Town Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome everybody out to the September 14th, 2026 Town Council meeting. We're looking, pursuing to go into closed session, pursuant to 143.318.11.A.3 to consult with an attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the public body, which privilege is hereby acknowledged, and pursuant to 143.318.11.A.6 to consider qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, condition of appointment and conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee, or to hear or investigate a complaint, charge, or grievance by or against an individual public officer or employee. Do I have a motion to go into closed session?

I'll make a motion that we go into closed session. Do I have a second? I'll second.

All right. Any discussion?

All in favor, please show my uplifted hand. None opposed. All right. We'll be back, folks. Do I have a motion to come out of closed session?

I'll make a motion we come out of closed session.

Do I have a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor, please show by uplifting hands. All right. Thank you. Welcome everybody out to the September 14, 2026 Town Council meeting. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If you will remain standing, let's have our prayer. We didn't have a preacher tonight, so y'all got me. Let's bow our heads. Dear Lord, thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for everything that you've provided for us. We just pray now that you'd be with us as we make wise decisions, Lord, to lead our town forward and to take care of our people. Thank you for everything you do. Keep everybody safe that's here, everybody in our town, and continue to bless us each and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Thank you all.

Thank you.

All right. Before we get to the next thing, I'd like Mr. Ken Claymore to please step up to the mic here. Deep appreciation. We'd like to present you with this plaque for your exceptional service as Interim Town Administrator and for the steadfast leadership during the time of transition. Your dedication to the town, unwavering support of the council and staff, and commitment to excellence has a lasting mark on our organization and community. We're grateful for your guidance, professionalism, and positive example that you set through your service. I'm gonna present this with you today and just thank you so much, sir, and thank you all for our time.

All right, next up will be our ceremonial swearing in of our new town administrator.

Mr. Rideout, if you would please step to the mic. Find the Bible. Do you want to take pictures?

You ready? Raise your hand. Okay.

Do you want to do Dane D or Dane Rideout? Okay, repeat after me. I, Dane Rideout, do solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as town administrator

This is town administrator. And town clerk. And town clerk.

Of the town of Sunset Beach.

Town of Sunset Beach.

So help me God.

That's it.

Welcome. I'm tired now. All right.

We'll carry forward. Does any member of council have a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest in regards to any item on the agenda? So please state this time, Mr. Arnold. I do not. Ms. Batchelor?

No. Ms. Mordo? No. Ms. Roth? No. Ms. Fong?

No. All right. Next up, approval of draft agenda. Does anybody have anything that needs to be changed or anything needs to be added to our draft agenda?

I think we should table 11.1.

Anyone else that got anything?

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the draft agenda with the correct, the tabling of Mr. Postle's 11.2 as presented.

All right, do I have a second? I'll second. Wait a minute, wait a minute.

11.1. 11.1. Yeah, 11.1.

You need to restate that, please. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the draft agenda, removing 11.1, to table that, and to approve the agenda as presented.

Do I have a second? I'll second. Any more discussion? I just got a couple of statements. In regards to this, we'll be looking, we just got some legal information we gotta look into before we bring it forward, so we'll have everything. But this service that we're talking about is already provided, so this is not slowing anybody down for another month. So if you need to get in touch with those people, that service is already available.

Other than that, all in favor?

All right, thank y'all. All right, general counsel discussion. Any member of council have anything?

I got a couple things. Go ahead, sir. First of all, earlier today, our town, on their Facebook page, it was something that Amy had requested to be put on the Facebook page. But basically it says that volunteers are needed, and this is for the Sunset at Sunset event, and they're actually needed for two days in a row, it looks like. Friday, the event's set up from 12 to 6.30 p.m., and it's a three-hour shift, so you wouldn't have to work the whole six hours. And then for Saturday, there's several areas that they need volunteers in. For instance, bus stop attendance, and that would be from 10 to 4, and those are two-hour shifts. There is another need for vendor ambassadors, and that also is from 10 to 4, and those are two-hour shifts. And then when the event is over with, there is a need for some volunteers for event cleanup, and that's from 4 to 6. And then she says, new this year, if you are a golf cart owner, what they're interested in is if you could provide – Transportation, bring your golf cart down, and basically from where the event is held at over to the community center, they are looking just to help transport the vendors back and forth from their vehicles or whatever they're using to support their operations that day. And that's like from 6.30 to 10, and then again at 6.30 a.m. to 10 a.m., and then again from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. So if you're interested, please reach out to Amy, and you can reach out through her e-mail address. It's on the town website, but it's agoodrichatsunsetbeachnc.gov. So I just wanted to share that with you. And then I have one more thing. Go ahead. So I went to a GSTATS meeting last month, and some interesting information came out of that I thought would be very kind of a good thing for us to hear in the town. And what I found out is that there are about three projects that the town has become eligible for. Now, they haven't given a date, but we have – The way this is being brought forward is we are on the radar for us to get some things done. They have a rating system that they use, and I'll explain that a little bit. Basically, what they have is three different ways that they rate to get things done. There is what they call a statewide mobility system. rating system and you want to have a number as close as possible to 100 in order to get something transfer-wise going. Then they have what they call the regional impact rating system. You want to get a 70, as close to possible to a 70, to get going with some work. And then the one we are, the three projects that we are qualified for fall under what they call the division needs. And that rating number we would like to be at would be as close as possible to 50. It doesn't, you know, that's what they go to is 50. Now, Two of the projects that are on this so far are a sidewalk that will basically go from the town park up to the 904 interchange. I did a little research and I found out that that was something that was brought forth to NCDOT in a timeframe of like 2019. 2023. That would probably be close to about maybe nine or $10 million worth of work is what that is. Our rating number for those two projects basically are almost like a 13. We wanna be closer to 50 where we would like to be at. But the biggest takeaway from that is we have made the list. So that is a big step in the right direction for us. And then the other big item is the roundabout that is being proposed at the intersection of Old Georgetown Road and Seaside Road, 179 and 904. And that also falls into the division rating system. Now, our number for that is pretty good. It's actually almost 31 is what that is. Again, like I said earlier, we want to be close to 50 as possible. That's about $7,600,000. Now, when I found this out at the meeting, I was talking with the gentleman, and it's a gentleman that we have seen in our presence before from the 904 Corridor Study. And him and I have talked back and forth on some different topics, and one of the things is, of course, on any of these projects, it's relocating utilities is a major cost. And what we shared, what he shared with me when I told him this, I said, well, you understand that currently Brunswick Utility is doing a major upgrade to their transmission lines along 179. He said, yeah, we're very familiar with that. That's a good point to bring that up. And I said, well, is there any way that we can get this to them and let them know? I said, because, you know, think about it. They're going to have to relocate these things, and these poles are huge, and it takes a lot for them to do that. And he said, well, I think what we're probably going to have to end up doing is instead of doing that, we're going to have to shift that intersection over so that we wouldn't have an effect on it or it would be a very minimal effect on it. So I said, that's great, I'd like to hear that. The one thing I cannot tell you is when it will come about. They don't have any dates on these things, but the fact that we have a project number assigned to them and that we have a dollar amount on them is a major step in going in the right direction. Just to let you know, there's still no information or no dates for the Carolina Byways project either. So in case somebody was wondering anything about that. That's all I have to share, right? I have a few things.

