City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, let us bring the uh city council city of Spartanberg city council meeting to order. We're going to stand for a moment of silence and then be led by the pledge of allegiance. I do. In the meanwhile, while we're standing in the moment of silence, there was a shooting in Greenville this afternoon. Two police officers were hit. Just pray for those families. I think they are fine. But the little boys that were killed in a bike accident up Asheville Highway, please keep that family in prayer in your thoughts. Thank you. Let's adjust all phones, cell phones, please silence them. Mayor Pro Tim, lead us in the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. Again, let's be mindful of our digital devices, making sure we silence them. Before I go to item three, I do want to introduce our interim uh city attorney, Mr. Max Hyde. He used to sit here, well, not here at the old city hall, uh, as a council member. So, welcome on, Max. Thank you for being here. Thank you for accepting to work with us. Thank you, sir. Item three, approval of the minutes for the March 23rd, 2026 city council meeting. So moved. Second. All in favor? Any that opposed? Eyes have it. Item four, approve of the agenda for the April 13th, 2026 city council meeting.

So move. Second. All in favor? I. Any that opposed? Eyes have it. We have public comment in the way this work. Guys, just come up and give us your name. We have your address here. Just repeat your name just so we make sure we have the right person. We have You have two minutes. Um after you give your name and start, the city clerk will start the timer and we're pretty strict with those two minutes. Thank you, Chris Matthysse. Yes, sir. Good to see you again, ladies and gentlemen. Good to see you.

I'm back here because of the D park and some other things. Uh, thank you very much. Y'all done a great job. We got that back on. We appreciate it. But we do have some other concerns. Uh, Kathy Warbert did a great job. $150,000 worth of stuff. The grass we had out there is not there anymore. The field dirt we had in there is gone. We need some stuff. We need more maintenance. We have yet had to get grass cut this year I think maybe once and it's getting I'd say about right here at the ankle. So we need to get that because the snakes in the area. Uh we would like to keep the water on if we can. I don't really understand the principle of this but I do understand from talking with the staff that we have talked to this with the city and parks. You're more concerned about the water situation. How much water is being run? Um okay. I understand that. We have no problem helping you guys out. I understand the budget is $5,000 a year. It has been for 12 years. I don't understand why this park is now double in size, almost triple. And we still don't have another dog park on the west side now. Please understand this park is also known nationwide. Let's be proud of it. I'm proud of it. That's why I'm up here. I'm scared to death of public speaking, okay? I'm used to talking to a thousand people in front, whatever. But at this point, I'm nervous talking to you guys if you haven't noticed. Um, let's see what else I got on this notes. Uh, we'll need a little bit more maintenance. Um, more grass, eta, such. Also, let's change the subject for just a second on one other thing. One thing that you're missing out on is convention trade. Okay, that's one of my what I do for a living and I have been doing it for 35 years. Okay, you're missing out on how much money on the table. Convention center in Greenville is making plenty of money, but that thing was built in 1957. They renovated back in the early 2000s. They're still making money, but they're not planning on doing anything else. We have an opportunity to make time. We have the baseball during the summer. Wouldn't y'all like to have something in the fall and winter?

Continue on making money to keep the hotels busy. When they did the uh what was it? The Bass Masters. Y'all missed out on $9 million for three days. Three days. Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time. I have two parts and there was two letters. Two letters. I sent two emails. So I have another one on bridges. We only get one public comment at a time. So Okay, that's fine. But the only thing I'm going to say about bridges, let's light them up a little bit. Let's proud. We appreciate. We have Miss Dr. Brenda Lee Price coming up.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. My name is Brenda Lee Price. I live at 291 Alexander Avenue. I'm a native of Spartanberg. Have lived here all my life and through all the ups and downs, but I'm up here tonight cuz I'm real upset. Um, Mr. Mayor and Council, thank you for giving me an opportunity to express my concerns uh about the name changing of South Liberty Street. you have information that's more detailed in your packet if you like to get more information concerning uh the issue. South Liberty Street was established in the 1800s shortly after emancipation and in 1969 then John Wis I think he's lieutenant governor who said that the bulldozing of urban renewal has created more housing problems than it solved by destroying the neighborhood. Today, 2006, this year 2006, the Southside identity is once again been destroyed by changing the name of South Liberty Street. South Liberty Street is the spine of our community and the urban renewal project. Carper High School, South Liberty Street, USO, which is now CC Woodson, uh, South Liberty Street. Mount Mariah Baptist Church, South Liberty Street, the first school that taught black kids uh doing segregation, church, the Epiphany, which is still standing, one of only few buildings I think that's left uh on South L Street, is still standing today. Collins Funeral Home, which was also um a hotel where

entertainers who came to Spartanberg to perform at the auditorium because the hotels were segregated, they were able to stay at Collins Funeral Home. And that's it. But only thing I asked you all to do, I know you don't have the power, just try to address that issue of renaming streets. Yes, ma'am. Thank you,

Miss Gina D. Hello, my name is Gina Drot. Um, and I am one of the, uh, founders of Strong Towns, um, a local chapter of Strong Towns. Um, and we, among other things, uh, like to advocate for, um, safe public spaces. And um we I just want to thank all of you for all that you do to advocate for um public spaces um that are you know carry carfree places where kids can be safe. Um that's a big thing for me. And um uh also uh Spartan uh Strongs is sponsoring um miles of the mayor this month on April 25. So, if anybody wants to um come out um and walk with us and hear a little bit more about what we do and possibly join us, that'd be great. Um I just wanted to say that I am um I'm just here just to say I'm in support of um of all things public spaces. So, um I think that the Barnett Park um proposal is great and a good compromise for the for um things that people have been concerned about. And I think it's it looks great to me. And um making the park better and more um accessible for all people, that's a great thing. Um and we moved to Spartanberg um partly because our daughters uh came here for USC Upstate and we started hanging out here and we loved Morgan Square. Um and so that so we decided to move here from Greenville because we loved that so much. And so I just want to say I am um excited to see Morgan Square keep moving forward. And so I'm just here in support of that. Um, and uh, yeah, that's mostly it. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Don Braramley.

Good. Good afternoon, council and mayor. Thank you for allowing us to have a speech. My name is Don Braramlet. I live at 185 Mills Avenue in the city. Uh, I just want to address a couple of things. I hope I can do it fast enough. Uh I'm very proud of the city for picking uh the proposed site for the new clock tower and clock. I think that's just a really good mix. U I uh the I remember when the Barnett family donated that acreage to the city to become a park and uh it had been an old uh garage and service area for a bus service, interstate bus service. It was called Carolina Scenic Stages. Goes back 100 years, I guess. But anyway, so I kind of watched the uh progress there, and I'm glad to see that the city's willing to try to uh uh update and improve a lot of the facilities there. One of the concerns I have is uh parking. Uh, I believe that when the the city built the park, there was probably some kind of understanding with the church across the street that that parking lot over there would be open. And now that they've closed that park, it does present quite a problem. With Chapman Center right next door, the Chapman Center has to coordinate things with Barnett Park because when Barnett Park has an event, all people park at the Chapman Center. So, Chapman Center has event. There's no parking or there's no parking nearby. And so, uh I I just wish there was some way to uh have some communication with First Baptist Church to see if they would change their attitude about uh the you know, not allowing any parking over there cuz that's a lot of parking

places. And uh uh you know, they don't pay any taxes, so they ought to be a good citizen with an open parking lot. That's the way I feel. Um the other thing is um Mr. Bramblelet. Oh, that's good. That's your time. Thank you. Fine. Thank you. Thank you.

Andy draw. My name is Andy Drot and I just want to say I'm a huge fan of Spartanberg and uh this week I want to talk about the housing section of the comprehensive plan which I love. I am a hugely in favor of alternative housing such as uh accessory dwelling units, duplexes, cottage, you know, uh pocket neighborhoods, things like that. But I hope that in the upcoming zoning ordinance um rewrite that we'll look around and learn from countless other cities, including our neighbors over in Greenville, who went through a whole lot of trouble to rewrite their zoning to allow for accessory dwelling units, only to find that hardly any get built. Because if without the ecosystem of small uh small-time builders or uh that that people who are willing to work in backyards, uh homeowners are competing with the big national builders for trades for buil you know for contractors and things like that and they get quoted on average for cities like ours uh for a small 600 like onebedroom accessory dwelling unit around $200 to $300,000. So you can imagine that's really hard to finance when your regular home your three-bedroom homes worth maybe about that or something like that. they just don't get built. So, I'm begging Spartanberg to consider legalizing tiny homes on wheels as a incremental step as a way to experiment with backyard dwellings. They don't have to be permitted forever. Lots of other cities permit them temporary like three to five year permits. The permit fees cover increased city services and allows people to experiment with uh backyard dwelling places. You can put as many requirements on the architectural standards. They can be certified. They can, you know, like there's lots of ways that that um just imagine a a homeowner who has a backyard, it's a hard time

paying their increased property taxes, could spend a few thousand dollars to create a rentable pad in their backyard and then have supplement their income by renting to someone who has a tiny house and would love a place to live in the city of Spartanberg. I promise all the questions you have have been asked and answered in other states.

Thank you, Bailey. Um, Ren, sorry. making me dizzy. Three more times.

Okay. Sorry for the trouble.

