Town Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, this is Heat. Heat. N. Good evening and welcome to our town of Smyrna town council meeting for April. And um at this time I am going to uh call our meeting to order and I'm going to ask our uh chaplain Tim York from the Smyrna Police Department to do our prayer and our pledge by town attorney Jeff Peach. If you'll all stand with us, please. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for this beautiful day that you have given us and the opportunity we have to live in a day on earth. We're thankful for our counsel. We're thankful for our city. We ask you, Lord, to um bring guidance tonight and everything said and done. We ask you for wisdom and direction. Father, we pray that you will do that which only you can do in the midst of all the issues that will be faced the city. Bless those who serve. Bless our first responders. I pray for protection upon them. And heavenly father, we ask you that we continue to be good citizens and that we follow your plan, that we're

to love you and love one another. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Please 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, Tim. Thank you, Jeff. Miss Amber, if you will do roll call. Yes, ma'am. Councilman Dempsey, present. Councilwoman Peebles, here. Councilman Cole, yes, ma'am. Councilman Short, here. Councilman Sullivan, here. Vice Mayor Atkins, here. Mayor Reed,

present. Okay, we will u move on to item three, which is approval or corrections of the minutes March 10. Oh, Jeff, are these in order? They are in order as to formally have any subtractions or additions you'd like to make. Um, uh, approval of the March 10th, 2026 regular meeting, the March 26, 2026 workshop meeting, and the March 27, 2026, and April 2nd, 2026 special called meetings of the town council council. Any additions or corrections? Make a motion to approve the minutes. Have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second.

Motion and a second. Amber, I'll let you pick. Uh, any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Minutes pass. Tonight, um, special awards and recognition. So, um, tonight we have a proclamation for senior citizens day. Miss Amber, I'm going to let you take that for us, ma'am.

Whereas the older members of our Smyrna community contribute invaluable knowledge, rich perspectives, unique talents, and a lifetime of wisdom and experience. And whereas the Older Americans Act being adopted by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4th, 1965, the town of Smyrna is committed to being a community where people can age well and older adults are encouraged to thrive and remain fully engaged. And whereas Smyrna has been named one of the nation's most desirable places to retire by US News and Forbes magazine, serving as a testament that older citizens are supported in our community with the resources and encouragement needed to live independently and with dignity. And whereas the month of May serves as a time to celebrate and honor older adults through events, fairs, and activities at the senior activity center of Smyrna and throughout the community and the center with the support of the town of Smyrna. Uh the senior will excuse me, the town of Smyrna will host an annual senior citizens day in Smyrna. Whereas the Senior Activity Center of Smyrna, founded in 1971 by Paty Brown, provides a wide range of recreational, physical, educational, and social activities as well as travel opportunities and is devoted to promoting the well-being of its members by educating, engaging, and enhancing their lives. And whereas the senior activi activity center of Smyrna ended 2025 with more than 860 members and continues to grow its programs, activities, and events to serve and engage the senior community. And whereas 2026 marks the 55th anniversary of the Senior Activity Center of Smyrna, honoring its past, celebrating its future, and recognizing 55 years of strength. And whereas the Senior Activity Center of Smyrna has raised 3.2 2 million for its capital campaign to

build a new facility on nearly 6 acres leased from the town of Smyrna, ensuring seniors in the community can continue to connect and thrive for years to come. Now therefore, I'm Mary Esther Reed, mayor of the town of Smyrna, do hereby proclaim May 1st, 2026 as the 9th annual senior citizens day in Smyrna, Tennessee, and encourage all Smyrna citizens to join in this worthy observance. So, we have some of you here with us today. So, if y'all will all come forward, one, we want to get you all on TV, but we also want Miss Heather to be able to do a picture.

We'll let you help me hold this. I will. Council, if y'all will jump up and I'm coming down up front is going to be an official member. Oh, Jerome and HG are members. You know, I'm not able to yet. All three of us will be there this year. All three of us. So, one of us sooner than the other. You want to s with the I'm excited. I'm ready to join. I already told them. I've already told them. I can't wait. HG, I think they want us to center up. Can you come on this end for us? Will that center us enough? Okay.

That's all people do what we're told, don't we? Yeah. But I like the wisdom and experience. Slide down. We're not center. Are you trying to get where you

Great, Miss Fran. I'm gonna let you tell us a little bit about the center if that's okay. Just tell us a little bit about all the great things y'all have going on at the center right now. We have a whole lot going on at the center right now.

A lot going on at the center. So, first I want to say thank you to Mayor Reid and the council for recognizing this senior citizens day. Once again, we are excited to be celebrating our 55th anniversary. Um, we've adopted a slogan as mentioned in the proclamation, honoring our past, celebrating our future, 55 years strong. And we kicked off this celebration on St. Patrick's Day with a concert benefiting our Capitol campaign at the Williamson Family Farm. And it's fitting that we started this on St. Patrick's Day because the 55th anniversary is represented by emeralds. So, you're going to see a lot of stuff coming from our center that's green this year. Um, as mentioned in the proclamation, the month of May is celebrated nationwide is older Americans month. The 2026 theme is champion your health and this focuses on prevention, wellness, and personal responsibility, encouraging older adults to take an active role in managing their health, accessing preventive care, and making informed decisions about their care. And we promote this a lot at the center with two line dance classes, a chair cardio class, rhythmic drumming, chair yoga, floor yoga, and tai chi. We kick off the celebration this year with our annual openhouse and outdoor expo on May 1st at the center from 11 to 2. We'll have a lot of our programs and activities highlighted as well as having many of our vendors there who will share information about the services that they offer to s to seniors. On May 12th, we'll honor our members at our older Americans lunchon at the event center and we already have about 150 people

signed up for that event. Um, we are in the midst right now of our annual yard sale. We started receiving items yesterday for the sale. It's North Rutherford County's largest and cleanest indooroutdoor sale. It lasts for three days. April 23rd, 24th, and 25th. And just in two days time, we have nearly filled up our garage and our bus with items. Treasures. Treasures. Treasures. Treasures bringing in treasures. That's right.

At our monthly meeting today, it was announced that we have 875 members. Our numbers continue to grow as people continue to move into Smyrna. Needless to say, we're busting at the seams more and more, and the need for that larger space increases daily. Our capital campaign is going strong. As mentioned, we have raised $3.2 2 million which enabled us to submit our request to the Christy Houston Foundation and we should hear from that very soon. Our timeline is moving along very quickly and we expect to start clearing land this spring which means we'll we will be presenting to the planning commission very very soon. For anyone interested in more information about our center or the Capitol campaign building on the 55-year legacy that Paty Brown started. Um, please come visit us. We're located at 100 rake street in Smyrna and we're open Monday through Thursday from 9 to 4. You can also visit our website smrnceniorcenter.org. And to become a member you have to be 55 years old. And if you're going to be 55 this year, we'll let you go ahead and join. Now,

there's three of us. The membership dues are $50 a year. Um, the center is an integral part of this community. I'll take a check now. We're proud and grateful to serve the population in Smyrna and surrounding areas. We could not have grown to achieve the many successes that we have without the support from the town of Smyrna, local businesses, churches, our members, and the citizens in Smyrna. And but especially, and I'll say it again to Paty Brown who had the divine inter intervention 55 years ago to start this center. Thank you so much. And I'll see the three of you soon.

Absolutely. Thank you, Miss Fran. Actually, Miss Fran, my great-g grandandmother used to attend back in the 1970s and when there was a a van and she used to ride the van to the meetings and I always wanted to be on that van. So, it's now my turn. There you go. To be there. I can't. That's why I'm excited. I think driver.

