City Council - Regular Meeting

five city council meeting to order. This will be the last one we have this year hopefully. Uh and we are couple of minutes late but we had to do some work on the equipment. If you didn't hear me say we had to have a 9volt battery. So, uh it's amazing how in this day a computer text and all that stuff sometimes a little old battery will run the show. Okay. Uh we have a quorum tonight. Caleb has informed me that he won't be able to make it tonight. So, but we do have a quorum. It's good to see everybody. And in case I forget to say it at the end, I wish everybody a merry Christmas and a happy new year. uh it's here and I just don't remember Christmas coming around this quickly when I was a child. It just didn't happen. Now it'll be over with and a month later it seemed like it's here again. Anyway, if you'll bow with me, we'll have a word of prayer and then we'll move into our meeting. Our father in heaven, we're thankful for another day of life and the opportunity to gather here with our friends and neighbors. We pray a blessing on everyone that's here. We pray that you'll continue to to bless this community. We pray that you'll be with us as we make decisions tonight. And we pray for those around about us that while it's a happy and festive season, we know that some are sad for the loss of loved ones or worried about sickness or whatever. We just pray that you'll be with them and they'll lean on you for comfort and and strength. We ask now that you go with us and forgive us of our sins. Amen.

Amen. All right. Got a set of minutes from November 18. Y'all had a chance to look at them? Make law for me. Yeah, that's the one I was looking for. Is there a second? Second. Got a second. Any discussion? Okay, hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Anybody opposed? Good. Uh, public business. Anybody want to address us tonight? Come right up to the microphone which has the new 9volt battery now and you should be able to be heard out everywhere. Come on up. I'm coming on up. Yeah, no hurry. Take your time. We going to be here a while. How you doing, folks? Doing all right. You

good. My name is Zachary Dell. Um I live uh South Watertown by Statesville. Just built a house here recently. Um yeah,

I've been using the water here. Paid for your guys service to do that. Um, I was a little delayed on paying for a little while. Tardy, I apologize for that. I have made amends, paid it all in full, and I will make sure that never happens again. If I can continue using that service, I use it for my house because right now on my property, all my wells do not have good water. Instead of drilling another well, I haul my own water for right now. But since water has come up the road, it will allow me to, you know, not have to worry about that here pretty soon once I can get a tap put in. But just want to apologize to all of you and I will make sure that that never happens again. Well, we're going to put a probably a policy in place tonight, but I mean we can uh we can make that work. Okay.

For you and uh I I will only need the services for a little while longer until you know I get a tap for the house. I'd rather have the city water. It's nice and easy. Wish I had a good well or spring, but Well, we'll try to help as much as we can. So, I appreciate you coming in tonight. Absolutely. If you want to hang around and listen, we'll get into it a little bit later in the on the agenda or you can find out tomorrow if you got something else you'd rather do tonight. Okay. Thank you very much. But uh we'll continue on. Appreciate you making that. I like this. So yeah, glad you made Glad you made amends. So we appreciate that. Thank you. Appreciate you coming in. Anybody else?

Oh, this doesn't seem right. Okay, we'll move on then. Uh, chief got a police report. You first in the hopper tonight. This is great. And the last shall be first. Merry Christmas to you all. Um, I don't really have anything uh other than just, you know, our two our two programs. Well, do you all have any questions for me over the stats or anything? Tell them tell them about your Thanksgiving.

So, we have two programs here that that I created a couple years back. This year we were able to uh get 80 meals, get enough money uh donated through the community uh to get 80 meals um and provide all these meals to everybody inside the city limits. So we delivered 80 meals to residents and drinks as in waters and cokes and stuff. All of it bought with money that was donated uh from local businesses and individuals to that. In addition to that, we always had uh when I started in law enforcement in 95, you know, we had shop with the cop. That was a big thing. So, you know, me being true to my roots. Shop with the cop for me is setting up an appointment coming to the PD. We got quite a few donations for that. Um we've currently got 11 10 families that have signed up by appointment. Uh we had two come in today that weren't. Uh so we'll service that need from the gifts from the donations until Friday. Uh Friday we kind of opened it up to if you live in Watertown per se, not just the city limits. We want to make sure we got our city limits folks taken care of first to Watertown and then Saturday we'll have uh at 1:00 at the meal or whatever Randy does will be there with the table uh once they see the Santa and you know then you know some kids can come and pick up some stuff. So it it was an amazing year this year to be able to give back that much to the community. Um we got a lot of gifts. Uh we had a very a lot of generous donations uh from local businesses and individuals. It it was really good. Feels good to give back.

Two good programs. So two good programs. Questions of the chief. Anybody? All right. Appreciate you. Yep. Uh fire department would be next. I know Chief H said he couldn't be here. We got anybody the fire department? Okay. We got a written report in there. We'll take it. No news is good news. And uh I think there was 40 something calls this last month. We're down six from the same period of time a year ago. Um Dale's sitting here on the front row ready to give a sewer report. All right. Excited about it, man. Said, "All right."

I don't have a whole lot in last month exciting happening. I did have a state came and did an inspection today. Actually, they did two consecutive inspections today, which was a whole car load full of people, but I think they all went back to Nashville happy, which is a good thing. So, uh, good. Beyond that, I don't have a lot for you tonight. They know you go back happy. We like that. Stay down there. Yeah. Any questions of Dave? Anybody? All right. Appreciate it. Uh, Jeff, you ready? Parks and Recreation. Uh oh. I thought I'd bring him back.

Y'all y'all tag teaming tonight?

