City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everybody. Uh it is September 9th. This is the regular meeting for the Spencer Board of Alderman for the month of September. Uh it is 6:02 p.m. We're called to order. We have all of our board members present this evening and we will begin with an invocation by Alderman Miller. Okay, will you please bow your head, please? Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight thanking you for all the many blessings you have been bestowed on our community, our staff, town staff, and all our citizens in our community. Grant the Grant our town's board with the wisdom and clarity for the decisions ahead. We ask for the strength to seek harmony and cooperation for the betterment of our town. We ask in your name. Amen. Amen. Please rise for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right board, you have before you your agenda for this evening. There is one item that's a request by staff to add to the agenda and that would be to consider adopting ordinance 25-18 approving a temporary road closure during the race to the river. Are there any other additions or deletions uh requested? I want to add a short recognition for John Noble of these.

Okay, thank you very much. So we will add that as recognition 5B and Mayor Pro Tim will do that. Anything else? All right. And so board that being the case where would you like where would you like to adopt or move the ordinance 25-18 for the temporary road closures during the race to the river? If you would like to add that to the consent agenda, you may also do that. I move to add it to the consent agenda. Okay. Thank you very much. The motion by Miss Smoody to put it on the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second.

Second by Mayor Prom. Any discussion? All in favor? All right. All opposed. That's approved unanimously. And so that will be moved to the consent agenda. All right. With that, is there a motion to adopt the agenda as set? Motion by Mr. Muhammad. Sir, a second. Second. Second by Mr. Miller. All in favor? All opposed. And our agenda set for this evening. Thank you all. We will move forward with recognitions. At this point, I'll turn it over to Miss Sledge for recognition of Spencer's Holiday Caravan Committee.

Thank you, mayor. Uh tonight I want to give a special recognition and thank you to the organizers Heather Rino and Lynn Curtis and the volunteers of the Spencer Holiday Caravan Parade for the wonderful evening that they presented for our citizens and friends on Saturday, August 30th in Town Park as we returned to the Labor Day street dance of yester years. Those of us attending enjoyed the music of Divided by Four and were able to see six outstanding young women who were competing for the title of Miss Spencer Rowan. Thanks go to the judges who gave up their Saturday for interviews and interactions with the contestants. They were town clerk Anna Ward, Alderman Rashid Muhammad, and Melanie Pascal. The winner of the title of Miss Spencer Rowanne was crowned by Miss Spencer Rowan 204. Christy Thomas, who was back to crown the new Miss Spencer Rowanne. Yes, you heard that right. 2004, 21 years ago.

The winner this year, Rachel Webster, will represent Spencer in the holiday caravan parade in November, as well as other events during the year. She's a graduate of Kataba College, UNCC Pimbro with an MBA and is pursuing her jurist doctorate at High Point University. First runner up is Tai Tiana Clemens, a junior at Salsbury High School and will step in if for any reason Miss Webster cannot fulfill the duties of the term. Additional sponsors of the soon to become an annual event for Kathy Griffin, Spencer Moose Lodge, Spencer JC's, and the town of Spencer. The old 97 kettle corn company was there to give a free bag of popcorn to anyone who signed up as a volunteer to help with the Spencer Holiday Caravan Parade on November 26th. It's great to see our beautiful town park being used on a regular basis. Coming up soon will be Spencer's National Night Out on Tuesday, October 7th with the formal dedication of the park. events for Ring County Creek Week October 11th through 18 followed by our trunk of treat and then Winterfest the first weekend in December. If you haven't come yet, come walk the walking trail around the park. Pick up some food at one of our downtown restaurants. Take advantage of the picnic tables and benches. And for the kids and kids at heart, the final touches are being done for the splash pad to be in operation in the near future. So, thank you all for coming out and supporting this event. We look forward to seeing you here every time there's something going on and even when there isn't.

Thank you, Miss Sledge. All right, Mayor Prom, your recognition.

Okay. Thank you. Um, if you live here in this area and you've been here for a while, you probably had the pleasure at one time or another of meeting John Noble, an East Spencer resident. He was a longstanding member of the East Spencer Board of Alderman. He was a constant presence in all of the Northand schools, a friend to everybody he met. A sheriff he worked with the sheriff's department and was also an officer of the court. Unfortunately, we lost Mr. Noble and his funeral services are tomorrow um at noon at Shady Grove Baptist Church on Long Street in Spencer. East Spencer, excuse me. Um, but I did want to take time to recognize him because I counted him as somebody I admired greatly, but also as a friend. And he was a friend to so many students and helping steer them in the right direction and adults too, but a wonderful person, a big loss, but I want us all to take a moment to honor him and recognize him. There was a wonderful article in the Salsbury Post and it was called A Noble Life. So if you didn't get a chance to read that article online or in the Salsbury Post, go back and read it and see all the contributions Mr. Noble made to our community. His legacy will last forever. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Prom. All right, we will move forward into our public comment this evening. We do have two individuals signed up for public comment. As a reminder, uh public comment is limited to three minutes. We will have uh a timer on the screen to help uh help you with time. Um and we'll ask that as you come forward, if you'll just state your name and address for the record. And the first individual that we'll invite forward is wahal.

Good evening and thank you for this time. My name is Wah How and I'm here to ask the town's help with a special project. I was contracted two weeks ago by Crystal McCrae from North Rowan High School. The internal and external courtyards of the school are in vital need of cleaning, landscaping, and general maintenance. The new principal at North Rowan, Mr. Clark, would like these areas revitalized for the student use. The students have done some work already, but they lack manpower. I don't have to remind everyone here that North Rowan is the school that the county forgot. We will not go there because that's a separate conversation alto together. These students want their school to look nice and they have already completed some work. They've already done some landscaping. They have carried mulch from in outside the school to the inside the school. They're planning a mural. They've already done some memory benches in in honor of Alexis Greer. They just need help. They need more manpower. So, I'm asking this board to consider a day of caring for North Rowan to revitalize these two areas, the internal and external courtyard. These students need to know that they matter and they need to know that their town is willing to roll up their sleeves and stand behind them and support them. But, thank you for your consideration and have a great evening.

Thank you very much.

All right. Next is Nancy Boyd. So, I am currently a member of the historic commission as well as the community appearance commission and I'm here to voice my um dissatisfaction with the new sign that was in front of the park here. Um, this particular sign, this town did not come before the historic commission and submit a COA and almost every single restriction we have on signage was broken with the top green part of the sign. Um, as an a as I become almost to the end of my eight-year term, I feel that Spencer doesn't really have support for their historic district. Um, I've seen um things like brick facades painted blue, tin roofing replaced, windows resized, all kinds of things. And the only um thing that they've done is given a $250 fine, which doesn't really seem to be compensation for lost things in the historic district. So, I feel that if Spencer thinks they need this blinking, flashing sign that it should be moved to a different area of Spencer and and not reside within the historic district.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Boyd. All right, that is all we have signed up for public comment this evening. We will move forward, board, with our consent agenda. Board, you have several items on the consent agenda. um as well as the additional item that we just awarded. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda tonight or any need to remove anything from the consent agenda for further discussion? I make a motion that we approve the consent. Okay. Motion by Mr. Miller. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Second by Mayor Prom. All in favor? All right. All opposed. And the consent agenda is approved. Thank you all. The next item is to consider appointing Danielle Yearout to the community appearance commission. We'll invite Mr. Harris forward. Good evening. Good evening.

Um so our community appearance commission does have uh several vacancies at this point. Um and we have received an application from uh Danielle Yearout who is located here in the audience. Um she has asked me to present on her behalf. um she just doesn't want to come up to the board, but uh she's she's uh very passionate about uh community appearance, which I hope to convey in my description of her. Uh she actually lives directly adjacent to the new Jefferson Street Park. Well, the Jefferson Street Park has existed for some time. Uh but the town through some recent investments has started a multi-phaseed project of improving Jefferson Street Park. Um, we recently completed phase one of the park beautifification project which included installation of new picnic tables, new landscaping and as well as native plants. So, because Danielle lives right next to the park, she saw these improvements going on and she came out when I believe Nancy was there planting some of the new trees and plants and wanted to get involved. So Danielle actually um volunteered to water our our plants, our new plants in the park um which was amazing and I I don't think we could have asked for a better neighbor to live right next to the park um to come out and immediately start volunteering to support these new investments. She has impressed the CAC with her civic spirit as well as her love for plants. um and Nancy invited her to attend the CAC meeting and there was an an immediate click with the entire uh commission. Danielle has expressed a passion for gardens, plants, and life in general. During her interview, she expressed her desire to expand educational programming related to the CAC's gardening efforts, both with the native plants garden and the community garden. She believes in the power of gardening for personal development, mental health, and community building. So, if she's appointed, she would serve a three-year term, which would expire September 30th, 2028, and the commission can choose either to approve her appointment, deny

her appointment, or request additional information from the CAC before making a decision. All right. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Board, are there any questions for Mr. Harris regarding the candidate for the community appearance commission? All right, board. Is there a motion to appoint Danielle Gear out for the community appearance commission? So move. There's a motion by Mr. Muhammad. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Miller. Any discussion? Just glad to have her. I'm glad that she stepped up in doing that. Thank you very much.

Thanks for being available to serve. All right, board. All in favor. All right. All opposed. That is approved unanimously. Welcome aboard. Thank you. All right, board. The next is to consider adopting ordinance 25-11.01, which are the fee schedule amendments. Turn that over to Mr. Grenzy. Nope. I'm going to turn it over to Miss K. Good evening, surprise.

You'll see the ordinance there. We um in August we adopted the ordinance 2516 and 2515 and these are just um changes in the fees for those the chicken keeping program and the sidewalk encroachment fee of $50 for each one of those and to um change the police off duty rate to $45 and an hour and offduty fire to $35. Have any questions? for any questions. Okay, hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the uh revised fee schedule? So move.

