City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll now call to order the 05/07/2026 meeting of mayor and council. I'd like to call on father Adam Casella with Saint John's Catholic Church to lead us in prayer. Please remain standing for the pledge.

Today on this special holiday, day called the National Day of Prayer and the theme of this day is glorify god among the nations seeking him in all the generations. The National Day of Prayer commemorates two historical milestones, two hundred fifty years of prayer in America and seventy five years of prayer for America. As we observed the 200 of our nation's founding alongside the seventy fifth annual National Day of Prayer, we recognize this as a significant and sacred moment in our history. We believe God is stirring the hearts of believers across our nation. God of justice and mercy, thank you for the gift of life and the opportunity to serve the people of our city.

Help us to act with character and conviction. Help us to listen with understanding and goodwill. Help us to speak with charity and restraint. Give us a spirit of service. Remind us that we are stewards of your authority.

Guide us to be the leaders your people need. Help us see the humanity and dignity of those who disagree with us and to treat all persons, no matter how weak or poor, with the reverence your creation deserves. And finally, father, renew us with the strength of your presence and the joy of helping to build a community worthy of the human person. We ask this as your sons and daughters, confident in your goodness and love. 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.

Alright. I'm gonna open with a little bit of a point of personal privilege. Gonna introduce Shakira Parsons. Please stand. She has been selected as our new associate city clerk.

She survived a rigorous process. She has been a senior administrative support specialist in our utilities department for over ten years. She has been very, very beyond confident, and now she's going to elevate to the 3rd Floor of City Hall and work with us. We very much look forward to working with her. Please again join me in welcoming Shakira Parsons as our new associate city Congratulations.

Alright. Next is awards and presentations. Consideration of the April 2026 employee of the month award, if sergeant Terrence Hines, his family, and the police police chief Leslie Manahan wouldn't join me at the front podium, please. Normally, pose for pictures at this point, but we took care of that because we got a lengthy agenda. We're gonna start with our public hearing items.

We'll begin with three a, consideration of an ordinance granting a conditional use permit for a freestanding warehouse building in a highway commercial zoning district requested by Hedgehog Investments. Matt Martin, our planning director, will present. Matt, how are you doing?

Doing fine, mayor. Thank you very much. As you said, this is a conditional use permit request for property in the Highway Commercial Zoning District. The proposed use is a freestanding warehouse in that zoning. Try this button. There we go. I may have to do this the old fashioned way, Theresa. In your packet are a series of maps and other information about the property. First one is the zoning map, you see it's highway commercial all in and around the subject property. The next map is the character area, which is Community Activity Center, also throughout the area.

This is in the southern part of what we call the Bemis Road corridor. It's actually between Bemis Road and North Ashley Street, just above the Castle Park area of the city. Next picture is the aerial image. That is from 2007. Moving on to the photographs of properties nearby.

This is at 421 Coward Avenue, which is an l shaped road that links into oh, I forgot the name of the street. There we go. Subject property is the wooded area track. This is the property just to the south, is a professional office. Directly to the east is a part of the applicant's other property that has outdoor storage, portable buildings for sale.

As you look northward up Coward Avenue, you see the Pruitt Health Nursing Home, and then around the corner westward, you have the nursing home viewed in, and then some of the applicant's property directly across the street, And then lastly, professional office buildings that are directly west of the subject property. Also in your packet is a survey and site plan of the property. This is where they are proposing a rectangular shaped metal building, brand new to the site, a few parking spaces in the southeastern corner. This is closer to their business, which is at 2122 Bemis Road, about a block, block and a half away, and as well as some landscaping that's being proposed. Also in your packet are some elevation drawings of the building itself, a fairly simple design, metal frame building with wood siding, a couple windows, and then a roll up door closer to the street, and then also a three d rendering of the building, which gives a better view of what it actually looks like.

I have a mixture of old and new technologies here. The Planning Commission reviewed this conditional use request at their public hearing on April 27. They found the request consistent with the conference of plan, consistent with the conditional use review criteria, and they are recommending approval to you subject to nine conditions. And those are there in your packet, but I will go ahead and read them into the record. First one, conditional use approval shall be granted for a singular storage building only, not to exceed 4,400 square feet of gross floor area.

This building shall only be used for accessory storage associated with the commercial business located at 2122 Venus Road, which is currently powerhouse outdoor equipment. Number two, there shall be no outdoor storage of any vehicles, equipment, or materials whatsoever at any time. Number three, there shall be no signage on the property other than one or more small incidental signs on the building as approved by the zoning administrator. Number four, hours of operation for all loading, unloading, and other business activity on the site. They'll be limited to 7AM to 7PM, Monday through Saturday only.

Loading and unloading activities will occur only within the subject property without any usage of Coward Avenue or access through adjacent properties. Number five, a minimum six foot solid opaque fence that'll be installed along or within 10 feet of the entire Western property line. The site shall retain a minimum 10 foot landscape street yard along the North property line, which is along Howard Avenue, as well as a minimum 10 foot buffer yard along the Western property line. These landscaped areas shall retain the existing natural undisturbed vegetation. Number six, all exterior building walls shall consist of concrete batten siding.