Yeah. Okay. We will move on to item five, which is our consent agenda. And consent agenda items are those items uh determined by the town manager to be routine matters and not necessarily needing individual discussion. I do like to read these items so those um that are here in the audience or that are on TV know exactly what we're voting on. The first item is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute an amendment with Neil Schaefer for additional CI services associated with the IT phase 3, four, and five project to oversee installation of the replacement fiber along Lowry Street. Item B is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute addendum two with Kimberly Horn for the Old Nashville Highway sidewalk project. Item C is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a contract from the Tennessee Commission for the United States Semiquincential for the Smyrna Greenway Historical Signage Revitalization Project in the amount of $23,482. And item D is consideration authorization of a list of items to be auctioned through online surplus sale with Gov Deals. Um, do I have a motion for the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. We'll now move on to old business. Tonight we only have one public hearing and it's a consideration of an ordinance amending the Smyrna Municipal Code Title 7 relative to the adoption of the 2024 International Fire Code. Kevin,

Mr. Mayor and Council, I'm covering for for Miss Warel tonight, so she's out of town, but this is the just the second reading. Nothing has changed since first reading. This would just include the 2024 International Fire Code uh into the codes that the town has adopted. This is one that was inadvertently left off when we adopted all the other codes uh last month on second reading. And so this will just include this. This is consistent with what all of the the other jurisdictions within Ruford County have done. So this will just complete that uh adoption. Um again, nothing changed on this since first reading. Uh Mr. Lawrence is here. If you have any specific questions about the code itself, uh I couldn't answer those, but we and we would recommend this to you.

Questions for Kevin about the fire codes or for James if Kevin can't answer them. Right. Before we go to the public. Okay. Seeing no questions, then we'll go to the public to see if there's anyone here to speak for or against um the fire codes. Seeing no one, we'll go to council to uh we'll close public hearing, go to council for a motion. So move a second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. We'll now move on to item seven, which is our new business. This is our planning commission report. Our first item is consideration of an ordinance relative to the reasonzoning of property located on tax map 28, part of parcel 12.02 2 for to go from C2 to PCD. It's requested by SEC Incorporated on behalf of CSC Properties LLC. The property requested to be reszoned contains approximately 2.21 acres and is located on Lee Victory Parkway. Kevin?

Yes, Mayor and Council. This is a a piece of property that we have seen a couple of times before uh for zoning action. It is at the only Victory Parkway. It's directly across from the intersection with Herald Lee Drive. It's about 3/10en of a mile northeast of the intersection with Amovville Road. The land use plan would support is the 24 gateway character area which would support a mix of uses and services kind of serve both local and regional and scale such as hospitality, retail, restaurant and multif family. Uh this proposed PCD is to allow a quick service oil and lube business in addition to all other uses that are allowed in the C2 district. Uh the concept plan shows a second use as a bank currently, but it would not be limited to a bank. It would be anything with allowed within C2. Uh access would be via an existing private drive, which also provides access to Parkway Baptist Church. A single access would be constructed from the private drive to access both access both lots. Uh off-site water and sewer improvements would be required to provide access to both those utilities. Uh the proposed elevations for the oil and lube business do meet design review but the elevations of the bank do not. Uh the entire property is in the 100redyear flood plane. So a flood plane development permit application would be required to be submitted as a part of the grading permit application. Uh a traffic study was done for a previously proposed development plan which showed that the intersection of the private drive and leave victory parkway would be at a lossf uh nec necessitating the installation of a traffic signal. was revisited with an updated signal warrant analysis uh with this request and it does show that that signal is warranted. Uh this has been submitted to T DOT by the developer for review. We've not heard back from T dot yet. We actually have a meeting set up I think in the next week or two weeks to talk about that. Uh signal installation is subject to that T dot approval but if

approved would be installed by the developer. I did include the pattern book uh in your packet there uh for some additional information. The planning commission did review this request did recommend approval unanimously with three conditions. One that the building elevation on lot one uh does not meet design review and is required to be revised to to meet those those requirements. Uh the entire property is in the flood plane and so the flood plane development permit would be uh required to be uh submitted uh as a part of the grading permit application and the signal warn analysis shows that a traffic signal is warranted at the intersection of the private drive in Lead Victory Parkway and this signal is required to be installed uh pending approval by T dot. Staff would with those conditions staff would recommend approval. Um, Steve or Mark, anything that you want to add to this?

I don't have anything other than what Kevin just described. Uh, design review was one of the major components that we had to ask for. One of the businesses will not face the Victory Parkway. It will be set perpendicular sideways so as to keep those bay doors not as visible. Right. What about stacking? How you feel about stacking for that? You feel good? I feel good about it. I mean, they've got enough. They're showing six cars, but that's there's quite a bit of area before you ever even get to the private drive. I mean, there was I I would if they're that busy, they're they're the busiest place in town for sure. So, then they're really adding to the general fund, right? Right.

Okay. I have a couple questions, Kevin. Um, this is a private road here, right?

That is correct. um have they got an agreement with the church to access that road? And the second question is if all this is in a flood plane, is the does this road have a requirement to be above a certain flood elevation for emergency ingress egress? Um the as far as the first question, I think prior to this development being proposed, there was we had asked them because I think between the the church and the a previous property owner, I think there was a there was an agreement, but there was never anything in writing. And so with that part got worked out with a prior development proposal. So, as far as the the the two owners or the the private owner with the owning the road and this owner, I think that that all was addressed previously. Um, as far as the elevation of that roadway, um, we haven't looked at that. I don't know exact. It's currently is not above the 100 flood plane, at least as it's mapped on the map. um this entire property as well as the property kind of to the to the north kind of previous Yeah, this one that kind of shows all that C2 property on the other side of that roadway going back toward that entire area is within the 100year flood plane. Some of it's in the flood way. I don't think any of this lot's in the floodway. Um, so

if you don't if you don't mind, could you just look into that agreement and just see what you know Tom's requirements going to be for that roadway as far as flat elevation? Yeah, we would have to certainly public streets we do typically try to obviously we new streets and all we make that happen, make sure that takes place. This one was built I don't know 15 20 years ago now. It's been been a while when Kevin, does the agreement is the agreement automatically come forward with this uh development?

Well, again, we had asked for that to be worked out because it was a it's private between two private owners there. So, it wasn't something we just wanted to make sure uh again with a previous may have been this the last time this came to the PCD, the previous PCD that was approved on this project property. um because we didn't have a copy of it or anything like that and then what they discovered is there wasn't anything in writing at that time and so that was was created at that time. I think they may have given us a copy. I'm not 100% sure about that. I'll have to go back and dig. So now there is something in writing. Is that what you're saying? That's our understanding is everything is but that all was addressed a few years ago that came in. But you have evidence of that being addressed is what you're saying.

Right. because we wanted to be sure obviously the church owns the road and we wanted to be sure they were involved and they were again that so that all was of course was addressed at that time. So, but I will confirm that deal has been made with the church on the road. Right. I I will confirm that we have a copy of that in our file just so that we have we can take care of that and then prior to the if you all pass this tonight prior to to the to the workshop. I just got a text deal. I I just saw something on Facebook that was a comment on that's watching the meeting that says the same thing. So, and they're saying what? They're saying no deal on the road was made with the church.

And I think this is a person that attends that church. They attend that church. That's not what I That's not what I was told. So, um, obviously we need to do some investigation. That needs to be addressed primarily, right? Absolutely. Um, the property mark C2 above it, you said that's in the flood plane also. Yes. How what is the elevation of it in comparison to this? I mean is it u uh viable for usage?

What has been discussed again in previous development scenarios when this was looked at there was actually there's two lots proposed here. There was three additional lots there and what they discovered is when they were trying to work out how they could develop the property and balance um cut and fill so that you didn't and uh negatively impact any surrounding property owners by bringing it to fill and all that. It was more or less that you were going to have to leave that alone or use that area for for your borrow um and to fill in these areas and that these two party elevation.

Yes. And so that these two lots may be all that is ends up being built there because because of the you couldn't make the flood plane uh alterations to make that work to have any any more lots than these two. What was the uh problems with the elevation on the bank? On the bank, it just didn't have the the required amount of minimum amount of brick and stone. Okay. Yeah. Um, which one of these parcels was Chick-fil-A looking at at one point? This one. This one. And then this was also the one for the uh automobile. That was correct. What was the name of that one? It was Pet Boys. Pet Boys. It was Pet Boys. Yeah. Okay.

