put all kinds of work into it. It goes in front of the voters and it gets turned down.

And I did say and now you've and now you've wasted all that time. I did say that we have do have reserves and I'm not saying that we need to go and do that and we got revenue bonding we can do and I'm not sure we're going to do that. That's a decision that we can make. But I don't think we would be beereft of the cash. And there's also financing that can be done. And I'd leave that in the capable hands of our city manager to figure out how we're going to afford it. I Clint, I'm gonna argue on you, you know, and I'm sorry about to do with this. Revenue bonds from what we've been told and discussed and whatever for big dollar amounts generally don't get passed. I think those are No, those are general obligation bonds. Those are go bonds.

But revenue bonds are we decide that. No, that's facilities. I'm sorry. You're correct, Madam Mayor. You're correct. I think the issue is I think most of us sitting here can see our way clear to fund C2. We can't see our way clear to fund D and certainly not in a reasonable time frame. And I realize it's a kick in the teeth because we're gonna have to have to close down Kedran in order to rebuild Kedran versus what you're trying to say, which sounds great and wonderful, but when it gets defeated at the ballot box,

that's assuming we do a general obligation and that was just the first out of the box to do. We don't have to do that. But I I think But are you prepared to saddle the citizens with that amount of money going into a pool without And I think there's limitations on a facilities bond amount if I'm not mistaken. Justin, you want to find out? Or is that I don't believe there is. Um, but I will, you know, just put into y'all's minds too that there are many dozens of projects that we are about to do that also need to be put on a bond.

Yeah. um that we've been talking about for for the facilities bond uh police and fire um and and stuff with that. And then we have other recreational needs other places. I'm not saying and this is for the citizens that are here and watching. I'm not saying the pool's not important. That's why we're trying to figure this out. Um but I would remind you all too that we have to consider this in the scope of the entire city and the organization and not just a one-off project. I mean, it is it is a onetime project, but we have to consider it in the scope of other things that also need to be done.

And you know, I I sent you a quick email today and threw out an idea that maybe it's time, it's probably past time that we got the big boys in this county, Peace Tree City, Fagatville, maybe Tyrone you could throw in there, and of course the county. get him in the damn room, shut the doors, and start talking about short-term and long-term ways of getting something like this done. And to me, that makes much more sense because we don't have to reach into the pockets of our citizens for the full payment of all of this. Let's spread it out because there, guess who's guess what? We build it. They will come and they'll come and use it. Now, we can do it one of two ways. You can come and join us, help us build this thing, become part of the answer, or we can just raise your funds. So, you're going to be paying eventually a little bit. All of a sudden, it's not going to be 100,000. It'll be 200 or 300,000 for the the schools to come in here. I'm just throwing those numbers out. I'm I don't know if that's right numbers, but giving you the concept of what I have in mind.

All right. I'll uh I'll jump in. I'll go next. Um the what I hear from our citizens um and I wrote verbatim from one of them, let's have a broader conversation about long-term solutions that include a 50 meter pool and expanded yearround access. I hear that. I also I also believe that C2 that we have in front of us in this current time frame, we've already got concepts underway. I mean, we are, believe it or not, a certain amount down the calendar already. And nobody wants this pool closed for a year. But just like city hall, just like when we had no Rileyfield running track, we because we were replacing it. I believe that for our city, it is the right thing to do and a sure thing to spend the money. Now, we have now identified, our city manager has identified ways that we can fund this and get started in a very near-term reasonable time frame. Uh, respectfully, Mr. Holland, those D options have uncertainty in design, uncertainty in location, in delays, in cost, in the cover, in proximity to the existing pool, uh uncertainty in terms of how long our existing pool is even going to last. I don't care how you hate it, we're on borrowed time on the existing pool. And to me, that option D is as much As we all want 50 meter pool, it is fraught. It is completely fraught. And we have an option here in front of us now to get this pool into something honestly

exciting and workable that will serve our community. And it doesn't mean it has to be either or with the 50 meter. It gives us time to redouble our efforts with the county and to get a 50 meter pool plan. We have that in our recreation master plan and it's called a community center and bonds pass. I I think in the past Kedan was built on a bond. Kendran was built on a general obl obligation bond that passed in 1993. Our library was built on a bond that passed and I think our airport was so so we can with the right community engagement and the right messaging and the right timing um talk about a general obligation bond for this community center which is focused on classrooms for seniors uh more courts an indoor up upstairs walking track and a 50 meter pool as well as a side whether it's a dive pool or whatever. I think if we do this now and we're it's within reach. We're right here. It's exciting and it's doable and we can decide to get started. That buys us time to get all the rest of this collected. Get the county on board. I'll be honest with you, we've included the school the school system in our conversations for a long time and they do not have the money. They the state has cut their funs. They by state law they have limited millage rate. You know when they do an east blast it's for it's for other things unless they decide to join us and do an east blast in 2027 or 28. Um I don't see money coming from the school system. Now the county is another matter altogether and Suzanne's not

wrong about that. But my my strong suggestion for all of us is that we take a sure thing now and get this Kedran uh built the way that C2 shows us one of our stated budget priorities in Peach Tree City is to maintain existing facilities. That's a stated priority of our city. We can in the near term identify funding, get this uh design done. We could decide to move forward. We could decide in our next meeting if this is the direction we want to take. make our vote next meeting and get get underway. Mr. Polichic,

I got a few questions. Um, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, yeah, I mean, it's clear to me that everybody agrees that repairs are needed, renovations are needed here. I want to return to the conversation of limiting the disruption to our families and the competitive swimmers especially who are using this year round and uh all all the seniors as well. I I mean, obviously there's going to be a disruption, but really want to just ask what your conversations have been in terms of finding alternative solutions in our region and conversations have taken place. Um, I mean, if perfect world, build a new pool like has been proposed and wait for that to open. But I mean, we got what, two, three years on the scheduled pool left. Either way, there's going to be a I mean, by the time a new pool's built, it's four or five years down the line. Um, so you can wait it out, but it's going to end up having to close down and these repairs are going to have to happen regardless. Like last 10 year, you could decide this 10 years ago, these repairs have to happen. Um, so what are some of the conversations you've had with local solutions and aside from Glenlock Pool heating Glenlock Pool in the community? And

yeah, so we actually made a field trip over to Spalding County. Um, we have looked at their eight lane pool, their 25 yard pool that they have there. Um, they have been willing to help us out through this process. Um, they do have a swim program themselves, the Griffin Gators, uh, that swim out of that facility. um but they don't have the quantity of swim teams that we have. So they have they have said that they would be accommodating to us. Um we've also reached out to Trilith um and we've also reached out to some of the local establishments as well. They all have four-lane pools like we've heard before. Um and you know their space is at a premium. You know we have discussed some timing of things. Um, I think ultimately it's going to, you know, take some more communication with them to try to set things up. But, you know, we, like I said, we got the quote from Glenlock. We knew what that would take. That would also allow for four lanes. And so, trying to mitigate the cost of what, you know, doing it for most responsible for the taxpayers. This we felt like were our best options. So, um, you know, like I say, everybody's looking into what is it going to take, what is it going to heat up of their pool space. um you know, hours, staffing, lifeguards, things of that nature that other places are going to have to cover. I mean, that's realistic conversations that we're having currently.

Thank you. And and I to add on top of that, Councilman Pich, I did I talked with the superintendent, Dr. Patterson, and he's confirmed to me that the schools already have Griff uh Spalding County and and Jonesboro reserved for this next season if they need to. They've I've already worked it out with them. I believe some parents and kids have alluded to that already. Um it is a drive but the schools have already reserved alternatives or if we end up going this direction. Okay. Um and I heard this question asked earlier. I think I've asked you this before, but you know the this the repairs can't be phased out, right? Like we have to close the whole thing down, do the whole report. There's no way you can close a portion and do a portion.

Correct. Is that right?