All street facing facades shall include one or more architectural accents, such as a window or faux window or other design trim or element to interrupt the large blank wall appearance. Number seven, the approved landscape plan shall include foundation landscaping in the form of decorative shrubs and ground cover as approved by the city arborist along the eastern, which is the front building facade to soften the visual impact of the building. Number eight, any exterior lighting shall be directed downward and away from adjacent properties. And then lastly, number nine, initial use approval shall expire two years from the date of approval if no building permit for the proposed building has been used or has been issued by that date. The applicant is here.

You may recall from the work session, there was a packet of some, correspondence and opposition. Some of that was included in your packet, but you received more at your work session. And with that, I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Counsel, any questions for Matt? Any additional questions over Tuesday? Okay. Matt, thank you. Again, this is a public hearing item. We're gonna offer both sides fifteen minutes in total, both in favor and in opposition. With that being said, is there anybody that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request tonight? Please state your name and address.

My name is Bill Kent with Innovate Engineering 2214 North Patterson Street. We're the project engineers. We developed the concept plan. Really here just to answer any questions you may have about access or the development itself.

Counsel. We do not. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request?

My name is David Fraser. 2122 Bemis Road. I'm currently employed by Powerhouse Outdoor Equipment and work on the on the property on a daily basis and with the equipment. As stated in the packet, as mister Matt said, the primary use of this warehouse will just be for storage of equipment. Most of our equipment that we keep on stock or in on-site is in crates.

It's unsightly, and the crates are by no means weatherproof. So being able to get these machines out of the weather is a huge deal for us to make sure we can keep our machines in good shape and make sure that they're not damaged by the weather or anything like that. We also fully recognize that the crated units are unsightly when they're out in the weather where everybody can see. We get to stare at them all day every day. So this would be a great opportunity for us to be able to get those out of sight where we can make our own property look better, keep them out of the weather, and just be able to keep those machines in good shape. I'm also here to answer any questions that you may have.

Counsel, any questions for David?

So you're saying that all the crates and stuff that's over on Bemis Road now, you're saying every bid that is to go into this warehouse?

As much as we can fit. Yes, sir.

Or is it additional stock?

So we've we don't really have additional stock. We just have a large inventory, a large surplus of different models and different brands. And we're our goal is just to be able to put all of that that's not on our showroom floor inside and detailed up, be able to put in this warehouse where it's out of the weather.

Alright. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Council, any other questions? David, thank you. Yes, sir. Again, is there anybody that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request?

James Carter, 602 Ledgedale Circle. The neighborhood that is right across from Powerhouse Outdoors is developing more towards Bemis Road as well also. And I would certainly encourage cleaning, you know, up that visual aspect of of Powerhouse and then also the crates as mentioned by those personnel there as well. So I would say an encouragement of this as the house at 602 Ledgedale Circle, looking out the window there from the where the dish where we do dishes, you can actually see POWERHOUSE and the buildings and all those crates from that aspect of it as well. So I would be encouraged of this.

Thank you.

James Carter.

James Carter. 602 Ledgedale Circle.

Is there anybody else that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request? Seeing none, we'll close out that fifteen minutes offered to opposition. Anybody that would like to come forward and speak in opposition to this request? Please come forward.

Anybody has any problems? Good afternoon. I'm Bill Broadfoot. I represent Broadfoot Commercial. As we all know, SGMC, Pruitt Health, and the medical providers and ancillary medical providers support the city of Valdosta in numerous vital ways, and their land uses are the most among the most important land uses in Valdosta.

As mister Martin said, all of Coward Avenue is zoned CH. Coward Avenue is here. Only the visual starts here inside the hospital's property, inside SGMC's property. And then from there, it goes east until eventually it curves around and goes in towards Bemis Road. But it's Zone CH.

So while CH can potentially, as you know, again potentially allow a variety of uses, Certain uses must have approval of the City Council under the process of conditional use review. And the proposed metal warehouse would sit at the highest elevation on Coward Avenue. The only thing that would be higher would be the nursing home behind that, which is Holly Hill in Crestwood. Next to that is a professional plaza. And then there's another and I'm going to go through this in more detail in just a moment.

The applicant's proposed use of an industrial warehouse would expand industrial use into an interior corridor that is neither compatible nor harmonious with industrial use. Hedgecock Investments owns both Powerhouse Equipment and Powerhouse Outdoor Structures. They own three pieces of property. They own Bemis Road. The store is down here at the very bottom almost.

But then these two, these are the two where they have various implements outside and on Bemis Road. But in this instance, these pieces of property are nine when you put the three on Beamus Road, they are nine times the size of this 0.4 acre tract. Nine times. And so there's no barrier at all based on the zoning on Bemis Road of building a warehouse on this property on Bemis Road. There's no need for any kind of application whatsoever, they can just do it.

Howard Avenue begins, as I said, with South Georgia Metis, and extends eastward. And as you proceed east, everything except for an attractive professional plaza, which is right next door to the subject property, which I might add is owned by an orthopedic surgeon. Everything's medical. Everything's medical or ancillary medical. Now when I say that, there are some pieces of property that are vacant.

But the intended use or the actual use is medical or ancillary medical or professional. Either the actual use as we sit here today or the intended use. At the Northeast corner of Coward Avenue and Ashley Street, Every single parcel on Coward Avenue is opposed to this use. What do I mean by that? Everybody knows how to go to a tax assessor's site.

