Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

How are you? Hey, good to see you again. retired but not unemployed but retired. So it's still

Yes. Take down. Thank you. Okay.

Come on. Let's see here.

All right, we'll go ahead and call this meeting to to order. Welcome everybody. Um, we've got a relatively short agenda this evening. Um, we'll invite first uh, pastor, pastor Pedro Silva, Covenant Church, 3375 Atlanta Road to lead us in the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Everybody, please rise. Thank you for joining us tonight. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we we come before you tonight with gratitude and humility. On this day following Easter, the day we remember and celebrate Jesus Christ, the the risen King, we are reminded of the hope and renewal and the new life that come through your grace. We thank you for the opportunity to serve and to lead and to seek the good of our communities in MNA. We ask you for wisdom upon this council. Grant clarity in every decision, integrity in every discussion, and unity in purpose. Help these leaders to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly as they serve the people in this city. Give them discernment to navigate complex issues, courage to do what is right, compassion for every family, every neighbor, every voice represented here. May this meeting be marked by respect, cooperation, and a shared commitment to the flourishing of our community. And may all that is done tonight contribute to peace, prosperity, and a common good. Let her presence be known here in Smyrna. Not just in decisions, but in lives being changed. We surrender this time to you, Jesus. Be glorified in all that is said and done. In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you,

pastor. Thank you for being with us and thank you to Covenant Church for being such a great community partner. We appreciate you a lot. We don't have any agenda changes tonight. Um for the mayoral report um just have a couple of events coming up on um April 25th and 26th is our spring jungle festival. Uh a favorite of the community and um we've got a lot of great vendors and folks participating in that. Should be a great weekend. on Saturday uh May 2nd is our uh jungle jog and I know registration will be opening that opening for that this week. And then I just wanted to report that I had a visitor down at the Capitol um I guess it was several visitors la a couple of weeks ago. The Campbell state champion Campbell High School soccer team came down there and were recognized in the Senate and had a great day. Uh and that was a pleasure to have them down there. uh and I understand that they're doing well uh this year too and on the way to the state state tournament. So really excited to have them. Um we have a couple of uh proclamations and presentations this evening. The first is one we've done for several years now. This is a proclamation in recognition of the month of the military child. And um Travis, you you have uh connection to the family that brought this forward. and uh if you'll handle the proclamation and tell us a little bit about it.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And uh good evening, everybody. Uh we actually have with us here the uh the Clark family. Uh so it's good to see them in mass. I got to visit with them for a minute. Uh all are accounted for but one. Uh but uh we have with us Tim Clark, his wife, uh I just lost my place, Tracy. Um, oh, helps if I read the right section. Daughters Grace and Elizabeth and Shawn are all here with, uh, Caroline, their daughter, is not here this evening. But, uh, longtime Smyrna residents, a tribute to, uh, their love for Smyrna. They have been literally all over it looks like the country and uh, have all roads lead back to Smyrna. So, we're glad uh, glad that they're back here. Uh, just uh, just a moment uh, of personal privilege, Mr. mayor. Um, Lieutenant Colonel Clark, recently retired from the US Army. I want to want to sort of brag on him because it is an impressive uh list here. Served nearly 40 years. Uh, enlisted in the US Army Reserve in 1985 as a private first class. Uh, Lieutenant Colonel Clark commissioned in 1996 as a second lieutenant through the Illinois National Guard Officer Candidate School while pursuing his bachelor degree at Loyola University in Chicago. Um, he served in a variety of tactical, operational, and strategical units during his almost 40 years of service. Um, Mr. Mayor, here's the scary part. He uh, he too, like you and I, have a BA in political science. So, God bless you. you didn't follow our path into elected office, but um he officially retired June 1st of 2023 uh at what I know is Fort Benning, Georgia. Uh so thank you, sir, for your many years of service. If everybody will

join me for a minute and a round of applause for him, So, and uh we've done this, I believe, pretty much off and on for the last couple of years. I know in my I'm in my seventh year as our number of folks up here. Uh so, thanks to his wife Tracy for always sort of reaching out and leading this effort. A very important uh is as noted. Uh they have moved uh and that is the story of uh the military family. I know my mother uh was spent a good time in bit of her childhood in Europe and I'm convinced that's sort of my love for travel. Her two siblings were born overseas. I often argued they probably should have been left over there but nonetheless they brought them back but uh it is the tale of the military family always on the go. So thank you again for your commitment. Um, a proclamation uh by the mayor of the city of Smyrna in recognition of the month of the military child, April 2026. Whereas thousands of brave Georgian served in the military and have taken the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And whereas the children of these brave men and women make significant contributions to our schools, communities, and the state of Georgia despite prolonged and repeated absences of both or at least one parent. And whereas Georgia's military children are a source of pride and honor to us all. And it is a fitting that we take time to recognize their contributions, celebrate their spirit, and let our men and women in uniform know that while they take care of us, we will take care of their children. And whereas the recognition of April as month of the military child provides a special

opportunity to pay tribute to military children for their commitment, their sacrifice, and their unconditional support of our troops. And whereas Georgia's Georgians are encouraged to observe this month by connecting with military children and families to provide support to all Georgia children affected by the deployment of parents and other caring adults in their lives. Now therefore, I, Derek Norton, mayor of the city of Smyrna, Georgia, do hereby proclaim April 2026 month of the military child. That is our proclamation. Mr. Mayor, is there anything you'd like to say? Um, I'm not I'm not You don't have to, but come on if you want to.