Motion by Mayor Proton. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Sledge. All in favor? Right. All opposed. And that's approved unanimously. Thank you, Miss G. The next item is to consider adopting ordinance 25-17 to approve a temporary road closure during Spencer's holiday caravan parade. Mr. Harris.

All right. So, as we do every year, um because of the uh requirements for road closures for special events, we do need to seek permission from the governing board for several street closures. Um, now this will be the second year that the Spencer's Holiday Caravan Parade will take place at night. So, the board will remember in previous years we had done more of an afternoon um type uh closure schedule. Um, but now this has moved to an evening parade. So, this will be the second year that we've started the closures later in the evening. Uh, the reason I bring that up, not only for you, but for anyone listening, um, because it's it's still different from what people may be typically used to, we are going to be sending out, um, notices and various communications to remind people that again, we're we're going to be having an evening parade. So, the closures that we're looking at, it's the same streets as usual. So from US Highway 29 from 11th Street to Jefferson Street, Jefferson Street from US 29 to North Whitehead Avenue, North Whitehead Avenue from Forestdale Drive to Second Street, and Oakwood Drive from North White Hood Avenue to Pinerto Lane. So, the main closure that's going to affect through traffic throughout the entire town, US Highway 29 is planned to be closed from approximately 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. And then the other streets around the high school will be closed from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. And again, uh, these closures, the closures around the high school will take place earlier to accommodate staging and preparation for the actual parade. And then US Highway 29 will close for the actual parade itself. If you look in your agenda materials, you will find copies of the uh closure map. And then on the the last page, you'll see the um DOT review map that we send for uh review to DOT. We have already received approval uh from DOT to

close US Highway 29 at that particular time. So if you have any questions, I'm here to help. Yes. Did we have any complaints last year on any residents in that area? We did not receive any negative complaints. No problems at all. start just a thought and I' got to confess I've not shared this with with Heather or anyone on the committee but um having been at the intersection of Yadkin and Newton Street. I probably talked to 150 people who were trying to get out of Spencer North

that way. Not that way. They were coming from Salsbury or Concord or Charlotte or whatever reason they ended up here. They were used to using 29 and they for the life of them could not. And I I bet I gave seriously 150 people directions to get to Third Street to get to Charles and then again I'm backwards but go that way. Um is there a is it possible to put that route as a basically as a three traffic detour? Um this I I think whoever's at Yadkin and Jefferson or excuse me Yadkin and Newton or whoever's even on First Street I was

they're going to get that same question again. Um and again maybe people are used to it now sort of but um if there's a way to have that route posted where folks who are caught by this or not expecting it or they forget or whatever or they're on this side of Spencer and they need to get to that side to go out. Um we have that available. I just a thought I Yes. So while I don't have the specific road maps and detour uh strategies in front of me, I will say that

we did recognize from the first year that the second year we wanted to make various improvements in first not only the number of volunteers we have to do better traffic coordination, but also to give those volunteers more information about detours and to plan ahead for the detour routes. I don't know exactly how that will translate uh to on the ground changes, but I'm sure that we will plan ahead this year um taking into consideration last year. Okay, cool. One option may be to consider printing their parks that have the detour route the show or closures that we can hand out to people if they get to a particular spot and have to tour around.

It's a good idea. It might be helpful if we could have those um for the trick-or- treat event um to hand out to people who come to the trickor treat or make them available at that point. Maybe that's too soon. I don't know. But um I know Winterfest last year gave out a lot of information about um what was going on at Winterfest at our trick-or- treat event. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I think probably what Andrew is talking about is you're getting a lot of people that are going home from work that maybe work in Davidson County or northwards and they rather than going on the interstate, they're cutting through on 29 and if they we can

help them with the alternate detour around. Those are people that aren't going to show up at the Well, that's true thing. But you're right as far as making sure people know. Yep. All right. Any other questions? If there are none, is there a motion to adopt ordinance 25-7? I move that we adopt the ordinance 25-17 to approve temporary road closures during the Spencer holiday caravan parade. All right, it's a motion by Mr. Muhammed. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Moody. All in favor? All right. All opposed unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Thank you.

All right. We have several items that I believe Mr. Blunt's going to present them. The first would be to consider adopting an interlocal agreement with Rowan County for erasing control. I actually thought the manager might do this one, but I can handle it. Um, for many years, Rowan County has managed the erosion control ordinance uh that is in our development ordinance, but they manage the permitting and requirements that go along with that. U in an audit of their internal operations in Rowing County, they realized they did not have a written agreement with us or really anybody else that they do this for in Rowing County. So, this is simply putting in writing what they've been doing for us for numerous years. I don't know how long, but a long time. And they drafted it and presented it to us. We've reviewed it based on our current understanding of the ordinance and feel like it's acceptable.

Or are there any questions? This applies to a piece of property. It's an acre. Is that correct? Uh that is where the ordinance kicks off. Any property that's an acre or more requires an erosion control permit when that much is that's a state requirement is the erosion and sediment control permitting at the state level is only triggered if you have an acre or more that's under development. Okay. And even when it's smaller somebody's going to completely clear a lot. We ask them to put up sediment patrols. We can't require them but we ask them to. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay. Is there a motion to adopt the interlocal agreement with Rowan County for erosion control? Motion by Miss Moody. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mayor Proton. All in favor? All right. All that's approved unanimously. All right. Next is anformational update from town staff about drafting a water sewer main extension policy.

The next two items on your agenda I'm bringing to you for information to you and hopefully feedback from you uh as staff tries to come up with number one a policy on water sewer main extensions and then on some striping issues. So the first one I'll present to you is the water sewer main extension policy. Um for many years uh since Salisbury and then Salsbury Rowand Utilities took over Spencer's water and sewer system, there's been included in their budget, Salsbury utilities budget, $50,000 a year for water main and sewer main extensions within the town of Spencer. Those expenditures have been at basically our discretion with approval of SRU and in the past since I got here uh we haven't used it very well. Uh before I got here the third street resurfacing uh reconfiguration etc used up several years of that $50,000. Uh since I've been here, we've used it for the water taps for this park and for the uh Yaken River trail head park. So, we've used it a little bit, but it bothered me that we had $50,000 available to us each year and we weren't using it. Uh the money does not is not earmarked for repairs of the system or modifications of the system. is for purely for extensions of water manes and sewer mains. They already do the maintenance of the system under their ownership of the system. It's their system. So, I'm going to give you an example here so you'll understand what I'm talking about. Uh this was a piece of property at the corner of Hudson and Sixth Street that a developer

came in and bought and subdivided uh in hopes of building four homes. And that was the subdivision plan that planned to build those four homes. And as they went a little farther in their design process, they realized that while there was a sewer main in the sixth street, there was no water line available. And we bounced back and forth with Salsbury Lane Utilities and our development ordinance to determine number one, were they close enough to a fire hydrant. Our ordinance requires that they be within 500 ft of a fire hydrant. We finally determined that they were and unfortunately what they end up having to do and I get through the slides here. This was Salt River utilities utility map. Yellow line shows that sewer line going past those properties but no blue line that would indicate water. So, what they had to do, and this is their utility drawing, is actually run a 2-in main from Seventh Street down Hudson and then across the frontage on Sixth Street to serve these four lots. Uh, one of the numbers they quoted me was $40,000. And they quoted that to me when they were asking if Spencer could help out with the cost of that line. And my answer had to be, "We really don't have a policy in place to help out developers with the cost of their utilities. on Hollywood Drive. We did a annexation there and a reszoning and that developer plans to build 10 duplexes on those lots. And he found out that while there was water in water in the street, it didn't extend all the way to the end of the street and it was too small for most of the run. So, they had to come back and put in 600 feet of 2-in water line to serve those lots because they're a Charlotte developer. They never thought to ask us for money.

They apparently knew we weren't going to give them any. So, but they're going to put have to put that expense in there. When you have a development of this size with 10 lots, whatever that cost of that water line is divided by 10 is not a super big impact. Obviously, the one I just showed you on Sixth Street, $40,000, $10,000 a lot. That's That's a fair amount of money. Hawkins Meadows was the biggest one we've had since I've been here. They had to run a 12-in water line all the way down Hawkins Town Road about 2,300 ft. I've been told that's a million dollar water line. Now again, divide that by 141 and it's manageable, but it probably hurt their bottom line considerably to have to do that. So, what we've been looking at is trying to come up with a policy that would allow us to work with developers as they find other places in the town of Spencer where the water manes and sewer mains do not exist for whatever reason. uh the policy that I've come up with would actually have some parameters to it and I think you have a copy of that in your packet tonight. But it's basically they they have to have a cost of at least $10,000. We would pay 50% of it or $5,000. They would apply to the town for that money, whatever the amount might be. uh staff would review it, bring it to you for your approval. Um any year that the board or staff might think that we need that 50,000 for an economic development project or for a larger project that might be a multi-year, then you could vote to not distribute that money to private

developers and save it for these other projects. Uh we haven't written the ordinance up yet. We're still thinking about the details. I took it before the planning board last night and they suggested they asked if u if we have enough people knocking on the door asking for money to use up the $50,000 if we're only going to give $5,000 per apple. In other words, do we have 10 people a year knocking on the door saying, "Hey, I need some help." Quite honestly, it was a good question because we don't have that many. So they suggested we actually raise the minimum up $7,500, $10,000, something of that nature. So that was planning board's input as to a modification. They also thought we should have flexibility to give even more than that in special occasions. That you as the board could vote to approve giving all $50,000 to one person if it were a project that improved a neighborhood enough or was a good economic development benefit to the community. So those are ideas that I will probably incorporate into the final draft when I bring it back to you. wanted to bring it to you just make sure number one that you agree with the philosophy of having this kind of program in place and then number two either tonight or in coming weeks as you have ideas let me know what you think I'll be glad to answer any questions

Mr. Do we have any idea how many lots in the town of Spencer might be something that would need

That's a good question. Um there's currently if you've been down Third Street recently, there's some grading going on back there and young couples bought two lots back there. I met with them and SRU trying to figure out how to solve their water and sewer problems. to me looking at the the map that I just showed you and back to that I've got a map of all of Spencer and our ETJ that basically shows where the water and sewer lines are. What that map doesn't show you is how big the lines are and therefore how much capacity they have and how deep in the ground they are based on the local topography. So in the case of sewer, are they downhill from the property or are they uphill? So, surprisingly, when I looked at that property on Third Street, it looked like an easy fix to me just to run over to Yadkin where water and sewer were available. In that case, the sewer line in Yadkin is too high to use gravity feed to get over to. And the water line was a similar problem. So, we came up with some creative solutions. So that would be a case where even though water and sewer look like they were fairly close, there's going to be a fairly large expense. They're actually going to have to pump their sewer uphill is what it boils down to.

