City Council - Regular Meeting

called to order. It's good to see all of you this afternoon on this Monday evening. And um do want to remind you that we have agendas back here on the podium. So if you want to grab one of those, you're certainly welcome to and kind of follow along with us on everything that's going on. Um our first order of business uh when we have our council workshop, excuse me, our council meetings is always our prayer and our pledge. And so um Josh Reynolds is going to lead us in our prayer. And then following that, council member Lester Chromemer is going to lead us in our pledge. So Josh, I'll turn it over to you.

Dear heavenly gracious father, Lord, we just thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you giving us this time of fellowship, Lord. And we ask that you guide us with your wisdom, Lord, as we make these very important decisions for the city of Tiffan. Lord, we just thank you and pray for all that you do. In your son and gracious name we pray. Amen. 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.

Thank you, gentlemen. All right. Uh we have next the approval of our agenda and uh you have that before you. Jessica sends that out to us and to the uh media and plenty of time to review that and meet our public notice um recommendations from the state. So, I will take a motion concerning that agenda. If there's approval or any changes you want to make, move to approve. Second. All right. So, I have a motion to approve uh and a second to approve as submitted. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? And that carries. Next, we have the approval of two sets of minutes that are in your packet. the minutes from March the 2nd and from April the 6th and uh those detailed minutes are there and have been available for your review. So I'll take a motion concerning those minutes. Move to approve. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. So we have a motion and a second on approving both of those sets of minutes. Any further discussion? All in favor please say I.

I. Any opposed? And that is also carries. All right. Uh this is the time where we have public input at our meeting. So just anybody signed up for public input? Okay. Did anybody want to speak and didn't know they needed to sign up? I just want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to speak if you'd like to. Okay. All right. Moving along. We have two presentations coming up. Um the first one is our proclamation celebrating Georgia C's week and that is this entire week and it's something we do uh in conjunction with the Georgia Municipal Association and I have lots and lots of really nice events that are scheduled. Um, Caroline, do you want to give us a brief reminder of everything that's going on and then I'll read through the proclamation quickly and because they have the city staff has put together just an amazing week of uh, activities.

Yes. Heart pin on. So, everybody grab your heart pin while you're in city hall today just to show your love for Tiffan. Um, it's just a fun way to show how how much we love the place we live. We've got secure shredding taking place all week long. People love that one. They can clean out their closets of secure documents they may not want to throw in the trash. Bring them to city hall. Bring them to Lever Rogers. Um, and we'll take them. We've also got rock painting in the KTB Garden Wednesday 4 to 6:00 p.m. So, bring all your kids. We'll paint rocks. We'll celebrate Earth Day. Our tree guys will be there teaching kids about trees and nature. So, that'll be fun. Everybody loves the tree guys.

They do. They have gotten really popular in Tipton and we love them, too. So, we're celebrating them. This week we've got um job fairs that will be out Thursday. We've got line dancing on Friday that we're really excited for and we've got a tire drop off on Saturday. So clean out your yard, get rid of your old tires and bring them to the KO night parking lot and we will take those. So a great opportunity to clean up your yard, come dance with us. It's a good week and we're really excited.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for that reminder. And just quickly read through our proclamation um celebrating Georgia cities week. The city government is the closest governance to the people it serves and the one government with the most direct daily impact upon its residents. And city government is administered for and by its citizens and is dependent upon public commitment to and understanding of its many responsibilities. And city government officials and public employees share the responsibility to pass along their understanding of public services and their benefits. And Georgia Cities Week is a very important time to recognize the important role played by city government in our lives. And the Georgia Municipal Association and its member cities have joined together to promote Georgia cities by showcasing activities, community involvement, and public information. And this week offers an important opportunity to spread the word to all citizens of Georgia that they can shape, influence, and truly impact their local government through civic involvement. And now therefore, I, Julie Smith, mayor of the city, do hereby proclaim April 20th through 25th. 2026 is Georgia C's week and encourage all citizens, officials, and employees to do everything possible to ensure that this week is recognized and celebrated accordingly. And I have signed it and Jessica White, our city clerk, has signed it, and it has our city seal. So, we will be sending this to the Georgia Municipal Association, showing that we and the other 536 cities in this state are celebrating and and thankful for the work that goes on within our local cities. Our next um item is something that's very important and something we're very very proud of. I'm going to call Adam Cobb to come up to the podium. Uh this is the presentation of the James E. Dove Memorial Scholarship Award. And I do want to recognize Michelle Dove Harris. Michelle is here. She is Ernest Dove's daughter. And many of you remember Ernest. He was just such a fine gentleman and worked with our fire department for many years. And she's the granddaughter of James E. Dove that the scholarship is named for. So, we're glad to have you here with us, Michelle, tonight and appreciate the um the legacy

