City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is. My name is Harry Karikaran. I'm the city engineer for City of Stonecrest. I have been with the city for about five years now. That makes me one of the longest serving staff here. All right. Thank you. So I just wanted to share some of the projects we have been working on right now. Just, you know, there are some exciting projects going on right now. The first one I wanted to address is the electrical charges. We are installing electrical charges in two locations. One of them is at Brownsville Aquatic Center, and the second one is at our city hall. So there will be six 60 amp level two charges going to be installed. So anybody can come in, and these are fast charges. We have completed installation of six charges at Brownsville Aquatic Center. Those are powered up now, and we are waiting for Tesla to put them online. It is going to happen within the next week or two weeks. Once they put them online, anybody who has that app on their car can see those charges, and they will come and they can charge us. There's charges here at the city hall. Georgia Power has installed the underground cables, and the powers are pulled up to the charging location. The charges are in back order. We are hoping those will arrive around second week of August, and those will be completed by first week of September. So we will have 12 charges in the city property. In addition to that, there is a private company is installing multiple charges in city of Stonecrest, about three locations. And so we'll have plenty of electrical charges in city of Stonecrest. So we're not behind any other city or any other location. So we'll have plenty of electrical charges here. The second project we are working on is the paving. We are paving today as we speak. We paved yesterday. We paved today. We have completed one subdivision that is Chaparral. That is the first subdivision we have completed. This paving includes resurfacing three parking lots in our parks. The first one will be addressed is Farrington Park. Farrington Park, the old parking lot. You can see when you go, they are beaten up badly, cracked up and everything. That will be resurfaced. What we are going to do is we're going to pave it, we're going to stripe it, and we are going to install those park stops. so that the people who have been doing donuts are going to be disappointed. They won't be able to do that anymore. So it is going to be nicely striped parking. That is going to happen in August. Once we address three more subdivisions, we will go to Farrington, and then we will be resurfacing that parking. The second one will be Browns Mill Park. That is the Browns Mill Aquatic Center and the Recreation Center. So the entire parking and the streets will be resurfaced. And that is going to happen sometime second week, third week of September. The third one will be Southeast Athletic Complex. We will be resurfacing all those existing parking lots. And also, we'll be installing those park stops, curb stops, so that the donut activity can, you know, they're going to be disappointed, but that's what we wanted to do. And then we will be continuing to paving. We started a little late this year paving. We started only 2 weeks ago. And the paving will continue to go on until November. And hopefully we can get the reason we are paving on the holidays and Saturdays is because we started very late. We should have started in April, but we ended up starting in June. And we'll continue to do that. Hopefully we can finish that. city of stonecrest in much better shape now than it was five years ago when the street conditions if anybody feel that okay let me finish it first let me finish it if anybody feel that their subdivision is behind please let us know because we have addressed most of the issues and now we can go back and pick and choose what is behind and we can address that okay give me one second let me finish everything and i will come back to you and then we will we'll definitely consider this we have already addressed or decided on 2026 paving And if we hear from anybody, we will be putting that in the 2027-28 list. One more thing I want to say about the paving is we don't just go and pave because somebody is asking them to be paved. There is a science behind that. So we go and evaluate every street for the entire streets in Stonecrest. And then we assign a number for that. Every segment is assigned a number called PCI number, Payment Condition Index Number. The Payment Condition Index numbers range from 0 to 100. 100 means you got the best road. 5, 6, 7, 15, 20, that means we have a bad road. What we are doing is we are addressing from the bottom, from the bottom to the top. And we are around 50 now. And we will continue to address 50 and beyond in the next coming years. When a payment condition index is assigned to a street, say 90, it doesn't stay 90. When the year progresses, you have the sun beating up and then the cold weather beating up on it, the numbers come down. So the Council is looking at doing another payment evaluation sometime end of this year. Once you have that numbers, your subdivision may, if it is lower in number, we'll move that to the top to pave it. So that's how the paving is done. The other projects we are working on is parks projects. We have been doing several projects at Salem Park. We are working on two projects now in Salem. One of them is we are completing a gazebo You can see if you go to Salem Park, there is a concrete part already installed. And two weeks ago, Georgia Power came in and pulled the underground electric cable to the gazebo. The gazebo will have two fans. And then we will have electrical outlets. If somebody rent that for a function, you will be able to plug in your speakers or boombox or microphones, and you can use that for that. And then the second project we are working on in Salem Park is restroom. We know that we don't have a restroom there. We have a pavilion, we are going to have a gazebo, but we need a restroom. So the council has awarded a contract to build a restroom for Salem Park that is under the design now. So we'll have two on the female side and you on the male side. It is not going to be as big as Southeast because Salem is a smaller park than Southeast and Brownsville. Those are the two projects working on right now. And then there is one more project pending at Salem is we're going to add additional trails to Salem Park. Additional trails, walking paths. Yes, we're going to have more path there. And then also next Tuesday, which is two days from now, contractor will be installing new monument sign at Salem Park. The council adopted a standard for signs for the entire city. Remember, we inherited all the signs from DeKalb County, and then those were different shapes, different size, different color. So we're going to have the same standards for every park. For starting Tuesday, a contractor will be installing signs at Salem Park, Farrington Park, Browns Mill, Everett Park, and um so not southeast except southeast all the other parks will have a sign we are delaying southeast because decap county is working on a fire station at curvington highway at this point once the fire station is completed we know where the sign is going to go so we did not include that in this um in this batch and Farrington Park we are working on several projects there if anybody has been to Farrington Park in the past two weeks you will see a brand new children's uh play equipment uh that is for the smaller children two to five because we didn't have a two to five group play equipment so we have installed that and we have also installed the outdoor exercise equipment you go there and walk around you have those uh equipment installed and we are working on the gazebo right now. And then the power was pulled to Gazebo this week, actually, the past week. Power is there. And the concrete pad is there. We are waiting for the Gazebo material to arrive from Pennsylvania. It is being shipped from Pennsylvania all the way here. And then once we have that, we'll install that. That will also have two fans and electrical outlets. um and then we are going to resurface the existing parking lot at Farrington and we are we have we are going to expand the second parking lot way down there also um that design is complete and then we are waiting for the permits from DeKalb County watershed and then soil and water district once we have that permit we will bid that out and we will have additional parking at Farrington Park and uh there's one more thing we are going to be doing at Farrington At the end of the parking, there will be a basketball court at Farrington Park, so our youth can go and play basketball there. And then we are expanding the sewer line from those apartments into the park, and then we will have a restroom at Farrington Park. So that will complete, and then an additional trail also. We are going to do another trail from Uh, the, the, the, the children who are coming from school, they should be able to walk along there. And instead of going on the recut across and go there. So we're going to install the trail. But those are the projects we are working on Salem. And, uh, Farrington, um, we have, we have. Other projects program not funded, uh, for, um. Brownsville. We are going to have a building addition. It is in the works for a while now, about a year. We are looking to fund that. The council is looking to fund that. And then that addition will have two big classrooms. This is for the after school activity. And we are also planning For additional pickable coats there, so that is, those are the things we are planning for browns mill for southeast we are planning additional parking the design was completed, we beat that out one time. and then we are working out the funding with the council. Once the council consider the funding, we'll have additional parking because we have larger events happen there and then we have to bus people from other parking lots to Southeast. So once we have all those, we'll have plenty of parking. We completed a larger restroom there. And then we are expanding the existing restroom to double the capacity at the existing parking restroom right now. And then once there's a dog park, actually, that bid is out. I think we had the bid came out and that will be presented to the Council for funding. in the coming council meeting. And then once we get DeKalb County to complete the fire station at the front, we will have monuments for park. We'll be constructing that. And what else going on? We are designing three interchanges, actually intersection designs. One of them is, these are in three different districts. One of them is in District 1, which is Turner Hill and Hayden Quarry. What we are doing is we have this queue, Hayden Quarry coming into Turner Hill. We are trying to make it align so that the people who are taking left turn from Hayden Quarry don't have to be dodging traffic from both sides. That design is actually 90% complete now. You know, that once it is completed, we will be, deciding on um how to fund that most likely we will go for grant because that's going to cost us a lot of money the second uh intersection is miller road and thompson mill road um the design we did we completed the study and the study came out we need a roundabout there Right now, we have a flashing red lights there, which has been there for I don't know how long maybe. 50 years right, so we are and once we once we complete the design will be looking for funding because that's that's going to cost a little bit of money third one is. klondike. and south goddard at the school uh you know we all know when the when the drivers try to come from the school or from the east or west try to enter klondike uh they're at the mercy of the drivers on klondike that design is about 95 95 complete um it doesn't cost that much money it's it's compared to the other two projects and that has more safety implications than the other two projects uh because of the school um um so once the design is complete uh we will be presenting that to the council for funding it's about about 1.1 million dollars cost and that road will be aligned and then it'll have four-way signal so everybody has to stop the the people traveling on crondike both northbound and southbound they have to stop and let the other people because signal will stop them so those are the three projects uh we have been working on on the intersection uh design and i'm going to turn it over to madam city manager or and i can answer the question yes okay

um just point of order um we have a few more items harry's not going anywhere you're going to have the opportunity to ask some questions okay what's your quick question i um i live in a small road called marble drive

