City Council - Regular Meeting

Good to see a room full of people this afternoon on this beautiful Monday in Tiffan, Georgia. I do want to remind you that we do have um our agendas are here on the podium if you want to grab one and kind of follow along with us. Also want to remind you that tonight's meeting is a workshop meeting, meaning the only thing that we'll actually vote on this evening will be the approval of our agenda. Everything else will be for discussion and then those items will be voted upon at our next meeting on the third Monday of the month. So, if you don't see us voting on things, don't be alarmed by that. That's kind of how we do business. So, uh, we are called to order. Gentlemen, you have the agenda in front of you and Jessica sends that out in plenty of time for us to review everything. So, I'll take a motion concerning our agenda tonight. Move to approve. Second.

So, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? And that does carry. Our first item is the presentation of the Anthony G. Baitman Scholarship. is um that gonna be Dr. Tiff, Jessica. Oh, there she is. I didn't see her. I didn't see you come in, Tanya. I'm sorry. So, uh we'll turn the floor over to Dr. Tiff who is the director of our youth uh center, and she does a fabulous job. So, what you got for us, Tanya?

Hi, we have our third scholarship recipient. You know, we've been doing this now for three years, and so we are excited to award our third scholarship recipient. and it seems like they just all keep going to Atlanta. It's just something about Atlanta. So, uh we're excited to award our third recipient, uh Miss Caitlyn Graves. And let me just tell you, I've known Caitlyn ever since before she was born. Okay.

Okay. So, I'm really excited that she is going to be our third recipient. She's going to be going to Clark Atlanta University. Uh our first two both went to Kennesaw State and so she's going to be going to Clark Atlanta. So, she's changing it up a little bit. still in Atlanta, but she's going to be going to Clark Atlanta. So, we're going to ask her to come up right now and uh receive first of all our plaque. Certainly, we do want to support the efforts of children and and and Caitlyn, her name is now etched as the third person on our perpetual plaque in the lobby of the Baitman Center. And I will tell you that we are working now uh now that we have a foundation, we're working to endow the foundation with a $25,000 endowment. So I'm working very hard to get that endowed at $25,000. Uh so just looking for any donations anybody want to donate donate to the foundation. So we're really really excited about that. So thank you all again for supporting the efforts of children and uh we're just looking forward to just continuing to do great things.

Wonderful. That's great news. Thank you. Caitlyn, what are you going to be studying when you go to Clark? Have you decided? Yes, ma'am. I'll be majoring political science and minoring in English to become a corporate. That's awesome. That'd be great. Good deal. Very good. That's really wonderful. And as part of her part of winning the scholarship, she has to go back and speak to the children at the Baitman Center and she will be doing that on Friday afternoon. So, we're excited to have her as a guest at guest speaker for the children at the Baitman Center. So, that is great. That's part of it. So, next year she'll come back and help me to present. Antoine couldn't be with us tonight. So, we we know we still of course are keeping up with him, but you know, she'll be with us next year to present to the next recipient. So,

wonderful. Let's give her another round of applause. That's awesome. And thank you for your work, Tanya, on that um endowment for that uh ongoing scholarship and and education. It's so important. I know when we approved the uh the youth center, this was this was a big dream of ours was to continue to um impact the lives of children in in our community. So, thank you for the work that you do. All right. Uh our next uh presentation, I've got a proclamation. So, I'm going to ask our friends who are going to join me for our mental health awareness month, if you'll join me down front and uh and we'll have this proclamation I will present to you. It's good to see everybody tonight. We have a camera that's right up here. So, you will be able to see your smiling face on YouTube tomorrow when we uh when we post our city council meeting. So, I'm going to uh to read this and uh and then I will be presenting to you and then if you'd like to say a few words, you certainly have the floor to do so. So, our proclamation is for mental health awareness month and the proclamation says mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being. And mental illnesses affect almost every family in America and millions of adults and children are disabled by mental illnesses every year. And people living with mental illnesses can recover if given the necessary services and support in their communities. and fewer than onethird of adults and one half of children with a diagnosible mental disorder receive mental health services in a given year. And stigma and misunderstanding prevent many individuals from seeking the help they need, while open dialogue and education about mental health help foster understanding, acceptance, and support. And promoting mental health and wellness leads to improved individual and community outcomes, including