that your family has left for the city of Tiffan. So, Adam, we'll turn it over to you. You're taking a little bit away from him, but I'm sorry. It is it is quite all right.

So, uh it's that time of year again where we get to um honor two people. We get to honor the memorial memory of James E. Dove uh through a scholarship to a welldeserving um high school student. And um today we are going to be presenting Tyrie Brown and I'll bring him up in just a second. Um but I've got a little little statement I want to read out that um I've entitled Return on Investment. So one of Mr. James E. Dub's accomplishments while working with the city of Tiffan was investing his time, efforts, and expertise in starting the natural gas system. In return, we currently have a natural gas system that provides service to approximately 4,100 customers. Mr. Dove also invested a strong work ethic into his family, and in return, his son, Ernest Dove, came to work and retired as a firefighter with the city of Tiffan. We're honored to have some of Mr. Dove's family present today and they would like to carry on their tradition of their patriarch of investing in the community. With this, they have partnered with the city of Tiffson's natural gas department to offer memorial scholarship to a deserving local high school student and that's going to be Tyrie Brown. And um the hope is in return that this senior will be able to gain a higher level of education and invest back into whatever community that that he falls into. This year although application process all through the application process included an essay um with many applicants, Tyrie Brown was selected. I want Tyrie to come up here and he's going to be receiving this scholarship. So all of you, I want you to meet Tyrie Brown.

Hey, how y'all doing? Tyrie is an exemplary student and plans on attending Lincoln Tech to invest in his dream of entering the trades, which is really awesome. He intends on using his higher education from the trade school to either join an existing team or maybe even start up his own HVAC business. We wish the best to Tyrie and hope he excels in his field of study. Selfishly, we hope that he returns back to Tiffan, but we have faith that wherever he falls, he'll be an asset. Um, Tyrie, we want to recognize you with this scholarship of $1,000. Here's your check.

Thank you. And we uh I'd like to ask for everyone to please give Tyrie an applause. Now, Tyrie is joined by a group of folks. And if y'all want to, um, if anyone would like to say something on behalf of Tyrie, that's fine. Or Tyrie, if you want to speak, that would be fine. Tyrie, why don't you introduce us to your entourage you brought with you this evening? We'd love to hear their names and see them. At the end down here, I got my auntie who got me out of the hospital when I was first born.

Yes, ma'am. And next to her, her daughter, which I call my mama, and my little brother, my cousin, my auntie, and my other cousin. It's wonderful to meet y'all. Thank you for being here. And you didn't mention this one. I'm not I'm not overlook myself. And my pastor, that's my cousin slash my cousin under the pastor of the church that Bobby P. We are very, very proud of you, Ty. employed here with the city for a long time and I work with the war department and like I said if he do once he once he get his his degree where he's working in and I know I spoke to Adam you know y'all got traffic signals and all he'll do all kind of stuff. Oh yeah and he have a job here like I say if he want to come home. That's right. That's wonderful. Give back to the community.