Um if y'all don't know Jonathan, I don't know that he's ever been here for the meeting, but Jonathan ran the baseball leagues this year and did a great job and he's doing them again this year. He's also doing my little kids um the little preschool for instructional league for basketball. He coaches basketball and he coaches football and so he's he's here all the time. But we have a have a need. I think we're kind of our city building's kind of outgrowing the space. We need another building. Um we've been working with Blacks Metal. He has um and they called and said they had a couple of buildings. They've got a an 8 by8 and a 10x10. Um I really feel like we need the 10x10 more than we need the 8 by8. It does have a window, but we can put a board in front of the window, so we don't have to to worry about the windows boarded up from inside. It'll be fine. But they believe it was 2600 for the 8 by8 and 3,400 for the 10 by 10. But that'll give us space to keep keep our equipment. We'll keep it up still try to put it up here somewhere. I don't know where, but somebody could tell us where. And that way we can put put our equipment in there and keep it dry and and have a place for it to to keep it um away from everything else.

Yeah. Kind of like we're doing with football. So um if I had my drawers, I'd like the 34 the bigger building. So 10 to 10. Yeah. We're trying to we're trying to, you know, protect our pitching machines for the girls. We're trying to, you know, nest for keeps people safe. Put them inside that purple building. I mean, moisture still getting inside. So, I mean, it's random. So, I mean, why why should the city keep spending money for machines when we can protect them? Like the way you think it, I'll recommend that to you. The 10 by10 for $3,400. If that's will of the uh

council recommend a little more in case it's a runover. Is that for sure price? That's what he that's what he said was the price. So, I don't want to deliver it was higher. I think so. There won't be sales tax. There won't be any sales tax. Well, quick question. Are are we still storing anything upstairs at the fire department? We're storing baseball and soccer. Okay. Mayor, any idea how long before they going to start that build out and we have to be out of there? I didn't know they was doing a build out. I thought about a year or so ago they were talking about putting more WEMA folks down here or whatever. Oh, yeah. No, I Yeah, I do know what you're talking about now. Uh, no, there hadn't been any followup discussion.

So, that space is going to be available for the foreseeable future, I would think. So, I'm sorry I wasn't following you. Yeah, but I understand you you're talking about storing the the equipment we take in and out off the field every time we play games. Not just that the during the fall or after the season, all equipment cuz we've got got helmets, bats, bags, 35 bags of equipment. Yeah. Well, I know in the past we've had trouble with things up there getting moved around. So, I'll make a motion that we allow him to. Okay. 10 to 10. Thanks. All right. Got a motion in a second.

Like to maybe go up to let's do 38 just in case they do charge for delivery fee. That's usually 250 to 350 I would think. Yeah, it's fine. All right. But but it's just too high to it run. Yeah. Howal, you make the motion, but I said I would like to go to 3,800 in case there's a delivery fee. Are you okay with that? Yes. Okay, then I second. All right, we got a motion in a second. We have discussion around the table. Anybody anywhere? Okay. All in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed? Now, let me say something while y'all are standing there. I don't there may be people out here that don't know how successful our recreation programs are here. Due a lot of it to these two gentlemen and their and their families. Um we've got what 600 kids this time playing basketball. You know that's over a third of our population. And I re recognize they all don't all live in town but that's amazing. We had what 350 play baseball and T-ball. We had about 150 show up for football.

And then we had uh what do you have on the three football programs? Probably 70. We had 75 boys playing football and we had 53 I think cheerleaders. And then we have a little short soccer season. Had 150 or so in soccer. That's just amazing to me. It's amazing the the work that they these people put into it. I've been through it so I know y what the work is and it's it's a lot of work. It's a big amount. Very proud. Appreciate y'all. Thank y'all. Thank y'all for supporting it cuz without the city we wouldn't have a have a program. I mean I mean you know you hear say kids are our future but they they literally are.

Don't get me on my soap box. Yeah. If you put them over here, you know where they are. Yeah. And uh same way on the basketball court. You don't have to worry about them getting into something or not. Having mentioned that, I'm just going to briefly let you know that this is I'm done as of after the signups for baseball. I'm going to be stepping down. So, and what date will that be? I don't know. We'll start January. Um, so it'll be sometime in February, March before we I got a little time to talk to you 20 minutes. Yeah, we'll all we'll all rest a minute or two over Christmas. Well, it it's it's nothing.

It's just it's 40 year I've been coaching since I was 16 except for three years in the army. How you I've been doing it. I'm just It's been a long time. Yeah. Well, I know you understand. I understand. But you don't it's not final tonight. So you may not be able to get the votes to accept it, but not even recommendation. Got a good man standing there with him. He's pretty good basketball and and Sean has said that he would he would take the basketball Sean high. So Okay. Awesome. Yeah. So we kind of good kind of covering it. Well, we may let you we may move you up and let you be the godfather in these all these guys working.

How about that? Anyway, thank y'all. No, I have um I've had two people come up to me from the Southside area and praise Watertown for accepting them and allowing them the opportunity to play basketball because they said without Watertown um accepting them, they would have no basketball. and that West Wilson League didn't want to accept them. Blue league didn't want to accept them and they were without basketball and they just said thank you city council, thank you to Jeff Tunk specifically and they said thank you to Jeff Lutral for helping get that ball going and so I just want to say thanks.

No problem. Five gyms, eight hours of eight hours at least a day. We were we did 10 hours Saturday because Tuckers did the sixth grade tournament. So it's been You tell them down there all roads lead to water. That's it. That's it. Center of the universe right here. Thank you. Well, Jeff, one other question because we talked about lights on the little field and possibly looking at the lights on the big field. Jonathan is contact got a contact for the for the big lights. We're waiting for an answer to that.

We uh spoke to him on the way here. Uh he actually forgot about meeting me last Wednesday. We're going to meet this Thursday at 4:30 uh to discuss what type of lights u and what would be suitable for brightening up the field enough to where we maybe don't have to have so many lights. Yeah, that's that's where I'm at on that. Yeah, like I said, with the new technology, I think we probably could go with fewer fixtures if it's arranged properly and 110.