Hi, I'm Bailey Ren. Uh, first I would like to thank the city council team for making public comments more accessible for people with disabilities like myself. Uh, it's really making such a huge difference and I hope you know how impactful this is. Thank you Christie very much for the microphone. Uh, second, I would like to mention that I really admire the proposal for making the clock tower the entrance for Barnett Park. I think it's a wonderful way to incorporate it into our city and making it accessible to the public in ways that the previous island could not. And lastly, I would like to bring up a concern I had for Barnett Park and kind of our entire city as a whole. Uh we desperately need to have more native plants incorporated into our town. I recognize that Barnett Park needs the large empty lawn for uh vending and performance reasons, but I don't see why we can't incorporate more native flowers and foliage where the picnic benches are or around the border of the park. Currently, our city is heavily relying on the aggressively invasive lily turf grass for our landscaping, and we really need to put a stop to that. Uh, it's like planting kudzu downtown and pretending that it won't take over our forests and lawns. Uh, it is. It's in my lawn. It's everywhere. It's in forests. It's completely taking over. It's not native. Uh, and it's out competing a lot of other native uh, grasses and flowers that our insects and our birds really rely on. Uh, it's also really hard to get rid of. Uh, there are plenty of other incredible native options we can choose from. And a quick example of that would be uh some blue-eyed grass that I saw that has been planted at the new box car apartments. I think they look beautiful. Uh, and they come back every year and they also are an evergreen. So, I think that'd be much better than the evasive lily turf. But that's it. Thank you very much.

Thank you,

Mr. Kumar. Hi, I'm I'm Monk Kumar and uh I'm here today just to speak in favor of the uh clock tower at Barnett Park. I think the new design looks really good. I like that it's in the entrance which engages people. We actually get to walk right through it and look at it and engage with the history. Yeah, I like the that the bell uh the the bell is going to be highlighted and visible. Um, I do think there is valid concerns around that area being a little disconnected from the rest of downtown, but I really hope that this could be a uh first step in, you know, almost creating a more integrated cultural district, connecting it with the Chapman SAM as well as the the the park parking garage that's that's over there and making that a little bit uh more connected as well as maybe figuring out ways we could work with SEO to address uh East St. John Street being as loud as it is. uh and also difficult to cross for pedestrians uh which would make it easier to connect it to the rest of downtown. Um that's it. I think it it looks great and I'm looking forward to to to the change. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Starter. Wesley Starter,

Mr. Mayor, Mr. S, members of council, thank you so much for this opportunity to come back tonight. I brought a prop with me. This is from 50 years ago, 1976 that my dad wore to the schools throughout Harbor County. It's a replica of the third Maryland regimen uniform that fall at Battle Cowpens 20,000 school children in 1976 raised $10,000 to go toward his clock tower. I want to piggy back on my good friend Brenda Lee Spartberg doesn't do enough to focus on our history and that's what this is all about. You just heard two speakers speak about the problems about if you do locate it at Barnett Park about parking from one of them and the other one crossing the street the other one. If you get top of the hill and come from Dean Street toward it I wrote it twice this week to see you can't even see the entrance to Barnett Park from the top of the hill because all the trees but 3,000 signatures on petition said preserve the clock tower. Two of you voted to preserve the clock tower. We really appreciate that. But the court hearing ruled public input. You're doing that by the petitions various sites to be looked at. City manager told us that no other sites that have been looked at besides Barnett Park. So when you do vote, I want you to consider all those that have taken the time to write you these past two weeks and consider the 3,000 signatures and the two 20,000 school kids and consider the Spartan Regiment. Thank you so much for your your vote. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Steiner. Mr. Snider. Al Snider.

Good evening. Al Schneider. Get ready to get started here. Okay. All right. This evening I am taking a page out of Mayor Stoutard's playbook when he wore the revolutionary uniform for the clock topper. Good timing, Robert. That was pretty good. Expect that. Anyway, this, of course, is not a Revolutionary War uniform, but back in December of last year, my daughter and two grandchildren came down from Asheville and we went to a Greenville Swamp Rabbits game. It was a teddy bear toss night and it was packed. We even ended up parking in the top level of the parking garage. It was so full. Never had to do that before. Anyway, um when the Swamp Rabbits scored their first goal, they stopped the game. Then fans came down and tossed teddy bears into the rink. Okay, over 9,000 teddy bears were collected and donated from that one game. 9,000. Now, think how many people that takes to get 9,000 teddy bears in there. Okay, now talk about economic development. It was amazing. My kids loved it. However, I walked away with one thing thinking on my mind. Why couldn't I take my kids to a pro hockey game in Spartanberg? How long has Spartanberg been around? Huh? Tell tell me. Okay. If you really wanted to serve your people, number one, you would have left the clock tower alone where it was, which the people told you they wanted. Again, Robert, 3,000 signatures, right? Secondly, you would be building an arena where parents and their kids, families could go together, enjoy hockey games, basketball games, high school championships, college championships, conventions, conferences,

etc. You want to talk about economic impact. Okay? All right. That's how you have economic pack impact. Instead, you're building your Lego palace just for yourselves. Okay? that municipal building and restaurants are closing there all around you now that's your two minutes but you don't care that's your two minutes all right I'm done thank you thank you let me finish please all right thank you thank you Mr. Wilds. Leon Wilds.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm Leon Wilds. I live at 114 Vista Drive and more. Um, I've been a longtime resident of Spartanberg County over 40 years. And I'm running for chairman of the Spartanberg County Council. And I'm running because Spartanberg has been great to me and my family. And I want to give something back. I'm not a career politician, but I have served on numerous boards in Spartanberg as a public servant. I've been on the United Way board. I've been on the YMCA board. I've been on the village partnership board. I have served the uh fatherhood coalition. I have also been involved with uh the YMCA, served on their board, the Urban League of the Upstate board. So, I've been actively involved in trying to give something back to Spartanberg. I am interested in this position because I believe that my administrative experience, I've worked at several uh institutions of higher learning uh including USC Upstate and Clemson University as well as others outside of the state. And through that career of more than 30 years, I have developed uh administrative skills that I think can be applied to uh the development of Spartanber County. There are several things that I'd like to do. One is promote a balanced and responsible economic development plan for the county. Improve infrastructure and reduce road hazards. Ensure transparent and accountable budgeting. Adopt rational growth strategies. Spartanberg is growing very rapidly and it's important that we have a strategic plan to harness that growth and use it to the benefit of the county. Maintain an effective public safety while improving public trust. Uh one of my responsibilities was serving as

supervisor of university police. So I'm very very keen keenly aware of the need for secure public environment. That's my time. Wow. That's your two minutes. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Good luck to you.

We have item six, proclamation declaring the month of April as fair housing month in the city of Spartanberg. I will present that So, we have all of our not all of our realators, but quite a few realtors here that's accompanying us uh this evening on this proclamation reading. Whereas the Fair Housing Act enacted on April the 11th, 1968, enshrined into federal law as the goal eliminating racial discrimination and ending and ending housing segregation in the United States. Whereas f fair housing act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, uh national origin and disabilities and commits recipients of federal funding affirmative further far fair housing in their communities. All them fs killing me there. Whereas the city of Spartanberg as well as Spartanberg Association of Realators Incorporated are committed to the mission and intent of the Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities for all. Whereas our social fabric, the economic, health and uh environment are strengthened in diverse inclusive communities. Whereas more than 50 years after passing a fair housing act, discrimination persists and in many communities remain segregated. And

whereas acts of housing discriminations and barriers to equal housing opportunities are repentant reprudent to the common sense of decency and fairness. Now therefore, I, Jerome Rice, by the virtue vested is me as the mayor of the city of Spartanberg, and on behalf of my fellow city council members, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as fair housing month. So that deserves a hand. We thank you all for your willingness to participate and be fair with the fair housing. Rick, I'm going to get right in here. We're going to take us a big picture.

Good. Thank you. Seven.

Seven. Read it off. It's seven. Yes. Yes. Seven. Read it. Read it. Proclamation. Declaring April as child abuse prevention month in the city of Spartan. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Here we go. I'll come to this side.

I know. Whereas South Carolina 1.1 million children residing in diverse communities across our state, including over 200,000 children in Spartanberg are our most vulnerable re resources and and will shape the future of our great state. Whereas childhood trauma, including neglect and abuse, is a serious problem affecting every segment of our community and finding solutions requires an input and actions for everyone. Whereas childhood trauma can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects that have lasting consequences for victims of abuse. Whereas protective factors and conditions that reduce or eliminate risk and promote the social, emotional and development well-being of children and youth. Whereas effective child abuse prevention activities such as excuse me. Whereas effective child abuse prevention activities succeed because of partnerships created between child welfare professionals, education, health and community, faith-based organization, businesses, and mental and behavioral health, law enforcement agencies and families. Whereas we acknowledge that we must work together as a community in partnership to build awareness about children abuse and neglect, child abuse and neglect and contribute to promote the social and economic well-being of children, youth, families in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment. Whereas prevention remains the best

defense for our children and families. Whereas in the state fiscal year 2024 through 2025, there were 7,024 sub uh substain child protective services CPS investigation with 12 is that that's 12,000 gap. Yeah.

12,371 children in South Carolina and investigation with 340 children in Spartanberg County. alarming numbers. Now, therefore, I, Jerome Rice, by the virgin authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Spart, and on behalf of my fellow city council members, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as child abuse prevention month in the city of Spart. So, we do appreciate all you professional. Thank you. Thank you. Good. Thank you. We have item eight, a place to call home, presentation, presenter, Hannah Jared. And that's not Hannah s standing there. That's Mr. Mitch Kennedy.

Mayor, members of council, I just wanted to to make a note. Uh Hannah needs no introduction, but I did want to make a note a few weeks ago at a previous council meeting. Uh city manager Chris Stori noted the significant investment that city had made in this initiative and the huge impact that we've seen from that investment and and and with the significance of it, we thought it would be beneficial to hear greater context around the work that has transpired. In addition, this past March uh marked the one-year anniversary of the launch of A Place to Call Home. And I know Hannah is going to acknowledge members of the leadership team and her staff, but I just wanted to note how hugely uh uh grateful we are for what we've seen in the past year from Hannah and her leadership. So, I just thought it would be beneficial to introduce this segment by noting those things that we've seen from the past year. Hannah Jared.

Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Hello, mayor. Can you all hear me with this? Okay. Mayor, members, and council, thanks so much for time on the agenda tonight to share a year one update of a place to call home. Uh to start, we really look at data to inform our work. So, when we look at the need in our community related to homelessness, we know that there are at least 3,000 people who are experiencing homelessness in our community on any given night. And half of those people are children. And when we look at our population that is at risk of homelessness, we look at Alice data, 50% of Spartanberg County residents are below the Alice threshold, which means that despite the fact that they are working and employed, they do not make enough to afford their basic needs. And so there's just one unexpected life event um or one missed paycheck away from being unable to pay for a basic need such as housing that could put them then at risk of homelessness. And single mothers and renters are at more likely to experience homelessness in our community. And then when we look at our community's ability to respond to that need, ability and capacity to respond to that need, we look at our housing continuum from shelter to home ownership. Um, so just to share with you a little bit about our current capacity as a community to respond to those needs. We currently have about 170 shelter beds predominantly for individual men and those fleeing from domestic violence situations. We have about 175 transitional housing beds predominantly for people in re-entry or recovery programs. We have a little under 4,000 housing vouchers through our housing authority in this community with a 3 to 5year waiting list. And our average rent is $1,300 which is affordable for people

at or above 125% of AMI or area median income. So when a place to call home was formed a year ago in late March 2025, we were founded with the mission to provide the focus, strategy, and expertise, Spartanberg County needs to address homelessness and to achieve our vision of a Spartanberg County where homelessness is recognized as a solvable problem and where everyone has a safe, secure place to call home. All of our work um related to achieving that mission and vision for this community is grounded in the philosophy that homelessness is complex, that housing is a basic human right, and that our approach must be inclusive, collaborative, comprehensive, and balance both short and long-term solutions. So, our efforts really span the entire continuum of preventing homelessness from happening in the first place, serving those who are experiencing homelessness. So, it's brief, rare, and non-recurring. And making sure that we have diverse and affordable housing options for people across the socioeconomic spectrum, but particularly those of lower incomes. So, when we started um late March of 2025, we were given this list of immediate priorities as sort of our charge for the first year of a place to call home. And so, I'm going to provide you all with an update on where we're at with each of these. Um but very quickly they were to add staff capacity to this effort to launch a steering committee to work in alignment with other efforts uh to identify and initiate a data sharing platform to revamp the case conferencing model that we use here in our community to foster more collaboration to provide greater support to families in need and to ex expedite the opening of Bridgeway Village. So the cliffnotes version of the update is that we have done all we have made progress and completed uh

these immediate priorities. But I am going to dive a little bit deeper into our leadership, our structure and some of the programs that we offer to give and our impact to give you a better sense of what we've been working on for the past year in relation to these immediate priorities. So, we are led by a leadership team of seven institutional leaders here in Spartanberg County. Um, including the city of Spartanberg, which does serve as our employer, um, and also invested funding in getting us started, which I'll share an update about that in just a second. In addition to six other organizations um institutional organizations listed here, we also have are led by a community advisory council which is made up of over 40 representatives from organizations who are extremely proximate and boots on the ground to the issue of homelessness. We also have individuals with lived experience who serve on our community advisory council and we currently have a staff of 10. Um, we started with the idea of just having a director of a place to call home. Uh, which was sort of the to-do item on that immediate priority list, but we were overachievers in this area knowing that this this effort really needed more time and capacity um to really focus on it. So, we now have a team of 10. I do want to point out just a couple of positions just to illustrate the comprehensive nature of our work. One is we have a bus driver because we know that transportation is often a challenge for employment, housing, education, job training, those types of things. And so we're able to offer that service inhouse. Um, and then we also recently hired a heart ambassador, which is a part-time position that does engagement with our street homeless, particularly in the downtown area to be able to do initial intakes, referrals, connection to services, but also follow through with those individuals to make sure that they're getting the help that they need. I do want to pause here because I know many of our leadership team, community advisory council, and staff are in the

audience, but just to recognize them and all the work. So, if you are part of any of those groups, would you please stand? And thank you um to that. I mean what I'm here sharing is a representative of the work of a collective. We know that there's no single person, individual, organization in our community who can do this work. It really takes all of us working together to address an issue as complex as homelessness. So, I'm up here talking, but it's representative of the uh work of the collective. So, some of our programs are listed on or all of our programs currently are listed on this screen. I'm not going to go into great detail of all of them. So, if there's a program that you want to ask questions about, you're welcome to, but I do want to highlight a few just to give you a sense of the work that we've been doing. Um, one is our litter here program which has been we've been doing for about five years in partnership with the city and other organizations um is expanding this year to be able to serve more people and also connect people into additional job opportunities, additional industries that are aligned with the talent gap analysis that one Spartanberg has done to really meet the workforce demands of our community while and connecting people who are experiencing homelessness with those opportunities. We are planning to launch that expanded workforce heroes program in July and our goal is to engage 30 people in that program by the end of the calendar year. We also have several other ways that we um are removing barriers to employment um in partnership with organizations through some individual assistance opportunities. Um, we have our homeless engagement and response team, which I know y'all are all aware of, but HART, I do want to share that one of the things in particular with HART that we have been focusing on over the past year, is how can we make sure that we are

addressing some of the most complex issues related to homelessness, particularly for those who are experiencing chronic homelessness. So, we identified five of the most complex homeless cases and chronically homeless cases in our downtown area and with the goal of can we house them in 90 days and I'm proud to share that it took a little bit longer than 90 days but not too much but we have housed four out of five of those individuals um just by taking the approach of an intensive and collaborative um approach to addressing their needs. needs. Um we also have done a lot to uh create more opportunities for collaboration um through the situation table and wellbeing care community. And then our housing efforts include a landlord engagement strategy to remove common barriers to housing that already exists in our community. Um and then we operate a family shelter in partnership with the faith initiative to end child poverty called Away Home. Uh Bridgeway, which is transitional housing for single women and families. um those two programs that are really focused on families. Prior to those the existence, there was not transitional housing or shelter within a 50-mi radius of Spartanberg County. So, meeting a very very crit critical need in our community. All right. And then finally, our impact. So, since the late March 2025, we have served 578 households comprised of a little over a thousand people. We have played an active and ongoing role in exiting 132 people from homelessness. That does not include referrals that we made to other organizations where those organizations took the lead on exiting them from homelessness. This is just 132 people that our team at a place to call home played an active and ongoing role in terms of ending their homelessness.

Um we have increased shelter and housing options by 20% particularly in shelter transitional housing and rapid rehousing in the past year by leveraging resources that current were not formally being um leveraged. All of this has been done in partnership. So we facilitate and manage 109 partnerships to make this impact and work possible. We also utilize volunteers um in our work and we couldn't do it without our volunteers, particularly our volunteers who do all of the 6:00 p.m. to 7 a.m. operations of our family shelter. And then we've raised $3.5 million. So the initial investment that the city made in this work, we were we matched it within six months in non-govern non city funding. Um and we went above and beyond that. One of the things that I want to mention about this funding uh is that prior to a place to call home existing we Spartanber County was receiving 2.4% of the up upstate continuum of care dollars. So upstate continuum of care is the 10 counties of the upstate. Um they receive funding specifically for homelessness for the counties in the upstate to deliver services. We were only getting 2.4% 4% of that funding despite being the second largest county in the upstate and we are now today receiving 17% of that funding which is proportional to the homeless population that we have here. So with that I have some ways that you can get involved um and connect people to services, learn more about the issue, volunteer and give. But I'm happy to pause here and answer any questions that y'all have.

Sure. Questions before u I see Councilwoman Smith. Uh just a little bit more about the bus and and um how how are some of our unhoused folks participating? I I don't do we take them to work or we take them to appointments or

Yeah. So for our transportation services, anyone who's engaged in any of our programming, so rece essentially receiving case management either from HART or one of our community resource coordinators, um if they're facing a transportation barrier to work, um child care, school, um we are able to provide that. Um the city, uh uh Jason back there, uh spent a lot of time on our bus. Uh we do have a 17 passenger bus. uh we have a part-time bus driver um and then we're able to schedule out that route like a week in advance based on the needs of the families that we have and the individuals that we're serving.

No, and I think it's great. I have u encountered the the bus before so and was asking questions. Wow, that's you know that's unique. So again, thank you. Thank you for that. Councilwoman Smith, thank you Hannah and to the whole team, the advisory council, the staff. Y'all have done incredible work in just a year. I remember being at the train depot when we cut the ribbon and for all of this impact in just a year is really tremendous. Did you say you're going to go over this get involved section or I can if you want me to. Otherwise, it's just there for your

Yeah, I I had a question, but I'll take a picture of it. I think homelessness is a situation where a lot of people um care but maybe don't know how to get involved. Um and also there's a lot of misconceptions and maybe this will be my question and you can answer both at the same time. A lot of misconceptions and whenever we have this discussion I always like to talk about seen and unseen homelessness. and you talked about 3,000 people who are experiencing homelessness. Well, those 3,000 people are not downtown. Um, but downtown is the scene homelessness and that's what makes the news. That's what we encounter on a day-to-day basis, but you know, the kids, we don't often we don't ever see children downtown. Um, they're sleeping in motel, they're couch surfing, they're with their moms in their cars. Um, so if you could just spend a little time maybe educating on the difference between those two populations and kind of the different services that y'all provide for both of those. And then um when we when we've talked before, you've talked about the ability for folks to come and shadow the heart team or to come and do a deeper dive with you on key drivers of homelessness and really nerd out with Hannah on all of all things. Um so if you could kind of combine both of those, I think that'd be really great.