Yeah. Correct. Because even with the chipping out and removal, if we were just to say, "Hey, let's take the five layers of pool out that we currently have, um, and just replaster and retile our pool." I mean, we're looking at a month worth of chip out alone. Um, that's draining the pools, getting those five layers of the pool walls out and vacuuming all that out, getting all that debris out of the basin of the pool, the entire pool, the sidewalls, basin, everything. Um, having equipment on the deck, you know, to do that with. Obviously, while we're working on a large pool such as this size, you know, we couldn't leave the instructional pool open because of the amount of machinery and amount of work that would be going on that pool deck. So, Not only are you looking at that cost, but we would be closed for probably two months to do that chip out repair at the minimum.

Have we explored ways to expedite the repairs?

Yeah, I mean, we could always look at trying to do those when they're, you know, not in season, so to say, but I mean, ultimately, we're talking about swim teams that we have through there, you know, and I know that's been a large discussion tonight. We have a lot of lap swimmers and a lot of therapeutics that use the pool throughout the day. Um, so we receive several phone calls throughout the week about people wanting more swim time for personal recreational use. And with us having a 25 meter pool at Kedron, you know, for this anytime we have the swim teams that are in there, people are constantly saying, "Hey, I can't get a lane. I can't get a lane. What's the problem? Can you give me lane space? Can you guarantee us a lane space?" And we're constantly working with the swim teams to try to help with that. But ultimately, there's only 24 hours in a day and we're only open so many hours in the day and people want to swim and people are working and you know trying to navigate their busy schedule. So it's it's at a premium. So yes, water space is at a premium, but you know, we would do the best that we could to mitigate that, but ultimately a lot of citizens are going to be inconvenience regardless of what path we choose. And also on the topic of additional swim lessons and you you just alluded to M's times. I mean the C2 model, the spacing of it, it wouldn't create more time for that or is that more of a staffing challenge? Because I hear that we don't open till 7:45. Do we need more staff to open the facility sooner?

Um is is that one way to do it?

Yeah, I mean we could look at several options. I mean, you know, we've even discussed, do we take lifeguarding and pool management over inhouse? Um, do we hire our own lifeguards? Do we, you know, because we know that we're looking at a significant increase with a pool uh maintenance company that we currently use? Um, last year we had a, you know, $200,000 um, increase proposed, but we were able to negotiate that down because we knew that there was talk of us closing down and, you know, resetting and figuring out what was the best path forward for us as far as lifeguarding and pool maintenance as well. So, I mean, I think it's a good time to take all this into consideration as, you know, as we go through this process.

Thank you. Um, yeah, I mean, and there was a comment that this hasn't been a priority. I I mean, I was on the rec board last year. I think it was last spring summer you presented this to us.

I know it's been on the radar for the city and last year the city funded this consulting firm to look into this. So, I know it's been a priority and it came up during my campaign and the whole conversation was like, how should we spend cash reserves on infrastructure improvements? Kedron Pool is one example. I know a mixture between a bond and cash reserves is the way we're looking to do a bunch of these projects. And I think that's a responsible use of the way taxpayers want to see tangible results in their community. Um, but responsibly. And that's why I'm thinking about like a new new facility elsewhere. I mean, there's so many different layers to that. for example, more staff that will be needed and the overhead cost than a shared facility with Kedron where we already have staff there.

U so now you're hiring up 15 20 more staff for a new facility across town. As much as I want that, like we have to really take the most responsible route with these reserves that we're going to spend on this um and numerous projects, Brilin and all all sorts of things, PD offices. Um, so I mean I am I'm supportive of C2. I I really want us to talk about the timing of this and again this whole idea of like priority for me is limiting this disruption. I think folks understand there's going to be a disruption. It's inconvenient. I'm so sorry families have to drive. Like I I um but like there's either we do something or nothing happens. And to wait for the county to identify revenue when they haven't shown any interest in this is irresponsible for us and to our citizens to just stand back when we have reserves to spend on this now and make these improvements for the next 30 years. And I I wish there were more alter like there just are limited options and it's unfortunate for this region. when I grew up here and we moved back, I was shocked that the county hadn't had hadn't funded a new aquatic center yet and um it's just an opport this is a generational investment. So, it's going to there's no perfect solution. It's going to be inconvenient for families. I think the city has a responsibility to try to find every method possible to limit that disruption. It's not like we can build a pool overnight. Um it's any new pool is going to take three, four years to build or aquatic center, right? Um, and one, there's no funding for that. So, I know I'm going off on a rant here because I've I've been, ever since this popped up, I've been meeting with folks in the swim community. I hear the frustrations and you know, so in terms of a solution, um, I would be open to looking what this would look to start construction March so we limit the amount of seasons that

are missed. It sounds like the design with construction by the time you know you're you're clearing the land there and it I mean it would be November December at the earliest. So, three more months um and we communicate with our swim community and find an appropriate time frame to to get that rolling and um and then I would support us heating Glenlock Pool as an alternative as you know it's not the perfect solution but just a step that we can find to limit the inconvenience. Um

can I ask you about March? Is that because the school swim teams are done in March? I keep coming back to the fact that if it's one year, they're gonna miss a season. Yeah. Some of the competitive like we heard go year round, but I think it's the school if I'm wrong.

If I may, um I know there's a lot that's put into high school swim and I appreciate that 100%. I don't want to mis discount that. Um, you know, we have between 150 and 165 high school swimmers that swim through high school programs through our pool. Um, our gold program, who is one of our associations, an extension of the city. Um, they have 1,400 kids that are in the program was the number that we were given that we registered. So, I know that we're we're talking about high school swim and again, I'm all about high school athletics. Those of you know me, I'm big in high school sports. Um, but we do have large associations as well that use this facility. So, even though we're talking about working through a high school season from October to March, yes, year round. So, essentially, you could affect two summers worth of, you know, that association swimming, you know, by trying to work through that. So, just there there is no perfect time to do this. Um, you know, it's somebody's going to be affected. Um, yes, we don't we do not want to see high school seniors miss out on a high school senior swim team season. I get that. I understand that. I've got a high school senior right now myself. Um, but we know that it's going to affect somebody for us to do something good for this community and do what we're going to do.

Thank you for making that point. So, just to clarify too, what you're saying is is you start in late fall, you want to end a year later, but you could potentially bleed in and cause a second high school season to be affected. I see. But yeah, but then also with your point with starting in March, you also risk you want to end in March a year later, but then that could bleed into the summer season for the association. Correct. All right. Point well taken. Thank you. Anything more? No, I'll pass. Laura, your turn.

Okay. Um, I I just want to say that we feel the disappointment that you guys have and I think we share in that disappointment. That pool has been there for 30 plus years and during that time there hasn't been another one built to to accommodate the needs of this area. Um, and I also I think like everyone up here believes in the benefit of swim. I don't think anyone here is doubting all of the benefits that we heard tonight. Um I'm a swimmer. I've swam plenty of times at Kedan and I mean I have my son in a summer swim league this summer. Um and we will be at Kedan for our championship meet. So I mean I use it, my family uses it and it's and it's important to me. Um this has been a really tough a really really tough um issue and one that really gone back and forth on. So, I really appreciate everyone coming out tonight and the um the messages that you guys brought and they really do they really do mean a lot and I just want you all to know that you're heard and um we take those seriously and into account when we have to make these very difficult decisions. Um, however, today I had I feel like I had a little bit of clarity. Not to say that this is where I will land ultimately. Um, but just in writing out my thoughts and some of these were have already been expressed, but we could hold off the repairs for one to three years. That's the timeline at which point our our hand is forced. We have to make the renov the needed renovations. That's because the lifespan of that pool has come to an end. um in that time if we hold off for one to three years there's not going to be another facility that appears during that time. It's just not all we have is Kedrin and we have fun lock. So it means