And if you punch in Coward Avenue, it will populate with nine different parcels. The letters that were in your packet represent every single parcel on Coward Avenue, every one of them, except for the applicant. That includes Chai Olleh, I believe, which is Doctor. Chang, Davis Southern, which I already mentioned, and urogynecologist Doctor. Williams.

Our property is vacant, but we've always intended it for medical. Always, always. We just finished demolishing three houses here behind Pruitt on Ashley Street. We're excited about the potential here in Valdosta. We're excited about expansion of South Georgia Medical Center.

We're excited about everything that's going on with the college and the arts center. These developments are good for this area. And so basically pretty much everything is ancillary. There's a treatment center here, Dental office, which is my brother's dental office. It used to be my father's dental office.

The north of Coward Avenue to the north is University Drive, Pendleton Place. That corridor has Ridgewood Apartments, which were built by my father in 1979. And that corridor is completely medical or ancillary medical, too. And again, when I say that, I either mean an in current use or intended developmental use. Granted, some of it is not some of it's vacant, like the three tracks that I just mentioned or parcels. But that intention goes all the way back to my father's purchase of the medical arts center at 305 University Drive in 1975. Subsequently purchased 404 Pendleton Place, which is this piece of property

right here.

These are where the apartments are. This is where my brother is a dentist, right here. Anyway, my dad was here. He practiced law for forty years. He died just about exactly ten years ago, and it was this month.

He was president of Georgia Dental Association, president of the State Board of Dentistry. South Georgia Medical Center had an affiliated uninsured patient care facility on Woodrow Wilson that was named after him. As recommended by the planning director and staff, the city council should deny this request because the proposed site is neither heavy commercial nor borderline industrial in nature. These are ancillary medical medical uses or intention of the same. The proposed use is not consistent with the comprehensive plan and not consistent with certain of the conditional use review criteria.

Additionally, there is an issue with whether the applicant has demonstrated the ability to maintain its existing commercial properties in an aesthetic or compliant manner. A freestanding under the conditional use criteria, a freestanding warehouse is classified as an industrial use in the use table and is considered one of the more intensive uses that's ever allowable in CH zoning. This is why the conditional use permit is required so that each proposal can be reviewed case by case. In this instance, the proposed use is not compatible with the land uses on the adjacent properties and would devalue those properties. And that's the gist of all of this.

It would devalue our property and as well the the people that also you have all the letters in opposition. It's not compatible. There are also potential problems with the volume of traffic and the character of the area that would be created by this warehouse, which we submit is unsightly. The proposed use will adversely affect adjoining properties by reason of the manner of the use, in that this is medical, ancillary medical, and professional use. And then as far as the comprehensive plan goes, there's a focal point for several neighborhoods to have a concentration of activities such as general retail, service commercial, office professional, higher density housing, and appropriate public and open spaces.

And this is the sort of area that we have at issue in this matter. So we did submit the letters of everybody on Coward Ave, also from a treatment center that's on our property. And in addition, I can tell you that there are a couple of other people that I have spoken with that, for friendship reasons and whatever, didn't want to sign anything. And they are opposed to it. And I'll just leave it at that.

Okay? But we've been pretty persistent in trying to get as much support in opposition to the permit.

And, Bill, there's one minute left in the fifteen minutes.

Any questions from any of

y'all? Council, any questions? I think it was pretty well detailed, Bill. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yep. Thank you.

Yep.

I got one minute left. If there's anybody else that wants to speak in opposition to this request. You think you can do it in a sixty second format, please come forward. Alright. Seeing none, we'll close that portion out. Counsel, I'm gonna turn it over to you for action, but I believe councilman Harden has a question for one of the prior.

For Matt for staff. Matt Martin. Matt, so with the the that's adjacent to the property. They already have their motorsports.

Not immediately adjacent. It's about a block away. We can go back to one of the maps. There's a about the zoning map. Alright. So you see the subject property outlined. If you were to come southward, you intersect Janet Street and then to the east where Janet intersects Bemis. The applicant owns property on both sides of that intersection. Powerhouse outdoor business is to the south of that intersection where you see the other CH label. Okay.

And that's the business that's affiliated with this warehouse that we're wanting to use. So it's about a block and a half block away. If this were part of the sub of the property, it used to be in the expansion to the commercial use.

What can they currently do on that property? Can they put those crates on that property? Can they use that?

Outdoor storage by itself is not allowed in commercial zoning. That's an industrial use back to heavy industrial use. CH zoning, however, is very useful. It allows the full range of commercial and office type uses, including the offices that are nearby, restaurants, shoe stores, taverns, all of that is allowed in CH zoning. There's a wide variety. Warehousing as its own primary use is what I call the top of the food chain of CH. It's allowed only with the conditional use approval, so we get to review them case by case. Not all CH areas are the same. Not all buildings are the same. Theirs is not really large, not a 100,000 square foot distribution center kind of place.

But this is also not your typical CH kind of neighborhood. This is on an interior street, not fronting a major street. So there's a lot of different things going on here and all that is outlined there in your packet. But, yes, this is not immediately adjacent to the applicant's business for this. An ancillary business is across the street. That's where the portable buildings and some other outdoor storage is located.

Okay. Thank you. You. Counsel, any other questions? Any for Matt? All right. It's yours for action.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we table this hearing for some further discussion to bring it up to a vote at our next council meeting on the twenty first.

Have a motion.

Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, show of hands. All in opposition saying oh, nope. It came up. Motion carries. Counsel, thank you. Now move on to item three b, consideration of an ordinance to grant planned development approval for a mixed use child daycare and school facility in an office professional and single family residential zoning district. Matt Martin again to

Yes, sir. Present. You. Mayor, this is a an amendment to an existing plan development request that was last amended three years ago back in 2023. This is for property located on North Barack Obama Boulevard.

It is split zoned r six and o P, and we noticed the Little Angels Daycare Center. There's a full commercial daycare plus a school facility in the rear yard. You may remember that plan development request three years ago where the gist of it was to blend the zonings together with a variety of the uses that were allowed in either OP or R6 zoning. It was approved based on a master plan with seven conditions of approval. The applicant's request is to amend one of those conditions, that being condition number one, which is outlined on the cover page of your packet.

And they want to remove the phrase that says in the name of applicant only. The applicant's desire is to sell the business and the property together into another entity and that other entity would not be able to get a license for the facility and so it would not be in their name. So the request is to take that out, leave other conditions the same. What staff and planning commission are recommending is that change plus a few housekeeping changes within that. So in your packet is the original landing certificate from three years ago, which lists all seven conditions.

We're proposing to eliminate I think condition number two of the old list which was the requirement to combine all properties together. That's already been done, but that does not need to carry forward into the new request. And so the rest of the conditions are there in the recommendation, which there are six of them now instead of seven. And so Planning Commission is recommending approval after finding, at their April 27 public hearing that the new amended plan development is consistent with the comprehensive plan, consistent with the plan development review criteria, which are there in your packet, and recommending approval by unanimous vote. Glad to answer any questions on this one.

Counsel, any further questions on this item? K. Matt, thank you. Again, this is a public hearing item. Having said that, is there anybody that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request? Each side will have fifteen minutes.

Donald Nirvan, five twelve Barack Obama. Basically, I have a exit strategy. So that's my exit strategy. So, if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Council, any questions? None. Thank you.

Alright. Thank

you. Is there anybody else that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request?

Good evening, counsel. Justin Purvis.

Good evening.

I represent Irving Investments and Little Angels Daycare. I just wanna point out that although the PD is changing, the one condition is being changed, the property is going to sell to another day care center. So it's not like the purpose of the property will be changed. The purpose of the property will stay the same. This has to be changed. This this small condition has to be amended so that this day care center can buy it and continue to operate that business so that they're not in violation of any ordinance that the city of Alosta has. That's the only reason for this request. And with that, I'm here to answer any questions if you need it. Counsel.

I don't have a it's not a basic question, but will we keep re name remain the same on the day care?

My understanding is is the name will remain the same, but, or at least for the foreseeable future.

Thank you, sir.

Any other questions, counsel? Justin, thank you. Thank you. Again, is there anybody else who would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request? 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.

Mayor, I would move to make a motion that we approve the recommendations with the amendments and the removals and the six conditions.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. In favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Applicant, good luck. We'll now move on to three c, Consideration of an ordinance to rezone 6.25 acres from residential agriculture to residential professional as requested by Integrity Development Partners, Matt Martin, again to explain.

Yes, Thank you, mayor. This item and the next agenda item are tied together. This is a rezoning and annexation pair of cases for the same subject property. As you know, when we have an annexation request, we vote on the rezoning rezoning aspect of it first and then the annexation. But for expediency sake, we present it as one.

We usually hold one public hearing. But when it comes time to make motion and vote, we need that to be done separately with the rezoning going first. So this is property on the north end of the existing city limits, immediately north of the Georgia Military College. On this map in your packet, you see the gray shaded area is unincorporated Lowndes County. The white area is not shaded is the existing city limits, and you can see how this is contiguous to the Valdosta City limits on the South Side.

The zoning pattern of the area is zoned RA in Lowndes County, as is dominant and through much of this semi rural area that stands for rural agricultural. And then to the South you see commercial zoning CC, which is for Georgia Military College, and then RP for the elementary school to the Southeast. The requested rezoning is to RP which is consistent with RP to the Southeast and also consistent with the non commercial nature of this segment of North Forest Street Extension. The next map is the character area. This is community activity center in this area that is between Bemis Road and North Forest.

And then the next one is the aerial map. It shows that as a wooded tract, I don't think it's ever been developed. But you see very prominently the military college to the south, the porch community church that's merely to the north, and the elementary schools in the bottom right hand corner. Looking at the imagery around, this is looking northward up the street toward the church, And then swinging around to the east side of the road, there's a rural home site. And then looking southward down North Forest, you see the elementary school on down to the left.

And then I think the next one is a little closer view. And then Kingdom Hall is straight across the street off to the east. In your packet also is a site plan that is conceptual as well as the boundary survey. The site plan is for their proposed development, which is a 72 unit multifamily apartment complex, tax credit housing. This is the same developer that has built the Freedom the Harvest Station apartments down on Griffin Avenue as well as other developments in the community.

Architecture of this, which is also in your packet, is a another version of what they have built recently in Tifton. The applicant's representatives are here to explain the details of this, but it is an annexation to bring zoning about six and a quarter acres, from RA in the county to RP in the city. Pursuant to state law, we have noticed the county with the proposed annexation. They have not raised any objections to the annexation request, so we are pros have are eligible to proceed in taking action. Glad to answer any questions you might have on these two cases.

