Council - Regular Meeting

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[Music] Good morning and welcome to serve city. This is October 17, 2025 and this is our work session. So at this time I would like to call upon councilwoman Trudy Solomon to lead us in our invocation followed by Mayor Pro Tim Jeremy Schugertz to lead us in our pledge. If you would please stand.

Dear heavenly father, thank you for bringing us here today. Thank you for all the things that that that you've provided for this town and all the people who spend many hours and lots of energy um great wisdom and uh lots of determination to make things possible for our town. Lord, we are grateful for all of the prosperity and opportunities you brought to our town. And and I know sometimes with that comes um challenges too, Lord. But in challenges, we are uh we have just such great things that come from that, Lord. We have an opportunity to love each other, love and love and and learn from people who are different from us. We have opportunities to uh to see things a little differently, Lord. we have opportunities to um to lean on you and um to look for wisdom and even a higher a higher calling. So Lord, thank you for all that you've provided today. Thank you for this beautiful weather. We ask blessings over those who cannot be here today. Um all of those who serve our our community so well with um so much sacrifice. We ask blessings over them. We pray these things in your name. Amen. 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.

Again, welcome. And um we are going to go ahead and get started. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda. Have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Um, at this time we have public comments and if anyone has signed up, Carla will call your name. No, nobody.

Mr. Hower is coming up here and he says no one has signed up. if you wanted to sign up. We didn't get a chance. Did you want to Did you want to sign Did you want to say something? No, I'm here with I'm here to speak with David. All right, let's um move forward with um our first item agenda here and it is the Medlin Dawson Sbury annexation resolution to set public hearing and Miss Carlo will present.

Thank you, mayor. This is for uh Doug Medland's property. There are two parcels um that are part of a bigger project where we annex property in earlier this year. So this would be to set the public hearing for that and that would be for the December meeting. Um it did go to planning board. They recommended neighborhood business for these two parcels. So he will likely come back for a conditional resoning on the entire project.

Does anyone have any questions concerning the Medlin Dawson Sabberry annexation resolution to set the public hearing? And I just need a consensus and it'll go on the November agenda. Do we have consensus to move forward? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Carla. The next item is CLH Building Group LLC annexation resolution to set public hearing. And Carla will present

and this is an annexation petition that was brought to us. It's at this it's a 1.3 acres at the southeast corner of Highway 17 and Perkins Drive. Um the planning board recommended for this one C3 which is extended commercial and this is to set the public hearing for also December. There are no questions. Do I have a consensus to move this forward to the public hearing? Yes. Yes. Okay.

Thank you. Um, next item is personnel handbook language revision and Miss Lydia with HR will come up and present.

Good morning, mayor and council. So what this is is the um per sessions law 202516 House Bill 612 requires anyone who is working with children or minors to have to have a fingerprinting. So, this is just to bring our policy handbook up into compliance that it's in there explains what it is and it also adding the upfront the language for upfront costs for the prehires that they would have to bear that cost until they were approved and cleared and then they could be reimbursed upon becoming an employee. And then the last part of it was we have added one other supplemental insurance which is a voluntary group lifetterm insurance policy. So that's what these uh changes are the additions for the house bill the upper cost and then also just adding the group voluntary term life insurance as a um benefit for supplements. You said the um the upfront cost shall be the applicant, correct?

Yes. So when when one goes to get their fingerprints done, they have to pay $10 depend depending on where it's at. But for Enzo County, it's $10. And for Pender County, it's $10 that they have to pay for it when they go get their fingerprints done. They have to pay that. And once those come back and they're cleared, then once they're an employee, we would reimburse them for that $10. So if they didn't clear, you wouldn't get it back. Anyone have any questions? Do we have consensus to move forward? Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you, Lydia.

Okay. The next item is Earl G. and Inzbats recreational complex phase 2. And I'm going to call upon I think this is a two-parter. I think Frank and um David Price are going to team up on this because we have a it's my understanding that we have coordination of polites and some subsurface irrigation here and council. Yeah. Uh that's correct. Uh Mr. Price is uh here um to help me kind of explain what we have going on over at Earl G. Um I met with Jason Galloway from McAdams. Uh they were responsible for phase one over there. between phase one and phase two. Um, public utilities has a subservice project going on at the same site and we are just trying to make sure both parties are coordinating with each other. So, we're not um doing anything twice or wasting any money or time. So, if they're digging a hole or running a line in a place that's beneficial for uh the parks and recreation side of it, we're trying to make sure that coordination is done upfront. Um we are are already funded for this uh contract and just wanted to make sure that we could um get under contract sooner rather than later to make sure that coordination stays uh on on par.

Morning mayor council. Uh yeah Frank um hit it pretty good. Um this is very crucial. Um like uh Frank said this is already funded but we are dealing with two different grants on the same property at the same time frame. 500,000 from uh part of and 20 million in a direct appropriation. Um over the next year subsurface will be built um which will be a huge cost saving to uh community development as the suburface would do all the rough grading and all the dirt moving and then um Frank will be able to use his already budgeted funds to come in and do the uh finish grading the grass the turf right uh yeah turf lights fencing

and um to construct these multi-use fields. So by combining these jobs with the town is saving a bunch of money. The problem is is because it's so crucial that with any job site there's going to be changes and calls that have to be made on the way. Both engineers have to be in close coordination. Therefore we need McAdams under contract in order to facilitate. McAdams is the park contract and your contractor is McKim McCreed. Kim McCreed and the 20 million. Can you explain where that came from? And that was a direct appropriation that the um council and Mr. Brew uh saw from the um North Carolina General Assembly. Uh that what that's paying for is a subsurface phase one and a new wastewater plant located on Aldidge Boulevard. It was a huge grant.