Just out of curiosity, what's the R3? What subdivision is that? R3 to this area to the to that is um No, Adelaide is the PRD. That's Rose or Steuart, whatever. There's Rosemont. There's two or three different names. Glen Rose Park and whatever. But that's that that's Rosemont. Adelaide Park is directly to the north. Jerome will probably remember this because he lived over there one time. That's a 500y year floodway. Am I correct? Is that a 100redy year or 500y year affecting this property? There there's 100 It's 100year flood plan.

Is there a 500year floodway through there? Um there I think there may there may be some outside year uh flood plane there. Um I do know that when we had the 2010 flood that that whole back area over there flooded and it almost got over Lee Victory Parkway at the churches.

Kevin having some experience with oil change operations. Do you know um what the construction of the building is? What type of pits they're going to use? If they're going to use pits, uh it my just looking at it, I think it's a pretty conventional building as far as with having the pits there. Yes. That's the one that didn't initially meet design review, right? Was it this building or the other one? It was it was it was actually it was the bank that does didn't this building was it was pretty much an all brick. So this was met design review initially right as far as that goes. But I think are you concerned about from the flood plane standpoint? Absolutely. Yeah. Um as far as

I mean from what Jerome described if it was a full basement like my building was over there it it would be full. Yeah. Well if you remember uh Old Nashville Highway was closed at Stewart Creek. Yep. at at the overpass at Lee Victory. But that was like a 500 750 year storm. Yeah, that was that was a major storm. Yeah. HG, your experience, how loud is it? Um the building I know you have the grease guns and that type of thing that that How loud is it? Uhhuh. Is it very loud the operation? It's not as loud as the train. Okay. Well, Uh-huh.

You know, like pet boys. It it probably would have been pretty pretty loud guns and all that, but it wouldn't be anything like that, right? Very seldom do they even use air guns anymore, you know. Okay. Other questions or comments? And and Kevin, it was pretty sure that one was going to be the oil change, but we're not sure about the other one. Is that correct? I think it's fairly I think they're pretty well set that it probably is going to be a bank. It wouldn't even be open on Sunday. Be restricted to that. So, yeah, the bank wouldn't even be open on Sunday, right?

So, is the oil change the exception to the the C2 with the hospitality, retail, restaurant because Okay, I was going to say I didn't think that that actually fit into those categories. Yeah, the C that's that is the the the the reason this is in front of you. If this is because of the the the oil change business. Yes. If this was a bank and a restaurant, it would be fine. They there would have been a site plan submitted to to planning commission only, right? It would been allowed in and we do have the oil there is an oil change business across the street at the Seven Oaks. That That's correct. Okay. Has just gone up in what the last three or four years? Yes. Okay.

I did ask him too, Raquel, about that Christian brothers that we had approved some many years ago and sounds like they're pretty much gone, right? They were in front of the public's parking lot, right? They were on the off kind of on the Amville road side of the public's building. We we've actually have been contacted. That's that may be coming in next month or soon for to change it back to a C2 zoning for a more C2 compliant use. So, you don't see that really coming to fruition? Based on what we've heard, we've had conversations last few days, couple days with somebody. Other questions or comments?

Seeing none, do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve with y'all going to have to help me with these conditions because there is a few one being certain that we have an agreement in place. Um that the elevations of the bank building are correct. Um was there anything else y'all? Roadway elevation. the roadway elevation and well, what are we asking for with the roadway elevation? What are we asking for there?

Well, I guess are we going to allow an exception since it's a private road? Um, or are we going to keep it the same standards of other public safety roads? The church has another way in and out. This is this is their secondary entrance there. This is going to be their only entrance.

Kevin, can you speak or somebody speak to that? Because it's a private road. It's not one of our roads. So, can anybody address that to help us understand that a little bit better? I I don't know if we if we because it's a private road. I think what I'd like to understand from staff, which I don't know if we have the answer tonight, is if we can have them make changes to the private road that already exists. Right.

And so that's something that I think we need to take a look at. I think that between that and the agreement, um, ensuring that we have the agreement, especially in light of the information that you guys provide tonight. Um, I would be comfortable with researching that before a decision was made. I think we would you want to be careful if you obviously if you elevate the road are you creating a dam to cause an issue one way or the other and that sort of thing. So we'd have to look at all those things. And can this road potentially continue on or does it stop here? It goes through the church to the church, doesn't it? It goes through the church property and actually connects back over to So if you elevate just this section, what are you creating on the old part that's not going to be elevated?

Right. That's what Yeah. I mean, I know it's I know that it crosses it it it it elevates as you go back. I know because the church property is higher. So, I mean, at some point it it gets out of the flood plane anyway on its own already. Um, and it does connect through Mr. Dempsey was talking about, they have access from Tridon Drive as well. So, there it connects through all the way to Tridon through their property. Um it kind of runs basically like a frontage road along the Lee victory there to their

My only concern is the public safety part of it. Um you know is there an agreement that during an event that they can traverse through the church um parking lot, you know, to to get out. I don't know if that road is not if that road was flooded, they wouldn't be able to get to the church parking lot anyway because they have to come out potentially depending on what flooded. Yeah, you could potentially not be able to get to the back either. I guess at this point we don't even know if the road is above or below the flood plane, right? As the map shows on the FEMA map, the adopted map, it is in the flood plane. It's in it, but is it up above or below?

Oh, it would be below the flood plane. It would be the elevation would as as FEMA has mapped the flood plane up, which sometimes are not completely accurate, but as FEMA has mapped the flood plane, the road is in the in the 100-year flood plane. Well, I understand that underneath the elevation. Okay. Yes. Because I I understand it's in the plane, but do we know that it hasn't already been built up enough that it's above the elevation? That's what I'm getting. We don't know that. I guess we wouldn't know that 100% because we based on what? Unless we measured it. How would we know? We would have you would have to would have to have the topo surveys to to show exactly what the elevations of the property are, what the elevation of the road is and what FEMA is saying the 100-y year flood elevation is at that location. Right.

Yeah. Because I mean obviously the part where it connects to Lee Victory is at the right level, right? So unless it goes down, right? I think I would like to withdraw my motion. It never got seconded or anything. Yes. get a few of these issues settled before we move forward with that. So, is your motion to defer? Um, that wasn't what it said. Okay. So, no, you have no motion at all. I'll move to defer just to make you happy. It's not going to make me happy. I just We're going to have to do something. Yeah. So, we got to have a motion to do something. So, is it to defer? Yes. Until these three items are worked out.

Okay. So, we have a motion to defer until those items are worked out. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any other discussion or anything else someone wants? Do those three items need to be listed in the deferment? Jeffrey? Well, I think you've stated them enough that you just say with uh as per the discussion, which is the agreement in place, the uh elevations on the bank and the uh roadway elevation question in the agreement. Yes. as we said first. Oh, sorry. Have a motion and a second to defer. Any other discussion? All in favor of deferral say I.

Any opposed? Motion is deferred. Item two is consideration of an ordinance amending the smart the text of the Smrna Municipal Zoning Ordinance Article 4 supplemental supplementary provisions applying to specific districts section 4.01.2.B regarding parking requirements for elementary and middle schools. Kevin.

Yeah. This is a a zoning ordinance amendment that staff brought forward. Um we had had some conversations with a a charter school that's looking locating here within the town. Um and they asked us to take a look at it um for um the properties that they were looking at. Uh they looked at our requirements for parking and and brought up to me that ours are considerably higher than the surrounding communities. uh they actually provided did my research for me and provided that to me. I took that but I also did my own um and I did kind of put a memorandum and information together for the planning commission which I included in your packet. Um we looked at those surrounding communities uh and kind of applied their requirements uh to kind of some hypothetical schools. Uh, and because of that, um, I did recommend to the planning commission that the requirements for elementary and middle schools be amended, but not changing the high schools or vocational trade schools. Um, I also recommended we be clean up the section a bit to better reflect how schools are typically built with regards to grade levels. Um, and so that did presented it to the planning commission. They did recommend approval and so we would recommend it to you as well.