So, I wanted to take this time to thank the mayor and city councilman Lindley, as well as the rest of you for um acknowledging our military children with this proclamation. Um, there is a saying within the military community, military kids will have to say goodbye to more significant people by age 18 than the average person has to do in their entire lifetime. And as you know, in previous years, um, Georgia hosts the fifth largest military population in the United States. Within the population are our military dependents. Military life is not for the faint of heart. This chosen lifestyle definitely has its challenges. Frequent moves, changing schools. Our oldest daughter um during her educa K through 12 attended seven different schools both in the United States and in South Korea where we were stationed um as well as leaving friends and numerous deployments. However, these challenges instill in our children important life skills, patience, flexibility, teamwork, and most of all, resilience. I have witnessed firsthand many military-raised children use these skills to become successful members within our society. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, military members, as well as entrepreneurs. Our own children demonstrate these on a daily basis as they navigate their college years. Our oldest, Grace, is concluding her junior year at Kennesaw State as a nursing student. Our son Shawn is finishing his freshman year at KSU as a geospatial science major. Our daughter Elizabeth is finishing her freshman year at Kennesaw State as a biology major. And our daughter Caroline is completing her freshman year at Chattahuchi Tech with a

concentration in business. So, we have four in college, triplets, freshmen. With this year being the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation, it is especially important not to lose sight of how much of an impact military children have had and continue to have for our nation. from the children of our patriots who assisted the war effort by farming, tending livestock, and working in family businesses. Some even acted as messengers to deliver at times crucial information for our forces. This commitment has continued through generations of military families, ours included. Our children have a distinct honor of multigenerational military service to this nation far beyond 250 years. Today, service members rely heavily on their families. Military children work to keep households running by helping to watch younger siblings maintenance of the home, dishes, laundry, um, vacuuming, um, offer at times some needed comic relief to their parent and offering assistance to their neighbors and similar situations. By assuming these tasks, it allows our war fighters to focus on successful missions and return safely to their loved ones. So, please accept a very heartful thank you on behalf of all military children, even those grown and flown on acknowledging their important contributions to keeping our country safe and strong. And God bless America. We're going to come down and get a photo with y'all. Okay.

Okay.

Thank you. in addition to all the other things that they talked about their kids. Uh their daughter Grace is very helpful to the Norton family uh with some of our kids. So, uh we thank you for that. All right, we'll move on now to a proclamation and recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Crime Victim's Rights Week. Uh we have with us Irene Barton and the executive director of the Cobb Collaborative who does so much in our community and others. And uh Councilwoman Hines is going to handle this tonight. I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for allowing us to do this proclamation today. Um, for those of you who are who know me, I've been uh in prosecution for over 20 years. And um there is nothing more heart-wrenching than um to have a child victim, especially one that has had the who's been hurt as a result of people who should have been taking the best care of them. And of course, any victim um becoming a victim of a crime, no one ever asked for that. and um to be able to be able to support um victims is very important and making sure that we are empowering them and giving the resources that they need. And so um I'm so happy to be able to have Irene Barton here who will tell a little bit more about the um initiatives that we are doing with regard to the child abuse prevention month. But Cobb Collaborative does a lot in our uh community and three of the things that they focus on is mental health, literacy, and civic engagement. And she'll be able to tell more about that. But once again, mayor, thank you so much. We have here a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Smyrna in recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Crime Victim's Rights Week. Whereas children are our most valuable resource and they are also our most vulnerable, all of Georgia's children have a right to be safe and an opportunity to thrive, learn, and grow in an environment that fosters healthy development. And whereas in the fiscal federal fiscal year 2023, approximately 4.4 million reports were made to pro child protective services nationwide. And whereas child trauma, childhood trauma can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects throughout an individual's lifetime and impact future generations for of their family. And whereas child

abuse and neglect can pre can be prevented by supporting and strengthening Georgia's families, thus preventing the far-reaching effects of abuse and neglect and providing the opportunity for children to develop healthy trusting family bonds and consequently building the foundations of communities. And whereas effective child abuse prevention activities succeed because of the partnership between child welfare professionals, education, health, community, and faith-based organizations, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and families. And whereas communities must make every effort to promote programs and activities that create strong and thriving children and families. And whereas we acknowledge that we must work together as a community to increase awareness about child abuse and contribute to promoting social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment. And whereas prevention remains the best defense for our children and families. By providing children with a safe, nurturing environment free of violence, abuse, and neglect, we can ensure that our children will grow as the next generation of leaders, securing the future of this state and our nation. Now therefore, I, Derek Norton, mayor of the city of Smyrna, Georgia, do hereby complain uh proclaim April April 2026 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month in the city of Smyrna and recognize April 19th through the 25th, 2026 as National Crime Victim's Rights Week and urge all citizens to recognize this month by dedicating ourselves to the task of improving the quality of life of all children and families. amilies and victims of crime. Thank you, U, mayor. And, uh, if we could have Irene come up,

