City Council - Regular Meeting

Not doing its thing. Yeah. But it's sluggish.

Alright. I

just wanted to transfer.

Thank you. I'd

like to call to order the 04/09/2026 meeting of mayor and council. I'd like to invite our fire chief, Marcus Haynes, up to lead us in prayer. Please remain standing for the pledge.

Good afternoon, mayor, council, city manager. Father god, we just wanna say right now before each and everyone, we say thank you, oh god. We say thank you right now, oh god, because your word teaches us that in everything that we should give thanks. You say for this is the will of god through Christ Jesus concerning you and god, we just wanna tell you thank you. Lord, we ask right now that you continue to govern, heavenly father, this meeting. Not only this meeting, but more meetings to come. Father god, let the decisions be made, heavenly father, that's gonna lead and guide to see the any direction, oh god, that you so see fit. Father god, lead us to success. And, heavenly father, that's gonna lead us into eternal life. We ask right now, god, that you continue to be with miss Anisha Riley.

Father god, continue to provide her her body the healing that needs to take place during this time. For your word teaches us that you was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. You said the chastisement of our peace was upon you. You said by your stripes, you said we are healed. And so we claim that in Jesus name we pray. Let our hearts say amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Chief, thank you. We're gonna move on to item three, the minutes for approval. Before you were special called meeting minutes from October 7, the regular meeting minutes from October 9, and the regular meeting minutes from October 23. If you've had time to review those without objection, I'll, by acclamation, approve all three. Counsel, thank you. Move on to item four. We have two public hearing items. Item a consideration of an ordinance to rezone point three two acres from community commercial to single family residential. Again, Matt Martin, our planning director to present.

Matt Hazel. Thank you, mayor. Before we get into this, we have two items from the planning commission. The second of the items has been withdrawn. It is noted on the agenda, Certainly announced at the planning commission meeting. But in case there's someone in the audience this evening, we can announce it to them and they don't have to wait till we get to that part of the agenda. But proceeding on with the first item, this is a request by Alpha Britain to rezone point three two acres. We're gonna do the PowerPoint the old fashioned way here. This is located at 195 Johnson Lane, which is on the north side of the road, about a 125 feet west of North Oak Street. It is currently zoned CC, community commercial.

Request is to down zone it to single family residential r six, for the purposes of developing this vacant tract of land as a residential duplex for the applicant and his family members. Zoning pattern map on the screen and in your packet, you see the commercial zoning pattern along North Oak Street. ZC zoning, put there, I believe, back in the nineteen sixties with the original zoning map, to foster a commercial corridor along North Oak Street. It was only partially materialized. But this property and the properties to the east are largely vacant.

And I think at this corner intersection, I think it was there to facilitate a little larger commercial development, which never materialized. Applicant has purchased this property as well as the corner of the intersection, but only wants to rezone this one parcel for his duplex dwelling and then retain the other property for maybe future commercial development, yet to come. We talked about at the work session the Southwest Corner area. That is a separate parcel that's very tiny. Staff deems it unbuildable because it is so small.

The setbacks literally take up all but three feet of that property, so it would be hard to develop without a lot of variances. And I think the applicant is gonna continue to try to acquire that parcel. Character area map in your packet, shows neighborhood activity center and established residential nearby, but this is part of that NAC character along North Oak Street. The next slide is the aerial imagery. This is from 2007.

You see the pattern. This, remember, is before the hurricane, so there's not quite as much vegetation as there used to be, but it shows the ongoing pattern. As we continue forward in your packet, there's, photographs of the property. This is the subject property as you look northward back into what I call the South Georgia jungle. Very deep in that is a drainage way that is the headwaters of Sugar Creek.

That is something that came up at the planning commission meeting. But imagery looking wester from the property down Johnson Lane, you see the little stakes there in the foreground on the immediate right. That's that little tiny remnant parcel off the southwest corner. As you see, it's pretty small. Next photograph, I think, is looking the other way, back toward Antioch Church there at the intersection with Oak Street.

And then continuing on, storefront that is now, I think, under Church use at the other corner of Johnson And Oak, and then an abandoned house directly across from the subject property that's been mothballed a number of years ago. And another imagery, I think, shows this one building that was a residence that used to be in very poor condition. They're facing Oak Street that has been repaired a lot in the past year or two. Elsewhere in your packet, I think the next slide show the survey, and then the next one is the proposed site plan. As noted in the packet, this is in the local historic district.