Counsel, any questions for Matt? Matt, well done. Again, this is a public hearing item. This time, both sides will have fifteen minutes for a response. Is there anybody at this time willing to come forward and speak in favor of this request?

Good evening. I'm Steve Brooks. I work with IDP Properties. I've been with IDP since the company was founded in 2011. Based here in Valdosta, just block fell over here on Patterson Street. We've developed many several communities here in Valdosta multifamily. Freedom Heights out on Bemis Road, the Ashbury on the old China Garden site. We renovated the Ashley House apartments right around the corner from here. Built Harvest Station down on Griffin Street and currently have the Harvest Station Phase two under construction down there. This is another community plan very similar to those.

This would be a family property, 72 units. The property you're seeing right now, the picture you're seeing is actually a 56 unit community we built in Tifton about four years ago. We would like to just replicate that architecture here in Valdosta. We haven't used it here. The architects will be Studio eight here out of Valdosta. We're using local contractors. So, thanks to this ask for your blessing and getting this annexed and letting us, just continue on with what we what we like to

do, and we think we do

a good job at it. So I'd be glad to answer any questions or concerns you may have.

Counsel, any questions for Steve? None.

Thank you. Thank you all for your service.

Is there anybody else that would like to come forward and speak in favor of this request? Seeing none, equal time for anybody in opposition to this request. Again, seeing none, council item c is yours for action.

May I like to make the motion to approve the request as presented? Second.

Motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Motion carries. Before you also is item d, consideration of order ordinance to annex 6.25 acres into the city of Valdosta.

May I like to make another motion to approve the request as presented?

Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. With that, the city of Valdosta just grew by 6.25 acres. Council, thank you very much. We'll move on to item four, ordinances and resolutions without objection from miss Cody. Item a, consideration of a resolution of support for the Forest Ridge Apartments prod projects from our council. Al Crayce, our interim city manager, will present.

Mayor and council, this is IDP's proposed resolution of support that's necessary to go to the Department of Community Affairs to in support of the

tax

tax credit project, and they have a long record here. But this is asking you all for approval of a resolution of support.

And I think they've thoroughly discussed the details. Any questions? Council, any questions for Al? None. Items before you.

May I make 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. IDP, thank you. Now move on to item b, four b, consideration of request from the Valdosta Lowndes County Airport Authority to approve a resolution authorizing acceptance of a grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation. Colonel Tim Hood, our executive director at the Balosta Regional Airport, will tell us about the free money.

Right.

Counsel? So this is a grant, looking for approval. GDOT has $1,200,000 towards this, and, it will be going to electrical improvements on one of our main runways, 1836. And then it will also be going to runway safety area improvements on the one on the corresponding runway and then also on 1836. So 1,200,000 coming from GDOT and the airport authority will be up to 400,000. This won't require any Vidyo Valdosta funds. We're just looking for approval of grant.

Any questions for mister Hood? Mm-mm. None? Colonel, thank you. Counsel, yours for action. Mister mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the resolution as presented. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Counsel, thank you. Colonel, thank you. Now move on to item five a, consideration of bids for the Scott Park improvement project. Ben O'Dowd, our city engineer, will present. You have a packet in front of you as well that he just

sat down. Good evening, mayor and council.

Good evening. Good evening. I

have distributed to each of you a packet which includes a summary of the bid opening from this afternoon. Additionally, it also has the bid tabulation form and Charlie's very thorough unit cost bid tabulation spreadsheet so that you can see how all of the different bidders kind of stack up. We had four bids that were received this afternoon. And for clarity and for the public record, would like to read this next portion just so everybody's got all the information.

Thank you.

Four bids were received this afternoon. The bid opening results and engineering bid tabulation are attached. The low responsive bid was submitted by Artesian Contracting Company Incorporated in the amount of $456,319.16. This total amount includes the base bid as well as the alternative bid item for existing court resurfacing. The city is acquiring playground equipment and installation through a cooperative procurement process from VLPRA's preferred vendor which is Gametime.

Gametime's competitive quote under that cooperative procurement master agreement is $432,616.33. The total low bid plus the quote equals $888,935.49. Given the total grant funding available is $1,152,000 staff recommends award of the low bid and the competitive quote amounts to Artesian Contracting Company and to Gametime respectively with combined 29.53% contingency for unknown field conditions. The intent of this oddball contingency amount is to simply bring the total requested value for utilization of funds up to the approved grant amount which is 1.152. Makes sense.

And staff's recommendation is to approve the low bid quote plus contingency for $652,000 to Artesian Contracting Company as well as the competitive quote contingency for 500,000 game time with a total approved amount of 1,152,000. Any questions for us?

Council? Questions? Yes.

Miss Dooley?

I still have some questions. First of all, is the way this bidding was a little new to me. What I understand when you said about game time, that is the one that the POCs and RECs use. Right?

Yes. That's their preferred vendor for all of their playground equipment that the VLPRA installs.

Because it's my understanding, there was a with parks and recs, they had a different responsibility for what they handle with the park versus what the city handled. Because we had talked to them about the bathrooms out there, and I don't see anything here talking about doing an upgrade in the bathrooms area.

Correct. So this is the bidded scope just for the constrained project description for ARPA. So there was an ARPA grant application that was submitted and to my knowledge bathroom upgrades or improvements were not included as part of that ARPA grant application which makes sense because the the bathrooms at the time were fully functional. They had not yet been damaged by vandalism. And so the the bid that I presented to you is is just the ARPA grant fund scope.