healthier families, more productive workplaces, and stronger, more resilient communities. And mental health awareness month provides an opportunity to raise awareness, reduce stigma, encourage early intervention, and support those who are struggling, reinforcing that mental health is just as important as physical health. And now, therefore, I, Julie Smith, mayor of the city of Tiffan, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as mental health awareness month. And I further call upon our community to join me in promoting mental health wellness and supporting those living with mental health conditions and ensuring that all individuals have access to those services and the support that they need to thrive. And I have signed it today and Jessica White, our city clerk, has signed it. It has the official seal of the city. So I will present this to all of you on behalf of the city of Tiffan and be glad to let you say a few words if anyone would like to speak.

You good? Okay. Well, thank you very much for the work that you do. It's very much appreciated and it's something that our entire community needs to rally behind. So, thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right. Uh the next item on our agenda is um we have a friend in the audience and Miss Georgia Smith. She is the executive director of the Tiffan Council for the Arts. So Georgia, turn it over to you if you'll just come to the podium.

We love goodies. Yeah, we'll put him here and make sure that he gets that. Thank you. Thank you.

So, I am Georgia Smith, the new executive director for Tiffan Council for the Arts. I'm very privileged in that regard. Um, I'm sure all of you already know, but at the top of every speech that I give, I try to remind folks that our mission is to make the uh arts available, affordable, and accessible to all. We do that through free exhibits, events, lowcost art classes and art camps, as well as our annual arts affair festival and new public art initiatives. So, I'm here today though because I would like to just share some highlights of some notable accomplishments that we have seen in the past year or so. And you're going to hear a lot of firsts. So, I'm very particularly proud of that. We'll start last August. We had the first ever South Georgia Arts Symposium that is of TCA's creation. Uh we had over 20 arts organizations nat uh in the SID from all over the region to talk about the arts and how we can be supportive of each other. This is a unique creation that to my knowledge does not exist anywhere else in the state of Georgia and city our our city is we we made it happen and it's also we hope to be a yearly occurrence. We will share the location of the symposium around the region with other participants as well. Um we also had the hall of trees which many of you probably remember the hall of trees from many many years ago. It was a different sort of iteration. It was created uh on behalf of the garden clubs. Uh the one that we had this past year was a collaboration between us and Southwell. Uh and at the Hall of Trees and particularly the holiday hearts fundraising event, we were able to ra uh

fund raise thousands of dollars on behalf of other local nonprofits. This also happened in the SID. Um this year we had our first ever youth art month programming. So March is youth art month that is nationwide. This is our first year actually actively participating in it. Uh in collaboration with Tiff County Schools, we had our second art competition. Um I'm really proud to say that we had 260 pieces represented in that exhibit. That's the largest exhibit we have ever put on. We received over 800 entries and I got it down to 260. I said, "Y'all, I can't I can't whittle it down anymore. It's just too good." Um, so we had that and we also had some other programming that was free to TIFF County students as well as part of the uh, youth art month. And ongoing, it's yet to be revealed. We're we're still working on it's we're we're wrapping it up actually this week is a gigantic collaborative art piece that's going to go on display in the administration building of uh, Tiff County Schools. And that is, for lack of a better word, it's little tiny canvases, hundreds of them that create this gigantic piece. And each canvas was painted individually by a student at Tiff County. Um, that should go on display March 14th. I think it's it's imminent. It's coming soon. Um, in addition to that, we also just wrapped up our first ever Arts and Black exhibit that's ever happened inside of the Sid Blackmore Arts Center. Uh we're very proud of that. That collection featured local artists and it also featured selected pieces from the Georgia State Art Collection that we felt would complement what our local artists were contributing. It was a beautiful exhibit. I don't know if any of you got by to see there. We're very proud of it. We are very