Yes, thank you, Megan. So we Yes, you are exactly right. Um, families experiencing homelessness are often not recognized. You know, you pro your kids probably sit behind homeless kids in the classroom and don't even know it. Um, because it is prevalent in our community. Families are the most likely group of people to be experiencing homelessness in our country, but also, you know, that's true for Spartanberg County as well. Um, and so our work when we think about where can we have meet the greatest need, fill the biggest gaps in our community, especially when we think about how we half of our homeless population is children and there wasn't a family shelter within a 50-mi radius of our community until last May. You know, when we think about how can we meet the greatest needs and fill the greatest gaps, it's oftentimes related to home like homeless families just because it is so prevalent in that population. However, that's not the population that most people perceive as being homeless. And so, it can sometimes maybe be perceived that nothing's happening, right? We could essentially eradicate homelessness in Spartanberg and you might still see TW, you know, 20 30 people on the street. Now, that doesn't we still serve them. Um, we do both and, right? We're serving the individuals who are on the street as well as families who are maybe living in hotels, couch surfing, living in their cars, that type of thing. But that's what we mean when homelessness is complex. There's not a one-sizefits-all solution. You know, if you've met one person who's experienced homelessness, you've met one person who's experienced homelessness. Um, and we have to be able to have a system that is adaptable to those unique needs that different populations and people experience. Um and then in terms of how people can get involved. Here's many ways a place to get started. Um like you mentioned, there are a couple of opportunities to learn more coming up next week. We have a housing summit. Anyone is welcome to

register and come to that. Um we do have a few tickets left and if cost is an issue for anyone, they can reach out to us and we can help overcome that. Um, and then we have our annual homeless memorial on Wednesday of next week. Um, as another opportunity to to learn more and to connect. If somebody does want to geek out with me about homelessness, I'm always happy to do that. I could talk about this for days and hours and weeks. Um, and so can the team. Uh, so we're always happy to come do lunch and learns, trainings, uh, deeper dives into the issue. And our team is also happy to help facilitate any shadowing opportunities if people really want to learn more. Um, I will say that oftent times people's response to homelessness in my experience is to feed people. Um, and there are plenty of there is need for that. Um, we always encourage people in those situations to connect with organizations whose mission is to feed people. So, the Soup Kitchen, Miracle Hill, um, Invisible Ministries, you know, they are in our community already, wake up every day to to feed, uh, people who are experiencing food insecurity and homelessness if that's the case. Um, and so we always encourage people to connect with those organizations so those organizations can have a greater impact. And if you want to solve homelessness, reach out to us. Um, because we're going beyond, you know, one meal. We're looking at what would it look like for you to have a safe house that you can sustain and live in. Um, and that's what the work that we're doing. We do have a volunteer opportunity need right now. Um, if anybody wants to volunteer with our family shelter, um, reach out to us and we can we will happily get you engaged there.

Council Rogers. Um, Annie, can you detail that volunteer just opportunity a little bit more? I think that um you know I I think that we have a number of members of our community that would like to help, have busy schedules, have families of their own. Can you give a little bit more detail of is it an afternoon, is it a one-time thing? What are the ranges of volunteer opportunities to meet different people's availability? And

yes, so if you sign up for our newsletter, which is the last bullet on this list at achspartenberg.org, or um we typically do uh one volunteer activity a month, one volunteer opportunity. So that's just like if you have time on a Saturday and want to come out for a couple hours, we typically do one of those types of volunteer opportunities each month. Um and it will be on a range of different things. So that's for those one-time volunteer opportunities. I recommend that you sign up for our newsletter to be alerted of what that looks like. For our family shelter, we typically are looking for ongoing volunteers who can maybe uh volunteer monthly or weekly just because we do require training because they are in a family shelter environment and interacting with children. We do require a background check. you know, we do require them to go through child protection training, those types of things, which is a little bit of a more intensive um commitment than, you know, most people would be wanting to do for a one-time, you know, volunteer opportunity. Um, working with our family shelter is at our um day center, so engaging with families who are at our day center to do laundry, take showers. There's a kitchen there where they can prepare meals. you know, kids can do homework, they can watch movies, you know, when they're not at school, that type of thing. And so being a volunteer there that's a resource for those families while they're in that environment.

Council Brown,

Mr. Mayor, thank you, Hannah. You and your team do a tremendous job for our community. I know I've had the opportunity to work with Stephen and Beth um through some of our patients through the clinic and they have always just been so incredibly responsive. Um you mentioned about you know being one one emergency away from homelessness and one paycheck away from homelessness. Um if I understand it correct is there a I know that some of the barriers are evictions or history of evictions and the opportunity that folks can't get housing because perhaps maybe they've been evicted in the past. Um, do do I understand there is a bipartisan bill in at the state house to hopefully tackle this issue um to get those things sort of taken off their records so that there might be more opportunities for for folks?

Yes, there is an eviction ceiling bill um at the state level um right now that is uh being reviewed proposed and reviewed. Um, that bill would mean that if you receive an eviction, but it does not result in an eviction, you know, you've just been served an eviction, but you aren't evicted, then that would be removed from your record. Right now, even if you're served an eviction, but an eviction isn't filed, that does show up on your record. Um and so that bill is specifically looking at those situations where you're served one but you don't receive the eviction isn't filed or on you know you aren't evicted from your home. So that is an opportunity when we think about eviction prevention in our community and what we're focusing on at a place to call home here in Spartanberg. A lot of that has to do with tenant education. So making sure that people understand their rights. You know, you would be surprised the number of times that we've encountered situations where, you know, maybe somebody stops paying their rent because of a maintenance issue that they don't feel like is being resolved, but as soon as they stop paying their rent, they're forfeiting their rights as a tenant. Um, and so that tenant education piece is really, really important. Um, and something that we plan to incorporate into our upcoming financial wellness pilot. Um, we also know that access to legal counsel and guidance is really important throughout that process for both the tenant and the landlord, right? Um, and so there are models in other communities like housing courts that provide some help with navigating that legal process. It may or may not necessarily prevent the eviction from happening, but will provide education to make that process um a little better and then hopefully prevent future eviction from occurring. We do work with landlords through our welcome home network who might sometimes just on

paper uh exclude somebody or choose not to rent to somebody because they have an eviction on their record, but we're um if they're engaged with our community resource coordinator, sometimes we're able to advocate with them for them with certain landlords for um exceptions to be made within certain bounds and reasons. Um, that's a lot of the work that we do through our welcome home network with landlords.

Mr. Mayor, um, just a followup to that, you know, I would love to see the city be more involved in that education piece as well. I I have often received calls from folks in my district who are renters who have maintenance issues that are not being resolved, but yet they're afraid to speak up because they are afraid that they there will be some reason why they need to be, you know, evicted from their from their homes. And I and I can tell them all day what what their rights are and that they need to report it, but I can't they have to initiate that. Um, and so I would love to see the city, you know, be really engaged with that as well and educating tenants so that they know what their rights are. Um, because oftentimes they're just afraid to speak up. Yeah. Our plan is to incorporate that financial wellness programming within our community centers within the city. So at TK Greg and CC Woodson to make it more accessible to the broader community.

Council former.

Uh, yes sir, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Um Hannah uh congratulations to you and your team on a on a uh impactful and consequential first year. I mean I I think one of the things when we when we talked about this concept about you know collaboration and bringing all the disperate parts together and really bringing them under one umbrella so that they work in concert with one another. I think we see it very clearly on the statistics. I mean 578 uh families served, 132 people have exited homelessness. I mean these are people and and so you know we can get lost in the statistics but when we think about the fact that these are actual people you know that's something that that um should be very encouraging to us as as we move forward now into year two and try to build on uh the the the impact that that that you and your team have already had. And and I'm also very encouraged by the fact that, you know, when we made our $750,000 investment, I think that's what it was. Um, you know, one of the things as we looked at all of our ARPER funding that was important to me was that we were able to leverage that funding and and make that money go much further than than we uh could do on our own. And and the fact that you've, you know, been able to leverage that into $3.5 million, you've been able to take the 2.4% 4% from the um the funding source that you mentioned and make that 17 a.5% given the the context of our our homeless population. I mean I think that shows additional impact of the and efficacy of uh the strategy that we're employing. So I so I really appreciate that and applaud that and think that those are uh very very important firstear metrics. Um the the other piece as you mentioned it's very complex obviously the whole the whole issue uh there's been some headlines generated around the law enforcement piece and and you know I think it's important that we

are always very compassionate and and considerate of of anyone in our community that needs help. Um but we also have to enforce our laws. Um and and I know and I hear from downtown uh you know visitors, merchants, businesses and others um you know of the impact of and I don't even know if they're homeless but but the littering, the loitering, the crossing of the street in the middle of the street almost daring to to for folks to hit them um you know at times and and again I don't know if these people are homeless or not but they are disruptive whomever they are and and so as we think about our work and and go forward forward to to do all of the other aspects of this. You know, are are we going to be more intentional going forward um about enforcing a lot of these rules and regulations and codes and laws that we have um to make sure that that we don't find ourselves in these episodic situations where, you know, we go in and we do a you know, a massive um you know, correction, if you will. um you know and and really keep keep the momentum going uh over the long haul that complements all the other work that you're doing with your team.

Yes. So I I you know I'm not law enforcement. None of my team is law enforcement. We do partner very closely with law enforcement both in the city and in the county to respond in situations where people um either we know or we suspect might be experiencing um housing homelessness or housing instability. And that's been a great partnership in the sense that it's allowed us through our homeless engagement and response team to connect with and connect people to resources that we might otherwise not know about or not have the opportunity to engage with. Um, however, I cannot speak for law enforcement in terms of their the strategy for enforcing laws, but do know that it is in partnership so that we can bring that element of uh community resource to those instances when it does recur occur. Um, so to give you an an example, you know, heart and law enforcement, there have been situations where we call law enforcement and they respond with us because we're requesting it maybe when we're going out into an encampment in the woods. You know, we don't want to go out there alone, but also law enforcement will call us when they know that they're going to respond to situations so that our team, you know, can connect them to resources. So, for example, homeless court is a very common uh resource that that we connect people to when they're experiencing um minor legal issues such as trespassing, loitering, you know, those types of things. um shoplifting. Homeless court is a court that they can go through um with case management from our team to uh address those legal issues, but with the goal of getting them into a stable situation. Usually employment and housing are the outcomes

that we we strive for and that we achieve through homeless court. So, it's really great to be able to connect with people who otherwise might be falling through the cracks through the partnership that we have with law enforcement. Um, but I but I can't speak to the enforcement strategy necessarily.