Came down here five years ago in the Flat Rock Historical District. You have seven seniors there. Ambulance came there last week. Could not pick up the senior. I've been writing. Came here. You guys told me go to the county. Went to the county. County said, DIS, I think it is, said this road belongs to Stonecrest. Seniors can't get ambulance service. Garbage can't get picked up. I was told before that it was being changed by Latonia. But Latonya lost the appropriation to Stonecrest. Now Stonecrest is here. What do I have to do as a taxpayer, disabled vet, to get these seniors care? Because I don't want one of them to die because an ambulance can't get down the road because it's not a subdivision. It's not a great project. It's a little street where African-Americans are suffering that can't get care. Just a question to you, brother.

You know the street? I know the street very well.

Yeah.

It is probably, you know, of course, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's Christopher. Yeah.

But you know what, she will be able to answer this question. So let me be clear about that.

Yeah.

Um, but this is she started on Monday of this week. And we was closed on Friday. Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah.

You know, the solution for that is you won't be we won't be able to give you a solution now. But I just want to give you the the reality. What is there is when that road was cut. That was not subdivided properly. The entire street is in a private property. Somebody is paying tax on it right now. Somebody it is in a private property. And so what they have done is they just came and draw a line and subdivided three or four lots at the back. And front half of it is actually a parcel, somebody's private property. Right now, that is the reason nobody is touching it, because it's a private property. There is a process for somebody to dedicate a street to the government, not just Stonecrest, any government. You have to do your plat. You have to have that right away, clearly cut and dedicated and constructed to the city or county standards. And then the city takes over that. So it is more complicated than it's a street. There is a name for it. But it is in private property. The person at the front is paying tax on the entire parcel, unfortunately. You for so you forward it to me, this is not the first time, this is not the first time these low level decap county employees has given wrong information to people i'm telling you, you know i've been doing this for a long time.

All right, okay so. Let us get back on track like I say Harry is not going anywhere. Harry is not going anywhere. We'll have an opportunity to speak with him again. So we're going to go to our next item. And I'll kick this one off, but the feral hog hotline. So for some of you who are impacted by the feral hogs tearing up your yards and your community, yeah we were made aware I was made aware during my town hall in February I had not heard of a feral hog into the until the constituents brought it to me in February so in February I worked with Councilman Turner because he had heard of it. He has experienced it. And we start making phone calls, talking to people. Nevertheless, the short of the story, June 2nd, we had a workshop here at City Hall where we had a host of different experts to come out and provide some education for us. I am working with a gentleman who is a wildlife biologist and they have something in place right now where they track bear sightings. And he said that he thinks it would be a good idea for us to work together and they can put something in place where they track wild hog sightings so that DeKalb County Parks and Recreation, who are now working on a fair hog program to kind of do something about the infestation that we have in our area so that we and them can have a way of tracking. So that's one of the things that we're doing. We hear you. You guys don't just come to these meetings and say things and they go in one ear and out the other. We hear you. That's why in less than two months we had a meeting on it, an education on it. So Councilman Turner, has worked with our staff here to set up a hotline. Mr. Turner, you want to come and speak on that for a second?

Good afternoon. I didn't want it to be my legacy, but to chase the pigs out of Stonecrest looks like it's going to be one of the last things I do. It was funny the first time we saw a few wild pigs But come to find out, this is no joke. These animals are destroying yards. And while they don't pose a particular threat to you directly, because they're not very aggressive towards humans. In fact, they'd rather not see you. But if you approach them, particularly when they have young, that could be a situation. uh your pets might be inclined to chase them that's a bad idea pet so they are a nuisance in that category as well but the biggest problem is they like to eat roots worms, bugs, and in order to get to them, they will root up and dig up your yard. My neighbor put out some, one of the facade over an acre worth, and they flipped it all over. They are inclined to come out mostly at night. And you may well come out to see that you are uh, shrubbery or that your mulch has been turned over and wonder what happened, chances are the pigs. Now, the thing about what she said was the proliferation, they reproduce like rabbits. A pig can have up to 12 pigs in captivity. In the wild, they say they reproduce about five or six per litter. A six month old pig can have pigs. So you do the math. If one pig has five female pigs, And six months later, those five female pigs are having pigs. And they've been in this community. I've been looking at them for the last three years at least. And they are concentrated in certain areas. They like it where it's nice and moist. where there's a lot of private space. And there's 100 acres behind me that probably can't be developed. And it's a wonderful area to go for a nice hike in the woods. And that's where you find them. You look at Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area, where you have the nice walking trails. They find some nice quiet space there. And they raise their young in peace and quiet. But at Arabian Mountain High School and back at school, they're there. And they concentrate along the Pole Bridge Creek and also in the area for which we're looking at for the botanical garden. I understand that they are there in who knows how many. But what we want to do, is you don't want to go out and start shooting at pigs. You start shooting at pigs, there are other things you have to be concerned about. First of all, it's against the law to discharge a firearm in Stonecrest. But if you do, you have a lot of residents in Stonecrest. So it's not a good idea. The best idea we've come up with is dealing with the professionals. It's trap them and then eliminate them. So where do we trap them? If we're gonna pay for trappers, we can't just come onto your private property and start trapping pigs. If it's in the public, we can put some traps there, or if you are inclined to pay for a trap yourself, you are your subdivision, then you can get the private trappers, trap them and have them eliminated. Eliminated means they're gonna kill them. There's nothing else you can do with them, but to kill them and have them properly disposed off. Now, where are they? They're all over the place. We need to know exactly where the greatest numbers are. So we put together a hotline. Call in and tell us where you've seen evidence of pigs. And that evidence could be sod turnover, your mulch moved about, if you pick them up on your ring cameras. Probably going to be between 10 o'clock at night and 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. Check your cameras and see if you can pick up exactly where these pigs are. Call it in. When you call it in, we can know exactly where to bring the trappers. Hopefully, we can catch all of them for the size of a number that will keep the numbers down. And that hotline number is 866-878-HOGS. 4678. You can squeal on the pigs. 866-878-HOLLOWS. And let us know where they are. When we find out where they are, we will deal with the professional trappers. And we're working with DeKalb County as well as with the Department of Natural Resources and some of the others to help cover the cost of these traps. Some of it may come out of the Stonecrest budget. Some HOAs have put together a fund to trap some of these hogs. One group on Evans Mill Road tells us that they've captured over a hundred hogs that we really didn't know about. People just took action to get rid of them because they're destroying their yards. Now, I'm not going to go into all the details about the other threats that they posed, There are certain diseases you must be concerned about. Some people won't eat them. If they are prepared properly, I understand they are edible, but I'm not interested in that. I'm just interested in getting rid of them. But they do carry, some of them do carry diseases. So if you want to guess which one has a disease, that's up to you. I'm not going to go through that. I like the idea of eliminating all of them. Hunters love it in South Georgia where it's rural and they have plenty of room to hunt. There's no room for that within metro Atlanta, but they are in every county in Georgia. and the numbers are growing, and we're looking to send the number the other way till we get down to zero in the Cab County, particularly in Stonecrest. We're trying to bring the other counties on board to work with us, like Henry County, Rockdale, and some of the others to help eliminate this problem. Okay, any question about the hogs? Yes, sir.