The people that I've got coming or certified electricians. So, they have a big enough truck to reach high enough to reach these lights. So, they can get up there and see what we're do, what we got, what we're dealing with, and give us ideas or suggestions to go with what light. You said that was 4:30 this Thursday. Supposed to be 4:30. Is that this Thursday unless it's pouring down rain?

And I'm Sha I talked to Shannon last week. They've been so busy with with service calls that he hadn't been I know we're on video, but I I don't think he's going to charge us to to wire all this up. So, I'm kind of let leaving it to his mercy when he can get to us to get the get this. But, it's all set to go whenever they they get there and then we'll we've got the lights bought. So, we're we're ahead as far as that goes. on this one. We'll try to repurpose a few of these lights that we've got out there now to put across the bridge, the walkway to maybe light it up during the night. It don't cost us nothing. It's solar. So, I think Bobby wants some for something else, too. Put on something.

Okay. They're motion activated. So, they they should ser on a negative note, but on those teams that hadn't paid, we need to get some money. Yeah, we're we're at five or less. One of them is Mannheim and it's a Yeah. Just they're It's coming. It's just one of those act of Congress you got to go through. Don't want to have to be the bad guy. Yeah. No, we're we'll be the other ones are all I'm not worried about the them I think we can all agree no additional play if you have an outstanding balance from last year. Well, that's the word I put out was that they couldn't play when we go back in January if they hadn't paid. Exactly.

And that's not fair to the kids that are playing. And I really feel badly about that. But we have had one or two over the years. Not many, but one or two that have beaten us. And we run this really, if these guys weren't devoting all their time, we run it on a shoestring, as y'all know. And we're not trying to make money. We just don't want to lose any. And five teams at $350 might be the difference between breaking even or finishing a little bit the black as opposed to losing money. So that's the only reason I bring it up. Y Jeff's getting where he dreads sin because I remind him of it from time to time. Anything else? Questions of these guys. Thank you. Appreciate you.

All right, Chris, you ready to talk about a railroad museum? Sure.

Just a couple things. Uh it's been a great year. We got a lot accomplished. um feel like we're moving forward. We've gotten great response. Uh last month or so on the uh donation side and fundraising side, some things like that. So, just a couple things for next year uh just to be looking forward to. Uh the board's approved a couple things that we're going to start kind of doing organizationally. We want to start really uh hosting the trains in a in a better fashion. So, we're going to develop some things there. just some signage or, you know, folks welcoming people off the train. There's a little bit of confusion when they get off, where do we go? That kind of thing. So, we're just going to start to help with some of those kind of things. Uh, Tennessee Central, again, building a great relationship there. They're really excited about some of those things. Um, uh, we want to start doing some, uh, museum activities, even though, you know, it's not completely done and restored and all that kind of thing, but do some pop-up museum things. So, probably the second half of next year, we'll start to do some things where it's uh open on train days, train folks can come, community can come, you know, those kind of things, and just start to let people know that it's there even though it's not the the finished product that's coming down the road. Uh along with that we'll do you know displays of plans and drawings and renderings and things like that so people can really the video and that kind of stuff that some of you have seen for sure uh that you know folks can see and and uh you know ask questions about that kind of thing. Um had great response when we went to I think we talked about last time when we went to the uh Tennessee Central's open house had all of that stuff there and people really responded to seeing you know seeing the pictures and the renderings and the video. So, uh, that was really that was really good. Um, uh, we're working on some educational

things. We want to start developing. Uh, Laura, who's on our board, is, um, our education committee chair, if you will, uh, just being with the school district. So, one of the things we're talking with Tennessee Central about and they really want to do is, you know, have the train come to communities and we can do some kind of event with the school, a field trip that kids can come see the train, ask questions, something like that. So, we're working on that with them. Probably develop that the second half of next year and and have a day or two where we start to have those kind of train events here that connect with the school and the library and those kind of things. So, uh, that's that's exciting to kind of get those programs going even before we're into a a building phase or the steam engines here, that kind of stuff. So, uh, that's exciting. Uh, and then we'll just continue our steps towards the building process, get into approvals process and some of that hopefully second or third quarter next year, start that process so we can kind of keep the the building phase thing moving um, you know, towards a a start date. Uh, and then lastly, um, on the promotional side, if you will, um, I know I told you all, I think some of you have seen this, we had developed a pamphlet that we were handing out on the trains, just had Watertown info, business info, that kind of thing. We're going to take that to the next level, if you will, along with Tennessee Central and develop kind of a a play bill, souvenir book kind of a thing, you know, full color. That way Tennessee Central, Water Town, the museum, National Steam can all have, you know, information in here. We got advertising in here, city information, a map, all that kind of stuff. So that way um cuz currently they're taking information from a whole lot of people and the and the folks get a a pile of papers and photo copies and different sized cards and all this. So they would like to clean that up. So I suggested why don't we develop something like this that's kind of a souvenir book so that the the train folks when they get off the train they have something to take

with them and it you know they have the water town information in there. So we'll kind of kind of develop that start that on the trains in the in the spring hopefully the February trains and and kind of give them uh a souvenir thing to take with them that you know has our info in it. So we're excited about that kind of thing. Um that's pretty much it kind of wrap up for the year. Uh excited for next year. Any questions? Hope to see you next year. Rob back

be here for sure. Yeah. And I'm definitely going to get uh uh Tennessee Central representative and Nashville Steam Representative in here sometime beginning of the year just to kind of so they can kind of give you their updates. Uh and we'll uh hopefully Februaryish going to try and get a meeting scheduled with Nashville Steam so we can start the conversations about the turntable and you know where they're at. just make sure that communication's going there before we get into the construction phase on the on the turntable part. So, all right. So, and lastly, uh I'd be remiss if I didn't on behalf of Mal and myself say anchor down. Listen to him.