20 million. Yep. Yes. Very proud to get that grant. Your grant was 500,000. Yes. That was part of the 500 Jody prior. Does anyone have any questions? Well, um I think this is the subsurface. We're hoping to have that in in the ground by the end of uh 2026. 2026. So, yeah, there's a this time is attached. The whole job has to be done within two years.

Yeah, we've gotten we received an extension from partardiff uh to spring of 2027. I don't know um why any wouldn't be on the same page to to get these um up and running. I know we're on a on a time frame to to spend this money as well. So, McKim and Creed along with McAdams are going to be working closely together with these um two departments. Um if there are no questions, do we have consensus to move forward? Yes. Yes, we do. Okay.

Thank you very much. All right, David. I don't think you're going anywhere cuz I think um Excuse me. This is David. This is David right here. It's what I I I fell asleep reading last night. So, technical specifications manual.

I appreciate that. I have uh Mr. McBride with the with Raven with me today. uh he and his team helped us rewrite this. Uh just to give you a history of why this is important. Um when a new developer comes into town, not only does he have to pay system development fees to upgrade our downstream systems, which is pretty significant. Any infrastructure that is built, they have to build on site. And anything that's directly affected, give you example, u if um a new development comes in, commercial or residential, doesn't matter. They have to lay all the infrastructure they need on site. Plus, if they have a direct influence on a downstream pump station, they have to upgrade that as well. In addition to that, they have to pay system development fees to upgrade our wastewater plant. Um, part of this is if they are building something that we're eventually going to be responsible for, we want to hold them to the highest standard possible. We shoot for a 50 to 100 year life out of this infrastructure. And with that with better best practices uh we always upgraded. Um original specs were wrote in the early 90s. I we revised them in 2015. It's been 10 years. Things technologies adapt. We revised them again. Uh the difference between this one and previous specs is this is all-encompassing. This cover is utilities, water, sewer, storm water, streets. It is a total manual for construction. Um I do have to put a caveat up. Forgive me. left my piece of paper back there. There was a recent state law that we are still trying to work through that says that we cannot require anybody to build a road higher than DOT standards. If any of you are familiar with our original specs and the current specs as is presented, we require a much higher standard than DOT standards. Uh we are going to try to work through that, but the advice we are currently seeking is to go ahead and adopt them as is. And if we need to come back and adopt them later to comply with general statute, we will

uh like I said, I'm available and this is available if you have any questions.

Yeah, I'd like to speak to the statute. As far as the statute just adopted in September, it'll go in effect in January. uh there's no been no guidance uh been put out by the state on how they're going to enforce it and what they're going what they are going to enforce. We expect that to change as they uh debate on how they're going to enforce this new statute. So uh that's why we recommend to go move forward with what you have is that it might change on how they're going to enforce it when it starts to uh starts in January. So, as soon as they uh put out the guidance, then we'll get back with David and uh then we can make a better determination on how to move forward with the with the street specs.

Anyone have any questions? with the change in January for uh communities and developments that we either have already approved plans for. Are they able once that change is made if they haven't made progress on those plans to make change? How does that work? That is an important issue. Ever since this law got um passed, we've me and u Mr. Smith have been entertaining a lot of questions. Uh they do have a approved set of plans with approved standards approved by you by the council. they are held to that unless they come and get a modification. So, they'll have to be reapproved by the council in order to change to the new law.

So, David, real quick, you know, uh several citizens have been uh u calling me, coming to see me about we're paying for all this development stuff. It's coming out of our pocket and this seems the contrary. Is that correct? where the where maybe you could just reiterate a little bit on that about what your what the what the ultimate goal here is if you don't mind

with the technical specifications it is to build to a standard that's going to cost the rateayers less money over time if we allow developers to build um the least expensive thing possible under state rules that in turn leads to more maintenance and more cost to rate payers later on what we want to do is make sure that they're building to the highest standard Therefore, it is less maintenance and less operational cost as we go into the future. Anyone else have any questions? Do we have consensus? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um, next up is item number six, resolution authorizing execution of the PPA with the United States Army Corps project and Carla will present. This resolution would give um would authorize the mayor to be able to execute a finalized uh PPA, which is the project partnership agreement between the Army Corps and Surf City. Um that would allow them to start work. So, we do not have that yet, but in preparation for that, we wanted to go ahead and have this ready. Um so, this would authorize her to sign that with a review by the attorney and the manager. This this was a a document that was very close to being signing back in 2019 when um North Topsville Beach removed their cells from the project. And at that time they the town council had authorized the mayor at that time which was Doug Melan to move forward and sign that PPA when it came time to do so. So, this is just a step to have ourselves in place to be ready to sign it ASAP when it happens.