Yeah, I have a question, not about the wild hogs. What about these coyotes? Coyotes are more dangerous than a wild hog. I have coyotes come all in my backyard, jump the fence from some property that you had developed some years back that you promised me that you was going to keep the area clean. And I have a Stonecrest come out to people that are over there. Code enforcement. They're going to develop and tell these people they have to cut this grass and keep it clean. They made a promise to Stonecrest that they will cut it once a year. I mean, once during the wintertime, twice during the summer. We have to continue to beg these people to do what they said it's going to do. Don't press keep coming up so they can take them to court. How many times that you have to take people to court to have to do the things that they're supposed to do in the city? We pay tax in this city, they pay tax. I fear that when we vote you people in office, you should uphold your job. We will back you up 100% if you do your job. But we keep calling, complain, complain, That means that somebody is passing the buck down the hill, back up the hill. And it don't make sense at all. Tell someone to come out and get rid of these coyotes so we can sleep. Snakes is coming all of them in that development. I'm tired of trying to keep my grandkids from going in my backyard because of what Stonecrest has promised us they was going to do. I live in District 1. When you built this subdivision, your previous mayor you had here promised us what he was gonna do. He came out, walked, he did it. We asked for cameras in our neighborhood, in the park, he put them up. We asked the stop sign to stop the speeding for someone get killed coming out of church, he put the stop sign. Now we have these coyotes and they are everywhere. We need someone to come out to help us with these coyotes, not just with the pigs. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. We don't have a big bad wolf, but the coyote is helping a little bit with the pigs, particularly with the piglets. The coyotes have been here for quite some time. I don't believe they're proliferating at the same rate that the pigs are, but every county in Georgia is the same as the pigs. They have coyotes. You move them from one neighborhood, You just make room for more characters to come in. They can be trapped. And when they trap them, they can eliminate them or they can try to relocate them. But they come back. I mean, I'm not going to lie to you. The Coyotes, as long as there's open space, they find a way to move in and make themselves at home. I don't have an answer for you in terms of eliminating them, but if you want to reduce the number, They are private trappers. Now private trappers will take care of coyotes. And you can get your own trap if you want to, to try to catch them. But when you move one coyote out, I've been told that other coyotes move into that same area. Do they pose the same threat as the pigs? It's a different threat. But again, they don't proliferate at the same rate as the pigs. And when it comes to code enforcement, I'm probably as aggravated as the rest of you in terms of what's not being completed. We write citations and people are not prosecuted to the level that they have really changed their behavior. And that has to change. That's one commitment that we have is to make code enforcement strong enough that it will force people to change their behavior. On the way here, I passed a guy who has about eight cars parked in his yard. And I like to get out and just go over there and tell them to move every one of them. But there's a thing called due process. You've got to take them through the process and they go through the courts. and somehow a slap on the hand does not change behavior. So those are things that, yeah, we're going to have to work with the courts and with the authorities in the county and the state to make sure that we are able to make the penalty strong enough that people will change their behavior in terms of code enforcement, not just for the counties. and for cleaning up the backyard, front yard, or whatever. But for all elements of code enforcement, we need to make it strong enough. And you cannot cry for mercy on every little thing. If you want to have the community that you can be proud of, you're going to have to bite the bullet. and be firm about what you want for your community. And if it hits you, it hits you. If you come and write me a citation for my 94 Ford Explorer in my yard, I just have to bite the bullet, drag it off. Because a violation is a violation is a violation. And these exceptions, a slap on the hands got to stop. There's a young lady here. I'm sorry. It was over there first? Yes. About the pigs?

Yes. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Chris Nelson. This is my second town hall meeting, and I'd like to introduce myself to you. This makes a year being in Georgia, coming from Jersey. Yesterday makes a year. What I hear is a lot of passion from your constituents, those who have concerns for the neighborhood. Sounds like they're asking for a conflict resolution to resolve some issues. And I, myself, is a person that likes to involve himself in the community, which I have done from Jersey. And I like to participate in helping in any way I can to assist as far as when it comes to community involvement. I hear a lot, like I said, a lot of passion. And I took note, we have issues with environmental infrastructure and you have concerns with contract bids being outsourced from the community. I heard that a lot of people calling with concerns pertaining to their property or any kind of issues that doesn't get answered in a timely manner. I think they probably will have some confidence knowing if there's a direct resource that they could go to and get some definitive answers because I experienced that in my little time here. But nevertheless, though, I don't want to dwell or harp on what I find to be an issue that can't be resolved. I think it can be resolved if everyone would just, you know, collaborate collectively, bring everything that needs to be addressed.

And I don't mean to be rude. I cut you off anything, but we wanted to deal with the agenda. I was talking about the feral hog issue, but what you're saying is very interesting. And we're going to ask that you get without city manager. Her agenda is being loaded now. So we put you on her agenda as well. So make sure she gets your contact information.

I'll say one last thing then. I didn't hear nothing about the youth. I would like to know, is there agenda for the youth as well?

It's on the agenda.

Okay, I appreciate that. I'd like to be a part of that. Thank you.

Was there a hog problem before I go? I mean a hog question?

At Arabia mountain high school we have hundreds of the pigs and. Well, I go out there to see them, because I have not seen them in a mass but i've seen like 50 so I don't know if traps are there, or do we do you want us to call you if we see them.

I do want a discussion. We talked about who could help us with the trap location and the school system did into their discussion. So we will get with the cap kind of school system to talk about trapping on Arabia Mountain High School. And maybe it's important because they have the uh the gardens and and all of that and pigs low turnips and they've been turning everything out and yeah and they have cultivated it for you whether you want it cultivated or not and that's the problem in south georgia a lot of the farmers are really catching it because the pigs were going and they're talking in the thousands And they will recultivate a field once it's been planted. So the same thing is happening at Arabian Mountain. And we don't want our kids to encounter these hogs. So they have limited a lot of what these kids can do outside because of the pigs. So it's having an impact. And at the rate for which they are reproducing, it's going to get worse and worse if we don't do something in a hurry.

Thank you, Councilman Turner. OK, we're going to move on to the next agenda item. While Mayor Pro Tem comes, I'm going to skip hers and just go directly to District 2 vacancy and let her expound upon it when she gets up here. So many of you know, if you're in District 2, Councilman Fye is no longer a Councilman with the City of Stonecrest. We appreciate the service that he has rendered to us, however, he resigned and that seat is vacant at this time. The qualification period for that seat is going to be August 10th through the 14th. If you know someone or if you are interested in representing your district then August 10th through the 14th will be the time for you to come on down, like Mayor Pro Tem just said, for the November election. So we're getting it on the ballot for the November election. So August 10th through the 14th, step up. Yeah, okay. And I'll let Mayor Pro Tem expound.