good evening, everyone. It's so good to see you. Thank you again, Councilwoman, for having us and all of the council. Um you mentioned our three initiatives and really we just talk about that as the power of connection and how important that is from our earliest years all the way into adulthood being connected to loved ones, family and community. So um it's just wonderful and that's how we build resiliency. We were Leslie and I were talking about the military family because resilience was one of the things that was mentioned as a hallmark of their upbringing and and the power of connection there. Leslie's going to share a little bit more about uh uh what we're doing specifically this month with the pinw wheels. So yes, yes, we are so grateful for this acknowledgement and it means so much for our work and our impact and just our families in this community and um they need to be strengthened, right? We need to uplift them. So this helps in that. Um the CAP month theme, child abuse prevention month theme is pin wheels of possibilities. Um so really shifting away from the negative impacts that children might experience um being in the system, being affected by um crimes against them to the protective factors and positive experiences that we can help uplift and support in their childhood. Um and really that is the sole work of prevention is starting from the the beginning of the stream making sure that they have access to resources and supports um so that when uh challenges may rise they have the the people to look to and the connections to get them back on their feet um instead of being in this loop of uh adversity. So that's really what our our goal is this month is to uplift that. Um we have several events and ways to acknowledge that. Um wear blue day is a big uh day for us as well. So we encourage you on April 10th to wear blue. Um maybe even

just snap a selfie and um help us acknowledge in that way. Um and this Friday we will actually be um in a um and doing another event. So we're not just in Sarno, but we're all around Cobb which is really wonderful as well. But we come back to SMO because this is where our office is and this is our roots and this is where we want to um spread all of our work. So we're just so grateful um for this acknowledgement. We appreciate you all being here. You don't have to worry about this Smyrna crew not want to wear blue. We're good with we're Spartans. Uh you want to go down and get a photo?

Okay. Thank you guys so very very much. How do you want how do you want us to be? You want to put Leslie and the pin wheels in the middle right next to the council. Perfect. Put that down so it's not away. You want to hold your I'll take one of these.

Thank you so much. This right back here.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good to see you. Oh, thank you. I hope you feel better. So, we'll get with the police department about their pictures. Okay, sounds good. There we go. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Council, are we allowed to?

You can come on. You gonna give those to us? Yeah, sure. appreciate y'all. All right, we don't have any community development items tonight. We've got two privilege license and show cause hearings. Um item A is a package license request beer and Sunday sales retail package 2431 Cobb Parkway Southeast. Super Lavia LLC doing business as Super Marcato Levia with Nancy Kavarubius. How'd I do? Pretty good. All right. As the agent, um, and this is in ward one. You want to come on up.

And I'll turn it over to Mr. Pickicket. Thanks, Mayor. Uh, thanks for being here tonight. Can you just tell us quickly about your, uh, business and your, uh, Yes, we're Mercia. It's on Parkway and um we're a Mexican grocery store. Okay. And it's next to Isn't it in the uh Olive Garden Shopping Center? It is next to Taco Levia. Okay. There you go. And uh you've taken all the necessary courses and training to uh obtain this license. Yes, I have. I'll make a motion to approve LIC 2026-006.

Have a motion to approve and a second by Miss Hines. Uh, everyone please vote.

I think she has to prompt us to vote. She got to sit down to do that.

That'll teach you to get up, won't it?

We got a motion by uh Mr. Pickings and seconded by Miss Hines. Vote by hand. Anybody approve? You're approved unanimously. Thanks for doing business in Smyrna. Thank you. Thank you for having us. All right. Item B, privilege package license request beer, wine, and Sunday sales retail package at 475 Windy Hill Road Southeast. Wendy Hill USA LLC doing business as Wendy Hill Market with Irvish Patel as agent. Uh, come on up and I'll turn it over. This is in ward five. I'll turn it over to Miss Wilkinson.

Thank you, Mayor. Hi. Um, hello Mr. Patel. Thank you for being here this evening. Um, for the uh people watching at home, can you tell us where your business is located? It's a Texico gas station and convenience store on the Windel Road next to the Vulcan and u you've participated in all the requirements through the city and you know um you understand that

the city's requirements and they take it seriously. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. With well, and with that, I would like to make a motion to approve item 8 L 2022- 007. Have a motion. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Lindley. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. Thanks for doing business here. Appreciate y'all.

All right. We have four items on formal business. The first is item A, authorization to extend the contract with Designing Local 20 East Broad Street, Sweet 1010 Columbus, Ohio 43215 for public art consulting services for a term of one year effective April 23rd, 2026 and continuing through April 22nd, 2027 with compensation of services provided not exceeding $25,000 and authorize the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. This group has done a great job for us uh executing our um public art plan. Um we we were doing it poorly before they got here. And I'd turn it over to Mr. Jones for any extra background.

Uh Mr. Mayor, we originally entered into a contract with Designing Local a couple years ago in April of 2024. Uh as you said, to help us with our public art consulting services. Uh the agreement is was extended for an additional year. um is what we're requesting to April 22, 2026 through April 22, 2027. Um with the the extension term not exceeding $25,000 and staff recommends authorization to extend this contract and authorize the mayor to sign and execute the related documents. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Do I have a motion?

Motion to approve by Mr. Lindley. Second by Mr. Pickkins. He beat you to it, Mr. Oglesby. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. I'm looking forward to them continuing to work with us. Item B, authorization to approve a one-year contract renewal with Russell Landscape for the city of Smyrna's annual landscaping contract. This is RFP23-017 for a term beginning July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 in an amount of 1,343,18364 paid from general fund facilities and authorized the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. Mr. Jones, any background?

Uh, mayor, this was a contractual agreement that was derived from RFP 23017. So this is between city of Smyrna and Russell landscaping. They do a great job for the city of Smyrna. It will allow them to continue to do the landscaping maintenance of all the city facilities, rideways, parks located within the city city of Smyrna, city limits and um and they will maintain that that maintenance responsibility. Uh we recommend approval of this one-year contract extension with Russell Landscape in an amount of 1,343,18364.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any discussion? I for one think that the city looks pretty good under Russell's um with Russ Russell's work. Uh if no discussion, I'll take a motion. Motion to approve by Mr. Welch.