Questions for Kevin on this? Do I have a motion? Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to ask one question. So, this is going to make it consistent for all schools, whether public or charter, whatever the situation is, this new chart. It's just regardless of private school, charter, public, whatever it is. Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Item B is consider of a resolution revising the updated Town of Smyrna logo. We talked about this at the uh workshop. Any questions on this? Seeing none, do it's just got a swoop. Yeah, it's got the extra swoop. it. I think it used Jerry's and my campaign color. So, I really like that. Yeah. There you go. So, do we have a motion on this? I'll make a motion to approve. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? Heather, you did a good job. Sorry. Did you want to Good. Okay.

All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item C is consideration of an ordinance relative to an update to the sewer use ordinance. Uh yes, ma'am. So the update to the sewer use ordinance came about by a pre-treatment audit inspection at the wastewater plant. It's basically updating language that was required by Tekk. Some of them being referencing codes that we currently already do, but the old codes were listed in the ordinance. So we've updated those as well. Questions for Mike on this? I know we had some questions at the workshop, but I think they were pretty well answered. Seeing none, do we have a motion? So move. A motion. Do we have a second?

Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item D is consideration of an appointment of one member to the board of zoning appeals to serve a three-year term ending in 2029. Um these appointment this appointment is made by the town council nomination and majority confirmation. We have had one person apply Wayne Blair which glad to see that he's back in the town limits of Smyrna. And since we have one uh position open and only one applicant all in favor of Wayne Blair say I.

Any opposed? Congratulations Wayne Blair. Item E is consideration of an appointment of one member to the sister city relations committee to serve an unexpired term ending in 2028. Um this is members are nominated by the mayor and confirmed by majority vote of the town council. We did have two no yes two people Gregory Creasy and Kelly Tilton. I will um put forth Gregory Cesy. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? Congratulations, Gregory Cesy. At this point, we are now to our public comment period. This is the town's public comment period and shall be reserved for those citizens that have signed up to address the town council or a board or committee at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting pursuant to the town's public comment policy as outlined above. Tonight we have three people that are going to address the council when you come forward. And I know it's a little nerve-wracking. If you will state your name, your address, and if you live in the town limits, and then Miss Amber over there, who's our timekeeper, she is on it for three minutes. So, you'll have three minutes to address the council. And if you forget, I'll remind you when you come up. I know, like I said, it can be a little nerve-wracking. So, our first person tonight is Thomas Crowe on the expansion into Lake Farm subdivision by trucking company. If you'll come forward and if you'll state name, address, and if you live in the town limits.

Thank you. Uh my name is Tommy Crowe and I live at 202 Deer Road. Uh I do live in the city limits. Thank you, Robert Mullins. I haven't been here since he was here and he brought us in and that was my last meeting. Someone told me today I haven't had anything to complain about since then. Well, I'm not here to complain about that trucking company on Enan Springs Road East. Um, I'm all for industry trucking. My son works for Nissan. I love all those people, but what I don't love is the noise. And lately, I haven't heard much. I probably because of the codes and your efforts, but uh I remember we bought that house in 1992. So, I've raised my children in the Smyrna schools and now grandchildren. I have a grandson in 11th grade at Smyrna High School. And uh so we we're vested in the community. That's an older community. Uh we we we're spending a lot of money to keep upgrade that house. My neighbors are my next door neighbors putting in one of those above ground pools and they put in patios and covered patios and we're trying to that's where we live. Well, you can imagine where I'm going. I don't know what that trucking company's doing, but as you guys know, they've leveled the trees along u Lake Farms Road. And of course, those trees were a wonderful buffer between our neighborhood and that industry. In fact, it was it was so dramatic in the in the uh in the winter when the leaves fell off the trees, I could hear backup alarms, trucking noise, and when the summer came in, it buffered it quite a bit. And of course, it was even pastoral. There were there was a stand of deer in there and it was very nice. But now we see the big trucking company and I again I don't know what they're doing. I got a letter from 504 Lake Farms Road and the family told me they said that there was an intrusion upon the with the trucking company. Well, since we've talked a bit, I don't know what's going on there, but clearly this

is a residential neighborhood and clearly we want to keep it that way and we really don't want to live against a parking lot of truck trailers. Again, I don't know what their plans are, but what I would like is I would like continued and more noise abatement. Cuz if you've ever been woken up 2 or 3 in the morning and all of us, anybody here of any age, it's hard to sleep all night and hear that beep beep beep beep and I hear HG's train, but somehow that's soothing. I can't explain that. Johnny Cash, I guess, but the backup arms are not soothing. And then if you've ever heard their steel ramp hit a concrete barrier, oh my goodness, that at night that carries so far. And I thought, if I ever sold that house, do I tell people that's what they're going to hear all night? I don't know. But I'm just whatever they're doing, I want them to abide by the law and the codes. And like the minister prayed, all of us, I just want to be a good neighbor. And I want them to be a good neighbor. And one of the better things about living in that little neighborhood is it's so far away from anything. you you never see people walking except residents because if you walked out of Deer Road, you're going to walk miles before you even get to Walmart or a retail store. So, no one comes through our neighborhood and I really don't want industry backing up into that neighborhood. We we it's a nice place to live and we want it to stay that way and we want it quiet.

Three minutes, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you for your question. Absolutely. Um, just to kind of let you know, we kind of talked about this last time, but um, that is zoned residential on your side from the from their line that way. And I do not think anybody on this council or anybody on the planning commission would vote to reszone that to industrial, but it is their property and they do have a right to do what is allowed within residential, not what would be an industrial. And so just while we're at it, are there any updates from staff that we have at this time?

Not not really, mayor. I I can say that we did, and I I hope that the residents confirm this, that they did see um them mulching some of the debris piles out there recently. Um so that that's a positive step. And remind me again when that they have been cited to court. They are scheduled to go to court on April 23rd. Okay. And two issues, right? the noise and the noise and the and the light.

As of as of right now, we've we've found a vendor who can help us with the decibel measurements. Um, so we're waiting for a quote from them. It was a little difficult to find one that was reasonably priced. Um, but we were able to reach out to a uh a partner of ours in the community to to find that. So, we're working through that. The two issues that we're dealing with right now that they're going to court on are the debris piles and the lighting.

Um, Mr. Mr. Cro, just so you know, we have in we have instructed staff that everything that we can do possibly legally to make sure it's done because um if they were a good neighbor acting in good faith, I think those things would have already been taken care of. But since they're not, we're asking staff the minute that we can move to the next step that they do that. So, okay. Next, I was going to tell Mr. and anybody else in the audience. Uh I think it was April 2nd that we had our workshop due to the holiday if I'm not mistaken

the last meeting we had anybody can go on to town of smyrna.org and look up that April 2nd meeting and if you'll follow that meeting towards the end of that meeting you're going to see a lot of discussion that we've already had about that primarily of what the mayor just said. Steve and I sit on planning. The rest of the council here serves on different boards and committees, but I don't think there's a appetite for any of us to ever think that needs to be anything but residential. So, vice mayor, if I can add to that, um, everybody, when I emailed them to confirm their spot tonight to speak, I put a link to that meeting also with the timestamp of where it can start. So, if you haven't had a chance to review it, there should be a link in my email.

See, I don't know why I said anything. She's She always takes care of us. She takes care of the three minutes and getting information out. She does great. Okay. So, Pat Sely, also Lake Farm Road, neither in opposition or in favor. Hi. I should be in the 50 Forward group. My name is Pat Sy. I've lived for 47 years at 509 Lake Farm Road. So, I've got a lot of say in Smyrna. I've seen a lot of good things happen, a lot of bad things happen. And I am in the city limits.