Correct. Just a proactive measure to be ready for that. Does anyone have any questions? Is there consensus to move forward? Yes, certainly. Okay. Um, next up is special events manuals revision and I think Bella and Frank may come up and speak on this.

Yes, mayor and council. Um, Bella came on just a few months ago and the her first day she was tasked with pretty much revising the special events manual. Um, since I came in just a few weeks before, it was uh very clear that we needed to have some more defined deadlines and um, uh, more I guess more asserted expectations within our guidelines and that we've providing people that want to have an event here. Um, just since I've been here, it's been made very clear that Surf City uh, only had a couple events in the past and now we're seeing a huge influx of people from the outside wanting to host their events here. So, it's just very obvious that we need to have much uh more much clearer guidelines. So, Bella took our old manual um to made defined many of our expectations, created deadlines and timelines that were clear, put it in a format that was much more friendly for uh someone to look at. Um if you guys have viewed it, uh we would like to answer any questions you have. Bella is here. She um can answer your questions if they're directly for her. But everything that we created was based on needs of the community, recommendations from the special events committee and all of our uh pet prin uh with questions in the past.

If you don't mind, if you could just like um go through the the manual and tell us the things that you have changed or that you have added.

Yes, I would be happy to. Um, the first two pages are brand new to the manual. So, I added a purpose page which kind of just provides an overview of the process and what the document is intended to do and that wasn't included in the previous version. Um, and that second page just defines what a special event is and what qualifies like any aspects of what your event might have that would qualify. Uh, needing a special event permit application. Um, and then because I know we also get a lot of requests for park rentals, I wanted to make sure that that was specifically defined of what is a special event versus what qualifies um, as a park rental. Um, I highlighted the application process and explained each of the steps. Um, the dates for events being unable to occur June, July, August remain the same from the initial manual, but the application process and the steps about presenting to the special events committee, being notified of event status, when events can start advertising, everything like that is outlined um, specifically in the application process on that new page. Um, for the nonprofit organizations, the sponsorship policy is something that some nonprofit events have currently been operating under. It hasn't been revised in a while. Um, and so Kyle has asked me to take a look at that as well. Um, so that little blurb of the sponsorship policy that you see there. Any changes that are made to the existing policy would also be reflected. Um, and I would hope to have that done before the council meeting so that it can all be up to date at the same time. Um, but it just kind of outlines like what the requirements are um, for consideration. the name of the policy might change um as well from sponsorship. Um there's a new page now that addresses beach um and sound events. Um those event organizers will be directed to a separate application. Um right now they are being funneled through the same either profit or nonprofit application as events that are held in Southside Park. And so a lot of the questions in that application doesn't necessarily apply to their events. they'll have um a separate uh application as well as these guidelines um to follow. Um there

weren't any major changes to the incident or emergency action plans. I just kind of reformat reformatted that a little bit to make sure that event organizers were providing clear information. Um for the site map I just included um adding or denoting on their maps any first aid or emergency services that they're providing um their event parking plan and then activity locations within their footprint. Um no major changes to the ticketed event pages other than we did add that attendees of any age that are admitted for free to any a ticketed event must be reflected in the ticket capacity and count towards the total number of tickets sold. that if you're giving free tickets for whatever demographic of people, that counts towards your 750 or your 3500. Um, and that's not additional participants that you're getting um to your event. Um, no major changes to the street,

I'm sorry. How would how would we keep track of that? How would we know? Yeah. So that would fall to the event organizer if it's either issuing a ticket that costs $0 um just so they have a record of it on is the recommendation for that. Thank you. Sorry.

Um no changes to street usage or 5ks other than noting that applicants are required to hire their offduty police officers prior to the event. I believe the wordage in the previous manual was after. Um but that needs to be done and coordinated with the police department ahead of time. Um the only major change to the alcohol permitting requirements was we had previously required um applicants to provide proof of 501c status. Um and because there was no u further justification other than that being part of the permitting requirements that was taken out um in this version. Um I did add a new page about food trucks um and the food truck requirements for events. It does have excerpts uh directly from the ordinances about food trucks. Um and I would look to add that the event organizers submit a list of the food trucks that they have at their events just so we can ensure that they're either um town permit holders or we can issue them a onetime special event permit. Um per the new ordinance. Uh there were no changes to the tents and canopy pages. Um there is a section now under special considerations about event priority just that um where we review applications based on um the date received. Um I added a section about making sure that events comply with town ordinances other than those outlined in the special events manual. Um, I added a section about our online special events calendar notifying event organizers that events that are approved through the town um will have their event details shared on our website under the special events calendar page. For requirements and accommodations, I flushed out the advertising section a little bit to clarify that events that have not been approved by the town or the special events committee um should not be promoting or advertising their events until they have that approval. um and that it just kind of outlines that