Second by Mr. Lindley. Everyone, please vote. We got them all. That's approved. 70. Item C, authorization to approve a one-year contract renewal with Smyrna Transfer Station LLC, GFL Environmental, uh, for the city of Smyrna's annual residential municipal solid waste disposal. This is RFP22-036 for a term beginning July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 for the terms of the agreement and anticipated 7% CPI and authorized mayor to sign and execute all related documents. Mr. Jones, any background, please? Uh yes sir. This is a continuation from RFP 22036. Uh this contract does allow for a 7% increase based on the consumer price index and we recommend approval of this one-year contract renewal. Uh even with the 7% CPI increase, this contract is still less than the other quotes that the city of Smyrna received and recommend approval.

Any discussion? All right, I'll entertain a motion on item C. Move approval by Mr. Gold,

second by Mr. Lindley. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. And we'll move on to item D, our last item on formal business. Uh this is an authorization to reinstate quarterly topout bonuses for the seven employees who reach the maximum of their designated pay ranges as of December 2025 with recommended payment dates of April 2026, July 2026, October 2026, and January 2027 at a total annual cost of $20,86.66 or $5,2166 per quarter. Mr. Jones, any background, please?

Uh yes, sir. Um, back in December of 2019, we had the similar issue where we had employees who reached the maximum of of their pay ranges that is uh allowed. Um, we issued top out bonuses which was an amount that was equal to what the pay range would have been and the distributed that quarterly. And we're we're recommending that we do the same thing. Um the last time that happened, we used UG uh to do a compensation study and um that study allowed those those scales to be adjusted. This upcoming budget year, we have a similar study with a company called Evergreen that will do those very same things. So recommendation is that we reinstate those quarterly topout bonuses for those seven employees and have those readjusted um as necessary once the study is completed later this year.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any discussion or questions from council? Okay, we'll entertain a motion on item D. Move approval by Mr. Lley, second by Miss Hines. Everyone, please vote. That's approved. 70. Before we get to the consent agenda, I see we have some special guests in the audience, and I always love it when scouts come here to uh experience local government and uh and see how we do things. Would you like to come introduce them? Anything y'all want to come on up?

Sure. Y'all come up with him. So, I get to be the honor of being their father and one of the assistant scout masters for my son Barrett and his troop, troop one, and then my daughter Alice and her her Cub Scout pack. Awesome. Um, so Alice, you have a question. You want to talk into the You want to talk into the microphone? You can adjust it. That thing can be adjusted down a little bit there. We appreciate you all coming tonight. Thank you. Thank you for having us and letting us step up here. Do you know the page that it was on? Barrett, do you have a question you need to ask?

I just had this saved. No, it's okay. Listen, we're I had the little yellow strip of paper on here, too. Um, so basically what you need to do is you need to ask how they got elected and how that vote happened. That's the question. So, step up and ask. Go do it. Go ahead. You can. Okay. So, step up and go. When you got elected, when you got elected, how were you voted in? How were you voted in? And what did that process look like? And what did that process look like?

How were we voted in and what did that process look like? So, everybody up here runs for office every four years. And we have to go out and ask the people for their vote because you know how many bosses we have? About 60,000. Everybody that lives in Smyrna is our bosses. And so we go out and tell them what we think we're going to what we're going to do as a what our vision is for the city. And then they can choose whether they want to have us implement that vision or if they don't want us to do that. And they'll vote yes if they do and and vote us in. And and they'll vote no and vote us out if they don't. And that's how that's how that happens. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you for the question. So, so I had to come here to discuss the con constitutional rights and the obligations of a US citizen. Con, we got a Go ahead. Latonia,

do you have a question? Um, that was the question. Well, um,

somebody get the recorder for Tony, please. We are very blessed in this country that we have a constitution and um the bill of rights are very explicit about what those rights are and um for the most part we we try to stay true to that and if for some reason we see that there are things that need to change because they weren't contemplated when the the constitution was originally enacted. We have three levels of government. um executive um we're part of executive, you have judicial and you have legislative. And so because of that, sometimes when things weren't contemplated by way of the constitution, things like the judicial, whether or not it's case law or whether or not other laws are enacted, um we be were able to expand upon that. So we're very blessed to have a good framework and a lot of other countries don't have that and so at least we're able to look back at that. So those talk to us about our rights. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Oh, well, um, you may you may notice there is a fancy little I don't have it on mine, but he has a nice little burgundy patch here. Uh, that is Camp Cred. Anybody that sees that number knows that Troop One has been in uh been established for over a hundred years at this point. The charter was 2014. And there's a cool little piece of paper hanging on the wall in the scout lodge that has the first uh scouts basically the first CEO of scouting signature on it. Uh it's it's a wet signature and it's very impressive to see. So

uh for Atlanta Area Council, but pretty pretty close to being the oldest in the state. There there might be one or two other troop ones in the state, but probably not many. Y'all know we have an Eagle Scout on the city council. Which one? Mr. Lley, he's an Eagle Scout. Scouting, uh, the lessons of scouting stay with you throughout life. Uh, Mr. Gold and I came down and were part of your 100th anniversary at Troop One. Uh, so stay with it. Some good life lessons. You were there, too. Awesome. We appreciate you. I just saw you in the audience. I wanted to invite y'all up. Well, thank you. Thank you for being here. Yes, sir. So, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Next, Mr. Jones is a consent agenda. Item 10. Can you please read the short consent agenda for council approval?

