City Council - Regular Meeting

Um just so you know I Emily and I were talking earlier and we and she was able to go back. We didn't have any truly virtual meetings during COVID. We So we're this is our go by moving forward. Um, so just little bit of uh just FYI, keep you might want to keep your mics muted until you're ready to talk. Um, especially if you're like me and have kids and dogs and cats running around the house. So, uh, I can't I can't hear them.

I can hear them perfectly. Push your volume. on the top. Honey, I've got it. It's just not. Hey guys, I at first I can see everybody, but now I can only see three people. Can you Well, I can hear you. I guess I can hear you. Can you hear me now?

I can. Okay, there you go. Yes, I can. I'm good.

Whoever's Whoever's talking, Doris, ought to pop up on your screen, I would think. Well, you popped up and went out. You know, at one point I seen everybody, but now I'm just seeing I'm just seeing Miss Emily and then I don't see you. I don't even hear you right now. Well, yeah. As long as you can hear, that's the best thing.

Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Can y'all hear me? Okay. If there's no I can I heard you. Yes. Yes, sir. Loud and clear.

Okay. Okay,

that's the problem. It's on in there. Would you that TV? No. Would you turn the speaker off there? Yes. Yeah.

Look at it.

Is it still all There we go. Christie, it looks like you and Lisa have both gone somewhere nice to weather out the storm together. We are we are very excited about that. Y'all just let us know when the the roads are clear and we'll come back.

All right, folks. It is six o'clock. So, um, I'll call this meeting to order. Uh, and the city clerk will lead us in in invocation, please.

Let's pray everyone. Dear Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for keeping everyone safe during the storm. I pray for our street department and our first responders who are still working to uh keep the streets clear. And I pray that the council members make wise decisions for our community tonight. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Emily. Okay. Uh during the pre-agenda, the city council removed items one and nine from the agenda. And because this is a virtual meeting, the three presentations have also been removed. So item 10, item 10 uh has now been removed due to new information that must be reviewed and item 11 was uh reviewed during the pre-aggenda meeting. So no decision and no decision is necessary. Is there a motion to adopt the amended agenda?

So move. So move. Okay. We have a first and a second. Is there any further discussion? Okay. Due to this being a virtual meeting, we will need to have a roll call vote. So if you will just vote uh I or no as I call your name. Council member David Jones,

Council Member Christy Feifer. Hi. Council member Doris Allison. Hi. Council member Amy Lton. Hi. Council member Tip Nicholson. Hi. Council member Lisa Pearson. I, Council Member Trey Robertson. I, and Council Member James Presley, I.

So, the motion passed unanimously. Thank you so much. So, uh, the 2026 code of ethics and the front and center strategic plan. As always, the city council works to follow the code of ethics and the strategic plan. Um, we have removed uh the presentations and recognitions. We have removed these items from the agenda uh to have them present at the next meeting. So we'll hear from the two chiefs next next meeting. So uh city manager report now. Ron uh will be providing his report tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh Emily, can you [cough and clears throat] we uh for those of you that have been on the council for a while, we we're moving this earlier in the meeting just to, you know, not have it as an add-on. Uh I'm going to try and make it a little shorter because of that. But some of these I think you really need to to hear as a group and ask me any questions that you might have. [clears throat]

So, just to start, uh, Emily alluded to this in the invocation, like to thank everybody who's been working, um, you know, literally around the clock in some cases, uh, to handle the two winter storms that we've had. It's not very often that you get that you get uh, two plus inches of ice and then six to 10 inches of snow depending on where you are. And uh you know it goes without saying we are not equipped for these types of storms. So everything that has been done I I really do appreciate um will tell you that [clears throat] you we are our streets department uh has been you know again working as as as much as they can. um when we have ice that's, you know, under under all of the uh under the snow, it's just almost impossible to get down to the pavement with the equipment that we have. Um the motor graater, we have one motor graater and it has been um it's been like the piece of equipment that's worked the best. Um but all everything else that we have, we have snow plows on our trucks, spreaders for salt and and sand. Um so they've done a great job. police, fire, um storm water crews, everybody that's been called in has just been done done a great job and we're doing the best we can. I know it's not perfect, but but we're really uh we're really trying. Next, please. So, going into the um construction projects, the terminal building is finished. Um and just as a reminder, our ribbon cutting is February 9th at 2 o'clock. Next, we have several other airport projects I wanted to bring to your attention. Um,