that an interruption is inevitable to do the work that we need on that pool. We're not going to be able to keep it open and do that work at the same time. Um so we have to make this decision for Kedan. And so for me I think it ends up kind of being two separate issues. So, um, Peach Tree City, we've we've had this facility and we've supported our citizens, out of county citizens, swim teams, um, for the last 30 plus years and it's lasted that long because our city has done the proper maintenance on this facility and taken care of it for that long. Um, postponing puts an increased cost burden on our citizens and because the be postponed. The price of those the the renovations that need to be done is going up and it's our citizens who have to pay the cost for that. Um, sorry, I've lost my place. Um, we've reached out I've reached out even this week. I've talked to the Fet County Board of Education. I've also talked to the county. The Fay County Board of Education has been great. They've supported us during this time and they've been very understanding. Um, Sandy Creek Sorry. Oh, yeah. So, we as we discussed earlier, they've just they've reached out to Clay and they've also reached out to Spalding County. And this is something that we see that happens all the time with high school sports. Fyet County um some of their baseball teams, they've had to go off site and practice at other fields. We had some of them down at Pack while their fields were closed. the Sandy Creek High School football team, they didn't have locker rooms for a year. They had to use trailers and in that time they also secured a state championship. So, um while progress is painful, I just still think that there's solutions that are

possible. Um it's our duty to take care of our city investments. That's um that's our priority. Um, our city's guiding principle is to take care of what we have. And as our city's infrastructure ages, it's crucial to ensure the longevity of our existing assets and replace those that are failing. Sometimes leadership requires just making decisions that are difficult in the short term because the long-term vision and stewardship are worth the season of inconvenience. And I truly believe that. I'm not here to make a short-term decision. Um, I understand that this is exactly what I'm asking of a group of passionate and dedicated c citizens. I've heard your concerns and I have read um the many ways that this will impact you and your families. Um, and those concerns matter. Any decision that we make as a council does not mean the door is closed to discussion. I hope we have conversation on ways we can make um what we're planning fit the needs of our community and I would love to hear those suggestions. In addition to the Kedron Fieldhouse, the recreation master plan includes a community When we talk about something that is offsite, what we have in our recreation master plan isn't just an auditorium. It's exactly what the mayor said. It's a community center. It includes basketball courts, volleyball courts, a walking track, classrooms, and a pool, but not just a pool. If we build something that is offsite that's just a pool, what are we saying to these other sports? We're saying to basketball, volleyball, all of these things, they still matter. They're not here without voice, but you know, if if they thought we're building a community center that in our master plan includes them, but building something just for swim, I'm pretty sure that they would could also fill up this room and have something to say. And I feel like it is our job to listen to all of those voices and not as much as you guys matter, not just the swim community. Um, so for me, I feel like making the needed renovations here is our priority. One thing

because I do I feel the frustration of this. I feel the frustration of us spending millions of dollars on a renovation and it not meeting our needs and I I get that we're going to be spending millions of dollars and it's still not going to be on a 50 meter pool if we do C2. So I do have the question of what does that cost? What does it cost to turn Kedan into a 50 meter pool? The city only we only have Kedan and we only have Glenlock. The only that we can offer to this community in the interim and it I am sure will be far from sufficient is Glenlock. We can heat that and that is I mean that's all we we as a city have to offer. Um but I would be interested to know what that costs because I feel like if we go from a facility bond to a general obligation bond, I feel like there is a point where it becomes not palatable that we have we feel comfortable doing that facility bond and it's going to go to the voters. And I personally have the that something like that's not going to pass. And so if we if if 50 meters at Kedran comes back and you know it's just too much and so much that we have to put it out for a general obligation bond then I think you know you know unfortunately C2 is probably our best option because we can handle it as a facility bond. I'm glad you asked this because I actually wanted to clarify my statement earlier too where there's technically not a limit on a facility bond. But from a community leadership standpoint, I do think I don't know what the threshold is, but I think there is a threshold where you want to hear from your entire citizenry on if is this something that we should invest in or not. Um and that's why you know these SPAS projects, we put big projects on SPOS because that goes to referendum like the citizens approve it. It's a bunch of projects together, but the citizens in general are approving that we do those things. And I think that's when you get when you

get up to talking of multi multi-million dollar projects, I think that's where it is appropriate like we need to ask our entire citizenry this. Um, and so I wanted to kind of clarify that. Good question too on how much a 50 meter would cost at Kedan. We talked about it like I want to get that number, but we just there's so much to look at there that we couldn't get it. I sent an email last week about what would a 50 meter pool cost at Kedan just to this go away and extend it. Um and I we've not we don't have that price yet. Like I would love to know. I would I've asked that question too. Um but I don't have that still calls for a year of downtime.

Oh, it probably calls for more than a year of downtime because not only are we doing what we have here, it's bigger. But I mean, do I think it would be worth it if we're making this much of an investment to have a greater disruption to have in the end something that actually serves our community better? Possibly, depending on what that number comes out at is, and if we could do it in a facility bond comfortably. And any number that I give to y'all, like I would think over the next two weeks, we could figure out some kind of approximate number of what of what that would look like, but it would be approximate. Yeah. It would not be I understand there would be plus or minus with that number, right? Of course. Um so I would just say that would be

what I said here is essentially where I stand unless we can invest more to make that something that can reasonably serve our citizens. Can you summarize where you are? Can you summarize what you just did? I'm talking. I think C2 I think C2 is our is where I am, but Oh, what I did not say is if we do C2, I'm also in favor of a of a general obligation bond for a community center. I would say still put that on a ballot, you know, and if we can rally people in this community, like I saw people rally tonight, then I would also be for that. Um, so I would say yes to this, yes to a a general obligation bond,

but I want the number of what this could be, what what that number would be if we turn that into a 50 meter pool. That's where I'm at. Well, we we can have something and yeah, because we before the next meeting with doing that, we would have to do a lot of civil work on that as well with engineering for grading storm water. The topograph the topography gets pretty steep, especially at that location. A a 50 meter pool wouldn't remove any sort of instructional space. Correct. You'd still have some sh No, I think we're talking of instead of a 25 meter doing a 50, but also having the in I don't think the instructional pool would go away. Correct. Right. Y just want. All right. Anything else, Laura, at this at this time? All right, Miss Brown.

Back to me. You know, there are times going through this, I feel like I'm back to my childhood with the Sears catalog, picking out a Christmas present, and it's like you just can't decide. You just keep flipping the pages back and forth, and you just can't decide what you're going to hone in on and tell your mother what you really want because you know darn well if you pick something that's too expensive, you're not going to get it. Mine was JC Penney.

Yeah. Well, you were you're just a little younger. Um, you know, You know, I periodically bring up some some of my favorite old sayings. And you know, I I offer this one up. The bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. We have a way that we can fund C2. You know, something else could be somewhere down the road. And you know, it's like I get the feeling no matter which way we're going, we're not going to make everybody happy. So, I'm leaning towards C2. I think something else somewhere down the road. I don't know if it's going to be as fast as what you're talking about with the obligation bond or whatever and putting it out whether that we I think we should finish this project before we start talking to people about spending the next trunch of money on another pool. I think that, you know, there is a limit to what our citizens are going to hold still for, you know, and um that's where I am.

All right. All right. And by the way, I didn't say this out loud, but I support Laura wanting to get those numbers on a 50 meter pool. I think that's very sensible. I don't not support that. You know, it's just Yeah. I don't see it happen right away. It'll be good to get the numbers.

All right. Anything else that we need to talk about? Mr. uh Holland, did you have anything else? Yeah, I'm going to have a few more comments. Thank you for everybody uh commenting on here. I learned a little bit more about where everybody stands on this. I am certainly and still involved in D up here if you wouldn't mind putting that up. I believe as they say in the business world, it's all about money. This is not about construction costs. This is not about timing. This is not not about inconvenience because all of it goes away when you got the money. And in this case, uh, city manager, I think we have what, 35 million in our reserve fund.

I believe we have about 30 in cash.