So that's a real large expense for two lots and they may have to have a pump on each lot. So that's two times the expense. So just to say, hey, there's gaps in the system. I could probably look at that map and tell you where the gaps are, but just looking at that picture doesn't tell you where all the problems are. These houses built on six street if I'm not mistaken. Is there a paid street in front of these houses? No, this is gravel. That's what I thought. Are we required to provide a paid street or

if it were a new street for a new development like Hawkins Meadows or any of these that we've built or they've built? Our ordinance requires a new paved street. Since that's an existing street, it is a town of Spencer Street. It just happens to be gravel instead of pave. And if I'm not mistaken, farther west, there's another block of undeveloped areas, too. Is that correct? So, you're running a twoinch line to feed the four or five houses. And if if something gets built farther than that, the 2-in line, surprisingly to me, will carry a good number of homes, it won't provide a fire hydrant. They would have to have a 6 in line to put a fire hydrant back there.

Would the fire hydrant cover this area in the future, these other house, this other lot or not? Um, where does the fire hydrant? I'm curious. The fire hydrant is actually at the corner of Seventh and Hudson. Okay. So where they had to tap on the left hand side of your picture there, there's a fire hydrant there. Yeah. Now this 2inch line water line, I guess it's just going to stop at the end of the It'll dead head at that bacteria problems. Uh for a 2in line, the residential use should keep it cleaned up. We let SRU's engineers make all those decisions.

Okay, that's fine. I'm just stating that as far as I go, but I hate when somebody spent all that money and we don't even have a pave street. They ask us to pave the street, too. If y'all want to come up with the money, we'll be glad glad to pay you. We suggested that they pave it just as a marketing tool for selling a house. Certainly, you could sell a house for a little bit more if it was a paved road instead. and they bulked at the idea of how much it would cost to pay that to our standards. I always said that these lots that are being developed in the last couple years are lots that everybody overlooked and said they're not they're not a desirable lot. Unfortunately, they didn't overlook them. They saw them and ran.

They saw them. That one other thing, this lot that's being developed across from the Ladies Women's Club on Third Street, is that the one you're talking about? Yes. Do they have water and sewer or That's the one that's going to be a little bit of trouble to get water and sewer to them. Okay. Okay. They recognize that happen. Are they clearing that whole I know there's two lots in there. Are they clear? There's actually three lots. The one lot

belongs to Pedmont Players. And I can only assume it was donated to them at some point in the past. And it would have been great to develop all three at one time. It would have been a lot easier to grade. I communicated with that guy today. I rode by and looked at the grading and what I saw in my mind was two lakes that are going to be built down there because it's going to all that water's going to run down and catch. Yeah. He tells me there's a pipe underneath that driveway. Yeah, I saw him put that pipe in. That's it. So, he's thinking about it. Uh I told him he's got to get a civil engineer to design that and tell me it's going to work. So, we'll have all that in place. At this point, all we've given him permission to do is the clearing engraving. Okay.

Thank you. Mr. Blunt, just out of curiosity, if these people didn't want to spend that money to um to put water and sewer lines in, would they be allowed to put a a private whale on the farm? Good question. Very good question. Our ordinance says in very specific language that if water and sewer are not available that they can do a private well and safety system on those lots. And There could have been a good debate over whether water and sewer the definition of available was water and sewer available. Obviously sewer was right.

Uh if you look into the cost of a well the $40,000 divided by four is $10,000 a lot. A well is going to cost you about $10,000. So this was probably a break even. That's why they didn't argue too much about it. But we do have a lot of people ask that question. But it in this case it would be considered available, right? Because it is close enough for what would be considered a reasonable cost for connection, right? And that's where that comes in. Now they're, you know,

further out Jay, that's a different that's a totally different story. But but plus within the core of our town, the lots are very small, right? and to have space to sight a well in a septic system and repair field will be very very tight on a 5,000 square foot lot. Right now just for a point of clarity the allocation of those funds will come from the SR.

We would probably never see those funds. Uh the private developer is required by SRU to do the extensions to meet their standards. They have to submit plans and get them approved by SRU. SRU has to oversee the installation and approve it. So, we haven't worked out the details of it right now. If if we wanted to extend a line, we would contact SRU and they would send us a check for our estimated cost of the line. But for a private developer, they'll probably just give them the allocated amount based on our approval. Your approved, not mine. Thank you. And the way I understand it is they Salsbury is putting this in their budget every year for every year.

Is it possible they might remove that? As far as they go, I think it is a part of the sales agreement or transfer of ownership agreement between Salsbury and the town of Spencer that requires them to include amount of funding, okay, to do extension. So there are several client communities that SRU serves granite quarry and rock world and others have similar they if you look at Salsbury's budget uh they they have lines in their in the utilities budget that

has the amounts for their various client communities. So so it's not Spencer's money. This is uh funding within the SRU's enterprise fund that they allocate for these system improvements and they're simply looking to the client communities to give them direction on how to use that funding. But if we don't do that, then basically it does not get used. That's right. One of those things to make sure that was clear, right? So, you know, all that to say is it would be a shame for us not knowing that we have areas of the town that do need extensions, but we would not use that on an annual basis to help with that. But the idea of being able to partner with the development community to where we share those costs, I think, is

critical in being able to do that. It's the only way that some of these projects that we would be able to help get them done. Yes. We wouldn't necessarily be able to do some of them on our own. Yep. So, what I'm hearing is you do support the concept and absolutely on my end. If you have any ideas, let me know. I'll try to get this drafted for your next meeting and bring it back to you. Is this I mean, this strikes me as being a pretty representative cost point for something like this. I mean, and I'm sure it's done cheaper, but for the the project, I mean, is this a pretty typical cost? 25, 30, 40, $50,000. I mean, with this kind of thing,

um, I hate to say, if they had had to, if they needed a fire hydrant, this would have been a 6 inch line instead of a 2 in. And the cost increase is dramatic. Hundreds of thousands. It It would have killed this project if they' have had to put in a fire. Gotcha.

I mean, the reason I say that is, and I I get the $10,000 maximum. We want to, you know, share the wealth as it were. But I mean, realistically, if if this got going, I mean, two, three projects a year seems like the kind of the max of this. I mean, guys, I think we raised the maximum of 25 or 30 or maybe the whole thing. If someone wants to come in, they want to do a $100,000 project and we're want to put up half. And that doesn't set aside the bigger projects we're talking about. But I mean I I The only reason I tried to put a a a cap on it, an interim cap, is that the projects come in through the year. Sure.

And if the first guy comes in and says, "Hey, I need $40,000." And you gobble up the whole fund to do one project, then you're not going to be able to do anything else.

I think the thing that we need to to have to be able to consider is what is the potential tax base increase of the development? Because if you have somebody coming in asking for say $30,000, right, for for the project out of our $50,000 a year and their economic benefit is going to be in the millions of dollars because they're developing 10 homes compared to somebody that's coming in asking for 30 and it's only going to be two homes. There's a big difference there. We need to be able to justify which one's the better return on investment and prioritize those. We can certainly provide that information to you when we make the presentation.

I think the other thing to consider too, you know, we may get into a situation and this would would qualify if you have a area of town that needs upsizing because you have a development or something coming in that would need to be considered too because that ultimately provides a better benefit to existing customers as well. Our current ordinance on that issue says right now that for this project for example uh 2 in was adequate to supply the four homes. If we had wanted to put in a fire hydrant, our ordinance says we pay for that. We pay for the upsiz, right? Uh and that's I think that's fair because we're trying to provide services to a very

but just we got to consider those things. You know what is not just for a particular development. What do we need to be considering down the road for for the good bit of everyone? Any other thoughts or questions or direction for Mr. Blunt? I think it's if the money's there, we certainly need to take advantage of it. Agreed. Good. Okay. We'll keep working on it.

Next item is anformational update for town staff to investigate cost of a striping plan consultant and use of bike lanes on Whitehead. Mike's going to bring up that slideshow. Those of you that were here in 2223 remember that we had this discussion about bike lanes for Salty Avenue uh out in front of town hall and 17th Street down. uh as we are starting to think about things again uh like that I wanted to bring back to you two concepts that don't need immediate attention but I do need your input so we'll know whether to keep working on these ideas or not. Uh, this is your Spencer E. Spencer comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian plan drafted in 2016, approved by this board. And in that plan, there's this map that shows bike lanes from 17th Street all the way to the river along Salsbury Highway, Salsbury Avenue, and uh, US Highway 29. So this idea of putting bike lanes there has been around for a long time. It is supported by public input which is critical to this planning process. So we know that it's something that our citizens want and we know from what's happened out here that it works. It hasn't been a detriment. We haven't seen traffic jams. We haven't seen problems with people getting out of the transportation museum. So it works. And we do have people using that, riding bicycles more and more each week and month. In that plan, it tells you all the benefits. And you've got a copy of this. I'm not going to read all this verbiage, but that plan tells you why you should have bike lanes and why you should have sidewalks and multi-purpose ones.