Okay. I'd like to thank the committee honoring American veterans. Some of them are in the audience. We had a 9-11 remembrance ceremony. Just would like to thank you all for all the things that you all do throughout the year. I want to thank our public works staff who always make sure that the town park looks nice and neat. Thank you, Matt and Vicki, for your leadership on that. It was a very nice event, and it makes us remember to never forget. um also the second thing is i've received a lot of texts and emails thanking our police department for the service that they do to check properties um when people are out and about um not here like they go on vacation it's a free service and um mr claimer thank you all for providing that service it puts a lot of people's mind at ease and i just wanted to to mention that because a lot of people may not even know that we do that um also got a lot of uh before and after pictures from our code enforcement um kathy mcveigh her efforts um and and i'm pleased that that we were able to um hire the code enforcement officer uh mr clamber you hired her um but um she's doing a great job and it's good to see those pictures and lastly um i'd like to welcome mr ride out to our town and i'd like to welcome miss sharon penny as our finance director And I'd like to thank Mr. Kramer for your service. I just want you two to have a warm welcome to Sunset Beach. I was tasked with calling your references, and it was so good to hear the many good things that you all have done for your communities. And I just wanted to say thank you, and I look forward to a long history with you all. Thank you. That's all I got.

You want it? I had a letter a guy reached out to me with the CHAZ group and just wanted to read this on his behalf. He was out of town and wouldn't be able to do it. Just on behalf of the Committee to Honor American Veterans, thank you to all the members of Sunset Beach Town staff who attended and supported our Joint Town CHAV 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony on Friday. In spite of the heat and threatening storms, all went smoothly, and we were able to hold a solemn event with moving content that helped people remember the events and consequences of that tragic day in 2001. If you happen to see any of the ceremony participants, the FDNY speaker, Mr. Peter Krebs, Piper Dennis Ryan, Pastor Travis Bird, Bugler David Nams, and Honor Guard members, Firefighters Captain Henry Klutz and Jim Tedesco, and Police Officers Detective Anthony Covelli and Officer William R. Please express appreciation for the contributions to the ceremony and also to the town staff who supported it. the Public Works Department, events coordinator Amy Goodrich, Mr. Allen, our AV specialist, as well as police and fire department members who attended and assisted. Thanks to all who came and the citizens who attended for Mr. John Corbett. Again, thank you. It was a great ceremony. Other than that, the only other thing, we have one more town concert event tomorrow night. We have a group coming. This was an extra one. I just encourage everybody to come out. And if you hadn't been there, you missed a great year of fellowship. We've had a lot of people getting to know new people by our little town fellowship things. I think that's good. That's a good way for us to get to know each other. So I welcome you out tomorrow from Sixth State. Hope to see you there Wednesday.

Wednesday. Anything else?

If not, we'll move on to public comments on agenda items. If anyone would like to speak, you can come up, state your name, address. I'll give you the complimentary three minutes, and you're welcome to make any speech you'd like to on agenda items if you'd like to come. Would anybody like to come up?

Go ahead, sir.

Uh-oh.

Mike Hargraves, 612 Deacon Court in Sunset Beach. I want to thank you. In looking at the agenda for today's meeting, I want to really thank you for moving forward with the development of Majestic Oak Park. I'm really impressed with this movement that would bring that park to fruition. In reviewing the development plan, some conclusions came to my mind. Number one, I believe Majestic Oak, as it is depicted in the drawing, is going to be more rustic, obviously. It's going to be a rustic park, more rustic than the park we already have. Certainly going to be able to walk and to fish. And the kayak launching is one of probably the most popular things I hear about the park because our kayakers tend to have to fight with our – launch near the Oak and Palm near Bills. What's the name of the place? Dave. Anyway, they're just tired of it. And so they're so excited about this park coming and the kayak launch. So that's pretty darn good. You got to realize, too, we all know it's the second park in our community. And this is something that our visitors and our citizens can certainly enjoy. But it's another major step. And this is very important to me. It's another major step in improving the quality of life in Sunset Beach. And that, to me, is very, very important. I encourage you. I encourage you. Always be aware. and try to fund, if possible, projects that make Sunset Beach a better place to live, period. Quality of life is important, and this new park will certainly add to the quality of life in our town. Thank you for contracting with McGill to develop the plans for Majestic Oak and sticking with McGill. In my experience, McGill, and this is, I've dealt with McGill a lot. McGill is the best engineering firm to bring this project to fruition. And so I think they'll do a great job. They certainly will listen to you. And certainly, hopefully, they have done their usual due diligence and a good job. Finally, I only have one concern about Majestic Gold Park. And the development plan has a parking lot. And that parking lot, I believe, is just too large. I believe it will be the focal point. I really do believe it will be the focal point of the park. which I see is just quite unnecessary. Now, currently, the parking lot is shown, let me get this right now. The parking lot has 25 vehicle spaces, two handicap spaces, and four vehicle and trailer spaces for a total of 32 parking places for Majestic Oak. I think that number is just too many. I think a more realistic number- I'll be done in a second. More realistic number is one that was on one of the original plans, which was 16 spaces. I think that number is more realistic, and I strongly encourage you to revisit the size of the parking lot before a final development plan is approved. Meet with McGill, talk about reducing the number of spaces, if everybody can agree to that, because not having the parking places to be a focal point for our town. Now, McGill may say hard raises nuts, and they may say that, but I think it'll make the park a better plan for our citizens moving forward. That's about it. So thank you. I appreciate it.

Anyone else on agenda items?

All right. If we have no other, we'll move on.

Consent agenda? The 8-10-2026, 8-7-2026, 8-4-2026, 8-3-2026, 7-30-2026. The closed session meeting minutes from July the 30th, 2026, August 3rd, 2026, which was a special call meeting. August 4th, the 2026 reconvened. August 7th, 2026 reconvened. August 1st, 2026 reconvened. reconvene monthly reports from the build inspection fire police and public works does any member of council have any questions in regards to any of these consent agenda things i do not did i see that uh lost premier has applied for a permit so they're that's going to come to fruition pretty soon they've applied for a permit great yeah okay that's wonderful anybody got any questions You want to go ahead and put it in there? I was just going to do it separate, but you want to tie it all into this? All right, yeah, I'll get it just as soon as we get this. Is there any questions for any of these? if not we got the public hearing scheduling request proposed amendments to various sections of article 5 flood damage prevention ordinance to align with the town's flood damage prevention requirements for the 2026 model flood damage prevention ordinance for coastal areas and we'll be looking if it cancels good with this would be looking to schedule a public hearing for October the 4th I think it is that's right day or is it the 5th 5th, October 5th, council meeting, if this is good with the council.

Are we rolling that into the consent agenda?