30 in cash. Okay. So, we got some cash there available. And we've got uh, you know, we can go and get some revenue bonds. or triple AAA on every darn one of our rating services for our bonds. So, we certainly have I got that right, Kelly? Yep, we are. We're We're triple A. The best you can be. It's a matter of money, everybody. That money that's in that fund that Justin just told us, guess what? That's your tax dollars have been put aside. Now, certainly we got to have something for a rainy day. God forbid we get a tornado coming through our city. We got to have something for a rainy day. But at the same time, that's your tax money. That's what you That's what you paid for for what 10 the last 10 to 15 20 years. Isn't it time that we really step out and look down the road to the future? I won't be here in the future, but some of these people here will be here in the future and they can say we funded and went after this 50 meter pool and did it correctly and I'm glad we did it. Look what it's done for the prestige of this city. Isn't that what we are? First class city. We should do that. So, I know I'm pontificating here a bit, so I apologize to everybody that's listening, but I'm pretty passionate. I think it's time we step out of oh, we gota we got to spend every penny very wisely. Yes, we do. But at the same time, you also got to look to the future. And the future is the people that some of the people I see here are still young people still here. They're going to be the ones and their children are going to be the ones that are going to use this pool. and they're going to say, you know, that council back in 2026 made a very strong move to build something for the future of this city to give us some prestige. And yes, it's going to take some time

doing it, but my idea of keeping it keeping it a heated pool while you build the other one. So, it's going to be three years, maybe it's going to be four years. And I'll I'll twist Harold's arm to make sure he keeps that pool heated up for the next three or four years. But darn it, I think it's time we step out of the don't worry about the money. It's your tax dollars and I think we ought to spend it. All right, last comment, Miss Brown. Uh, yes. Thank you. Um, I'd like to remind Councilman Holland that we have a lot of other sports. Yes, we with big ticket items coming right behind this. I I know that.

So So we can't put all the eggs in the one basket. I hate to say that. We just can't. We've got roller hockey issues. We've got a lot of other things. We've talked about, you know, all the other projects that we've already got line items. Not line items where it's actually set aside, but at the retreat, how many different things did we say, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's let's go ahead and put a huge, you know, equivalent of all children's playground at Brilen Wreck."

There are other other things. And at the risk of insulting the swimmers, I'm not trying to do that, but there are a lot of other sports that also need funding. We can't pay for everything and we certainly can't pay for everything out of the reserve fund. And I think she's probably going, I can't believe she said that. Well, you also got the revenue bond to We know how low we can go. We know we know how low we can go and we can't go there, Clint, where you're talking. All right. to wrap this up. Justin, do you have the direction that you need? Yeah, I think so. And I was gonna say I'm going to remind council we do still have a full agenda full of stuff.

Yeah, I know. I was about to say are are I wonder if the residents that are here for the public hearing, are they still here? Yeah, they're over there. I was going to say maybe we should move that to our next item. Yes, madame mayor. I actually also wanted to remind you all that uh there is an ordinance that states that items should not be discussed or under consideration past 11 o'clock. All right. Unless there's a majority and we'll finish before 11. Let's uh let's let's get through a couple of things and then we'll pull the variance request forward if that's what we want to do. You need a motion for that, Madame Mayor? No, I'm not there yet.

Thank you. Thank you for coming, hanging in there with us. Quarterly reports on the agenda next. Uh 2026 first quarter reports are brilliant as always and comprehensive. They're on our website and I appreciate them very much. Did you have a comment on who's making marks all over the stuff? Clinton. Oh, okay. It's my paper that's run out. Uh yeah, the quarterly reports the color of the It was much more striking. Loved it. Okay. So could actually read it. All right. Minutes.

Minutes. April 16th, 2026 city council meeting minutes. Can I get uh motion? Uh Madame Mayor, I make a motion that we approve um minutes. April 16th, 2026 city council meeting minutes. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Uh motion carries. Consent agenda items A through H. Can I get a motion? Yes, madam mayor. I'll give you a motion. I'll make a motion. Sorry. Hold on. Hold on. We're having technical air uh technical difficulties. So, we lost our live stream. Oh. Unfortunately. So, and I think it's coming back up. It's just going to take a moment, but we can continue. We can continue.

Can we pause for a few minutes until they get it back up? Do you want to pause? Oh, okay. Oh, we still have it. Okay. Still going. How about the audio? Okay. But the presentations I'm having trouble hearing you. So, can you tell me, can we continue with our agenda? We can continue. Yes. But when we get to the presentations, we may find some difficulty unless we get the computers back up, but the live stream is still working. I apologize. All right. Consent agenda items A through H. Can I get a motion? Yes, Madame Mayor. I'll give you a motion. I make a motion that we approve uh consent items A through H. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Uh, are we ready to do the public hearing at this time or no?

Well, do you all have your computers? Oh, here it goes. Here it goes. We can move forward without the physical presentation. Yes, if you want. Council, can I get a motion to move the public hearing item 11 to the current time which is ahead of new agenda items? So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I.

Now we will take on public hearing a 52604 variance request from landscape buffer 211 Sweet Brier Street. Shayla Reed. Okay. The protocol is when the public hearing is open, members of council will become hearers. No action on their part is in order until the mayor declares the hearing complete. First, city staff will present the request and provide an assessment of compliance with city code. The mayor will then allow up to 10 minutes for speakers of each side of the issue to present evidence. No individual member of the public will be given more than five minutes to speak. Time limits may only be extended by a majority vote of council and will be divided equally between those supporting the issue and those opposing the issue. The mayor will recognize the applicant and those supporting the issue to present evidence. Remarks will be limited to a total of 10 minutes. The mayor will then recognize those opposing the issue to present evidence for up to 10 minutes. Prior to closing the public hearing, city staff and the public will be given the opportunity to ask questions of either or both sides of the issue. When the mayor and council are assured that the presentation of evidence is complete, the public hearing shall be ended and the council may then debate the issue and render decision. All speakers of the of the public are asked to follow these rules. One, please wait to be recognized by the mayor. Two, come to the microphone and state your name and neighborhood prior to making remarks. Three, keep individual remarks under five minutes and do not repeat comments. And four, address all comments to the mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, Shayla.

Thank you. Greeting, mayor council. Can you all hear me clearly? Can. Awesome. Thank you. Um, so the item before you is 211 Sweet Brier Street. The property is requesting to have There we go. The property is requesting to have um a construction of a pool. Um, that pool is located within um a 25 foot landscape buffer. Um during our review of such application, we found that that encroachment would necessarily need a variance to move forward. Um they're asking to have the reduction from 25 feet um of a buffer to 5 feet 4 in. Um and that would be an encroachment of 19t 8 in. Um the clarification for the reasoning behind this um request for hardship is in your application. It mentions or in your packet, I'm sorry. It mentions topography or location as a concern as well as the easements that are located on that site. Um so that concludes our report. Um staff has no recommendations for conditions.

Thank you. Uh at this time, is the applicant present and would the applicant like to speak? Boy, thank you for hanging in there with us. No problem. First of all, sorry for making you talk about more pools. If it was a 50 meter pool, we'd be interested.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Um I'll I'll do this quick. This is my wife, Renee. Um and Patrick with J&M Pools is here also. Um just maybe 60C background. Um like last fall we set off to make enhancements to our property and build our dream backyard of having a pool. And we knew there was one obstacle in our backyard which is a sewage drainage pipe that runs through. So um we with Patrick's help we drew up architectural drawings and had um Charles Abbott out to the property. They gave us a verbal okay, but they said you have to get um just to make sure that we're on the other side of this pipe. Um you need to get a professional survey done. So we did that. We submitted it to Charles Abbott. They approved it quickly. They're like, you're not really going to, you know, obstruct the sewage. It's all good. But in that survey, they identified this unknown landscape buffer that runs behind our neighborhood. And nobody in our our neighborhood's 35 years old. Nobody's ever heard of this thing. Um so basically it's from what I understand is we can't build anything in our backyard from 25 ft towards our house and our backyard is somewhere between 35 and 50 feet wide total. So somewhere between 50 and 65% of our yard can't be built on. And yeah. So, do you have a picture?

Okay. All right. Well, I did print these. Just can I give them to the city clerk, please? right there.

She's got her blanket. So, the the purpose of this um picture is just to show that our yard is already landscaped. It's hardscaped. Um all we're asking to do is change it to enhance it. Um we're not looking to mount mow down you know woods or nature already is landscape. We just want to change it and you know like to enhance our home. So I don't we don't even understand what this buffer is supposed to do. Okay.