So, I'll skip through all that good stuff. This is one of my favorite slides. And again, you've seen these before if you were around for the previous decision on the bike lanes. This one comes out of NC DO's complete streets manual. But in my mind, that's what a street should look like. It should have bike lanes. It should have wide traffic lanes. It should have sidewalks. It should have safe cross roads. And that's what we would like to see through that whole length of Salsbury Avenue. And I'll talk about Whitehead in just a minute. The same concept. One thing you see in that drawing that we don't have out here is curves. And curves slow down the traffic. Gives you a lower implied speed limit. When you have long, straight, wide roads, people want to go faster than what the speed limit is. And adding bike lanes and center turn lanes to a road of that size, putting on a road diet as they call it, actually is one way to calm traffic, slow things down a little bit. When we did this project out here, uh we got rushed by DOT because they kept telling us they were going to pave it or refinish it, resurface it at any minute. It was just going to happen overnight. So we rushed around, panicked trying to get it approved and brought it to the board. The board debated it and finally approved something and then we found out it was up to us to come up with this actual striping plan. And that's why I'm before you tonight several months if not years ahead of time because we don't want to get in that panic again. We had to hire Kimley Horn to do a plan. That's just one sheet of it. I think it's about six sheets that gives detailed dimensions of the turn lanes, of the traffic lanes, the bike lanes, and where the signage would be along that route.

This is NC DO's interactive resurfacing map. And as you can see, the section that we put bike lanes on was scheduled to happen in 2022. It actually happened in 2023, but we did get the plan in place and they did restripe it and did a nice job on it. The remainder of Salsbury Avenue, US Highway 29 on their map is scheduled for 2027. And when I first started putting this presentation together, what I've just said is exactly true. I wanted to get it ahead of the ball, get it before you ahead of time so that you would have a chance to give this some thought and let staff know that we were headed in the right direction because we do need to figure out how much we're going to have to pay a consultant to do that striking plan because that will have to get forward into a budget process and it'll take us a little bit of time to do that. When I was looking at that map, it surprised me that uh Whitehead and a little piece of Jefferson and Hawkins Town Road, that surprised me considerably, were actually scheduled to be restriped this year, not restriped, reserviced. And as we have been struggling with the now infamous EV5861 multi-purpose trail that is now designed to run from 7th Street down Whitehead up Oakwood and then up Charles Charlest to Salsbury Avenue, Salsbury Avenue to the river. Uh we have struggled to get enough money to make that one happen. We had dot money with our match would be about $4 million and we have been told by our consultants that's not nearly enough to do it. As we were meeting on that process and

actually walked some of that trail with our consultants, it got me to thinking, how wide is that road? These are actually pictures of Salsbury Avenue. Let me get to the pictures of Whitehead and Jefferson. And again, to give you some background that you're already aware of, the EV5861 is intended to be a 10- foot wide paved multi-purpose trail. Sort of like a sidewalk, but wider so that you can have bicycles and people on it at the same time. It's not designed initially to be in the roadway. was designed to be more like a sidewalk and the right away the street u along Whitehead unlike Salsbury Avenue it's obviously not that wide and our first inclination was it's not wide enough to do bike lanes but a little more research what I've come up with is this is our town requirement for commercial streets and those numbers I have circled that you probably can't tell you that the traffic lane should be 11 ft wide. That's also DOT's standard. I did a lot of research on how wide bike lanes should be. Ours out here are very wide. Salsberries are more like five or six feet. Ours are so wide because we had so much road width to work with. But the consensus of most of the stuff I've been able to find is that bike lanes should be five to six feet wide. And it just happens to turn out if you take the two 11oot traffic lanes and two six foot bike lanes, you come up with 34 feet. Surprise, surprise.

Starting at Third Street. Now, from 7th to Third Street, it's a very narrow road and this process won't work.

But starting at Third Street going towards the high school, the road is 34 feet by my measurement. in front of the high school was 59 feet. Sometime in the past, I have to assume they maybe parked buses out there. I don't know that for sure, but for whatever reason, it's 59 ft in front of the high school. As you get past Oakwood approaching Jefferson, it actually narrows just a little bit. Goes down to 32 feet. The 32 feet would allow five foot bike lanes, and it goes back to 34 feet on West Jefferson. And so you're back to the sixoot lanes. And just in the effort to be totally honest and open with you, the intersection of Jefferson and Salsbury Avenue is a problem as far as getting the required traffic lanes, turn lanes, and then bike lanes through that intersection. I'm not sure what the answer is yet. But what I'm coming to you ahead of time for is so that we'll have time to figure that out. So that our consultant can help us figure that out. And DOT can help us figure that out. This is what Whitehead and Jefferson look like. Fairly wide, straight, perfect place to put bike lanes on either side. Now, that doesn't mean that we give up on EV5861. It just reduces the need for the multi-purpose lane anywhere we can put in the bike lanes and then put in five foot wide sidewalks. And every time we have a development in town now, because you voted for it, whether it's a single lot or 10 lots, we require them to either put in new

sidewalks or in a lot of cases, it's easier for them to do payment in Lua. And we're starting to build up a fair amount of money in that fund that will help us pay for sidewalks hopefully along Whitehead. So once we would complete that, you would have something that looks like that. Five miles of dedicated bike lanes, most of it Salsbury Avenue and US Highway 29. But an important piece that will run down Jefferson and then go down Whitehead uh in front of the high school. What does that accomplish? It accomplishes all those connections. Those are some of the goals. Some of you will remember the the nodes and connector slide from many presentations ago, but it starts to make those connections from Standback Forest to the transportation museum to our new entertainment district that we've talked about recently, the schools, and then out to the river, the Yaken River Park, and the multi-purpose Yaken River District plan that we've presented to you in the past. So again, what I'm looking for from the board is some level of consensus that we're on the right track, that you want staff to continue to spend some time and effort working on this process, and then come up with a price tag for the consultant that we'll need and roll that into the budget process in the coming years. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Or what questions do you have? Charles Street is a state highway or state road. Is that correct? Which one? Charles Charles is a state road. A portion of it is portion of half of it is. Yeah. Elementary school out to Oakwood. Oakwood to third is state. Correct. And then everything from Oakwood to Main Street is town. And then Whitehead. So in front of you, in front of you would be town maintain. Okay.

The portion basically from Oakwood at the elementary school street is uh state and the state would not be inclined to build any sidewalks around the schools. Is that correct? Well, okay. So, and that was a comment I was going to bring up. If you recall, part of the CD85860 EB5861 was also to try and do school safe corridor safety improvements, right?

To provide sidewalks between all three of those schools. Um, I think to an extent the bike lanes are a quick interim solution, at least at the high school and up Jefferson Street, because they do provide some bit of um differentiate differentiation between where folks could technically walk if there's not a sidewalk in the roadway. But what I don't want us to do is lose sight of the need for those sidewalks around those schools. And you'll see on this map, the EB5861 is still an ental part of this. I showed it in dotted lines because we still haven't overcome the funding problem, right?

But we still have great hopes of completing that. And possibly if we can eliminate the cost of doing it where I'm thinking of putting these bike lanes in, or at least reduce the cost. A 5 foot wide sidewalk is a lot cheaper than a 10 foot wide paid multi-purpose lane. uh then we can maybe get at least those two sections and that would provide the connection to the elementary school and middle school. Does the state the safe schools program have any money? No, they they have a lot that the complete streets program they've got. It's beautiful program. It's got lots of good advice in it but zero no funding. Okay.

Thank you. You know, one of the things I know we we went through a lot with this initial restriping um and a lot of a lot of public input, support for support against, you know, all those sorts of things. Um, I think more so for me than anything as we look towards future restriping plans and the potential especially around the school and also out to the river, you know, the bike lanes are great and they are used. I see people using them. Um, but it's almost for me as I look at it, it's less about the use of the bike lanes and what it's done to slow traffic down. Mhm.

Um, and some people are going to complain about that. Uh, but the reality is we needed to slow traffic down through this town with what we were seeing with, uh,

get people speeding through and that sort of thing. And I think that's that's important out towards the river as well if we're talking long term about building that community in that direction and connecting um, future development at the river. So, I mean, my personal opinion is I think we've seen very good results from this. Uh, the biggest drawback would be some of the accidents that have happened up around Food Line. Um, but I think had we gone ahead and extended it, uh, we probably wouldn't be seeing some of those issues to begin with. So, um, and if we can fix the problems at that intersection, that's the big thing. Yeah,

that that striping there was really confusing at that intersection because if you're coming from the river area and want to turn into food line, I think that what the highway intends for you to do is to go all the way past that first entrance and turn in because the way it's striped, I think if you cross those yellow lines, you're in violation. So maybe this is a chance to fix all that at the same time. We'll certainly talk to our consultants about that once we can get them on board.

Yeah, I think when we were discussing this uh issue on Main Street, I know Mr. Har was made a little bit of a we were voting we were going to vote against this. I know at the one time that he he proposed maybe we need to stop right there at the top of Jefferson Street and keep our four lanes going as far as that goes all the way north. I am concerned about the traffic and how it's going to be diverted and there's a lot of traffic coming over the bridge coming in and there's a lot of traffic going north of the bridge and I am concerned about cutting that down a little bit. make the congestion. I'm real really concerned. I'm interested in it, but I'm like to see what you proposing as far as that goes.