So the new construction of the duplex and the site improvements have to go before historic preservation commission, and he has an application already pending for them that'll be heard on May 4 for the duplex, the parking area. He's also proposing a small accessory building, and I'm told also a fence to go around the backyard area. All of that has to be approved by HPC, and that'll be coming up in a few weeks. The Planning Commission reviewed the rezoning change at their meeting on March 30, found it consistent with our comprehensive plan, consistent with the standards for exercise of zoning power. All of that is outlined there in your packet, and they are recommending approval by unanimous vote. Glad to answer any questions you may have.

Counsel, any additional questions from Tuesday night? K. Matt, thank you. This is a public hearing item. Is there anybody that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request? Seeing oh, please. And please state your name and address.

Alpha Britain. And my address is 2206 Palmer Drive. In Valdosta. And I'm here. Just to answer any questions that, the panel may have for me or, or just introduce myself.

Very nice to meet you, counsel. Is there any questions for the applicant?

I don't have any question, but I think that's a great idea what you're planning on doing in that area because I have some back life that we all came from the West Side, and thank you for improving that area.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any other questions or statements? Thank you. Alright. Is there anybody else that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request at this time? Seeing none, is there anybody that would like to come forward and speak in opposition to this request? Again, seeing none, counsel, it's yours for action.

Mister mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the zoning request as presented.

Second. A motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Applicant, good luck. Just to make it official, we'll move on to item four b, consideration of an ordinance to rezone 5.2 acres from single family residential to r 15 multifamily. It was along Cherry Creek Road. That request has been withdrawn by the applicant. No further action needed. Item five, a, consideration of an ordinance to abolish and delete the Valdosta Housing Board of Adjustments and Appeals, Matt Martin, again to explain.

Yes, sir. Thank you, mayor. This is a text amendment to the city's code of ordinances to delete this part of chapter, thank goodness, 12 I think it is. Which is where the Housing Board of Adjustments and Appeals is noted. You might remember a few weeks ago we deleted or a portion of and amended and recreated all at the same time the Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals.

The Housing Board is a parallel group, but they have not met in many, many years. We do not even have an active list of members. It was created about twenty three or so years ago, and I don't remember them ever meeting in the fifteen years that I've been here. There are other processes in place for appeals of certain things, particularly as it relates to construction codes. We also have, of course, the municipal court system, which a lot of them would avail themselves of that process as well.

So without it being operating in existence, taking up space on our code book, this is really a housekeeping measure to delete that section. As you see, the ordinance that's in your packet, that deletes it simply by reference, in its entirety. It's one of the cleanest types of ordinances that we can do.

Counsel, any questions? Alright. Let us do some housecleaning. Thank you, Matt. Council, it's yours for action.

May I have a motion to approve the request as presented? Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Matt, again, thank you. We're on to item six, consideration of bids for a new baler for the public works department. Larry Ogden comes forward to tell us about it. Larry, how are doing?

Good. Good. Good evening.

Good evening. So

the public works department needs to purchase a beller. The current umbrella we have is 35 years old. We cannot get parts forward anymore. Any parts that we need, we have to have those parts fabricate especially just to keep that unit running. We went out for bid through a sole source contract which we did before with the cameras that we currently have on the public works trucks. So, this allowed us to skip the traditional bid process. It shaved three to four months off the process. We had one bid that came in from Compactor Rentals of America in a bid in a price of $190,583.57. There's a misprint. This Bella was not approved in the current fiscal year budget.

So, we're looking to purchase this Bella through Splash eight and it would come with a two year warranty on the frame, a two year warranty on the hydraulics, and a one year warranty on the electrical system. If this is if this is approved, we'd be able to bring on more clients go ahead and process more cardboard. Right now, we're turning away some of them because if it break, we don't have a pile of cardboard at the yard. We have to transport that to the landfill and cure additional cost. So, this new biller will allow us to go ahead and streamline service.

In the packet, you will see a picture of the biller that we're looking to purchase. It's basically the same footprint as what we currently have. It's one of those, I hate to say, a plug and play. We're able to remove this one, put this one in place, get it hooked up, and we can start the process of building more cardboard. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have for me.

Is the older one totally out of commission?

Sir?

Is the old one totally out of commission?