Yes. Did he say what I thought he said? He did. I'm ready. You know, I'm not going to say a word. You're a fantastic job. One thing I don't think you you've touched on yet. We need restaurants and food for these people. When this train starts coming in, it's going to be bunched people and we we don't have food,

right? So, some of the things will develop, especially once the steam engine starts coming, which they're saying they're 12 or 18 months down the road to actually coming to town. They're they've done a couple tests. They've passed those. They have to do another test to pass that. Once that's done, they can start track testing. They have to do something like 400 miles of track testing. So, they're in their minds, they're saying 12 to 18 months. Once that starts happening, we're hoping to be in a position where even though the facility won't be finished yet, when that's done, it will have all of those things, we'll be able to do some things like restroom trailers or at least, you know, extensive, you know, portable Johns, some uh uh food trucks, some things like that kind of thing. So, we're kind of laying the foundation for that now. when that happens, we'll be able to accommodate that because if we go from 500 people to 1500 people on a train day, you know, the as much as we love having the Atwood building, you know, that really can't accommodate those. So, we're we're trying to lay the foundation and planning for those those accommodations. But that's great, great question. Good thinking.

Other other questions, comments? I'm going to change what I said a while ago. All roads and trains later. That is right. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. I wish you hadn't said that. I'm kidding.

Congratulations to all of you. You've had your once in a decade win. Uh staying on the rail just a minute. And I appreciate Chris and all that he and his group are doing. Uh Steve Casey and I have a meeting Thursday by Zoom with the folks in Washington on the turntable. We were told in October that this meeting and the one in February hopefully would be the last ones before they turn us loose to start the design and bidding process for the turntable. So hopefully we're still on schedule, but we're we meet Thursday at 11:00 by by Zoom. So, and uh but we apparently we've been doing what they want us to do.

And Mike, while you're on that, I have a conflict. I won't be there Thursday. Okay. All right. Appreciate you letting me know. And I didn't talk to Steve Smart, but I'm I'm sure Steve I'll hear from him tomorrow probably. And before I go any further, I always neglect to ask, is there anybody out there in in uh whatever it is, TV land, radio land, whatever, wanting to talk? You got anybody over there want to talk? No.

Okay, good. No need to good news. Um, let me touch on some items of old business. Um, first of all, we had to we sold our two items of surplus. The Charger brought $2,500. The Suburban brought $800. And we hadn't gotten that money yet from the county, but apparently that did. Okay. Um, and now let's uh Well, uh, is Miss Hosy here? I wondered if that was you. Come on up. She has a request of us. and I found the stuff you sent me, but I couldn't read it.

It It was just blurry. So, tell us tell us what

I'm here to beg for my money back that I had to pay on a plumbing expense when some sewage came up in my backyard. Um, lovely. Um, so the boys came out a couple times. I think I was eventually on my last chance of the third time and they couldn't come out anymore. We thought that it was wipes clogging it. They were not mine. Um so we thought it was coming downstream. Anyway, long story short, um they pulled a big piece of plastic out of the main line. So apparently apparently plumbers make a lot of money, like $1,000. So if you'd be so generous to

Well, let me let me ask a couple of questions because I appreciate you coming. I'm sorry you missed the meeting last time. We kind of had a failure to communicate where we where we had asked you to do some things on your side of the line. You did them clearly and then they but they found the blockage on our side of the line and it but but they charged you for it.

So at the time we didn't know what was causing it cuz y'all don't have cameras. So they couldn't actually go in and see that there was a big hunk of plastic in there. So, we thought it was a bunch of butt wipes that were not from my butt, from my neighbor's butt. Um, but we we didn't know. So, when they finally went in there with the camera, they were able to see the plastic about five feet in on the main line. Yeah. So, it it is past the the part of mine. It's past your tap, correct? Yep. Past the 90° onto your rolls. Okay. Um, and who did this?

A individual. You hired a plumber that that discovered this and cleaned it out. Yes. And I couldn't I couldn't read who Let me see. Um, gosh, it was it was back in September.

Oh, yeah. Arins. Okay. Mhm. And how much was the bill? $1,100 total as in dollars. Yes. Okay. Dollar bills. Okay. Um does sound like it was our problem. What's the pleasure of council? She's asking to get her money back she spent on city line. That seems fair to me. Give her money back. Yes. Yeah. You make that motion. I'll make that motion and I'll say okay. Do they know what it was? No, it's a piece of plastic that they didn't I'm sure it was gross, but you know.

Yeah, it was pretty gross. Yeah. No, it was like I don't know. It was like white and it like was like jagged like it was shoved in there. I don't know. Where is your house at? 97 they done there on pipe work on is that interlin liner area there or is that actual dig down area? Well, maybe Cody can tell us more about that.

Her her actual sewer line runs behind her house and it's tied into the lady up the street and it runs from Beckworth Avenue down to so that is a main city line right there. What was busted in her line would have probably been the sweeping tea cap and it went down cuz I know yall had a tree work done too back there. So they might have run over your your cap. Who knows? You know, and it went down the line. We just couldn't find it. We jetted it out a couple times for Yeah. And it would go down and what about two weeks later you call back and we go out there and jet it through, you know, but we never could find no plastic or nothing like that. We run our camera down in it. Oh,

but we couldn't see it. We do have a camera. I'm sorry. Yeah, we have one to go 300 ft down. Okay. But we must have skipped over when we went down that line. Okay, that answer your question. All right, we got a motion and a second to refund Mosia that money. Further discussion? Thank you. Yeah, hang on. We ain't voted yet. I'm feeling decent about it, though. All in favor say I. I. Oppos. All right. Now, what I need you to do is get these ladies over here sometime between now and Friday. Okay. A copy of that bill or something we can read

because my auditor is going to want to know why I refunded money. And u we'll do a check, sign it, and get it to you. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you for coming in explaining. I'm sorry you had all that trouble, but my dog enjoyed it. Sorry.