And to that point a little bit, I mean, I've always heard from law enforcement that that we find there's a latency in the process, right? And so the work that you're doing combining and and collaborating helps to address that where you know somebody that law enforcement is dealing with and we we rely on our law enforcement in so many ways but but you know having the ability to reach out to somebody from your team to do the case management work that helps them get from you know whatever moment in time they find themselves to the help they need which has been really one of the problems in in the past. um is extremely extremely I think important in this equation as we work through it. But but I also think we need to make sure that that we continue on the enforcement side to to ensure that um you know we we are are hitting all the bases as it relates to what is a very complex problem. One other quick uh question for me. I'm thinking of the mental health aspect of some of our homeless uh population. H how is that working? How how do you um get them to the table? Are they they already at the table I would imagine? So

yes, so we we partner with um Department of Mental Health as well as other organizations that provide mental health support to individuals in our community. Um there is a common narrative that people who are homeless are mentally ill or on drugs. That's what we commonly hear. Um but we know from data that the prevalence of substance use disorder, mental illness is not greater in our unhoused versus our housed population. However, the caveat is that people who have mental illness diagnosis or substance use disorders, they often experience prolonged um homelessness because they have so many challenges and barriers. And oftentimes there are not resources and services available to meet their complex needs. And so that's why we see a lot of chronic homeless individuals who are maybe super uh uh we we recognize them as homeless as having uh mental illness or substance use disorder just because it it those those conditions often prolong people's experience. One thing that I can share with you specifically related to mental health because we recognize that it's such a need and we want to be comprehensive in our approach. Um we have partnered with project rest which is one of the organizations who is on our community advisory council. They operate a shelter for people fleeing domestic violence is one of the services that they provide. They also um have counseling services. So we have partnered with them to be able to have a shared mental health professional clinical position that will spend 50% of their time with those who are in the domestic violence shelter providing mental health counseling and the other 50% of their time uh providing those services to the population that we serve. Um, it's been a really great partnership to be able to increase the amount of clinical services that are

available in our community specifically for the population that we serve. And I think that this is just sort of the beginning. If we can get this to work, there might be other opportunities to expand mental health services in our for the homeless population. Awesome. Awesome. I got one more.

Yes. I want to say congratulations to you for the work you've done and your partners as well as the city of Spart and the council helping you with this project. Um, I do have one question to ask. I know that you're looking at people who are being evicted or people who have been out on the street due to circumstances that's out of their control, I guess you would say. But what uh about those who can't meet their needs and need some assistance? Do you do that type of work with your program?

Um yes. So I'm assuming that you you're talking about, you know, people who maybe can't cook for themselves, you know, wouldn't be able to live independently. Is that what you're um that as well as maybe say their electrical bill is extremely high and they need some assistance?

Um yes. So, um we do not have uh you like utility. We have assistance for certain things um but but not something like utility assistance. Um but the best thing that for someone to do if they want to learn about services is call the number on the first bullet here, 864591-4417. That connects them with our homeless engagement response team. And if it's a service that we don't provide, we will refer them to a local partner that does meet that need. Um we often find when people call us, which we get about 10 calls a day to HART, um they might be calling about a utility bill, but as we're talking to them, we realize that they have other needs that are maybe things that we can help address or that can help us make sure that they're getting connected to the to the best service or multiple services. So, we always recommend that people call us and we will help point them in the right direction, whether it's ours or someone else's. Um, and then in terms of people who maybe are in situations where they're not able to, they wouldn't necessarily be able to live independently, that is part of when we do assessments for people to connect them with housing opportunities. It's something that we're looking at and making sure that we're setting them up for sustainable success.

Good. Councilwoman, we

Hannah, thank you. Um, I share the concerns because of my council members up here. I also want to say the day that I volunteered with you all, I enjoyed doing the art. I wanted to know if you hung that art someplace or you hide it back in a closet. Um, so, uh, thank you for asking that. First, thank you for volunteering um to create art for families who are moving into homes so that they can decorate their their housing and really make it feel like home. So, thank you for doing that. We do get really creative in our volunteer opportunities. So, sign up for our newsletter to learn more. Um but uh I will say that I and this is a great sort of last thing to share. On April 1st, Wednesday, April 1st, we moved 30 people into housing on that one day. And when I say we moved them into housing, we were a moving company. We were what, five girls in a truck. Um uh and furnished 10 housing units um for 18 children and 12 adults. And there were children who had been living a family I think of six or eight who had been living in a suburban. And to see those children go in, walk into an apartment to have their own bed in their bedroom. We let them pick out their own comforter and it would have brought tears to your eyes to see it. So on um April 1st, we house 30 people including 18 children and they did get to pick out art to hang on their walls. I don't know if they picked yours. I'll have to double check.

Hers is beautiful. Beautiful. Hers is still in the back room. Yeah. No Hannah, again to you and the team and all the partners that play a part in a place to call home. Just thank you for what you're doing, not just for the city, uh, but for Spartanberg County as a whole. Just thank you and kudos, man. Really, thank you. Paul's leadership and support. Awesome. Awesome work. We're at item nine, consent agenda. Mr. Bear, I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. Second. All in favor? I. Any that opposed? Eyes have it.

Item 10, ordinance. Ordinance authorizing the city of Spartanberg, South Carolina to execute the delivery of equipment lease purchase agreement in the amount not to exceed 4,500,000 between the city and leaser thereof, defay the cost acquiring uh certain uh equipment and other matters. There unto Mr. Dennis Lock don't come before us too often, but he's here today. Right. Always expensive.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. And I'm glad that Jason um is back in the back. He's the fleet manager. Um we do an annual process where we evaluate the various pieces of equipment that need to be replaced. And Jason and his team, they do a thorough review with the department. They determine which vehicles need to be replaced based on the condition of the vehicles. Also, within this capital lease, there was a fire truck that city council approved to purchase back in fiscal year 2024, but due to the timeline that it takes to manufacture the fire trucks, that firetruck will be delivered to us in January of 27. So therefore, it is included on this capital lease. And for those of who have been around for a long time, you realize that the this capital lease is larger than they normally are. But part of that is due to the increase of prices just of police vehicles and other regular vehicles. And also on this list that was included in your council package where had budgeted about $650,000 for some IT upgrades. And so that's why we are asking council to give the city manager the approval to enter into a capital lease for this equipment. This is what we have done on a a regular basis is we include it as part of our budget where we have capital leases that roll off at various years. We include the um the debt payments within our annual operating budget. And so we're asking um we have some estimates of what the current financing would be that I listed on the report. I think we said for because we have um the fire truck which we finance over 10 years that estimate that estimated interest rate is

4.36% and the estimated um interest or the interest cost for the 5-year equipment is 3.78% for a total estimated of about $634,000 the first five years. And so we're there any other questions? If you have questions about the equipment, that's why I'm glad Jason is here. You have questions about the financing, that's what um historian and I are here for. But any questions that you might have? Sure. I'm u I'm sure Councilman Farmer has questions. I know. I've been waiting for you. I He's been avoiding me.

I I need to get more creative because you actually addressed a couple of my my questions uh related to the the fire truck. I wondered if that was the one we had approved and then the the IT uh upgrade work. Um what what is the the fiveyear? You mentioned this this expenditure was more significant than in past years. What's what's the five 10 year run rate of of our lease purchase agreements

like on an annual basis? Like how how much was it last year? How do we you know and how much was it? The last lease that we um came with the council for was like $2.8 million. And I believe in that lease we did have um a 10-year lease in there and a fiveyear lease. Um and so we did that in I believe fiscal year 24. And so those would be paid off by the five years would be paid off in fiscal year 29. And the 10 years of course would be in fiscal year. So the last time we did this was in FY24,

I believe. So either 24, it might have been a fiscal year 25 because I know last year we did not come before the city council because we were trying to do some reconciliation of the equipment that was outstanding. But Councilman Foreman, I do want to say that we will be back in in fiscal year 27 for next year's lease. I'm just sort of putting it well as much. And all kidding aside, I mean, I I think I mean, I guess my overriding question has always been, and I'm not I'm not doubting Jason's good work with the fleet management, but but you know, we do drive we have nice vehicles in our fleet, which is we should have good, well-maintained, effective, uh, dependable vehicles, and I I have no problem with that. Um, but it seems like we, you know, either every year or two, we spend a tremendous amount of money on on our our our vehicles. Um and and you know, fire trucks aside, which I know those are, you know, you know, kind of oneoff items. Um you know, I just want to make sure that that we're stretching that the money that we've already spent as far as we possibly can because $4.5 million is a is a big slug. it. Um, you know, and and

I guess my question looking at the schedule of vehicles is is, you know, are there ways to prune that back so that we're not, you know, we're not exposing ourselves, you know, either every year or two to a, you know, three and a half to$5 million ongoing expense.

We have tried that, but one of the biggest things that has or or barriers has been the inc the increased cost of equipment, right? Even the solid waste trucks. Um I don't I don't I know Jay is still here. Yeah, he's still here. Um the cost of a solid waste for a side loader in the past five years has almost doubled if I'm not exaggerating from about $180,000 to now like $360,000. And Jay came to me last week once he saw the list saying, you know, Dennis, we didn't put a side loader on there. It's only because Jason is going to try to stretch it out another year. So, the city does try to stretch those purchase purchases out over time and try to do the the maintenance, keep them up. But when the city is growing, those machines are being used constantly along with inflation, this is just, you know, the the effects we see right here with the increase increased prices.

Yeah. I I guess when I think about I mean you know as our city grows side loaders and things like that those are big ticket pieces of equipment that you know but when I look at you know some of the the ancillary service vehicles police cruisers uh code enforcement vehicles things like that that you know probably don't have the same they're getting more and more expensive right

but they don't have the same level of complexity that a you know a truck with a side loader or a firetruck has I mean can we Are we doing everything we can to make those vehicles lives last as long as they possibly can given the fact that all of our costs are going up across the board, particularly for those really expensive must-ave items?