they need to meet the requirements um and that they're not permitted to use the town of Surf City logo um in their in their events. Um and then also in that requirements and accommodation section, there is an area um or a section about event accessibility. Um and I know that Southside Park is inherently ADA accessible, but just making sure that event organizers are thinking about how um that impacts the attendees of their events. And then the portable restroom page stayed the same in terms of what's required um by law or what's recommended based on ADA compliancy and based on the number of people attending in the duration of the event. Um and then the last three pages are new as well. The application requirements is just a list for event organizers to be able to reference to make sure that they have submitted all of the documentation required. Um, and then something that we're looking to add for the 2026 event cycle is the actual issuance of a special event permit. That's not something that we've done in the past. So, giving them an actual piece of paper from the parks and rec staff that says that their events been approved and that they have the right to the park for that day. Um, so that kind of outlines when the permit would be issued and then anything that would result in the permit being revoked. And then the very last page um explains how to apply and then it has a little chart of the deadlines and what's required. Um 90 days out, 30 days out, 14 days prior, 7 days post, and 14 days post. And if there's any specific questions

on the how to apply those deadlines. I know we talked about um earlier you maybe have mentioned like right now it's January 1st.

Um right now the applications usually open in November. Um, and so we've been talking about potentially switching that into some point in the summer just because with these new deadlines, like needing to have your application fee paid and your application submitted 90 days prior for an event that happens in January, like I know the dolphin dip is January 1st every year. Like that doesn't meet that requirement. And if it's beneficial to move that application date opening, I don't know if there was any specific reason why it was November. I just know that's how it's been done historically. If someone's having any event, it's just like, let's just say it opens in July. So, you change it from January 1st to July 1st. As far as, you know, saving your date, they just have to save the date or do they have to actually apply?

They submit the date of their event in the application. Is that the question? So right here it says how to apply 90 just 90 days. 90 days out ahead of 90 days out at least. Yeah. Okay. So it can be longer. They can do nine months prior. Yes. But it's just at least 90 days because it gives us the time internally to make sure that all this other stuff is collected ahead of time, but they can

like there's certain events that happen throughout town and like let's take um Ocean Fest. They were saying the first weekend in May. So, you're going to go ahead and pencil them in. And if they need to, they need to apply 90 days prior,

they can apply as soon as the application opens. Okay. It's just saying it's more for like an event like that wants to come and do an event next month that we don't have enough time to make sure that we're coordinating police and everything else internally and getting them to present and things like that. That that's what the 90 days is for. But there's no opposite. There's no too far out ahead that you can if that makes sense. Um, we're going to notify anybody that's had an event in the past three years here of these updates once it's approved and they'll be strongly encouraged if you intend on having having a recurring event that you should apply for your event on the first day that the application opens. Uh, as Bella said, we're hopeful that November one will be pushed a little earlier, like July 1, August one, so we will have a time frame where the earlier events in the year will have enough time to get their ducks in a row and get with staff to make sure we're all lined up. But now, if you know you're doing something the same time every year, that first day of your application, you'll be reminded to go ahead and apply so you can retain your your date. You probably you probably mentioned this, but I might have missed it because I was trying to read and write at the same time. Um, okay. So, the 501c3s, that's the charitable events, right? Um, we were talking about at the last meeting, uh, about nailing down that the address for the 501c3 had to be a surf city address, not a PO box, but an actual actual address. Do we clarify that or did we do something with that?

Um, so I'm still working on revising the sponsorship policy. Um, because I was trying to flesh out more about what's actually awarded and like weighing that. I'm I'm just talking about for the discounted, you know. Yeah, that will be fee be clarified. Yeah, as long as they're a surf city. Why would that make a difference? I'm confused on that. Because if I live if I lived in Wesburg, cancer is everywhere in the world. What's that? I said, but if you're raising money for cancer, cancer is everywhere in the world. I guess we just discussed it, Q. I don't I'm not saying it's stone, but I'm just saying we discussed it at the meeting, not here. We discussed it at the the parks meeting. I just don't know why that would be

it was an issue because some some have post office boxes and they don't live here but you know if you're going to afford to give a discount to a resident they're having their thing here. It should apply for a resident. We try to take care of our residents. We don't try to take care of people from the outside. But I mean if if that's what everybody decides that's fine. I'm just bringing it up because it was an issue we were talking about. Yeah. I understand. I could definitely understand the discount for the res. I just that's what it's about. It's not a hard thing to prove. 50 C was charities. It is, but we give the charities a discount on their application fee.

The way that the policy is currently written is like either the 501c has to be located in Surf City or like the main organizer or like the representative of the organization. That's what it's for. City. Will we get to vote on that or would that to come through committee? We're looking for consensus uh here to move forward with the special events manual in the future. Would that be something we

Well, I'm curious. So, I I know this was a lot to take on and I appreciate any updates or revisions and now we're having some qu we need questions. I get that. But I'm curious is do we have a good um idea that we've captured all of the you know issues and concerns and problems that were popping up or you know discrepancies or whatever. I mean, I didn't know what the process was for you to have a good list of, hey, this has been not really clear in the past and like I don't know what what was what thought was put into that to make sure that we're capturing everything.

I had a lot of discussions um with staff who have seen the events go before and then um when I was actually writing the manual, I referenced about I think six or eight um other special event manuals from larger cities, coastal towns like Britsville Beach, Jacksonville. Um I was looking at what they have written out and saw the things that they might have addressed that we hadn't. Okay. Um to kind of fill in the holes that does our pet committee have any play in that? I don't pet or the parks and rec they did the committees did this go through did this this manual go through both of those committees and they for them to look at the PRC and special events committee was all referenced. Um did they look at this before you gave it to us? Yes, they were. Yeah, you guys.