It's all going into the consent agenda, so the one motion would be able to cover this all. And we didn't bring Ron in for this because all the information would be out in the public hearings when he comes for that, so there was no sense in bringing him in to just say what I just said. So what's the field of counsel in regards to the consent agenda and also scheduling the public hearing for October the 5th in regards to the flood information? Do I have a motion?

I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda along with the public hearing for October the 5th. Do I have a second?

Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor by uplifted hand? All right, y'all. Good. Thank you. Town Administrator Report. Mr. Dane Ryan out. Great. You got the floor.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. Appreciate it. And let me let me start off a couple of things here real quick. So first and foremost, thank you, Ken. I've been drinking from a fire hose. I know he's a police officer, but my reference I'm using. It's amazing that he's obviously run his own department and then done the administrator duties. And the. We've got a gem. I mean, phenomenal police chief, but I think you're a better administrator. And I was wondering why you're pushing it off on me so quickly. So, but anyway, thanks for everything you did. And you continue to be obviously a reference because there's a lot of historical background that I still need to get. So my report will morph a little bit. So I'm going to do a little bit of sausage making in this session as well as give you a little bit of an update. But I'm going to tell you what sort of happened. And I had a chance, and thank you, Christy, for putting together a meet and greet where we got a chance to talk to the citizens. I got a chance to talk to the citizens and tell them a little bit about who I am, what I have done in my past, and then what I've been concentrating on. And I want to make sure that the rest of the public understands a little bit of what we've been concentrating on. So I've been in the listening mode and it's been, we're not quite at 30 days, but I'm getting close on that piece and literally a fire hose because not only am I trying to learn the organization, but obviously the train is continuing to move. And this town has a lot of great, you know, projects and momentum that needs to keep moving down there. So it's a combination of doing the job and learning what I'm supposed to be doing, learning about the organizations. I will tell you that my first impressions not only of Sunset Beach is absolutely phenomenal, And I can't tell you how excited my wife and I are to move here, which will permanently put our residents here, hopefully by the end of the month, if all goes well. But it's absolutely a beautiful place and we're excited to be part of it. I've told the council about my background that I've usually gone into towns that are... distressed. That is not the case with Sunset Beach. Ken explained it best that we have first world problems here. And that's been true almost every day type of thing, but they're positive things and things we should be concentrating on. So that's what we've been getting after. I will tell you that I've sat down now with every single department head or special staff member and had very lengthy conversations with them. And I've asked them a lot of the basic questions that you would expect a new administrator coming in. Tell me about your organization. What are the things we're doing that we shouldn't be doing? What are the things that we're not doing that we should be doing? Tell me about your budget, concerns you have, what keeps you up at night. what are the big projects that you're working on? And if you were king for a day or queen for a day, whoever I was talking to, what would you change and how would we go about changing that? And then I obviously talk to them about how I communicate, what I expect from them. I'm a very standards process-based individual. I put a lot of that back on my military background, but I want to know why we're doing things. And you're not allowed to tell me that that's the way we've always done it. Tell me the process in which we are getting after these problems, and tell me the why we're getting after them so I can understand it. It's not to sharpshoot. It's to understand why we're doing things, and is there a better way to be better stewards of taxpayers' resources, whether that's money, time, equipment? what have you. And it's been very good. Be honest with you, I'm learning their organizations and they have concerns like any organization you would expect to have on that piece. And then I've done windshield tours. So I've gone out with, you know, the first person I went out with was with Ken and we, show me your concerns about this town from the lens of the police chief. Did the same thing with the fire chief, did the same thing with the public works, did the same thing with code enforcement. So we've gone through and I've seen, and each of them showed me different things that they're focusing on, they're concerned on. And a couple of things jumped out at me. One is, You're not broken, which is a good piece, but there are things that we need to get after and we need to put together a strategic plan and how we tackle those and then obviously budget for those processes and stuff. So that was a very good piece for me. And then I got a chance to sit down with the special staff. And so when I say special staff, so events coordinator, finance director, town clerk, things like that. How do you operate and tell me how I can be an enabler? instead of being a problem. And so they've been good communication. I've spent a plethora of time with the folks on the dais up here, really getting after what's important to them and what are the priorities. And we've had deep discussions on what are my authorities as the town administrator. because it's very unique for me. I've never been an administrator, I've been a manager, and there's a huge difference between the two. And so we're having very open and honest dialogue back and forth on what's important to them and how do we get after these, and we will continue to have those conversations. And that led into, as I looked at and I said, I'm in the listening mode for the first 30 days before I want to bring you any changes, I caveat that with in case with the exception of I saw something that was illegal, unethical or moral. It was an emergency and none of those came up. I'm happy to report on that piece. But but the sausage making piece and I've had a conversation with all of the the council is the way in which we. we manage ourselves, we govern, if you will. Honestly, the way it's written out right now, I get a chance to see them as a council twice a month and it's usually in it as it should includes the public but it's more in the receive mode and it's not a chance for me to sit down around the table and go over this this heinous document that we put together you know once a month and really get a chance to answer questions that the council has or what's the why or more importantly give me the background on why are we What's the desired effect we're trying to achieve? And there's no time. There's no time. I call it sausage making. There's no working group session for us to get after that. And so I've proposed to the council, and I just want to sort of get a consensus if we can, So the battle rhythm in which we do things now is we obviously receive agenda items from one meeting to the next. Some carry over, but some become new. The agenda, a draft agenda is then published and it goes out to the public. And the first time that I get a chance to sit down with the entire council is in the public forum event that we do, where the public gets to come up and literally question the council on all of the things on the agenda. And they haven't had a chance yet as a council to sit down and ask the staff the questions on, tell me about the background on this agenda item. It's sort of backwards, to be honest with you, and I want to correct that. And so my recommendation is that on those public forum dates, they will be televised, the YouTube that we do. The public gets to sit and hear. But instead of sitting up here, I want to be able to look at each other in the room, and we'll set up a conference table in here, and we will go over the agenda items. And there's things that we're going to say, okay, write out your – you haven't been here long enough. We're not gonna, we don't wanna go down that road or we already tried going down that road once before and these are the reasons why. Or give me more information on why, why this is an agenda item and what we're trying to achieve, if you will. There's times like tonight, you saw we pulled an issue off of the agenda that it needed more legal review. And so that's a chance for us to look at that and say, listen, I'm not comfortable with this. Go back to the lawyer and get us more information as an example. or dig into these agenda items. What does this mean? I can read this all day, but he may read it differently than somebody else does. And so we get a chance to sausage make, if you will. And what we're doing is we're doing a better staff and council integration that discusses these so that when we get up here on these type of nights, everybody has the same common operating picture. Everybody understands, has heard the same questions. You may ask a question that he needs to hear, you know, those type of things. And so I want to change that out. The public who is coming to say, hey, I've got a problem with Majestic's Oaks parking that just, you know, that just came up. One, you get to hear the sausage making that's going on. And so when the public gets a chance at the end of that public, of that meeting, and we have public comments, I think that A, we either have answered the questions that you had, or B, probably maybe generated more questions or different questions, but we get more dialogue back and forth from the public and the council, and it's an opportunity that's sometimes not as comfortable as sitting up here going, okay, I don't have enough information, so let's table it and kick this can down the road another month. That's the why. So I'd like to change up the public forum to a working group meeting. that still has public comments, it's still a public meeting, it also gives me the opportunity that sometimes things arrive I wanna be more flat as an organization and I wanna move more quickly. Meaning that a sense that there are certain times that we're applying for a grant, for example. It's a no brainer that we wanna go out and find federal or state monies. I need a resolution or I need a motion approved by the council to be able to apply for certain grants. I don't wanna wait 30 days. This gives me the opportunity to put something on the agenda that is a, that we're twice a month then. We're getting actions moved and we're moving much more quickly instead of dragging down some of these projects, if that makes sense. So I'm sort of looking for a consensus that we're okay with me changing the way in which we do that.