Because Okay. Thank you. Thanks very much. Is there anything more you want to tell us before we start conversing? Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Uh can you please put the slide up that shows the uh plot plan? Thank you. So So at this time I will open the public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? Huh? Jasmine, you're looking at me like I've am I going out of sequence?

Oh, okay. At this time, I'll open the public hearing. Sorry. Is there anybody who wishes to speak in favor? Seeing none, is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition? Seeing none, I hereby close the public hearing. Uh, council, it's up to us to to ask our questions and discuss. And who can explain to me landscape buffer? I guess I'm going to learn about landscape buffers tonight.

Yes. So, a landscape buffer is basically a buffer that's saying that any type of vegetation that's inside of that buffering has to remain. Usually it's to protect what's on the opposite side of that land. Um sometimes it's also to keep the aesthetic component, but it's mainly for what's on the other side of that land to separate the two. Go ahead. I'm sorry. But they according to our definition, they can cut down underbrush. Yes. And they can maintain but the main thing is protecting the mature trees.

Correct. Yeah. But but here we have a landscape buffer in this yard anyway to speak only of this yard that nobody knew. Nobody I'm seeing shaking heads. Nobody no idea professional survey unearthed a landscape buffer. And do we have this in other

neighborhoods in in this well in other neighborhoods? Yes, it's very common to have um and it's also located within your plat. So, you'll find that the plats are placed there when there's an opportunity to develop the land. So, if the homes are built, let's just say back in the 70s or 80s, those informations are added inside of those plats and placed there. Um sometimes it's not common for a resident to know that unless they're constructing. Um, so I would believe that they wouldn't know that necessarily until they're beginning these processes, unless they just have, you know, documents they like to kind of read up on um, for their land.

Council, I have a question. Okay, so this this picture helps a lot. I've been reading a lot about landscape buffers this week because we hear a lot about setbacks and things like that, and that I'm pretty used to. landscape buffer. This was a new one for me. Um, and like was stated previously talked about protecting vegetation, but driving by, I don't get to see really what your backyard looks like. So, this is very interesting. So, from what I am to understand here is that this is your backyard. This is what you already have like a nice little sitting seating area here. And this blue area is going to be your potential pool. Is that correct?

Okay. I don't see in this area where a landscape buffer is supposed to protect mature trees that there's any mature trees right here. Could you could you assure me that in the construction of this pool that no mature trees would be cut down? Could you take the microphone for me, please? Thank you so much. Yeah. Um, there are two pine trees that need to come down. Where are they? On the edge of the property. Um I don't know if you can see them in there. Um maybe go back to the

Could you take the microphone for me? Thank you so much. If you go back to the plat map really quick. So it's at the top left of the property. Um it's the tree is about halfway on the property, half off of the property and then the other one is between the pool and the property line like towards the the right side of the pool. Is is where the blue umbrella is is that the is that the back of the property

about it tot? Uh, but this fence on the right hand side of our diagram here, this fence is the back of your lot, not the side of your lot. Correct. This is the side on the right straight back. Oh, okay. Thank you. Oh, so that's I see a pine tree. Is that coming down? Okay. And there's another thing to consider. I feel like if if you go back to the plat map really quickly, um by definition, you know, for a variance, you need to prove some sort of hardship here. And this being the backyard right here, if you look at that red line that's um surrounded by the two blue lines here,

yeah, that is a sewer main. That's a a main sewer pipe that's going through the backyard, which proves that there's an ease or a hardship on this property that there's nowhere else to put a pool. There's we can't put one in the front yard due to regulations. There's no sideyard. We have a letter from WASA as well saying that we will not affect the structural integrity of the sewer pipe, anything like that. And they signed off saying that they're 100% in support of this. Um, just want to share that as well. Thank you. And could for the record, can you tell me your name, please? Yes, it's Patrick Studley with J&M Pool Company. Thank you. Council, any questions?

I have some questions. I don't know that there's any answers to these. Um, obviously I looked at the plat plan. I saw that where the sewer line runs and what the easement is. Um, and this is more for Shayla. Shayla, do we know exactly why they insisted on a 25 foot landscape buffer on the back side of this property?

So, I will say typically you're going to see a 25 foot that's just designated within the code to have a 25 foot. Um, I I I do know that that the uh easement that's located there has been given clearance from Wasa. Um but the actual 25 foot that is where you come in to give the clearance but that was where the plaque defined it as 25 ft. Okay. But let let me phrase this slightly different then. Um you're saying that a lot of properties have landscape buffers like this. Correct.

How prevalent is really is this? because I mean this is the first one we've stumbled across where we've been told there's this landscape buffer and then I pulled up this definition out of the ordinance and it makes it sound like you know and these are the current owners I'm sure this is going back to 1994 when the house was built um but it makes it sound like the planning and development director may permit the trimming of tree branches and the removal of some understory vegetation noxious weeds and woody plants to open views into the site from joining roadways and properties. The city will permit the installation of vegetation in this area which will in the opinion of the planning and development director enhance the appearance of the buffer. But the biggest concerning thing is that no, before it gets to that, it says that the recorded tract of land shall remain in its natural undisturbed state where no vegetation can be removed or planted without approval of the planning and development director or his or her designate.

Yes, ma'am. So, I believe it's I'm sorry. Were you still speaking? I apologize. I can't I can't you still speaking? I didn't I thought I could Your microphone's not working. It's not working. No, it's it's fine. If you get a little closer to it, just move it closer to you. Okay. Is that better? Yes.

So, because there is development back there, I would assume that trees at some point were removed. These were this development was already there before they purchased the home. So, I cannot ask them did trees um come down before this development took place. I don't know that. Um with that plaque identifying there being a 25 foot buffer there, there tells me at the time of development that should have been still undisturbed. I unfortunately can't answer as to why the trees aren't there now. Um, but we found that a lot of the properties there, the trees have been removed or not there within that 25 foot.

Okay. So, with regard to the plant diagram, I know that the sewer line doesn't start and end on this particular property. Correct. It goes through the entire 10 properties that are on that street. Correct. Correct. Okay. which unfortunately for you makes it not so unique for you because you and your 10 neighbors all have the same problem and issue. I assume we know what that does, but there's probably a landscape buffer on every one of these properties through that same street. You are correct. Do you know is it the whole neighborhood or just that street within?

It's on certain parts. I know it's there and it's also on the what is that the west? Go back to go back to the lot. Michael. Pretty simple. Congratulations. You won. Okay, there we go. I'm sorry. So, you're going to find the 25 foot. It's going to be here and it's going to be here. It's going to be primarily near most of all of your wetlands. There's nothing here. That's the east on this part. So, you're going to either have greenery here and then greenery there. So, it's going to be wherever your greenery is located. It's going to protect that.

Okay. So in behind this property there is a section of property that is owned by Peach Tree City Utilities which is WASA which is us basically essentially and that particular uh piece of property owned by the city also goes east west and then it goes up along the neighborhood to the north along the wetland side of that neighborhood. Does does Wasa typically I got to chime in here if you don't mind. WASA doesn't own the land. Well, Peach Tree City Utilities is what it says on the No, it says Peach Tree City Facilities Authority I believe.

Oh, I think I'd have to look. Well, my point was going to be I think it's the cities, not Was Okay, but either way, my point was going to be Wasa usually just gets an easement on someone's property. Correct. Yeah, that's what they have as opposed to owning property. And the other question I'm going to ask in a minute is what are the setbacks? Are there setbacks like buffers and setbacks in addition to the landscaping buffer? Yes. So, you'll have your setback for the site regardless. I didn't hear you. You'll still have the setbacks regardless. The setbacks will still be there undisturbed. Yes, ma'am. And they're 30 30 ft for setbacks on this property. I don't have it before. I got it.

It's allowed. One more time. The pool The pool's allowed to go into a setback. Correct. Yes. Correct. Yeah. And which they so they meet standard. I think I thought it was four. So that's the setback is four feet for a pool. The pool can go with four feet of the property line. I see.