We have not seen that manual that you just created. No, sir. Did we send this to pet? I had it at the meeting. Yeah, the meeting that we didn't have this month. No, the meeting the month before. Yeah, this isn't Yeah, this isn't for that. I just was curious. We're just curious. I just want to capture everything. That's that was my question or comment and and we just had a simple thing we wanted to understand about the charitable um companies and res.

Once that's um revised, I'm happy to bring it back to you for your approval. I think one of the ideas to this was to take out the old stuff that we didn't cover and put the new things in in play because I know that we've been giving away a lot of stuff over the last 10 15 years where we didn't do it like the fee schedule and things like that. So I that's what I thought it was to just uh

I just want to make a note about that as well. In the previous versions, there was like a table of the fees um included in the manual, but after staff had reviewed it, we' taken that out so that the fee schedule will just be alongside the manual. So, it doesn't have to be like input every year. That would be part of the budget. As far as when we said the budget on the fees, it just won't be like actually updated inual. I mean, just like Frank said, this is we used to only have a couple events. Now, there's just a lot. So, I'm just trying to help us all be smarter about it. So, and I don't know how relevant it is, but before I was here, I worked exclusively in rentals in Durham. And so, I knew the process is very

um we need and Bell has done it to define the what we need as a town, our our personnel, what our event management looks like, and um emergency services, what they need in order for things to run smoothly.

Okay. I think the two things that I would like to see um is specifically like be able to point people directly to where the ABC rules and regulations are for that type of permitting. If we are no we're kind of backing down on it seems like on some of our requirements. So, you know, if if we're going to do that, then let's just state like please follow ABC standards for special events seen wherever. I think that's beneficial as a whole. Um, and the same thing for the ADA compliance. Um, I know the park in general is accessible, but if you're doing other events where they're having to get around through the grass and stuff, I know that was a big thing we heard in parks and wreck a lot after some of the other events is that the wheelchair accessibility throughout the the more grassy areas of the park where the vendors or whatever is that they really can't get to and from those areas. So, um, if there's a way for us to kind of direct them to where that specific information is so it's not left a loft. So, it sounds like maybe we should bring this back next month and to the workshop and let's review it again. As far as some of the items that I've heard, just making notes going through was um ABC permits. The there was a item on special considerations under event priority and parking. It says, "Please note that paid parking is in effect from May through November and that should be May through October." Um, parking starts

April 1st. April 1st. March. March. March. Paid parking. Yeah. 15th through April. Parking is so that those are Yeah. March.

March through 8 through October. So there's there's there's some in inconsistent inconsistencies that we just need to clarify. Um, and we can all just make notes and send those in individually to to Kyle if y'all if you would like. Um, and then we'll bring it back. One thing other thing that I did not see in here was about the boat ramp closures um to where one event couldn't have one event can't close the park for two days as far as like the boat ramp cannot close. Um, and making sure that that the process for closing the boat ramp does come before the town manager to be signed off on.

That will be added.

You did just cuz John um mentioned you do in the sponsorship policy which I think is what you were kind of referring to as far as giving stuff away. does say the organizer for the nonprofit or nonprofit itself must reside in Surf City. The event organizer must submit a letter and that's for the town to be able to essentially wave a portion up to $500 of the fees that are affiliated with that specific nonprofit's event. So, I think that's kind of what you were talking about. I don't think I don't think we want to turn nonprofits away as a whole. Like we want to invite any nonprofit to come here and be able to do that. But if we're going to wave some sort of our fees, then they need to be able to show that they're resident here or whatever. It's hard to force a nonprofit to not have a PO box because they don't always have like an office or something that they work out of. So, I feel like that verbiage is appropriate in that regard. It's to give the people that live here a little bit of a discount as opposed to people that don't. I mean, that's what we just

I think that's what we base our whole thing on. We have residents, we have taxpayers, we want to take care of them as much as we can. All right. So, do we have consensus to table this to next month and bring back more comments? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for that work. I know that was a lot. Um, next up is item number eight, Broadway Safety Enhancement Project. And I think Frank is Yeah, there you go.

Hello again. Um so it was uh noted in the master plan that Nelva Park needed to be um have some sort of enclosure to help deter uh anybody using the playground from leaving the playground uh too quickly or unauthorized for the children. Uh at that point it was also noted that um the crosswalk there should be highlighted and so Amy Hubard and Kyle have um gone and gotten quotes for some rectangular rapid flashing beacons um and signs at either end of the crosswalk to assist people going back and forth. Um uh access 5 is also right next to Nelva and there is a moi map there so many people are crossing the street in wheelchairs as well and with strollers and such. So, um this would just uh create a safer environment across the street to um use the park and have the kids fenced in during their stay there. Um based on those two additions, it would be approximately $20,000. And um we're just looking for consensus to move forward and uh staff will provide a budget ordinance amendment uh for final approval if this is approved. It's actually in your packet that BOA

right here. Does anyone have any questions? I know this says as as far as like the children, the parents of the children and visitors that use that Neba Alberry Park, it does this within, you know, 20 ft of a state highway. And I know it's been a a concern that, you know, a you know, a child's going to run out in the middle of the state highway there. So, it's my understanding that the the fence would go on in front of North New River Drive.