So okay. But but it's ARPA, but it's for the construction and building up that park area. Right? Right? And you're saying that the bathroom part is not part of it?

Correct. Yes, ma'am. It was a very specific grant application. There's a very specific scope. There was the inclusion of the outdoor, the obstacle course equipment, the accessible playground equipment, port resurfacing, as well as the combination basketball and pickleball port facilities. That was what was applied for as part of the grant. And so we commissioned plans to deliver that grant scope. And what I presented before you tonight is simply the competitive bids for the general contractor delivery portion of that project.

Well, Mike, okay. Also with the the basketball courts, when was the last time they did some resurfacing on those and upgraded the playground equipment?

About five years ago.

Was it

I believe the the court resurfacing that was last done was done about five years ago. It was about the same time, I believe, that the old tennis courts were demolished.

Because when we when all that was redone, chief Manahan, if am I correct on this? Didn't we have a cookout about five years ago at Scotts Park, and that's when they had the the revealing of the new basketball courts and the track system and Yeah. It was about five years ago, I think it was. Yeah. So that's when the bathrooms were upgraded and all that stuff was happening. Correct. Yeah.

They upgraded the bathrooms at that time.

Yeah. They

did. Uh-huh. They did.

And then shortly

there Miss Cody was there with him.

I believe shortly thereafter, and I'm just going off of memory, but I believe shortly thereafter was when the bathroom facilities were, I believe, firebombed as an act of vandalism. And I'm

Yeah. That was. That was actually three years ago.

And I'm unsure if that damage has been repaired. I would assume that that would be VOPR. Responsibility to repair that damage.

And should be something we follow-up on as well.

Yeah. But that but that again, just to be clear, the bathroom renovations or repairs to bathroom facilities is not included in the bid scope I presentable for you tonight.

And I have another question about that because we were talking I I don't know. I just like, I understand that it's gonna be a tennis court. Now we got pickleball. I I did talk to people in that area. Not not many of them even know about pickleball. Have anybody talked about that? Did that come up, councilman Cody, about

It did. Everybody was excited about it.

They were?

We got to pick ball at at Mikey. Right. And and we spoke then that we was gonna break it at Scott Park. Mhmm. And everybody was in very happy concerning it.

And so they wanted to get rid of the tennis courts?

Yes. Because I wanna play pickleball at Scott Park.

Well, tennis Pickleball. You do? Tennis courts. Over there to

I think the tennis courts They were basketball. Got messed up. Yeah. And therefore, they have to either redo the tennis courts in the sense of, like, literally redo it from ground up or bring in what most of the members wanted and that is or citizens wanted and that was pickleball and more basketball courts.

So

where the tennis courts used to be at, you got a three new basketball courts.

That's where the combination court area is gonna be. I believe there's either one or two additional basketball courts and then I believe three pickleball courts, kind of like a

combination There's court three basketball there now where the tennis courts used to be. Is that where the That's where the combination of pickle and basketball is gonna be added. So eventually they'll have

I believe either four or five basketball courts.

Six basketball courts. And then three pickleball courts as well.

And that's that's great because I was wondering if they have any a couple neat places for our kids to go or people to go. And I was just wondering, do trying to see about getting any groups or teams to go out there and play. And they do go out there and play now?

It'd be a way of a good avenue to bring our people up to date concerning the pickleball because pickleball is growing nationally. And our kids on the South Side would really enjoy, and they can do it with their parents. And then you could get a league. Southside Scott Park pickleball could play Mikey pickleball because if the the court said Mikey is always filled. Right. And if you bring it on the South Side, it's gonna be a great avenue for our children to have something to do during the summer. And they even teach classes of the pickleball. They got instructors that would come over there and teach you how to play pickleball. Not free, but very inexpensive.

Wonderful. I was just looking at that because a lot of them kinda get pickleball and tennis mixed up. Even though they're I've looked at it and seen the difference, but I've looked at them. You're not gonna go out there and play. No. No. No. No, ma'am. One other question I wanna ask you about.

K.

You got the demolition. When you say y'all gonna be demolishing something, you're talking about the concrete? What you're gonna demolish?

Specifically, the demolition scope is?

What is that? It says it's gonna be could you including clearing, grubbing, demolishing, and off-site disposable of debris. I'm just wondering what what is it you're gonna demolish?

There's some existing, I believe, fencing out there. Again, I'm I apologize. I'm not exactly aware of the complete demolition scope. I'd be happy to provide you with the construction documents.

We'll get to that later in another time. Okay. I just wonder because I'm like, where the trees or what or what? What you gonna do?

Yeah. I mean, general so that grading complete item, we include demolition in there for incidental demolition for existing improvements that are encountered during construction that have to be removed in order to facilitate complete construction of the new courts.

But most everything's been cleared out there.

Yes. Yeah. I believe the existing tennis courts were demolished several years ago.

Yeah. Okay. Alright. Any other questions for for Ben? Looks like. No? Mhmm. Okay. Ben, thank you. Counsel, this is a fun one. It's yours for action.

May I like to make a motion to approve this request as presented by Ben? Second.

Motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Counsel, thank you. Ben. Thank you. Move on to item five b, consideration of a request to approve a license encroachment agreement between the city of Valdosta and the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway Company for relocation of a water line. If it's water, it's Jason Barnes, our utilities director.