Okay. So the real issue is the landscape buffer because the landscape buffer language makes it sound like over the last 30 years or longer since 1994. Nobody should have cut down any of the trees in that 25 foot rear section of the property regardless of when that happened. And as I'm looking at this overhead view of the the property, it does not look like there is natural vegetation that's been left alone for 30 years in this property.

And this is the only one we're talking about, regardless of whatever the neighbors have done or not done, this is the one we're talking about. Yes, they haven't applied for any permits or anything. This this is because they're looking to have a pool permit. So on top So on top of everything else for 30 years, nobody has or do you know if anybody's applied for any permits over the last 30 years to cut down any trees? So we have of course not checked that. We've only checked for this parcel and identify what they've Well, I mean for this parcel. No, we haven't had anything where they've applied for that. No, for that. So all these so all the trees that presumably were there that they dis that they declared as a as a landscape buffer, they've all been removed.

Again, I can't speak to that. Okay.

I I I understand that. I I mean I'm just I'm just expressing the fact that if they called it a landscape buffer, they had to have had a reason to it's not like they said, you know, like when we have contractors building commercial buildings and stuff, they have a landscape plan after they've done the construction to put trees and vegetation back in. That we generally don't do with residential plans. So the the issue then is the development gets built. This landscape buffer gets established somewhere along the trail. People cut down all this vegetation, never got a permit for it over the last 30 years. So the homeowner buys it and you know a couple of years ago and has reason to believe everything's fine in the backyard. I got that surprise. It's not so fine the the landscape buffer because what I'm trying to wrap my head around is why did they put the landscape buffer in place? Was it to protect and I'm I'm asking you kind of sort of Shayla. I'm looking at you but I don't think you have the answer. So So don't be surprised when you don't. If they put a landscape buffer in place, I think the expectation is to keep it in its natural form,

probably because of drainage issues with the wetland that's down down the hill from this with a detention pond with a earth and dam parallel to Kedron Drive. So, the vegetation is missing. And as much as I hate to say it, that's not in and of itself a justification to approve the pool. But the flip side of all of it is what? Why? What were they doing with this landscape buffer? You know, I'm trying to figure out what the purpose was because we have this access piece of property owned by Peach Tree City. So that I'm assuming, and we all still know what that does, but if there's a sewer break, somebody's got to be able to get in there. on through that back p piece of property to fix whatever sewer pipe leak there is in whoseever backyard it's occurring in

because we know from the minute you put pipes in the ground you start the clock something's going to fail somewhere down the road that the trees were not there when they finished building that because nobody along that side has trees and the trees if they were they would be within 14t of my house and all the houses along It's a very small yard. So, I don't think the trees were there when they built these houses. And if they were, they actually probably would have been over the sewage line. I don't know. Justin, do you have historical satellite photos of this tree? I don't have my laptop with me tonight. I thought you went home to get that. Are there other plantings in the landscape buffer? Are there other plants back there?

Um, there's just a few bushes. No, no other There's a difference between an undisturbed buffer and a landscape buffer. So, may have cleared that area, but then install some plantings back there. And I don't know if it was a requirement of GR10 back when this was approved or if they did that to provide some form of a buffer for a GR10 with the subdivision that's just to the north of it, but that's complete. You you said the word assume a little bit ago. Yeah. I'm going to say yes. So unless we went back and pulled the minutes from when the subdivision and whether it was reszoned or whatever was done, I don't know that we're going to

Can I ask you a question, Ted? If we I'd like this family to be able to build their pool and if we were to approve this, then are they protected in the future? Is there anyone who can come in next city council in five years and say, "Hey, wait a minute. You can't put that in a landscape buffer." How is he protected? They're getting a variance from council and there will be a record of that variance going forward that would make it a conforming use. Okay. Thank you. But it would only for this property only, Ted, just for this property, that's going to give everyone an impetus and the other 10 locations there to do the same thing. Well, you know how I feel about I know you conflicts with

a statute that says one council doesn't bind council. But nonetheless, yeah, I mean the reality is if you grant this variance, then you potentially open the door for the other for nine more who have the landscape up the property. That's the reality. Councilwoman Brown, I was able to go back on my phone. That's impressive. It looks like for this property that that that improvement in the corner looks like it was done somewhere between 2016 and 2017. It's only 10 years.

You're talking the the pit that he's got constructed there. Yeah. But do we know if they took down trees to put that in is the bigger question. I mean, honestly, it looks like they did.

Anybody else? Laura, Michael, any questions? I just said that our drawings are different. I have blue and he has red and this one's smaller and this one's bigger and so I wasn't sure which one's correct. That's totally just skill. I did my best. Um I originally made one. It's okay. I made one for myself. Everyone's I can make I can make my decision without that. It is fine.

Um I I came in prepared to possibly be against this because um what I learned about a landscape buffer is that they weren't supposed to be disturbed. But um I would feel really horrible denying a pool for two pine trees. So I am supporting this

for me. me. I mean, full transparency, everybody knows I live in this neighborhood. So, this applicant lives eight doors down from me. So, just want to be transparent with that about that. However, I was transparent with the applicant once I found out he was applying that we'd have zero conversations with this. And I appreciate him holding that boundary. And I also clear with our city attorney that there is no personal benefit to me if they have a private pool in their backyard. So, thank you, Ted, for clarifying that. Um, I'm more simple here. I I'm going to treat this applicant fairly like it would other applicants in terms of government getting in the way of someone improving their property and building a pool in their backyard. I know I'm the new guy here and I'm new to these variances, but from what I've observed in past council meetings, that's kind of going to be my posture unless there's something absolutely wacko that comes forward. Um, but that's currently uh where I stand on this and look forward to supporting it. I have one question for you before we weigh in any further.

Sure. When you bought the property, was it divulged to you that the sewer line went right through your backyard? Nope. The sewer or obviously the landscape buffer? Neither one of them we were told about. Yeah, it was a bit of the sewer thing was a bit of a shock and was approved it, you know. So, was feels out even with the building of this pool get back there and do what they need to do and the adjacent neighbors 209 and 213 are ringing in in favor. All right. Any other comments or questions? I can't wait. Two pages of objections.

Two pages. literally I I am I'm known for not approving variances. It's just something I've done for the last four years and I hate doing some of these. I really do because I wouldn't want it done to me. But I see this and I look at it your picture here and I'm looking at that and I see where you're going to put the pool in and I see the background. It's not like you're going to go and tear up, you know, the the green space back there. You're going to tear up your own area and put it put it in there. I have to bite my tongue and approve that. Thank you, sir. All right. Can I get a motion?

Madame Mayor, I move that we approve public hearing 052604 variance request from landscape buffer 211 Sweet Brier Street. Did I say approve? Approve. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Unanimous. Unanimous. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks very much and good luck. Consider yourself lucky. Trust me. Thank Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Thanks for hanging in there with us. One more person says pool. Yeah, really. No more pools tonight.

New new agenda item 52601 2026 pool. Oh, no. Just kidding. Just kidding. 2026 street paving bid award. Jonathan Miller. Good evening, mayor and council. And yes, definitely not a pool.

You broke it, Jonathan. Apparently, it's been used a lot today. Yes, it has.

Okay. This item is uh our 2026 street paving bid. Um, we received four bids that included about 9.7 miles of roadway uh to be resurfaced. Um, it was extremely tight this year. Uh, but Atlanta Paving and Concrete was low bidder again by about $54,000 out of almost, you know, $6 million bid. So, that's that's fairly tight. Um, one thing I do want to note because I know it's in the memo, this bid was written before we knew how far we were going with Kedran and everything. So, it did include the Kedan fieldhouse to be repaved, but I've already spoken with the contractor, talked to Justin. Um, our actual plan is to kind of flip and do city hall if we can time it with the renovations because it just makes the most sense. Um, and then we'll do Kedan later on down the road, maybe after pool construction or or whatever may happen. Um, so that kind of that's one little change in the whole paving bid, but other than that, um, we are asking that council award this tonight so we can go ahead and start with notice to proceed. So, Atlanta paving and contractor or Atlanta paving and concrete was low bid with 5,986,666 and1 cent.