proud of the partnership that we formed with the Arts and Black Committee to make that exhibit possible. and I look forward to it becoming a yearly event for us. Uh at that exhibit also I should note we had a piece on display that is a sneak peek of a major exhibit that's coming next year 2027 called the Newton legacy and that is featuring all artwork by Tiffan natives Harold Newton, Limu Newton and Samuel Newton. Now, I don't know if anybody in here knows who the Newton brothers are, but they are three of 20 some odd individuals that are ubiquitous in art history for the United States. And you know, the United States, we're not really known for much so far as an art movement. The um highwaymen movement is unique to the United States. It's a grassroots movement. These three gentlemen are the instigators of the movement. So they are the primary Harold is the most uh ubiquitous of them all and um they're all from Tiffan. So this is a homecoming for these gentlemen. Uh Harold and Liule unfortunately are deceased but Sam is alive. Sam will be joining us for this exhibit. We're extremely proud, extremely proud to feature artists who came from our town who created this movement that is nationwide. The artwork sells for thousands and thousands of dollars. It's a beautiful and unique experience that we look forward to hosting. Um, in addition, uh, also last week we had several things happen last week. We had Arts and Black. We, uh, we had some other things going on, but also last week we debuted our very first exhibit with Southwell. We now have a

permanent exhibition space within Southwell. The the exhibit features youth art uh as well as collaborative pieces that were created by students and students with the Tiffan Housing Authority. It's on display for the next six months. And after that, who knows? We'll see. It might be another youth art exhibit. It might be a fine artist. But we're just really proud. I know for me personally when I became the director um it was a goal of mine to be able to branch out beyond the SID. We love our SID. It's historic. It's it's it's synonymous with who we are. But I wanted to make sure we were finding other locations within the community so other community members can reach out and see the arts and experience the arts. What better place than Southwell, you know, because art has a healing power and now it's going to be on display for anybody and everybody to see that goes out there. Um, speaking of satellite locations, um, we also are now hosting art classes in the Main Street Art Studio. That's what we called it. It's the former Short and Pulk building. Uh we do have a short-term lease out there so we can offer our messier classes because the SID's a historic building. You don't want to damage those floors or windows. So now we have the main street art city uh art studio where we do glass blowing. We do pottery. Uh we have a stained glass class coming very soon. Uh we are very very excited to have this location. In addition to that, we also have opportunities to work with the Atlantic Coastline Depot and have additional classes over there. Uh we host a community craft night at least once a month that is low cost to the public. You can either uh pay $10 to get in and have your run of whatever art supplies you want to experiment with or you can give a small donation and that can be

your entry. Um excuse me. Speaking of all the art classes that we offer, if you will look in your little booklet, I think it's page three. It's the page with the charts on it. Chelsea could not be with us tonight. Chelsea is our arts ed director. So, I will try my best to do her justice with how she explains these charts because they're really, really truly phenomenal. Um, our arts ed division has seen the most significant growth in the past three years. If you will look at that very top chart, it reflects all of our classes and um goodness. Can I see one? It reflects all of our classes. Camp. Yes, camp. And our students that we reach within the school system through our um teaching artists in schools. So you those numbers are, you know, below 600, which is I'm not putting that down. Those are fantastic numbers. However, when you look at the bottom chart and you add in our outreach numbers, those three those three graphics get really, really small because our outreach is enormous. We have reached over 3,000 children in the year 2025, 2026. We are already poised to outrun that number. Um, I owe a lot of the growth that we've had with arts ed to Chelsea who could not be here. She is a phenomenal woman. Uh, Dynamo, she cares deeply about kids in our community and it's because of her that we are seeing the stronger partnership with Tiff County Schools and u being able to get out into the community at all these outreach events. Let's see what else.