Okay. U let's uh let's go on and talk about the water policy we we talked about last time and Steve has suggested some uh modifications to what we did last time. You've heard the gentleman that was here tonight uh talk about what u what he's doing. We have we have a few people over the years that we have done that for uh and they need our help kind of what he said. But we have two right now that were new and they have not paid us. So they're not going to get that privilege any any longer. Um April has sent them letters. She's called. We've ch and we shouldn't have to chase people for our money. So, um, let's take up what Steve Go ahead, Steve. Don't let me

Yeah. Well, talk you here. I'm the modifications I made were after after our meeting last month, April sent us all an email. She indicated she was able to get us the meter you have here in front of you, mayor, uh, that can be used. And I guess my thought process was the original proposal you made, we were going to put a meter out there and just leave it. Mhm.

But my concerns with that is you're still basically trusting someone on the honor system. Totally. Cuz but I'm of the feeling if they're getting water now and not paying it, they're not going to bother to take a picture and send you a picture and do the meter reading anyway. But so what I was proposing is we use this meter and it has to be checked out from city hall and meter.

Yeah. That way April can take a whoever's up front in city hall can get the reading off the meter when it's checked out. They bring it back. We get another reading. Therefore, we know what the what water they got. And I added a few details in there about because doing it this way, you're limited to one person at a time. So, we want the meter back the second business day after they check it out so that if someone else needs it, it's it's back in house. And it's not a foolproof system by any means. Nothing will be

and nothing will be. But it was just my thoughts on how we might be able to uh take use of the of the meter and tighten down um those who are abusing the the privilege. You said Bob was getting something too.

Bob ordered something two weeks ago after our last meeting and it's supposed to come in this Thursday. April and I had him on the phone u about 15 minutes before the meeting started. The way he explained it to me is it will have a measuring device on it. It will hook up. They're going to tap off the other side where you can't just open the other side. And then you get the reading, but you would take a picture with your phone before you do that, take a picture after you do that, and uh and get it to us, get it to April and Tamara. Um that would that would alleviate having to come in, somebody come in and get it and take it out. The weakness of what you're proposing, Steve, as I see it is that folks would have to come in during the business hours. And yes,

that doesn't work for me as much as well as someone else. You do your I also use this over here. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say the same thing. The business hours would be tough. I I work three jobs. So Johnson, you've been doing this a lot of years. You You might have been the first on the water for 18 years now. Yeah. You might have been the first.

I started in Alexandri County and I moved it to here. But putting that on there and having where you got signed in and out, that's going to make it restrictive for a lot of people. A lot of people that need and I for one a lot of times don't get out of work till 4:30 4:30 in the afternoon. I'm 45 minutes away. I go home, swap trucks, get down here. It'd be after 5:00. And I'm sure Miss April love to death is not going to stay here. Uh I mean, I understand, you know, we need to do something people using water, getting water that is unauthorized or don't pay the bill. But I do not agree with that. Well, this this gentleman talked to us earlier. He he came in, made everything right, done everything he said there, and I appreciate that. We've just got two that could be ruining this for everybody. We won't let that happen. But

could you set up an autog system where you maybe people have to have it debited out of their account immediately each month? Subscription. Uh, you'll have to ask somebody smarter than me. Those ladies, you're right there. Um just curious if that would help alleviate somebody not paying the bill for sure. Will they have to sign up or something like that? That's that's probably do probably do form. That's a signature e form. Does the city use? I don't know. What about if we try every month? Do you all use like Google Docs or any of those? It has an e form where we can we can sign graph on.

The only option we have these bank drafts. They have to sign they authorize us to take it out on the 10th of the month, but you're going to need a a waiver form. They, you know, pause other customers do it for the regular bills. Um, we have a form they fill out. Yeah, a lot of people it has to check or savings account. That would probably work. So, what if we try what Bob is getting and see how it works for a month? Would that work? Y'all y'all be okay with that? putting that on there and asking people to take a picture of it before whatever the meter reading is and after they get their water and then they could just send it to you, April. That's fine. Would that work?

Yeah, that's fine. And then if that doesn't work, we'll revisit it next month. Is that all right? I mean, yeah. I mean, my biggest gripe with leaving it on there is just people being I don't mean to be rude, but so many people are misdevious and it's it's an expensive piece of equipment. That does not have a camera that could be set up over here. I don't know if is there a camera right there, Chief? Something that sees that area. A trailer. Yeah. But but again that's that was my concern about actually two concerns leaving it on there all the time. It's liable to walk off and

they do make another design that is like that that is able to be locked to the I think that's what we ordered. I think that's what Bob told me a while ago with the lock on it. One with the lock on it where you can lock it to the to the hydrant. Yes sir. I'm pretty sure that's what he ordered. Okay. And the the other concern about it being there all the time is someone come it may be there. They may come up and and get water but are they going to take the pictures and send it back? I mean that's but again nothing we do is going to be a perfect solution. So I'm not opposed to going to if if it's a lockable meter Bob's got ordered that we can do a trial and see.

Let's try it this month if that's all right and then we'll revisit it if we need to. Yeah, that work for you John. If they don't send you pictures, then you could revoke their as well. Right. But again, it's and I was chasing people. If you're chasing people and you're trying to identify who it was, y So, I mean, it's it's a combination, but if we have the if we can get the trailer over there, that would assist in potentially trailer over there for a month or two and see how that works. I have no problem taking pictures of sending back. And I do like the I do like the idea of offering to do the bank draft for those that because that makes

it's very convenient for me not to have to remember what day of the month it is. It just comes out. You gave me a lot of courtesy text and calls and that's like just fix this right. I can't remember what day it is. And I want to reiterate what the mayor had mentioned earlier. We're not trying to make this difficult on anybody, but we do have a couple bad apples and we've got to do something to address that situation. And we're not I don't don't want to imply that either one of you would would not follow the procedures, but we do have an issue that we're trying to address.