Yes, sir. Mayor, we have four items on the consent agenda tonight. Um, we have the meeting minutes 2026 059 is approval of the March 12 committee, the whole meeting. The u approval of the March 16, 2026 pre-consil meeting minutes. And we have the March 16, 2020 mayor and council meeting minutes. And lastly, we have uh an acceptance of rideaway. It's a deed conveying 200 2,286 square feet of land which will extend a portion of Smyrna Hill rideway at 790 Smyrna Hill Drive.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved by Mr. Lley, second by Mr. Welch. All those in favor, please vote. That's approved. 70. We're now to the citizen participation portion of our meeting. And it looks like we have three people signed up for public comment. Um the first is Lisa Lewis, 1220 Church, 2924 Davis. Come on up.

Welcome. Glad you're here. I've lived in Smyrna for now more than I've lived anywhere else. I've lived here for 28 years. I have two places. Um, one is going to be when I retire, it's going to be my rental that I live off of. So, my grandparents did that. They had a duplex and they had one part that they lived in and the other part they rented out and that's how they retired. One of my grandparents. But anyway, I currently am living on Church Street and I work very late at night and I have two cars. I have a personal car and I have a work car. I also have a boyfriend who likes to visit. Apparently, somebody who lives on Reed Street um decided that they did not want us parking on the street because it's uh it's kind of a shallow area. So, they had it marked off that if a fire truck ever came that they would be able to park pull over to the side and so that people could come by. Well, anybody with a double-digit IQ is going to know that if a fire truck is coming there, people are going to get out of the way. There is a space for people to be able to go through the um the uh funeral home parking lot. So, there there's no way a firetruck is ever going to need to be pulled to the side to wait for a car to come back through. And then also, people have been ignoring the sign alto together. I've had to come out and say, "Hey, there's no parking and I don't want people banging on my door because the sheriff's department the sheriff's department's been to my house at 8:00." Well, the police department came to my house at 8:30 in the morning banging on my door and I came home really late. I was out and I'm I can't sleep very well. I'm going through menopause. It's not fair to me to be woken up at 8:30 in the morning because my car is parked by my house where it's been parked for the last 15 years because one guy down the street has issues with us parking there. Um, and it wasn't even parked that far past the line where the no parking sign is. Um, but so anyway, recently I've got

pictures of cars parking there and I've talked to them. There's people I don't know parking there. I'm not going to get banged on. I don't want my door banged on in the middle of the night. And then when somebody has called me a nasty word because I said, "Hey, there's no parking there. They think I put the sign up there so that I could have all that parking." Um, you know, but anyway, there's six units there. There's not enough parking for three units. Um, we have each have a parking space in our parking lot, but if we have, you know, sometimes two people live in those units and we need enough spaces for everybody to have a second car there at some point. Right now, we have um a homeowner that is deceased, so nobody's living her unit right now. So, we had and we have extra space right now, but if anybody has a a partner or has to come home late, you know, there we have nowhere to park. It's not it's not okay. Is this in your ward?

Good evening, ma'am. Good to see you. Uh I know we've had some uh internal discussions with Mark Wolf, who's our city engineer, uh and are working through that. As as she noted, uh there's been uh a number of issues uh from residents in that area. So, uh Mr. Jones and I will get with the

and I have been knocking on doors and asking if anybody has a problem. It's only one person that has a problem. And you know, they've also said stuff about that they're not liking that more apartments are being built there. I mean, me, I've had to quit jobs because they require me to drive to work in the morning and I can't get out of the neighborhood or drive anywhere. We need something. I think what we really need in Smyrna is maybe an age in place um facility. This is downtown Smyrna is perfect for people like me who have aging parents. Where are we going to put these aging parents? If there's my boyfriend just moved his Oh, by the way, my boyfriend is an Eagle Scout and so are all his brothers and this year his mother died and he got his pin back and I just that was the saddest thing um to witness and my mother is a um is a Navy brat so she's lived all over the United States. Um but anyway, I what I would really like to see is an age in place where people who aren't driving aren't working anymore. people of Smyrna that are like my age. When we have these aging parents, where do we put them? It'd be nice if they could have they don't want to go into an old folks home or whatever. They want to be able to walk around in a village like this. They want to be able to do their own grocery shopping, but maybe they can't afford the maintenance on their houses. They're aging. Their homes are aging as well. So, it would be nice if they had like a place in downtown Smyrna where they could go and they could live and they could walk around and they could, you know, they don't want to be a burden to others, especially these um the baby boomers. And I'm going to be the same way. I mean, my grandmother's hundred years old and still lives by herself, but she has money and she has people, you know, coming to her house to clean and she has uh, you know, if she ever needs any groceries, there's people who will do her grocery shopping for her. these people. There's a lot of people don't have kids that are want to take care of them or they're still working. So, I think maybe we should look into instead of having these millennials making apartments for them, let's do some age in place kind of

situation. Well, let's get your parking situation figured out first. All right. So, you're you are with staff and we got all we'll be reaching out to you to figure that out. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Next we have John Terry, 3269 Concord Circle.

