Town Council - Regular Meeting

Council Meeting of Stallings. We'll start off tonight with an invocation led by Stephen.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for tonight. Just give us some wisdom tonight. Tonight we are doing a yearly budget approval that takes in a lot of information and a lot of research and just bless us with the ability to make the right decision tonight on this budget. I'd like to put in a special request. Just remember the Poe family as they're dealing with tragedy in their family tonight. And then, again, just watch over our town and everybody as they move forward from this place. In all of these things, I pray in your son's holy name, Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.

All right, I'll call this meeting to order. And we start off with public comments. And we have one tonight that signed up. Kelly Brusk, welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of town council. Tonight I want to talk to you about the Whetstone Motel. particularly the lack of activity at the Whetstone Motel proposal. One could say by appearances that it's inactive and its status is up in the air. We've not heard from the developer. There's been no request for the management of Whetstone Drive. So we're wondering if it's an actual project that's going to move forward. Specifically, our North Carolina General Statute, Chapter 160D, the Town Council has the authority to efficiently administer its development regulations. What this means is, includes directing staff to set a reasonable deadline for the application to submit the abandonment request or withdraw the application or close the file as it's inactive if they don't act. And we believe a reasonable time period could help take our community out of limbo. We just want to know, are they serious about a motel near our children? And as we look at this holistically, the location, the challenges, the community, reaching over 600, almost 700 messages out now to the developer. The authority to set a reasonable deadline is something that's common sense. We could be very fair to the developer, offer maybe a 30 to 60 day window to ask them, have you considered relocating? There is opposition to this. Would you like to bring this to a vote about Whetstone Drive? So again, really believing the community believes this is a common sense approach. And it's a matter of not if you can and have the authority to do it, but will you do it? And so we lean heavily on you. And I want to read somebody today just used the Stop Whetstone Motel website to send a message. We still send messages regularly. And what they wrote just really hit a chord with me. They took the time beyond the generic form we send out to really inform the developer of the risks and encourage them to be part of our community. This person really encapsulated what the community is going through. So I'm going to read that if there's no objection. And they stated, why would any builder put a motel right in the middle or next to neighborhoods full of children and right next to a busy childcare facility? It would be miles from any major highway. It makes no sense. And I've watched for years the strip mall you have built with no occupants in a rock's throw of the proposed motel. Something doesn't feel right about all this. For God's and the children's sake, please take your plans for a motel out of this location where we live. This has been echoed again by multiple members of the community in a respectful manner. They just wonder, why now? Why here? And we have not received an answer. So tonight we appeal to you as our town council, as our representatives, to have the will to stand up and say, let's put this to rest in a respectful manner with a reasonable deadline under the authority and find out from our developer, are they going to continue with this proposed motel? or is it truly inactive and is a matter of just good housekeeping, like many town councils do every six months, that it's time to say, okay, this proposal's inactive, let's move forward. Thank you for your time and service. Thank you.

Anyone else who didn't sign up that would like to speak tonight? Next up is the consent agenda. Move approval of the consent agenda.

I'll second that.

All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. Reports from the Mayor. I think it's been a busy couple weeks, but I can't remember them all, so I'll keep it quick. WOMA meeting was a week and a half ago, I guess, and we talked about all kinds of things that we all share. It was a good meeting because I hadn't met some of the other Western Union council members. So I guess, and the other thing we did, I did, was went to Raleigh to lobby and meet with our representatives. I went on behalf of Centralina, which I'm the chair of. And then, of course, it's hard to talk about stuff in Raleigh without talking about stalling stuff. So I had a very good conversation with Todd Johnson and And Dean Arp, our representative, one of them was busy. But I met with his wife. She was easy to talk to. It was easier to talk to her as he was quite busy. And David Willis had a nice conversation with him too, as well as several other senators that we don't have. They don't represent us in Union County. But it was a good trip. And that was on Centralina. That's it for me for the mayor. Now we go to town council, council members. Which way wants to go first? I do.

All right. I have nothing. Nothing tonight for me either.

I just wanted to share that last Tuesday I went up to Hickory for an all-day class about economic development that was given by the School of Government at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. It was great, learned a lot about different avenues and incentives that municipalities can provide for economic development. And so I want to thank the council for continuing to provide for a budget for all of us to be able to do continuing education in that manner. That one I thought was great because it didn't require a hotel stay to be overnight. That's also led to item six on the agenda tonight, which is to discuss the building next door and An idea they have for that that we can we can present that building to them as a possibility for grad students to evaluate And then I just like to thank my wife for recognizing that Anniversaries do not need to be celebrated on the night that they happen So I appreciate that.

Yeah We should all text her Thank You Graham no mayor nothing for me

Steven? Hey, just, again, wanted to thank the staff for two things. Obviously, we did some inside training, I guess, with the police a couple weeks ago. And, you know, you always learn things probably more than you want to learn when you have that time of training. And then... But we do appreciate it, taking that time and letting us be part of that. And then, you know, again, Alex and your staff, because I always feel like I hold back a laundry list of stuff, and then I just, you know, give him like a thousand things at one time. So I appreciate you taking all of those to the staff and getting results on them. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Next up, town manager and the departments.

Good evening, everyone. The only report I have is the budget line item transfer list, which is submitted for your consideration.

Thank you Any from the departments tonight All right agenda approval Mayor yes, we add a closed session item 143 318 11 a 3 it could be the last item. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. I

What's the number again?

143-318.1183, attorney-client privilege.

Gotcha. As 6A be. Anything else, folks? And how will we feel? All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. There we go. Item 20, 26, 20, 27 budget. Alex, you're up. I will. It's there. Okay. All right, I'll open the public hearing while we're waiting on you.

and it's June now, and I wanna look back over that process and express my gratitude to you all as a board for all the time that you've put in, the thought, the late nights, the extra meetings. You've been nothing but accommodating and engaging with the process, so thank you. I'd also like to express our thank you to, my thank you to the staff. Thank you for all your work on all the budget. tribulations and journeys and questions and everything. I appreciate them being flexible and a good attitude the whole time. I want to especially recognize our finance officer, Ms. Jessie Williams. Jessie, thank you for all your work, as well as our wonderful consultant, Mr. Kurt Walton. And I'd also like to thank the community for any input, feedback that they've had throughout the process. So with that being said, let's get moving here. All right, so before we even started talking about the numbers, one of the things that we did as part of that process is the board set your priorities for the year. And the approved priorities that are listed there, they're developing a financial strategy, not just for the upcoming fiscal year, but also into the future, enhancing economic development opportunities, enhancing the town's identity, continuing to explore and pursue waste and staff, use that feedback from all the meetings, from everything we heard from y'all, to kind of develop a proposed budget that supports a strong and sustainable future. But one thing I want to emphasize is this proposed budget