That is wonderful. Come on. I want to say something. I'm very proud of my nephew slash I'm his auntie grandma

and I just love him so much. I got him a day old out the hospital and my brother called me and say Michelle would you come? They going to try to take my baby from I know it's too much but they going to take my baby cuz things was going on and I say my mama always taught us to stick together. So I got up and I went and got to the hospital and I met with the defax office and they did all kind of investigation home checks and everything and I wound up getting him. I had to go through classes to get him and it was a joy. But my daughter had lost her baby right before prior to that. And so I knew that this would be a joy for her to help her get better. And it did. She came in and she took care like it was her own baby. Well, I was able to go to work and come back home and just to see him grow and thrive to be a great young man and listen to me. It hadn't been the easy road because he lost his father five years ago. But we stayed on him and we encouraged him and loved him. And I just know love is always the best key for anything. Love can bring anything together. We loved him and I'm just so proud. My heart is overjoyed. And I thank the Dove family for this award. Thank the city of Tiffan. You all don't know that what this means to us to make him to see him thrive and to go have a better life because we instill in him love and to keep on going no matter what's going on around you to stay focused. We want him to be a prosperous great young man and thank you all so much.

Thank you. Y

TYRIE, we are so proud of you, too. So, um this is home so you always got a spot. So you know that. So uh so so good luck and congratulations. Very very proud of you and very proud of the family that you have. So you've been very fortunate. All right, gentlemen. Um our next items on our agenda is our consent agenda. And as you know, we can take all of those together or we can take them individually. So I'll open the floor up for a motion on how you'd like to move forward with consent agenda. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion of approval for all these together. Okay. Second.

All right. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And that carries. All right, moving along to new business. Our next item is the ordinance amending the plan development overlay or PDO uh file for 31 North Real Estate Investors LLC for the property located at 2202 US Highway 41 North. We'll be reclassifying tract 5 and track 7 to general business. And the map and parcel number are there and everything. And as you know, we had our public hearing and we talked about that at the workshop. Um, is there does anyone uh need Rob to explain anything or answer any questions before we go? Okay. I didn't think so. This one's this one's pretty simple. Um, so I will open the floor for a motion concerning uh amending that PDIO.

I make a motion that we uh for approval amendment. All right. Thank you. So, have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That carries. We do have the owners of the development here, uh, Michael and John Bowen. Do y'all have anything you'd like to say or you don't have to I mean we've approved it so you're you're good to go. So no just like to thank you for your time and attention in this matter. We apologize for missing the workshop a couple weeks ago. You're fine.

No, it's fine. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Well, we appreciate the investment that you're making in Tiffan. So, thank you for that. All right. Uh the next item may be fairly new. I'm going to turn that over to Rojo to explain. This is um or to rob one or the other. Resolution abandoning and declaring surplus the city's property located on Love Avenue. American Church of God was uh doing some um deed work on this particular piece of property and it was determined that and I think you have this plat perhaps in your in your uh packet, but there's this piece of property that kind of goes on the west side of Love and the north side of 24th. and nobody can really determine what why it was that the city acquired the property uh by Mr. Tiff back in 1978. I asked Adam and I don't know if he's still here or not uh to do a utilities locate. Um I don't think that we have any utilities there but uh but the bottom line is is that that we have no need for this property. We can't understand why we have this property. Uh so we're asking the uh you know constitute just declare this property as surplus and abandoned and then it will dispose of it more than likely to the church of God.

Okay. I guess we are clear on the utilities and on I'm sorry. We are clear on this. Yes. Okay. All right. So I will take a motion concerning that resolution on that property. Make a motion. Okay. Thank you. So we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? And that does carry. Thank you. All right, moving along. Other business. We have our board report and um I was talking with Jessica earlier today and she's got that board report here in our packet. We have lots of folks um lots of positions open on boards. So, uh you can see those there. Two for keep tiff beautiful, two for Tiff and Tree board, two for planning and uh zoning, and then uh one on tourism. Jess, anything you want to add on any of those?

I just wanted to bring it back to you for a lot of that may be interested. I'm going to touch base with some of these members. They they might not want to continue serving or um may need to roll off. But uh just wanted to let y'all know in next month hopefully we'll have more of an update. Um but we do have a lot out there.