I I have studied NC DOT's traffic count information, and it's a little sketchy when you get past Blair Road, but the traffic counts are definitely lower on this portion of US Highway 29 than they are on Salsbury Avenue. Are they? So that the volume of traffic is I'm really concerned about right there at Charles Street off Main Street where they turn into the schools and everything else because that's a that's going to be an area that we talk about maybe possibly putting a light there going down long going across Charles. That's a dangerous area. Well, there's a whole another project having to do with the the bridge coming across the railroad tracks

if that ever happens. And when they do that, it will create a a T intersection or a cross intersection, a square intersection, and it will be signalized. That's on the the step. It's it's in the plan. It's just latter year. So, it's not the biggest thing to keep in mind, too, is, you know, I think what we're all concerned about is not necessarily local traffic. We're concerned with with something because we've seen it in the past. more so when before the new Yakin River Bridge, but when the interstate would back up, people would detour around here. But here's the reality, right? Here's the reality. People will travel for a detour, the path of least resistance. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

And so, right now, or in the past, this has been the path of least resistance because there were it was two lanes each direction. That's the way people will. They'll exit off the road. However, if it's if it's like it is now through town, you are likely not to see as much of that. Some people will find other routes. Some people will take long street as well to get around. Hopefully. Yes. So, I I think it gonna depend on GPS naturally. That's right. That's exactly right. No telling by GPS. That's right. DOT's designated uh alternate route should I85 be closed is on Long Street. It's not it's not okay

Sbury Avenue anymore. Yeah. So, if they have to post a detour, it'll go down Long Street. I know this is not part of what we're talking about tonight, but when those um the east the East Spencer Spencer plan, does that call does that call for a walking path to go across the the railroad bridge there on Jefferson? There was some interconnection. Yeah, there was I mean right now there's sidewalks that go across there, but not but not bike. Correct.

There is discussion part of the EV5861 is the Grants Creek Greenway that I'm going to comment on just a second. Uh the Grants Creek Greenway opened people's eyes to a bigger interconnection of of trails and greenways and East Spencer is interested in taking connecting to Salsbury's greenway on the south coming up and connecting back on Jefferson to come up and connect to our greenway system. So Jefferson in the future may be a place where bike lanes andor multi-purpose trails are needed. Yeah.

Or maybe it will go farther north and this new bridge across the railroad tracks could be built to accommodate that. There's going to be a lot more traffic out off of bring road and Anderson I mean Andrews because of development. I think one of the things too we need to make sure is and Joel you may be able to answer this as far as maintenance of those bike lanes and keeping them clear of debris and stuff like that. It's not fault of the state to do that or are we doing that?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think, you know, that's the other thing we need to consider, especially as we go out towards the river as if we have those sorts of things. Um, it's not as big of a deal necessarily where you don't have curb going out towards the river, but it is here in town. Um, I think we do a pretty good job of it. I notice when I go the other direction, uh, those bike lanes, um, to the south are sometimes they're not as well maintained. And so if we're going to have bike lanes, we need to make sure we're keeping them clean or we're pushing the state. Totally. Totally agree. It's always a shock riding down the bank bike lane hitting something that you didn't anticipate.

So it's my understanding that they're going to the state's going to pay Whitehead this coming year whether we do it whether we decide anything or not. uh say this coming year with a smile because I'm not sure that they'll get to it this coming year. Probably probably next year. It's just like that bridge that you're talking about. When they repave it, they will stripe it and if we don't do anything, they'll restripe it exactly like it is today. Yeah.

So, this is our opportunity is if the board is interested in exploring doing something different, we need to make sure staff knows that we're providing them that directive to explore it. and then also notify DOT that when they get to it to make sure that they're consulting with us so that they don't resurface it and restripe it exactly as it is if there's a chance we want to do something different. I think it's important that we do go ahead and and allow these bike paths and have some some work done for this EB 5761 5861.

Yeah. so that if we do, we've already got a head start because that's that's one of the things they're going to look at if we propose uh you know, if we if we're in the ballpark of trying to get some money for that. So, I I really think this is the way we need to go because I think we've all stressed we need sidewalks down Charles Street for our kids. We'll keep pushing for that. We did have one of the plan board members point out that while these bike lanes are great for adults and teenagers, she's got two very young children and she doesn't feel safe taking them out on those bike lanes. And I totally agree they don't they're not meant for young children, right?

But it does make me wonder how we can come up with some bike routes or biking areas or something that would accommodate those younger children. I see one young family when I ride on Saturdays and Sundays up here using our little maintenance stand out here and they're cute little kids on cute little bikes. They're all wearing helmets. Mom's got hers on and it's just exciting to see that kind of thing going on. I'd like to see more of it. So, if we can come up with some idea of how to accommodate that cohort of people, I'm open for ideas. It would be great to think that at some point we have a separated bike and walking path. Yeah, it would be

on the main road, but and it would be great to see that all the way up to the river. Costwise, I just I don't see how that's possible. No. Any other So, I'm hearing general consensus from the board, but you do want Mr. Blunt to continue to expend. Absolutely. We'll keep working on All right. I'm gonna tell Joe to look for other people. That's all right. Golden lights. All right. Very good. We'll move on then to our departmental reports and we'll move to our planning report.

Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's good to be before you again after all that. Uh as usual, you have my report in front of you. I'll be glad to answer any questions. But while you're thinking about that, I also laid at your desk a two-page flyer on what's called regenerative designs. And I put that there because the manager and Joe and I were invited to a meeting at Kataba College last week to hear about their efforts to do regenerative design on the campus of Kataba College. And I have to admit, we were a little confused as to why we were going there. Joe thought it was because it said degenerate instead of regenerate.

That would make a lot more sense. Really would.

But it turned out, and this is the exciting part of this program, uh, Kataba has hired a a worldrenowned consultant to come in and help them through this planning process for the campus. And again, why in the world would we be there for something about Kataba Colleg's campus? It's because our efforts to work with Kataba and Salsbury on our Greenway connections and other connections. They consider us a part of this process. And for Spencer, you should be proud that we have been asked to be at the table for something that could be as earth shaking as is this kind of planning process. This could make Salsbury College Salsbury and Spencer a destination where people will come to see the results of this kind of process. And I I say that uh I was excited sitting in that room hearing some of the ideas that they were espousing and some of the examples. If you want to see some of their examples, uh the company that is doing it is H Design Group. go to their website and look at some of the projects they've done across the world and that effort is coming to our community and you're going to be a part of it. So, I just want to bring that to you. Again, I'll answer any questions about my report or the little bit I know about regenerative design. If you have any questions on

Is there a link on here to that? Um, just Google H. H. Thank you, Mr. Blunt. Any other questions? All right. Um, see, M I did see that you had asked, somebody asked about an ice cream shop. Are we getting an ice cream shop?

There have been plans created for an ice cream shop. Uh, they came through the permitting process and permitting has been approved as far as a zoning permit. Uh, I don't want to say that it is a done deal because I'm sure we're going through cost analysis now to make sure it's going to work financially, but I feel fairly confident that we will have a ice cream shop in downtown.

And we also saw the first iterations of a new restaurant in downtown Spencer, renovation of his existing building into a beautiful restaurant with a rooftop bar. And that's an exciting prospect. Again, it's in the planning stages. Nothing's been approved. Nothing's been funded. But it's exciting to see those kind of plans come across our desks. There's a tremendous amount of work being done down at the Bojangles. Is it going to remain a Bojangles or It will remain. It's just a renovation project. So, they were just renovating that. If you've noticed kind of all around all around Rowing County, all of the older Bojangles are being have been or are being renovated.

Okay. Right. Uh they're throwing the one out by the uh Real Community Center on Jake Alexander as well. Yeah, that's right. J. All right. Anything else for Mr. Blunt? Question. Sinkhole on Main Street. Is that the dance studio that we're still talking about up here? The contractor that looked at it and was going to buy it and renovate it. um had trouble initially getting insurance to purchase it

uh outright. And we think we have solved that problem for him by giving him some contacts with an insurance agent. And my last conversation with him, he he had actually gone ahead and bought another building and renovated that for his office and some lease space and he plans to put an addition on the back of that space. And but when I talked to him last week, he said he's still planning to go ahead with the dash studio as soon as he can get to it. It it may have been the comment may have been about the uh there's a note here about from the 18th Salbury Avenue sinkhole problem, but I'm wondering if that's the other direction where we were looking.

That may be the other sinkhole that we've got on private property. never had to deal with sink holes in the past, but welcome to Spencer. When we went to uh the recognition dinner, appreciation dinner, lunch at the town at the transportation museum, it was mentioned that there was a sinkhole next to their entrance road

and they thought it was on private property, not on transportation museum property. U we looked it up and sure enough, it's it's on private property. Uh there had been some discussions with Joel and DOT in the past about getting that fixed because they assumed it was a pipe that ran under Salsbury Avenue. Uh it turned out in our discussions with DOT that they don't think it is. It's not their it's on private property. It's not within the rightway. So they really can't go in there and fix a sinkhole.

So I just I sent the property owner a letter saying, "Hey, you got a sinkhole on your property. we'd appreciate you taking a look at it, see what you can do. She immediately responded, hired a contractor. He came and met with me. They plan to take off that top section and cap the pipe underground and then refill it and grade it over and fix the bottom. So, that's what that sink hole was about. Okay. Sorry, I didn't define which sink. All right. Anything else for Mr. Blunt? All right. We'll invite Mr. Harris. So,

so I wanted to give you a preview of an item that I will be bringing to you next month. Um, it sounds like the town we are planning on pursuing an additional $1 million for the next CDBG grant cycle. So, as you may know, our current grant we are going to be we will have spent all of the money by April. That's the closeout deadline. And we still have a long wait list of clients who we preapproved. We will have to re-qualify them, but most of them will likely be re-qualified. Um, but when we went through the initial application cycle, we had a very long list of eligible homeowners who we just did not have enough money to support. And so if we do pursue this additional $1 million, um we'll hopefully be able to continue to make our way down that list. The application deadline is actually October 29th, so it's coming up relatively soon. Um we're basically going to apply for the same scope of work that we applied for way back in 2020. Um we're going to use the same housing selection committee. We'll definitely need to reapproach them to to make sure that uh everyone is still on board. Um but really the application requirements, we just need to bring a resolution to y'all next month so that you will authorize us to submit this application. Um and it will essentially just let us continue this CDBG program for many more years in the future.

Thank you. Sounds good. And the last one was for 750. either reused all of it or we Yes, it was for $750,000. We have not spent all of it yet. We have two additional large projects that are underway and we anticipate that that will spend most of the rest of it. We may have enough left over for a smaller fifth project. Um but that will be absolute last that we would be able to do and we will have use it all by the deadline. Is there a deadline for usage on it? It is April. Well, April is the closeout deadline and earlier next year is the spending deadline that we have to commit funds. We are on on task to set spend all the money by that deadline

and we settled up the there was an issue I think about something that was done prior to authorization that's been thanks be to God the environmentals were all approved after the fact. Yeah.