Yes.

Yep.

Excellent idea. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Hurricane preparedness. So I'm, I'm, I've never, I've never been the town manager when a hurricane hit with the exception of when I was at the garrison, the garrison commander of West point. And we had super storm Sandy. If you all remember that anybody's from the Northeast, I did deal with that one. And, Didn't have power for two and a half weeks and 4,000 cadets that I had to deal with. So, but it was very important to me and it was very important to the council. They said, hey, listen, you don't have this experience. We need to make sure that you're brought up to speed on that. And so what I did was, is I conducted, charged actually our fire chief with the action and said, listen, I need you to put together a group of key leaders that you think they're important for. And I want you to walk the dog for me on what we do from, from prep, which happens every, routinely even way before we even get into the season, like letting contracts and such to prep when we know that a storm is coming, what do we do? And then what do we do during the storm? And then what do we do for the recovery phase? And I want it at different levels. I wanna know what the National Weather Service is, how they operate and how they communicate. I wanna know what the emergency manager for the county does and how we manage and operate. I wanna talk about authorities, you know, decorations of emergencies, the whole works. It was a sausage making, if you will. And it was a very good, I would tell you, compliments to you, Richard. That was phenomenal. And I invited in folks that probably hadn't ever been invited before. I had the finance director and the town clerk in there because they all have functions in which we must govern, if you will, during these emergencies. And I said, let's get in the weeds. Let's get in the weeds. What are your concerns? You know, police, what are your concerns? Fire, public works, all that. And we spent a good four and a half hours in there really sort of rolling up our sleeves, had all those individuals in there. And at the end of it, I have briefings and documents and a task list of things that we need to do. I'm here to tell you that we got professionals, and I feel very comfortable. It was really for me. It was tell me so I'm not a liability. And what do I need to do as the administrator piece? We are now ready for... We think that that is very important to get out to the citizens. You need to hear sort of the same information at a – you probably don't need to know what the sleeping arrangements are for the public works guys or things like that. But what do you need to know as citizens? And I think you'll feel more comfortable about the preparation that this town – does and has the ability to take action on during an event, and then certain things that are happening. And it was very eye opening for me to hear different folks, especially at the county level, I was not aware of timelines for evacuations, for example, and how long it takes since the choke points and all the coordination that goes in with that and folks that don't wanna leave. And how do we deal with that? And where are we prone to flooding? And we'll get into the weeds and we wanna all put together a time out there that we actually invite the public. We get a chance with the same folks And we communicate that to the public as well as we'll put it on YouTube so those that can't attend in person can hear it. But you all need to hear it. And I think you'll walk away going, I feel comfortable with the plan. You may bring up some things we haven't thought about. But what I don't want to do is I don't want to react. I'm all about having a plan. And I will tell you that based upon the weather phenomenon that's happening right now, um we we're we're the pacific's getting it not us right now and you know knock on hopefully some wood around here but anyway i want you to know we're prepared and it's that's high on my priority list of of things that we're we're trying to get after the last thing is and then i'll i'll end here is um i'm i'm myself and sharon have worked at other municipalities and that was sort of sort of a a Perfect timing. And I'll tell you, I stole her again, you know, from the last town that she was at. And make no mistake, I think she's the best financial advisor manager in the state. And I'll tell you why. She's got over 30 years of experience in governmental financing, governmental accounting for municipalities. I've used the term, it's voodoo math. Just because you're a CPA or you have an accounting degree doesn't mean that you understand how to do governmental financing and she does. She's also one of those individuals because all town administrators need some adult supervision. We get moving pretty quickly and we are doing things very quickly. And I need somebody that can walk in and close the door on me and say, listen, we can't do it that way. Can't use that money for that. We need to use it this way. And she will beat me about the head, neck and shoulders and make sure that I'm doing the right thing. And we need that check and balance that's in there. She also will chase a penny until I have to, no pun with her last name. But anyway, making sure that our finances are in order. And she's doing a great job already. So this was not in your packet. We will make copies and make sure that the public has it. We'll put it online. But this is the first version of a, and we will do this every month. And this is a financial snapshot of what the budget is. is where we are both on revenues and expenditures. So there are no surprises for this council up here on monies. It gives them a snapshot of what's coming in and what's going out. And it's a format that we've used in the past that I think scratches the itch for a lot of council members and the public on what revenues are coming in and where are we. And then on the expenditure side, We should be, for example, for this report, we should be at 8% spent. Well, it raises questions when you look at this thing and say, oh, we're at 20% spent on on remember that we do things seasonally so and we'll be able to walk the council and any of the town uh citizens who have a concern with it that hey listen we you know we pay all of our insurance at one time for example so it makes that excuse that line if you will but what it does do is is it not only takes into what we budgeted it talks about where we are year to date now this will be 30 days behind okay because obviously we have it the first week in you know, of the month and I don't have time to put together all of the monies, the receipts, if you will, all that data is not in yet. So it will be one month behind, but it definitely will give you all a snapshot. And I'm going to let Sharon here, if you want to come up here and walk them through a little bit of this real quick so they feel comfortable with it as our first iteration.

Thank you. And Ms. Bordeaux, thank you for the warm welcome. I have been very warmly welcomed by the council and all staff that I've met so far and looking forward to a long relationship. Okay, so just one or two things to point out on this financial report. You'll notice that the general fund revenue is substantially lower than it was this time last year. That is because of the special assessment for the dredging you collected in June. uh, July of 2025, um, over $400,000. Um, this year we have only collected the 5,000, but I, um, checked the books. And as of yesterday, we had collected, um, almost 70% of the budget of the $465,000 that has been budgeted for that. We have collected, um, In the high 300s, I didn't write that number down, but it is 70% of what the total budget is. It just didn't come in as quickly as it did last year. The interest earnings, you'll notice, are much lower, but that is because I've just gotten access to the North Carolina Capital Management Trust, where we have a large amount of money in that, where I could get the Not the financial, but the bank statement for the month of July. The interest for that was $21,451. So that puts us right there close to the amount that we had for interest earnings last year. The PAL bill money we will not be getting in until the last of September for the first allotment that we get. And the occupancy tax, if you'll notice the occupancy tax, ad valorem taxes, local option sales tax, and utility franchise tax. They're always either a month, a quarter behind on tax. on what I'm reporting. So everything that we have received so far in July was for June 30. On the second page of this report, I've given you the breakdown of the total amount that is in the permits, fees, and service charges, current year and prior year, and then under the miscellaneous revenue, I've also given you a breakdown of what makes up that amount. Then on the third page are the expenditures and that is by the way the budget is approved and that is by departments. So I've got a total budget for each department and just a total for that department of the expenditures and the July 31, 2025 comparison. And the expenditures are right in line with where they were this time in July of last year. So down at the bottom, you will see I will give you a revenue over or under expenditures for each of those different funds. We are much higher of a negative amount expenditures over the revenues for July, and that is because of the special assessment money. OK, also paying those things like insurance. It's a one time payment, those kinds of things. So you've got that for each of the funds. And I've also given you what the check in account balance is on July or was on July 31st with a comparison of July 31, 2025. OK.