Oh, upcoming. Upcoming. So, this is this that was a review of everything we've done since at least last August. Upcoming, we just wrapped our Arts in Black exhibit. So, next week, ne two weeks from now, we have a glass cabin exhibit. And that is it's a very unique exhibit in that it is based on a book. So, how do you turn a book into an art exhibit? So we we've been tasked with interpreting the literary arts in visual arts form. Um it's a book written by Tina Moselle Brazil and Jim Brazil. Uh Jim is from Tiffan again that that Tiffan connection that we love to see. Um and it is about a cabin that they created from recycled reclaimed objects and reclaimed materials. So they live off the grid. It's a really really fascinating book of poetry and they're going to bring some actual objects from their home. Uh we're going to have uh some fine artists who's done some prints that go and accompany that and that is coming in the next two weeks. And then lastly, but not least, we have coming up this summer four weeks of art camp. Historically, we've done we've done one week and then two weeks and now this year we're doing four weeks in two locations at the same time in tandem. So, we're we are very very ambitious to be sure. Um, again, thank you Chelsea for making all that work for us. No, we love what we do. Um, but having said all of that, I get down to this. Um, as the director, it is my role to consider how our future growth is managed and I am very appreciative to the city of Tiffan for the partnership that you have had with Tiffan Council for the Arts. You have been integral to

our success and it is because of that that I am asking for a small increase today to be considered in your next year's budget. Okay. All right. Y'all have any questions, comments? Do you have the um the is that what this I haven't had a chance to read this letter. Is that in the letter on the left hand? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, we are in budget time as we speak. So, yes, ma'am. That is fortuitous timing. And um be careful what you wish for because look what you've done. Okay. We can do it. I I I like I tell people I don't really like to say no. So, we have to figure out how to say yes.

There you go. Well, we are we are very grateful as a council. um we all agree that the arts um have a significant impact upon our community, especially with our youth and and instilling in them that appreciation and um and that love of community and and what that means. And we are uh very happy to support our arts council any way that we can. We love having the citizens art collection here that's on display. I talk about that all the time and encourage people to come by city hall, grab a brochure from the desk out here and wander around the halls and and see all the beautiful art that we've collected over the years. And it's not our art as as government, it's the community's art. So it is absolutely available to you. And so we kind of feel like we work in a museum a little bit, a museum of regional art of all kinds. And so it's really really special to have that. Do you want to introduce the folks that you brought with you this evening?

Sure. So this is Cassidy. Cassid's like, "No, don't pay attention." Cassidy speak.

She is our events and exhibits coordinator. Cassidy is was responsible for bringing us the Arts and Black exhibit this year and doing all the work for that as well as the Georgia State Art Collection. She's also responsible for the Georgia, excuse me, the glass cabin exhibit. Basically, all of our upcoming exhibits and events. That's what Cassidy does. She's fantastic at her job. And this is Steve Wood. He is our board president, our reluctant board president, but we love him. Anyways, Well, it's it's very impressive. So, thank you very much. So,

gentlemen, any questions of our guests this evening? You good? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much, Georgia, for presenting that very impressive report and we appreciate that. All right. We are moving on to new business now and I'm going to invite Adam Cobb to uh come to the podium. He's got the next two items. The first one being the Carpenter Road uh water main bids and recommendation and um and then the project recommendation for the uh local road assistance funding. So Adam, sure. So after all the excitement, I bring the boring stuff. Yeah, exactly.

So first on the agenda is Carpenter Road Water Man. Um what what we've found is we have a dead zone kind of in between King Eie Hamilton and um uh the new where the boot store is.

And so we want to loop that in. Um this is one of the final ARPA funded projects. Um so we're trying to get this done quickly before October and um we've we kind of put that out there as part of it and the contractors were all on board. Um, we did host a u a bid opening where six biders were there and uh HTS construction was the apparent low bidder. We did the calculations, everything looked good, so we're recommending going with them. Their uh total base bid was $390,45142. Um, and what that's going to do is that's going to help complete that loop, which will help tie in the 82 corridor with the Aback and um I75 corridor on that back loop and it will uh aid in fire protection. Um it it it'll just help smooth all that all that out for that whole area. So, that's what we're recommending and just wanted to bring that before you um so that y'all can think about it and if y'all have any questions. Um, one thing we are going to do, just so you know, because we know that that area has been improved in the past with sidewalks and and road widening and that kind of stuff,