Perfect. I spoke at the zoning meeting, the last meeting that we had, and I would have been here on April 2nd, but I didn't know that it was going to address this matter. Um, on Lake Farm Road, we are outraged. We're upset. Uh, and it's true. If they wanted to be good neighbors, they wouldn't have kind of surreptitiously done all this just scorched earth clearing of the property out there. And I appreciate everything that everybody I have talked to with the city of Smyrna, I've talked to Mr. San Tucci. I've talked to zoning and codes, Mitch Winsman. They've all been very helpful and I really appreciate everything that you're doing for us. Um, they haven't done anything with light abatement. They haven't done anything with noise abatement. Um, I can't understand um how the people that live on that side of the street, I live on the opposite so it shines on my front yard. I've lost use of my front yard at night. I used to go out there and look at the stars. I can't do that anymore. Um, and I can't imagine what it's like for those people trying to sleep in those houses that are backing up to that light show that's out there. Um, I wonder too, are there cameras on the back of that building that are intrusive into our privacy as citizens of the city of Smyrna? Nothing's been addressed about that so far, and I'd love to know what's happened. In the last meeting that I watched, um there was some confusion and some questions about uh places that had been grandfathered in and were there uh statutes that we could use and whatever. And it was pretty much you know given I think that Smyrna had grandfathered these people in and this is the first time something like this has happened. But can we not go back to state and county codes and see if there's something there that could help us or maybe even federal codes as far as environmental goes? Um, I really I think Mayor uh Reid said this at the last meeting. This is the first time this has ever happened in Smyrna. Well,

I'm imploring you. Let's make it the last. Let's make the zoning committee and the codes committee come up with codes and zoning uh zoning amendments that can prevent this from happening again. I was born in Detroit and this is how Detroit started with the automobile industry and encroachment and encroachment and encroachment and now it is just a wasteland. Um the whole city is just decimated where these places have come in done what they wanted and it disappeared. And u when I saw that about a zoning committee I was thinking oh man if they don't have anybody I'm going to sign up because I want to do that. I don't have much time left to live in Smyrna. I'm 72 years old. Let's face it. I'm going to be going here before too much longer. But I want to see Smyrna left better than it was when I came here. And hey, three minutes is not up yet, Amber.

Thank you so much. Okay. Um, next is Katherine Taylor. Speed humps and traffic concerns, children's safety issues. Hello. Hi. So, my name is Katherine Taylor. I go by Katie. Okay. Um, and I do live at 3910 Henrik's Hill. And, um, I it is in the city limit. Thank you.

Um, so since the neighborhood connecting uh, Henrik's Hill opened, um, Hendricks Hill has become a speed zone and it's nerve-wracking to back out of your own driveway. Um, I'm anxious when my small children want to play outside and mailboxes up and down our street are being replaced constantly. Twice this year, I have personally witnessed a speeding vehicle run through the bus stop um while I was out there with my child. Um, and just last week, I watched from my front porch while my seven-year-old son had to jump out of the way while the stop sign was out while a speeding truck ran through the stop sign and almost hit him at a at a bus stop. And this truck was going so fast I couldn't even get the tags. So, I called the police. Something has to be done to slow down the traffic on our road that's now cutting through our once peaceful neighborhood. We have a large volume of children that play outside um around the soccer field because we live right across from the middle school. Not to mention all the kids that walk to and from school every day. My nephew being one of them. He lives next door. We've already had too many close calls right in front of my house, including um actual incidents in the area where children have been hit. We need stop signs at intersections to force vehicles to slow down. Um, one at LaRa where my son's bus stop is would have prevented this almost incident. Please, um, have someone come place stop signs. That would be great. Um, I've been directed by many to public works and I've actually spoken with Tom. He's great. Um, and I've been directed to the speed bump application and and I do have some

concerns with this process that I'd like to share. Um, one, I'm not an engineer. Um, and I don't know the best placement for where speed bumps actually need to go or how far apart the bumps need to be for our street to be effective and I don't have the time to do a proper study either. We are taxpaying citizens who live on a city street and I believe that the city should be responsible for that type of thing. The next comes the petition. every neighbor within a thousand feet must sign the um the form. Um and Tom did explain some of this to me, but if we need more than one bump, do people have to sign multiple petitions? Um this is a timeconuming process. Um there has to be a more efficient way. And third, and finally, I know you probably expect this concern, but the cost. Paying 60% of the cost of one bump is a lot, and one bump is not going to fix it. uh asking our neighbors to come up with the cost for multiple bumps, again, how we're supposed to know how many we even need. Um is is a lot. And when gas is $4 a gallon, daycare costs is a mortgage payment, and two incomes are needed to survive, it's it's unrealistic. How can we protect our children if the city is setting us up to fail?

Three minutes. Mayor, thank you so much, Miss Taylor. We appreciate it. I do want to say real quick, the police have been on our street and they've already written nine citations.

Great. Thank you so much. Um, so Tom, just for some of those that may not know, can you come up and talk a little bit about the process and kind of why we put the petition thing in place because I know we've put some in in um neighbor that they have gone through the process and done um put in speed bumps and then some neighbors didn't want them in their neighborhoods. they didn't want to see them. So, can you talk a little bit about the process?

So, whenever we get a concern about speeding in neighborhoods, we certainly talk to uh police. We get them involved. Uh they'll come out and do um maybe start start cighting people. Uh we can also do a speed study as well. We've done that before. It's uh last speed study I did on Hendricks Hill to Lamura was about 11 months ago. Just kind of see what the uh what the speeding is through there. We also did a traffic count at Henrix Hill and Lam Moore to see if it warranted a always stop condition and it did not. Now, as far as um and and and Miss uh Miss Taylor's correct, there's more development going on and as development uh and more houses get built out, more people are on the roads, it may trigger uh some of these intersections to become an all-way stop. So, we're still evaluating that year after year. As far as specifically on the speed humps go, uh you're right, there are some people who would love to have a speed hump in a location. Then there are some people who don't want that. So, in order to kind of canvas the area and get an understanding of if people would want it or not, you know, we ask people to talk to their neighbors, you know, go through their HOA if there is one, look within a thousand feet of where they would like a speed hump to go. Sometimes they ask me where a good location would be and I I talked to Miss Taylor about some recommendations that I would have on an area so that she gets an idea of where the thousand plus minus feet would go. And uh you know it can be kind of noisy. So someone who lives right outside of where the speed hump's going to go, they may hear thump thump thump thump thump thump. And like the gentleman mentioned with the backup uh alarms, it may not be something that people want to hear about. Now not all 100% of people have to agree to the speed hump in that area. I think it's twothirds of them have to agree that yes, that's the location that they would like it and sign on the petition that they approve for speed hump to go in that location. And then at that point, you know, they can make that submittal to public works department.

We'll do the study. We'll evaluate if it's good location, make sure there's a good line of sight for any uh speed hump signage that we may need to put up to warn people that there's speed hump coming up. And then uh just getting getting the funding on that. Uh it is a 60/40 split. 60 for the residents and 40 for the town for just purchasing the speed hump. Um so it's about $2,500 on their part and a little over $2,000 for our part, but we also will pay for all the labor, the installation and uh signs that go up on each side of it to alert people to what's going on. Um and then at beyond that, we maintain it. So when we come back later, if we're going to be fixing the road, doing any any milling and resurfacing, we'll pull that up and at no expense to that neighborhood, we'll pay we'll have our people put that uh speed hump back down to in the same location.

I know you said the amount of traffic doesn't warrant the four-way stop at this point, but in regards to speed, do you see that that may now be warranted?

Uh, we can look at it again. I can do another speed study on to see what the speeding is like in that area. And certainly as this area develops and you get more connectivity through Woodmont subdivision and there's two other subdivisions, I can't think of the name of them, but they're developing out connecting to I think Skinner and uh another road uh that ties into Henrik's Hill and goes through there. So certainly we can do a speed study again. We can look at turning movements at Lamora and Henrik's Hill. And it's not just speeding and u uh volume. is is not necessarily just the volume of traffic on both roads. It can be one of the roads has a higher volume of traffic. It can be amount of time it takes uh for people to turn uh off of that road. And it can also be based on accidents if we have a certain number of accidents within a period of time. We can add uh there's I think five different warrants for a traffic for an always stop condition. So, we can certainly review those again and see if it warrants it.

Great. Um, Chief, I appreciate y'all had already gotten on it by the time that I had emailed you. I think Amber had emailed you. I think you'd gotten multiple emails. Um, so I appreciate and I keep getting the emails um daily almost of citations that you all have written in um in this neighborhood. So, I appreciate you getting your people on it. So, I have a question. Sure. How did we come up with a policy of 6040 splint?