And Sharon has only not even been here a month yet. A couple of weeks. I think I'm in my third week. Exactly. So we're very excited to receive this type of information. Yes, ma'am.

If there's anything else that you all want to see on here, please let me know, and I'll be glad to add something else to the report. Thank you.

Thank you. Does any member of council have any questions for the administrator? No.

I think if we can just make sure that we get it online so everybody will want to see it.

I've given it to Kim. Should be.

Would we be able to somewhere see the debt that we have? Like, for instance, the debt that we have like on fire trucks or majestic oats, the land.

If you want that on here, I can put that on here. I haven't. White gotten to there?

Okay. But I think it would be good for our public to see what our debts are, how much we're paying, and what the balance is.

Got it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Anything else? Dane, do you have anything else? I'm sure that's it. All right. We'll move on now, we'll go into new business. We go into 11.2, contract award paving of town streets.

Okay, so let me. Wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm sorry.

I didn't even see this right here at the top. That's because we didn't have no paperwork on discussion item with possible action. Board and committee selection and an appointment process and policy development. I had the paperwork in mind. Did y'all got anything?

There's a reason. I don't need to discuss that. First two things. One, you all received an email this weekend that somebody was pretty upset that under item 10, the discussion item with possible action, we were not providing transparency because there was nothing associated with it. I don't know if you saw that. But they weren't looking at it. They were looking at the title. And the next one, 10.1, with the board committee selection appointment process is a discussion item. It's not, they were just looking at the title. I think they were confused on reading our piece. I'll answer that email back on that. Just hadn't had a chance today to do that. So the board committee selection appointment process, that's one of the first things I'd like to bring to our next. We're moving pretty quickly since we had the, it'll happen soon. I think next week is our first sit-down, right, for the public forum?

That's right. Okay, so we'll go through that.

And I've got guidance. And just so the public understands where we're going with this is that we obviously have quite a few boards and committees. There are folks that are on it. There are folks that are vacancies that are out there. And there needs to be a formalized process. This is one of the – What's the name for them?

Deposition of directives.

Thank you, a disposition directive that we'll get after. We want to have a discussion. We haven't had a chance. We've gotten a lot of feedback from different council members. We haven't sat down as a council and said, okay, this is what we want to see. There was concerns over we've already interviewed that person, you know, or we want to see their certifications or what have you. So we can make a better informed decision on who goes on those – So there's some sausage making to be made. So the discussion is that I want to move that to that meeting where we sit around and talk about it. I'll provide a list of all of the committees and members that we have on it, show the vacancies, and then we'll go through the process and make sure that you all are comfortable with how we announce what the qualifications are that we are providing. preferred qualifications are and then the process in which we go through the interviews and then eventual selection on those. Does that sort of make sense where we want to get it? It's a science project, but it's definitely one that we want to do very transparent and not in this forum here.

That's on 9.30 is when that date is. Okay.

Are we going to keep the 3.30 time slot or do we need more time there?

I think we're okay. I think that first of all, we all can make it, which is great. And then, but it's, yeah, it'll be. And my intent is, is also to have all of the department heads that are also part of that so that you're not waiting for me. Oh, I got to get with public works on that piece. They'll hear the sausage making as well. Uh, and can opine on, on it. We've been a question because I'm not a, I'm not a public works guy. I'm not a police officer. And we'll have those resident experts in there to answer those questions.

Thank you for the clarification.

Sure.

All right, now we're moving on to new business, the contract award, paving of town streets.

Yes, sir. So we have put out a RFP for paving, a million-dollar worth of paving. We had a pre-bid meeting that we had quite a few folks that were there, and unfortunately on 2 o'clock on Friday, we only received two bids. So following North Carolina procurement requirements, process, guidelines, is we need to now re-advertise that bid contract. And I just need your, that's consensus. That's what the council wants us to do. We will re-bid that contract out. We will reach out to quite a few of those folks that came to the pre-bid meeting and hope that we can encourage a third person to get there. if at the end of the next process we still only receive two, we have a decision point to make whether or not we reject all bids or by statute, we follow the procurement. If we're going to select one, we have to by NCGS, the lowest bid. And I obviously have concerns with that because we want to select the most qualified and not who's lowest on that piece because this is very important and it's very important and it's a lot of money.

It's a big investment.

So anyway, so just some things to think about on that piece. We are getting towards the end of the season. So as we all know, asphalt plants close down. You know, if the weather stays the way it is, they may stay open into Christmas, which is a good news piece. Second thing is, is that asphalt prices are... are associated with the cost of fuel. I think we all are seeing fuel prices that we haven't seen for quite some time, which means that we would get less paving for the money that we are getting. So it's something we all need to think about. I'm going to try to talk to some, see what DOT is telling me from an economist standpoint going, okay, are you all waiting Hopefully that whatever news agency you're listening to, but there seems to be a general consensus that after the November elections that these prices may come down. But we'll see how that goes. But anyway, the point being is that may be a decision point. Do we want to wait and get more bang for our buck later on that piece? There's some pluses and negatives. There's a lot of citizens out there that want to see paving trucks hitting the streets type of thing. There is a concern, and we've talked about it internally, that the amount of money we're asking for on this paving project may be too low for certain, some of the bigger boys that want to do paving contracts. So do we wait and look down the road? These are all discussions we need to have internally and cross over into another fiscal year and budget for it with a bigger project, get more bang for the buck. And there's obviously savings that could be add there based upon mobilization costs and what have you. Anyway, we have a decision. We have a couple of decision points coming up. I want to make sure everybody's transparent on what we're doing. We were hoping for three bids. We only got two. So we're now forced under the procurement policy. And so the next, I'll give you all a date when the next, when those bids are revealed and that'll be a decision for the council on what we do next.

How long would you advertise it? If it goes up for re-advertisement, how long would you? Seven days. Seven days, okay.

All right, moving on now. Consideration of collection or waiver of code enforcement fines and fees and continuance or closure of code enforcement case number 20260010.