Thank you, council. Any questions? Can I get a motion? Madame Mayor, I move that we award the 20 26 paving project to Atlanta Paving and Concrete in the amount of $5,986,6661. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. I have one question. Okay. Will paving the uh city hall parking lot take care of the uh bumps and where the roots have come through on the front? That's the plan is to to fix a lot of that. So should go. It'll also include Drake Field. Yes. It'll everything all the gravel and stuff.

Yes. That'll all be asphalt now. Um, and then depending on how all that goes, we may we may punt and try to get all children's included. Jonathan, I do have one comment. Did we even look at uh permeable pavement or uh maybe uh maybe some squares and place them in that way like tiles to just see if we can get some permeability particularly around the lake.

Around the lake. Well, we we can look at it. there is a it wouldn't be through our paving contractor. We'd probably have to do something a little bit more special uh with it and you know we do have a lot of Georgia clay and it really doesn't like it was just a thought and you know try to try to put things back in the in the aquifer instead of have it running off. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Uh new agenda item 52602 fiscal year 26 budget amendment storm water piping. Well, I guess that includes everything, doesn't it, Kelly? Um, so this item, okay, this this is actually in conjunction with the paving bid. Uh, we had alternates in there for storm water piping. Um, the low base bid, Atlanta paving and contractor or concrete. They had approximately almost $2 million worth of piping, but we're actually in discussions with them. I think going through the alternatives myself, I I think a lot of those quantities we won't use. So that cost is actually going to come down quite significant, but we're working through those items. I anticipate we'll probably replace 80% at least of the pipes under the roadways we're paving. So we're paving dividend road, which is huge industrial. Any of the pipes, we want to get those replaced under there. And there's a couple big subdivisions we're repaving uh where pipes need to be replaced. Uh the subdivision uh Sandown Creek has quite a few places that have pipes that need replacing and I think Centennial as well. Um so we have those in there, but really what we're asking uh council to do is uh go ahead and approve a budget amendment for a million dollars from storm water reserves. We're going to use that million dollars, work through those quantities, those pricing. We'll do a million dollars worth of pipe replacement um under the street paving. And like I said, I think we can get somewhere close to 80% of what we had in the original bid replaced. And uh as we work through those numbers.

All right. Thank you. Council questions. Can I can I get a motion? Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion that we approve 052602 uh fiscal year 26 budget amendment storm water piping in the amount of $1 million. Second trip to Atlanta. Yeah, Atlanta paving. No, that's the budget amendment. Never mind. Okay. Yep. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. New agenda item 52603 award unified development ordinance RFP. Shayla Reed.

Yes ma'am. Um so the this um staffing we have looked at an RFP that we released regarding your unified development ordinance. I'll be calling it the um UDO moving forward in this discussion. Um so the UDO course handles your land development. Um it deals with planning, zoning, subdivision rags as well as land development and um various other components that deal with construction. And so um we released the RFP earlier this year. We had four bids to come in or four proposals. And amongst those four, we interviewed two and then within the two um we gave the opportunity for there to be the highest bidder who um came in which was inspire and staff um took the opportunity to u put it before you to recommend awarding that contract to Inspire and asking for it to be uh reviewed um by legal for the contract and executed by the mayor.

I just want to add one thing to that. When you say that you interviewed the top two, that included the planning commission. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I did not include the steering committee was a part of that as well. So, you found that the um four different departments as well as your steering committee was a part of that interview. So, they're part of the component as well and they support this um recommendation as well. All right. Thank you. Council questions. Just one comment. That's wild. It's been 38 years since the last time there was a comp review of these ordinances. And that was back when it was the wild west.

All right. Can I get a motion? Madame Mayor, I move that we award the contract for UDO to inspire for fiscal year 26 and authorize the mayor to execute the contract subject to legal and staff review in the amount of $179,110. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Work session discussion items. A 20 that's what it said in the recommendation.

Okay. I'm going to go back to 52602. Can I get a revised amendment, please? You want to formulate the amendment for me? Somebody I'll just resend my previous motion on item 052602. Is that what was needed? They already voted on it. Just make a new motion. You want to make a motion to reconsider? To reconsider. Okay. Madam, Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion to reconsider item number 052602, the fiscal year 26 budget amendment, storm water pip. Oh,

I'm sorry. I used the wrong number. It's uh Madame May, make a motion to amend 052601. 02. That's Isn't that the paving bid? No, storm water. 01 is 01 is the paving bid, right? Yeah, we need to revise O2. O2. Then I had it right the first time. Okay. 052602 uh FY26 budget amendment storm water piping. Help me out. It's $1 million to Atlanta Paving. It's essentially the recommendation to award the replacement of various storm water pipes to Atlanta Paving and authorize a budget amendment of

and authorized budget amendment in the amount of $1 million. Correct. That's a complicated motion. I have the motion. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Thank you. It's only been four hours. I know. Work session discussion item 2027 comprehensive plan update. Shayla Reed.

Yes, ma'am. So, the city is on schedule for the 2027 comprehensive plan update. Um, as mentioned in your retreat, um, we proposed the opportunity for the ARC to conduct this update. Um, we have been in communication with the ARC just to learn what type of product that would conclude and they shared that it will meet the minimum requirement of the state. Um, it will not go into too many details of public involvement, no more than the minimum requirement of two meetings. And so, um, they are recommending that if we're looking for a more, um, broader comprehensive plan that involves your residents and the public more, then they would recommend that we consult for this project because they will meet the minimum. They will give us a comprehensive plan, but it will not be one that meets the the desires or taste buds of residents presence. So, with that, we wanted to learn what would be the next steps you would like for staff to do. Will we continue to work with ARC or would you like for us to move forward with a consultant? I

I think that ARC has made it clear that they're a great resource for small towns 5,000 and under who just don't have the resources and we probably would be better off uh giving direction to staff that we need to uh hire a consultant. I agree with that, Madame Mayor. Everybody in agreement circumstances.

Absolutely. Do you need anything else from us, Justin? No, I was just going to say and the one other reason why we want to do a consultant is um it's such a thorough long process and I really want you know a consultant to come in and manage you know we still would appoint we're going to want you guys to appoint a steering committee at some point uh with residents and stakeholders of the community um and they would work with the consultant Shayla and I would still be very heavily involved. you know, we would be at the meetings and and um you know, talk with folks and all that stuff. But I think a consultant just like we did for the rec plan is important for for plans like this because number one, they do it every day. Um and number two, they're kind of a third party objective, you know, uh to the process. Um, and I don't want staff, you know, I want to basically I want to protect staff Yeah. from

um any politics that have to go into redoing the comp plan and stuff like that. So, I think it's a good idea to have a third party consultant come in if that's the direction we want to go. All right. I think we're you're a wise manager. All right. Work session discussion item B, transmitt resolution 2026 CIE annual update. Shayla Reed. Yes, ma'am. So, this is only an update to tell you that we are working on the CIE. The finance department has done an excellent job with sharing those files with us. We're finalizing it and it's coming before you for transmitt to ARC and DCA on the 21st of this month at your next meeting. Thank you very much. All right. Uh discussion item D, PTC Youth Council and Youth Activities Committee, Justin.

Yeah. Um so at the January retreat, it a big discussion was around uh some of these uh final citizen volunteer groups that we wanted to put together. one was the public art uh group that we ended up formulating a few months ago. Uh the last one that we talked about and the biggest one was uh PTC youth council. I know that uh some staff members and some of you all council members have attended some other youth councils in other communities and uh so Councilwoman Johnson and I who has really championed this uh have discussed you know what the desire is how this would work and so before you you should have read in your packet you have uh ordinances to create two groups the youth council and also the youth activities committee which would be a committee of adults uh that would kind supervise and guide the and be involved with the youth council. The youth council would draw from both Macintosh and Stars Mill because even though Stars Mill is not in our city, half of about half of our students go there. Um and then uh what was I going to say? You also should have the bylaws of each group of what the bylaws would potentially look like. Uh the only thing is is is today I did go in I was thinking about what a budget for this could be after discussions with Councilwoman Johnson. I do think if we're going to do this and have, you know, two different groups, almost like the public art committee, I think we should have a uh part-time person involved to manage the city side of this, like from the city perspective, manage both the activities committee and the youth council and be over a budget uh for the group as well because what we envision like what Nunan does is they do send some of their youth council participants to conferences. They they do different activities with them. So, they do have to have some kind of budget. So, I did edit the memo today uh to include a uh annual budget of

$80,000. That wouldn't be necessarily for this year. Like this year, we could prrate something or even if we we may not even be able to get it started really functioning until fiscal year 27. So, the idea would be to probably work that into the budget for fiscal year 27. But, I just wanted to make that known. Um, I'm not as, you know, it's a discussion item, so I'm not asking for a vote tonight, but you should have had a chance to read all the documents and just here to answer any questions or explain anything else you all need for a potential vote in two weeks. Looks good to me.