So a few years ago when we started looking at speed humps, we we knew that we were getting a significant number of requests ahead of time. So I looked at what city Murphersboro, Franklin, Brentwood, other communities in our area was doing. I met with uh I think it was either Jeff or it was Jason at the time, Jason King at the time, and just kind of looked at what we thought would be a reasonable approach on a speed hump policy and we mimic pretty closely to what Murphersboro does and I think it went to council for approval after that. Yeah. And

I felt like so what happened then was we were having multiple communities like I mean uh neighborhoods that said that they wanted these and we were footing the bill for some of them and then you would then they wanted them out. So as many neighbors that said they wanted them, you had that many that said no, we don't want them, we want them out. So, we were trying to have a way for them to have skin in the game, but also with the petitions talk to neighbors because what they may find is more neighbors don't want them than do. And so that way it's them getting out in their immediate neighborhood and asking the questions. Yeah, I had a situation I spoke with Dave about at Stewart's Valley in Rosemont right there about requesting and um the application was sent out and you know a lot of people you know hesitant to go beat on doors and everything but I get you know a lot of people don't want it but some people do so I get the majority but Dave and I also spoke about you know maybe there's some alternatives rumble strips you know um slow down kids at play or or whatever. And I know we put some signs out at Foxland uh drive out there because there was a playground um at the church and that seemed to have helped considerably some of those signs. One of the things about the signage, because we've had different ones ask about signage, and Jeff, you may be able to speak a little bit to some of the signage that people want that it creates the false sense of protection. So, can you talk a little bit? Well, actually probably knows even more, but I think it's the MUTCD that basically uh warns uh against like I think we've had some with uh child with

autism in the area, blind children in the area. Uh and so the comments from those scientific studies that at least for the MUTCD is that uh after the first week or so of those signs uh the passerbys don't pay attention to them. that can give a false sense of security uh to the folks that are responsible for the people they're intended to help. You know anymore, Tom? Is that

Yeah, that's very much it. I mean, it's it does create that false sense of security. The one where we put the children play near the playground was because that is an area where children congregate, but just to put it on a street because kids live there. talking about this case here referencing uh Rock Springs Middle, but if the kids are going from that neighborhood over to Rock Springs Middle, um that's playground area. That's the soccer field.

You know, one of the things back to Chief, I think he said nine citations. We had this happen in a neighborhood, I don't know, seven or eight months ago over off of Chicken Pie and they showed up over there. Some of the complainers are the ones you cited if I'm not mistaken. Right.

They came in here complaining about uh running stop signs and and they they actually the ones that got cited. So, uh I'm not I'm not making fun, Katie. That's not what I mean. My my point is this. When they showed up over there, I go to church with a couple of people living there. And they they come to me often now and said, "That's the best remedy we could have ever had was police presence." Now, if you've got people running through a bus stop sign, that's that's dangerous. That's somebody's going to really get hurt like that. I'm sorry your son had to deal with that, but uh that's just people who don't mind the law. You know, it's we've got a lot of crazy people out there. I hate to say it, but

they've been wonderful, but it's been there during the bus. Well, so I think uh I hope that what they're doing out there now, they can show a little show of force over there for a time. It'll teach those people that are violating the law. I guess I better be careful going over the hill today because they might be sitting there waiting on Well, and Tom, if you could follow back up and and look at the stop stop signs and all that, that'd be beneficial.

That's where I was just kind of waiting on a second. Um, so can you help me understand just the thought process? Um, you said that the traffic counts. Don't horn a stop sign. I looked at Google Maps and and Katie's house happens to be right between two streets that intersect Hendricks Hill and neither street Hendricks Hill doesn't stop at either one of those streets. So, um I understand that there may not be enough cars to warrant it, but nine citations on that road seems sure like it would warrant a stop sign somewhere. And I get it. They're running stop bus stops. That's not going to stop. They're lawb breakakers,

but but they're but that's one or two folks possibly and not all of them. I I just don't I don't really understand the reluctance to stick a stop sign up whether accounts supported or not if we've got nine citations on that road in just a couple of days. Well, when when he I was sitting there looking at it with him and like they said, you can see where it's used as a through street, you know, to get to get between uh between Montgomery Way and Road. And I that's what I was looking at on maps as she was speaking about how it kind of developed that way. And it unfortunately or fortunately she's got nice wide streets in her neighborhood and those nice wide streets look like a racetrack.

Yeah. And um so that that's my only thing is engineering wise, traffic countwise, technically it may not warrant it, but if we got nine citations, there's clearly a need to get people to stop. Even if we stick it up and it stops half of those, we've reduced it, right? That's what my thought is. But you guys do your thing. If we'll just take a look at it. That would be great. We will. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um Sierra, other you going to talk a little bit? Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh. Uh wait, I'm sorry, Sierra, you're on down. Uh other

Okay. Um, I wanted to look at the comprehensive plan and the update on that. I know that there are some things going on with it and so I wanted to hear about that and also the steering committee. Okay.

Yeah, we we have um working with our consultants and all we put did put together a steering committee uh of folks um looking to add still one or two more potentially there um on that. Um so we we did put that together and then their their first meeting is next week and then on that same day on it's on next Tuesday which I think is on one of the the announcements at the end we are having our first open house um at the event center also which is just an opportunity for anyone who wants to come and and speak and to provide input. Um, it's going to be kind of a an open house, kind of a drop in with stations. We can talk about land use for transportation or whatever issue you're concerned about or all of them. Um, and so that'll be next Tuesday as well at 6. It's from 6:00 to 7:30.

So, the open house is from 6:00 to 7:30, correct? Okay. At the Smarty Event Center. Smarty Event Center. Yes. Okay. How did you how were were the participants on this steering committee chosen? Um well again we had the our consulting kind had some categories of folks they thought it'd be good to have uh different with the school board and just different folks on that committee and and so um I worked with Mr. Sanucci and I, we kind of came up with some some names um and and just asked folks if they were interested and and so that's that's really how we came up with the names as far as the specific people.

Okay. So, we didn't have like a policy in place or just a a process to come up with these individuals. Y'all just decided on who you had been given some names or I'm just trying to understand how well for narrowed it down to they wanted I think individuals uh like individuals from the planning council they wanted an individual from uh the school board they wanted what are some of the other categories Kevin if you can remember

we were trying to find and this is still one we're trying to a kind of a local business owner was one I think that was one we're still working on um someone from the the like the Chamber of Commerce uh IDB. So we have Mr. Kmax's going to be there. Um gosh, I think we uh they wanted somebody from the airport authority. Airport authority. Yeah. Sil is going to be a part of it. Um um with some just some local a couple local property owners. I know Veronica Buchanan's one of them. She has her family has some property here as one. Um gosh, I think she had some experience on uh planning with the county. Is that correct? Right. Yeah. You got Trey Lee from school board,

right? From school system. Um I was just looking Jason Serat. Mhm. With the housing authority, right? The housing authority. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's I think you mentioned everybody. Yeah. So they all serve on some they serve some specific purpose related to other town areas. It sounds like are you we have I think it's nine people that are on the steering committee. Are there any citizens that do not fit that? just say voluntary citizens from different parts of town that are going to be

we could certainly look we we could certainly look if we want to add other folks like I said we're looking for for for like local business type person is still one I think we had a name that we haven't had had been able to contact yet um with one of our downtown businesses um but I'm I'm certainly open you don't want to have 100 people on a committee you don't want to get too big I understand we don't want 100 but nine And I I these people that you've told me already, which I have no problem with any of them. I just wanted to understand how they were chosen and if any um for lack of a better way to say it, layman citizens are going to be chosen because I think that's important too. Sure.

Is to have some people who aren't always involved in the process to be able to give a different insight. You want a good cross-section. Yeah. Yeah. and and I'm I agree completely about a good having a good cross-section of folks and I'm I'm completely open. I think nine is I don't think there's not a magic number that we're going for. I just don't want to okay add too many but certainly I would be happy to add if there's some other folks that are interested want to be be involved. I think I would be happy to to add a you know a couple more people to the committee. I think that would be good. You know I don't have any issue with that at all. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. So, if council has anybody they'd like to put forth, why don't we send those today? Okay. Okay. Um, anything else under other Sierra February? Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um sales tax numbers came in for both state shared and local sales tax slightly below um this month last year, but so far we're on track. State shared tax came in at 665,000. The next slide shows local sales tax came in at a little over 1.5 1.5 million.