Okay. All right. And we really depend um for anybody watching on YouTube or or in the room with us, we really depend upon these boards to conduct the work of the city. And um some are a little busier than others, some require a little more training than others, but the city does provide the training at our expense. Um and it can be very rewarding to see the impact of the work that these boards do. So, um, so certainly encourage anyone who is out there that, uh, might be interested to contact Jessica and we'd love to have you come work with us. Any other questions or comments, gentlemen, about our board report? Good. Okay. All right. I'm going to call on Larry Lawrence to go over our financial reports. Larry,

good evening, M. just to give you a a financial update uh through March of this year. We're nine months through this year. So, we're pretty much on track of where we thought we'd be at this point of the year. Uh looking at the general fund, total revenues is 15,311,975 and total expenditures 14,146987 with net revenues over expenditures of 1,164 988. Uh if you you we since we're threequarters of the way through the year, we should have about 25% of our budget left for expenditures. And if you notice, we got 26%. So, I just want to compliment our department heads for the fine job that they do and

absolutely uh stay within the guidelines of their budget. So, if it wasn't for them, we we we'd be in a mess.

Been a mess. So, I appreciate them for that. Uh looking at the enterprise funds, the water fund is is doing good. Total revenues 3,53134. Total expenditures 2,621463 with net renews over expenditures 999,571. Sewer fund also doing well. Uh total revenues 4,343788. Total expenditures 3,34079. Net revenues over expenditures 1 million $3,78. Uh gas fund also doing well. Total revenues 4,86308. Total expenditures 4,110796 with net revenues over expenditures 752,221. And then solid waste, we still needing getting the tipping fee up to make this uh fund come into shape, but uh it's still above water. So total revenues is 3,490 763. Total expenditure is 3,110 267. Uh net revenues over expenditure is 308 380,495. And uh as everybody knows, we got about a year left on the landfill and the permit process is coming along. They're they should be finishing up the site approval where we'll have the whole footprint of the landfill for the expansion. So we'll be good for the next hundred years. So,

uh, but we but we're planning on just doing five acres at a slice at a time and, uh, the construction phase of that is probably going to be about $3 million and we've got $2 million set aside now for that. So, over the the next year, we need to generate the other million to help pay for that. But, uh, we're we're good shape as far as the expansion concerned, but we need to shore up our revenue a little bit. Exactly. And something, you know, we might want to look at is once we expand the landfield, we might can bring in another community like Mold Tree or Sylvester just to get the revenues up to help with the funds there. So, just something to think about in the future.

Okay. Very good. Gentlemen, you've got um those um the sort of recap that uh Larry just gave us, then you've got the detailed report in your packet. Any questions or anything that anyone needs any help with? Of course, I know you're always available afterwards if we see something or have a question, we can call you and always very generous with your time. So, okay. All right. Thank you for that, mayor. Appreciate that good report. All right. I'm going to call on Mr. Bobby Bennett, city manager of the city of Tiffan for his city manager report because he is the city manager of Tiffan.

Mayor, council, um the drainage of the park is complete. They started milling the roads today. So hopefully everything goes good. They will be through paving by the end of the week, which is like two weeks ahead of schedule, which is really a good blessing since we got Arts and Black coming up. Um I met Mr. Austin. He's the manager of Publix and he's real big on doing community service. So Wednesday, which is Earth Day, they going they're going to be going along Main Street in the areas all around cleaning up all the the flower beds that we have. So, I thought that was very generous. That's very generous.

Wonderful. All right. All right, gentlemen. Any questions of our city manager, Mr. Bobby Bennett? Y'all good? All right. All right. We will wrap up with mayor and council comments. So, does anybody want to jump in there? And you good to go? Mr. Franks, you good? I'm good. You got something? Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to recognize and introduce everybody to Lean Ele. Sean's a good friend of mine and he is running for school board. Okay. Yeah. This uh next month will be the No, no, it's November, right? Yes. And you're running for district four.

District four. So if you live in district four, I ask you to support John there and you got good things to come with the school board. So wonderful. Afterwards, you'd like to come meet everybody. I'll introduce you. Sounds good. Sounds good. All right. I think that kind of winds us up. So, um, no, we need executive session. Oh, okay. You were when I said Okay, I got ahead of you. All right. Well, if there's no more business to come before the city of Typton, then we are journed. So, thank you very much.