She pretty much explained it. We just have to bring it to the council meeting first, but that seat is vacant. And I have been having a discussion with our city clerk. And I want to say, and don't quote me on this, I think the qualification period is going to be August 10th through August 14th. Oh, it's on there. So that, but I'm not sure if those days are exactly right. I've been having a conversation with city clerks, so we're working with them to make sure we're in the right we have the right date, but everybody, we just want to make y'all aware that, right. Yeah. So, um, as far as the audit, We're looking to hear from our finance director at our next council meeting as far as where we are with the audits. I'm not sure if everybody knows, but we are behind on our audits, but we're looking to move expeditiously to get caught up. We do have a great finance director in place currently, and as far as I know, she has met with our new city manager, and they've been talking to the auditors that we have currently. just to kind of get that plan in place. But on the next council meeting, Director Franklin will be here to give us an update on where we are with the audit. And one of my missions, as well as the council, is to be transparent with everything we find out with the audit to make sure we're sharing it, because that is a major piece for us, because currently we're not in compliance. And the goal is for us to be in compliance before 2027. That is the goal. And that's one of the promises our new city manager made us. So I want you all to remember her, because if we're not, that's who I want you all to call. But if you tune in on our next council meeting, we will definitely give you an update on the audit. And I'm pretty sure Mr. Marcus will be there in the front row to hear that report. Oh, HOA, we're looking to partner. I tried to start a meeting with some HOA representatives because sometimes that's a way we can communicate if we can talk to the president or the person that's representing that subdivision. We're looking to do a beautification policy. We're doing a beautification policy because code enforcement, they are going out, they're giving citations, and then when they come to court, We're working on that as well, but we have to put something in place so we can have some kind of guidelines on what they have to follow. So if you're interested in being a part of that, helping us put that policy together, reach out to your council member. We're going to talk about that, not at this council meeting, but maybe at the next work session. We're going to talk about a beautification policy and attach some significant funds to the developers who is not doing their part in keeping our city beautiful. because that's something we can control. And then when code enforcement does their job, we have to make sure we make them accountable for doing what they have to do in our city so we can continue to move forward. Go for it.

That's out here.

OK. We got a lot of rental property.

You know, these investors are coming in, they're buying the property, and they're putting these renters in these properties, and they don't cut the grass. They don't do nothing to the property at all. And then when you call them to say, well, this person is not cutting the grass or keeping in compliance, oh, we'll send somebody, and we never see anybody. And it's like they get into these homes, they stay in them six months, they tear them up, then they put somebody else in there, and the same cycle just continues to go on and on. And then we have homes for sale. Companies are not keeping them up to make them appeasable for somebody to even buy them. And I know this is not going on all over the city of Atlanta. I think it's only at this side. Mark Spain had a home for rental. Mattresses all along the curve. I called him. I said, you're the number one realtor in the state of Georgia. You would not do that in a neighborhood up north. Okay, and whoever name whoever the relatives is trying to sell it, why would they even allow that to happen? Oh, that would be something that I want to be a part of with this HOA partnership. What district do you live in? I'm in Idlewood. Idlewood Crossing. Idlewood Crossing. Off of Browns Mill. District 3. 5. Oh, wow. I got the wrong district.

That's OK. Exactly. That's some of the same things, or same complaints that we're seeing. Yes.

I think you can get a lot of them.

Code enforcement will ride out, give them a . Yes.

I mean, they got cars in the yard. They got air conditioners in the window with pillows stuck in the window. I mean, it's just awful.

No, they're renters.

They're renters. Right. So even though they are renters, the owner is responsible for them.

The owners are not doing anything.

Right. But when you start giving them a fine and attaching it when they sell their property, trust me, they're going to start doing something. So that's something we're going to look into and try to work out in the beautification process. policy. And Mark Spain, he's not the number one realtor in the state of Georgia. I need to correct that one. Oh, I got a lot of hands. Go for it.

My name is Herb Woods. I remember a couple of years ago, I live in District 3, and I spoke to a code enforcer of Stonecrest to say, why doesn't the city pass an ordinance that requires anybody who's renting property in Stonecrest that the owner of the property is required to keep the property up, not the renter, the owner. That's what they should do. Because, you know, bottom line is people who rent these properties, they got this $2,000 for rent. Do you think they're going to buy a lawnmower, hedge clipper, you know, weed eater?

They're not going to do that.

The owner should be responsible for upkeeping that property. All they have to do is hire a contractor to come in and keep that up. This is going on even in our neighborhood.

I absolutely agree with you. That's what we're working on. And in that policy, and I can't speak about the policy because we haven't put it together yet. But one of the things I would like to see is if we give them a notice or a fine. But if we have to turn around and cut it, then we would attach that to the property. So we're on the same page. Okay. Any other questions?

Make sure.

I agree with everything that has been said as far as code enforcement. But I have neighbors who have said that code enforcement comes into our community and sits in their cars. And when they have approached them, they have said, we are not here for whatever is going on in your community. We've not been called in this area. And I work for DeKalb County, and I know that our vehicles are not supposed to be any place that they have not been called to be. So are we supposed to call you to let you know that code enforcement is sitting here doing nothing? And if they are in our communities, are they not supposed to be looking at the community that they are in? If they see something that is out of the ordinance, are they supposed to be doing something about that issue?

Thank you for the question. so we are we have two code enforcement officer assigned to each district and if you do see them sitting in a car you should contact the city manager because that's staff so staff reports all staff reports to the city manager um so they are assigned to their district and if they see something of course we will want them to write up a citation to get that done and not just wait for that code enforcement officer for that district to do something But I'm going to be transparent with you. We were without a city manager for almost six months. We appointed her on the 28th. And her first day here at the city was this Monday. So she met with the leadership staff, put some things in place. So you should see a difference even with code enforcement and things that's going on with the city. Because we were pretty much at a standstill. The city could not move forward without a city manager in place.

OK, but now we have one in place.

So if you see that code, of course, the city and office reach out to Mrs. Catherine Turner, the new city manager of Stonecrest. No, but honestly, transparency, if you do see them in and you have your council member phone number, you can reach out to us as well, and then we'll reach out to the city manager. We're all in this together. We don't want to put fingers on anybody. For us to move this city, we definitely have to work together as a team. I'm just happy she's here. When we get district two in place, we'll totally be fully staffed. But at the end of the day, we live in this city just like you do. And we definitely want to see it in a better place. And that's the goal that we're trying to do together. So I was making funny. You could call, you could call her, but you could also call me as well. And you can also call Councilman Turner, even for the hogs and for anything else that you have going on in your district.

Mayor Pro Tem. You thought you were in a council meeting for a second. Do you mind if we hold the remaining questions until after we do this last and final item on our agenda, which is the youth academy?

Is that for Alicia Watson?

Yes.

I don't see council in Washington. Okay. Go ahead. You can ask your question. Good evening.

My name is Barley Thompson. I'm the president of Hillvale Common Subdivision. And the initiative that you're proposing, I'm on board with that. I wish it very well. Terry Fay was our councilman. And I will tell you, I miss him tremendous. I would miss him tremendously. He was one I had direct contact with, and I could always be assured that he would move into action and wish him all the best. I'm just hoping that his successor would be just as accessible and just as efficient. But I'm on board with you with this initiative and you can call on me at any time. Thank you very much.

Are you signing up for district two?

Go ahead.

Councilwoman Washington. Yeah.

Oh, you have a question. . And one thing that I'm very disappointed in our neighbors, our friends, our community, this is our community. There's no regulation that we have to run stop signs. I am so . Your safety is the most important thing about you. And run the stop sign. This is our community. If we don't take care of it, then who . So my thing is, let's slow down. We got kids in the community. We got stop signs. We got a year right away. We got speed limits. Why don't we comply? We got a dope side here.

Look at the stop sign. Like you say, speed on baby.

And there's no reason for that school buses. You know, we got cool kids in our community. I agree with everything that everybody have stated in here. But if we don't enforce the things that happen in our community, then we're going to look at junk cars. We're going to look at all kinds of things going on in our community.

There are real problems. There are real problems. So the city would know who read the prophecy and who wrote the prophecy. A lot of the people that come here have their own prophecy. neighborhood to go down. If they want to move it.

You know, I didn't come here to see a wreck in a car in your driveway. If it don't run, tow it. Okay? Tow it. Don't be out there fixing your brakes or spilling oil in the driveway. Nobody goes out there, don't steam clean the driveway. Somebody look at my driveway. I set the example. And if you set an example for your house, your kids will follow in the same direction that you, frankly, they reel them in. But it's you, me, and everybody else in our community that stand before, I stand right here to tell you now, because I want you to recognize my face. I live at the corner of 3747 Shady Maple Drive, and you can ride by and look at my yard anytime. Okay? In the same way you see my yard, You could come and inspect my house. Okay? Okay? Because that's the way we live. My wife and I, we live that way. My daughter live that way. Okay? And we need speed bump in our neighborhood. Because people that don't live here don't care about our neighborhood. Okay? I don't need this microphone.

Thank you for your comment. I appreciate you.