Okay, so this has been a longstanding, and I've got a lot of history here from both Ken and code enforcement on this case. And it's on several parcels, and those parcels are listed in the handout. Do I need to read those? Okay, and so those parcels are out there. The town has levied fines totaling $16,000 in fines for these cases. for this code enforcement case. So what I'm looking for from the council is while the property owner is now in compliance And I've gotten a lot of questions on how can that be in compliance, but it is by code, which is the standard in which we can impose these fines. It is the staff's recommendation that those fines are levied against this property owner. Or our ordinance does not have teeth, is to be honest with you. This has been a long process, what I understand, with this property owner. And it wasn't until the fines got levied that they actually started doing some work. But we expect... Anyway, we expect them to, that was the forcing mechanism to do it. And so after talking with legal, talking with staff internally, it is our recommendation that these fines are imposed and they're imposed against the, we'll put a lien on the property.

But, Counselor, any questions before we go into a motion?

You know, the public does not know what we're talking about. I mean, we've got a parcel number here. Is there any prohibitions on telling exactly where the parcel is?

I should have asked the lawyer that today.

Well, I will just go ahead and say that in January, I asked for the... the corner across the street from the park, that it be cleaned up. And that prompted us to talk with our interim town manager, excuse me, administrator. There I go, I get them, I interconnect them, to hire a code enforcement officer. And that officer has diligently noticed this property owner and has worked, and it's still not... Looking nice. Now, you just said it was in compliant, and I don't know that, and you said, you know, how could it be in compliant? But under the law, it is. And we, last month, talked about the assessments. Mr. Klamer did not know at that time the exact amount, and we as a council asked him to ascertain that amount. If we have an ordinance and we do not back it, if we as a council do not back it for our staff, we're asking staff to do something and it's like a hamster just rolling around. That's not fair to do the staff. The staff have to go out there. They have to do the work and they have to confront somebody. I don't think it's unreasonable. for us to assess the fines. I started this and I don't mind making the motion to direct our town administrator to levy the fines and the penalties and if it's not paid to put a lien on the property and to consult with the attorney on what the process is. So that's my motion. I would agree.

That's her motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second that.

All right. Any discussion? Go ahead.

I agree with that. I feel like we've got to have this enforced and it would definitely set the wrong tone if we don't. Another question in here was, should this case remain open? And I feel like if we can leave it open, I feel like we should, if we are following procedure by doing that, because concerning as I think from the community that this is just a stop gap. And if you look at the property, I mean, the little building has like four colors of paint on it. That's all, you know, looking horrible. There's still an open area in the top of the building that's been there for years. There is some progress taking place on the building side of it, but there's still a lot that needs to be done to get it up to where I feel like our community would be happy with that block.

Ms. Batchelor, I think what you're saying is to assess the fines and the penalties, but keep moving forward and don't stop anything. Keep the code process in place where we're going to assess this penalty. We're going to put a lien on your property if you don't pay it, but we're going to keep going forward and then we're going to assess some more penalties and some more fines.

That's where I need to, let me get clarification on that because right now they are in compliance, which means that the current cases that we have, that they have brought that up to code. And we, but yet at the same point, we will leverage the, if the motion passes, we will leverage those fines. Trust me, we all drive past it every day. We will, we will, if new cases, new code enforcement issues come up, then we will continue the process. We will stay diligent on this because you're absolutely right. People pay People look at their tax bill every month, or not every month, but every year, and they say, okay, I'm paying a county tax and I'm paying a town tax. So what's the value do I get by paying a town tax? It's this. This is code enforcement, and we hold people to a standard that our ordinance is that you all passed. We hold a standard to that, and we need to hold folks accountable because that affects other property values. And it's... As I said, I drove into this town and I was absolutely blown away at how beautiful it is. And then you go, Oh, what happened here? And that's the same. And it's, and it's a gateway. It's a gateway literally to our, to our, our, you know, to our beach. So, um, yes, that, that's. Well, I didn't know if, if right now I would, I'm feeling pretty comfortable and Ken, you can maybe back me up here that they are in compliance. And so those cases that we have open, I think, need to be closed so I can levy those fines. And I'll get clarification. Can you make the motion, I guess, that if I'm trying to figure out how I'm feeling pretty confident that we need to close those cases for me to levy the fines?

It wasn't clear how it was stated to us in this.

And I sent Kathy home, so I'll find out for you.

Well, we got a motion on the floor to do just the fines right now.

I withdraw my motion.

You want to withdraw?

I withdraw it and I restate it. Go ahead. I'd like to make a motion to authorize the town administrator to levy the fines for $16,000. to put a lien on the property if the penalty is not satisfied and to close the account and to ask the staff to stay diligent on the property to make sure that it's in compliance.

Do I have a second? Second. All right, anyone? Any more questions? If not, all in favor, please raise your hand. I'm voting no. Go ahead. Next up will be Majestic Oaks Park, approval of site plan and landscaping plan.

Okay. And, Ken, I may ask you for some help on this one because you've been shepherding this piece. So give me a lot of history. So we're at the point now where we have McGill and Associates that has – proposed the site plans as well as the landscape plan. And we pulled off the lighting plan on that because that's something that we feel as a staff we don't need to permit and go forth with this project on there. When we threw in the landscaping plan, we had not transposed it to the new, we went back to the basic plan and we had not transposed that onto the basic plan. You see two documents that are in there and we'll pull that off of the town website and put on there the landscaping plan that if you look at the third page it talks about that fits into the budget. That's the quote we received to fit inside the budget. Since then, we've actually received some feedback from the public. Tree Board was instrumental in helping us alleviate that concern on some, and we'll make that change. And that change is in regards to The service berry tree. Trees. Trees. I don't know what that is, but it sounds important.

A tree that has berries and gets taller than some residents that live back to it would like it to be.

Just so everybody knows. So if you approve, the motion to be made is obviously with the exception of that those service buried trees on there for the for the landscape plan. As far as the, um, the plan as as brief, I know there are concerns with the with the amount of parking and such. And there was also so the plan with the town, just so you understand is the town has since moved, um, in the March timeframe, I think, is they have since moved from McGill to Thomas and Howell or Hutton. It's Hutton. And I should know that since we met with them this morning on this piece. What we need to do is we need to get this plan approved. With the understanding that there may be change orders, that there's still discussion on there with parking and things like that. But I need the basic plan approved. And if there's a change to it based upon our new engineering firm, that we'll bring that to council saying we want to modify this plan. Because we are working in the scope. And remember, we're working off information that was briefed. you know, several months ago, if you will, on that piece. There's also been some concerns with that, that we need to, I need to have a sausage making, you know, part with the council as we get into this project a little bit more reference when we do dredging. There are some concerns that we may not be able to, we need to make some accommodations so that this plan may allow us to, from a maintenance standpoint, access this area. That's not on here as well, and we need to make sure that that's taken into account. I have not done dredging yet, so I'm learning as we go on this piece. But we'll sit down with our engineers. We actually addressed that with the engineers this morning. When we look at this approved plan, there's going to be changes. It's going to have to be a little bit of a living document. But the general instate is that we need to get this plan approved so that we can then transfer this to our new engineering firm and go out for bids. Can I explain that, cover everything on that?