Questions for Sier on this number? I know. Agree. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Um, any correspondents or announcements before we move on? Okay. Amber? Oh, he must need money. He's already spent it. He's already spent it. Already spent it.

Yep. So, I need to announce an emergency purchase for the water treatment plant. Uh, at the Mason Tucker booster station, we were having an issue with one of the pumps falting out. We thought it was the VFD drive, but after we brought in some motor control specialists and motor specialists, it is one of the motors on one of the big pumps. So, what we've done is we've purchased a new pump and we are having the old pump rewound to give us a spare cuz the other pump there is 18 years old as well. So, uh, the total that is for Southwest Electric Company and the total amount for both of those is $34,541.

That includes a rewind in the old one. Correct. And again, Mason Tucker does serve Sam Ridley in the hospital. Just FYI. Did they figure out what was causing it? It's something in the pump itself or the motor itself. I know a lot of those old motors didn't have insulated bearings and if you use VFDs they cause arc to the bearing. I'll be honest with you, I didn't dig into the explanation that much, but it will take some time to rewind the pump

and the fear is it goes completely out when we get into this warmer weather like we're seeing. Both pumps have to run, right? Okay, other questions. Thanks, Mike. Amber, my name Dave.

Yes. I have a couple announcements tonight, Mayor. Uh, the first, I just want to recognize all of our, uh, public safety telecommunication workers this week, um, as it is telecommunication telecommunicators week. Uh we proudly recognize their dedication and the way that they serve in such a calm, steady voice uh on the other end of 911 being the very first voice you hear in an emergency situation. Um at they are the first point of contact for an emergency. They assist callers who are often in distress making split decision split-second decisions that are crucial to saving lives and protecting property. These highly skilled professionals gather vital information, assess situations, dispatch first responders, and manage ongoing incidents, all while remaining calm, compassionate, and focused under pressure. So, I just want to recognize them. Um second, uh FEMA recently just announced that uh our county has uh been declared for individual assistance, which means that if individuals have been affected, uh by winter storm Fern, they can apply through FEMA. Uh some of the things that they uh may cover include um support for temporary housing, home repairs, lowinterest loans, and other recovery needs that individuals experience during that storm. If you are affected and would like to file a claim, um your first line of defense is your insurance provider and then you may apply through FEMA. Uh we have the web address and the phone number here up on this slide and that's how individuals um can apply for that. This does not go through the county and this does not go through the town. You have to contact FEMA directly. Um but we have been notified that this um has become available which is which is very good

for those that were affected. Um if you re rely on services like uh VRS, caption phone, etc. Be sure to provide FEMA with your service number. Also want to announce that beginning tomorrow, uh, SRNA Town Hall will be an early voting polling location. The voting hours are going to be Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturdays 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. When voting at town hall, please enter through the rear parking lot off of Pinto Drive and follow posted signage. Don't forget to bring your valid state or federal government issued ID. For more information, you can go to Rutherford County TN.gov.

And just so you know, there are nine polling locations across the Rutherford County and you can go to any polling location. If you live in Smyrna, you don't have to go to one of the two in Smyrna. You can go to any one across the county. So, they've made it really easy for us to go vote. So,

uh, this one we've already discussed, but here's the information again for our first public opportunity, uh, to to provide input into Vision Smrna 20 240, our comprehensive plan that'll take place on Tuesday, April 21st from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sura Event Center. This will not be the only opportunity. There'll be there'll be other opportunities for public input as we go through this process. And the last Kevin may have said, but when do we plan on having that finished up? While Kevin's coming up here, Casey, can you send us an invite for that, please? Thank you. The the goal is to have that finished by the end of this calendar year.

Thank you, sir.

Last, but certainly not least, I'm proud to share of some outstanding news uh with all of you. of the town of Simra has recently been named the 2026 USA Today top workplaces winner. Uh what makes this recognition especially meaningful is that it's based entirely on employee feedback. There's no outside judges. This award reflects what you said our employees about working here, their experience and our culture. Out of organizations across the country, only a select few of our size uh received this honor, placing SMRA among an elite group of employers nationwide. This says a lot. It speaks to the professionalism that uh our staff brings to the workplace every day, the culture we've built, one rooted in service, teamwork, and accountability. Um I want to personally thank our staff and our council for the role they played in this achievement. Um whether serving residents on the front lines uh support operations behind the scene scenes or leading team uh this recognition certainly belongs to all of us. So

great job Jeff

Jerome have a public service announcement. Um, the Smyrna Fire and Police Departments are excited to bring back the Police and Fire Youth Academy for 2026. Uh, the dates are June 1st through June 5th, 2026. This fun, hands-on academy is designed for kids ages 8 through 13, giving them a behindthescenes look at what it takes to serve and protect their community. Spots are limited 50 students and fill quickly. Priority is given to town of Smyrna residents and firsttime participants. You can apply at the town's website www.town.org in HG. I think you exceed the uh age limit.

You were kid. Not if it's middle. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. That was for earlier when you were not nice. Sorry. Behind your name tag see. That's right. That's right. Point it at me. I know. Jerome teed it up too easy. He teed it up too easy. Okay, Jerome. Are you done, Jerome? Yes. Okay. Yes. Can't beat that.

Raquel. Okay. So, save the date for opening day of the Smyrna depot farmers market. It will open up on May the 9th and applications are still being accepted for vendors. If you are interested in being a vendor, please contact carpartista.com. Um and if you are interested in information on the vendors that will be there, you are welcome to contact um carpayartista.comfarmers-market. That's all I have. That's it. G.

Okay. Hey, I have an event which should really truly appeal to Mary Esther and Jerome. Um, it's the sixth annual kids safety day and we have this every year. Uh, I'm not sure how many how many years have we done this, Mike? Do you know? 16. Huh? Look. So, we did it before because it says sixth annual. It does say sixth annual. Good call. Good call. I was too Hey, I was too excited about getting Jerome and Marian. I was really confused. I don't want to give any benefit of the doubt for a while. Thank you guys. There's that whole middle thing we're working right there.

What can we say? What can we say? But I do want to point out that this is a uh an event which is um sponsored by Tristar Stonerest and Smarter Police Department, Smarter Parks and Recreation and other community partners. Um, bring your family to the Smyrna Outdoor Adventure Center on Saturday, May 2nd from 9 to 1 for hands-on safety education and activities designed to help keep your children safe. Event highlights include bike giveaways, free bicycle helmets while supplies last, car seat safety checks, fire, water, and bicycle safety education, inflatables, face painting, balloon artist, Jerome, uh indoor rock climbing, and so much more. This free event is a great opportunity to connect with local safety experts while enjoying a fun day with your family. We look forward to seeing you there. To learn more and register, visit www.triarhealth.com. Uh, next year we'll have the seventh annual one. I also have love where you live. Let's um try to keep our trash where it needs to be. Um, up in the right hand corner you'll see the recycle, right? Tennessee um emblem and it is so easy to recycle out at the uh the convenience center. You just carry it out there and and uh uh it it's single stream so you just have to toss the recycles here and your regular garbage in the other one. And uh also like to uh always end up with shop local. And then you know we have this special little emblem. Where's the camera? But it's for Mary Esther to be kind.