Get back on you now. We hold you accountable because we put you there. And the same way we put you there, we can pull you out. Police and the grind, the camp's got to be grinding.

We was in the mall parking lot all that time.

A lady car was broken into, into a car. They called the camp caddy. They was sitting over in the parking lot saying we don't respond. Why?

Why they don't respond to somebody talking about you?

I appreciate your comment. And we got your face noted. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you.

Go for it. Hi, my name is Pamela Holloway. I live in the Farrington Enclave subdivision. I just wanted to ask two questions. The first question is how do we get on the list for the repaving or how do we know if we're on the list for repaving?

The repavement list is on the website. Okay, I'll check that.

And the other thing is I am a frequent visitor of Barrington Park and something terrible has been happening there lately. Well. i'll say about five six months. we'll park our cars there we're at the park someone will come and lock the gate with our cars in the gate it won't say anything to us they won't I was at the park the other day with my dog. And a guy was going, walking down to his apartment. He said, ma'am, is your car in the gate? That guy is locking the gate. So whoever's in that silver SUV with stone crest, the sign says, I have pictures. Every time it happens, I'll take pictures. Dawn to dusk. This was 6-15 last week. And my car was locked in the gate. soccer players um it could be 40 50 cars in there the person will come up and lock the gate we have to go through those big rocks off the side and if something were to happen to our car or get hit coming out so i just need some clarification for what time does the park close because the park gate will be locked at four o'clock six o'clock i have gone by there at 10 pm gate wide open so it's no consistency and i have said to the person he's like i'm closing the park i said it's daylight it's not this i said why is salem park not being closed go over to salem park salem park that the gate is never locked or closed. So I don't, I've been heard from the Jamaican players, the soccer players, they're saying that the person is spiteful and they'll just come and block the gate. Like he doesn't say anything to anybody. Just come and put the lock on the gate. We have to go off the side. So I just need some clarification for that for security reasons. Cause we're there at the park and the gate is locked.

OK, so every park is supposed to follow the same guidelines. They open from dawn to dust. And so that's the big question. Everybody want to know what dust is. So we did just have this conversation with, I know you're tired of me saying this, but we did have this conversation with our city manager. And she is speaking with the park staff to see if we can put a time on there so everybody can understand when the park's actually gonna close. And it closed for safety reasons. So you shouldn't see one park close and another one open. So we all should close around the same time. But we also supposed to make an announcement that we're about to lock the gate as well. So I will talk to our city manager to make sure parks are all operating in the same way. And we're going to look at putting a sign up there with a time on there instead of saying dust to dawn because you know dawn to me might be different from somebody else. So that is in discussion. So I really appreciate your comment and our city manager is still in the building. So she does have a note of that.

i know there are some negative things being said here in in an attack for everyone here but i want to let y'all know that i have not really had any issues like this is me i've sent a text message to my council person alicia washington and I'm giving her time this everything I just told you I sent her and I'm giving her time but I have been here for six years I bought a house and any code enforcement any situation that I have sent you guys by email text or a call or come here write a request it is done so I'm I'm sure because of the turnover and the new people have to be installed It takes time, but everything that I have asked you guys about we had some broken down trucks in my neighborhood. When I was ho a President and y'all came in gave this citations or whatever y'all did they were moved, so I asked for signs outside our subdivision y'all came put the signs up with the CAP. It went I guess I had to go through its course I sent the emails to you guys, it was sent to the cab they came and put the signs up so even though I know y'all feel like you're attacked. I thank you for everything that y'all have done in my subdivision and I look forward to. more positive things being done. And like the gentleman, you can come by my house, because I'm always law-abiding. My driveway is clear. I have no oil spots. I have flowers in my yard, and it's mowed. So I know y'all are doing your part, and I'm not fussing. This is like PTA, because I work for the school district. The people that are here, sir, these are not the people running the stop signs. So don't fuss at these people. So these are the people who, you know, at PTA, the people that come to PTA are not the people who all the stuff needs to go to. So thank you all for being good Stonecrest citizens. And thank you all.

Thank you. Right. We understand. We understand. And I appreciate your comment. Thank you so much. But we're going to get on the time for the parks and make sure it's taken care of. And since she brought up signs, if you have any faded signs or any stop signs that's knocked down, please make us aware of that and we can get those done as well. So we're going to hold off on this to do. Go for it. You looking at me like, really? Okay.

Thank you. My name is Tanya, and I have a question about the HOA partnership efforts. I'm particularly interested in getting involved, so I'd like to give you my information after this on how you all are creating partnerships with HOAs that are technically still under the declarant and not an HOA. So that's all I have to say. We can talk about that later, but for the communities that have not been turned over to the resident, right?

What community?

Terraces and Parks of Stonecrest. For anyone that lives there, all I want to say is if you're here, respond to the groups that we are trying to get together. You all know what's happening. I don't have to mention it here, but respond because we are really trying to work together. And so I want to know about the partnership efforts and where that power lies. Okay.

Okay.

So, Carla, that's sitting in the back, she is the constituents representative for all of the council members. So if you're interested in the HOA, discussing that further, if you can make a list and get those names and telephone numbers and email address, that would be great. And if you're interested in the beautification initiative that, or the policy that we're going to look into, if you can make a separate list and then we'll contact you when we're looking to do the first meeting. And Nicholas if you can come up and do the last. If Nicholas if you could come up and do the last item on the agenda, then we can open up for questions and then we would adjourn.

All right. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Nicholas Ivey. I serve as the community engagement coordinator with the city. So I'll be really quick because I know you know you all have some very important questions you like to ask. So every year we host the Citizens Academy, and that gives the opportunity for us to engage residents and business owners regarding city operations and city departments, some of the things we're doing, some of the things we have coming up. but about it maybe a year and a half ago uh councilwoman Washington came to me and said hey Nick what are we doing with the kids you know uh you know we're educating adults and business owners what about the kids you know you have a lot of other cities that are doing youth councils um so I'm happy to announce that uh starting this fall uh we're gonna uh start a youth council so it'll be similar to citizens academy how we do it but of course it'll be a little bit more interactive um we don't want it to where kids are just sitting down listening to information we'll definitely have it interactive so be on the lookout for this this fall and i'm excited to announce so if you have any questions regarding that i'll be around uh but i know you have i'll have more important questions you'd like to ask so thank you all so much it'll be high school students sorry about that high school students nine through 12th grade

I guess here to address that question to you. Makiya Herbert, Okay, my name is Makiya Herbert. I live off Panola Road in an older legacy neighborhood and I have two questions. One is a DeKalb County Watershed project that's on Panola Road. What is the intent of it besides tearing up Panola Road between Browns Mill and Highway 112?

Yes. So what they're doing is they're replacing an old, smaller water line with the 16 inch ductile iron pipe. They don't want if something happened to those old corrugated pipes or clay pipes, we're going to lose water. So what they're doing is they're replacing that with the brand new 16 inch ductile iron pipe. You may have seen them previously on Thompson Mill. and Woodrow arrived the way they did it they cut it and just left that cut trail this time we made sure that they paved the entire lane so right now they are paving the whole lane the entire width and then it is going to go on until early of 2017 they're going to replace the entire water line on Panola Road

Also, I'm a native of Georgia, DeKalb County, Southwest DeKalb, Bob Mathis Elementary School. When are we going to invest in the communities and build sidewalks that connect these parks to the communities? I am at the risk of our neighbors walking down Panola Road, Browns Mill Road in the middle of the night, sometimes in black.

uh that that just scares me especially since these are high school kids when are we going to invest in sidewalks in the cap county thank you for that question um the sidewalk you know we the city focused mainly on the paving for the first several years um you know our roads were in very bad shape i'm not saying that we are the best now but we are much better than what we were eight years ago we have a long way to go on that You know, once we make some headway on the paving, we are going to work on the sidewalks. We completed two sections of sidewalk on the city of Stonecrest. One section on Browns Mill Road from Evans Mill to the Arabia Mountain Trail. And there's a section on Covington Highway. We are just finishing a very important section on Farrington Road because we had a fatality there. So we had to do that. That is just complete. uh somebody drove over that marta pads on friday now we are trying to sort that out now on the concrete so that will be completed in the next two weeks uh we have five sidewalks under design now uh one of them is on salem road that is in a council member district four that is going to connect that um library to rec center so people be able to walk and then there are three more sidewalks being designed um that is one on here um on the access road basically it's go all the way to rockdale line and then there's one on um phillips road that is going to connect to the park north on the high school and then we have a council retreat coming up we're going to talk about all those things and then i'm going to make a lot of presentation to the Council with sections we're going to do so, the sidewalk is our next focus.