So is McGill getting the permits for us? Because that was the initial plan. They are. So we needed to approve this to get the permits finalized.

Yep. Yes. Okay.

What are we exactly looking at approving?

The landscape plan? And the site plan. With the understanding that this thing is a living document that we haven't We're going to get paralysis through analysis is what we're going to do. So right now, we've got the 90% solution. We need to move out with it. And I'll come back to the council as things come up. We don't know what we don't know in certain areas. And we also are changing over to a new engineering firm that's going to be executing this. And so we'll come back with that. And obviously, the lighting plan is a piece to that. There were some things on the landscaping as far as irrigation. so that we get involved with the finance director on this piece because the way I understand it, there are three different pots of monies that we're pulling from on this thing. So it's not as simple. We're just pulling money out of one pot. There are certain requirements that DEQ gets a vote. I mean, this is a little bit more complex. But we need this plan. I need this plan approved. I need the landscaping plan approved so we can get McGill to to her minute and then we will move start moving forward.

How the development plan, but I'll.

Oh, I thought that was Mr. Test test test.

Sure. If I may my understanding is that. The plan approved tonight is then going to be made into a construction set. So as far as it being a living document, I don't know that it is going to be alive after it's approved tonight because they're gonna make a construction set. So if the council intends to cut the parking spaces from 32 to 16, and we don't do that tonight, the construction set is going to have 32 spaces. They'd have to redesign. We'd have to bring it back to the council again for you to approve to then go back to construction. So it might be costing more money if we approve something tonight that we're not 100% on.

Understood all that, because we do need to approve more than just landscape. But on this, that's live on the website, it does have that it's zoned beach residential. So I do think that's a typo, but somehow, I mean, I don't know what it used to be zoned, but we need to clear that up. Because if it's beach residential, we do have to have a stormwater management plan on that. So... that's um i mean hopefully it's a typo but somewhere along the line when it went from being residential to us when i say us the town purchasing it you know there just needs to be some cleanup because it was res those were lots for residential but it's you know it's on this and it's dated um July 2026. So it's a pretty current document.

You can see there's a lot of knowledge that Ken's got and a lot of discussions and stuff. I would love to table this. And I know that there's a timeline associated with this. And there's a timeline associated with the grant documents we have to execute. What I'm looking for is, obviously, I need more information on this. And there's some sausage making I'm going to look at. And we're getting a lot of input from different folks that have things. This is the first time I've heard about 31 versus 16 spaces type of thing. And then the dredging, we received that email type of piece. And then, obviously, landscaping and stuff. Do a sausage making, and if the council understands that I may need to call a couple of special called meetings to specifically approve this plan and not wait another month to do things, let's have that meeting, let's flush this thing out, and then call a special called meeting if it doesn't fall in line with the time that we can approve it, and then approve this. Let's get it right is the important piece, because I'm... in the gray area in a lot of this area. And I think that would be the best course of action at this point.

While we're doing that, would it be too much for us to ask for a timeline of these are the features that the park's going to have that satisfy the grant? These are the features. What is the deliverable for that? What's a deliverable time frame so that we can start backing things up for what needs to take place, what we need to approve so that we're more you know, looking at it from a project standpoint instead of just piecemealing things for us as a community to see, you know, every feature that's supposed to be out there that satisfies. And what's the timeline for it? And back us up that way so that we know how we're going to put this all together.

And I do think we've been looking at this for months and it's been tweaked. It's been changed already. It's been modified since we were in council because there was an original plan for it. And then there was kind of what I call the souped up plan of it, which was going to be much more costly. And then there's this plan of it, which took us back more to the original basis of the grant and meeting the grant specifics that we needed to meet. To do this, and there was the decision to add in more parking because we could, because we know on the island parking is such a premium. We also discussed the fishing area being changed due to some resident concerns and lighting concerns. We also asked questions about the kayak launch and different things like that. Some of that we have not heard back, unfortunately, from McGill and we're not satisfied with them and what we were getting. So I do think, but what we were told is the break point was when the permits are submitted and we receive permits is when then Thomas and Hutton is gonna take over. Is that still true?

Is that correct?

yeah that's my understanding so to me we're not even to that point yet to get thomas and hutton involved in it and if the site plans and everything are going to be done it could be costly to redo but we've redone it this has been redone this spring into now um i don't know if ken if you want to add any more thoughts on this i know you've been involved in it but but um I mean, I think McGill is waiting on us to approve this so we can get the permits to move this forward. Um, and it, it has been changed numerous times that we did go back to meet the, so that's my understanding meetings about this.

The permits have been applied for. We're just waiting for, I think just one more to return. And my understanding was once the permits come back, the plan is approved. The landscaping and the lighting is approved. that the construction sets are issued the next step is to go to bid and put shovels in the ground and start building this park so i think speculating on what mcgill is trying to do is to put shovels in the ground get the construction finished in time to meet the deadline for the grant so that we don't have to ask for another extension because we currently have One extension. So, and that was because all of the stuff that was piled on majestic Oaks property from the parking project and they couldn't do the soil samples. So they were gracious enough to give us an extension. Would they give us an extension now? I don't know.

Is that the October 27th date, or is there an extension past that?

There's an extension for the DEQ, and what was the date on that? Do you recall? October 27th. 2027.

2027, because that's the only date I've heard the whole time.

Yeah, so there's time. It just depends by the time we put the bids out.

but we can't keep kicking the camera i can see the bigger discussion we've all had as a council that that one of my frustrations is when i've looked at the staff and who has the rose penned on them for projects so who who is responsible for the projects that we're doing in this town from paving to stormwater to the majestic oaks to this multimodal. All these projects we've got, I need somebody that understands, that can talk to developers, that understands construction, that checks the checkers so we don't have some of the problems we've had with stormwater. And we have somebody that is managing our projects on there. And I will come to you with a proposal on how we will fix that.

I want to add something to that because I'm glad you're thinking that way. When we did our budget this year, we did put in there some money for an assistant town administrator. We only did half of a year. And then we also did another admin assistant project. for our front office. And if you don't need those two positions, those two pots of money can be combined, and you could have your project manager. Because that's almost like an assistant town administrator, but it would be the person that you're talking about pinning the rose on their lapel to say, this is what you're doing. Because before, Mr. Klamer was doing all this, and he was juggling all of this.

I didn't have a rose either. No, you didn't.

But we do need to be diligent on October 2027 because that's a year from now when you think about it. And permits take time. And you all know with any kind of project, it's going to cost more. It's going to take longer. And we don't have concrete out there, but the concrete's always going to crack. But we know those three things. And time and money, we've got to be concerned with those things. So if you do need to call a special call meeting, I would like to do this sooner than later because time is of the essence on this project.

And, yeah. I was just going to say, you know, looking at this plan, we could, and hearing what's been said here this evening, We could keep this site plan, but we could stripe it for 16 parking spaces instead of 32. That's something we need to take into consideration. Could you define that for us?