Um, one of the things that you said, Justin, was um, Macintosh or Stars Mill, but the requirements actually is just to be in high school. So, this would also include like homeschoolers, private schools. So as long as they are in high school and that is the way I wrote it, right? So it's correctly but what you said just true. No, I wrote it that way to include homeschoolers and private schools. Yes, that is true. But just to clarify that is true. Would it would it include uh Sandy Creek since part of Peach Tree City? I believe the north side of Peach Tree City goes to if they are high school res and they're Peach Tree City residents. So So we'd include Sandy Creek. True. Peach Tree City people. Yes. Okay. Good.

Yes. And I just want to say I I appreciate the support that I've had from council. We went to two different like Justin said, we went to two different um youth councils and staff. Thank you, Jasmine, for setting those up and going with us. Um anyhow, it was very eye opening. I don't you know, and I think that this will we can always mold it into something that fits us the best. This is a a starting off point, but we can always be flexible. Um, I just wanted to say thank you. I think this is really important. I'm really excited. We had some youth here just a few weeks ago and they showed a lot of interest in this. We were talking about it and it just I don't know, it just fueled even more excitement that I have. Um, so I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah.

Fabulous. And the transportation and recreation groups have worked out very well. You know, they at the start of those two, it was kind of like what are these going to be? But now they really have identities and as staff we kind of know what we want them to look at and you know it's worked it's worked out well. So and how do you see us appointing the adult committee? You can answer but I mean I would think it's similar to what we do for our other committees. Yeah, I would say so. And then for the youth council, you've probably read it. It's written in there that the the parent the youth activities group they select the youth council. So you all would only be in charge of the adult group. Okay. Appointing All right. Thank you.

Uh, E, consider naming Peach Tree City's shared youth shared use path system. Suzanne Brown, I have about a 40minut presentation. Yeah, I figured. I figured you want to kick it down the road to the next meeting. No. And here's why. Okay. You don't have to tell me why. No, I'll do the short version. Because I talked to Justin and if we're going to put it out on a survey, what's our time frame to do it on the the survey because I mean I'll kick it down the road, but I don't think we need to.

So, it's this month and next month. Well, that's when that's when I'll tell you what, why don't I just cut to the chase on this and let's see if we can do this. I really want it I really want it to go on the survey. So, I don't I mean, if everybody's kind of like amendable to that, I really want to see like two questions. one question very simple yes or no you know should we re should we give an official name to the path system or let's I mean I have all the different things that it's been called um and the second question I'd like to put like three or maybe four suggestions and then a blank spot that says here are some suggestions and we can or fill in

or fill or fill in what you think it should be called. Let's keep it really simple. The last survey, I think, asked a whole bunch of questions or whatever. I don't think we need to go through all of that. I I think it's really time. And I will tell you, um, I did call Tyler at the CVB and I asked him straight up, would it actually be beneficial for you if we had an actual formal name to the to the to the cart path system? and he said from a marketing standpoint yes it would because there's so many different names and refer things that it's referred to and it is our premier you know big go-to system for alternative transportation etc. I mean it's a big thing and he said from a marketing standpoint having an official one name that we all know that's what it's officially called would help him out. Okay. Sign by me. I support. Anybody else?

Can I I'll be brief. Um my only request is that we figure out a way to put the word recreation in the title and there's a reason for that. Both private and public property owners in Georgia enjoy an immunity under the recreational property act. And I will tell you that we come over this way all the time from our house in Kawita County. And then when you pass by city hall, you will see golf carts. But more than anything else on that path, especially as you go over Lake Petri, you see joggers, walkers, people right enjoying that day. If I had if I had done my full presentation, I would have covered that.

Yeah. And so I really I would love to try to it would certainly help say one day we get a lawsuit. If we have the word recreation in it and it was a recreational use, it might give me another tool in my tool box to argue. Oh, good. We got the legal input. Yay. All right. We're good with that. Cancel executives.

Yeah. I mean I mean I of all of the different names, recreation itself, that phrase is not in in what it's been referred to, but I mean it's the bike trail, the bike way, the trail system, cart paths, shared use path, multi-use path. Of course, the oldfashioned golf cart path, which is, you know, we all know we don't use our carts for golf, most of us, but well, you could almost say the name of whatever it is and then, comma, a recreation path in Peach Tree City. So, it's got it in there. There's time to debate all that. I just But that's, you know, you can do you can put it in there. I think we all agree on a survey question or two.

Council staff topics. I have one quick one. As much as I love the name Jim Meade Memorial Pickle Ball Court Complex, it's awesome. It's an awesome name. I'm just curious to know if we would all support a shorter moniker like Mefield like Nunan has the hop. Put it on the survey or is there Hey, she's piggybacking off of my thing. You got to put it on the agenda for next time. A couple more people on that. They'll they'll come up with some cool names, I'm sure. Is there a way that maybe the to that no pickle ball association could engage with the business community to get some revenue out of the naming that can go into the rec fund or enhance the field or

thoughts about that? I I since we talked about that initially, staff came back with usually if a company wants to do that, it's because there's some revenue sharing involved, which in our case would not be the case. This would be a donation, but it would just be a con uh contribution. Anyway, I don't want to talk about it anymore tonight. I just wonder if you would be open to a potential new name for the pickup facility. A memo and put it on the next agenda. As long as it has recreation. That's what I had to do. Okay. No on that. Any other council staff topics?

Yes. I just have one, Madame Mayor, and I just want to go on the record here, and hopefully this is still being recorded. Um, the Department of Natural Resources in the state of Georgia have issued a level one drought for Fyet County. So, that doesn't mean an awful lot because there's levels all the way up to three and three plus, but a level one means that, you know, you should get out educational information, and we've done that. you know, take it easy on the watering, but more importantly is that the watering restrictions for the state are between the hours of you can water from um only before 10:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m. So, please, if you've got an irrigation system in your property, don't start it up during the day.

That's all I got, Madam Mayor. All right. Anybody else? Council staff, I got one. Go. There's There's 11 hours before our pickle ball grand opening. That's what I was gonna say. Okay. 10 a.m. 10 a.m. with uh tomorrow we have the pickle ball complex grand opening. Yep. And then on Saturday, there is a tournament, a free tournament that has been pretty it's filled up uh to to kind of christen uh the pickle ball courts from it starts at 8 a.m. and it's going to go till it ends, which may be 12 hours. 92 teams. 92 teams. Yeah. And it filled up in one day, right? Is that right?

Just say if you want to enjoy some pickle ball competition, you don't have to stay all 12 hours, but you can go out there and enjoy an hour or two if you want to. So, like if you lose early, then you're done. Yep. Yeah. Okay, cool. I think I saw all work I saw all work on the paving paving and landscaping. So, kudos to the staff. Oh, it looks so good down there. This is so exciting. I know it was a time crunch. So, yay. Thanks, Harold. Thanks, Michelle, and everybody. Oh my gosh. Demarcus, Jonathan. Yep. All right. Anybody have motion to adjurnn? Oh, wait. Wait. Do we have executive session? Nothing that can't wait two weeks.

All right. Do I have I have a motion to adjurnn and a second. All in favor say I. I. Thank you. long meeting. We paid for