Testing.

Good afternoon.

I'm Dave Marcus. I've lived in Stonecrest for 31 years. I've got three questions. The first is, while we're a city of about 60,000 people, last I saw statistics about half the people in Stonecrest rent. Some are long-term, been here all their lives. Others are here for a year or two. can the city figure out how to reach out to those people and make them part of the city right now if you were to send say if there was zoning next to an apartment complex they wouldn't find out because the city doesn't track who lives here and notices only go to the property owner so if we're building a gas station next to an apartment dwelling the apartment dwellers or people in rental houses are not going to know about it and we i'm guilty of this seem to regard renters as people who are lower class not going to take care of things they're just going to junk it up and move on kind of like a pack of teenagers visiting you um so i just want to suggest the city think about this in a holistic way and just how to involve and make them part of the city make them believe in the city make them proud of where they live second question is panola shoals park has been closed for ab six years what's the date it's going to reopen. Third question. Third question is. metro green sued the city for $30 million. The city settled with metro green. We learned a week or two ago that part of that settlement was the city itself at least agreeing to apply for rezoning of property on maddox. or metro green. We don't know any of the details of that promise we don't know any of the details of how the city has settled this lawsuit. The city's attorney the show who's less than one Thompson said at the last cpm meeting well, you can get a copy through open records and I think that's a very nice idea and i'm happy to do that, so I did it. And I found out if i'm willing to pay slightly more than $100 for it to be reviewed by lawyers before it sent to me that I can learn what to me should be public, so my question is on these settlements. on these settlements where you're giving away or using our money in the best i'm going to assume in the best way you can i'm going to assume there's nothing wrong with the settlement could you please let us know could you please post these settlements on websites there's been this one there's been one with a former parks director in the last couple of months there's been another one with jacobs engineering uh there is another one with somebody i never heard of for 190 000. There's money going in and out. And I personally would at least like to know how these settlements are laid out. Thank you.

I'm going to address only the Panola Schultz. So panela souls have been a very difficult project for us. We have a design, we had we have a design. And then we had a contract. At this point, we are trying to turn the chapter on panela shows and trying to bring a new contractor. uh it is taking a little longer than we expected to get that new contractor um i can i can you know share some information on that so the contractor we are trying to get on board is the subcontractor who really do the work The contractor we hired was a general contractor who is subbing out everything. Now we are going directly to the person who has been working there. It is very close. It's very close. We are talking, our attorney is talking to every party and trying to get that done. You know, I talked to Mayor Pro Temp last week. He said he was going to go out. And then I told him when you come back, we would probably have a good news for him. Hopefully we'll have a good news this week. We are close. I really thank everybody for putting up with us through this because it's been too long. It for any standards it's taken longer than we really wanted to get in some of those things were way out of our hand, unfortunately, but we are we're trying to get that going. I have been talking to the Attorney and and all the parties for the last two weeks, almost every other day. So hopefully we'll have something by next week. Greetings.

I'm sorry, one second before you go with your question. I just want to address the how much information or can we get more information as it relates to the legal cases that we have had going on and we've seen. So that have settled. That have settled. So for District 5, you know that I ran on transparency like so many others. However, with my transparency run, I also introduced a transparency policy. And that transparency policy would allow us to know and see and understand a number of different things that happen in the city that we as constituents have not seen in the past. The projects that are going on, the status of the project, who's assigned to the projects, Is the project red, red, or green? Are we on budget, off budget? The legal things that have been settled, to what extent? Because there are some things that we cannot share. I just want to be totally honest and transparent. There are some things we cannot share. But there are some details that working with legal, we may be able to share. So I've already had a conversation with our city manager about this transparency policy and us being able to put some of the pieces in place so that you all will be able to see some of these things and you won't have to come to us for every single thing. So we're working on it. And as it relates to that, that's one of the things that Mr. Marcus, city manager, council, legal, that's one of the things that a discussion to be had on what exactly we can share and we'll be able to put out there for the public. and know that the decisions that are being made that we can't share all the details but we are truly doing what we feel is in the best what we feel what we see based on the education that we have what's in the best interest of the city we are part of this city as well okay

So many other questions.

May I go ahead? May I proceed? Let me add to what she just said. And that is that we want to give you everything, but when some things are contingent on some things that could be a deal killer, it would be a bad idea to give you, oh, it's over, here's the deal. But if there's some contingencies there, it might be a deal killer. I want to say that it's settled, but it's settled contingent. And if certain contingencies are not met, it could kill a deal. So when it is 100% settled, I think sometimes you're premature when we say it's settled. No, we're not going to dialogue on that one. I just wanted to say that sometimes that's what holds us up until it's 100% settled. Having a settlement in principle is one thing. It's kind of like what's going on in Iran right now. You have a deal, but you don't have a deal until all parties sign off on it. Okay. Just just saying, and this guy's had his hand up for quite some time. I know you are moderating.

So my question is many of the questions are many of the statements in this room has been around beautification. And so my question and congratulations, Madam Turner, my question to you is, do you have any plans for the old Sam's building? I mean, Walmart, Sam's Club building?

That would be addressed by our economic development director, which is Mr. Lance Randall that's coming to the mic right now.

Good afternoon. I'm going to ask that question. There are some plans for the old Sam's. They have shifted from that being the town center, which was the original to we're looking to try to bring in someone to purchase that building and repurpose it. We're talking to several potential prospects who are looking at the building. And we're hoping that within the next couple of months, we'll have something that make sense, that will bring commerce to the city and make use of that building that will benefit the city. Well, we were looking at it for it to be where the city hall would need to be. But in order for us to have a town center, we are looking at a different location that has more property. The thing about the Sam's building, you have to demolish it and rebuild. And then it's about 17 acres, but only about 12 acres are usable. So we felt that we would begin to explore an opportunity to look at another piece of property that's much bigger

that we can have a city hall of the other entities as well as mixed use development my question is what can we do about the big rigs that's coming through our communities like uh salem and uh miller road that's tearing up our streets when they're being fixed i think that's a code enforcement question

There are a couple of things there. There are signs posted there for no truck traffic through Miller Road. They're coming through Miller Road and taking the turn on Thompson Mill. Right. So the signs are there, but sign doesn't mean that everybody is going to obey the by the signs. Enforcement is the real step there. So I think last time we contacted DeKalb County Police. Right yeah it's enforcement you got to stop them and give them ticket, you know this, this is not 100 people doing there are a few people doing this every time there. One thing, and then we have the roundabout at Miller and Thompson mill in mind when when we were talking about it. We are also hoping the third point is, we are also hoping. Once I 20 project is complete we're going to have less of that, because right now they're using they don't want to go through the traffic on I 20 when the construction right so hopefully once. Right. Right I 20 projects is completed completed means totally completed we'll see less of those. Right.