Good evening, mayor and council. So this is a request to approve a license encroachment agreement between the city of Valdosta and the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway Company for relocation of the water line for the new water treatment plant number 2. After we approved the site to where the new water treatment plant's gonna be, we did a hydraulic modeling was conducted and it was determined that connecting to the nearest pipeline would cause excessive pressures. So therefore at that time the city chose to extend the line to connect with the largest lines in the system. The final engineering design requires replacement of the proposed installation and construction of underground traverse 20 inch ductile iron pipe waterline in a 28 inch steel casing.

Located in, over, or under across the right of way of the property in any tracks of railway at or near the following. And as Tuesday night, I gave you some maps showing where that is. So this license encroachment agreement pertains only to the utility installation across the railroad right away. Georgia Southern and Florida Railway Company will require a permit fee of $25,161.14 for the encroachment and utility installation. I will tell you this is because of a jack and bore under railroad on inner perimeter.

That's mainly what it's gonna be. There could be some open cut, but that will be on a case by case basis. That will be determined by the railroad superintendent that will be on-site of the time of the installation. So staff recommends to approve the license encroachment agreement from Georgia Southern and Florida Railway Company in the amount of $25,161.14. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Council, any questions? Nope. Jason, thank you. Thank you. Council, yours for action.

May I make a motion, that we accept this request as presented. Second.

Motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Motion carries. Council, thank you. Jason, thank you. Move on to item c, consideration of an appointment of a new city manager for the city of Al Dosta pursuant to the terms of an employment agreement. We have waited the two weeks. We will now ask Tim Tanner to to present those conditions.

Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, you have the contract before you. We discussed it on Tuesday night. There has been some interim discussion about changes to section two zero four in recognition of the fact that Ms. Wheeler is coming here very quickly.

I think the start date is June 22. And in the in in in consideration of the fact that, she has declined any relocation expenses, I think there's been mutual agreement that we will offer her on her first, day of employment twenty four days credited annual sick leave, and then thirty six days annual leave on her first day employment. So we will be making pursuant to your vote amendments to section two zero four a and b and section three zero three, which is essentially the same change that reflects our decision not to pay relocation expenses in consideration of giving her those thirty six days on her first date of employment. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Will we get a copy of that improvement that Yes.

Won't we?

Alright, sir. Thank you, sir.

Once we make these changes and, it's executed, we'll provide everybody a copy.

Thank you, sir.

Counsel, any additional questions? Alright. Council, it's yours for action.

Mayor, I would proudly like to make a motion to accept Jennifer Wheeler as our new city manager. Make a second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, show of hands. Counsel, thank you. Miss Wheeler, please stand up. Should've told everybody else to stay seated.

Counsel, thank you very much. We'll now move by the item six. This is the citizens to be heard portion of the evening. We ask you to come forward and state your name and address so we can have it for the record. Our policy requires you to 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 of council in debate. It's our policy to follow through with you on your concern. Additionally, we ask that any groups that want to address the council designate one spokesperson to represent the group and their comment and their comments. Again, with that, all will have time to be heard. Having said that, are there any citizens wishing to be heard at this time? Please identify yourself.

Mayor and council, my name is Anna Davis, and this is Jackie Berrien, and we live in the 506 Hundred Block Of Floors. We are coming on behalf of our our section of the street because it floods no matter how much water falls. Just a little bit or a whole lot. And we have three things right in front of the house, but the water they're not strong enough to for the water to go down. So that means floods are very bad.

I have talked to several people in the city about it, and they do come out and look at it. But I just wanna know now what going forward from here, what would they be doing to help us in this area about seeing that that someone come out, actually see what can be done about the situation. I don't where we are in it. Going on.

If you'll wait till the end of the meeting, I'll have two people approach you after this meeting. Alright. We'll

We certainly would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time?

Bobby McKenzie, 2947 in Findlay Chase Drive. Glad the guys came up here and spoke up about flooding in your areas or flooding in your homes. A couple weeks ago on Facebook, a resident had posted, hey, somebody please guide me in the right direction. I've my house is always flooding. I contacted the city a few months ago and crickets, nothing. And they went to Facebook to resort to get their their their problem resolved. I encourage them to use See Click Fix, which is what the city council always encourages. But here's here's where we're we're missing out. It's related to the to the couple that just sent out. If you connect the dots on this, it's over on Gorteau Road.

If And you look back on the history of Sea Click Fix, there's between 2016 and 2026, that's ten years, there's over two dozen reports of the same flooding at the exact same location. And multiple people have gone out there and wrote it off. Angela Bray, stormwater manager, responded after criticism on that Facebook post to call. She's like, call me, here's my number on the Facebook post. Not on the click c click fix or anything else.

Hey, this is the first time I've heard of this. Okay? If we look at some of these c click fixes, in 2019, it was poor ditches not draining on the road because it's been standing for two weeks creating habitat for mosquitoes, July 2019. Angela Bray responded August 2019. Problem fixed. Okay. If you look at Google Street Views and you go through there you can see it goes back. It gives historicals. It's open records. It's not official but it's Google.