All right. Um, I would have to rely on really on Jason to answer that question because you know they they look at the condition of the vehicles and you know Jay and other team members they look at the demand for services and I believe that our our team does look at that because we we really ask departments a lot of questions is why should we replace this? How come it can't last another year? And so, but if you want to get to the specifics about what they're doing, again, I would need somebody like Jason to give some input or Jay, I'll put you on the spot.

And and I can add just a couple of put him on the spot bits of context. Um,

you know, we track u of each each piece of equipment subject to the to this entire program. We we track what we do on a on a preventive maintenance and on responsive maintenance. Something goes wrong, right? Um and so you won't see a uniform. All right. When they hit 100,000 miles, that's it. It will be it will be a spec vehicle specific history that the team looks at and says, "Okay, well, we've had this particular vehicle in front of us or taken out of service multiple times." and they'll look at the the reasons why. So, it's very much a case by case uh basis informed by the actual experience data tied to that specific vehicle. Um, and the other aspect of this that hasn't been mentioned yet that is complicating our world a little bit is a lot of the specialty equipment we're experiencing significantly longer lead times post pandemic than we did before. Which means that the day you say go,

you're still on the next order, you're still stretching the functionality and dependent on the functionality of the old piece of equipment for a longer period of time than um most of us have experienced through most of our careers in terms of being able to to get deliveries filled and and things of that nature. So I just from my lay person's perspective, you don't you don't you know I don't know anything uh um technical associated with the vehicles, but as far as the rigor of the data analysis that I have seen is solid and I've appreciate the team's work on that. Well, and I recognize that a million and a half of that money we've already approved the expenditure. Correct.

So I mean I I mean I I I recognize that. I guess the other not to belabor it but you know um would when we move to purchase like when there's a significant change in our ERP system or anything like that I mean is that would that come out of this this this budget I mean would this be or would we I mean obviously we have to capitalize some of that I would think right

we we do and and in in some cases we can finance um certain tools and equipments through the vendors ers more advantageously than we can finance them directly. And I want to just I'll take a minute to try to explain why we finance at all as opposed to paying most of this. Uh one of the reasons uh you know this is a good year to to be illustrating this this $4.5 million is a big big number for us and the size of our organization. But of course last year there wasn't any uh financed equipment. But in both years there was a steady general fund investment into the equipment replacement fund. So we try to keep that level and so there can be a bulge in the snake in the actual outflows but the impact on the general fund budget uh we try to keep level and proportional to to to growth over time. So we don't see this you when you look at our audited financial statements for the last fiscal year and the next fiscal year you will be able to find this expenditure. But when you look at the general fund contribution to equipment it'll be different by only the couple hundred,000 of inflationary cost we budgeted in the current general fund compared to the last one.

So how much does that make sense or am I losing folks? Well, how much is in our vehicle replacement fund? uh how much is how much is in there now or I mean we we we transferred $2.3 million there this year but again that goes to cover you know the year debt payments and and as we're working on on the budget right now as Chris was saying we're going to step up that contribution $650,000 no by another $300,000 they step it up

rolling stair steps so you you you meet it over over a 10-year period versus comparing outflows and inflows in any one year because um the we we recognize that that stairst step is going to have to ratchet up. Uh but it doesn't need to go from 2.3 to 4.5 because there isn't a current balance. And this is always just a challenge for me because I don't have I mean I'm not a mechanic and I'm not you know savvy with vehicles and and I don't understand I mean I understand but I don't have a working knowledge of what it takes to keep vehicles moving over the long haul. And so you know all all I want to make sure is that we are being good stewards of taxpayer dollars when we make these decisions. And so, you know, it's it's a bit of a leap of faith for us when we're spending this kind of money to to rely on the logic that that you and your team have have come forward. And I certainly don't have a an issue with with that. It's just, you know, I think it's something we need to dig dig deep on to to make sure that we're we're doing our our diligence to to spend this money wisely. And so, you know, I I appreciate you answering my questions. Okay.

Sure. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am.

Um, Chris, I know, you know, postcoid supply chains. Um, I from my own experience, you know, fixing equipment, getting pieces of, you know, back up and running, having them run at the expected time. Are we re-evaluating and and consistently looking at, you know, runtime hours and mileage over, you know, and watching those vehicles, the choice of the vehicles that we're that we're going with the obviously the manufacturers? How often are we reassessing the choices that we're making and what we're investing in

as as far as the means and methods like sidearm loaders versus other equipment, that kind of thing? That would be yes, that would be it. But just yeah, looking at, you know, we've got Ford, we've got Chevy, we've got, you know, lots of different options. And are those the right are the is it an Explorer the right vehicle? Is, you know, there's the Impala sedan. Like are we looking at the choices that we're choosing as supplies ch as supply chains shift as you know

I recently read an article yesterday that a car is going out of going out of production for one reason or the other. So yeah, how are we re-evaluating the choices of of the vehicles and the pieces of equipment on our list? And that's a terrific question and I think my answer is probably going to not be fully adequate but it is uh it is the most precious resource we have and the reason why we want to have good equipment is the time of the men and women of the city. So run, you know, uh we want to make sure that Jason and team can get the equipment back out and rolling when it needs its preventive maintenance or when something goes wrong. Um so we don't seek to experiment a whole heck of a lot. Uh that doesn't mean we're wedded to any particular mode, but you want to move carefully through a change because um you might have better upfront performance but but reduce but reduce run hours over the course of a time and and that kind of thing. So, we um we do try to, you know, we're using more um electric equipment in our grounds maintenance uh uh teams and we're moving into that. You won't see us be the first on the leading edge. We let some of the bigger communities with larger budgets sometimes do the working out the kinks of some of those things. But um uh we um uh we do try to strike the right balance between knowing what we can manage effectively and keep our folks busy um uh and in the field doing their field services with what might lower our cost over time. And we try to encourage our

team to take a long-term time horizon uh evaluation of those costs um and not just the front acquisition price. And that is sometimes hard because right I mean even in this moments the $4.5 million that gets our attention but uh the actual cost of ownership of these vehicles will be determined by how long we can stretch their use and how much consistent uptime we have with them um and how productive they are.

Thank you. Yes, I think the the long-term gains, the long, you know, the investment over time, getting the best return on on what we're investing in. And I would just say given supply chains, I I would hope that we consider the equipment that we're using um to make sure that we're we're evolving with the way that the market is shifting. There's got to be some there's got to be some, you know, analysis data on that, right? I mean, one, I would imagine we do it internally ourselves, but then also there should be some some broader benchmarks that would help us. What I what I want to add to to that come Oh, here comes Jason. Go ahead, Jason.

No, sorry to interrupt.

Well, I was just going to add for an an example with our police department. I know when they go to the their various seminars and they hear about the latest trends in police vehicles, you know, they know what's working in their industry. So when they I mean each year when they evaluate which vehicles they want to replace, they might still stick with the same manufacturer but get different equipment based on what their peers have said. And I think that's done across the board in various departments. they know the best kind of equipment that's out there due to the their associ associations that they're a part of because just like finance officers, you know, we get together once or twice a year and we discuss the best ways or the most latest ways and innovations and government finance. The same thing about fleet. And so I think we we do do that internally, you know, by with our peers and going to these meetings where we learn about different types of equipment that's that's out there. Jason, you want to add to that?

Yeah. Um, no, it's a constant ongoing um doing research to find out if if the Fords are right or if the auto cars were running or right. Um, but on the police side, the Ford Explorers seem to be tracking great. There's not a whole lot of repairs that we have to do on them other than dodges we've had in the past. We've had to do a whole lot more repairs on them. So we found that the the officers and everybody liked the room of the uh explorers and the accessibility of parts and accessibility of my technicians working on them. If we try to jump around from manufacturer to manufacturer, then I've got to teach all my guys more broader ranges instead of focusing on one specific manufacturer. It's not saying that if we don't find a manufacturer that is better, we won't pursue that option. It's just at this time the manufacturer we're sticking with right now is better of the options. Um and and to go back to the mileage and stuff like that. Uh which everybody's car, you know, we you think 100,000 miles nowadays is nothing on a car, but you take city driving where it never leaves the city limits. that 100,000 mi when you get to the hours that that engine has on it, you're looking at more of a 200 250,000 mi vehicle then at that point. And then everybody knows once you start getting to 200 250,000 mi, you're going to start having a whole lot more problems where some of these cars on this list that has been is up for replacement are 2010 2011s with 90,000 miles on them. those have been they're we're patching them together just to keep them going at this point.

That's that's really helpful. And I I would I would suggest um maybe in in when we go forward next time on this that we get a full schedule of the vehicles that are being replaced. I think we've seen that in the past. You know, it is it is in your package. I don't have my glasses. I'm struggling to read. What we what what we did do, we listed the year of the vehicle that's in place and then the condition. Read it when I get home. Yeah, it's still small. We we tried. Well, you can enlarge it on the computer. I mayor. Yes.

May I May I just said thank you? That is exact that is an exact data point that I'm looking for. So 100,000 but it's constantly running. So 200 running 200,000 running hours that is that communicates the need for replacement. And I think just speaking for myself um some of those key data points and running hours and when you start to see those those constant repairs that maintenance you know skyrocket you know it it is it is time to change it over and that's where you know we are going to save money in the long run. So I would enjoy having some of that information included in in what we what we read and and digest to be able to make an informed decision.

Yeah. Just for an example of this uh one of them on here uh 618 for u explore as year or the cost of blue eyes today we spent $46,000 just to repair. So we can buy that carv and we won't be spending another $46,000 next year or at this point that car is going to start costing anywhere from 5 to $10,000 a year just to keep it going. So there's a limit to where you got to

I know we're we have maxed out the this view the but the landscape view with that extra Excel line that would that that would be a lovely column to see. Are we are we playing catchup with any of our equipment? You know, we we catch up on a lot of things over time. I mean, is this I mean, are we are we pretty current with a cycle? All of this is catch up, but not all of it, but some I mean, the the schedule that we have I've seen it here over over to keep going on.