um, we're going to go ahead and stub out to the properties that are there so that they won't have to we won't have to do a bunch of excavation after this project takes place for when they, you know, we're trying to think ahead and and make sure that we're um, putting all the pieces together in one place. So, but that's all I have on that one. if yall ready to move to the next one. You good? Okay. All right. Moving along. The next one is uh kind of some good news and I have to really give some thanks to Jessica for u piecing it together, but um basically we're getting free money. Um Say that again. We're getting free money

from the state. So, um, in tandem with our LMIG projects that we've already put together and and know what's there and all that kind of stuff and we we um have bidded out and we have that money. Um the LMIG provided us with $310,700 and to go towards that LRA, which is the uh local road assistance program through G DOT, they're going to also give us $334,000, a little bit more than Elme was, um to go toward that project. We didn't have to add any new streets. We didn't have to do any really additional work other than Jessica having to submit the the um the forms, but um we're able to get that money and as long as y'all vote to go for it, we'll we'll get that money and add that to that, which will save us some money on the backside. So, um that's the great news bringing it to you. That is good news. Really good. it it winds up being um a little over about $650,000 that we're getting um to add to the pot that we did not have to come out of the coffers of bill.

Well, Jessica, thank you for finding that and putting that together. Good call. Well, I know it's a team effort, but thank you. All right. Any questions, gentlemen, on on free money from DOT? We'll take all. We'll take it all. Exactly. All right. Thank you, Adam. Appreciate that very much. All right. Uh Jessica is next. Uh we have on our um agenda an item um a resolution, excuse me, designating Rock the Block as a festival, and Rock the Block comes up in June, I believe. So, any updates, Jessica, on that? Is it kind of business as usual?

This is um an annual event that we've been hosting for a number of years. Um, Tiffan Tourism is the lead on uh the event and it's going to take place June 13th um from 6:00 to 10 and they're requesting alcohol. Um, and the the festival zone would be the main uh downtown area from 2nd to 5th Street. Um, so we've approved in the past and if you are good with it, they're requesting the same for this year.

Okay. All right. Any questions, gentlemen? this is it comes said, you know, kind of business as usual. So, nothing nothing new yet uh at this point. And those are always very well attended and very well supported. So, it's nice to have that coming up in June. All right. Um moving on to other business. I'm going to call on Bobby Bennett for the city manager report. He's got a lot to report this evening. Mayor Council, uh without construction, they're going to get started paving the Love Avenue section in a couple of weeks. They got behind on the thing because of the delay the line. So Scrubs has paved Clay Drive and T Circle now they're jumping to Davis and Rainwater to do those.

Good. And then they're they're bouncing around doing one. So things are coming together. The park completed except for the grassing.

So once they get through with the grassing, it'll be be good to go. Looks looks very good. if you hadn't went and looked at it. The ditches are complete, the paving is complete, and then the grass. Uh, two things that that I'm proud to announce tonight is I'd like to introduce Chad Matis. He's our new economic development director. Um, Chad has a long list of what he can do for us. He already got started first thing this morning with a meeting. Been riding around the city getting acquainted with different things, looking at shortfall property of course. Um has already got some ideas to help maneuver that hopefully. Um and um looking at his resume and talking to him in depth, I believe he is really going to be a great part of our team, which I'm I'm very very happy to have.

Well, Chad, we're excited to have you on board. Would you like to say anything? Any comment.

Excellent. Well, we look forward to working with you. So, wonderful.