No, sir. It's not totally out of commission. Currently, it's working. Good. The last time it went down, it was down for probably a month and a half to two months trying to get the parts that we needed and get someone to fabricate the parts to get it back up and running. K. So during that downtime, like I said, the cardboard that we were collecting, we piled it in the yard, and luckily, we didn't get it in the rain. Currently, we're getting top dollar for our cardboard because when it comes in, we're able to place it up under our shelter. So that keeps it out of the elements, keep it from getting rain. So whenever we ship it up to Rome, Georgia because we had a truck that came in today and they tested for moisture, the lower the moisture count, the higher we'll get for it.

So we're keeping the process going by. Once it's coming in, we'll put it up under shelter. We'll process. We'll bail it, and we're averaging maybe a truck a week currently.

Fantastic. So so will you just replace the old one altogether, or will you try to keep that on standby or try to use both of them or what?

If this is approved, we will fail the old one. It'll become someone else's headache.

Gotcha. Do they offer extended warranty?

We can check and see if I did not check into that,

but we do long time. Extended warranty. Extended warranty too. It's The

way these units are built, like I said earlier, the current one we have is thirty five years old. So we're looking to get a long service life out of this particular unit.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Larry? Larry, thank you. Counsel, this one's yours.

May I make a motion we approve the bid as

stated? Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Show of hands. Counsel, thank you. Larry, again, thank you. Item b, consideration of a request to approve an extension of the Red Speed professional services contract with the city of Al Dosta. Al Krace, our interim city manager, to present. We'd like to

extend the contract. We have two locations where we have red speed, and that's at the WG Noon Nunn Elementary School and at the SL Mason Elementary School. And it's on two higher speed roads. One's a bar Barack Obama and the other one is Gordon Street. So of all the schools in town, the survey showed that was the best place to put them.

We've had them for a few years. They've worked well. One school, the Pinevale School, actually traffic high speed traffic declined down there, and so that one was dropped. But this is to go for ten more years on the existing contract with the right to exit at any time that the city deems necessary and appropriate. And the legislature had changed and said that if one expires, you have to go for a new contract that has to call for a referendum and we'd like to just continue with these two.

We follow within the guidelines of protecting safety. I think some legislation was aimed at a lot of communities that have abused it and used it at non school hours and at other times and in other ways. And so this would extend it for us. It's been productive to the council.

Council, any questions? Yes. Chief Manahan, if you can answer this one for me, please. If Pinevale's numbers start to rise again or we see something like that happen, are we gonna be able to bring them back in? It will be part of this extension. I like can we just call them up and say, hey. We need those cameras back?

If it's put in here, but no, it would still probably have to go in front of a referendum now. Yes, sir. To add it back. Alright. Because it was under the last contract.

Right.

Under this contract, it would not be there.

Okay. And you don't think we don't do you think we need to get it in there or no?

Speed is the one that pulled it, so we had no say in it getting pulled.

Okay. I mean I mean, it's good that it got pulled because the numbers decreased, and that's a good thing. Do we see are we seeing a good decline in the other two areas as well, or is it kinda steady?

It is pretty steady.

They haven't figured it out yet?

Around college time? No. They don't figure it out. We see a lot of college students.

I gotcha. Alright. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you, chief.

Mayor Council, I would recommend we have a contract before us, but Al and I talked about this Tuesday night. I would delete the last sentence of paragraph five d. It's kind of remnant the original contract. It talks about termination cost. So I would recommend that the last sentence be deleted from paragraph five d of the contract.

Please reflect that in whoever makes the motion.

Yes, sir.

Council, any further questions? Alright. Here's for action.

Mayor, I make a motion that we remove five d in the last our last sentence in that paragraph of five d and also make a motion that we approve this revised agreement. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Counsel, thank you. Al, thank you as well. Alright. Item c, consideration of a bid for the emergency repair of the public works fuel island, the talkative John Burton, our motor pool superintendent to present.

Public Works Department of Fuel Island needs extensive emergency repairs. Barbara Petroleum submitted a bid on April 2 this month. I recommend that council approve the bid submitted by Barbara Petroleum and the amount Barbara Petroleum for the emergency repair along with a

10% contingency for an unforeseen problems for a total amount of $136,841.44.

Counsel, any questions? None. John, thank you. Well done. Counsel, yours for action.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the request as presented.