Good evening everyone. See if I can work this out. There have been height differences for the the public commenters. Uh Mr. Mayor, city council, uh Smyrna neighbors, thank you for your time this evening. My name is John Terry and my wife and I have lived in Smyrna for seven years now. I teach high school world history and I'm the proud parent of Smyrna's sweetest two-year-old. With all due respect, I'm here tonight delivering a message from a brand new local chapter of Indivisible, the national progressive organization. We are called Silver Comet Indivisible and we represent progressive citizens in central and southern Cobb County. On Saturday, March 28th, nearly 1500 demonstrators gathered peacefully on our beautiful village green to hear from local leaders before heading to Atlanta Roads West Sidewalk to protest the Trump administration. We were just small a small part of the over 8 million no Kings protesters worldwide, the largest mass uh demonstration in US history. We are incredibly proud of our team of volunteers who maintain safety, security, and organization at this event. We want to thank Smyrna City leadership and police department for their support of free speech and free assembly in our beautiful and diverse city. While these sacred rights are guaranteed in the United States Constitution, as we were just reminded a few moments ago with the scouts, we've seen time and again in cities like Minneapolis, Memphis, Chicago, and other locations across America the Department of Homeland Security targets that they are not to be taken for granted. We are grateful to live in a city where we can safely and securely exercise these rights without fear. While we protesters were united by our rejection of an authoritarian federal government, its weaponization of immigration customs enforcement or ICE against our friends, our neighbors, and our family members, its rudderless foreign policy and destructive foreign wars, and its lack of basic decency and morality at the

highest levels. We are proud of our positive, joyful, and welcoming No Kings event here in Smyrna. Folks who are interested to keep the momentum going can look up our new group, Silver Comet Indivisible. We also want to speak directly to the mayor and city council of Smyrna on behalf of our community organization. We ask you under no circumstances to cooperate with ICE to terrorize our community members. They come to sow discord and terror, not security. We love our neighbors and we want all Smyrna residents to live without fear, to enjoy life in our city, and to have free access to our schools and public spaces. As a historian, I can say with confidence, all of us have to make choices. So, please make the right choice. Thank you.

Appreciate you being here. Thank you. Last is Linda Lancaster, I believe. Say again. Langston. Langston. Oh geez, that man, you realized I said that before I put on my glasses. 1710 Napa Valley. Yes, sir. Welcome. Good evening, Mayor. I just just was checking to make sure I wasn't losing it. Good evening. I voted for you, by the way.

This is the best meeting I had all day. Thank you. Okay, this is my problem. My name is Linda Langston. I live at 1710 Napa Valley Court, Smyrna in Cumberland Town Houses, right off of Spring Road. I'm sure you know where that's at. And the neighborhood, I've been there 22 years. And for three years now, I have begged the city of Smyrna, Mark Wall, Shane, anybody I could talk to to please do something about a no parking sign on Shannondoa Valley. When you go up Shannondoa Valley and you and then you turn left on Napa Valley where I live, you go up the hill and on the left they put an old sign that says no dumping. Well, some people obviously can't read. They dump furniture, household furniture, washing machines, anything. And when you have company, you drive up the street and that's all you see. And my children say, "Mom, you live in the city dump, you know, in the ghetto." And I've begged the city of Smyrna. I've been to everybody I know. I even tried to get an appointment with you three times and never could. But what we're asking, me and my neighbors are asking, is is there any way you could help us and please get a no parking sign there? I've got pictures of cars parked on the on the grass there, right by the no dumping sign, but we want them to put a no parking sign and a no dumping sign there. They put one at the end of Napa Napa Valley several years ago and it says you will be fined $1,000. You're under surveillance. That sign worked at the end of where I live. But I begged them to put another one up there coming up Shannondoa Valley. Anyway, there were eight cars parked up there last night. When you come up my hill to turn right there, I almost had a head-on collision twice because the cars block at night. And I mean, we've called the police. the police has is tell the man, the Hispanic

man that lives there on the corner. Oh, and yesterday, day before yesterday, had a big party. He had a swimming pool in his front yard as big as the yard. There were people laying all out on the grass. And so he drained the pool today because my neighbor called uh code enforcement. And so they drained the pool and all the water comes rushing down the hill. I mean, these people, they just get away with all kinds of things out there. And but the main thing that I'm asking is we all in my neighborhood want to know if you can please put up a no parking sign at the top of Shannon Doora Valley and a no dumping sign. You think we can do that?

And this is and this is Let me let me first address one thing that you said that you tried to meet with me three times and and hadn't been able to do it. I'm pretty open and available and that doesn't get to me. I don't I don't know how I don't know how to Every time I would come and and ask for an appointment, they would say, "He's out of the office. We don't know when he'll be back. You'll have to make another appointment." And tell you what, my my cell my personal cell phone number and my email are on the website and I I'm very accessible. You just call me and I'll be happy to say I don't spend every day in city hall. This is what I call my my full-time part-time role. But I'm glad to meet with you and I and I know that Latonia would be glad to help you, too.

Yes. Because that's that's actually my ward. And uh Christy Olman, who is our executive assistant, is excellent about getting us uh uh coordinated. It sounds like, if I remember right, because I think I remember this area. Um Mark Wolf has been kind of working on this. I've talked to him. No, I've talked to him and talked to him and this has been going on for months. Actually, years. Yes. And so we'll we'll look into it. Terrible. We'll look How about pictures if you want to see the pictures?

Oh, sure. And and after this, if you can hold for a second, I'll give you my email address so you can send that over and um Mark is really really good about trying to get the signs up. We were able to get on the other end and sometimes there are things that stop us from being able to do it, but we're going to see what we can get done and we'll get code enforcement out there. Sometimes you got to do multiple things. He called me back the other day and he said, "I'm working on getting some signs out there." He said, "However, I don't think I can put a no parking sign there at the top of Napa Valley." And that's the most crucial place.