The next thing is and Josh gave me this idea. Um and and today is International Firefighters Day. So I wanted to uh bring our Tiffan fire department, which you know is dear to me. You can't help it. Um to to give them the recognition for what they've done. They they spent over 10 days in Brantley County helping other people they didn't know. Um, never seen that kind of devastation in my life in the 30s something years that I was in the fire service. Actually unretired one night and Paul rode with us and um and and worked a night and it's uh it was really heartbreaking and humbling to see the devastation that was over there. But the men and women of the Pip Fire Department definitely did Piffin proud um for what they did. They saved some structures which was a blessing. Um that chief doctor told me that every person in the department worked a day

everyone. So um nobody gr nobody complained. They all went with showing what true servant leadership means to help their brothers out in need. I would like to say give them a a round of applause for for what they've done and what they mean to this city.

He stole most of what I was going to say. So, just a little bit about what they did do. um 10 straight days. We got the GMAG request two weeks ago yesterday. It was on a Tuesday about lunch and about two and a half hours after getting the the request from GMAG, we had a engine crew on site. Within 45 minutes of arriving on site, we put out two structure fires. So from that point forward, we spent 10 straight days, had a crew there 247. We finally finally pulled everybody back on Thursday. But in 10 straight days, um, we did things like lead straight teams. We, uh, shuttled water for different brush trucks. We did save a few structures. And I, I've gotten a few phone calls and a few text messages from fire service leaders around the state of Georgia telling me how great of a job my department did. And that that is super exciting. I think it was the district attorney for Glenn County was one of the houses that we actually ended up help saving. and they they were very excited. Um I won't say who said it, but I actually had somebody refer to the Tiffan Fire Department as a group of rock stars. So, I'm going to hold on to that. Other than that, um very proud of what what they did and um I'm glad to see them step up and show the strength of what the Tiffan Fire Department is.

You're right. I mean, we we are glad too, but not surprised because the men and women that that work in our uh in our fire department are amazing and um we know you and we know your families and we're so very very proud of you and thankful for you. And I hear it too as I go across the state representing Tiffan through George Municipal and different uh organizations that I work with that Tiffan is always ready to go. Um the call comes out and boom, we're there. And so the work that that you all have done, taking that time away from your families, going over into um a very scary, very dangerous arena um with what was going on at that time uh with our neighbors. Um we're just so very appreciative of the work that you do and so thankful for each and every one of you. Gentlemen, any anything you'd like to to add or to So thank you. Another round for you. Thank you. What else you got, Bobby? That's it. Well, that's you're in on a real high note. Um, our last item is mayor and council comments. Gentlemen, anything you'd like to to talk about?

Just once again to the fire department. Job well done. Rockstar isn't quite the word I'd use. I say awesome rock stars. Nevertheless, thank you guys for all. Absolutely.

All right. Uh just to wrap up, I do want to invite everyone on Thursday uh this week, May the 7th at 7 PM. Thursday is uh the National Day of Prayer and the Tiff Cherry Ministerial Association is hosting a prayer ceremony at Veterans Park, which is right across the street. So, if you are able, please bring your family and come out and and uh be a part of that prayer um time. They pray for all of the community. They pray for public safety for our schools, for our families, uh for our churches. And so, it's really a special time to um just just spend some time in prayer for our community. So, that's May the 7th at the Veterans Park at 7 p.m. And then also, it's a little bit early, but I want you to go ahead and be thinking about Memorial Day. That's May the 25th, and uh we're working with Jackstone on a Memorial Day program, and that will also be at Veterans Park. So, as we finalize those details, we'll have more uh more information to share with you. We've got plenty of time to get that word out, but go ahead and mark that date on your calendar and plan to be be here that morning uh at 11 o'clock for that special ceremony, too. And then on May the 23rd, which is the Saturday before Memorial Day, um several of our um veterans will be meeting in uh Oakidge Cemetery. They start there and they put uh flags. They have volunteers. So, if you're available that day, come out and volunteer. It's really a special time, but put flags on all of the veterans graves and then they'll branch out to other cemeteries from there. So, just a special time to remember this is our 250th anniversary of our country and um so we need to honor those who protected our rights and and uh and and have fallen um as a result. So, I think that's that's all I've got, gentlemen. Is there anything else we need to talk about? No executive session tonight, Rob. Okay. All right. There being no further business, we are adjourned. Thank you all very much for