Great question. So, when I Jason did a great job. Dennis such a great job. If you look at if you look at public works for the most part and those other city departments on there, everybody at home will say, wellund like Jason said 100,000 miles, you can break you can break them into four more or less four uh criteria. You've got the public works, the larger, you know, the larger uh pieces of equipment. You've got police, you've got fire, and you got everybody else. Okay? And I don't mean that in a bad way, but as far as catchup, um you I think y'all remember CO was just so hard on us. To Jason's point, we constantly look at different platforms cuz we have to because you know, some of these uh vehicles now, these pieces of equipment, you know, like now a side loader, if we don't order it now, it's 18 months out.

You know, going back to the tiller for the um you know, for the fire department, right? That was what, three years? Yeah. Wow.

Three years. So, we were sitting there, you know, after, you know, waiting for it to come in three years. So, it's almost like they say it's almost like come as you are kind of things. And everybody knows and I know we're going to get if in the weeds on this, but however, there are certain um you know, certain things that we're going to have to do long term with that. And we're trying to make sure to your point, we're trying to expand those um those platforms out. A a vehicle with the police department. Yes. to what Jason said. It's not that it's got 100,000 miles on it. That thing is constantly running with the electronics. It's never going to be cut off at all. The the savings that we're trying to foster in public works too with what he's trying to do with like you know our side loaders, the side loader itself, that mechanism is moving hundreds of times if not thousands of times a week. And what we'll say is to that point about equipment if you go back and you look at faces uh and so forth the faces especially like in let's say in public works. So just the machinery the efficiencies that we have to see in the equipment is paramount because we don't have as many people anymore. So we have to constantly look at that to that efficiency part of you know doing these things that we have to do you know solid waste green waste and those things as everybody remembers you know in Helen I think I think somebody looked at some of our equipment some of our older dump trucks you know and so forth and they look you know they don't look the best of it however he's he's done a great job at keeping them in place. The other main thing now is just the um you know regulations. Um, you're going to get to learn these terms about everybody knows about diesel now, right? And and deaf and stuff like that. You got to have these additives and in order for these newer pieces of machinery to work. These newer pieces of machinery is just it's a computer. It's not like you open up the hood anymore and you've got a carburetor working on. You're you got to be a computer electrician now. You got to be all kinds of things to those things. He's they're

doing the best they can with what that information they have and those materials they have. Some of these things we have to keep in place because we can't find parts. So, we'll cannibalize the older ones because it's not worth putting it on uh gov deals, selling it for 1,200 bucks when I can or he can go in and he can cannibalize some of these older pieces of machinery in order to get the parts because we can't get a part within, you know, uh weeks as well. So, it's not that it's complex, but it's really different than to your point than it has been over the years. Now, equipment replacement is is a moving target that we're trying to make sure that we're looking at because we know we have a finite, you know, we don't have a finite amount of resources to devote toward that, but we're trying to do the best we can with the information that we have and I think Jason and Dennis and Chris and everybody understands that and we're trying to find a healthy um medium in order to accomplish that.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Any other questions? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion. Thank you. We authorize the city manager to execute and deliver the equipment lease purchase agreement. Second. All in favor?

Any that opposed? Eyes have it. Great. Thank you. Glasses. We're at item 11, public hearing. uh ordinance to provide the uh annexation of property located at 2191 Country Club Road which is identified as uh parcel ID7-17-06-071.00 Spy County uh tax map as well as the property located at 2251 South Pine Street. Uh good. Presenter Frasier, planning director. Miss Frasier.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Uh, the matter before you is an application for an annexation or petition for annexation and a reszoning. You may recall this application came before you probably sometime last year as part of a um development agreement. So, this is the next step in advancing that project. uh the representative for that project, Later Jack Levenson, is here if we have any additional questions regarding the specifics of the project that's being proposed. But tonight, I'm going to walk you through the annexation component and the reasonzoning and a little bit on the actual proposed project. So, um where are we now? Some sometime last year about September, we had the uh planning information session. You may all know that all resonings must go through a public information component have include that. So we conducted that on September 10th. We had a two adjacent property owners that did attend the meeting and provided comments at that time. Both were in favor of the project. We did not receive any other information at that time in terms of from the public. Uh the following week we held the planning commission meeting and uh they actually voted unanimously to move forward with the annexation and the zone the reszoning of the property. So that brings us to where we are right now where this petition is before you for consideration and if it moves forward tonight it will come back to you on the 27th um for adoption. A little bit about the project. This is at the corner kind of at the corner of Country Club and um South Pine Street. What you see there is the extent of the full proposed project. I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into where the annex proposed annex um parcels are located for you. But as you can see, it's not going where are we? There we go. As you can see, when you get in this section of the city, things get kind of wonky in

terms of our boundaries. So, it's um kind of difficult to figure out what's in the city and what's not in the city. But if you look closely here, that area that's shaded kind of grayish, that's actually in the city. And everything else that does not have that shade to it is in the county. So, where you see the two stars, those are the two parcels that are under consideration for annexation and resoning to be combined with that uh larger parcel right there in the middle. Uh So here you go. Everything that you see that has a diagonal or hash lines on it are are it will um consist of the overall project. The yellow are the parcels that would be annexed. And one thing about this project, if you look at the southern edge there, uh the the applicant has also agreed to provide an easement to the city to provide a um a gateway sign there. So we consider this area of the city certainly a gateway into the city. So the fact that they are um willing to provide some um area for us to put a sign there, welcome to Spartenberg or whatever that may read, uh we we welcome that. A little bit about the zoning. As I mentioned, the primary parcel that's in the center there is B3 and of course the other two that are in the county are unzoned. We're proposing the B3 uh with all resonings and annexations, we always like to go back to what we call our guiding document, which is the comprehensive plan. So in this case, as you can see, this area is identified as an infill growth sector. And what we're doing here aligns with the uses that you would want to see in here. We're in in that regard, we're looking at in the future mixed use and a little more residential along this corridor. And this specifically aligns with what was

proposed in what's in our future land use map in the comprehensive plan. Now the other part of any annexation and resoning is um the analysis in terms of uh the five criteria that um any petition and application needs to meet. So the department the the staff as well as the planning commission are responsible for making sure that an application meets this criteria. And I will say that in this case, uh, this petition does meet all of the criteria. Um, I won't read all through all of them, but I'll just briefly touch on them, I guess, is best way to do it. The consistency or lack thereof the comprehensive plan, I hope that I've demonstrated that this ties directly to the comprehensive plan in terms of the future land use that's been identified there. Compatibility with existing zoning. The primary parcel is B3 which does accommodate residential and I can touch on that a little bit more about why we feel moving forward in that regard because of the pending um code update which we anticipate a broader or more flexible zoning classification here. The challenge is our zoning code just does not give us the flexibility right now for town homes and so we do a lot of workarounds. So instead of trying to do the workaround now with the zoning code rewrite, we'll be able to really look at how we incorporate mixed use on this site or in this area and it can serve as a buffer or transition to the residential that you see adjacent to these properties. Uh markability of the property, we feel as though of course with a town home development uh we don't see any hindrances or challenges there in terms of the marketability. In fact, having these other uses in terms of retail, there's the Engles that's adjacent to this area as well as other neighborhood services really will promote that type of mixed use even though we don't have that mixeduse zoning in the area. And finally, the availability of water sewers, storm

water facilities. This is always reviewed at the site plan level with the um with Spartanberg water but um we do and we are confident that the there is sufficient um infrastructure in place to support the development a little bit about the project and I think you've seen this before but just to kind of remind everyone uh the proposed site plan here the and Jack is here if you want more detail but um there are four different models that are being proposed here all of which um 90 92 of them and the renderings and the actual design has not changed since you saw that I guess sometime last year but 92 town homes because this is part of a development agreement. It also incorporates 10% workforce housing. So um that really concludes the presentation but I'm happy to answer any questions and of course if you have questions specific to the development I will defer to Mr. Leon for that

questions. Mr. Mayor, I not not necessarily a question. I just want to note um that that LP perser Jack back there um LP perser this is what would be the third project in the city of Spartanberg behind the Fitzgerald and the affformentioned box car. Exactly. They've been active um in our community for some time now with the most recently the the box car and as you mentioned uh the Fitzgerald, right? And I I mean they've been great assets to our community and and want to thank them for their continued investment in in Spartanberg and we're really excited about this and I assume this will be part of district 4. So I'm looking forward to welcoming that to to the district.

Any other comments? Sure. Um Fredelyn, do you mind going back to the map that showed the two parcels that we're going to annex? Um yeah, sure. Right. Right there. I know that the the one next to the one on Country Club Road is not a part of this particular project, but did we investigate trying to annex that at the same time because it's just kind of sitting out there all on its own now? Yes. And I believe that was um the intention of the developer trying to get that entire up to the corner. Um unfortunately we did not or they did not have a willing uh okay but the

property owner is that correct? But the the answer is the existing property owner does not wish to be annexed into the city at this point. I would say that that's the case. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we uh open a public hearing. Second. All right. All in favor?

That opposed? The way the public hearing works, we will have uh 20 minutes each side to speak on behalf of this project or speak against. No one person can take up uh the entire time. No one person can take over 10 minutes to speak on the uh project of the proposed project here. So with that being said, do we have anyone that would like to speak in favor of this project? Anyone that would like to speak in favor of this project? Do we have anyone that wants to speak against this proposed project? Anyone willing to come forth to speak against the proposed project?

Okay. Make a motion. And now he's coming up against. I just want to make a statement. Sure.