Lewis Anderson, My name is Lewis Anderson, I am the President of the hills and head homeowners association and I just want to make a couple of points. Lewis Anderson, And I say this very respectfully. Lewis Anderson, About three years ago, the city of stonecrest partnered with to cab county. because there was an issue with the traffic on Panola Road, particularly between Thompson Mill and Rock Springs Road. The stretch was a little longer, but in essence, there was a traffic study performed. After the traffic study was performed, the city of Stonecrest partnered with DeKalb County, and the study costs $400,000. So the city of Stonecrest chipped in 200K, DeKalb County chipped in another 200K, 400K. The purpose or the findings of the traffic study was that they projected that they would install three roundabouts on Panola Road. I'm disappointed that when Mr. Hari talked earlier and cited the locations, none of those three locations were cited. So let's just take $200,000. I counted there about 10 rows of five seats, 100 individuals that were in this room at one time, and let's add 50 more, 150. If you take 200K and divide that by 150, that means each of us in this room, threw away $1,333.33. We have to stop doing that as a community. There are a litany of videos and I'm going to put them together and send them to the Council because I believe in what the Council is doing. I'm glad there's change. I'm glad you've joined the Council. I'm glad City Manager Turner is now part of the City of Stonecrest staff, but we just wasted $400,000 and I'm really disappointed that those three roundabouts have just gone up in the air. Taxpayer dollars wasted. And again, I'm going to end with this. I say this very respectfully. Mr. Hari, you do not return phone calls. I have a ticket. And I say this respectfully. I don't wanna cite her name, but the young lady right here that was speaking earlier, she's a member of one of the planning boards and I don't wanna put it out there. So what makes me really sad and disappointed is that a individual who serves the city, and this is not the first meeting that I've attended where she's raised this exact concern. And I personally have experience in my subdivision I've had a ticket out for three, four years. I've gotten the mayor involved. She courtesy copied me on an email where Mr. Harvey was courtesy copied. He never followed up. So we still have the same drainage issue. And there's other things. If you drive past Panola Road, you look at the Hillson Head subdivision, our fence is dilapidated because we voted as a council years ago not to pour any more money into it because the city of Stonecrest And the Endicott county pledge that they were going to widen that section of panola road, so they did a $400,000 traffic study that literally again just disappeared. So now we're in a situation where we have you know, just like everyone else, we have a neighborhood. whose fence looks torn up from the ground up. It's falling over because we consciously decided not to pour any money into the fence because it was gonna be taken down. And we could never get a commitment from the City of Stonecrest or DeKalb County, whether or not they were gonna reimburse us. We had similar issues. We asked for more lighting, City of Stonecrest, DeKalb County said, no, we had to come out of pocket $14,000 to pay for five new street lights. So now we have a situation where we have, you know, nice homes, you know, thank God for that. But we have a fence that I mean, it's literally it really makes the neighborhood look really bad. So we're going to have to address that now. We're now assessing our neighbors because the city of Stone Crescent, DeKalb County failed us. And I don't want to localize this just to our community. but that traffic study wasn't for our community, it was for Panola Mill, it was for Christian Springs, some of the other non-subdivision homes along that stretch of Panola Road. So we just have to stop that and we have to be more conscious with our money and I'm really counting on our current Council and our new city manager I want to put any pressure on you but we we really want to get that addressed because that's literally the equivalent of everyone in this room taking 1300 thousand thirteen hundred dollars of your hard-earned cash and burning it because there's no mention of that. It's disappeared. So the three roundabouts that were talked about today, my projection is that in three years they may disappear. So we just have to be a lot more vigilant. So again, thank you so much. I'm glad you're on the council now. I appreciate the Mayor Pro Tem, the current staff, you know, Hari, no disrespect, but we just have to be better to one another. And with that, I just want to say thank you to everyone.

So with our projects, we are getting a project manager to help us manage our projects and to be transparent. So you can have an outline on where they are in the process. So that will be good for council. It'd be good for the constituent. And of course it'll make us accountable for what we promise to deliver. And thank you for your comment. Project manager. I want to mention this before we're having an event today at Five o'clock Juneteenth. So go out from this event, go head out to that event. It's going to be music entertainment. I want to say food. I'm not sure if it's free though, but I'm food. Yeah. That don't mean it's free. So it's going to be food out there. So go out and join the events. And I would like to know how many people knew about that event before I just mentioned it. Yeah. I knew about the event. So we're working on getting the word out when we have an event calendar. Okay, yeah. At Southeast Park. The athletic complex off of Covenant Highway. Off of Covenant Highway. Off of Covenant Highway. So it's a couple of more questions. It's on 5845 Hillvale Road, Southeast Athletic Complex. And it was posted on our website. So go out, have a good time, bring some kids. But any more questions before we close out?

Go ahead.

I have two questions. It's a compound question. First i've been living here for 30 years also and I wanted to know what are you guys have plans for that vacant lot right next to the car dealership on stonecrest. Okay, so I think it, I think it's. Yes, next to them all, I think it's a key or on on. You don't own that property. Okay. And then going to the future.

Let me say that one thing about it, there was our economic development director will work with them to try to bring something to Stonecrest.

Okay. And so are you considering any type of city living there in that city living like, you know, clubs? Yeah. You know, like something where people don't have to go downtown. Oh, okay.

So I would assume you're talking about all that property that's along Interstate 20?

Yes, right past, right next to the car dealership. So Taco Bell and then that empty big space right there.

Vacant lot. Yeah, vacant lot. That vacant lot, okay. I had a couple people look at it, but the zoning, what they wanted to do didn't qualify for the zoning that was there. but we are looking for anyone who has an idea of what to do with that space. And what we want to do is talk to them, make sure that the zoning matches what they're trying to do. If not, you know, you have to do a zoning request to change it. So we are looking for people to come call me any ideas of what you want to bring there to build. And then we'll work through that process. So right now we have one person that talked about it. It was something that wouldn't fit. But we're open to entertain others that want to do something in that space.

All right. One more question. Going to the future, I hope we have any plans for the AI data center.

When people ask me about a data center, the response is truthful and honest. We don't have a place to put a data center in Stonecrest. There's no way we can put it. And that's the honest answer.

And i'm next Okay, I wish I knew all of you here and I don't know anybody in stone grass I don't even know what district i'm supposed to be a member of now i'm so confused I thought it was five maybe maybe two. Okay, but really the question is, I wish the finance manager was here because that's the person I wanted to ask, you know, some questions about the budget. What is the budget for Stonecrest, the city of Stonecrest? What is it? What? Okay. I don't know your name. I don't know your name. All right, can someone of the Council members or anybody in the audience, can you tell me what is the population of the city of Stonecrest because that's going to lead to my next question, because I don't know what it is. 60 000 okay this is my question since you guys really don't know about the budget uh when i was coming in the building i counted if somebody can correct me i counted 13 suvs and i said that's a lot of cars i don't think we have a lot of folks in stonebridge like that city city and we only have how many people that's it 62,000 people and 13 cars, SUVs. I'm trying to figure out why. Who drives those cars? Give me one of them.

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Hello, comment and quick question. I have owned my home for about almost 20 years, and I am on the board of my HOA. So we're trying to force people to be better citizens of Stonecrest. Is there a way, and we used to post these meetings online I used to follow the IG site, it was posted. Are we going to start back doing that or cliff notes somewhere so that we can then in turn copy those official. sites resources, so that we can encourage people to come to the meetings and to be more informed, is there an easy way to do this. One and two, thank you for starting to put the signs up. I saw them in little communities. They disappear really fast, but is there a way to blast this out a little bit more with more leeway time? I saw it two days before the meeting and that's not always possible to show up.

Hello.

We try to post them in advance, so we're doing it every quarter. So the next one will be in September. We try to do it the last Saturday of that month. Um, the reason why we did it this Saturday is because we have a conference that we're attending on the last Saturday and we did not want to miss the quarterly town hall meeting. So we did push it up because usually we do not try to have two events on the same day because sometimes people have to go in between and we don't want to take up your entire day. But we do want people to come in and be informed into and for us to hear your concerns as well. Because when we hear your concerns, then we'll know whether we're moving in the right direction or we're moving in the wrong direction. So I appreciate you being here. And plus, that's another reason we're trying to reach out to because if we have flyers and we have the contact information, we can send it to you and then you can blast it throughout your community. And also with the signs, we. It started off being district one and district three town hall meeting, but we came together as council and said, instead of just being one in three, let's make it a big council quarterly town hall meeting. And I do apologize. I appreciate the turnout, but we was not expecting it. So we had to do an overflow. But the next one will be in September. And then our lovely city manager is going to also help us pass out the information as far as our town hall. And code enforcement is also, they have flyers and they've been giving it out because during the same weekend we do our town hall meetings, we're going to have a dumpster either here parked at city hall or it's going to be at Farrington Park. So it's also another initiative to help clean up the city of Stonecrest. The town hall meeting. We can discuss that, but I know our monthly meetings are virtual and you can be able, you can join those online as well. As far as the town hall, it's something we'll talk about and I'll give you an update as far as what was decided.