And let let me u kind of go back further than that. Everything Steve said is correct. Uh and I I agree 100%. We are under pressure an order from the T deck folks. We have an extreme amount of water loss or what they consider water loss. And so we are working on some things now that I'll go over here in a few minutes to cut that down. But they sent me a letter or so ago and said I need to have a plan longterm in by December 30, which is two weeks from today. And I sent a letter today asking for a 90-day extension. Our engineer suggested that we get that. I said all that to say this is just part of the water loss. It's certainly not all of it, but we're just trying to tighten down everywhere we can. So, you're going to have some water loss in the city that you don't feel for when fire department drills or when they go to a fire, when the police department has to do things. Um, but there are some things we can tighten down on. Perhaps this is one of them without hurting you guys. So, appreciate that.

I'm sure he is too. We already over what we're actually getting anyway. You really are. Just to accommodate for what we might be losing out of our hoses. You really are. When we disconnect. Yeah. So, I mean, myself, I'm paying for 5,000 gallons a month. That's what I was paying for. I was only using about 2,000. So, like I said earlier, I decides up here that way they can base what I was using off of it. And I only use about 3500. So, we're overpaying for what we're saying we're using anyway, right?

Just to cover for what loss is coming through the holes. But Jonathan, if we get this metered, won't that save you some money? It might. Okay. It might. I can say. I mean, I don't understand really. I know we had to do the water increase for the money for reasons for other Yes, I understand that. But I can't physically and he can't either physically go to town or fet just turn the water on. I have to worry about right. We have to physically put f in our vehicles, key in our trucks whether it's zero degrees. I want my kids to take a bath every night. Sure.

Okay. I want I want to be able to furnish the household. So, we're burning our fuel, burning our equipment to make sure our family survive. But yet, we're paying more. Well, you are, but if we get it metered, then you're not using as much. I understand. You potentially could save depending on where you fall on the scale. Uh, okay. Maybe it wouldn't be overcharged. That's for sure. Yeah, that's that's true. Maybe maybe it'll be a win-win. The meter installation should make your bill more accurate with actual

Yeah. usage of of what you pump and and it gives us the controls for accounting for the water loss that we need for our report. I mean, the only only reason I mine is because the bar I had issues in the beginning and I'm not willing to bring it up right now. That's been resolved. But that's the reason I open that way. There's no fussing, no crying, no Okay. All right. Appreciate everybody's input. We'll try that a month, see where we are. Let me uh update you on uh I do have one more question.

Yes, sir. When that goes on, will the folks that actually use this tab out here get a notification as to when they need to start taking pictures or a place to send information? Can we do that? Okay. Okay.

Probably update something on on the website. The easiest thing to do then send right to a link. We try to get that done too.

That wouldn't be hard. No, it really wouldn't, you know. Okay. Yeah. All right. Let me just bring y'all up to date on all our projects is going I've already mentioned the turntable. Um sewer project. What the architect told me today or the engineer I guess he is. Regarding the sewer project, the work in Commerce Street is nearing completion. There is approximately 700 linear feet of 18in sewer that remains to be installed and a crossing of Round Lit Creek. Once installed and tested, then the contractor will begin changing over services and undertaking final cleanup. All that sounds good. My statement was we need to get this done. And I know the weather's not real conducive right now, but there were times that it was. Anybody any questions about that? I'm just reading what was sent to me. Um, the work on the water tank is done. Uh, and we're back to normal. The tank is full. We're reasonably full and we had see you. Welcome here anytime.

Don't know why you want to be here, but you're welcome. Join folks. Thank you. the uh during the time that we were down that I was worried we had two leaks and we had to use a little water from Wilson County Water Authority. We paid it in the last bill, but other than that, everything that was set up worked good and we didn't have a major fire in town. We had one during that time out the highway of course, but that was other uh water source. Um, but I was really worried about that. I was afraid wake up one night and see a house burning or something and know that we had a problem. We're back operating normal. We got a pretty new tank. Got the W on the side. And u So now we go to uh the contractor started changing out the valves and the piping. Now, I'm not sure where or what that is, but the tank the tank's in service. Um, nothing on street paving obviously, but we'll get to that hopefully in the summertime. Um, Miss Dow, Mr. Dow, Outwood House, anything we need to do on that tonight?

I think we requested, worked on everything that that Tim talked about last time. Okay. So, we're we're pretty good there. We got a few supplies to get for next year and then we'll hand it over to the new historic Watertown president who got voted in and that is Jacob Sey. Okay. So, nothing we need to do tonight. Nothing we need to do tonight. Okay. Wait till next month. We'll keep you informed. Tim, okay. He's good. He's got another meeting tonight. So,