the airport apron expansion design. This is the the image that you have on your screen with the yellow the yellow lines on the kind of the left side. We're expanding out the FBO tarmac. Uh this is going to be this is going to allow us to build uh hanger spa or hangers in that area. Um and potentially if the Elizabeth City State project does come to fruition, then we will put them there as well. So design's 90% complete. Uh and then we will put that out for bids after uh after we get those the design done. the uh corporate development uh area. This is the one where we bid it three times uh for various reasons. And this will allow us to build um an apron and potentially at one point we were going to have a hanger there as well. But this is going to be our main area for expansion on the airport and it's uh down behind the Victory Air hanger, if you know where that is, going down the main taxi way on NASCAR Road. So bids were opened on uh January 22nd and that's been awarded to or will be awarded to uh Country Boy Landscaping who is the apparent uh responsive and or low responsive and responsible bidder. The third is a um this isn't the la the most updated one, Emily.

[clears throat]

So, the the last one uh is that I wanted to let you know that West Star, who took over the old Lowe's hanger, we received this last week a letter from the state saying that we were granted a $3 million or we we're going to be getting a $3 million grant to assist them as an economic development project on building the the basically apron space and doing the horizontal work for their new hanger expansion which is going to accelerate that project. So that's a huge win for us. Next um the circuit 63 undergrounding. Um I would just disregard the words on this slide. Uh this is the undergrounding project in the valley stream area. Um what what we're doing out there is it's it's kind of a two-fold project, but it's the first of its kind that I'm aware of in Statesville. This area is notorious for outages, and our crews are out quite often when there are storms. So, we're taking we're we're we're taking the 4KV lines, upgrading to 23 KV, and taking them underground. So, this is the first one where we've been pro proactive on going underground. Hopefully, this is something we continue to do to help with our crews uh and the reliability. It is not cheap uh but for the overall long-term health of uh the system that this is something that we're trying to do in in strategic areas. Next, uh the police department. Um what I will tell you about that or and the parking deck the parking deck substantial completion is hopefully somewhere end of

March early April. Uh so that is moving along. Both of these projects and really any of our construction projects are heavily dependent on the weather this time of year. So obviously the last week and a half has um has hurt their progress. Uh but hopefully we can stay with that time frame. police department. There's a lot of work going on inside and outside for that project. We're hoping that substantial completion on that one is in August of this year. Next, fire station 5. Um, y'all are well aware of this project. The roof's done. uh grading the grading contract has not been awarded yet to my knowledge but we do have the low bidder so that should happen any time and then interior work in in March we have you'll see at the end of this report we have done all the hiring uh for you can go ahead you can for that station so we have uh we are going to have I believe 15 more firefighters be pinned mayor uh in the in the next little bit so Um there there are a lot of new firefighters on the scene. Uh the waterline spline weather has been atrocious for this one. Uh this is the $23 million water project basically from the plant to Idol Memorial Gardens south of town. Um paving on Brookdale has finally been done. Uh we are going to be moving to Stockton Street uh very soon. Uh and then the next project or next part of the project is going to be um South Meeting Street uh moving from the railroad um to Amnony Hill Road if I'm not mistaken or no that's that's the US 21. Um but the South Meeting and US 21 are

the two next areas that are going to be hit in earnest. And I'll remind you that when we're putting these lines in the in the ground, it's a multi-step process, which is what's taken us so long. You got the main line, which tears up the pavement. Eventually, you have uh feeder lines that have to be tied into it after DEEQ has come in, done pressure testing, and making sure it's all done correctly. Then finally, we can overlay and re repave. So, I I hate it, but it takes a long time and it's a multi-step process. Um hopefully come spring we won't have to fight the weather as much and and we'll be able to get this thing done. Um but it is at 53% um completion.

Hey Ron, can we ask questions as you go? You can. Uh just quick question about Stockton Street. I drove down there recently and it's like an old logging road. Do you have an estimated date of when you're going to begin and when that'll be complete? Uh it should start any time. Um and I'm not sure when it's going to be complete. This the storm has really thrown that project off. Um one of the I think the intersection of Brookdale and Stockton is probably where they're going to start it because it's last time I looked it was still in really bad shape at the turn coming off of Brookdale onto Stockton.