I have a question.

Ms. Gregory, you want to go Ms. Gregory? Yes, yes.

Ms. Gregory, Ms. Gregory.

About the South River Trail. Sometimes you can go there, the gates will be open. Sometimes the gates are closed. So what are they doing about that?

Technically, the gates are closed.

Technically, it's closed. There was a gate, it was closed, and somebody opened it and started parking.

And then we are trying to do that. The fence and the gate were rented by the contractor. And now we are trying to transfer that to the new contractor. And then we're going to be closing that.

You're trying to get a new contractor?

Yes.

To keep it open or?

It's closed. It is closed. Somebody just basically cut that thing and opened it and they're parking now.

Yeah, because cars are parked in there. Because I am in a walking booth and we used to walk there for a while. Long time ago, and all of a sudden it's closed, yes, hopefully we can rate, is it going to be open, is it.

It is closed actually technically to be close close. um we can act the reason we didn't put the sign is because it was locked and then you know we had a lock there somebody cut the lock and pull the chains and opened it and start parking now so that's why we didn't put the sign because it was closed and locked and once we have the new contractor they will take it over the fence because that is the least fence and they will take over the lease and then put the gate back and lock it

Are you looking for a new contract or you don't have one?

It's very close. I mentioned that in my previous question. Hopefully something happened this week.

Yes, I have one more question and then I'm going to be finished with this. I have over 30-some houses in my subdivision, and I look around. We are in District 1. I see no one from our subdivision here. You know why? we don't have a sign nowhere saying in our subdivision entrance uh exit saying there's a meeting at stonecrest no one we have to make a right and i have only reason i make a right in my subdivision is when i'm going to the doctor's office you put the signs up at the townhouses but you won't let the people in my subdivision know I'm quite sure the people in my subdivision would like to be here too. We was here as Stonecrest began District 1. It started from my subdivision and went back. But the people in my subdivision don't know nothing about what's going on in Stonecrest because you don't put a sign nowhere in our interest. I go up the street to the subdivision, what do I see? Four signs. Why you put them there, you won't let us know. We need to know what's going on in Stonecrest also, because we live here just like everybody.

I do agree with you. We do try to say it in our meetings, upcoming events. We did have signs put out. If you notice, we used to have a date, an actual date and the time. If you notice, the new sign says this Saturday. And we did that so we could save money and recycle the same signs. So the signs were placed out on Monday. It used to be myself in Washington driving around Stonecrest and placing these signs out. we decided that we have staff, we have a city manager, we don't always have to put signs out. So for this meeting, staff actually went out and placed signs out for us. So we did mention that even my subdivision didn't even have a sign.

So we did mention that some subdivisions was missed.

So it was trial and error. So now I'm a ride out with the individual to show them exactly in my district where I want the signs to be placed. And then so next meeting where you will have a sign, it will be announced in the meetings is on the website and it's also on social media.

But you never you'd never put a sign at our interests ever since that then Stonecrest never to let us know that I can take you to my subdivision now and show you, and I can knock on any neighbor door and ask them, do you know anything about this meeting in Stonecrest? They will tell you no, because I didn't know anything about it.

So that's why we put it on more than one platform. So we just don't depend on the signs. We have it on social media. We have it, we announce it in our meetings. We have it on our social media, and we also have it on the Stonecrest website. We try to use different avenues so we can hit. So in your subdivision, if they didn't get a sign, it's actually on our website. But I will make sure personally they have a sign in front of theirs on that Monday before the next town hall meeting.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay. I was out putting out signs myself with Councilwoman Washington as well, because like Mayor Pro Tem said, Um, so we have to provide a little bit more direction since this was the 1st time that staff actually put signs out. So, outside of signs, we. Have all those different means, and if you receive data and information differently, then let us know. And we will try our darndest if I know that. you check your mail i don't check my mail then if that's the best way to get information out to you let your council person know so we can try to critique and make sure we have it for you okay

would like to know what's going to happen to black wall street and the bank of america on the corner and what's going to happen with all the other empty buildings that's in the main area of the city good question um black wall street um right now they're in the process of trying to

Trying to get prospects who want to repurpose that building. There are several that I've talked to. We had 1 to come in and we didn't like what they want to do with the building. So we turned them away. So, being very careful to make sure whatever's going to be done with that building is going to benefit the community. It's going to bring jobs and it's going to bring. Residents, and so we've been very careful as far as entertaining prospects with their buildings, but that is the. Objective is going to be repurposed by somebody. We're going to purchase it. We just don't know who yet. But when the right prospect comes along, then you'll know about it with the bank of America. That's a, that's a private owned building that we don't have anything to do with. Um. But what I could do is try to check with the agent or the owner of the building to see if they have any plans. And Ms. George know how to get in touch with me. I can let you know what's going on with that building. Did I answer your question? Is that all you had? Which building? Well, what I hope is going to happen, that we're going to get them filled again. I'm hoping that we get the movie theater again. The thing we have to understand is that when you look at the different exits, if you look at Panola Road, you look at 82 and Conyers, you see a lot of activity from the interstate. When you're traveling past Stonecrest, all you're seeing is vacant land. And that's the challenge that we're running into. And it's a very unique situation because Mr. Allen had all that property, had all these plans, and he passed away. So now, fortunately, we have met with the family. We are recalibrating. A new developer has come along that's working with the family. We just met this past week. And now we're trying to get back on schedule to get all that land developed. And I know people look at other places and say, well, they have this and they have that. My goal is to have something nobody else has. So I'm working with these developers to come up with some ideas, some things that we can have here in Stonecrest that no one else will have. So talks are going good and I'm expecting to see some renderings of what it could be. And we made sure that they knew what we wanted as a city in our town center. So we will be part of that development. So just stay tuned, stay optimistic, but it's gonna happen. I've only been here 10 months. It took me some time to figure out the dynamics of what was going on. And I had the chance to meet with Dana Allen, who took over for her dad and the broker and the developer group. So now I think we're gonna see some movement in the near future. So some activity is gonna happen, but please understand until we get that area, With some activity, it's going to be hard to bring people further into the city. Interested in and patronizing these businesses and people coming in to want to rent those spaces. Sorry that is. But I will say mixed use is going to be part of it as well. Mixed use will be part of it. Well, what we're looking at is mixed use. We're looking at government buildings. We're looking at educational institutions. We're looking at general business. We're trying to create an area of commerce, and right now we don't have that. But keep in mind, we're only eight years old. So we're going to get there. And we had a couple hiccups when it came to development of that property, but not... Let me tell you what happened. They did it on the anticipation that this was going to be developed. Remember, there was a big announcement and all these things were going to happen. So they, they want to be the 1st, 1 to come in and when it didn't happen, it's okay. We got to go. So, what I'm saying, the businesses. yeah what it is is that the businesses anticipated all this development that was going to happen so they they jumped they jumped in and said we're going to go ahead and get set up and then when it didn't happen and they didn't see anything else happening on that land they pulled out they pulled out and went went um to other places so once we so once we start getting more activity on that vacant land And just as soon as we get an announcement that we got something moving, they're going to start coming back. What they do, they anticipate. You got to be the first one there. And sometimes they jumped and gone early. I think the mall sort of helped encourage that because the mall was the first thing that was here. So now we're going to bounce back. We just got to just hang in there, work with the right developers, and make sure that any developer that comes in here is not going to just bring just anything to us. And that's our job to make sure we are mindful of that.

So thank you so much for your comment. It is now 417. The meeting was supposed to adjourn at 330. We do have another event to go to. If you do have any other questions, feel free to reach out by phone, come by City Hall, send an email, and we'll see if we can get those questions answered. Again, thank you for coming out today. We had a great turnout, and hopefully we'll see you at the next meeting. And we're gonna we're gonna move it on the other side, because then we're going to expect all of you, so please come out and join us.