It's not directly against. However, Spartberg City and Spartberg County are running out of nature preserved areas. Uh, our trees, our green spaces, and everything. Even though the city and the county are doing a good job about bringing parks and everything, uh, we're losing a lot of our wildlife area. So, this is part of wildlife area. Um, I'm not saying I'm totally opposed to it, but I think it's time that we start looking at building permits and our infrastructures and everything a little bit more closely, the aging of it and everything. And um, just keeping that in mind. That's I'm not, like I said, I'm not against it. I'm not for it. I just want to make sure that's

hear you loud and clear. Thank you for that. Anyone else that would like to speak against Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we close the public hearing. Second. All in favor? I. Any that oppose? Eyes have it. Do I hear a motion? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the reszoning as requested. Second. All in favor? Any that oppose? Unanimous. Eyes have it. Thank you, Miss Fraser.

Thank you. Black Purser and uh Jack, thank you guys for for for your investment in Spartanberg. Really, we thank you. Uh Mr. Story, item 12, staff update.

Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, uh council members, I've got a couple of topics to to cover. Um and then I'll certainly welcome any questions that you have. The first is uh we have experienced a uh we've got a very busy downtown. Um and when I say we've got a lot going on downtown, the first thing people think about is construction. But I I also wanted to to uh point out that we're coming out on the heels of an extraordinarily busy weekend downtown of people. Uh our best guess is that some 15,000 plus folks attended the barbecue festival and about 12,000 folks attended baseball over the weekend um across three baseball games. All of that uh um uh worked well in and amongst and around uh the construction and uh um I think it was a really successful uh weekend with tremendous amount of cooperation and tremendous amount of vibrant activity in our downtown. And so it's just something to to to celebrate and a strong indicator that the downtown changes are are not dissuading anyone from visiting our downtown. In fact, we've um we're having a tremendous um u spring so far in terms of um downtown visits and and activity. Also want to just again thank the the the private group who puts puts on the the barbecue festival, the Hogfest. um in the process of uh putting on that great event, they raised tens of thousands of dollars uh for mobile meals, which is a hugely important uh community service. Um and and so we're glad that not only do

people come downtown for entertainment and fun and dining and shopping, um there's good work being done uh for community causes in that process as well. Um so thanks to everyone who who is making this busy downtown spring uh happen. Uh the second thing I want to talk about is uh three weeks ago we've we've made a recommendation of of about the clock tower and u established today as as as sort of uh a target for completing three weeks of uh public input on that uh proposal. And I wanted to share that we have uh received 137 emails to clock tower at city ofsparinberg.org. All of them in their entirety um will be emailed to you. Um and of course that count could have changed by one or two since I pulled those numbers, but that they'll all be um accessible to you in your entirety. We also plan um uh to put them online, but in in the course of our discussions for that, we realize that some folks may not have anticipated that their email address would be out online or that kind of thing. So to keep folks from getting any kind of spam or or or anything like that, we're going to redact any personally identifying information from the ones we post online. In other words, won't change any of their content, but just so their address or email address or that kind of thing u u um uh wouldn't be in would be blacked out on those that that we put up online. But in case uh folks who are interested in this issue want to read the other 130 something that they didn't write, um they'll have opportunity to do that. U and uh we

suggest you know we're not seeking any action associated with that tonight. I just wanted to to put that in front of you and encourage you to to dig in and take a couple of u weeks to to read those that content. Anytime we ask for uh public comment um on a high-profile proposal, we get a variety of responses and we did in this case and they run the gamut. There are a number that are supportive of the proposal. There are also a number that are critical of the proposal and and there was also um a number of folks who uh u have suggested that that the county courthouse should be uh the site and I just wanted to comment briefly on that. Um, as has been previously discussed, the the city doesn't own or control the county courthouse campus. And um, uh, we haven't received any indication u, uh, from the county that uh, the clock tower is is what is something they want there on that property. And it from all respects, you know, it is their property. And so I just want to be transparent in regard to to that. uh question since it was the the subject of of a number of um those emails. But again, lots of substantive uh feedback uh that will be available to you and to the public uh beginning uh tonight or tomorrow morning uh to read about the the clock tower. Um certainly welcome any questions that you have about that, but I just wanted to give those two updates. And again, um, not seeking any, uh, specific additional direction that time, but just want to provide you and the community opportunity to read what what folks have had to say about what has been presented.

Thank you. We look forward to those emails. Um, we're going to move on and have five minutes for council updates. Yes, sir. Before 7:30. Five minutes. Council Rogers. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wasn't sure Chris has finished. Um we have had uh quite a meeting this evening. Lots of topics. Um it's great to hear so many public comments and just updates on what's happening in the community. Um I would like to uh bring attention to April is now fair housing month, child abuse prevention month, and Earth Month.

Um our power, our planet is Earth Month's theme uh this year. So, and it's definitely come up with green spaces being mentioned, um, native plants. So, just putting in mind that we are now officially in spring and this is also a time to really focus on how as a community we're making a safe, nurturing, and engaging community for our children and families here. So, um, and I think the ask that I have of everyone here tonight is, you know, Hannah did, um, such a wonderful job talking about services, partnerships, please pick two people in your life that live locally and talk about the services that are available. talk about the reality that children uh mothers and children are the majority of of the homeless in our population and that we have services not only for the people that we see and interact with but the people that we don't and that there's an opportunity for us to if all you have the ability to do timewise is share that information you're a part of making that difference. So thank you.

Thank you Mayor Councilwoman Smith. Thank you all for being here. Um I hope I'm not embarrassing her by saying this, but happy birthday to Ruth Little John tonight. Councilwoman, um yes, give her an applause. We go to sing at the end.

Oh, were we doing a solo? Oh, okay. Okay. Well, we could still do that. Um but Ruth is a very special person to me and my family. And one of the things I I think respect most about Ruth is that she is always quick to apologize when she feels like she needs to. That is something that I think a lot of folks don't do anymore. Um their pride gets in the way, but Ruth is a humble woman and um that really shows and I've learned a lot from you. So glad to be up here with you. Um, I've had some questions about, um, and maybe Jay can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but on Thursday, April 16th, um, SC DOT is going to have a drop in meeting about a road diet. If you're not sure what that means, it means what you think it sounds like, where you take a road that's a little bit too big and you make it skinnier. and um East Maine, right where our city um new city offices are, right by First Baptist, starting right there at Converse Street all the way down to East St. John Street, that really wide part um that goes by Mary Black Foundation, that goes by um St. Paul's Catholic Church and First Baptist um where we've had a pedestrian death this year already. um that road is really too wide. Uh and SC DOT is are they officially dieting it or they're just considering

asking for public comment. They're asking for public comment. So if you think that that road should be made a little bit smaller. They're proposing a two-lane road with a turning lane and bike lanes on either side. you can drop in to the Mary Black Foundation which is actually on that section um from 4 to 6 on Thursday and offer your opinion. Um I think that's a really important way that we can get involved. That's a road that the city does not control. We cannot make those kind of decisions. So we need to engage with our state partners. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Brown,

I have anything to add except for happy birthday. Ruth, may you have many more? Thank you. Thank you all for coming. Councilwoman Sally, I just want to say thank you all for coming out and hope you had a great Easter. Thank you, Councilman. Uh yeah, I just want to wish uh Ruth a very very happy birthday uh and reserve all my other comments for Dennis. Uh Claire Pro, you have the floor.

Oh, well, thank you, August, and thank you for your comments. I um I got several calls over the weekend about uh the South Converse area being a historical district. Is it or is it not? And if um many of you um remember years ago when I was the president of our neighborhood association, I got all of the signatures and we worked for the South Converse neighborhood to become a historical district. However, we got approval during the same time that Bulmont Mills did. Ed Mimtt asked me if we could put ours on hold and move forward with the South Converse neighborhood. Well, uh, Kaboom Malco was approved and it is on the state um register now. Uh, ours never came back up cuz you know, I just kind of forgot about that. But, um, I got calls this weekend that was stating that um, folks were thinking that we were on the register and we are not on the register. And the ones that are are Hampton Heights um and Bowmont Mills on the local and on the national is um Converse Heights. Converse Heights. Those are the ones. I just wanted to say that because I wanted people to know the ones that don't know that. Um and then I had a very dear friend. And I'm sure that she was a friend to many of you uh who were listening and watching. Gloria Hunter

was a dear friend of mine for over 50 years. I did not know she had passed until Friday passed and she passed on the 4th. I did not know it. And I got a call got from some people that said go, "Did you know that Gloria passed?" Because I haven't heard you say anything. And I said, "Gloria who?" And they said, "Gloria Hunter." I said, "When?" And they said, "On the fourth." I I was not good for anything the rest of the day. I did something and I want to apologize to Dr. McDaniels and I would do it publicly. I did something that you're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to put yourself down front because you wait to be invited to come down front. Um I was so hurt and so filled on yesterday when I went to her funeral. I just wanted to be as close as I could. Excuse me. I'm so good. Yeah.

So, I put myself on the second row from the uh front and I should not have done that because I think I took the space of somebody else that was supposed to sit there. And I do want to apologize to Dr. McDanielage because you don't do that. You don't put yourself down front, you wait to be called down front. So, I want to publicly apologize to him. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Ruth, Miss Gloria Hana was a dear friend to quite a few uh here in Spartanberg. U you know, we were both at the funeral yesterday, a real close friend of my mother's. Um, if you didn't know, uh, Miles with the mayor on the 25th. It's not the third Saturday. It's actually the fourth Saturday of this month, April the, uh, um, 25th. And you heard, uh, Strongtown Spartanberg will host it. We will be at Bernett Park at 9:00 a.m. that morning. Um, thank you all for being here. Thank you all for coming out. And uh once we ask for a uh ad ajouring vote uh motion, we will sing happy birthday to Ruth Little John. So do I hear a motion? I know we

make motion that we uh after singing happy birthday to Miss Little John, we move into executive session. Second. All in favor? Any that oppose? And you guys in the audience can join in with us. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Ru. Happy birthday to you. And happy birthday to Kevin on yesterday. How old are you