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Show of hands. Quick. Thank you. We'll now move on to citizens to be heard. It's a portion of the meeting that we ask you to come forward. State your name and address so we may have it for the record. Our policy requires you stay under three minutes so that others have time to be heard. Please direct all comments to council as a whole. Do not attempt to engage individual members in council in debate. It is our council policy to follow through with you on your concern. Additionally, we ask any groups also designate a single spokesperson in order that all can be heard. Having said that, are there any citizens to be heard at this time?

Please come forward. Seeing no motion, we will now close that out and move on to the city manager's report. Al Crayce, our interim city manager, to present.

I'd like to bring forward give you an update on two major items. The newly named to be named Jeanette Newburn Cody Cody Community Shelter. We will have that prepared, we think, for ribbon cutting in May. The electrical parts, the final electrical parts are finally coming. It took over ten weeks to get them.

But that ribbon cutting and all other elements are basically complete except for the final installation of electrical. And the Labor Department building, we, of course, take possession 07/01/2006. The State Properties Commission has asked us to be generous in helping them get out of there and relocate. It's going take them a little time, but in the meantime, we've engaged Jimmy Cone as the architect and he started the floor planning and he was diligent and discovered the original plans of the building and made copies for two copies for his office and two for ours. And they will begin the floor planning with both the courts and customer service.

And once they get that done and we get all those through a participatory process with the departments and get them presented for approval, then we'll take those to design and construction. And I would think that it would take about a year to go through that whole process and move them over. In the meantime, I would invite you all to consider what you would like to name that building because I don't think we want it to remain the Labor Department building. So think about what's an appropriate name at the time and you'll have some time to consider that. But I would that maybe this time next year, we'll be talking about getting ready to move into that building.

Quick question. If they if we end up in that design with 2,500 extra square feet, would we offer the Department of Labor to remain on as a tenant?

We'd consider that. I've got some other knee there I've identified some other needs. It's kind of a musical chairs throughout the city. And we've also talked about that there's some other undeveloped space in there that's not been we want to look at that. There's really an ability to do a 2nd Floor in some sections. And see if once we've kind of worked out the musical chairs of all of them, but we'd have no problem with them being a tenant. And we certainly aren't gonna hurry them out. They've been a good partner for a number of years. We'd like to take care of them.

Didn't mean to put you on the spot. No problem.

Mister Al, the court location, could Chief Haynes be able to use that court system that's gonna be next to the that's gonna be vacant next to the fire department?

I thought I thought you liked him.

I'm trying to give I'm trying to give him some more room. Well,

we're certainly the first they'll have the first bid on that. Okay. We won't we'll see what city needs are, fire department needs, and then there may be some interest in the private sector also. Oh, okay. So if it advances the downtown development plan or it helps one of the departments, we certainly wanna reuse to the best of use.

Thank you, sir.

Alright. Al, thank you. Council we'll move on to council comments. Start at the end. Thomas, anything? Any? No? Me either. Guys?

Minor about the Bluesberry Festival.

Yeah. I

wanna say to our mayor, city manager, and our council, thank you for for considering naming that building after the late Jeanette Coote. Thank you from the bottom of my heart because she was such a great avenue for the seat of Valdosta. She was once our grand marshal for the seat of Valdosta.

Easiest decision ever made. It it truly was. Alright. Well, before I ask for adjournment, I'm gonna remind everybody about the fourth annual Bluesberry Festival. It begins at 05:00 tomorrow evening. At five, we'll begin with a little greeting at 05:05. The music begins and never stops. We go Friday evening with three great bands. We have a DJ over in the Ashley Street stage, and then we go all day all over again on Saturday. Headliner on Friday night, Jed Harrelson.

Headliner on Saturday night, the Atlanta rhythm section, and a whole bunch of talented bands in between. So please come out absolutely free to attend for everybody, but you will spend money. There's a 150 vendors 150 vendors and food of trucks. There's a classic car show. That big white tent you see over the fountain, that is our foam party. So the kids can get in there and get absolutely

Foaming.

Tore up with Free. With foam. All all again, absolutely free. This is our give back to the community.

Do we have any non alcohol, blueberry, whatever?

Lots. Yes.

But I don't drink. But I'm saying do we have any

non Absolutely. Plenty of virgin drinks over there. Okay. Thank you. And and do not forget all the great vendors as well. Thanks. Alright. I'll I'll motion to adjourn. Move over. Second. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Alright. Are you really? Awesome. Awesome.