That's part of the question. We need to get everybody in the room. Everybody's got a little piece of this, and we need to put it in one central point. But you're hitting the nail on the head.

We can stripe it for 16 and go with that. There's plenty of room to do that and everything just looking at this. And then if there was a need for more, Get Adam back.

Yeah.

We're good with paint.

And at some point we do have to have that discussion of is it going to be paid parking or free parking? But we do have to have that discussion. So would you put that on your agenda for us to hammer that out?

Yeah. I just hate for us to kick it on down again because it's been kicked a while and

So I recommend tabling this.

I'll make a motion that we table the Majestic Oaks Park.

Second. Second. Any more discussion?

I do want to say, though, I would not want it to go table to the next October 4th. I would like for it to be sooner than later.

This is really on me because I'm trying to do, like I said, the train is still moving and I'm trying to do other things and this is a priority and we're going to put the right emphasis on it.

All right, move some seconds up there. No more questions.

All in favor by uplifting the hand? All right, thank you.

All right, direction. Deposition of directors. We have the public hearing scheduled for October the 5th, and then at the public forum is when you'll do that discussion on the other stuff that you talked about, and then you're going to be looking at paving the streets. You're going to get that bid back out. So is there anything else? Did anything need to be added here?

I had listed a few things and one you mentioned today, I had already been thinking about it, the procurement policy that we have for the town. I don't know that our town council has ever seen that, but I think it is important for us to see what the thresholds are. I'd like for our community to see what the thresholds are because it does help with financial accountability.

You want to put that on October or you want to move it to November?

Well, I don't know if we have, I'm going to look at Ms. Penny right now. Do we have a procurement policy that is a policy that we can look at? I mean, I know we have to follow the general statute, but do we have a, we do have a policy? Yeah, I think I've got one at home. Okay. So I think that would be just as simple as providing it to the council and let us review it.

So October, please.

and that's for overall not just the police department okay well if we have one mr. Klamer just needs to get it I think to miss penny and then miss penny review it to make sure that everything looks good and then get it somehow to council

We'll put it on dispositions for October 5th if we need to bring it up. But if we don't, we can move it. Right. Right.

And the dredging committee establishment is that, I mean, we had discussed October, November timeframe. So, Dane, what are you thinking on that? Because that's going to take a while. Can we do November for that?

That's the date down there on that one.

And like I said, I'm not trying to kick the can down the road, but that's the problem you get with a new administrator is I'm still trying to figure out where my desk is. I do have a couple of names that you guys have in my notes that you've identified as possible candidates, but that'll go in.

But we need to advertise that for people to apply to want to be on that.

The second thing that I have is the ERC, the Environmental Resource Commission. At one time on the website, it did not reflect their rules, not rules for engagement, but rules just... um what they're about it did not have the actual um number of council members correct and i just want to make sure that that that's correct and i think it's just a clean up thing where um it's cleaned up the previous council um i think they went from five to seven to nine um and we never put that on the website It's already, the action's already been taken. I just think it needs to be on there and perhaps the mayor just needs to recite it. The third thing that I have is in our budget, we paid for muni code. That's a municipal code. And I know it's in the budget, but I don't know that we've tasked anyone, probably your project manager, but somebody needs to ensure that those codes, you know, as we, modify our ordinances and do all of that that those are reflected in the muni code because i think we pay about eight thousand dollars for that service and if the codes have not been updated in a couple years i mean that's a waste of taxpayer dollars i briefly talked with with ron on that piece and he he that's where that's that's our

while he's a contractor, whenever, for example, when we do this public hearing on adopting these new state code changes, that's his responsibility. But I will, I've got a note here, make sure that the rose is penned on who is making this change.

Because I don't think they've been updated for the last couple of years.

There's a little bit of a lag with new code on that piece. But we still need to keep it because we use that as a system. Oh, yes. As well as our citizens do.

Right. Well, my point is if we're going to pay for it, it needs to be accurate so that when our citizens and us, when we look at it, that we're looking at updated information. So thank you for that.

Anything else? If not, we'll be moving on to the public comments. Anybody like to make a comment? The floor is open. No, I haven't started. I just got it ready. Go ahead, sir.

Charlie Nairn, 647 Oyster Bay Drive. I want to welcome Town Administrator Rideout and Finance Director Penny. I wish you a lot of luck. Projector revenues for the 26-27 budget from property taxes, parking fees, motor vehicle taxes, and interest in special events fees have increased $590,000. Excluded this year are the town booth at the market, popcorn at the concerts, and $3,700 in grants and donations to nonprofits. Small amounts, yes, but great for public relations. Trash can rollback at the beach was discontinued, which saved no taxpayer dollars. It had been covered by the accommodations tax. There were employees fired or forced to quit, which leaves a decrease in personnel costs. $6,000 of taxpayer funds was spent on laptops and phones for council members. This has never been done before. This expenditure was never discussed at a public hearing or face public scrutiny. The estimated cost for repaving 27th Street on the island is $60,000 plus. That's taxpayer dollars. If property owners on any unpaved streets want their street paved, they would have to pay for it themselves. There would be no tax dollars used for that. Fire fees are increasing 25% or $650,000. That gives the fire department $3,250,000 without raising the tax rate. The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of town employees. All incentives for education and advancement are gone. Benefits for new employees have been cut, which makes it hard to attract the top candidates for any position. Even with the increased revenue and decreased expenditures, $840,000 from the fund balance had to be used to balance the budget. last the conditional zoning agreement between the town and sea trail was approved council in closed session allowed a change in the conditional zoning allowing an increase in the size of part of the development to do this the conditional zoning agreement should have been discussed at a public hearing where taxpayers comments would be allowed not behind closed doors in a closed session with no public input thank you thank you sir anyone else yes sir mickey smith 123 forest walk and i live in c trail

Thank you for almost two minutes of patience.

I've been waiting two years for this. As I've said every time I come in here, same story, different verdict. I don't quite understand why engineering studies were done on roads. I understand what you're saying, sir, about prices going down and all that. Great. That's a great thing. But I don't understand when an engineering study is made and the roads in the town of Sunset Beach are ranked. then why is there even a question about roads one and two, which are in C-Trail that need to be done? I just don't understand it. You know, if you're going to wait to pave it till next year, whatever your plans are, I think you could at least pick the two roads or three roads or whatever you want to do. And I think you could at least let us know what those are. You know, I hope that you don't take this, but... No respect, but I do want to tell you something. I think it's time your sausage started cooking.

Anyone else? Yes, sir. I mean, not anything. Come on. Come on. Anything you want. I'm sorry. I apologize. Yes.

My name is Robin EC. I live at 134 Bellwood Circle. It's also in Sea Trail. And all I get in my two minutes wasted and the roads in Sea Trail are not that bad, sir. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Not anything else from council?

All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting?

I'll make a motion that we adjourn the meeting.

Do I have a second? I'll second that. All in favor? If no discussion, all in favor? All right. Thank you.