So those monies will not be recaptured. Did did we and I know we talked about or at least kicked around getting permission from some of these homeowners because I mean I know we took that tour back in March and some of the homes that had you know had the re ups or the the rehabs or whatever. Did we ever get our or pursue permission to to kind of put some of that out there publicly just not not for our benefit but just for so people know that hey the town's doing this these people are participating. they're getting access to these funds and the the neat projects that result. I mean, I think it's a great advertisement for itself. But

I think uh well, I have not pursued that idea, but it is a good idea. I think what I'd like to do is get our final two projects for this current cycle done and then if there's a strategy that we could do a communication blitz about the success cool now that we've successfully closed out that grant, that would probably be good timing. That way we'll have all of the successful projects to share at the same time contingent upon those homeowners letting us do so.

Yeah. I guess I say that because we obviously have lots of conversation about properties rehab and code enforcement etc. But here's a proactive program to help people stay off the code enforcement list. I mean which I think we need. Yeah. We need you know. Yeah. I appreciate. Do you have any other questions about the CDG process? It'll basically be a rinse and repeat. You'll be seeing more of them. Does any of that fit in with the project that you guys are involved with with UNCC? Not particularly. 10, what was it? 100 counties is what they called it,

right? So, the town of Spencer is continuing to uh participate in the 18month our state, our homes process.

Back just last week, we went to forum number three. It was very good. Um, we learned a lot about uh like local government and state government policy that can accommodate affordable housing. Um, but the CDBG program is so specific. It because it is a federal program and because at the end of the day, the the money doesn't stretch particularly far because we're spending so much to fix up each individual property that it's not really a broad-based solution. It's more of a targeted intervention for extreme case properties. CDBG does definitely help affordable housing outcomes both here in North Carolina and across the country, but because of the the federal regulations around it, um it's it's very targeted. It's very bureaucratic at the end of the day, that's why it's taken us so long to do it. So the I guess the simplistic way to get at what this whole statewide initiative is about is is uh they've shown us a few different times in a few different ways a matrix between uh development of new housing and rehab of existing housing. And can that contrasted with uh home ownership versus uh rentals and and how you know marketbased where do you find the solutions on that matrix uh and and where do you concentrate your resources? Where does the investment come? And and those are complicated questions that uh that 14 teams across the state are are looking into. Um, but so it certainly plays into it, but I I think the overarching goal and and Kyle maybe you should we came away with two kind of specific goals through our process last week that might be helpful to share.

Yeah. So just to to bring you behind the the curtain so to speak on the the process that we're working through. So our team which again to remind everyone the town of Spencer, the city of Salsbury, Salsbury Community Development Corporation, F&M Bank and Carol Fisher Construction Company are our core team and um we are basically working through developing a uh a strategic plan on how we can bring the ideas that we're learning from uh the school of government to implement locally. So the two uh priorities which we're currently kind of honing honing in are are as follows. So the first is we're trying to identify how to um identify and safeguard more resilient funding streams for housing. So as we know uh the federal landscape for housing spending is becoming increasingly uncertain. Um, I believe they said that the home program is going away or at least it's at risk of going away. The CDBG program in the current political environment is always threatened to be cut. Um so our uh strategy is to figure out well how can we work better with local donors uh institutions local governments to create dedicated housing funds that can more quickly and reliably um help the most needy homeowners so that we're not necessarily relying on outside government entities especially at the federal level. um even at the state level, we're trying to figure out how to u uh develop a healthier ecosystem of funding for housing initiatives locally. And then the second priority that we have is actually and Steve Blunt may be interested to hear this. Um we're trying

to put together a network of smallcale developers. uh we're trying to get a small network of smallcale developers who may be willing to partner with us to uh um further affordable housing goals. So, one of the things that we found is that smaller developers do a lot of local development, but they often don't do affordable development due to financing gaps. Obviously, um there are many ways that smaller developers can be part of the solution to the the affordable housing crisis. Um whether that's through creative zoning, um creative financing, you know, what are the partnerships and systems that we need to put in place to incentivize small local developers to pursue affordable housing products? So, we're trying to put together sort of an all of the- above strategy on that. We think there are really good examples across the state of of things like that happening and we believe that we don't necessarily have to reinvent the wheel, but there are best practices that we could begin to explore locally um to make our our smaller developers part of the solution.

Thank you. Um Mr. Harris, can you speak I know we heard um from Miss Boyd tonight as part of the uh historic preservation committee. Um, can you speak a little bit to I think there was concern about the sign and um just for clarification purposes um and this may be a team effort uh of folks providing input but uh the process that went we went through with the town park and everything related to that. Um so I'm going to speak to the best of my knowledge here.

Yeah. So the town park process uh the town park project was reviewed and approved by the HPC but it is true that the signage was not included in the approved package. I think there was conversation and debate among different parties about the appropriate and required process for the new sign. There is a section in the development ordinance which exempts government related signage and I believe that's the process that was used to allow that sign. Now we do also allow electronic signage but it does have to meet certain requirements. To the best of my knowledge the sign out front does meet the requirements um for like you have to have a the message static for a certain period of time. There are certain like graphics and animations that are not allowed. Again, to the best of my knowledge, that sign does meet the sign ordinance. It may not necessarily comply with the HPC standards, but because of the exemption for government signs. I believe it was approved through that process.

Thank you. That's my understanding as well. So, I just wanted to make sure that that was clarified for everyone. And I'd like to make a point that at the end of the day, we had heard, we've heard for five years now that our community wanted more communication. They wanted to know about events and things like that going on. Hence the reason for that sign. And so perhaps at the expense of um not being historic enough, it does achieve the objective of better communicating with our community. And I will stand by that all day long. and they probably didn't have electronic signs back in 1905. That's correct. So, thank you, Mr. Harris.

And then the only other thing I wanted to bring to you for uh my departmental report is and uh Alderman Miller may have plan to speak about this, but we are having uh our third annual Garden Fest, which is the community gardens October Fest theme fundraiser on Sunday, September 28th from 2 to 5:00 p.m. It's going to be $20 for adults and only $5 for kids. We uh we reduced the price for kids because last year uh I think we're charging the kids the same price as adults which you know trying to raise money but I think it's only fair that we reduce the price for kids. So it'll be 20 for adults and five for kids for entry. The adult ticket does include um beer. We're getting our APC permit for that as well.

I mean it is October 5th. You said the date is what? Uh Sunday September 28th. Very good. You may want to reconsider that for the kids because if they eat like my two boys do, they have I was going to say the same thing. We were going to do it for free, but then we were like, well, they're going to eat something. They can't have the beer. No, definitely not that. But, uh, but they uh they will put away some food. It's all right. All right. Anything else for Mr. Harris? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next is our fire department report team planning.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. You have my written uh report before you and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. I've got one. You don't seem to be dealing very well. Sorry. He's like, "Okay, this weather change has been an absolute joy."

Um, no. So, I did want to highlight two things. One is on my or two things that are on the report, one that is not um is National Fire Prevention Week being October 5th to the 11th. So, we'll be very um entwined in our schools providing uh fire prevention courses and classes for them. And then we're doing another attempt at our fire station open house. In years past, we've had, you know, a very small showing. Um, and so I'm going to have some publications and stuff to put out on social media to try to encourage people's participation in that this year. And an electronic sign out front to put it on.

That is correct. Yes. Um, but the hope, right, is here's a two-hour window. Come in and see what we do, right? talk to us, interact with us, and and kind of give those people that maybe are at work 8 to 5 Monday through Friday when we're, you know, audience is a little different. Um, we are closer to being back to fully staffed. Um, last Saturday, Arturo Garcia began as the firefighter assigned a C shift and then when um Wednesday, Friday of this week, we were running agility tests to hopefully fill the last position that is vacant. And the one thing as we were talking about the parade and street closures is so on our new fire engine it comes with what's called a hos alert system and there is actually a program that I can log into um shows up on Dodge Chrysler uh vehicles automatically once our emergency lights are activated ways Apple Maps they're trying to kind of get the Android system up to speed. Um but so currently when we have our lights on it shows a little fire truck. It'll tell you there's an emergency vehicle ahead. um kind of like a lot of people you'll see in your vehicle. It says, "Hey, there's, you know, law enforcement or a cop, you know, reported ahead." In that system, it allows me, and I've already done it, um on just various calls, but I can go in and actually force a street closure. And so whether it be from Jefferson to Third Street, I can close Salsbury Avenue completely and it'll push that same information out to all of those GPS systems. So, that may be something, you know, again, we do it in an emergency setting where I don't have to get that prior approval to shut um traffic down, but it's something I'd be curious to try with the parade and see if that kind of helps. And I think it would be beneficial if it was to be effective that way.

Absolutely. That way, if they're using your GPS, it should automatically reroute them. Yeah, that's fantastic. A good idea. Thank you. Questions for me? Uh, I just want to commend you. I know I saw the the information that was posted about the newly formed municipal uh fire association. Um and so I know you've been instrumental in bringing people together for that. We hosted the first one. So yes, thank you for doing that. I think that collaboration is is wonderful. It's a good example to other places. There's some negative outlook on it, but it's not intended to be negative by no means. No, not at all. All right. Thank you. Feel better. Thank you,

Mr. Taylor. Public works. And as a reminder for those that are listening, we're not skipping the police report uh Chief was able to present to us um last Thursday. Good evening, Mayor Board. Hi, Mr. Baylor. Very good. Uh our regular services are on schedule, but we are in a hiccup. So, we've got our new trash truck had a bearing issue today in the arm. So, we ran the route with the older truck. We're still on schedule. We'll be on schedule tomorrow. So, whether we use the new and hopefully by Thursday, we'll have the So, whose trash can was too heavy? That's the question.