Oh, he's getting he's getting too informed. said if he could come, he would be asking about the ordinance that uh that Hal had mentioned about new construction not having garages in the front of the house and one of those new houses going up by the middle school does have a garage in the front. So, is that ordinance gone or what? I don't know the answer to that. That would be our planner and I don't I don't know the answer. That was just a curiosity. We had an ordinance. I didn't either. So, if we do, we need to get rid of it. Yeah. I don't know. That's a question for the bottom line. Well,

we still have some that's on there from like 1980, I mean 1918. That's just Yeah. Well, the problem you're talking about having a side entry garage, not a front entry garage. The carriage houses, you always had to have it around the back and that was carried on to an extent, but right, not anymore. Anyway, it was just It wasn't serious. Yeah. Okay. Cuz it was But we do have ordinances that need looking at, right? But when we allow 50 foot wide lots, you can't have a side entry garage. You can't physically do that. But

all right. Um I don't have anything to report on the burn burn pile. Is anybody using it? April, Tamara? Anybody using it? the last couple weeks. I guess it's not the time of year. We'll have to revisit that maybe when they get closer to the spring. I guess yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. Yeah, I've had two or three people in the store ask about it. I'm not sure where we left it last year. People are interested. Yeah. Yeah. I've had multiple people who are very angry at the situation of almost saying They're not mad at us. They're

wanting names that Oh, you know. So, no. Yeah. They are upset, though. Yeah. Said we're keeping it locked. The what? We said we were keeping it. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I almost didn't put it on here. Uh, the roller. You talked about the roller last time. have not got a motor for it yet, but we need to I need to No problem. Get up there and grab a motor.

No problem. The only other item of old business, your budget report. We are 46% through the year as of yesterday. Um, and I'm double-checking some numbers um that need to be double checked, I think. Um, but we are our parks and recreation is about $15,000 to the good. Our water and sewer is about $90,000 to the good. We're going to need that to make that big debt payment in May. And uh but we're down aboutund and some odd thousand in the general fund. That's the reason I need to check those numbers. Of course, property taxes hadn't started coming in yet, and we should get that back to even, but there are some expenses that I wonder are being if they're being properly classified. So, hopefully we'll have that maybe uh what I do over part of my Christmas holidays since I don't get to go to a big bowl game like everybody else, Vanderbilt, and I get to go to Nashville. So, uh,

well, quick question. The the the two numbers that jumped out at me were the sundry and the insurance expense under general. Is that the two you're the ones? There's two of them. There's some more that that are smaller. I'm going to question the sundry and whether or not it's classified correctly. The insurance I had it divided out half from water and sewer and half from general. We paid it all from general. So, there needs to be half that to go from sewer over. And that'll bring the difference down. Yeah. Some say those jumped out at me because sundry I think was over 100% over for the budget already and insurance was right at 75% of the total year budget already.

Yeah. Yeah. So I was looking at that today but I don't have answers tonight. I hope to soon. But I don't have any budget amendments or anything tonight but I put that on there in case we did. Uh Laura, you want to talk about your committee? I'm in the new business now. So,

okay. So, you all have in front of you a proposal. Uh, being on a few different committees and boards and hearing from others. Um, we have a need within our city. One, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing. The city doesn't know what's going on. City meaning our emergency crew. Uh, they don't always know what's going on. Uh, Terry from Railroad calls at the last minute says, "Hey, I want to get this done." Well, then who's in charge of it? Police need to know. So, with all that being said and us growing, I have a proposal in front of you for the civics planning committee, and it would compose of nine members, city council member, the city recorder, meaning Miss April, because I feel like that she needs to know what's going on because she's the one that receives the brunt of the calls and she's the one that has to make decisions on who needs the calls need to go to and things like that. So, council member, city recorder, foreman meaning uh aka city Bob. Um,

shitty Bob. City Bob. Sorry. Or Cody.

Or Cody. Yes. Sorry, I need a nickname for you. City Cody. Um, there we go. Um, and the reason for that is like the other day the wind knocked the tree down. The only people that were around were females. We didn't know what else to do. I said, "Hold on just a minute." I text Bob. I said, "Can you get over there? there. Anybody get over there and just help it so it's not a tripping hazard, you know, that kind of stuff. And y'all were right on it. Fixed it up. Like I appreciate that. Um, but that's why y'all need to know too what's going on. Plus the trash pickup and things like that after an event. They need to know there was event on the square on Monday morning. We need to get to this, you know, first thing. Uh we need the uh police chief, fire chief, or they're designated to be at this committee. Uh then we've got the president, historic, president of the Watertown Railroad, president of the chamber, and then we put on there Terry from Tennessee Central because he he right now he dictates a whole lot. Um but he's also the one that's bringing in our tourism, the majority of our tourism at this point. Now, we may need to revisit this in a year from now, 18 months from now. But that right now, that's kind of what we're we're thinking. Um, responsibilities is just uh like a community counter calendar, a central hub of behind the scenes mainly for safety reasons. working the mileong yard sale. We saw a whole lot of things that would be very beneficial for us to have this committee to um you don't know what's going on. There's a fire, EMS starts going through the square and we've got 500 people sitting on the square. You know, I mean, we just you need to know if you have to take a back road or not. Um then like I said, the community hub for

April. So that is my proposal. I think that we need to meet like every two months unless there's a major event coming up. We would also get things out there that things need to come to us. If if Historic's planning on doing something, it would need to be brought before so we can work out any logistics beforehand, not a lastm minute situation. Um, so like there's going to be kinks that need to be worked out, but that's with any new committee. But that's my proposal to you all that we that this falls under the city so that the city can make sure we're safe because if something were to happen, it's going to come back on the city, not necessarily whatever committee out there is the one putting it on.

So that's my proposal. I think it's a good proposal. It's one we talked about. I think Chris back in your store back in September one Friday afternoon and and then Laura brought it back to attention. I think it's a good thing and certainly going to kind of dovetail in with his report a while ago how things are going to pick up. Yeah, it's a good thing. So, so this gives us a good year to kind of work out the kinks here so that when things do start construction in different areas, this part's ready to go. We've kind of worked out a lot of kinks and we can just change what's needed for that activity. What are your thoughts, Chief? Yes.

Okay. I just You're kind of looking like a death like blank face. I'm like, is he like hating this? Cuz I'm doing it for us. Okay. You know, again, you the end of the day, you found out hardly that at the mile that they, you know, end up having to call people in. Yes. Because nobody really believed that we needed this or that, right? And then it was the last thing. So, yeah, Bob, I recommend this to you.