Jerome, you ought to try it, too. It goes a long way. I was mean. I I apologize. I shouldn't have said that. I know. But then I walk right into the next one. So, what can we say? You did. You kind of proved my point. That's okay. He was a good sport. He was a good sport. Um, speaking of Tristar Stone Crest, we actually um got to meet Ryan Lamaster today. He is um head of Stone Crest now and he's actually been on the job one week. So if you're down at Stone Crest um look around, you may see Ryan wander in the halls, but we're excited to have him at Stone Crest. So Jerry,

okay, I have something as well. Uh we all I say we, I'm talking about the council and the mayor um was able to attend the Easter egg hunt and uh we had a wonderful time. Uh we um at this ma fire and police egg hunt. Thank you to our fire and police department for creating such a fun and memorable day to our community. I know we were there and excuse me within five minutes all of those 20some thousand eggs were gone. Um I tell you what, they they swept them up faster than a Roomba. And uh it was uh it was a lot of fun. I don't know how many times or how many years we've done this. So, it's not it's not up there. So, I'm not I'm not really sure how many years we've done it, but we've done it for a long time. Uh but, um it's always a fun time and uh the fire department, police department does a fantastic job getting this, uh set up. Um, I get tickled that everybody lined up and they're supposed to wait until the countdown and and and one will go and then the rest will go and then Mary Esther will have to get them back in line again and start all over. But it's just a fun time. So, thank you for uh for doing that. And um I had a son that had a birthday yesterday, so happy birthday to him. And I got a daughter-in-law that's got one coming up in a couple of weeks. So, but that's all I've got. Thank you. You had a son just had some surgery, too. So, we're thinking of him and he's an employee of our town, too. So,

he uh he's doing well. He came home right before I left here and he's staying at our house for a few days while he recuperates, but he is doing good. Thank you. Good. Good, Steve.

All right. Also have a slide. Um, Smyrna residents can opt out of door-to-door commercial solicitations um from permitted solicitors by registering their address. Uh, each property owner must register individually and you can sign up at town.org/nossolicitation. Um, there's also, uh, and I don't know if they're at the front desk or how you get them, but there's also a nice logo decal that you can stick on your door to let folks know that you're on the list. Uh, I have one on my door and uh, so far, no one has knocked. Had one today. Yeah. Do you have a logo? I showed them the logo. They left. Okay.

Yeah. So, it works for me. talk can you talk a little bit about very quickly exactly if you are on the list and somebody comes to your door what we need to do

um so with this list obviously it's an optin you can add and and you can come up here and get the sticker you can ask for me or I'll have some up front with Miss Jan uh that can be picked up as well uh if a solicitor comes to your door if you decide that you want to answer the door you always have the option not to but if you decide that you want to answer the door. I would um say it's well within your purview to ask them to see their approved permit from the town of Smyrna. Each person that is uh out knocking on doors is supposed to be going through our application process which then runs through our police department for a background check and chief actually signs off on those. So they should have a copy of their identification on them and then they should also have a copy of their approved permit on their person at all times. So, if they do not um there's another form on this same page where you can actually report an infraction um or report a solicitor that is not permitted and uh Mr. Sanuchcci and I go through that list every so often and we actually send out draft letters um to them basically saying either you've knocked on a door of somebody that's on our no solicitation list, please refrain from doing that or you don't have your permit at all to be soliciting in the town of Smyrna. Please come and get that permit or you could be subject to penalties.

Great. because I know I've heard from a couple of people that um the solicitors are started since it's warm and some of them don't have permits. They do not. Yep. I I'm getting calls daily for uh people that are trying to apply to get their solicitors permit. So, it's good that we're getting calls that people are learning what our process is now for the application process. Um, but also I've been making sure that I I make them knowledgeable of of this new process that we have and the uh list has been updated as of April 1 and I have a reminder to update that on the website quarterly.

Well, one of the biggest things is they have to have a background check. Correct. And so to me, that's one of the most important things if they're going to be in our neighborhoods and knocking on people's doors, they need to have that background check. So, correct. The only other thing is um all of the uh spring athletic leagues has started. If you haven't been by a park in the last week or two, they are full. Um come out and enjoy uh the the nice weather that we've been having and uh support your grandson, grandchild, son, daughter, neighbor, cousin, whatever you got. Come out and support them. That's it. Great.

Couple slides I have. Uh, congratulations to 1800 Water Damage and Unique Kids Childc Care Center on their recent ribbon cutings. Welcome to Smyrna to both of those great companies. And the second one, enjoy our Mother's Day buffet on Sunday, May 10th. Seating times are 11, 12:30, and 12:45 to 2:15. Enjoy a full buffet, fresh salad bar, and a variety of homemade desserts. Pricing is there. You can I think you can see it. $29.95 tax included for adults 6 to 127.95 and ages 5 and under eat for free. You probably need reservations. Uh that fills up rather quickly. It's 615459444. Uh in addition to that, couple things. I want to say thank you to all of our uh directors and all of our employees. You're probably going to get to this. some might be stealing your thunder, but we just uh the council and all of our staff met Thursday and Friday of last week at our annual budget retreat, pouring over the numbers of the town and making sure we're doing things that meet our citizens needs and supplying them those services. So Dave to you, Amber and Casey, you guys, uh I know you did a lot of work behind the scenes. So

Heather,

Heather, too, Heather, you too. Um, I know that you guys put a lot of time and effort in getting it ready for us to do, but thank you guys for preparing all that and having it ready for us. Um, to our employees as well, you know, Dave just mentioned our employees appear to be happy people. They're the ones that filled out this uh this recent survey that won us the award as a top workplace and they're the ones that did it. It wasn't anybody here in the office filling out blank forms. So, uh to Trenton, hope it gets better. Uh, Miss Peach, she's at the hospital right now. Hope she gets better. And, uh, I had a friend, a lot of people may or may not know, I've been in the real estate business going on 39 years now. And a good friend of mine who I started in the business with passed away last week. His name was David Carroll. Many of you may or may not have known David Carroll. He's been in the business as long as I have, and a good guy. So, uh, my condolences to him and his family. Last but not least, uh we have a big celebration coming tomorrow and she is sitting in the back of the audience tonight and I always tease her, but tomorrow is Casey Connard's birthday. So, happy birthday to Casey.

Yeah. And that's all I have. Great. I did it already.

Okay. Um first, um I'd like to thank uh John and Jen from Rutherford County Breaking News. they came out and um recently interviewed uh land dele president president of equitable property company LLC to discuss the updates that are taking place at Sewart's Landing Development and the upcoming phases. So um always like to talk about things that are going on in the town. Um, I was really excited to be part of GNRC's uh, executive board directors meeting and we met in Clarksville. We spent Sunday and Monday um, let's see, it was the Clarksville mayor, it was uh, Dixon County mayor. It was Franklin Mayor. It was Nashville mayor. I can't remember who else. We had two or three others. But it's always nice to get out and have discussion because so many of us have some of the same issues going on. So, um I appreciate all of my counterparts in the Middle Tennessee region. Um Mark brought it up, but our annual budget retreat was Thursday and Friday. We gathered at the Smyrna Event Center. We started each day at 7:30 and finished about 5:00. And um it is a great time for us to get together and talk about things that we have going on in the town. I will tell you that the biggest thing I think that came out of it is there will be no tax increase for next year and that's one of the things we talked quite a bit about. But just like everybody else's budget, it's getting tight and so um HG what do they need to do to help us out?

They've got to shop local. Absolutely. They need you need to continue to do that. So those numbers that Sierra gets up here and talks about um they show that you're doing that. So two two months of slight decline. So um it's becoming more and more imperative. Yep. A lot of online shoppers right now.

Yeah, they need to be shopping at home and shopping in bricks and mortar. Um we also invite you to join us for the Smyrna Town Hall Road Show. This will be our second one. U progress in partnerships, a new way to bring town updates and meaningful conversations directly into our community. You'll get to hear about the latest project updates, learn more about on ongoing initiatives, and get your questions answered. I will tell you one of the best things about it is each department has a a table that's set up and we'll do conversation with you prior to the event starting and after it ends and you can get lots of one-on-one time. So we highly recommend and it is going to take place at MLO our Smyrna campus here and it'll be 6:00 to 8 on Thursday May the 14th council anyone anything else?

Yeah. Um you kind of upset my rhythm earlier. So sorry. Um Mr. Crow mentioned former mayor Robert Mullins tonight and he's fixing to have his 90th birthday. Yeah. And I'm going to tell you what, he's a spry today as he was when he was the mayor. Agree. Agreed. My sister also has a new grandchild, Parker Lou McDonald. Parker Lou. Parker Lou. Great. And then my niece is fixing to have another child and more will be revealed about that. There you go. Okay. Somebody's being kind, aren't they? Somebody's being kind. That's right. Anything else? Then we are adjourned.