I don't know exactly what happens. It has been a fight today to get that thing apart. So, as soon as we can get it apart, we have the new parts to put in. We just can't get it apart. So, it has froze up and it's in the grabber part. So, we're working on it. Hopefully we'll we'll feed on it a little bit tomorrow and hopefully it'll come apart. Um the leapback will begin running the first Monday of October, which is the six this year. It'll be on limited schedule just like it always is for the first couple weeks. Um the leaves are turning early, so it's probably going to be about on time. It's hard to believe it's that time of year already. Um, the mulch giveaway, uh, I know I announced it again, but it'll be on October the 4th, which will be the first weekend. It'll also be the last weekend of Thomas Train. So, get some mulch and listen to the train in town. So, um, the sidearm has been repaired and we have been doing a lot of mowing with it. Chad comes in, uh, and does most of that for us. So, he's out for a couple weeks with some surgery, but he'll be back and we'll keep that up into the fall, get the side, you know, the side branches and stuff like that cleaned up, so it'll keep going. Um, we did install the bus shelter and trash in front of them. Um, it's been sitting in our shop for quite some time, a year. So, it's uh it's out where it needs to be now. And, uh, we did communicate with Salsbury on that. And even though they're going to the microtransit, that's still one of their file bus stops. So, um it'll be there for quite a while. They're not looking to get rid of it anytime soon from what we know. Um we did start a sidewalk project on the corner of Third and Hudson. Uh the digging part has been done. Um that was in shambles. That

whole corner was in bad shape. So, um, we did remove a tree which caused some of the problems. Um, so the tree is gone now, uh, at the at the permission of the homeowner. Um, it was one of their trees, but they were fine with it going. So, we took the tree down and Shelton's already started digging. So, he's hoping to pour on Thursday morning. Uh, and then we'll get that taken care of. Um Ben and I did complete the CPO course uh for the certified tool. So we are active now and uh we have applied for the permit through B County the health department for the operational permit for this. Um we're still going over some of the details but hopefully we'll have an inspection soon and then we'll we'll be operational with the with the splash pad. The um cover or the coating was put on yesterday.

Yeah, yesterday. Um, so and they want it to sit for at least three three days, three to four days, I think, something like that. Um, so that'll be working out about right when the permit comes in and then we'll we'll have the fountain operational. Although the cooler weather I was going to say grand opening of the fountain can be polar plunge. They can look at it, you know, they don't have to play in it. So, um, that would be it. Um, other than that, if you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to answer. All right, board. Any questions for Joel? All right, thanks for all you guys are doing. Thank you. All right, next is our finance report can

again. Good evening.

So, um, August has been filled with a lot of training with our new software. Um, we haven't covered everything yet, but We're close to being done with that. As far as the formal training, we are basic we're um on a as needed call basis um with things that are going on there. Um payroll and accounts payable all run through the new software. Um we are currently setting the schedule to work with our departments to teach them how to enter their own time into the software instead of it being a paper process. Instead of bringing payroll to Christy every other week, they will enter their time through the new software and all that verification will go through the software. Um, preliminary audit work has been done. The auditor was out last week and they have all of the information that they requested from us as far as samples um for deposits um revenues and expenditures and that kind of stuff. Um, and I'm in contact with them pretty much daily as well, just um, for anything that they need further. As far as where on the report where it says budget versus actual as of 829, please disregard that block. Those numbers are incorrect. That was for year ending um, FY25 ending. And I had some issues with bringing the two softwares together. So just disregard that block. Um the sales and use taxes there with our first deposit of FY26 we're up we're right on schedule 2.8% over last year which I think we budgeted 2% or we budgeted 1% with I think we landed at one if I remember correctly.

Well it's going pretty good with first deposit. Next you'll see um my reports. First the first page first and second page is basically the re um revenues. Second page is the expenditures and um I tried to get we did the budget and then Southern Software and um Black Mountain and then a total year to date. I tried to format that the same way that you guys have been seeing it um except for the expenditures. I condense that down by department so you don't have all those lines that are there. Um I would like your feedback as far as to what you see there's any questions about it. if there's anything you would like to see in more detail so that I can give you what you're looking for.

Feedback board. I think it looks great. I tend to like it condensed like this because it makes it easier for me to find and I always know who to talk to if I need some more detail. But for me who does not um you know does not consider myself an expert in finance I find this much easier to review and digest.

Okay. I like I like that you condense as well. I will put a percentage out for expenditures since it's something that we are used to seeing. Um and in the new software the reports that are there has the percentages there but I will add that column there and that way it's just easier to look at there. Anything else? I've got an email that said something about employee benefits. Is that the payroll statement that we used to get or I didn't open it. I think that is spam. Okay.

So, either it's coming through our uh it the they're testing you. I don't know if it was real spam. Okay. Well, but regardless, don't click on it. I didn't I didn't open it. When in doubt, just delete it. Employee benefits. And I'm thinking, "No, I don't know about that." Okay. Yeah. I always say when in question, I delete it. If it's something that's really needed, they'll call me. That's right. All right. Anything else on finance report? Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. Good. All right. And then finally is our active living report. Miss Ward. Good evening.

Good evening.

Um so I'll start with um the parks and recreation advisory board met on the 3rd. That was last Wednesday. Um planning and zoning administrator Steve Blunt came and he gave the same presentations he gave you all this evening about um the entertainment district and bike lane extension. Um race to the river. Just as a reminder, it's on October 18th. It's a Saturday. Uh the race itself will start around 9:00 a.m. Um participants can register online in advance or on site. Um they can run or walk the 5K. The pedal factory will provide an opportunity for bicycling. Uh the fund run and awards ceremony will be in Town Park followed by live music played by Liam Pendergrass uh who is Bob Pendergrass's son. Um Bob is the chair of the parks and recreation advisory board. Um and a big uh member of our community. Um let's see. There will be food and educational vendors as well. And uh there's also going to be a bicycle rodeo. Um the medication takeback will also take place this year as it has in previous years. Um also a reminder that the official dedication of the Spencer Town Park um and specifically the atrium and um Jess talked about this morning. Joe, what was the fountain? Uh those will be uh take place during National Night Out on October 7th. Um and the dedication portion will be around 6:00. Um and Kyle I think already mentioned, but trunk or treat is going to be on Halloween

October 31st. Um the library uh we have determined that the AC unit will need to be replaced. So we're still trying to work out funding for that. Um, the gutters were cleaned on September 3rd. We needed a tall enough uh bucket to be able to reach those and somebody with the training for that. Um, phase two of the blind installation is scheduled for September 18th. Um, and librarian McCra asked me to make sure to let everyone know that uh, author Pepper Basham will be at the library on September 16th at 1:30 p.m. Um, and you should all have a copy of that flyer as well. Um, and finally, uh, artist Gina Franco has completed the mural over on 1084th Street and, um, has a large portion about the, uh, the watch school. It was a pretty neat uh video that was Yeah. on the

Yeah. Queen City News. Queen City. Yeah. Um Anna, I had two quick questions and forgive me for not knowing the first one. The AC unit at the library, is that going to impact their ability to heat over the winter? Yes, it is heating and air. Okay. All right. And then because they occurred on the same day, do you happen to know if the parks and wreck advisory board um is aware that the library gutter project is now complete? Yes. Yes, I did. I did let them know. Great. Thank you. You're welcome.

Related question and I'm pulling this from way down in here. So, if I'm wrong, then you guys tell me wrong. But one of the reasons we cannot or have not made use of the second floor of the library is because of HBAC lack thereof access. Right. Is that is that is that right? That and ADA access. The bigger one's the ADA. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yes. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. The the lack of climate control is more so why it's not used for storage either, but ADA access is main reason it's not used for programming.

I guess the reason I I asked that and ADA. I mean, that's a whole a different cost price point. But if if we're going to have to replace the HBAC, the library, it seems to make sense to to the extent possible, think about that upstairs, too, just so we're not duplicating efforts at some point in future. But again, maybe you would likely have to have a totally separate unit as well. So you're probably talking I mean Joel you can probably speak to it better but you're looking at two units instead of Yeah. And I imagine that plus running duck work and everything like totally separate. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Good thought there.

It's a very old building with a lot of Yes. If we would have won the Powerball, we could have handled it. I'm still really upset about that. I thought for sure I was in. I didn't buy a ticket, but I had dreams. I had dreams. And yet you're here, which means you didn't win. I didn't I still would have been here, but I would have brought gifts. All right. Anything else on the active living? What? Um, since we're on discussion about the HVAC and the heat system there at the library now, have there been many quotes that have been

we've gotten at least three quotes, Jill, you I don't know if you remember more than I do, but um on what the quotes look like. So, so we received multiple quotes for both making a repair to the specific issues which left some unknowns and also full replacement. U those that were given quotes for repairs were advising us against that path due to the age of the system. Um and so you know yes we have gotten multiple quotes. The issue is is uh this is something we don't have in the budget and so we are continuing to analyze how we might go about this. There's not really a good answer. Um we need some more data for through our current fiscal year to see if uh you know a budget amendment might be possible given uh savings uh in our existing budget or revenue improvements elsewhere. But, uh, that that's where that's where we are with it right now.

Do we have an anticipated time frame at which point we think we can make a decision? I just don't want it to get too far into cold weather. Cold weather. Yeah. That we start actually having an a negative impact obviously on staff and visitors, but even more so on equipment and contents and pipes and things like that inside. We don't have a time frame as of now, but we we obviously this is something we need to Do you need direction from the board on the time frame? Uh we don't need direction, but we uh we just need money. We need money, right? I mean, I get I feel like like within the next two months, we need to have a clear path forward about what

Certainly. Yeah. Be a winner. Winner. You talking about love? I mean, I'm assuming 25 to 30,000. Are we talking about Yeah. 70 or? No. No. We're We're in the $20,000 range that we're we're looking at. This was going to be about a $20,000 project. Yeah. Is the equipment available if we decide to make a decision? Yes. So, it's not a hold up on order stuff or anything. As of the time we had our quote, I think we were within a maybe two to four week time frame of uh Yeah. So,

well, if you need the board's help to go over there and us blow hot air, we're pretty good at that. And Sarah will be happy. Well, I mean, yeah, the other thing is, yeah, climate control for the documents and right artifacts and that's Yeah, that's the big concern. That's a real concern. Yeah, we all mold and all that. Mold would be a real issue for sure. All right. Anything else supported? All right, with that we'll move to the town manager report.