You can see that that ditch has been full, plump flush with dirt for at least ten years. And if you go even further, in 2024, June 2024, one of that same resident reached out to the news agency and she filmed like a river. If if most of you guys have you've probably seen that video where that river was just gushing out on Gorentel Road all across the railroad tracks. It looked like a river. I cut the video if you wanna see it. It looked like a river. It went on the news on twenty twenty four, June twenty twenty four, well before you can use the excuse of a hurricane. And then if you fast forward it, you got another report. I mean, it's multiple reports. Here's one in twenty twenty five from the engineering department.

The engineering department writes on C Click Fix. It says to all, multiple requests have been opened for this location. We are working towards a solution. Thanks for your patience. In 2026 again, they finally went out there and whatever happened, they finally dug the ditch after ten years. And it was 200 feet at least of ditch that's been buried for three years. The point I'm getting at here is is across the board, time and time again, especially with the engineering and storm water division and even in the code enforcement, you're not doing your jobs. You're not listening to your residents. You're not helping people out. And it's the same crowd for we're we're we're referencing 2010 stormwater master plan.

Sixteen years, we have not done nothing. You have not done nothing. Okay.

Thank you. Bobby, thank you. Bobby McKenzie.

Is

there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time?

Good

evening.

Good evening. I'm Amanda Hall Phillips, 2102 North Sherwood Drive. I'm here to talk about two things. Number one, trampolines. I've seen a lot

of

trampolines in front yards, side yards that I feel are just a danger to unsupervised children. You know we have ordinances around swimming pools that keep children safe and I feel like there's something that we should do to require them to be set back at least so many feet from the road to prevent children from being tempted to get on them and harm themselves. I know other communities have ordinances that require them to either be in the backyard or a side yard or at least so many feet from the road. So I'd really appreciate you all to consider that. And the other issue is chronic twenty four hour tethering of dogs.

I'm a veterinarian and I specialize in behavior medicine I can tell you the fastest way to create an aggressive dog is to tether it and starve it of human attention. And when a child wanders into that space, maybe it's a mama dog with some puppies and they're really curious. That's a tremendous bite risk and it's completely preventable. Many counties surrounding us, specifically Brooks County and Tift County have passed ordinances that they don't ban tethering but only allow supervised tethering. A person has to be present to make sure their dog is safe.

The other side of that is the dog. If there is a stray dog and a dog is tethered, it has no form of escape, it's trapped and some pretty vicious dog attacks can happen that way. So I'd really appreciate if the city would consider those two issues to make our community safer. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time?

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Jay Perryman. I'm a resident of, Lowndes County, but I pay property tax in the city of Y'all having such a good meeting here. I hate to put a damper on it. But on 10/03/2025, I filed an ethics complaint against one of your city employees for not paying its fair property tax. According to your ethics code, you're supposed to have a hearing within sixty days. It's been sixty days plus another hundred plus, and we've had no hearing. We've sent emails, open record request, all that's been ignored. My question is, are you gonna have one?

And if you're not, why do you have an ethics code to start with? Any comments?

None in this format. We'll approach you after the meeting.

I'm sorry?

I said we don't do that in this format. We'll approach you after the meeting. We'll come to you.

Approach me after the meeting? Yep. Good deal. Thanks.

Thank you, Jay. Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time?

Hello. I'm Christina Cheek, 104 East Mary Street, Valdosta, Georgia. Today, I wanted to come and address you all and say thank you again for recognizing along with, the county commissioner's National Tourism Month. We here in Valdosta have a wonderful opportunity to bring more tourism revenue here. In 2024, $4,458,000,000 of revenue was generated by tourism.

And as the next state representative, hopefully, if I get the seat, I want to have a joint effort with you all and the county commissioner and lobby for federal dollars at the state I'm sorry, state level funding to increase the possibility of a expanded conference center so that we could keep the revenue here, attract new businesses, heads and beds. And, of course, part of this is making sure that small businesses are included in this. And the other critical piece is making sure we develop Southside. And again, if we can, have another look at the Southside revitalization plan, I think this will be a great step in the right direction. And so I just wanted to say that and again thank you for recognizing National Tourism Month.

We are truly the city without limits and I know that our potential is gonna continue to grow. We have not reached full level, and I know that we can do it together. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time? Seeing none, I'll close out this portion of the evening, move on to the city manager's report.

No additional,

report tonight. Thank you. Any questions? We'll now move on to council comments. I'll take a little bit of liberty to tell you what's going on tonight. I I've probably missed the National Day of Prayer. It had been moved from the Courthouse Square over to the Methodist Church. I believe it's wrapping up. There's also a business after hours from our chamber tonight. There's also a leadership lounge reunion at the, BSU alumni house that's gonna go on till about 09:00. So anybody anybody that says there's nothing to do in this town, that was four things, and I'm including our council meeting tonight as well. Council, any other comments? Miss Dooley?

Well, I would like to, as always, thank our citizens for coming to the council meeting and having an interest. And I would like to also, at this time, recognize one person who constantly talks to me and asks about the council and what we're doing and so forth. They want to know, so could I ask Mr. DeMarcus Lewis to please stand? This young man works for Coastal Plain. He has forever got a question about city council and everything, and I'm trying to get him a little bit more interested, but he does. He comes over to the community center. He helps support us. We're doing a few things through coastal plain, and he constantly have a question about the city council. So he's here.

You see it. Get yourself ready to be a part of it. Thank you.

Thank you, DeMont. And good? I'm good. Tim, Nick, miss Cody, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Hey. Thank you, everybody.