Correct. So, if you're standing in the parking lot looking at New River, um it will encompass the playground. Um, and also the picnic shelter, uh, out the gazebo will stay outside, the signage will stay outside the fence, and so the the 4 in or 4ft vinyl fencing will be slid slotted, so you still be able to see through. Um, you won't be able to get through. Uh, that would defeat the purpose, but it won't be an eyesore by any means, and it will provide that safety feature. Um, the I know it's been requested in the past, and again, it was highlighted in the most recent master plan. Do we have consensus to move forward with this project? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Okay. Thank you, Frank. Awesome. Thank you. A next up is facilities expansion project update and David Price will come forward and introduce and tell us a little bit about what's going on.

I appreciate it. um gentlemen behind me um are from Dr. Reynolds. Uh Dr. Reynolds has been contracted to expand three of our sites. Uh the one that's taking the most attention right now is a public utilities complex. It used to be 1220 Highway 210, the old uh um PD station 2. Um like I said, the gentleman here would like to give you update.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Um I'm Bob Ross with Dr. Reynolds and I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about the financial end of the project. Nate Stroven is the project manager in charge of making sure everything gets built properly into the standards. But as of right now today at station 25 with over 50% of the buyout complete um we're at a savings at approximately $18,000 and we have not used any contingency nor which was $100,000 between the city and D Reynolds and then also there was another $75,000 inflation that luckily we have not been burdened with the inflation that we saw before summer got here. Um, so those monies are still intact and untouched and that's at station 25 for the addition. Um, I have a complete breakdown of everything that's been bought out, where the pluses and minuses are, but it is going well. Um, and I'll let Nate talk to you more about schedule and where we are permitting wise on those projects. The pub building, um, we currently are at a tremendous savings. um some of which have been uh scope changes in what we're doing, but the savings currently are in excess of $400,000. And we have a inflation budget of 150,000 that's not been touched nor the um we have $150,000 in total contingencies that have not been touched. So financially, the projects are going well. Um, I'll let Nate touch on it more, but you can see there is work and you, if you wonder about the pub building, we stripped it down to the bones. Um, it's now time to start enclosing, adding on, and making a change to that building, and it'll be

unrecognizable as what it once was when we get done with it. So, I'm going to, if you have any questions financially, I can answer them. If you have any questions about the other, that's what Nate's here for. I was just going to ask you about the time frame.

Yep. We can go over time frame. Um for public utilities building, we have a um timeline and a schedule which I will post for everyone to see um through Mr. Brewer. Um we're looking at like a May June end date for phase one on public utilities. um to give you an update on schedule for station 25. We are waiting on updated structural drawings now that we have a a pre-engineered metal building that's going on the end of our apparatus bay. Um so that's in the hands of the structural engineer. We plan on being out there in two to three weeks. Um there's not much grading on that project, so we'll be putting in our building pad and then erecting the metal building and going from there. But um does that answer your question? I summer of 26.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yep. Thank you.

Yep. Um to go back to station 25, we're looking at about a six-month time frame for that build as well. So, it'll fall in line right along with public utilities phase one. Um just a quick building update for public utilities. We've got all the utilities pulled off of the building. If you drive by there, you can see we've got the roof demolished, the front wall demolished, and all the skin off the building. Um sometimes progress is making things smaller. Um but um I think we're starting off pretty well there. Um clearing and grubbing in the back and that's for the park additional parking lot in the back. Um we're going to have additional surveys, some elevations and building corners surveyed today and we'll be starting on our building pad behind the building uh the existing building next week. Little four-week look ahead um grading around the building, putting in the rear parking lot. What we're going to do to keep the job clean and to keep tires clean going on and off the job, we're going to put down stone around basically the whole building for everybody's parking, our construction entrance, everybody coming in and out. We'll have 4 in of ABC stone to keep keep tires clean. Um, waiting on a DOT permit to be issued for our driveway and that should be coming any day. Um, in next week we'll be starting on underground plumbing and underground electrical behind the building and steel is set to be delivered November 13th in which we plan on have going vertical once we get the steel on the ground. Um, also working closely with Jones Enslo getting a T- bolt tap pole put in. We've got we've got all electrical off of the building right now. Um, for station 25, we're waiting on structural drawings to be finalized. um two to three week start time on that. Putting in building pad and underground utilities and that's the four-week look ahead on that. Um phase two, which we're working very closely with Mr. Price. Um we're at about 80% design and it'll be going into the architect next week. We're designing the utilities going

around the building right now. Um also quick update on community center design contract. We just received a survey and too on the entire property. That was a lot. A lot of good things happening. Yes, ma'am.