All right. Well, thank you very much. U we've talked a little bit about EB5861 tonight and I just wanted to share uh there's what what you heard tonight was one idea about a design of of some alternative ways to to work towards the goal. Uh but I also wanted to share that the the EB5861 project as we've been working towards uh our feasibility study on a certain on a portion of it has gotten to the point where uh we there have been two additional options that have come before us that we're we're exploring. Uh, one is that in our talks with NC DOT, they've expressed an uh, willingness to explore uh, doing what they call an express design. Uh, because we've gotten to this point about funding with the project and there's question marks about what does the whole thing cost? What's our ability to do this piece versus a further scope? and they've uh the this some conversations we've had so far have led to uh to that idea that NCD might be able to help us with doing some not full design but getting to a like a 25% design for the full scope of the entire project which would help us get uh better cost estimates for the entire scope rather than the piece that we've been talking about. The other opportunity that came about is the uh hazard mitigation funding that's uh being administered by the state right now after uh the Helen recovery process for the all the all the recovery dollars that are being spent. There's also a requirement that non-d disaster uh hazard mitigation funding uh has to come

out as well. And so that's in the order of of billions for the non-disaster funding. And we've already got a project in the works uh related to our 17th Street uh stormwater project that we're working towards an application for that. But in in the meantime, our central line regional council is putting together a regional uh planning project and did a call for uh project ideas and we submitted a letter of interest related to EB5861 as a nature-based solution for use of uh floodprone properties for other purposes. And uh my understanding is that we may have been one of six applications or or letters submitted for that. They are also seeking letters from consulting firms um to basically be the consulting for this regional uh scope. And I believe there were three firms that submitted letters for that. So we'll we'll see where that goes. It may be uh one of these things where multiple pieces of of the effort come together to help advance it, but I wanted to to just share a little a little update about that.

Very good. Thank you board. Any questions on that? Any other questions for the manager beyond that part of the report? Okay. Thank Mr. Transis. Thank you. We will move on to request and comments by the mayor and board. And we will start with Miss Sledge tonight.

You Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I have been on the advisory council or the advisory board for u the conversion from local government um federal credit union to civic and I've been asked to share um some information have a have a letter from them that came uh the end of last week says as civic continues to move toward following our transition I want to pause and thank you for the vital role you've played in helping us through this journey. Your support and advocacy have been critical in assuring our members, partners, and communities feel confident and informed throughout this change. We would not be where we are today without your dedication. Looking ahead, we ask for your continued support in helping our members make the most of their civic membership. One of the best ways you can do this is by joining us at our upcoming local connects. Your presence will not only help welcome members, but will also amplify our efforts to spread the word within the communities we serve. We also encourage you to share these events in your communities and invite others to join us. The more voices and perspectives we bring together, the stronger our connection becomes. Please click here to learn more and register for the location and time that works best for you. Thank you again for standing alongside us during this important chapter. Together, we're making a lasting impact on North Carolina's local government employees, officials, volunteers, and their families. Uh there is there are several locations that uh they're having these local connects. Um I've registered for one that is in um Lexington. That one I think is the closest one to our location. There's also one in Yadkenville. I got another invitation to one in Yakinville. But if any of you are interested at all, please let me know. I'll be happy to forward this to you so that you can uh click on it. I believe the breakfast is Tuesday a week. I don't

have my phone. I think it's Tuesday a week in in um Lexington and it's like from 7:30 in the morning until 9:30 some something like that time frame. So it's an early breakfast meeting. Okay. Um and I think all I'm going to say tonight Mr. Muhammad.

Um, first of all, I'm going to say I'm excited about all the events that are coming up here in the town and knowing that majority of them will be displayed on the digital signage out there and there were mail outs that were sent as well. And I had a pleasure this past weekend assisting our town clerk and Miss Pascal as judges for the um contestants doing the um the Spencer holiday caravan contestants in my eye they were all winners and I want to say it was a great group of talented young ladies and congratulations to Miss Webster Rachel and runner up the first runner up But um I enjoy doing that and look forward to being involved in more things within this community and around Roan County.

Great. Thank you, sir, Mr. Miller. Thank you.

Tonight, I'd like to express some appreciation to local businesses and civic groups for their support in our community. And u right off the bat, Spencer Muslim has been very supportive. I know this past month, I think they donated money to our Spencer Fire Department for educational purposes. Uh last year, I know that Spencer Moose Lodge also donated money for our park closure as well as money to sponsor the Miss Holiday Caravan parade. Of course, we know just recently they sponsored this u uh get together out here with the pageant and everything else. So, they've been very supportive from our community. I appreciate their support. We had two donations for our annual police night out. They were Henry's Barbecue and Heather's simple homemade, and I appreciate their support as far as that goes, supporting our community. And last but not least, I want to say something about Mr. Blunt. Mr. blunt day had some special quotes and I think he was talking about Spencer and one of the quotes was this country is made up of small towns and big dreams and I think that you're talking about Spencer.

I love those quotes. Me too. I look forward to them. Very good. All right, Miss Moody.

I want to thank everyone for joining us tonight. Um, I so appreciate when people bring us concerns and ideas such as the North Rowan Courtyard Cleanup Project. That is very exciting. And, um, I just want to shout out all of the volunteers, committees, town staff. I'm just continually impressed with, for example, Heather's constantly reworking the finance spreadsheets to make it easier for me to read probably. Um, I appreciate everyone's dedication and passion that they bring to their areas of expertise and I just think it really shows in how um, Spencer is really growing and continuing to be a great place. So, I just thank everybody for your efforts.

Mr. Um, I guess first I will have a work obligation on the 7th. So, I will miss our next months. I will miss the the um national astronaut out and the uh the dedication, but um it's going to be very very exciting. Um I'll encourage the um 60 some well I guess about 80 some odd percent of me of the how family that's still here on that night to come up and whatever that math is. Maybe 78% or whatever that is. But uh the important part of the house

that's right the important part. The important part um to come uh and and check that out. So, congratulations to everyone. Congratulations staff on that. It's going to be really exciting. Um, you know, to to borrow on on previous comments about the weekend and all the neat things we're that we talked about tonight that are coming or have just happened. Um, in addition to to some of that, I I know we'll leave people out, but but all the work that the folks with the event today, this past weekend did, um, you know, Kathy Griffin who, um, opened her heart in her wallet again to help us out. Um, and there and there are others. I I I don't want to to to rain on praise by not naming everyone, but she comes to mind in addition to to Mr. Miller named um which I think is just fantastic. And so I think the the challenge becomes we need to make sure that uh we do as much as we can to to to keep that going. I used to have a former colleague who had a saying that that to make something a big deal, you have to make it a big deal. And um and so I think we need to continue to do that to make as much as possible what we're doing a big deal. Uh, so I think kudos to everyone um both here and and out there and following along or if you're doing none of those, but you're still helping. Keep going. Keep it up.

Thank you, Mayor Per.

Um, one thing I wanted to announce, we better keep an eye on Peter because he's a natural teacher. We were spent all day last Friday over at Northland High School in the civics class, uh, Mrs. Grub's classes and Peter was just awesome. And I told him, I said, "Well, if you ever get tired of what you're doing, you're a natural teacher." And the kids really responded to them well. And we got to see the students out there working in the courtyard. They actually have a club day. And I guess that's one of the clubs, you know, working on the areas to make it look better. And when she was t when wa was talking about the uh courtyard when I when I attended junior senior over at Northro, we used that courtyard as part of our junior senior prom. And of course Beth probably remembers all this too and several of you. And then the outside courtyard was the one that was always used for people to go have lunch if they didn't want to stay in the cafeteria. So, I really want to see our town do that day of caring and get that declared and send some people over there, citizens and whoever we can get to help the kids over there at Northand know that we do see them and we are behind them 100%. I'm actually meeting with uh Crystal McCrae, outreach director on Monday and uh she's going to give me some ideas and things that she wants the town to do and ways that how can students come and help. So I'll be over there on Monday and I'll have more to report on that. But keep the schools in mind because they're a very very important part of our community and things are looking better for the schools. The school reports look better. Um, so you know, just stick with it and be consistent and like he said, make a

big deal out of it because we've got to let the kids know we're behind them. It's important

stopped us at the table. I was seeing that with my friends having breakfast and um one of those citizens had been at the ball game on Friday night and noticed lights out and so light some of the lights were not burning and so that has been reported to the school board and that schoolboard member said she would report it that day and so we have other people you know appreciating and they've had several people who commented how good the field and everything looks there at the school. So people are noticing.

Yeah. And so I think, you know, hearing I've heard several people interested in pursuing doing some type of work day or something like that based on what uh Miss How was was asking for. Is that something you can get more details on? Yeah. Monday and then report back to both Peter and Joel and maybe we can find a time that uh we can roll up our sleeves and Yeah. I've done that a few times over there in those courtyards and they do TLC about about every day. So, or about every year, I mean. So, uh definitely uh probably due for that.

Um the only other update I have this evening is I'll be going on Thursday to the uh quarterly transportation advisory board meeting um with city of Salsbury. And so hopefully we have a little more update on the microransit pilot that they're running. Um, and uh, I'll report that back to the board once I hear it. So, that is all I have at this point. And so, is there a need to go into executive session for any reason? And if not, then we can adjourn. All right. Hearing no reason. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So, move. All right. Is there a second? Second.

Motion favor prom second by Mr. How. All in favor? All right. All we stand ajourned.