Well, I'd like to make one comment. I sure I like the the additional recommendations you talk about things 30 days in advance, 90 days in advance

and just to this council, someone comes in here with a that's a week out instead of 30 days out, we're going to have to we're going to have to say no. And that's the reason we're doing this is to try to increase communications and make things run smoother. And these timelines I think were put in here. They were put in here obviously for a reason and we need to enforce them because like I said, it's all going to come back to us at the end of the day. So, I know we have a tendency to normally try to say yes to as much as we can. We do, but as this grows, we're going to have to be more strict in what we

uh the guidelines that we go by. That's why I feel like this I try to include everyone that's on a board or community committee that's out there because they're the ones that typically put things on. But yes, I agree. That's why we put Terry on here cuz he can sometimes be a lastm minute. They need to be aware that we can't have you come in here on a Tuesday night wanting to do something on Saturday because we've had that happen. Yeah, that's true. And that's not fair to police chief or others, nor to our budget. If we have to get them in, if we haven't budgeted that, that's not fair to us,

right? And and as Steve mentioned, we say yes to just about everybody. And you hate to say no, right? Cuz these are people we all know and live with. We want to help them, but uh I think this will be a good I think it's a good thing. So, I guess tonight we would just need to okay this and then we would need to select who our city council member is. That's true. That's and then that would be all we would need. Yeah. So, first we need to approve the committee if you're of the mind to. You want to make a motion to approve any make a motion to approve the committee. Thank you. Is there a second? A second.

Got a motion and a second. This side of the table is being heard tonight. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. And then y'all need to select a member to serve on this committee from the city council. I think the member didn't show up. We did automatically.

Thank Caleb. You got a future in government. Well, since my thinking aside from that is Laura did the work on this, I think probably ought to be Laura. Well, my only concern with Laura is she's on the railroad. Oh, are you already on this? Are you already on this? I'm not a president. Okay. I didn't know. No, I want to make sure we didn't have a double conflict with because I know you're on you're with the chamber and with the railroad museum. So, right. No, I'm not on the You can't vote twice.

Correct. Well, well, I would nominate Laura in that case if there's not a conflict. All right. Is there a second to that? I'll second it. All right. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Opposed. I see if

No, you don't get a chance to vote and get u I've got one other item that uh I won't present tonight. Our charter, not our charter, I guess our code says that we take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. Uh and we we're going to do that. Um, but I was asked about the 26th, which is a Friday. And I kind of held my ground and said no until I was asked what the county was going to do. And I thought for sure they were going to back me up. And I called the county and they said, "Oh, we're taking the 26th." And the people at that table sitting in the back heard that. I made mistake of calling and having it on the speaker. So, uh, I don't have any problem recommending that we that we grant this additional day for the folks that work here for City Bob and City Cody and the others. It doesn't affect them because they get paid. What you know, if they're worth, they get paid. If they don't, they get paid. Where it affects us is in the police department. And I uh sent the chief a u email this afternoon and asked him cuz I hadn't budgeted for this because his people working will get paid overtime as they should. So I've asked him if we approve this to limit that day to 24 hours of overtime and then get back on the regular schedule. And I think he's okay with that.

Yeah. The only thing I just want to comment is the only person that hurts is me because I work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. I mean, I don't really take a day off. I'm always in the office. So, again, I'm not going to be somebody who's employed.

I've already cut everybody else out. I thought I sent you. I'm sorry. But everybody else, I've already cut it out for one day shake guy. But when you say 24 hours, like they both work 12 hours a piece, that's 24 hours. So that cuts everybody out. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm cut down to eight. Huh? Cut it down to eight a piece and not cut you out. Then we won't have coverage for the whole day. Yeah, you will. 8 88 24. Well, I I guess what the chief's trying to say is he doesn't normally patrol. Oh, yes. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Well, but I've already cut everybody else out. Like there's nobody else working with it. Day shift guy, night shift guy. Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to recommend that to you that we make this year only the 26th an additional holiday. I'll make a motion to make 26 an additional holiday. Is there a second? Second it. Okay, we got a second. So, you made a fatal mistake. The bigger the government is, the more days there are off. That's We're too big of an area. So, we're grow. Let's call Alexandria and see.

All right. We got a motion and a second to take December 26th as an additional holiday. I've already been hit with what we going to do on the 31st and of December and the 2nd of January. He said we're going to work. and I didn't call the county. So, so I think they're working too. So, anyway, got a motion in a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed.

Y'all got me in out of a mess. Thank you. U couple offormational items. I should have mentioned this earlier, one of them, but our next meeting will be next year on January 20th at 6. And what I should have mentioned before is what a wonderful Christmas parade we had. I've heard numerous people talk about that.

I thought it was fantastic. And uh the number of people up and down the street was was just phenomenal. And u and stayed dry, you know, they weren't throwing water on. Uh but uh it it was just a great event and all the people that worked hard to do that. I appreciate it. I just it made me proud even proud of our little town that we can put on something that good and uh and we can we know it but we showed the world too. So just wanted to recognize them publicly and we'll go around the table. H you got anything?

Nothing. All right, Steve. I don't have anything. Miss Laurel, I already presented my proposal. Oh, okay. You're done for the year, right? I am. Okay. Uh, Kyle, I do not. Caleb's not here. And Miss April, I don't either.

Oh, me. Okay. Well, thank y'all. Um, anybody else got anything? And this is the last time we'll gather for uh this year. And again, I'll wish everybody a merry Christmas and happy new year and happy groundhog day or whatever comes along after that. I make a motion. That's it. There second. Dismissed. Second. All right, we're out of here. Thank y'all for everything you