So, here's the thing, and and I'll look into it myself. Um, you know, but speaking as a as an attorney on some levels, too. There's certain things we legally can do and can't do. And and I'm sure as our county, our city attorney can tell you that, too. We'll do whatever we can if we can do it within the uh the the code to be able to get it done or whatever we can do to help out. We want you to be able to uh be okay when you're at home and not having to worry about the traffic.

Since she's had a little bit issue with or perceived issue with staff can let's let's coordinate with Mike and get and Mr. Jones, our city administrator. He handles the dayto day and um we'll coordinate and and get you out. I would be glad to meet with you out there. Just like I told Mr. Marwall, I said, I will meet you in my neighborhood and show you exactly what I'm talking about. I'm going to go take a a couple of rides through myself. Good. Yeah. I'd like to I'd like to do a little field trip. So, I'll go do I'll give you my number. You can call me and we can I'll show you what's going on. Stay Stay. We're almost finished. Stay around just a minute. Okay.

Okay. But it's so annoying, you know, to drive up that street and you have no idea. And the man that lives right there on the corner, the policeman told him the other day, you cannot park this van here. That van is there every single day. And he has company and four or five other cars. And I thought there was a city ordinance in Smyrna where you could not park on the grass. These people parked on the grass in the street out of the street. You know, it's just it's a hazard. We we'll get it looked at. A child could get run over or a person could have a head-on collision. But thank you so much. Thank you for spending your time here tonight. Thank you. You want me to meet with you? Sure. Yeah.

All right. That concludes our public comment. We are now at ward and staff reports and we'll start tonight. Mr. Glenn Pickkins right as he's taking a big swig of his water.

Uh thank you, mayor. Um I just really like to thank our uh public works director, Paul Osborne. Over the last few months, he's been managing some contractors out there doing some utility work along up and down Atlanta Road that have caused some pretty significant uh issues, including uh having to repave a portion of the road today. Um so, he's been really good keeping Tim and I updated and just making sure the contractors do everything they need to do and uh put everything back to normal and how they found it. So, he's been doing great. Thank you.

He absolutely does a fantastic job for us. Um, and mayor, if I can take a point of privilege here. Um, I want to say thank you to everyone who came out for our first ever Women's History Month uh, lunchon. Um, thank you so much for the support of this uh, council for being able to do it a couple years ago. It was a vision of mine. um to be able to do it and we did it as a uh you know it was just a private event and um I was so blessed to have first lady Laura Norton who said to me how can I help you be able to do this event and former council member um Kathy Young say to me what can I help you do do this event and I said you can be a host if you're willing to help support and they did and I was very excited for that so I'm excited to be able to say that we were able to have it now as a city of event and we were able to recognize as our historical uh honores and I just want to say their names really quickly because it's important. We recognize the effort of the Smyrna Rosies and if some of you know about Rosie the Riverer during World War II and those efforts what women did in the homeront especially since we were talking about um the military child uh was amazing. And right here we had the Bell Bell bomber plant otherwise known as Lockheed and um the the efforts of those women um were really really amazing and uh one of those was Lorena Pace Puit otherwise known as um Smyrna's first uh female uh mayor and then Lucille Cobb Crowe and then one of which who is currently uh live still um and thanks to Council Member Susan Wilkinson a former uh it was her uh neighbor and she brought that to our attention the committee uh Joan Adele Caps Mayfield um who were a part of this effort and um the committee uh

recognized Louise Lindley Harper um Lindley uh being a a relative of uh great aunt of of council member Travis Lley but in addition to her work as a as as a Smyrna Rosie she also was a professional photographer and one of the first in the whole entire state uh to do some of what she did. And those were just amazing things and it was great that we were able to recognize them. And then I want to make sure that we make note of who was chosen as our 2026 uh um city of Smyrna Women's History Month honore and that was FA Yoast. Feyost is a community leader and an education advocate and um she's gone through a lot of her own personal tragedy with regard to um some of the things that have happened in her family and it's made her an advocate for things like adaptive sports and making sure about inclusivity. So, I'm just so happy that we were able to do that. you can look on our um city website for some pictures and it was a lovely afternoon and I'm just so happy and thankful to the city and to the um our mayor and council for allowing us to do that and I look forward to next year.

Appreciate all your time and effort put into that event and and others. Mr. Lindley.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh first um want to thank as always and echo uh your comments and uh council member Pickkins, our public works and our park and wreck folks do a wonderful job. Particularly we've seen uh an enormous number of people downtown. Uh so working through some good growing pains there. We'll be uh looking at how to get grass to grow and be green uh in the next couple of next couple of days. But uh good problems. Uh we have a lot of people downtown which has uh been to the uh one of the scout questions that was one of the directives when we got elected uh almost seven years ago uh was to to revamp downtown. So we continue to work on that. Um as a reminder uh the city of Smyrna will be dedicating the what is currently called the Cobb Linear Park uh in memory of Dr. David Martin on Sunday uh the 26th of this month around 12:30. We'll have some information on that in the coming days. Um I want to thank uh Council Member Hines for all of her work for two back-to-back events uh with the Women's History Month as well as the Black History event. Both were huge successes and that is uh above and beyond uh the call to duty. So thank you uh to her for for her many efforts. And then I actually I like to harass him, but I do want to thank uh Scott Cochran as always for his uh a lot of institutional knowledge, but at the last meeting he uh he made I think one of the most poignant things uh of note which is the long a huge list of things that are underway in this city and they're all good. Uh it is a sign of a a healthy growing community and uh something that uh we look in the coming weeks to to

continue to broadcast to all 60,000 residents. So with that I yield. Thank you Mr. Lenny. Mr. Welch. Thank you Mr. Mayor. U I just want to make an announcement. I will not be here for the upcoming cow meeting um Thursday a week from now. And also I think uh Keith Mr. Beautiful has a cleanup on the 18th if I'm not mistaken with that date. Uh if any of you can contact somebody at Keith Smarter Beautiful and go out and volunteer to clean up the streets, we appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Wilkinson.