Um but that's that is the next phase coming back in. I can get I can get more information from you uh or for you after the meeting and send that out. That'd be great. Thank you. Can you send it to me also? I'm getting tons of calls. I I'll send it out to everybody. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next, uh South Yadken uh pump station. This is our main uh our pump station uh bringing raw water in from the South Yadken. Years ago, it was our Statesville's primary source of water. Now, it's our secondary source with the um Kataba River being the first. It's been a long drawn out process, but we have finally gotten finished with the uh redoing the pump station. Um, in Bill Vaughn's terms, we have totally recapitalized uh the the pump station here or the pump in here. Um, close to a two $3 million project. Uh, and we're going to do a an unveiling at some point uh some point soon. Next, Emily, I'm going to skip this one if you don't mind, please. Okay. So, coming up, I mentioned earlier February 9th at 2, that's the ribbon cutting for the airport. And then our council retreat 19th and 20th of this month. We are going to start at city hall, go to Hickory to meet there and do the tour there. And then on the 20th, we will be back at our um at the Statesville airport. So, in the meeting room that you see right here. And we've got a we have an agenda that's pretty much completed. I'm going to send it out fairly soon just to get some thoughts on uh from you on it. [snorts] Next. Okay. Open positions. I'm going to probably end it after this one because we have a lot of filled positions. Um so we only have five here. So that's that's

a huge deal for us. Uh we have uh been working to uh you know positions come and go when you have 550 plus employees. There's there's turnover. Um but uh one of these positions the transportation planner is new or new in this year's budget. So we have done very well filling these positions. And that's not to say they won't we won't have vacancies, but uh I feel really good sitting where we are right now with this next. And so I won't go through all of these because we have, I believe, four full slides of either promotions, transfers, um, new hires, or folks that have come back around to us. I would we we'll send this out as well. I I would and you can see this one on the website. Um, I'm really proud of everybody for getting these positions filled and I'm and I'm super proud of those that actually take the time to go after certifications uh and things of that nature and and for promotions and I'm glad to answer any questions that uh that you might have. Okay, no questions for Ron. No additional questions. Thank you so much, Ron. Um, so on the consent agenda, all items were considered to be routine by the council and will be enacted by one motion. So consider approving the January 8, 2026 pre-agenda meeting minutes and the January 12th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Uh B is consider approving budget amendment 2026-12 for the current sewer relocation project. AE services agreement. Um item C is consider approving budget amendment 2026-13

to fund the city hydraulic water model update. Uh item D is consider approving the submission of application to the NC governor's crime commission for funding of two police officers uh police department salaries. Uh item E is consider approving an ordinance establishing a 25 mph speed zone on a portion of West Front Street at the request of the North Carolina DOT. Item F is consider approving the special use permit 2026-01 which is the Winston Avenue town homes order. And uh item G uh is consider approving a resolution designated John Hatcher, grants manager, and Randall Moore, storm water program manager, the authorized primary and secondary agents to execute and file applications for the hazard mitigation grant program with NC Division of Emergency Management and FEMA for the Beauty Street South Drive culvert replacements and the Holland Drive culvert replacement. And uh item H is consider accepting the annual non-primary entitlement grant from the NC DOT AV aviation division in the amount of $150,000. Are there any items that the council would like to move back to the regular agenda? Hearing none, I will ask for a motion on the consent agenda. [snorts]

So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Okay. Once again, we will need to have a roll call vote, so we'll make this a little faster. Uh, Council Member Jones, I. Council member Feifer, I. Council member Allison, I. Council member Lton, I. Council member member Nicholson. I. Council member Pearson. I. Council member Robertson. I. And council member Presley. I.

Okay. The motion has passed unanimously. Thank you so much. So going to with the um with everything that we've already talked about. Uh we don't we don't have any advisory board meeting minutes. Uh, no other business. Um, is there if there is no other business, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Some moved. Second. You don't have to be so happy about it. Uh, [laughter]

so okay. Any any further discussion? Okay. We will have a quick roll call vote now. Uh, Council Member Jones. H, I saw it. Yep. Thank you. Council member Feifer. Hi. Council member Allison. Hi. Council member Lton. Hi. Council member Nicholson. I. Council member Pearson. I. Council member Robertson. I. And Council Member Presley. I. Okay. The motion has passed unanimously. Thank you guys for a wonderful meeting. Well done.

Everybody be safe. Be safe. Yeah. Back at you 20 record, Doug. I know [laughter] that beats the first night. Good job, Mr. Mayor. Thank you all. They