We expect to come back to you within the next 45 days with a GMP for the three public utility buildings in the rear along with all the associated grading, driveways, and things necessary for that. And we look to be setting up a meeting with Kyle to discuss the community center. We know the um wetlands delineations. We had the survey in Toppo. Now we got to try to figure out where can we put this building on that piece of property. So, um that is our all that's going to be in November. So, we are Yes, ma'am. working working forward, but um

we're just starting, but we really appreciate being here in Surf City and working with y'all on this project. So, thank you. It was a great update. Yeah. Looking forward to taking a tour of the progress. If anybody goes out there, the superintendent's name is Ken. Check in with him. He'll give you the appropriate PPE to see whatever you want to look at. Okay. Anyone have any questions? Okay. Thank you both for the update. Thank you. I don't know if um Mr. David wants to mention anything about the um garage at the bottom of the hill.

Yes, I'll appreciate that, Mayor. Um, as you may know, a lot of town facilities have been moving around lately. The, uh, welcome center move out happened last Monday. Um, we got the pivot parking building. Uh, we got station 2, which used to hold police department and FNG. Um, they no longer have use. So, a lot of things moving around, a lot of things going in storage. In order to answer this, what was budgeted was another building to be put up. It's strictly a storage building. No offices at the bottom of the hill. has a 30 by 50 building that PD and facilities and grounds will utilize together. Uh Chris has got his final bids. Uh we are under budget on that. Um we're going to contract out the 30x50 slab and the uh 30x50 building. All electrical and HBAC anything like that will be done by town staff as a cost savings. Uh we're looking about 45 days out on that. Okay.

Thank you very much, David. All right. Next item up is cancel meeting times. So, we h we've had some request. You going to take this, Carla?

I can. Okay. Um, this was brought to you last work session in September as a possible discussion of changing meeting times. Um, I think specifically you were speaking about the first Tuesday of the month. So, you had asked for more information and Mr. Wright was able to get that stuff together for you. It's just in front of you that has some basic numbers on how many people are watching it online. Um, you have their concurrent viewers, meaning that they're watching while it's taking place and then you have how many views afterwards. Uh, it varies quite a bit. I think that depends on the content of the meeting. And then you also have there how many uh public comments there were at each meeting. Unfortunately, we were unable to get an actual count of how many people attend each meeting. I do know the last couple we've had a full room, but it again that varies depending on the subject. So,

and and the reason for the request is basically coming from um social media or um just residents that live here stating that the 4:30 time is too early for them to get here. Correct. I believe that's why it was brought to your attention. So, I'm going to let um everybody make a comment if they they choose to do so. 53 views since published. That's people that are online watching it. That's people that have watched it since the meeting took place. So they could have watched it directly after or two or three weeks later

and the concurrent is who's watching it while it's going on. Assume that these are people that aren't attending the meeting, right? I mean, unless they want to watch it or maybe they missed something and want to watch it again. Yeah,

I think the online option is extremely valuable. Um, you know, we don't even know where those people are that are viewing it. It could be um homeowners who who don't live here and live somewhere else. So, I think, you know, that they wouldn't come here anyway if the meeting was early or late or whatever, they don't live here. Um, but my my personal opinion, just my own personal life and all that. I don't I don't mind if the meeting time has changed at all. Um, I have had a lot of people request that we have it at a different time and and um and that that doesn't concern me. I think we had a question about how did that affect staff that we require to be here at the meetings. So, you know,

I mean, most of your department heads would need to stay after as well as your IT folks, um, some police officers at the door. So just I mean those are usually who are attendings. Do we determine what the cost would be? No, because most likely if it's department heads that it's going to be more in their time. So they would just build up extra time. So they build What do you mean they build up extra time? Like time off. They go over 40 hours, which they would if they're staying later than that, which they don't do now. uh sometimes but well if it runs over I mean

yeah for meetings generally not I think if if if it's uh if it's a possibility of changing it to 6:00 I think it should be changed maybe to 6:00 and then have a trial period to see I wouldn't just eliminate it and change it to 6:00 and I'd say give it 3 months at six o'clock to see what the difference is and like you said it all depends on what is on the agenda Yeah, basically right. Do you have to post the entire schedule for the year at one time or are we allowed to make changes in meeting times? How does that work?

You can change a meeting time up to even a couple of days before a meeting. Now, we do publish it for the year in local paper and online, but it can be changed. It's not if we published it, we could list it that this is a trial period, right? Yeah. I mean, and we can just identify it to what it is, you we can publish it and always, you know, I could change it each week even um as far as what's published in the paper ahead of time.

See, my personal opinion is that if it's important enough to you, you will be here whether it's 4:00 or whether it's 6:00, you're going to show up unless you're just going to want to view it at home or you just want to view it a few days afterwards. But if you have an issue that pertains to yourself personally, you're going to make an adjustment to make you to meet be here. And I know that some discussion has been around and people have said, "Well, you know, I can't leave my business um and and whatnot like this, but if it's important enough to you, and I look at it as 6:00 where uh some families are getting ready to sit down at dinner, uh kids have to do homework, kids have to take baths, people have to take care of their children, and they might be able to get here at 4, but uh you know, in that case, it's either the husband or the wife's going to be here or nobody's going to be here because they've got other things that are planned in their daily routine. But that's just a personal opinion of myself.