Thank you. Um I hope everybody had a wonderful uh weekend this weekend and um and everyone's enjoying this wonderful weather. Um, and also I would like to say a little bit more about my constituent um that we did honor uh at the Women's History Month event and uh who is she is uh 97 um this year and uh she's quite a remarkable woman uh when she was just a young girl. Her dad taught high school in Atlanta at tech. It was called Tech High School and they recognized she had a ability to u to work on cars and they started training her to repair cars at a pretty young age. She would go in to work with her father in town and it was when a lot of men were going off to war and they needed uh people to work on automobiles. So she was trained um at a young age and then from there that led her to work at the Bell uh well at the uh Bell Bomber plant which was later locked and she was uh a machinist and also a manager there at Lockheed on the assembly line and so I was really honored to be able to recognize her um you know with her being a neighbor I always knew that she knew a lot about cars but I didn't find out until um I started asking uh talking to her sons about her right before the event and I found out that she actually worked on um uh Goers's uh race car NASCAR racing team and she worked on automobiles for that and uh she was one of the crew members at uh the Daytona 500 back way back one of the first female uh members of the of that crew for gober Sosby. So anyway, um I'm just really honored to be able to recognize her. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Wilkinson and Mr. Gold.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh just two quick things about some upcoming events, both uh fundraisers for some uh really impactful uh organizations here in Smyrna. Uh Monday, April 20th is the um 28th Susan T. Pearson Memorial College golf tournament that sponsors that funds the college and career office at Campbell High School. Uh so it's one of our major fundraisers as part of the foundation. So please reach out to me if you want to participate and or at least make a donation. And then secondly, John jog of course on Saturday, May 2nd. That funds uh supports Smyrna and its funds the the high school foundation also. So I think listings will come out for that pretty soon if not already. So please come on out. It's a wonderful event. Ton of people. You can run, you can walk, or you can watch like I do. So

I like to watch. I like to watch as well. But we do raise quite a bit of money for support Smyrna and the Campbell High School Education. It's a great It's a great eventual event and you if you get a Kenny's key lime pie if you do well in it too. So there you go. Mr. Urglesby.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh got a couple of things. First off, uh Junth festival is in planning is in full effect now. We met as a community committee uh for the first time and we got an awesome lineup this year. The festival will take place on Junth, which which is a Friday this year. So, it should be awesome. And there's a little um uh soccer tournament happening before that that will uh with a great USA team playing just before that and we'll be broadcasting that to uh in the same location. And so we got we have a fun-filled day uh uh planned for uh Junth with Soul Cartel headlining as a headlining band. So we're really excited about that. If you would like to be a vendor on this day uh and again that these vendors we we plan for them to be out there all day uh including for the FIFO uh World Cup um reach out to Jody Mills and Parks and Wreck here in Sperner. Uh we definitely need food vendors. A lot of people to feed this day. Uh also uh I met with uh one of our community citizen uh leaders. I like to call her a citizen leader now uh in reference to the river and having more uh activities on the river here in Ward 7 where we have an amphitheater and of course now there's a riverw walk being built and the dock is being replaced. We're excited about that. So, I have brought it to the attention of the mayor and council and city leadership, and hopefully by next year, we'll see more activity out there near the river. Uh, beautiful area. Uh, with that, I yel back, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Oglesby. Uh, Mr. Jones just reminded me that on May 1st, the Riverline splash splash pad down there and the um the new and improved splash feature down here downtown um will open up May 1st. So, we're looking forward to that. The other thing I wanted to announce, you kind of touched on it, but we've been approved in Smyrna as an official FIFA World Cup watch site here in Smyrna. So, we're going to have pretty much every match uh we'll have a screen hanging from the stage facing uh the park there and then the two other stages that we have, we'll have out on the green space. Um so, it won't just be June 19th, it'll be throughout the whole tournament. And I just can't wait uh to see the crowds that come out for that. And just just a a note on the downtown. If you've been down there any of the last three or four weeks, it it for us uh you know, the the vision has has come true. You've got people down there all the time. You got strollers and dogs and kids and uh grandparents and everybody just hanging out and it's a great community space. uh the green space and the addition of the park and the brewery and the bathrooms and the splash pads and the little kids playground. It's all come together and you know it that wasn't an easy process. You there were there were folks who who who who pro protested against many stages of that and which is to your the gentleman who spoke earlier is is their right. Uh but I think um I think the finished product has really been uh something that um that we can all be proud of. all of the businesses that are kind of behind Atkins to all the ones on the main drag here in Smyrna. I've talked to most of them. All of them have se said that their businesses up anywhere from 10 to 30%. So, the extra foot traffic and I know parking is a little bit difficult, but um people are still finding their way to downtown Smyrna and it's thriving like it never

has before. So, very very nice to see and I'm proud of what we've accomplished there. Mr. Cochran. Miss Heather. Miss Heather. Ain't nothing about the elections yet or we're waiting to hear from the election. Okay. Thank you. Uh with that, if there's no other business be brought before this body, we're uh adjourned in the Jonqual City at 8:06.