I can't say that I disagree with changing it and trying it. Um I going to float this out there. I thought of this the other day. If we're going to look at changing that one, I think we need to look at changing this one, too. If you can't be here at 4:30, you probably can't be here at 9:00. Maybe move it to a Thursday. I'm just spitballing. Maybe move this meeting to a Thursday evening. Free up your day. As far as the impact on staff, if you if you happen to catch a three-day weekend, you wouldn't have to worry about being at a 9:00 workshop on Friday. Just a thought. I'll be here whenever y'all say to me, you know, and we all I think we're all saying that.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. We'll all be here whenever we decide. We'll be here. I think what we do is make the change in February. you, the citizens want the change, make the change. Citizens don't show up, we change back to where we were. We put the monkey on their back. If they if nobody shows up for and and if the change is made and no one goes with the change, then we go back to as it was. If it it was impactful, we stick with it. How long you I'm with you. I think when I don't think I How long do we decide, okay, this made a difference? I mean, you can at least give it three to six months. I think I think that's fair. Three to six months. I don't think I don't think we have to haste and rush into anything, right? I mean, but I think we should change it. I think we should change it.

I think you'll know after three months because two meetings a month, that's six meetings, right?

That depends. I So, you can say that it has to do with what the content is. And yes, we have more people show up depending on what the subject matter is. But that still doesn't negate the fact that somebody that has to work until 5:00, it's not fair to ask them to take off work so that they can physically be here and voice their opinion or concern on whatever we might have going on in the community because that the that's I would never expect somebody to to you know it's one thing you got to take off work to take doctor's appointments and whatever else like to come here to be able to be a voice of a community isn't something that we should ask somebody to give up their livelihood for. So

that's my yeah when we talk about people who are um putting kids to bed or doing dinner or whatever those are things that you can can come up with some adjustments for but when you are reporting to an employer um that's more challenging. So and I think a minimum if we're going to do a trial period I think we need to do at least six months um especially given that we you know we start and in the budget is obviously a big contender in this. So given that we really start looking at budget stuff in January and February and then we don't approve something until possibly June, I think we need at least 6 months to cover at least the full budget season.

I have one concern um when Hugh mentioned changing the work session. Um and that's that that March budget work session is about to that's five or six hours long. Well, one year, last year it was 7 hours and this year it was 5 hours that we were here. Um, I don't know how to do that in the evening.

Well, and I don't I feel like the the work session, the reason this is here is for us to to more often than not be able to have conversation on things that we're wanting to happen down the road. Yeah. Um, I think we'd be better suited to make sure that if there's something that really is is pliable to like for example this conversation instead of us just signing off on this today, this should get put on the agenda for next month for us to actually have a vote on so people have the opportunity to come and talk about it. Um, so I think not necessarily changing the workshop time, but maybe making sure we're a little bit more tactful on things that people might want to discuss. And if it means we we still come up with a consensus, but we put it back on the regular agenda for the following meeting um for a vote, I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. I don't disagree with any of this, but uh you know to get back to people coming at 4:30 or 4:00 or 9:00 um you know as far as affecting their personal life, you know, you get your oil changed. You get your oil changed when the guy has time to do it. You get a dentist appointment when the dentist has time to do it. So if you're going to alter your life to do that, well, if it's important, I go back to this whole thing. if it's important enough to you to come here to voice your opinion. Personally, if I wasn't here and I had something important, I would make sure I was here.

I would, you know, if I have to leave work or have to close my You're not closing your business. You're walking out of your your business and you might be the boss, you might be a worker, and they assume that that's going to happen. If uh you come up and say, "Listen, I got to I got I got a doctor's appointment at 2:00. I got to leave early today." You know, your employer is not going to say, "No, you can't leave." Telling your doctor you can only get there at 5. I understand, but I think the demands on people and their families have just the list is longer and so you can find yourself taking off at work every day for something. So, yeah, I think we should change a meeting. Let's I think we should change the workshop.

I think let's bring it what I've heard. Let's bring it back to the November meeting under that'll be old business

um in November so we can discuss this in in public forum. Um, and it sounds like there's a possibility of changing at least for a 6-month period for possibly the council meeting and the workshop meeting um to be possibly at 6:00 p.m. And then other than that, the special budget sessions would have to adjust those times because of the length that they run. Friday at 6 for the work session. Um, we're saying Thursday is what I heard at 6. Change of the day and time.

Thursday's planning board meeting. That's the other thing with moving both of them around as we have depends on how it falls. We'd have to look at the schedule for a year, but I can work on that. See if there be any comments. Instead of do moving Why would we move it to a Thursday? Why don't we just do it to say we we have it? We have this. Well, maybe on Oh, cuz workshop stay that late on a Friday. Well, see, well, now you're inconveniencing people again, you know, but but so we would keep the Tuesday work uh council meeting the same and just change the workshop to Thursday instead of Friday. Yes, that we're saying. Yes. Okay. So, be Thursday night instead of Friday.

I will check what we said. No, I will check the schedules. Um the Tuesday changing that to later would not be an issue as far as the calendar and other meetings, but the Thursday I would need to look and see if there's any conflict there. There may not be. Okay. All right. Does everybody have consensus to bring this and put it on the agenda for November under old business? Yes, certainly. Awesome. Okay. Um, with that being said, do I have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I second. All those in favor say I. I.

Motion is carried. We are adjourned. Thank you. [Music]